Eclipse

Eclipse is the fourth volume in the Power of Three series. The cat on the cover is Jaypaw.

The Blurb

 * Firestar's three grandchildren have learned of the powerful prophecy that foretells their destinies, and the responsibility of deciding the Clans' future weighs heavily on the three apprentices. But each secretly yearns for power; Lionpaw dreams of being undefeatable in battle, while Hollypaw longs to be a great leader and Jaypaw knows only he could see the true past and future for them all. Their strengths are tested when ThunderClan is suddenly attacked--and all the Clans are thrown into a battle unlike any the cats have seen.


 * Then a dark shadow falls across the forest, and a mysterious stranger warns the Clans of more trouble to come. For the first time, it appears that StarClan does not hold the answers the cats need.


 * All of a sudden, the warrior code is being tested. A crisis of faith threatens to tear the four Clans apart and destroy what the cats have built their lives upon...

The Praise

 * "Action-packed adventure. Certain to please any reader who has ever wondered what dreams of grandeur may haunt the family cat."
 * -Publisher's Weekly

Detailed Plot Summary

 * The group of cats that made the journey to the Tribe of Rushing Water are returning back to the forest. Before they leave the mountain cats, Brook and Stormfur decide that they'd like to go back to living with the Tribe. A few days after the cats came back, Tigerstar and Hawkfrost continue training Lionpaw in his dreams. Lionpaw tells them about the prophecy, but they think that it was just a dream.


 * Hollypaw and a few other cats go on a border patrol to the WindClan border because they had scented WindClan on their territory, and found dead fresh-kill with WindClan scent on it. There, Hollypaw spots something on a hill that she swore was a lion. The patrol laugh at her and think that she was either kidding or imagining it. The next day, Hollypaw, Lionpaw, and the rest of a patrol go to the WindClan border for a second time. There, Hollypaw scents something in the bushes, which turns out to be one of the tunnels the leads to the river, the same one from Dark River. She doesn't tell the rest of the patrol, but Lionpaw goes back to see what it was.


 * Meanwhile, while Cinderpaw was having her assessment, her leg was injured and is forced to delay her warriors ceremony while she rests in the medicine cat den. Jaypaw becomes frustrated because Leafpool goes against what she had learned about treating leg injuries, and Cinderpaw becomes lazy and won't even stand up to drink her own water from the pool. Eventually, Jaypaw comes up with an idea to teach Cinderpaw how to swim in the lake. The two apprentices sneak away when Leafpool is making dirt, and they head to the lake. Cinderpaw learns that she can swim, and when Leafpool catches them, she is impressed with Jaypaw.


 * Not much longer after that, a mysterious loner named Sol is found by a patrol and insists on being brought to the camp. Hollypaw figures out that Sol was the "lion" that she had seen on the patrol that day. Sol takes Jaypaw and Leafpool into the woods to tell them the sun will disappear. That night, Lionpaw can't sleep, thinking it is Foxpaw and Icepaw whispering, but then he scents WindClan outside the apprentice den. He emerges from the den, and sees all of WindClan there. He yowls and the cats rush into battle. Firestar eventually yells to stop, and the cats in both Clans obey. Firestar walks up to Onestar, who tells Firestar WindClan is fighting because ThunderClan "Will help cats once they beg for it, and they ignore the warrior code". However, WindClan leaves the camp, and Firestar tells a patrol to follow WindClan to make sure they leave the territory.


 * There, WindClan split into three groups. The patrol returns and tells Firestar, who sends out two more patrols, and orders another to stay at camp in case WindClan invade. All three of the patrols get ambushed, and a battle breaks out. Hollypaw's patrol is being defeated, so she is ordered by Brambleclaw to go to ShadowClan to ask Blackstar for help, while WindClan asks RiverClan for help, and soon all four Clans are fighting. Lionpaw finds Heatherpaw and Crowfeather and almost kills Crowfeather, trying to get to Heatherpaw because he believed that it was her who told WindClan about the tunnels from Dark River. Heatherpaw claims it was Sedgekit. Immediately after, the sun falls into an eclipse, causing WindClan, RiverClan, and ShadowClan to panic and retreat to their own territories.


 * Later, Jaypaw convinces Lionpaw and Hollypaw that they need to find Sol and ask about the prophecy. They find him outside any of the territories in an abandoned Twoleg nest, different from the one on ThunderClan territory, and Sol tells them all he knows. Jaypaw convinces Sol to make a nest just outside ThunderClan's territory and become their 'mentor' for the prophecy. On the way back, they get caught by a ShadowClan patrol and Sol goes to Blackstar and tells the three apprentices that he was going to stay in ShadowClan. In the time between then and the next Gathering, it seems that Sol has convinced Blackstar and his Clan to stop believing in StarClan. Sol and Blackstar arrive at the Gathering together and Blackstar announces he has lost faith in StarClan and won't attend Gatherings anymore.


 * At the end of the book, Cinderpaw, Hollypaw, and Lionpaw get their warrior names, Cinderheart, Hollyleaf, and Lionblaze. Jaypaw watches the ceremony and feels happy for his siblings. He also detects a sense of pride coming from Leafpool and suspects that this is because Cinderpaw has finally fulfilled her destiny to be a warrior. He then questions his and his sibling's destiny, whether their powers were meant to save or destroy the Clan.

Trivia

 * The working title for Eclipse was Shadows of the Stars.