Show us the Light (Med Cat Gathering)

[Silvercloud]

Stars glittered overhead, shedding their frosty light upon the Earth. The sky was clear and a large half moon was beginning its ascend into the night sky. No clouds could be seen against the velvet black sky. The meeting would commence as planned. A large grin lit up her face and her Caribbean eyes danced like the stars.

A pleasant breeze turned the tall grass into a sea of green. The weather was perfect and the air smelled fresh and clean. What a glorious night it was turning out to be.

Minnowpaw gazed in aw of the wondrous sights her eyes meet as the lake came into view and RiverClan territory disappeared behind them. The WindClan grass seemed to wave in welcome and the lake sparkled like dew on the morning leaves.

The waters lapped peacefully against the pebbly shore, making a pleasant and soothing sound. The dark indigo and navy water was beckoning to her, begging her to take a dip. The young apprentice padded to the edge and looked around. In her excitement she must have left her mentor behind. Guilt crept over her and she felt sorry for Streamheart. Ah well her mentor would catch up besides, now was her chance to play in the lake without being reprimanded for it.

Minnowpaw let out a small cry of shock as the frigid water splashed over her limbs and paws. She hadn't excepted for the water to be cold. As the initial wave of shock passed she sighed contently and danced in the water. Like a kit playing in it's first snow she bounded through the water happily.

The water felt refreshing and the pebbles felt good under paw. Perhaps one night she could convince Falconpaw, Tigerpaw, and Twigpaw to come out here and with in the water with her. She could keep them safe from any patrol, she was a medicine cat and had the right to safe passage. Not only that but if they stayed at least 3 tail lenghts close to the shore they were fine.

Speaking of Tigerpaw. Minnowpaw stopped her play and sloshed out of the water, completely soaked. How was she going to explain this? Hope no other cat was there at the Moonpool and say she fell in? She highly doubted that any cat would believe it.

Minnowpaw's face grew sombre as she reflected upon their conversation last night and her fears returned. What would StarClan show her tonight? Would she meet Tigerpaw's siblings? Contemplating these thoughts and others the little calico trudged onward with a sense of dread.

[c e d a r *]

The pale orb in the sky wasn't full, not yet anyways. Still quite a way to go. Cedarclaw smiled as she relied on her senses to get her to the Moonpool safely. The starts were bright on the cloudless night. They offered no protection from the chilly wind that swept through the forest but they were still there. They were protecting her somehow. Blue eyes shone slightly, almost nervously as her large paws came across the same worn path. It seemed so long ago when she was made the medicine cat of ThunderClan -- but oh, she supposed it was quite a long time ago.

The she-cat twisted her crown around so to make sure her apprentice -- Mudpaw was following her. She smiled, wondering what the she-cat was thinking. She had a long way before she became the true medicine cat of ThunderClan but she was becoming better with every task the medicine cat had to deal with in daily life. Cedarclaw had no doubts that the she-cat would make a great medicine cat, thank StarClan. She would do fine and for once she hadn't worried about one thing on this trip to the Moonpool. She was completely at peace.

Looking up to the velvety black skies overhead Cedarclaw couldn't help but smile again. Oh the thoughts that blazed through her mind. She wondered if something special would happen to any of the cats. She remembered their last visit to the Moonpool where Mudpaw had actually seen a StarClan cat, oh how surprising. It made Cedarclaw's insides radiate with joy. They had chosen her apprentice and how happy it made the fluffy pearl and grey she-cat. Her feathered tail flicked back and forth as her mind wandered aimlessly through thoughts that were more or less not about much importance.

Slinking through the trees Cedarclaw realized that the clearing where that glittering pool would soon be lay quite close to them. She was -- correction -- they were almost there. She still wasn't used to having an apprentice tagging along. The thought that she had Mudpaw was actually a much bigger comfort than many would assume. The she-cat loved having Mudpaw with her. She was a great help for the medicine cat. An asset. Someone she loved to talk to and could talk to. Don't start assuming Cedarclaw never talks to anyone else though, she does. But Mudpaw was different. Mudpaw was her apprentice. She taught Mudpaw. She was friends with her apprentice. Or she thought she was, wasn't she?

All of the rejection of becoming a medicine cat apprentice was probably gone from Mudpaw. Cedarclaw dearly hoped it was. She tried her hardest to let the she-cat into the life of a medicine cat carefully. Really, all that was left for Mudpaw to learn was battle-training which she hoped would be fun for the both of them. She never doubted battle training. It took concentration and endurance but oh, was it fun! She remembered being taught her moves to escape from a fox or a rude warrior who just happened to want the medicine cat dead. How fun.

Finally they were there. The she-cat sighed with comfort as she saw the starts reflection glittering on the surface of the Moonpool. There was large ripples in the shallow pool and that was when Cedarclaw noted there was another cat in the clearing. She thought she was the first but no, another cat was there. Who was it, though? A new medicine cat, possibly? An apprentice? Cedarclaw didn't recognize the face and felt utterly terrible for not being able to recognize it. Maybe it was alright though, maybe this cat didn't know her either. If she knew her name, Cedarclaw was stumped.

"Oh, hello there," came the soft voice from Cedarclaw. Like muted bells, she assumed. Her voice had a calming affect on it sometimes. She could change her tone like most cats and she wanted her tone to be gentle, soft, and calm. She was calm right now, yes, but she wasn't sure. If this cat replied with an 'Oh, hello there Cedarclaw,' the medicine cat wouldn't know what to say. Maybe Mudpaw had some sort of idea who this she-cat was? Maybe, maybe not. Cedarclaw swallowed and sat down near the edge of the Moonpool.

Tilting her head to the side, Cedarclaw noticed there was something glittering on the cat's fur. Water? It hadn't rained lately and the ground was completely dry. Did she fall into the Moonpool? The thought made Cedarclaw want to giggle, but she kept a curious and inquiring look to her face. A small smile but nothing too large and nothing to unfriendly. No scowl, definitely not. This cat was a mystery. Had she seen this apprentice before? She worried and bit down on her lip. Hopefully not.

[Silvercloud]

Minnowpaw was lost in thought going over the recent events and trying to figure out the road ahead. Her results were fruitless and she abandoned the task. With excellent timing another cat had descended the spiral path to the Moonpool and was calling out a soft greeting.

The calico apprentice turned her head and gazed at the she-cat with blue eyes, her mind scrambled for a name, with little luck. This cat was petite with large paws, perhaps she was an apprentice from...Minnowpaw paused and sniffed at the air. ThunderClan. So it was somethingpaw....curse her short attention span! She should have been paying more attention when Streamheart talked about the other medicine cats.

Why was the she-cat smiling. Then it dawned on her it must look like she had fallen in. She was only going to use that excuse for her mentor. Minnowpaw averted th other cerulean gaze and looked at the shinning rippling water of the water below. Rippling? She glanced and and saw her tail sitting in the frigid water.

Hastily she whipped it out and sent droplets every where. So much of a first impression. Yes she was the clumsy RiverClan medicine cat apprentice, what a title. Would Streamheart be embarrassed and ashamed? Shame burned her sodden fur.
A cold shiver raced down her spine as the wind blow against her wet and in some places damp fur. The wind was getting colder with out the sun around. Great all she needed now was to get sick. What a lousy medicine cat she was going to make.


Well she could sit her all night and belittle herself, it was rude of her to not at least return the greeting. Minnowpaw cleared her mind and let her energy return, the wind didn't seem as cold now.

"Hi there, you're from ThunderClan right? I'm Minnowpaw!" Minnowpaw mewed happily.

[target]

A gloomy calico figure padded out from the shadows. Her dark hues made it look as if she had holes in her form as she walked across the black landscape. Her white specs made her look as if she were ghostly, they matched her white patches as well and her orange spots only made her stand out like a normal cat. Normal, for anyone else. By now, Tacticpaw had become quite blind. She was no longer able to see anything at all. The blurry visions of the half, convenient truth were completely gone- never to be seen again. There was no light, there was no dark. Tacticpaw didn’t even see shadows anymore. Her pale blue eyes had turned white, only a diluted silver pupil was easily visible and a pale blue ring could have been if it were a bright day and you were staring straight at her eyes. She was born that way, it wasn’t her fault, and she didn’t care either. She had grown out of the silly little sulking phase. Her mentor had pushed it out of her. She didn’t think that it was a burden to be blind because as she lost her vision, her other senses became greater. Her hearing, for one, had become quite a spectacular thing to rely on. She decided that being blind was the same thing as seeing things… you couldn’t trust your eyes in the real world, so just remove the tempting factor of vision and you never would be able to fall for the lies that your eyes could put you through.

She listened for a few yards as she determined her plan to escape from the gloomy, muddy, swamp she called home. Once she heard nothing but a chirp of a cricket, she walked forward. Her movements were not completely slow, but they were not fast. She couldn’t be fast anyway. She was trying her best to avoid her mentor and get out before him. She hadn’t seen the red-pelted sir lately, and she didn’t want to hear his voice now. She knew that if she couldn’t even hear herself, he couldn’t hear her from wherever he was. She also couldn’t smell him- but she wasn’t sure if she could rely on her sense of smell yet or not… she was still practicing with the other senses. She shuffled her feet as silently as she could, and came to a mucky log. She stepped up and over it with ease. The many times she’d come out of that camp, she knew the rest of the way was filled with low lying branches… but she also knew that she could move quickly and get through with ease if she ducked her head low.

And so she did.

The she cat made a break for it as soon as her muddy paws were on solid land… there was a little stream ahead, but she could jump that… The sounds of the stream were getting closer and it filled her heart with joy that she could hear it and possibly jump far over it before she had to worry. Tacticpaw, however, was not the greatest of jumpers, horizontally anyway. Her short stubby legs made her the height of a six month old apprentice, even though she was nearing her twelfth moon. She hobbled along as fast as she could until the roaring of the tiny little stream got closer. She shuffled her feet forward until the tips teetered over the shallow, muddily banked edge. There, she took the largest leap she possibly could, and it seemed she’d overestimated the river’s width. She did not underestimate her jumping abilities though… for she thought that at the rate she was jumping, her tail would brush the bank. She trotted forward until the scents of two other cats caught her nose.

Thunder and… RiverClan? She nodded to herself, one of them was an apprentice, younger than herself, but an apprentice none the less. She half smiled to herself, but reminded herself that if the others saw her smiling, the wretched name of ShadowClan would be cleaned and that could not happen again. She took another whiff and then walked slowly, a scowl- that had made itself permanent on her face- was plastered to her lips and made her eyes hang low. As she walked as slyly as possible, she made sure that her sensitive ears could hear what they were saying.

Minnowpaw. She heard the she-cats name and grunted quietly as she came forward. She stepped through the bushes into the clearing that bordered the entrance where she and Darksoul usually entered. “Hi Cedarclaw, Mudpaw,” she addressed quickly. Mudpaw had been the only ‘kind’ cat to Tacticpaw, and it was when the two of them had first started out. Sure, the other’s weren’t mean, but they all attempted to stay far away from the she-cat because one she was a shadowclanner, two she had a horrible disposition, three she was blind, or four that she had a broken leg that never healed properly.

Recently, however, Darksoul had given her the okay to take the cobwebs off. The other seasoned medicine cats would find that as a shock. Tacticpaw always chewed at the itchy cobwebs and ran around so much that her wound would keep opening up again. It was so server and she wouldn’t let it be… she was sure that they were all afraid that she was going to bleed to death before she ever became a medicine cat. She chuckled quickly to herself as she shook the very same leg. It was still twisted, but she’d since learned how to properly walk on such a mangled leg, it hardly even effected her any longer.

“and… Minnowpaw,” she said almost eerily. If this she-cat wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box, she may not have understood how Tacticpaw had heard her name from so far away… she may not have understood that Tacticpaw was blind… it didn’t matter anymore. Now, all of ShadowClan finally knew that their medicine cat apprentice was blind, and it didn’t bother Tacticpaw if this new she-cat knew or didn’t. She wasn’t going to announce it to the world, but she wouldn’t give the cat a harsh beating for mentioning it. “Shouldn’t you have left camp with your ment-“ Tacticpaw shut her mouth quickly, she’d done the same. But Tacticpaw’s relationship with Darksoul was much different. It wasn’t all mentor-apprentice love. It was more like a cold shoulder given between two stubborn cats. Darksoul wasn’t as nice as Tacticpaw was on the inside, but Tacticpaw was just as mean whenever she was around him. It felt good to finally step back and have a nice time without him… for once.

[Silvercloud]

Minnowpaw's ears flicked forward and twisted toward the sound of a new cat's approach from the bushes. A pretty calico with dapples stepped into the silver light, a scowl plastered and engraved upon her features. Her her bright melon nose told her that this dark calico was from ShadowClan.

Why the anger, had something happened? This was supposed to be a fun event, after all they were going to share tongues with StarClan! "Why the anger stranger? Rejoice and be glad for tonight StarClan has blessed us with a night of beauty and with their presence." Minnowpaw looked at the Warriors of Silverpelt and felt a cold shiver race down her spine, making her hair stand up. Would StarClan show her anything of events yet to pass? Suddenly she didn't believe in her own words, only a sense of dread.

This calico had little white on her unlike herself. She held her head low, making it impossible for her to determine an eye color. She looked older than her, but still an apprentice. One of her legs was horribly mangled and her curiosity begged her to ask the question, 'what happened'. Minnowpaw's minded raced back toward Tigerpaw and their half-moon meeting last night. Her curiosity caused Tigerpaw to snap and she didn't feel like having her head bitten off a second time. Not only that these cats would think her a fool for not knowing, none of the other cats seemed to notice.

Minnowpaw had nothing to say to the apprentice and quilt swept over her, she had raced on ahead of Streamheart. Her mentor should be here any minute now, unless something happened. Shame burned her fur like fire and she let her tail droop. What a terrible apprentice she was.

[c e d a r *]

So more of them were coming, yes? The she-cat seemed to be the only medicine cat there for right now. Why in the world were all of their apprentices arriving without their mentors? Didn't they know never to leave the camp without supervision? She she-cat frowned for one moment before putting on a smile. "Why hello there Minnowpaw, congratulations on becoming the medicine cat apprentice for RiverClan," she meowed, dipping her head slightly to show a fair amount of respect. She would one day become a medicine cat, but she still had a lot to learn. Cedarclaw knew that RiverClan cats loved water, but hopefully she accidentally slipped into the pool because she had never really heard of nay other cat going for a swim in the shallow pool. Was it disrespectful? She didn't know and she didn't really feel the need to know. "Do either of you know where your mentors are currently?" the medicine cat asked, curling her feathered tail around her paws. She wanted every cat to be present at this meeting and she felt these apprentices slipped out of camp without even letting their mentors know they were leaving.

There was one other question she wanted to ask Minnowpaw, but maybe later. How did the she-cat manage to find the Moonpool without her mentor present? Maybe Streamheart was sick and she told her apprentice where to go? And Cedarclaw didn't feel like questioning Tacticpaw. It was ShadowClan after all, and the apprentice knew where the Moonpool was from previous experience. Maybe Darksoul was busy. Oh, but then there was the other question of Berrypelt and Pigeonpaw. Where were those two? WindClan had been late for the previous meetings. Was something the matter in the clan? Maybe she should go check if they didn't arrive within the next few minutes. Everyone knew it was the half moon, didn't they? Cedarclaw stopped questioning her thoughts and let her mind flow peacefully. She put a smile on her face and looked over the three apprentices.

The older of the three, Tacticpaw.

Although she was blind -- she didn't feel sorry for her. She felt proud that the apprentice had made her way to the Moonpool by herself. Mudpaw had attempted to be kind to the apprentice and hopefully she would stay that way, but who knew? "Good evening Tacticpaw," Cedarclaw purred with a smile. There was no use being rude to an apprentice who was blind. She lived by her mothers words, Be kind to all, no matter what they show toward you.' She lived by that motto every day, no matter if the cat sapt at her or said hello in a friendly tone, she would try to never feel afflicted by harsh words of other cats.

The newest apprentice, Minnowpaw.

She didn't strike the medicine cat as a sad cat. The opposite, rather. Cedarclaw watched the apprentice carefully and noted how her tail fell slightly. Maybe something was the matter? Her earlier words made Cedarclaw want to laugh out loud. The she-cat seemed quite optimistic. She would try to keep a friendly disposition toward her and if things changed, her attitude may change a little later. Maybe Mudpaw would make friends with Minnowpaw just as she had done with Tacticpaw. For now she would be careful around the friendly apprentice, and try to learn a little more about her personality.

"Well, we'll just wait a few more minutes for your mentors arrive. Along with Berrypelt and Pigeonpaw," Cedarclaw meowed. She wouldn't lie, she was worried but it was the half moon and she would have to go on and dream without them if they didn't arrive. Maybe she would go from clan to clan and talk to the medicine cats. She hated leaving them behind, but the thought alone of leaving StarClan on the half moon to go looking for the others? That just seemed..unthinkable.

For now, the would wait.

[Silvercloud]

Why did every cat have to point out the fact that Streamheart hadn't caught up yet? She hadn't meant to abandon her mentor. Where was she? The guild had built up inside of her until her confession fell from her lips.

"I have no idea where she is, I ran on ahead, I though she would have caught up by now." Minnowpaw's Caribbean gaze drifted back to the path she had entered from, watching for her mentor.

Minnowpaw sat down and continued to stare between the bushes with worried eyes. Had her mentor been attacked? This was a new thought to plaque her and her heart began to beat faster. Would any cat dare attack a medicine cat? What if it was a loner or rogue who knew nothing of the clan ways? Did a two-leg or monster get her somehow? A dog? A Fox, a Badger?

Why was she worrying of course her mentor was fine she could take care of herself. Besides if any of the above had happened what could she do? She had no battle training to speak of and therefore she would make for an easier target. If both of them got hurt or killed what would RiverClan do? Well Tigerpaw had always shone some interest in being a medicine cat, would StarClan and Oakstar choose him as the next medicine cat? Who would train him?