The Darkest Hour

The Darkest Hour is the final volume in the Original Series of six warriors books.

The Blurb
Fire alone can save our Clan...

ThunderClan's darkest hour is upon them, as Tigerstar's quest for power plunges the forest into terrible danger. In order to save his friends, Fireheart must uncover the meaning of an ominous proclamation from StarClan:

"Four will become two. Lion and tiger will meet in battle, and blood will rule the forest."

The time has come for prophecies to unfold, and for heroes to rise...

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

"A suspenseful adventure story that urges readers onward."
 * -ALA Booklist

Detailed Plot Summary
Prologue

In the prologue, Tigerstar travels to make a deal with Scourge, leader of a Clan called BloodClan, made up of very many strong, stray cats from Twolegplace. Tigerstar offers Scourge a share of the forest in return to BloodClan's help in convincing the other Clans to join his Clan, called TigerClan.

Leader Ceremony

In this final volume of the first Warriors series, Fireheart becomes the leader of ThunderClan and, in the tradition of Clan leaders, receives his nine lives and the name Firestar from StarClan. His leader ceremony is interrupted when a huge hill of bones appears, followed by a river of blood. During this chaos, Bluestar, former leader of ThunderClan, gives him the prophecy: Four will become two. Lion and tiger will meet in battle, and blood will rule the forest.

Darkstripe's Treachery

Upon returning, Firestar turns his suspicions to Darkstripe, a warrior and a former ally of Tigerstar. He orders Brackenfur to keep an eye on him. On Firestar's way back from hunting with Bramblepaw (his apprentice), Firestar finds Sorrelkit, a ThunderClan kit, poisoned next to a pile of chewed up deathberries. Graystripe attacks Darkstripe, whom he accuses feeding the deathberries to Sorrelkit. Sorrelkit recovers and finally reveals that Darkstripe did feed the berries to her so she could not tell Firestar that Darkstripe was meeting Blackfoot, the ShadowClan deputy on their territory. Darkstripe is exiled from ThunderClan after this incident occurred. Darkstripe goes to join his former ally, Tigerstar.

The Gathering

At the Gathering, Tigerstar proposes to unite the four Clans under one Clan, TigerClan. As Tigerstar is the ShadowClan leader, ShadowClan is automatically a part of TigerClan, and RiverClan has already agreed to join them. However, ThunderClan and WindClan both refuse. Firestar begins to tell the cats of Tigerstar's treachery, but he is stopped as storm clouds move in, covering the moon. Tigerstar interprets this as a sign from StarClan and calls the Gathering to an end.

TigerClan

Soon after the Gathering, TigerClan attacks WindClan, weakening their warriors greatly and slaughtering an apprentice. Afterwards, Graystripe wants to check on his kin, Stormpaw and Featherpaw.

Accompanied by Ravenpaw on a visit, Graystripe and Firestar go to TigerClan (the newly combined RiverClan and ShadowClan), and find not only Graystripe's kin, but Bluestar's kin (Mistyfoot and Stonefur) prisoners of TigerClan. Tigerstar accuses them of being half-Clan cats and traitors. He orders Stonefur to prove his loyalty by killing the apprentices, but Stonefur refuses. Tigerstar then orders Darkstripe to kill them all. Darkstripe launches into battle with Stonefur, hoping to gain back his glory. Darkstripe ends up losing against Stonefur, and Blackfoot steps in and finishes off Stonefur. Afterwards, Mistyfoot, Stormpaw and Featherpaw are taken back into their prison. Ravenpaw convinces the guard that he is a RiverClan cat and that Tigerstar has a message for him. The group eventually escapes with the prisoners.

When time runs out for Tigerstar's offer, Firestar prepares to fight. Tigerstar orders BloodClan to fight for him, yet they make no move. Scourge, BloodClan's leader, tells Tigerstar that he is the only cat in charge of BloodClan. Firestar takes that chance to make an impression on Scourge by announcing to the cats of every Clan, including BloodClan, Tigerstar's wicked past.

After hearing everything, Scourge decides that there will be no battle that day, and Tigerstar attacks him. Scourge fights and kills Tigerstar, wiping out all nine of his lives in one blow, by slashing from his throat to tail with a single slash. Scourge gives all of the forest Clans three days to either leave the forest, or fight BloodClan for it.

Battle with BloodClan

To face this danger, the four Clans unite as one and call their alliance LionClan and goes into battle against BloodClan, Whitestorm, the ThunderClan deputy is killed by the BloodClan deputy named Bone who is later killed by apprentices. Whitestorm's last wishes was to appoint Graystripe as deputy which Firestar complies. At the end of the battle, Firestar loses his first life to Scourge. He was revived by StarClan, much to Scourge's shock, and kills the BloodClan leader. After Scourge's death, the BloodClan cats fall apart with no motivation to keep fighting. The LionClan is victorious. The Clan splits back into four separate Clans, and the power in the forest is returned to normal.