Эрин Хантер - The Ultimate Guide

Tail, who had cherished hopes of one day becoming Gray Wing’s mate, was overjoyed to see him again—unaware that Gray Wing was secretly in love with Bright Stream, who loved his brother, Clear Sky.

No cat expected the journey to be easy, but snow, turbulent rivers, and hostile wildlife made every paw step a challenge. The lowest point came when Bright Stream died, snatched away by an eagle the cats were trying to hunt. Gray Wing, who was unable to save her, blamed himself for Bright

Stream’s death, and for the death of her and Clear Sky’s unborn kits.

When they reached their new home, the mountain cats settled on the moor. Gray Wing preferred having the sky above his head to tree branches, and was dismayed when Clear Sky and some of the other mountain cats left the moor for the denser forest. He grew close to a loner named Storm but she became Clear Sky’s mate instead, then left the forest when she was expecting his kits. Gray Wing went to look for her, finding her just as the abandoned Twoleg den where she had given birth was being knocked down. Gray Wing risked his life to rescue one of the three kits, but was unable to save the rest of the litter or Storm. Gray Wing named the surviving kit Thunder and took him back to the moor to raise him when Clear Sky refused to have anything to do with his son.

Gray Wing was able to help both the moor cats and Clear Sky’s group escape a devastating forest fire, but was permanently weakened by inhaling the smoke of that fire. After Tall Shadow stepped back from leading the cats on the moor to care for her injured brother, Moon Shadow, Gray Wing emerged as leader in her place. His heart ached when Thunder, now almost grown, decided to leave the moor and live with Clear Sky, but he found love with his old friend Turtle Tail and helped to raise her kits as if he were their father. Although Gray Wing eventually stepped away from leadership and never became a true Clan leader, his clear-sighted compassion and his gift for planning battles meant that future generations of cats would know him as Graywing the Wise.

CLEAR SKY WAS ENTHUSIASTIC about the idea of leaving the mountains—unlike his littermate Gray Wing. He was in love with Bright Stream, who was expecting his kits, and persuaded her to join the group on their quest to find a new home. When Bright Stream was carried off by an eagle early in their journey, Clear Sky fell into a deep depression, blaming himself for her death.

Clear Sky began to recover as the cats settled into their new home, and he took the lead in establishing a camp among the trees where his talents for leaping and hunting high in the branches served him well. Separated from many of the cats from the mountains who had chosen to make a home in a hollow on the moor, Clear Sky encouraged rogues to join him. Gradually he grew so obsessed with keeping his cats safe that he established boundaries and set cats to guard them. He and his guards attacked any cat who crossed his borders, and no other cat was permitted to hunt there—not even his old friends from the mountains or his littermate Gray Wing could visit him without trouble.

Clear Sky also insisted that all cats should be able to care for themselves and contribute to the group, so when Jagged Peak injured his leg by falling from a tree, Clear Sky drove him out.

When he met the rogue she-cat, Storm, Clear Sky fell instantly in love with her. She decided to live with him, but later left because she couldn’t bear his obsessions and the way he ordered her around.

Storm bore Clear Sky three kits, but only one survived the collapse of the Twoleg den where they lived. When Gray Wing took the surviving kit, Thunder, to his brother’s forest camp, Clear Sky rejected him. Later Clear Sky regretted this and after a fire ripped through the forest, he reconciled with Thunder and encouraged the young cat to come live with him.

However, Clear Sky retained his fierceness toward intruders and even his own cats, qualities that led Thunder to leave.

After the Great Battle, Clear Sky realized that his fierceness in protecting his larger group rather than any individual cat had led to horrifying violence. While still proud and protective of the cats under his leadership, he became less fierce toward the other cats in the forest, and gentler with the weaker members of his own group. He became the first leader of SkyClan.

JAGGED PEAK WAS THE brother of Gray Wing and Clear Sky, from a younger litter. As a kit he was bright and brave, impatient to get out of the cave and begin learning skills of hunting and mountain survival. When the cats cast votes whether to stay in the mountains or leave, Jagged Peak voted to leave and was frustrated when his mother, Quiet Rain, said that he was too young to go. Refusing to be left behind, Jagged Peak crept out of the cave and went after the departing cats.

He tracked the group for a good distance before he was attacked by an eagle and had to be rescued by Gray Wing, who had followed him. But his spirit stayed strong after the danger, and the two cats journeyed on together until they caught up with the group.

Jagged Peak especially admired his brother Clear Sky and went with him to the forest when the cats split into two groups. He enjoyed learning to hunt in trees but was badly injured when he fell from a high branch. As soon as it became clear that his injured leg wouldn’t heal properly, Clear Sky banished him, and he returned to the moorland cats. Here he grew embittered because he felt he was useless. But Jagged Peak discovered an affinity for young kits and was able to become a valued member of the group on the moor by the care he gave them. While his limp never fully disappeared, he gradually became stronger and was eventually able to raise his own family in WindClan.

THE SON OF STORM and Clear Sky, Thunder was born in the Twolegplace and rescued from a collapsing Twoleg den by his father’s brother, Gray Wing, who took him to Clear Sky’s camp in the forest. He was bewildered by Clear Sky’s rejection of him, and anxious about what would happen to him, until Gray Wing brought him to the moor and persuaded the moorland cats to take him in.

Though Thunder was raised on the moor, his instincts were to hunt among trees, using cover to creep up on his prey, and he found it hard to hunt on the open land, where there was nowhere to hide.

But he worked hard to perfect his skills, wanting to make Gray Wing proud.

Thunder’s first chance to shine came during the forest fire. He was the first cat to leap over the flames when River Ripple showed the cats the way to safety, and joined Jackdaw’s Cry in returning through the flames to rescue Moon Shadow.