Эрин Хантер - Cats of the Clans

If Nightcloud were a gentle, loving cat like Leafpool, or feisty and warmhearted like Squirrelflight, it would be easier to feel sorry for her. After all, Crowfeather took her as his mate to prove that he was loyal to WindClan in spite of trying to run off with the ThunderClan medicine cat. But she’s a difficult she-cat to like, with her short temper and her possessiveness over Crowfeather and her son, Breezepaw.

Don’t hiss, Adderkit. I speak only the truth as I see it, and what some might call the love of a she-cat for her kits I call jealousy and arrogance. Nightcloud should trust her son to prove his own worth, without leaping in to defend him first. And maybe she should remember that of all Crowfeather’s mates, she is the one StarClan have spared to live side by side with him.

Breezepaw shares his mother’s arrogance, but perhaps we can forgive his readiness to draw blood in defense of his Clan. He has heard the whispers about his father, the doubts that Crowfeather is truly loyal to WindClan, and the rumor that he has a weakness beyond the borders.

Breezepaw doesn’t know this weakness has a name, but he will not let his Clanmates think the same about him. He is what Onestar needs most: a fierce, brave warrior loyal to WindClan and with complete faith they can win every battle. But Breezepaw needs to learn that a battle is unfair from the start if there are secrets waiting in the shadows, and if the cats around him have left a legacy of mistakes and ill judgment that has not reached its end.

Heatherpawwas hereonce, little kits. Just like you she sat below this ledge, imagining places and cats far away. But for her it was only a game, and the cats were members of DarkClan, which she and Lionpaw conjured up when they played in the tunnels. To Lionpaw she seemed like the bravest, most devoted companion he could wish to meet this far under the ground; but what made Heatherpaw so determined to meet her ThunderClan friend in secret? Did she think the warrior code would not apply to her? She insisted they weren’t doing any harm, but Tigerstar and Hawkfrost saw the danger in Lionpaw teaching a WindClan apprentice their best fighting moves. I don’t think Heatherpaw was guilty of anything but selfishness; she stayed loyal to her Clan, although luckily she never had to face her friend on the other side of a battle.

You could argue that Heatherpaw showed great courage in entering the tunnels to look for the lost WindClan kits, but would they have found their way down if they hadn’t followed her first? Seven lives were nearly lost that night, seven more scratches to go uncrossed on my recording branch. StarClan had no power to save them down here. The river spared them, that’s all.

Don’t worry, little ones. It’s not raining tonight; the river won’t rise.

You’ll be safe till morning comes.

You could swim thatriver if you tried, Mosskit. Are you drawn to the rushing black water? Can you guess how it would feel sliding over your fur? You are half RiverClan, remember, and those cats are born with a love of water not shared by any other Clan. This means that they alone can take prey from lakes and rivers, so they go sleek and well fed even in leaf-bare, when other Clans go hungry. They’re not so willing to share prey, either; they were quick to accept Firestar and Graystripe’s woodland fresh-kill when the fish in the river made them sick, but I can’t imagine the favor being returned.

Although they let ThunderClan shelter from the fire on their side of the river, so perhaps I am doing them an injustice. I just find their pride too close to smugness; they say their territory is safe because the 1 58 2

other Clans fear and respect them, but surely it’s a matter of the other Clans not knowing what to do with one end of a fish? Rabbits, voles, and birds can be found on the fresh-kill piles of the other Clans, but they don’t hunt for prey in the lake even though they all have territory that runs down to the shore.

The price RiverClan paid for living by the river in the forest was the invasion of Twolegs every greenleaf. They lived in little dens made of flapping green pelts that were planted in the field next to the water, and they filled the river with bobbing boats that scared away the fish.

Did you know that more RiverClan cats were stolen by Twolegs than from any other Clan? For no more sinister reason than to be kept as kittypets; Twoleg kits would see a RiverClan cat sunning itself on the shore and want that handsome, glossy-furred warrior to live in their own nest. What’s that, little ones? You’ve never heard this before? I’m not surprised; RiverClan keep quiet about it, even now, because hardly any of the warriors came back.

Crookedstar was theleader of RiverClan when Firestar came to the forest. When he was a kit RiverClan won back the rights to Sunningrocks, and the cats used to swim across the river and stretch out whenever the sky was clear, just to taunt their ThunderClan rivals. Crookedstar and his littermates played too roughly on the rocks one day and he fell and broke his jaw, giving him his warrior name. From then on he had to fight more fiercely, catch more fish, and defend his Clan more loyally to earn the respect of his Clanmates; a less than per-fect cat is not welcome in RiverClan.

Crookedstar knew that a united Clan, even if it contained half-Clan blood, would always be stronger than a Clan that quarreled within itself. He knew who Mistyfoot and Stonefur’s mother was from the moment Oakheart came to him with a tale of finding two kits lost in the snow. It was obvious from the color of their fur and the scent that clung to them. Crookedstar also knew that raising Bluestar’s kits would provide two more strong warriors for his Clan, and give the ThunderClan leader a weakness when it came to launching an attack across the river.

So he chose to be publicly ignorant about where the kits came from.

He was less welcoming when Graystripe crossed the river with Feathertail and Stormfur. Graystripe’s mate, Silverstream, was Crookedstar’s daughter, and Crookedstar wanted to have his kin in his own Clan. But there was no place in RiverClan for a warrior whose heart lay on the other side of the river, and Crookedstar did nothing to stop his Clanmates from making it clear they could never trust Silverstream’s former mate. It was this cunning, this confidence and farsightedness in dealing with his own Clan, that made Crookedstar one of the strongest leaders the Clans have ever seen.

Leopardstar wasCrookedstar’s deputy, and became leader when Crookedstar lost his ninth life. She shared his pride and his ambition for their Clan, but she lacked his wisdom and tried too hard to defend herself against the other Clans. She couldn’t see Crookedstar’s attitude to half-Clan blood as anything but a weakness, which turned her against Firestar and his Clan of kittypet warriors. When Tigerstar took over ShadowClan and offered a way of making the forest pure Clan, with no petty fighting over boundaries because all cats would belong to one supreme Clan, Leopardstar formed an alliance that would nearly lead to the destruction of every cat.