ShadedOak's Story

Chapter Two

She stretched, feeling strength in her muscles again. Sitting down, she began to groom her pelt. When she was still recovering, there had been a Gathering, but she was still too weak to go that far. And Leafbranch wouldn't let her. But now she was strong enough to do anything.

 Echostar had allowed her to attend this Gathering, now that ShadedOak had recovered. All her wounds were scars now, added to the multitude of them all over her body. Even if her body had recovered, it would be awhile yet until her mind did. She still had nightmares of what had happened, most nights at least.

 Yet some of her dreams were of her brother, and they felt real. Like those scenes had actually happened. And they had. ShadedOak had discovered the length of her bond with her brother allowed the two to receive what had happened that day, no matter the distance.

A paw poked her in the side, and she glanced over, "Oh, hi Blizzardsky. Is it time to go already?"

"Yep!" Her friend replied, "And it looked like you were lost in your thoughts."

ShadedOak chuckled, "I technically was, but I'm ready now. Let's go!" She stood up and raced after the patrol headed to the Gathering.

By now, the smell of pine sap was familiar to her, and it no longer bothered her senses. The trees rushed past as she ran through now-familiar forest, to the Four Trees. She jumped across ruts and divots in the ground, one with the wind. Soon, the patrol reached the Four Trees.

 Emerging from bushes edging the clearing, she found herself staring into familiar icy-blue eyes. 

 The cat from the WindClan patrol, she realized. It seemed the WindClan had just arrived, judging by how fresh and strong the scent was. As the ShadowClan patrol emerged from the bushed, the WindClan warriors bristled, immediately hostile.

Echostar stared coolly ahead, walking right past without acknowledging them, as did the rest of her clanmates, although a few glared at them. RiverClan and ThunderClan didn't seem surprised by this, they must have seen the same thing at the last Gathering. A brown tom called irritably down.

"You could have gotten here earlier so we didn't have to start late!" He called down at Echostar. 

She glared at him, eyes narrowed coldly, "We aren't late. There's still time until moon-high."

Before the two could argue any further, a light-gray she-cat stepped between the quarreling cats, "If you two would quit arguing, then we could actually start."

 Both the ShadowClan leader and the WindClan leader muttered, glaring at each other, and stepped back to let the ThunderClan leader announce her news. While she was listening, the silver-splashed she-cat from before motioned ShadedOak over to a place where they wouldn't be seen.

"Sorry about cutting the conversation off short like that before, that wasn't exactly the best time to say things like that," Her ear flicked. "I'm Applepetal by the way."

"ShadedOak." She dipped her head respectfully to the WindClan warrior. 

"So, about being kin to you. Your mother as my sister. I never knew her very well..." Her voice trailed off for a heartbeat, then she continued, a bitter tone to her voice, "Cloudedheart could see how much she looked like his sister, whom he hated for being better than him."

 Curiosity glimmered in her eyes, "So that was why she left WindClan?"

"She didn't leave. Willowfrost was far too young to know what would have happened to her. So our mother, Lillywind, sent her with a friendly loner so she would be safe." Applepetal explained.