Chapter 4

It had been half a moon since Jadepaw had that terrible dream. She decided not to confront anyone about, they'd probably just think she was crazy. And maybe I am, and it was nothing more than a dream. Most of Jadepaw's and Russetpaw's training so far had been focused on hunting and they had been taking care of the elders.

They were both excited because today would be the first day of some real battle training. Amberpaw and her mentor, Skyshade, were coming along with them. Talk of Amberpaw becoming a warrior soon was going around camp, and Jadepaw wasn't surprised. Although no recent battles have been fought, Amberpaw was almost as old as Scorchfoot and Blizzardspeck, and had been warriors for a couple moons now.

When they finally reached the training hollow, the warriors let Amberpaw mostly take over, she was well experienced enough to know the simple moves to start off apprentices. The warriors only budged in every now and then to help the new apprentices with their forms and technique.

Jadepaw seemed to find these simple moves easy enough, even adding her own touch to them. Russetpaw found them easy as well, but instead of trying to add his own touch, he had already started asking for tougher moves. Jadepaw wanted to make sure she got her moves down perfectly before moving on to more complicated ones.

Once battle practice was over, her and Russetpaw were told to hunt for the Clan before they went back. Amberpaw was told to hunt as a final assessment, so the warriors will be watching her every move. Jadepaw headed toward Twolegplace, since Amberpaw was going to be hunting near the Thunderpath, and Jadepaw didn't want to get in her way.

She stalked her way through the forest until she saw the Twolegplace fence, she managed to catch a mouse on the way, and immediately started searching for more prey to bring back to the Clan. She had managed to catch a thrush and another mouse before she caught the scent of another cat, not one she recognized from JadeClan.

Through the undergrowth she spotted a dark gray tom with red stripes, just walking through the grass. Jadepaw watched him awhile before catching the familiar scent of kittypet coming off him and decided it was time to chase him off her territory. Easy.

She let out a low growl in her throat and stuck her fur out to look bigger and seem more threatening. He looks like he's a couple moons older than me. The tom jumped around and stared at her in surprise, but didn't run away or seem that scared.

"I'm assuming you're one of those Clan cats?"

Jadepaw didn't let her guard down, and instead of answering she just gave him a hard stare.

"Well anyways, I'm Rowan by the way, I'm just scoping out the forest." Scoping out the forest? What's that even supposed to mean?

Jadepaw let her curiosity get the best of her and decided to humor him, "Yeah, I'm Jadepaw," she looked at him with mistrust in her eyes. "Get out of my Clan's territory, I don't think you're gonna want to deal with my leader if he finds you here."

"Ah well, I was just-"

"Jadepaw who are you talking to?" Jadepaw jumped in surprise as she heard her brother come up beside her, finally noticing the kittypet across the clearing and he stepped in front of her. "Who are you are and what are you doing in our territory?"

"I was just leaving." Rowan gave her brother a hard stare and bounded up onto the nearest fence and disappeared over the top.

Her brother turned to look at her, "What are you doing talking to strangers? For all you know he could've been part of the rogues who attack our Clan's borders."

"Calm down Russetpaw, he was just a kittypet, and it's not like I was standing here having a casual conversation with him, I was just hunting and I spotted him." She turned and brushed her tail over his muzzle, "Now that you're here you can come help me carry my prey so we can head back to camp!" She let out a mrrow of laughter at the look on his face before bounding away.

It was just a couple sunrises after the incident with the kittypet and tonight was the first gathering since her and her brother had been made apprentices. Amberpaw had been made a warrior that day, her name now being Amberstrike, after her feisty attitude she seeme to have developed. Jadepaw and Russetpaw had been chosen to go to the gathering, and excitement rushed through her paws.

My first gathering! How many cats will there be? Will a fight break out? What news would the other Clans have to share? She had so many questions but didn't want to ask any out loud, she wanted to answer them herself.

JadeClan was on their way to Deephollow, the moon was starting to rise in the sky. When they finally reached the edge of the trees, Sagestar flicked his tail as a signal for them to stop. Jadepaw drew in the many scents ahead of her, she could scent another Clan already at the Deephollow. Must be GustClan. She could already tell that IceClan was there, so the only Clans left were JadeClan and DuskClan.

With another signal of his tail and Sagestar was leading them up to the hollow. When they reached the edge, Jadepaw could see the ledges that spiraled down to the bottom, each ledge started where each Clan territory was. Sagestar moved down the ledge first and lead his Clan to the middle.

"Stay with me for your first gathering, and don't reveal anything about our Clan. Know that you're allowed to make friends here, but they will always be your enemy outside the gathering." Leafstorm murmured in her and Russetpaw's ears.

"Which cats are the leaders?"

"Well DuskClan isn't here yet, but their leader is a black tom with red ear tips and red eyes, Darkstar. The IceClan leader is that big gray tom, with white splotches over his fur and yellow eyes, his name's Cloudstar. The GustClan leader is Gorsestar, the tortoiseshell and red tom with purple eyes." He pointed to each cat mentioned with his tail.

Jadepaw then scented the arrival of DuskClan and saw Darkstar leading the way down. The Clan leaders started toward the oak tree in the middle and climbed onto a branch but did not call to start it so Jadepaw went over to a couple other cats her brother was with. They seemed young enough to be apprentices as well and most were boasting about how well they're doing in their Clan.

A pale ginger tabby she-cat approached her and asked for her name, so she told her.

"I'm Willowpaw. You have an unusual name, usually cats aren't given the name their Clan has."

"I was always told I was named after my color eyes."

"You have pretty eyes, it's a good name," Willowpaw gave her a quizzical look.

"This must me your first gathering, I remember feeling just as awkward as you look on my first time." She let out a mrrow of laughter then pointed to the two cats in the middle. "The brown tom with gray paws is Ashpaw and the dark ginger tabby with orange stripes is Redpaw, they're the oldest GustClan apprentices. They act like they've been in every important fight and win every single one. They're the most arrogant of all the apprentices."

She then pointed to three apprentices off the the side, " Those three are DuskClan litter mates. It's their first gathering too. The biggest, Shadowpaw, is the black she-cat with the red paws and ears. The one to her left is one of her brothers, Mudpaw," she pointed at a brown tabby tom. "And the one to her left, the light gray and brown tom is her youngest brother, Smokepaw."

She sat there and looked around with her piercing blue eyes for a bit, "There a bunch of new warriors and new apprentices, although-" she stopped as she noticed a brown and white tabby tom approach then.

"Hi, sorry to interrupt, I'm Riverpaw, of IceClan." He announced and took a spot beside Jadepaw. "I've figured out who all the medicine cats and deputies are. Would you like to know?"

"Sure." Jadepaw turned to him and Willowpaw scooted closer to listen.

"Well of course you know your own medicine cat and deputy. The dark brown tom with a black face and paws, that's Shademask, DuskClan's deputy, and their medicine is Briarheart, sitting next to your medicine cat," he pointed at a pale tabby she-cat with green eyes.

"My Clan's deputy is the blue-gray she-cat, Creekshine. And our medicine cat, the black tom with brown paws, is Crowtalon. I heard he was made a warrior before he wanted to become a medicine cat. I might be in the same Clan but not even I know all the details."

"You heard right, and Crowtalon was a brilliant fighter," Willowpaw tipped her head to the side. "But I heard something traumatic happened to him and he didn't want to fight pointless battles anymore, he'd rather heal. I never heard the full story though."

"Well, moving on. GustClan's medicine cat, Goldenspeck, is the yellow tabby she-cat with black spots. And their deputy is Feathershine, the silver tabby she-cat next to Creekshine." Just towards the end, Russetpaw had came over to listen in squeezed in between Riverpaw and herself. Jadepaw rolled her eyes at how obvious her brother is. It's like I can't even have a casual conversation with anyone. But instead of irritating her, the thought amused her.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the call for the start of the meeting. DuskClan's leader was standing on the branch he chose to climb on while the other leaders crouched on theirs, so she assumed he was starting.

All he announced was that prey was running well and that they had three new apprentices, Shadowpaw, Mudpaw, and Smokepaw. He also announced a new warrior, Nightbelly. She assumed it was the dark gray tom who stood with his chin raised as the Clans called his new warrior name.I can see why they named him Nightbelly. His belly and paws were black, and his belly fur and a couple tiny white dots that sort of made it look like Silverpelt. The last thing he announced was a new litter of two kits, the mother being Sparkflame and the father is Shademask, their deputy, who sat proudly at the roots of the tree with the other deputies.

Cloudstar stood up next to make his own announcement. His pelt looked a little ruffled and he had a defiant look in his eyes. "IceClan has taken in a rogue over the past couple moons, and he has just decided to stay with his adopted Clan. I have decided he is old enough and experienced enough to have his warrior name, Alderblaze." Jadepaw reared up on her hind legs to get a good look of him.

Alderblaze was a huge red-brown tabby tom. He had a nasty scar over his left eye, which was red, his other eye a dark gray. He had a ruffled pelt and his tail was only a stub, but it had a fluffy tuft that covered it. He looks... vicious.

The Clans protested about the new warrior, who now looked defiant at not being accepted. After all, it wasn't normal for Clans to take in rogues.

"I will not hear any protests of my new warrior! He has trained as hard as any of you to learn the warrior ways, he is no longer some rogue who kills just because he can. I have thought long and hard about this, and it's my final decision to accept him into my Clan." His speech seemed to calm the Clans a bit, a few still protested, but Cloudstar went on. They had three new apprentices, Frostpaw, Pikepaw, and Riverpaw. From the way he glanced proudly at Riverpaw, Jadepaw could tell he was Riverpaw's father. He also had two new warriors, Rushflight and Snowtail.

Next up was Sagestar, but Jadepaw wasn't really listening, since she already knew what went on in her Clan. After Sagestar was Gorsestar. He announced that one of his warriors found an abandoned kit on by the nearby farm, and no one has yet to claim it so GustClan is taking it in, naming it Meadowkit. There were a lot less disagreements about GustClan taking in a kit from another place since it was just a helpless kit. They had one new warrior, Swiftstep, and orange tabby she cat, and one new apprentice, Petalpaw.

After the announcements of all the new warriors and 'paws, the leaders didn't seem to have anything else to report so the gathering was broken up and all the Clans went home.