Эрин Хантер: Secrets Оf Тhe Clans

We are power. We are RiverClan.

Clan character:Contented, sleek, well fed. Long fur and glossy coats. They love beautiful things and often collect rocks, shells, and feathers for their dens. They do not fear water.

Prey:Mainly fish but also water voles, shrews, and mice.

Hunting skills:Strong swimmers, moving silent and scentless through water. They scoop fish out of the water from the bank—a skill most cats in the other Clans cannot master.

(1) RiverClan camp:This well-drained island is circled by gently rustling reeds instead of thorns, but the other Clans’ hatred of water means that it has never been attacked.

(2) The gorge:See WindClan Forest Territory .

(3) The river:It is a source of prey and protection to RiverClan, yet it is as changeable as the moon. Sometimes it is quiet, gentle, and murmuring, but sometimes it froths and roars like a Twoleg monster.

(4) Twoleg bridge:A safe way to cross the river and get to Fourtrees when the water is high.

RiverClan Forest Camp

Hi, I’m Feathertail. You’ll have to get your paws wet if you want to see our camp. It’s on an island! Don’t be afraid of crossing; just listen to the murmur of the river—it’s very soothing.

Under these long, trailing branches, that’s right. They are willow trees. You should see them in leaf-bare after a frost. They sparkle like frozen raindrops!

All right, shake your paws, duck your head, and follow me through the reeds. The whole camp is surrounded by reeds, murmuring in the breeze. I love the sound they make, under the burble of the water. Look! It’s our camp!

Here, in this central clearing, we lie in the sun and share tongues. In the mornings, I lie here and dry my fur after an early patrol. It’s my favorite spot in the whole camp.

Here’s the warriors’ den, in this tangle of reeds. It’s next to the nursery to protect the kits. Poke your head inside—it’s all right; all the warriors are on patrol.

Look up at the roof of the den. See how we’ve woven feathers into the branches? And along the edges are sparkling rocks and shells from the river. They make the den shimmer, don’t they? I love to lie in here, watching the lights and colors. It’s just as beautiful in the nursery.

See how close the river comes to the nursery? Here, it’s shallow and safe, but once before I was born, the river rose up suddenly and swept away the floor of the nursery and two kits—my mentor’s kits. Now the walls are stronger. We like to have the kits living near water. They inherit our love of it and learn to swim quickly. Oh, look, they are practicing now!

You are doing wonderfully, kittens! Soon you’ll be swimming faster than I can!

Across the clearing are the other dens, including Mudfur’s—he’s our medicine cat. Peek inside. You’ll see that he makes small caves in the earth for the herbs. Now the kits can’t scatter them when they run through his den chasing frogs.

On the other side of the island, a couple of rocks stick out of the river when the water isn’t too high. They soak up the warmth of the sun. My favorite days begin with hunting with my brother, Stormfur, and end in the sun on those rocks. But you have to be fast. There is space for only a couple of cats, and if senior warriors or elders want them, you’re out of luck. Our whole Clan could fit on Sunningrocks, where we used to bask. There was even room left for chasing prey and play-fighting. But I won’t get into that now!

Uh-oh, it looks like rain. I’m going to curl up in the warriors’ den and listen to the raindrops on the roof.

You should probably go too. But thank you for visiting!

It was the coldest leaf-bare many cats could remember. The river turned to ice, trapping frosted reeds and cutting off RiverClan warriors from the fish. Prey on land was scarce.

With spring came the relentless drip-drip of melting ice. Cats grumbled about the soggy ground and the puddles in camp. But the worst was yet to come.

A young warrior, Silverstream, was on night watch. She listened to the roar of the river. It had been louder than usual for two days. The sun would be rising soon, and then she could nap. She stood up and stretched, padding off to patrol the boundary.

Sploosh! Silverstream jumped back. In the dark, she thought she had accidentally wandered off the island. No… the river must have risen. She padded over to her father’s den.

“Crookedstar,” she whispered. “There’s something you should see.”

The RiverClan leader followed his daughter to the camp entrance. The stream that separated them from the mainland had become a ribbon of dark, frothing water.

“The water is already moving fast,” Silverstream meowed. “Should we evacuate the island?”

“It may go down again,” Crookedstar meowed gruffly.

As the day went on, the water kept on rising, swirling through the reeds surrounding the camp. Mudfur moved his medicine cat supplies to a high rock, and the other cats watched the river nervously.

Leopardfur called Stonefur and Blackclaw to join her on patrol. “We’ll see how far the floodwater reaches.” The three warriors left the camp.

A yowl came from the end of the island.

Silverpaw and Shadepaw were scrabbling at the earth to try to block off a stream of water that had broken through the reeds. Loudbelly and Mistyfoot ran to help them.

“It’s too strong!” Shadepaw yowled as the water burst into the camp.

Mistyfoot raced back toward the nursery. “Silverstream!” she yowled.

“Help me!”

They scrambled inside to see brown water bubbling through the reeds and, in a corner, two kits mewled piteously, clawing at each other’s fur. “My kits,” Mistyfoot wailed, searching for the other two.

“They’re gone!” Silverstream meowed above the sound of the rushing water. “But these two still need you!” She seized one kit in her jaws and backed out of the nursery.

Mistyfoot nudged the other kit. He opened his mouth and gave a small wail. She licked him, then picked him up and followed Silverstream to the river crossing.

The river gives us life, she thought, looking back at the flooded camp.

But now it’s destroying us. She placed a paw into the fast-moving water. Oh, StarClan, how could you let this happen?

Mudfur and Loudbelly stood downstream of the long line of cats, ready to catch them if they slipped or fell. No cat dared swim. The moment they lifted a paw off the pebble bed of the stream, the current tugged it away.

Dark water swirled above their stomachs.

Crookedstar was last to cross. We’re no more powerful against this river than any other Clan, he thought. Everything that makes us RiverClan has been taken away from us.

Mistyfoot and Silverstream scrambled out, the kits dangling from their jaws. The apprentices helped the elders ashore.

“Where do we go now?” Silverpaw meowed.

Crookedstar shook his fur. “The river is our home,” he meowed.

“StarClan will look after us.” He nodded up the hill. “For now, we will rest in those bushes until Leopardfur’s patrol returns.”

Not long after they had settled in the shelter of the bushes, a yowl sounded from outside. Silverstream scented the air. ThunderClan!