Spottedleaf's Heart is the tenth novella; one of the three in the Legends of the Clans compilation alongside Pinestar's Choice and Thunderstar's Echo. It takes place during the last quarter or so of Bluestar's Prophecy when Spottedleaf was an apprentice.
Half a moon later, Thrushpelt and Spottedpaw join Thistleclaw and Tigerpaw again, for a hunting patrol. While Thrushpelt is gone, Thistleclaw encourages Spottedpaw to go after a squirrel in a tree, but when Thrushpelt returns, his shout startles Spottedpaw, and she falls, injuring her leg. (Thistleclaw blames Thrushpelt for not getting far enough in training yet.) She's stuck in the den for several days, anxious that she's not getting enough training in. Featherwhisker starts asking her to sort herbs, and she's pretty interested in learning how to tell them apart and what they can do. She walks around camp while he's away one day, wanting to see if her leg's well enough to go back to training yet, and Thistleclaw expresses concern; she in turn realizes that he's got a clawed ear. They talk a little bit and he rests his chin on her head and she thinks that she hasn't ever been happier than that moment, and wants to become a warrior alongside him.
When she goes back to training, Featherwhisker tells her that she's always welcome in the medicine den if she changes her mind about wanting to be a warrior. While she and Thrushpelt are out hunting, she witnesses the scene from The Rise of Scourge where Tigerpaw attacks and nearly kills Scourge (at this point a kit named Tiny); she is shocked by the apprentice's brutality. Thistleclaw joins her for a meal later and she talks to him about it: he basically says he's disappointed in her for not wanting to be a great warrior that defends her Clan. She storms off, hurt. He joins her and apologizes, saying that he values her opinion and that she means a lot to him, and that he always wants her beside him. He asks if she feels the same, and she agrees, and he starts joking about how there are omens around them saying that they're meant to be together. She doesn't like that, feeling that omens are something to be treated respectfully and not joke about, and he grows more stern when she brings up medicine cats and Featherwhisker, and says that she should prove what he means to her by meeting him that night.
That evening she visits the elders - Goosefeather calls her "the one who loves foolishly" - and ends up falling asleep. She meets Thistleclaw in the forest at night but can't scent him and asks if she's dreaming, but his response is "this is real". He runs with her through the shadowy forest and brings her to a cat he introduces as Mapleshade. Mapleshade has Thistleclaw fight a WindClan cat called Houndleap, and Spottedpaw is shocked at how viciously they're fighting. Houndleap is badly injured and Spottedpaw looks for herbs, but can't find any, and comments how she thought StarClan would have every kind of herb. Houndleap and Thistleclaw reveal that they are in the Dark Forest and say that they are learning to be better warriors - Spottedpaw knows that the place is where cats go if they don't end up in StarClan, and replies that they wouldn't fight like that unless they meant to kill, which is evil and against the warrior code, and she flees.
When she wakes up she is covered in foul-smelling mud, just like the kind she encountered in the Dark Forest. Thistleclaw invites her to do battle training with Tigerpaw and Whitepaw. When he has her fight Whitepaw, he encourages her to go for Whitepaw's eyes, and she remembers seeing him try to blind Houndleap in the Dark Forest and runs away. He comes to find her, and she confronts him about the Dark Forest. He insists that being trained by them doesn't mean he'll be evil, that he can make his own choices, and that he wants to protect his Clanmates, especially her.
The following morning she gets into a talk with Featherwhisker about how she doesn't like fighting for the sake of fighting, and he assures her that a true warrior has more love than hatred in their heart. They witness Stormtail passing by - he appears to be sick, though he insists he's fine (and Bluefur also says Stormtail knows what he's talking about and to leave him alone. She's a bit of a jerk in this book.) Featherwhisker sends Spottedpaw off to find Stormtail. He's collapsed in the forest without the rest of his patrol realizing, and once they find him they help him return to camp. Spottedpaw snaps at Bluefur (who continues to be a jerk) and then Thrushpelt comes to her, asking if she wants to be a medicine cat (and reminding her that she cannot take a mate if so). She replies that she still wants to be a warrior.
She enters the Dark Forest purposefully that night, meaning to tell Thistleclaw that she's made her choice to remain a warrior, but when she arrives she witnesses him fighting and killing an old she-cat. She gives him an ultimatum: she will not remain with him if this is what he intends to do. He says that he can't turn away from his destiny - he'll be the greatest warrior ThunderClan has ever seen, and that ThunderClan will rule the forest. He tells her that love won't win battles, but she replies that love is stronger than anything, and tells him goodbye. When she wakes up, Bluefur apologizes for the way she'd spoke to Spottedpaw, and Spottedpaw tells Featherwhisker that she wants to be a medicine cat.
We see Tigerclaw and Whitestorm being named warriors, and the scene of Bluefur's kitting from Bluestar's Prophecy. One day one of Thistleclaw's patrols returns claiming they chased off intruding kittypets, and Spottedpaw realizes that they actually went into Twolegplace; Bluefur realizes it too. Spottedpaw fears not for the first time what will happen when Thistleclaw becomes deputy: Tawnyspots continues to grow ever weaker. Spottedpaw and Bluefur have a bit of a talk, during which Bluefur says that love can lead a cat astray, but Spottedpaw, remembering how she'd rejected Thistleclaw, comments that Bluefur can always change her path. Bluefur seems to take this to heart and asks Spottedpaw to babysit her kits while she goes to the Gathering. When she returns, she tells Spottedpaw she has made her choice.
Spottedpaw awakens in the middle of the night to see Bluefur sneaking out of camp with her kits, and follows until she witnesses the queen giving her kits away to another cat by the river. She reflects on how much she and Bluefur have in common, and how Thistleclaw changed both their destinies. Snowfur appears very briefly to thank Spottedpaw for trusting Bluefur and promises that StarClan will do their best to keep the kits safe, and Spottedpaw silently thinks that she and Bluefur will do their best for the Clan, and that she knows now that her heart belongs to her Clan.
Tropes appearing in this novella:
- A Day in the Limelight: Spottedleaf gets a POV - her only one aside from the short story Spottedleaf's Honest Answer.
- Gender Bender: The RiverClan tabby in the Dark Forest is first described as a she-cat ("judging by her glossy pelt"), but becomes a tom two pages later.
- Go for the Eye: Thistleclaw uses this move in the Dark Forest, and Spottedleaf later sees him encouraging his apprentice to use the move on his own son.
- Series Continuity Error:
- Halftail already has his elder name, despite the fact that in Bluestar's Prophecy he didn't get the name until the large timeskip at the very end of the story - after Bluestar was leader.
- It is mentioned that Willowpaw is apprenticed to Poppydawn. In Bluestar's Prophecy, Spottedpaw, Redpaw and Willowpaw become apprentices four seasons after Poppydawn retires; in that book, Redpaw and Willowpaw's mentors are Sparrowpelt and Adderfang.
- The Legend of X: The paperback that this novella appears in is Legends of the Clans. Fittingly, the novellas in it are about three significant characters that take place before the main series.
- Love Is a Weakness: Thistleclaw even says directly "Love doesn't win battles!"
- Perspective Flip: This book contains a few scenes from Bluestar's Prophecy, but instead of Bluefur's point of view they're now scenes that Spottedpaw is secretly witnessing: Thistleclaw ordering Tigerpaw to attack a kittypet kit, and Bluefur giving up her kits to Oakheart.
- Tastes Like Disdain: Thrushpelt brings prey to give to Bluefur's kits, who everyone in the Clan assumes were fathered by him due to his very obvious feelings for her. Bluefur coolly tells him that her kits have had enough to eat despite the fact that they want it, rejecting his affections and his offer to behave as the kits' father.
- The Power of Love: When Thistleclaw dismisses the idea of love, Spottedpaw responds, "You're wrong. Love is stronger than everything."
