Author Kate Cary on “the most gentle warrior”
EXCLUSIVE from the author!
BY KATE CARY
I began writing Riverstar’s Home already with such fondness for the kind-hearted, gentle park cat, Ripple, that it seemed a shame to make him into a warrior. The fighting and training and politicking of the Clans seemed a world away from the easy life of companionship, good food and meditation that seemed to have marked the first part of his life. Ripple becoming a warrior was rather like me becoming a warrior. Why patrol borders in the rain and snow when you can stay home, warm in bed? But our gentle tom’s destiny had already been set in stone. Ripple had no choice. He had to become River Ripple and he had to become Riverstar. Because we knew even before he did that he was the first leader of RiverClan.
But how did such a gentle cat become a leader?
Riverstar the least warlike and rule-loving of all the Clan leaders. I imagine him staring at the sunset during his twilight years wondering, how in StarClan did I end up here? Surely, if he’d been true to his gentle and peace-loving nature, he would never in a million moons have become a Clan leader. But it was his very gentleness and love of peace that meant he had no choice.
River Ripple longed for the connection and companionship he’d enjoyed at the park. He could never have been happy as a loner. He drew strays and passers-by to him, recognising and fulfilling their need and his for the security and warmth that friendship brings. When the Clans came and disturbed their peace, he realised that the best way to protect the cats around him was to join the Clans. But he wasn’t a pushover. He didn’t simply let his group be absorbed into the Clans. It would have been the path of least resistance, but that would have meant betraying his beliefs about peace and tolerance. Instead, he made sure his group joined the Clans on his terms, as an ally not an accomplice, never letting go of the deep belief that co-operation is the foundation of peace.
We’ve seen many warriors seek leadership in a quest for power. But power never interested River Ripple. He simply believed that no one could protect his campmates as well as he he could. The cats he’d gathered around him were too precious to him to leave in another cat’s care. He might have trusted Night to lead them. But she wanted to be leader even less than he did. A loner-turned-Clan-cat, it was only her affinity for Riverstar that kept her close. I wonder if she even ever considered herself a Clan cat, or whether she only thought of herself as Ripple’s friend.
And so, River Ripple became Riverstar, the gentlest warrior. And I think the Clans needed his gentleness. He softened their rigid, combative attitude. He showed them that peace was better than war, love was better than hate, sharing was better than competing. Without Riverstar, I wonder if the Clans would have wiped each other out moons ago.
And yet, I suspect there was a small part of Ripple that admired the tough, honourable and courageous side of the warriors who moved in next-door. They were everything he was not —disciplined, focussed, organised— and perhaps a very tiny part of him wanted to be a bit more like them.
