She's broken. I knew that from the first moment, twelve moons ago. But slowly, her heart is healing. Maybe one day she'll be whole again.

I don't know what happened, nor why. I know that it has shattered her. It has shattered her, but also brought her closer to us. Closer to the only place that can make her whole again.

She can't hear me. Not yet.

Soon.

I kill the mouse with a quick blow to the neck, wincing as I bend down to pick it up. It's lucky that Flame found me. Without her, the infection in my shoulder would have killed me long ago. Of course, it didn't help that I caught it on some sharp shiny twoleg stuff before it had fully healed, and then caught some strange unfamiliar disease that meant it wouldn't heal... but that's not the point.

Even as it was, I nearly died. If she had stumbled across me a day later...

I like this life. With peace and quiet, time is all I need to recover.

Flame only allowed me to begin hunting a few weeks ago. Before that, she caught for both of us. She's an amazing hunter, but with trying to look after me, too, it was a huge relief for her when I began to feed myself. Leaf-bare - which I've almost began to call 'winter' myself - is approaching, after all.

We've become very good at comfortable silences, but I'm still not sure what to say, even after moons of consideration. She's saved my life. How can I possibly thank her enough?

And it has been moons, seasons, in fact, since I last felt the agony of ThunderClan's betrayal. The pain still throbs inside my heart, but only a dull ache remains.

"Good catch," Flame praises, dropping a sparrow from her maw next to a vole on the ground. With all my tangled thoughts, I barely noticed her coming. It would take ages to adjust back to clan life now, I thought. But Froststar will have told the other clans. I don't have a chance of being accepted now that I have proved myself guilty. Not that I care.

Usually, I try not to think of ThunderClan, but today, I feel happy. Today, I feel free.

"Thanks." I drop my mouse onto our pile without bending down. It might be leaf-fall, but it seems the prey is still alive. But then again, it's not like we have a whole clan to feed, and we have a lot of territory to hunt in. Prey will always seem less scarce than in the clans while we're here. And it was a we, not an I. How could I abandon Flame after all she'd done for me?

The loner frowns, annoyance flashing across her golden-amber eyes. I'd thought Rowanlily's eyes looked gold, but now I'd seen Flame, I knew I was wrong. Her long, rich fur, too, was impressive - it was almost a true red, with barely a trace of the striped markings that you always saw in the clans. Flame had been a kittypet before she gave up their soft life to become a warrior, though, so it made some sort of sense.

"You need to excersice your shoulder," she meows in irritation, but I've been here long enough to hear the gentle tone underneath her annoyance. "If it hasn't healed by winter, then I won't have any of the herbs to deal with it."

"Okay." I, too, frown. She does have a point. "But what shall I do?"

"Race you to the farm!"

I bound forward as soon as I hear the word 'race', only to realise I am going the wrong direction. I don't waste my breath sighing - I turn and pick up speed as fast as I can. She would need the head start to win. I'm fast, and we know it.

Of course, I might bash into a tree, but I've got better at that recently. Or it might just be that there are not as many trees to bash into.

Yeah. Probably the latter.

This is what I was named for, I think as the wind whistles past my ears. And I love it. Every moment is a chance to forget, to throw away my past and enjoy the here and now. My paws barely touch the ground and it feels like I am flying, soaring across the ground like the birds I always envy. I'm flying, and I'm free.

It is stretching my shoulder, but I barely notice as I begin to catch up with my friend. The barn isn't far; just about long enough for me to overtake her. And I do, bounding into the barn just a second before she does. It's hard to stop, hearing the pounding of my heart and feeling the adrenaline still pumping through my veins, but I resist the temptation to race her back. Now I've stopped, my shoulder is aching. "Ow." I say, smiling. "That definitely worked."

Flame peers at my shoulder. "I'm no expert," she declares, "but I'm pretty sure that's getting better."

"Speak for yourself," I grumble good-naturedly.

She laughs. "It hurting is a good sign, though. It's not burning like the infection was, right?"

I shake my head.

"Good."

I look around us, and she follows my gaze. The barn is tall and wooden - it looks a bit rickety, but I'm sure it has many seasons left to live. Hay bales are stacked in one corner, providing shelter from the wind and rain. I'm surprised no cats live here, but then again, the dogs are enough to scare any loner off. Flame and I both prefer the wild, though, not a two-leg building - even if they don't live in it or ever come in.

It's a great place for hunting; the mice and voles are plentiful here, and it provides great shelter. We'll probably visit a lot in leaf-bare - even move here, temporarily, if that will help. Normally, we'd hunt now, but we already have fresh-kill back at our camp.

I pad out, and my gaze is drawn past WindClan's moor to the forest where I used to live. A pang of homesickness aches in my heart, but I ignore it. There's no place for me in the clans now.

Sensing my discomfort, Flame stands next to me, pressing her warm fur into mine. I'm grateful, but I don't deserve it. "Come on," she meows gently. "Let's go home." But I know that home is nowhere but in the forest, where I truly belong.

"Rowanlily, will you concentrate!"

I shake myself out of my daydream; there's no point in thinking about my sister now. Instead, I turn to my apprentice, Brightpaw, who looks a little surprised - no, shocked - at Shadewhisper's impatient order. Good, I think. He's not as perfect as everyone says, and it would do well for you to learn that. But I don't voice those thoughts aloud. That would be stupid.

"Brightpaw, show him your hunting crouch," I meow, glad that there is something Shadewhisper will have to be impressed by. We've spent ages working on her hunting, and she's almost as good as me. Considering I'm one of the best hunters in the clan, that's not too bad at all.

Shadewhisper narrows his eyes, but says nothing but a short, "Good."

I almost sigh. It has been seasons since Fallenbreeze left, and I still think about her every day. About why she ran away, proving her guilt. About whether she was innocent after all...

No. Shadewhisper's hatred of me proved that he was to blame. Why else would he take every opportunity to put me down? Even if I had got her innocence wrong, a good cat would forgive me.

Shadewhisper is not a good cat.

"Can you scent anything?" I ask my apprentice.

She tastes the air, pointing to a spot with her tail. "There's a mouse there, but it won't be easy to catch. I'd be better off trying to catch the rabbit."

I scented the rabbit only a moment before Brightpaw replied. A glow of pride flashes through me, but still, Shadewhisper looks uninterested. I hiss internally, but keep silent. If Lightningfoot had been judging this, he would have praised her, not sat back and watched with disdain!

With Lightningfoot ill, Shadewhisper had temporarily taken over the role of deputy - not officially, but no one seemed to think it should be otherwise. No one but me, I thought bitterly. He would be leading the clan next - and what would ThunderClan become then?

"Go for the mouse," meows the warrior. The calico apprentice adjusts her crouch slightly, then moves in for the kill. Her stalk is excellent - it's all I can do to stop myself from purring out loud. Shadewhisper shifts his weight impatiently as Brightpaw is about to pounce.

And he steps on a pile of crunchy leaves, causing the mouse to look up in fear and scurry off.

I can see the ghost of a smug smile on his face, but he hides it well. "I'm sorry, Brightpaw," he meows. "I didn't mean to do that. Is there anything else around?"

She knows the answer before he asks. "No," the apprentice replies, looking up at me in disappointment. "Does this mean I've failed the assessment, Rowanlily?"

"I'm afraid so," I reply gently.

"We'll try again soon," Shadewhisper promises. "Don't worry - I saw your stalk. You would have caught it if it hadn't been for our clumsiness."

Our, I think bitterly. By the time he reports to Froststar, it'll be me who disturbed the hunt.

Brightpaw doesn't reply, only giving a respectful nod to the senior warrior. I give an internal sigh of relief. Shadewhisper might hold a grudge against me, but he won't stop my apprentice because of it.

"That was great," I assure my apprentice as soon a Shadewhisper is out of earshot. "If it hadn't been that filthy piece of fox-dung assessing you, you would have done brilliantly." I hiss in frustration, then realise what I've just said. "Sorry, ignore me. I get carried away sometimes." My heart fills with dread as I wonder what 'accident' would follow me if Brightpaw repeated those words to him.

"But you're not carried away, are you?" My apprentice is much quieter, and much more composed than I am. "You're telling the truth."

"Yes. I am."

Brightpaw says nothing, padding slowly towards the other side of the clearing.

"Do you remember the night when Fallenbreeze disappeared?" I ask, walking alongside her, and then shake my head. "No, you wouldn't. You weren't even born."

"I know the stories. The elders love a recent piece of gossip." She sighs. "So Shadewhisper attacked Fallenbreeze, then? Not the other way around?"

"When I chased a mouse into the clearing, I saw my sister pinned down. Shadewhisper was about to kill her. It doesn't matter whether she attacked him first or not - although I would never believe Fallenbreeze would do such a thing." I hope. "He was still about to break the warrior code. I saw his eyes. Merciless and cold. And that's all I can see whenever I look at him now."

The leaf-fall forest is alive. Leaves in shades of gold, red and brown float gently on the breeze to rest on the ground below my paws. Birds are singing their joyful song, and prey are scurrying around, preparing themselves for the leaf-bare to come. But all this reminds me is of the day she left.

"If Fallenbreeze was innocent, then why did she run away?"

"I honestly don't know." I meow. "She was afraid. She knew that Shadewhisper was prepared to kill. She loved him, Brightpaw. She loved him with all her heart, and it would have been agony to face him after what he had tried to do."

"And Shadewhisper hates you for opposing him."

I wonder when my apprentice suddenly became so smart. She is nearly twelve moons, after all, but still... "Yes. He didn't want to report anything good about me - but he isn't taking it out on you. He's fair, in that sense." *And that's about as fair as he gets.*

"What do you think happened to Fallenbreeze?"

"Someone found her, and helped to heal her wounds."

"How do you know?" Brightpaw was curious. Well, who wouldn't be?

"She hasn't visited me from StarClan. Nothing would stop her if she had the chance." I fervently hope that what I'm saying is true. If she had betrayed us, then she wouldn't have made it in.

But she didn't betray me. Of course she didn't.

"She would have died from her wounds?"

"They would have got infected. I know enough about medicine that those cuts weren't shallow."

Brightpaw doesn't reply. We're nearly at the camp entrance, and we don't want to be overheard.

"You can't tell anyone what I've said," I warn her in a low voice. "It could put both of us in danger."

She nods. "I know."

And we pad into the camp, mentor and apprentice together, surrounded by a tangled web of betrayal and lies.

Another chapter up! How is this one? For the first chapter I thought I'd just explain what was going on a little, with a bit of character building in both points of view. Is this a good length for a chapter? What do you think of the unknown p.o.v. at the start? It'll start to make a bit of sense later, I promise.

Thanks for reading!

~ Fire & Bright ~