Once again, the terrible time had come for another gathering. Cats talking so loud, eyes on her no matter how much she wanted to hide…. The terrible responsibility of explaining how another one of their leaders had died so soon. Larkwing… star… didn’t know if she could stand the idea of that, would the other clans decide to shoot her with their accusatory glares and words as well as her own clan? Would the whispers of rebellion that were already sounding from every corner of the camp clearing and their territory going to follow her here too? …Was she just being paranoid?

Luckily enough, it seemed that RiverClan was the first to arrive at the Seastones, so, for the moment at least, Lark could prepare herself. Pausing just before entering the area where the clans would gather, Lark cast a glance back to her clan, wondering briefly if they would behave. It seemed like every gathering always had some sort of fuss… last moons being an odd, slightly less rowdy exception. Maybe this moon would be more of that. Stars, she hoped so.

“Let’s go,” she said to her clan, flicking an ear for them to follow her, and Lark led the way across the sandy ground, finding her way to the stones she and the other leaders would sit atop to address the other clans, and jumped up, green eyes seeing the Seastones from a whole new vantage point and perspective. It was… pretty. Intimidating, yes, but Lark found it quite pretty up here. And then she remembered that she’d have to share this perch with the other leaders and she suppressed a shudder. Bumblestar, Twilightstar and Dawnstar… the three other leaders all had some things she didn’t, experience, their names, and extra lives, even if it was only a few. A wave of inferiority coursed through the tortie’s veins, begging her to step down from here, from this spot she didn’t deserve.

That cat she had met in the Dark Forest came to her mind then, and she realized she didn’t know his name, and had never asked. That was rude of her, he’d probably hold a grudge about that. But she couldn’t retreat or back down now, that would only be proving his assumptions about her right. So, head held high, Larkstar sat on the stone, tail curled over her paws, and waited for the rest of the forest to descend upon them.