Warriors: Hidden Secrets - Blood Moon

Chapter 9

Rainpaw had followed Doepaw over to the other apprentices, sitting down between Dewpaw and an orange tom with a black tail tip. "Hello," He turned to introduce himself. "I'm Rainpaw, what's your name?"

The apprentice suddenly turned his head. It seemed that he had just noticed Rainpaw was there.

"Oh, hello. I'm Quailpaw." He replied. "I haven't seen you at any other gathering before, is this your first one?"

Rainpaw nodded. "Yup! Me and my sisters were made apprentices right after the last gathering. This is one of my sisters, Dewpaw." He pointed his tail at his littermate who didn't seem to notice. "My other sister, Tinypaw, is up there with the medicine cats. She's training to be a medicine cat."

"Oh, that's cool." Quailpaw mewed, turning back to look at the two apprentices in front of them. Rainpaw remembered that Doepaw had mentioned they were her brothers, Aspenpaw and Molepaw.

Rainpaw turned to listen. It sounded like they were talking about a battle, but it was so all over the place that Rainpaw couldn't understand what was happening. Then he heard a yowl from the front of the clearing.

He turned his gaze to the leaders. Honeystar had called for silence so the gathering could begin. A dark grey she-cat began to speak, talking about prey and borders. Her report was short and soon he was finished.

"What clan are you from?" Quailpaw asked quietly. "I'm from PineClan. That's our leader, Echostar." He indicated the she-cat that had been talking.

"I'm from FernClan." Rainpaw replied.

"Oh, ok. So you already know Honeystar." Quailpaw meowed. "That's Branchstar, the RainClan leader." He continued, nodding his head towards the grey tabby tom that had begun to speak. "And that's the SunClan leader, Amberstar." He ended, pointing out the fourth leader, a ginger tabby.

Soon Branchstar had finished and Amberstar had stepped up. Rainpaw realized he hadn't been paying much attention and turned to listen to the SunClan leader.

"As the season of greenleaf starts, prey has become even more plentiful for my clan." The she-cat began. "I would also like to announce that Sagewisker has recently given birth to two healthy kits."

Meows of congratulations spread through the clearing. Amberstar nodded her head and turned to stand beside the other leader.

Then, a thought hit Rainpaw. He was sitting by and talking to a PineClan cat! He remembered the conversation he had had with Tinypaw. Maybe not all PineClan cats are bad like Spottedpaw said. Not that he wanted to admit that to Tinypaw.

He would probably have to fight Quailpaw at some point though. Rainpaw thought, turning to look at the older apprentice. He shouldn't try to get too close and friendly.

So he turned his gaze back to the leaders and realized that Honeystar had begun speaking. He perked his ears up, waiting for her to announce him and his littermates.

"We also have three new apprentices!" Honeystar meowed cheerfully to the crowd. "Rainpaw, Dewpaw, and our new medicine cat apprentice, Tinypaw."

Rainpaw sat up a little taller, and he noticed that Dewpaw had a proud gleam in her eyes. The cats around them congratulated them and chanted their names.

Once the cats quieted down, Honeystar leaped off the rock, followed by the other three leaders. The gathering was over.

"Well, it was nice meeting you." Quailpaw mewed, standing up. "Echostar is gathering the clan, so I have to go now."

Rainpaw nodded and replied. "Alright, bye." He also stood up, and turned to see where Dewpaw had gone.

Looking around he spotted her talking to three other cats. He recognized them as Doepaw, Aspenpaw, and Molepaw. He padded a couple mouse lengths closer and listened to what they were saying.

"Yeah, my mentor is Berrystripe, the deputy!" Dewpaw meowed excitedly to the three SunClan apprentices.

"Wow!" Exclaimed Doepaw.

"My mentor, Robinheart, is the SunClan deputy." Aspenpaw mewed proudly.

"Yeah we know!" Molepaw retorted.

"Yeah but Dewpaw didn't." Aspenpaw glared at his brother.

Laughter danced in Dewpaw's eyes as Doepaw stopped her littermates from bickering. Rainpaw approached and put his tail over Dewpaw. She turned to face him.

"Hey Rainpaw! Wasn't the gathering great?" She beamed.

"Yeah it was good." He replied. "Can you come over here for a minute, I want to talk to you."

Dewpaw nodded and the two cats padded away from the other cats. They stopped at the edge of the clearing where large rocks were scattered around.

"What do you need?" Dewpaw asked quietly.

"I..I don't think we should be getting too close to the other apprentices." Rainpaw murmured, looking at the ground.

"Why not?" Dewpaw mewed indignantly.

"We are probably going to have to fight them someday. Do you know how hard that would be if you were their friend?" Rainpaw replied. Dewpaw was silent, looking at the ground in thought. Rainpaw looked up and observed the other clans.

SunClan, which is the clan that Doepaw came from, had light pelts, mostly Red and ginger. Looking at FernClan, he was surprised at the difference between the two clans. FernClan had light colors as well, but more browns than anything. FernClan had the most diversity in pelts compared to the other clans.

Noticing this he then turned to look at PineClan. They mostly had darker fur from what he could see. He noticed Quailpaw among the group of PineClan cats as they began to exit the clearing.

Finally, he noticed the group of RainClan cats. He realized that they had a mixture of browns, whites, greys, and bluish greys. This group looked the most like him and his littermates. He wondered if any other cat had noticed.

"We look a lot like the RainClan cats, don't you think?" He asked Dewpaw.

She looked up, and followed Rainpaw's gaze. "Yeah, I guess so." She replied, though her voice sounded distant. Rainpaw guessed that she was still thinking about what he had said.

"I'm going to go find Tinypaw." Dewpaw mewed, and before Rainpaw could respond, she strode off towards the medicine cats.

Rainpaw sighed. Maybe he had been overthinking. Maybe talking to the other clan's apprentices during gatherings wasn't bad. He decided he would have to apologize to his sister later.

Then he noticed something moving out of the corner of his eye. Turning sharply he gazed into the forest. Rainpaw focused on where he thought he had seen the movement and noticed something. A pair of bright blue eyes were staring back at him through the ferns.

He blinked, and the eyes disappeared. Tilting his head, Rainpaw slowly crept towards the ferns. He sniffed the air, searching for the creature.

Before he got close enough to find a scent, he heard a yowl break the silence. It was Honeystar. Rainpaw knew he should return to the clearing before he was missed and got in trouble.

So, taking one last glance at the spot where the eyes had appeared, he turned and went to join his clan.