Fire and Ice

  

Spoiler!!!!!!

Fire and Ice

In the prologue, where the book begins, it shows the fact that WindClan had been driven out of their territory by ShadowClan, and it goes on to show that WindClan are having some trouble finding a place to live. It then shifts to where the previous book, Into the Wild, ended, with the two newly made warriors, Fireheart and Graystripe, finishing their nighttime vigil. Their first warrior mission, assigned to them by Bluestar, is the task of finding and bringing back WindClan to the forest, who were forced out of their original home by Brokenstar, the former ShadowClan leader.

Graystripe and Fireheart journey into WindClan territory and find WindClan far past Highstones, sheltering in a tunnel under a tangle of thunderpaths. They speak with Tallstar, and convince WindClan to come home, as Brokenstar has been driven out and the danger has passed. The WindClan cats return to their territory after a two-day journey, sleeping in Barley's barn for the night, even though WindClan doesn't trust the loners.

Fireheart and Graystripe are provided with a WindClan escort home, and on their way back to ThunderClan, they decide to take a shortcut by the gorge in RiverClan territory. They are caught by a RiverClan patrol, led by the RiverClan deputy Leopardfur, who forces them into a fight. A ThunderClan patrol arrives to help their fellow Clan mates. Graystripe is engaged in battle withWhiteclaw. Graystripe accidentally shoves Whiteclaw into the river below, who only ends up drowning.Sandpaw almost has the same fate as Whiteclaw, but is saved by Fireheart. The RiverClan cats retreat, promising that Whiteclaw's death will be avenged, but as Leopardfur says--in a different way and at a different time.

Fireheart and Graystripe are praised for bringing WindClan home, but their deeds are shadowed by Whiteclaw's death. Later, the two young warriors are given apprentices, Fireheart is given Cinderpaw and Graystripe, Brackenpaw. Fireheart is proud to have an apprentice; he shows Cinderpaw the ThunderClan territory and takes her regularly to training.

One day, when Graystripe, Fireheart, Brackenpaw, and Cinderpaw go out hunting near Sunningrocks, Graystripe falls through the ice into the river and almost drowns. Silverstream, a RiverClan cat and the daughter of Crookedstar, shows up and saves Graystripe's life. As they pad back to camp, Fireheart notices that Graystripe kept glancing over his shoulder--more than once--to gaze at Silverstream. Graystripe comes down with a cold and is confined to the camp, but keeps slipping away, and even Tigerclaw notices his absences. Fireheart is worried about his friend and eventually he follows him out of camp, only to find that Graystripe is meeting with Silverstream near Sunningrocks, having fallen in love with her. Fireheart tells them that their relationship has to stop, and tries to discourage them from seeing each other, but fails, and falls into an argument with Graystripe.

Fireheart trains both Cinderpaw and Brackenpaw while Graystripe is absent, to make sure Brackenpaw doesn't fall behind, and to make sure no cat realizes Graystripe is neglecting his apprentice. Fireheart gets increasingly hostile with Graystripe, who does not want to give up Silverstream, but at the same time, he becomes good friends with Sandpaw.

Leaf-bare arrives and there is an outbreak of whitecough in the camp. One day, Dustpaw returns, saying Tigerclaw wants Bluestar to come and see proof of ShadowClan prey-stealing. However, Bluestar is sick with greencough and she cannot go. Cinderpaw offers to take the message to Tigerclaw, but even though Fireheart disagrees, she slips away. Fireheart follows Cinderpaw's scent trail to the ShadowClan border, only to find her lying beside the Thunderpath, having been hit by aTwoleg monster. He takes her back to camp, but her hind leg is injured too badly, and later it turns out that she will never recover; therefore she can't become a warrior.

Meanwhile, Fireheart meets with his blood sister Princess, and even though the meetings question his loyalty towards ThunderClan, he keeps visiting her. When Princess has a litter of kits, she gives her firstborn to Fireheart to take him to the ThunderClan camp and make him a warrior. The Clan is outraged, but Bluestar decides that they will take in the kit, and names him Cloudkit. Brindlefaceagrees to feed him.

At a Gathering, both ThunderClan and WindClan accuse ShadowClan of stealing prey, having noticed their scent. Later, it turns out that the cats hunting in the Clan territories were Brokenstar and his band of rogue. When all the warriors except Fireheart are out on patrol, Brokenstar and the rogues attack the ThunderClan camp. Fireheart leads the defense and heads straight for Brokenstar, but is attacked by Clawface.

Fireheart fights him fiercely, remembering he killed Spottedleaf, but is overpowered and nearly killed. Then Fireheart feels Spottedleaf's spirit fighting alongside him. Graystripe then appears and kills Clawface, saving Fireheart. The rogues are eventually driven out, except for Brokenstar, who is blinded by Yellowfang and is taken as a prisoner.

Yellowfang then reveals to Fireheart that she is Brokenstar's mother. Fireheart tells Bluestar about the brave fight the apprentices put up in the battle, and Sandpaw and Dustpaw receive their warrior names, Sandstorm and Dustpelt. Brokenstar loses his leader name and is called by his warrior name, Brokentail.

A fight with WindClan against RiverClan and ShadowClan tests Fireheart's and Graystripe's loyalty to their Clan. Graystripe attacks only the ShadowClan warriors, and it is very clear that his loyalties have been divided. Silverstream attacks Fireheart, not realizing that he is Graystripe's best friend. Fireheart turns on her, and despite her being Graystripe's forbidden love, pins her to the ground. As the book describes, Fireheart can feel Graystripe's shocked eyes locked on him, and Fireheart releases Silverstream without so much as scratching her.

Darkstripe sees Fireheart mercifully release Silverstream, and tells Tigerclaw about it. At one point in the battle, Fireheart gets nearly killed by Leopardfur, but Tigerclaw watches on without helping him. Fireheart is certain now that Tigerclaw can never be trusted. After the battle, Tigerclaw confronts Fireheart, questioning him about his loyalty to ThunderClan, but the friendship between Fireheart and Graystripe seems to be back to normal again.

Spoiler Over!!!!

What I think: Better than First Book. More Mystery, Suspence, and Romance than in 'Into the Wild'. Cover art, as said before, would look better with just one cat. That goes for the whole of the series.

Okay, Next up: 

Forest of Secrets!

Into the Wild

Spoiler!!!!

Into the Wild

In the prologue, a group of feral cats named ThunderClan are battling against their rival, RiverClan, by a river for control over a place called Sunningrocks, that both Clans have equal claim to. Redtail, ThunderClan's deputy, soon realizes that ThunderClan is badly outnumbered so they have to retreat, but Tigerclaw is reluctant to allow RiverClan to celebrate over a win over territory so quickly. Redtail orders the battle patrol to retreat. Tigerclaw reluctantly follows the order, looking at the RiverClan cats with anger. Later, in the ThunderClan camp, Bluestar, leader of ThunderClan, is trying to seek answers from StarClan, troubled by that night's defeat. Spottedleaf, the medicine cat of ThunderClan, joins her, and Bluestar asks her of Mousefur's current state, for she's been wounded badly. Spottedleaf replies, saying that she is young and will heal quickly. Then, Spottedleaf receives a prophecy fromStarClan, from a shooting star, echoing to Bluestar that "Fire alone can save our Clan."

The first chapter then starts out with a kittypet named Rusty, wandering into the woods after dreaming about hunting a mouse in the wild. He is briefly attacked by Graypaw, who is a ThunderClanapprentice, and who tells Rusty about Clan life. Unbeknownst to the two young cats, two warriors from ThunderClan watch them - Lionheart, Graypaw's mentor, and Bluestar, ThunderClan's leader. After they watch Rusty and Graypaw fight, Bluestar offers Rusty a chance to join their Clan of feral cats and train as an apprentice, due to the warrior shortage in ThunderClan. Rusty goes home to think it over, and Smudge, his kittypet friend, tells him that he shouldn't join and are shouldn't be trusted, although Rusty wants to. Smudge sees that he can't change his friend's mind and they decide to be with each other for one more morning.

The next day, Rusty meets Lionheart and another ThunderClan cat, Whitestorm, in the woods. Rusty then accepts Bluestar's offer. He travels to the ThunderClan camp, where most of the cats disagree with a kittypet joining their ranks. Longtail, who shows extreme opposition to Bluestar's decision to let Rusty join the Clan, taunts Rusty. Lionheart persuades Rusty to prove his loyalty and use in the Clan, so he fights Longtail in a battle of honor. Rusty wins the fight, but Longtail gets another grasp on Rusty--but on his collar. The collar snaps off; this is taken as an omen from StarClan that Rusty belongs in their Clan. Bluestar then renames Rusty with the apprentice name of Firepaw in the traditional Clan way, and appointed as a Clan apprentice. At this time, his mentor is not announced, so he trains with Ravenpaw and Graypaw and their mentors, Tigerclaw and Lionheart.

Firepaw soon learns that kittypets are thought to be soft and useless by most Clan-born cats, and Firepaw is a cat who has no warrior blood. Despite being seen as inferior, he is slowly able to adjust to his new life. He grows up fast and trains hard to become a respected member of the Clan, hoping to earn full warrior status. On his first solo hunting assignment, Firepaw finds Yellowfang, a medicine cat who was exiled from ShadowClan. He leaps into a battle with her, because he knows that rogue cats are not tolerated in enemy territory. He doesn't kill Yellowfang out of pity--the old cat was starving. Instead, although he knew it was against the Warrior Code, he feeds her and eats the remains of the rabbit he had caught for her, in the process beraking the Warrior Code once more.

A ThunderClan patrol soon came along. Bluestar was in the lead, but surprisingly, she didn't seem mad at all over Firepaw. Instead, she takes Yellowfang into camp as a prisoner and announced to the Clan that for now, she would stay at camp. Firepaw also gains a mentor in the process to speed up all the apprentice training. His new mentor is Bluestar herself. For a small punishment for Firepaw, he is put in charge of nursing Yellowfang back to help. Many cats in ThunderClan distrust Yellowfang both because of her former Clan, and also because of a warning given at a Gathering by Brokenstar, claiming that a rogue cat killed ShadowClan kits. He makes it clear that a cat had been driven from ShadowClan and that she should be killed as soon as any cat found her. Brokenstar also urges the Clans to keep a close eye on their kits. The cats rush back to the ThunderClan camp to accuse Yellowfang, but Bluestar says that they have no proof it was her and she will remain prisionor.

Firepaw's natural curiosity is aroused when he finds himself becoming suspicious of Tigerclaw, a senior warrior. Ravenpaw, Tigerclaw's apprentice, who witnessed the events at Sunningrocks, tells Firepaw that it was Tigerclaw, not Oakheart, who killed Redtail, most likely so he could become deputy. Tigerclaw suspects that his secret has been discovered and secures his position by making sure that no cats, not even his Clanmates, trust Ravenpaw. To protect his friend, Firepaw takes Ravenpaw to a new home with a loner named Barley, who lives in a barn outside of WindClan territory. When Ravenpaw asks what Firepaw would tell the Clan about him, Firepaw says that he would tell the Clan that he was dead, but later on, he tells Bluestar the truth. Bluestar says that he might be better off without the Clan.

In the midst of this, Spottedleaf is killed by a merciless death blow from Clawface, a warrior of ShadowClan in an attack in which two of Frostfur's kits are stolen. Firepaw is devastated, because although she was a medicine cat and therefore unable to take a mate, they both had developed a love for each other. Tigerclaw immediately blames Yellowfang for the disappearance of the kits and the death of Spottedleaf, because she was taken into the Clan as a ShadowClan prisoner. Yellowfang is also not present when the kits are discovered missing, therefore making Tigerclaw and the rest of the Clan even more suspicious of her. Bluestar intervenes and says that there is no proof that Yellowfang is at fault and refuses to blame her for it without proof. Tigerclaw also makes an assertion that Ravenpaw helped Yellowfang steal the kits, causing Frostfur to chase Ravenpaw out when he tried to check up on the other kits.

Firepaw is determined to prove Yellowfang innocent of the accusation that she had been stealing kits. He and Graypaw are sent to find the missing kits and rescue them from ShadowClan. With help from Yellowfang, who is found attempting to rescue them herself, and a ThunderClan patrol led by Whitestorm, and a patrol of ShadowClan warriors who don't support Brokenstar, they drive off the real kit snatcher, Brokenstar, from his position as ShadowClan leader. Brokenstar had intended to train the tiny kits early so he could have more warriors for his Clan, but this had been prevented. After Brokenstar is driven out, ThunderClan promises to leave ShadowClan in peace for one moon while they adjust and find a new leader. Back at the ThunderClan camp, Firepaw tells the clan that Ravenpaw was killed by a ShadowClan patrol. Tigerclaw remarks that he never said Ravenpaw was a traitor, and could have made a good warrior

After the battle, Firepaw and Graypaw are promoted to warriors, and receive warrior names - Fireheart and Graystripe. Just before his vigil is supposed to start, Fireheart tries to tell Bluestar about Tigerclaw's betrayal, but she silences him with reminding him about his vigil. The story ends as the two new warriors guard the camp until dawn.

Spoiler Over!!!!

Okay, Here's what I think of the book:

Boring Compared to newer books, but perfect for a newbie just starting the series. Cover art would look better with just the face of one cat on the front, but, overall, a good book.

Next time:

Fire and Ice...

First Posting

Hi, Y'all! Welcome to The Blog dedicated to Erin Hunter, and detailed ideas of the books, which I have read ALL of, with the exception of Mistystar's Omen, and Cloudstar's Journey.  I'm reading Hollyeaf's Story now, so does that count?

Do NOT Read if you like people spoiling your stories, because that's what I'm doing!!

Okay, here's a random, really sad spoiler about the Last Hope:
Hollyleaf Dies!!!!!

I feel sorry for all Hollyleaf Lovers, which I am one of. I am now unable to look at Holly Leaves without zoning out, and blinking lots.

Well, Next Post is a detailed summary of 'Into the Wild'.

Sincerely,
Moi...