The senior medicine cat made his way slowly up to the gathering-place, his eyes filled with calm happiness and his paw pads filled with aching.
Have you really gotten this old, old tom? Snowhawk asked himself, smiling at the thought.

His short white fur swayed as a gust of wind attempted to blow him over, but Snowhawk was still sturdy, so he kept on trudging up, despite the wind.

The tom looked up at Cinderleaf and bowed his head in respect for the FlameClan medicine cat.
He nodded at her question and licked his dry lips. "That I have, Cinderleaf. . . I don't know
anything of it, but I have felt it." He meowed softly.

The white tom sat down a fox length away from the FlameClan she-cat and began to groom his
paw.

Moonflight trudged up the mountainside moaning about how much it hurt her paws. The white
she-cat had never really grown any more mature as she aged.
Suddenly she began bouncing around wailing. "OW! My paw! My paw! It's got a rock stuck
in it!" She complained, flopping down between Snowhawk and Cinderleaf.

"Help! I hurt my paw."

His short amber fur ruffled in the wind as Sunpelt padded wearily up the mountainside. He let out
a purr as Moonflight began to jump around, having gotten a small stone wedged in her paw. "For
StarClan's sake, Moonflight, you're no kit anymore." He teased playfully, a grin spreading on
his face as he wondered if his kits would grow up to be as silly as that young white warrior.

With StarClan's good blessings, then won't be. He thought with a small purr of amusement as
Moonflight flopped down on her back in between the two medicine cats.

Raven couldn't help but notice that at this gathering, with it's many cats and loud chatter, she was unable to spot her ever-so-favorite medicine cat apprentice. A trill of alarm ran through her, and she hopped up easily onto a nearby warrior's back to get a good view of the clearing, despite the loud protests. In a split second, the little black apprentice was already weaving through the crowd, leaving Knightsky of Flameclan wondering just what was going on.

Little Ravenpaw slipped around the clearing once with no success. She cursed quietly, and then balanced on her back legs to reach up into the air to sniff.

Bingo.

The apprentice darted off speedily in the vague direction of the boulders that the clan leaders would perch on to announce to the Gathering, and slipped along behind. She bristled as she caught site of Crowpaw, and an unfamiliar and strange tabby she-cat.

She was thinking fast - hadn't her mother said to lie if in the prescence of a strange cat? So she did what she was told. "Crow, doofus, c'mon, hurry up! I thought you already had a she-cat friend. She'll be ticked if you don't hurry up and go meet her!" she all but hissed, barreling forward to give the medicine cat a small and firm shove on the shoulder, while glaring daggers in the direction of the tabby.

___________

Soulpaw's ears twitched as he pressed to his mother as she lead him carefully into the clearing. It was only a split second pause to purr and bury his head into her warm fur happily before dashing off to find his mentor. It only took a split second for him to practically run right under her, and sit beside her.

He certainly heard his big sister's cry and leaped up. With no amount of gentleness, he smacked her about the head with a sheathed paw. "You're a big pain. Siblings are all a big pain. You should be more careful." he scolded shamelessly and sniffed at the white warrior's paw.