The Apprentice's Quest is the first book in the sixth Warrior Cats series, A Vision of Shadows, continuing the main series' storyline after Omen of the Stars (after side books Dovewing's Silence, Ravenpaw's Farewell, Bramblestar's Storm, and Hawkwing's Journey which take place in between).
The prologue is from Jayfeather's point of view, and he and Leafpool go to the Moonpool to meet with the other medicine cats for the half moon (although Mothwing apparently still doesn't believe in StarClan, even after the events of The Last Hope.) Unusually, the medicine cats appear all together in StarClan rather than sharing individual dreams. They are greeted by a couple StarClan cats - Firestar, Barkface, Leopardstar, Flametail, and Blackstar. Barkface tells the medicine cats that they have a prophecy for all the Clans, and Firestar reveals it: "Embrace what you find in the shadows, for only they can clear the sky." Jayfeather lampshades how unhelpfully obscure the prophecy is, but Firestar doesn't reveal anything else. Just before Jayfeather wakes up, he spots a young ThunderClan cat out of the corner of his eye who quickly disappears.
The main story opens an unspecified amount of time (but appears to be somewhere around eight moons) after the manga at the end of Bramblestar's Storm: Squirrelflight realized that she was expecting kits at the end of the manga, while now her two surviving kits, Alderkit and Sparkkit, are just about to be apprenticed. (The other two - Juniperkit, a tom, and Dandelionkit, a she-cat, died shortly after birth and at two moons of age, respectively.) Alderkit vows to be the best cat he can be for his parents, but he's also nervous that he isn't good enough to become an apprentice or warrior. The apprenticeship ceremony is held, and Sparkpaw is apprenticed to the equally enthusiastic Cherryfall, while Alderpaw is apprenticed to the more serious Molewhisker. During the tour of the territory the following day, Alderpaw wants to make his mentor proud, but can't help but feel like he let Molewhisker down by failing to catch any prey, while Sparkpaw caught two.
Half a moon later, Alderpaw has still failed to catch anything, but he is excited because he and Sparkpaw have been chosen to go to the Gathering. They meet a group of ShadowClan apprentices there, including a she-cat named Needlepaw, and Alderpaw is shocked at how disrespectful they are, making rude comments about everything. The medicine cats tell all the Clans about the prophecy, but nobody is sure what it means. The next day, after training, Bramblestar tells Alderpaw that Leafpool and Jayfeather have had a vision: they believe that he is the next ThunderClan medicine cat. Alderpaw is worried that it's because he's not good enough to be a warrior, but they assure him that it's because they think he's able to speak with StarClan.
At first he finds his lessons difficult and fears that he'll fail as a medicine cat as well, especially after Jayfeather snaps that lives are on the line if he makes mistakes, but he gradually gets better at it. Cherryfall is injured one day, but Alderpaw freezes at the sight of her bleeding, and that worries him even more.
At the half-moon, he meets the other medicine cats at the Moonpool and officially becomes a medicine cat apprentice. In his dream, Firestar shows him a vision of a Clan in a sandy gorge, but does not explain it at all. Alderpaw thinks it was just a weird dream, not a vision, and resolves not to tell anyone until he's sure either way. The next morning, Alderpaw treats his first wound on his own and is proud - at least until Jayfeather returns and points out why one of the things he did wasn't the best idea (but not harmful). He goes to check the elders for ticks after; only Sandstorm is there, and she invites him to confide in her. He shares his worries about his skills as a medicine cat - she reassures him that he did the right thing - and then he tells her about his dream. She looks surprised and says that it sounds like the leader, deputy, and medicine cat of SkyClan, and that the lost Clan may need their help, and she urges him to tell Leafpool and Jayfeather.
He tells them, and they tell Bramblestar. While they're away, Cherryfall tells Alderpaw that Sparkpaw is hurt. It's a dislocated leg, but he knows how to treat it, and he does so successfully, which helps his confidence. After he returns to camp Bramblestar tells him about the history of SkyClan, and that he believes that StarClan has chosen Alderpaw to go on a quest to find and help them. Sandstorm insists upon joining him (despite Bramblestar's protests) since she's the only one who has met the lost Clan before. Bramblestar calls a Clan meeting and tells the Clan, leaving out the bit about SkyClan and saying only that it has to do with the prophecy. Sparkpaw is allowed to join, as are Cherryfall and Molewhisker.
The quest begins the next day, and the group travels past WindClan territory, past a Twoleg campsite, across a Thunderpath, and through a couple forests. The whole time, Alderpaw has a strange feeling that they are being watched. They're just settling down to sleep one night when a fox attacks. It wounds Sandstorm, but a strange she-cat rushes in and helps during the fight, and after they drive it off, Alderpaw realizes that it is Needlepaw of ShadowClan. Alderpaw treats Sandstorm's wound and the group agrees to let Needlepaw stay because she could be helpful and she'd follow them anyway.
After Alderpaw has another vision of SkyClan the following day, he urges them to set out again (Sandstorm's wound is worse but she insists she's fine.) They pass a farm and Sandstorm falls off a fence, which also doesn't do much good for her wound. That night she's feverish and hallucinating, and when Alderpaw finally falls asleep, he dreams of her in StarClan. He blames himself but she reassures him that it was her time and that she'll get to see the cats that she lost, and she also tells him where to go from there. Alderpaw refuses to believe that it is anything other than a nightmare, but sees when he awakens that it was true. The cats bury her and sit vigil. Needlepaw - who had overheard some of him telling Sandstorm that he had had another vision - suggests he tell the others the truth about the vision because it will distract them from their grief and give them something to work toward, so he tells them about SkyClan.
Days pass, and following the instructions Sandstorm had given him, they come upon the gorge and some rather hostile cats. When the questing cats introduce themselves and explain that they are there to meet SkyClan, the cats say that they are indeed SkyClan, and take them to their leader. The Clan cats are surprised that the SkyClan cats don't seem to have Clan names - for instance one is Rain, and the leader is Darktail - and Alderpaw wonders why he's not seeing any of the cats from his vision that Sandstorm told him about. He assumes he perhaps saw something that happened a long time ago. Darktail insists that they don't need any help and can't just leave, but Needlepaw suggests that the travelers stay for a bit to help with hunting and so forth, and Darktail agrees. Over the next few days, Needlepaw grows closer to Rain, and the questing cats realize that SkyClan is even less like a normal Clan than they'd thought: the cats fight for the prey brought back, leaving the elders and kits hungry, and they don't care for their sick (or even seem to know what a medicine cat or herbs are). Alderpaw wonders if maybe the prophecy is about showing them how to be a real Clan again.
When Alderpaw goes out hunting by himself one day, he runs into a ragged-looking rogue, and introduces himself as Alderpaw of ThunderClan. The rogue, whose name is Mistfeather, looks amazed and comments that he must know Firestar, and talks about how SkyClan honored Firestar at every full moon. After a bit of confusion, Mistfeather explains that he was a SkyClan cat and that the cats in the gorge are rogues who drove the Clan out; he doesn't know where the rest of the Clan is since they scattered. Darktail shows up and claims that the territory belongs to those who are strong enough to keep it, and challenges Mistfeather to a fight; he easily kills the half-starved rogue.
Darktail brings Alderpaw back to the camp and declares that the Clan cats are spies, allies of SkyClan, and initially want to kill the Clan cats, but decide instead to keep them prisoner until they're sure that nothing else is about to happen. The Clan cats sneak away just before dawn. They cross the river using a tree branch, but it slips and tosses Alderpaw and Needlepaw into the river. They survive, but are separated from their group. They find their scent, so they know the others were searching for them, but end up losing it. They spend a couple days searching and eventually come to the conclusion that they need to head back to camp; if the others have given them up for dead, that's where they'll be.
They get some directions and food from a kittypet named Bob. Alderpaw asks Bob if he'd seen a much larger group of cats heading through, but he hasn't, and Alderpaw thinks that means he has failed his mission since he wasn't able to find SkyClan. Needlepaw snaps that he's being "stupid and self-pitying" and that it's obvious with the timing of his visions and Mistfeather's condition that they wouldn't have made it in time to save SkyClan since it happened so long ago, and that his visions must mean something different. A few days later they come upon the farm that they'd passed on the way, where Sandstorm's injury became bad enough to cause her death, and he grieves. That night she visits him in his dreams, and once again tells him that it was not his fault, that she never wanted to live her days as an elder sitting around, that she wanted to go out doing something important - and she and Firestar are together in StarClan now. He tells her his frustrations with his quest and that he's messed everything up: she tells him that the difference between him and Sparkpaw is that Sparkpaw thinks she's solved every problem and that Alderpaw thinks he's caused every problem, but that he hasn't, and that he just needs to find a different path.
Needlepaw and Alderpaw debate what a "different path" means: Alderpaw thinks that it means a different way of thinking, while Needlepaw is certain that it means a different physical path. She believes that a shadowy tunnel under a Thunderpath (which they'd crossed on top of earlier) is what it means, and while in the tunnel they find a pair of days-old, nearly starved she-kits. They care for them, and assume that the mother is gone due to the kits' state, and decide to bring them back to the Clans; Needlepaw names one Violetkit (for the scent of violets that the mother must have used in the nest) and Alderpaw names the other Twigkit (because she's "as tiny as a twig"). Needlepaw declares that the kits must be what the prophecy is referring to - what they "find in the shadows".
When they reach the Clan territories, they argue about where the kits are going to go; she insists that Violetkit should go with her, since she helped find them and because the prophecy isn't just about ThunderClan, but Alderpaw thinks that it's wrong to split them up. At that point Molewhisker and a patrol find them, and they discuss what had happened in the last few days. Birchfall solves the kit argument for now by deciding that the kits need care more than anything, so they'll come to the ThunderClan camp for the time being, and be brought to the Gathering in a few days. At the Gathering, the other Clans decide that it's fair that ShadowClan gets one kit, so they take Violetkit with them. The kits are heartbroken to be split up, but Alderpaw vows to always be there for Twigkit.
In the Barnes-and-Noble-exclusive bonus scene at the end, Squirrelflight - at this point pregnant with her litter of kits, during the winter - tries to hunt, but fails. Her Clanmates provide her with prey, but she feels bad taking it when prey is so scarce. She wonders what kind of mother she will be to her kits, after lying to Hollyleaf, Lionblaze, and Jayfeather. During her day, she snaps at a couple of her Clanmates, and pointlessly "protects" Jayfeather from some falling ice as he works on collecting alder bark, and once again she wonders what kind of mother she'll be since she keeps putting herself on the wrong side of her Clanmates, including one of her foster kits. Bramblestar talks to her for a bit and assures her that she'll be a wonderful mother, and they decide to take her mind off things by going hunting. They get separated as Squirrelflight runs after some prey, and she realizes after she catches it that Bramblestar is fighting a fox. She lures it away from them and climbs into a tree, and when it goes back to him she jumps on it and scares it off. She realizes that the tree - like the one Jayfeather was working on earlier - is an alder tree, reflects on how she and Bramblestar are stronger together, and decides that being a mother is about protecting the cats you care about.
Tropes appearing in this book:
- Always Second Best: Alderpaw isn't necessarily doing especially bad in his training, but he's always doing worse than his sister Sparkpaw.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Alderpaw quotes one of Jayfeather's favorite phrases: "You're fine when I say you are."
- Child Prodigy: Sparkpaw is unusually good at all her warrior duties from the beginning of training.
- The Chosen One: Alderpaw is chosen to lead a quest to find SkyClan.
- Dark Is Evil: The villain is named Darktail.
- Dead Guy Junior: Lionblaze and Cinderheart's kits Fernsong, Sorrelstripe, and Hollytuft were all named after cats who died in the Dark Forest battle. (Ferncloud, Sorreltail, and Hollyleaf). Ferncloud was a queen who had nursed their father when he was a kit, Sorreltail was their grandmother, and Hollyleaf was their father's sister and their mother's best friend.
- A Death in the Limelight: Sandstorm gets focus in this book by going on the journey to find SkyClan, and ends up dying.
- A Dog Named "Cat": One of the rogues is named Raven.
- Don't Split Us Up: Alderpaw and Needlepaw find two orphaned/abandoned kits that they name Violetkit and Twigkit. When they return to the Clans, the kits foster in ThunderClan for a while, but ultimately it is decided that Violetkit will be raised in Needlepaw's Clan, ShadowClan, since she had an equal share in finding them and the kits are believed to be important, part of a prophecy. Alderpaw considers it cruel to split them up and the kits are heartbroken.
- Honorable Warrior's Death: Sandstorm mentions that she always wanted to die doing something important, rather than doing nothing in the elders' den.
- Identical Grandson: Sparkpaw is described as looking exactly like her grandfather, Firestar.
- Inevitable Waterfall: Alderpaw and Needlepaw fall into a river when crossing it on a tree branch, and go over a waterfall; they both survive, but are separated from the rest of their group.
- Internal Reveal: Sandstorm reveals SkyClan's existence to Alderpaw, and he later reveals it to the rest of his patrol.
- Kid Hero: Alderpaw is about six moons old - the Clan cats' equivalent of somewhere between 10 and teenage - at the start of this book.
- Meaningful Name:
- Needlepaw names Violetkit after the scent of the violets that were used in their nest, and Alderpaw names Twigkit for being "as tiny as a twig".
- The bonus scene implies that Alderpaw is named after the alder tree Squirrelflight used to save Bramblestar from a fox, when she realized what being a mother means to her.
- Nervous Wreck: Alderpaw. As Sandstorm says, he feels like he's caused every problem.
- Never Mess with Granny: When cats ask Bramblestar why Sandstorm's joining the quest since she's an elder, he comments that he was afraid she'd claw his ears off if he forbade her from going. (She agrees that she would have.)
- New Season, New Name: This arc has the subtitle A Vision of Shadows.
- The Prophecy: Embrace what you find in the shadows, for only they can clear the sky. It refers to the Clans finding SkyClan and bringing them back to the lake to restore its rightful place as the fifth Clan.
- The Quest: The book is named after this. A group of cats travels to find SkyClan after Alderpaw has an omen about the lost Clan being in trouble.
- Rescue Introduction: Needlepaw and Alderpaw rescue two orphaned, starving kits that they name Violetkit and Twigkit.
- Series Continuity Error:
- Beetlewhisker of RiverClan appears in the Allegiances, despite having been killed in The Last Hope.
- It mentions early in the book that Blossomfall had been Hollytuft's mentor. In the manga at the end of Bramblestar's Storm, which came out first, Cloudtail had been assigned as her mentor.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Sparkpaw and Alderpaw: Sparkpaw is confident and boisterous, Alderpaw is a gentler worrier. Sandstorm tells Alderpaw at one point, "Sparkpaw believes she's solved every problem, and you believe you've caused every problem. You're two sides of the same leaf."
- Spin-Offspring: A Vision of Shadows follows the son of Bramblestar and Squirrelflight, who is younger than the series 3-4 protagonists.
- Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Sandstorm is one of the oldest cats in the Clan by the time of the sixth series, but after the Great Battle against the Dark Forest she retired so she's out of the action, and healthy enough that she is expected to stick around for a while. She decides to accompany Alderpaw on his quest in the first book of the sixth series and ends up dying on the way.
- Time Skip: There's been somewhere around an 8-moon gap since Bramblestar's Storm.
- The X of Y: The series name A Vision of Shadows.
- Wrong Line of Work: Alderpaw initially starts training as a warrior, but isn't at all good at it. Jayfeather and Leafpool realize that Alderpaw has a connection with StarClan and have him start training as a medicine cat, which it turns out he's much better at.
