StarClan chose Tawnypelt to represent ShadowClan on the journey to find Midnight, a choice that was perhaps meant to challenge ThunderClan, to show them that Tawnypelt had found her true home.
The quest would have been less successful without her willingness to look beyond Clan boundaries. She recognized Crowfeather’s strengths before her companions did, and Feathertail would have fought much harder not to fall in love with the WindClan warrior if Tawnypelt hadn’t encouraged her.
Tawnypelt believes she can be a loyal ShadowClan cat without any darkness of heart or purpose. When Tigerstar summoned her to his shadowy forest in her dreams, she refused to listen to him. She knew he couldn’t help her achieve what she wants most: loyalty and security and peace. She will go into battle for ShadowClan, yet she never forgets her kinship in ThunderClan, either. She has proved that being loyal does not have to mean treating others as your enemy. You should be proud of Tawnypelt, Blossomkit. She and her kits could do much to salvage ShadowClan’s reputation.
Boulder
The ShadowClan catwho was raised in BloodClan; the cat who led Tigerstar to Scourge and sealed the deadly pact that would bathe the forest in blood. The foolish, hapless warrior whose desire to impress Tigerstar made him forget the nature of his birth Clan, made him think Scourge would really be swayed by the promise of a few trees to hunt among. He’s not an evil cat, and never tried to serve any dark ambitions of his own. He just had too much faith in the warrior code. Boulder lived as wretched a life in BloodClan as any other young cat. When he met a forest cat who told him about how the Clans lived, with warriors and apprentices and well-defended borders, Boulder left BloodClan and went to live among pine trees and learned how to chase frogs. His memories of living in Twolegplace faded to nightmares, then dreams, then half-remembered images of red stone and stinking alleys and furtive conversations. What he did remember was the possible advantage of bringing a fierce, bloodthirsty group of cats to fight on his Clan’s behalf. Better to spill the blood of other cats than their own, especially cats who had made his early life a misery.
He paid a high price for his misjudgment.
Littlecloud and Runningnose
Runningnose tried sohard to save your life, Blossomkit. You were the third kit he’d seen that day with fur ripped away, your pelt stained scarlet like a deathberry. He’d been trained as a medicine cat by Yellowfang, but all his knowledge of herbs could not stop your tiny life from melting away like a snowflake on a rock.
Runningnose must have regretted the day he asked to become Yellowfang’s apprentice. As Brokenstar’s medicine cat, he was forced to interpret omens that promised nothing but success in battle for his bloodthirsty leader, and then tried to stop the lifeblood of the Clan from sinking into the ground as apprentices were taken from the nursery. Even after Brokenstar was captured by ThunderClan, Runningnose had more secrets to keep: this time, the fact that StarClan would not grant Nightstar his nine lives. His conscience must have weighed heavier than stone.
Littlecloud was Runningnose’s apprentice. He was inspired to follow this path by the ThunderClan medicine cat, Cinderpelt. She rescued him during ShadowClan’s Great Sickness, when disease from the rats at Carrionplace sliced through the warriors sharper than a badger’s claw.
Cinderpelt was punished for raiding ThunderClan’s store of herbs to cure two ShadowClan apprentices, but ThunderClan has been rewarded by the presence of a fair and peaceful medicine cat in their rival Clan, who will never forget the debt he owes.
WindClan
Are you sitting a little straighter, Adderkit? You should be proud of your birth Clan, whatever other cats might say about Brokenstar driving you from your home, or your Clanmates’ willingness to make alliances to protect their borders. There is a great difference between being weak—which your Clan is not—and being vulnerable, which is the price paid for living on the moor. Your Clan has spent many moons learning how to survive in the open, where speed and a sense of danger count for more than stealth and stalking skills. And they are nearer to StarClan, up on their hill beneath the open sky; perhaps that explains why their warrior ancestors have spared them many times over.
It’s not always easy to befriend a WindClan cat—they have become 1 44 2
like the rabbits they chase: suspicious and quickly startled, fiercely protective of their Clanmates. But they know that they are in less danger from allies than enemies, which is why they have a reputation for being a peaceful Clan, the least likely to invade another Clan’s territory for food or power. Since Firestar came to the forest he has watched them join with RiverClan, then ThunderClan, and even fall under the thrall of ShadowClan when that seemed the only way to protect themselves against a worse attack. Whatever their enemies say, this farsightedness is a strength, and it is a mistake to think WindClan cats are ever truly loyal to any but their own Clan.
They suffered most when the Twolegs made the Thunderpath in the forest wider. They watched huge yellow monsters turn their territory to rabbitless mud, then became prey themselves as the Twolegs tried first to poison them, then rounded them up and imprisoned them. They showed great courage in not fleeing the forest long before the other Clans made up their minds to leave. For as long as there are cats living by the lake, WindClan will be among them, swift pawed and watchful, clinging to the warrior code like moss to a rock.
Tallstar
Tallstar killed the snake that bit you; did you know that, Adderkit? He spent nine long lives fighting for his Clan, defending the borders, forging alliances that would grant his Clanmates one more moon of peace, and battling the creatures within his territory that wanted to harm his kits. Some cats thought he was too quick to make friends with other Clans, too willing to let another leader take responsibility for the safety of his Clanmates. But what was he supposed to do when Firestar and Graystripe risked their lives to bring his Clan home from the Thunderpath? Gratitude and respect for two brave young warriors is not the same as rolling over and showing the soft parts of your underbelly.
Tallstar fought as fiercely as a lion when he needed to, but he preferred not to watch his Clanmates bleed scarlet onto the grass. When Bluestar tried to lead her Clan into battle against him, believing his cats had stolen prey from ThunderClan territory, Tallstar trusted Firestar’s warning that Bluestar was mistaken, and refused to fight.
He gave up his ninth life at the end of the Great Journey, knowing he had led his Clan safely to their new home. And with his last breath, all his wisdom, all his farsightedness, deserted him. Suspicious of his deputy Mudclaw’s ambition, he made Onewhisker his deputy instead, thus cheating Mudclaw of becoming leader. Foolish Tallstar. He should have known that Mudclaw would harbor a grudge in his heart like a poisonous thorn. He must have watched in dismay as his final decision nearly destroyed the Clan he had struggled for so long to protect.