The full moon shined brightly throughout the Fortress as all four clans were headed towards to start the Gathering. The leaders of each clan stood in the branch facing the cats of each clan. It was now the warmest night of Green-leaf.
"I'm excited for the Gathering." Silverpaw cheered as she walked along side her clan mates.
Snowpaw smiled seeing it was her sister and her first Gathering. As Snowpaw was walking, she saw Darkpaw walking along side his mentor and his clan mates. She nudged her sister, who quickly caught her attention. "That's the loner." She said with a small growl.
Silverpaw frowned seeing her sister upset, but she saw Snowpaw's mentor, Littlestorm come towards them. "Now Snowpaw, don't fight with him, were at a Gathering it's a time for peace." Littlestorm said.
Snowpaw glared, but gave a sigh. "Okay." She replied. Though she still glared at the cat that wanted to attack her moons ago. "Still he's just a loner." She grumbled.
Darkpaw then turned around seeing Snowpaw, and once she made eye contact with him. She glared and faced away. Darkpaw sighed seeing that she wouldn't be a cat to talk to.
The moon was finally up and the clans were ready to begin the meeting, Silverstar, of FreezeClan decided to go first. "In recent events from the last gathering till now, a fox came and attacked us in out territory near The Rushing River. Our apprentice Crowpaw got injured as is now being trained as a medicine cat apprentice under Honeypelt's care. The clans looked up and saw Crowpaw next to Honeypelt.
Silverpaw and Snowpaw looked at the young apprentice who stood next to his mentor proud. "Why did he become a medicine cat apprentice?" Snowpaw asked.
"When an apprentice can't continue their warrior training they become a Medicine cat apprentice." A fellow LightClan warrior named Thornheart explained.
"Is that fair to the apprentice?" Silverpaw asked.
"Well unless the apprentice wants to be an elder early." Thornheart said.
"With that, our beloved warrior Suncloud died defending his clan." Silverstar said. The cats all bowed their heads; some going to a few FreezeClan warriors giving there apologizes of their fallen warrior.
Silverstar sighed, and looked at Ravenstar if she had something to report. "I'm sorry for your lost Silverstar." Ravenstar apologized. After a brief silence, Ravenstar was able to speak. "In LightClan we have two new apprentices, Silverpaw and Snowpaw. Let StarClan guide them in the way of the warrior."
The cats gave a smile to the cats saying their names and congratulating them. Silverpaw smiled at the praise, but Snowpaw blushed.
Ravenstar then looked at Cherrystar seeing it was her turn to say something, but she looked shocked, she also saw Nightwing, her depuity shocked as well, and a couple of warriors from GustClan. "Cherrystar?" Ravenstar asked the warrior.
"Cherrystar! What's wrong?" Silverstar asked. The cats looked nervous, but this got the cats more nervous when they looked up.
"Look!" A LightClan warrior called out.
Then, something then caught the eye of the leaders. Instead of looking at their leaders, they were looking up at the sky, and saw clouds forming. "What's going on?" One warrior from GustClan asked.
"No clan is fighting." Ravenstar whispered staring at the clouds circling the moon.
"It could just be a rain storm coming, let's continue shall we?" Shadowstar asked. The leaders were quiet for a bit, and they decided to nod, and promise they will talk about it after The Gathering. "Just like Ravenstar announcing her new apprentices, we have two new warriors in our clan. Foxclaw and Birdwhisker."
"Foxclaw! Birdwhisker!" The cats cheered congratulating them of becoming warriors.
The cats smiled and bowed, as Foxclaw and Birdwhsiker's mentors Cinderclaw and Squirrelfang smiled proudly at the two. Sparrowpaw and Darkpaw smiled at their clan mates, and looked at each other knowing soon they'll be warriors themselves.
Shadowstar then looked at the, still shocked Cherrystar. "Cherrystar, do you have something to say at The Gathering?" He asked hoping she had something to report.
Cherrystar's mouth opened and closed a few times like she was trying to say something, but the looks on her face looked like she saw something horrible. "I-I." She started say.
"Want me to say it?" Nightwing asked looking at the leader. The cats looked at each other confused at what's going on in GustClan.
"Y-Yes." She said as she was shaking, and slowly went down from the tree. Nightwing stood up on the tree taking her place.
"What's going on?" Ravenstar asked.
"Something horrible happened in GustClan territory." Nightwing said. Out of all the cats in GustClan, Nightwing was the most serious depuity, she showed emotion like most cats, but when it came to certain news like this, she tries to stay as calm as possible. "There were 3 cats murdered." She admitted.
Gasps from the cats from the Gathering gasped in horror, some believed this is why their clouds tonight at The Gathering. Cats from each clan were looking at one another, asking who would do this. Darkpaw got scared at what was going on, but saw Raggeddrop looking at the GustClan depuity, and as the crowd went on he had something like a smirk on his face.
Nightwing then yowled getting the cats attention. "However," She snapped, which made the cats stop their anger. "These cats were not GustClan, nor cats from any other clan. We don't know who they were, or where they came from, but one of them said that a group of rouges took their kits away, and when they tried to fight, they-" She stopped and shook her head.
Darkpaw looked at his mentor again, and saw that he just didn't feel sorry about what just happened. 'Did Raggeddrop do this?' He thought.
"Cherrystar was shocked with what happened, and we had GustClan patrols go looking for these kits." Nightwing explained.
"Thank you for telling this Nightwing," Ravenstar said. "Our patrols will be keeping kits safe, by guarding the Queens Nursery until these Rouges are stopped." Ravenstar said.
"DuskClan will do the same, we have two queens in the den expecting kits, and seeing what happened, we don't want any of our kits to be taken." Shadowstar said agreeing with the LightClan leader.
"FreezeClan won't." The cats looked up seeing if the FreezeClan leader was mouse-brained. "Unless rouges know how to swim then are clan should be fine." He said.
Ravenstar stared at him and the other leaders. "Very well. FreezeClan has their way, but if any warrior finds the rouges responsible or the kits, they would have to go against us." Ravenstar said. And with that the Gathering ended, GustClan was the first to leave since they were surprised at what they saw, and Raggeddrop leave to go back to DuskClan. Like the last Gathering the leaders stood behind again. Except Cherrystar, who wanted to leave early because of what happened.
"Cherrystar!" Silverstar called out to the leader. "Me and the other leaders need to talk to you again." He said.
Cherrystar looked at Nightwing who agreed to guide GustClan back home. Cherrystar went over to the leaders, and before they could talk, they saw the clouds disappearing, but still a few were around. "I think StarClan is going against us." Silverstar said.
"Don't say that." Cherrystar said starting to feel calm. "Maybe, StarClan is telling us something." She said.
"How do you know? I mean a fox coming into my clan, three dead mysterious queens." Silverstar said going to Cherrystar's face. "StarClan is going against both of us!" He snapped.
"Now Silverstar." Ravenstar started. "You don't know that, if StarClan was going against us a storm would of happened, but I do think StarClan is trying to us something." Ravenstar said looking at the sky.
"Warning us is more like it." Shadowstar said.
"Okay." Silverstar said. "But why all this?!" He snapped. This made the leaders look at each other not knowing what to say.
"I think most of these just happen." Cherrystar said. Ravenstar put her tail around the GustClan warrior. "Sorry, for being in shock tonight."
"Its alright, you went through too much." Ravenstar said. "But before we all go back to our clan, I think we should discuss this at the next Gathering, or to our clans, whatever is fine with you."
"Tell us." Shadowstar said.
"We should have a patrol go find these rouges and the kits that were taken." Ravenstar said.
"I agree." Cherrystar said.
"Same here." Silverstar said agreeing with the two leaders. The three then looked at Shadowstar, who sighed.
"I just took in two," Shadowstar started, making the leaders look at him, "but I will help." He said. The four leaders smiled, and went their separate ways.
"Thanks Shadowstar." Ravenstar said. The DuskClan leader smiled and went back to his clan. When Shadowstar went back to camp, he saw everyone in his clan asleep, except for his mate Moonshine.
"Moonshine." Shadowstar said going towards his mate.
"Goldjaw told me what happened." Moonshine said before Shadowstar told her what happened at the Gathering.
"I see." Shadowstar said. He sat next to his mate, which in reply she put her tail around him, and leaded on him. "What can I do?" He asked. "If these kits have no family, I can't just take in a bunch of them." He explained.
"Now Shadowstar, we can rescue them, but we don't have to take all of them in, each clan is willing to take part in helping find these kits, we'll just have to find them, and we'll see what we can do from here." Moonshine explained giving a lick.
Shadowstar stood their long and thought about it for a while. "Your right." Shadowstar said. Making Moonshine smile. Suddenly the two heard a noise from the apprentice's den, and saw it was Sparrowpaw waking up.
"Are you guys talking about me and my brother?" Sparrowpaw asked.
Moonshine and Shadowstar smiled and went to the young brown and cream tom. "Now, Sparrowpaw, we're just discussing what happened tonight at the Gathering." Moonshine said reassuring her foster kit.
"Okay. Night." Sparrowpaw said going back into the den.
"Goodnight." Shadowstar and Moonshine said at the same time. The two looked at each other, and gave a smile. "Tonight, I'll guard the queen's den, you should be getting some sleep." Moonshine said.
"You sure?" Shadowstar asked.
Moonshine nodded. Shadowstar smiled and nodded. "Ok, I'll see you at dawn." Shadowstar said as he went to his den. Moonshine smiled and lied down in front of the queen's den, and fell asleep.