Featherpaw was lost in her own thoughts as she thought of the gathering. The moon shone through the branches of the trees casting faint shadows. An owl hooted somewhere far away. "Hey, Featherpaw!" Featherpaw was jerked abruptly out of her thoughts as she turned round to see Silverdrop approach her. "I saw you training the other day." She mewed. "You are an amazing fighter!"
"Thanks." Featherpaw scuffled her paws modestly.
"I've seen the way Ashpaw looks at you. He loves you you know." Silverdrop was surveying Featherpaw closely.
"Ashpaw's nice." Featherpaw replied awkwardly.
"You should tresure that." Silverdrop's silver fur, much like Featherpaw's, rippled in the wind.
"I do!" Featherpaw protested.
"I've seen you push him away." She pointed out. "Some of us would love that kind of love in our life."
Featherpaw realized with a jolt that Silverdrop had a crush on Ashpaw. I have to make more time for him. Featherpaw thought firmly. What about Silverdrop? Another voice said. "But...if we become...like." Featherpaw stuttered.
"I just want him to be happy." Silverdrop meowed. "And I would love to see my little sister happy as well." She added with a purr.
A peculiar sense of relief filled Featherpaw. Waaaaait. If I feel relief, doesn't that mean I was jealous? Do I love Ashpaw? Her confused thoughts were cut short as she entered the Three Stones. As usual, Stormstar leaped up, joining the other leaders. There was a pleasant, relaxed feeling over the Three Stones. Blackthorn was sharing tongues with some MapleClan she-cats and mewing, "I'm expecting kits! I'll be moving to the nursery soon."
"Congratulations!" A tortoiseshell mewed exitedly. "Thorntail's?"
Blackthorn nodded. "Yep. He's going to be a great father."
Farther away Snowdust was telling exitedly about how he had chased a rouge off the territory. "I clawed him across the muzzle and he squealed like a kit and ran for his mother."
Gingerheart and a SunClan cat were sitting side by side talking quietly and wistfully. Darksky however, was sitting alone. Seeing as not all the clans had arrived yet, Featherpaw padded over. Darksky had always been a bit scary, when they were kits they had made up stories about her. She hardly ever spoke, she didn't have a mate and snapped at kits who were to loud.
"Greetings Featherpaw." Darksky mewed as Featherpaw approached.
"Hi." Featherpaw sat down next to her.
"How is training going?"
"Fine." Featherpaw answered shortly. "Can I ask you something?" She asked nervously.
"Of course." Darksky curled her black tail across her paws.
"Umm..." Featherpaw struggled with words. "Why don't you have a mate?" The words came out in a tumbled mess.
For a second it looked like Darksky wouldn't answer, anger and misery battled in her deep green eyes. "I loved a cat. And I still do. But he didn't love me back." Darksky sighed. "I was born a rouge. My mother was a rouge called Starless. And my dad...my dad was Stripestar, the old leader of OakClan. When he gave up my mother, her heart broke. She was never the same. All my siblings died because of her lack of care. But she loved us fiercely. Each death broke her more. One day she abandoned me, and that was when Foxshade, or Foxpaw back them, found me." She paused, eyes longing. "Stripestar recognized me, I resembled my mother enormously. He let me join for that reason only."
"You were a rouge?" Featherpaw commented, surprised.
"Yep-" Darksky was cut off by Willowstar's voice echoing around the clearing.
"Prey is running fine in SunClan. We have nothing to report." Willowstar stepped back.
Poppystar stepped forward. "We had a fox build a nest on our territory, but our brave warriors Hawkwhisker, Snowdawn and Nightwind drove it off."
"Psst. Featherpaw!" A voice whispered behind her. Ravenpaw's amber eyes stared out at her from a leafy bust growing bu the stone edge. Featherpaw slipped over and found Sparkpaw and Dewpaw already there.
"Honestly, I don't even know why I'm doing this." Dewpaw scoffed irritably.
"I had a dream." Ravenpaw mewed excitedly.
"You had dream." Dewpaw repeated. "How unusual." She added sarcastically.
"What about?" Featherpaw asked, ignoring Dewpaw.
"Well, I dreamt I was very high up, and surrounded by large endless stones. And, I was running when I found a wing. It looked like an owl's wing." Ravenpaw finished exitedly.
"It sounds like the mountains." Sparkpaw mewed pensively. "I've heard elders tales." He answered their confused looks.
"You don't think we have to go there?" Dewpaw asked, her snotty manner dropped.
"I know!" Featherpaw exclaimed, making the others jump. "You said you found a wing?" She questioned Ravenpaw.
"Yes...?" He replied, looking throughly confused.
"Well there was a wing in the prophecy, wasn't there? A raven's feathered wing?"
"Yes!" A look of dawning comprehension crossed Ravenpaw's face.
"So, the prophecy isn't complete! We must find the wing as well!" Featherpaw mewed enthusiastically.
"And it must live in the mountains!" Ravenpaw finished.
"But...does that mean we have to go to the mountains?" Sparkpaw sounded hesitant.
"Of course." Featherpaw meowed, calmly cleaning a paw.
"But what about our clan? What about becoming warriors?" Sparkpaw protested.
"This is a prophecy from StarClan." Featherpaw hissed. "What don't you get? This is more important that becoming warriors."
"I'm with Featherpaw." Dewpaw mewed unexpectedly. "If we have been chosen, we have to do what the prophecy tells us."
"When do we leave?" Ravenpaw asked.
Featherpaw realized that everybody was looking at her. "I think we should leave at half moon. So we have half a moon to prepare."
"So it's decided, at half moon we meet here to go to the mountains?" Ravenpaw meowed.
"Yep," Dewpaw agreed, putting her dark grey paw in the middle.
"Ok then." Sparkpaw put his ginger paw in. Ravenpaw's black paw joined the others. Featherpaw smiled at her new friends before putting her paw in. "We can do this. I know it."