Pinestar's Choice is the eleventh novella; one of the three in the Legends of the Clans compilation alongside Spottedleaf's Heart and Thunderstar's Echo. It covers the life of Pinestar, leader of ThunderClan during Bluestar's Prophecy, from his early days as an apprentice (a few seasons after Mapleshade's exile) until he leaves the Clan.
One moon later, Pinepaw scents intruders on ThunderClan territory: it's a couple of invading ShadowClan cats. His mentor orders him to fetch help, but he stays behind and fights because he thinks he'll be of more use there; they drive off the ShadowClanners, and Mistpelt admits that Pinepaw made the right choice. A few days after that, he's on a hunting patrol near Twolegplace when he is attacked by a fox; he accidentally strayed near its cubs. A she-cat scares it away from him, and afterward he realizes that she's a kittypet. She points out that foxes defend their kits just like any cat does, and that kittypets aren't all cowards like he thinks they are.
When Pinepaw nears his sixth moon as an apprentice, some kittypets have been intruding on the Clan's territory, so a patrol is sent to warn them away. Mistpelt sends Pinepaw alone into a yard, and he encounters a snarling kittypet that he recognizes as the one who saved him, and he realizes she has kits. He apologizes and leaves them alone. When he returns to his Clanmates, they have successfully warned away some other kittypets, and Oakstar, pleased with the patrol's success, names Pinepaw a warrior with the name of Pineheart. Pineheart wishes he'd actually done some fighting like his Clanmates to feel like he earned it more, but he's still proud, and vows to serve the Clan until his dying day.
The next scene takes place a long time afterward, around the time of Goosefeather's Curse, when Pineheart is Clan deputy and Doestar is the current leader. The Clan has been starving recently, but Pineheart's patrol finds plenty of prey, and he's excited that the time of hunger is gone and encourages his Clanmates to eat. Doestar doesn't, though, and a few days later dies of the sudden sickness that she had contracted. We witness the vigil scene from Goosefeather's Curse.
Goosefeather takes him to the Moonstone and Pineheart receives his nine lives: from Doestar (a life for survival), Oakstar (judgement), three Clanmates that had starved to death - Hollypelt, Harepounce, and Stagleap (courage, loyalty, knowing when to fight and when to choose peace), ancient medicine cat Pearnose, who appeared in Battles of the Clans and later as a StarClan cat in Goosefeather's Curse (a life for trusting the wisdom of the medicine cat), Hawkfoot, a WindClan cat who appeared in Code of the Clans (the strength of a queen defending her young), Thunderstar (who warned that Pinestar would have to make a choice that he'll have to carry with him for the rest of his life), and Morningstar, who also appeared in Battles of the Clans as Pearnose's leader (a life for compassion for weaker cats).
A quarter moon later Pinestar notes that his deputy Mumblefoot is doing well, and decides to go on a walk by himself. He ends up napping and is awakened by a kittypet that introduces himself as Jake. Pinestar recognizes Jake as the kit of the she-cat who saved his life (who Jake tells him was named Crystal). Pinestar thinks that kittypets lead strange, boring lives, but he liked talking to Jake.
Another big timeskip, and we're in the thick of the invasion on the WindClan camp from Bluestar's Prophecy, although this time we're seeing it through Pinestar's eyes, and he's thoroughly guilty and remorseful that he let it happen. He visits Jake afterward to tell him about it - he visits Jake regularly every half moon. (It is noted that Jake had asked after Talltail when Pinestar told him about the battle). They're joined by a she-cat named Shanty, who starts to gossip with Jake about local cats (interestingly we see the first direct mention of a cat breed in the series - a kittypet named Tyr is noted to be a pedigree Burmese). Pinestar likes how unafraid she is and finds her interesting and hopes she'll become a friend.
In camp one day Smallear teasingly asks Pinestar if they can expect Leopardfoot to have kits anytime soon. Pinestar thinks about what it would be like to lead his own children into battles where they might die for the sake of the invisible walls the Clans put up between themselves and other cats. He goes to the Twolegplace and finds Shanty, and visits her home. She introduces him to her housefolk, who pet him (Pinestar is nervous through the whole thing). They talk afterward and Pinestar wonders how she can live like that every day - doesn't she get bored? Doesn't she worry about her littermates that she was separated from so long ago? How can she say it's a life worth living? Shanty gives a heated reply, talking about her housefolk as if they were Clanmates, making kittypet life sound as appealing as living in a Clan. He apologizes, and they curl up and nap together.
Doestar visits Pinestar as he dreams and tells him that his time as Clan leader hasn't been easy, but that he'll have more reason than ever to defend his Clan, since Leopardfoot is expecting his kits. She reveals that one has "a shadow over his destiny", with the power to destroy ThunderClan - but it is only a possibility; it is up to Pinestar to teach him loyalty and compassion and so forth. Pinestar wakes up and urgently tells Shanty he has to return to his Clan.
The one thing Pinestar does not tell his kittypet friends is his dream about his kit. Once Leopardfoot's kits finally arrive, he feels dread, as he knows that the kit with the power to destroy the Clan has been born. He feels like he cannot visit the nursery, and instead goes to Twolegplace. He starts to speak to Shanty when he finds her at the edge of a Thunderpath, but a coming monster veers toward her. He dives to save her and ends up losing a life (hearing Thunderstar tell him that he must make his choice soon), and when he wakes up, he discovers that he had been too slow to save Shanty.
Pinestar returns to camp in the morning and visits Leopardfoot and the kits. She tells him that they're sick and that the tom, Tigerkit, is the weakest; Pinestar hopes StarClan will take him before he can do harm, and he believes Tigerkit opens his eyes for a moment to glare at him with the hatred of a much older cat. Pinestar dreams of him some time later, and hears voices in his dream telling him that he must kill his kit to save the Clan (and Goosefeather implies as much, too). He refuses to, and goes off to visit Twolegplace again. We then see a scene from Code of the Clans - Lionpaw catches Pinestar, convinces him that if he's becoming a kittypet he needs to tell the Clan himself, and he returns to tell the Clan goodbye.
Pinestar goes to Twolegplace and finds Shanty's Twolegs. Tentatively he lets them pet him again, and they let him inside and feed him. Pinestar smells Shanty's scent everywhere and feels like he'll never be alone there. Pinestar finds Jake and tells him that he's decided to leave ThunderClan to stay with Shanty's housefolk, and that his name is just Pine now. Jake tells him "Welcome home."
Tropes appearing in this novella:
- Abdicate the Throne: Pinestar steps down from being leader of ThunderClan.
- Afterlife Welcome: Doestar's lost littermate Deerpaw seems to be the one bringing her to StarClan.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Pinepaw thinks this about his mother when she smothers him with attention.
- Battle in the Rain: ThunderClan's attack on WindClan's camp.
- Battle-Interrupting Shout: Pinestar calling to ThunderClan to retreat ends the battle in WindClan's camp.
- Big "NO!": Bluepaw, when Moonflower dies.
- A Day in the Limelight: Pinestar's only POV.
- Deer in the Headlights: Shanty freezes on the Thunderpath, resulting in her death.
- Diving Save: Pinestar tries to do this to save Shanty, but is unsuccessful and loses one of his own lives.
- From Stray to Pet: Pinestar, the leader of ThunderClan, left the Clan to live out the rest of his final life as a kittypet.
- Hiss Before Fleeing: One of the ShadowClan warriors who tried invading ThunderClan's territory does this.
- It Has Been an Honor: Doestar tells Pineheart that she was proud to serve as his father Oakstar's deputy, and that she's happy that he'll take care of ThunderClan after she's gone; she just regrets that she won't be around to see it.
- The Legend of X: The paperback that this novella appears in is Legends of the Clans. Fittingly, the novellas in it are about three significant characters that take place before the main series.
- Look Both Ways: Shanty dies and Pinestar loses a life on the Thunderpath.
- Mama Bear: Jake's mother Crystal saves young Pinepaw from a fox. When ThunderClan sends a patrol into Twolegplace and he faces her again, he realizes she has kits, and as she protects him she looks as ferocious as the fox had.
- Meaningful Rename: The novella ends with Pinestar dropping his Clan name now that he's become a kittypet and asking Jake to call him Pine, and Jake welcoming him home with the new name.
- Offing the Offspring: Pinestar hears StarClan telling him to kill Tigerkit, because the kit has the power to destroy the Clan. Pinestar refuses to.
- Perspective Flip: This novella contains a few scenes that were originally in other cats' point of view in other books, but now are in Pinestar's: the vigil scene from Goosefeather's point of view in Goosefeather's Curse, the WindClan battle in Bluestar's Prophecy which was from Bluepaw's, and the scene from Code of the Clans from Lionpaw's point of view when he caught Pinestar going to the Twolegs.
- Please Wake Up:
- Bluepaw at Moonflower's death.
- Pinestar when Shanty dies.
- Posthumous Sibling: Birchface and Frecklewish died in Mapleshade's Vengeance, long before their half brother Pinestar is born.
- Ruler Protagonist: Most of the novella takes place during Pinestar's leadership of ThunderClan. The leadership is weighing on him, especially when one of his decisions leads to a Clanmate's death, and by the end of the novella he has to decide whether to Abdicate the Throne and leave his Clan to become a kittypet.
- Scratchy-Voiced Senior: The elder Weedwhisker's voice is described as raspy.
- Series Continuity Error:
- Dappletail appears as a warrior when Pinestar is an apprentice. In other books such as Bluestar's Prophecy, she was an apprentice when Pinestar was leader and Bluestar was born.
- All of the surviving warriors from Mapleshade's Vengeance are now elders. However, Seedpelt was a brown-and-white tom in Mapleshade's Vengeance and a gray she-cat in Pinestar's Choice. It's likely they got the description mixed up with a Seedpelt that lived several seasons earlier, who was a gray she-cat and was deputy at the time SkyClan was exiled (it was confirmed by Vicky that the deputy Seedpelt is not the same cat as the warrior Seedpelt in Mapleshade's Vengeance).
- In Goosefeather's Curse, on the day after Doestar makes the apprentices warriors, she's dead in the morning and a vigil is held for her that day, and then on the second day after, Goosefeather and Pineheart go to the Moonstone. In Pinestar's Choice, they go to the Moonstone the first day after the warrior ceremony.
- So Proud of You: Oakstar says this to Pineheart when he receives his warrior name.
- Tactical Withdrawal:
- The invading ShadowClan patrol realizes they're outnumbered and one of them eventually orders a retreat.
- Pinestar calls a retreat when the attack on WindClan's camp results in Moonflower's death.
- With Catlike Tread: A group of ShadowClan warriors prepares to ambush ThunderClan, but they can't stop whispering to each other, and Pinepaw is able to find them and alert his Clanmates.
