User:Brambleclawx/Warriors: Omen of the Stars

Warriors: Omen of the Stars is the fourth arc in the Warriors juvenile fantasy novel series about anthropomorphic feral cats. The arc comprises six novels which were published from 2009 to 2012: The Fourth Apprentice, Fading Echoes, Night Whispers, Sign of the Moon, The Forgotten Warrior, and The Last Hope. The novels are published by HarperCollins under the pseudonym Erin Hunter, which refers to authors Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, Tui Sutherland and plot developer/editor Victoria Holmes. Omen of the Stars details the experiences Jayfeather, Lionblaze, and Dovewing, who as part of a prophecy have special powers. The arc's major themes deal with forbidden love, the concept of nature versus nurture, and characters being a mix of good and bad. Though the novels have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List and have been nominated for several awards, none of the novels in Warriors: Omen of the Stars have won a significant literary award.

Inspirations and influences
The authors of the series drew inspiration from several natural locations in the United Kingdom. The four Clans (WindClan, RiverClan, ThunderClan, and ShadowClan) share a fictional forest based on England's New Forest. Some other sources of inspiration for the series include the works of authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.

Publication history
The Fourth Apprentice was published on 24 November 2009, and Fading Echoes on 6 April 2010. Night Whispers was released on 23 November 2010, and Sign of the Moon on 5 April 2011. The Forgotten Warrior was published on 22 November 2011, and The Last Hope on 21 March 2012 in Canada and 3 April 2012 in the United States.

The Fourth Apprentice
The Fourth Apprentice takes place approximately six moons (months) after the end of Sunrise during greenleaf (summer). The four warrior Clans are suffering due to a drought, which has been especially hard on RiverClan, whose main prey are fish. Leopardstar, leader of RiverClan, accuses the other Clans of stealing fish from the shrinking lake. She claims that RiverClan has whole ownership to the lake, and therefore, all that was in it, as her Clans' territory.

Dovekit and Ivykit afterward become apprentices with Lionblaze as Dovepaw's mentor and Cinderheart as Ivypaw's. Dovepaw speaks of seeing brown animals up the river building a dam out when she was in the forest, but no other cat believes her. Lionblaze discovers that Dovepaw is one of the Three foretold in the prophecy "There will be three, kin of your kin, who hold the power of the stars in their paws" and that her special power is to see and hear things very far away, i.e., clairvoyance. Dovepaw and Lionblaze tell Firestar that Dovepaw receives a dream from StarClan the animals called beavers are building a dam upstream that blocks the river. Dovepaw receives a dream from Yellowfang, ThunderClan’s old medicine cat, and is told a prophecy: After the sharp-eyed jay and the roaring lion, peace will come on dove's gentle wing.

Lionblaze creates a plan to travel up the stream and find a way to unclog it and bring the water back, a journey that would include a patrol from each Clan, and Firestar agrees. All four Clans end up joining the journey, each sending two cats. Lionblaze and Dovepaw are chosen for the trip, and meet up with Toadfoot and Tigerheart of ShadowClan, Whitetail and Sedgewhisker of WindClan, and Rippletail and Petalfur of RiverClan. Ivypaw is immediately jealous and unhappy of that her sister is chosen to go on the journey, and becomes cranky back at the camp. The chosen cats set off on the journey, traveling up the quiet stream-bed until when they encounter a pen of rabbits that are owned by Twolegs, but before they can eat them, three kittypets named Seville, Jigsaw, and Snowdrop confront them. They leave the rabbits eventually, and soon travel up to the beaver's dam. They plan an attack on the beavers, but the beavers prove too strong, badly wounding the cats and killing Rippletail.

Meanwhile, back in ThunderClan, Poppyfrost, heavy with Berrynose's kits, becomes worried that Berrynose does not love her, as he forces her to stay in the nursery, and disappears. Jayfeather follows her to the Moonpool, spotting Breezepelt following her too. Jayfeather attempts to comfort Poppyfrost, but is interrupted when Breezepelt shows himself again, attacking Jayfeather. Breezepelt declares that he will not stop and that the rule of killing a medicine cat no longer affects him. Another cat, unknown to Jayfeather (Brokenstar), aids Breezepelt in the attack, but Honeyfern comes to Jayfeather's rescue and chases them off. She tells Jayfeather that she is proud of Poppyfrost and Berrynose, and that Berrynose truly does love Poppyfrost, and he is only terrified of losing her. Yellowfang then appears and Jayfeather is told that the power of the Dark Forest is rising, and that there will be a war between StarClan and the Dark Forest. StarClan needs a power greater than they are: the three prophecy cats.

At the dam, the patrol creates a new plan which requires more cats, so Lionblaze and Dovepaw set out to find Seville, Jigsaw, and Snowdrop, the kittypets they met earlier. The kittypets agree and with their help, the dam is successfully unclogged and the Clan cats return to their Clans. Poppyfrost gives birth to her kits, and Jayfeather sees Tigerstar, Hawkfrost and Brokenstar watching over them as if they want to take the kits away.

Jayfeather tells Lionblaze about the tom that aided Breezepelt, and Lionblaze confesses meeting Tigerstar in his dreams in the past. They realize that Breezepelt must have been recruited by Tigerstar to help fight in the war between StarClan and the Dark Forest. Tigerheart, Lionblaze says, was also seen using a move Tigerstar had taught to him in his nightly visits, and so is also believed to be being trained.

Fading Echoes
At the beginning, the cats of the Dark Forest are training Breezepelt and other cats in the same way they trained Lionblaze. Hawkfrost begins to visit Ivypaw in her dreams and teaches her many battle moves, pretending he is from StarClan. Ivypaw, still jealous that Dovepaw is keeping secrets from her own kin, decides not to tell anyone about Hawkfrost's training, because she is terrified somebody will say something to Firestar.

During training with Lionblaze, Cinderheart, and Ivypaw, Dovepaw hears Sedgewhisker getting hurt by a dog on the moor through her powers. Lionblaze asks her about it, but when she suggests going over to check on the WindClan warrior, Lionblaze rejects this idea, telling her that they were no longer friends, but rival Clans. Dovepaw calls him cold and later that night, she and Ivypaw go on a walk. Dovepaw ends up persuading Ivypaw to go with her to WindClan's camp. Sedgewhisker, to Dovepaw's surprise, is angry and two warriors escort them home.

The Three reveal to Firestar who they are: Firestar reveals that he suspected it all along, but had his doubts after Hollyleaf's death. Firestar tells the Three what he knows about them and delivers a crucial piece of information: the prophecy is not from StarClan.

After days of rain, Dovepaw senses a tree on the edge of the hollow about to fall. She warns Firestar and the Clan, and they manage to evacuate the camp before the tree falls. However, Mousefur stays behind, refusing to give up on a mouse that she is eating. Longtail goes back for the mouse, and Briarpaw goes back for Longtail. As a result, Briarpaw's back bone breaks so she is unable to become a real warrior, and Longtail is killed. With Leafpool's help, Jayfeather finds out that Littlecloud had the same problem with another cat.

Briarpaw, Bumblepaw, and Blossompaw get their warrior names: Briarlight, Blossomfall, and Bumblestripe.

Dovepaw sees Tigerheart at the border and they talk warmly.

Tigerstar tells Ivypaw that giving a strip of land to ShadowClan has endangered ThunderClan. Ivypaw believes Tigerstar and tells Firestar that she had a dream from StarClan of ShadowClan invading, because they believe that Firestar is too weak to keep his own territory. Firestar and the senior warriors decide to attack ShadowClan before they can attack ThunderClan. During the battle Lionblaze kills Russetfur, but not before she deprives Firestar of his seventh life.

Night Whispers
In the prologue, two ShadowClan cats, Sagewhisker and Fernshade, confront Yellowfang because they believe that she could have stopped the deadly battle between ThunderClan and ShadowClan and, perhaps, Russetfur from dying. Lionheart, Bluestar, Mudfur, Oakheart, and Mudclaw arrive. The eight discuss how to deal with the threat of the Dark Forest.

Meanwhile, after the battle with ShadowClan over a strip of territory, Jayfeather is busy treating the injured. He speaks to Lionblaze about killing Russetfur, though the conversation quickly turns towards the Dark Forest. The brothers agree that they should not ignore any signs now. After a full day, Jayfeather rests, only to find himself in Ivypaw's dream, discovering that she and Tigerheart are receiving training from the cats in the Dark Forest.

Lionblaze notices something on top of the hollow and goes with Cinderheart to investigate. Cinderheart says she worries about him. They run until they find the place where Hollyleaf had vanished beneath the earth. The two then decide to do an early border patrol, though they soon run into Flametail, who is angry with Lionblaze for killing Russetfur.

The next morning, Dovepaw overhears Lionblaze and Jayfeather talking about Ivypaw. She tries to slip away and find them, but is followed by Ivypaw. The two then go out with Cinderheart and Berrynose, since Lionblaze is nowhere to be found. She uses her power to listen in on Lionblaze and Jayfeather, then confronts Ivypaw about her visits to the Dark Forest. Ivypaw denies that this is wrong.

After finding out about Ivypaw, Lionblaze seems anxious. Jayfeather walks back to camp, while noticing that leaf-bare is coming soon. When he is back in camp, he and Millie are arguing about Briarlight. As Millie is leaving, Dovepaw walks in and informs Jayfeather that she knows about Ivypaw training in the Dark Forest. Dovepaw wants to try to stop her from going, but Jayfeather tells her to leave Ivypaw alone for now.

Flametail is called by Blackstar to speak with him in his den alongside his mentor, Littlecloud, who seems to be ill. After asking them whether StarClan sent them a sign or not, Blackstar asks Littlecloud to go to Moonpool to share tongues with StarClan. However, since Littlecloud is ill, Flametail takes the position and goes to the Moonpool, leaving Littlecloud with the queen, Ivytail to help him. Soon after, a fox is spotted on ThunderClan territory. Dovepaw and Lionblaze track it down and chase it off. Since Lionblaze is invincible, he was not hurt, but Jayfeather puts some "ointment" on his fur so no one suspects. However, Cinderheart finds out, and breaks up with Lionblaze, telling him that he had a "much bigger destiny than her". Later, Spottedleaf sends Jayfeather a dream about Ivypaw entering the camp, with the dark forest cats behind her. They attack ThunderClan, and a brown tom attacks Graystripe, and kills him.

As Ivypaw slips through the ThunderClan entrance, the whole Clan is ruffled. When Ivypaw asks why, Blossomfall responds that ShadowClan hasn't marked the new border yet. As Jayfeather stares at her from Highledge, it is made known that Ivypaw is aware that Jayfeather knows about her training in the Dark Forest. Blossomfall says it means that ShadowClan has not recognized the new border. Cinderheart asks where she has been, because Dovepaw has been back for a long time. Ivypaw lies, and says she's been practicing her stalking. Ivypaw then inquires why the Clan is not talking about the recent battle, and Blossomfall answers her, saying that ThunderClan won, so they don't need to talk about it.

As Ivypaw enters the Dark Forest she bumps into Mapleshade. Hawkfrost tells her to leave Ivypaw alone, and Ivypaw notices that Mapleshade is disappearing slowly. Ivypaw asks nervously if all cats disappear, to which Hawkfrost tells her that eventually they will. Ivypaw blurts out that Jayfeather and Dovepaw know that she's here. Hawkfrost says she's not doing anything wrong. Hawkfrost introduces Ivypaw to Snowtuft, Shredtail, Sparrowfeather, and Thistleclaw. As the cats train, Sparrowfeather cheats, and Thistleclaw catches her.

When Flametail arrives at the moonpool, he goes to the water to drink. There, he sees all of ShadowClan's ancestors. Sagewhisker tells Flametail to name all of the cats there. Flametail recites the cats names and notices that only ShadowClan ancestors are there. Raggedstar tells him that ShadowClan must stand alone and that allies should not be trusted, and to only trust your Clan and ancestors. When he comes back to ShadowClan, he tells Littlecloud, and Blackstar what he saw. Littlecloud does not agree and Blackstar does.

In her dreams, Ivypaw sees Tigerheart and Tigerstar training viciously. He says that if Tigerheart cannot beat those "ThunderClan weaklings", he is nothing. Ivypaw, realizing that Tigerstar lied to her, flees and admits to the Three that she visited the Dark Forest. However, this turns in good hands, as she reports information to Jayfeather in her dreams.

Flametail and a few other cats decide to play a game called "preystone" where you try to get a stone into a dent in the shoreline guarded by another cat. Partway through, however, the ice breaks under Flametail, who begins to drown. Jayfeather who was nearby, leaps in to save him, but the ice closes up. Jayfeather is determined to save Flametail until Rock appears and tells Jayfeather that it is Flametail's time to die, not his. Jayfeather lets go of Flametail, who drowns.

Shortly afterward, Ivypaw visits the Dark Forest, now as a spy, and Brokenstar takes her on a test to prove her loyalty. She finds out the test: To kill Flametail - who is confused about no longer being in StarClan, and does not know where he is. Brokenstar says a cat's soul does die, either slowly as he or she is forgotten, or by any blows that would kill a living cat. Ivypaw starts to pounce, thinking that there is nothing else to do, but is stopped abruptly when Tigerheart comes in, ferociously defending his brother, but Tigerstar lets Flametail go, saying that he is not a threat. He believes Ivypaw, even if hesitant now, will fight with them when the battle comes.

Sign of the Moon
Ivypaw and Dovepaw get their warrior names of Ivypool and Dovewing. Icecloud falls through the shallow roof of a tunnel near where Hollyleaf was buried, and so Lionblaze and Jayfeather venture down the tunnel, only to find a tuft of fur in the spot Hollyleaf supposedly died in. This indicates that Hollyleaf may not be dead. Midway through the book, Jayfeather, Dovewing, Foxleap, and Squirrelflight visit the Tribe of Rushing Water when Jayfeather receives a dream from Rock, who insists he go to the mountains for a mysterious purpose. While there, Jayfeather is again sent into centuries before his own time, to convince the ancient Tribe ancestors to stay in the mountains, as they're weary and very close to returning to the lake (their previous home). He appoints Half Moon as the Stoneteller of ancient times (who he has a brief relationship with, but as expected, it does not work out) and Crag Where Eagles Nest as the Stoneteller of modern times. While in his slight relationship with Half Moon, Jayfeather is tempted to never return to his own time and stay with her to become mates. This, obviously, does not succeed as their paths are very different, with destinies too great to put aside, as Rock puts it. Lionblaze still pursues a relationship with Cinderheart, even though Cinderheart believes that Lionblaze is too good for her, so Lionblaze has no success.

The Forgotten Warrior
Birchfall and Ivypool head towards the old fox den to collect dung so as to keep rabbits from marigold when Birchfall reveals that he has been training in the Place of No Stars. When the two wash their paws in the WindClan border stream, it is clear that there are hostilities between the two Clans.

Dovewing no longer has her senses after being completely overwhelmed in the mountains, and she fears that she will never revive them and she is no longer part of the prophecy.

Due to the lack of apprentices in the Clan, Cherrykit and Molekit are apprenticed. They have a run-in with a fox due to the fox dung with the marigold, but a mysterious cat saves them. The apprentices do not remember what the cat looked like. Lionblaze goes to investigate and finds Sol, who says that he was the one who saved the apprentices. Sol is welcomed as a hero by some, but not trusted by others. For a time, the loner disappears, and Dovewing and Ivypool find out after following him that he betrayed ThunderClan and is trying to spark a battle between them and WindClan.

Sorreltail announces that she is expecting kits, but leaves the nursery in the middle of the night while the kits begin to come. Dovewing hears her cries for help close to the lake, and realizes that her powers are back.

When Dovewing and Ivypool are spying on Sol and WindClan, Owlwhisker notices that the two ThunderClan warriors are following them in the tunnels. Hollyleaf leads them out, but when she plans to go back to the tunnels, Lionblaze finds her and brings her back to the Clan. They also reveal that Sol is planning something and that Hollyleaf was, in reality, the one that saved the kits.

Yellowfang tells Jayfeather that for the final battle, they will need more than one medicine cat. Leafpool is forbidden from using her powers because of the code she broke, and that he needs to show Cinderheart her past life as Cinderpelt. Jayfeather does through dreams and Cinderheart remembers everything. She feels that she must become a medicine cat again.

At a Gathering, Dawnpelt and Tigerheart accuse Jayfeather for murdering Flametail, and though none of the leaders agree with this, they suggest that it may be best for the Clans if Jayfeather's duties are suspended until his name is free and clear.

WindClan attacks through the tunnels, but ThunderClan is well-trained after underground training by Hollyleaf.

The Last Hope
StarClan and the cats of the Dark Forest are both preparing for the final battle, and Ivypool is continuing her training in the Dark Forest, although now she is working as a spy for Dovewing, Jayfeather and Lionblaze and fears being revealed. Jayfeather had it revealed to him that there was a fourth prophesied cat.

Jayfeather tells the other two about the fourth cat, and they each suspect a different cat. Dovewing believes Ivypool to be the fourth, Lionblaze believes it is Hollyleaf, and Jayfeather believes it is Mothwing. In addition to this, there is division in StarClan and therefore between the medicine cats, making it difficult to speak to Mothwing. Jayfeather is granted safe passage to the RiverClan medicine cat, however, and she shows him a reed that has been smoldering for days, even after heavy rainfall.

Jayfeather takes this as an omen to find Flametail, although the divisions in StarClan make it difficult. He calls to Flametail across the border, and the medicine cat apprentice tells the other medicine cats that he had drowned and was not killed by Jayfeather, releasing the divisions of the medicine cats. The medicine cats then congregate and unite StarClan.

Bluestar tells Jayfeather that the fourth is Firestar, as he had saved the Clan in a previous prophecy and is destined to save them again. The final battle between the Clans and the Dark Forest begins.

Hollyleaf is killed by Hawkfrost when saving Ivypool, who was fighting Thistleclaw and Snowtuft. Crowfeather stops Breezepelt from killing his half-brother Lionblaze. Mapleshade tries to kill Sandstorm, but is stopped by Spottedleaf, who Mapleshade then kills. Ferncloud is killed by Brokenstar, who is then killed again by his mother Yellowfang.

Hawkfrost tries to kill Ivypool but Brambleclaw comes and breaks his neck and Hawkfrost dies. Tigerstar congratulates Brambleclaw for killing Hawkfrost. Firestar kills Tigerstar for a second time, but he dies immediately afterward because Tigerstar matches his blow with another kill and he loses his last life. Brambleclaw becomes Bramblestar, the Clan leader, and chooses Squirrelflight as his deputy.

Reception
The Forgotten Warrior has had many positive reviews. Barnes & Noble gave it a 4.5 out of 5 stars and said - "The end of the stars draws near. Three must become four to battle the darkness that last forever." The fissures between the warrior Clans have become almost irreparable, but they grow even deeper with the arrival of an outsider. With questions of trust and treachery festering everywhere, the warrior cats clench their teeth and hope desperately for safe passage."