.
// set the night before the gathering
The burgeoning moon did little to soothe her nerves. Hell, Hawkstar was quite sure that no full moon would ever be more than a reason to stress for a very long time, at least as long as there were non-believers and heathens across the roots of Fourtrees, no doubt staring into their territory at this very moment plotting the massacre of her clan and traditions.
If Hawkstar was prone to neurotics before, the last Gathering had only worsened the paranoia she often steeped herself in.
But they had agreed. SkyClan had foolishly agreed to their false new code and their version of StarClan. Fine. So be it then.
"SkyClan."
They file in from their dens and duties, settling in uncomfortably next to one another with their flickers of wonder, disdain, anger - or whatever inane emotion they could throw at her safely under the light of the almost-full moon. It didn't matter though. As long as she was leader, it was her word they hung on, whether they approved of it or not. "Tomorrow's Gathering, I will be bringing my deputy, my medicine cat, Kitesigh, Mulberryburst, Dovecloud, Brightnose, Victoryscorn, Daisydream, and Lupine. Any of you may bring your apprentices if you think them capable.
My lead warriors will be staying behind to be my stand-ins. If anything were to go wrong, follow their word as if it were my own."
There was little to be said about the state of the other clans, or at least, little to be said that the clan did not already know.
"While we are here," Hawkstar continues on, sweeping the thought of ThunderClan out of her mind with a flick of her tapered tail. "Jesterpaw and Mallowpaw, I want Cometglow and Quailstep to take over your respective trainings. I hope that their steady paws will give you a more well-rounded understanding of your studies."
Reassignments done and over, with two apprentices plucked from their previous mentors without a word to their failings or where they could improve. Just… poof. New mentors - think about what you've done. Hawkstar had little patience for anything more, at least during this phase of the moon.
"You all might see more kittypets and soft-paws hanging at the edge of our territory. These new faces are our new … friends … and allies. Fizzystar of WarriorClan has promised us a boost to our ranks, and new bodies to train. In return, I have promised them protection from the junkyard cats that attacked myself and Tawnybeam some weeks ago. If even a proven SkyClan warrior could be injured, I shudder to think what they could do to an untrained pet.
With our new friends comes an old tradition to be reintroduced … I am opening SkyClan's borders again to daylight warriors and part-time soldiers. As they come and go, we will assign patrols to take our prospective ranks back to the Twolegplace as we did in the gorge. I hope … I hope that our new friends will provide a breath of new life into SkyClan, and that we might be able to show more cats how a noble warrior acts under the diction of the code."