When the remaining cats reached Fourtrees, Gingerpaw wasn't surprised that they were

the last to arrive. He looked around to find a group of apprentices to sit with. He spotted

four younger looking cats so he padded over to them.

"Hello." meowed a friendly brown tom. "I'm Thistlepaw."

Gingerpaw could smell the strong scent of Thunderclan coming from him. A small gray

and white she-cat that smelled of fish sat beside Thistlepaw. "I'm Streampaw from

Riverclan."

A wiry black tom sat next to her. "I'm Blackpaw of Windclan and this is my clanmate,

Honeypaw." He pointed to a beautiful golden she-cat with bright green eyes beside him.

"I'm Gingerpaw." The Shadowclan apprentice stammered self-consciously. "My best

friend Fernpaw, well you'll hear about it when Stripestar makes his announcements."

As soon as he finished the Thunderclan leader, Lightningstar, spoke. "Thunderclan is

doing well; we have two new kits, Sparrowkit and Mallowkit, as well as two new

warriors, Snowtail and Volefur. The prey runs well, especially at Sunningrocks."

Gingerpaw knew that the Thunderclan leader was just trying to pick a fight with

Riverclan because they had just beaten them in a battle over Sunningrocks. Fishstar

hissed quietly and so did many of his clan. "Riverclan is doing well also, we have

welcomed one new apprentice, Streampaw, and we have also had Hawkpelt join the

elders."

Many cats whispered to each other about the retirement of Hawkpelt, he was well known

for his fighting skills. Stripestar stepped forward. "Shadowclan are doing well, and

Fernpaw received her apprentice name a little over a half moon ago. She was supposed to

come tonight, but while we were crossing the Thunderpath she was hit by a monster. Our

medicine cat, Darkfur, and Fernpaw's mother, Icebird, took her back to camp to take care

of her."

Honeypaw scooted closer to Gingerpaw and leaned against him, licking his shoulder

comfortingly. Blackpaw stared at her in shock and so did a couple other cats, including

warriors. Gingerpaw's pelt burned in embarrassment, but he didn't want her to move

away. He looked around and all the other cats were going back to their clans, the

gathering was over. Honeypaw stopped suddenly. "Goodbye, I hope your friend gets

better." She touched noses with Gingerpaw and bounded over to her leader, followed by

an astonished Blackpaw.