Battle for Sunningrocks (ITW)

The battle for Sunningrocks was a deadly skirmish involving RiverClan and ThunderClan at Sunningrocks. While RiverClan initially won the territory, a smaller ThunderClan patrol reclaimed Sunningrocks a few days later, which resulted in the deaths of both Clan deputies, Redtail and Oakheart. This battle was featured in Into the Wild, Leopardstar's Honor, Redtail's Debt, and The Prophecies Begin, volume 1, and it is one of the inciting catalysts in the original arc.
==Summary==
===Premise===
:Conflict between ThunderClan and RiverClan over Sunningrocks had spanned generations as both Clans frequently fought over the pile of rocks by the river. RiverClan had reclaimed Sunningrocks during Crookedstar's leadership, though a tense encounter between two border patrols results in Whitefang's and Sunfish's deaths, and ThunderClan's claim to the rocks. Nearly a half-moon later, Crookedstar ordered his warriors to reclaim the rocks for RiverClan.
===Overview===
:Striking at night, Oakheart's patrol overwhelmed the awaiting ThunderClan patrol, forcing their Clan deputy Redtail to order a retreat. It was the first major loss for Bluestar since she became leader. A few days later, Redtail, Tigerclaw, and Ravenpaw remarked Sunningrocks but were encountered by Oakheart's hostile patrol. A fight ensued, resulting in Oakheart's death by a rock fall. After RiverClan fled, though Tigerclaw took the opportunity to kill Redtail in hopes of becoming Clan deputy himself. He claimed that Oakheart killed Redtail, and Tigerclaw killed Oakheart in revenge and to reclaim Sunningrocks. Only Ravenpaw knew the truth, which resulted in his self-exile. Fireheart later uncovered the truth to ThunderClan after confirming Ravenpaw's version of the battle with some RiverClan warriors.
==Description==
===RiverClan wins===
:Led by the RiverClan deputy Oakheart, numerous RiverClan warriors crosses the river and swarms over the rocks, where they are met by a ThunderClan patrol, including Tigerclaw, Mousefur, Whitestorm, Longtail, and Runningwind, led by their deputy, Redtail. While ThunderClan is briefly able to hold them off, Redtail calls for a retreat, not wanting to risk any casualties. This greatly angers Tigerclaw, who wishes to keep fighting. Redtail eventually forces Tigerclaw to retreat, giving RiverClan the victory.
===ThunderClan retaliates===
:A few days later, Tigerclaw convinces Bluestar to allow him to take a small patrol to remark Sunningrocks. At sunrise, Redtail, Tigerclaw, and Tigerclaw's apprentice Ravenpaw remark Sunningrocks. In RiverClan, Crookedstar orders Oakheart to lead Frogleap, Beetlenose, Loudbelly, Mistyfoot, and Stonefur to Sunningrocks.
:They catch the RiverClan cats off guard, and seeing their chance to take back the territory, they attack, with the most notable fight being Redtail battling However, this is short lived as Oakheart comes in to defend the young warrior, and claims that Redtail will not harm the warrior. This initially confuses Redtail, but spits an insult at the RiverClan deputy, which results in the two deputies attacking one another. They make their way to Sunningrocks, where Oakheart collides into the rocks, resulting in a rockfall which kills the RiverClan deputy, but leaves Redtail mostly unscathed, and allowing ThunderClan to retake Sunningrocks.
===Tigerclaw's betrayal===
:As Redtail recovers from the fight with Oakheart, Tigerclaw orders Ravenpaw back to ThunderClan while he stays behind to help the deputy. Ravenpaw, however, turns back, and when he does, he sees Tigerclaw turn on Redtail, overpowering the surprised deputy and tearing out his throat. Horrified, Ravenpaw runs back to ThunderClan's camp but is too shaken by Tigerclaw's treachery to admit anything.
===The truth revealed===
:Redtail's death is met with grief from all of ThunderClan, especially from Bluestar and Dustpaw, Redtail's apprentice. Bluestar appoints Lionheart to succeed Redtail. Dustpaw is given Darkstripe as his replacement mentor. Tigerclaw lies, reporting that Oakheart killed Redtail, and he killed Oakheart in revenge.
:Tigerclaw, realizing his apprentice witnessed his actions, begins spreading rumors of the young apprentice being a ShadowClan spy, but Ravenpaw admits to Graypaw and Firepaw that he saw Tigerclaw kill Redtail in hopes of getting the promotion to deputy, but instead Lionheart, Graypaw's mentor, gets the position. Lionheart is killed in a battle with ShadowClan, and Tigerclaw achieves his ambition of becoming ThunderClan's deputy in turn.
==Aftermath==
:Fireheart goes undercover to discover the truth of Redtail's death, going so far as to ask Mistyfoot, Graypool, and Ravenpaw for confirmation. Graypool confirms Oakheart's body was crushed by a rockfall, and with Ravenpaw reaffirms his story of Tigerclaw murdering Redtail.
:Tigerclaw eventually conspires with Brokentail, the blinded, former ShadowClan leader to kill Bluestar and become ThunderClan's leader, but this foiled by Fireheart, and Tigerclaw is exiled for his actions, and is resented by Dustpelt, Longtail and Darkstripe for treason and murder.
:In RiverClan, the cumulative deaths of Whitefang, Sunfish, and Oakheart cause Leopardfur to develop a deep vendetta against ThunderClan. One of her first acts as RiverClan's new leader is to attempt to reclaim Sunningrocks for RiverClan, though it results in ThunderClan's victory.
==Legacy==
:For moons, ThunderClan believed that Tigerclaw avenged Redtail, such as Cinderpaw telling Fireheart that Sunningrocks was the place where Redtail was killed by Oakheart. Fireheart knows Ravenpaw's side of the story, but agrees with Cinderpaw's claim. When the truth was revealed, Tigerclaw was resented by all of ThunderClan and exiled, and his kits, Bramblekit and Tawnykit were the victims of many assumptions that they would turn out just like their father.
:Redtail's death started Tigerclaw's lust for power, and an investigation that eventually nearly led to Tigerclaw taking up ThunderClan's leadership. The revelation that Tigerclaw killed Redtail, and tried to kill her, causes Bluestar to descend into madness, not willing to trust any cat save for Whitestorm. 
==Characters==
===Redtail===
:ThunderClan's deputy under Bluestar, Redtail led the first defense when RiverClan sought to reclaim Sunningrocks. However, once he realizes that RiverClan's patrol outnumbers them, he orders ThunderClan to retreat, despite this decision being met with anger from Tigerclaw, who wishes to keep fighting. Redtail orders for Tigerclaw to retreat, which in turn allows RiverClan to subsequently win Sunningrocks. Redtail leads a second patrol to reclaim them, and attacks the young warrior Stonefur, before being attacked by Oakheart, who, unbeknownst to him, is Stonefur's father. Redtail and Oakheart fight their way to Sunningrocks, where a rockfall kills Oakheart and leaves Redtail mostly unscathed. However, when he leaves the area, he is caught by Tigerclaw, who proceeds to take the opportunity to kill the ThunderClan deputy, while his own apprentice, Ravenpaw, watches in horror.
===Oakheart===
:RiverClan's deputy, and the brother of RiverClan's leader, Crookedstar, and secretly, the forbidden mate of Bluestar and the father of Mistyfoot and Stonefur. He led this attack to reclaim Sunningrocks, and won. When Redtail came back with a second patrol to reclaim their territory, Oakheart defends Stonefur from Redtail, knowing the young tom is his son. Redtail however, unaware, is confused, but attacks the deputy, and the two second-in-commands fight their way to the rocks, where their movement causes a rockfall, resulting in the death of Oakheart while Redtail manages to escape.
===Tigerclaw===
:Ambitious and hungry for battle, Tigerclaw held a bitter resentment against Redtail for being made deputy and for his cautious, peace-loving ways. During the battle for Sunningrocks, Tigerclaw seizes his chance to get rid of Redtail and murders him in cold blood. This decision put Tigerclaw on a dark path that nearly led to the destruction of all the Clans.
===Ravenpaw===
:A timid young apprentice of ThunderClan, he was given Tigerclaw as a mentor in hopes of helping his nervous nature, but this in fact rather terrified him. He took part in Redtail's patrol to go and reclaim Sunningrocks, and when Redtail escaped from the rockfall that killed Oakheart, Tigerclaw orders him to go back to camp. Ravenpaw obliges, but turns back as he wanted to know if Redtail was okay. He witnesses Tigerclaw subdue Redtail and kill him, traumatizing the apprentice and he is unable to admit to anything out of fear of Tigerclaw. While initially describing the battle as Redtail being killed by Oakheart, he slips that Redtail was in fact the one to kill Oakheart, which puts Firepaw on the path to find out what actually happened. Ravenpaw plays a key part in this, as he was the sole witness of Redtail's murder and helps Fireheart find out the truth, and is moved to live with Barley when Tigerclaw realizes his apprentice knows of his murder, where Ravenpaw happily lives and dies peacefully.
==Trivia==
===Mistakes===
*Redtail's Debt depicts Oakheart's death at Sunningrocks being caused by Redtail. However, one of the foundational aspects of The Prophecies Begin was that he did not die that way, and was instead confirmed to be killed by a rockfall.
*In Leopardstar's Honor, RiverClan challenges ThunderClan for Sunningrocks and Leopardfur specifically mentions this fight taking place after her skirmish with ThunderClan that resulted in Whitefang's and Sunfish's deaths. This fight is supposed to line up with the one in Into the Wild (and supposedly Redtail's Debt) where Oakheart and Redtail die. However, RiverClan already owned Sunningrocks by this time as they retook the pile of rocks in the prologue of Into the Wild. This is even mentioned in Redtail's Debt.
*In Leopardstar's Honor, Frogleap, Loudbelly, Beetlenose, and Mistyfoot accompany Oakheart to Sunningrocks with no mention of Stonefur. In Redtail's Debt, there is an unnamed black-and-gray she-cat. Redtail's confrontation with Stonefur is also missing from Redtail's Debt. In the paperback version of Leopardstar's Honor, Beetlenose is replaced with Stonefur.Revealed in the paperback version of Leopardstar's Honor, chapter 5
==Quotes==
==See also==
*Into the Wild
**Into the Wild/Cliffnotes
*Forest of Secrets
**Forest of Secrets/Cliffnotes
*Redtail's Debt
**Redtail's Debt/Cliffnotes
*Leopardstar's Honor
**Leopardstar's Honor/Cliffnotes
==Notes and references==
pl:Bitwa o Słoneczne Skały (Uwd)fi:Taistelu Aurinkokivistä (ViL)es:Batalla por las Rocas Soleadasfr:Bataille pour les Rochers du Soleil
Category:Battles
Category:Events
Category:Into the Wild
Category:Leopardstar's Honor
Category:Redtail's Debt
Category:The Prophecies Begin (volume 1)