One moon had passed since Flowerstar's death. Tonight was the night of the gathering which was supposed to be exciting, but to Crowpaw it wasn't.

"Let all cats older than 6 moons join beneath Shade Rock for a Clan Meeting." The apprentice sighed as she heard the familiar meeting call and padded outside the apprentices den.

All the cats had gathered below Blackstar as he started to talk about who would go to the gathering tonight.

She already knew she was going so she drowned her leader's voice out as she waited by the camp entrance for the patrol to leave.

As Blackstar jumped down from Shade Rock, she followed the rest of the cats going to the gathering.

Echofeather and Twistedfoot flanked Blackstar on either side of him. Crowpaw scoffed and fell all the way to the very back of the group, her mentor right in front of her. Blackstar led the way through their territory and all the way to the river.

They followed it upriver for a while, until they appeared at the edge of the hollow where The Great Tree is. The Great Tree lies in the far back of the huge space. A bunch of trees and brambles surround the edges of the hollow, encasing it.

Blackstar and the cats he brought with him slipped silently into the hollow. MarshClan was already there. Riverstar dipped his head to Blackstar and his group, "Greetings Blackstar. Good to see you."

Blackstar also dipped his head "Greetings Riverstar." He mewed climbing up The Great Tree to sit on his branch. Her leader's branch on The Great Tree was a kitstep higher than the MarshClan leader's branch. She snickered a bit at that.

The deputies took their place on top of a rock underneath The Great Tree, near the medicine cats.

She watched as Brightpaw went to meet with the other apprentices towards the middle of the clearing, where the warriors and elders were also gathering.

Crowpaw sat in her usual spot towards the edge of the hollow, but not too far where she wouldn't be able to hear the leaders.

Soon, the LarkClan group arrived and the only cat she recognized from that group was Gorsepaw, who had been training for as long as she had been.

Their leader, Smallstar, jumped onto her branch on The Great Tree, "Apologizes for being a bit later than usual, let the gathering begin!"

"How is everything in MarshClan?" Blackstar asked, starting the meeting.

"Everything is fine in MarshClan! The prey is running very well this leaf-fall and we are going to have some new apprentices and warriors soon!" Riverstar purred.

"How are things going PineClan?" He asked when he had finished.

"We are managing well." Blackstar mewed. Riverstar narrowed his eyes at her leader. Crowpaw hissed a bit at that. Does he think we're weak she thought bitterly.

"Prey is plentiful and our streams are running well." Blackstar continued, "We also have new kits on the way." he finished.

The PineClan leader turned to Smallstar, "How is LarkClan?" He asked.

Crowpaw turned her head to the group of apprentices, the only cat she didn't recognize was a tortoiseshell she-cat, which she guessed was Morningpaw.

The clearing erupted into cheers and Morningpaw looked down at her paws, obviously embarrassed and shy. The PineClan apprentice rolled her eyes and glared at the she-cat.

All the leaders nodded at one another before Smallstar yowled, "It's a bit chilly tonight so we're all going to head back to our camps! Gathering dismissed!" and she hoped down from where she was on The Great Tree.

As Crowpaw got up to leave, she heard the apprentices talking and paused to listen to their conversation.

"What's Crowpaw's deal? She glared at me earlier." Came the voice of who she assumed was Morningpaw.

She turned back around to face them, sitting down again. The apprentice saw Brightpaw roll her eyes, "Nobody knows anymore. She's always been like that."

"Weird." Goosepaw murmured. Crowpaw tuned out the rest of the conversation, opting to just stare at them instead, until she heard a voice next to her ear.

"Time to go, Crowpaw." Shellfrost mewed. The apprentice grunted and nodded. Her mentor laughed and padded away, Crowpaw following behind her.

Crowpaw had to lean on Shellfrost the whole way back to camp, as she was so tired her legs wouldn't properly carry her. She would never hear the end of that from her mentor.

When they got back, the PineClan apprentice immediately walked into the apprentices den and collapsed onto her nest. Her eyes fluttered shut and she almost instantly fell asleep. 

When Crowpaw woke up and padded out of the den, she noticed the sun had already risen high over the trees.

Why did no one wake me up? She thought angrily as she picked out a mouse from the fresh kill pile and started eating it.

Her mentor then padded over to her, the apprentice narrowed her eyes at her. "Why didn't you or anyone else wake me up?!" She hissed at her.

Shellfrost flinched and flicked her tail but then relaxed, "You seemed very tired and so I decided to let you sleep till Sunhigh to get some rest."

She snarled, "Doesn't matter if I'm tired! I'll push through it! What are we doing today?"

"Today we're just going to do some hunting." She replied and padded toward the camp entrance. The PineClan apprentice let out a huff and followed her.

Out in the forest, after walking for a bit, her mentor and her stopped at a tree. The tree was called Scouts Pine and it was the tallest pine tree in the whole forest.

Crowpaw opened her mouth slightly and sniffed the air. Her eyes widened and the fur along her spine bristled, a hiss rising in her throat. "Fox.." She breathed out.

Shellfrost sniffed the air as well. "Sent is stale." Her mentor answered. "We should be fine, though I will report this to Blackstar and Twistedfoot later."

The apprentice let out a slow nod at that, but her mentor caught onto her nervousness. "We can go somewhere else if you want?" She offered.

"I'm fine!" She growled and dug her claws into the muddy earth . "I can handle a little fox smell! Especially since it's stale!"

Her mentor looked unconvinced but sighed. "Alright if you're sure." She mewed. "Your assignment is to catch as much prey as you can and meet me here by sundown."

Crowpaw nodded again and padded away into the bushes, heading toward her favorite place to hunt.

It was a small clearing by the rocky cliff face, a little ways away from camp, that marked the end of their territory. She knew there would be plenty of prey there like aways.

When she arrived at the clearing, she paused in the middle and sniffed the air. "Mouse, vole, and.. crow?" The she-cat had a puzzled look on her face as she sniffed around for anything else.

There weren't normally any crows here which was very strange. They mostly stay away from the cliff face and stick to the forest.

She shrugged it off for the time being and finally got to hunting. She dropped into the hunters crouch as she smelled a vole nearby. She moved slowly forward until she had it in sight.

She then pounced and managed to quickly catch and kill it before it could make a sound. She sighed in relief as began digging a hole for it to go in. If she hadn't caught it that would have been embarrassing, even though no one was watching.

Eventually, as the sun dipped low in the sky, she had caught a squirrel, another vole, and that crow she smelt earlier. The thought of the crow made the apprentice shiver and she didn't know why.

She collected her pieces of prey from the hole she had dug in the dirt earlier, and padded back toward Scouts Pine where her mentor was waiting for her.

Shellfrost had caught a couple of pieces of prey herself and she smiled and picked them up as Crowpaw approached.

"Great catches!" She mewed through the fresh-kill in her jaws. The PineClan apprentice rolled her eyes and ignored her, padding back toward camp.

As they padded into camp, Crowpaw's ears flattened her ears and dropped her catches onto the fresh-kill pile in the middle of camp.

She took one more glance at the crow at the top of the pile before turning away from it, walking towards the apprentices' den and sitting outside of it.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her mentor take a long look at the crow before picking it up, padding over to one of two dens in the rocky clifface at the back of the camp.

"The medicine den." She quietly hissed. "She must feel the same unease with the crow that I did and is going to talk to Echofeather." She assumed.

Her eyes flickered away from the medicine den as she saw the camp entrance rustle and out padded Brightpaw with her mentor, Flamesky, right behind her.

Crowpaw watched as her littermate padded over to where Redpaw, Tatteredpaw, and Birchpaw were gathering.

"What'd you do today Tatteredpaw?" Brightpaw asked, sitting down in the small circle the apprentices had made.

"Blackstar and Rootstorm took me and Birchpaw to the training pit for fighting practice! I kicked Birchpaw's tail!" He explained.

"You did not!" Birchpaw mewed playfully as she whacked the ragged brown tom with her tail.

Her sister laughed, "That sounds like fun! What'd you do Redpaw?"

Redpaw shuffled his paws a bit, "Mothcloud and I didn't do anything too special. Just some hunting practice."

"Boring!" Brightpaw mewed and Redpaw smiled and let out a small chuckle.

"Well what'd you do Brightpaw? Fighting, hunting or something else?" Tatteredpaw smirked.

"Flamesky and I did some fighting! We practiced some advanced moves!" She boasted.

"Oooo!" Birchpaw replied in awe. "Wish my mentor would teach me some advanced moves. I'm dying to know some!"

Brightpaw laughed again, "I'm sure you will with time. Anyways, are you guys hungry?" She asked.

"Oh yes! I'm starving!" Redpaw mewed, already standing up and padding toward the fresh-kill pile. The group giggled and walked after him.

Crowpaw sighed as she watched them go. She realized though that Birchpaw was walking towards her.

"I've noticed you watching us." She said, flicking her tail back and forth. "You wanna join in?"

Crowpaw didn't reply but just let out a "Hmph," sound and turned her head away.

"Or don't. I don't care." The tan she-cat mewed, sounding disappointed.

The black she-cat growled lightly and stalked past the apprentice, "Fine! Let's get going!"

Birchpaw grinned and followed the grumpy apprentice, picking out a finch for them to share. Crowpaw just rolled her eyes and followed Birchpaw back to where the other apprentices were.

"Look who decided to finally join us!" Tatteredpaw teased, earning a glare from the black she-cat as she bent down, taking a bite of the finch.

Her sister gave her a sad smile, "Mind if I ask what you did today? As we're all sharing."

"No." Crowpaw mewed. "I'm only here because Birchpaw wanted me to be and would be upset if I didn't join you guys."

Redpaw scrunched up his nose a little, "Well someone's angry." He mewed in Tatteredpaw's ear. The tom nodded which earned him another glare from Crowpaw.

The apprentices continued talking and once Crowpaw finished eating, she slowly backed away from the group, giving Birchpaw a small, sad smile.

She saw Birchpaw sigh at her, but quickly turned back to the group and continued to chatter with them.

Crowpaw huffed as she padded toward the apprentices den. She walked toward her nest in the back right corner of the den and laid down in it, curling around herself.

Soon the rest of the apprentices soon came into the den and laid down in their own nests. Crowpaw slowly uncurled herself and let out a small whine, unable to get to sleep.

She growled slightly and stood up, padding outside of the den. She saw as Flamesky, the cat guarding the camp that night, waved his tail at her.

She waved her tail back in greeting, in order to be polite, before sitting down outside of the den and looking up at the starry night sky.