Burningpaw could barely focus on his training. He couldn't get a single battle move right, and when Fawneye got frustrated and took him hunting, he only caught a skinny thrush with a broken wing. Fawneye brought him back to camp, lecturing him the whole way about how he couldn't let the situation affect his training. He didn't dare say anything, but he knew she must not have seen Brightpaw yet. If she had, she would understand why he was so distracted.
As soon as he got to camp, he didn't hesitate to race to Dawnflower's den. He pushed past the ferns without calling for her. He stumbled into the small clearing and stared wide eyed at Brightpaw.
Starlingsong was peeling back the bloodstained cobweb bandage. Underneath it, there was a gaping hole where Brightpaw's eye should've been. It was swollen and red, oozing dark, thick blood, and a disgusting yellow pus that had him gagging again. "You shouldn't be here," Starlingsong meowed smoothly. Burningpaw couldn't believe that this wasn't affecting the medicine cat. He stepped closer, standing beside Starlingsong, and looked down at Brightpaw's body. Besides her eye, she had deep claw marks ripping up the right side of her face, and her ear had been completely torn off.
"Will she be deaf?" Burningpaw asked. He ripped his gaze away from Brightpaw and looked to Starlingsong.
"I don't know," Starlingsong admitted. "If her inner ear isn't damaged, then maybe she'll have a chance.. It won't be the same as before, no matter what we did…" Starlingsong sighed and packed a poultice into Brightpaw's eye socket before laying more cobwebs over the opening. "She will be half blind, half deaf, and a mother. This poor, young she-cat. I can't imagine she could've done something to deserve this treatment…"
"Sometimes it's hard to believe in StarClan," Burningpaw meowed hoarsely. Starlingsong looked to him with wide eyes, and Burningpaw met the medicine cat's gaze. "How could StarClan let this happen to her? She's just an apprentice, like me…" Burningpaw took a deep breath and looked back to her body. He could just barely see the rise and fall of her flank. "What if she dies?" Burningpaw asked softly. "Then we will have done everything we could," Starlingsong answered,
"How could you believe everything happens for a reason? What path is StarClan sending her down? She's dying. She's so young, and she's dying…" Burningpaw felt tears burning behind his eyes.
"You're thinking of your own mortality now. Burningpaw, StarClan doesn't have a reason for everything. They can guide our paws to the right path, but they can not control our minds, or the minds of those who want to hurt us. This is not where Brightpaw's path was taking her."
"Then wh-why is she here?" Burningpaw asked, his words catching in his throat. He was barely holding back tears and he blinked at the sting behind his eyes.
"Because someone set her off her path." Starlingsong looked to Burningpaw. He watched as tears welled in Burningpaw's eyes and soaked into his thick fur. He pressed his flank to Burningpaw's when the apprentice started sniffling, trying once again to hold back his tears. "She isn't going to die," he told him.
"R-really?" Burningpaw mewed, looking up at Starlingsong.
"Yes. We're treating her for infection and when she heals, she'll be okay." Starlingsong purred, smiling at Burningpaw. Burningpaw nodded and looked down at Brightpaw. "She won't be okay, though. She lost her eye, and her ear. She has scars. She'll never be the same again." Starlingsong's silence terrified Burningpaw. He stood with tears in his eyes and nodded politely to the RiverClan medicine cat.
Outside of Duskflower's den, Burningpaw lifted his head and took a deep breath of the cold leaf-fall air. He let it out with a sigh and shook out his fur. He hesitated for a few more moments, staring at his paws, then nodded to himself and scanned the camp. His spirits lifted a bit when he saw his siblings sharing tongues outside the apprentice's den. He trotted across the clearing and settled down beside them.
"Hello, Burningpaw," Goldenpaw purred. "Where've you been?" Gorsepaw added.
Burningpaw glanced back at the medicine den and shrugged. "Around…"
"Have you been visiting that ThunderClan she-cat? Silverheart? Poor thing, I heard abo-"
"Brightpaw."
"Who?" Gorsepaw asked. Goldenpaw looked away, towards the nursery, upset that Burningpaw had interrupted her.
"Brightpaw," Burningpaw said. "She's the hurt one. Silverheart is the queen. They're hiding from Gullstar."
"Hiding? From their own leader?" Gorsepaw wondered aloud, his tone suggesting he thought it was a ridiculous thing to do. He hadn't seen Brightpaw yet.
"Yes! I heard Lightningclaw say that Gullstar is apprenticing kits before six moons-"
"That's not fair!" Goldenpaw interrupted. "We were born first, and they get to be warriors before us?"
"Yeah!" Gorsepaw agreed, his voice squeaking. They were barely out of kithood themselves. "Shimmerstar should make us warriors already! If ShadowClan's kits are apprentices-"
"Quit it!" Burningpaw hissed, stopping both his siblings in their tracks. They glanced between each other before looking to Burningpaw. "Those kits are dying. They're only a few moons old. Silverheart said some of them aren't even eating solid food yet. You two should be happy you got to wait to be apprentices…" Burningpaw stopped for a moment, lowering his gaze to his paws. "No one is safe there… Brightpaw… She lost her eye, and her ear, and she's expecting kits. Gullstar's kits. And she's no older than we are…" Burningpaw closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. "It's frightening to think about…"
Burningpaw startled and opened his eyes when he felt something pressing to both of his sides, but it was just his siblings. They laid beside him, sheltering him between them.
"I'm sorry," Goldenpaw whispered, leaning her head on Burningpaw's shoulder. "I wasn't thinking. It's… You're right. It's terrifying."
"I'm sorry too," said Gorsepaw, laying his fluffy tail over Burningpaw's back. "We're lucky we were born in ThunderClan."
The apprentices sat in silence for a long time, Goldenpaw and Gorsepaw grooming their stressed brother. When Goldenpaw finally broke the somber silence, the sun was dipping beyond the horizon and the sky was turning shades of pink and orange.
"Is she going to die?" Goldenpaw whispered to Burningpaw.
"Starlingsong said she'll be okay if she doesn't catch an infection… But she'll be blind in one eye. She doesn't even have the eye anymore… It…" Burningpaw stopped to take in a few deep breaths, hoping to quell the feeling in his stomach. "It fell out. It was horrible… And her ear is gone. She might not be able to hear anymore…"
"That's so awful…" whispered Gorsepaw.
"I wish we could do something," sighed Goldenpaw.
"All we can do is be there for her now. I… Want to help take care of her. It isn't fair for her to have gotten so off course of her destiny…" Burningpaw sighed.
"Well…" Goldenpaw mewed softly. "When she recovers, she can train with us, right? Maybe she can still be a warrior."
Burningpaw screwed his eyes shut and buried his claws deep in the soil. "A ThunderClan warrior..."
"Yes," Gorsepaw mewed, a brightness to his voice that made Burningpaw feel sick. "A ThunderClan warrior, just like us!"
"Maybe when she's feeling better, we can teach her some moves!" Goldenpaw purred.
Burningpaw stood suddenly, flicking his tail in annoyance. "She's not a kit, you guys. She doesn't need us to teach her battle moves. She's dying." Burningpaw turned and slipped under the branches of the apprentice's den. He glared down at the moss nest he shared with his siblings, and in a fit of near rage, he ripped away a clump of the moss. He tossed it to the other side of the den before stomping over to it, arranging the moss into a nest of his own, far away from his siblings.