This time, Quailstep hadn't waited for Brightnose to wake in the middle of the night. After an evening meal, the Sun Guard flicked her tail to the other warrior, padding just outside of camp.
As Brightnose approached, Quailstep heaved a sigh of relief and gently licked over her friend's rumpled fur, nosing softly around her wounds so as not to disturb Swallowbreeze's work.
"What in StarClan's name happened?" she meowed. She'd heard from the others, bits and pieces, but she was specifically concerned with the state of the younger Sun Guard. "Who did this to you?"
BRIGHTNOSE | SUN GUARD "ALWAYS CONFUSING THE THOUGHTS IN MY HEAD"
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Despite the exhaustion that's settled deep into her bones, Brightnose can hardly eat. She manages to get a small mouse down, but not any more than that - it feels like every sound is putting her on edge, the post-battle paranoia setting in even worse than last time.Are we safe? Did they follow us? She knows, logically, that they certainly didn't and would have been incredibly mouse-brained to do so after freshly losing their leader. But that doesn't stop Brightnose from keeping near the entrance of camp, gaze constantly flicking over just in casea WindClan warrior comes near.
When Quailstep signals for her to follow, she does so quickly; now that the camp-wide panic has settled slightly, the heavily injured in the medicine den and the others staying close to their loved ones, Brightnose wants nothing more than to find comfort in her close friend. She allows herself a small smile when Quailstep takes the time to straighten out her still-ruffled pelt. "Thanks." It's a quiet acknowledgement, but one that she is sure to voice nonetheless.
Brightnose meets the other Sun Guard's gaze for a moment as they ask what happened, and who did this? The fresh scars on her shoulder sting, and she shifts uncomfortably. "It was WindClan," she explains. "They thought they could get away with trespassing. With shamelesslystealing prey." Her ears pin back as she says it, brow furrowed with frustration. "And as if that wasn't enough, they had the gall to call us murderers. On our own territory!!" Even as her tail lashes, there is a sliver of doubt behind her eyes… She has unshakable faith in her Clan and nothing will change that, but the WindClan warrior she had fought seemed so confident that it was, in fact, a SkyClan warrior who had taken the life of - what had she said his name was? Molewhisker? Brightnose hates feeling torn like this. Perhaps there is some kind of mistake, someone wanting to sabotage SkyClan by making them seem like the perpetrators of something so heinous. "Even if such an outlandish claim was true, I can't believe Dustystar led her warriors straight into a bloodbath…" Brightnose shakes her head. That's what the late leader will be known for, now.. Her final, most reckless act of war. "We're lucky there were no other casualties, but I know Hawkstar losing a life is hitting the Clan hard right now… and… probably will for a while." Brightnose swallows thickly, the image of Quailstep's nose pressed into the leader's bloodied fur still burning in her mind. She knows how much the other Sun Guard cares for their king -it must have been so painful for her to see. I'm sorry, Quailstep… I wish I could have stopped it.
Quailstep was quiet and pensive as Brightnose spoke, only responding with nods and gentle licks to her friend's cheek.
"I never would have anticipated... this is the sort of behavior I'd expect from ThunderClan, or... or ShadowClan! I thought we were on relatively good terms with them... why would they...?" It was apparent, once more, that the other Clans had no respect for the code, or Clan boundaries. Why else would they stoop to souch roguish behavior?
"And they claimed we were murderers? After Hawkstar losing a life?" Her tail whisked angrily.
"Fox-hearts," she grumbled. And once again, I wasn't there to help my Clan.
BRIGHTNOSE | SUN GUARD "ALWAYS CONFUSING THE THOUGHTS IN MY HEAD"
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"I agree... I never expected WindClan to be such a threat to us." Brightnose sighs, shaking her head along to Quailstep's remarks. They are fox-hearts. All of them. ThunderClan, ShadowClan, and now WindClan too... what if RiverClan decides to turn against them now, just to stay in good graces with the others? Brightnose's gaze flicks momentarily to the bangle gifted to her by Coyoteclaw, to the streak of dried blood that now adorns it, but she looks away just as quickly. She doesn't want to imagine something like that... she's not sure if she'd be able to bring herself to draw the blood of her mate's friends and family.
"I can only hope that Dustystar's successor won't be so foolish," she continues, though that hope is genuine. "Hawkstar... she must have been protected by StarClan themselves to have landed on the cliffside the way she did. I suppose WindClan's punishment was that Dustystar was swept away in the gorge." Brightnose shudders to think of what the alternative could have been like. Flowercloud would have been completely inconsolable... and Quailstep... what would Brightnose have possibly been able to say to comfort her? She can only thank the stars that it didn't happen that way, that Hawkstar is still with SkyClan as their leader albeit with less lives left. I wonder if the warrior I fought still feels so passionately now that it's cost them their leader.
Reaching outward, Brightnose begins tracing shapes into the dirt, a telltale sign that there is too much on her mind. But this time, she speaks her thoughts aloud. "There was something that the WindClan warrior I fought said - Sagesong heard it too, she was there helping me fight. The reason they accused us of murder... apparently, they could smell SkyClan scent on their Clanmate's body. 'Clear as day,' she even said. She seemed so confident, but - do you think it's a lie?" Brightnose swallows thickly, and her tail flicks anxiously. "What if there's someone trying to sabotage us and we don't even know it...?"
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