FALLEN LEAVES
FALLEN LEAVES LIVED BESIDE the lake many, many seasons ago, before cats settled in the mountains or the forest, before there was any sense of a warrior code or the Clans. As a young cat, he was sent into the tunnels to find his own way out, the test that had to be passed in order to become a sharpclaw—the Ancients’ equivalent of a warrior, though without the rigid structure of patrols and duties that came with the code of the Clans. Fallen Leaves never escaped the tunnels; the river flooded, trapping him forever, leaving his mother, Broken Shadow, to grieve endlessly. His spirit stayed in the tunnels, restlessly searching for daylight and fresh air, watching the rare cats who strayed down that far, wishing he could join their games.
Hollyleaf escaped into a collapsing tunnel when the truth came out that Leafpool and Crowfeather were her parents. She fled into the darkness and wandered lost and hungry, until Fallen Leaves found her and brought her a fish to eat and soaked moss to drink. He treated her injured leg with comfrey and showed her how to survive underground, fishing in the shadowy river and learning the fastest ways out—although Fallen Leaves was unable to follow her into the open.
For several joyous moons, Fallen Leaves was happier than he had ever been. But Hollyleaf grew restless, and Fallen Leaves knew that her heart lay with her Clanmates. He encouraged her to be true to herself, to go back and trust the love of her kin and friends to welcome her back to her home. His heart broke when she left, because it was the sharpest reminder yet that he could not share a life in daylight.
When Dark Forest warriors burst into the forest, Fallen Leaves finally broke free from the tunnels.
Running alongside his mother, Broken Shadow, he leaped into battle and fought alongside Hollyleaf.
He was there when she died, struck down by Hawkfrost. Fallen Leaves realized she would never be able to keep her promise and see him again, because she would walk a different path from him forever now. But the battle with the Dark Forest had finally set him free, and when peace settled on the lake, Fallen Leaves stayed with Broken Shadow and the rest of the Ancients, lost in the mist of long-forgotten memories, but free from the confines of the caves.
MIDNIGHT
MIDNIGHT WAS FIRST MENTIONED in the dreams of four cats, one from each Clan, who were told to “meet at the new moon and listen to what midnight tells you.” Baffled, Brambleclaw, Crowpaw, Tawnypelt, and Feathertail set out on the quest, accompanied by Squirrelpaw and Stormfur.
Eventually their journey led them to steep sandy cliffs beside the sun-drown-place, where they discovered that Midnight was not a moment of darkness but a living, breathing creature: a badger, enemy to all the cats. But this badger was different. She could speak their language, more or less, and she was only hostile until she realized where they had come from. She told them that all four Clans had to leave the forest before the Twolegs destroyed it. To find a new home, they must stand on Highrocks and follow “a dying warrior,” which turned out to be a falling star that led them to the lake.
Midnight appeared again when badgers attacked the ThunderClan camp in revenge for one that had been driven out when the cats first settled in the hollow. Midnight fought on the side of the warriors and helped defeat the badger hordes. Later, after Sol had come to the lake and done his best to cause trouble, Jayfeather met Midnight in his dreams and asked why she had told this loner so much about the Clans. Midnight replied that the Clans were about to face a challenge far greater than a curious stranger; she already knew about the threat rising from the Dark Forest, and had sent Sol to test the warriors’ faith in their ancestors. If they could resist Sol’s self-serving, destructive philosophies, they stood a chance of defeating the vengeful cats coming back from the dead.
She returned to the lake to help in the battle against the Dark Forest, fighting alongside the Clans to drive out their greatest enemies of all. Midnight was no ordinary badger: With Rock, she had watched the very first sunrise over the lake and had seen reflected in the fiery surface the futures of Clans, Tribes, Ancient cats, and more. Together, Midnight and Rock watched over the cats by the lake and prepared for the day that could have been the sunset of the ways of the Clans, but instead heralded a new dawn.