Cheers of joy erupted from the clearing. Skypaw found it surprising when she saw even some ShadowClan cats were cheering, including WindClan and RiverClan. Of course, however, the most cries of victory came from the ThunderClan cats themselves.

"ThunderClan, we're leaving!" Sunstar hissed. Skypaw could see the humiliation in his eyes. When she glanced up at the sky, the stars were twinkling a little more, and the moon was shining just a little brighter. StarClan had wanted Willowleaf to return.

Skypaw thought about how fortunate they had been. Despite the two battles that had struck ThunderClan within four moons, none had occured without Willowleaf. Unless Splashstar had continued with her threat, that is. There was no need, now.

ThunderClan cats rose to their paws, their heads and tails held high with purrs escaping their throats. She was about to follow her Clanmates right to the fallen tree with pride, but she remembered she hadn't said goodbye to a certain cat.

Hawkspirit!

Whipping around, she saw a confused glance aimed her way from Jaysoul. Shrugging him off, she bolted back to the medicine cats. Being polite, the first thing she said came out as a purr, "Thank you!"

The cats of healing purred back at her, their eyes shining. "StarClan never wanted Willowleaf to leave, it was just our job to get her back." Sageleaf meowed.

Skypaw touched noses in goodbye with Silverpaw, promising to talk to her the next gathering. Exchanging a few kind words with Sageleaf and Aquamist, she turned to the ShadowClan cats.

Clear surprise erupted from Skypaw as she saw Hawkspirit was already staring at her. He hadn't been chatting with the other cats that had followed the same path as him, but instead, his gaze seemed to be stuck on her fur. Embarrassment sparked from her pelt. What if she had ruffled fur? Or a muddy tail?

"Uh," Hawkspirit finally stuttered. "Skypaw, can I..talk to you?" He asked, tearing his gaze from Skypaw and aiming it at his paws.

"Of course," Skypaw replied. She could visably see the relief when Hawkspirit sighed and relaxed his shoulders.

Padding a few steps away, Hawkspirit looked at her and asked, "C-could we maybe meet here tomorrow?" When Skypaw didn't reply, Hawkspirit quickly added on, "You know, to talk with you about the prophecy and such."

Skypaw's ears burned with embarrassment, an emotion she was not too fond of. He knew about the prophecy! Would he not be her friend anymore? Would he stay away from her?

I can't let that happen!

Skypaw took a few more moments to reply. Seeing the ShadowClan medicine cat apprentice get more and more uneasy as each of the moments went by, she saw no other choice than to agree. "Sure," She meowed. Hawkspirit's eyes brightened.

"Very well," He meowed, touching noses with her in a friendly gesture. "Make sure no cat knows you're coming here. I don't know how our Clans would react. I'll be here at moonhigh."

Skypaw nodded. She had met up with cats at the Gathering island at night before, why would this time be any different?

"Skypaw!" Skypaw turned and saw Bramblefrost waiting at the fallen tree. He was the only ThunderClan cat there, and the WindClan cats looked irritated as they waited for Bramblefrost to get out of the way.

Panicking, she quickly meowed, "I got to go, see you tomorrow." to Hawkspirit before bolting up to her father. Bramblefrost's ice blue eyes were narrowed in disapproval of getting carried away with chatting. He had to hold up a whole Clan because of her!

Skypaw muttered an apology to Kestrelstar. However, unlike the rest of his Clan, his eyes sparkled with amusement. "Don't worry about it. It's no problem, Bramblefrost," The WindClan leader added when he saw Bramblefrost start to protest.

Skypaw leaped onto the fallen tree and bolted across it, Bramblefrost on her tail. Feeling the weight of the log shift as the WindClan cats started to pile on, Skypaw leaped down and sprinted to where the back of the ThunderClan patrol was. Finding herself behind Duskwave, she heard Bramblefrost speak to her.

"That was unacceptable, no matter what Kestrelstar says," He lectured. "Don't let that happen again. No conversation with a ShadowClan cat could be that important."

But it was! Skypaw hissed to herself.

"Sorry," Skypaw meowed as her tail dropped in the dust. "Was it so wrong to thank him for starting the cheers to get our medicine cat back?"

She could feel the energy in the air soften a little. She could tell she had made her father reconsider his thoughts, and better yet, she wasn't completely lying. She had gone over there in the first place to thank the medicine cats.

Okay, so maybe that wasn't her intention when she bolted over there, but she had done it.

"That was very thoughtful of you," Bramblefrost meowed after awhile, his tone soft. "But we kept three Clans waiting." Skypaw had only looked at WindClan. Her pelt burned when she realized RiverClan and ShadowClan had probably gathered behind the speedy cats.

"I said sorry," Skypaw rolled her eyes, thankful her father couldn't see her.

~*~

As soon as Skypaw padded into camp, she made her way to the nursery. Featherfur had finally moved in there, almost a moon after Bumblefoot had told her to. Growing more plump by the day, Skypaw awaited the arrival of the kits she knew she would adore so much.

"Featherfur?" Skypaw waited outside the nursery as she called a greeting to her friend.

"Come in!" Featherfur chirped. She knew the ThunderClan queen was bored in the nursery alone. Hopefully that would change when her kits arrived.

Ducking her head through the curtain of lichen, she found Featherfur sitting up, her eyes sparkling with excitement and expectant. When Skypaw didn't say anything, she meowed, like it was obvious, "What happened at the Gathering?"

"It was probably the most exciting one yet," Skypaw replied.

"Figures, I had to miss it!" Featherfur lightly smacked the fresh moss below her with her paw in frustration. "What happened?" Skypaw couldn't remember if Russetsky had allowed Featherfur to come before she had became too plump to go.

"Dapplestar said they had enough territory to support them, so then Bumblefoot called out, 'I wonder why you tried to take over our forest, then!' to-"

Skypaw was cut off when Featherfur's eyes lit up at the mention of her mate. "Protesting a leader in the middle of her report at a Gathering? He's so brave!" She squealed. Skypaw didn't think so, but she didn't say that to her friend.

"Yeah...anyways, Kestrelstar and Splashstar both asked if it was true, and then Sunstar answered. He explained his theory of ShadowClan using their medicine cats against us, and then Nightflare and Hawkspirit called him out for it. Sageleaf gave reasons why we would suffer and Aquamist agreed, Splashstar even threa-"

"Threatening us? Dear StarClan! What about my kits?" Featherfur wailed. Skypaw wanted to slam her head against the nursery wall for being interrupted yet again. Featherfur had turned into one of those overprotective mothers already, and her kits hadn't even been born!

"Let me finish, will you?" Skypaw snapped. Featherfur murmured an apology before Skypaw continued. "Splashstar threatened to attack us to show us what life was like without a healer, then Sunstar gave in and said Willowleaf was allowed back in ThunderClan. I suspect it was purely out of humiliation," Skypaw decided to leave out the cheers. The story she had given Featherfur made her leader, whom she disliked, sound much more vulnerable.

"Woah," Featherfur's eyes were as wide as the moon. "So where is she? I was dreading giving birth to these kits without a medicine cat." Skypaw rolled her eyes. Blah blah blah, my kits, blah blah! She thought to herself.

"I suspect Sunstar will announce his plan tomorrow." Skypaw predicted. "It's been a long day."

Featherfur nodded. Skypaw climbed her paws, not even realizing she had sat down. Dismissing herself, she meowed, "I better go. I have to train tomorrow."

Featherfur nodded once more in agreement. "Thank you for telling me. Tell Bumblefoot to come to the nursery if you see him, please."

Skypaw said that she would before exiting the den. Finding the striped warrior in the clearing, she meowed, "Featherfur wants to see you."

"Is she okay?" Bumblefoot's eyes widened with alarm. Again, Skypaw thought that nursery wall would be a nice place to slam her head into.

"Yes, she just wants to talk." She replied before making her way into the apprentice den.

Taking her usual place next to Rainpaw, she curled up, her tail neatly wrapping around her and resting on her nose. Closing her eyes, she slowly let herself drift into a welcomed sleep.

Hawkspirit said whhattt? XD

I saw some fan interaction in the comments on one of my chapters. People started replying to other people's comments, and that made my day to know people are actually discussing my book. :D

Comment and vote below! I wrote this chapter in twenty minutes, so I'll hopefully be able to update one more time today.