Cats milled around the small island, growing impatient. The Gathering would begin as soon as one more Clan arrived, but they had been waiting for almost twenty minutes already, and there had been no sign of them as of yet.

"Where is WindClan?" yowled a brown tabby tom. "Why are they late?!"

As if on cue, the bushes around the island suddenly started to rustle. A head popped through, followed by another, then another. Five cats- no, six- trudged into the clearing and sat down.

A seventh cat, an old yellow tom, appeared and plodded slowly to the large tree in the centre. He could barely manage to climb it.

"Greetings, Sandstar," said another leader, a young white tom with a ring of black around his tail. "What kept you?"

"We had a problem with one of the kits," Sandstar grunted. "What about it, Ringstar- would you appreciate if I asked the rest of you why you were on time?"

"That would be because we all remembered that tonight was the full moon," jeered a black she-cat with startling green eyes. "Unlike you, you senile old fool!"

The last cat in the tree, a tom with very plain gray fur and grayish eyes, said nothing, and simply continued to stare straight ahead.

"Well, we're all here now," said Ringstar crossly. "Jadestar, let's not give the poor cat any more grief than he deserves. Now, Miststar, why don't we start with you?"

One by one, the other leaders talked about their Clans and how they were doing. Miststar reported that RiverClan had an abundance of fish and was doing more than fine. Jadestar said that ShadowClan was in good shape despite the cold weather, and that she did not appreciate them wanting her to go into more detail. Ringstar said that ThunderClan was great, but what he was really curious about was the Twoleg and his dog that kept walking through the forest. The dog had never chased anybody yet, but it had seemed very friendly towards them.

"WindClan is doing well, too," Sandstar lied. "We have not lost any more cats, and I truly believe that our struggles are now far behind us."

It was true that they had not lost any cats since Cloudwind, but Lilyflower was very sick, and Barkpaw wouldn't be able to walk for at least another moon.

In fact, Sandstar's Clan was dying, not just the cats in it. First there had been the outbreak of blackcough. Then a strange disease had killed many rabbits, along with other prey. This had only affected WindClan territory.

There had also been the attack from the rogues that had demanded to see their leader. Sandstar would have been just fine with actually meeting with them, just to see if they had anything to say to him of use, but Flamefur and Deerfoot had refused, and the rogue had killed them both.

At the start of the season, WindClan had had eighteen cats in it, and now it had a population of eleven.

At least there was a tiny spark of hope. Owlwing was expecting Rabbitleap's kits, and soon there would be twelve at least- probably thirteen or even fourteen- cats in the Clan- assuming no one else died until then. Even so, it was quite a good development for WindClan. Maybe they had a chance of survival, but if so, it wasn't there at all without these unborn kits. The future would probably end up resting on their shoulders- a terrible burden for the young.

The Gathering was just about drawing to a close when Mossnose, the RiverClan medicine cat, jumped up next to Miststar and whispered something to him, concern furrowing her brow. Miststar flicked his ears and glanced out at the crowd of cats below, but he nodded and motioned for Mossnose to jump down.

"There is one more thing that I think all the Clans may benefit from hearing about," the gray leader meowed. "Mossnose has received a vision from StarClan telling her to watch for a kit 'with fur the colour of the deepest waters', for they will grow to become part of some future prophecy. She says that StarClan did not specify what Clan this kit would be from, so it may concern any of us. Apparently this cat will be vital to the future, although we have no idea whose future they will be vital to."

Ringstar nodded thoughtfully. "I'll keep an eye out for any young cats who match that description," he mewed. Jadestar seemed sceptical, but she agreed to do the same.

Sandstar's twisted old whiskers quivered at this new shred of hope. Could this kit be part of Owlwing's upcoming litter? If that had been the case, it seemed that WindClan's medicine cat, Podtail, should have been the one to receive the vision, but Podtail had been so busy over these past few moons that maybe StarClan had chosen to send it to a medicine cat with more time on their paws.

It was a stretch, but it suddenly felt possible that there really could be hope for WindClan…