As a young warrior, Mothwing has a nightmare of when she and Hawkfrost's littermate Tadpole drowned, and she thinks about how with Sasha gone, all that she and her brother had was each other now - even if he does keep insisting that they need to be the best warriors they can be for the Clan to accept them.
One day Blackclaw gets trapped in some deep mud while Cinderpelt is visiting. They manage to pull him out, and Mothwing is impressed with how Cinderpelt and Mudfur know what to do. She speaks with Mudfur about how she's interested in healing and wants to become a medicine cat, and he is pleased, but says that he has to wait until StarClan sends a sign that she's the right cat. Especially after the Gathering where it's announced that she wants to train as a medicine cat: she fears that she'll never become his apprentice if the sign doesn't come.
One day when training with Mudfur, a cloud passes over and darkens the den, and he asks her to leave him alone for a while, explaining that he thinks it might be a sign and needs time to think about it. Mothwing can't see how it could be one, and complains to Hawkfrost about it. He warns her that she can't mess this up, because the Clan might not think they belong there then, and advises her that pretending to believe in StarClan will help the Clan think they belong. Two days later, the sign comes, and a Clan meeting is called to announce it. Mothwing is relieved.
After returning from her first visit to the Moonstone, Mothwing wonders if StarClan had actually spoken to her: she'd seen visions of RiverClan's future, but isn't sure if that was what Mudfur had meant about communing with them. Hawkfrost then reveals to her that he put the moth's wing there, explaining that either StarClan was okay with it since they let it happen, or that they don't exist. Although she wants to tell Mudfur, she fears what would happen if she did, and instead decides that she'll just be the best medicine cat she can, regardless if StarClan exists or not.
A few moons later, Hawkfrost tells her that Firestar asked if they were Tigerstar's kits and that Sasha had confirmed it. They worry about what will happen if the news spreads, but more frightening to Mothwing is that Mudfur is terribly ill and that she cannot do anything for him. Eventually the morning comes when the Clans must leave, and Mudfur dies. Mothwing frantically wonders what will happen now since Mudfur was RiverClan's only connection to StarClan, and also thinks how once again Hawkfrost is all she has left - but when the other medicine cats comfort her, she realizes that it's not true, that she has them to rely on as well. The Clans come across Sasha on the way through the forest as they leave. She asks her kits to come with her, and reveals that Tigerstar was their father; despite this, the Clans still want them along, and Hawkfrost and Mothwing decide to remain in RiverClan.
Some time after that, during the events of Sunset, Mothwing fears what will happen since she can't teach her new apprentice, Willowpaw, about StarClan, and she reflects on how StarClan can't possibly be real and that the other medicine cats must just be remembering things without realizing how. Hawkfrost interrupts her thoughts to complain about how he doesn't like Stormfur the traitor and Brook the cat who can't fight being accepted as a warrior. He also fears that whenever Mistyfoot becomes leader, she'll trust Stormfur to be deputy more than him, Tigerstar's son - and so, he comes up with a plan for Mothwing to lie about having had a sign from StarClan that Stormfur and Brook don't belong in the Clan. After they're driven out, he tells her about how he intends to rule RiverClan and ShadowClan while Brambleclaw leads ThunderClan and WindClan, and Mothwing is uncomfortable with this and realizes she doesn't feel safe.
After presenting Willowpaw to StarClan at the Moonpool, Mothwing is relieved that Willowpaw seems to be having the right sort of StarClan dreams and that Leafpool will teach her about interpreting omens, and she's also grateful that Leafpool didn't reject her after Mothwing revealed her secret of not believing in StarClan. Voletooth is stung by bees the following day, and during treatment he begs Mothwing to tell StarClan that he's sorry about whatever he did to anger them. This is when Willowpaw realizes that her mentor doesn't believe in StarClan, but she doesn't reveal it to Voletooth, just promises that she'll pass along the message. She feels good that things are going well with her apprentice, but still worries about what Hawkfrost might have planned.
One day, about a moon later, Hawkfrost's body is brought to camp by Firestar, Leafpool, Squirrelflight, and Brambleclaw. Firestar tells Leopardstar that Hawkfrost was killed by a fox trap in an accident, but Leafpool asks to speak to Mothwing privately, and explains the truth: that Hawkfrost tried to get Brambleclaw to kill Firestar to become leader, and that Brambleclaw had refused and Hawkfrost had attacked. Mothwing thinks about how she can trust the other medicine cats more than she could her own littermate, and grieves for the brother she lost - not Hawkfrost, who manipulated her, but Hawk, the innocent cat he used to be.
The next scene is a long time after - during the events of The Last Hope. All of the Clans believe that the Dark Forest is going to attack, and Willowshine tells Mothwing that she believes it. Mothwing had always thought that it, like StarClan, was just a story, but recently strange things had been happening, including Clanmates waking up with injuries they hadn't had the night before. The battle begins, and Mothwing wonders if the attackers are maybe just rogues, but eventually she has to accept that they really are Dark Forest cats - but why aren't StarClan protecting them?
Then Hawkfrost's spirit arrives in camp. Mothwing is horrified at how insane he looks, but when she sees that he's about to attack the nursery, she prepares to stop him. Then StarClan cats - Leopardstar and others - enter the clearing and scare the evil spirits (Hawkfrost included) away. Mothwing watches them reunite with the Clanmates, and Mudfur speaks to her, telling her how proud she is. She asks why StarClan told them to keep apart when what they really needed was to remain together, and he explains that they can't always see the future and can't always act. She argues that the worst thing for a medicine cat is to see her Clanmates wounded, and blames them, and also reminds him that Hawkfrost tricked him. Mudfur tells her that she was the right cat and that StarClan makes no mistakes, and then fades from view. Mothwing knows now that StarClan is real, but isn't convinced that they're the good force that everyone else believes them to be - but that doesn't matter to her: with StarClan or not, she has Clanmates to take care of.
Tropes appearing in this novella:
- A Day in the Limelight: Mothwing's only POV.
- Artifact Alias: Hawkfrost calls Mothwing "Moth", her original name from when they were kits. She protests this, since she belongs to RiverClan and is Mothwing now, and he approves of her determination to fit in. Later, in an ironic, emotional echo, he dies and she grieves for Hawk, the innocent brother he used to be, rather than the villain he had become as Hawkfrost.
- Chain of People: A couple RiverClan cats do this to pull Blackclaw out of deep mud.
- Continuity Nod: Much of the novella relies on this and it is done well: we see scenes from the Tigerstar and Sasha manga that fans thought would be forgotten, both times where Sasha appeared in The New Prophecy, and it also remembers details like the fact that Mudfur was a warrior before being a medicine cat, and the long, hooked claws of Tigerstar's bloodline.
- Copycat Mockery: Hawkfrost chastises his sister Mothwing for being uncertain while lying on his behalf; he viciously mimics what she'd said at the Gathering, making his voice squeaky and high-pitched as if Mothwing were a kit.
- CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Cinderpelt and Mudfur save Blackclaw - who nearly drowned in mud - by performing a feline version of CPR where Cinderpelt rolls Blackclaw onto his back, puts her front paws on his stomach, and repeatedly throws her weight onto him. He does vomit afterward, so that averts some of the "pretty" aspect, but it does work, and he isn't otherwise injured like any broken ribs.
- A Dog Named "Cat": Hawkfrost and Mothwing's original names were Hawk and Moth, and their littermate was named Tadpole.
- Dream Intro: The novella begins with Mothwing falling asleep and having a nightmare.
- Flashback Nightmare: Mothwing has one of the day her brother Tadpole died.
- His Story Repeats Itself: Mothwing's brother Tadpole drowned when they were young. Later on, one of her Clanmates gets caught in deep mud, and her mind flashes back to another black cat looking at her desperately. Their Clanmates are able to rescue him, and their care for him inspires her to take the path of a medicine cat.
- Ironic Echo: Hawkfrost refers to Mothwing as "Moth" early in the story, and she protests since that name was in the past. Later she thinks of him as "Hawk", wishing he'd remained like his past self.
- Perspective Flip: This novella takes a couple scenes from other books and shows them from Mothwing's POV:
- Tadpole's death in Return to the Clans, which was originally from Sasha's POV.
- Mudfur's death and the encounter with Sasha as the Clans leave, which was from Leafpaw's POV in Dawn.
- Quicksand Sucks: Blackclaw gets stuck in the mud and has to be rescued.
- Recurring Dreams: Mothwing's nightmare of Tadpole's death keeps coming back.
- Renowned Selective Mentor: Leopardstar surprised the Clan by taking Hawkpaw as her own apprentice. Mothpaw was also mentored by the Clan deputy, Mistyfoot.
- Series Continuity Error:
- In Sunset, Willowpaw learned during her first visit to the Moonpool that Mothwing doesn't share with StarClan. In this novella, Willowpaw realizes it a day or two later, when Voletooth asks Mothwing to pass a message to StarClan for him and Mothwing panics.
- During Mudfur's death, Shadepelt claims she and Mudfur have known each other since kithood, when in The Prophecies Begin, Shadepelt was Stonefur's apprentice at the time that Mudfur was already the sole medicine cat (he was already an experienced warrior before becoming a medicine cat apprentice).
- Jayfeather tells Mothwing about the evil cats of the Dark Forest, including Tigerstar, Brokenstar, Mapleshade... and Darktail. Darktail was still alive at the time of the Dark Forest battle in Omen of the Stars and didn't get involved with the Clans until later, in A Vision of Shadows.
- That Man Is Dead: Mothwing grieves for Hawk, not Hawkfrost.
- Would Hurt a Child: Hawkfrost attempts to attack the nursery.
