Petalstorm's POV
"Mother?"
Petalstorm raced through the swarm of retreating cats, but she didn't see her mother's familiar black-and-white pelt. Her heart pounded much to quickly, and she feared that it might explode inside of her. She can't be dead, she thought frantically, she can't be dead, she just can't be…
"Petalstorm?"
She whirled around, and a huge weight seemed to lift off of her. There was her mother, a smug expression on her bloody face. Her hind leg was bleeding severely, and she was limping, but she seemed extremely proud of herself.
"Mother! What happened to you? I was worried!"
Her mother kept her smug expression and said nothing.
"Mother?"
That voice was not Petalstorm's. She whirled around again, and this time it was her brother, Mountainclaw. His proud, handsome face was filled with worry. "Petalstorm, what happened to her?"
"You could just ask me, ya know," said their mother.
Petalstorm and Mountainclaw exchanged glances. They both knew that their mother was a bit funny in the head. She was old enough to be a senior elder, after all, but she refused to retire, even after Blackstar asked her to, saying that she would "rather die heroically in battle, than die of old age in the elder's den."
"Okay, mother," said Petalstorm slowly, "could you tell us what-"
"Well, you see," interrupted her mother, "I was chasing a little Ivyclan squirt back to her camp." Petalstorm rolled her eyes. "Ol' Hawktail never liked a coward," their mother started muttering, "no, no, never liked a little coward."
Petalstorm and Mountainclaw rolled their eyes again. Their mother often went off into muttering, sometimes using her own name instead of "I".
"Yes, mother, but how did you get hurt?" asked Petalstorm.
"Well, you see," Hawktail started again, "I was chasing a little Ivyclan squirt-"
"Mother, you already told us that part!" Petalstorm yelled desperately.
Hawktail gave her a small glare, and continued. "Well, I didn't know it, but she was leading me into a trap, see? I ran through some bushes, and there she was, with a whole bunch of warriors behind 'er. That's where I got this," she motioned towards her leg, "and this," she put a paw to her face. "I scratched some of 'em pretty bad, though." She smiled at this. "Ol' Hawktail can do anythin' she wants, see?" she started muttering again. "Don't need to retire!" She headed off towards the Birchclan camp, still muttering.
Petalstorm and Mountainclaw looked at each other, shrugged, and followed their mother.
