The Rise of Scourge

Tiny is the smallest of Quince's litter of three cats, which also includes Socks and Ruby. His brother and sister constantly bully him because of his size. Later, humans come to adopt Socks and Ruby, but they leave Tiny. Ruby tells him that unwanted kittens like him are thrown into the river.

Despite being terrified of the stories of forest cats, Tiny runs into the forest to escape before he can be thrown into the river. He is met by a ThunderClan patrol of Bluefur, Thistleclaw, and Thistleclaw's apprentice Tigerpaw. Tigerpaw attempts to kill Tiny but is stopped by Bluefur, who reminds him of the warrior code.

Tiny goes to the city and is laughed at for his collar. He finds a dog tooth (lost by a big elderly male dog named Samwise) and attempts to break his collar with it, but it ends up embedded in the collar. When other cats ask him about it, Tiny says that he ripped it out of a dog's mouth after killing it. Two other loners, Bone and Brick, come ask him to help with a dog. The dog is scared of Tiny's shadow and runs away. Impressed, the cats ask him what his name is. Tiny remembers something his mother told him about how forest cats are a scourge on the name of all good cats and decides to be named Scourge from now on.

Later, Scourge is asked to help drive away a gang of rogues that are causing trouble. When they tease him because of his size, he kills one of them to show the cats from the gang and his cats what he is capable of. The gang cats are shocked and decide to go back to the forest.

Scourge is treated as a sort of leader among the city cats after the incident, and he becomes more of a dictator to them, though he remains discontent. After a while, his littermates, Socks, and Ruby come to him for help because their housefolk abandoned them. He takes revenge and sends them away with a small meal. Later, BloodClan is becoming more organized, and Tigerpaw, now Tigerstar, comes asking for help. Scourge finally gains his happiness when he kills Tigerstar in revenge for the attack when they were younger. He is finally content. He also managed to kill Firestar's, the leader of ThunderClan, first life. Bluefur, now Bluestar in StarClan, blesses Firestar, and Firestar awakes from his death. Firestar has managed to kill Scourge with a fatal bite in the neck that ended his life, and the rest of BloodClan is left in panic and without a leader. The former members of Bloodclan become rogues and go their ways.

"Grade 4–7—This adaptation provides a look at the origins of the cat Scourge, the evil leader of the BloodClan. Tiny is a fearful house kitten who is the runt of the litter. Once he strikes out on his own, though, he renames himself Scourge and vows to take revenge on the wild forest cats who once attacked him. Though drawn and laid out in a manga style, the illustrations are more detailed than typical manga drawings and effectively bring out the cats' personalities and characters." — School Library Journal

• Rise of Scourge (EN), HarperCollins (paperback), 24 June 2008
• Бич: путь к власти (RU), Tokyopop (paperback), October 2010
• 长鞭崛起 (CHN), Future Publishing (paperback), 30 January 2012
• Geißels Rache (DE), POPCOM (paperback), 17 December 2015