"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather beneath Highlog for a Clan meeting!"

Icestar's voice cut into the air. It was the morning after the badger fight. A clear day had arrived to the cats of RiverClan. They stalked out of their dens, stretching and yawning, to see what their leader had to say. Some had been part of the battle, and they carried injuries out to the clearing. Pebblefoot and Ashenfang needed to be helped out by Beechleaf.

Icestar surveyed the Clan. Most warriors appeared to be starting to heal nicely. The ones who didn't go into battle were helping the others with food and sharing tongues. "Some of you were with me last night as we fought the badger that has been stealing our food. Some of you have been told about it. I am here to confirm what you have heard- we won!"

A yowling cheer rose from the cats as they stood in celebration. They had beat a badger! Icestar waited for the clan to quiet down before continuing. "Thank you to our warriors who helped in this fight, and to Beechleaf for healing the Clan after we returned home and for finding the nest."

The medicine cat smiled and nodded in appreciation at Icestar. "Thank you to you, too! You are the one who lead us through this."

Icestar returned the gesture. "The next gathering is in a half moon. We will have good news to share and be a healthy clan again!" Another cheer sounded from the gathered cats. "Let's take it easy and be grateful for the coming of newleaf! The meeting is over." Icestar leaped down from Highlog.

The rest of the day went by peacefully, along with the next few. Cats healed and the clan noticed a gradual growing of prey. Everything seemed quiet and uneventful, for once. Several sunhighs after the battle, Icestar padded over to the medicine den to check on Ashenfang. Icestar poked her head through the curtain of rushes to see her sister sitting in a nest, bathing. She looked up between licks and smiled.

"Hey, how you doing?" Icestar asked.

Ashenfang glanced at her leg. "Oh, I'm alright. I can't do much walking yet, but Beechleaf says to give it several sunhighs before walking normally, and a few more after that before hunting. I'll be good as new by then!" She shrugged, and Icestar nodded understandingly.

After a moment of peaceful silence, Ashenfang asked, "What about you? Did you go to the elders yet?"

Icestar blushed, having almost totally forgotten about their conversation the day of the battle. She hesitated, before replying, "No, I haven't. I didn't-"

"Well? Are you going to?"

"I guess," Icestar mewed stallingly. "I wanted to check on you, and didn't want to bother them now-"

"Ice-staar!" Ashenfang drew it out teasingly, "Come on, let me go with you! I bet they'll be happy to hear about young love!" The black she-cat stood up, despite Icestar's protests of making her rest, and hopped out of the den. All the leader could do was support her sister as she hobbled across the clearing. When they reached the elders' den, Ashenfang squeezed in first, nearly bumping into Mintfur, who was on his way out. He glanced at the black cat dissapprovingly, and padded out.

Graymist looked up at them, just having woke up from a nap. "Hello, you two! And what can I do for you?"

"Well, um-" Icestar began but was quickly cut off by Ashenfang.

"Icestar has had her eye on someone! She was thinking about... well, you know, loooove," Ashenfang mewed excitedly, drawing out the "o" in "love" to make it sound more like "luuve."

"Oh! This is a pleasant surprise!" Graymist smiled kindly. "Shall I guess?" Ashenfang glanced to Icestar, who merely shrugged awkwardly. "Ok, Hollowfern?"

Icestar shook her head.

"Rushrunner?"

Again, Icestar shook her head.

"No? What about Grasspelt?"

When Icestar tried to hide her smile and bit her lip, Graymist exclaimed, "Aha! I got it." Graymist pondered this information over a bit. "Grasspelt, a good choice. The other two are a little young yet. Did you know when you chose him to be your deputy?" At a "no" from Icestar, Graymist continued. "That is good. Never choose out of your own interests. Although, I'm assuming you didn't come only to talk about your love interests?"

Icestar responded, "No, I have some questions about this. Since I'm the leader, am I allowed to have a mate?"

"Yes you are. You can have a mate and keep your position as leader," Graymist answered confirmingly.

"Am I allowed to have kits?" Icestar asked.

Graymist sighed. "No, I'm afraid not. You couldn't take care of them and be able to handle all the responsibilities of the leader at the same time. You couldn't fight for the Clan or go on long journies. The only other option for that would be to temporarily resign and let Grasspelt be the leader. Then you would go live in the nursery as 'Icestar' until the kits are apprentices, and resume leadership afterwards. Grasspelt wouldn't be able to do the leadership ceremony since you are still alive, so he would stay 'Grasspelt' and not have nine lives."

Icestar nodded, soaking in this information. "So I could be a leader without kits or a temporary queen who later comes back to leader." She met eyes with Graymist, who nodded. "What about the deputy? We would need a temporary one."

"That would be for Grasspelt to decide. He would choose a temporary deputy as if the past leader had died and he were the new one."

"Ok. Thank you," Icestar mewed.

Graymist dipped her head in acknowledgement. After a few moments in silence, she asked, "Well, have you told him how you feel?"

Icestar shook her head and said "no."

"You should. It would be a waste after all we've talked about," the elder mewed. "Anyways, I wish you good luck. Its always nice to see something like this."

Icestar dipped her head to Graymist. "Thank you," she mumbled, and slipped out of the den, Ashenfang close behind.

"So? You ready?" Ashenfang insisted.

"Hold on!" Icestar laughed. "I will, just give me some time." Ashenfang pouted but returned to her nest without much more teasing.

After Icestar padded out of the nest, she glanced around the clearing. Her eyes lingered where Grasspelt sat talking to his sister Petalfur in front of the warriors den, before moving on to her mother, who also stood surveying the camp.

Acornstream met eyes with her daughter and hurried over to her. "Have you seen Goldenkit?" the queen panted, the sudden movement exhausting her because of the recent pregnancy. "I swear he was just in the nursery and then he wasn't there!"

Icestar held her gaze with concern and replied, "No, I haven't! Let's search shall we?"

"What's going on?" a male voice broke in. The two she-cats turned to see Grasspelt and Petalfur padding over to them, who apparently had noticed the commotion.

Acornstream immediately jumped on the opportunity for more help, while Icestar let her mother do the talking. "I can't find Goldenkit! We must find him!" she wailed.

"Shhh, its okay," mewed Petalfur as she rubbed against Acornstream comfortingly. "What about Thawkit? Is she alright?"

The queen sniffed and nodded. "She's with Duskfur in the nursery."

"Okay, let's start searching. Come with me and..." Petalfur mewed soothing words and lead Acornstream away, meanwhile glancing behind herself at the other two, giving them a look that seemed to mean "Find that kit!" Grasspelt and Icestar glanced at each other, now mostly alone.

"Let's start looking, I guess," Icestar proposed. "I'll go check by the nursery and you... if you could check... um, somewhere?" Icestar half-smiled awkwardly.

Grasspelt smiled too. "Sure. I'll check the nests closest to the nursery, like the warriors den."

"Uh, yeah, that sounds good!" Icestar agreed. Grasspelt laughed, and they split up.

Icestar scuttled over to the nursery, quickly scanning the front. No loose kits. She made her way around the left to the back and started sniffing and prodding about. Goldenkit was not to be found.

Just then Icestar heard a tiny mew. Goldenkit? She glanced up and spotted a tiny tuft of golden fur. He appeared to be stuck rather in the middle of the section where the camp wall meets the back of the nursery. Icestar sighed. Shs stepped carefully between the two walls of dried reeds and other vegetation, trying not to break anything.

Two more steps and she'd be there. One. Step. Crack. The sound of a stick breaking somewhere under her paw made her wince slightly. Two. Step. Crack. Wince. Successfully, she lifted up Goldenkit in her jaws by the scruff of his neck, emitting a squeak from the little ball of fluff.

The leader stepped backwards carefully until she reached a wider part and padded more quickly. She felt her self bump into something, and heard a muffled cry from behind her. Icestar tried to glance backwards, but with the kit in her mouth, the area was a little too narrow.

She was about to set the kit down, when a voice behind her said, "You can come back now." Stepping back more hesitantly, she came to a wider spot and turned around. Before her now stood Grasspelt. "You found him! I couldn't so I was going to check on you." Icestar nodded slowly, trying not to shake Goldenkit too much. She made a move to take another step forward, but Grasspelt happened to be blocking her way. He got the message, and stepped aside. "Right, we should give him to Acornstream. I think her and Petalfur are in the apprentices den."

He lead the way around the camp, and squeezed through the entrance of the apprentices den. "Acornstream! Look who Icestar found."

Acornstream looked towards her daughter excitedly and squealed with joy at the sight of Goldenkit. "Oh, thank you, thank you! Where was he?"

"Behind the nursery," Icestar answered, spitting golden fur from her mouth. "He must have squeezed through the wall of the nursery somewhere and gotten stuck. We should find and patch that hole up."

"I can do that if you want, Icestar!" a small voice said. Flickerpaw happened to be sitting in the apprentices den, apparently listening in on the conversation.

Flickerpaw did not appear to be busy at the moment so Icestar replied, "Yes, thank you. That would be very helpful! Why don't you go with Acornstream to find it?" After the Queen and apprentice went back to the nursery, the remaining three cats stepped outside.

"Good find, Icestar. I was hoping for Acornstream's sake that Goldenkit didn't go far, and it seems like he didn't travel more than a few tail-lengths!" Petalfur commented.

"Thank you! Just trying to help," Icestar accepted the compliment.

"And you did a good job of it," Grasspelt added, nodding, receiving a nod back from Icestar. The three cats remained in silence for a minute before Grasspelt spoke again. "Well, I should probably go ahead and send out a sun-high patrol. See you later!" He padded away, glancing back once. Icestar followed him with her eyes.

"You should tell him," Petalfur suddenly said.

Feeling taken aback, Icestar turned her head to the other cat. "What?"

Petalfur glanced at her brother and back to Icestar. "I know about you two. Trust me, he's told me he feels the same way. He's just worried about saying so." Then Petalfur walked away to volunteer for a patrol. When she mewed something quietly to Grasspelt, he looked towards her, surprised. His head swiveled to Icestar, and quickly ducked back to the cats gathering for patrols.

Baffled, Icestar sat in the middle of the camp for a while, until the clearing emptied out. She shook her head as she entered the leader's den. Sitting down and licking her paw, she pondered what Petalfur had just said, and what Graymist had told her earlier. The two cats seemed to be saying the same thing. Icestar shook her head to clear it. Taking a bath seemed to calm troubled thoughts.

Icestar let her mind wander to the coming times. Who knows what they'd bring? In a little less than a half moon, there would be another Gathering. She probably should make the big decision before then. If she does, should she make an announcement? Probably not, unless she is going to temporarily resign. The young leader sighed, not wanting to worry herself too much. She set her head down to rest and take a peaceful nap. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen, and she was going to have to live with it.

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Yaaaay! Another long overdue chapter! XD I'm sorry again. Shout out to BooksforLifeRp for spurring me into action with your post on my message board. XD Thanks! I was hoping to do at least one chapter over Spring Break. Maybe two.

But guess what? If I do two, then I'll have finished the book! Yes, friends, I am almost done with my first official book-sized story! I'm thinking about making an epilogue but it's not for sure. Stay tuned for the next update!

-Emrysstar✨