The Flood

Chapter One - Amberpaw
Amberpaw bounced up and down, even though she was nearing twelve moons old, she never got tired of going to a gathering.

"Be patient," her mentor, Dewclaw mewed to her, though she could see laughter twinkling in his eyes.

Amberpaw bounded over to where her sister, Tawnypaw, was sitting with her mentor, Finchwing.

"Sometimes I don't know how the youngins' do it," rasped Burrtail, the oldest cat in the Clan, "even when I was their age, I don't remember being like them."

Sunflash, the other elder, gave him a nudge, "Come on, you know you were worse," the she-cat joked, "Now, lets go get some fresh-kill before we have to tramp all the way to the gathering." The ginger she-cat gave Burrtail a gentle push, and started padding with him over to the fresh-kill pile.

"I can't wait to see how Orangesky is getting along," Amberpaw heard Sunflash remark before carefully picking a frog off of the fresh-kill pile for her and Burrtail to share.

Amberpaw snorted, "Sometimes the elders seem to forget that there are four Clans in the forest," she remarked to no cat in particular.

"Remember, Amberpaw," Dewclaw told her, hearing her remark, "the elders of all of the Clans have known each other and have served their Clans for seasons upon seasons, I'll soon be moving to the elder's den, and I remember how Sunflash and Burrtail were when they were warriors, they were just like you, proud, and defensive of their Clans. But now they are old, and they see with new eyes, sometimes it seems."

Amberpaw nodded, for the first time, she noticed that Dewclaw was growing old, he had gray flecks on his muzzle, and he couldn't keep up with patrols as much as he used to be able to. He'll join the elders soon, she mused to herself with sadness. The sadness was short lived, however, as Graystar bounded acrossed the clearing, Newtdapple, and Fennelfur, hard on his paws, as they assembled the gathering patrol.

"Amberpaw, Dewclaw, Fennelfur, Lizardtail, Newtdapple, Darkfrost, Burrtail, Sunflash and Wrensong will come," the gray leader called, looking at the cats assembled in the clearing.

Amberpaw padded over and touched noses with her brother, "Maybe you'll come next time," she mewed to Tawnypaw, but Tawnypaw just gave a nod, not looking Amberpaw in the eye.

Amberpaw raced through the forest, with Dewclaw on one side and Wrensong on the other, "Why does Graystar have to run so fast?" Wrensong panted, and Amberpaw noticed that Wrensong's belly was swelling up.

More kits means more warriors, Amberpaw thought, proud of her Clan. As the patrol approached the marshes that bordered the lake, Amberpaw couldn't bet but notice that there was more water then there should have been in the marshes. She looked around, and noticed that more cats than just her had notices, Newtspeckle and Darkfrost had worried expressions on their faces, and Amberpaw noticed that Sunflash was whispering something into Burrtail's ear, while casting nervous glances to the pools of water that stood around.

The water was forgotten, by the time they reached the tree-bridge. Amberpaw couldn't wait to see some of her friends from other Clans, Lakepaw and Waterpaw, from RiverClan, Rabbitpaw, from ThunderClan, and Duskpaw and Mistpaw, from WindClan. She crossed the tree-bridge behind Burrtail, and it seemed like he would never get across it, but when he finally did Amberpaw got nervous. She entered the clearing, and saw Waterpaw, Lakepaw, Duskpaw, Rabbitpaw, Cloudfur, Mistpaw, and a cat that she didn't know huddled together.

She bounded up, "Hi," she mewed, happy to see her friends again.

"Hey Amberpaw," Rabbitpaw mewed, "this is Milkpaw, he was just made an apprentice."

"Hi Milkpaw," Amberpaw mewed.

"H-hi," the tom stuttered.

"Waterpaw, is a warrior now," Lakepaw boasted, "he has the coolest name, Watersplash."

Amberpaw congratulated him, but she felt a pang of jealousy, her and Tawnypaw were almost old enough to become apprentices, and Watersplash was younger than them. When was Graypaw going to make them warriors?

Chapter Two - Newtdapple
Newtdapple padded up to sit with the other deputies at the base of the giant tree where all of the leaders sit. She nodded a greeting to Perchfin and Mapleleaf, who were already there, and watched as Hareskip came to join them.

"How has hunting been going?" Newtdapple asked Hareskip, the WindClan deputy, who was getting old.

"Great, thanks," the tom replied, Newtdapple noticed that he was getting old, WindClan will have a new deputy before long, she thought, though she was sad to see Hareskip go, out of all of the deputy's he was the one that she liked most.

"It looks like rain," Mapleleaf mewed, looking at the sky. The other deputies nodded. Newtdapple shivered, she hoped it wouldn't interfere with the Gathering.

"Let the Gathering begin," Pebblestar, the leader of RiverClan yowled across the clearing. All of the cats found a place to sit and looked up at the leaders.

Newtspeck saw Deerstar heave herself to her paws, to make herself seen.

"WindClan is doing well, despite attempts from other Clans to take some of our territory," Deerstar added, as she gave a pointed look at Aspenstar.

"We have not!" one of ThunderClan's senior warriors, Featherflight yelled out, jumping to her paws. Blueeyes and Bouldertooth jumped up, supporting Featherflight.

Iceclaw, Duskpaw, and Cloudfur sprang to their paws, giving the ThunderClan cats a challenge.

"Stop your warriors!" Pebblestar yowled to Deerstar and Aspenstar, but the other two leaders were'nt paying attention, they looked as if they were about to pounce on each other. But the cat that sent the clearing into chaos, was no other than Graystar, who flung himself at Pebblestar for no appearent reason.

Newtdapple watched in disbelief as Amberpaw, Fennelfur, and Lizardtail jumped into the clump of fighting cats that had grown to half of the clearing, She watched as Perchfin raced to help Pebblestar, who was battling with Featherflight, Mistpaw, and, surprisingly, Burrtail.

Elders' aren't supposed to fight, she thought to herself, there has to be some way to stop this.

"ShadowClan, behind me!" she heard Graystar yowl.

What is he doing now? she wondered, but she lept up and pushed the way through to her Clan leader's side.

"We need to leave, StarClan will not be pleased with all of this fighting," the tom mewed, raising his plumy tail up into the air in a signal for the warriors to leave.

The cats raced off of the Island and back to camp, when suddenly the sky seemed to expload with thunder, lightning, and rain. Newtdapple heard a screech of fear and looked back to see Amberpaw, her eyes stretched wide in an embarrassed look.

"Sorry, that startled me," the brown and ginger she-cat told Newtdapple.

"It's alright," Newtdapple replied, "Even the strongest warriors get scared sometimes."

"Amberpaw!" Newtdapple heard Dewclaw yowl.

"You'd better get back with your mentor," she told Amberpaw. Amberpaw nodded, racing off to find Dewclaw.

To only be young and carless again, Newtdapple thought to herself with a purr, before helping the elders back towards camp.