Gathering 6/17 - 6/22

[Kiddo [le pwnsome]]

Icetail sat in the clearing, tail wrapped around her small paws, she watched the swaying trees in the center of the crowd of milling cats. They seemed so solid, so strong, old as the forest, and perhaps older.

She could hear a couple of apprentices arguing behind her, and twisted an ear to listen.

""At least I don't believe in cats who live in the stars, mouse-brain."

Icetail stiffened slightly, glancing up at the sky. She hoped the Fogclan apprentices would not retaliate.

ooc// Sorry, this post fails.

[Poizuun]

Owlstar relaxed at Cloudstar and Gingerstar's kind words. She looked at Cedarstar and her lip twitched, sharing the briefest glimpse of fang. Though she was over her previous ambition of ForestClan deputy and then leader, and she had her own Clan to lead now, she still blamed Cedarstar for ruining her previous life. She twitched her whiskers in a pondering fashion at Gingerstar. Though she could never understand why the she-cat chose to believe in nothing, rather than SOMETHING, there was no animosity between them and, in her opinion, the female leaders had to stick together. She was slightly at a loss for words to the leaders, not wanting to share anything until it was the right time.

---

Spottedstream couldn't believe her luck. She had been invited to a Gathering, her first one, nonetheless. As she moved forward with the rest of her Clan, she made sure to thank StarClan once again for giving her this opportunity. As her Clan separated to greet other friends from different Clans, the lanky she-cat suddenly found that she was on her own in a sea of cats. Desperately her blue eyes scanned for a companion. She closed her eyes and said a quick prayer to StarClan, asking them to reveal a friend to her. When she opened her eyes, they automatically spotted Silverflower. Another tom had already approached her, but now she at least had someone that she knew. Thanking StarClan again, she padded over quickly, sitting down next to the pale gray she-cat. "Hello Silverflower, do you mind if I sit with you? I do not really know anyone else."

[Slug]

The moon glowed down upon Willowpaw's silver pelt, making it gleam brilliantly-- like newly washed steel-- as he prowled through the crowd of bustling cats, heart fluttering like a nervous, caged bird in his chest. He felt so vulnerable around these... these strangers. These things that were supposed to be simple comrads or fellow felines. But no. It was more complicated than that. Underneath those masks were warriors-- savages-- and one wrong move could send Willowpaw winding up hurt. Or worse.

Willowpaw stopped dead in his tracks, hanging his head, eyes wide and lips twitching in the beginnings of a rather... disturbing smile. 'They can't hurt you, Willowpaw, you fool! It's a gathering-- a night of peace! They wouldn't dare harm a fur on your head.' He scolded himself, though the smile was still plastered to his muzzle. Whiskers quivering, he raised his head and gave a hysterical laugh, earning some curious stares from those around him.

"I-I-I'm i-invi-invincible!"He declared haughtily, daring someone to say otherwise.

---

Redtail scoffed at a nearby tom's outburst. Invincible, eh? Psh. Such a small cat should not boast such things unless he could back it up. But Redtail doubted that-- he sniffed at the air-- the Fogclanner could. And what type of cat stuttered? It seemed this tom had self-esteem issues. Hmm... Turning his attention away from-- Willowpaw, was it?-- the young apprentice, Redtail scanned his suroundings with the accuracy of a eagle, giving each cat a once over. Too small. Too big. Too annoying.

Sighing, he drifted his gaze to the ground where his paws were busying themselves with a long blade of droopy grass. There was nobody worth talking to, so it seemed. Though he still felt the need to go over to Willowpaw and smack the tom silly for his early comment. Grinning at the idea, he lifted his head and looked for the Fogclanner. Unfortunately-- or fortunately, depending on how you looked at it-- the silver apprentice was lost in the crowd of cats, much to the Streamclanner's dissapointment.

"Fox-dung."

---

Smokestripe allowed the soft, night breeze to ruffle his silver-and-black striped pelt, golden eyes half-lidded and shoulders slouched, a typical apprentice vibe around the young Pineclan warrior. Hmming softly, Smokestripe moved to a standing position, laxed body suddenly tense. Smokestripe was suddenly... something was wrong. The tom knew it, an inkling feeling in the back of brain, alarms blaring in his head.

But the warrior simply brushed all it off with a flick of his tail, hmming once more before he began to wander about, searching for a paticular someone. Not that he could possible find a cat in a crowd such as this, but it was worth a try, right? And if not, then life mearly had other plans in store for him, just as it should be.

In the midst of all the cats, one stood out from them all. Icetail. His brain registered, and with a few strides of his legs, Smokestripe was suddenly at the Med. Cat's side, a purr rising from his chest-- wich sounded more like a growl than anything, but at least he tried.

"Greetings, Icetail."

---

Duskpaw bounded through the sea of cats, a grin on her face as she raced through inbetween the felines, orange eyes bright and tail high, her long, shaded fur waving to all, so it seemed. Oooh, happy day! Tonight was her first gathering, and she was going to enjoy it! The bustle of cats was soothing to her ears, though it made her feel slightly... awkward.

So many cats, and just little ol' her... she felt like she was going to suffocate. Just a little, anyways.

[glowlynose]

The tip of Briartail's tail twitched nervously. All the other cats were finding someone to talk to, separating out into groups of two or three of four warriors at a time. He wanted to go talk with someone. Briartail rose to his paws, for he had been sitting down, and searched for a familiar smell. Perhaps he should join a group with someone from his own clan.

"Kinda overwhelming, right?"

Briartail whirled around in surprise. Someone had approached him first. That was new. The tangy scent of PineClan hit him. So, whoever this brown tomcat was, he most likely did not believe in StarClan. He still managed a friendly smile up at the other warrior. "Ha, you've got that right!"

"My name's Briartail." he introduced himself with a respectful dip of his head. He didn't want to take any chances of coming off on the wrong paw. He swept his tongue over a patch on his chest self-consciously and grinned. It was easy to tell from the other tom's body language that he was just as nervous as he was. Well that was certainly nice. He wasn't alone in his tiny misgivings.

"This your first Gathering too?" Briartail hoped to StarClan that it was. It would be a bad thing if he offended this much larger warrior.

[|| allie]

Badgernose gazed into the hollow where Fourtrees sat, with its magnificent trees and the smooth white stone protruding out of the ground between them. She was unable to contain a small gasp of shock even after being to all the Gatherings before. Everything was so big. She couldn't get over that. The hollow seemed to be the home of a giant squirrel or something of the sort, with the humongous trees and everything.

The black-and-white she-cat plummeted over the edge at her leader's signal. It seemed StreamClan were first, but soon after other cats started pouring over into the clearing from all directions. Badgernose's paws tingled with more excitement by the second as her feet thrummed on the ground as she made her way down the slope. Slowly to a steady trot, she glanced around for the other medicine cats. Not seeing any in the few heartbeats she bothered to look around, Badgernose instead pranced over to the nearest cluster of cats. They happened to be Silverflower, Spottedstream, and Grayfang, and from the scent of them, Badgernose could tell that the she-cats were from FogClan. She knew Grayfang from her own Clan, StreamClan.

Now since Badgernose was a generally friendly cat, she didn't hesitate to pipe up with a cheery, "Hello!" before sitting beside them on the cool grass. She grinned ear to ear at them, waiting for somecat to respond.

[Emily]

"Badgernose!" Grayfang piped, eyeing the she-cat friendlily. The tip of his tail twitched, and his nose scrunched up just faintly. All three of the cats seemed to be comfortable with one another, though Grayfang had little of idea who the two she-cats were. There was always time for greeting new cats though, and certainly time for creating new comrades. "It's nice to see you up and about, aside from your work as Medicine Cat," the gray tom noted. His grin was plastered across his muzzle, one side tucked up slightly more than the other.

Directing his question into a conversation, Grayfang quickly asked, "How have you all been? Clans been well, hopefully good in all aspects." The tom made sure that he didn't sound too prying, which he certainly was not, but there was always one or two suspicious cats out there. Sometimes it was hard to keep your tail close and safe in distance. And there were always assumptions, always words which came out entirely different than you had expected.

"You really do work yourself to hard, Badgernose," Grayfang said softly, shaking his head and chuckling in a low key. Still keeping his respectful tone audible, he neatly wrapped his tail around his paws, hugging them close. The slightly larger black and white she-cat was very cheery, and the most determined, curious thing. If Grayfang had known of another particular tom, known by the name of Badgerpaw, than he would've been swift to relate the two, as point it out to the Medicine Cat.

Fourtrees was so large and bulky, and its twisted mahogany arms outstretched themselves far. Grayfang was surprised that even he, had found himself a bit intimidated by its almighty presence. In fact, it was not a wonder it was the perfect location for the leaders to reside upon as they shared the news circulating in camp. With such powerful cats, they couldn't simply just stand at the head of the crowds on the ground; that would have been almost disrespectful to say the least.

Grinning softly, Grayfang brought himself to the thought that soon he would know a few names, know a few cats, and know any news that the other Clans wished to share. Of course, there were always things in which the Clans wished to keep silent too; you simply couldn't go bantering about, spilling any secrets. Cloudstar had given StreamClan a good solid talk, so that they would not share any inside information. Grayfang felt confident that the other clans had gone through the same thing, unless one leader was so bold and brash to not follow through with the ideal preparation?

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Rolo]

No-ears hobbled to Gingerstar's side as they neared Fourtrees, feeling a little out of breath. Although he was young enough to be able to cover the short distance from camp to fourtrees, the effort of dragging along his lame leg tired him quickly. He was quite tired by the time they neared the entrance, and he was very glad to see the familiar gathering area.

Reaching Gingerstar's side, he obediently waited until the she-cat gave permission to move before beginning to limp down into the mass of cats. His pace was very slow now and, although he had started out at the front of the group, he was the last pineclan cat to merge into the crowd of felines.

No-ears immediately headed towards the rock where the leaders stood. His movements were slow and he inelegantly collapsed into a seating position at the foot of the great rock. Although he needn't sit so close to the rock, he was just an adviser after all, he had adopted this spot as his regular post. From here, he could simultaneously reinforce his authoritive role, support Gingerstar and give himself a vantage point from which he could see the entire gathering. He, of course, wanted to avoid walking as much as possible, so sitting here meant cats always knew where to find him and he could easily find them.

He was panting from the exertion when he finally sat down. It took him a moment before he could stop his heartfrom racing enough to take in the atmosphere. When he had finally made himself comfortable, he looked up at the cats around him.

The amount of cats around made him blink for a moment, there was a sea of colours before him. Scents flooded into his nostrils, each clan's individual smell mixing with eachothers to make an entirely new one. Although he had been to every gathering so far, he still found it a little overwhelming. These meetings were always so different to the quiet and sterile feeling of the elder den.

No-ears could hear the essence of the bustle and excited conversation, yet could barely make out a word... his poor hearing making everything sound like a low burble. It made it particularly hard to find where any familiar cats were, so he had to rely heavily on sight and smell. Eventually, he could pick out some of his clanmates, and he noticed 2 of the medicine cats (the scent of herbs on their pelts gave them away) and a few apprentices.

Gazing around, his heart surged with pride as he gazed upon young Spiderpaw, telling the patronising apprentices he was talking to that Pineclan was not to be underestimated. It made him smile to see such strength displayed in his clan. He was also pleased to see that his other clanmates seemed to be mixing well, no hostilities yet, and he hoped it continued.

He continued to gaze around the gathering, still trying to summon the energy to talk to somecat.

[Whiskers]

Firepaw's lip curled over his teeth at Spiderpaw's smart-aleck retort. Figures that this cat would immediately jump to insult Starclan of all things, though he knew nothing about it. It only added fuel to the fire however, and once the fire got going, it was hard to stop it or control it. Firepaw felt the flames spike within him and his claws kneaded the ground as he lifted his chin and looked down at Spiderpaw.

"First of all, you're the mousebrain for denying something so obvious. Three clans of cats believe in Starclan. That should be enough proof for you guys. Or are you calling us liars?" Firepaw challenged. "You're blind if you can't see what's directly in front of your face."

As always, he was confident and very arrogant when he spoke and his tail whirled around his legs. Firepaw's anger was its own creature and it had already began to rear its ugly head, though it was this adrenaline that rushed through him that Firepaw had sought for. It was obvious by the glow in his face that he naturally enjoyed this silly sparring and that Spiderpaw was simply doing what Firepaw hoped he would do.

Finchpaw, meanwhile, had held back and watched warily, but he quickly weaved his way to his brother's side and rushed his words, drowing out whatever thorny remark was about to come out of his brother's mouth. "Second of all... it's our first Gathering too," Finchpaw half-lied. It was Firepaw's. It wasn't his though, but he didn't want to aggravate his brother by pointing this out. Firepaw would claw his eyes out of embarrassment as he was very desperate to keep up his tough-guy appearance. "It's quite confusing isn't it? We don't know all the rules yet. You'll have to forgive us."

[/size]

[Crowzerplorodon]

Otterfur nodded quickly, glad that the tom he had spoken to was a kind cat. "Yeah, it's my first gathering," he confirmed. "And I'm Otterfur, from PineClan." He hoped that the smaller cat wouldn't hiss and walk away, Otterfur knew that cats had a thing against PineClan for their beliefs. He hated it, but what could he do?

His bushy tail twitched. Thinking like that wouldn't get him anywhere. Otterfur would just keep his head up and not lash out at the tom if he lashed first. It was the gathering after all, truce for the full moon and all that.

"I wonder how it's gonna go this time," he continued. "I've only heard how gatherings go, y'know? I'm kinda anxious to see how one goes for the first time."

--

"Hi! I'm Spottedpaw."

Tigertail turned, staring down at the apprentice with a curious look. It wasn't everyday that someone his size was approached by a much, much smaller apprentice who wasn't even from the same clan. She must be a pretty brave cat -- StreamClan from the scent of her. He purred slightly, pleased that she had come up to him, it meant she'd be more likely to trust his... acts.

"Good evenin', Spottedpa'." He kept his voice light and friendly. "I'm Tigertail. How are ya' doin' dis fine gatherin'?" Now, what was he going to pull on this young she-cat tonight? There were so many ways he could fool her!

Or maybe he'd just take it easy tonight. It was the gathering after all.

--

Silverflower's ears perked when she caught the sound of someone speaking to her. With a smile on her face, the silver she-cat turned to face the tom. "Hi there, Grayfang!" She said sweetly. "I'm Silverflower, and FogClan is doing fine." Her blue eyes closed in thought for a split second. "How about StreamClan? Is they prey running well?"

"Hello Silverflower, do you mind if I sit with you? I do not really know anyone else."

She whipped around to face Spottedstream, giving her clan mate a smile. "Oh that's ok Spottedstream, I'd love for you to sit with me. This is Grayfang!" Her tail twitched toward the tom cat as she shifted so she could look at both at them. "He's from StreamClan."

She settled into the grass, and let the sound of other cats wash around her for a moment. Silverflower was pulled out of her quiet moment by the arrival of another StreamClan cat. Her ears pricked at the pretty black and white cat who had approached them. She knew her! Well, not knew her. But she knew of her. "Hello Badgernose!" She chirped, surprised to see the StreamClan medicine cat with them.

[glowlynose]

"I'm from PineClan."

Briartail tried not to react to those words. He really did try, but he found his lip curling back slightly in disgust for a heartbeat. Once he regained his composure he gave Otterfur an amiable smile and bobbed his head. He shouldn't react like that. He'd heard rumors that PineClan was home to some StarClan believers as well as nonbelievers. There was no way to tell which of the two this cat was, and a glimmer of curiosity crept into his golden brown eyes. Had Ottertail seen the light, or was he still in the dark?

"It's very nice to meet you, Ottertail." A breeze blew gently around Fourtrees and Briartail sighed in content as it buffeted his face. Despite the size of the place and the giant pool of cats that constantly shifted around him and Ottertail, Briartail found himself taking a strange liking to it.

"This place is sort of surreal, isn't it?" Briartail eyed Otterfur with a mixture of caution and excitement. He didn't want to be too pushy incase the large brown tom did not see things the way he did, but he felt like he was obliged to tell him. "I mean, this place somehow has the power to keep all four clans at peace for one night a moon. Everything here just seems to exude some peaceful force, you know? Makes you wonder, eh?"

His ears flicked in a series of short bursts like they had been doing all evening. Briartail desperately wanted to be able to devote all his attentions to this one conversation, but he couldn't help but overhear some of the other ones. All the conversations were pretty generic and safe. He did not want to pay attention to such boring words, but the kept drifting to his ears.