Leopardfur screams the cat who died's name, Whiteclaw. Quite a dumb name, considering he's referred to as having a dark color, but since he doesn't show up in the allegiances, I can't say for certain. According to the wiki, he's a black cat with one white paw.
Really.
But see, this is something that drives me crazy. Erin Hunter doesn't put certain cats into the allegiances, so when I have to check for something like coat color or gender, I have to use the wiki. Guardians of Ga'hoole did it right by having the list of characters at the end, where you don't have to worry about potential spoilers (assuming that the reader has finished the book before going through the list). I can assume that Erin doesn't want to give away certain aspects of the story, but that's absurdly stupid because Fireheart's future apprentice is right there on one of the first pages!
No, the only reason that makes sense is that Erin randomly decided to kill someone while writing, and just made up a warrior to be meaninglessly sacrificed without bothering to put them in the front. That's literally the only reason I can think of that holds up under scrutiny. It's an insanely stupid reason, but it's a reason.
Every time I take a break from reading these books I forget how bad they are. My stars and garters, I'm angry and we're not even two paragraphs in.
Also, can I just say this is entirely Fireheart's fault? He was determined to do the dumbest thing possible and it cost a life and his friend's (temporary) mental well-being. He never once mentions that he feels like it's his fault, even though it totally is. If they had just taken the Fourtrees route (WHICH IS ACTUALLY THE SHORTER ROUTE AS WE'VE SEEN), Whiteclaw would still be alive. I guess he's earning his suffix, but this is objectively all because of him. I cannot stress this enough - he took the longer and much more dangerous path and got his friends caught up in a battle, which resulted in a death, all because he was lazy and somehow rationalized that this was a smart idea.
This isn't even implied - it's straight up his fault. The fact that he feels no guilt from this is beyond me.
They get home, finally, and it's immediately apparent to everyone that something terrible has happened.

YES IT IS, GRAYSTRIPE. HE WAS THE ONE WHO PUSHED EVERYONE TO TRAVEL THROUGH RIVERCLAN.
Tigerclaw fully berates Fireheart for his stupidity, which is relieving, but it also disturbs me that we're supposed to be rallying against Tigerclaw in this scene because he's being mean to our main hero, but he's completely in the right. Fireheart made an incredibly stupid decision with long term ramifications. The fact that Bluestar doesn't yell at him as well is astounding.
You know what else is astounding? She decides to give both Fireheart and Graystripe apprentices. Immediately after hearing about what happened.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
BLUESTAR, FIREHEART LITERALLY JUST SHOWED THAT HE WOULD BE AN INCAPABLE MENTOR. HE MADE AN IRRESPONSIBLE DECISION AND IS NOW DEFENDING HIS ACTIONS INSTEAD OF APOLOGIZING AND RECOGNIZING HIS MISTAKE. NOT ONLY THAT, BUT HE BECAME A WARRIOR A COUPLE DAYS AGO AND THERE ARE OTHER, OLDER WARRIORS THAT CAN TEACH AN APPRENTICE MUCH MORE THAN AN INEXPERIENCED, SELF-RIGHTEOUS HALF-WIT LIKE THIS GUY.
And I'm finding myself siding with Tigerclaw yet again as he's protesting this idea, listing off warriors who could be better mentors than Fireheart and Graystripe. Like, Hunter, you realize that you're not supposed to agree with a villain, right?
For some reason, they have the apprentice ceremony at moonhigh, which doesn't make much sense, since the kit won't have time to go out and explore the territory. Then again, I've written that before, so I'll shut my mouth.
Graystripe shrugs, which is another point against Hunter, and Dustpaw tries trash-talking Fireheart again, but Sandpaw doesn't respond. What, you've been a quim to him this entire time even when he's proven himself over and over. Is it just because he saved your life that you finally don't want to insult him? Are you that shallow?

What. How did you come up with that? Your deputy was supposedly killed by RiverClan warriors, and ThunderClan didn't have any strong animosity towards them. Rosetail and Spottedleaf were killed by ShadowClan, and you didn't react more strongly than a "the leader needs to be driven out because he's stealing our kits". Deaths kind of happen in this world. You're feral cats.
You know, I'm surprised that everyone's making such a big deal out of this. The Clans don't like each other. RiverClan and ShadowClan were unconcerned that a whole group might have been killed or starved out. Why on earth would this be such a big deal? Graystripe has killed plenty of things in his life, so the fact that he happened to be nearby when a cat died and he's feeling tons of guilt from that is preposterous.
Well, anyway, Fireheart becomes Cinderpaw's mentor, and they both act out of turn and a little awkwardly during the ceremony, which is cute as heck. Cinderpaw is a fantastic character, but we'll get to that next time.
Up next: Chapter Nine.
Headdesk Count: 5000+
My goodness, this is the most rage-inducing chapter I've read to date.