Warriors: Traitors (Book One)

Chapter Five

                The black and silver apprentice shook his head and pressed on, brushing pelts with his mentor as they walked. After a while they entered WindClan territory, but they went the whole length of the territory without as much as a whisker to give away their presence. Moonpaw quickly decided that they must have already made it to the island, or were maybe running late. In any case, the ThunderClan cats pressed on into RiverClan territory.

                Soon after trotting right past the fishy scent-markers of the RiverClan territory, the wind shifted and the cats were able to smell what cats were on the island. Moonpaw sniffed, even opening his mouth to get the best sense of what clans were there. He could smell RiverClan, WindClan, and ShadowClan, but the scents were very weak and old, probably from the last gathering even.

                Without any hesitation, Oakstar leaped onto the tree bridge and led his clan onto the Gathering place island. Moonpaw was fourth to cross, right after the deputy Wolfheart, and he found that he was able to keep his balance on the log a bit better than the last time he had been there. He skillfully jumped down onto the grassy shore of the island and leisurely walked by with his mentor to the massive tree at the center. Quite surprisingly, Moonpaw found that he was right and they were the first clan to arrive.

                Before the last ThunderClan cat had crossed the bridge, Moonpaw already smelled RiverClan and even a faint trace of ShadowClan not far behind. Moonpaw choked back a mrrow of laughter when he saw that most of the RiverClan cats were swimming across to the island. Only the newest RiverClan elders and a queen were using the bridge behind Moonpaw’s clanmates.

                After the queen, Moonpaw recognized the fearsome ShadowClan leader Eaglestar, and a shiver ran down his back when he thought about his dream. After the black-and-gray tom came his deputy Glareheart, and then the deputy’s apprentice: Moonpaw’s secret best friend. He purred when he saw the black she-cat apprentice leap from the bridge next to her mentor, and Moonpaw suddenly forced it back when he remembered that they were at a Gathering.

                WindClan cats began crossing the bridge, and Moonpaw saw Breezepaw walk off with Beachpaw and Beechpaw. Using them as an excuse to see Breezepaw, Moonpaw walked up to them and sat down next to Beechpaw and listened to their conversation.

                “It’s nice to meet you Breezepaw,” Beachpaw was saying. “It doesn’t look like there are many ShadowClan apprentices.

                Breezepaw sighed, “Yeah. We still don’t have any more kits either, so it’s just me and my brother Duskpaw doing everything, since we’re the youngest apprentices. And, of course, he is always excused from caring for our elders because he used to be off with Dangerstripe training. Now that she’s in the nursery, I just hope he is forced to stay in camp a little more often.”

                Moonpaw was about to say something when a yowl cut him off. Eaglestar was calling for the Gathering to begin, so each cat went to join their clans beneath the great tree that all four leaders were resting on comfortably. The leaders looked at each other for a moment, until Grassstar started.

                “Welcome all clan cats to the Gathering!” She said excitedly, making Moonpaw realize that it must have been the first time she started off a Gathering. “WindClan is doing well this moon. Our medicine cat apprentice has received his full name and will now be called Sandcloud. We also have two new queens expecting kits: Oceanscream and Bushfrost.”

                Delighted purrs sounded from every clan around the clearing, congratulating the medicine cat apprentice and the new WindClan queens, only one of which was present at the Gathering. Next was Snowstar, and the cats immediately settled down to wait for her news.