The Sun Trail is the first book in the fifth Warrior Cats series, a Prequel called Dawn of the Clans. It is the earliest book chronologically, with only flashback scenes in Dark River, Long Shadows, and Sign of the Moon taking place before it.
The book begins in the mountains, from the point of view of Half Moon. She's worried, because the Tribe is overcrowded and starving. Lion's Roar says that maybe they need to find another place, but Half Moon points out that the mountains are where Jay's Wing led them. However, she sees a vision of a golden sunrise, and thinks that maybe some of the Tribe could leave to find a new home, while the rest stays behind.
Meanwhile, a cat named Gray Wing is out hunting with his brother Clear Sky. Together they take down a hawk and bring it back to the Tribe. Clear Sky affectionately nuzzles his mate Bright Stream, while a she-cat named Turtle Tail flirts with Gray Wing. Half Moon/Stoneteller comes out into the cave and says that she has had a vision of a new home that the cats could head to. Clear Sky wants to go immediately, as does Gray Wing's little brother Jagged Peak, but Gray Wing isn't so sure about leaving. Bright Stream is also worried about leaving, but Clear Sky threatens to leave her behind. Half Moon appoints a cat named Shaded Moss to lead the Followers of the Sun Trail.
Bright Stream goes hunting with Gray Wing, and tells him that she will go with Clear Sky to follow the Sun Trail. Gray Wing, on the other paw, has decided to stay. Back at the cave, Gray Wing's younger sister Fluttering Bird dies of hunger. Quiet Rain, Gray Wing's mother, is grief stricken, and she tells Gray Wing that he must leave so that not all her kits will die.
The Tribe comes to blows over cats leaving, so Half Moon has them all cast stones over leaving. Gray Wing votes for the cats to stay, but the "leaving" side wins. Gray Wing later talks with Half Moon and asks her if she ever wanted kits. She replies that all of the Tribe are her kits, but she did know love once. (Referring to Jay's Wing.)
Soon, the Followers of the Sun Trail set out. The group is composed of Shattered Ice, Clear Sky, Quick Water, Tall Shadow, Cloud Spots, Jackdaw's Cry, Shaded Moss, Bright Stream, Rainswept Flower, Dappled Pelt, Turtle Tail, Falling Feather, Hawk Swoop, and Moon Shadow. The rest of the Tribe stays behind and finds that there is now a lot more food to go around. Jagged Peak wants to go hunting, so Gray Wing teaches him. The next day, he finds out that Jagged Peak has gone missing. Misty Water, the Tribe's best tracker, figures out that Jagged Peak left to find the Followers of the Sun Trail. Quiet Rain finally manages to convince Gray Wing to leave by telling him that it's his responsibility to make sure Jagged Peak makes it to the new territory safely. Gray Wing agrees to go after Jagged Peak.
A blizzard delays Gray Wing's departure, but he eventually manages to leave. He finds Jagged Peak being attacked by an eagle, and he rescues him. Jagged Peak believes that Gray Wing is going to take him back to the Tribe, but Gray Wing explains that he's going to help him find the Followers of the Sun Trail.
After several misadventures with Jagged Peak, Gray Wing has a dream about what the Followers of the Sun Trail are doing. However, rather than being prophetic, this dream leads Gray Wing to realize that the Followers of the Sun Trail are right above him, and he was hearing their voices as he slept. Gray Wing and Jagged Peak join the Followers of the Sun Trail on the quest to find a new home.
Gray Wing finds out that Bright Stream is pregnant, but she doesn't want the other Followers of the Sun Trail to know because she thinks she'll hold them back. As the group moves, eagles attack. They get away, and Clear Sky comes up with a plan to catch an eagle. Gray Wing and Bright Stream go out together, but Gray Wing hurts his leg. Bright Stream tries to help him into a bush, but an eagle grabs her. Because of his injured leg, Gray Wing is unable to save Bright Stream from the eagle and she is carried off. Turtle Tail tries to tell Gray Wing that Bright Stream's death wasn't his fault, but Gray Wing thinks that it was his fault.
The Followers of the Sun Trail finally leave the mountains, and are shocked at how much food they find. However, not everything is easy. Gray Wing is stewing in guilt, and the crew has to fight kittypets, cars, dogs, and sheep. Hawk Swoop dislocates her leg while running from some sheep, but Cloud Spots fixes it for her.
Later, a loner tells the Followers of the Sun Trail about Highstones. Gray Wing and the others are certain that they will find their new home beyond the peaks of Highstones, and set out with high spirits. However, a dog attacks, and Shaded Moss is run over by a car when he tries to get away. The cats hold a funeral for him and continue on. The cats walk by Mothermouth, but ignore it. (Mothflight is the one who will discover the Moonstone, after all.) After some more travelling, they reach the moor. The cats set up camp there.
A few days later, Gray Wing is hunting a rabbit when he crashes into Gorse. Wind is there as well, and a fight threatens to start. However, Tall Shadow shows up and saves the day. Later, Moon Shadow catches two squirrels in the woods. Tall Shadow tells him not to go into the woods, because there are hostile cats living there. When Moon Shadow asks who died and made her leader, she responds, "Shaded Moss, actually." Tall Shadow isn't known to be a liar, so she takes over as the leader of the Followers of the Sun Trail.
Gray Wing finds Clear Sky alone and apologizes for causing Bright Stream's death. However, Clear Sky blames himself because he wanted to fight the eagles. Gray Wing realizes that Bright Stream wouldn't want them to be so unhappy, and the brothers decide to move forward in life. The brothers explore the forest and find Sunningrocks. There they meet a black she-cat with a white paw and green eyes. She yells at them before swimming away. As the brothers head back to the moor, Gray Wing notices a kittypet following them.
Later, Gray Wing finds Moon Shadow fighting the swimming cat (Nightheart), a tom (Leaf), and a yellow tabby she-cat (Petal). The cats get mad at Moon Shadow for picking random fights. Then Turtle Tail has an affectionate moment with Gray Wing. It gets interrupted by the kittypet from before. She introduces herself as Bumble, and offers to show the two cats around her house. Gray Wing and Turtle tail head back to the moor separately, and Gray Wing sees Wind and Gorse chasing a rabbit. Wind snags the rabbit from a tunnel. After Gray Wing assures the two that he doesn't want to pick a fight, Wind shows him the way through the tunnels.
Later still, Dappled Pelt goes for a swim and Gray Wing finds Turtle Tail talking with Bumble again. That night, foxes attack. However, Clear Sky comes up with a plan and manages to defeat them.
Clear Sky eventually gets fed up with living in the moor and gets a vote to move to the trees. Only Clear Sky, Moon Shadow, Quick Water, Falling Feather, and Jagged Peak vote to go to the trees. However, Clear Sky abuses a loophole, and the five cats who wanted to move break off from the Followers of the Sun Trail.
The next day, Gray Wing goes to visit Clear Sky. He tries jumping through the trees with the group, but falls out of one and lands on a stump. A silver she-cat saves him from some wasps and leaves after making sarcastic comments. Gray Wing goes hunting with Turtle Tail after that, but they each head back to the moor alone again. That night, Gray Wing finds Turtle Tail's den empty. He figures that she's gone to the Twolegplace, so he heads there and meets the silver she-cat again. She introduces herself as Storm, and references Into the Wild by calling Gray Wing "Gray Whatsit" (the name Rusty gave to Graypaw). Storm shows Bumble's den to Gray Wing, and he finds Turtle Tail there. The two of them go back to the moor. Later, Gray Wing saves Storm from Petal, and Rainswept Flower notes that Gray Wing is falling for Storm.
Gray Wing meets Wind and Gorse, who catch a plump rabbit. They are now friendly to him, and the cats go to the hollow and share the rabbit with the Followers of the Sun Trail. Later, Gray Wing sees Storm again. He offers to introduce her to Clear Sky, but a random cat tries to stop them. After Gray Wing introduces himself as Clear Sky's brother, the random cat takes Gray Wing and Storm to see Clear Sky. It seems that the random cat is named Fox, and he is the brother of Petal (who has also joined Clear Sky's group). After awkwardness ensues between Storm and Clear Sky, Storm runs off.
Later, Gray Wing talks with Turtle Tail. Turtle Tail is obviously in love with him, but Gray Wing doesn't notice and instead tells her about his love of Storm. Turtle Tail pads off sadly.
Due to her frustration and crush on Gray Wing, Turtle Tail leaves to live with Bumble. A distraught Gray Wing finds Storm and starts to ask her to come live with him. However, Storm reveals that she is Clear Sky's mate, and she's going to have his kits. Gray Wing is hurt when she goes to live with Clear Sky, but he tries to accept it. Clear Sky was crushed when he lost Bright Stream, and he deserves a second chance to be happy.
Jackdaw's Cry tries to visit Falling Feather, his sister. However, Fox and another cat called Frost won't let him into Clear Sky's camp. Gray Wing confronts Clear Sky over this, and Clear Sky claims that he wants to "strengthen his community". Falling Feather shows up, and explains that Jagged Peak hurt his leg while jumping through the trees. Dappled Pelt comes and after examining Jagged Peak explains that his leg is broken. She decides to stay with him for a little while. As Gray Wing leaves the camp, he looks longingly at Storm.
Half a moon later, Jackdaw's Cry and Shattered Ice invent tunneling and explain its uses. This includes battle uses. Gray Wing acts skeptical about the possibility of battle, but is inwardly worried about the chance.
A few days later, Fox shows up and wordlessly dumps Jagged Peak onto the ground. Because of Clear Sky's new "for the community" views, he has exiled Jagged Peak because he thinks that he will be useless to the group. The Followers of the Sun Trail take him in again and try to help him get better. Gray Wing is furious, and he heads back to confront Clear Sky again. However, Fox tries to kill him. Gray Wing accidentally kills Fox, throwing Clear Sky into a rage. He declares their brotherhood to be over. Storm calls him out on his abusive behaviour, and runs away to Twolegplace. Clear Sky lets Storm leave, because "the community comes first".
The season changes, and Hawk Swoop becomes pregnant with Jackdaw's Cry's kits. Gray Wing heads to Twolegplace to try to find Storm. He meets up with Turtle Tail and frustrates her further by telling her that he's looking for Storm. However, Bumble takes him to an abandoned house where Storm is staying. She's had three kits, but she refuses to let Gray Wing see them.
Just as Gray Wing is leaving, he sees a vehicle coming to demolish Storm's house. He runs back in, but it's too late and Storm dies trying to protect her kits. Gray Wing thinks that the kits are dead, but he realizes that one survived. He takes the kit back out to Turtle Tail and Bumble, and gives him the name Thunder.
Gray Wing decides to give Thunder back to Clear Sky. However, Clear Sky refuses to take his son, claiming that Storm's death is "just like Bright Stream's". Gray Wing declares that he's wrong, because Storm's death had meaning. She may be gone, but she managed to save Thunder. Clear Sky still rejects Thunder, and Gray Wing realizes that they are now bitter enemies. Back at the hollow, Hawk Swoop agrees to give Thunder her milk. Gray Wing declares that Thunder will have cats to care for him, because from this day forth, he will be Thunder's father.
In the bonus scene, two kits - Petal and Fox - grieve for their mother, who has just been killed by a badger. They try to hunt but are unsuccessful. They find some other cats and ask for food, but are chased away. Petal declares that it's just going to be the two of them from now on.
Moons later, the two of them are hunting in the forest when some of the new cats who moved in spot them. They'd chased Petal and Fox away when they'd discovered the clearing where they were staying, and so the two flee once they realize that they've been seen. They try to cross the river using stepping stones, but Petal falls in. After she manages to pull herself out, the new cats introduce themselves as Clear Sky and Falling Feather. They help Petal warm up, and share their story about how they traveled from the mountains and want to make a group that can protect each other. They invite the two to join, and Petal and Fox agree.
Tropes appearing in this book:
- Alliterative Name: Stone Song, Turtle Tail, Falling Feather.
- All There in the Manual: It's never mentioned whether Bright Stream and Clear Sky named their kits, and of course we didn't know what they'd look like since they weren't born yet. The official site reveals them to be a brown tabby named Tiger Tail and a pale gray cat named Pale Sky. Similarly, the names/appearances of Thunder's littermates aren't known; the official site reveals them to be a white cat named Lightning and a white cat with orange tabby patches named Rumble.
- The Bait: Several of the cats act as bait to lure some of the eagles away.
- Betty and Veronica: Gray Wing is the Betty and Clear Sky is the Veronica; Storm prefers Clear Sky.
- Blood from the Mouth: Shaded Moss after being hit by a car.
- Broken Pedestal: Jagged Peak used to look up to Clear Sky, his older brother, until the latter kicks him out of the forest for having an unhealed broken leg.
- Call-Back: Storm refers to Gray Wing as "Gray Whatsit", exactly like Rusty did to Graypaw way back in the first book, Into the Wild.
- Cat Up a Tree: Gray Wing tries to chase a squirrel along a branch, nearly falls, and then realizes that he's not sure if he can get down. Jagged Peak has to teach him how.
- Claustrophobia: Gray Wing. He loves open spaces, feeling too closed-in even in a forest. The one time he crawls into a rabbit burrow, it's only because he wants to prove that he's not a coward, and he starts panicking while underground.
- Convenient Cranny:
- When Gray Wing catches up with Jagged Peak, he finds his little brother cowering in a crevice, just out of an eagle's reach.
- The traveling group finds an overhang under which they can hide from a group of four eagles. However, they're also trapped there, knowing that the eagles will attack when they try to leave.
- A Crack in the Ice: While traveling with Jagged Peak, Gray Wing falls through snow into a stream hidden below; his brother helps pull him out.
- Crash-Into Hello: Gray Wing is running freely and happily on the moor he recently arrived on, only to crash into Wind and Gorse, the future founders of WindClan, and ruin their hunt. They get off to a bad start, but later they do become pals.
- Cue the Sun: Just as the traveling cats stand on Highstones looking out toward their new home, the sun breaks over the horizon and reveals the new land.
- Danger — Thin Ice: When Gray Wing's leaving to find Jagged Peak, his mother points out that the ice over a river is thin and will only hold one cat, and that he needs to get moving before it melts. It starts to break while he's crossing, but he makes it the rest of the way across.
- Deer in the Headlights:
- Hawk Swoop freezes while crossing their first Thunderpath; Shaded Moss has to grab her by her scruff and pull her.
- Jagged Peak stops in the middle of the road near Highstones. Clear Sky runs back and carries him the rest of the way.
- When the group is attacked by three dogs, Gray Wing freezes and Turtle Tail crashes into him.
- A Dog Named "Cat": One of the cats recruited by Clear Sky is named Fox.
- Due to the Dead: When a Tribe cat dies, normally the Tribe buries them by covering them with stones. For Shaded Moss they substitute sticks and grass since there aren't any rocks that they can find, and they thank him for his leadership on their journey.
- Embarrassing Rescue: Gray Wing helps chase away some cats that are harrassing Storm. Storm pretends that she didn't need the help.
- The Famine: The book begins with the Tribe of Rushing Water in a famine and half the Tribe leaving to find a new home, because they have become too overpopulated for their territory to feed them.
- Flashback Nightmare: The night after Shaded Moss' death, his daughter Rainswept Flower appears to be dreaming about his death, crying out his name in grief.
- Greater Need Than Mine: The Tribe cats do this occasionally with prey, insisting that others need it more (for instance, they give some prey to Gray Wing before he sets off to find Jagged Peak.)
- Hypocrisy Nod: When Jagged Peak runs without looking where he was going, Gray Wing scolds him for it...before doing it himself by accident. He realizes he's being a hypocrite and resolves on not becoming one.
- I Have No Son!: A variant: when Gray Wing kills Fox in self-defense, Clear Sky announces that he has no brother. In turn, Gray Wing declares that their brotherhood is over when Clear Sky rejects his son Thunder.
- Ironic Name: Quick Water hates water, much to the amusement of Turtle Tail.
- It's All My Fault:
- Both Gray Wing and Clear Sky feel this for Bright Stream's death, without initially being aware of the other's feelings: Gray Wing blames himself since she'd gone back to help him, while the eagle thing was Clear Sky's idea and he thinks he never should have let her take part.
- Clear Sky feels this about Storm's death. He thinks he should have stopped her from leaving.
- It's Raining Men: Clear Sky and Jagged Peak surprise Gray Wing by dropping out of the trees and landing right next to him.
- Kidnapping Bird of Prey:
- Gray Wing finds an eagle attempting to get at Jagged Peak, and in the ensuing fight both of them are nearly carried off at different points.
- Happens to Bright Stream while traveling through the mountains. It didn't help that she was pregnant.
- Look Both Ways: While being chased by dogs, the cats dive through some bushes. On the other side is a road, and Shaded Moss runs onto it and is hit by a car.
- Love at First Sight: Storm and Clear Sky can't help but stare at each other throughout their first meeting, and become mates not long after.
- Love Triangle: First Gray Wing likes Bright Stream, who becomes mates with Gray Wing's brother Clear Sky instead. Later on, some time after Bright Stream's death, Gray Wing meets Storm and falls for her — a lot more strongly than he had with Bright Stream. She and Clear Sky end up falling in love at first sight.
- Meaningful Name: Turtle Tail and Gray Wing choose the name Thunder for Clear Sky and Storm's kit, because his mother was named Storm and just after his birth he survived a "storm" of stones and dust when the Twoleg nest he was born in was destroyed.
- The Medic: Of the cats who left the mountains, Dappled Pelt and Cloud Spots know the most of healing, and it's the two of them that Gray Wing seeks when Jagged Peak is injured.
- The Migration: About half of the Tribe of Rushing Water leaves the mountains to find a new home in the forest.
- New Season, New Name: This arc has the subtitle Dawn of the Clans.
- Oblivious to Love: Gray Wing is completely oblivious of Turtle Tail's feelings for him and baffled by her behavior and other's comments; he's too entranced by Storm.
- Official Couple Ordeal Syndrome: The book starts out with an official couple of Clear Sky and Bright Stream, but then Bright Stream gets killed by an eagle. And just when you think that Clear Sky and Storm will work out, Storm leaves and dies, forgiving Clear Sky with her last breath. This ends up breaking Clear Sky pretty hard.
- Panicky Expectant Father: Clear Sky is anxious about Storm when she so much as takes a walk. Gray Wing thinks it must be from losing Bright Stream.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Gray Wing finds Moon Shadow annoying and boastful, and Tall Shadow quiet and worth listening to. He wonders how one litter can produce such different cats.
- Prequel: Dawn of the Clans and its supplemental books take place long before the main series or any of the other prequels.
- The Promised Land: The Tribe is starving because they are overpopulated for the prey that lives in the mountains. Stoneteller, the Tribe's leader, has a dream of a prey-filled land that lies in the direction of the rising sun. About half the Tribe leaves to follow "the Sun Trail" and find this land, which is the forest that the Clans live in at the start of the series.
- The Quest: Half the Tribe leaves to find a new home.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: The title is one of the most frequently-misspelled ones in the series, often being mistakenly called The Sun Trial.
- Second Love: Several moons after Bright Stream's death, Clear Sky falls in love with Storm. Unfortunately, this relationship doesn't end any better.
- Series Continuity Error: In the prologue, Lion's Roar calls Half Moon by her original name rather than "Stoneteller", saying that she'd always be Half Moon to him, as if he knew her well before her name change. In Sign of the Moon we see that he was just barely born when she was renamed Stoneteller, so he would have known her as that as he grew up, instead of Half Moon.
- Shipper on Deck: The elder Silver Frost ships Clear Sky/Bright Stream, as well as Gray Wing/Turtle Tail.
- Slashed Throat: How Gray Wing kills Fox in self-defense.
- Sneaky Departure: The plot of Dawn of the Clans is kicked off when Jagged Peak sneaks away from the Tribe to join the Followers of the Sun Trail and find a new home, forcing Gray Wing to head after him so that he can keep him safe on the journey.
- The Social Darwinist: Clear Sky goes as far as kicking his injured brother out of his group.
- So Happy Together: Bright Stream and Clear Sky announce to Gray Wing that they're expecting kits and are excited to become parents. That very day, Bright Stream gets carried away by an eagle.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Clear Sky went through this after creating his community. In fact, he gets mad at Gray Wing for accidentally killing Fox... though that was his own fault, for HE was the one who told Fox to attack him. Another sign that shows this is when he kicks Jagged Peak out for breaking his leg and refusing to take his son Thunder into the community.
- Tree Cover: Gray Wing finds a cat hiding in a clump of bracken he had just walked by. This is very embarrassing for him, as he had just been berating his brother Jagged Peak for claiming they were being watched.
- Unexpected Character: When Dawn of the Clans was announced, lots of theories were made about appearances from the Clan Founders (Thunder, River Ripple, Wind Runner, Tall Shadow, and Clear Sky), original medicine cats (Cloudspots, Dapplepelt, Mothflight, and Pebbleheart), and a few other characters mentioned in the field guides (Gorsefur, Owleyes, Lightningtail, etc.). However, almost nobody predicted Graywing the Wise (a character whose sole mention in the series beforehand was being credited with creating a few WindClan battle strategies in Battles of the Clans) showing up, let alone his role as the (initial) main character of the arc. To a lesser extent, few expected Half Moon and Lion's Roar to appear in the arc, but they ended up being supporting characters in The Sun Trail.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Clear Sky calls out Gray Wing for killing Fox... though HE was the one to tell Fox to attack him. Later, Gray Wing calls Clear Sky out for banishing Jagged Peak from the community and refusing to take in his son Thunder.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Bright Stream pretends to limp to attract some of the eagles toward her.
- The X of Y: The series name Dawn of the Clans.
