When Firestar left to rediscover SkyClan, Spottedleaf knew she had lost him to Sandstorm. In her heart, she understood that the young she-cat was a far better choice, able to walk side by side with Firestar, bear his kits, and share responsibility for the Clan over the coming seasons. Spottedleaf grieved for missed chances, for a life that could never have been, but she still watched over Firestar and her former Clanmates as they moved to the lake and built new lives far from her forest home.
In the final confrontation with the Dark Forest, Spottedleaf gave her life in the stars to save Sandstorm, one last gift to her beloved Firestar.
GRAYSTRIPE AND MILLIE
AS AN APPRENTICE, GRAYPAW’S boldness and bravery led him to be the first Clan cat to approach
Rusty the kittypet, who went on to become Firestar. This boldness would lead him into trouble more than once—but it was the same courage and impulsive generosity that moved him and Fireheart to catch food for RiverClan when the river was poisoned, and to travel far beyond the territories to rescue WindClan after they had been chased out by ShadowClan.
Like Bluestar, Graystripe fell in love with a RiverClan cat: Silverstream, daughter of Crookedstar. Silverstream died giving birth to Graystripe’s kits, Stormkit and Featherkit, and when ThunderClan failed to treat these kits with the kindness that Graystripe hoped for, he took them back to their mother’s Clan. It tore him apart to leave his Clan—and his best friend, Fireheart—but he believed that RiverClan was the only place where they’d be truly welcomed. Stormkit and Featherkit thrived, eventually taking the warrior names Stormfur and Feathertail, but Graystripe returned to ThunderClan when he realized that his loyalties were not to his kits’ Clan, but to his own.
When Twolegs began to destroy the forest to make way for a new Thunderpath, they set traps for the cats in their way. Graystripe was captured while risking his life to free others, and was taken away to live with Twolegs. Although treated kindly, he never forgot that he was a warrior and always yearned to find the Clan he had lost.
While imprisoned by Twolegs, he met a kittypet named Millie who loved him enough to travel with him all the way to the lake where the Clans had made new homes. Graystripe was welcomed like a returning hero, but it was Millie’s determination that got them out of Twolegplace, and her untiring encouragement that helped Graystripe find his lost Clanmates. Millie quickly learned to hunt for prey and fight as well as any warrior, but she refused to take a warrior name or be ashamed of where she had come from. Because of this, some cats always questioned her loyalty to the warrior code—though never within earshot of Graystripe.
SANDSTORM
WHEN RUSTY THE KITTYPET first joined ThunderClan, Sandpaw sided with fellow apprentice
Dustpaw in tormenting him. But the former kittypet, who would eventually come to be known as Firestar, soon made a very different impression on her, as she began to appreciate his courage and loyalty to his adopted Clan. He slowly came to realize how important she was to him as well, and Sandstorm’s friendship and support were especially important to Firestar as he prepared for the battle against BloodClan. Firestar was determined to save the forest from Scourge and had heard StarClan’s prophecy that he was the only one who could do so. But Sandstorm was the cat who made
Firestar believe that he was doing the right thing by fighting the cats from Twolegplace and that he would be able to defeat them.
Sandstorm was a proud and committed warrior and her courage equaled Firestar’s on the journey to rebuild SkyClan in the sandy gorge far from the forest. Sandstorm took on the role of medicine cat to help the scattered Clanmates, and she matched Firestar blow for blow in the battle against the rats, even though she had only a single life to lose. She was an excellent mother to Squirrelflight and Leafpool, and stood by her daughters when the truth came out about Lionblaze, Hollyleaf, and Jayfeather.
Sandstorm had a quick temper and a strong sense of what was right, which Firestar respected.
Next to his deputies and his medicine cats, Sandstorm was the cat he consulted most often before making any decisions for the Clan. She spoke up for the cats in ThunderClan who shied away from the traditional warrior lifestyle, in particular Daisy, who came from the horseplace by the lake.
Sandstorm defended Daisy’s wish to stay in the nursery and help other queens, instead of joining border or hunting patrols.
Sandstorm would have loved to have had more kits, but she knew that Firestar had enough demands made on him by the rest of the Clan. She shared his sense of responsibility to all of the cats who lived in the hollow, and never wished that their lives could have been different.
BRIGHTHEART AND CLOUDTALL
BRIGHTHEART’S RAVAGED FACE REMINDED every cat of the attack from Tigerstar’s half-trained pack of dogs. But Brightheart only remembered when she saw her reflection in a pool of water—so she avoided drinking from anything except fast-flowing streams. She tried hard to forget the horror and pain of the mauling, and to ignore the flinches that came from strangers seeing her for the first time.
Far from being treated like an invalid, Brightheart hunted and fought alongside her Clanmates and spent time with every apprentice, training them in specialized battle skills to use if one of their own eyes were injured. She possessed the true beauty that comes from courage, loyalty, and devotion—but she had no wish to see her own face.
Happily, despite her scars, Brightheart’s life turned into everything she ever dreamed of: She and Cloudtail had two litters of kits, and their daughter Whitewing had her own kits, Dovewing and Ivypool, who played a critical part in saving the Clans from the Dark Forest.
Cloudtail never flinched from Brightheart’s scars. But then he knew how it felt to be different, not just because of his fluffy, white pelt that older warriors scorned for the way its brightness stood out to every piece of prey. Cloudtail was the son of Firestar’s kittypet sister, Princess. She gave him up to be raised as a ThunderClan warrior. As an apprentice, Cloudpaw struggled at first; he even went back to the kittypet life until StarClan—and Fireheart—gave him a second chance.
Cloudtail made the long journey from the forest to the lake, helped establish his Clan in a new home far from anything they had known before, and risked his own life to save his Clanmates from badgers, storms, and illness—all without believing in StarClan. But he did believe in the battle between good and evil, and he fought as fiercely as any warrior against the cats of the Dark Forest. In the end, loyalty to the warrior code and to his Clanmates mattered more than anything else.
YELLOWFANG
YELLOWFANG WAS THE EXILED ShadowClan medicine cat discovered on an early solo patrol by Firepaw, who would one day become Firestar. His act of kindness in giving her a piece of fresh-kill was punished by Bluestar because he had broken the warrior code of feeding elders and kits from his own Clan first. As a result, Firepaw was ordered to feed and care for Yellowfang in her first moons in the Clan, where she was viewed with suspicion because of ThunderClan’s long rivalry with bloodthirsty ShadowClan. In spite of Yellowfang’s simmering anger at being treated like a prisoner, she formed a strong bond with the young kittypet-turned-warrior, a connection that lasted beyond her death.
Yellowfang was cranky, stubborn, impatient—and the most loyal cat you could ever meet. Her whole life was a quest for loyalty—to ShadowClan, to her role as their medicine cat, to the son that she bore in secret, and then to ThunderClan after her exile. Yellowfang’s biggest mistake was her love for Raggedstar, leader of ShadowClan, despite knowing that medicine cats are forbidden from having mates or kits. When Yellowfang’s bitter, neglected son, Brokenstar, became ShadowClan’s leader and made the forest run red with the blood of kits too young to fight, Yellowfang’s loyalty to what she knew to be right led to Brokenstar exiling her and forcing her across the border to ThunderClan.