Caɾղaցe Ɱօօղ ~𝙰 𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚛𝚜 𝙵𝚊𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚌

16 🌙

"And do you remember the last gathering? Windclan said that they were only two paw-fulls of warriors strong. They'd only brought four clan members to the gathering that moon, save for Rainstar and his deputy."

Crescentpaw thoughtfully tilted her head towards Tinypaw as they discussed the last information they'd heard from the other clans. Cheetah listened from just behind. She was tired, though. After nearly three days straight of traversing Twolegplace, her paws were going numb. They'd hardly stopped to sleep either.

"Yes, but the memory is a bit fleeting. It was our first gathering, after all. We only got to attend one before the w-uh...."

"What's a gathering? You haven't told me about those before!" Cheetah piped up in the dual-eyed she-cat's silence, lifting her long spotty tail and sticking her dainty shoulders between them.

Crescentpaw leaned closer to tell her, while Tinypaw huffed at the invasion of space. "They're meetings where all of the five clans gather to share tongues and news. But we've stopped having them lately because- because..." she trailed off and tried to peer ahead, past the ferns and grasses. As if she had gotten distracted.

"What? Because WHAT?" Cheetah sounded super eager to know, and Crescentpaw sighed. She really didn't want to tell her.

Riverclan is so dangerous right now, and we've hardly told Cheetah about the realities of leafbare hunting and clan skirmishes. They'd felt no need to share the starving winters and sicknesses that could ail the clans, and the lack of prey when a random drought or flood occurred.

And we haven't told her anything about the wolves.

Tinypaw saved her. "Look! Look! Up there is the last Twoleg den. It's just some trees and fenced-in pastures beyond. The ones that lead to Horseplace!"

"Oh my Starclan, I'm so glad we can sleep under the stars tonight instead of under a dead Monster!" Crescentpaw's tail quivered with excitement. She missed having wild foilage to roam. She missed running beside clumps of fern and cattails, speeding along Riverclan's pebbly shore beds toward camp with a fish in her jaws. She even missed Aquasplash, her mentor. The cloudy grey sky seemed all the brighter up above.

But... my claws. With her fur now flushed, she squared her shoulders and stalked forward.

Tinypaw was right. Beyond the house they were about to overtake stood a small fenced-in cattle pasture lined with barbed wire. Beyond even that, a cluster of trees sloped sharply down into a lush prairie. As the trees tapered off the grass glowed golden-green and swayed against strong gusts of wind. Areas were squared off with large rectangles of low wooden fence, some containing dot-sized herds of cows with their heads bent to graze. And super far in the distance; but still visible to the cat's eye, was the distinct right-angled pastures of the Horseplace barriers. The lake was a blobby blue reflection of the sky above, barely a smear and distorted against the hazy horizon.

"Yes! Let's go. If we pick up the pace we could make it over halfway there by sunfall!" She bent her legs with anticipation, then straightened. Crescentpaw looked around, nodding at the two kittypets that stood awkwardly behind them.

"Let's cross the Thunderpath and make it to that Twoleg's back grass-patch, and then we'll say goodbye."

As they made their way over there, pausing for monsters along the way, the apprentices could tell that Cheetah was feeling dismal. Her ears flattened and she dragged her paws, hardly looking up as they crossed the path and then slunk around the house. Crescentpaw guided them past the cement back porch and underneath a giant metal ring. She had no way of knowing its name but it was a child's trampoline.