Eventually Tall Shadow became the first leader of ShadowClan and led her cats into new territory across the Thunderpath.
DAPPLED PELT AND CLOUD SPOTS
DAPPLED PELT WAS A tortoiseshell she-cat with a compassionate nature and an instinctive talent for healing. She was interested in herbs and had an excellent memory for which ones were the best to treat her denmates’ injuries and illnesses. She came with the cats from the mountains and settled on the moor with Tall Shadow’s group.
When Jagged Peak was injured by falling from the tree, Dappled Pelt went to the forest and lived for some moons with Clear Sky’s cats while she took care of him. But her loyalty to the moorland group never wavered and she was glad to return home.
On first leaving the mountains, Dappled Pelt discovered a natural affinity for the water, learning to fish minnows from the river with her paws. While exploring the moor, she became good friends with the helpful and friendly River Ripple and was delighted to find a lush growth of herbs around the river. After the Great Battle, she soon found her true home by the riverside, joining River Ripple’s group of cats and eventually becoming the first medicine cat of RiverClan.
A long-furred, black tom, with white ears and chest and two white paws, Cloud Spots was a mountain cat who settled on the moor. He was interested in healing, particularly in figuring out why certain herbs worked on certain illnesses, and in researching more curative plants. He and Dappled Pelt were close friends and worked well together, her warmer nature complementing his focus on the effects different herbs. He was not a strong fighter and in fact did not participate in the Great Battle, instead staying in the moor cats’ hollow, preparing to treat injuries from the battle.
Cloud Spots was a shy and reserved cat, which made it harder for him to show his compassion toward his patients, and he tended to be brusque with them. He was especially impatient when dealing with sickly kits, often explaining in great detail the effects of a particular herb rather than sympathizing with a kit’s aches and pains. He did, however, form a close bond with young Pebble Heart, who would one day become ShadowClan’s first medicine cat, and taught the kit all he knew about herbs and the treatment of illnesses and injuries.
Despite the time he spent on the moor, Cloud Spots was happier in the dense undergrowth of the forest. When Thunder left the moor for the forest after the Great Battle, Cloud Spots went with him and settled there. He would become the first medicine cat of ThunderClan.
WIND RUNNER
WIND RUNNER WAS ORIGINALLY a loner named Wind, who lived on the moor before the arrival of the mountain cats. With her mate, Gorse, she was hostile when they first arrived, accusing them of stealing prey. But gradually both cats grew to appreciate the advantages of living with a group.
A thin and wiry cat, Wind was able to race across the moors speedily and was a good hunter. She would even follow rabbits down into their burrows, as brave and quick belowground as she was out in the open. She showed Gray Wing and the other moor cats this way of hunting, though Gray Wing felt trapped in the narrow, dark spaces. When Jagged Peak was trapped in a tunnel collapse, Wind and Gorse were able to dig him out and clear his nose and mouth of dirt so he could breathe again, saving the young cat’s life.
Before long, Wind and Gorse became regular visitors to the camp on the moor. For Wind, the turning point from loner to group member came when she realized she was expecting Gorse’s kits, and she asked that she and Gorse officially become part of the camp, eager for her kits to have the protection of this larger group. They willingly took longer names to be like the rest of the mountain cats, and Wind became Wind Runner.
Wind Runner was strong and intelligent, but some cats were wary of her because she tended to be pushy, making decisions that should have been made by the leader. While most of the mountain cats wanted to bring the two valuable cats into their group, they felt that Wind Runner was likely to take over.
After the Great Battle, Wind Runner naturally stayed on the moor, although she and Gorse Fur separated themselves and their kits from most of the mountain cats for a while, leaving the hollow.
Eventually the tough and determined she-cat became the leader of WindClan.
GORSE FUR
QUIETER AND LESS EAGER to lead than Wind, Gorse, whom the moor cats renamed Gorse Fur, was nonetheless smart and observant, able to pick out prey at long distances from across the moor. Deeply loyal to his mate, Gorse Fur was willing to follow where she led, whether it was joining Tall Shadow and Gray Wing’s cats on the moors or starting their own Clan after the Great Battle.
Despite this choice to follow Wind Runner, the thin, gray tabby cat had a mind of his own. He was always patient with other cats, often taking a whole day to teach restless kits the basics of hunting on the moor, and this patience and intelligence served him well, first as Wind Runner’s deputy and, after her death, as the second leader of WindClan.
RIVER RIPPLE
RIVER RIPPLE WAS AN elegant, silver-furred cat. He was very good-natured and most at home in and around the water. When the mountain cats arrived, he was a loner living beside the river at the edge of the forest. Though he was friendly toward the mountain cats when he encountered them, he was proudly independent and showed no interest in joining them. During the forest fire, it was River Ripple who showed the moorland cats how to escape the flames—and for that, they were forever grateful.
Long before the mountain cats came to the forest, River Ripple had grown up as one of another group of cats, far away. While he treasured his independence after coming to the forest, he accepted the role given to him by the spirits of former cats after the Great Battle and became an inspiring leader, the founder of RiverClan.
River Ripple was always willing to give other cats the benefit of his wisdom and experience, and so it is not surprising that he was the cat to first propose the system of formally apprenticing each young cat to an older warrior. This openness to sharing his knowledge with others is perhaps River Ripple’s greatest legacy to the cats of the Clans.
MOTH FLIGHT
MOTH FLIGHT, A SOFT-FURRED , white she-cat with green eyes, was one of the first cats to be born to the group of cats living on the moor, the daughter of Wind Runner and Gorse Fur. She had a dreamy, restless, and curious nature, which at first made her seem unwarriorlike despite her swift feet and true heart. Gentle and playful, she was likely to be distracted from a hunt or battle by the discovery of a feather drifting across the grass or a bunch of berries growing on a bush. At one point, her distractibility almost led to Gorse Fur’s death, when he had to shove her out of the path of a monster and was almost killed himself. In a rage, Windstar exiled her own daughter from WindClan.
But it was these qualities of imagination and curiosity that were to decide Moth Flight’s destiny and lead her to the Moonstone. After her exile, Moth Flight followed the signs only she could see—a blowing feather, a flying bird—to a cave in the mountains beyond the Clans’ territories. There, she found the Moonstone, and the spirits told her to take the knowledge of this sacred place back to the Clans. They told her to return to WindClan, that she would become the first medicine cat, and gave her visions of who the other first medicine cats, one for each Clan, would be. They explained that she and the other medicine cats would be not just cats with the knowledge of healing herbs, but responsible for seeing visions, interpreting signs, and guiding their leaders to make the best choices for their Clans.