Today, we start the fourth main series arc: Omen of the Stars.

In addition to being my personal favorite arc despite its…um, well we'll get to

that eventually, and also being the primary driving force behind my Warriors inspiration

and desire to write Paws of Stars, this arc is also important in the overall trajectory

of the series.

As you will come to see, it marks the end of an era in more ways than one, and ends

up inventing some lore that will persist, and warp significantly, through to the present

day.

The new characters, dynamics, and specific moments this arc created have inspired countless

discussions, animations, stories, and otherwise, and content continues to be made about some

of the fan favorite characters and scenarios to this day.

Yet, this is also the least favorite arc for many fans, and not without justification.

We'll have to get into those reasons eventually, but let's begin by focusing in on this one

book.

The Fourth Apprentice arrived on the 24th of November in 2009, around 7 months after

Sunrise, 5 months after Return to the Clans and Code of the Clans, and 4 months after

Bluestar's Prophecy.

This one was written by Cherith Baldry, who did write the last main series book, Sunrise,

but didn't have to write the super edition that came out most recently, so we can hope

she had a little more time to contemplate what to do with this story.

Starting up a new arc with almost the same status-quo as the last but having to pull

a wholly new plot and set of character arcs from it was always going to be a challenge,

and it isn't helped by the fact that we are introducing a new protagonist to replace

Hollyleaf, who, at the very end, Cherith finally seemed to have gotten a grip on.

We'll just have to see how she and Vicky faced those challenges, then.

For our allegiance check-in, due to how closely Omen of the Stars follows Power of Three,

there aren't as many changes as exist between some arcs, but there still are some.

As we saw in Sunrise, Honeyfern died to a snake, Whitewing became a queen while nursing

her kits, Leafpool joined the warriors list after leaving her medicine duties, and Hollyleaf

was lost as well.

In these allegiances, we also learn that Poppyfrost joined the nursery, expecting Berrynose's

kits, Millie left the nursery, and four new cats have become warriors.

Foxpaw and Icepaw became Foxleap and Icecloud and Toadkit and Rosekit became Toadstep and

Rosepetal…you might recall in Sunrise that Spiderleg said he would start spending more

time with his kits after Leafpool and Daisy lectured him.

With this massive timeskip in his kits lives though, it's unlikely now that we'll ever

see that.

Anyway, with all of these changes in both directions, Thunderclan has 21 warriors listed

instead of 20.

Millie and Graystripe's kits: Briarpaw, Blossompaw, and Bumblepaw, are now the apprentices

of the clan, and Whitewing's kits: Dovekit and Ivykit, are listed in the nursery.

Purdy was also added to the elders' den, which can only be a benefit.

As far as statistics, the total speaking cast size for this book is 72 cats, identical to

Sunrise, but the top 10% of those cats have 70% of the lines, slightly less than Sunrise

had.

51% of the cast is she-cats here, instantly tying Eclipse which had the highest percentage

in Power of Three, but those cats still only have 39% of the lines, which was around the

average for the last arc.

With that said, I am more than ready to jump in because, for better or worse, this arc

is something I will never forget.

The prologue opens in Starclan, where Bluestar, Lionheart, Yellowfang, and Spottedleaf are

talking about how poorly the three's prophecy has gone so far.

Despite that, they are sure they have the right third cat now, and hope that Jayfeather

and Lionblaze will recognize them.

Despite Bluestar's reservations, the group decides on Yellowfang's suggestion of sending

a sign, and they choose not to contact Jayfeather or Lionblaze, but the third cat herself.

Yes I'm sure a baby will be very well equipped to receive the news.

Down in the clans, there is a drought that none of the clans were warned about.

Though every clan is upset, Leopardstar is especially angry, accusing everyone of being

prey-stealers for taking fish from the lake, which should belong to Riverclan.

She declares she will set up border patrols around what remains of the lake on every side.

Lionblaze and Jayfeather discuss this and confirm that Leopardstar lost two lives in

a row recently which would explain her explosive temper.

Lionblaze goes on a patrol to gather water from the lake, and despite a very tense interaction

with Riverclan and Berrynose flaring their tempers further, they succeed.

Meanwhile, Jayfeather is adjusting to being the clan's only medicine cat, including

as Firestar loses a life to a wound from a sudden fox attack that Jayfeather wasn't

in time to heal.

He feels insecure about his abilities without his mentor around, and it isn't helped when

Leafpool comes back from a hunting patrol without any prey, proving to Jayfeather that

she's useless as a warrior.

He and Dovekit almost simultaneously smell a fire, though the returning water patrol

manages to put it out.

Oh also Berrynose is being a very overly-protective and condescending mate to Poppyfrost now that

she's expecting kits.

Chapter 3 finally picks up with our new protagonist: Dovekit, who is going to her apprentice ceremony

with her sister, Ivykit.

Dovepaw receives Lionblaze as her mentor and Ivypaw is given Cinderheart.

Unfortunately, their first day of training will have to be a water patrol rather than

anything fun, but Dovepaw is still excited to see more of the territory, and go out with

her sister.

Dovepaw readily takes in all the information she can get, including the sights and smells

of the patrols of warriors in Shadowclan and Windclan.

We don't have time to dwell on that, though, because Berrynose and Spiderleg got stuck

in the mud.

Cinderheart and Thornclaw help to get them out, unknowingly using Jayfeather's stick

and causing the medicine cat to get very angry, which no one really understands.

Rainstorm from Riverclan also attacks Ivypaw for sniffing at an already-dead fish on the

ground and falls into the mud as well, but they save him and take him to their camp to

recover.

Ivypaw immediately apologizes for getting Rainstorm hurt but Cinderheart and Dovepaw

assure her it's not her fault.

Lionblaze is asked to go on the patrol to bring Rainstorm back and he brings Dovepaw

along, but Cinderheart and Ivypaw aren't coming.

Ivypaw isn't upset at all though because Cinderheart promises to teach her some fighting

moves while they're away.

Mistyfoot greets the patrol curtly and refuses to let them see Leopardstar, which Dovepaw

assumes is because they were worried about that sick cat in the camp, one Lionblaze hadn't

noticed at all.

A moon later, Dovepaw has a dream where she talks to a Starclan cat and hears that hardship

and blood loss are just part of being in a clan.

Before Dovepaw can respond, she fades away with only a single message on the breeze:

After the sharp-eyed jay and the roaring lion, peace will come on dove's gentle wing.

She promptly ignores this because there's no reason for Starclan to have contacted her

of all cats.

Oh also Dovepaw is an amazing hunter, being praised by several warriors and shaping up

to be the best hunter in the clan.

Ivypaw meanwhile, didn't catch anything because she missed the squirrel she had found.

The clan talks about what could be making the lake dry up and Dovepaw says that, obviously,

it's those brown animals that are blocking the stream outside clan territory.

Everyone decides this is nonsense and that Dovepaw is making it up, and Ivypaw is especially

annoyed because it seems like she's just trying to get even more attention than she

had already.

Lionblaze, however, asks Dovepaw to follow him out of camp, where he quickly tests her

with Jayfeather and determines that she is the third cat, which Dovepaw doesn't believe.

Still, the brothers let her know what they know up to this point, that they all have

powers as part of a prophecy and no other cats can know.

Dovepaw insists that Ivypaw must be involved as well, but they tell her she has to accept

that she is different from her sister, as they have with Hollyleaf.

Dovepaw says that proves they could be wrong again, but when she tells them about her dream,

Jayfeather instantly recognizes Yellowfang's description and knows that they were correct

about her.

Lionblaze tries to talk to Firestar about the brown animals Dovepaw saw but is roped

into a discussion about how he should forgive his parents, especially Squirrelflight, instead.

That said, Firestar does agree to work together with the other clans to send a patrol to check

out what might be blocking the stream.

At the gathering, Dovepaw points out Leopardstar as the cat she noticed being sick and, unfortunately,

she is still sick now, a moon later.

The clans agree to send two cats each to investigate the blockage, although Mistyfoot has to answer

for Leopardstar since she was so convinced the other clans just wanted to weaken Riverclan

or steal their fish.

Lionblaze and Dovepaw are chosen from Thunderclan, disappointing Ivypaw especially, who hoped

they could always do everything together, and Dovepaw quickly becomes uncomfortable

with lying about how she learned of the big brown creatures.

Still, Jayfeather insists it is a secret, and Dovepaw acquiesces.

For the journey, Shadowclan chooses Toadfoot and Tigerheart, Riverclan chooses Petalfur

and Rippletail, and Windclan chooses Whitetail and Sedgewhisker.

All eight cats then set out together on their journey.

Some, Toadfoot especially, are fairly guarded and territorial, but each cat is given a distinct

enough identity to feel like a unique part of the group, and despite this being another

instance of having several chapters dedicated to travel through unremarkable landscapes

and minor dangers, it is made better by having each cat's personality and relationships

to the others firmly cemented early on, such as when Rippletail rallies everyone to save

Petalfur from a twoleg, or how hostile Toadfoot is to Dovepaw due to her being an apprentice

and displaying, from his point of view, that Firestar didn't take this mission seriously.

Petalfur and Rippletail, despite being more amicable, are the most defensive and insecure

since the drought has sapped their clan of its primary resource for food and, obviously,

their leader hasn't been doing well.

Whitetail and Sedgewhisker, therefore, end up the most willing to cooperate and act as

a voice of reason and source of levity respectively.

Tigerheart is the only one who remains in the background at this point, but that will

change with time.

Periodically we cut back to Jayfeather who is just worrying about the prophecy and being

a camera into Thunderclan while they're gone, following in the pawsteps of his mother,

Leafpool, ironically.

The only really important thing to note here is that Ivypaw is getting more noticeably

irritated now that Dovepaw is off on a special mission and she's stuck with normal training,

but also of some importance is that Berrynose continues to be condescending and overprotective

towards Poppyfrost and Breezepelt gets in a fight with Berrynose and Jayfeather at the

border that quickly turns into insults about their family rather than clan tensions.

Back on the journey, Lionblaze is worried about Dovepaw's capabilities, being so young,

and Petalfur and Rippletail finally find a pool of water…with Dovepaw's help, and

teach the others to fish.

Dovepaw is the only cat who actually tries some though.

They continue trying to follow the stream and Dovepaw misses sensing both a dead deer

and the stream itself, becoming frustrated as she realizes the fish earlier and the extreme

amount of scents in the twolegplace were distracting her.

She doesn't think she can be distracted; she has to be alert all the time to keep them

safe.

But Lionblaze tells her she's not responsible for them, they're working together.

In any case, they quickly pass a twolegplace where they meet more kittypets and then notice

that they're approaching the brown animals.

Back in the clans, Cinderheart pleads with Jayfeather to help Poppyfrost, who is definitely

depressed, and ends up letting out in her emotions that she misses Hollyleaf so much.

Jayfeather agrees to do what he can and follows Poppyfrost into her dreams, where she declares

that she must see Honeyfern, despite his protests.

The next day, after his normal duties, several cats exclaim that they can't find Poppyfrost

and Jayfeather guesses where she is, tracking her all the way to the Moonpool…where, unfortunately,

Breezepelt's scent is as well.

Back on the journey again, they find an enormous barrier of logs clearly blocking the stream,

but the brown animals are still around, building and strengthening it.

After a quick twoleg interaction, the group meets Woody, a cat who lives here right now

and knows about the brown animals: beavers, and that the twolegs brought them.

He says he'll show them around the dam but still thinks their quest is silly and doomed,

because the beavers are very strong.

That night, after they hunt, they launch an attack on the beavers and they quickly realize

they are losing.

Even as Lionblaze realizes that Tigerheart used a battle move that Tigerstar had taught

to him in his Dark Forest dreams, it's not enough for him to come out unscathed.

Save for Lionblaze, all of them get some sort of injury and don't seem to be making a

dent in the beavers.

Worst of all though, Rippletail is killed, and Dovepaw declares they never should have