Battle of the gorge

Battle of the Gorge
General information
Book:	Hawkwing's Journey
Place:	The Gorge
Outcome:	Rogue victory, SkyClan forced out of the Gorge
Combatants
SkyClan
Darktail's group
Leaders
Leafstar
Darktail
Strength
Entirety of SkyClan
Entirety of Darktail's rogues
Death and losses
Sharpclaw, Patchfoot, Stormheart, Bouncefire, Snipkit
None

The Battle of the Gorge was a major plot point in Hawkwing's Journey. Darktail leads his band of rogues to the Gorge in the middle of the night, starting a battle between the entirety of SkyClan. The battle leads to the deaths of several of SkyClan's best warriors, and the Clan is eventually forced out of the Gorge by Darktail's rogues. Afterwards, the rogues take over the camp and claim it as their own.

Summary

Premise

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Overview

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Description

The fire

A fire breaks out near Twolegplace, trapping three SkyClan apprentices, Pebblepaw, Cloudpaw, and Duskpaw. A band of SkyClan cats are able to rescue them all, but Duskpaw succumbs to extreme smoke inhalation and dies, upsetting his family, especially his brother Hawkwing, who blames himself for his death. Pebblepaw and Cloudpaw are treated for minor burns, and although Hawkwing saved Pebblepaw, he begins to resent her, as he chose her over his own littermate.

Hawkwing goes back to the place where the fire was started, mourning his dead littermate, and meets a cat named Darktail, who claims that he inhaled smoke from the fire and asks for treatment. Hawkwing reluctantly brings him to Echosong, the Clan's Medicine cat, and Darktail's charisma allows him to become well liked by all of SkyClan, and he eventually reveals that he knows where the other four Clans are. With this knowledge, Leafstar allows an expedition to be made to go and find them.

The failed journeys

The first expedition consists of Billystorm, Waspwhisker, Hawkwing, Blossomheart and Pebblepaw, heeding Darktail's instructions on finding ThunderClan, the birthplace of Firestar and Sandstorm who reinstated SkyClan seasons ago. Along the way, the patrol encounters Badgers, who kill Billystorm. The death sends the patrol home, which causes many cats distress. Hawkwing in particular blames Darktail, believing he knew about the badgers and purposefully wanted Billystorm killed. Darktail denies this, and the majority of SkyClan backs him up, which results in Hawkwing getting punished for losing his temper.

A second expedition is decided, consisting of Darktail, Rain, Sagenose, Harrybrook, Hawkwing and Firefern. While this patrol is slightly more successful, they run into dogs, and making the group turn back, much to everyone's chagrin. When they return, they discover that Raccoons attacked the Gorge, killing Honeytail and rendering the Clan with low hope for ever finding Firestar and ThunderClan.

Battle for SkyClan

In the middle of the night, rogues sneak into the Gorge, killing Stormheart who was on watch duty. Hawkwing detects them, and alerts the rest of the Clan. The rogues have the advantage as many of SkyClan's warriors were asleep, but they quickly join the fight. Hawkwing manages to find Bouncefire, and they group up with Darktail. However, Darktail suddenly subdues an unsuspecting Bouncefire, killing him, leaving Hawkwing in shock. Darktail abandons Hawkwing, going for the deputy Sharpclaw. Though Sharpclaw initially has the upper hand, Rain sneaks up on Sharpclaw, springing onto his back and Darktail attacks him as well, killing SkyClan's deputy, much to the horror of the other SkyClan cats. With their hope diminishing, the rest of the cats begin fighting for their lives.

Darktail stops fighting other Clan cats to talk to Hawkwing, calling SkyClan "soft", but says that Hawkwing is not like the rest of them, and offers him to join him and his band of rogues. Hawkwing, fueled by the death of his father, friend, and Darktail's treachery, denies, and Darktail expresses disappointment over Hawkwing's choice, but goes off to fight SkyClan. Patchfoot is killed trying to defend himself despite Hawkwing's best attempts to help, leaving the young warrior sorrowful and enraged that rogues would attack Patchfoot, an Elder. In the midst of the battle, Leafstar orders for SkyClan's retreat, claiming the gorge as a lost cause. Many SkyClan cats are divided among one another in the chaos.

Forced from their home

The majority of SkyClan is able to regroup at the Twoleg home of Ebonyclaw. The Clan is in shock and has many wounded. Fidgetkit helps out Echosong with the wounded as their second Medicine cat Frecklewish is missing. Other cats report that Sandynose, Fallowfern, Cherrytail, Cloudmist and Mistfeather are not present, leaving many to believe they were killed. Snipkit also drowns when trying to cross a river, and her body is found by Tinycloud. The Clan grieves for the young kit, especially her parents, Sagenose and Birdwing. Cloudmist and Cherrytail are eventually found, and Leafstar is struck with grief over the loss of her daughter and deputy. However, she appoints Waspwhisker in Sharpclaw's place, and orders that they will be going to Barley's farm to find the Clans. As she says this, the daylight warriors Harveymoon and Ebonyclaw admit they will not be coming with them, surprising the Clan. Macgyver however, claims he is a SkyClan cat and he will be joining them. Mintfur and Nettlesplash admit they will not be coming with them as well, since they have four young kits which would be too perilous for them, but Mintfur says they may join up with them again. Leafstar leads SkyClan to Barley's farm thereafter, unsure of the treacherous journey ahead of them.

Aftermath

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Legacy

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Characters

Leafstar

SkyClan's leader at the time, Leafstar deals with the loss of her beloved mate Billystorm, and later, her daughter Stormheart in a relatively short timespan, as well as one of SkyClan's oldest members, Patchfoot, whom she was close friends with. She then loses one of her longest friends and deputy, Sharpclaw, distressing her. However, she maintains a level head and leads her Clan to Barley's farm. She then leads her Clan, trying to find the other four, but unsure of their destination. Along the way, she struggles to keep her Clan's hopes up, eventually losing Curlypaw and Parsleyseed to the kittypet life. She then loses Firefern, her other daughter due to sickness, and grieves for her along with her son Harrybrook, but soon loses him as he decides to accompany Echosong to find the other Clans by themselves. To make matters worse, she loses her newest deputy Waspwhisker and old friend Clovertail, but makes Hawkwing, Sharpclaw's son, the next deputy. She continues leading her Clan despite all the hardships, and eventually makes it to The lake, where she helps drive out Darktail with the other Clans.

Darktail

The son of Onestar and Smoke, Darktail was raised to despise the Clans and their way of life by his mother after Onestar, then Onewhisker, refused to let them join WindClan. Darktail somehow finds his way to the Gorge, where he manipulates the SkyClan cats by lowering their guards and making them lose morale. He shows his true intentions when he orders his band of rogues to attack, and he kills Bouncefire, revealing his true nature to all of SkyClan. He then kills Sharpclaw, and his actions cause SkyClan to retreat from the Gorge, giving Darktail the victory until A patrol of cats come some moons later.

Darktail and his group move on to the Lake, where they terrorize the other Clans, and begin a tyrannical rule which causes mass suffering and heavy casualties on all five Clans, until he is killed by Onestar, ending his reign of terror once and for all.

Hawkwing

A young SkyClan warrior, he becomes close with Darktail until the latter reveals his true intentions by ordering the attack on the Gorge. Hawkwing is offered the position of deputy at Darktail's side, but he denies and stays loyal to SkyClan. Hawkwing struggles with the loss of his father, Sharpclaw, and brother, Duskpaw. Although resentful of Pebblepaw, he grows to become fond of her, and eventually her mate, becoming the father of their kits. During SkyClan's journey to the Lake, he becomes a foster father to the kits of Plumwillow, and becomes deputy when Waspwhisker is taken by Twolegs. He quickly adapts and matures to his new role and helps lead SkyClan to Clan territory, where he is reunited with his daughters and gets reassurance of Pebbleshine's demise.

Quotes

Darktail: "Listen, I like you, Hawkwing. You're different from the other SkyClan cats. You're more like me. Surely you realize your best chance of survival will be with me and my rogues? We're going to take the gorge for ourselves. Join us! We're so good together, Hawkwing. We understand each other. I'll make you my deputy."

Hawkwing: "Even if I believed you, do you think I would join you? After you and Rain murdered my father? Never!"

^{Hawkwing's Journey}

"To Hawkwing's amazement, something flickered in Darktail's eyes and he angled his head aside, as if he were honestly disappointed by Hawkwing's response."

―Hawkwing observing Darktail after he rejects his offer to be his deputy ^{Hawkwing's Journey}

See also

• Hawkwing's Journey
• Chapter-by-chapter notes of Hawkwing's Journey