MISTYSTAR AND STONEFUR
MISTYKIT AND STONEKIT WERE born in ThunderClan to the warrior Bluefur, after her illicit relationship with the RiverClan cat Oakheart. Faced with the agonizing knowledge that Thistleclaw was about to become deputy and destroy ThunderClan with his bloodthirsty ambition, Bluefur took her three kits through the snow to the edge of the river and gave them to Oakheart, leaving her free to be chosen as deputy instead. One of the kits, Mosskit, died in the cold, but the other two survived and were raised by Graypool after the death of her own litter. Of course, Graypool guessed exactly where the kits had come from, as did Crookedstar, but they kept Oakheart’s secret and raised the cats to be loyal, brave, respected RiverClan warriors.
Leopardstar made Mistyfoot her deputy, and Mistyfoot and Stonefur mentored Stormfur and Feathertail. But then Bluestar revealed to them the truth about their birth, and Mistyfoot and Stonefur became the thing that Leopardstar hated most: half-Clan cats. They were briefly reunited with their mother when she fell into the gorge, saving her Clanmates from a pack of wild dogs. Bluestar died at their paws, happy to have acknowledged her full-grown kits at last.
When Tigerstar took control of RiverClan, Mistyfoot fled across the river to ThunderClan, but Stonefur was captured and killed by Darkstripe and Blackfoot—both of whom had left their Clans to join TigerClan—on Tigerstar’s command. Mistyfoot returned to her Clan after the battle with BloodClan and resumed her duties as deputy, under a shocked and chastened Leopardstar. Mistyfoot helped her Clanmates on the Great Journey and stayed loyal to her father’s Clan as they settled into their new home.
She never forgot her ThunderClan connections, though, and would have been hard-pressed to declare war on Firestar and his warriors. But her half-Clan roots were long forgiven by all the Clans, and she was regarded with great respect from all around the lake. When Leopardstar died, Mistystar became the leader of RiverClan.
FEATHERTAIL
FEATHERTAIL NEVER KNEW HER mother, Silverstream, who died giving birth to her at the foot of Sunningrocks. She and her brother, Stormfur, were first raised in ThunderClan by their father, Graystripe, but when they were treated less than kindly by their adopted Clanmates, Graystripe took them back across the river to be raised in their mother’s Clan. Graystripe soon returned to ThunderClan, but Featherkit and Stormkit stayed loyal to RiverClan. When Tigerstar rose to power and inflicted his obsession with pure Clan blood on the whole forest, Featherpaw and Stormpaw, now apprentices, were obvious targets. Leopardstar was persuaded to keep them prisoner in an old fox den, together with Featherpaw’s mentor, Stonefur, and from that dank hole, Featherpaw and her brother watched Stonefur die in a savagely unfair fight with Darkstripe and Blackfoot.
Firestar, Graystripe, and Ravenpaw rescued them and took them to ThunderClan, where they joined their Clanmate Mistyfoot; like her, they chose to go back to RiverClan when the battle with BloodClan was over. In the following greenleaf, StarClan visited Feathertail, now a warrior, in a dream, urging her to listen to Midnight. Four cats, one from each Clan, received the same message, and joined together to travel to the sun-drown-place and find a way to save their Clanmates from the destruction of the forest. Stormfur went with Feathertail, too loyal to his littermate to let her travel so far alone. But Feathertail was not alone; she fell in love with another cat who had been visited by StarClan, Crowpaw of WindClan. To other cats, he was prickly and reserved, but Feathertail saw through that to the loyal warrior beneath and, free from the borders that divided their forest home, they had no need to hide their affection.
On the return journey from the sun-drown-place, they stayed in the mountains with the Tribe of Rushing Water, and here Feathertail learned that she was part of another prophecy altogether, not from StarClan but from the Tribe of Endless Hunting. They foresaw that a silver cat would be the one to save the Tribe from the mountain lion named Sharptooth that preyed on them. The prophecy came true, but it cost Feathertail her life, plunging from the roof of the cave with the shard of stone that killed Sharptooth. She was buried above the waterfall, and she walks in the stars with the Tribe of Endless Hunting, watching over her adopted home. But she has never forgotten the Clans and often visits them in their dreams, guiding their paw steps with the same gentleness and foresight that she showed in her short, courageous life.
HAWKFROST
HAWKFROST WAS TIGERSTAR’S OTHER son, half brother to Brambleclaw and Tawnypelt. He and his sister, Mothwing, as well as their brother, Tadpole, were born to a loner named Sasha who strayed into ThunderClan shortly after Tigerstar became leader. Sasha gave birth to her kits alone in the forest and tried to raise them in abandoned Twoleg dens. After nearly losing her litter in a flood that claimed the life of Tadpole, Sasha brought her kits to RiverClan. Although the life of a Clan cat didn’t suit her, she hoped it would give her kits a better chance of survival than if they were left in the wild. She came back for them when she learned that the Clans were being forced out of the forest by Twolegs, but by then Hawkfrost and his sister, Mothwing, were grown up and loyal to the code they shared with their Clanmates.
Even before he learned who his father was, Hawkfrost wanted to take Leopardstar’s place. He trained harder than any other apprentice, practiced catching fish over and over even though the skill didn’t run in his blood as it did in his Clanmates’, and was rewarded by being made temporary deputy when Mistyfoot was captured by Twolegs. He was clever enough to know that being Leopardstar’s favorite did not mean he was respected by his Clanmates. For that he needed something more . . . such as a sister who was the Clan’s medicine cat. So he tore the wing off a moth and faked a sign from StarClan to convince Mudfur that Mothpaw was the right choice for his apprentice.
Tigerstar saw the potential in his ambitious, coldhearted son, and when the cats made the long journey to the lake, Tigerstar began visiting Hawkfrost in his dreams, encouraging him to support Mudclaw in the rebellion against Onestar. When Mudclaw was defeated, Hawkfrost insisted he’d had nothing to do with the uprising.
And it was Tigerstar’s idea that Hawkfrost should plot with a ThunderClan cat who was already an enemy of Brambleclaw’s to lure Firestar into a trap. That cat was Ashfur, who couldn’t have realized just what Hawkfrost was planning. But Tigerstar underestimated
Brambleclaw’s loyalty to his Clan leader; instead of killing Firestar as Hawkfrost and Firestar expected, he freed the ThunderClan leader from the trap. Then Brambleclaw turned on his half brother, and StarClan’s terrible prophecy was fulfilled: “Before all is peaceful, blood will spill blood and the lake will run red.”
Hawkfrost joined his father in the Dark Forest and preyed on discontented cats in the living Clans, urging them to train in their dreams and rise up against the weaknesses of the warrior code. Hawkfrost personally sought out Ivypaw, Dovepaw’s troubled sister, and watched with pride as she became one of the Dark Forest’s most skilled warriors. Even when his companions doubted her loyalty, Hawkfrost insisted she could be trusted. When he realized that she had duped him all along and had been a ThunderClan spy in their midst, he turned on her. Before he could strike the fatal blow, Hollyleaf leaped to intercept it. Hawkfrost killed her instead and was pursued back to the shadows by a fearsome patrol of living warriors.
MOTHWING AND WlLLLOWSHlNE
MOTHWING WAS ALWAYS FASCINATED by the healing skills of Mudfur, and she had no objection to being trained as his apprentice—but she did object to Hawkfrost’s methods of convincing the old cat to mentor her, and she lived in constant fear that his deception would be discovered. Mothwing was a quick learner, sensitive to cats in pain or injured, and well trusted by her Clanmates to care for them. But she suffered from one flaw, unique to any medicine cat in the history of the Clans: Mothwing had no belief in StarClan. The ancestors never walked in her dreams; she felt nothing when she touched the Moonstone or the water of the Moonpool; instinct and experience took the place of sharing tongues with cats that had walked in her paw steps before.
Hawkfrost’s threat to reveal her secret meant he was able to force her to make false prophecies, such as the tale about troublesome stones in the river that led to Stormfur and Brook being driven out of the Clan when they tried to settle beside the lake after leaving their mountain home. Because Mothwing was unable to receive warnings from StarClan, she didn’t know about the Twoleg poison on RiverClan territory that started killing her Clanmates, and her warrior ancestors couldn’t tell her where to find catmint when greencough struck. Terrified that her lie might be destroying her Clan, Mothwing confided in Leafpool, who began speaking to Willowshine in dreams on her behalf.
Mistystar’s nine lives ceremony posed a greater challenge, because Mothwing was forced to confess to her closest friend that she did not believe in StarClan. At first Mistystar felt the essence of her leadership was threatened by such a lack of faith, but a vision of a perfect moth emerging triumphant and glorious from a dry brown pod, together with whispers from StarClan, convinced her that she should trust Mothwing to fulfill her duties as she had done for seasons before, rather than judge her for the few things she could not do.
StarClan found a better solution in Willowshine, the RiverClan cat who showed an interest in becoming a medicine cat while she was still a kit. Willowshine’s keenness to learn about herbs and her efforts to help during an outbreak of sickness in RiverClan made her an inevitable choice for Mothwing’s apprentice. But from the start, Willowshine knew there was something different about her mentor. Mothwing taught her everything she knew about how to heal their Clanmates, but was evasive when it came to interpreting dreams and omens. She took Willowshine to the Moonpool every half-moon with the other medicine cats, but never spoke of the things that StarClan had shared with her. Then, after the death of an elder from greencough, Willowshine was visited in her dream by Leafpool, the ThunderClan medicine cat, and Feathertail, a long-ago RiverClan warrior. They led her to a patch of catmint just beyond RiverClan territory, knowing it would be a precious addition to her herb store.
From that night on, Leafpool walked with Willowshine in her dreams, teaching her about StarClan and how to read omens and watch for signs. Willowshine didn’t need to ask why she was being helped by cats from other Clans; she had already guessed that her mentor didn’t share her connection to StarClan. But in the same moment, she knew that it didn’t matter. Mothwing was a wise, experienced, and skilled medicine cat. She deserved Willowshine’s respect and loyalty—and Willowshine vowed to keep Mothwing’s secret until her very last breath.
SKYCLAN
Introduction to SkyClan: Cloudstar Speaks
SKYCLAN HAS THE DISTINCTION of being the very first Clan in the forest. Our founder, Clear Sky, came from the mountains and chose not to stay with the others on the moor, clinging to an environment that reminded them of home; instead, he saw the potential in the prey-rich woodland, in the dense undergrowth that could offer shelter and secrecy. He took with him the cats that were most skilled at leaping into the air to bring down eagles. This talent was easily turned to climbing trees in pursuit of squirrels and smaller, easier-won birds.
The moorland cats became jealous and resentful, but Clear Sky knew he was sowing the seeds of a group that would grow strong and proud, and last forever.
And perhaps it would have. But Clear Sky could not have foreseen what the Twolegs would do to his precious territory. By the time I became leader, many, many seasons after Clear Sky had gone to walk among the stars, our beloved trees were being torn down to make way for new Twoleg dens.
For the first time, SkyClan was the most vulnerable of all the Clans. We appealed to the others for help, for enough of their territory to survive the bitter cold of leaf-bare, but it seemed our history, our place in establishing the very grounds of the warrior code, meant nothing. Cast out, I led my Clanmates on a long and dreadful journey until I found a gorge carved out of sandy rock that offered shelter and prey and a chance to rest.
SkyClan thrived in its new home, nurturing the flickering flame of the warrior code, until rats came and stole our prey and killed our kits and terrorized us until there was no one left. SkyClan could not suffer two defeats. The cats scattered and the gorge lay empty until Firestar was sent by Bluestar to restore what had once been a noble and important Clan. Firestar and Sandstorm rebuilt our Clan, tracking down our descendants who still showed an echo of our tree-hunting skills, and inviting other cats to join and uphold the warrior code. There were still rats to defeat and the challenge of teaching so many cats at once to live according to the ways of our ancestors, but the heart of SkyClan had never truly died. Maybe we lived apart from the other Clans, maybe some of our cats had not completely cast off their kittypet connections, but SkyClan thrived once more.
CLOUDSTAR AND SKYWATCHER
CLOUDSTAR WAS WELL AWARE of the significance of his Clan’s place in the history of the forest, and he took as much pride as his Clanmates in SkyClan’s strength and reputation. When Twolegs started to destroy the territory to build new dens, Cloudstar trusted his rival Clans to help him survive. Instead, each leader protested that sharing their territory would be impossible, that SkyClan would not be able to catch different prey, that if there were only four Great Oaks in the hollow, perhaps StarClan only ever intended for there to be four Clans.
To his horror, Cloudstar realized that his Clanmates’ only chance of survival lay in finding a new home. His mate, Birdflight, stayed behind in ThunderClan with their newborn kits. Numb with grief, Cloudstar found somewhere to rest in a sandy gorge, far upriver from the forest. His faith in StarClan had been shaken so deeply that he gave little heed to the warrior code. Food and shelter, that was all his Clanmates needed. Other leaders came after him, but a savage horde of rats drove out the remaining cats, and from his place in the stars, Cloudstar watched his beloved Clan dwindle to dust.
Skywatcher was the last descendant of SkyClan living in the gorge when Firestar and Sandstorm arrived. His mother had told him tales of their ancestors who watched the full moon from the rock jutting out over the gorge, and who lived in different sandy dens according to their role in the Clans. Skywatcher lived alone, his thoughts muddled with age and loneliness, spending most of his nights on a rock that jutted from the top of the gorge, staring up at the stars. For this reason, the cats who knew him called him Moony and jeered him for his peculiar, absent ways.
But Firestar recognized the truth in his ramblings of long-ago cats, and when the new SkyClan rose from the dust, Skywatcher was welcomed as an honored elder. He lived just long enough to see his mother’s distant memories reignite the gorge, and then died, taking his place among his ancestors. But Skywatcher never forgot the debt he owed to Firestar, and it was he who was chosen to deliver the greatest prophecy of all to the ThunderClan leader: “There will be three, kin of your kin, who hold the power of the stars in their paws.”
LEAFSTAR
LEAF WAS A LONER in the woods near the sandy gorge when Firestar first approached her and told her about the cats who lived there long ago. Leaf was happy as she was, hunting for herself, occasionally sharing tongues with her friend Scratch. But she was curious enough about what Firestar said to come to a meeting of cats in the gorge. His tales of StarClan, and of cats that helped each other survive the harshest leaf-bares, drew Leaf in, and along with several others—loners and kittypets alike—she agreed to join the new Clan.
With the warrior name Leafdapple, she learned fast from her ThunderClan mentors. She was given an apprentice of her own, Sparrowpaw, and she helped her Clanmates set border markers around the gorge, protecting the territory that belonged to them now. She fought as fiercely as a lion to defeat the rats that had begun to torment them, just as the old SkyClan had been tormented so many moons ago.
A vision of leaf-shadowed sunlight in the midst of leaf-bare prompted the new medicine cat, Echosong, to speak with Firestar, who realized that this must be a sign for him to choose a leader. At first, Leafdapple resisted taking on so much responsibility when there was s
till much to learn, but faith in her newly discovered ancestors gave her courage, and she became Leafstar.
With the support of her mate, Billystorm, and her deputy, Sharpclaw, she led SkyClan through its turbulent early seasons, fending off attacks from foxes and hostile cats, as well as negotiating a new kind of Clanmate, a daylight-warrior, part-kittypet and part-Clan cat. Leafstar knew this would not be accepted in other Clans, but she was wise enough to recognize that things were very different for SkyClan. They had to exist alone, and they needed to swell their numbers by any means in order to stay strong and well-fed. Some questioned the loyalty of the daylight-warriors, and some daylight-warriors proved inadequate, but Leafstar’s decision was the right one, and SkyClan flourished.
Leafstar had her own litter, Firekit, Stormkit, and Harrykit, and rescued them when a well-meaning elderly Twoleg took them to her den. Her mate, Billystorm, realized how much his family meant to him after this and decided to stay in the gorge forever. Perhaps the only fatal mistake Leafstar made was sending away the would-be warrior Sol; fatal not for her Clan, but for the Clans far away that she had never met.
ECHOSONG
ECHOSONG WAS PURE KITTYPET, with no hint of SkyClan in her long, fluffy coat and delicate paws. But she dreamed of cats with the light of stars in their fur, and when Firestar and Sandstorm came looking for new warriors in Twolegplace, Echosong was expecting them. Already made restless by her strange dreams, Echosong was willing to leave her housefolk and go live in the gorge. Her sensitivity to the stars and her quick knowledge of herbs, thanks to Sandstorm’s patient teaching, made her an obvious choice for SkyClan’s new medicine cat.