Code Of The Clans

BOUNDARIES MUST BE CHECKED

AND MARKED DAILY. CHALLENGE ALL

TRESPASSING CATS.

Not all parts of the warrior code come from tragedy and conflict. Some, like this one, were needed to clear up a long-running misunderstanding and avoid the need for blood to be spilled.

Poppycloud’s Rule

The air was so still, Poppycloud could hear herself breathing.

She waited with one paw raised, knowing the dried leaves would crackle loud as thunder as soon as she set it down. It was leaf-fall, and in SkyClan, with all its trees and little undergrowth, moving silently was almost impossible. The hair along her spine prickled as she strained to listen.

“Can you hear anything, Poppycloud? Can you, can you?”

Bracken rustled behind her and she turned, resigned, as a small black-and-white cat exploded from the brittle stems.

“Yes, Mottlepaw, I can hear something,” she meowed.

The apprentice stopped dead and stared at her. “Really?

What?”

“You!”

Mottlepaw’s tail drooped. “But I tried to be quiet, like you showed me.”

Poppycloud walked over to him and touched the tip of his ear with her nose. “I think we need to practice some more.”

Mottlepaw wriggled free and padded up to the border.

“Why does Rowanstar make us come this way when he knows

ThunderClan doesn’t like it?”

Poppycloud shrugged and nudged a piece of leaf off her tortoiseshell fur. “I think he likes to know if anything happens in our territory. If we just stuck to the best hunting areas, we’d never visit some places.”

“Like this one.”

Mottlepaw’s voice was muffled as he stuck his head into a clump of long grass. “I can’t smell any birds anywhere!”

“That’s because you’re in ThunderClan territory!” came a snarl.

Poppycloud spun around. A broad-shouldered brown tom stood a fox-length away, his lip curled to reveal sharp yellow teeth.

“What a surprise!” he hissed. “SkyClan cats lurking on the border again. What’s wrong with your own territory?”

Poppycloud felt her hackles raise. “Nothing!” she retorted.

“We have every right to go anywhere inside our borders.”

“Which your apprentice isn’t,” the ThunderClan warrior growled.

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Mottlepaw pulled back from the clump of grass and stood with his head down, trembling.

“Mottlepaw, come over here,” Poppycloud ordered. The black-and-white apprentice shot toward her, swerving around the ThunderClan tom, who hissed as he went past.

“It was a mistake,” Poppycloud pointed out. “We weren’t trying to steal your prey.”

Ferns parted and another cat joined the brown warrior. She fixed her startlingly green gaze on Poppycloud. “Why are there always SkyClan cats snooping around here? Is your own Clan so bad that you want to join ours?”

“Never!” Poppycloud retorted. “We prefer not to chew through mouthfuls of fur when we’re eating our prey!”

The brown tom tipped his head to one side. “Oh, and feathers are so much tastier, are they?”

“Come on, Oatwhisker,” urged the she-cat. “We’re wasting our time. If these dumb cats want to spy on us, they won’t learn much from the bushes around here. I don’t think I’ve even been to this part of the territory before.”

Oatwhisker narrowed his eyes at Poppycloud. “Don’t think this is over. I’m going to tell Lionstar I caught SkyClan cats hanging around the border yet again, and I wouldn’t want to be in your pelts if he thinks you’re planning an attack.”

He stalked out of the clearing with his green-eyed Clanmate.

As soon as they had vanished, Poppycloud turned to Mottlepaw.

“How many times do I have to tell you? You can’t go into another Clan’s territory!”

Mottlepaw sniffed. “I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” he complained. “Anyway, it’s so hard to tell where our territory turns into ThunderClan’s. It’s not like there’s a river in the way!”

Poppycloud opened her jaws to taste the air. Mottlepaw was right: The scents of the different Clans were very faint here, so she couldn’t blame her apprentice for straying too far. “Come on,” she meowed. “We’d better go and tell Rowanstar what happened, in case ThunderClan makes a fuss.”

“He won’t be angry with me, will he?” Mottlepaw whimpered.

“I already had to put mouse bile on the elders’ ticks after I scared Morningmist’s kits with my tiger roar.”

“I’ll tell him it was an honest mistake,” Poppycloud promised.

“Just try not to get into any more trouble on the way back.”

“Tell Rowanstar that we wish to speak with him.”

A buzz of curiosity ran through the camp.

“Who’s that?”

“ThunderClan cats!”

“What do they want?”

“Have they come to get me?”

Poppycloud looked down at Mottlepaw, who was staring at her with his blue eyes stretched wide. “I’m sure they haven’t come to get you,” she meowed. “But I’m glad we told Rowanstar what happened on the border.”

Oddfoot, a brown tabby who was born with one of his paws twisted inward, led the visitors into the clearing. A massive tom with long ginger hair padded beside him, flanked by the green-eyed gray tabby Poppycloud had met on the border and a dark brown tom who looked as if he expected to be jumped on at any moment. Poppycloud drew in her breath sharply: This must be serious if Lionstar had come himself.

Nightmask, the SkyClan deputy, met them in the center of the camp. “Lionstar, Greeneyes,” he greeted them with a nod of his head.

Poppycloud stared at the gray tabby with new interest; she hadn’t realized this was the recently appointed ThunderClan deputy.

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“You are, of course, welcome to speak with Rowanstar. Will he know what this is about?”

Greeneyes curled her lip. “It’s about your warriors spying on us!” she hissed.

Lionstar flicked his tail, warning her to stay quiet. “I am concerned that there are always SkyClan cats on the edge of our territory, and I want to know what they’re doing there.”

“I think you’ll find they’re on the edge of our territory,” came a deep voice. Rowanstar, his black-and-brown coat gleaming in the weak sunlight, padded out of his den. “So there shouldn’t be any problem.”

“But there’s nothing there!” Lionstar argued. “Nothing but the start of ThunderClan’s territory.”

Rowanstar glanced at Poppycloud. “From what I hear, it’s not always easy to tell where your territory begins. Perhaps if you visited your border more often, your scent would be clearer.”

Lionstar’s hackles raised, swelling him to nearly twice his size.

Mottlepaw shrank behind Poppycloud with a whimper.

“ThunderClan should not have to patrol its boundaries to make sure SkyClan isn’t trespassing!” Lionstar growled.

“If you patrolled more often, there would be less danger of us crossing the border!” Rowanstar flashed back.

Greeneyes stepped forward. “The warrior code says nothing about it being a Clan’s responsibility to keep cats out! It should be obvious that other Clans aren’t allowed across the border.”

“Well, maybe the code should say something!”

All eyes turned on Poppycloud. She snapped her mouth shut, feeling as if her pelt were on fire. Did I real y just say that in front of the leaders of two Clans?

“Yay! Go, Poppycloud!” Mottlepaw cheered behind her.

Poppycloud silenced him with a glare.

Rowanstar put his head to one side. “That’s an interesting theory, Poppycloud. Go on.”

Poppycloud felt a small nose nudge her from behind.

She shot a fierce glance at her apprentice before padding into the clearing. Every cat watched her. Greeneyes looked scornful; this made Poppycloud square her shoulders and tilt her chin defiantly toward the ThunderClan deputy.

“I… I just think all the quarreling about SkyClan being on the ThunderClan border would be cleared up if every Clan did the same as Rowanstar wants us to do: have regular patrols around the entire territory. That way, the scents of each Clan would be left behind more frequently, not just in the places where the cats hunt most often, and boundaries would be more clearly marked.

Any cats that crossed over the border could be punished, because it wouldn’t be a mistake.”

Rowanstar nodded. “And if both ThunderClan and SkyClan patrols regularly went along our shared border, then neither Clan could be accused of spying or trying to trespass.” He flicked his tail at Poppycloud. “That’s a great idea.”

Lionstar hissed. “So you think the warrior code should tell us how to defend our territories, do you? What kind of leader would be mouse-brained enough to need instructions like that?”

“The kind of leader who thinks that a patrol walking along their own boundaries is planning an attack,” Rowanstar meowed smoothly.

“Well, I think it’s a ridiculous idea,” sniffed Greeneyes. “The 105

Clans have lived in these territories for more moons than any cat can remember, and we’ve never needed the warrior code to tell us how to protect our borders. Clearly some cats are more mouse-brained than others.”

Slanting her eyes at Poppycloud, she turned away with a huff.

Lionstar started to turn and follow his deputy, but Rowanstar called out, “Wait!” When Lionstar faced him again, the SkyClan leader announced, “I shall put forward Poppycloud’s idea at the next Gathering. We should let the other leaders decide—not because I think any Clan cat needs to be reminded that their territories should be well defended, but because it will stop needless suspicion over border patrols.”

Lionstar stretched one forepaw and let his claws slide out.

“You do realize that if the other leaders agree to this ridiculous rule, then I’ll be allowed to tear the fur off any of your apprentices who just happen to cross our border?”

From the corner of her eye, Poppycloud saw Mottlepaw back into the brambles that surrounded the apprentices’ den, until only his white patches could be seen.

Rowanstar didn’t flinch. “And we’d punish any ThunderClan cats who trespassed,” he meowed. “The situation will be clear and fair—like the boundaries.”

Lionstar spun around and started to stalk toward the entrance.

“Until the next Gathering, Rowanstar. We’ll see what the other Clans think of your idea then.”

“Indeed we will,” Rowanstar murmured as the ThunderClan cats were swallowed up by the bracken.

Poppycloud watched until the fronds of bracken stopped trembling. If this becomes part of the warrior code, I will live forever! She shook her head to chase away such huge dreams and looked for Mottlepaw. Adding rules to the warrior code was kit’s play compared with trying to keep her apprentice in line. But he was a quick learner and would one day make a warrior to be proud of.

Not that I could be any prouder of him than I am already, as his mother as well as his mentor. With a soft purr of amusement, she went in search of her unruly son.

Who Goes There? Whitestorm Teaches Border Tactics

Once the borders were fixed, cats of neighboring Clans started to meet frequently across their borders when on patrol. It became apparent that cats of all Clans must know how to handle disputes. Here’s Whitestorm training a group of ThunderClan apprentices in border tactics.

Is every cat here? Firepaw, Graypaw, Ravenpaw, Sandpaw, and Dustpaw? Dustpaw, stop trying to push Firepaw into the brambles. I’m not blind; I can see what you’re doing. Firepaw, go to the other end of the line. Sandpaw, he does not have fleas! Stand still, all of you.

As Lionheart told you, we’re going to practice border defense today. You can be the patrol, and I’ll be a deputy from another Clan who’s crossed the boundary. Who’d like to lead the patrol?

Don’t look so terrified, Ravenpaw. I won’t make you be the leader if you don’t want to be. Graypaw, why don’t you have first turn? If you could just pick up that stick in your mouth and use it to draw a line across the sand, we’ll call that the border. Sandpaw, it doesn’t matter that the line is wobbly. Boundaries aren’t whisker-straight, are they? So, you’re on that side, walking along on a dawn patrol. Off you go, patrol!

Did you really need to yawn like that, Graypaw? Oh, I see, it’s because it’s the dawn patrol, and you’re tired. Well, let’s pretend you all had a really good night’s sleep and are full of energy. Now, what should you be doing?

Yes, sniffing, tasting the air—what for? That’s right, Sandpaw.

ThunderClan border marks. And what else? Yes, Firepaw. The border marks of the other Clan. But only where the two borders meet. Beside the river and the Thunderpath, it would be bad news to find any scents of RiverClan or ShadowClan, because it would mean they’d crossed over from their side. So keep sniffing.

Maybe not that much, Sandpaw. Have a good sneeze and you should get the sand out of your nose. So, border marks, border marks. Can you smell both sets? Good. But what’s this? A cat from another Clan has ignored the marks and stepped over your border?

No, Ravenpaw, I didn’t mean we were actually being invaded.

The cat from the other Clan is me. See how I just stepped over the line in the sand? What are you going to do about it? Wha…

whoa! Stop treading on my ears!

Well, yes, Dustpaw, launching an attack and knocking me back across the border is one option. But is it wise to take on a cat twice your size? Or a trained warrior with more experience than you? The purpose of a patrol is to assess the situation and report back to your Clan leader. You won’t be able to do that if your pelt is clawed to shreds at the farthest part of the territory from the camp. Any other ideas?

How about asking what I’m doing? I might have a valid reason for crossing the border, especially if I’m alone. That’s right, Graystripe: What do you want? is a good way to start. Don’t be too hostile: Remember, you are in the stronger position, because this is your territory and you have the right to defend it. Unless I have a very good explanation for crossing your border, I don’t have any rights at all. What do you think my reply might be?

Yes, Ravenpaw, I might need your help. My Clan might have been invaded, we might have serious trouble with prey, or we might have sickness that needs your herbs. All these reasons would mean that I am weak, so you can allow me into your territory but never out of sight.

If I am hostile, then meet me with hostility—which isn’t the same as aggression, Dustpaw. You’ve started with a strong challenge—What do you want?—and now you need to give me some sort of warning. Ravenpaw, what would you say?

Hmmm. If you’re going to threaten to claw a cat’s ears, you should try not to look so terrified at the prospect. Firepaw, would you like to try? Ah, yes, I like that you indicated the rest of your patrol. It’s always good to let the enemy know they’re outnumbered.

Sandpaw, put that fire ant down. No, I don’t care that Firepaw might not know what it is. Now is not the right time to show him—and he certainly doesn’t need to get bitten by one.

So, you’ve challenged the trespasser, warned me that there’s a whole patrol here that can take me to your Clan leader if that’s what I wish; what next? That’s right, Graypaw, let me—the intruder—speak. If I can’t give you a convincing explanation for what I’m doing on your territory, if I don’t ask to be taken to Bluestar at once, then chase me off with no more questions. Don’t provoke a full-scale war—chasing means chasing, not catching and clawing. Just make it clear that you will defend your boundaries from any kind of invasion, even one paw across the border. A good warrior is always ready to fight, but only if it’s absolutely necessary:

A good warrior will seek a peaceful, claws-sheathed solution first.

You will all make good warriors one day. Don’t look so doubtful, Ravenpaw. You need to find only a little more courage to be as good as your denmates. Your hunting skills are excellent—Dustpaw, you’d do well to watch him. Who knows? You might even lead this Clan one day!

Now, back to camp, all of you, and leave this old warrior to enjoy the sun in peace.

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