-Boulderstar-

Boulderstar never asked to be leader early, and that gathering had made him sure that he would rather have been deputy for longer. The last leader, Featherstar, passed away suddenly, due to some cough the Medicine cat knew nothing about. Poor Larkwhisper, Boulderstar thought, he's still blaming himself for what happened. At least he had Shiningpaw now. The bright young apprentice did her best to cheer up her mentor when he was feeling down. But even Shiningpaw's optimism couldn't lighten Boulderstar's mood after what happened under the gathering "truce".

"You seem worried, Boulderstar." said a calm voice beside him. Lightwatcher, his deputy. He was so thankful to have her wisdom and kind words to support him in his early days as leader. "It's a worrying time Lightwatcher.", Boulderstar replied. I've only been leader for a moon and something's already gone wrong, he added silently.

He sighed. Perhaps he would feel better after sleeping on it. He announced to the Clan that he would tell them about the gathering in the morning, then walked into his den below the highledge, and curled up in his nest. He had hoped to have a peaceful sleep, but his dreams were haunted by the memories of that very same night...

All around Boulderstar, the leaders were hissing at each other. "Is this what StarClan wants, do you think?" the RiverClan leader, Wavestar, challenged the two leaders beside her, who were yowling at each other. One was Mudstar, the ShadowClan leader, the other was Warrenstar, leader of WindClan. Both were shouting accusations at each other. Boulderstar looked at the sky. Despite the rain lashing his face, the storm clouds had not yet reached the moon-.

Suddenly, pain lashed across Boulderstar's face. Yowling, the ThunderClan leader shot up and saw another cat in his den, but it was too dark to see the identity of his attacker. Hissing, Boulderstar lashed across the cat's shoulder. They grunted, stumbling back a little. He tried to taste the enemy's scent, but they only smelt of garlic. He recoiled when the horrible scent hit his mouth. They must have rolled in a patch before attacking me, he realised. His attacker really wanted to keep their identity secret. The cat leapt at him, but Boulderstar dodged to side side, and they hit hard against the wall of the den.

"Boulderstar! Are you okay?" someone called from across the clearing. Boulderstar sighed with relief. It was Larkwhisper, he must have heard the leader yowl. The medicine cat ran over. "Did someone attack you?" he asked after seeing the scratches all over the tom's pelt. Boulderstar nodded, turning around to see the attacker, but his den was empty. The cat was gone.