Frostpaw’s bravest moments
BY THE EDITOR
Frostpaw has gone through an extraordinary amount of pain in her young life. Betrayed by those she trusted most, forced to bear the weight of the entire Clan’s expectations, forced to watch the cats she loves most die in front of her over and over again, most of this would be enough to break any cat. And while Frostpaw has certainly felt broken and hopeless after all the pain she suffered, she found a way to heal and come back to herself, with the sort of courage any warrior would envy. Today, we want to celebrate this extraordinary young cat and her courage by counting down her five bravest moments in the series so far.
5 – A mistake admitted
One of the hardest things anyone can do is admit when they were wrong, especially when so many others were depending on them being right. With Mothwing unable to speak with their ancestors, Frostpaw was believed to be the Clan’s only connection with StarClan, and they let it be known. She was barely out of the nursery before the pressure to choose a new leader fell onto her young shoulders. She did her best, reading her apparent visions diligently and telling her Clan what they appeared to mean. This only led from one disaster to another, from Curlfeather’s premature death at the jaws of the dogs, to Owlnose’s ineffective leadership, to Tigerstar taking over the Clan when Owlnose failed to receive his nine lives. It was at that point that Frostpaw finally realized the truth – her visions had never been real, only the imaginings of her own mind, not true messages from the stars.
While telling her Clan the truth definitely had benefits for Frostpaw, mainly in allowing her to escape the pressure of finding a leader, it’s still a huge undertaking to stand in front of every cat who was counting on her and tell them she was wrong all along in the way she was guiding them. She even had to go against her mentor to do it, as Mothwing was actively guilting her into staying quiet. But with the steady support of Icewing and the white warrior breaking the news first, Frostpaw was able to stand before the Clan and confess that her visions were never real. It was one of her first moments of true bravery, but certainly not the last.
4 – Facing the storm
After the comforting atmosphere of easy acceptance and lack of pressuring expectations from the park cats, returning to the judgment and suspicion of the Clans must have been a true challenge, especially when so few cats believed her about Splashtail upon her return. The strength and courage Frostpaw had nurtured within herself during her time in the park served her well in those hard first days back at the lake. One particularly hard and thankless task involved having to convince the less-than-receptive cats of WindClan of the vision she’d had foretelling that a tree would fall on their nursery.
All she received in thanks for her attempts to help were hostility and disbelief in her vision. But she refused to give up. Even with a violently dangerous storm building and threatening to wash away any cat foolish enough to be out in the open while it raged, Frostpaw set off alone from ShadowClan territory, circling halfway around the lake to reach WindClan, determined to force them to listen to her warning this time and save their kits from their own stubbornness. Luckily, WindClan had grown uneasy with the storm brewing above their heads and had heeded her warning just in time, but without Frostpaw’s courage to brave such a dangerous storm and convince hostile cats of the truth of her vision, the lives of innocent kits would almost certainly have been lost.
3 – Biting the hand that feeds her
Another moment of courage that came after her return from the park is this scene from not long after being taken in by ShadowClan. Tigerstar was the only leader willing to take a chance on a medicine cat apprentice rejected by her own Clan for rebelling against her own leader. If he had cast her out, there would have been nowhere else within the Clans for her to go. And yet, when Tigerstar confronted his Clan over the recent vote against his leadership and demanded to have any grievances with his choices aired now for all to hear, Frostpaw was the first cat willing to openly speak against him. She challenged him for his decision to take over RiverClan and try to run it until a new leader was chosen, citing that his own cats might be unhappy with his decision as well.
When Tigerstar confronted her for repaying his kindness in letting her stay by bad-mouthing him in front of his Clan, Frostpaw didn’t waver. She pointed out the greater harm his choices had caused her Clan versus his, and affirmed that she would not hide behind polite lies or hold her tongue for any cat. Even Tigerstar put aside any resentment over her speaking out, choosing to respect her courage in doing so instead. He knew as well as any cat what she was risking by speaking her truth and the pain she had already gone through in facing up to threats far greater than his own anger.
2 – The courage to play
This scene is quite different from some of the others on our list. There’s no daunting mistake to admit, no great danger to face, no heartbreak to endure. At first glance, it’s just Frostpaw playing a kitlike game of “find the shell” with the park cats. But being able to play and have fun and, as Bee put it, to find the kit inside of her again, after being forced to grow up so fast and cast that kit aside in the past, takes an enormous strength. This scene came on the heels of Frostpaw surviving an attempted assasination, with little idea of who had tried to kill her except the haunting knowledge that it was one of her own Clanmates. Her terror and lack of trust for others was at an all-time high, and her trauma was set in deep.
It took tremendous courage to overcome that fear and distrust enough to be able to let Nighthart and the park cats in the way she did in this scene. To let down the defenses put up in response to betrayal from her own family, and let herself be vulnerable, and playful, and trust the cats around her again. This scene is a moment of courage and triumph and hope, of a broken heart healing, and of the love and friendship of others bringing comfort to a wounded soul.
1 – Surviving betrayal
By far the hardest moment of Frostpaw’s life, and the greatest betrayal she ever faced, this scene of facing and overcoming this reveal is also the greatest show of Frostpaw’s courage thus far in the series. By this point, she had already survived the brutal attack at the paws of a Clanmate, the fear and distrust that had followed it, and the painful realization that it had been Splashtai who had tried to murder her that night on the moor. And yet, even after all of this suffering and hurt, Riverstar warned her that the worst was still before her. Frostpaw accepted this and allowed him to show her the final piece of this awful puzzle – the reversal that it had been Curlfeather, her beloved mother, behind Reedwhisker’s death all along. That her mother, despite loving her, had used her as an unwitting pawn in her plan to seize power, manipulating her into place as Mothwing’s apprentice in order to influence her “visions” and use them to her own advantage. It was the most gut-wrenching betrayal Frostpaw could ever have imagined.
And yet, she did not break. She took in the truth of what she had learned, she let the pain of it wash over her, and then she let it wash away. Her gaze was focused firmly forwards, towards the future that RiverClan needed to build, and the still-living threats she would need to face to make that happen, not towards the mother she would never be able to confront for her betrayal. Even Riverstar was impressed with how steady Frostpaw was able to stand now that she knew the full extent of this pain. The strength the park cats had taught her kept her steady, and she refused to allow herself to slip back into the fear and distrust that had ruled her after the attack on the moor. Curlfeather’s betrayal would not rob her of the new courage that she had learned, or of the cats she still loved enough to trust.
Looking forward to more scenes showcasing Frostpaw’s courage and other strengths as a character? Keep an eye out for Star, the concluding chapter of the A Starless Clan saga, coming out later this fall!
