Brightclaw starts out as a teen who is the third best warrior of Skyclan, but is stuck in her sister, Spottedfur's shadow. He corrupted mother, Goldenstar feels like her two daughters should be the "best" cats in the clan, but Shadowsong is better at hunting and fighting than Brightclaw so Goldenstar feels like she needs to exile her. Brightclaw gets exiled and starts a new clan with the skyclan cats, but after training with Snowclaw in the Dark Forest, starts to treat cats less nicely. When Blazepelt kills her and takes over the clan a mysterious cat 'hires' her to take over the clan and if she does that she would be able to be clan leader again. She starts to train Darkpaw in the dark forest in hopes of having him be her deputy.