BRIGHTPATH
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➣ Thankfully, Cinderstar didn’t seem too busy or annoyed by the sudden visit from them, which made the young feline feel better. They nodded to the gray-furred molly and officially stepped inside the leader’s den, making their way over to her and quietly sitting down to where Cinderstar had gestured. The entire time, Brightpath seemed to be avoiding making eye-contact with her, looking everywhere else but at the clan leader’s face.
“I…” The single word came out shakingly and they didn’t know how to word it, where to even begin. Did they start at the beginning? Did they just blurt it out in one big sentence? The slim ThunderClan warrior didn’t know and they were struggling to keep themselves calm and professional in front of Cinderstar.
“Our battle with RiverClan at Firefly Cove…” Brightpath meowed quietly, slowly going over every word,
“...I…I fought another apprentice there, during the battle… I don’t even remember if I ever found out her name… but I… I was just trying to hold her down and have her pass out. That’s all I wanted… But then, her eyes went all wide and milky and she went limp…” The memory had replayed over and over in their head since it had happened,
“...I think I killed her… The RiverClan apprentice… I didn’t mean to… I swear!” They squeezed their eyes shut, pointing their nose to the ground,
“The next thing I know, there’s another cat screaming at me and I just… ran. It wasn’t long until another apprentice came at me from… somewhere, I think they climbed a tree… but I moved out of the way and they hit the ground hard. I think he… broke his jaw or something, it looked really bad and I… I was trying to fight as best I could, but I only knew how to fight through Sleethound… and I…” So many words, rambled anxiously and flowing out like a rushing river of panic. Brightpath forced themselves to shut up and stop talking from that point. They had said far too much already.
“I’m scared, Cinderstar…” They meowed, opening their eyes, which was a mistake as tears soon rolled down their cheeks,
“I'm so sorry... I don’t want to be a bad cat, but those apprentices… one died and the other got a life-changing injury… all because of me…” Their stomach did flips and they felt very sick. They could've said something, anything, so much sooner, but they didn't and the guilt of it all weighed so heavily on their soul.
"I just... needed to tell someone about this."
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( @
marni 
)