"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.

Cheetah sat down in the taller unmowed grass with a deep frown. Caracal settled right next to her. Crescentpaw, too, laid down in the comfort of the screened shade. Clearly no sunlight had touched this grass since the Twolegs had placed the thing. The earth was cool against her belly, while the air was warm and still. Barely a lick of wind made it over the tall ring of unmowed grass surrounding them. Small yellow dandelion weeds were sprouted all around the yard, with a bee or two flying between them. One buzzed over her ears but they did not further bother the cats.

"Alright, we should be safe to head off from here. Now thank you two for helping us, but it's urgent that we get back to our clans. Don't worry about us, either. We would've been having our warrior assessments by now, if we hadn't of missed any training." Tinypaw turned her large eyes and ears towards Cheetah, mouth moving as she talked.

"I'm sure you kittypets are hungry so you can just be on your way back to your Twoleg now-... Oh come on." Tinypaw broke off and rolled her eyes as Cheetah burst into a gasp of emotion, her eyes watering and her neck-fur fluffed with dismay.

"I don't want to leave you guys though! I want to be with my new friends, doing new things and seeing new things and- well, new things! I'm tired of being a pet-kitty that's stuck inside all day. I want to be a warrior like you guys are going to be. We could do it together!" Her mew was shrill and protesting.

"Slow down," Tinypaw interjected, still looking irritated. Crescentpaw could understand her side, but she had hoped her sister could be more sympathetic. She kept quiet while they spoke, no longer fretting over the missed time.

"For starters you'd have to go through a full apprenticeship from start to finish. We, however- are nearly at the very end of ours. And you becoming an apprentice isn't an option anyways!"

"But you can't just leave me behind. I would never leave you guys behind."

"You just met us!" Her jet-black sister snapped. Crescentpaw swept her tail in an arch through the grass impatiently.

Cheetah was clearly stung by the retort, because it took her unusually long to reply. When she did she weakly croaked "Yeah. But I want to go to Riverclan and make more friends, and I want to become best friends with you guys."

"Ugh... Look. Even though you're very naive we do like you, Cheetah," Tinypaw said while looking like she very much didn't, her lip curled condescendingly. Crescentpaw almost rolled her eyes at the lie. Tinypaw has a funny way of showing how she likes somebody.

"It's just that Kittypets can't be warriors. They're like unaccustomed to eating live prey and living outside."

"But I could! I tried a mouse that Caracal killed from down in the basement once. It wasn't that bad." Crescentpaw winced. "And I've slept outside for the past two nights! I don't even mind the fleas or anything."

Oof. Cheetah's replies weren't exactly helping her case.

"But our leader would never accept you two."

The tabby-and-white apprentice sighed, knowing that was true. Smallsparrow must've been named Smallstar by now, and even he wouldn't accept two kittypets into the clan. It was simply in too dire of a state to focus on training two kittypets right now.

"Then I'll talk to the leader myself. I'll make him see that I'm warrior material." Cheetah sounded determined, as Crescentpaw's ears flicked up in astonishment.

"Pfft! You what-You can't!" Tinypaw's flabbergasted stupor was interrupted by Cheetah's squeal. She leaped over the cat's backs beneath the trampoline, rounding back anytime she came close to the coiled overhang. She kept running, clearly exuberant at her own new idea.

"It seems you can't stop her," Crescentpaw grinned, as her argumentative sister shot her a look.

By making that decision Cheetah had reminded her of herself. Who cared what other cats thought? It was time to act, not wait and see.

As Crescentpaw laid there she looked down at her own fluffy white chest-fur. It needed a good grooming again. Far less concerned about this than Tinypaw was, she looked over at Caracal.

"Are you going to join Riverclan, too?"

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Caracal