Sandstorm

(image credit: BlOt BlOoD at deviant art) Sandstorm now has Sorrelpaw as an apprentice, just as Firestar promised to her in The Darkest Hour.

Firestar goes to sleep in Smudge's garden to try and dream of the strange cats in his dream, SkyClan cats. Sandstorm and Graystripe both think that Firestar is going to tell them that he is going back to live with his Twolegs to become a kittypet once again, and she asks him, devastated, how he can abandon his Clan and herself just to go look for other cats. Firestar tells her he would never do that and asks her to travel with him to rebuild SkyClan. She agrees until she remembers her apprentice, Sorrelpaw. Firestar says that Dustpelt can be her temporary mentor until they return.

While traveling during a storm, Sandstorm suggests that they spend the night in an abandoned Twoleg nest, but as Firestar steps inside he becomes frightened from his kittypet origins and insists that they find another place to rest. While they are looking, Sandstorm gets swept away by a giant wave. Firestar regrets the argument over his feelings for Spottedleaf that he and Sandstorm had been having moments before she was lost, as well as not staying in the Twoleg nest. He spends the next few chapters of the book desperately searching for his beloved mate. He eventually finds her with the help of some loners and she insists on playing an equal role in the quest of rebuilding SkyClan. Sandstorm does most of the hunting during the book, and even manages to catch a fish, despite not being a RiverClan cat. According to Firestar she acted like aWindClan cat when she caught a rabbit and a RiverClan cat when she caught the fish.

Sandstorm takes up the role of part-time medicine cat for SkyClan when Patchfoot is injured by rats and Sandstorm is the only cat who has any basic knowledge of herbs which she learned from Cinderpelt before she and Firestar began their journey. She gets very upset when Spottedleaf comes to help Sandstorm heal Patchfoot, and Firestar lets it slip that he and Spottedleaf had seen each other before in his dream. Sandstorm insists that Firestar loves Spottedleaf and how the two had always seemed to belong together when Firestar first joined the Clan. Spottedleaf couldn't choose a mate, even if she desperately wanted to. Firestar also tells Sandstorm he would love her for all the moons to come and she would never be second-best to him. Though Spottedleaf would always be Firestar's first love, he reveals his love for Sandstorm belonged in the life they shared and would last for all the moons to come, basically saying that he now loves Sandstorm more than Spottedleaf. Sandstorm accepts, although gets slightly tense when Firestar brings up the name of Spottedleaf again.

In the fight against the rats, Sandstorm refuses to leave Firestar in the barn and later chooses to save him over Rainfur, who dies. Together, Sandstorm and Firestar leave SkyClan and return home to ThunderClan.

In the epilogue, she gives birth to Firestar's kits: Squirrelkit and Leafkit, meaning that she truly accepted Spottedleaf's advice. It was suspected by Firestar that she named Leafkit after Leafstar, or even Spottedleaf. Also she mentioned that she named Squirrelkit after her big bushy tail.In the books to follow she does not have any more kits. Also in the series that follows this she is not in the nursery anymore, so this is the only time it states her in the nursery.

Sandpaw is one of the older apprentices in ThunderClan, along with Dustpaw. She is being mentored byWhitestorm.

Sandpaw's father, Redtail, is killed in a battle against RiverClan, supposedly while fighting Oakheart. Sandpaw and Dustpaw are hostile and teasing towards Firepaw throughout the book because he has kittypetblood. Graypaw and Firepaw usually mention her and Dustpaw throughout the book while talking to each other. She is seen bragging about how she and Dustpaw get to go to the Gathering and the other apprentices don't. Sandpaw is seen telling Firepaw that perhaps Bluestar thinks that a kittypet should be better off taking care of the sick in the camp. When Firepaw asks her if she was going battle-training with Whitestorm, she said that he was going to teach her how a real warrior fights. When Lionheart tells Firepaw that he's going to the Moonstone with Bluestar, Sandpaw tells him that he better see Spottedleaf, and Firepaw was surprised that there was no sourness in her voice. As Firepaw padded towards the fresh-kill pile, he notices that there is no fresh-kill, and Sandpaw tells him that she and Dustpaw ate the last two mice. Once Graypaw came back from Spottedleaf's den, he was talking to Firepaw, and Sandpaw tells them to shut up, because she and Dustpaw were trying to get sleep after they had gone on a patrol.

She is first seen, after Fireheart and Graystripe are made warriors, sneering at them saying "Behold the great warriors," along with Dustpaw. Her mentor, Whitestorm, scolds her then takes her out for battle training.

Sandpaw joins Tigerclaw, Willowpelt, and Whitestorm on a patrol to help Fireheart and Graystripe, and theirWindClan escorts in a border skirmish against RiverClan. Locked in a tussle with another warrior, she almost falls off the edge of the gorge, and is saved by Fireheart. At first she is angry and tells Fireheart that she can fight her own battles, but when she sees Whiteclaw fall off the edge she realizes that she was an inch away from death and how Fireheart had saved her. Since then, when Dustpaw mocked Fireheart, she looked at him with a confused glance, instead of taunting him.

When Cloudkit and Brindleface's other kits go missing, she accompanies Fireheart to help find them. They follow a scent for a while, but finally realize that with the bad weather, they will need more cats to help search. They start to head back to camp, but they hear a squeak, and find the kits. They ask the kits what they were doing, and they reply that they were hunting. They then take the kits safely back to camp.

She fought in the battle against Brokentail and his rogues that attacked ThunderClan. She then received her warrior name with Dustpaw, and was named Sandstorm, after Fireheart told Bluestar of her bravery when fighting off the rogues. She kept her warrior's vigil with Dustpaw, now named Dustpelt.

She catches Fireheart and Graystripe going the opposite direction when the Clan is leaving the Gathering. Fireheart asks her to tell Bluestar they are going hunting when they really are going to see Ravenpaw. She happily agrees to tell Bluestar. She is sleeping next to Dustpelt when Fireheart returns and she tells him she told Tigerclaw, but he didn't believe her. She then sleeps next to Fireheart, receiving a glare and snort of disapproval from Dustpelt.

When Tigerclaw, Longtail, and Fireheart come back from the patrol, Tigerclaw explains about Fireheart's attempt to cross the branch, which impresses Sandstorm. When Bluestar orders Fireheart to make sure he's healthy and be checked up by Yellowfang and Cinderpaw, Sandstorm says that when he's done to come to the warriors den so they can eat.

Later on, she runs into Fireheart and Graystripe when they are on their way to visit Graystripe's kits in the nursery. Fireheart asks if he will see her in the den later which she replies with saying she'd see him, but keep Graystripe away from her. This showing that she didn't like the fact Graystripe had a mate in a different Clan. When Leopardfur, Stonefur, and Mistyfoot come to retrieve Silverstream and Graystripe's kits, Leopardfur says that they belong to RiverClan and Sandstorm spits, "Cheek! Who does she think she is, coming in and telling us what to do?"

She was sent out on a hunting patrol by Tigerclaw to Snakerocks, but was fetched by Cloudpaw once he and Fireheart discovered that rogues were going to attack the Clan. However, her patrol returns shortly after the fight is over and fetches Tigerclaw out of Bluestar's den along with Brackenfur. When moonhigh has come and gone and Bluestar still hasn't named a new deputy she tells Fireheart that she is annoyed that Bluestar won't set paw out of her den. She is among the first and few cats to congratulate Fireheart for becoming deputy.

On the way to the Gathering, she tells Fireheart about her fears about Bluestar, saying "she's changed". Fireheart has noticed too, but he convinces her that Bluestar is still the same cat she has always been.

She is seen waking up Fireheart excitedly saying "we've captured two ShadowClan warriors!". Later when she goes with Fireheart to take the ShadowClan warriors back she and Fireheart discover a tunnel under the Thunderpath that leads straight to ShadowClan. They both are excited to get back to camp to tell Bluestar. When they get back, Fireheart tells Bluestar but she seems to not care, telling him not to say a word about the tunnel to anyone else. Sandstorm and Fireheart are both sad about the news.

When Cloudpaw started eating kittypet food, after Fireheart told Sandstorm about what his apprentice was doing, Dustpelt sneered at Fireheart for not training his apprentice enough. But Sandstorm tells him to leave Fireheart alone, saying that being spiteful toward him isn't impressing anyone. Later, when Cloudpaw is stolen away by Twolegs, Fireheart is devastated, and tells Sandstorm that he now has no one in the Clan he's close to. This hurts Sandstorm, knowing that she loves him, and says that he has her and she apparently didn't mean anything. Later on, Fireheart apologizes, and Sandstorm is quick to forgive him.

Her love for Fireheart now becomes very obvious, although Fireheart seems unaware of it, so that even Cinderpelt has to tell him, "Fireheart, every cat in the Clan can see that Sandstorm is very, very fond of you!".

After telling Fireheart that Cloudpaw just needs time to grow up and he will be fine, she travels with him to the Twoleg farms near Barley and Ravenpaw's barn with Fireheart and Ravenpaw to find the stolen Cloudpaw. On the way to the Twoleg nest, she and Fireheart were chased by two dogs, but manage to climb a tree before being attacked. On their return journey, they are stopped by the WindClan warriors Mudclaw, Deadfoot, and Mudclaw's apprentice, Webpaw. She and Cloudpaw drive away Mudclaw. Throughout the book she becomes a cat for Fireheart to confide in.

When Fireheart decides to try to rescue Halftail, Patchpelt, and Bramblekit, during the fire. Sandstorm protests, stating "you can't go back in there!". She offers to go back in there, along with Cinderpelt and Yellowfang, but it was Yellowfang who went back with him.

When they're rebuilding the camp after the fire, Sandstorm and Fireheart argue. He snaps at Sandstorm and Cloudpaw. Fireheart tries to make up for the recent quarrel, but she ignores him when he comes out of Bluestar's den. When they are at the Gathering and Fireheart gets ready to attend, Sandstorm brushes past encourgingly him and says he did well on the Highrock, forgiving Fireheart for the fight.

When Fireheart chooses to go behind Bluestar's back, arranging a peace meeting with WindClan. She says what a bad idea that is, asking Dustpelt if he agrees with her. He says that he thinks it is a good idea, for once choosing Fireheart's side instead of Sandstorm's. She eventually agrees to go to Fourtrees with the patrol, though she feels very bad about lying to Bluestar.

When Fireheart chooses Brackenfur to mentor Tawnypaw, instead of Sandstorm, who was more experienced as a warrior and still hadn't yet had an apprentice, she becomes irritable towards him and refuses to speak to him. Fireheart chose Brackenfur because he wanted to keep Sandstorm safe, because Tawnypaw is the daughter of Tigerstar, and he was afraid that Tigerstar would hurt the mentors of his kits.

On the morning before the dog patrol, Fireheart approaches Sandstorm and asks her to come with him. She says she understands, and then Fireheart apologizes finally, and tells her he loves her. She says she loves him too, and she goes on the patrol with him. Sandstorm tells Fireheart that she could see how torn he must have felt, between loyalty to the Clan and loyalty to the warrior code. She also told him that she too was torn, between loyalty to the warrior code and loyalty to him.

Sandstorm's mother, Brindleface, is slaughtered by Tigerstar to lead the dogs toward the ThunderClan camp to give the dogs a taste of cat blood. She is also one of the cats in the line to the gorge.

Sandstorm and Firestar are now openly mates. It is hard for Sandstorm to comprehend that it will be harder for Firestar to spend time with her, now that he is leader, although she soon gets used to it. Firestar later considers her for being his new deputy but he realized that he couldn't choose her because she had never had an apprentice and feared that she wasn't ready yet to assume the deputy's duties. He also sorrowly realized that Sandstorm not having an apprentice was his fault.

Before the battle with BloodClan, Firestar is comforted by Sandstorm when she talks to him, saying that although he might never see some of the cats going into battle today they will all fight to the finish. Firestar doesn't want to be lonely, and invites her to sleep in his den, in which she agrees. Firestar says she's beautiful, when the moonlight makes her pelt silver. Also Sandstorm is seen training Sorrelkit, Sootkit,andRainkit how to fight in case of an attack on the camp. The three all argue that they want Sandstorm to be their mentor. Sandstorm quietly suggests to Firestar that she wouldn't say no if he wanted to give her Sorrelkit for an apprentice, to which Firestar agrees.

Sandstorm fought with LionClan against BloodClan, and helped them win. She also witnesses Firestar makeGraystripe deputy after Whitestorm's death, and yowls approval with Dustpelt. Firestar was seen running towards her after the battle with BloodClan saying "Thank StarClan!" Firestar gets dizzy, and begins to stumble on the way to Cinderpelt. Sandstorm supports him, saying he's lost blood, and Firestar insists he's tired. When Graystripe is yowling in fright that Firestar might lose another life, but Firestar says that Graystripe wouldn't become Clan leader for quite some time.