| “ | You walk a difficult path, my friend. You must learn that it is not your role to change the future. Instead, all you can do is shine a light through the darkness, like the tiniest flame. Your Clanmates must deal with their destinies as they unfold. You cannot be responsible for all of them. | „ |
| ~ Pearnose telling Goosefeather that he can't change the future |
Goosefeather is a major character in the Warriors series, being the titular protagonist of Goosefeather's Curse and a supporting character in Bluestar's Prophecy, Spottedleaf's Heart and Pinestar's Choice. He was born with the ability to see ghosts as well as receive prophetic visions of the future, with this getting him the role of ThunderClan's medicine cat. However, his abilities would often harm him, as well as others, rather than help, and he's soon driven mad by constant glimpses into horrible things to come.
Appearance[]
Goosefeather is a plump old tom with ragged, speckled gray fur and pale blue eyes. His whiskers are frazzled and his tail is matted.
Biography[]
Goosefeather's Curse[]
Goosekit and his sister Moonkit are born to Daisytoe and Rooktail. While listening to a story about the mythological TigerClan, Goosekit whimpers in fear and the elders assure him that it's just a story. The his mother encourages him to go outside and play with his sister, who's playing moss-ball with Heronkit and Poppykit. Goosekit is worried that he'll hurt himself though and tries to go back into the nursery, overwhelmed by all the cats in the clearing. Daisytoe tells him that they're his Clanmates and will protect him, but the gray kitten retorts that one day a badger will attack and Stormpaw will let him fight it on his own.
Later, Goosekit plays hide-and-seek with the other kittens and is complimented on his hiding spot near the medicine den. When he's seeking, he quickly finds Rabbitkit and Poppykit hiding near the Highrock, and a black and white apprentice points him to where Moonkit and Heronkit are. Heronkit accuses him of cheating, and the kits refuse to play with him anymore.
When Swiftpaw goes missing, a search party is sent out to find her. Goosekit asks the apprentice from earlier where she went, and a long-tailed warrior tells him that she's near Sunningrocks. When he tells his Clanmates, they send a patrol to check and find Swiftpaw stuck in some reeds. His Clanmates ask him how he knew, and he explains that a dark brown tom told him. This confuses them, as the only dark brown cat in ThunderClan is Squirrelwhisker, who's a she-cat. The medicine cat Cloudberry then takes him to the leader Doestar and asks him to describe the tom he saw. When he does, the two realize that he's talking about the deceased previous deputy Beetail. When testing him a few more times, Cloudberry concludes that the kitten has the ability to see spirits and tells him to keep his powers a secret while urging him to become a medicine cat apprentice.
Later, after the warrior ceremonies of Adderfang, Swiftbreeze and Stormtail, Doestar calls upon Goosekit to become Clouberry's apprentice, getting renamed Goosepaw. The Clan protests this, as kits only become apprentices at six moons old and Goosepaw is two moons too young, but Cloudberry calms them and explains that he has a special gift from StarClan. He travels to the Moonstone for his first half-moon medicine cat meeting, Goosepaw looks at the other medicine cats nervously and wonders if he's seeing things from the future. When reaching the Moonstone, he falls asleep by it and hears many voices calling out to him in his dreams, all warning him of ThunderClan's fate. The terrified apprentice begs them to stop before running away. He wakes up his mentor who snaps at him that she needs to finish the ceremony before he tells her what he saw and she begins comforting him.
With the help of a StarClan she-cat named Pearnose who was ThunderClan's medicine cat years ago, Goosepaw begins learning different healing herbs and their purpose while out gathering them. Pearnose disappears when Moonpaw approaches and asks her brother why he's talking to himself, to which he stammers that he does so to help memorize things. Stormtail then calls Moonpaw over, and as she leaves she complains about how strange her littermate is being. Frustrated that everyone treats him like an outsider, he starts heading back to camp when he catches the scent of kittypets nearby. A tortoiseshell she-cat appears to him to warn him that kittypets are stronger that they look. When Goosepaw asks who she is, she wonders if she'd been forgotten so soon.
After the other apprentices accuse him of being scared of rabbits, Goosepaw learns that Squirrelwhisker has gone missing, telling Doestar and Pineheart who send a patrol to investigate. They find Squirrelwhisker and Doestar publicly credits Goosepaw for his help, requesting that his mentor give him his full medicine cat name. At the next half-moon meeting, Goosepaw earns the name Goosefeather and starts to believe that he's above his peers for his ability. More voices begin shouting prophecies at him, and he wills them to be quiet.
The newly-named Goosefeather complains when Cloudberry still gives him apprentice tasks, and some of his Clanmates begin resenting him for earning his full name so soon. While out collecting herbs one day, Stormtail races by him with a badger in pursuit. While he fears that his prediction of Stormtail letting him fight a badger on his own is about to come true, Moonpaw saves him before chastising him for his carelessness.
Later, the tortoiseshell she-cat visits him again, introducing herself as Mapleshade. She teaches him a few fighting moves. Moonpaw then apologizes to him for their fight earlier, but he says that he's meant to be on his own. When going to confront Stormtail about leaving him to a badger, he's interrupted by Larksong going into labor. After helping to deliver two kittens, he sees their futures while cleaning them: Featherkit will become a medicine cat while Sunkit will become leader of ThunderClan. Clouberry insists that he doesn't tell anyone what he saw, saying that the two kits should be treated just like any other.
Goosefeather receives a vision of a famine sweeping through the Clan and claiming many lives. He tells Doestar about this, believing that he was merely warned of what could happen rather than seeing what will and that the famine can be avoided. Cloudberry suggests catching as much prey as possible and burying it to preserve it for as long as possible, and thus many hunting parties are sent out. While wandering near Snakerocks, Goosefeather receives a flashback of Mapleshade luring Frecklewish there and getting her bitten by adders. When he confronts Mapleshade about this, she reveals that she first appeared to him because she wanted to make him suffer, but now sees no point in it as the curse StarClan has given him is already suffering enough. He then realizes that though he's seen many visions of the future, he's never known what his own entails.
Rain falls throughout the day and soaks into the ground, and to Goosefeather's horror it has caused all the gathered prey to quickly rot. As leafbare comes, his visions come to fruition as ThunderClan is hit with a terrible starvation, with the Clan having to survive off of bark and worms and many cats dropping dead. Goosefeather figures out that it was inevitable and he was only leading his Clanmates to their fate, which Pearnose confirms. Pearnose then tells him that his role is not to change the future, but to provide hope to ThunderClan. Angered, Goosefeather yowls to StarClan why they gave him his ability to see the future when he's powerless to stop it.
Soon newleaf comes and the famine subsides, but Cloudberry reveals that Doestar is fatally ill and on the brink of losing her final life. While his former mentor is tending to the leader, Goosefeather goes out to gather herbs and prey for her, only for Doestar to die in her sleep that night. During her vigil, Cloudberry doesn't allow anyone to see her body to prevent the sickness from spreading. Soon after, Cloudberry catches the sickness and dies, spending her final moments wishing luck to her former apprentice as Goosefeather escorts the deputy Pineheart to the Moonstone to receive his nine lives from StarClan and become the new leader. During the leadership ceremony, he receives a vision of Pineheart - now Pinestar - stepping down as leader and leaving ThunderClan to become a kittypet. Knowing he cant prevent this from happening, he welcomes the new leader with silence.
Pinestar's Choice[]
Goosefeather accompanies Pineheart during the latter's leadership ceremony, reassuring him that Doestar is watching over him from StarClan. The reddish-brown tom asks him if he's gotten any visions yet, to which Goosefeather nods but doesn't elaborate as he ushers the soon-to-be leader along. After Pineheart is granted nine lives and the name Pinestar, he suspects that Goosefeather has had another vision judging by his silent reaction, but doesn't press him to reveal what it was.
Much later, Goosefeather convinces Pinestar to attack WindClan's medicine den, thinking he got an omen of them destroying ThunderClan if they didn't. The attack fails however, which shakes Pinestar's trust in the medicine cat's judgement. Some time after, Goosefeather reminds the leader that he only has two lives left and advises him to be more careful.
When Leopardfoot is having troubles while giving birth to her and Pinestar's kittens, the leader sees Goosefeather searching through the fresh-kill pile while muttering to himself, looking for omens about the kits. After Pinestar has a nightmare about his son Tigerkit growing up to become a bloodthirsty killer and StarClan demanding that he kill him before that happens, Goosefeather reports to him that Sweetpaw has died of illness. He then says that his kits are still very weak, adding that he recived the same warnings about Tigerkit and suggesting that Pinestar follow StarClan's demands to kill him.
Bluestar's Prophecy[]
While exploring the camp, Bluekit and Snowkit meet their uncle for the first time. He explains to them his role as a medicine cat, and after Snowkit accidentally lets it slip that Mumblefoot thinks he's lazy he comments that he'd like to hear what the brown tom has to say about him. He then says that their mother Moonflower is the smartest cat he knows, before looking at Stormtail and adding that she's the smartest about most things, showing his disapproval in his sister's choice of a mate.
Some time later, after Snowpaw and Bluepaw become apprentices, the former brings catches a vole with its fur flattened by the wind. Goosefeather sees this and interpterts the vole's fur as symbolizing the forest and it being an omen that WindClan will destroy the forest. He urges Pinestar to raid WindClan to prevent this, and as the battle patrol is being organized, he spots a bit of catmint in the vole's fur and interprets it as meaning that they must destroy WindClan's medicine den.
When the raid starts however, Moonflower is killed by WindClan's medicine cat Hawkheart whilst trying to destroy his herbs. Pinestar calls for a retreat, and when Goosefeather asks how the battle went when the patrol returns home they show him his sister's body. Swiftbreeze then attacks him while screeching that he got one of his Clanmates killed, but Goosefeather defends himself by stating that he was only trying to interpret the signs form StarClan. Despite Pinestar urging that it wasn't Goosefeather's fault, his Clanmates rapidly lose trust in him regardless. His mental health also begins deteriorating, and Featherwhisker begins taking over in the medicine den more and more.
Later, while running from a fox, Bluepaw's nose is slightly singed from a flaming branch. While tending to her injuries, Goosefeather delivers her the prophecy of "Like fire, you will blaze through the forest. But beware: even the most powerful flames can be destroyed by water." Bot Bluepaw and Snowpaw brush this off as nonsense, but soon the blue she-cat begins to suspect that the prophecy is true after all.
Quite a while later, Bluefur sees him shifting through the fresh-kill pile during Leopardfoot's kitting and wonder's how he could be thinking of prey at such a time. Later still, when Leopardfoot's and Pinestar's son Tigerkit comes near him, Goosefeather hisses at the kit and yowls for him to stay away. He then mutters to himself that Tigerkit shouldn't be alive and was meant to have died alongside his sisters Mistkit and Nightkit, with Bluefur overhearing him and wondering what he means.
Several moons later, after Snowfur is run over and killed by a monster, Goosefeather warns Bluefur to not let her sister's son Whitekit be influenced by his violent and tempermental father Thistleclaw. he later reveals to Bluefur that he knows the kits she's had were fathered by Oakheart of RiverClan, since he saw the two meeting one night at Fourtrees. With the deputy Tawnyspots dying and Sunstar on his last life, Goosefeather urges his niece to give up her children so that she may become the next deputy and go on to become leader in order to prevent Thistleclaw from assuming the role, reminding her of the prophecy of her "blazing through the forest". The two then share a vision of Thistleclaw drenched in blood, warning them of what will happen if he becomes ThunderClan's new leader.
Goosefeather dies of a brain infection many moons later, and during Bluestar's leadership ceremony he gives her a life of patience, telling her that she'll need it. When reflecting on her uncle's death, she notes how he had died after the first snowfall of leafbare just as he predicted.
Quotes[]
| “ | I can already do more than any of you! I see all the cats that have gone before us, and things that have not yet happened. You have not idea what powers I have! | „ |
| ~ Goosefeather's thoughts after completing his medicine cat training |
| “ | Then my gift is useless. Without power, everything I see, everything I know, will bring me nothing but pain. StarClan! Why have you done this to me? | „ |
| ~ Goosefeather resenting his abilities |
| “ | Too many omens. Three cats poisoned, two only whiskers from StarClan, Leopardfoot nearly dead, her three kits hanging on to life like rabbits in a fox den. Why such a difficult birth for a Clan leader's mate? The kits might not make it through another night. The tom is too weak to mew, let alone feed. I should help them, and yet how can I when the signs are clear? | „ |
| ~ Goosefeather telling Bluefur about Leopardfoot's dying kits |
| “ | With this life I give you patience. You will need it. | „ |
| ~ Goosefeather during Bluestar's leadership ceremony |
Trivia[]
- Author Victoria Holmes has stated that she doesn't think Moonflower blames her brother for her death.
- Victoria has also stated that Goosefeather began suffering from dementia towards the end of his life.
External links[]
- Goosefeather on the Warriors Wiki
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