These words are spoken by every Clan leader during the warrior ceremony, and by responding the new warrior swears an oath that will decide the course of the rest of their life. As a writer, I’m constantly fascinated by the variety of stories that can be teased out of what seems to be a simple promise.

For a  cat to risk their life in battle, against a rival Clan or against predators like foxes or badgers, might seem like the hardest part of the oath. A cat needs great courage to face their enemy with the knowledge that within heartbeats they might be on their way to StarClan. But in another way this is the easiest part: a cat facing hostile claws knows exactly what they have to do.

Fighting a battle isn’t the only way of protecting and defending the Clan. Several times the Clans have been threatened by sickness. Sol attacked the Clans, not with teeth and claws, but by subtle suggestions that warped the Clan cats’ beliefs, and threatened to destroy their whole way of life. When the imposter took over Bramblestar’s body the Clans were almost shattered because few cats knew that the trusted leader of ThunderClan had been driven out by an evil spirit. And the six cats who made the journey to the sun-drown-water were protecting their Clans in a different way by discovering how they could survive when the Twolegs devastated their territory. When faced with all these dangers – and many more – cats had to make decisions when the right thing to do was not clear, and take risks that needed even more courage than heading into battle.

Upholding the warrior code isn’t as easy as it sounds, either. In Lost Stars, the first book of Series 7, the medicine cat Shadowsight receives a vision of many cats who are identified as codebreakers. The voice he hears – later identified as the imposter – tells him that the Clans must suffer until the codebreakers are driven out. Shadowsight finds it hard to believe that the codebreakers are evil cats, especially as one of them is his mother, Dovewing. And we know that Shadowsight is right; if we think of cats like Dovewing, Leafpool, Crowfeather and Twigbranch, we can accept that they may have made mistakes, but they all gave a great deal to their Clans.

When I think of codebreaking, I think of Fireheart in A Dangerous Path, Book 5 of Series 1. Bluestar, in her confusion, believes that WindClan have been trespassing on ThunderClan territory and stealing prey. She is determined to fight a battle against WindClan. But Fireheart, newly made Clan deputy, knows that the WindClan cats are innocent; the prey has been killed by dogs marauding through the forest. Does he obey Bluestar and lead the Clan into battle? The warrior code says that the Clan leader must be obeyed at all times. Or should Fireheart find a way to avoid an unjust war with a neighbouring Clan? How he deals with the situation gives Warriors one of the most exciting, tense episodes of the series.

Young cats embark on their lives as warriors full of courage and enthusiasm. But they soon learn that keeping their oath isn’t simple. They will be faced with dangers they could never have foreseen, and times when they can’t find a clear path for their paws to follow. It’s these uncertainties that make their stories fascinating to write, and I hope that you, our fans, find them just as fascinating to read.