Rippletail (RC)

Rippletail is a dark gray tabby tom.

Twilight

 * When RiverClan is infected with sickness, Ripplepaw manages to remain healthy, unlike most of his Clanmates. When Leafpool comes to help, he is introduced to her by his mentor, Reedwhisker, who also thanks Leafpool for saving him when he was still a very young apprentice. They volunteer to fetch yarrow for the sick cats, and return with the herbs that are used to cure all the sick in RiverClan.

The Sight

 * Ripplepaw is now a warrior named Rippletail.

Long Shadows

 * He is now a mentor to Mallowpaw.

The Fourth Apprentice

 * Rippletail's current apprentice, Mallowpaw, becomes a warrior, and takes on the name Mallownose.


 * Rippletail and his Clanmate, Petalfur, are chosen to represent RiverClan to go on the patrol upstream to see what happened to the water, as a drought is currently happening and the stream is blocked by something. The cats journeying with them are Lionblaze, Dovepaw, Sedgewhisker, Whitetail, Tigerheart, and Toadfoot. They are mentioned to be weaker and more easily tired than the other cats because of the drought and famine, which is worse in RiverClan because of the lack of water.


 * Later, when dogs attack the patrol, he reveals that he, Petalfur, and the WindClan cats don't know how to climb trees, as there aren't many on their territory, so the ThunderClan cats and ShadowClan cats have to assist them. They all make it up safely. When one of the cats is wounded, Rippletail treats them and it is mentioned that he learned about herbs from Mothwing in preparation for the journey.


 * When they reach the beaver dam, he and Petalfur stop and start playing in the river, happy to be back near water. The beavers then start swimming after them, and almost catch the RiverClan warriors. When they reach the beavers, he and the other cats attempt to fight with them. In the battle, a couple of beavers corner Rippletail. The biggest beaver rips a large wound in his shoulder with its huge, jagged teeth. Petalfur brings him out of harm's way, but the wound is too much for him to recover from without proper care, and he suffers all night. He slowly dies when dawn comes, as he is the only cat who knew which herbs to use.


 * The other seven cats bury him by the stream as they would have been unable to bring him home, and they vow that they will find a way to bring back the water so that he will not have died in vain, but they realize that they must do so without fighting the beavers. While the remaining seven cats struggle in the flood, Dovepaw and Petalfur eventually meet up and Petalfur helps Dovepaw, saying that Rippletail won't have died in vain.


 * When the warriors return to the lake, Lionblaze and Dovepaw offer to go to RiverClan with Petalfur to break the news of Rippletail's death, but she declines, saying it is something that she must do alone. It is noted that Petalfur is still grieving heavily, but silently, for her lost Clanmate.

Fading Echoes

 * Dovepaw and Petalfur continue to grieve heavily for him.


 * As she dreams, Dovepaw hears Rippletail's lonely whimper ring into her ears. Later on, Jayfeather asks Dovepaw if she was dreaming about Rippletail. He goes on to tell her that Rippletail was always going to be part of the quest to unblock the stream and that he was born with courage and the cats couldn't have succeeded without him. Jayfeather continues by saying that his death steered Dovepaw's path in helping her find another way to defeat the beavers. It is said that StarClan led him to the battle that killed him, not Dovepaw. Afterward, it is mentioned that Dovepaw felt peace for the first time since Rippletail's death.

Trivia

 * In Twilight, Ripplepaw was mistakenly mentioned by Reedwhisker as a she-cat.
 * Rippletail was mistakenly described as silver.
 * It was mentioned by Kate Cary that he may be one of Mistystar's kits.