Эрин Хантер: Cats of the Clans

Even Sandstorm came to forgive Firestar his kittypet roots—and she is a cat whose opinion is worth a moon of prey.

I wish Firestar nothing but peace, and a long life. Ha, empty words from me, who knows how every one of Firestar’s nine lives will end.

Your mother was a great leader, Mosskit, even if the price she paid for it was higher than she ever dreamed. She gave you up on that snowbound night, you and your littermates, so that she could become ThunderClan’s deputy instead of Thistleclaw, who would have sliced through the forest until the paths ran red with blood. You should be proud of her for such loyalty to her Clan. Proud of your father, Oakheart, too, for raising your brother and sister to be strong, respected RiverClan warriors.

Was Firestar a replacement for the kits Bluestar never saw grow up?

An interesting question, little one. She was an excellent mentor to the kittypet, and trained him to be a wise and confident warrior. She saw him as the savior of her Clan from the moment the sun struck his flame-colored pelt. Spottedleaf had told her that only fire could save the Clan, so Rusty must have seemed like a gift from StarClan.

It’s too easy to say Bluestar went mad during the last moons of her life; you have only to think about what she gave up—including you, Mosskit—to understand how far she thought she had failed. Don’t forget that she gave up her ninth life to save her Clan from the dogs, throwing herself into the gorge to lead them to their deaths. Stonefur and Mistyfoot found her on RiverClan’s shore, so her final moments were spent making peace with her surviving children before she came to join you in StarClan.

Does Graystripe have any enemies, I wonder? Don’t bristle, Blossomkit; not even ShadowClan is the foe of every living cat.

He was the first to make friends with Firestar, when he was no more than a lost and curious kittypet. He and Firestar share the same foolish generosity: could you imagine any other pair of cats catching food for RiverClan when the river was poisoned, or traveling far from the forest to rescue WindClan?

But Graystripe’s life isn’t just a tale of friendship and heroics. Like Bluestar, he fell in love with a RiverClan cat, Silverstream, and he fathered her kits. It tore him apart to leave his Clan—and his best friend—when he took his motherless kits to their mother’s Clan, but he believed it was the only place where they’d be truly welcomed. I think he was right; for all ThunderClan’s noble gestures, they are not always kind to half-Clan cats. Graystripe came back when he realized that his loyalties were not to his kits’ Clan, but to his own.

Now Graystripe has a new mate, Millie, a kittypet that he met when he was captured by Twolegs. I don’t think ThunderClan realizes how much they owe Millie for the safe return of their leader’s best friend and deputy. It was her determination that got them out of Twolegplace, her encouragement that helped Graystripe follow the Clans all the way from the forest to the lake. I hope he never forgets how much she has given up for him, and how far she has traveled from her home, in more ways than one.

Firestar’s loyal mate,a good mother to Squirrelflight and Leafpool, she’s the cat that won Firestar’s heart after Spottedleaf died… Is this how Sandstorm will be remembered? She deserves more than that, in my opinion. If it weren’t for her, Firestar might not have led his Clanmates into battle against BloodClan at all. I see your ears prick up, little kits. In spite of StarClan’s prophecies and Firestar’s determination to save the forest from Scourge, Sandstorm was the one who made Firestar believe he was doing the right thing by fighting the cats from Twolegplace. He trusted her because she loved him above all, and would never sacrifice his life for the good of the Clan. She knows Firestar better than he realizes—better even than Spottedleaf, for all the medicine cat’s murmuring in Firestar’s sleeping ears.

Sandstorm isn’t just Firestar’s shadow, either. Her courage matched his on the journey to rebuild SkyClan. She 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.

I hold Sandstorm in higher esteem than I do almost any other Clan cat. She has traveled far from the days when she and Dustpaw tor-mented Rusty the kittypet. I hope Firestar appreciates her journey as much as she deserves.

You knowYellowfang,don’t you? She walks among the stars now. Mosskit, if she’s grumpy then it’s your fault for disturbing her! She deserves more respect than you realize. And remember that she was once your Clanmate too, Blossomkit.

Yellowfang’s troubled life took her from ShadowClan, where she was born and trained as a medicine cat, to ThunderClan, where she died in a fire, helping her adopted Clanmates escape. She was cranky, stubborn, impatient—and the most loyal cat you could ever meet. Her whole life was a quest for loyalty—first to ShadowClan, to her role as their medicine cat, to the son that she bore in secret. His father was Raggedstar, leader of ShadowClan. Foolish Yellowfang! She knew medicine cats aren’t supposed to have mates, and especially not kits. When her kit Brokenstar became ShadowClan’s leader and made the forest run with the blood of kits too young to fight, Yellowfang’s loyalty to what she knew to be right sent her fleeing across the border to ThunderClan.

She blamed herself for Brokenstar’s brutality, you know. Why else would she persuade Bluestar to let him live in the ThunderClan camp?

I can’t imagine what agony Yellowfang felt when she discovered he had plotted against the Clan that had given him food and shelter. Agony enough to kill her ungrateful son, I know that much. Brave, loyal Yellowfang, who fought enough battles for nine lifetimes.

The cat who shouldhave been a warrior, and the cat who was given a second chance. No, Mosskit, StarClan did not plan for Cinderpelt to be struck on the Thunderpath instead of Bluestar.

Your warrior ancestors were as horrified as any of the forest cats when Cinderpelt ended up in Tigerstar’s trap, and had her warrior path snatched from her.

She was a good medicine cat; there’s no doubt of that. She should have been, given Yellowfang as her mentor. But StarClan did not whisper in her ear as clearly as they have done to other medicine cats.

Remember the fire-and-tiger prophecy, the burning blades of grass that she interpreted as a warning that Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight would unite to destroy ThunderClan? She was wrong. Their quest to the sun-drown-place saved the Clan by finding them a new home.