Warriors: The Ultimate Guide Read online

  MAPS

  DEDICATION

  DEDICATED TO THE FOLLOWING

  CLANMATES WHO HAVE PROVEN THEMSELVES TO BE THE ULTIMATE WARRIORS FANS!

  Cameron Dresdner

  Kelly Freer

  Dailey Jackson

  Ellie Lang-Ree

  Cassidy Stoler

  Danielle Truxhall

  Audra Young

  CONTENTS

  Maps

  Dedication

  INTRODUCTION

  THUNDERCLAN

  Introduction to ThunderClan: Bluestar Speaks

  Bluestar

  Pinestar

  Goosefeather and Featherwhisker

  Firestar

  Spottedleaf

  Graystripe and Millie

  Sandstorm

  Brightheart and Cloudtail

  Yellowfang

  Cinderpelt

  Leafpool

  Squirrelflight

  Brambleclaw

  Ashfur

  Lionblaze

  Hollyleaf

  Jayfeather

  Cinderheart

  Dovewing

  Ivypool

  Briarlight

  Bramblestar’s Nine Lives: The Return of Heroes

  SHADOWCLAN

  Introduction to ShadowClan: Blackstar Speaks

  Raggedstar

  Sagewhisker

  Runningnose and Littlecloud

  Brokenstar

  Nightstar

  Tigerstar

  Blackstar

  Russetfur

  Boulder

  Tawnypelt

  Flametail

  Tigerstar’s Nine Lives: StarClan Makes Its Choice

  WINDCLAN

  Introduction to WindClan: Tallstar Speaks

  Tallstar

  Onestar

  Mudclaw

  Crowfeather

  Nightcloud and Breezepelt

  Heathertail

  RIVERCLAN

  Introduction to RiverClan: Crookedstar Speaks

  Crookedstar

  Mapleshade

  Silverstream

  Leopardstar

  Oakheart

  Mistystar and Stonefur

  Feathertail

  Hawkfrost

  Mothwing and Willowshine

  SKYCLAN

  Introduction to SkyClan: Cloudstar Speaks

  Cloudstar and Skywatcher

  Leafstar

  Echosong

  Sharpclaw

  TRIBE OF RUSHING WATER

  Introduction to the Tribe of Rushing Water: Stoneteller Speaks

  Teller of the Pointed Stones

  Brook Where Small Fish Swim and Stormfur

  Crag Where Eagles Nest

  THE EARLY SETTLERS

  Introduction to the Early Settlers: Half Moon Speaks

  Half Moon, also known as Stoneteller

  Gray Wing

  Clear Sky

  Jagged Peak

  Thunder

  Storm and Turtle Tail

  Tall Shadow

  Dappled Pelt and Cloud Spots

  Wind Runner

  Gorse Fur

  River Ripple

  Moth Flight

  ANIMALS OUTSIDE THE CLANS

  Introduction: Rock Speaks

  Ravenpaw and Barley

  Smudge and Princess

  Scourge and Bone

  Sol

  Rock

  Fallen Leaves

  Midnight

  Excerpt from Warriors: Dawn of the Clans: The Sun Trail

  About the Author

  Back Ads

  Credits

  Books by Erin Hunter

  Acknowledgments

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  INTRODUCTION

  THERE WERE FOUR CLANS that lived in a forest. Each Clan defended a territory that best suited its hunting skills: Fleet-footed rabbit chasers lived on the moor below broad open skies; glossy-furred cats who were happy to get their paws wet in search of fish settled beside the river; stalkers of mice and squirrels made their home among dense trees and tangled undergrowth; and bold, cunning cats who had a taste for frogs patrolled the marshes fringed by brittle pine trees.

  But no . . . there were originally five Clans. One Clan was forced out when Twolegs took over its territory. That Clan, the tree-hunters, created a new home far, far away in a sandy gorge.

  And before those five Clans, there was a community of cats living deep in the mountains, beneath an endlessly tumbling waterfall. These cats had left their home beside a lake after a hard-won decision to find somewhere else to live, free from black-and-white dogs that were too easily diverted from chasing sheep into chasing cats instead.

  Those four Clans that lived in the forest? They ended up beside the very same lake when Twolegs rampaged through their territories, flattening trees to make space for a new Thunderpath. With their distant ancestors lost from memory, the Clans believed they were the first cats to settle there, forging new paths among the trees and across the windy hills.

  Everywhere the cats have been, there are layers upon layers of history—some known, some long-forgotten, and some discovered in the most unexpected ways—laid down by the paw steps of many generations. What shaped the lives of these proud and noble warriors? Come, walk among them for a while, and listen to their stories. . . .

  THUNDERCLAN

  Introduction to ThunderClan: Bluestar Speaks

  LIKE ALL OF THE Clans, ThunderClan has been shaped by the nature of its home, by the dense forest and prey-rich thickets that lie between its boundaries. My warriors are the most skilled predators of any Clan, able to make themselves silent and invisible in order to hunt the tiny furred and feathered creatures that live among us. They can stalk over fallen leaves and brittle twigs without making a sound, and from a standstill they can pounce with enough strength to bring down a full-grown rabbit. We are descended from the cats who were most adept at hunting beneath the trees, who were undaunted by branches blocking out the sky and the need to fight enemies at close quarters when there was no open space in which to escape an attacker. This battling in close quarters gave us courage and confidence in our abilities to feed and defend ourselves, and we knew the forest was the right home for us.

  It was the warrior code that let us grow as a Clan and maintain our beloved forest territory. No Clan guards the code as passionately as ThunderClan. To our dying breath, we know it will protect us from injustice, cruelty, and needless battles. The code tells us to check our boundaries daily, and prohibits trespassing or hunting on another Clan’s territory, and we follow this. The other Clans might call us cowards for avoiding constant border skirmishes, but we would fight for our territory as fiercely as any of them—just not when a more peaceful answer can be found by obeying the code that we share.

  When we lived in the forest beside Twolegplace, our greatest border quarrel was with RiverClan over Sunningrocks. When cats first came to the forest, these rocks were an island in the middle of the river, accessible only to those peculiar cats who were willing to swim to it. But the river changed its course, and the rocks were soon attached by dry land to ThunderClan territory. The only logical conclusion was that they should be absorbed into our borders. RiverClan, those fish-eating mouse-brains, insisted this was unfair and tried bitterly to reclaim Sunningrocks. We won more of those battles than we lost, which speaks for itself. When my warriors know they are in the right, they will fight like lions.

  But we also know what it is like to be without the boundaries of a Clan. Living so close to Twolegplace in the forest, we met more kittypets than the other Clans, and had more rogues passing through. I tried to teach my Clan to treat these strangers as cats just like us before judging them for wh
ere they were born. Compared to some of the dark-hearted warriors clawing at our borders, there are better cats who have no belief in StarClan at all. Cats can learn to follow the warrior code, but they cannot always learn to have the compassion or courage that comes from faith.

  BLUESTAR

  LEADER OF THUNDERCLAN BEFORE Firestar, Bluestar was a proud and deeply committed warrior. Once known as Bluefur, her early life was scarred by tragedy. Her mother was killed during a raid on WindClan and soon after, her sister, Snowfur, died on the Thunderpath. Isolated in her grief from her own Clanmates, Bluefur fell in love with a RiverClan warrior named Oakheart, but their brief relationship ended when Bluefur realized she could not be loyal to ThunderClan while her heart lay elsewhere. Unbeknownst to Bluefur, she was already expecting Oakheart’s kits.

  Bluefur paid the highest possible price for her leadership, giving up her three tiny kits in order to become deputy instead of Thistleclaw, whom she feared would destroy ThunderClan with his dark-hearted ambition. Oakheart raised Stonefur and Mistyfoot, the two kits who survived, in his own Clan. Bluefur told her Clanmates that her litter had been stolen by a starving badger, and then overcame her sadness to become deputy and leader as she had hoped.

  When Bluestar was an apprentice, the ThunderClan medicine cat Goosefeather had delivered a prophecy to her: “You will blaze through the forest like fire; only water can destroy you.” During her leadership, as ThunderClan struggled against its rivals, Bluestar looked to another source of fire—the red-pelted kittypet Rusty—to save her beloved Clan. But Bluestar’s murderous deputy Tigerclaw continued to rage against ThunderClan even after becoming leader of ShadowClan. He set a pack of ravenous dogs to raid the camp, and Bluestar gave up her ninth life to lead the dogs over the edge of the gorge, dying for the last time in water, just as Goosefeather had foretold. StarClan showed enough mercy that Stonefur and Mistyfoot found Bluestar on RiverClan’s shore, and her final moments were spent making peace with her surviving children before she went to join her lost daughter, Mosskit, in StarClan.

  PINESTAR

  PINESTAR WAS THE LEADER of ThunderClan when Bluekit (later Bluestar) was born. He was fiercely protective of ThunderClan’s borders and prey, but preferred a show of strength via patrols and words rather than actual conflict to resolve any issues. Pinestar was a calm, fair-minded leader, resigned to doing battle with RiverClan over Sunningrocks, and confident in the abilities of his deputy, Sunfall, to organize the Clan’s daily routine. When his medicine cat Goosefeather found a sign that warned WindClan was on the verge of destroying ThunderClan, Pinestar reluctantly agreed to take action. Several of his senior warriors were eager to invade WindClan and teach them exactly what would come of stealing prey from ThunderClan, but Pinestar knew how much this would cost his Clanmates in injuries and even death.

  Pinestar led the attack on WindClan himself, and the battle turned out to be as bloody as he had feared, with the death of Bluepaw’s mother, Moonflower, at the claws of WindClan’s warrior-turned-medicine cat, Hawkheart. The battle was lost, and Pinestar grew increasingly disillusioned with the violence and contrasting fragility of Clan life. He started roaming beyond the borders of ThunderClan, crossing into Twolegplace and observing the easy lives of the kittypets who didn’t have to risk their lives for the sake of food and shelter.

  Pinestar was befriended by a kittypet named Jake, who was intrigued by the cats in the woods and had once traveled for a while with Talltail, a warrior from WindClan. Pinestar started to take food from a Twoleg, and gradually life outside the Clan became more and more appealing. His travels couldn’t stay secret for long, though, and he was spotted on one of his Twolegplace visits by a young ThunderClan apprentice named Lionpaw. Embarrassed, Pinestar lied that he was engaged in a long battle with a kittypet, and was just pretending to be one himself in order to pass unchallenged through Twolegplace.

  But yet another invasion of Sunningrocks by RiverClan made Pinestar realize that he could not spend his last life fighting for every paw step of territory and every mouthful of food. His greatest regret was leaving behind his kits with Leopardfoot, especially the little tom, Tigerkit, who was already fierce and bold and eager to fight. Pinestar handed over leadership of his Clan to Sunfall, then left to live with his adopted Twoleg. Pinestar believed he had served his Clan loyally and well for eight long lives, and he deserved some peace at the end.

  GOOSEFEATHER AND FEATHERWHISKER

  GOOSEFEATHER AND HIS APPRENTICE, Featherwhisker, were medicine cats during Pinestar’s leadership of ThunderClan. Goosefeather was a naturally skilled medicine cat, but by old age he became better known for his laziness and sour temper than for his original talents. He took a close interest in Bluefur, who would one day become Bluestar, and her sister, Snowfur, because their mother, Moonflower, was his littermate.

  Goosefeather had a habit of interpreting omens in the darkest way, and in the end, it was his doom-laden prophecy that led to the battle with WindClan, and Moonflower’s death. Goosefeather interpreted the flattened fur on a vole from the fresh-kill pile as a sign that WindClan would crush ThunderClan, kill all the warriors and destroy their territory. Strong feelings stirred up in the Clan left Pinestar with no option but to attack WindClan first. A second omen—a shred of catmint on the vole’s flank—was seen by Goosefeather as a warning from StarClan that they must invade the very heart of WindClan, inside their camp, and destroy their supply of herbs. It was a bold plan and ultimately disastrous, leading to death and defeat for the ThunderClan warriors. Goosefeather was unrepentant, insisting that his omens were correct.

  Soon after the battle with WindClan, a branch was struck by lightning and fell, burning, between Bluepaw and a threatening fox. Rain swiftly came to extinguish the fire, and Bluepaw and the woods were saved. To Goosefeather, this was a prophecy about Bluepaw herself: that she would blaze through the forest like fire, quenched only by water. Bluepaw had no inclination to take his words seriously, not after he had prompted the battle that killed her mother.

  From that moment on, Goosefeather’s mind wandered from the dedication and curiosity essential for a medicine cat, and his Clan turned more and more to his apprentice, Featherwhisker, instead. Goosefeather retreated into a world of sinister omens, and an unfailing conviction that ThunderClan was on the brink of destruction. Featherwhisker took over all medicine duties with a calmness and sense of optimism that had been missing in his mentor. Goosefeather’s final act of madness was to react with horror whenever he was in the presence of Tigerkit, Pinestar and Leopardfoot’s sole remaining son. He confided to Bluefur that Tigerkit should never have been born, and he urged Bluefur to become deputy instead of the ambitious warrior Thistleclaw, whatever it took.

  Whether he interpreted omens correctly or not, Goosefeather shaped the future of ThunderClan by setting Bluefur on the course of her destiny. But she was glad to have Featherwhisker by her side by the time she received her nine lives as leader of her Clan.

  FIRESTAR

  THIS BRAVE, BIGHEARTED THUNDERCLAN leader started life as a kittypet named Rusty, and lived with housefolk for his first six moons. He inherited his father Jake’s fascination with what lay beyond the Twoleg nests, in the woods where wild cats were rumored to live. A chance encounter with a ThunderClan apprentice named Graypaw led to an introduction to Bluestar, who saw in the young kittypet’s flame-colored pelt echoes of a recent prophecy: “Fire alone will save the Clan.”

  Renamed Firepaw, and then Fireheart, the young ginger cat trained hard to become one of ThunderClan’s most trusted warriors, and later, Bluestar’s deputy. But his path was darkened by a feud with Tigerclaw, the former deputy who was driven out of the Clan when Fireheart uncovered his plot to kill Bluestar.

  Firepaw’s closest friends in the moons following his arrival were Graypaw, Ravenpaw, and the young medicine cat, Spottedleaf. After Spottedleaf’s death during a ShadowClan raid, he grew close to a feisty, russet-furred she-cat named Sandstorm, and soon after Fireheart became leader
and took on the name Firestar, she gave birth to his daughters, Leafkit and Squirrelkit.

  Firestar led ThunderClan during the Great Journey from the forest to the lake and helped to establish all four Clans in their new homes. His untiring faith in StarClan gave him strength to fight against illnesses, drought, Twoleg disturbances, and border clashes. Except for one life lost to illness, he gave each of his nine lives for the sake of his Clanmates—most of all his final life, lost in the battle against the Dark Forest. A blaze of lightning marked the moment that Firestar joined his warrior ancestors—ancestors not by blood, but by heritage, honor, and tradition.

  SPOTTEDLEAF

  SPOTTEDLEAF WAS THE MEDICINE cat in ThunderClan when Rusty the kittypet, who would one day become Firestar, first arrived. She saw in him the same qualities that Bluestar did: courage, spirit, unwavering loyalty to doing the right thing. But Spottedleaf also saw Rusty as a warm, sensitive cat who was not limited by his expectations of her role as medicine cat and who viewed her more than anything else as a friend. If things had been different—if Spottedleaf had been a few moons younger, an apprentice warrior rather than a medicine cat—their relationship would have become even closer.

  Instead, Spottedleaf died before she and Fireheart could find a way to express how they felt about each other, which left her frustrated and lonely in StarClan, missing the friend she had left behind. She refused to let go of the connection she had shared with Fireheart, and walked in his dreams, guiding and supporting him in his early days of leading ThunderClan.

  When Firestar left to rediscover SkyClan, Spottedleaf knew she had lost him to Sandstorm. In her heart, she understood that the young she-cat was a far better choice, able to walk side by side with Firestar, bear his kits, and share responsibility for the Clan over the coming seasons. Spottedleaf grieved for missed chances, for a life that could never have been, but she still watched over Firestar and her former Clanmates as they moved to the lake and built new lives far from her forest home.