Warrior Cats/Recap/Escape from the Forest

This volume picks up right where the last one left off: Sasha replies that no, she will not join ShadowClan. She confronts him on what she'd heard him say to his warriors, and that she just thinks he wants power. He walks away, promising that she'll always be a nothing in the world.

Sasha decides that she doesn't belong in the forest, so she's going to leave, and she's going to find Ken. She starts back at their home, but there's new housefolk there, and they shoo her away. She continues to travel through Twolegplace, arriving downtown and wandering through the shops. In a secondhand clothing store, she comes across Ken's scent. Unknown to her, a store employee and a customer are discussing how a lot of their items are donated from nursing homes, and that the original owners of the clothing are deceased. Sasha finds the source of the scent: a coat that belonged to Ken, and she remembers it because she accidentally left a hole in it once. She is chased out of the shop by a Twoleg, and runs into a pair of BloodClan cats. They bring her to the edge of the territory.

Sasha wanders around for a while until she comes to a boatyard that offers river cruises. She explores one of the boats, scavenging a meal and a nap inside. She's discovered by the captain, who shuts her inside a cupboard until the cruise is over. She spends the night near the boat, and in the morning there's Twolegs outside the place she slept, so she attempts to hide. Some of the Twolegs are customers who heard about the "ship's cat" their friends saw yesterday. Sasha's eventually spotted, and the captain, eager for business, quickly agrees that yes, she's the ship's cat. Sasha remains on the boat, enjoying her new life with the captain, who has named her Brownie. "Brownie the ship's cat" brings a lot more business to the boat, and the captain certainly likes it. One thing he does not like, however, is a flashy boat that drives past one night.

A few nights later, Sasha awakens to strange noises. It turns out to be some employees of the flashy boat, who are pouring gasoline on the dock, jealous of the captain's newfound fame. Sasha can tell by their movements that they're up to no good, and she rattles some garbage cans to alert the captain. The captain catches them and calls the police, and their boat takes in a lot more business after being interviewed by newspapers and news channels who want to spread the story of the feline hero.

They find a strange bundle in the water on a cruise one day. It contains a nearly-drowned kitten. Sasha takes care of him, and the captain names him Patch. Sasha's relieved that motherhood comes naturally to her, because she knows that she is expecting kits; even the captain has noticed that her belly is getting bigger.

One cold day heralds the ending of the boating season, since the river's frozen over. The captain prepares to leave for the winter. Sasha misses the woods badly, and she's come to the decision that she wants to raise her kits there. The captain understands that she's a wanderer, and so he allows her to leave. The truck drives away, and Sasha starts heading back to the forest as it begins to snow.