In the end Silverstream paid the highest price of all, bleeding out her life on Sunningrocks as she gave birth to Graystripe’s kits.
Silverstream would always be a RiverClan cat, like her father, while Graystripe was rooted in the forest as deeply as the oaks.
Feathertail
Born on the edge ofThunderClan but raised in RiverClan, Feathertail and her brother, Stormfur, were obvious targets when Tigerstar brought his obsession with pure Clan blood across the river. They were imprisoned in an old fox den with Feathertail’s mentor, Stonefur, and were forced to watch him 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. StarClan chose Feathertail to go on the quest to find Midnight. Stormfur went with her; these two cats had been through too much to let themselves be separated.
Feathertail was known as a gentle cat, but she had the courage of a full-grown warrior as well as loyalty to her Clan and a firsthand knowledge of what it felt like to be persecuted. Perhaps this is why the Tribe of Endless Hunting made her the subject of their prophecy: that a silver cat would save the Tribe of Rushing Water from the mountain lion 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. A short life, then, but one that deserves to be pre-served in the Clans’ memory for many moons to come.
Stormfur
Stormfur came tooclose to losing his sister to Tigerstar’s pure-blood madness; there was no way he would let her go on the journey to the sun-drown-place alone. So he ended up watching her die in a shadowy cave far from the forest, as part of a prophecy belonging to some other cats’ warrior ancestors. You might think that would give him reason to hate the Tribe cats forever, but instead he found a new home in the mountains, with the help of a Tribe prey-hunter called Brook. It seems too easy, doesn’t it? Swapping a sister for a mate, and adopting a completely different way of life with cats whose troubles had killed Feathertail?
But nothing is ever that simple. Stormfur was already suited to the mountain life because he had the ThunderClan talent for stalking and leaping after prey. More than that, he could not forgive his Clanmates for betraying him to Tigerstar, and although he would have fought in any battle for RiverClan, he was loyal to the warrior code more than to the cats who shared his den.
But he was born a Clan cat, far from the mountains, and his adopted Tribemates couldn’t forget that. Only Brook was willing to trust him, but we’ve already seen what pitfalls love can bring. Forced out by the Tribe, they followed the Clans to the lake, but RiverClan was even less accepting of non-Clanborn cats, and only ThunderClan would take them in. It was only a matter of time before the mountains called them back.
Hawkfrost
The son of Tigerstarand a lone she-cat called Sasha, Hawkfrost would never be looked upon favorably by StarClan. Sasha brought her kits to RiverClan because she was too weak to care for them herself, and although the life of a Clan cat didn’t suit her, she hoped it would give her children 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 warriors, loyal to the code they shared with their Clanmates.
Even before he knew who his father was, Hawkfrost wanted to take Leopardstar’s place. He trained harder than any other apprentice, prac-ticed 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 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 to convince Mudfur that his littermate was the right choice for his apprentice.
Tigerstar must have jumped for joy when he saw that one of his sons shared his hunger. He began visiting Hawkfrost in his dreams, and encouraged him to support Mudclaw in the rebellion against Onestar.
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. But Tigerstar underestimated Brambleclaw’s loyalty to his Clan leader; as Leafpool predicted, blood spilled blood, and the lake turned red when Brambleclaw killed his half brother to save Firestar’s life.
Mothwing and Willowpaw
You must knowMothwing’s secret already, little kits. I should imagine she is a constant puzzle to StarClan, a medicine cat who doesn’t believe in them. Yet they have let her stay, because they can see that she has studied hard and has only the welfare of her Clanmates at heart.
Unfortunately for her, knowing which herbs treat a stomachache is not her only responsibility. 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. When she 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 Mudfur in dreams on her behalf.
StarClan found a better solution in Willowpaw, the RiverClan cat who showed an interest in becoming a medicine cat while she was still a kit. She became Mothwing’s apprentice and was visited in her dreams by Feathertail and Leafpool for the StarClan part of her training.
Willowpaw accepts Mothwing’s lack of belief in their warrior ancestors because she respects her in every other way—and well she should. For once I believe StarClan has acted in every cat’s best interests.
Cats Outside the Clans
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Does it surprise youhow many cats there are who don’t live in Clans, little ones? The cats you and your Clanmates watch over often act as if there could be no other way to survive except by the warrior code, but how short their memories must be if they have already forgotten the Tribe of Rushing Water, or BloodClan, or the contented rogues and kittypets they have encountered.
For the Clan cats, the warrior code has served them well, provided them with food and shelter and well-defended territories, as well as neighbors to turn to in times of greatest need. But the forest is not littered with the bodies of loners and rogues who have starved to death or been killed like prey, and kittypets do not swarm from Twoleg nests like bees to join the fabled Clans. There’s more than one way to skin 1 76 2