Fireheart managed to catch a fair amount of prey before returning back to camp later that morning, in a much better mood than when he'd left. When he returned, he bumped into Sandstorm as she was leaving with Thornpaw, presumably off for a training session. Ravenflight and Thornpaw were right behind her.

"Hey, Fireheart," Sandstorm greeted him, her green eyes sympathetic. "Are you doing alright?"

"Definitely," Fireheart replied cheerfully.

Sandstorm looked startled. "Where did all this cheeriness come from all of a sudden?"

Fireheart flicked his tail. "Well, I figured I wouldn't do much good moping around. We've got too many things to take care of around here. Speaking of which, did you-know-who take out his apprentice, or has he snuck out of the camp again?"

"Guess," was all she said. Fireheart understood immediately.

"Of course, what else did I expect?" he snorted. Privately, he wondered why he hadn't run into Graystripe on his way home from Sunningrocks. Perhaps the gray warrior had simply taken a different route? "Well, if you don't mind waiting for me, I can get Brackenpaw and meet up with you four."

"Sounds good," Ravenflight agreed. "We're practicing battle moves today, so we'll be waiting for you at the sandy hollow when you're ready."

Fireheart nodded and padded into the camp. As he entered, he was surprised to find Bluestar out of her den, having thought that she would still be too weak to leave. He was worried that she would be upset with him for not being available when she asked for him, but her eyes betrayed nothing but their usual warmth when she saw him. There was some sympathy there as well, and he guessed that she had heard what happened to Cinderpaw.

Now that the initial grief over Cinderpaw's accident had passed, Fireheart had been able to look more critically at the situation. It seemed strange that Tigerclaw would have needed Bluestar to meet him in such a dangerous spot. Not to mention why he would even need her to come in the first place. Why would she need to see evidence of ShadowClan hunting on their territory instead of just taking her deputy at his word? For that matter, Fireheart wasn't even sure if he remembered finding any hint of ShadowClan trespassers, although he had been distracted at the time, so it was possible that he had simply missed it.

But there wasn't time to worry about that now. Brushing off his thoughts, the flame-pelted warrior padded over to Bluestar and dipped his head in greeting. "Good morning."

"Hello, Fireheart," Bluestar meowed. Her eyes were friendly and she seemed genuinely happy to see him, which sent another pang of guilt through Fireheart.

"I'm sorry I couldn't come yesterday," he apologized, but she waved her tail dismissively.

"It's alright. It sounds as though you had a lot going on yesterday anyway," she meowed, glancing toward the medicine clearing. "I'm sorry about Cinderpaw, Fireheart. She would have made a brilliant warrior."

"What do you mean, would have?" Fireheart retorted. "Who's to say she still can't be one? Once she gets better and once she's recovered some of her strength, I'm going to continue training her."

Bluestar looked at him gently. "Fireheart," she began quietly. "I spoke to Yellowfang earlier and she said that most of her injuries will heal eventually, but her back left leg is going to be permanently crippled. Do you know how difficult it's going to be to train her with an injury like that? She would have to learn everything from scratch, and that's not even counting for the time it would take for her to adjust to basic things like walking and cleaning herself again, nor the time it's going to take for her to recover from her other injuries. Even if she did manage to become a full warrior, training her is going to take much longer than normal. Chances are, she still wouldn't be finished with her training even after Brindleface's kits become apprentices. They might even be warriors before her."

Fireheart knew that what his leader was saying was true, but at the same time, he knew he couldn't allow it to prevent him from keeping his promise. It had been partially his fault that Cinderpaw had run onto the Thunderpath in the first place–he hadn't done enough to curb her reckless enthusiasm a little. The least he could do was give her a chance to overcome her new disability and become a warrior as she'd always dreamed.

"I know," he admitted finally. "I know it's going to be difficult. And who knows, maybe it will be too much and she won't become a warrior in the end. But I'd feel worse if I didn't try at all. I promised I'd turn her into a warrior, and if that means I have one more obstacle to work around...then so be it. Anyway, if WindClan can have a lame warrior as their deputy, there's no reason Cinderpaw can't become a warrior."

Bluestar gazed at him for a moment, then nodded. "I can see there won't be any changing your mind," she meowed. "Very well, Fireheart. Once Cinderpaw recovers, you may continue training her as a warrior."

"Thanks, Bluestar!" Fireheart meowed happily. He turned to go find Brackenpaw, tossing a, "See you later," over his shoulder.

Brackenpaw was lounging outside the apprentices' den when Fireheart approached him. Fireheart had to suppress a burst of anger when he saw the bored look on the apprentice's face. Graystripe had some nerve, calling him a bad mentor when he clearly didn't care about his own apprentice. He would have talked to Bluestar about getting Brackenpaw a new mentor, but he thought it would be more advisable to wait until she had recovered a little more from her sickness.

"Brackenpaw," he called out. "Are you up for some battle training? We're meeting Sandstorm and Ravenflight at the sandy hollow."

Brackenpaw leaped to his paws, his expression immediately lighting up. "Sure, Fireheart. Let's go."

Sandstorm and Ravenflight were already in the midst of a practice battle with their apprentices when Fireheart and Brackenpaw arrived. They paused when they noticed them, however, and Brackenpaw bounded over to join his siblings.

"Sorry it took so long," Fireheart apologized. "I had to talk to Bluestar about Cinderpaw."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Sandstorm meowed, waving him off with a flick of her tail. "There's still plenty of time left before we have to go back. Brackenpaw can join in on this next round."

"Yeah, come on, Brackenpaw," Brightpaw meowed, her eyes full of mischief. "I bet I can take you in a fight."

Brackenpaw purred. "We'll see about that," he retorted playfully.

It was nearly sunset by the time they finished training. All three apprentices were exhausted, but their eyes were shining and their good mood was shared by the warriors. They were turning into excellent fighters. Just as Fireheart was thinking that nothing could spoil their contentment, Graystripe seemed to appear out of nowhere, carrying a scrawny blackbird that looked as though it was barely more than a pile of feathers. When he saw Brackenpaw with Fireheart, he dropped his prey and marched over to them.

"What are you doing with my apprentice?" he asked aggressively. "Just because you lost yours doesn't give you the right to steal Brackenpaw."

But Fireheart wasn't in the mood to speak to the gray warrior. Turning to Sandstorm, he meowed, "Did you hear someone talking just now?"

Graystripe made an angry noise, but Sandstorm simply replied, "Nope, I didn't hear anything. Did you, Ravenflight?"

"No," Ravenflight meowed. "I don't think I did."

"I suppose it was the wind, then," Fireheart meowed. "Whatever, let's just keep going. I'd rather get back to camp before the fat traitor eats all of the fresh-kill."

His companions all laughed, and together they marched past Graystripe on their way back to the camp, not even sparing him a second glance. Just before they rounded a corner that led to the gorse tunnel, Fireheart glanced behind him and saw that Graystripe was padding in the opposite direction, presumably towards Sunningrocks. He tried to care but found he didn't.

If he wants to be a traitor, let him, Fireheart thought defiantly. Who cares he does?

Perhaps his behavior had been a little immature, but Fireheart felt that he wasn't entirely in the wrong. Besides, Graystripe owed him an apology for taunting him about Cinderpaw's accident, and that wasn't even to mention the way he was treating Brackenpaw, as though he were something that could be owned. Fireheart was almost amazed that Graystripe had the audacity to complain about his apprentice being "stolen" when he took no interest in training him at all.

But regardless, he had more important things to take care of now. Bluestar was still recovering from her illness and was on her ninth life, and once Cinderpaw recovered, he would have to take care of training her and helping her adjust to her disability. Soon, his friendship with Graystripe would be nothing more than a distant memory.