Brightheart's Revenge

An Unforgiven Grudge

I dashed into camp. Everyone turned to me, startled. "Brightheart!" Whitewing dashed over. "Where were you?" Cloudtail meowed, padding over. "Er..." I stammered.

'What do I say? They can't know about the Dark Forest or where I was.'

"I went hunting far away and I got lost... But I found my way eventually."

'Lousy excuse! Only a kit would believe that!'

"But you never get lost," Hollyleaf meowed, a confused look covering her face.

"I know but I got distracted by a rabbit." I replied, pushing past the crowd. 'Since when am I this popular?'

They seemed to believe it. Brambleclaw padded over and rolled his eyes. "Right. Now, Hollyleaf, take Brightheart, Foxleap and Rosepetal on a tunnel fight." He meowed. "They need to learn how to fight in the dark and in small places,"

I sighed but followed Hollyleaf anyway. Tunnels were dark, damp and cramped up. I felt like I was being caught by a Twoleg the last time I went in a tunnel.

We padded into the tunnel and my breathe began shallow. I dragged my paws in further.

My back brushed against both sides of the tunnel and on the top. I could feel little bits of dirt falling into my pelt and I fought the urge to fluff out my pelt.

My instincts were screaming at me to back out, but I couldn't. It would be cowardly of me.

A few heartbeats went by and the walls left my pelt and I could finally stand up straight. "Be carful, there is a few small holes where the water falls through the roof. My pelt stood on all ends. 'Water... Holes... Great!' Hollyleaf must've picked up on my tension, because she whispered, "Don't worry, its only tiny droplets coming off of the roof."

I let out a sigh of relief and we padded on.

* * * * *

We squeezed through the tunnel, Hollyleaf last, and padded back to camp. Still, most if the patrols were not back, even though the sun was going down. Cloudtail met up with me and murmured, "I'm going on a night hunting patrol, see you later tonight." And he padded off. I didn't even get to reply.

I turned my head and watched his fluffy white pelt vanish through the entrance. I sighed and grabbed a plump mouse. I saw Dovewing and Ivypool sitting beside each other. They seemed hostile and uneasy as they spoke.

I padded over to them, with the mouse in my mouth, and sat down next to them. They turned their heads to face me and Ivypool spoke first. "Hello." She meowed. "You two seem uneasy, what's wrong?" I asked.

They exchanged glances then Dovewing reassured, "Nothing. We were just talking about..." She stopped. "About how Bumblestripe was so grumpy today!" Ivypool blurted out.

"Yeah, right. We are kin, you can tell me." I muttered, laying down and taking a bite of the mouse.

They exchanged glances again and Ivypool looked at me. "Dovewing has this-" Dovewing cut her off with a whip to the ear from her tail. She gave Ivypool an angry look.

I looked at them confused. Finally, I sighed. "Fine, if you don't want to tell me, you don't have to." I meowed casually.

"Yeah, anyways," Ivypool muttered, standing up. "I'm going to see if Brambleclaw wants me in another patrol."

Dovewing followed her sister and I rolled my eye. 'They are up to something, and I think it might have something to do with The Dark Forest.' I shook my head.

'There has to be more to it then just that. Dovewing seemed more uneasy then Ivypool... But what was it?' I pushed it to the back of my mind. I took a bite of my mouse and my taste buds exploded with disgust. I spat it out and looked at the mouse.