Year two begins with the newleaf gathering of all the clans - Springclan, Stormclan, Ivyclan, Leafclan, Mintclan, and of course, Direclan. Lightningstar of Springclan reveals that Blizzardkit and Bouncekit are actually the kits of their disgraced and exiled healer, Frondskip. She demands that Clawstar return them to Springclan or they and Ivyclan will join together to drive out the newly-formed Direclan. Clawstar, enraged at the treatment of Frondskip and the implication that Direclan could be so easily cowed, refuses and takes her clan home early. A cat named Tempest joins Direclan after saying that a starry-eyed cat led her there and, that same moon, Clawstar loses a life defending Blizzard and Bounce from attacking Springclan cats. A little while later, Tempest receives a vision of calamity accompanied by that same starry-eyed cat - obviously Direstrike. Hazelfog begins spreading rumors about Brackenleaf’s inadequacy as a healer, only bolstering his own anxieties. Oakspider and Lionstripe work on building rapport to ask Leafclan for aid against Spring and Ivyclan. Lionstripe and Clawstar both struggle with their new apprentices, Bouncepaw and Blizzardpaw, and their feelings about their siblings while Oakspider catches drift of Hazelfog’s poisonous rumormongering. Oakspider is hit by a monster while hunting and has her back broken. A loner, Marrow, watches over her until Clovepelt and Heavydrop find her. The next moon, Clovepelt and Lionstripe find a Springclan apprentice begging to join Direclan, none other than the deputy Midgekick’s son, Ripplepaw. They initially want to turn him away, but Brackenleaf vouches for him. In leaf-fall, the war officially ends, but not without some unresolved tensions. Hazelfog’s assault on Brackenleaf’s ego intensifies so much that he rarely leaves his den. Clawstar finds another cat near the thunderpath, this time the loner Marrow has been hit by a monster! She joins the clan and takes on the suffix -tooth out of respect to her rescuers. On the same moon that Blizzardfawn is named a warrior, she overhears a conversation between Hazelfog and Clawstar where they reveal that she and Bouncemist are foundlings and, beyond that, the reason for the war with Springclan in their kithood. Shaken by this information, she goes to tell Bouncemist, who insists that Hazelfog is still their mother, by blood or not. Oakspider tries to cheer up Brackenleaf while she’s stuck in the healer’s den with him, but he can’t seem to overcome the overwhelming pressure put on him both by her and Marrow’s conditions and Hazelfog’s torment after Mintpaw’s death. Bouncemist and Rippleclaw are named warriors, but their ceremonies are overshadowed by Heavydrop dreaming of a starry-eyed cat and rushing water and the subsequent discovery of two bodies - Brackenleaf, slain at the Stormclan border, and Hazelfog, back broken over the spikes at the bottom of the ravine. The year ends with Direclan declaring war on Stormclan for the murder of Brackenleaf, Marrowtooth and Oakspider’s recoveries, and the death of Rippleclaw at the paws of a black bear. Blizzardfawn hints that she may know more about Brackenleaf and Hazelfog’s deaths than she should…
