a mouse—some start with the tail, some with the nose, though it’s been so long since I saw one I think I’d keep it in one piece and eat it whole, fur and all.
What’s that, Adderkit? You can’t figure out the difference between loners and rogues? Let me think how best to explain…
Loners are cats who live on their own, not as kittypets, and don’t trouble the Clans. Rogues also live on their own, but they cause problems.
That’s how the Clans make the distinction, anyway.
Ravenpaw and Barley
Ravenpaw’s luck ran out the day Bluestar chose Tigerstar to be his mentor. That warrior was never going to appreciate Ravenpaw’s love of peace, or his sympathy for the different sides of an argument. Tigerstar saw his apprentice’s reserve as nothing but fear, and ended up making Ravenpaw scared for his life. After Ravenpaw saw Tigerstar kill Redtail and lie about it to the rest of the Clan, he was in very real danger from the cat who was prepared to kill to get what he wanted. Firestar persuaded Ravenpaw to leave the forest and live on a Twoleg farm with Barley, a loner who had a good life in a cozy barn with as many mice as he could eat. Here Ravenpaw found peace, and the chance to learn about himself without a warrior breathing down his neck, ordering him to pounce, strike, catch, and hide.
Ravenpaw would still fight to the death for his friends, and he’s helped them many times with food and shelter, but he is happier not following the path of the warrior.
Ravenpaw’s companion, Barley, also found sanctuary on the farm.
Barley was born in BloodClan, where he broke Scourge’s rules by living with one of his littermates, Violet. When his secret was discovered, he was forced to watch Violet being beaten up by two of Scourge’s followers—who also happened to be Barley and Violet’s other littermates.
Violet survived and was taken in by a kittypet who promised his housefolk would care for her; Barley fled Twolegplace and came to the farm.
Princess and Smudge
Stop fidgeting, Blossomkit.Don’t you think you should hear about kittypets, too? Are they less important than Clan cats just because they don’t hunt their own prey and let Twolegs pet them?
Having food and shelter doesn’t take away an honest heart or courage or loyalty to their friends. Smudge was Firestar’s nearest neighbor back when he was a kittypet named Rusty. He was a plump, lazy cat who told tales of the wild cats in the woods who ate bones, and he couldn’t understand why Rusty would want to live among such dangerous creatures. But he never forgot their friendship and was brave enough to come looking for Firestar when he started dreaming of the SkyClan cats. Loyalty, courage, and respect: would you expect any more from a Clan cat?
Princess is Firestar’s littermate who went to live with different housefolk. When she learned her brother was the leader of a Clan of forest cats, she gave him her firstborn kit, Cloudtail, believing he would have a nobler life as a warrior than as a kittypet. It was perhaps not the wisest decision—Cloudtail didn’t take naturally to life in the Clan—but it showed a rare degree of trust and hopefulness. Princess was a good friend to Firestar when ThunderClan lived in the forest, and she still sits on the fence and stares into the trees, wondering where he is and if he is safe.
Brook Where Small Fish Swim and Talon of Swooping Eagle
It’s just as well Tribe cats have no allies; they’d take until the next full moon to introduce themselves at a Gathering. According to tra-dition, they are named for the first thing their mother sees when they are born, although to my mind that would lead to a lot of kits being called Roof of Cave or Wall of Cave or Floor of Cave.
Brook met the Clan cats on their journey back from the sun-drown-place, when it seemed that Stormfur was the cat who had been sent by the Tribe of Endless Hunting to help them defeat Sharptooth.
From the beginning Brook saw Stormfur as a special cat, one with enough courage and skill to fight the mountain lion that had killed the Tribe’s best cave-guards.
Brook came to love Stormfur for real when she taught him how to hunt hawks and eagles, using mice as bait. She loved him for his readiness to try new skills, and for his refusal to treat her differently because she didn’t come from a Clan. And she shared his grief when his sister died fulfilling the prophecy that a silver cat would kill Sharptooth.
Brook’s brother, Talon, was less accepting of the visitors, but why not? Five cats had crashed over the waterfall like oversize raindrops, bigger and heavier than Tribe cats, with different ways of talking and different warrior ancestors. He came to accept Stormfur because Brook loved him, but it was less easy for cats who weren’t her kin.
Teller of the Pointed Stones
Or Stoneteller, as he isknown less arduously. The Tribe of Rushing Water doesn’t have a leader, a deputy, and a medicine cat, like the Clans; instead, it has a Healer, one cat fulfilling all duties.
The Healer is always called Stoneteller because that is part of their role: to go into the chamber filled with pointed stones at the back of the caves and interpret the messages in the fall of moonlight on the rocks and in the puddles on the floor. Herbal skills are less important than they are in the Clans, but that’s because there are fewer herbs and berries to be harvested in the mountains. The Tribe cats have survived without these supplies this long because they had no enemies at their borders, ready to wound and scratch.
The Stoneteller encountered by the Clans on the Great Journey is a proud cat, keenly aware that his Tribe clings to life in the mountains by the merest cobweb. There is scant prey, and what they can catch can also catch them, especially eagles, which are always hungry for a kit.
Leaf-bare is long and cold enough to freeze bone, and even the eagles keep to their nests. In the Tribe’s territory, a missed paw step leads to crashing death many, many fox-lengths below; another reason why healing herbs are rarely needed. It’s not hard to see why the mountain lion made Stoneteller desperate to find the silver cat who would save his Tribe—desperate enough to take Stormfur prisoner when he fell over the waterfall. Feathertail and the other cats came back to rescue him, and Feathertail killed Sharptooth. Stoneteller was not too proud to be grateful to this faraway cat who had given her life for the Tribe. He buried her above the waterfall, with the honor given to the noblest cave-guard or prey-hunter.
Cloudstar and Skywatcher
Inever thought SkyClanwould be driven out of the forest when they asked the other four Clans for help. Unseen, I watched in disbelief as each Clan gave their reasons why they could not share their territory—mostly because SkyClan were not able to catch their prey. Could they not have been taught? If kittypets like Firestar can learn how to stalk mice and thrushes, surely forest-born cats can pick up those skills? But no, the four Clan leaders insisted they could do nothing to help, and SkyClan, the fifth Clan in the forest, was forced to leave.
Cloudstar was their leader at the time, and although he stayed with his Clan, leading them all the way to the gorge, where they scratched a new home out of the sandy cliffs, he lost everything when he left the forest: his home, the borders he had patrolled for so many moons, his faith in StarClan, and worst of all, his mate, Birdflight, and their kits.