Ferncloud

Ferncloud is a supporting protagonist in the Warriors book series. She was a member of ThunderClan who helped drive the dog pack out of the forest to avenge her mother Brindleface's death. A few moons after becoming a warrior, she begins to stay in the nursery full-time to help the other queens raise their children. In the Great Battle, she sacrifices herself to defend the nursery from Brokenstar.
== Appearance ==
Ferncloud is a small she-cat with short, pale gray fur. She has pale green eyes and her pelt is speckled with darker gray flecks.
== Biography ==
Fernkit is born to Brindleface and Whitestorm alongside her brothers Ashkit, Tulipkit and Elderkit. However, Elderkit and Tulipkit die shortly after birth.
=== The Prophecies Begin ===
==== Fire and Ice ====
Fireheart brings his newborn nephew Cloudkit to ThunderClan, who is then raised by Brindleface alongside the remaining half of her litter. Later, Cloudkit convinces Fernkit and Ashkit to sneak out of camp with him to go hunting. Fireheart and Sandstorm find the two gray kits sheltering from the snow in a log, who tell them that Cloudkit is hunting before the two warriors see the white kitten hopping through the snow with a shrew. The three are brought back to camp where Bluestar scolds them for sneaking out.
Later still, Fernkit, Ashkit and Cloudkit all try following a patrol going to help WindClan with an invasion. Tigerclaw scares the three kits when he demands to know why they're following, and tasks Fireheart with escorting them back to camp. Instead though, Fireheart has Brackenfur take them home so that he won't miss the battle.
==== Rising Storm ====
Fernkit and Ashkit become warrior apprentices, getting renamed Fernpaw and Ashpaw. Fireheart assigns their mentors as Darkstripe and Dustpelt respectively, which Bluestar is skeptical about because both cats were once friends of Tigerclaw, who had since been exiled for treason. During the ceremonies, Fernpaw is nervous and at first shrinks back from Darkstripe when he tries to touch noses with her.
Fernpaw and Dustpelt bond, and Fireheart notices how calm and patient the normally grouchy tom is with her. When ThunderClan territory catches fire, they flee to Sunningrocks. As Darkstripe berates Fireheart for letting Yellowfang go back into the burning camp to save Halftail, Fernpaw gives him a frightened look. As the Clan crosses into RiverClan to escape the spreading flames, Dustpelt helps Fernpaw cross the river.
==== A Dangerous Path ====
Bluestar, no longer trusting of most of her Clanmates after Tigerstar became ShadowClan's leader and the fire that burned down the camp, refuses to name any new warriors aside from Cloudtail, who doesn't believe in StarClan. Swiftpaw, who has long since been overdue to become a warrior, is enraged by this and comes up with the idea to find out what's been stealing ThunderClan's prey to impress the leader. The other apprentices save for Brightpaw decline helping him though, and after Swiftpaw and Brightpaw sneak out, Fernpaw tells everyone of the plan and where they went.
Soon after, Tigerstar attempts to get the dog pack - which had been stealing the prey - to attack ThunderClan's camp by laying a trail of dead rabbits to follow. To give them a taste for cat blood, he kills Brindleface and leaves her at the end of the trail. When this is discovered as the trail is being removed, Fernpaw, Ashpaw and Cloudtail are all devastated and mourn their mother heavily. When Fireheart makes a plan to get rid of the pack by leading them to and over the gorge, Ashpaw and Fernpaw volunteer to join, wishing to avenge Brindleface's death. The plan succeeds, and ThunderClan is finally rid of the pack.
==== The Darkest Hour ====
In the aftermath of getting rid of the dog pack, Fireheart approaches Fernpaw and Ashpaw, telling them they both did well. Fernpaw says that they knew they had to keep the dogs away from camp as Dustpelt praises them both for how they did.
Later, Darkstripe is caught feeding deathberries to Sorrelkit. While waiting for Sorrelkit to recover to see if Darkstripe's claims that he tried to stop her from eating the deathberries are true, Fernpaw tells Firestar that she no longer wants the black tabby as a mentor if he really is guilty. The kit is able to recover and reveals that he got her to eat them after she say him meeting up with Blackfoot, Tigerstar's deputy. Darkstripe is then banished from the Clan, and Fernpaw is reassigned to Longtail. Dustpelt offered to be her mentor instead, but Firestar knew that he'd be too soft on her and was already busy with Ashpaw anyways.
Much later, during the battle against BloodClan, She helps Cinderpelt treat cats injured in the fight. She and Ashpaw then avenge their father Whitestorm's death at the claws of BloodClan's deputy Bone, killing him alongside Bramblepaw, Tawnypaw, Featherpaw and Stormpaw.
=== A Shadow in RiverClan ===
Several moons later, Fernpaw and Ashpaw are now warriors, with the names Ferncloud and Ashfur. While hunting a squirrel, she accidentally crosses into RiverClan territory where Featherpaw, who is now also a warrior named Feathertail, confronts her. Ferncloud gives Feathertail a warm greeting, and as the two catch up the gray she-cat mentions that she and Dustpelt are now mates. Feathertail lets her keep the squirrel she caught, but suddenly a RiverClan patrol shows up and demand to know why the silver she-cat isn't doing anything about Ferncloud's trespassing, accusing the ThunderClan warrior of stealing prey. The patrol is about to attack when Feathertail defends her, explaining that she didn't know she's crossed the border before telling Ferncloud to go back home. Later, a ThunderClan patrol with Ferncloud in it crosses into RiverClan territory. They encounter Feathertail, and Ferncloud tries to talk to her to ease the tension, but the RiverClan warrior refuses to listen and chases the patrol out.
==== Firestar's Quest + Graystripe's Vow ====
Ferncloud and Dustpelt now have two sons: Spiderkit and Shrewkit. Ferncloud is nervous about her kits' wellbeing when a badger is reported to be in ThunderClan's territory, and Firestar telling her that he sent a patrol to track it doesn't ease her fear. When badgers do attack, Willowpelt is killed and Cinderpelt takes her kits Sorrelpaw, Rainpaw and Sootpaw to the nursery for Ferncloud to look after them. When Firestar and Sandstorm leave for reasons they refuse to reveal, Ferncloud questions this decision because of the possibility the badgers could return.
A while later, Ferncloud and Brightheart gossip about how Firestar's and Sandstorm's scents have disappeared from ThunderClan territory. The two wonder if they truly left on a mission from StarClan, with Ferncloud mentioning that Dustpelt believes they abandoned the Clan to become kittypets. The light gray she-cat doubts this though, and adds that she thinks her mate doubts this deep down as well.
When Brightheart gives birth to her and Cloudtail's daughter, Ferncloud ushers Shrewkit and Spiderkit away, telling them that Whitekit isn't big enough to play with them yet. When ThunderClan's stand-in leader Graystripe announces that two ex-BloodClan cats named Gremlin and Scraps wish to join the Clan, he reveals that they have knowledge about BloodClan planning an attack, with Ferncloud agreeing that they can trust the two. Dustpelt then tells Graystripe his mate's suggestion of allowing Scraps and Gremlin to join until Firestar gets back, after which he'll decide what to do with them.
As the rematch against BloodClan draws near, Graystripe tasks Ferncloud and Brightheart with defending the nursery, which they do so fiercely. After BloodClan's defeat, Ferncloud watches balefully as their new leader Fury leaves back to the twolegplace.
=== The New Prophecy ===
==== Midnight ====
Shrewpaw and Spiderpaw are now apprentices, and Ferncloud and Dustpelt have a new litter: a light brown tom named Birchkit, a brown she-kit named Larchkit, and a dark brown she-kit named Hollykit. Ferncloud proudly watches then playing in the puddles after it rains, commenting that it's the first time they've seen rain. Brambleclaw talks to her for a bit, stating how healthy and strong her litter is.
==== Moonrise ====
A Firestar discusses the twolegs destroying ThunderClan territory during a Clan meeting, Ferncloud asks what they're going to do as she curls her tail around her kittens protectively. As the forest's destruction continues, prey diminishes severely. Dustpelt is concerned about Ferncloud losing weight, and her lack of food causes her milk supply to dwindle. Larchkit eventually starves to death from a lack of milk, and her parents are devastated, Fercloud especially, who blames herself for the kit's death. Later, Dustpelt convinces her to eat a small mouse so that Hollykit and Birchkit will have milk.
==== Dawn ====
When Brambleclaw, Squirrelpaw and Stormfur return from the journey to the sun-drown place, they go to Sunningrocks, where ThunderClan has been sheltering ever since twolegs destroyed their camp. They find Ferncloud crouched over her remaining two kits, who notes that they look better-fed than everyone else and angrily accuses them of abandoning the Clans because they couldn't face the forest's destruction. Brambleclaw later gives her fresh-kill as Squirrelpaw notices how thin she is and how small her kits are.
Despite her best efforts to take care of her kits, Hollykit soon dies of starvation as well. As she grieves heavily, a kittypet named Cody who is sheltering at Sunningrocks convinces her to eat the poppy seeds Cinderpelt gave her to ease her pain. As she sleeps to conserve energy, Cody watches over Birchkit for her. Ferncloud's grief only worsens even more when Shrewpaw is run over on the thunderpath while chasing after a pheasant.
As the Clans agree to leave the forest and move to the lake, she washes Birchkit while they prepare to go and scolds him when he complains about the bitter taste of the travelling herbs Leafpaw hands out. While passing through the mountains, she voices concern about the snow, anxios that she may lose Birchkit as well. When her younger son says that he misses playing with Cody, she assures him there will be plenty of time to play when they get to their new home. When Tallpoppy's son Marshkit nearly gets taken by an eagle, she comforts the shaken queen. The two later share tongues while watching Birchkit and Marshkit play.
==== Starlight ====
In the Clans' new home at the lake, Birchkit's mother tells him that Tallpoppy's kits Marshkit, Applekit and Toadkit are from ShadowClan, meaning that once the territories are established they'll live separately and he won't be able to play with them anymore. She and her son look sad as Tallpoppy and her kits say goodbye before going to ShadowClan's new territory.
When a hollow is found, Ferncloud is doubtful that it could be ThunderClan's new camp, asking Brambleclaw to find somewhere warm and dry for the nursery, worried that Birchkit my catch a cough. She and Dustpelt then help make the new nursery by a thicket of brambles. Birchkit tries to help too, but just ends up getting in his father's way. Ferncloud tells Dustpelt not to scold him, saying it's a good sign that after everything they went through, he's still happy enough to play. During Spiderpaw's warrior ceremony, Ferncloud and Dustpelt look on proudly as he earns the name Spiderleg.
==== Twilight ====
While smoothing Birchkit's messy fur, he asks if he can help Whitepaw with her apprentice duties, and she reminds him that he won't begin his training for another moon. When Birchpaw becomes an apprentice and is mentored by his uncle Ashfur, Ferncloud moves out of the nursery and returns to being a normal warrior.
When a loner named Daisy flees from the farm she lives on in fear that twolegs will take away her newborn kittens, a ThunderClan patrol finds her and takes her in. Ferncloud ushers her and her litter into the nursery, helping Brightheart and Sorreltail take care of them and help them adjust to Clan life.
When badgers attack ThunderClan camp, Ferncloud leads Birchpaw, Daisy and her kids to safety. When Leafpool and Crowfeather arrive to help, she tries talking to the former before getting sent to help drive the badgers out. After the battle, Dustpelt worries if his mate is ok, and Squirrelflight assures him that she's unharmed.
==== Sunset ====
Worrying that Dustpelt was killed by badgers, she goes out with Brambleclaw to look for him, relived to find him alive. She stays with Birchpaw in the medicine den as Leafpool tends to his wounds, licking his shoulder to comfort him. Daisy considers leaving because of the badger attack, and Ferncloud tries to convince her to stay by saying that things will get easier in newleaf.
As Firestar calls a Clan meeting, Leafpool assures Ferncloud that Birchpaw will be fine as they sit together, as the green-eyed she-cat is terrified of losing him after the rest of his litter died so young. She tells Leafpool that she's a very good medicine cat, and she's happy that she returned from being a loner. Goldenflower then complains that the lake is much worse that the forest, but Ferncloud rebukes that the forest is no longer hospitable, and StarClan wouldn't have lead them to a new place they couldn't settle in to.
After Daisy takes her kits and goes back to the farm, Ferncloud begins looking for her all over camp, accidentally waking Brambleclaw in the process. She concludes that she must have deliberately left, which makes her sad. Sorreltail suggests leading a search party to go find Daisy, but Ferncloud tells her that she needs to stay with her own kits. Daisy eventually comes back, which Ferncloud is very happy about.
=== Leafpool's Wish ===
After being gone for a while, Leafpool and Squirrelflight return to ThunderClan with three kits named Hollykit, Jaykit and Lionkit. Squirrelflight claims that the litter is hers and that Brambleclaw is the father, but that she can't nurse them because her milk dried up early. Ferncloud and Daisy agree to nurse the kittens and help Squirrelflight raise them.
=== The Power of Three ===
==== The Sight ====
Ferncloud has another litter of kittens: a white she-kit named Icekit and a ginger tom named Foxkit. Daisy takes over raising Hollykit, Jaykit and Lionkit for the most part with the specked gray queen preoccupied. She silently has concerns about Jaykit's future warrior training due to him being blind. She frets over the nursery's safety when a fox den is discovered, and later her and Daisy are tasked with watching over Squirrelflight's kits to punish them for sneaking out of camp and trying to drive out the foxes themselves. After Hollykit sneaks out of the nursery at night to get Leafpool to remove thorns from Lionkit's pelt, she doesn't punish the black she-kit, saying she had good intentions before sending her and her brothers off to get themselves some fresh-kill.
Later, when Ashfur is picked to go on a patrol to help WindClan with some dogs, she tells her brother to be careful before he leaves, remembering their mother's death. Ashfur assures her that he's outran dogs before, but she responds that she was at his side then. He eases her worries by saying that he's motivated by the fact that he now has her and her kits to protect. Later, when her kits are disappointed that they're too young to go to he Gathering, she keeps them entertained by organizing a scavenger hunt for them.
==== Outcast ====
Spiderleg and Daisy become mates and have two kits named Rosekit and Toadkit, who are watched over by their grandmother Ferncloud while their mother watches her older kits' warrior ceremonies. Upon Hollypaw catching and bringing back a blackbird, Foxkit asks to have some, but Ferncloud says to and tells him and his sister to go get something from the fresh-kill pile instead. Soon Icepaw and Foxpaw are apprenticed, but rather than returning to being a warrior, Ferncloud decides to be a nursery queen full-time like Daisy so she can help the other queens raise their children.
==== Eclipse ====
When WindClan attacks, Ferncloud wishes Dustpelt and Foxpaw good luck as they go to fight, seeming sad as she says goodbye. She struggles to stay in camp without hunting when she can hear the battle close by. Jaypaw tries comforting her, but she doesn't believe him and asks what StarClan has told him. When a solar eclipse occurs, Leafpool suggests that it was a sign from StarClan, and the gray she-cat wonders what it could mean if it is. Icepaw begs her mother to let them hide in the nursery, yowling that she can't see due to the eclipse, and her mother wonders why ThunderClan is suffering when it was WindClan who started the fight.
==== Long Shadows ====
When ShadowClan's medicine cat comes to bring Tawnypelt and her kits, Sandstorm remarks that Blackstar banishing a rogue named Sol who was causing the Clan to fall apart will be a good thing for all the Clans, Ferncloud brushes up against her in agreement. She adds that there should always be four Clans living by the warrior code.
When Dustpelt gets sick, Ferncloud prevents him from going on any patrols despite his insistence that he's fine. She asks Jaypaw if there's anything he can do, and when Firestar falls ill as well, she worries about what would happen if the leader died, fretting that WindClan or RiverClan could attack again. She then helps prepare an abandoned twoleg house for the sick cats to be quarantined in before trying to check up on Dustpelt. Birchfall stops her, not wanting his mom to get sick as well, so she buries her head in his shoulder sadly. She becomes worried when Ashfur doesn't show up when the Clan is supposed to leave for the Gathering, and is horrified and grief-stricken when his dead body is found floating in the river on the way to the island.
==== Sunset ====
Ferncloud, Brackenfur, Sorreltail and Brightheart listen to Thornclaw speculating that WindClan had killed Ashfur, as he was found near their territory, urging that they be raided in revenge. She later tells Honeyfern that no one in ThunderClan would kill Ashfur, despite Firestar stating otherwise earlier. Foxpaw complains that he doesn't like WindClan when he's chosen to go on a patrol near the border, Ferncloud assures him that there's nothing to be afraid of. She later congratulates Whitewing when she gives birth to Dovekit and Ivykit, remarking that having kits in leafbare isn't easy.
=== Omen of the Stars ===
==== The Fourth Apprentice ====
Ferncloud sympathizes with the RiverClan leader Leopardstar's decision to lay claim to all the fish in the lake, remembering how they're weakened by the drought, telling Firestar, Brambleclaw and Dustpelt to let them have it. She also sympathizes with the injured RiverClan warrior Rainwhisker when he's taken to ThunderClan to heal, but her request to let him have some of their fresh-kill is shot down by her Clanmates.
As Jayfeather looks for Poppyfrost, Ferncloud tells him that she isn't in the nursery, suggesting she just went out to get some water or stretch her legs. Daisy is frantic about Poppyfrost's disappearance, so the green-eyed she-cat escorts her back into the nursery. While Poppyfrost goes into labor, Ferncloud tells the kitting she-cat's mate Berrynose that he's blocking the light they need. She then reports happily that Poppyfrost's kitting has gone well.
==== Fading Echoes ====
She's alarmed when RiverClan's medicine cat Mothwing and new leader Mistystar enter camp, telling Poppyfrost's kits Molekit and Cherrykit to go back inside the nursery with a swish of her tail. After Graystripe's and Millie's daughter Briarpaw is severely injured by a tree falling on her, Ferncloud assures the two distressed parents that Jayfeather and Leafpool are doing everything they can to save her.
==== The Forgotten Warrior ====
Ferncloud and Daisy congratulate Brackenfur when he announces that his mate Sorreltail is expecting another litter of kittens. The former then touches her nose to Sorreltail's shoulder and welcomes her back to the nursery. After Sorreltail goes into labor while out of camp, Brackenfur and Ferncloud rush to her aid. The speckled gray she-cat gets some wet moss for Sorreltail to drink out of before breaking open some fennel stalks and dripping the juice into the tortoiseshell's mouth. Sorreltail worries about how small the kits are, but Ferncloud says that they'll be fine, helping to carry them back to camp. When getting the kits into the nursery, Ferncloud and Daisy then begin licking them as their mother rests.
==== The Last Hope ====
Ferncloud marches out of the nursery and swipes a shrew from Bumblestripe, telling him that the expecting Brightheart would appreciate it more than he would. She later gets a stomachache, so Cinderheart gives her a check-up while Jayfeather gets a few chervil roots for her ailment. Later, when the battle against the Dark Forest draws near, she, Daisy and Brightheart swear to protect the nursery and the kittens within from any attackers.
As the Great Battle begins, Ferncloud hisses at the Dark Forest spirits from the hollow's entrance, calling them cowards. One of the Dark Forest cats, Brokenstar, then attacks the nursery and yanks Ferncould out from inside, quickly killing her. The spirit of Brokenstar's mother Yellowfang then arrives, killing her son and causing him to fade away. When Dustpelt and their kits see Ferncloud's dead body, the latter surrender out of despair while the former gets angry that no one saved her. Firestar replies that no one could have done anything, and she died a death of honor. Amberkit then asks why Ferncloud is asleep, and Snowkit assumes that she's tired from fighting and Dustpelt will wake her up soon.
After the battle is won, Firestar dies from his wounds and his spirit rises from his body. Dustpelt tells him to tell Ferncloud that he loves her when the leader gets to StarClan. Ferncloud's spirit then rises as well, with the kits exclaiming that she's waking up. She looks to Dustpelt and gives him a bittersweet nod of goodbye as she and all the other spirits ascend to StarClan.
=== The Ultimate Guide ===
Ferncloud appears during Brambleclaw's leadership ceremony in StarClan to give him his sixth life. She gives him a life of protecting ThunderClan, telling him that it isn't only warriors who protect their Clans, but also the mothers who stay in the nursery and raise their young.
== Trivia ==
* Ferncloud and Dustpelt have seven kits, and are second place for having the most kits in the series, with the first being a tie between Scorchfur, Snowbird and Skystar, who have nine kits in total.
* Ferncloud's death in the Great Battle was to spite those who complained about her being "useless" for not being a warrior.
* Lionblaze's and Cinderheart's son Fernsong is named after her.
* Originally author Victoria Holmes suspected that Runningwind was the father of her and Ashfur, but it was later revealed to be Whitestorm.
== External links ==
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