Bluestar meets with Yellowfang, Spottedleaf, and Lionheart in secret by a waterfall. They want to make sure they have found the correct third cat now to fulfill the prophecy. Feathertail finds them and insists she wishes to help. They speak of sending a sign, which Bluestar is opposed to. Talk turns to Hollyleaf, and how they all grieve for her. Some cats feel that maybe Hollyleaf woupd not have been lost if they helped more. In the end Bluestar agrees and Yellowfang decides to send a sign not to Jayfeather or Lionblaze, but to the third cat.
Lionblaze and Graystripe sit together at the Gathering. The heat is stifling and the cats are uncomfortable, wishing for rain to come. Firestar takes his turn to speak and names two new warriors for his clan. As all the cats call out to the new warriors, Lionblaze notices that RiverClan does not - and that they look hostile. Lionblaze makes a comment about Squirrelflight mentoring one of the new warriors and Graystripe reminds him that Squirrelflight is a good and loyal warrior. But Lionblaze still feels her betrayal too deeply. Leopardstar takes her turn to speak and accuses all the other clans of stealing fish from the lake. The drought has dried the lake up, and RiverClan does not have enough food. Leopardstar declares the remainder of the entire lake RiverClan territory and tells the clans that she will be sending out patrols to guard the lake and make sure that no one is stealing fish. Her announcements are met with outrage as cats tell her she cannot claim the entire lake. Leopardstar and her cats leave and Firestar ends the Gathering. As they head back to their camp Brambleclaw asks Firestar what he wishes to do. Firestar decides that for now there is to be no fighting with RiverClan unless they actually enter ThunderClan territory. Lionblaze is unsure this is the right answer since it might make them look weak. Jayfeather interrupts his thoughts by telling him Leopardstar is going to make things worse with her decision. Lionblaze tells Jayfeather that he overheard some ShadowClan cats speaking of Leopardstar losing two lives recently. Jayfeather confirms this but refuses to tell his brother how he knows. The next day Cloudtail wakes Lionblaze for a water patrol. Cloudtail tells the cats that Firestar does not want a fight, and that RiverClan cannot object to them just taking water. He makes a special point of telling Berrynose to behave. They reach the water and find RiverClan already there. The hostile cats stop them and Cloudtail tries to explain that they just want water, but Berrynose's hostility almost causes a fight to break out. Furious with Berrynose, Cloudtail puts him in his place and then apologizes. Reedwhisker allows the cats to get water, but both sides are clearly upset.
Jayfeather checks his supply of herbs. Be needs more but he knows he cannot pick any with the drought going on. Upset with being the only medicine cat he thinks back to a few days ago when Briarpaw rushed in, telling Jayfeather that Firestar has been attacked by a fox. Forgetting that Leafpool is not a medicine cat any longer he sent Briarpaw after her while he goes to Firestar. He tended to Firestar, worried that he wasn't doing the right things, as Firestar slowly lost a life. Later on Leafpool tried to assure him that he did everything he could but he still blames himself. He goes to check on the elders, bringing them herbs to keep their strength up. As he looks at Longtail and how weak he looks he suspects that Longtail has been giving his share of water to Mousefur. Mousefur asks him what happened at the Gathering and he tells her. She is upset with Leopardstar's decisions but Jayfeather had no answers. He feels that if Leafpool were still a medicine cat she would have received help from StarClan by now. He leaves the den and then shoos Dovekit and Ivykit out of the apprentice den. He senses Leafpool coming back empty handed from a hunting patrol but ignores her. Suddenly he smells smoke and calls out an alarm. Right after he does Dovekit calls out an alarm too and he is surprised that she smelled the fire so quickly. Without water Graystripe suggests using dirt to put the fire out. The cats scramble to it quickly and Cloudtail's water patrol return, giving their water to the fire as well to help put it out. Lionblaze tells Jayfeather of the RiverClan cats at the lake but as they talk Berrynose interrupts to tell Jayfeather that Poppyfrost is carrying his kits. He wants Jayfeather to tell Poppyfrost that she must move into the nursery immediately and rest. Both Jayfeather and Poppyfrost try to tell him there is no need for that but Berrynose ignores them both and pushes Poppyfrost into the nursery.
Dovekit and Ivykit have their apprentice ceremony naming Lionblaze and Cinderheart as their mentors, respectively. The four of them head to the lake to collect water as Lionblaze and Cinderheart explain the current situation to them. They get to the lake and find out that Spiderleg and Berrynose are stuck in the mud. Thornclaw grabs a stick to get them out and Jayfeather freaks out because it is his stick. Thornclaw uses it, promising Jayfeather that he will return it. After they get their cats unstuck Rainstorm comes racing over, yelling at Ivypaw for sniffing at a fish. He gets stuck in the mud too, and much to his embarrassment, the ThunderClan cats have to help him out. They look for his clanmates but they are involved in an argument with ShadowClan. Not wanting to get involved they decide to bring Rainstorm back to their camp to rest. Lionblaze and Thornclaw escort him, with Thornclaw returning Jayfeather's stick, and Cinderheart and the apprentices gather water.
Lionblaze and Thornclaw bring Rainstorm to their camp. The cats debate what to do and Thornclaw offers the idea of holding Rainstorm hostage until RiverClan gives them some fish. The cats are torn on the idea. Firestar considers but decides it goes against the warrior code. After Rainstorm rests Brambleclaw puts together a patrol to escort him home. The patrol includes Lionblaze and Dovepaw. They pass through ShadowClan territory into RiverClan. Brambleclaw insists on escorting Rainstorm the whole way since he wants to tell Leopardstar their side of the story. They meet up with Mistyfoot who will not allow them to enter the camp. Rainstorm tries to tell her that the cats were going to hold him hostage for food but in the end admits that they treated him well. Brambleclaw does not push the issue of seeing Leopardstar, and Mistyfoot is relieved. The cats head back to their camp and Dovepaw asks Lionblaze if Mistyfoot was so worried because of the sick cat in their camp.
So Dovepaw is obviously the third one. She seems to know things like Jayfeather does, which is sort of disappointing that she has the same power. However this shows that Hollyleaf was never one of the three since she never had a power.
Berrynose is as annoying and controlling as ever and hooking up with Poppyfrost, who is Honeyfern's sister, is kind of odd.
I wonder what is causing the drought and hope it ends soon before these cats tear each other apart over it. I am glad to see, though, that at least ShadowClan seems to be following the same logic as ThunderClan when it comes down to handling the RiverClan cats. ShadowClan too did not attack and instead seem to be arguing water rights.
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