Dark River follows the tale of Jaypaw, Hollypaw, and Lionpaw as they grow up within ThunderClan. The book starts out, however, way in the past with a cat named Fallen Leaves. It details the stick, the caverns/tunnels, and the hairless cat Rock. I’m unsure if living underground for years would actually make a cat lose their fur like Rock has, but it certainly can’t be good for them. I’m rather disappointed they started the book out with this scene though. When Jaypaw finally finds the stick, they hint that it’s important—but we already know it is, because they already explained what it was and what it was used for. The tunnels were explained too long before Lionpaw and Heatherpaw started playing in them. If that scene had come in the next book it might have been good, or as an epilogue to the end of this one, but as it is it makes me just not care about the stick because I already know its purpose and it’s just annoying watching Jaypaw not know. On top of that, they didn’t really give any reason for me to care about Fallen Leaves since, until later, no clue who he is or why he’s important. Sorry you died bud, but I got to know you in a handful of pages and that’s it.