Well, the long awaited sequel to the mind blowing The Fourth Apprentice, Fading Echoes, has been released. This book, and I'm am SURE everybody will agree, was nothing short of epic. As I read it in about and hour, I was soaked in with this wonderful book. One thing that angered me was that it ended with a cliffhanger! Are they trying to kill us? Ugh, I won't be able to sleep till I get my hands on Night Whispers! It was worth the wait, though I hope we will not have to wait long for the next book...
WARNING! PLOT SUMMARY AHEAD! SPOILER WARNING!
Fading Echoes began with a training session up in the sky. Tigerstar orders Hawkfrost to fetch an apprentice, an apprentice with powers. Tigerstar says that she must be on their side in the battle, to make it even.
Dovepaw awakes from a nightmare concerning Rippletail's death. When she awakes fully, she sees two cats, walking along the shore. She goes to Jayfeather, who confirms that the two cats are Mistystar and Mothwing. He realizes that Mistystar knows about Mothwing, and her lack of faith.
Later, out training, Dovepaw hears/sees/scents dogs in the distance, on WindClan territory. In the night, she and Ivypaw sneak into the WindClan camp. Dovepaw only does this because she witnessed Sedgewhisker getting hurt. She wants to check on her, to make sure she's okay. They make it all the way into WindClan camp, and are immediately caught. Sedgewhisker gets angry at Dovepaw, saying that WindClan can deal with thier own problems. Dovepaw, confused, hurt and defeated, trudges back to ThunderClan escorted by Heathertail and Breezepelt.
Firestar demands to see Jayfeather, Lionblaze, and Dovepaw. He listens to Dovepaw's confession and begins to tell about the prophecy he heard. Jayfeather interrupts him, assuring Firestar that they already know. They ask eagerly about what the prophecy means. But Firestar doesn't know. Now Dovepaw is given special training, and Brambleclaw knows too.
Tension boils between ThunderClan and ShadowClan, starting with a certain tabby warrior called Tigerheart. He was mysteriously exploring the border too closely, and straying past his own territory. Dovepaw notices this and demands to know what Tigerheart is up to. He gives nothing away, but says he'll tell her during the Gathering.
As ThunderClan starts out toward the Gathering, Tigerheart assures her that nothing bad was happening. He begins to say that they were almost friends during the journey and if they were in the same Clan, it would be so easy. Dovepaw jumps back, realizing she can't lean in too close to the handsome ShadowClan tom.
The next chapter is in Ivypaw's POV. She meets Hawkfrost, and he begins to train her.
She awakes in the morning, forced to take Blossompaw's assessment with her. Blossompaw acts exceptionally rude Ivypaw, saying that she wasn't properly trained and that she'd rather have Dovepaw. Ivypaw, furious, makes a spectacular catch, which angers Blossompaw even more.
Firestar asks for a normal report from Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Dovepaw. It is raining hard outside, just then Dovepaw senses something... A tree is falling, the cats clear out the camp, but Mousefur tries to catch a mouse, Longtail attempts to catch it for her, running back into the camp. Briarpaw follows, in an attempt to stop him. Then the tree falls. It falls on Briarpaw and Longtail. The Clan rushes in, Lionblaze helps hold up the tree, and they manage to get Briarpaw and Longtail out. Longtail is discovered dead, and Briarpaw seems to have lost all feeling from her legs.
Meanwhile Ivypaw continues training with Hawkfrost, getting brilliant at fighting, better than Dovepaw. She begins to feel lots of competitiveness with Dovepaw. Always saying, "What's so special about you?" The littermates are now not as close as they used to be, Ivypaw also seems to be getting along mightily fine with Bumblestripe(or Bumbleflight? He seems to be both...) and Toadstep, both who seem to be showing an interest toward her. (But Toadstripe is her cousin, and Blossompaw/fall likes him...)
Lionblaze and Jayfeather discuss who is being trained by The Dark Forest. They urge Dovepaw to spy on her Clanmates. Dovepaw refuses. Jayfeather goes to the Moonpool and meets Yellowfang and Spottedleaf. He tells them his suspiscions that The Dark Forest is training cats around the lake. They leave to go past the boundary of StarClan. Jayfeather gets half-lost, unable to see in the dark mist. Yellowfang finds him and they run into Brokenstar/tail. Jayfeather discovers that Yellowfang had kits, and broke the medicine cat law. He refers to her as being: "No better than Leafpool." Yellowfang leaves and Spottedleaf and Jayfeather witness a horrible training session that involves the cats of the Dark Forest torturing other cats from the Dark Forest. There seem to many, many more than we know of. Jayfeather wonders why the Dark Forest are training thier cats, because thier dead. They meet Tigerstar who insists that The Dark Forest isn't planning anything. Disbelieving, Jayfeather and Spottedleaf head back to StarClan territory.
Lionblaze wakes up, suspecting his denmates each in turn. He only agrees that Thornclaw may be trained by The Dark Forest, as he was friends with Ashfur. Cinderheart is awake too, they go out into the forest together. He thinks of Heathertail and how they used to play, and how this was so similar. He then reflects that this forest wasn't the cave, and she wasn't Heathertail. He liked being with Cinderheart, because she was ThunderClan. He returns back to the camp with her, their fur pressed together.
Hawkfrost takes Ivypaw into the forest, they train. She meets other cats training. Hawkfrost insists that they are her Clanmates. She thinks: "ThunderClan are here!" She finally meets Tigerstar. Who decides that she is ready. He tells Ivypaw his usual fake story about how he wanted the best for his Clan and how he was only loyal to ThunderClan. Ivypaw drank it all up. He tells her that ShadowClan is planning an attack on ThunderClan. They saw Firestar's gift of the useless stretch of territory as a sign of weakness, and want more territory. Tigerstar tells her that she must convince Firestar to attack before ShadowClan do.
The moment Ivypaw wakes up she goes to talk to Firestar. She tries to convince Firestar, he calls in other senior warriors. She tells Firestar a fake story about a dream in which she saw the stream running with ThunderClan blood. And that ShadowClan had destroyed ThunderClan and had taken over all their territory.
So they begin the battle. Ivypaw battles almost as well as Lionblaze, exceeding the level of a normal apprentice, while Dovepaw is average. In one part of the fight Tigerheart lunges at Ivypaw, Dovepaw prepares to help Ivypaw but Tigerheart stops himself, nods at Ivypaw, and gives her the look that he gave to Dovepaw when he told her he wanted to remain friends. Dovepaw feels jealous.
Lionblaze sees Russetfur killing Firestar. He leaps to his leader's defense. He desperately pulls her off his leader. She falls limply to the ground, dead. The battle has ended. Blackstar ,in fury, gives ThunderClan territory. Lionblaze knows that this was the fault of an apprentice. An apprentice that had no connection with StarClan. Ivypaw. He knows that this battle shouldn't have happened.
~The End~
END OF SPOILERS
Hope you enjoyed that!
Theories Coming Soon!
Watch for them this weekend!
