Epilogue

"C'mon, you can do better than that!" a red tabby she-cat teased.

The young gray tabby tom struggled to his paws and crouched. He took a deep breath, bunched his hunches and pounced for the older cat, but the tabby was too fast for him.

"Too slow!" she teased again. "C'mon, at this rate you'll never be a warrior!"

"I'm trying, Willowwhisp!" the young tom sounded almost on the verge of tears. "I can't do it, I just can't! I'm no warrior. Maybe Rainflower should take me on as an apprentice."

"Raccoonpaw, don't talk like that!" Willowwhisp scolded. "You're my apprentice, and my apprentices are warriors! Look, you wait way too long before you attack, and you make it really obvious. If your opponent sees you take a deep breath and tense your muscles, they know you're going to pounce almost before you do."

"O.K." Raccoonpaw nodded.

"Your reaction time's not so good either," Willowwhisp scolded. "But that can only be fixed with practice, which I'm tired of. C'mon, let's get back to camp."

"Alright!" Raccoonpaw bounced once. "Hey, Willowwhisp," he asked as they walked through the forest back to ThunderClan territory.

"Yea?" Willowwhisp looked down at him.

"Are there any other places in a Clan that don't involve fighting?" Raccoonpaw asked.

"Will you stop that?" Willowwhisp demanded. "Look, it takes time to train warriors! If you're not good now, you'll get better! You can't just give up after a moon."

"B…but I want to try every possible route," Raccoonpaw insisted. "I don't know too much about Clans and I want to learn all I can to determine where I fit in."

"Well you have," Willowwhisp said, "there are only two kinds of apprentices, warrior and medicine cat, that's it."

"What about the leader and the deputy?" Raccoonpaw asked.

"They were both warriors," Willowwhisp explained. "The leader selects a deputy that will take over as leader if the leader loses their last life."

"O.K." Raccoonpaw nodded. "So a medicine cat's the only one who doesn't fight."

"Raccoonpaw, stop!" Willowwhisp snapped. "I can make you a brilliant warrior, you just have to be willing to learn."

"That's just it," Raccoonpaw said, "I'm not willing. I don't like fighting or the idea of hurting others. I don't see why the Clans have to fight each other. What if just one cat led all of them and there was peace?"

"There'd be a battle over who would lead," Willowwhisp replied. "You can't have peace without war."

Raccoonpaw nodded in understanding as the two ducked through a tunnel of thorns that led into the camp. Willowwhisp turned and went one way while Raccoonpaw went another, towards a cluster of brambles that was the apprentice's den.

"Hi, Vinepaw," Raccoonpaw nodded to a cream-colored she-cat, "Brownpaw," he turned to the brown tom by her side, "and Stripepaw," he nodded to a pale tabby she-cat with dark brown stripes.

"Hi, Raccoonpaw," Stripepaw got up and padded towards him, "how was training."

"Um…O.K." Raccoonpaw said, nervously.

"What'd you do wrong this time?" Brownpaw asked.

"Brownpaw, leave him alone!" Vinepaw groaned. "What makes you think he did anything wrong?"

"His attitude," Brownpaw retorted. "So what was it?"

"Like you never did anything wrong when you were an apprentice," Stripepaw spat.

"No, I didn't," Brownpaw said, proudly.

"Perhaps we should ask Littlepool," the meow from behind Brownpaw startled the apprentice.

"Flowertail, don't do that!" Brownpaw spat, bristling.

The white she-cat with blue-gray splotches let out a mrrow of amusement. "Anyway, I overheard Willowwhisp talking to Mudstar and I think you're going to your first Gathering, Raccoonpaw."

"Really?!" Raccoonpaw whirled around excitedly. "That's great! I'll get to meet cats from other Clans! Are you going?"

Flowertail nodded. "It'll be my first Gathering as a warrior. Stripepaw, Vinepaw, you're coming too, right?"

"Yep," Vinepaw said, happily.

"Right," Stripepaw nodded.

"Wait, so I'm gonna be here alone?!" Brownpaw exclaimed.

"Aww, it won't be that bad," Vinepaw rested a tail on her littermate's shoulder. "Now you'll get the den all to yourself."

"Yea, great," Brownpaw muttered.

"I'm gonna get a mouse," Stripepaw announced, "I don't wanna get hungry at the Gathering tonight."

"Good idea," Vinepaw agreed.

"Wait up," Flowertail followed the two she-cats.

"Wow, my first Gathering!" Raccoonpaw was so overjoyed, he hardly noticed anything else. "I wonder what kinds of cats I'll meet! I wonder what all the other Clans are like. Maybe Silvershine will be there!"

"S…Silvershine?" Brownpaw asked. "You mean Silverpaw, don't you?"

"Huh?" Raccoonpaw hardly noticed him, "uh, no. She's my friend, her name's Silvershine. She's from WindClan."

"A tabby?" Brownpaw began to bristle.

"Yea," Raccoonpaw said, "you know her?"

"Listen here, you sorry excuse for an apprentice," Brownpaw growled, "you keep away from that cat! Silverp…shine, is my friend, you hear me?!"

"She can have more than one friend," Raccoonpaw protested.

"You keep away!" Brownpaw hissed. "Silvershine is mine you hear me?! I've known her longer than you've been in the forest! You can ask Vinepaw, we used to play all the time, and not just at Gatherings. She likes me, ya got that?!"

"W…wait, do you want Silvershine as a…mate?" Raccoonpaw asked. "Isn't that against the warrior code?"

"Foxdung!" Brownpaw spat, "I can do whatever I want whenever I want, and no out-dated rules are gonna change that!"

"Then so can I," Raccoonpaw said. "Maybe I want Silvershine, if the rules don't matter anymore. Maybe I can tell her about how you ran into a tree yesterday while chasing a squirrel, I'm sure she'd love to hear that story."

"You stupid piece of foxdung!" Brownpaw snarled as his claws slid out. "I'll make you regret ever meeting Silvershine!"

"Brownpaw, what are you doing?" Vinepaw asked, padding back over to them with the others. "You can't fight him!"

"I can take him!" Brownpaw spat.

"She means the truce, mouse-brain," Stripepaw said.

"Truce?" Raccoonpaw asked.

"There's a truce on the full moon," Flowertail explained. "No cats are supposed to fight, by will of StarClan. That's how we can have the Gatherings, no cat is allowed to fight each other today."

"What if someone else starts it?" Raccoonpaw asked. "Like if Brownpaw pounced on me, would me fighting back be against the truce?"

"Probably," Vinepaw laid down beside Brownpaw, who was beginning to calm down. "But if they were attacked first, no cat would hold back, I guarantee it."

"What was such a big deal that you were going to claw his ears off anyway, Brownpaw?" Stripepaw asked.

"He was just talking about the Gathering and it was bothering me," Brownpaw lied well.

"He didn't mean it," Vinepaw licked her littermate's ear comfortingly.

Brownpaw remained silent, but glared up at Raccoonpaw with hatred and warning in his eyes.

Racconpaw returned his gaze, unflinching, and allowed a taunting smirk to play across his muzzle. He hadn't considered getting a mate when he'd first arrived in ThunderClan, but now he may just accept this challenge. Silvershine's nice too. I'm sure if I hang around her, she'll tell me all about WindClan and whatever else she knows about other Clans. This Gathering may be more fun than I thought.

----

~Alright, you're all probably wondering why the heck I made an epilogue in the middle of the story. Well, since this is technically the 30th chapter, I've written more than one Warriors book worth of fanfic. So, this "book" is now over. The next "book" will be submitted as a second story and so on and so forth. The main reason I'm doing this is for prologues and epilogues. I'm getting sick and tired of being forced to stay only in WindClan for the most part, so this is the only way to get insight into other Clans without breaking the warrior code.~