July Gathering 7/25

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Foxflight had to supress laughter from erupting out of him at Badgerstep's reply. The tom had gotten all tensed up as if he was about to fight an enemy, in this case himself. He could see Badgerstep searching for suspicion in his eyes, but of course it would be the other way around soon enough. Another giggle surpressed.

His eyes grew though at the news that Windclan had been having issues with Riverclan. No one had told Shadowclan or Thunderclan yet. This was defiantly news to his ears. "Your clan has been having problems with Riverclan? Well than you can understand a fellow warrior, like me, saying I understand. It seems Thunderclan's been under a bit of a stressful period as well due to Tanglestar and Riddlehawk," he sighed.

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Badgerstep regretted saying those words as soon as he saw Foxflight's eyes widen. Should he not have said that? He had assumed that news had spread by now from one cat or another. But no. Apparently he was that one cat to open his big mouth. Well, not point in trying to cover it now. Besides, it can't hurt. One of the leaders will probably talk about it anyway.

"Yeah," he admitted, his tail tip twitching uncomfortably. "Because of WindClan's raid on their camp a few moons ago. I thought they were going to let things settle, but not turns out they were planning some revenge." The warrior's claws slipped out to work the earth. The fact still aggravated him. They should have just let it slide. The first battle had been for not. Why do the same thing? "Sounds like it was the leaders who pushed for both. They couldn't let anything go to save their nine lives."

The news about a strife between the deputy and leader of ThunderClan picked up his attention in return. "Really?" he asked, his ears standing a little taller. "WindClan didn't hear much about the exchange in leadership. We just assumed Riddlehawk had stepped down nicely. Did he not?"

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Foxflight listened carefully to everything Badgerstep said. From the body behavior the tom was showing, he could tell this was a subject that irratated him. He knew the exact feeling. It seemed Riverclan and Windclan would be easy now then. Starclan must be shining down on him.

It seemed the news he'd told the clever tom had gotten its attention just how he expected. At the question, his own tail started twitching. "Well, its a bit more complicated than him just stepping down. I mean Starclan approved him, so in their eyes there are two real leaders." He looked down to hide the feelings uprising in his eyes.

"Well, it seems the clans are always having problems," he looked up with a smile, showing amusement for the statement. Foxflight's gaze darkened though for a breif second. "Unfortunatly, its always somehow connected to the leaders' own individual problems these days."

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I fell into the burning ring of FIRE

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Firestar walked into the meeting, not even stopping to speak with any other cats, she just leapt up to the Great Rock. She didn't dare to look at the cats below her. She had seen the error in her ways and guilt was slowly killing her.[/color][/center][/font]

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(Oops Goldy...I had Stormstrike leading then cause you weren't here...)

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Badgerstep frowned and twitched his ear. "Two leaders? I can't see how that would work out well for ThunderClan. Does that mean that Riddlehawk also got his nine lives before Tanglestar returned?" The tom's amber eyes were wide with interest by now. He hadn't known much about the events of ThunderClan, and this all came as quite a shock to him. "But if he was already Riddlestar, Tanglestar should have retired when she came back, shouldn't she have?"

The black and white tom shook his head again. It all seemed wrong somehow. He glanced back to Foxflight and nodded. "That sounds about right. I haven't really thought about it that way, but it makes sense. The leaders were the ones who started it all. They set their priorities first, and don't care about what other cats want." His eyes fell to the ground. He'd said something stupid again. Why didn't he just scream out to the whole forest the truth?

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(((t-RAIN, How about we say Firestar wasn't going to come, then caught up with the group after.., I know what I want to say at the inital gathering in my head...)))

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Foxflight sighed at Badgerstep's questions. That's exactly how it should have been, but it hadn't happened that way. Yes, Riddlehawk was supposed to be the leader, but that wasn't good enough for him. Riddlehawk was corrupting the clan as much as Tanglestar was.

When Badgerstep agreed with him and put his own words into it, Foxflight was sure he had struck the first cat needed in Windclan. The name would be engraved in his mind along with how the tom looked. Sooner or later, this tom would be a player in his scheme.

Foxflight looked at Badgerstep in surprise as the young tom looked to the ground in shame. Maybe there was something else hidden in those words the Windclan warrior had used. "Tanglestar didn't want to step down, so it happened this way."

Flicking his ears to rid himself of a mosquito, he began to question the tom. "I'm catching that there's something else wrong Badgerstep." He looked curiously at the tom, but shook his head in a friendly manner. "You don't have to tell me though, if you don't want to."

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Riddlehawk moved away from the rock, the meeting not starting for a while yet. He padded over to Foxflight in time to catch the last comment. He knew that the three of them weren't exactly being listened to at the moment. "I stepped down because I didn't want to deal with a fight." The tom said, flicking his tail as he saw the gathering was going to start. He padded back, casting a smile over his shoulder at the two toms. "Stormstrike, Shadowfang, Swiftfire.." he acknowledged the other deputys.

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Ooc: You talking to me Goldy? :3 And okay!

Stormstrike nodded hello to Riddlehawk, giving the other deputy a friendly smile. They were close enough to being friends, for being deputies of other clans. As he did so, he saw Firestar arrive and he blinked in surprise. She came after all? He frowned, knowing her late arrival would not fair so well with the clan, but he jumped down to the other deputies as if he knew she was coming. It would be embarrassing if they knew that he was going to speak then was put back in his place when his leader came.

"Should you two be exposing your clans so easily with your tongues?" Another voice broke into the conversation of Swiftfire and Badgerstep. The tiger had padded up to them without making sound, his golden orbs studying them boredly, his voice deep and smooth. Tigerstorm's tail twitched and he looked from one to the other. "I thought the leaders were supposed to do that."

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Badgerstep glanced back up to Foxflight for a moment. With his pathetic excuse for covering up it probably wasn't hard to tell that he was hiding something. But all the same, he wasn't planning on telling any cat. Ever. Doing so would mean the end of everything that he held close. So he just blinked. "Every cat is wise to have their secrets," he mewed plainly.

The black and white tom hadn't been expecting Riddlehawk's appearance in their conversation, so his head swiveled around when he heard the deputy's voice next to his ear. "Oh, I see," he mewed before watching the tabby head back to join the other deputies beside the leader's rock. "I guess that makes him a loyal deputy," he admitted with a shrug. "But I don't know what I would have done if I had been in his position."

He looked back again at the sound of another unfamiliar voice. The new tom had the scent of ShadowClan, but he really didn't know much else about the tom. "It's not doing any harm," he mewed defensively, giving his chest fur a few quick licks. "What of it?"

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Foxflight was impressed by the response he got from Badgerstep. "I understand," he said lightly.

His eyes looked up as he noticed a shadow near them. The deputy of Thunderclan had approached them and seemed to have a word to say. Of course that hunch was right and all Foxflight could do was smirk. Not fight, huh? Then what has been happening this whole time and why are you starting one? The eyes of Foxflight watched as the tom left towards the rock again as Badgerstep commented.

He then turned his attention back to the Windclan warrior. "Yeah, I have to agree with you there. Very complicated business and it doesn't help that Starclan isn't helping."

An unfamiliar voice hit his ears and he swiveled his head around to behold the tiger look a like tom he'd seen farther away. Badgerstep was quick to respond towards the tom as Foxflight examined the warrior. The smell was of Shadowclan, but was faint. Suspicion of who exactly the tom was gnawed at his stomach. Either way, this tom could help out later on and being picky of allies wasn't a good thing.

"All cats talk of their clans at gatherings. If you had been listening the entire time you would have noticed we haven't given real specifics or juicy information that hasn't already been gossiped about already." He mewed this calmly, but his eyes dared this fellow to continue the topic. Unfortunately for this tom, he was great at debating his point and at this moment it was their, Badgerstep and his, point.

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Swiftfire's gaze found Firestar, the huffy leader who hadn't had time to apologize to Foxstar directly. She still wasn't over that she-cat leaving and having her deputy say it for her. It was just plain rude.

The deputy was surprised though that the leader had come given Stormstrike had taken her position on the rock. Grit falling towards the ground told her the Riverclan deputy had noticed as well and was hastily taking his normal position without raising much attention. She shot him a glance of encouragement as his leader approached.

Thunderclan's deputy left all of a sudden out of her periphrial vision. Trying to find the tom, she saw that he was talking to a group of cats, one of them Badgerstep. She cocked her head, not knowing who that other tom was and that he was friends with Badgerstep. Swiftfire smiled though, glad that Badgerstep looked cheery and not as fidgety as he had before.

Riddlehawk then came back and nodded towards her as if he had already accepted her as deputy of Windclan. She nodded back and waited for the meeting to start, fighting the urge to mingle with the other cats.

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"If it's not doing any harm, then why do you sound so defensive Badgerstep?" The tom asked calmly, studying the Windclan tom with his penetrating golden eyes. He noticed how the tom licked down his puffed up chest fur, a sign to him that he was anxious and nervous. But about what?

Then his gaze turned to the other, a Thunderclan tom by his scent. "Yes, cats talk. Most without meaning, but there's something in your eyes that say different." Tigerstorm replied, studying the other. Something about this tom got his senses alert.

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Badgerstep glared at the new tom. He wasn't liking the way the warrior was trying to interrogate them, how he was pushing for information that Foxflight had politely left untouched. "Sorry for seeming rude," the tom responded more strongly, "but I just don't like it when cats pop up into a conversation uninvited." He held his chin a bit higher. Even though his personality didn't often size up, the black and white tom was actually a very large, well-built cat for WindClan standards.

"It's a little rude to go around accusing cats of sharing Clan secrets. Besides, you're not in either of our Clans. So why should you care?" Badgerstep's tail-tip was twitching again, now from irritation. Why was this new tabby being such a bur in the paw?

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Foxflight's eyes narrowed at this new cat's comment. He was being a bit too pushy for Foxflight's liking. If this tom wasn't going to help them and knew what they were saying then this plan would brake apart for the time being. Foxflight would have to be crafty to figure out if this tom was a possible helper or not.

What Badgerstep said was an appropriate response to the big Shadowclan tom. Quivering his whiskers, he listened politely and waited for his turn to talk.

"Exactly. If you'd like to join us all you have to do is ask. You don't have to start with a threat. But first, what is it you see in my eyes that changes me from other cats if your so clever?"