Imagine yourself in a world where wild cats that live in forests are united in ninja clans and behave as humans when it comes protecting their lands. This is a really brief summary of exciting book series Warriors written by Erin Hunter. Several writers are hiding behind this pseudonym – Cherith Baldry, Tui Sutherland, and Kate Cary plus the editor Victoria Holmes. This history revolves around five clans of cats – ShadowClan, ThunderClan, RiverClan, WindClan and lost SkyClan. All these communities live according to the borders of their territories. They live and hunt only in places that belong to their clan and are protecting their territories rigorously from other cat invaders. They can hunt a particular type of prey which depends from their peculiarities.
A special warrior code was elaborated long time ago – this is a set of beliefs on how a decent cat should live. It’s treated with respect by all cat clans except the BloodClan. These spiritual instructions were created by the members of StarClan, their ancestors that vanished a long time ago. But cats believe that after death all of them will join this clan, and each star on the shy represents a deceased warrior. Cats have a spiritual Moonstone through which the eldest communicate their advice every half-moon. All cats who created horrible thing during their lives or caused a lot of pain find themselves in the Dark Forest without stars.
All clans have their differences in terms of food preferences and survival skills. Cats from the RiverClan are excellent swimmers and now how to catch fish – they are famous for scooping fish from the river. ShadowClan cats are the best spies who can walk as quiet as a mouse without being noticed by anyone. But their food choices are the weirdest – lizards, frogs, etc. If you need professional hunters, these are cats from ThunderClan. They can chase their prey tirelessly throught forests and even beneath. The closest clan to humans or TwoLegs is the WindClan whose members usually live not far from farms. They are considered to be the fastest cats among all others.
Every clan has a strict ranking system. The leader of every clan is the cat which is responsible for the welfare of all its members. He is granted right to possess nine lives. His name should end in –star in honor of StarClan ancestors. His words should be followed without questions. Leaders’ deputy is his assistant and apprentice. If the leader dies, they will substitute them. Medicine cats are healers and spiritual leaders. They can communicate with the deceased and have medicine apprentices who are taught to follow their medicine practice. Warriors are the most numerous group – they are specifically trained to hunt and protect.
The first book from this series, “The Prophecies Begin,” tells about the beginning of all events. Cats from ThunderClan had a fight with RiverClan for mutual territories, but their warriors were defeated and had to retreat. Leaving the land to the winners, some of them stumbled over a kittypet Rusty, a house cat living with TwoLegs who left his warm house to play in the garden. He was met by Graypaw from ThunderClan who mocked his defense abilities. Rusty wasn’t scared and decided to fight back the intruder – that was his garden. They started to measure their powers while Bluestar, the leader of this clan, was watching. He noticed that Rusty, despite being a house cat, has skills and attitude of a good warrior. So he makes Rusty a proposal – if he likes, he can join their clan to pursue future forest adventures.
Tigerstar’ POV
I was forced to follow Sandstorm. That foolish young warrior Brackenfur trailed me. I sneered to myself. That bumbling fool was afraid of me, even when I was as injured as I was. As he should be. After all I was the most powerful cat in the forest.
Perfect by nature, icons of self-indulgence. Continue reading “Everybody’s Fool” »
I watched him run into the camp, kicking up dirt, his golden pelt glowing in the sunlight. Graypaw was chasing him, they were laughing. His emerald green eyes showed delight, and he was the picture of perfection.