Moonrise is the second book in the second Warrior Cats series, The New Prophecy.
Tropes appearing in this book:
- Acid Reflux Nightmare: When Firestar reports having seen a monster destroy trees, Dustpelt suggests it might have just been a dream from fresh-kill eaten too late at night.
- Almost Dead Guy: Feathertail lives just long enough to tease Crowpaw and echo his words before dying.
- Battle-Interrupting Shout: Two skirmishes are ended by Firestar yowling "Stop!"
- Blood from the Mouth: A doomed Tribe cat has blood coming out of its mouth after being slammed against a wall.
- Boring Return Journey: The portion of the sun-drown-place journey from the Tribe back to the Clans (which was described in one paragraph).
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Crowpaw and Feathertail. Crowpaw is prickly and warms up to few others, while Feathertail is friendly and gentle.
- Cave Behind the Falls: The Tribe lives in one of these.
- Clung on Tight: Squirrelpaw leaps onto Sharptooth's back, digging her claws in, in order to distract him from Brambleclaw.
- Covered in Mud: The Tribe rolls in mud to cover their fur in order to disguise their scent and blend into the rock better so that prey doesn't spot them so easily. It also supposedly insulates them better. The visiting Clan cats try this, and aren't too thrilled at the idea, but it works.
- A Day in the Limelight: Half the narration is done by Feathertail and Stormfur. The only other time we see Feathertail's point of view besides the three chapters here is the manga A Shadow in RiverClan, and this is the only time we get Stormfur's.
- Dark Is Evil: Hawkfrost reveals himself to be the son of the former Big Bad Tigerstar and that he wants to follow in his father's pawsteps - and aside from his eyes, he's identical to his father; they're both dark brown tabbies (though Hawkfrost is also mentioned to have a white underbelly, unlike his father and half-brother).
- Death by Looking Up: Happens to mountain lion Sharptooth when Feathertail knocks a stalactite off the ceiling of the cave.
- Death Is Dramatic: Feathertail heroically sacrifices herself as she impales a mountain lion with a stalactite.
- Death of a Child: Ferncloud and Dustpelt's kit Larchkit dies from starvation and cold as the Twolegs encroach on the forest.
- Dramatic Dislocation: Mousefur's shoulder gets dislocated when a Twoleg tries to capture her; Cinderpelt teaches Leafpaw how to fix it.
- Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Smart is Midnight, but she no speak cat good.
- Ensemble Cast: The chapters in this book focus on Stormfur's and Leafpaw's points of view, with two or three from Feathertail's.
- The Exile: Six cats are exiled from the Tribe until they manage to find a way to kill Sharptooth, in accordance with a prophecy.
- The Famine: The human construction activity in the forest has driven away most of the prey, and the Clans also discover that the rabbits have been poisoned. This results in a famine for all the Clans.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: The journeying group is made up of three she-cats (Squirrelpaw, Tawnypelt, and Feathertail) and three toms (Brambleclaw, Crowpaw, and Stormfur).
- Heroic Sacrifice: Feathertail sacrifices her life to kill Sharptooth and save both the journeying cats and the Tribe.
- The Homeward Journey: This book. The journey to the sea was hard, but the journey home is just as dangerous (In fact, one of them doesn't make it back.)
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Sharptooth gets impaled by a stalactite courtesy of Feathertail.
- Inevitable Waterfall: The traveling Clan cats end up having trouble in bad weather, fall into a mountain stream, and go over a waterfall, landing in a pool of water at the bottom. Fortunately, there is a Tribe of cats that lives in a Cave Behind the Falls, so even though the Clan cats are pretty battered, they are able to recover because the Tribe takes them in for a little while.
- Losing the Team Spirit: The journeying cats are very disheartened at the end after Feathertail's death.
- Medical Monarch: The leader of the Tribe of Rushing Water is called the Tribe-Healer (or just Healer). They serve as leader, spiritual leader, and medic for the Tribe.
- Misplaced Wildlife: While previous books had generally stayed with British-inspired wildlife, this book introduces Sharptooth, a mountain lion who should be native to the Americas.
- Missed the Call: The Tribe thinks Stonefur is the silver cat who will save the Tribe, but it actually turns out to be Feathertail. Then there's also the exiles, who were supposed to kill Sharptooth according to an earlier prophecy, and can't come back because they have failed to kill Sharptooth.
- Name That Unfolds Like Lotus Blossom: Tribe cats, although most of the time they use shortened versions of their names.
- The New Adventures: The New Prophecy.
- One-Word Title: Moonrise.
- Panthera Awesome: There's a mountain lion that preys on the Tribe cats, who have dubbed him "Sharptooth".
- Precision F-Strike: Leafpaw exclaims "Mouse dung!" (which is essentially the cat equivalent of "Dammit!") shortly after failing to catch a mouse. She never really pseudo-swears at all, and is usually polite, so it was likely done to convey how ThunderClan has been affected by the extreme shortage of prey and how desperate they are for food.
- Prophecy Pileup, in addition to the prophecy about the forest being destroyed, and the fire-and-tiger sign, there's another prophecy in this book: the Tribe of Rushing water has one that says they will be saved by a silver cat. This cat is believed to be Stormfur, especially since he wasn't actually one of the prophecy cats chosen to go on the journey - he just came along to protect his sister Feathertail, the chosen RiverClan cat. The Tribe's prophecy is actually referring to Feathertail, so she's the subject of two prophecies.
- Resigned to the Call: Stormfur eventually decides that he will help the Tribe kill Sharptooth despite his reservations.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Moonrise involves a mountain-lion-like cat based on rumors of big cats roaming the British countryside which come up in the news every few years (the "sightings" usually involve panther-like cats said to have escaped from zoos or circuses, and their accuracy is debatable). There was a particular influx of these articles around the mid-2000s when Moonrise was written.
- Schmuck Banquet:
- The cats find little "dens" (cages) with kittypet food in them, and after they get trapped in them, they are taken away by the Twolegs. Leafpaw is hungry and desperate enough to try eating it and gets caught.
- The cats attempt this as well: they leave out some freshly-killed prey stuffed with highly poisonous berries in the hope that this unexpected meal will look appealing to the local mountain lion, who they hope will eat it and die of the poison. It doesn't work; he merely swipes it aside and continues into the cave to attack the cats.
- Shout-Out: Talon's answer to how they'll lure Sharptooth to the cave - "With blood." - is an intentional reference to Rambo.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Sasha. Although she only appears once or twice, she mothered Tigerstar's children, who go on to become super important characters.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Crowpaw and Feathertail. Both of them are from separate Clans, but become close in their journey for a new home. When they finally confess their love for each other, Feathertail is killed shortly afterwards in a Heroic Sacrifice.
- Strange Salute: The Tribe's greeting gesture: extending one paw while bowing the head.
- Switching P.O.V.: Stormfur and Leafpaw, with three chapters of Feathertail's POV.
- Temporal Theme Naming: Most of the The New Prophecy books, including Moonrise, are named after a time.
- Title Drop: A moment with the Tribe: "Moonrise is here, caught in rock and in water as it has always been and always will be."
- Town with a Dark Secret: The tribe, who behind their hospitality are terrified of being slowly destroyed by Sharptooth and desperate to get Stormfur to fulfill the prophecy and help them.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: For the the first two books of The New Prophecy, the point of view switches between Leafpaw, a medicine cat apprentice watching as the forest crumbles around her, and one of the six journeying cats, who are on a quest to find a way to save the forest.
- Watching Troy Burn: All the Clans face this when Twolegs destroy the forest and they have to watch, knowing that there's nothing they can do about it.
- You Fool!: Mothwing calls Hawkfrost a fool when trying to manipulate him into letting Sorreltail go.
- You Have Failed Me: Stoneteller nearly has the exiled Tribe cats killed for returning without having killed Sharptooth.
