Listening to 90s pop songs. What's wrong with me?

Oh well. Anyways, enjoy!

The iciness of the stream's water tingled up Lakepaw's legs. When it reached his spine, he shuddered.

"What are you doing standing in the water like that? You're a cat, not a bunch of reeds!" His mentor, Amberear, bounded up behind him and nudged him the rest of the way out of the stream that marked WindClan territory

"Oh, stop being such a drypaw," he shot back with fake scorn.

"Hey, we're not in RiverClan. Bramblestar won't want to hear you using terms from another Clan," she warned. She paused, and then giggled, "Have ThunderClan pride!"

Lakepaw placed a wide, almost painful smile across his face and inflated his chest. He stomped his paws on the brittle grass like a trotting horse. "ThunderClan!" Lakepaw began to cheer. "ThunderClan! Thunder—"

He felt a soft tail-tip skim the side of his muzzle, and at first he didn't mind it, thinking that it was just Amberear. But when the tail touched his face again, he realized that it was actually his mother, and flinched away.

"Don't worry, I'm not an attacking badger," Ivypool mewed, reaching out her tail, wrapping it around Lakepaw's shoulders, and pulling him close to her again. "Oh, dear, why are you all wet?"

He swallowed and glanced out of the corner of his eye to exchange a glance with his mentor, but Amberear was now talking to Dewclaw. I suppose I'll have to acknowledge her, then. The black-and-white tom didn't look up at his mother, but merely mumbled, "Just my paws are wet…"

They were cutting across WindClan territory, and now that he was soaked up to his belly fur and out in the open, he could really feel the chilly leaf-fall breeze. He gritted his teeth to prevent another shudder from slipping through him.

"Yeah, right," Ivypool snorted.

Lakepaw didn't know what more to say to her, and neither did she, apparently, because silence stretched between them. Eventually he slid his shoulders out from under her tail and returned to Amberear's side. And, interestingly, he didn't feel a single speck of guilt for ditching Ivypool. Because she ditched me.

"Oh, there you are, Lakepaw," Amberear mewed, turning and grinning down at him. "Dewclaw and I were just reminiscing about our first Gathering."

Dewclaw leaned forward past his sister to look at Lakepaw as he spoke. "It was soon before the flood."

"Soon before everything changed," Amberear sighed. "Poor Graystripe." She lifted her muzzle high in the air and parted her jaws to catch the scents. "Lakepaw! Pop quiz! What do you smell?"

Lakepaw's heart skipped a beat; a pop quiz? I'm good at fighting and hunting, but not random quizzes! Swiftly, he copied his mentor's movement and drank in every single odor like the smells were water. "Umm…" he mumbled, nearly stumbling on a pebble. "The lake smell is strong, so we must be close to it. There's also WindClan scent, much stronger than it is back by our border with them. Then… ShadowClan, too. And something fishy, almost oily— RiverClan!"

"Well done, Lakepaw," Amberear purred, nearly cutting him off. "You've passed my quiz."

"That was actually really good," Dewclaw agreed, and Lakepaw's heart swelled at the fact the sharp-tongued tom thought he was skilled at something. "Toadstep did that same thing to me, when I was his apprentice. All I could smell was that stupid lake." Sheepishly, he kicked a small rock and sent it careening into Cloudtail, walking in front of them. The hefty white warrior grunted and bounded farther ahead of them. Amberear, Dewclaw, and Lakepaw exploded into laughter.

Amberear's hearty laughter faded into small giggles as she nodded to a point ahead of them. "It's kind of misty, but can you see it?"

Lakepaw followed her gaze, and gasped as his eyes landed on the most magnificent tree he'd ever seen. It was certainly taller than all of the ones in ThunderClan and ShadowClan territory. That must be the Great Tree, where the leaders sit to tell their Clans' news. He repeated his thought out loud.

"You're correct again. And the Great Tree stands on the Gathering Island." Amberear blinked proudly down at her apprentice. "How do we get on the island?"

Lakepaw lifted his chin as if he was propping it on an invisible ledge and felt quite proud of himself too. "There is a tree-bridge, from a tree that fell long ago."

"What happened when the tree fell?"

"A WindClan cat named Mudclaw was killed, and that ended the vicious battle between him and Onewhisker for leadership of the Clan."

Amberear ducked her head in consent. "And why were he and Onewhisker fighting to be leader of WindClan?"

Lakepaw parted his jaws to answer, but Dewclaw cut in. "Now is not to time to kill his brain with an barrage of questions," he meowed. "Come on, we're almost at the tree-bridge anyway."

Admittedly, Lakepaw was a little bit disappointed— he had been doing well answering Amberear's questions tonight. But his stormy mood was quickly transformed as he lay his eyes upon the island. "It's amazing," he breathed. "It's perfect…"

Dewclaw chuckled. "You sound like a father seeing his firstborn kit."

Amberear shoved her brother and then replied to Lakepaw, "You mean the Gathering Island?" At her apprentice's mesmerized nod, she adopted a rumbling purr and added, "It is the perfect place for the Clans to hold the Gatherings. It's neutral because it's out in the middle of the lake—"

"Well, it is somewhat closest to RiverClan territory," Dewclaw pointed out, remnants of a smirk returning to his face.

"Oh, go take a hike, Dewclaw," Amberear said as she flicked his ear with her tail-tip.

The grass below their paws was no longer short and bristly, but now it was super-long and damp. Lakepaw nearly lost his footing as the group took a sudden right and headed down a slope. To prevent himself from falling on his face and arriving at his first Gathering with a squished muzzle, he unsheathed his claws and grabbed onto pawfuls of grass for each step. After the painstaking hill, the tree-bridge finally loomed in front of them. Lakepaw ignored the nervous bile rising in his throat. It's just a tree-bridge, and if it survived that flood, then it most certainly can survive me walking over it!

"Here we go," Amberear mewed. She gently pushed past Lakepaw so that she was in front of him. "Grab onto my tail for balance if you need it."

Lakepaw nodded, too adrenaline-filled to answer her with words. He felt Dewclaw's breath hot on his own tail. I'm completely protected. Just think about what's ahead, and you'll get through it. Everything is fine…

Amberear walked onto the bridge first, and Lakepaw followed immediately so that he didn't hold up anyone behind him. Right away, he registered how slick the wood felt under his paws, and gritted his teeth. Why is it so wet? It's not like the lake has waves washing over it. This isn't the sun-drown-place.

"You got this, Lakepaw." Dewclaw's voice drifted into Lakepaw's ears. "Don't fear what you were named after."

His encouragement packed more strength into Lakepaw's muscles. He pushed forward, keeping his eyes on the back of Amberear's head. I don't have to use her tail. Just don't look down. Don't let yourself be afraid of your namesake.

Before he could make room for fear again, he found himself on solid ground. "Great StarClan!" he practically shouted. An enormous, wily smile spread wide over his young face. "I made it!" He bounced between Amberear and Dewclaw. "We survived!"

Amberear's copper-colored eyes twinkled, and she nudged Lakepaw's hindquarters. "Go, find cats your own age and socialize. You can tell me all about it on the way home."

He hesitated, blinking solemnly up at the two siblings.

"Go," Dewclaw mewed, repeating what she said. "You must be sick of us by now. Off with you."

Lakepaw laughed as he turned and bounded into the crowd, feeling a blast of warmth from all the body heat and mingling clouds of breath. I'll never be sick of Amberear and Dewclaw. The thought kept him more warm than any crowd could.

"Lakepaw! I finally found you!"

The black-and-white tom was jostled to the left as Fogpaw emerged from a tightly-clumped cluster of chatting cats. Lakepaw nuzzled his brother's shoulder affectionately. "Hey, Fogpaw. It's great to see you." He stood on his toes and scanned the tops of heads in the sea of felines.

Fogpaw sighed. "Your height is a gift."

Lakepaw shrugged and dropped back to all fours. "Nah, it's not really height that I have. Just muscle." He blinked at the silver tabby. "Trust me, you'll be the tall and lean one."

"Still, you're not stout—" Fogpaw began to protest, but he was interrupted by an overeager "Hi!" from a petite tortoiseshell-and-white she-cat not much younger than them.

"Oh, hello," Lakepaw mumbled, taken aback by the excitement radiating off her pelt. "You don't seem very excited," he mewed to her jokingly.

"No, I'm very excited!" She said this in a mother-scolding-her-kits tone, and Lakepaw already began to grind his teeth back and forth. "Anyway, my name's Moonpaw. What's yours? Oh, and I'm from WindClan. Where are you from? Oh, and my parents are Sunstrike and Harespring. Who're yours—"

Lakepaw felt immensely relieved that her last question was killed by a tortoiseshell tom with large ginger patches. He was significantly older than the rest of them, with thick fur and a broad build. "That's enough, Moonpaw. You don't want to overwhelm them, because then you'll scare 'em away." The older tom then twisted and dragged a young black tom who was cowering behind him to the front. "This is Spikepaw," he told Lakepaw and Fogpaw, his green gaze barely skimming over the ThunderClan cats, "and I am Flamepaw, and we're from ShadowClan." He flicked his tail lazily at Moonpaw. "And Moonpaw has already introduced herself, of course."

Spikepaw dipped his head to Lakepaw and Fogpaw. "Nice to meet you. This is my third time going to a Gathering, so I'm surprised I haven't seen you two here before. You must both be at least seven moons."

Fogpaw chuckled, and Lakepaw was stunned by how conversational his littermate was being. "Actually, my brother Lakepaw and I are only six-and-a-half moons, so this is our first time here."

"Wow, you really look much older than that," Spikepaw remarked. Lakepaw couldn't help but draw himself up a bit. I feel as proud as a leader sitting upon the Great Tree, he thought. "Sorry for hiding behind Flamepaw before," continued the dark-furred apprentice. "As my mother Dawnpelt says, it's never a bad thing to be mysterious."

Flamepaw snorted. "Dawnpelt always has something to say. Even though my father Smokefoot said the same thing when Wetpaw, Russetpaw and I were kits. It makes sense— being mysterious is ShadowClan's nature."

Lakepaw spoke for the first time in a while, leaning back his head so he could glance at Spikepaw. "Your mother is Dawnpelt?" For a heartbeat he raked his gaze through the crowd again, but then recalled that none of Tigerheart's kits had gone with them to the Gathering. "It's a shame Puddlepaw, Oakpaw, and Bloodpaw couldn't come. They're your kin, and…" He trailed off when he saw the frown on Spikepaw's face, which formed deep creases among his fur.

"I've never met them, even though at least one of them was at one of the Gatherings I went to," Spikepaw told him grimly. "Again, Dawnpelt says that she forbids me or my sister Sleekpaw to speak with Tigerheart's kits. I guess they're estranged from each other ever since he joined ThunderClan."

Fogpaw's friendly grin fell into a frown as well. "The sacrifices a cat makes for his family are always the hardest things to give up."

Moonpaw gaped at him. "You're like an elder!"

Fogpaw swung his pointed face so that he could stare uncertainly at her. "What do you mean, 'like an elder'?"

The tortoiseshell beamed, her smile as bright as her sharp cobalt eyes. "You know, wise."

Before Fogpaw, who looked very flattered, could reply, there was a yowl from the Great Tree. Reedstar, the RiverClan leader, was standing with his tail straight out behind him. "Let the Gathering begin!"

Fun Fact: If you didn't know, SkyClan will be featured in the upcoming sixth series! Eek! I wonder if they'll be coming to live at the lake with the other five? But my question is, where exactly WOULD they set up camp around the lake? Would they take part of TC territory maybe?