THE GATHERING -- 5/9 - 5/16

[fluttertorn]

xx. a single calico cat entered the clearing, moving slowly; almost like an elder, but he was not old enough yet. his eyesight was slowly fading and his ears were less sensitive to the world as they had been when he was younger. he remembered the old days; the ones before the clan's were slowly turning in on themselves. he remembered earlier this past moon, when birchclaw had not been chosen as deputy. he had been exceedingly angry and left the clan. toxicbite was still alert for this. he knew something may go wrong; but he wasn't quite sure what he would be able to do if something did indeed go wrong.

xx. the elderly tom moved across the clearing and sat off toward the edge; scanning out the cats of his clan, then moving through each clan. once he came to Shadowclan; he became confused. He saw multiple cats from Shadowclan that he knew, but he didn't see their leader atop the ivory stone. he rose; shifting his weight. haven't they just lost a leader? and now for the life of him, he couldn't remember the deputies name. he scanned the stone again and finally his old eyes caught the white shadowy patch on the stone. she was a tuxedo, which explained why his poor eyes had not seen her.

xx. he sat down again, his eyes twinkling as he slowly moved into a lying position, making his joints ache in pain and protest. but he ignored it. he was old, and he knew it, but it was beginning to become annoying. he knew he would not have much time left as a warrior, with his failing sight and his terribly awful hearing. with a silent sigh, he closed his eyes, letting his memories flood through his head while he lay there quietly.

the silence in the air could only have been caused by the scream that had echoed before. the trees didn't sway and the wind didn't blow. it was only these cats standing here, some entangled with another in a terrible fight. low screams of pain and cries of war rose around him as he spun around. a cat was lunging for him. with a careful growl, he had leaped at them, slamming them into the ground. he had been at the leaders side. but he was gone now, possibly entangled with another cat in the ancient dance of war. his eyes flared as he heard that high pitched scream. their leader had lost a life. he flung his own cat away and ripped the cat that had caused their leader to cry away from her. he flung it away as best as he could, carefully picking up his much smaller leader and taking her straight to the medicine cat, dipping and dodging between the bramble and bracken, nearly being knocked over with his precious cargo in his jaws. he made it finally and laid the cat in front of silentbird, who quickly tended to her and let her awaken from the starclan meeting she should have been having. several moments passed, and their leader didn't arise. more minutes passed, and worry started to set it. the medicine cat began to prod their leader with her paw silently. she had declared she would have been stepping down, and sleetwhisper would take over. but their leader had only lost the known 5 lives. unless she had indeed lied about her live left. a painful sigh raged through toxicbite as he sank down to a lying position, only half conscious that sleetwhisper was tending to his own wounds. he winced as he nosed at his leader, and her limp body had begun to grow cold. he sighed softly and rose, refusing more treatment as he lunged back into the battle. he would never let anyone know what had drawn him and held him so close to his leader. but he knew it was his own fault she was dead.

xx. toxicbite was lost in his own little world. he heard nothing that was going on around him. his eyes fell to the ground as he rested his head on his paws. he wanted to cry. he needed to cry. but he couldn't. he was here, at the gathering, not in the battle. if he could have done anything different, he would have attempted to change the way his leader had died. he would have wanted her to die from a more natural way. not murdered. he still wasn't sure which shadowclanner had killed his leader, but he had the slight feeling it had been their previous leader. but he was now dead too. a sigh rose from him as he laid his head in his paws, a single tear breaking from his eyes and rolling down his face. my one attempt at a family... he sighed softly and curled up with his head on his paws, attempting to seem tired, and not miserable.

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[~*Bright*~]

Nightpaw

The black-and-white apprentice continued to stare at the cats, unsure of what to do. Then she saw a brown tom approaching her. No, he can't be coming towards me. She thought desperately. But there he was, sitting down next to her.

"I'm Saberpaw

The tom had said. Through the jumble of smells, Nightpaw was able to make out the scent of ThunderClan coming off of the brown tom. She didn't know what to say. All she could do at the moment was stare at him, her heart beating faster. Great, she was barely used to talking to her own den-mates, let alone an apprentice from another Clan! She couldn't tell how much time had pass...had a lot of time gone by, or was it just a second? She didn't know, but she knew that she had to say something soon. So she opened her mouth, but all that came out was;

"Uhhhh, um...uh...hi."

At least Nightpaw was able to get one decent word out, but she said it with a hi squeak, that she wasn't sure if the Thunderclan apprentice heard it. So she tried again.

"M-my name is, uh, Nightpaw" She mumbled the words out, looking down at her paws. Habit that she developed whenever she felt shy or embarrass. Right now, she was feeling both.

[max]

Flameclaw


Flameclaw nodded, acknowledging the other cat's approach. "That's the riverclan deputy, Ghostwhisper," Freezefang explained. Flameclaw nodded, keeping her attention on the cats on the rock. Flameclaw felt a strong connection to the white cat next to her. She had no idea why, she just felt like she knew the cat from a long time ago. Then a memory appeared in her mind....

Flameclaw was mewling in her mother's paws as she bathed her daughter. Flameclaw hated being bathed. She wanted to go out and play with the other kits. Her mother roughly licked her fur, explaining that she needed to be nice and clean before going out to play. Flameclaw didn't see the point in that. SHe just wanted to get out of the nursery. Flameclaw noticed a small cat watching her, a few mouse lengths away. A pair of ice blue eyes met her amber ones...

Freezefang

"Hello," Freezefang replied curtly to Ghostwhisper. Then for some reason she remembered herself when she was a small kit, and her mother was bathing another kit. Who was that kit? Freezefang wondered. A flash of amber flickered across her mind. What was that? Freezefang had no idea.