A Forest Divided is the fifth book in the fifth Warrior Cats series, a Prequel called Dawn of the Clans.
In the prologue, each of the leaders has a dream where they speak with the spirits of the dead. They basically scold Clear Sky for not "growing and spreading like the Blazing Star" and say that there's more to do.
The book opens a moon or two after The Blazing Star ended, on a snowy day. Clear Sky visits the moor camp to discuss the prologue dream with the others, and he thinks it means that they should join together as one group again, while they think it means that they're supposed to split into five groups like the Blazing Star. Eventually everyone starts arguing about where they should live since the weather's so bad, and they decide to cast stones to choose where to live. They split among three groups - Tall Shadow's pine group, Clear Sky's forest group, River Ripple's river group - and Thunder eventually joins his father, feeling that Clear Sky needs him.
As the pine group heads to their new home, Gray Wing realizes that they're being followed by a pair of rogues that intend to spy on them. Clear Sky and Thunder find Star Flower (One Eye's daughter, who had betrayed them). She asks to join them, and they reluctantly accept.
Half a moon passes, and Gray Wing finally confronts Fern, one of the rogues that had been spying on them. She tells him that her leader Slash intends to attack, but she agrees to try to distract him to give them time to prepare. While still on the moor, Gray Wing saves his friend Slate from a fox and goes to Wind Runner's camp to recover, deciding to spend some time there.
Back in the forest, cats are getting frustrated with Clear Sky, who's not letting them hunt as often as they feel they need to. Thunder's also upset when he sees that Star Flower likes Clear Sky. It all comes to a head one night when Thunder decides to leave, and several cats decide to join him.
A few days after settling in, Thunder meets two cats from the mountains, Quiet Rain and Sun Shadow, and he brings them to Tall Shadow's camp. Gray Wing still hasn't returned, and Quiet Rain sends Thunder out to find him, and he ends up doing so, finding him at Wind Runner's camp. Gray Wing then sends him to fetch Clear Sky and he does, learning along the way that Star Flower is now expecting Clear Sky's kits. As they tell Quiet Rain about what's happened to everyone since coming to the forest, the truth comes out about Clear Sky causing Rainswept Flower's death, and Quiet Rain disowns him.
Jagged Peak and Holly's kits go missing, but Clear Sky finds them and brings them home. Quiet Rain dies that night, forgiving Clear Sky for the things he's done and encouraging him to forgive himself. They bury her at the four trees, and afterward the spirit-cats appear (with Quiet Rain among them) and tell the living cats that they must choose new paths to carry them to a new dawn. Thunder returns to his camp, and Gray Wing decides that the best place for himself is on the moor with Slate.
After dreaming about Storm telling him to look forward to his future, Clear Sky awakens to find that Star Flower has been taken captive by a rogue - One Eye's ally Slash, who had ordered Fern to spy on Tall Shadow's group. Slash tells him to have the other leaders meet him at the sunning rocks in the river the following night, and after they leave, Clear Sky runs off to beg the others to help.
In the bonus scene, some time after Wind Runner had started her own group, Slate hunts with her brother, Cricket, on the moor. She hears his yowls and realizes that a fox is attacking them, and the two fight it, but Slate faints after she receives a belly wound.
She awakens to find a cat - Gorse Fur - crouching over her, and her brother dead. Gorse Fur brings his family to keep an eye on her, and another cat, Cloud Spots, to help treat her wound. Wind Runner eventually agrees to take Slate in until she recovers.
Half a moon later, they decide to try to kill the fox so that it won't endanger them and their kits any more, and Slate volunteers to fight and take her revenge. Thanks to it being blinded on one side from her brother, she has an opening to attack its neck. Her wound re-opens in the fight, and after awakening she apologizes for having to spend longer in their camp, but Wind Runner and Gorse Fur tell her that she can stay as long as she likes: she's family now.
Tropes that appear in this book:
- Acid Reflux Nightmare: Mouse Ear suggests that this is the cause for the leaders' dreams of the spirit-cats.
- Agonizing Stomach Wound: Slate receives one from a fox in the bonus scene, but she survives.
- Alliterative Name: River Ripple, Sun Shadow
- Ask a Stupid Question...: Thunder spots Milkweed in the undergrowth and asks her if she's hunting. She snarks that no, she felt like going for a stroll.
- Attack the Tail: Alder pounces on Pink Eyes' tail. He grumpily points out that his tail isn't prey.
- The Bait: Slate acts as bait to get a fox to come out of its den.
- Commander Contrarian: Clear Sky, according to Thunder.
- Dark Is Evil: Like many villains in the Warriors series, Slash is a brown tabby.
- Dead Person Conversation: The spirit-cats speak to the living in a dream. As Quiet Rain dies, she speaks to Shaded Moss, who convinces her to forgive her son.
- A Dog Named "Cat": One of the spirit-cats is named Fox.
- Dream Intro: In the prologue, Clear Sky's dead Tribemates speak to him in a dream, scolding him.
- Ear Notch:
- Gray Wing notices that Slash and Fern have nicked ears and are clearly experienced fighters.
- Slate loses a piece of her ear to a fox; now her ears have matching notches.
- Expecting Someone Taller: At one point, Minnow remarks, "This is Gray Wing? I thought he'd be bigger."
- Fainting: The Anemia type happens to Slate in the bonus scene, thanks to her Agonizing Stomach Wound.
- Fisticuff-Provoking Comment: Quick Water thinks that Star Flower might be working with Slash, and when Clear Sky points out that Slash had hurt her, Quick Water replies that it could have been part of the act. Clear Sky slashes his claws across Quick Water's face and asks her if that felt like an act.
- Follow Your Heart: The spirit-cats encourage this, saying that their hearts will lead them home.
- Go for the Eye: Cricket claws a fox in the eye.
- His Story Repeats Itself: In the bonus scene, a fox attacks Slate and her brother, wounding the former and killing the latter. She fights it a second time and fears that it might kill her now, but this time it's blinded on one side because of her brother, and this gives her an opening to kill it.
- I Have No Son!: When Quiet Rain hears all Clear Sky had done to get the others to hate him, she disowns Clear Sky and refuses to forgive him, but on her deathbed, she finally forgives him.
- I Have Your Wife: Slash kidnaps Star Flower at the end of the book.
- It's All My Fault: Slate thinks this about her brother's death, thinking that she should have attacked it at the moment when she started fainting.
- Keeping the Enemy Close: Clear Sky tells Leaf and Lightning Tail that this is why he allowed Star Flower to join the group.
- Like Parent, Like Spouse: Thunder tells Clear Sky that Star Flower is his mate only because he's like her father, One Eye.
- Love Triangle: Thunder still likes Star Flower, but Star Flower and Clear Sky fall in love.
- Meaningful Name: Slash seems to be named for the white slash marking on his legs.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Verbs: Slash is a villain.
- New Season, New Name: This arc has the title Dawn of the Clans.
- Not Afraid to Die: Slate, after her brother's death.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Star Flower tells Clear Sky this. He snaps back that he never betrayed anyone, and she points out that others - like Rainswept Flower, whom he killed - wouldn't agree.
- Overly Long Scream: When Slate's brother pounces on her in the bonus scene, Slate yowls, "YAAAHHHHH!"
- Pregnant Hostage: Star Flower is carrying Clear Sky's kits when kidnapped by Slash.
- Prequel: Dawn of the Clans and its supplemental books take place long before the main series or any of the other prequels.
- Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Quiet Rain has a pretty sharp tongue, and rather insensitively says "You're lame!", sounding disappointed, when she learns of Jagged Peak's limp.
- Second Love:
- Gray Wing, having been in love with Turtle Tail until her death, finds love a second time with Slate.
- Clear Sky in the past was mates with Bright Stream and Storm, who both died. He's found a third love in Star Flower.
- Series Continuity Error:
- Snake is listed as a gray tom in the Allegiances, but was previously described as brown.
- Toward the start, Gray Wing says Jagged Peak and Holly's kits were born "the new moon before last". In The First Battle, they were actually born around a full moon: two days prior to the day they were born, it was described as "almost full moon".
- Shame If Something Happened: When capturing Star Flower, Slash says that it would be a shame to wound such a pretty cat, especially one carrying kits.
- Slashed Throat: Slate kills a fox this way.
- Start My Own: After several arguments, Thunder and his friends leave Clear Sky's group (future SkyClan), and eventually found their own group (future ThunderClan).
- Strong Family Resemblance:
- Sparrow Fur and Owl Eyes are both noted to look like their mother Turtle Tail: Sparrow Fur has the same tortoiseshell markings as she did, while Owl Eyes' resemblance is in the same body shape.
- Quiet Rain says that Storm Pelt has his father Jagged Peak's eyes.
- Switching P.O.V.: Gray Wing, Clear Sky, and Thunder.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Slate pretends to be injured and wail for help to lure a fox out of its den.
- The X of Y: The series name Dawn of the Clans.
- You Remind Me of X:
- Sparrow Fur reminds Gray Wing of her mother Turtle Tail.
- Quiet Rain comments that Tall Shadow has her father's temper, and Tall Shadow replies that she can see where Clear Sky got his spirit. Thunder also thinks, listening to Quiet Rain, that he now knows where Clear Sky got his arrogance and cruelty.
