"The Clans are each named after the cat who founded them: Shadowstar, Thunderstar, Windstar, and Riverstar."

"Oh, cool, that makes sense."

"That's the sort of thing that gets covered in a Clan cat's kithood, incidentally, if you had already asked Fireheart."

"I had, but it doesn't seem to be a practical necessity, just a historical tidbit."

"I would be less concerned if it were the only thing I expected to be left out."

"What else would you expect?"

"Did he tell you Bluestar's mad?"

"I don't believe that came up, no."

"Unsurprising.  I suspect anything I say about it will sound like nothing but an empty defense of why she exiled me, but I suggest you ask Fireheart, or speak to her yourself.  And know that I lied to the Clan about Redtail's death at her request, when she was still sane."

"I will make a note of this." He does.

"She gets confused about things and doesn't trust anyone.  It's unfortunate; she was once a great leader."

"That's normal in older folks but I couldn't begin to guess how it interacts with the nine lives thing."

"She's only a year older than I am."

"How old are you?"

"Six."

"Wow. Okay, yeah, it would be weird for a... seven year old cat to be senile. You are all so young."

"How old are you?"

"A hundred and seventy-two, but even a non-immortal Twoleg can live to be like ninety, even a hundred, if they're healthy."

"That is more numbers than there are.  Were.  Yesterday."

"I had to explain large numbers to Fireheart. They just keep going up. Forever."

"A hundred and seventy-two is . . ."  Tigerstar pauses at length, his tail sweeping an arc back and forth in the pine needles behind him.  "Nine nines, and that again, and nine and one?"

"Uh -" He does some arithmetic. "- yes, why was that the most intuitive way to break it down? Do you think in nines because of nine lives or something?"

"It is the largest specific number which existed yesterday."

"Wow. You didn't have ten? Aren't there sometimes more than ten cats around? You have more than ten toes."

"I don't have much cause to speak of my toes or my Clanmates in that particular sort of detail.  Either I want specific cats, or all of them old enough to catch their own prey, or some other criteria that matters more than the precise number.  Lives are almost the only thing as many as nine matters for."