The battle with BloodClan draws to an end, and Blackfoot realizes that he is now ShadowClan's leader. He feels uncertain, though: about whether he's ready to lead, and whether StarClan will accept him.
He tells Russetfur that she will be named deputy upon his return, and he and Runningnose head to Highstones. StarClan seems to have mixed reactions to his being there. Blackfoot is met by the former ShadowClan medicine cat, Sagewhisker, who warns him that ShadowClan and the other Clans will fall if he's not an honorable leader. The next part will be a test, she tells him: each cat will give him a gift, along with a memory. If he does not wish to endure it all, another cat will have to become leader of ShadowClan.
Blackfoot is first met by his mother Hollyflower, and the warrior Blizzardwing. She tells him there's something he needs to know, and he says he already knows. Blackfoot is then brought into a memory: as an apprentice in the medicine den, he overhears a whispered argument between Hollyflower and Blizzardwing. He discovers that Blizzardwing is his father, the white tom having cheated on his mate Featherstorm. The next day, Blackpaw is taunted about having an unknown father, and stomps away until Brokenkit convinces him that he can be a great warrior no matter who his father is. After the memory ends, Blizzardwing gives Blackfoot a life with the gift of acceptance.
The next cat to show up is Raggedstar. His memory is from when Blackfoot was a young warrior. Brokenpaw is scolded for fighting with unsheathed claws during training, and Blackfoot stops Ashheart from clawing the apprentice. Afterward, Raggedpelt thanks Blackfoot for doing so, and Blackfoot says that he trusts Brokenpaw. After the vision, Raggedstar gives him a life with trust: they were wrong to trust Brokentail, but now Blackfoot must trust his warriors.
Blackfoot is then greeted by his nephew Badgerfang. In this memory, Badgerpaw is apprenticed. The kit's mother Fernshade - Blackfoot's sister - talks to her siblings about how it's wrong, but Blackfoot doesn't think so. Then in battle he sees Badgerpaw die, requesting his warrior name at the end. Blackfoot realizes that he'd been wrong and should have spoken up before. After the memory, he accepts Badgerfang's life with the gift of perspective.
The next cat introduces himself as Gray Wing. The memory he gives Blackfoot is from when WindClan had been driven out. Brokenstar and Blackfoot meet with Tallstar and Deadfoot to discuss peace, but it's only a ruse to get them away from WindClan while ShadowClan attacks. They drive WindClan away. In StarClan, Blackfoot tries to justify his past actions, but he knows too that he was at fault. Gray Wing gives him a life for unity.
Next up is Rosetail. Blackfoot sees the raid on ThunderClan where he had killed her. Rosetail tries to stop him from taking the kits, and he kills her. He's just about to take the kits when Yellowfang stops him, and he realizes he's outnumbered and flees. After the vision, Rosetail seems unsympathetic to the emotional turmoil he's going through upon realizing the wrongness of his actions. He is determined to see the whole thing through, though, and accepts her life with the gift of compassion.
After that, Bluestar shows up. The memory Blackfoot sees from her is from after Tigerclaw's failed coup. Blackfoot and the other exiles are met by the injured Tigerclaw, who reports that Brokenstar is dead. Tigerclaw promises to give them back ShadowClan, and Blackfoot is ready to obey. After it ends, Bluestar gives him a life with judgement.
The seventh cat is Stonefur, who seems like he doesn't actually want to give Blackfoot a life. Blackfoot sees the "trial" at the Bonehill, which had ended with him killing Stonefur. Stonefur reluctantly gives him a life with the gift of integrity.
Blackfoot questions whether he's the right cat to lead ShadowClan. Nightstar approaches him and tells him that a leader doesn't have to be perfect, just willing to learn from the past. The memory Blackfoot sees is from when Tigerclaw and his rogues were helping ShadowClan during their sickness, when Blackfoot felt good seeing and helping his Clanmates again. Although Tigerclaw had only been acting back then, Blackfoot hadn't been, and he readily accepts Nightstar's life of loyalty.
The final cat is Shadowstar. Instead of memories this time, she shows him visions of things that haven't happened: the forest being destroyed, his Clanmates walking along a lake, himself with a strange tom whispering in his ear. Shadowstar tells him that these are things that might happen, and that it will be up to him to make the right choices. Her life comes with the gift of leadership.
She completes the warrior ceremony, and Blackstar stands proudly as the warriors of StarClan call his new name.
Tropes appearing in this novella:
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: ShadowClan attacks WindClan in their camp and drives them out of their territory.
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: The entire novella is about Blackfoot becoming the leader of his Clan, and it ends with StarClan calling his new name.
- Child Soldiers: Brokenstar starts apprenticing kits at three moons of age. Blackfoot only realizes after Badgerfang's death that that probably isn't a good idea.
- Creepy Child: "Creepy" is the exact word Blackpaw thinks after Brokenkit makes a comment about how cats only matter when you can figure out how to make them do what you want.
- A Day in the Limelight: Blackfoot's only POV.
- Decapitated Army: After Firestar kills Scourge, the leader of BloodClan, one of the BloodClan cats notices and yowls that Scourge is dead. The fight goes out of all the BloodClan cats and they flee.
- Death of a Child: Blackfoot witnesses the death of three-moon-old Badgerpaw.
- Defiant to the End: Both Rosetail and Stonefur.
- Dies Wide Open: Rosetail's eyes are mentioned as glazing over in death.
- Dishonored Dead: Darkstripe is left where he died, since he'd become a rogue that betrayed his Clan twice. It's unknown if anyone ever gave him a proper burial.
- The Dragon: Blackfoot was this to Brokenstar and later Tigerstar.
- "Leave Your Quest" Test: Blackfoot's nine lives work this way. He's told at the start that he can leave at any time, but that it means another cat will have to lead. The memories become more and more difficult to bear, and he's asked each time if he wants the life. He becomes more and more certain that he needs to complete it for the sake of ShadowClan.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Blizzardwing prepares to reveal to Blackfoot that he's his father, but Blackfoot already knows, having overheard Blizzardwing and Hollyflower when he was an apprentice.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: Throughout his life, despite occasionally having doubts about the things he was doing, Blackfoot put his trust in his leaders (Brokenstar, and then Tigerstar) and convinced himself that they were right. He also attempts to justify it later as him just following orders, but he knows that that's a hollow explanation.
- Perspective Flip: The end of the BloodClan battle, as well as many of Blackfoot's memories, were previously seen from other characters' points of view in other books:
- In the main series, we saw Firestar's viewpoint of the raid on ThunderClan in Into the Wild, and Stonefur's death and the end of the BloodClan battle in The Darkest Hour.
- Badgerfang's death was originally from Flintfang's POV in Code of the Clans.
- Tigerclaw finding Blackfoot and the exiles, and then coming to ShadowClan, was originally from Tigerclaw's point of view in Tigerclaw's Fury.
- Ruler Protagonist: This novella is about Blackfoot realizing that he's now the leader of ShadowClan and wondering if he's ready.
- Secret Relationship: Blizzardwing cheated on his mate Featherstorm and secretly had kits with Hollyflower. She refuses to let him be a father to his kits because he doesn't want to admit to Featherstorm or the rest of the Clan that he cheated.
- Slashed Throat: Blackfoot kills Rosetail and Stonefur this way.
- Villain Episode: Blackfoot was a villain throughout the first arc, from being Brokenstar's deputy and a kidnapper of kits, to being a rogue, to being Tigerstar's Dragon. This novella shows his line of thought during those times and his path to redemption.
- A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: When Tigerclaw offers help to ShadowClan during their sickness, Blackfoot is inspired by Tigerclaw's selflessness and willingness to help cats of another Clan. When viewing the memory with hindsight during his nine-lives ceremony, he realizes that Tigerclaw didn't actually care about the welfare of the ShadowClan cats and was just doing it in the hope that ShadowClan would accept him as leader.
