Эрин Хантер - The Ultimate Guide

What kind of victory is that, knowing you have spared your enemy for another attack?

Tigerclaw braced himself against the tide of heat that swept into him, hating the softness that lapped at his fur, closing his mind to the images of bleeding, maimed warriors that flooded behind his eyes. if they lose, they deserve to die!

He opened his eyes and saw Mossheart looking at him. “Mercy brings strength, remember that,” she murmured. Tigerclaw felt a stab of alarm. Did the old cat know that this was a life Tigerclaw didn’t want?

Mossheart padded away and the cat that had been standing beside Tigerclaw all this time stepped forward. “You have only one more life to receive,” meowed Cedarstar. “Are you ready?”

Tigerclaw nodded. One more, and I will be the true leader of ShadowClan!

Cedarstar let out a sigh. “I should never have appointed Raggedstar as my deputy,” he mewed.

“All this trouble goes back to that moment. If only I had known what lay ahead…” He lifted his head and placed his muzzle against Tigerclaw’s. “I give you a life for farsightedness, for understanding what the results of your actions might be, however distant in the future. It will be the hardest and most lonely part of your duty as leader, Tigerclaw, but essential to keep your Clan safe. Do not rush into anything. Look forward, and choose the path that leads to where you would want your Clanmates to be.”

The life was clear and sparkling like the light from the Moonstone. It danced through Tigerclaw’s fur, sharpening all his senses until he felt as if he could see right to the edges of StarClan. Something stirred at the back of Tigerclaw’s mind.

“But Cedarstar, where are my lives for courage? For strength in battle and revenge on my enemies?” He heard his voice go shrill with doubt, and winced.

Cedarstar looked calmly at him. “You bring enough courage, strength, and vengeance in yourself.

It is the duty of StarClan to give you lives for what you might lack, to make your leadership fair for all the cats in your care.”

Tigerclaw twitched his ears. if StarClan trusts me to win battles without their help, who am I to argue? “Thank you, Cedarstar,” he mewed.

“Welcome, Tigerstar!” Cedarstar declared, stepping back and raising his voice. “Lead

ShadowClan well with all of your lives!”

“Welcome, Tigerstar!”

“Tigerstar!”

“Tigerstar!”

Tigerstar bathed in the cheers of the StarClan cats. At last! This is what I have waited for my whole life. He looked around and saw a group of cats standing close together, watching with anxious, hopeful eyes. He recognized the former ShadowClan elders: Cinderfur, Tallpoppy, Darkflower, and Dawncloud. And beside them, Nightstar—or perhaps Nightpelt, here, because he had never been given nine lives? I will lead your Clan back to the glory it had before , Tigerstar promised them silently. Trust me.

The starlit cats began to fade in front of him. Runningnose appeared, making Tigerstar jump. “I have been here all along,” Runningnose meowed. “It is time to leave now.”

Tigerstar nodded. “I have a Clan to lead,” he declared.

Runningnose paused and looked at him. “With StarClan’s blessing,” he mewed. “Tigerstar, you must listen to what our ancestors have said to you tonight. If you do not respect what each life stands for, StarClan cannot help you.”

Tigerstar tensed. Was his medicine cat threatening him? “I heard nothing tonight that challenges what I want to do with my Clan,” he growled. “You are my medicine cat, Runningnose. You serve me before your Clanmates, before StarClan.”

Runningnose’s eyes darkened for a moment, then he dipped his head. “Of course, Tigerstar,” he murmured.

Tigerstar lifted his head and stared at the star-washed landscape. “ShadowClan is mine,” he whispered. “And I have nine lifetimes to make them remember me forever!”

THE OTHER CLANS HAVE always been quick to dismiss WindClan as puny and skittish, easy to defeat in battle and the least skilled at hunting under trees. But we are the most closely descended from the mountain cats, the first settlers in the forest who came in search of a kinder home than that harsh, rocky place behind the waterfall. Like my Clanmates now, they needed broad, open sky above their heads and the breeze in their fur to feel truly free. Why should we want to smother ourselves with tree branches, or soak our pelts in the cold river, every time we need to hunt? We may be small and lithe, but we can run faster than any other Clan, and we alone have the skills to catch rabbits on the open moor.

Don’t confuse a keen sense of danger with lack of courage. We can see our enemies coming from far away, and if that makes us more watchful, quicker to alarm than the other Clans, then it only helps to keep us safe. We have no wish to invade other Clans’ territories because our hunting skills are best suited to our own territory—but don’t assume that we won’t fight as fiercely as our neighbors if we are attacked. I would rather make an alliance with another Clan to fend off trouble on an endangered border than risk my Clanmates’ survival for the sake of stubborn pride. I had to watch my Clan suffer more than any other when the Twolegs started to destroy our territory in order to expand the Thunderpath. Their yellow monsters turned our home to rabbitless mud, then made our Clan into prey by trying to poison us. But I would not leave the forest without the other Clans. WindClan is one of four and always will be. Those mountain cats did not leave the waterfall in vain; we will preserve their legacy forever with our speed and determination to survive.

THE CAT WHO WOULD grow to become Tallstar was born to a pair of tunneling cats, Sandgorse and Palebird, who expected their son to follow the tradition, unique to WindClan, of cats skilled in digging and hunting belowground. But Tallkit preferred running over the open moor with the wind in his fur and hated the thought of being trapped in the dark. Heatherstar realized this and apprenticed him to a moor runner, much to the disappointment of Sandgorse and Palebird. But when Sandgorse was killed in an underground collapse while showing a visiting rogue named Sparrow one of the tunnels, Tallpaw decided to train as a tunneler like his father. However, Heatherstar forbade her cats to go belowground again, and though Tallpaw earned his warrior name, Talltail, he was restless and angry with grief.

Swearing vengeance on Sparrow, Talltail left WindClan and set out to find him. He encountered a kittypet named Jake and struck up an unlikely allegiance, which deepened into true friendship when they traveled beyond Twolegplace to the rogues’ new home. Jake told Talltail that he could be a better cat by not taking Sparrow’s life in revenge; at the very last moment, with Sparrow poised on top of a cliff above a Thunderpath, Talltail recalled his friend’s words and decided to spare