After a long time of inactivity, I'm baaaack! I realized that I already named the ThunderClan leader Thrushstar and made him a pretty stable guy, so I had to sorta improvise and use Poppystar instead. If you didn't read the preview (which has been deleted), then don't worry about it. Everything will be okay! Yassss!

"Now, remember, it's okay to chat with the other apprentices, but don't give away anything about our Clan," Raingaze murmured in Glosspaw's ear. They were already at the island where the Gathering would take place. The moon shone full and bright. Glosspaw was so excited! She was bouncing on her paws.

"Yes, I know," Glosspaw meowed impatiently. Why wasn't WindClan here yet? They weren't too interesting, but Glosspaw wouldn't do anything until all four Clans were at the island and she could see a cat from every Clan.

Just as she thought that, the leader of WindClan, Poppystar, was approaching the tree branch that all the leaders sat on. She seemed quite harried, her white fur ungroomed and a wild expression in her eyes.

Uh, oookay, Glosspaw thought when she saw her. What a professional attitude Poppystar was maintaining!

She decided to check out ThunderClan's apprentices. After all, she was most interested in them. She hurried over to them and wrinkled her nose. They smelled awful, too much squirrel mixed with trees. Bleugh! So far, this Gathering was very bad.

Thanks for the false impressions, Stormpaw! Glosspaw thought angrily. Her brother had fed her lies earlier that day about how wonderful the Gathering was and how many friends he made. And instead of scolding him for making friends in another Clan, Applefur just twitched his tail-tip lightly.

"Uh, hi!" she said nervously, approaching two ThunderClan apprentices. One of them was a tom and the other was a she-cat. Their tails were twined together.

"Oh, hi! Are you RiverClan?" the she-cat asked politely. Her voice sounded kind of soft, gentle, and soothing, but for some reason, Glosspaw felt a sickeningly sweet feeling from hearing it.

"Yeah, I am. I'm Glosspaw, what's your name?" she said, remembering her manners.

"I'm Quailpaw, and this is Oakpaw," she said, nodding her head at the tom.

"Nice to meet you Quailpaw and Oakpaw," Glosspaw said. Oakpaw seemed kind of shy, but Glosspaw could see the muscles underneath his pelt, which clearly indicated his strength. He would be a cat to watch out for in future battles!

"Hey," Oakpaw said gruffly. His voice was already as deep as a full-grown tom's.

"We're almost about to take our assessment to become warriors!" Quailpaw said excitedly (and completely out of the blue). "We already went to the Moonpool."

"Really? How was it?" Glosspaw asked curiously, also abruptly changing the subject from introducing herself to assessments.

"Well, I was really hungry," Oakpaw said unexpectedly. Then he shyly scuffed his paw on the ground, as if he couldn't believe he said that.

Quailpaw laughed. "He's normally not this awkward. He's just nervous because you're so pretty."

Glosspaw didn't know whether to feel flattered or not. Quailpaw seemed to be Oakpaw's 'mate', seeing how close they were, but she didn't seem jealous about Oakpaw 'liking' Glosspaw. She didn't think she was too pretty. Okay, so her fur was sleek and shiny, but that was the only thing going for her. Besides, she was way too young to deal with this kind of drama anyway.

"What an abrupt change of subject!" Glosspaw replied. Quailpaw looked at her for one second and started laughing.

Oakpaw muttered something, but Quailpaw laughed again. She opened her mouth to say something to Glosspaw but was interrupted by Jaystar yowling, "The Gathering has begun!"

"Honestly, I don't know why his voice always goes high-pitched whenever he says that," Oakpaw muttered to Glosspaw. She stifled a purr and sat down by him. He and Quailpaw seemed likeable enough for smelly, kittypet ThunderClan cats!

Glosspaw listened to the words the leaders said with fascination. The leaders stood on the branch high and noble, their deputies at the trunk. Quailpaw helped Glosspaw identify all the other deputies, gasping in surprise when Glosspaw said she was Birchsong's kit. Honestly, it was nothing to be proud of.

Jaystar began by reporting the status of his Clan in a dull, monotone voice that indicated his displeasure of being at the Gathering. Glosspaw wasn't all too surprised. Jaystar never struck her as someone excited for anything. Then, Thrushstar, the ThunderClan leader, gave his report about invading kittypets or something. Then Rosestar announced her news, which involved Palefoot's pregnancy (Glosspaw hissed, giving herself some strange looks). Finally, it was Poppystar's turn. Instead of listening politely to the other leaders like everyone else, she was shuffling on the tree branch, muttering to herself and looking around with her wild eyes, jerking her head back and forth. When Rosestar finished, it took her a half a second to start talking. And boy, did she cut straight to the chase.

"Cats of all Clans, listen to me! StarClan has sent me a warning!" she yowled. Glosspaw was confused. It must've shown on her face, too, because Quailpaw leaned over to her and whispered, "She's getting crazy now. After her mate died, I don't think she's the same Poppystar as before." Glosspaw nodded in understanding.

"A sign from StarClan," Poppystar repeated, her eyes looking wild. "You may see Rosestar of RiverClan as noble, but in fact, she has lied to you about everything!" Gasps came from the gathered cats, even WindClan. They clearly hadn't planned this. Even the WindClan deputy, Bluepelt, looked shocked. Rosestar had apparently been such a noble leader that nobody believed Poppystar.

"Rosestar's Clan is filled with bastards!" she announced dramatically. Glosspaw bristled with rage while all the other cats gasped. Quailpaw looked scandalized, while Oakpaw seemed very uncomfortable. What did Poppystar mean by bastards? Like, the regular insult, or the kit-without-a-father insult? Either way, any shred of respect Glosspaw had for Poppystar disappeared. There wasn't that much to start out with anyway.

Rosestar spoke. "Poppystar," she said, trying to stay calm. "I don't see how that information is relevant to share at the time of a Gathering."

Poppystar sneered as the gathered cats watched with sick fascination. "RiverClan cannot repopulate when all of its kits are half-siblings! We must drive them out of the forest before it's too late!" Poppystar hissed.

If that were the case, then a lot of cats, like Graystripe, wouldn't have been born, Glosspaw thought amusedly. She had heard great tales of the cats of old, like Graystripe, Firestar, and Sandstorm. And it so happened to be that Graystripe's parents were siblings. Yuck!

Rosestar stared at Poppystar with her mouth hanging open. She spared one look at Birchsong and her face hardened.

As all of this happened, Glosspaw saw a tiny cloud cover the moon, but all the cats were too focused on the scandal before them to notice.

"RiverClan's affairs are none of WindClan's business," Rosestar said with an icy and calm voice. Honestly, if Glosspaw were leader, she would've ignored the truce and attacked Poppystar then and there! "And nor will they ever be. Gathering dismissed!" Rosestar yowled, flicking her tail. All the RiverClan cats followed her, except Glosspaw.

"Er, well, see you guys later, I guess," she muttered to Quailpaw and Oakpaw.

"I'm sorry about what Poppystar said," Quailpaw said sympathetically. "Bye!"

"Bye," Oakpaw meowed quietly, his eyes downcast.

With that, Glosspaw followed the remaining RiverClan cats out of the island.

Was hoping for a peaceful first Gathering too much to ask for?

Apparently it was.

I hope this chapter got you thinking! It's probably kinda obvious that Birchsong will be the father to half the kits in RiverClan at the rate he's going. Should I reform him or keep him a perv?

QOTC: Why do you think Poppystar was super crazy?

Trivia: What was the name of Tigerstar's son who died at birth?

Byeeee,

Gloss :3