At long last, after what felt like seasons of misfortune, a stroke of good luck finally fell ThunderClan's way. Two days after Fireheart's outburst to her in the middle of the forest, Yellowfang informed Bluestar that Brightheart was well enough to return to the warriors' den.

"She should stick to doing light duties for some time, but she can help out with gathering bedding for the elders," the old medicine cat told her. "That way, she can get used to getting around with only one good eye."

"That's great news, Yellowfang," Bluestar purred. "I assume her family already knows?"

"They do. I told them to wait outside while I give Brightheart one last checkup. Someone should let Squirrelpaw know too, though," Yellowfang meowed. "I'm sure she'll want to see her mentor again."

"I'll go do that now," Bluestar promised, dipping her head to the medicine cat.

She turned around and headed over to the apprentices' den, passing by Frostfur, Thornclaw, and Cinderheart on her way there. The three warriors were looking around anxiously, and Bluestar guessed that they were waiting for Brightheart to come out of the medicine den. Brackenfur was out training with Redpaw at the moment, but the ThunderClan leader figured he was just as eager to see his sister as well. Cinderheart and Thornclaw waved their tails in greeting, but Frostfur kept her eyes averted. Bluestar suppressed a sigh; the white queen had pulled out of her depression and gone back to her warrior duties, but she still seemed uncomfortable around her and Fireheart.

As she drew closer to the apprentices' den, she spotted Squirrelpaw and Snowpaw sharing a mouse together. A few paces away, Tawnypaw was talking animatedly with Rainpaw, her tail waving about eagerly. All four of them looked over at her as she approached, identical expressions of curiosity on their faces.

"Hi, Bluestar," Squirrelpaw greeted her. "Can we help you?"

"That's alright, Squirrelpaw," Bluestar meowed warmly. "I have some good news for you, though. Brightheart is out of the medicine den now."

Squirrelpaw's eyes lit up. "Really? She is?" the fluffy ginger molly asked eagerly. "Can I see her? When can we start training again?"

"Yes, she is, and she should be out soon," Bluestar replied. "Her family will probably want to see her first, though, so we should give them time alone together. But I'm sure she'll be pleased to see you too, Squirrelpaw."

"But what about training?" her granddaughter repeated.

Bluestar shook her head. "I'm afraid that will have to wait for a little while longer," she told the younger cat apologetically. "Brightheart still needs to recover the rest of her strength, and besides that, she has to get used to patrolling, hunting, and fighting with only one eye."

"I understand," Squirrelpaw meowed, nodding. She frowned as she added, "But–but she will be able to train me again eventually, right? I won't have to get a new mentor, will I?"

"No, of course, you won't," Bluestar reassured her. "I'm not going to assign you to a new mentor just because Brightheart is injured. You will need to train under another warrior until she's well enough to mentor you again, but she'll still be your official mentor."

"Okay," the ginger molly answered, nodding in understanding. "Thanks, Bluestar."

Bluestar nodded and headed over to the fresh-kill pile to grab a piece of prey. She glanced around the camp for Fireheart, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Must be out on patrol, then, the blue-gray queen thought to herself.

Picking up a thrush, she carried it over to her den, nodding to Whitestorm and Willowpelt, who were sharing a meal. As she passed by, Bluestar couldn't help glancing sympathetically at Willowpelt. The pale gray queen had been understandably subdued ever since her son's death. She was doing better now, but it was hard to miss the look of sorrow that flashed in her eyes whenever she saw Sorrelkit and Sootkit playing together.

Briefly, Bluestar wondered what had become of Darkstripe after the Clans had chased him out of the forest. It was widely assumed that he was dead, but there hadn't been a body to bury, so nobody really had any proof. Of course, even if he was alive, Bluestar doubted that he would ever return knowing that the entire forest was out for his blood.

Well, not including his Clan, she thought grimly.

Perhaps it was her own prejudice talking, but Bluestar couldn't help agreeing with Fireheart's belief that Tigerstar had known about Rainkit's murder. Darkstripe had always been his closest follower, and on top of that, knowing Tigerstar he would have wanted to know what his deputy was doing at all times. He had always been paranoid about traitors–ironic, really, considering his own history. The idea of Darkstripe doing anything without his former mentor's knowledge was laughable at best.

However, if that were the case, then it raised another set of questions. If Tigerstar had indeed known that Darkstripe killed Rainkit, then he must have also known that the former ShadowClan deputy had been hunting on ThunderClan territory. But she couldn't see how that would make sense. For one thing, if Tigerstar wanted revenge on ThunderClan as she suspected he did, sending his deputy to hunt on their land was a poor way of going about things. The dark tabby was many things, but stupid was not one of them and he would know better than anyone that it was a terrible idea to put himself on ThunderClan's radar.

Bluestar shook her head, taking a bite out of her thrush. She was beginning to think that she would never truly understand her old deputy's motives. How did one go from being a loyal, if ill-tempered, warrior to a power-hungry attempted murderer within the span of a few moons?

Part of her wanted to believe that it was Thistleclaw's fault. After all, he had been the one to train Tigerstar. In a way, Bluestar supposed his teaching methods were partially to blame. At the same time, however, she knew that she should have seen the warning signs.

I should have known something wasn't right the moment he almost got Fireheart killed on his second day in ThunderClan, Bluestar thought.

It seemed strange that she had been one of the only cats to realize how dangerous Thistleclaw was, yet she hadn't noticed that there was anything off about Tigerstar's behavior. But then again, Bluestar reasoned, she had been preoccupied with worrying over her kit. Perhaps it was understandable that Tigerstar's treachery had flown under her radar until it was quite literally at her throat.

Shaking her head, Bluestar brushed away her thoughts and returned to her meal. Regardless of what she had missed, there was no point in thinking about it now. Tigerstar was the leader of ShadowClan now; he had gotten what he wanted. She would just have to worry about what he might be plotting against her Clan later. Brightheart was on the road to recovery after nearly a moon in the medicine den. There were plenty of things to be concerned about, but Bluestar was more than happy to take this one day to be glad that something had gone right for a change.

Brightheart's all better! Well, not quite, but she's getting there. And yes, she's still going to be Squirrelpaw's mentor because again, I'm not a FUCKING COWARD. She just needs time to adjust first.

Responses to a few reviews:

Amberflame805: Glad you enjoyed it! I was trying to do something different with Tigerstar's character here. He's still definitely an evil asshole, but he's not hell-bent on revenge like he was in canon. This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I was never that impressed with him as a villain in canon, especially considering the fact that when you really think about it, all he was doing was throwing a decades-long temper tantrum over the fact that Bluestar liked Firestar more than him.

draconic skysong: Agreed. The poor boy has been through enough lately.

Kitty-Guardian Hootryd: Poor Fireheart, lol. But don't worry Fireheart, you also have the main character role protecting you.

Totem-Mimikyu: Yes and no. At the moment, I don't have any plans to delete Bitter Repercussions, but I'm also running low on inspiration. I was considering restarting it from the beginning, but I've gotten a little sidetracked with Echoing Flames and Fire Rising.

Guest 1: Representation. When every single one of your characters is an able-bodied cishet, there's a problem. And if you think about it, there's really no reason NOT to have LGBTQ+ representation in writing.

The Hunter team and editors have no problem with writing in xenophobia, infanticide, murder, pedophilia, and death from childbirth, so clearly they're not against adding sensitive topics into the series. Yet out of every couple in the Warriors franchise, there's only one confirmed gay couple (that being Ravenpaw and Barley). To put it simply, they're more leery about having two males or two females in a relationship than hate crimes, murdering babies, childbirth death, and racism–things that are actually harmful.

So that means one of two things: either they're homophobic or they're too cowardly to get with the times.

And that's not even to mention all of the ableism in the Warriors series, but I'll get into that discussion another time.

Guest 2: Yes, the series will go on into the second arc.

Thanks for reading!

-TheShadowedWarrior