Hermitclan's Stories (A Hermitcraft x Warrior Cats AU)

(Short) Matching

CCs used:

Xisuma=Doomstar
Zedaph=Goattail
Tango=Tangoflame
Impulse=Imppulse

Any other characters mentioned are OCs.

It was almost a shame that their warrior ceremony was a quarter moon and a bit after a Gathering, because it meant that they had to wait more than half a moon before Doomstar could bring them to one. Quite a few cats went alongside them, but with their new warrior names in tow, Goattail, Tangoflame, and Imppulse were somewhat like the stars of the sky.

They could already hear chatter as they walked up, all of the clans now at the Gathering as HermitClan took their spot. Goattail stared for a moment at his leader on the highrock, and he thought it to be somewhat uncharacteristic for him. Doomstar, the leader that made his clan feel like equals, sitting far above them because of his status. But Goattail knew it was just harmless tradition, nothing more, so he started to look around at the cats on his level instead.

Most of the Hermits were already speaking and playing about with the other cats, waiting for the ceremony to start, but Goattail felt a bit too uncomfortable with speaking to strangers right off the bat, so he stuck around his close friends and hoped someone else would start an interaction if nothing else. Sure enough, eventually a fluffy, yellow and grey she-cat with flowers littering her tail approached him. Along with the obvious scent of flowers, Goattail could also catch a mineral-filled and earthy scent, which, from what he was told, was a sign that she was from StoneClan.

"Hello there!" She greeted, her voice bright but not too bubbly, like age had slowed her down but had no effect on her overall kindness. "I heard around that HermitClan had gained some new warriors. You must be one of them, right?"

"Yes, I am!" The tan-pelted cat said. "I'm Goattail, by the way,"

"And I'm Sunflower," she greeted back. "Here, I haven't been able to give one of these to a HermitClan warrior before."

Sunflower gently took a purple flower from her tail and placed it behind Goattail's ear. "From catmint," she explained.

"O-oh, thank you!" Goattail said. Before their conversation could continue, the leaders called for the Gathering to begin, and Goattail sat back by his peers as did Sunflower.

As the event went on though, the tan pelt found it harder to focus on the leaders speaking. He didn't mind the flower at all, he quite liked it actually, but there was still that little voice in the back of his head telling him it was too she-cat-like. That he already looked too much like a she-cat, and the flower wasn't helping. It would be rude of him to not accept a gift, but what if Sunflower only gave it to him because she thought he was a she-cat? He stood high and proud as Doomstar announced the clans newest trio of warriors, but the sinking feeling in his chest made him feel anything but.

Goattail was so lost in his self-depricating thoughts that he didn't notice Tangoflame and Imppulse slipping away for a moment after the Gathering was disbanded for the moon. By the time he did realize, before he could start telling himself that they just went to the front of the crowd without him, they both came bounding back to him from where StoneClan was taking their leave.

And they came back beaming with pride and bright flowers behind their ears.

"Tangoflame wanted us to match," Imppulse explained as they caught up and walked with their clan. The green flower on him had a striking resemblance to his green eyes.

"No, you were the one who wanted to match," Tangoflame argued, fixing his own red flower so it wouldn't fall off, "I just wanted to have a cool flower!"

The thoughts Goattail had before seemed to fade away as he laughed with his friends. They always managed to make him feel at ease in the most ridiculous way possible, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

The flower didn't seem so bad when other toms could have one too.