Thunder Rising is the second book in the fifth Warrior Cats series, a Prequel called Dawn of the Clans.
In the prologue, Thunder dreams of his mother, Storm. He wonders why his father doesn't want him, and Storm tells him that now isn't the time to make things right between him and Clear Sky, but that she knows he will when the time comes.
A few moons after the end of The Sun Trail, the winter has come to an end and the cats are enjoying the start of spring. Turtle Tail returns to the moor, explaining that she's expecting kits and that she doesn't want them taken away by Twolegs. Gray Wing and Rainswept Flower go on a walk with her and run into a few local cats - Wind, Gorse, and River Ripple - before being chased by dogs back to their camp. The dogs eventually leave, but then they realize that Thunder and Jagged Peak are missing.
Meanwhile, Thunder is out hunting with Shattered Ice, to whom he'd lied about having permission to come. Although he feels like he belongs in the forest, he feels bad about having come there when Clear Sky's cats warn them away. As they return, they find Gray Wing trying to defend Jagged Peak from a pair of dogs. Eventually Thunder pushes Jagged Peak into a rabbit burrow, where they hide until the Twolegs come and take the dogs away. The burrow collapses before Jagged Peak can get out, but Wind and Gorse dig him out. Gray Wing hopes that they can join the group since they've been friends for a while now (and the group even gives them the new names Wind Runner and Gorse Fur to help them fit in better), but Tall Shadow is cautious and only lets them spend the evening there. Arguments start among the group after Tall Shadow makes the two of them leave: some of the cats think Gray Wing should be the group's new leader, while others still support Tall Shadow.
The following day, Turtle Tail has her kits. Gray Wing insists on being the first to see her, for reasons he doesn't yet know. That night, he dreams of the cave in the mountains and encounters Stoneteller, who explains that they're both dreaming, and who tells him that he must turn his paws onto a new path. He thinks that perhaps it means that he should be a father to Turtle Tail's kits, while Stoneteller thinks that it may mean that he's meant to become a leader.
One moon later, Gray Wing has become like a father to Turtle Tail's kits. While the two of them and the kits are out one day, Turtle Tail's kittypet friend Bumble shows up and asks to join. She's dismissed by both Tall Shadow and Wind, and Tall Shadow starts to wonder if she's really meant to be the group's leader.
One day, Gray Wing awakens to the scent of smoke and fire - the forest is on fire, and everyone goes to see if they can help Clear Sky's group. Thunder especially takes the initiative, helping get the badly injured Moon Shadow to safety and giving Gray Wing the motivation to keep moving. A rogue, River Ripple, helps everyone to safety away from the fire, and once they meet up with Clear Sky, they ask his group to join them in their camp. On the way there, Thunder hunts with his father for the first time, and Clear Sky seems pleased.
After the fire, Tall Shadow asks Gray Wing to take over as leader; she especially feels unable to lead after failing to do so in the fire, and she wants to focus on her wounded brother. Clear Sky and Thunder grow closer while in camp together, and Clear Sky offers his son the chance to join him in the forest. Thunder readily agrees. He begins to settle in to Clear Sky's camp and prove himself, but misses his friends and the easygoing manner everyone had at the old camp. Things don't get any better: Clear Sky bullies Thunder while training, chases away River Ripple and his cats, and doesn't seem to accept any of Thunder's opinions.
Gray Wing, meanwhile, has been having trouble with his breathing ever since the fire, but he's been doing his best to lead the group. The moor group decides to give Wind and Gorse new names to help them fit in better - Wind Runner and Gorse Fur. One of Turtle Tail's kits, Pebble Heart, takes a special interest in healing, and also seems to have unusual dreams like Stoneteller used to: in fact, he's had one about them fighting Clear Sky's group. Moon Shadow succumbs to his injuries, and while the cats grieve and bury him, another one of the kits, Owl Eyes, sneaks away. They find him and bring him back, but upon arriving back in camp, Gray Wing's breathing continues to get worse and he faints.
One day, about two moons after Thunder joined Clear Sky, a patrol he's on encounters Wind Runner and chases her away. Clear Sky decides that it's time for their borders to expand. While marking the territory, they encounter a rogue, Misty, who refuses to leave; Clear Sky kills her, and it's only afterward that they realize that she had kits. One of Clear Sky's cats, Petal, decides to take them in.
Wind Runner goes to the moor group and announces what happened - both to her and to Misty - and begins to make suggestions about what they should do in response. Gray Wing wonders if she's trying to take over as leader despite not being part of the group. He leads a group to confront Clear Sky, and there they find Bumble dying of her wounds. Clear Sky claims he cuffed her and she fainted, and that as he walked away he heard a fox attack her but was too late to help; not every cat believes him, but Gray Wing does. They're not sure what to do next, but Tall Shadow's happy to share leadership with Gray Wing and isn't opposed to Wind Runner's recent organization of the cats.
The following day, a few of Clear Sky's cats try to get Thunder to convince his father that they don't need to behave the way they have been, bullying and killing other cats and continuing to expand their territory. Clear Sky doubles down on his behavior, exiling Frost to die due to his infected paw, even though he can still hunt and patrol - and ordering Thunder to be the one to lead him away. Thunder refuses, and at that moment a fox comes into the camp: Clear Sky pushes him into its path, but Thunder and a couple of the others quickly drive it away. Thunder is absolutely certain now that things are over between him and his father, and he leads Frost away, back to the moor and Gray Wing.
In the bonus scene, a young cat named Ripple lives in a place called the Park, where cats follow daily rituals including their Call of Awakening, Morning Meal, and Morning Meditation. He spends some time with his mentor, Arc, and thinks about how everything is perfect and nothing will ever change.
That very day, however, Twoleg monsters begin to destroy the park, and Ripple and Arc see that some of the other cats have been captured by Twolegs. As they run, Ripple falls into the river and is carried away. He manages to grab a log and floats on it for about a day - past Twoleg kits throwing rocks, past territorial otters, through a school of fish that he learns to catch, and over a waterfall. Eventually he's washed up onto some rocks and collapses on them. When he awakens and comes ashore, he meets a friendly cat who introduces herself as Night. Thinking of how the river fed and protected him, he decides that now he's a Cat of the River, and he tells her his name is River Ripple.
Tropes appearing in this book:
- Afraid of Blood: Gray Wing notes that despite Cloud Spots' experience with herbs, he looks queasy at the sight of the newborn kits still covered in blood.
- Agony of the Feet: Frost's paw is injured in a fire, and with no cats with healing knowledge in the group, it refuses to heal on its own and becomes infected. Clear Sky kicks him out because an injury weakens the group.
- Big Brother Bully: As soon as Clear Sky sees his little brother Jagged Peak (who he'd driven out for breaking a leg), he drops the niceness and politeness he showed Gray Wing and acts ugly towards Jagged Peak, taunting him and accusing him of being lazy and selfish. Gray Wing stands up for Jagged Peak, and Clear Sky begins to apologize only to be rejected by Jagged Peak, calling him out for making him leave the forest just because of a broken leg.
- The Bully: Thunder gradually realizes that Clear Sky is one.
- Buried Alive: Jagged Peak has a rabbit tunnel collapse on him, but he survives.
- Cat Concerto: The bonus story begins with Ripple and all the other cats of the park yowling together to greet the morning.
- Child of Two Worlds: As Thunder grows, he feels loyalty to the group he was raised in and views Gray Wing as a father, but also wants to earn his birth father Clear Sky's approval.
- Children Are Tender-Hearted: When Gray Wing takes his kits hunting for the first time, they're upset because they think the rabbit's mother and father will miss it if they kill it. Gray Wing has to explain that they can't take their hearts hunting if they want to survive in the wild.
- Convenient Cranny: When chased by dogs, Thunder and Jagged Peak hide in a hole between two rocks where the dogs can't reach.
- Defiant to the End: Misty refuses to be cowed by Clear Sky's patrol, and he kills her for standing her ground.
- A Dog Named "Cat": One of Clear Sky's cats is named Fox.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Gray Wing can barely believe that Twolegs would name a tom "Tom".
- Dream Intro: The prologue is of Thunder speaking to his mother in a dream.
- Due to the Dead: Moon Shadow is the first cat to die since arriving on the moor. Gray Wing speaks some words praising him, and he is buried.
- Everyone Can See It: Gray Wing and Turtle Tail. After they spend a night curled up sleeping together, he wakes up to find half the camp watching them approvingly.Rainswept Flower: I'm glad you've finally figured out what was obvious to the rest of us.
- Fainting: Two of the Exhaustion type:
- After finding Owl Eyes and fleeing from a badger, Gray Wing's breathing gets bad again and he collapses.
- In the bonus scene, Ripple faints after going over a waterfall and having to swim for a while.
- Give the Baby a Father: After having her kits, Turtle Tail says she wishes the kits had a father, and gives Gray Wing a look full of love. This is what makes him start to realize his feelings for her, and he becomes an adopted father to her kits.
- Gray Rain of Depression: The sky is gray and rainy on the day Moon Shadow dies.
- Happily Adopted:
- Gray Wing raises Thunder as his own after Thunder's mother dies and his father abandons him.
- A rogue is killed by Clear Sky's followers, and afterward they realize she had two kits. The kits, Birch and Alder, are raised by Petal, one of Clear Sky's cats.
- Howl of Sorrow: Turtle Tail wails aloud at her friend Bumble's death, described as the most mournful sound Gray Wing had ever heard.
- Inevitable Waterfall: Ripple goes over one in the bonus scene.
- Ironic Name: The prefix Petal is usually for a soft-spoken and kind she-cat. But as for Petal from Dawn Of The Clans...as Thunder says in this book: "Which cat named her 'Petal'? There's nothing soft about her!"
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Clear Sky says to Thunder about River Ripple, "I was just putting that cat in its place." This demonstrates what sort of cat he's becoming.
- Kick the Dog: Clear Sky does a couple of these in this book. He bullies Jagged Peak when his brother is suffering from self-esteem problems, embarrasses one of his cats to make Thunder look good, beats up one of River Ripple's friends when he was already defeated, sends Frost out to die even though he can still hunt, and throws his own son into the path of an attacking fox.
- Kid Hero: Thunder is a kit - the feline equivalent of a child - at the start of this book.
- Kill the Parent, Raise the Child: Clear Sky kills Misty while he and some of his cats are expanding their territory, and only afterward realizes that she had kits. While Clear Sky initially just thought it would be best to Mercy Kill them since they wouldn't survive without their mother, one of his cats insisted their group raise the kits, and Clear Sky allowed it, despite his stance on not supporting "weak" cats (e.g. exiling members of the group for having survivable injuries, including his own younger brother).
- Love at First Sight: Storm tells Thunder that her and Clear Sky's relationship was like this. The first thing Thunder asks Clear Sky upon meeting him is whether that's true.
- Meaningful Name:
- Lightning Tail was named for always hanging around with Thunder.
- Owl Eyes is named for his owl-like amber eyes, and Pebble Heart's name comes from a white mark on his chest.
- River Ripple's original name, Ripple, came from the movement of the river water in the Park.
- Meaningful Rename:
- As a way of accepting Wind and Gorse, the moor group decides to give them longer names to fit in better with the others' names. Wind is renamed Wind Runner for her speed, while Gorse becomes Gorse Fur due to some fur on his head that sticks up like gorse spines.
- When meeting Night, Ripple decides that he should honor the river that protected and fed him, and chooses the new name River Ripple.
- The Medic: Cloud Spots and Dappled Pelt have the most knowledge of healing herbs.
- Mercy Kill: Clear Sky suggests doing this with Misty's kits, thinking they'll die without their mother.
- The Needs of the Many: Clear Sky's justification for the things he does. He even insists, while exiling Frost to die, that it's for the greater good.
- Never My Fault: Clear Sky. When he kills Misty, it was her fault for not leaving. When a fox finds the camp, it's somehow Thunder's fault for bringing danger to them.
- New Season, New Name: This arc is called Dawn of the Clans.
- Overly Long Name: Wind and Gorse joke that their new names should be "Wind That Chases Rabbits Down Burrows" and "Gorse Prickle Stuck in Paw". Wind says that she'd rather give up hunting rabbits than have to say such a mouthful all the time.
- Panicky Expectant Father: Gray Wing inexplicably feels the urge to be near Turtle Tail at her kitting, despite the protests of the others - even though they're not his kits, and even though he doesn't realize his feelings for her yet.
- Parents as People: Thunder sees early on that Clear Sky isn't perfect.
- Prequel: Dawn of the Clans and its supplemental books take place long before the main series or any of the other prequels.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Clear Sky gives Jagged Peak a cruel and unprovoked one, calling him selfish and lazy. Gray Wing, however, is quick to defend their little brother, and Jagged Peak gives Clear Sky one for kicking him out of the forest.
- Sadist Teacher: Clear Sky's method of training. He insists that Thunder learn to jump from tree to tree despite the fact that the trees are burned and might not hold his weight (and Clear Sky had driven out his own brother Jagged Peak for being injured after falling out of a tree.) He insults him when he hesitates, and once Thunder finally does what he wants and a branch ends up breaking beneath him, Clear Sky calls him reckless.
- Secret Test of Character: Clear Sky pretends that rejecting Thunder away as a newborn kit was a test to see if he was a strong cat.
- Sickening "Crunch!": When the dogs find the hollow, Gray Wing sees one of them chewing old rabbit bones and flinches when he hears the bones crunching in its jaws, knowing that that could happen to a cat too.
- Slashed Throat: How Clear Sky kills the rogue cat Misty.
- Strong Family Resemblance:
- Sparrow Fur looks just like her mother Turtle Tail.
- Alder is a gray-and-white she-cat like her mother Misty.
- Switching P.O.V.: Gray Wing and Thunder.
- Talking in Your Dreams: Gray Wing and Stoneteller communicate in a shared dream.
- Tell Me About My Father: Thunder asks Clear Sky to tell him about his mother Storm.
- Tempting Fate: In the bonus scene, Ripple thinks "Nothing will ever change." That very day, the Park is destroyed.
- Verbing Nouny: The title, Thunder Rising, is a variation.
- Watching Troy Burn: The Cats of the Park have to see their beloved, beautiful home destroyed.
- Would Hurt a Child: It says a lot about who Clear Sky is becoming, that when finding orphaned kits, his instinctive reaction is to suggest Mercy Killing them, rather than to have his group adopt them or find someone else who can.
- The X of Y: The series name Dawn of the Clans.
