Rising Storm (novel)

Rising Storm takes place in a fictional forest just like the previous three books, though there are a few destinations with the same names. In Virginia there is a territory just like the one described in the books, and it is next to a windover road The forest is home to four Clans of wild cats, ThunderClan, WindClan, RiverClan and ShadowClan. In the middle of the book, Fireheart and Bluestar take a visit to Moonstone, which is a stone in an abandoned mine north-west of the forest. The Clans' name for the mine is Highstones.

The forest is based on New Forest, in Southern England.[1] In addition to the New Forest, Loch Lomond, the Scottish Highlands, and the Forest of Dean also inspired the fictional locales in the novel.[2][3]

Fireheart is now ThunderClan's new deputy, but the previous deputy, Tigerclaw, still haunts Fireheart's dreams. Fireheart wonders if ThunderClan would be ready if Tigerclaw attacked, as many of the cats are still shocked about Tigerclaw's disloyalty, and many warriors are still badly injured. Bluestar also begins to become distrustful of the Clan after Tigerclaw's betrayal, trusting only her most senior warriors, including Fireheart, who she brought to the Clan.

One day, Bluestar, accompanied by Fireheart, goes to speak with StarClan at Mothermouth, a quarry mine. On the way there, a patrol of WindClan warriors, led by a wiry mottled dark brown tabby tom named Mudclaw, stop them before Bluestar is able to talk with them. The ThunderClan leader later fears that StarClan sent WindClan to stop them from going to Mothermouth and speaking with StarClan, which causes her to slip into further paranoia.

In the summer months, Fireheart struggles with his disrespectful nephew and apprentice, now called Cloudpaw, who goes to a Twoleg for food and is one day abducted by them. Fireheart and Sandstorm the pale ginger she-cat rescue Cloudpaw, who is found near the barn where Ravenpaw and Barley live. He is accepted back into the Clan, since Fireheart keeps it a secret that Cloudpaw went to humans for food. Fireheart must also deal with the fact that his best friend, Graystripe, is still in love with the dead RiverClan she-cat Silverstream.

Meanwhile, the forest gets hotter and hotter, and a wildfire sweeps through the forest, destroying ThunderClan's camp and taking the lives of two elders, Patchpelt the small black-and-white tom and Halftail the big broad-shouldered dark brown tabby tom, as well as Yellowfang, ThunderClan's medicine cat. At the end of the book, it was revealed at a Gathering that both Nightstar the long-tailed black tom and Cinderfur of ShadowClan the thin gray tom have died from a sickness, and that Tigerclaw, is the new leader of ShadowClan, has earned the name "Tigerstar".