THE WOODS | one-shot series | first one up!

THE GATHERING

“Get up, sleepyhead! The gathering's tonight --- and it's your first one!”

Crowpaw twitches his ears, trying to hone in to the sound of... of his mentor. He blinks open his eyes, groaning softly, stretching his legs. Deersong stands in front of him, her head right in his face, her bright green eyes almost glowing with pride.

“This'll be your first chance to meet the other medicine cats,” she says, flicking her tail back and forth. She's more excited than he is. All Crowpaw wants to do is sleep. He stayed up really late the night before, sorting herbs. It's not his fault one of the kits knocked over a bunch of poppy seeds... and borage... and yarrow... and... well, there were a lot of herbs that he had to pick up.

He yawns, stretching again, and gets to his feet. “I'm coming, I'm coming,” he says, repeating it like a mantra until she stops bothering him. “I want to go to the gathering as much as the next apprentice.” Not entirely a lie --- he's always wanted to see the Gathering Hill. He presses his paws into the ground, making imprints of his paws in case...

It doesn't matter. He wants to see the Gathering Hill. And his mentor won't shut up until they get there. After all, she's always chattered about the gatherings and how amazing they are. About how you can see cats from all of the other four clans there, meet cats you wouldn't normally meet.

He moves out from inside the medicine cat den --- a hollow tree with enough scalloped sections to put herbs in, and a small puddle of water some long ago medicine cat put a bunch of rocks around to catch the rain in one spot. Sure, there are occasionally times when it drips out from tiny cracks in the rocks. Usually they just deal with it, though.

The entire camp is abuzz –- soon enough there will be a full moon in the sky, hanging there, barely seen through the trees. After all, IvyClan is as forest as it gets. The leaves block most of the sky, and the lower hanging branches are low enough for cats to jump up onto.

“StarClan, I can't wait,” he hears one apprentice say to another. He knows their names, of course --- Owlpaw and Squirrelpaw. He knows everyone's names. That's what medicine cats are supposed to do --- commune with StarClan, save lives, and of course, know everyone's names. Not that IvyClan is too large for him to know everyone's names... Crowpaw just doesn't really care about their names.

Funny that they'd let an apathetic cat with not-so-obvious 'problems' become the medicine cat.

He starts doing his chores, cleans out the elder's den... everything he's supposed to do. The sky starts to get a bit darker, starting at the tips of the sky and starting to slowly, slowly, slowly burn through the rest of the bright blue. They're getting ready to leave, gathering together to start making their way towards BreezeClan territory. They won't be the first Clan there --- leave it to BreezeClan, of course. Followed by StormClan. But they'll be third or fourth.

Deersong appears next to him, almost hitting him with her long tail. She's so tall that everyone jokes she was supposed to be two cats --- long legs and a long tail. There's a reason her parents named her Deerkit, aside from her pale brown pelt.

“You ready?” she asks, the hint of a smile in her voice.

He nods. As ready as he'll ever be. What happens if he trips and falls when they're introducing him? He doesn't care too much about meeting anyone else, but... he doesn't want to seem clumsy or careless or something.

“Let's get going.” he says, and they start the trek.

It's a long trek. He hasn't been to the Starpool yet, but from what little he knows, that's a lot shorter. They walk for what seems like forever. Then, finally, there's a hill in the distance and the sky is dark, the stars are starting to come out, the moon is resting in the sky. It's beautiful, bathing the grass in pale silvery-dark light.

Owlpaw and Squirrelpaw rush up to the hill. He stays behind, staying right with his mentor. There's really no point in going until Deersong does, after all. And she'll rush up any moment, excited to see her medicine cat friends again. And... then she disappears, before he has time to notice.

And he's alone. Great.

He starts towards the hill, trying to find her, his gaze flickering across the large gathering of cats. There are so many, more cats than he'd ever seen in one place. Apprentices, warriors, cats both young and old.

And then, just when he spots Deerson, a cat runs right into him.

“Oh my StarClan! I'm so sorry,” she says, stumbling backwards. She's a pretty tabby she-cat, pale brown with a white-tipped tail, her bright amber eyes fixed on him. “I didn't see you there!”

He's heard that quite a bit.

“Are you okay? I'm Whitepaw.”

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