ThunderClan made their way past WindClan territory to the island, where the other Clans would be waiting for the Gathering. Wolfpaw sent a concerned glance to the barn that separated WindClan from RiverClan. A ShadowClan she-cat named Mimi used to live there with her family, but the ShadowClan leader, Marshstar took her away and made her his mate. Their son was Snarlpaw, an ambitious and mean spirited apprentice. He and Wolfpaw couldn't get along, not even at Gatherings.

Mimi's kin sat at the entrance to the barn, just as they always did on the night of the full moon. The tom, who looked like Mimi, glared at the cats, who passed by. Wolfpaw wanted to ask the tom what he could do to ease the barn cats minds. All they wanted was Mimi back. Did they even know about Snarlpaw?

"Glaregaze," Wolfpaw went up to his mentor, "I need to make dirt, can I go take care of it and go to the island alone?"

The dark grey warrior looked down at his apprentice, then to the Clan that passed by. "Bring Sparrowwing, or Bramblestripe with you, I don't want you all alone out here, especially with those loners." Glaregaze growled, shooting a glare at the barn before following ThunderClan.

Wolfpaw looked around for his friends, but only Littlestone and Brackenfoot walked by. Wolfpaw was too shy to ask them. They were much older and they never played with the kits. He desperately wanted to talk to the cats in the barn though. Cavernheart was falling behind, his head low and tired eyes. The young warrior had been on dawn patrol and was going to have to go again after the Gathering.

With a sigh, Wolfpaw went and walked up to the brown warrior. "Cavernheart," Wolfpaw mewed. Cavernheart lifted his head. "I need to make dirt and Glaregaze doesn't want me to go alone. Will you wait for me until I get back?"

"Wolfpaw, I'll go wait for you by that fence!" Cavernheart stood. "I can barely stand anymore! I'm tired!" The warrior made his way to the fence and lied down, wrapping his tail around to his nose. Wolfpaw trotted off toward the back of the barn.

He looked for a way in, a hole, a window, anything. Wolfpaw needed to get inside to speak to the barn cats. He saw an opening too high to jump up and climb in. Cavernheart could probably help Wolfpaw reach it, but there was no way Wolfpaw was going to tell the warrior what he was planning.

Wait, Wolfpaw suddenly had a thought, I have the power of all the Clans! SkyClan can jump the highest out of all of us! Wolfpaw concentrated hard on how the SkyClan cats could jump. He lowered himself, until his chest touched the ground and raised his haunches, his tail high. He pushed off and pounced up to the opening. He dug his claws to the bottom and hung on for dear life. Not daring to look down, Wolfpaw pulled himself up until his feet started hitting the side. He jumped down from the entrance and found himself in darkness.

"What was that?" a voice whispered.

"What?" another voice responded.

"I thought I heard something." the other voice answered.

"Furrow, open the light door entrance." a different voice ordered.

Wolfpaw heard thumping moving up the wall and suddenly the light of the moon shone down on him. A white tom with black stripes glared down at Wolfpaw with amber eyes.

"It's a Clan cat!" The tom hissed, jumping down and landing in front of the other barn cats.

"He's too small to be those filthy savages!" a beautiful tortoise-shell she-cat snarled moving closer to Wolfpaw, who pressed himself close to the wall.

"He's probably a kit!" a sandy tom growled moving with her.

"Let's hold him hostage and see what the Clan cats give us!" The white tom purred.

"Wait! Wait!" Wolfpaw begged. "I have news about Mimi! I remember you two! I met you in the tunnels at the Twoleg nest! You asked me about Mimi! Your friend, who was taken by the ShadowClan cat!"

"Hold it!" The black tom jumped between his denmates. He turned back to Wolfpaw with harsh green eyes. "What about Mimi?"

"She's fine, she's fine," Wolfpaw cowered, "the tom who took her, Marshstar, is making sure she doesn't get hurt, he's taken her in as his mate, not too long ago we were about to get in a battle because his Clan stole one of our queens, Mimi threatened to leave him if he didn't let her go... He didn't argue, he let our cat go and left in peace!"

"He's lying!" The tortoise shell snapped. "Mimi would just leave! She belongs here, there's nothing out in those woods for her!"

"No... She... She does have a reason for staying..." Wolfpaw lowered his head.

"And what is that?" The black tom growled.

"Mimi is Marshstar's mate... And they had a kit... His name is Snarlpaw..." Wolfpaw explained, not surprised by their shocked and hurt looks. "She doesn't want to leave him for her sake, he wants to be a warrior for ShadowClan and Mimi wants to see him become just that!"

"That can't be..." the black tom lowered his ears.

"Wolfpaw, are you in here?" Cavernheart's voice growled from the barn entrance. "If you are, you're in big troub-" the brown tabby stopped when he saw the barn cats and bared his teeth. "Let him go, or I'll shred you all to bits!"

"You want him?" The sandy tom snarled, stepping up behind Wolfpaw and shoving him violently over to his Clanmate. "Take him! You're all a bunch of flea redden thieves!"

"How dare you?" Cavernheart spat, stepping up to stand over Wolfpaw. "You loners steal our prey! You don't like us, you can just get lost!"

"We're not going anywhere!" The tortoise-shell she-cat snarled. "You get lost!"

"That's enough, Belle," the black tom flicked his tail, "get lost, go to your meeting, or whatever you call it!"

"But, Marcus," the white and black cat, lowered his ears, "what about Mimi?"

"We'll figure something else out! Let them go!" The black tom turned on his denmate, baring his teeth.

"You heard him!" Belle growled, turning to walk away. "Get lost before he changes his mind."

"Come on, Wolfpaw," Cavernheart started heading for the barn entrance, "we're not thieves and we don't have fleas!" The warrior scratched the back of his ear with his leg before walking outside. Wolfpaw looked at the loners before turning and following his Clanmate out.

They made it to the island and began making their way to the clearing.

"Cavernheart, wait," Wolfpaw stopped. The tabby turned and looked at Wolfpaw. "Please, don't tell anyone, those cats would have probably attacked one of us if we were alone, they're just worried about Mimi."

"Mimi? The ShadowClan cat?" Cavernheart looked at Wolfpaw with a tilted head.

"Yes, she used to live in the barn before Marshstar took her away." Wolfpaw explained.

"How do you know that?" Cavernheart's eyes turned suspicious.

"When I was trapped in the caves that she-cat and the sandy tom told me about her and they wanted me to tell them if she was alright." Wolfpaw lied. He had received a sign from StarClan that told him what happened to Mimi when the two cats asked him if she was happy. They still didn't seem to believe him.

"Whatever the case, you shouldn't get involved," Cavernheart stood, "ShadowClan and those farm cats are none of your business, I won't tell anyone, but don't get involved with them, or I'll have no choice but to tell Adderstar." the cat made his way to the clearing with Wolfpaw following behind.

The Clans were gathered, but the leaders hadn't called the Gathering to begin. The moon was nearing its peak, the leaders would have to start soon.

Cavernheart went to his sister, Littlestone, and denmate, Brackenfoot. Bramblestripe and Sparrowwing were speaking to some SkyClan cats while Hazeleyes spoke to a WindClan cat. Halfmoon and Lightpelt were near where the other medicine cats were. Harmonypaw, the RiverClan medicine cat apprentice, was sitting silently next to her mentor, Rollingrock. The grey black she-cat looked concerned. Her head was down and the look in her blind eyes was unreadable.

Wolfpaw turned to where the apprentices were sitting. Silverpaw, from RiverClan and Harmonypaw's sister, was speaking to SkyClan apprentice, Bravepaw. Acepaw, from WindClan, was telling, what looked like an interesting story to his brother, Loosepaw, Snarlpaw, and Poundpaw. Meadowpaw was speaking to other SkyClan apprentices while grooming herself.

Wolfpaw made his way to the cats and went straight for Acepaw. Silverpaw and Bravepaw gave off something that made Wolfpaw cautious.

"Hey, Wolfpaw!" Acepaw greeted the ThunderClan cat. "Where were you?"

"I was off making dirt," Wolfpaw lied, "I didn't need to go when we left."

"Then hold it in next time!" Snarlpaw snapped.

"But, I couldn't!" Wolfpaw shot back.

"Let the Gathering begin," Ramstar called out from a banch on the Great Oak. The other leaders left their deputies and climbed up on to their individual branches and looked down at the gathered cats. "Who will go first?" The SkyClan leader asked.

"I will," Cloudstar, the WindClan leader, spoke, "WindClan has new apprentices, Flarepaw, Leafpaw, and Sootpaw!"

The new WindClan apprentices puffed out their chests proudly next to Loosepaw. There were only two of the three Cloudstar had announced. The other was probably back in camp with Beepaw.

"There have also been signs of wolves in our territory," Cloudstar went on, "we haven't spotted any, but they have been scaring prey off, if anyone spots one we ask you try chasing it off, we have an expecting queen and the kits we have need prey along with our elders. Snowtail is the queen and she is expecting Swishtail's kits." the white tom finished, sitting down. The deputies gave the WindClan deputy their congratulations before Ramstar stepped up.

"SkyClan has met these wolves, Cloudstar," light grey leader announced, "we were able to chase them away, thanks to Bravepaw. This young apprentice came to camp and told us they were in our territory and gathered a patrol to chase them out. There may be a new warrior coming to SkyClan soon."

Bravepaw flicked his tail and puffed his chest out as warriors praised him.

"We have also received two new kits to our Clan," Ramstar continued after the praise died down, "Milkyfur has given birth to my daughters, Freekit and Starlingkit."

The new queen purred as the others gave her purrs of encouragement. Wolfpaw noticed Bravepaw whisper something to Antpaw, a RiverClan apprentice.

Ramstar sat and looked to the other leaders, waiting to see who'd go next. "RiverClan has three new apprentices: Calmpaw, Mistpaw, Whitepaw, and Cavepaw!" Minnowstar called out.

The clearing called out the new apprentices as they puffed their chests out, or lowered their heads with embarrassment.

"Prey is running well in the lake and it seems new leaf will be easy hunting." Minnowstar finished before lying down.

"ShadowClan has some interesting news to give," Marshstar purred standing up, "first of all, we have two new apprentices: Fogpaw and Muggypaw." very little cats called the new apprentices names then complete silence spread across the clearing. "Darkvines has shared something very dark with me. He says that the water is rising and that a flood is just on the horizon. He says the Clans should prepare themselves. Has any other medicine cat received signs like these?"

Wolfpaw turned and looked at the medicine cats. They shared looks and glanced at Darkvines. Rollingrock whispered something to Harmonypaw and Lightpelt looked to Halfmoon for answers. The white she-cat just stared up at Marshstar and Adderstar.

Whispers of distress were spread across the clearing and Glaregaze looked toward ThunderClan with worry.

"Maybe he read the signs wrong, but ShadowClan won't take risks," Marshstar shrugged, "we will move camp to higher ground until we are sure their is no flood. Flowesun is expecting Iceheart's kits. That is all." the dark brown leader sat down and looked to Adderstar.

"ThunderClan has been blessed with three new kits," Adderstar began. Glaregaze immediately turned back to the Great Oak. "Poppystream has given birth to Featherkit, Frostkit, and Snowkit. There is nothing else to announce, prey is returning and it looks like StarClan smiles on this upcoming new leaf."

"Is that all?" Ramstar looked to the other leaders. They all nodded. "Very well, then this Gathering is over." the SkyClan leader jumped down from the tree and headed over to speak to his deputy.

Adderstar jumped down and went to Hazeleyes, Sparrowwing, and Bramblestripe. Marshstar went to Mimi, who walked away from the other Clan she-cats. Snarlpaw got up and trotted over to his parents, who greeted him. Cloudstar flicked his tail and headed out the island. Acepaw said his goodbye and ran off with Loosepaw. Silverpaw pressed against Wolfpaw as she passed and followed her Clan out. Harmonypaw glanced to him with sorry eyes before disappearing in to the forest.

Wolfpaw wished he could find a way to clear every cats mind. But, something about the wolves made the silver apprentice Shiver with fear.