Warriors: Storm Clouds

Chapter Sixteen

"The days in ThunderClan have been cold, snowy, and nearly preyless."

That about sums it up, Brookpaw thought. She continued to watch as Hawkstar addressed the clans. The Gathering had come up again, and it was Amberpaw's first. Currently he was pressed up against her, trying to keep warm.

It was awfully cold out, and like Hawkstar had said, it had been this way for days now. Snow was falling almost every other day, and prey had become scarcer and scarcer. The ThunderClan cats were scared for a repeat of the previous leaf-bare, when the clan had nearly starved.

"We've also had signs of rogues around our borders, and have been increasing patrols to help keep them away," Hawkstar continued, "and we have two new warriors. Leafstorm and Berryfang."

"Leafstorm! Berryfang!" For whatever reason, the ShadowClan cats seemed to be yowling the two she-cats names nearly as loud as ThunderClan was. Berryfang, of course, looked proud and smug, as usual. She'd held her head high as the cats cheered her name, taking it all in and converting it into a huge smirk.

"And we have one new apprentice; Amberpaw."

The cheering wasn't as loud, but it was loud enough for Amberpaw to duck his head in embarrassment.

Finished, Hawkstar dipped his head to Copperstar, who stepped forward to babble on about how ShadowClan was doing well despite the bad weather.

"Hey."

Brookpaw turned her head and saw Breezepaw behind her, grinning. She smiled and gave the orange tabby an I'll talk with you later look. Breezepaw nodded and looked up to watch her leader.

"We've encountered a few more rogues than usual along one of our borders," Copperstar meowed, "but Redface lead a successful patrol to deal with them, and I dare say they won't be coming back anytime soon."

Brookpaw looked up at the scar-faced ShadowClan deputy, wondering not for the first time why he looked so familiar.

Copperstar had been the last leader to speak, so as he finished his speech the cats disbanded and began to chat and socialize with each other.

Breezepaw pranced up to her, grinning. "What's up? I heard you've been taking down RiverClan warriors."

Brookpaw's eyes narrowed at her friend. "I didn't try to kill her."

"No, I didn't mean it like that!" The orange tabby looked around, as if checking to see if anybody was watching them. "In fact, it's probably a good thing you took her out. Willowlight was messed up."

"How did you know?"

"I saw her at my first gathering. She interrupted Crowstar mid-speech and tried to tell us all that RiverClan would shred anyone who crossed over their borders. I think she thought that having her brother as a clan leader gave her some sort of right to command other cats around. Finally some gray RiverClan tom got her to shut up, but sat you could probably guess, things were a little awkward after that."

Brookpaw grimaced. "I bet." Her thoughts went back to the words gray RiverClan tom. Could that be Slywhisker? Was he here tonight? Almost subconsciously she began glancing around at the other cats, looking for a pair of silvery eyes.

"If you're looking for your friend," Breezepaw meowed, "he's right over there." She gestured at Amberpaw, who was chatting with the RiverClan apprentice who'd been looking after Crowstar's kits the day before she got pushed in the river, Violetpaw. "And don't try to deny it, I saw you two leaning on each other while the leaders were talking."