Chapter Twelve
"Let all cats gather beneath the highledge for a clan meeting!" Stonestar's yowl rang throughout the camp.
Echopaw looked up from her mouse and padded over to sit down next to Pricklepaw. "I think he's announcing who gets to go to the gathering," she whispered.
"Probably," Pricklepaw agreed, "I probably won't go because I went last moon, but you might."
"I sure do hope so."
As the whole clan gathered, Stonestar raised his tail for silence. "The cats who will be coming to the gathering are Emberstep, Foxnose, Birchshade, Mistyshine, Fawnripple, Oakfang, Leafshine, Creekshade, Lionwhisker, Crowfang, Dappleleaf, Mouseleap, Berrypaw and Echopaw."he announced.
Echopaw's ears pricked with excitement. Her first gathering! "Come on Echopaw, we leave right away," Dappleleaf meowed.
She leapt to her paws and followed the group of cats out of camp. "Have fun!" she heard Pricklepaw call out faintly as she padded through the thorn barrier.
"Stonestar, what will we do if WindClan don't let us travel through their territory?" one of the warriors, Birchshade called out.
"They can't not, there's a truce, Ivystar would be insane to not let us," Stonestar replied.
They better, otherwise I'll rip all their pelts off! "Are you excited?" Echopaw leapt up in surprise as her mother, Mistyshine padded out from behind to walk beside her. "Of course," Echopaw replied.
"I sure do hope training isn't too hard on you," her mother meowed.
"No, not at all Dappleleaf's a great mentor," she meowed.
"I could imagine," Mistyshine purred, "you know she spends alot of time thinking of ways to hunt without your eye effecting you, you'd better thank her dearly once you receive your warrior name."
That's if I ever do receive my warrior name. Echopaw let out a sigh, "It just gets in the way alot."
"Then you just have to work around it, push yourself more, you'll get there with time," Mistyshine told her, "trust me, being an apprentice isn't a race to see who can become a warrior first, it's to train you to serve your clan."
"Thanks," Echopaw mumbled.
"Is Berrypaw still giving you a hard time?"
"Not so much anymore, but he still does," Echopaw meowed.
The two chattered away until they finally reached the half-tree bridge that'd take them onto the gathering island. "Be careful where you step and dig your claws in," Mistyshine meowed.
Echopaw unsheathed her claws and carefully walked along the bridge, her paws shaking. "Don't fall," Berrypaw called from further back in a teasingly matter.
She let out a low growl and kept walking along until she reached the end, safely. Thank StarClan, I would've froze if I fell in. "Looks like we're the first to arrive!" Mudsplash announced.
Echopaw glared around in amazement, the great oak stood high, it's massive leaves rustling in the slight breeze that shook the night and above them the full moon shone brightly. She screwed up her nose in disgust as she recognised the smell of WindClan. Ugh, dirty fleabags! "Greetings Ivystar," Stonestar dipped his head to the leader, he'd already leapt onto his branch. Ivystar didn't reply, but instead shot him a curt glance and leapt onto her branch. Not long after, RiverClan arrived. "Ugh they smell disgusting, like fish!" Echopaw whispered to Dappleleaf.
"I know, but atleast they're nicer than WindClan cats," Dappleleaf replied.
"Greetings Stonestar, how is ThunderClan faring?" the leader of RiverClan, Minnowstar meowed to Stonestar as she leapt onto her branch.
"Quite well and RiverClan?"
Echopaw stopped listening as the ShadowClan cats poured onto the island, their leader, Smallstar in front with his deputy, Brightwing. "Don't worry about socialising right now, there'll be time for that later," Dappleleaf meowed, "there's a cat I want you to meet and I believe she had an apprentice last time I saw her."
"Let the gathering begin!" Smallstar's yowl echoed throughout the whole island, causing all the cats to fall dead silent, "ShadowClan will start off with announcing that we have three new apprentices, Flamepaw, Slatepaw and Weedpaw, their mentors are Littlewhisker, Quailfeather and Poolspark, Sunnyblaze is also expecting Weaseltail's kits."
"Flamepaw! Slatepaw! Weedpaw!" all four clans, apart from WindClan seemed to be cheering for the new apprentices.
"ThunderClan also has new apprentices, Berrypaw and Echopaw have been apprenticed to Fawnripple and Dappleleaf," Stonestar announced.
"Berrypaw! Echopaw!"
Echopaw puffed out her chest in pride, the cats from ThunderClan, RiverClan and ShadowClan were cheering her name! Why isn't WindClan joining in?
"RiverClan has announced two new warriors; Marshtail and Treeflight," Minnowstar reported, "and much to my sadness, I report that our elder, Tallfoot has passed away from a bout of some sickness that neither Lilysong or Pebblefall could detect."
Sad murmurs rose throughout the clearing of the island for the elder, but the clans still cheered for Marshtail and Treeflight. "If you'd all be quiet," Ivystar sounded angry, "RiverClan and ThunderClan are still stealing our prey, my warriors have constantly detected your scents on our territory."
"ThunderClan has done no such thing!" Stonestar leapt to his paws, his tail was lashing fiercely.
"Your warriors are making up lies, Ivystar," Minnowstar meowed through gritted teeth.
"Do not accuse my warriors of being liars!" Ivystar hissed.
She's insane. Echopaw lashed her tail, ThunderClan has not stolen prey from WindClan! Murmurs of anger rose up into the air. "Ivystar, It seems a little unusual that two clans would be taking your prey at once," Smallstar, the ShadowClan leader meowed calmly.
"Well I am not lying, I myself has detected their scents constantly," Ivystar spat.
"WindClan are just a bunch of liars looking for a fight!" a RiverClan warrior called out.
"No we are not!" Ivystar leapt down from the great oak, "Come on WindClan, we're leaving."
As they started to shuffle from the clearing Ivystar looked back at the leaders, "you'll be sorry!"
Echopaw looked to Dappleleaf, "she's crazy!"
"I know," Dappleleaf agreed.
Minnowstar lashed her tail to silence the three remaining clans, "We will still have time to socialise tonight, as Stonestar and myself must discuss what we do about WindClan."
They better do something. "Hey, Echopaw come meet Sandwhisker and her apprentice!" Echopaw didn't realise her mentor had padded off and settled down with a pale ginger she-cat. She bounded over excitedly, the pale ginger cat was sitting next to a skinny black tom that had a brown underbelly and stripes on his tail. "Greetings Echopaw, i'm Sandwhisker and this is my apprentice, Spiderpaw," the pale ginger cat meowed.
"Nice to meet you, and Spiderpaw," Echopaw dipped her head.
"You two try and get to know eachother," Dappleleaf meowed.
By Spiderpaw's smell, Echopaw detect that he was a RiverClan cat. "Hi!" Spiderpaw meowed, "are you from ThunderClan?"
Echopaw nodded, "how long have you been training for?"
"Almost a moon," Spiderpaw told her, "what about you?"
"Only a quarter of a moon."
"Is this your first gathering?" Spiderpaw asked.
"Yeah, I assume it's your first too," Echopaw replied.
Spiderpaw nodded, "my brother, Cloudpaw was going to come, but he has a cough so he couldn't, I wish you could meet him!"
"Well my brother is Berrypaw and he's here but he always teases me about being blind in one eye, so I don't really like him."
"Oh, fair enough," Spiderpaw looked to the great oak, "I can't believe WindClan keep accusing our clans of prey stealing!"
"I know," Echopaw agreed, "Ivystar is crazy."