When Fireheart and the rest of the patrol arrived back at the camp, they spotted Frostfur emerging from the medicine den. The white queen paused when she saw Fireheart and Sandstorm, but the two of them refused to acknowledge her, choosing instead to pad over to where Squirrelpaw was sharing a mouse with Rainpaw and Redpaw.

"Hi, Mom, hi Dad," Squirrelpaw meowed. Fireheart was relieved to see that even though her voice lacked its usual excitement, she sounded more cheerful than she had when he had left the camp.

"Hello, Squirrelpaw," he greeted his daughter, gently licking her over her ears. "Are you feeling better?"

"A little," the dark ginger molly answered. She hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Is Brightheart okay?"

"Well..." Fireheart hesitated for a moment, not entirely sure how to explain what had happened to Squirrelpaw's mentor. "She's badly hurt, but Yellowfang and Spotpaw know what they're doing. They'll have her feeling better in no time."

"But it might take a while until she's able to resume mentoring you again," Sandstorm added.

Squirrelpaw nodded as Rainpaw piped up, "I–I think Frostfur's mad at Squirrelpaw. She tried to go over and ask if she saw Brightheart, but Frostfur just snapped at her to get lost."

"She did what?" Sandstorm hissed.

Fireheart's stomach began to churn with anger. It was one thing for Frostfur to accuse Squirrelpaw of being responsible for Brightheart's accident behind her back, but it was another thing entirely to behave rudely towards her in person. Evidently, none of what he and Sandstorm had said had registered in the white molly's mind at all. He knew he should have been more sympathetic–after all, Frostfur was clearly grieving and therefore wasn't in a reasonable state of mind. But Squirrelpaw had been hurt as well, perhaps not physically, but definitely mentally. The last thing Fireheart needed was for anyone to make his daughter's emotional trauma worse than it already was.

"Wait here," he meowed to his children. "I'm going to go talk to her."

"I'll come too," Sandstorm growled, her pale green eyes flashing with anger.

The two warriors stalked over to Frostfur, who was sitting by the clump of nettles, picking mindlessly at a thrush. She looked up as they approached, the fur on her shoulders bristling and her expression twisting into a snarl when she saw them.

"What do you want?" Frostfur sneered. "Make this quick, I want to finish my meal in peace."

"I'll get to the point, then," Fireheart shot back coldly. "What's this I hear about you being rude to Squirrelpaw when she tried to ask about Brightheart?"

"I have nothing to explain to you," the white queen snapped, taking a bite out of her thrush. "I'm not in the business of putting up with apprentices whose selfish desires get my daughter hurt."

Fireheart growled, but it was Sandstorm who reacted first. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his mate's claws flash and winced slightly, wondering if she was about to slash Frostfur open. Instead of striking the queen, however, her claws hooked on the thrush and she flung it several tail-lengths to the side. Frostfur stared at Sandstorm in shock, her blue eyes wide.

"Listen here and listen well, you miserable old waste of fresh-kill," Sandstorm snarled. "I don't care how upset you are over Brightheart's injury. If you even think of blaming Squirrelpaw again, next time you'll be the one who gets clawed."

Frostfur shrank back slightly, but she still had some fight left in her. "If Squirrelpaw hadn't insisted on going climbing there, this wouldn't have happened," she meowed stubbornly.

"Really?" Fireheart asked sarcastically. "As I recall, it was Brightheart's idea to take her climbing at the Great Sycamore in the first place. And even if it wasn't, Brightheart is a warrior–and what's more, she's Squirrelpaw's mentor. She had every right and authority to refuse Squirrelpaw's request, but she chose not to do so even though she knew of the danger there. We had a Clan meeting not too long ago discussing the dogs at Snakerocks, in case you need a reminder. If you really want to look for someone to blame, perhaps you should be looking at your daughter instead of ours."

"How dare you?" Frostfur screeched, her tail lashing with fury. Several cats turned their heads to stare at her, but she didn't appear to notice. "How dare you blame Brightheart? She's been crippled for life! She only has half of a StarClan-forsaken face now! You have no right to blame her when she's been hurt the way she has!"

"W-what?" Fireheart felt his stomach drop as Squirrelpaw's voice piped up again. He turned around to see the small ginger molly staring at Frostfur, her eyes full of fear. "What do you mean, she has only half a face? That–that's not true, is it?"

"Now you've done it," he snarled at Frostfur, who looked stunned as if she hadn't expected Squirrelpaw to hear her. "What did we just get through telling you about upsetting Squirrelpaw? Tell me, Frostfur, are you too stupid to follow even the most basic of instructions or are you having trouble with language comprehension today?"

Frostfur stared at him. "I..."

"Save it," Fireheart interrupted. "I don't want to hear anything you have to say. I'm sorry Brightheart was hurt, but I will not tolerate your behavior towards Squirrelpaw. She's my daughter–mine and Sandstorm's–and quite frankly, I'm less concerned with Brightheart's needs than hers. If that's a problem for you, well, you'll just have to learn to deal with it. End of story."

Without another word, he turned around and stalked away with Sandstorm padding alongside him. Squirrelpaw looked up at him sadly as they passed by her, and Fireheart had to quash another surge of anger in order to stop himself from racing back over to Frostfur and swiping his claws over her muzzle. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he laid his tail gently over his daughter's shoulder and guided her back to her den.

"Get some rest," Sandstorm meowed gently. "You've had a long day."

"Okay," Squirrelpaw agreed, nodding. She hesitated for a moment, then asked quietly, "Is–is it true what Frostfur said? Was Brightheart really hurt that badly?"

"Yes," Fireheart admitted, knowing it wouldn't do any good to lie. She was bound to see what had happened to her mentor sooner or later, at any rate. "Yes, she was."

Squirrelpaw's tail drooped. "Oh..." she meowed. "But–but she'll recover, right? Yellowfang can fix her. Can't she?"

"Well...it will be difficult for Yellowfang to fix her completely," Fireheart answered honestly. "But she and Spotpaw will get Brightheart back on her feet, and we'll be there to help her get used to performing her warrior duties half-blind. And once she's done with that, she can resume training you again. Don't worry yourself too much, Squirrelpaw. Everything will be fine in the end. We'll make sure of it."

"Thanks, Dad," Squirrelpaw meowed quietly.

"You're welcome," the flame-colored warrior replied, resting his tail-tip gently on top of her shoulder. "Now, go and take a nap. You can have the rest of the day off if you want."

Squirrelpaw nodded and turned around, pushing her way into the apprentices' den. Fireheart watched his daughter disappear before turning around and walking away, letting out a long sigh. He felt Sandstorm brush her cheek against his and turned his head to touch his nose to her ear.

"She's going to be fine," Sandstorm murmured. "Rainpaw and the others will take care of her."

"I know," Fireheart agreed, grateful that Squirrelpaw at least had her siblings to support her.

Of course, Brightheart's injury and Squirrelpaw's emotional trauma weren't the only things weighing on his mind. He knew they had to think of a plan to get rid of the dogs before anyone else was maimed, or worse, killed by them. But there was no telling how long that would take, nor how many other ThunderClan warriors were hurt before they could get rid of them.

Indeed, the only high point seemed to be that Tigerstar hadn't shown any particular interest in his former Clan since taking over ShadowClan. At least the worst threat at the present time was coming from within their own borders. At any rate, however, Fireheart knew they would have their work cut out for them.