Chapter 4: The First Battle, Terrible Wounds

Hello again! Chapter 4… I'm still doing this even though I don't have any reviews… But enjoy!

It's been a moon since the Gathering, and Bravepaw got very close to Smokeclaw. So has Flamepaw and Flowerpetal. ShadowClan kept their schemes up for the whole moon. But she hasn't seen a patrol at all. Bravepaw came back from her second patrol that day, she felt her paws were gonna come off. But she wanted to see Whitewing's new litter. Her litter had 2 she-cats and 1 tom, 1 of the she-cats were white with bright blue eyes, her name was Snowkit, another was ginger with amber eyes, her name was Riftkit, and the tom was white with ginger patches, his name was Lightkit. They were born a few sunrises before. She walked to the nursery with a thrush for Whitewing.

"Whitewing? Are you awake?" she whispered.

"Of course, come in, Bravepaw," she answered. When Bravepaw came in she dropped the thrush in front on Whitewing, "Thank StarClan! I was starving, with these kits I can't even leave the nursery, my legs ache."

An idea popped into Bravepaw's head, "have they seen the camp yet?"

"No, why?"

"I could show them around!" Bravepaw exclaimed.

"Oh could you? While I go for a stroll through the forest?" she pleaded.

"Of course!" Bravepaw said, excitedly.

"Thank you!" she thanked, then left the nursery.

'Wait a minute. Where are the kits?' she thought, scared, 'I lost them already?!' Just then, she was ambushed by 3 squealing creatures. They leapt on her back and tackled her to the ground.

"You killed me!" Bravepaw said, while acting dead.

"I will be the best hunter ever!" Snowkit squeaked.

"I'll be the best warrior ever!" Lightkit challenged.

Riftkit said nothing, just scuffled her paws. 'What is she thinking?'

"Hey want to see the camp?"

"Really?! Yes!" they all squealed.

"Ok let's go!" she said. She was remembering her first day in the camp. She showed the kits the warriors den, apprentices den, leaders den, Highrock, elders den, and fresh kill pile. But what interested her was when she showed the medicine cats den, Riftkit showed a lot of interest.

"Look your mother is back!" Bravepaw exclaimed. When she walked over with the kits they bounded over to her and told her the story of the camp. But when Bravepaw walked over, she treaded on a thorn. She yelped and held her paw up.

"I'm so sorry! I must've brought that in!" Whitewing said.

"No, no. It's ok. I'll see Jayfeather." Bravepaw promised. Before she got to the den, she looked back to see Riftkit looking at her with interest. Bravepaw beckoned her with a flick of her tail to follow. She jumped with joy and bounded over.

"I've wanted to ask you, have you been thinking of what you want to be?" Bravepaw asked, with interest.

Riftkit looked down at her paw and scuffled them and simply said, "Maybe."

"A warrior?" she said. Riftkit had a blank expression, "A medicine cat?" her eyes lit up.

"Yeah!" she squeaked.

"Here come inside with me. Jayfeather? You there?" Bravepaw called.

"Yes! Come in!" he called, "What do you need?"

"I have a thorn in my pad!"

"Ok! I'm coming with marigold!" he called to her.

"Marigold for stopping infections," Riftkit repeated.

"That's correct!" Bravepaw said. Jayfeather walked in with marigold in his jaws.

"Alright this will hurt a bit but lick it right after it comes out." He said. He yanked it out and Bravepaw yelped, but quickly licked the pad. Jayfeather put the marigold poultice on.

"What's wrong with Riftkit?" he asked, questionably.

"Oh nothing… she is interested in coming a medicine cat," she said.

"Oh really," he said with an interested gaze, "I'll talk to Firestar about that." Riftkit's eyes brightened. Then Brightheart came in.

"We're on border patrol, Bravepaw!" she said.

"Aw! But I was on 2 hunting patrols!" she whined, "This isn't fair." But she still walked out to the patrol. It contained of Cloudtail, Smokeclaw, Flowerpetal, and Brambleclaw. Once they got into the forest they patrolled the RiverClan border and WindClan border, but there was nothing. Once they got to the ShadowClan, of course, something shows up. A patrol was there too. It contained of Russetfur, her apprentice Smallpaw, Rowanclaw, his apprentice Darkpaw, Dawnpelt, and Shadowfur.

"Hey fleapelts! Why don't you stay on your side of the border!" Shadowfur said, smugly.

"We have been!" Flowerpetal hissed. Bravepaw was scared, but tried to seem brave.

"No, we smelled your stench!" Darkpaw hissed back, "why don't you check?!"

"Why don't I just show you my claws?!"

"Flowerpetal! NO!" Brambleclaw was too late. Darkpaw launched himself at her. Then all sanity broke loose within the cats. They launched themselves at each other. Cloudtail had Dawnpelt, Brambleclaw had Rowanclaw, Flowerpetal had Darkpaw, Smokeclaw had Shadowfur, and Brightheart had Russetfur to battle with, at first. She was so shocked she didn't realize Smallpaw sneaking up behind her. She squeaked when she landed on her and raked her flank. She tried remembering her training, she remembered the belly rake. She twisted around and unsheathed her claws and raked them against her stomach. She screeched and tumbled back.

When she was about to leap on Smallpaw again, someone bit her tail dragged her back, and bit down hard on her leg and threw her to the ground. Bravepaw whipped around and saw Darkpaw, snarling. They leapt at eachother and when he pinned her down and snarled, "Nobody hurts my sister!" and made deep cuts on her flank and stomach.

Bravepaw screeched and coughed up blood. She felt more claw marks on her flank but then it stopped. She heard a faint voice say, "Get off her, fleapelt!" She opened her eyes and saw Brightheart and Smokeclaw hauling him off.

She felt blood all over her body. She thought the life was being drained from her. But she gave all her might to stand up. Her legs wobbled and when she looked down, and she saw a pool of her own blood. The first thing she thought, 'He tried to kill me!'

When she looked back up, the ShadowClan cats were backing away and fleeing.

"Bravepaw! Are you ok?" she heard Brightheart say worried.

"I… I'm… f… fine," she responded shakily. She tried walking but fell.

"Here me and Brambleclaw could carry her," Cloudtail said, looking at Brambleclaw for approval. He nodded but they could see horror in his eyes. Brightheart, with the help of Smokeclaw, hoisted her onto their shoulders.

They met a hunting patrol on the way back to camp. It had Squirrelflight leading, Thornclaw, Greystripe, his apprentice Rabbitpaw, Sandstorm, and her apprentice Silverpaw. Except the apprentices went chasing a thrush.

Sandstorm saw them first, "What happened?" All the cats were full of bad scratches and dirt.

"Well, somebody started a battle and got us injured!" Smokeclaw hissed, glaring at Flowerpetal.

"Don't blame me! It was ShadowClan!" she protested.

"ShadowClan?!" Thornclaw scoffed, "Of course it's them! They cause all our problems." Just then Squirrrelflight came up with a sparrow in her jaws but stopped and saw the patrol all battered.

"Great StarClan!" she exclaimed, "Are you alright?"

"Yes but I'll explain it later," Brambleclaw replied, "First we got to" –he didn't finish from Squirrelflights screech.

"My kit!" she screeched, "Oh my kit! Get her back to camp now, please!" With that they strode off.

Once they got to camp, they heard gasps from the cats that were out in the clearing. The elders were out, the queens, and the spare warriors, along with the leader and medicine cats. Leafpool looked at them with wide eyes and nudged Jayfeather.

"I smell blood," he said, "what happened?"

"Not now, Jayfeather!" Squirrelflight pleaded, "Help my kit!"

"And the others," Firestar added.

"She lost a lot of blood Jayfeather," Leafpool said.

"Leafpool, you help the others, I got Bravepaw," he nodded to Brambleclaw and Cloudtail to follow him. They set her down on the floor of the moss bed. Jayfeather sniffed her, ignoring Leafpool running behind him to the medicine supply store.

Bravepaw thought of something and brought up all of her strength to say, "Riftkit… help… you…" As if she was summoned, she poked her head in.

"Riftkit, you know what cobwebs, comfrey, and dock are from before, right?" he asked the young kit.

She nodded.

"And also bring goldenrod," he added

She went over to the supplies and got the dock, comfrey, and cobwebs out.

"Hold still, it'll hurt when I put it on." Bravepaw looked at him weakly with a 'Really' face, "Riftkit, you put some dock on the small cuts on her flank and on her tail." She put it on carefully, making sure she didn't do it so fast. It didn't hurt for Bravepaw, but when Jayfeather put it on her deep scratches, she felt like her pelt was lit on fire. She hissed weakly through clenched teeth.

She felt like she was going to black out because she was seeing stars clouding her eyes. She heard someone walk in, she tried opening her eyes but couldn't so she tried listening to the voice.

"Is she ok?" a young voice, warrior by the sound of it, said. She knew who it was, but it shocked her to hear who it was, 'Flowerpetal?!'

"I don't know yet," he responded, "She might be still conscious still, though."

"Look, Bravepaw, I'm sorry… it was my fault your hurt. I'll make it up to you, the days you're in here I'll bring you fresh-kill and water! Do you mind me doing that?"

She couldn't speak, so she flicked her ear happily.

"Ok!" She looked at Jayfeather and dipped her head, "I'll leave you to your work." Then walked out.

When Jayfeather and Riftkit finished, Squirrelflight came in and said, "Is she going to be ok?"

"I'm not sure… it's in the paws of StarClan now," he said, sadly.

"No… she can't die, she's part of my first litter," she muttered to herself.

There was a horrified screech at the entrance of the camp. It was Silverpaw.

She ran to the medicine den, followed by Rabbitpaw and Lightningpaw.

"No! Is she going to StarClan?" she asked, sacredly.

"We don't know," Leafpool said, calmly.

"How do you not know?!" Rabbitpaw yelled, "You're medicine cats!"

"Now Rabbitpaw that's not how you speak to…" Squirrelflight started.

"No. I agree! Why don't you dream and find out?" Lightningpaw said, horrified.

"I need to speak to you three," Squirrelflight said, sternly.

Rabbitpaw shot one last glare and left with the other two behind him and Squirrelflight.

'What did I do…?' Bravepaw thought fading into blackness.

After a dreamless night, Bravepaw woke up. She was able to lift her head, she looked over her body. It was covered with herbs. She looked over to see Briarlight, a crippled she-cat, sleeping in her nest, along with Jayfeather and Leafpool. She tried to get up, her leg was in pain, and she saw a cast looking thing on it. 'Great StarClan! I look horrible,'she thought.

"You're ok!" a voice whispered. She looked around to see Silverpaw, "You should get some sunlight!"

She leaned on Silverpaw and they walked out. The sun blinded her for a few seconds but faded to see an empty camp.

"Is everyone on patrol?" Bravepaw asked.

"Not everyone, but a lot are. I offered to stay back!" she exclaimed.

"Thanks!" said Bravepaw.

"No problem!" she replied, "Look! The patrols are back! And good timing!" She flicked her tail to the hunting patrol. She saw Flowerpetal padding toward them with a squirrel.

"Here you go! I told you I'd hunt for you!" she said, dipping her head. She then padded away.

"Thank you, Flowerpetal!" Bravepaw responded. Her tail was drooping.

"Why do you look so down?" Silverpaw asked.

"I'm not being a good apprentice. Being lazy, not helping my clan. I'm lazier than a fat kittypet!" she looked at Silverpaw, she had a weird look on her face, "Not counting Spiritpaw, he's not a kittypet anymore."

"Well, Let's Eat!"

To Be Continued...

This was interesting… Quite a battle! Tune in next time on Warriors: Bravekit's Stars!