Cinderpelt

Cinderkit and her siblings, Brackenkit, Brightkit, and Thornkit, are not mentioned by name, but their mother,Frostfur, is seen suckling four kits.

During a ShadowClan raid, all four kits are kidnapped, and Yellowfang is accused to be the kidnapper because she has disappeared after the battle. However, it is soon discovered that Clawface of ShadowClan is the one who stole them. Firepaw and Graypaw go to rescue them and Firepaw pulled out a kit that was "gray, like the embers of an old fire." This was most likely Cinderkit, because she was the only gray kit.

Their mother, Frostfur, was very happy to have her kits back. Frostfur develops a very good relationship with Firepaw because of this.

Cinderkit, now known as Cinderpaw, is apprenticed to Fireheart, along with her brother, Brackenpaw, who is trained by Graystripe. During her ceremony Cinderpaw breaks tradition by excitedly murmuring her new name aloud. Cinderpaw is an eager apprentice, impatient and ready to learn, and Fireheart comments that she is the exact opposite of Brackenpaw, who is more calm and collected.

On a patrol, Cinderpaw runs over the RiverClan border to see the frozen river and Brackenpaw, Graystripe, and Fireheart charge after her. Graystripe falls into the river when the ice cracks under his weight, and he is rescued by Silverstream. Cinderpaw comments to Graystripe, "What a pretty RiverClan cat she was!" When they get back to the camp Cinderpaw tells Tigerclaw that Graystripe was rescuing her in the ThunderClan stream and slipped, instead of admitting that they had been in RiverClan territory. Fireheart asks her if Tigerclaw frightens her at all, and Cinderpaw replies that she admires the great warrior.

Later, when Tigerclaw asks for Bluestar to meet him at the Thunderpath so he can give her a message, Fireheart knows that she cannot go because she is sick with greencough, and Fireheart is too busy collecting catmint for her. Cinderpaw asks if she can go get the message from Tigerclaw, but Fireheart forbids her, realizing that it could be dangerous. Against Fireheart's orders, Cinderpaw goes to the Thunderpath, and she strays into the path of a monster, which hurts her leg and caused some bleeding inside. Fireheart finds her after he heard a blood-curdling cry and brings her back to Yellowfang, who heals her leg very well– but the injury is still bad enough to prevent Cinderpaw from becoming a warrior. She is saddened by this news, and stays in the medicine den with Yellowfang.

When Brokenstar and his rogues attack the ThunderClan camp, Cinderpaw hurries out to help fight, but Dustpaw hisses at her to get back. After the battle, Cinderpaw asks Fireheart if she is really useless because of her injury. Yellowfang cuts in and tells Fireheart that Cinderpaw is a great help to her, because her time in the medicine den has caused her to learn many herbs. Cinderpaw then proceeds to help the Clan heal after the battle.

Cinderpelt seems to be growing more used to her duties as full medicine cat.

She has a dream in which she sees a group of fierce dogs panting "Pack pack, kill kill." She is worried that it might be a sign of coming danger from StarClan, and asks Fireheart to help her interpret it. Fireheart stays for a minute, but doesn't seem to think the dream is very important, and is anxious to get back to Sandstorm. Cinderpelt seems to be irritated by this, but lets him go and eat with Sandstorm.

When Fireheart notices something seems off with Speckletail's kit, Snowkit, he asks Cinderpelt if she will take a look at him. She agrees, and comes to look at him. She asks Fireheart to call out Snowkit's name, and when he does so, Snowkit hesitates, but comes forward when Fireheart waves his tail. Cinderpelt then turns Snowkit away from Fireheart, and asks him to call the kit's name again, but Snowkit does not respond. Cinderpelt grimly tells Fireheart and Speckletail that she has deduced that Snowkit is deaf.

Cinderpelt is the first cat to notice that Bluestar is not in camp when the leader travels to Highstones alone, and quickly wakes Fireheart after searching the camp. She is seen as very anxious about where Bluestar may be. She is among the few cats that does not mind Graystripe coming back in the Clan, and when he first returns, she licks his shoulder telling him that she was glad to see him back again.

Later, when Brightpaw is brought back to camp after being horribly injured in a fight with the dog pack, Cinderpelt works hard to heal her wounds, and manages to save the apprentice, although Brightpaw bears horrible scars for the rest of her life.

Throughout the book, she shows some signs of affection to Fireheart and seems frustrated when he is eager to spend more time with Sandstorm rather than her.

Firestar reports to Cinderpelt when he begins having visions of Cloudstar and SkyClan fleeing the forest.

When Longtail gets his eyes scratched by a rabbit, Cinderpelt tries as hard as she can to heal him, and she does manage to stop the infection from spreading, but she is unable to save his sight, and he is left to retire to the elders' den due to his blindness.

She, Graystripe, and Sandstorm believe that Firestar is returning to his Twolegs after he spends the night in Twolegplace.

Later when Firestar and Sandstorm leave to go to find SkyClan, she is sad that Firestar has to leave, but promises him that she and Graystripe will take good care of ThunderClan while they are gone. She is seen teaching Sandstorm some basic remedies that she believes may be needed on their journey in the few days before they leave.

Firestar's daughter, Leafpaw, becomes Cinderpelt's new medicine cat apprentice.

When she is out collecting herbs with Leafpaw, she sees an omen from StarClan: a piece of Twoleg rubbish catches on fire when the sunlight gleams on it, and in the fire she sees a vision of a leaping tiger right before the fire dies out. She tells Firestar about this omen, and also her interpretation of it: that it included fire, tiger, and danger to the forest, which could mean the daughter of Firestar and the son of Tigerstar might bring danger to the forest together. At first Leafpaw thinks that Firestar's daughter means her, but Cinderpelt tells her apprentice not to worry and that she would keep an eye on her; she thinks it is more likely to be Squirrelpaw due to the fact that she shares Firestar's dark ginger flame colored pelt, and Firestar agrees with this theory, so the two of them do their best to try to keep Squirrelpaw and Brambleclaw apart in case the prophecy comes true.

Cinderpelt later goes to meet the other medicine cats at the Moonstone at the half moon, and welcomes Mudfur's new apprentice, Mothwing, into the ways of a medicine cat.

When Leafpaw asks Cinderpelt what herb is good for curing rat bites, she responds that it is burdock root and allows Leafpaw to eat some to help Squirrelpaw because the stocks are high, but is very puzzled.

Cinderpelt struggles to take care of the Clan as prey becomes scarcer because of leaf-bare and the Twolegs destroying the forest. Ferncloud especially is affected by the hunger, and needs to take borage to produce more milk to feed her kits. Despite Cinderpelt's best attempts to help the queen, Ferncloud's daughterLarchkit dies of starvation.

Cinderpelt, including Firestar, Graystripe, Brackenfur, and Leafpaw, are on the patrol to ShadowClan territory to speak with Blackstar, but a fight is started by Russetfur since she thought ThunderClan was trespassing on their territory.

Later, despite her bad leg, she gives Leafpaw battle training.

Cinderpelt is included on yet another patrol, including Firestar, Graystripe, Sandstorm, Dustpelt, Thornclaw, and Ashfur, which went on to WindClan territory. Leafpaw wanted to come, but Firestar disagreed. However, Cinderpelt took a stand for her and eventually Leafpaw is included in the patrol.

When Leafpaw tries to tell Cinderpelt about Brambleclaw and Squirrelpaw, the medicine cat can't help wondering if StarClan had abandoned them.

When Twolegs begin poisoning rabbits, Cinderpelt orders all of ThunderClan to not eat them, but Dappletailwas so hungry that she eats one anyway, despite Cinderpelt's attempts to stop her. During that time Cinderpelt was out looking for herbs, and rushes back to help the elder. Dappletail begins having horrible stomach cramps until she dies from the poison. Leafpaw comes to Cinderpelt, and the apprentice learns that Dappletail had died, and that Cloudtail and Brightheart were missing.

Later, Cinderpelt helps Mousefur with her dislocated leg and shows Leafpaw how to fix it.

Cinderpelt was the first cat to meet Brambleclaw and Squirrelpaw when they returned from their journey, and at first, she thought they were intruders trying to steal the herbs from her den when she saw Squirrelpaw in her den and attacked her, but stopped as she recognized them. She then leads them to Sunningrocks, where ThunderClan was sheltering. When the two ThunderClan cats explain that StarClan had called them away, Cinderpelt is surprised, and tells them that she had thought that they had been silent ever since the fire and tiger prophecy. However, when Brambleclaw and Squirrelpaw ask what she was talking about, she didn't explain about the prophecy to them.

She still struggles to help the Clan from starvation, and is worried about Ferncloud, who can't feed her kits much milk. Ferncloud's daughter, Hollykit, dies despite Cinderpelt's efforts.

When Leafpaw's kittypet friend Cody, who was also captured by the Twolegs, is temporarily staying with the Clan and helps Cinderpelt by tending to wounds and caring for Ferncloud's remaining kit, Birchkit.

After helping to save ShadowClan from the Twolegs, Cinderpelt and the other medicine cats are busy healing wounds and preparing traveling herbs for all the Clans. ShadowClan does not have very much food, or medicine supplies, so Cinderpelt offers their leftover herbs to Blackstar in a way that he'd be able to accept them with dignity. The ShadowClan leader accepts.

Her mother, Frostfur, stays behind with other elders, as they are to old to make the journey to their new home. Cinderpelt accompanies ThunderClan and the other Clans on the journey to find a new home, and helps the other medicine cats heal the traveling Clans. While the Clans are staying with the Tribe of Rushing Water, she speaks to Stoneteller, and when Leafpaw tells him that her mentor was teaching her how to interpret signs, Cinderpelt says that she has a natural talent for it.

Once the Clans arrive at the lake, Cinderpelt meets with the other medicine cats to discuss settling into the new territories, finding herbs, and most importantly, how they will converse with StarClan when they can no longer reach the Moonstone. They agree that they will be wary of any signs from StarClan of where a new Moonstone like location could be, and they will meet by the lake shore at the half moon until they find another place to gather.

When they reach ThunderClan's new camp, Cinderpelt and Leafpaw find a nice cave in the side of the hollow that they decide to use for the new medicine den. Cinderpelt especially likes the new den.

Soon, several elders complain of bellyaches in the night, and Leafpaw tells Cinderpelt how Mothwing accidentally gave many elders tainted water. Cinderpelt is sympathetic to the young medicine cat's mistake, but grimly says that Mothwing can't afford many mistakes since she is now RiverClan's only medicine cat. She feeds Mousefur juniper berries to help her bellyache. She later goes out with Leafpaw and Thornclaw to go looking for herbs in their new territory. She lets Leafpaw bring some water mint to WindClan to help the sick elders there. She at first hesitates, because she knows that the Clans need to get used to being separate again.

She sees Leafpaw speaking with Crowfeather at a Gathering, and warns her apprentice to be careful where her affections lie. Leafpaw indignantly declares that she has no feelings for Crowfeather, but Cinderpelt still seems wary.

After Leafpaw discovers the Moonpool as a replacement for the Moonstone, Cinderpelt is overjoyed that they can now communicate with StarClan again, and honors her apprentice's accomplishment by giving her a full medicine cat name, Leafpool.

After Mudclaw's rebellion, she helps heal the cats that were wounded in the battle.

She received troubling news from StarClan in the prologue: Bluestar told her that she would die sometime soon, although StarClan did not know when. Knowing that there was no way to change this, Cinderpelt submitted to Bluestar's words, and she was comforted by the words of the other StarClan cats, who assured her that she had lived a good life.

At one point, Cinderpelt tells Leafpool that ThunderClan is lucky they have two medicine cats, and Leafpool notices a haunted look in Cinderpelts eyes but ignores it.

Throughout the book, Leafpool is very distracted and begins to forget her herbs, and Cinderpelt grows irritated with her apprentice and seems to suspect her apprentice's source of distraction – her love for Crowfeather – but does not say anything.

When Leafpool decides to run away with Crowfeather, Cinderpelt confronts her directly, telling her not to make a mistake like this. An arguement ensues, and Leafpool accuses Cinderpelt of not understanding since she has never been in love. Cinderpelt becomes so angry that, in the end, she leaps at Leafpool, trying to claw her. Leafpool seems determined to rebel and leaves.

During their absence, Sorreltail begins to have her kits, and while she is kitting, badgers begin to attack the camp. She defends them as well as she can, but it is useless. Cinderpelt is severely wounded when she is trying to help Sorreltail with her kitting, and Leafpool runs in just as she is about to die. Cinderpelt tells Leafpool that she knew she was going to die, and that she's okay with it, because she knows that the Clan will be well cared for, though Leafpool wondered why she didn't tell her and force her to stay.

Cinderpelt is carried out by the elders, Longtail and Mousefur, after her vigil with Sootfur, who was also killed in the badger attack.

During the book, Leafpool is very upset that she has not seen Cinderpelt in Starclan, worried that she is angry that Leafpool left, which resulted in her death.

Leafpool finds out in this book from Spottedleaf of StarClan that Cinderpelt has been reincarnated as one of Sorreltail's kits, Cinderkit, and that is why she has not seen the former medicine cat in StarClan. Spottedleaf shows Leafpool in a dream that Cinderpelt is still alive with a second chance.

At the Gathering, Firestar announces her death and all the cats are sad, as Cinderpelt was popular with all the Clans. Littlecloud, in particular was upset, as Cinderpelt had saved his life, been his friend, and set him on the path to becoming a medicine cat.