Ivysnake followed her leader to the Seastones, where the Gatherings took place. It would be her first Gathering as a warrior. This was also the largest Gathering group she'd traveled with. After all, ShadowClan and ThunderClan were arriving together. The scent of the rodents mingled with the much better scent of Ivysnake's Clan, making her wrinkle her nose. She agreed with Dawnstar's logic of helping these pathetic furballs. However, she still found them insufferable and annoying. They were too weak to stand up for themselves and too frog-brained to understand that ShadowClan, a Clan full of powerful warriors led by the strongest leader anywhere, was trying to help them. Ivysnake flicked her black-striped tail at the thought.
Ivysnake heard her leader's announcement and gave a nod. She'd had enough of ThunderClan for now. When RiverClan or WindClan arrived, she'd talk with one of their cats instead. The she-cat found a spot some distance away from any ThunderClan cats and sat down, surveying the outskirts of the beach for any signs of life or movement. She also eyed the cats within the beach to see if anything interesting would happen with the cats among them. Nothing much of interest. Just ShadowClan and ThunderClan cats getting settled, although Ivysnake did notice that quite a few ThunderClan cats looked uneasy. I wonder if Shadestorm will show up. The thought crossed her mind. He was the deputy, after all, but he had been slacking lately. Ivysnake's lip curled at the thought. He had always been against slackers, but now he was becoming one. He'd better improve, and fast. ShadowClan is no place for those not willing to put forth their full effort to serve it.
There was RiverClan. The breeze brought the distasteful scent to Ivysnake's nose and she looked up, spotting the fluffy gray tabby tom leading his Clan to the Seastones. She watched as he paused to brush his tail over a black-and-white apprentice's head - maybe she was his apprentice or a friend or something, she wasn't sure - before he bounded up the rocks to sit with Dawnstar. More cats are here. I might as well have a look around. As Ivysnake stood up, a stray scent reached her nose and she frowned. Is WindClan here? She looked around and found a singular WindClan apprentice, an orange tortie, bouncing up and down with excitement. What in the name of the shadows is she doing here? Had she snuck out of camp or something? Ivysnake rolled her eyes. It wasn't her problem.
She looked around, seeing if there were any RiverClan cats worth talking to. Many of them were already settling in among the crowd, giving curious looks to the ThunderClan cats. They don't know about the help we're giving them yet. Ivysnake briefly wondered what the other Clans would think before brushing it aside. It's not their problem, and even so, they should be grateful that we're making sure there are four Clans in the forest. Even if they aren't... I can see the dislike they have for us. They think we're despicable, but we're much better than they'll ever be. We don't let weak things such as StarClan and the warrior code get in our way.
Ivysnake noticed a golden tabby tom with ginger swirls making his way over to the area where the deputies normally sat. That must be RiverClan's new deputy. Last she'd heard, the old one had resigned. Shadestorm still hadn't shown his face. I'll talk with him after this whole thing with ThunderClan is over. She continued to look around to see if anything else caught her eye. Ivysnake did notice something. One of the RiverClan apprentices was nearby, a blue mitten ragdoll, and she was talking loudly. Then she turned to something in the shadows. Ivysnake followed her gaze. She couldn't see the other cat, but when she sniffed the air, she tensed. It wasn't a cat from ShadowClan. Actually... the cat had faint ShadowClan scent, but it was mostly overlain with other scents. A former ShadowClan cat. An exile or a deserter. Ivysnake rose to her paws.
Before she could head in that direction, a loud yowl distracted her. Ivysnake's dark brown head whipped around and she saw a cat who quickly introduced himself as Stormpelt, or Storm, running around and asking to be let back in by Kestrelstar after being exiled. Her lip curled. Idiot. What is he even trying to accomplish? Ivysnake turned her head back around to deal with the ShadowClan exile or outcast, whatever she was. That was when Badgerscar came barreling out of nowhere and attempted to tackle the cat. Ivysnake rushed forward, hissing, her normally sleek pelt bristling in case the cat tried to cause any problems.
Then the cat disappeared. Ivysnake couldn't see her. A low growl escaped her and her claws, long and sharp, unsheathed. "Who was it?" she hissed at her former mentor, ears flattened against her head. She hadn't gotten a good chance to see the cat clearly. Wait. The cat hadn't left. Even though she couldn't see her, Ivysnake could definitely scent her. It's coming strongly from over there. She lowered into a crouch, strong muscles rippling under her short tabby fur. Meanwhile, behind her, she could hear RiverClan dealing with their exile Storm. All the exiled cats are coming back tonight. Based on Badgerscar's reaction, this cat must've been exiled by Dawnstar. Ivysnake wouldn't know her, though.
Then the furball revealed herself, blabbing on and on about "not understanding Dawnstar" and "paying the price", that stuff. As ready as Ivysnake was to leap on this cat and claw all that black fur off, she was intrigued as to what had happened with this cat. She had been called a traitor and was now talking about "paying a price". Most likely, she had been disloyal. "Make it up by leaving or by letting us shred you," she snarled at the black cat. Grimhound was there too, and then Dawnstar came, in all her glory. Ivysnake stepped back to let her leader through. Dawnstar made quick work of killing the she-cat.
Now that that was over, Ivysnake padded back into the crowd, unmoved by what had happened. She should still talk to a RiverClan cat, or a WindClan cat, if they arrived. She noticed, out of the corner of her eye, that same blue mitted ragdoll running away. Weakling. Other cats surrounding them looked shocked. Was death such a surprising thing? Sure, it was a Gathering and there was a truce, but it had been clear that that cat had been an exile. Kestrelstar approached some tall black cat to get him to follow the apprentice who had just run away. Drama, of course. Ivysnake hardly cared. She did notice another RiverClan cat vomit, though. Her nose wrinkled in distaste. These cats were warriors! How soft could they be?
Some other cat was jumping and yelling at Kestrelstar about a prophecy. Some of these cats are just unbearable. Ivysnake briefly wondered if she should even talk to anybody, then decided that she should. I may as well see what's going on in other Clans and get to know my enemies a bit better. Maybe they have personality traits other than 'pathetic'. Ivysnake scented blood and turned to find a ShadowClan warrior, Whiteclaw, lying on the ground. She had briefly heard of the commotion with Stormpelt/Storm, but hadn't paid much attention. Ivysnake slid over to the white-furred tom and looked down at him. Then she glanced at Dawnstar. "What should we do about him?" she called up, flicking her tail at the injured and bleeding cat.
Ivysnake was still determined to talk to someone. Her gaze fell on a RiverClan warrior she had seen briefly before, when she'd been looking around earlier. It was a fluffy she-cat with gray, black, and off-white markings. I could talk to her. Ivysnake padded up to the RiverClan cat, not bothering to dip her head. Why should she show any respect toward this cat? After all, she was from an enemy Clan, and she hadn't done anything to make Ivysnake respect her. Not like she'd have much respect for an enemy, enemy.
"Hello," she meowed, stopping to stand in front of the tri-colored RiverClan warrior. She surveyed the she-cat with sharp amber eyes. "I'm Ivysnake. And you are?" She paused, waiting for a response.
Ah gatherings they were always so...... god awful.
Snakeheart had barley arrived when the leaders that were here (no leaders for thunderclan, typical) were forced to step in and remove problem cats and murder even more problems cats and if that wasnt a sign of how the gathering would go the tom didnt know what was. However he was here, mainly because the riverclan tom wanted to talk to Cowpaw again poor apprentice needed all the help he could get, Reedpaw hopefully trailing behind him and there was no escaping now.
Padding up to the general meeting spot of the medicine cats the toms ears immediately pinned spotting two thunderclan cats (it was about time they replaced Icicleripple but Snakeheart wasnt looking forward to it) and he let out a large audible sigh before reluctantly padding over. This wasnt going to be fun.
"Greetings squirrels looks like someone finally got their tail in gear in your clan for once. Wheres Dogwhatever or any of your leaders, dont they know they need to get on the seastone?"
The tom sat long tail flowing across the sand behind him as he sniffed obviously scanning a judgemental eye over the newcomers and finding them lacking before shifting his gaze away to look at the wider gathering. "And why do you smell so... off this gathering? Your normal scent smells tainted this trip, are you sick or something?"
☁ Cloudpaw (she/her) ☁ [ @spade | tldr baby cloud cries for her papa to hold her ]
➢ As the small fluffy apprentice sat down, it seemed like chaos ensued almost immediately. It all started with one cat yelling up at the Seastones and then another cat lunging at someone else. Everything happened in a frenzied blur where Cloudpaw couldn’t focus on one thing. Then… there was blood. Too much blood. Dawnstar, the Shadowclan leader, had leapt down and killed someone -- that violent cat from earlier. The young shecat’s paws began to tremble and she felt strangely light-headed all of a sudden. Several other Riverclan apprentices reacted with widened eyes or even throwing up. It was a miracle within itself that Cloudpaw didn’t vomit herself, but she managed to keep it all down. But she could not stop shaking. She wanted her mamas, she wanted Goosekit or Kestrelkit, she wanted someone to hold onto. That was when the tears started. Those thick crybaby tears that couldn’t be stopped once then started. This wasn’t how her first gathering was supposed to go! She was supposed to be having fun and talking with other apprentices, but how could Cloudpaw focus after all this had happened? She whimpered and looked up towards the Seastones to find Kestrelstar, her light-blue eyes full of innocence as tears continued to slip down her face. It seemed like a mocking call-back to her apprentice ceremony, but so much worse. She opened her mouth, but hesitated, wanting to call out for her mentor like a kitten would call out for their mother. Cloudpaw shut up and gulped, whimpering as she trembled severely. The small Riverclan laid down and curled into a ball, hiding her face underneath her tail as she shook with terror. She cried and cried and cried. Hiccups erupted and she felt herself struggling to be calm and breathe. Why? Why did this have to happen to her now? She wanted to be brave, she wanted to be strong. Kestrelstar would see that she was nothing more than a coward who could do nothing right. Dear Starclan, have mercy upon her. Cloudpaw wished everything could be okay. “M-M-Mama…” She whimpered pitifully, knowing that both Rosyfrost and Swansong were nowhere to be seen. That was when she couldn’t keep it back anymore, “Kestrelstar!” The young molly mewed out like a miserable newborn kit, trying so hard to muffle it with her paws as her entire body was curled into a tight ball. She felt even smaller than usual right now. How could she ever be a warrior when she acted like this so easily? Her nose smelled that awful coppery scent of blood mixed with the putrid odor of puke. She wanted this all to be an awful nightmare. Please wake up! Please please wake up and let it all be over.
Last edited by Captain; March 8th, 2022 at 04:52 PM.
Woah-ho-ho. Were these things always so loud? A black-freckled face poked above the edge of the stones, small ears turning every which way, and amber-blue eyes blinking curiously at the rather rowdy display across the rocks. She'd gotten lucky following after RiverClan, she guessed, and she assumed this meant she'd pretty much lied to her dad when she'd told him she would never sneak out. And Swankit wasn't even with her! But this opportunity had been too perfect to pass up, and so she'd waited a short while for RiverClan to leave and then had trailed after them. Despite what the aching in her legs and the shortness of her breath told her, the long trek had paid off. Because this was way cool and totally worth it.
Though... wait a second. What were those two doing? She attention was dragged toward the sandy shore, where two pretty big cats were throwing what looked like another cat towards the sea. Now abandoning the larger part of the Gathering and, in turn, the consequences that would come with being seen, Loonkit trotted around the Seastones and right up to where the ocean met the sand. She barely tossed Grimhound or Badgerscar a second look, instead tilting her head curiously as the waves began to lap at what she could now identify as a very dead cat.
"Woah. Neat."
Most kits would probably be at the very least unnerved by this sight, and at the very most, deeply upset, but it was evident that Loonkit was not, and she was willing to wager that her sister wouldn't have been either. There was something almost hypnotizing about the way the briny waters began to turn a sickly shade of red, and Loonkit watched it for a moment, eyes slightly wide. She kind of wanted to reach out and poke it, but wasn't too keen on getting swept out to sea and lost forever. Definitely not on her list of things to do before she died.
Whiteclaw got back up, "I'm fine" He mewed, "I hope Storm ran away forever, a cat trying to rejoin his own clan, especially considering it was during a gathering-" He paused, trying not to think of the times that he had been rude to his own clanmates, "Shimmerbird, thank you, and I saw that Birdpaw left, but big thanks to her as well" He let out a mrrow of amusement
@NinjaBloss
"No," Nectarflame replies plainly. Her gaze lingers on the massive leader for a few heartbeats before she swivels her head to peer at the apprentice. "Many are bland and tasteless, you would accomplish little outside of finding some acquaintances to talk to while your leaders squabble." The golden she-cat shakes her head in a dismissive manner. "They are rarely in my taste, but as your first Gathering it would be appropriate to chaperone you. And it is a good thing, it seems."
After another moment or two, the cat lets her gaze wander. "You are already acquainted with ShadowClan and their scent. The other Clan present right now is RiverClan- Notice their distinctive smell. Sure, you could fall in line with everyone else and call it fishy, but there is more than that, just as we do not only smell of dirt and ShadowClan, much to the incredulity of anyone who may hear it, do not reek of mud or sludge. Our scents are a part of our identities. And when we travel to and across borders, they will help guide you to know where exactly you are at all times. Eventually you may even be such a sharp nose that you could recall which scent belongs to which cat. For now, though, we will begin with memorizing RiverClan." The she-cat concludes with a hint of a smile, clearly under the impression that she had somehow been funny at some point.
☼ Brightpaw (she/her) ☼
➢ “Huh. Interesting.” Brightpaw meowed nonchalantly, peering up towards where the two clan leaders were before turning her gaze back to Nectarflame. She listened now in a rather respectful silence as the bengal shecat explained how it was wise to find other cats to talk to while the gathering commenced. The Thunderclan shecat did not really like the idea of mingling much after all that had happened so far, it seemed like a messy situation to start up a casual conversation, but she wouldn’t dare dismiss a word of Nectarflame. Her green eyes wandered over to where Grimhound and Badgerscar were discarding the lifeless body of Sprucefall. Many apprentices were reacting to the sight in a horrified manner, but Brightpaw? She felt… nothing, which surprised her a little bit. After everything that happened, was the youth already numb to seeing a cat die? Well, maybe that would be useful for the future. Anything could happen and Brightpaw needed to be ready for anything. Even if that meant murder.
After getting lost in thought about it for a few moments, her small ears twitched with intrigue as the Thunderclan warrior continued talking. Everything that was said sounded important, almost poetic in a weird way to Brightpaw. Especially the ‘our scents are a part of our identities’ portion. “Riverclan. Got it.” The torishelle molly said quietly with a curt nod of understanding, a small evident smile coming to her expression as she turned to look out towards the crowd of cats. “Shall I go out there then and stick my nose into some Riverclan cat’s fur?” Brightpaw said this with a hiss of amusement slipping out, hopefully her mentor wouldn’t mind her own attempt at being funny. But more or less, she was trying to see what Nectarflame wanted her to do from this point on.
Last edited by Captain; March 8th, 2022 at 06:26 PM.
”Do gatherings have to happen -every- moon?” Murmuring beneath her breath, Reedpaw padded along behind her mentor towards the Seastones. She had wanted to tell him how it was too cold for her to attend, but knew that wouldn’t be met with the kindest response from the tom. So instead the apprentice had her fur puffed up against the cool night, wishing she had stayed back at camp and curled up in her nest to sleep off the nerve that stirred in her belly. She had only been Snakeheart’s apprentice for a little bit, and had joked that she certainly knew not to poke the snake, but that was easier said than done. Snakeheart was alright for the most part, albeit a little scary, but there had been a few times where she had been met with his annoyance at certain things. The cobweb fiasco was understandable, she needed to get better at doing them, but it still left a ache in her chest when she considered how it easily could’ve been avoided.
Snapping from her thoughts, Reedpaw realized she had fallen slightly behind and made an effort to catch up with Snakeheart, now trailing just a few mousesteps behind him as she tried to hold her head high. Hopefully tonight would go, at the very least, alright.
At first she was confused at her mentors pinned ears, Reedpaw putting a pep in her step to catch up to him as she parted her jaws before she realized cats she hadn’t seen before were already seated in the spot where the medicine cats normally gathered. Forcing herself to stay at Snakeheart’s side rather than padding up to greet the new cats, Reedpaw allowed a warm smile to appear along her maw as she took her seat, her gaze landing on the cat that looked about her age as she glanced towards Snakeheart before parting her jaws. “Hello,” speaking in a soft tone, Reedpaw’s eyes seemed to shimmer with excitement as she gave a little tilt of her head. “I’m Reedpaw, who are you?” Making sure to give her head a hurried dip in greeting towards the older cat, Reedpaw didn’t entirely see anything wrong with getting to know this newcomer, and Snakeheart confirmed her suspicions that these were Thunderclan’s new medicine cats.
Slinking back as the events unfolded before her, Emberpaw cringed as the acrid, metal-laced scent of blood hit her nose. There's supposed to be a truce! Does that not include outsiders?
She looked around frantically for someone to run to, but none of her close friends were here. Her mentor wasn't here. She had nowhere to turn. Pupils wide in distress, but not wanting to draw Dawnstar's ire, she moved to the very back of the gathering and sat, hunched, fear in her eyes.
Watching the events unfold, the dark tabby shook her head. A murder at a gathering, what next. What else could possibly go wrong.
She watched the cats from her clan as the apprentices attending the gathering began to react, some very much as expected upon seeing such cruelty for the first time. Then a voice rang out above the others. Cloudpaw?
She looked at the young apprentice with realization. Cloudpaw was Kestrelstar's apprentice, and he had to attend to the gathering. Standing, she padded over to the young cat and licked her forehead, trying to calm her, before lifting a paw, inviting Cloudpaw to burrow into her fur for comfort. You poor, sweet little thing. Let me help you.
Her blue eyes fixed on the little molly, full of concern and warmth for the fluffy little cat.
~Wolfsong of Riverclan | Open~
Shaking her head in disgust, the silver tabby looked around at the gathering. Stormpelt? He's supposed to be exiled!
She squinted at the commotion occurring before Dawnstar's actions drew her attention. Seemed a traitor to her clan had also appeared. She didn't necessarily approve of the outright killing of the cat, but it wasn't her clan, so it wasn't her business. Instead, she kept her expression neutral and watched as her sister went to comfort Cloudpaw. Good, she'll know what to do.
This was perplexing, the lilac-gray WindClan leader gave a quick shake of her pelt as she led her clan to Seastones. She was immediately assaulted by confusion at the sight of two of the three leaders atop the stones yet there were three clans on the beach, four now that she's arrived. Where was Dogbark? And what was with the tension in the air and she could smell a tinge of blood in the air. Suddenly Twilightstar wasn't so sure she wanted to be here, she wondered if she'd be the first clan leader to turn their clan around and go home.
She pushed aside her uneasiness, lifting her head, and moved across the beach with her usual tired, limber grace, but didn't head straight to the Seastones as she usually did, no, she had to go growl at a wayward apprentice. "Tigerpaw," Twilightstar allowed her irritability to bleed in through her voice as she paused in front of the WindClan apprentice. "Mossnose has obviously been giving you far too much freedom if you think going ahead of me to the gathering, on your own, is acceptable. It might be a good idea to look into reassigning you a stricter mentor in the future." Twilightstar didn't give the apprentice a chance to respond, instead, she walked away and join Dawnstar and Kestrelstar atop the stone.
@Leafspeaker
Usually, she'd find a reason to snap at the deranged shadow leader, especially considering the hell Dawnstar had put her clan through, but stirring up drama for the sake of drama would just cause her a headache in the end and more dead cats to bury. Besides, she had pretty much settled on aiding RiverClan should they wage war against the shadow dwellers, she could take out her frustrations with Dawnstar then.
With the height advantage, Twilightstar noticed a bleeding ShadowClan that everyone seemed to be ignoring, aside from that ShadowClan apprentice, Ivypaw. Which meant that something certainly had happened before they arrived, Twilightstar glanced over to Kesrelstar who didn't appear overly ruffled, and even though Dawnstar smelt of fresh blood, Twilightstar decided against asking about the happenings if they were important she'd heard of it. Was that a kit? Hmmm, okay, well it wasn't WindClan's kit so not her problem.
"Kestrelstar," Twilightstar greeted the RiverClan leader before locking her single eye on Dawnstar with a baffled expression. "Dawnstar, aside from you're usual stink, why do you carry ThunderClan's scent?" The mixed scent might have made the leader's nose run if she was sitting closer to the cat. Her curiosity outweighed her patience for once in her life, it was rare for Twilightstar to bother asking questions instead of waiting to receive an answer.
@Undertaker @spade
➢ The small Riverclan apprentice didn’t know how long she lay there on the ground, crying and shivering uncontrollably without any sense of what was happening anymore. She wished that this was all just some sick and cruel dream. Any second now, Cloudpaw would awaken in her soft moss nest in the apprentice’s den. Unfortunately, that did not happen. Instead, something unexpected happened to the fluffy shecat. She felt another cat licking her forehead in a gentle and loving manner, reminding her of those times where her mama, Swansong, groomed her while she fell asleep. Without even thinking twice about it, Cloudpaw shuffled closer to Moonfrost, burying her face into the shecat’s fur and holding onto the Riverclan warrior like her life depended on it. She didn’t recognize anything regarding this cat’s scent other than that she was Riverclan, which was more than enough for the innocent little shecat to trust Moonfrost. She didn’t say anything, just clung to the bigger clanmate and sniffled, slowly but surely calming down. It felt like so long since someone had held her like this.
Last edited by Captain; March 8th, 2022 at 08:06 PM.
Re: March Gathering
Re: March Gathering
Re: March Gathering
