Warriors: Nightstar's End (COMPLETED)

Chapter Nine

Emberburn flicked his tail as he waited for Stempaw to catch up. The full moon was glowing coldly above them as they headed for the Gathering Island. The frost on the grass and chilly air nipped at their ear tips and made their noses run. Behind them, the new apprentices, Deafpaw, Russetpaw, and Whiskerpaw struggled to keep up with the rest of their Clanmates. Made apprentices a few sunrises prior, the three apprentices were loving their apprenticeship.

Russetpaw had caught a mouse on her first day of becoming Adderseed's apprentice and she had boasted about it for two days before her mentor scolded her and told her to stop. Since then, she'd become more and more determined to be better than her brothers in everything.

Whiskerpaw had toured the entire territory on his first day and slept in the next morning. His mentor, Fallingash, was forgiving but gave him a stern lesson that warriors didn't sleep in and started working early in the morning. He quickly discovered that the prey-pile didn't fill itself and had to go on his first practice hunt sometime later.

Deafpaw got Snowshine as his mentor and Pebblestar's reasoning behind it was that since Deafpaw was deaf, Snowshine would have a better time with him. Since Snowshine was deaf in the side she had a blue eye on, which was her left eye, she could understand what the tom was going through. The two developed a close bond since his apprenticeship and Snowshine enjoyed his interest whenever she patted the ground, twitched her whiskers, flicked her tail, moved her paws, or made any gesture that he understood. Emberburn respected the she-cat more that she was mentoring his young nephew and had high hopes in his future.

Emberburn bounded ahead as Stempaw reached him and stopped beside Branchstripe. Ravenpaw refused to attend in case they ran into Maplewhisker again, so Pebblestar allowed him to stay behind and sleep while Stempaw and the other apprentices went to the Gathering.

"It's a shame Ravenpaw wanted to stay behind," Stempaw mewed when he'd caught up. His glowing yellow eyes were like two suns that shone in the dark of leafbare, ridding the forest of any darkness. "I wanted to go to our first Gathering together."

Branchstripe twitched his ear at him but kept his gaze fixed ahead. "You have your other denmates to share your experience with, Stempaw." He meowed, his voice sounding dark and far away. "Besides, there will be other Gatherings for you and Ravenpaw to share."

Stempaw glanced at Emberburn and awkwardly nodded. "I guess," he meowed and slackened his pace to walk beside Russetpaw and Boulderpaw, who were talking about prey and training.

Emberburn saw Pebblestar stop and he raised his tail for the patrol to stop before plunging into the hollow. The rest of the Gathering patrol, which was considerably larger than a regular hunting or border patrol. It consisted of Pebblestar, the new deputy Petaltail, Emberburn, Branchstripe, all the apprentices other than Ravenpaw, all the mentors, Leaffire, Echospeck, and Halfsnow. Fennelfur had to step down as deputy yesterday because she was expecting Firestripe's kits. Pebblestar was glad that she was having kits and gave the deputy position to Petaltail, one of the only senior warriors left.

"Stempaw," Emberburn looked over his shoulder at his apprentice and jerked his muzzle forward. When the tom padded up to him, he meowed. "Remember that just because there's a truce, you should be looking for a fight. Keep your wits, be polite, don't say too much or too little, and learn the actions of your enemies."

Stempaw tilted his head to the side. "How do I know I've said too much or too little?" He asked, his voice confused.

Branchstripe glanced at the apprentice. "Just be careful of what you say is what your mouse-brained mentor is implying." He meowed, looking at Emberburn with a wink. "The other Clans think that if a cat says too little, they're keeping something from the other Clans. They think that if a cat is saying too much, they're keeping something from the other Clans."