Warriors: The Prophecy of Fire

Chapter Nine

Hawthornepaw was talking with a few of her friends she had made in the previous gatherings, Moonpaw and Lightpaw from ThunderClan, when Shrewstar let out a yowl. She hurried over to the rest of the medicine cats at the roots of the tree, where the deputies were too, and sat down, waiting for the Gathering to start.

Shrewstar stepped forward and began the meeting, "ThunderClan is doing well, we have plenty of prey and have had no troubles with any intruders. We have two new warriors, Goldenheart and Willowshine."

"Goldenheart! Willowshine!" The Clans call out in unison. Willowshine ducks her head in embarrassment, but Goldenheart puffs out his chest in pride. 

Shrewstar steps back further on his branch and Stormstar steps forward, "WindClan is well, the moors are still running with prey but we do have some sad news. Speckleflake, who has been with us for many moons, has gone to StarClan." The Clans murmur their condolences and Stormstar stepped back with his head hung low. Now, it was Pebblestar's turn. She stepped forward and when she saw Beechstar, her eyes flashed with rage.

"Fish are plentiful and our Clan is strong, and we have a new medicine cat apprentice, Hawthornepaw. We also have two new warriors, Brushbranch and Silverfeather." 

"Brushbranch! Silverfeather!" They all yowl. 

"That does not, however," she continued, "include the attack we faced from ShadowClan yesterday, they came past out territory on the Thunderpath and when we told them to leave, they fought back. They nearly blinded one of Hawkheart's eyes, but failed due to our very skilled medicine cats. Brushbranch lost an ear, and Willowwing nearly lost enough blood to die." The cats in the clearing turn to each other, murmuring. 

"What do you have to say for yourself, Beechstar?" Shrewstar asks, his tawny brown head cocked to the side.

"This was not up to me, my deputy, Mousetail, told them it was my orders and led them into battle. As you can see," he said gesturing to the roots with his tail, "he is no longer my deputy. I was actually about to get to that, I replaced him with Blackstep, who I know I can trust." The Clans murmured their approval, Hawthornepaw hadn't even noticed that the black tom was sitting there instead of the grey.  "We are sorry for the injuries our Clan has caused you, and I would punish them if I could, but it is impossible to punish the whole Clan. Plus, they didn't know what they were doing was wrong. Let us know if there's anything we can do for you and you're Clan." Pebblestar dips her head in respect.

"Ok, thank you for the explanation, but you need to have better control of your Clan, you are their leader after all." Beechstar hisses but doesn't say anything. 

"Ok, let's call this Gathering to an end." The leaders jump off the branches and Hawthornepaw heads back over to Moonpaw and Lightpaw and they chat for awhile until the leaders call them to head to back to camp. She follows her Clan off the island, over the fallen tree, and back to camp, where she curls up in her nest and falls into a deep sleep. 

**************************************

Hawthornepaw wakes up the following morning just before sun-up and pads out of the den, heading over to Silverfeather, sharing tongues with her littermate. They see Brushbranch and Dovepaw chatting in the clearing, Brushbranch had been released from the medicine cat den the previous night, but he had to 'take it easy', same with Willowwing, the only one left in there was Breezecloud. 

"They really are cute together," Hawthornepaw purred.

"Yeah," Silverfeather purred, "I hope they end up as mates." 

"Hawthornepaw!" Mosstail yowled.

"I have to go, it was nice talking to you, Silverfeather." 

"You too," she agrees and Hawthornepaw bounds over to the medicine cat den.