A Dangerous Path is the fifth book in the original Warrior Cats series (aka The Prophecies Begin).
Inside the kennel-that-moves, everything was dark.
With this line, we realize that the prologue is going to be from quite an unusual viewpoint. And it is - it is the only part of any of the books to feature a non-feline point of view, as we see it through the eyes of the leader of a pack of dogs. These dogs have been taken into the Treecut place for several nights (presumably to guard it from/find possible arsonists, as Fireheart's dream in Rising Storm reveals that the fire was started by young Twolegs). The pack leader has been enlarging a hole under the fence for the past few nights, and tonight it is wide enough for the dogs to escape. They run into the night forest, eager to taste prey.
The actual book begins in the same moment that Rising Storm left off, with Tigerstar as the new ShadowClan leader at the Gathering. The other leaders greet him, unaware of his past, though they dislike the idea of rogues joining the Clan as well. Fireheart speaks for ThunderClan, as Bluestar had refused to come, and after the Gathering he asks Mistyfoot about Graystripe, who says he's doing well.
When they arrive back at camp, Fireheart reports to Bluestar about Tigerstar's leadership. She is furious, forgetting that the other Clans don't know about Tigerstar's treachery, and becomes convinced that StarClan doesn't care about them anymore. She also fears an attack from ShadowClan, especially since ThunderClan is more vulnerable after the fire, but the attack does not come. A few days later, Cinderpelt tells Fireheart she had a strange dream, hearing the words "Pack, pack" and "Kill, kill" in a language that wasn't Cat. Fireheart can't make sense of it, and puts it out of his mind.
Over the next few days, the Clan slowly continues to recover from the fire. Fireheart assesses the apprentices and suggests to Bluestar that they become warriors, but her fear of them and their mentors being possible traitors makes her refuse (except for Cloudpaw, Fireheart's apprentice). Fireheart watches the kits playing, and is unnerved that Bramblekit looks exactly like Tigerstar; Goldenflower notices, and tells Fireheart that she never told her kits about their father, and that she wants Fireheart to be the one to tell them. Brackenfur confides in Fireheart that he's been watching Speckletail's kit Snowkit because he's hoping to be made his mentor, and he has noticed that there is something strange with the kit. Fireheart goes to Cinderpelt about it, and she promises to do so, after making the journey to the Moonstone to become a full medicine cat.
Fireheart and Sandstorm hunt near the Treecut place. They don't find any prey, and if there was any to begin with, it was scared away by Fireheart's sister Princess shouting his name. She explains that she was worried since he hasn't visited her after the fire, but before she can go home, Twolegs arrive, calling out as if they were looking for someone. Afterward, Fireheart and Sandstorm run into Graystripe along the RiverClan border, and he tells them that Crookedstar is near death, and that Tigerstar has begun visiting the camp. Mistyfoot arrives, saying she cannot find Graypool - the elderly she-cat has been confused lately and may have wandered off. Fireheart finds Graypool, but not in time - Tigerstar meets her first. Believing that he's Oakheart, Graypool wonders aloud why he hasn't asked about the ThunderClan kits he gave her to keep moons ago. This is news to Tigerstar, who tries to coax more information out of her, losing patience and snarling in her face, and she falls down the bank. She hits a rock on the way and is killed by the blow. When Fireheart arrives back at camp, Cinderpelt is examining Snowkit, and announces that he's deaf. Bluestar says that he cannot be a warrior, but does not attempt to comfort Speckletail, and Fireheart realizes that it's almost as if she doesn't care.
On a patrol a few days later, Fireheart discovers some scraps of prey and dog scent, and when Whitestorm reports the same thing, they realize that there must be a dog loose in the forest. He reports it to Bluestar, who in her suspicion blames it on WindClan simply because one of the killed prey was a rabbit and because no dog has been loose in the forest before. A yowling interrupts them, and Fireheart races out to see a hawk carrying away Snowkit. Bluestar proclaims that it's a sign from StarClan that they are at war with ThunderClan. In the Clan's stunned silence, Cloudpaw wonders aloud why everyone is so shocked, because StarClan is only a kit tale. This shocks Fireheart, who never realized that Cloudpaw didn't believe in StarClan. Fireheart and Cinderpelt discuss Bluestar's behavior, and Fireheart worries that Bluestar will accuse WindClan at the Gathering.
At the Gathering, there's news in that Leopardstar is the new leader of RiverClan. Graystripe tells Fireheart that she's been planning to get Sunningrocks back. Bluestar speaks next, accusing WindClan of prey theft. After some arguing, the Gathering ends in a hostile mood. Fireheart tries to reason with Bluestar the following morning, but she insists that they will attack WindClan - and that she will lead the attack herself. Fireheart naps and tries to ask Spottedleaf what to do, but she only shows him the WindClan moorland and gives him the cryptic message that "This is where a battle will not be fought, and blood will not be spilled," conveniently failing to mention whether that would happen only if Fireheart takes action, or if he leaves things as they are. Fireheart decides to take matters into his own paws and heads off to visit WindClan. On the way, he discovers Darkstripe taking Bramblekit and Tawnykit to see Tigerstar. He interrupts just before Tigerstar can give a biased account of why he is ShadowClan leader, and brings them back to camp. With the lost time, Fireheart arrives in WindClan territory just before sunset, and they agree to send Ravenpaw to ask Bluestar for a peace talk. The peace talk works; there is no battle. However, Bluestar is now convinced that Fireheart is a traitor. Later in the day, she goes missing, and it turns out that she had gone to visit the Moonstone to challenge StarClan. They warned her of a "pack", but once again, Fireheart has no idea what it could mean.
Half a moon later, RiverClan tries to claim Sunningrocks back, fighting with the dawn patrol. In the heat of battle, fearing for Bluestar's life, Fireheart reveals to Mistyfoot and Stonefur that Bluestar is their mother, but they refuse to accept her. Graystripe warns Fireheart of an attacking Leopardstar, and by that time, ThunderClan reinforcements arrive. RiverClan flees after banishing Graystripe as a traitor. Bluestar decides to make Cloudpaw a warrior. Cloudtail's former denmates are furious that they were not made warriors as well, so they sneak out that night to try and confront whatever's loose in the forest. Swiftpaw and Brightpaw end up going - Swiftpaw is killed and Brightpaw gravely injured. The only thing Brightpaw can say is "Pack, pack, kill, kill", revealing that this "pack" is what did this to her. They do not know if she will die, so Bluestar performs a ceremony where a dying apprentice can be given a warrior name - and names the young cat Lostface as part of her war against StarClan.
The time for apprenticing Bramblepaw and Tawnypaw is coming up, so Fireheart decides upon himself and Brackenfur as their mentors. They tour the territory, and the time finally comes when Fireheart has to answer the young cats' questions about their father. At the next Gathering, Tigerstar requests that his kits be brought to ShadowClan, but Bluestar tells him that she will wait until the next moon.
Not long afterward, Longtail comes to Fireheart and reports that he saw Tigerstar feeding a rabbit to a dog pack living at Snakerocks. At last, the ThunderClanners know what has been in the forest for the last few moons. They set out to confront the dogs the next morning, finding a trail of dead rabbits leading from Snakerocks to the camp and a dead Brindleface outside the camp. They do their best to break the trail, evacuate the Clan to Sunningrocks, and set a line of cats to lead the dogs to the gorge. Fireheart is the last one, and Tigerstar catches him, pinning him down for the dogs to catch him. Bluestar rushes in and saves Fireheart's life, falling into the gorge along with the dogs. Mistyfoot and Stonefur help pull her out of the river, and Bluestar lives long enough to reconcile herself with her kits and promise Fireheart that he will be a great leader before giving up her last life and joining StarClan. Tigerstar runs back to his own territory. Fireheart and Graystripe head back to their Clan.
Tropes that appear in this book:
- Afterlife Welcome: Oakheart leads Bluestar to StarClan.
- Almost Dead Guy: At the end of the book, Bluestar holds on just long enough to apologize to her kits, be forgiven, and to tell Fireheart how much faith she has in him before she dies.
- Angry Guard Dog: In the prologue, Twolegs bring a pack of fierce guard dogs to the Treecutplace compound to find the arsonists who set the forest on fire in Rising Storm.
- Animal Assassin: Tigerstar's plot in this book is to lure a pack of dogs to ThunderClan's camp so that they'll kill the Clan. Thankfully, they figure it out just in time thanks to Longtail witnessing Tigerstar giving the dogs prey.
- Arc Words: "Pack, pack, kill, kill."
- The Bait: The way that the ThunderClan cats decide to deal with the dogs loose in the forest is to set up a relay line of cats for the dogs to chase toward the gorge; Fireheart is at the end and hopes to either veer away at the last moment or leap into the gorge himself to get them to fall in.
- Break the Cutie: Brightpaw was a sweet, eager apprentice. When Bluestar made Cloudtail a warrior but refused to promote any of the other apprentices, she and Swiftpaw went to look for the dogs, which resulted in the latter's death, and with Brightpaw losing half her face (including an eye and an ear) in the attack. Bluestar then renamed her "Lostface", a name that the young she-cat had to carry with her for months. Even after Cloudtail continued to love her and remained her constant rock, she still avoided puddles so that she wouldn't see her face, and constantly had to deal with cats being afraid of her because of her appearance.
- Bury Your Disabled: Snowkit gets killed because his deafness prevents him from noticing the hawk until it's too late.
- Chaste Hero: Fireheart doesn't realize until Cinderpelt directly points out to him that Sandstorm loves him. He also never realizes that Cinderpelt herself has feelings for him, despite the scene where she and Sandstorm clearly feel that Fireheart's ignoring them for the other and are being frostily polite to each other - he simply wonders whether the two had gotten into an argument about something. In the words of Vicky, "Stupid man-cat."
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: Fireheart didn't know Sandstorm and Cinderpelt were in love with him until the latter tells him about the former.
- Clung on Tight: Cloudpaw digs his claws into Blackfoot's back in battle, telling Fireheart "do it this way, it's easy!" Blackfoot, the skilled ShadowClan deputy, is unable to shake him off.
- Crisis of Faith: Bluestar spends the book losing her faith in StarClan and becoming paranoid that her Clanmates are all traitors, but in the end she regains her faith.
- Damage Control: A forest fire burns through ThunderClan's territory in Rising Storm. In addition to killing several cats and driving out all the prey, the camp itself was destroyed. They have to try and rebuild it with whatever little they have left to work with, and try to get back to a normal lifestyle, before the other Clans take advantage of their vulnerability.
- Dark Is Evil: The villainous cats Tigerclaw and Darkstripe are dark brown and gray, respectively.
- Death Is Dramatic: Bluestar loses her final life in a Heroic Sacrifice: her mind clears enough to restore her faith in her Clanmates and in StarClan, and she saves Fireheart from a dog by launching herself at a dog and knocking it into the gorge, and falling in after it.
- Deathbed Promotion: If a dying Clan apprentice is found worthy, he/she may be given a warrior name to take to Star Clan. When Brightpaw has been savagely mauled by dogs and is on death's doorstep, her leader Bluestar decides to make her a warrior. Unfortunately, the name she chooses is "Lostface" to show her anger against StarClan, who she believes sent the dog pack.
- Death of a Child: Snowkit, a deaf kitten, is carried away by a hawk.
- Death by Falling Over: An elder, Graypool, is flustered when Tigerstar snarls in her face, so she takes a step backward, only to lose her footing on the steep riverbank and hit her head on a rock.
- Delirious Misidentification: The confused elder Graypool mistakes the Big Bad Tigerstar for her former Clanmate Oakheart, and accidentally reveals one of Oakheart's secrets to Tigerstar.
- Disappeared Dad: Tigerstar left his kits and their mother to join ShadowClan. There is a lot of bitterness involved as Tigerstar attempted to murder Bluestar, the leader of ThunderClan, and also murdered Redtail, the former deputy. Unsurprisingly, ThunderClan does not want his kits, Bramblekit and Tawnykit, to turn out like their father.
- Doctor's Orders: Cinderpelt orders Cloudtail to rest and eat when Brightpaw is gravely injured, despite his protests: "I'm not asking you what you want; I'm telling you what you need."
- Dogs Are Dumb: The most intelligent dogs shown in the entire series are in this book, and even from their point of view in the prologue, they seem to have a vocabulary of about eight words, the two most frequently used being "pack" and "kill". (Although in later books it's noted that dogs and cats speak different languages, so presumably most dogs have a larger vocabulary in their own language.) It's also worth noting that these dogs are defeated by being tricked into running off a cliff.
- Dream-Crushing Handicap: Snowkit is born deaf. His mother refuses to accept that he won't be able to become a warrior, and even tries training him herself. Then Snowkit gets carried off by a hawk because he couldn't hear it coming or hear other cats warning him.
- Dying as Yourself: Bluestar has had a stage lasting two books where she develops some dementia, being confused and extremely paranoid: she is convinced that their ancestors have abandoned them and that all her Clan are traitors; she does not even trust Fireheart. Right toward the end of her life, she realizes she's been wrong, and performs a Heroic Sacrifice saving Fireheart from the dog pack. She has just enough time to reconcile herself with her long-lost kits before she dies.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The medicine cat rules haven't been clearly defined by this point in the series. Cinderpelt tells Fireheart that she's only been to Highstones once, but based on later books in the series she would have had to have gone at least twice: once to be apprenticed, and once to receive her full name. She also says that she has to go through the full-medicine-cat ceremony without Yellowfang, but she had to have had it already (when she recieved her name).
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Bluestar. Most of her family died by the time she became leader, as well as having a father who neglected her and a forbidden relationship with Oakheart, leading her to give her kits to RiverClan. She's forced to watch them grow from afar with no memory of her as their mother. She becomes leader, and all is well until her first two deputies and her mate die, and she appoints Tigerclaw. After being betrayed by Tigerclaw, she becomes insane and paranoid. However, she dies happily with her mental state restored, shares tongues and gets closure with her kits, and knowing that Fireheart will succeed her as a great leader for the moons to come.
- Escaped Animal Rampage: A pack of dogs gets loose from the tree farm that they were being kept in to guard, and they end up living in the forest. While escaped dogs might not be the scariest thing to a human, they were a big threat to the prey and cats living there.
- Evil Plan: Tigerstar's latest plan to destroy ThunderClan is to lure the loose dog pack to their camp by leaving a trail of prey.
- The Exile: Leopardstar exiles Graystripe from RiverClan because he stops her from killing Fireheart.
- Eye Scream: Brightpaw's face being mauled and almost completely ripped off by a dog; she loses one of her eyes as well as an ear.
- Facial Horror: Brightpaw's mangled face after the dog attack; Bluestar even renames her "Lostface".
- Failed a Spot Check: Cloudtail doesn't notice Swiftpaw and Brightpaw sneaking out during his vigil. Swiftpaw had even said to the other apprentices that Cloudtail wouldn't notice a Twoleg monster roaring through camp.
- Freakiness Shame: Brightpaw feels like this after a dog attack gouges out her eye and leaves half her face bald and scarred, and she's given a terrible name (Lostface) to go with it.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Tigerclaw's betrayal at the end of Forest of Secrets shattered Bluestar. She no longer trusts her Clanmates or her own judgement, and by this point her dementia is making her extremely unstable: she nearly causes a needless war in this book.
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: When Bluestar's suffering from dementia and is absolutely convinced that WindClan is stealing prey, she won't listen to Fireheart when he gives her evidence that a dog has been killing the prey. She tells him that he's a good and noble warrior, so he can't comprehend that other cats would have morals any less pristine than his own. He especially thinks this comment is odd, since he was the one that exposed Tigerclaw as a traitor and murderer.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Brightpaw, who after the dog attack has one eye and ear missing and is horrifically scarred in that area, is a heroic cat.
- Heroic Bastard: Mistyfoot and Stonefur, who are half-ThunderClan-half-RiverClan, with their mother faked as a RiverClan queen.
- Heroic BSoD: Bluestar suffers a particularly nasty one after Tigerclaw's betrayal. It takes her two entire books to get over it completely... just in time for a Heroic Sacrifice.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Bluestar attacks the dog that's about to kill Fireheart, and both fall over the edge of the gorge. This results in her death.
- The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Fireheart thinks of this after Brightpaw and Swiftpaw are attacked by a pack of vicious dogs.
- Immediate Sequel: A Dangerous Path picks up at the same moment where Rising Storm had ended in a cliffhanger. In fact, you could stick the first line of chapter 1 of A Dangerous Path after the last line of Rising Storm, and not know that there was meant to be a break.
- Internal Reveal: Bluestar reveals to her grown up kits that she is their real mother, something the reader (and Fireheart) found out about a while ago.
- I Owe You My Life: After Graystripe saves Fireheart at Sunningrocks, Fireheart says this, giving this as a reason why Graystripe should be allowed to rejoin ThunderClan.
- It's All My Fault: Speckletail says this, blaming herself for Snowkit's death since she'd briefly stepped out of camp and that's when the hawk took him.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Presumably why Cinderpelt tells the oblivious Fireheart that Sandstorm loves him, despite Cinderpelt herself clearly liking him as well.
- Kidnapping Bird of Prey: Snowkit gets kit-napped by a hawk despite his mom, Speckletail, trying to get him back.
- Killed Off for Real: Both Crookedstar and Bluestar lose their ninth life in this book.
- Killed Offscreen:
- Crookedstar dies of illness in the middle of the book.
- Swiftpaw is killed by the dog pack; his Clanmates find his body later on.
- Brindleface is murdered by Tigerstar while hunting alone. Her adopted son, Cloudtail, finds her body outside of the ThunderClan camp.
- Kill on Sight: Leopardstar exiles Graystripe from RiverClan after he stops her from killing Fireheart, and she declares that he'll be killed on sight if they find him in their territory again.
- Love Informant: Cinderpelt tells Fireheart that Sandstorm loves him (and that it's obvious to everyone else).
- Love Revelation Epiphany: Fireheart starts falling for Sandstorm after Cinderpelt tells him everybody can see that Sandstorm is very much into him.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Fireheart blurts out to Mistyfoot and Stonefur that Bluestar is their mother, and Bluestar herself confirms it immediately afterward. Her kits don't take it very well.
- Meaningful Rename: Bluestar performs a ceremony to make Brightpaw, who may die, a warrior. She gives her the name Lostface so that everyone is reminded what StarClan did to them (or so she believes).
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Fireheart's mentor Bluestar dies at the end of the book.
- Mirrored Confrontation Shot: The original cover of the book shows two groups of cats facing off.
- Mistaken for Thief: ThunderClan finds evidence of prey being killed on their territory. Bluestar assumes it's being stolen by WindClan (to the point of accusing them publicly at a Gathering), due to her paranoia/dementia and the fact that one particular example of the prey was the remains a rabbit found on that end of the territory. Fireheart knows that it's likely a dog catching the prey due to other evidence, and arranges for Bluestar to meet with WindClan's leader to discuss it before she can lead an attack on them.
- The Mutiny: Fireheart realizes that Bluestar's about to lead her Clan into unnecessary war due to her mental issues and paranoia. He swiftly puts together a plan to try and stop the battle, and also picks cats for the "attack" who also think that it's unjust and may not fight if she commands it. His plan works, and they come to a peaceful agreement instead of battle, but Bluestar still views it as treachery.
- Mutual Kill: Bluestar hurls herself at a dog to knock it over the edge of the gorge, where it'll drown. She lands safely on the edge, but the dog grabs her leg and pulls her in afterward as it falls, where she drowns as well.
- Named After the Injury: Cloudtail asks Bluestar to give Brightpaw a warrior name, so Bluestar gives her one - Lostface, after the terrible injuries she received.
- Named in the Sequel: In previous books, Speckletail's kit was referred to as just that, "Speckletail's kit". This book reveals his name to be Snowkit.
- Nay-Theist: After being betrayed by Tigerclaw, seeing her home destroyed in a fire and a bunch of cats dying, Bluestar goes insane and decides that StarClan is worthless and declares war on them, and also becomes the cat version of a misanthrope. She snaps out of it just in time to save Fireheart before dying.
- Oblivious to Love: Fireheart somehow never notices Cinderpelt's obvious crush on him. He also wouldn't have noticed that Sandstorm was in love with him either if Cinderpelt hadn't pointed it out to him.
- Personalized Pledge: Tallstar initially swears by StarClan (the Clans' religion/heaven) but Bluestar — who is going through a Rage Against the Heavens at the moment — feels that such an oath is worthless. Tallstar then replies with a more personal alternative, which she accepts.Tallstar: Bluestar, I swear by StarClan that WindClan have not hunted on your territory.
Bluestar: StarClan! What's the worth of an oath by StarClan?
Tallstar: Then I will swear it by anything you hold sacred. By our kits, by our hopes for our Clans, by our honor as leaders. WindClan did not do what you accuse us of. - Prevent the War: When Fireheart realizes that Bluestar intends to attack WindClan, wrongly believing that they're stealing prey, he has a single day to try to stop it and prevent a needless war.
- Prophecy Twist: "Fire alone will save our Clan" — The "fire" is Fireheart, which, while obvious to the readers, wasn't understood by the main character (who was told about the prophecy in the first book) until it was explained by Bluestar before her death.
- Rage Against the Heavens: Bluestar attempts to after Tigerclaw betrays her—the bad luck that ThunderClan receives afterwards causes her to declare war on her ancestors. She comes around when she sees her cats risking their lives for their Clanmates and realizes that they are not traitors after all, and sacrifices herself to save Fireheart. She dies peacefully, reconciled with both her children and StarClan.
- Raised by Rival: Firestar takes Bramblepaw on as his apprentice following Tigerstar's exile from the Clan and ensuing takeover of ShadowClan. Despite caring deeply about Bramblepaw, Firestar struggles to separate the innocent apprentice from his evil, look-alike father, something Bramblepaw notices and resents.
- Sanity Slippage: Bluestar, after Tigerclaw's betrayal has shattered her trust in her Clanmates and in StarClan.
- Scars Are Forever: Scars mostly are looked upon as a sign of toughness - young cats often refuse to let the medicine cat treat them so that a scar forms - but Lostface by far has the worst scars, which make other cats uneasy rather than envious: half her face was torn off by dogs, and it has affected her for the rest of her life.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Graypool has something like dementia: she gets confused frequently, getting the past and present mixed up. She tragically meets her death this way: she wanders off alone, thinking she's going to a Gathering, confuses Tigerstar for the long-dead father of her adopted kits, Oakheart, and reveals the secret that the kits are from ThunderClan. Tigerstar gets impatient with her, and, flustered, she steps backward, loses her balance, and falls down a slope, hitting her head.
- Series Continuity Error:
- In Fire and Ice, we see that Speckletail's kit is a dark brown tabby who listens to Fireheart encouraging him to take the herbs because it's practice for being a warrior. In this book, Snowkit is white and deaf. (Rising Storm and this book confirm that he's the only one in the litter.)
- In the scene where Darkstripe is bringing Bramblekit and Tawnykit to Tigerstar, Tawnykit is described as a tabby. She was mentioned as ginger in Rising Storm, and is tortoiseshell in all the later books, but never described as tabby. The 2015 reprints correct this and call her tortoiseshell.
- Short-Lived Leadership: Following the fall of Brokenstar, Nightstar took over as the leader of ShadowClan. However, he was never given his eight extra lives by StarClan, because they still considered Brokenstar the true leader. Because of this, he and his deputy both ended up dying of illness soon later, leaving ShadowClan in a temporary state of anarchy.
- Sneaky Departure: After Bluestar refuses to make them warriors, Swiftpaw and Brightpaw sneak away from the camp to fight the dogs and prove their valour. Swiftpaw ends up dying in the fight and Brightpaw gets half of her face ripped off.
- Stopped Caring: Bluestar has stopped caring for herself and her Clan.
- Stranger in a Familiar Land: Happens to Graystripe when he returns to ThunderClan after having left to raise his kits in RiverClan. The territory is different due to the recent fire, and most of the Clan do not trust him for having willingly left them.
- Sympathetic Wince: Fireheart winces when Leopardstar mocks Bluestar, when it's clear how weak his leader is at the moment.
- Tag Line: On the UK cover: "Four Clans. One Destiny."
- Taking You with Me: Bluestar charges the leader of the dog pack and knocks him into the gorge; she lands on the edge but as the dog falls he manages to bite one of her legs and drag her in after him. She survives only long enough to have a final conversation and reconcile herself with her kits.
- Thoroughly Mistaken Identity: The elderly Graypool mistakes Tigerstar for her deceased Clanmate Oakheart. He plays along with it, and she unwittingly reveals to him that Oakheart had brought her two ThunderClan kits to raise long ago.
- Two-Faced: Brightpaw had half of her face ripped off by dogs in A Dangerous Path. This left her with one beautiful part and one horrifically scarred part. However, she is not evil in the slightest.
- Unbroken Vigil: When Brightpaw gets attacked by dogs, after staying with her a full night, Cloudtail still refuses to eat or sleep, until Cinderpelt finally orders him to.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: At the end of the book, Tigerstar just runs away without putting up a fight.
- Welcome Back, Traitor: Graystripe left ThunderClan in Forest of Secrets so that he could raise his kits in their mother's Clan, RiverClan. Once he's exiled from RiverClan for saving his best friend, Fireheart, during a battle, he rejoins ThunderClan. The Clan has divided opinions on him upon his return; half view him as a traitor for joining another Clan (something that is almost never done), while half are welcoming and happy to see him back.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Bluestar's decision to give a near-death Brightpaw the warrior name "Lostface", as part of her Rage Against the Heavens, is met with protest from the Clan.
