Creamfluff's Hope

*/\* Chapter Seventeen */\*

Dew shimmered upon the leaves of the trees and bushes as Creampaw trained with Thrushwing a clearing near camp. Thrushwing had woken her at dawn for training, Creampaw glad the rain had stopped. StarClan was giving her a chance to improve her skills.

But in the middle of the night, the cats who had gone to fight at Moss Rocks had come back bloody and battered. Almost every cat had been awake to hear what they had to say.

Blizzardspots, who had been leading the patrol, had reported to Acornstar in the center of the camp. "Cedarstar was leading the ambush. The cats he'd brought with him were Darkheart, Brokenpoppy, Thistlebush, Mosspaw, and Pineshade."

Acornstar had scowled at Blizzardspots. "The deputy and leader on a patrol? ShadeClan is up to something, I can sense it."

Blizzardspots had just shrugged and sent the cats on her patrol to Silverleaf.

"Creampaw? Are you listening?" Thrushwing's meow snapped Creampaw back to the present as he waited for her to say she was listening.

"Yes, sorry," she mewed. Thrushwing had already showed her the hunter's crouch a couple of days ago and she'd learned the front paw blow a bit ago. 

"Okay. Now I'll show you the leap-and-hold, but you need to pay close attention to me." Thrushwing said sternly, his tail swaying back and forth in the air. "You have to spring onto your opponent's back and hold on to him with unsheathed claws. Now you are beyond the range of your opponent's paws and in position to inflict severe wounds. Watch me." 

Thrushwing got into the hunter's crouch and stalked toward a rock at the edge of the clearing before pushing off of the ground with his paws and into the air. He landed on the rock and unsheathed his claws, holding onto the rock as he slashed at it before leaping off again.

Creampaw nodded after Thrushwing turned to look at her. "Got it!" She dropped into the hunter's crouch and slowly approached the rock Thrushwing had used as his opponent. Creampaw gathered all her strength in her legs before pushing off the ground and unsheathing her claws before landing on the rock. Gripping the rock with three paws, she slashed the side of the rock with her paw before leaping off.

"How was that?" She asked, fur ruffled as she looked to her mentor.

"That was very good," Thrushwing praised her. "You're learning quickly."

Creampaw puffed out her chest with pride in herself. She would earn her Clan's respect in no time!

"Do you want to try that move again or learn a different one?" Thrushwing asked her.

"I'll try it again until I perfect it," Creampaw told him, quickly dropping into the hunter's crouch and repeating the move.

*/\*/\*/\*

Before Creampaw knew it, a moon had passed, and she was getting ready to go to her first Gathering as an apprentice. Softkit and Butterflykit had said to tell her everything that would happen at the Gathering. 

Acornstar had just listed the cats who would go to the Gathering and was standing at the camp entrance waiting for them to gather around him. 

Creampaw was standing with Thrushwing, Rainspeck, and Aloeheart. She had begun talking to the, again soon after Rainspeck and Sageflame's fight. Rainspeck and Sageflame's punishment had been to take care of the elders for a quarter-moon, except Creampaw was always out in the training clearing, practicing her fighting moves.

Blizzardspots, Silverleaf, Juniperseed, Ammberstorm, Windycloud, Mistpuddle, Grayleaf, and Beetleflight were also waiting with Creampaw, her mentor, and her parents. Acornstar flicked his tail before leaving the camp at a trot. The others followed at the same pace toward the Gathering place.

"What's the Gathering place look like?" Creampaw asked Thrushwing as she almost tripped over a stone.

"The Gathering place is called the Moon Hollow, and it's a hollow surrounded by trees and bracken." Thrushwing explained to Creampaw as he followed the group of MistClan cats. "It's in the heart of all the territories and anyone can hunt there."

Creampaw nodded, noting all of this for later. "And on the night of the Gathering, Clans aren't allowed to fight, right? Because of the full-moon truce?"

"Correct," Thrushwing purred. "You've been memorizing the code, haven't you?"

"And training!" Creampaw smiled. "Do you think that if I trained hard enough, I could become a warrior early?"

Thrushwing shook his head to this. "Acornstar is too strict to let that slip beneath his paws."

Creampaw and Thrushwing slowed down as the group of MistClan cats stopped outside of the Moon Hollow. Creampaw could scent a bunch of weird smells coming from below them. She started following everyone else as Acornstar led them into the Moon Hollow.

"Wow!" Creampaw gasped as she looked around. There was a big, leafless oak tree at the edge of the Moon Hollow where three other cats sat watching the mingling cats below. Acornstar leapt up the branches to take a seat next to a tortoiseshell-and-white she-cat. There were four cats at the roots of the tree along with a group of four or five cats at one side of the clearing. Creampaw could spot Silverleaf among them and wondered if that was a group of medicine cats.

But all throughout the Moon Hollow there was cats chatting and joking around with each other. There were different scents everywhere and no cat was the same. 

"Creampaw, there's the other apprentices over there," Thrushwing muttered to her, pointing to a small group of cats by the side of the Moon Hollow, opposite of the medicine cats.

Creampaw bounded over to them, smiling and trying to make a good first impression. "Hi!"

The other apprentices turned to look at her, and a golden-brown tom who looked about the same age as Creampaw smiled back. "Hello!" 

Creampaw sat down and curled her tail over her paws. "Um... I'm Creampaw of MistClan," she meowed awkwardly. She wouldn't tell these apprentices about her loner-blood in case they decided to be hostile toward her.

"I'm Sunnypaw of FeatherClan," the golden-brown tom said. "I remember Acornstar announcing your name at the last Gathering. Anyway, Cloudtuft is my mentor. He's over there talking to a ShadeClan cat." Sunnypaw nodded toward a fluffy white tom speaking with a she-cat from ShadeClan.

"My mentor is over there talking to... another cat," Creampaw mewed, pointing toward Thrushwing who was speaking to a glossy furred tom cat.

"Does anyone else want to introduce themselves?" Sunnypaw meowed, looking at the other two apprentices. Then he turned to Creampaw. "There's also Otterpaw, but he's a medicine cat, so he's over there." Sunnypaw looked toward the group of medicine cats.

A brown tabby she-cat looked at Creampaw. "Never mind about Otterpaw and Sunnypaw. I'm Sprucepaw of ShadeClan." Sprucepaw nodded kindly to Creampaw. Creampaw nodded back politely.

"And I'm Mosspaw," a dark gray tom mewed from next to Sprucepaw. The tom had moss behind his ear, and Creampaw guessed he wore it there like her sunflower. Creampaw felt the flower with her paw just to make sure it didn't fall off her head.

"Nice sunflower," Sprucepaw noted.

"Thanks," Creampaw purred. "Is this anyone else's first Gathering? I'm seven moons old but I didn't go to a Gathering when I was six moons old."

Sprucepaw traced a claw through the dirt. "Mosspaw and I are ten moons old, but Gatherings have been pretty boring lately. It's just Cedarstar and Acornstar arguing over Moss Rocks."

"I'm eight moons old," Sunnypaw broke in. "I think Gatherings are fun, but-"

He was cut off by Acornstar's yowl for the Gathering to start. The moon lit up the Moon Hollow, causing cats fur to shimmer in the light. "The Gathering shall begin now!"