Starpaw screeched in utter rage and leapt at the badger's throat, clawing and scratching. After a few heart beats, the badger started to run away, but she cut its' path off and continued to bring it down.

The badger fell to the ground and she kept on fighting it, attacking its' weak spots. Finally, the badger stopped moving completely except for the shallow wheezing and the slow rise and fall of its' flank.

Starpaw stood over the beast, badger blood seeping through her toes and soaking into her paw fur. She hopped off and sprinted to her mentor's side "Hollyleaf!? Can you hear me? Are you okay?" She said in a panicked voice.

She slowly and gently picked up her mentor's broken body and headed to camp, leaving to badger to the will of Starclan.

When she got to camp, every cat looked at her bloodied paws and motionless mentor in horror "What happened? Are you hurt?" Foxpaw hurriedly mewed to her "I'm fine. Get Briarlight. NOW!" Starpaw's voice still sounded loud even with Hollyleaf's scruff in between her teeth.

Briarlight was ready for her when she entered the medicine den "Lay her here" She pointed her tail to a small nest made of moss and bracken. Starpaw did so and started to settle next to her mentor when Briarlight spoke up "No, You should leave" Starpaw was about to meow in protest when she added "You've done as much as you already can."

Starpaw saw wisdom in the shecat's words and padded into the clearing. It was crowded with nearly every cat in camp "What happened!?" Some cat said "Did you attack Hollyleaf?" Another yowled an accusation "I smell badger!" A queen said worriedly.

"Every cat, Please, Please. Let Starpaw speak" Bramblestar said as he motioned the apprentice up to great rock "Hollyleaf took me out hunting. And we split up, only enough to see each other, so we could hunt better. I Thought I scented something strange, but I discarded it since Hollyleaf said nothing." Her voice started to crack in sadness

"Then, I turned to her and saw a shadow loom over her. She must have been too concentrated on her prey, because she didn't do anything but keep hunting. The badger was about to attack her, but I leapt on it before it could grab her in its' jaws. The badger swung around and hit Hollyleaf against a tree."

She paused and rested her gaze on Lionblaze, standing outside of the elders' den "I killed the badger" Starpaw said trying not to sound as afraid as she did "I doupt it!" Greyfang growled at her "I bet she is making it all up!" A few murmurs of agreement spread across camp

"But I'm not making it up!" She whimpered in protest "Go in the forest, follow our scent trail, and see the badgers body for yourself!"

Starpaw flicked her tail to the bramble tunnel "That's exactly what we are going to do. Just to see if it is completely dead." Bramblestar said, resting his tail on her shoulder comfortingly.

A patrol left to go in search of the badger body at sunhigh and came back at near dusk

"There was a badger all right. But it didn't look like it came across a measly apprentice and an over aged mentor." Berrynose said "It looked like it came across all the Clans and Tribes there have ever been. There were thousands of scratches and bites on its' neck." He continued

"It had quite a painful death." "Well, is there anything else? Any proof that Starpaw killed it?" Greyfang asked

"Yes actually, her scent was all over its' wounds, and it had some of her fur snagged in a claw." Berrynose look triumphantly at the younger warrior as he walked away, mumbling.

Starpaw watched the medicine den like a hawk about to swoop on prey. Briarlight limped into the clearing and dragged herself straight to the leaders den. Stargazer ran to search for Dovewing to tell her what was happening "She says that 'Hollyleaf has a badly injured rib and that she has the smallest vole hair of a chance that she will live, but she would be certainly dead if it weren't for you'" Dovewing said as she ate her thrush "Ok, Thanks" Starpaw said, walking to the medicine den to see her mentor, for perhaps the very, last time…