Эрин Хантер - The Ultimate Guide

Hawkfrost joined his father in the Dark Forest and preyed on discontented cats in the living Clans, urging them to train in their dreams and rise up against the weaknesses of the warrior code.

Hawkfrost personally sought out Ivypaw, Dovepaw’s troubled sister, and watched with pride as she became one of the Dark Forest’s most skilled warriors. Even when his companions doubted her loyalty, Hawkfrost insisted she could be trusted. When he realized that she had duped him all along and had been a ThunderClan spy in their midst, he turned on her. Before he could strike the fatal blow, Hollyleaf leaped to intercept it. Hawkfrost killed her instead and was pursued back to the shadows by a fearsome patrol of living warriors.

MOTHWING WAS ALWAYS FASCINATED by the healing skills of Mudfur, and she had no objection to being trained as his apprentice—but she did object to Hawkfrost’s methods of convincing the old cat to mentor her, and she lived in constant fear that his deception would be discovered. Mothwing was a quick learner, sensitive to cats in pain or injured, and well trusted by her Clanmates to care for them.

But she suffered from one flaw, unique to any medicine cat in the history of the Clans: Mothwing had no belief in StarClan. The ancestors never walked in her dreams; she felt nothing when she touched the Moonstone or the water of the Moonpool; instinct and experience took the place of sharing tongues with cats that had walked in her paw steps before.

Hawkfrost’s threat to reveal her secret meant he was able to force her to make false prophecies, such as the tale about troublesome stones in the river that led to Stormfur and Brook being driven out of the Clan when they tried to settle beside the lake after leaving their mountain home. Because

Mothwing was unable to receive warnings from StarClan, she didn’t know about the Twoleg poison on RiverClan territory that started killing her Clanmates, and her warrior ancestors couldn’t tell her where to find catmint when greencough struck. Terrified that her lie might be destroying her Clan, Mothwing confided in Leafpool, who began speaking to Willowshine in dreams on her behalf.

Mistystar’s nine lives ceremony posed a greater challenge, because Mothwing was forced to confess to her closest friend that she did not believe in StarClan. At first Mistystar felt the essence of her leadership was threatened by such a lack of faith, but a vision of a perfect moth emerging triumphant and glorious from a dry brown pod, together with whispers from StarClan, convinced her that she should trust Mothwing to fulfill her duties as she had done for seasons before, rather than judge her for the few things she could not do.

StarClan found a better solution in Willowshine, the RiverClan cat who showed an interest in becoming a medicine cat while she was still a kit. Willowshine’s keenness to learn about herbs and her efforts to help during an outbreak of sickness in RiverClan made her an inevitable choice for Mothwing’s apprentice. But from the start, Willowshine knew there was something different about her mentor. Mothwing taught her everything she knew about how to heal their Clanmates, but was evasive when it came to interpreting dreams and omens. She took Willowshine to the Moonpool every half-moon with the other medicine cats, but never spoke of the things that StarClan had shared with her.

Then, after the death of an elder from greencough, Willowshine was visited in her dream by Leafpool, the ThunderClan medicine cat, and Feathertail, a long-ago RiverClan warrior. They led her to a patch of catmint just beyond RiverClan territory, knowing it would be a precious addition to her herb store.

From that night on, Leafpool walked with Willowshine in her dreams, teaching her about StarClan and how to read omens and watch for signs. Willowshine didn’t need to ask why she was being helped by cats from other Clans; she had already guessed that her mentor didn’t share her connection to StarClan. But in the same moment, she knew that it didn’t matter. Mothwing was a wise, experienced, and skilled medicine cat. She deserved Willowshine’s respect and loyalty—and

Willowshine vowed to keep Mothwing’s secret until her very last breath.

SKYCLAN HAS THE DISTINCTION of being the very first Clan in the forest. Our founder, Clear Sky, came from the mountains and chose not to stay with the others on the moor, clinging to an environment that reminded them of home; instead, he saw the potential in the prey-rich woodland, in the dense undergrowth that could offer shelter and secrecy. He took with him the cats that were most skilled at leaping into the air to bring down eagles. This talent was easily turned to climbing trees in pursuit of squirrels and smaller, easier-won birds.

The moorland cats became jealous and resentful, but Clear Sky knew he was sowing the seeds of a group that would grow strong and proud, and last forever.

And perhaps it would have. But Clear Sky could not have foreseen what the Twolegs would do to his precious territory. By the time I became leader, many, many seasons after Clear Sky had gone to walk among the stars, our beloved trees were being torn down to make way for new Twoleg dens.

For the first time, SkyClan was the most vulnerable of all the Clans. We appealed to the others for help, for enough of their territory to survive the bitter cold of leaf-bare, but it seemed our history, our place in establishing the very grounds of the warrior code, meant nothing. Cast out, I led my

Clanmates on a long and dreadful journey until I found a gorge carved out of sandy rock that offered shelter and prey and a chance to rest.

SkyClan thrived in its new home, nurturing the flickering flame of the warrior code, until rats came and stole our prey and killed our kits and terrorized us until there was no one left. SkyClan could not suffer two defeats. The cats scattered and the gorge lay empty until Firestar was sent by Bluestar to restore what had once been a noble and important Clan. Firestar and Sandstorm rebuilt our Clan, tracking down our descendants who still showed an echo of our tree-hunting skills, and inviting other cats to join and uphold the warrior code. There were still rats to defeat and the challenge of teaching so many cats at once to live according to the ways of our ancestors, but the heart of SkyClan had never truly died. Maybe we lived apart from the other Clans, maybe some of our cats had not completely cast off their kittypet connections, but SkyClan thrived once more.