a shadow in riverclan

Featherpaw and Stormpaw are at their warrior ceremony. Leopardstar asks Featherpaw if she will serve and protect her clan, even at the cost of her life. This question causes Featherpaw to reflect on her past. She thinks back on the death of her mother, how so many other cats viewed her and her brother as half clan, and how her father, Graystripe, ultimately had to return to ThunderClan. She and Stormpaw take their vows and are renamed Feathertail and Stormfur. This should be the happiest moment of Feathertai's life - but it is not. As Feathertail and Stormfur stand vigil, Feathretail reflects back on the rise of TigerClan, the imprisonment of half clan cats, and how Stonefur was murdered, how Graystripe saved them. She remembers the battle that followed and how Leopardstar asked them to return to RiverClan. Feathertail confesses to Stormfur that she wonders if they made the wrong choice. Should they have stayed with ThunderClan? But Stormfur feels they need to put the past in the past and move forward. Feathertail tries, but she feels she cannot trust any of her clanmates, so she pulls away from them. One day Ferncloud accidentally chases a squirrel onto RiverClan land. Feathertail kills it and offers it to her. Some RiverClan warriors overhear and it turns into a fight. Feathertail is in trouble with Leopardstar asks her how she can betray her clan this way but Feathertail feels Leopardstar is the real traitor. Stormfur tells Feathertail that she needs to pick what clan she wishes to be loyal to, as she cannot be loyal to both. 

Sasha and her kits, Moth and Hawk, stray onto RiverClan territory. Blackclaw wants Leopardstar to chase them away, but Feathertail speaks up for them and Leopardstar listens to her. Feathertail is jealous of how easily Sahsa, Mothkit, and Hawkkit fit into clan life. She feels they are more accepted than she is. One day Hawk falls into the river and Feathertail saves him. Because of this, she and Sasha start to grow a friendship. Feathertail asks after the kits' father and Sasha tells her he is dead. Because of her friendship with Sasha, Feathertail starts opening up to her clanmates. She even confides in Sasha about what Tigerstar did to her and her brother. When Leopardstar names herself as Hawkpaw's mentor and Mistyfoot as Mothpaw's mentor Feathertail knows Leopardstar is doing this to show the new apprentices are fully clan cats. But she worries about Leopardstar's influence on Hawkpaw. One day Sasha confesses to Feathertail that Tigerstar is her kits father. Feathertail feels betrayed by this secret. She doesn't blame the kits and doesn't want to see them cast out of the clan, but her friendship with Sasha is over. She starts to withdraw from the clan once again. Sasha tells Feathertail that she is leaving. She worries if she joins the clan then everyone will realize who her kits' father is. 

Time passes and winter comes. A fox attacks the camp and Hawkpaw saves Feathertail and Stormfur. Leaopardstar is grateful to the apprentice but Feathertail feels her words are a lie. The next day Leopardstar puts together a patrol to make sure the fox is gone for good. She takes Hawkpaw, Feathertail, and Stormfur. They find the fox and fight. Leopardstar sacrifices herself to save her clanmates, and for the first time Feathertail realizes her leader really does care about her. She attacks the fox, unwilling to let Leopardstar lose a life. On the walk home she and Leopardstar finally make peace between them. At the next Gathering Leopardstar tells everyone how Feathertail and Stormfur saved her life. Feathertail finally realizes she has found her home and starts to let her clanmates back in again. One night she dreams of Oakheart, who tells her that her clan needs her, and that she might not survive. Feathertail happily accepts her duty, as she now knows loyalty to her clan and will do anything to see them survive.

This was such a sad story. I'm glad to see things from Feathertail's perspective as she never really had a voice. And it makes sense why she would fall for Crowfeather, since she was struggling to find acceptance within her own clan. I always assumed that if either of them struggled it was Stormfur. After all, I assumed when cats look at Feathertail they would see Silverstream but when they looked at Stormfur they would see Graystripe. And Stormfur was the one to leave them for the Tribe and Brook. Feathertail had a very difficult life. Much of it was her own fault for pulling away and not letting any cat in, but that is a logical reaction to the level of betrayal she experienced. But in the end she found acceptance and died a true warrior to her clan, and I think she would have found peace in that.