darkstar's love

Chapter 13

Darkpaw padded alongside his littermates as all three of them followed their mentors to the gathering.

Beetlepaw's tail flicked over and over again as excitement rushed through her. Darkpaw looked over at Raccoonpaw to see worry glow in his eyes.

"Raccoonpaw, there's no need to be nervous as long as we stay with our clan. We'll be okay."

Raccoonpaw looked at darkpaw with uncertainty. "Riverclan will look for ways to cause problems, and Fishstar will want to look for a fight."

Darkpaw sighed, knowing his brother would be nervous no matter what he told him.

Beetlepaw was chatting with Firefoot while maplenose kept close by.

" Hey, maplenose, what was it like when you were a kit?" Darkpaw wanted time to pass

"Well, prey ran well, and my mother poolfur was deputy till she died, and my father jaggedfang was ok. We didn't talk but he was ok."

Darkpaw stared at maplenose with concern. Her kithood was not healthy or well enough. How did she even become the medicine cat?

Maplenose nodded, then padded off to be beside Morningstar.  Chippedclaw was talking with darksoul and Mousecoal as they talked about the past.

"I still remember Redwing yowling at spiderflight to be quiet so he wouldn't wake up darkkit and Shrewleaf." Darksoul mewed with amusement.

"That kit would never go to sleep, and I still remember him begging to go back to the nursery after a moon of training."

Mousecoal eyes filled with sorrow as she remembered her brother. "Well, time changes, and soon Chippedclaw may become leader, and maplenose will probably have an apprentice."

Darksoul had excitement glowing in his eyes. "Soon every clan will fear us once the apprentices become warriors."

The other two warriors meowed in agreement. Darkpaw felt a nudge on his side to see Raccoonpaw. "We're here."

Darkpaw looked to see the tree stump. Darkpaw jumped on it with ease and then followed his fellow clanmates on it. He got onto the island to see windclan and ThunderClan there.

He looked around in windclan to see if Greypaw was there but stopped when he couldn't find him, then set off to find Deerpaw or Tigerpaw.

Darkpaw saw the familiar tabby and sat beside him. "Hello, Deerpaw." The tabby apprentice looked at darkpaw with terror in his eyes.

Concerned for the apprentice, Darkpaw licked the tabby's head to comfort him. "Deerpaw, what's going on?"

The ThunderClan apprentice shuffled his paws for a moment before speaking. "Smallstar made my father Oakfur deputy, and now Oakfur accused me of killing briarpaw and birchpaw."

Darkpaw looked at the cat, who looked similar to Deerpaw, and saw him chatting away like he wasn't about to accuse Deerpaw of a terrible crime.

Darkpaw put his tail on deerpaw's shoulder. "If you didn't do it, then he has no right to accuse you, I'll vouch for you no matter what."

Deerpaw looked at darkpaw with uncertainty in his eyes. Soon, riverclan poured in, and rabbitstar called for the gathering to begin.

Fishstar flicked his ears to show he was speaking first. "The fish have been plentiful, and we have a new warrior. Moonfall earned his warrior name from saving his clanmates."

Darkpaw looked over to see a white tom with grey patches holding his head in pride. "Our medicine cat also retired, and his apprentice Obsidianface shall take his place.

Darkpaw saw a white tom with a jet black head sat up in pride. Riverclan yowled for their clanmates at fishstar continued.

"Also, our deputy and two kits were brutally murdered and we won't let this slide. I ask for the other clans' permission to question their warriors."

Rabbitstar nodded his approval, and Smallstar nodded, knowing none of his warriors could ever do something like that. Morningstar hesitated for a bit but gave her approval.

Fishstar then continued, "Our new deputy shall be robinfeather." Darkpaw saw the red warrior stare with cold eyes as his clanmates remained silent.

Rabbitstar then spoke up. " we have three new warriors, but they couldn't make it. They are now known as Mistydream, Whitefang, and greyfur."

Darkpaw felt proud hearing greyfur's warrior name. Morningstar spoke up as rabbitstar backed away. "Lionstar has joined starclan, making me the new leader of ShadowClan."

Morningstar! Morningstar! Morningstar! Hearing the other clans call out his leaders name made him feel proud to be part of ShadowClan. Morningstar then backed away as Smallstar made his move.

Darkpaw felt Deerpaw tense as he moved closer to Darkpaw. "Cats of all the clans, my deputy Oakfur, has news to share with all of you."

Darkpaw watched at Oakfur and made his way onto the area the leader's sat. "Cats of all the clans I found out who killed those two apprentices."

Darkpaw watched as deerpaw shrank. Darkpaw went closer to Deerpaw as he tried to comfort him once again.

"A young apprentice called Deerpaw killed his own kin and tried to hide it." Darkpaw watched as all the clans looked at Deerpaw with accusation.

Darkpaw felt his fur bristle as he watched cats unsheathe their claws. He looked at the medicine cats to see distrust in their eyes.

Why wasn't starclan stopping this? Darkpaw soon had enough and spoke up. "Deerpaw would never do that, never accuse him of something like that, and you call yourself the deputy."

Darkpaw saw Oakfur look at him with a glare. "Stay out of this. ShadowClan has nothing to do with ThunderClan business." Darkpaw felt his claws unsheathe as his tail lashed.

"But you had to make it an announcement at the gathering, so you have no right to say I can't have no say in this." Oakfur snarled before lashing his tail.

"You're nothing but an apprentice. Smallstar, since this ShadowClan apprentice wants to defend Deerpaw, shouldn't it make sense to send Deerpaw to ShadowClan?"

Darkpaw saw none of the ThunderClan cats tried to defend Deerpaw. He felt anger and disgust towards the ThunderClan cats.

"You call yourself a leader when you won't even defend an apprentice. ThunderClan is a sad excuse for a clan."

Smallstar loomed ashamed but didn't speak. Morningstar jumped from the trunk and flicked her tail to follow her as she padded towards Deerpaw.

"ShadowClan offers you a place in our clan until ThunderClan comes to their senses." Deerpaw lost a bit of tension as Morningstar's kindness.

Darkpaw padded by his littermates with Deerpaw by his side back to camp.