26 Letters, 26 Stories – Broken
It was a day like any other in ThunderClan. Berrynose was leading a hunting patrol, Snowpaw and Dewpaw were in a training session, and Dovewing wasn't believing in herself.
In the medicine cat den, Leafpool was fixing up Thornclaw's shoulder, when suddenly, Briarlight started to drag herself out of the medicine den.
"Where are you going?" Leafpool asked.
"I'm going out for a bit."
Leafpool paused making a polituce and meowed, "What?"
"I mean it." Briarlight confirmed.
"You can't!" a voice shouted. Millie came through the vines in front of the medicine den. "You're too weak to go out on your own!"
Briarlight's head whipped around to face her mother. "Stop treating me as if I'm useless! I may no longer be able to fight like a normal cat, but I'm strong! I'm not a broken cat! I'm not a kit that needs constant supervision!" With that final shout, Briarlight started quickly dragging herself out of the den.
Some of the ThunderClan cats were confused about what Briarlight was doing, but left the tortured she-cat alone.
Briarlight went out into the forest and found a tree with a low-hanging branch. Carefully determining its position, she crouched low and strained to reach the branch. Thankfully, her claws hooked into the tree branch, and she slowly heaved herself up. After just barely pulling her full body up the branch, she reached for another, and was able to pull herself up.
"Going somewhere?"
Briarlight almost fell off her branch from surprise. Angrily turning to see who spooked her, it was none other than Jayfeather that gave her a scare. The tomcat was smiling at her, blind blue eyes not hiding the amusement he experienced.
"What do you want?" Briarlight growled, clawing up the branch again to regain her footing.
"All I want is to bring you back to camp, Briarlight," Jayfeather calmly replied.
"No way!" Briarlight snapped, not even turning to look at the medicine cat.
"Why not?" Jayfeather curiously questioned.
"Everyone treats me as if I'm broken beyond repair. I'm not! I can fight! I can live! I'm still a cat! I am still a ThunderClan warrior! And yet my mother acts if I'm as fragile as thin ice!" Briarlight clawed at the branch she was situated on.
"Bri," Jayfeather began. "You aren't broken beyond repair. If you were broken that much, you would have quickly been put out of misery so you didn't suffer everyday. But look at yourself. You've climbed up higher than ever before. You've grow even stronger over the past year. You're far from broken," Jayfeather began climbing up the tree to talk to Briarlight face-to-face. "If anything, you're the strongest fighter we have, in terms up pure strength."
"What if I don't want to go back?" the she-cat snarled.
"I will force you to come back."
Briarlight glared at Jayfeather. "Yeah right. For future reference, don't call me Bri." She pawed him away, but Jayfeather held firm.
"Briarlight, your fanclub is waiting for you at camp," Jayfeather stated. "It wouldn't be very wise to disappoint them."
Briarlight gave Jayfeather a confused look, and mewed, "I have fans?"
"Cherrypaw, Molepaw, your sister, Icecloud, need I go on?" Jayfeather explained.
Briarlight was surprised. "If that's the case, then I should probably follow you, huh?"
Jayfeather nodded. With patience and grace, he climbed down and helped Briarlight down the few branches she had climbed.
Back at camp, Millie was pacing near the entrance to the camp, worried for Briarlight's safety.
"Why did she think it was a good idea to go out alone? Oh, it's all my fault!" Millie cried, then stopped. Her eyes narrowed, and turned to Blossomfall. The queen slowly padded towards her functioning daughter. "Why didn't you help? You could have prevented your sister from running off!"
"Millie?" Briarlight called from the entrance of the camp.
"My baby!" Millie stopped her advance on Blossomfall and ran over to Briarlight. "You're okay!" She began licking Briarlight's head, and making Briarlight look cleaned up.
"I'm fine, honestly!" Briarlight replied, breaking out of the grasp her mother was holding her in. "I just wanted to talk to the so called fans I have."
Cherrypaw and Molepaw saw Briarlight back in camp, and squealed with delight. "Briarlight's back!" The apprentices ran over to the crippled warrior, and bounced around her happily. "What happened? Where did you go? Why did Jayfeather leave to find you? Did you do something awesome? Can we come with you next time?" They pelted the warrior with questions.
"Briarlight, please don't run away again," Blossomfall mewed to her sister, nuzzling Briarlight affectionately.
"It's okay. I've learned the truth. I'm the greatest warrior that I can be, and I'm satisfied with the reality I live in."
From a distance, Lionblaze walked over to Jayfeather. "What did you tell her?"
"I told her that she wasn't broken. I think it worked."