It was a hot and sticky summer evening as the Thunder Clan cats and the nations walked around the lake to the island. They were headed to the gathering that would take place in roughly an hour. They had learned that gatherings were sort of like world meetings. Aside from asking a few further questions, the nations had been relatively silent on their way over...that is except for America.

"Are we there yet?" he moaned.

"No!" England snapped, "now shut up!"

"Actually..." Lionblaze said, "We're almost there." He pointed his tail towards an island in the distance.

"Alright!" America said, running forward. He began pushing through cats to get to the front of the group. "Out of my way, Hero coming through!" he said.

"Wait!" Lionblaze called, causing the white and brown cat to come to a skidding halt. "The leader has to be the first to cross the tree bridge. It's tradition."

"Really?" he said, "I didn't know there were so many weird rules about these things. Sorry dudes. I'll try to remeber next time." England rolled his eyes. Firestar lead the clan over the fallen tree. All the other clans had already arrived. Lionblaze looked around, seeing several new faces.

Those cats noticed the Thunder Clan cats as well. Some of them even recognized a few of them. "Ohon hon hon!" He heard someone say.

"Oh Bloody Hell! You've got to be kidding me!" England said.

A fluffy, cream colored cat approached them. "Well well well, if it isn't the black sheep of Europe!" he said.

"Sod off Frog!" England said, back arching and fur fluffing up, "why don't you go off and do what you do best like surrendering and drunk driving!"

"Ha! Shows what you know!" the cream cat responded, "It's not drunk driving if you're drinking wine!"

The two looked ready to pounce on each other. Star Clan wasn't going to like that! Lionblaze quickly jumped between the two. "Hey!" he said, "A Gathering is a time for peace! If you two can't handle that, you can go home!" The two glared at each other before separating. It only occurred to Lionblaze later that the two cats had known eachother with out him experiencing this."I'll have to tell Jayfeather about this..." he said.

Speaking of Jayfeather, he had found his way over to the base of the great oak to sit with the other medicine cats. "Hello Jayfeather!" Mothwing called, "How is everything?"

"Good," he said giving her a nod before sitting down. He then sniffed the air, confused. "I smell a strange sent with us. Did you get an apprentice Littlecloud?"

"No, I did," Kestrelflight said, "My mentor passed away a few days before he and his friends showed up. When he did, he asked if he could join so that he could help out in the medicine cat's den. Jayfeather, meet Italy."

Italy suddenly jumped up in front of him, saluting with the wrong paw. "Hello!" he said in as sing song voice, "I'm-a Italy! It's-a so nice to meet you, Mr. Jayfeather! Kestrelflight told me all about you. I really like the color of your fur! Let's be best friends!"

"Uh..." Jayfeather uttered. He had no idea what to say to the fast talking Italian. Something told him that he was going to get on his nerves on a regular basis, though. Befor he could say anything, Italy suddenly gasped.

"GERMANYYYYYYY!~" he cried running off in seemingly a random direction.

"Italy!" Kestrelflight called, exasperated, "we've been over this! You have to stay with the medicine cats!"

"Some apprentice you've got there," Willowshine said. Kestrelflight then ran after him.

(Meanwhile)

Germany followed his brother through the crowds of cats, appologizing when his brother shoved cats out of the way. "I swear I heard France's laughter around here somewhere! If I can find him and Spain, I could my trio of awesomeness back together!"

"Great," Germany said sarcasticly. If those three got together, they would have a whole new set of problems on their hands...Er paws.

"GERMANYYYYY!~" he heard someone shout. He turned just in time to see a brown and tan mass tackle him. He yowled in surprise while his brother laughed. Rolling around he tried to get whatever it was on top of him off so he could fight it, but stopped when he heard a familiar yelp.

"Italy?" He said in surprise.

"I was so worried I'd never see you again, Doitsu!" he said, nuzzling the big blue cat. Prussia was laughing louder now, and the cats around them were giving them strage looks.

"It's good to see you to Italy..." he said with a sigh, patting the smaller cat on the head.

"There you are!" Someone said. Germany turned to see a light brown cat with darker flecks running towards the. "Italy! I told you that you had to stay with the medicine cats, remeber?" he said.

"Aww, but I wanted to hang out with Germany!" Italy pleaded.

"Sorry, but no," he said, "The gathering is about to begin and you need to be seated at the base of the great oak when it does." Italy still refused to go. Kestrelflight ended up having to drag him away by his tail. Germany just let out another sigh.

He turned back to where his brother had been, but that space was now empty. "Mein Gott, where did he go to now?" he didn't have time to find out though, for he saw a ginger tom jump up on a branch of the great oak, causing silence to fall.

"Let this gathering be called to order..." he said.

Xxxxxxxxx

To be continued...

hey everyone! Sorry this is so late and so short. I would have made it longer, except I can't find my copy of the first book in the omen of the stars set and I wanted to get the wording correct. as for why this took so long, I've been dealing with a lot of writers block for this story plus the thing with the missing booK, but I have gotten a bunch of other stuff done including working on two original stories on fictionpress called "tales of the Friar and the Dragon" and "secret of the Amazon". Feel free to check those out.

on another note, Thank you guys so much for 100+ reviews! I really appreciate it. I have no idea when the next chapter is coming out. I have to find that darn book first. Anyways, have a merry Christmas or whatever other holiday you celebrate this time of year! Hope you liked the chapter!