New Horizons

Chapter 9

It had been three moons since the revelation about Nightpaw, Featherpaw, and Mistpaw. Crookedstar was able to gain Mistpaw's forgiveness, but still had yet to achieve the forgiveness from Nightpaw and Featherpaw. Minnowstripe and Ripplebreeze were still trying to get Nightpaw and Featherpaw to forgive them but neither wanted to.

"What are we doing today?" Mistpaw asked, trotting beside Whiteclaw. Whiteclaw glanced down at the excited apprentice before looking back towards the direction they were walking, WindClan.

"I want you to meet someone," was all the white warrior said before the two fell into silence. Mistpaw was curious. Who did Whiteclaw want her to meet? Was it a WindClan cat? A loner, perhaps? After quite a bit of walking, they made it to the WindClan-RiverClan border where a dark grey tom was waiting with a smaller dark grey tom sat beside him. "Mistpaw, this is Smokerunner and his apprentice Ashpaw."

"Ashpaw," the dark grey warrior, Smokerunner, started, "this is Whiteclaw and his apprentice Mistpaw."

"Hello," the brown she-cat greeted. Ashpaw dipped his head to the she-cat before both looked to their respective mentor.

"We wanted you two to meet for specific reasons. We would have done it at the Gathering, but there was quite a bit of chaos," Smokerunner explained.

"When you and Ashpaw are warriors, Dawnpaw, both of you must meet here and head up wind. Understood?"

"Yes, Whiteclaw." The two apprentices mewed before the tow warriors shared tongues and separated. Mistpaw looked back at Ashpaw, swallowing when she noticed the look on his face. He knew the reason why Whiteclaw and Smokerunner wanted them to meet, didn't he? The apprentice thought before racing after her mentor, feeling quite uneasy in her own territory.

About sunhigh, Crookedstar announced those who are going to the Gathering that night, Nightpaw, Featherpaw, and Mistpaw being picked to tag along much to some of the Clanmates dismay. The time soon came for the group to head to the Gathering where they saw ThunderClan and WindClan already there. RiverClan padded into the clearing, Mistpaw immediately finding the WindClan apprentice she had met earlier that day on the far side of the clearing. "Hey, uh, Whiteclaw?" Mistpaw stuttered. Whiteclaw hummed, turning to look at his apprentice. "Could I go and see Firepaw and Graypaw?" The warrior seemed slightly annoyed that his apprentice wanted to spend time with those two cats instead of the WindClan apprentice he wanted her to spend time with. Sighing in annoyance, the warrior nodded before padding off to where Smokerunner and Ashpaw was. "Thank you!"

Looking through the group of cats – ThunderClan, RiverClan, and WindClan – the dusky brown she-cat continued to search for the two apprentices she had met at her first Gathering. "Mistpaw!" called Ashpaw, bounding up to her. Mistpaw freaked and darted away. Don't get her wrong, Ashpaw was nice from what she had seen from their brief meeting earlier that day, but she didn't want to even consider a mate just yet and it felt like both Whiteclaw and Smokerunner wanted them to be mates even if that is against the warrior code.

Continuing her search, she quickly locked eyes on the fiery pelt of Firepaw and the solid grey pelt of Graypaw. "Graypaw, Firepaw!" she called, trotting over to the duo with her tail held high. Graypaw and Firepaw turned towards her, tails swishing.

"Mistpaw, hey, how are you?" Firepaw asked, touching noses with the RiverClan apprentice.

"I'm good," Mistpaw replied, touching noses with Graypaw. "How are you two?"

"We're good," Graypaw replied just as Duskpaw, a ShadowClan apprentice the trio had met at their first Gathering, came up to them. "Duskpaw! How are you?"

"I'm good, better now that Brokenstar is gone. And it's not Duskpaw anymore, it's Duskclaw now." mewed the she-cat. Mistpaw smiled as Duskclaw sat beside her, Firepaw on the other side of her and Graypaw on the other side of Duskclaw. "What's been going on in your clans recently?"