fight like my sister-- that's a compliment (c)

Life had gone back to normal pretty quickly after the incident. Aside from the occasionally vivid nightmare about talons in her back, Hedgepaw found it easy to forget about the shoulder injury completely. The wounds had been shallow and healed in the blink of an eye. Besides, she never went out alone--what did she have to worry about? Certainly nothing, not with strong cats like Fernpaw and Pineblossom and Silverhawk there to protect her. So she didn't mind. She got back to regularity without much trouble. This evening had been like any other, with the pale yellowish light of the moon above washing over camp. Quillsplash had told her to take a break from training; she'd taken the opportunity to eat a small mouse from the fresh-kill pile and now sat here grooming the faint traces of mud from her white paws.

Something hit her in the shoulder. Hedgepaw blinked, feeling the sensation of surprise jolt through her muscles all at once, until her eyes flicked over to the side and caught a familiar dark-furred pelt. Her brother. The sight of him set her face aglow in a warm smile, directed right at him. "Wolf! How 're you?" Belatedly, she noticed his expression. The strange blankness. The stare, and the low tone with which he spoke, not even greeting her. She... hadn't told him? Had she forgot? Had he not known? She couldn't recall sitting and talking with him about it, specifically. It had all been a bit of a blur when it happened. Why was he looking at her like that? Was he... angry at her? But the moment passed, and soon enough he looked normal again. She could not quite shake the odd shuddering of her heart, but she dismissed it as lingering surprise from his appearance. She loved her brother, more than anything, and she felt awful that she'd apparently forgotten to tell him about this event. Mainly, she felt awful that she'd made him unhappy. "Oh! The owl! I'm sorry, Wolfpaw, I didn't mean to leave you out or anyth'ng. I was just on a hunting patrol with Fernpaw and some other cats when an owl showed up and swooped at me. I guess it thought I was a mouse or som'thing, 'cause it tried to get me, but then Fernpaw and everyone else helped and killed it. I'm okay though now, promise!" She brandished her shoulder at him. "See? You can't ev'n tell! It's fine, so I guess I never thought to bring it 'p."

Hedgepaw didn't know what the word "flattery" meant, but if she had, then the phrase "flattery gets you nowhere" would not have applied to her. She loved praise. Deep down she lived each and every moment of her life for acknowledgement from the cats she loved and hero-worshipped, from her mentor to her mother and brothers. So for Wolfpaw, the best fighter she knew, to say that she had done well against the owl sent her heart aglow. The small brown-furred apprentice grinned, puffing out her chest slightly--though it was difficult to tell, given how little of her chest there was to stick out."I only got scared for a lit'le bit, Wolf! Then I was so strong and brave just like you are." Her bravery had only come after Fernpaw and the others had rushed to her rescue, but that detail slipped her mind entirely. His next question brought her back to the conversation, though. Who else had been there? Hmm... it had been a little while ago now, so she struggled to remember. Hedgepaw tilted her head to the side, a mannerism echoed unconsciously from Fernpaw. "Les' see... There was Sunflare, he got the killing blow on it. Heatherberry came later t' help me back to camp, but she didn' fight the owl, prolly cause she's a medicine cat. Then... oh, I forget their names. The other cats who stayed with us f'r a while." Her white paw tapped against the ground for a moment, then she brightened when she remembered. "Oh! Virtue, and uh, Stead... fast? Steadfast. But they're not here anymore, so you won' be able to thank them."

Hedgepaw tilted her head, studying the look on Wolfpaw's face because she didn't quite understand what it meant. Her strong and brave brother sometimes didn't make too much sense to her. She figured that was just on her end. Still, angling her small head to the side so that one of her pointy ears flopped didn't make it any easier to get what he was saying. "What do you mean it's good?" she asked, genuinely confused. "They helped save me when th' owl tried to get me. We were just s'posed to be hunting like normal an' the owl came out of nowhere. I don' think they were gonna hurt me, were they? They seemed nice. Not like mean cats or scary foxes." Still, she hadn't talked to the strangers much compared to her brothers that she loved with all her heart, so... if he said it, then maybe they had been unkind to him. Or maybe he just hadn't wanted her to change her name like theirs or start following them around instead. Her short tail flicked across the ground. "I guess it'd be good they're gone, though, if you didn't like 'em. I'm not smart like Fern so sometimes I miss things. I worry 'bout lots of stuff, but... maybe I don't worry 'bout the right things. I dunno." Forest-green eyes regarded Wolfpaw. "What do you worry about?"