[Moonraven]

Batglare's paws carried him after Swiftfire. His expression remained uncaring and stoic as always, but concerns were piled up in the back of his mind. If he had known that Swiftfire was going to leave her on her own he'd never have allowed Twistedpaw to go hunting. Swiftfire had stated that she'd be partner-hunting. She complained about it! This was beyond frustrating, he was upset with Swiftfire, but more with himself. He shouldn't have allowed her to go. At the end of the day, Twistedpaw was Batglare's responsible and he screwed up. He heard a cry that had his blood run cold.

The fishy scent of RiverClan hit him hard, but the metallic tang of blood was worse. Batglare picked up more speed as they came closer and closer to RiverClan's border. He heard her cries before he saw her. He found his apprentice in a bloody heap, the older cat was at her side in a heartbeat, standing at her back. His eyes quickly wove over the apprentice's wounds, her tail was bleeding and looked further broken, and her ear, her flank, and that belly wound looked nasty. She reeked of RiverClan and blood.

Molten anger rolled through him like lightning and rage momentarily contoured his face into something vicious. Those damn fish, how the hell could they do this to an apprentice. There were too many wounds and where they were placed... Twistedpaw wasn't hostile, and she certainly wasn't a fighter, a simple warning would have gotten her out of RiverClan's territory faster than any rabbit. Someone took some serious enjoyment out of beating on a helpless apprentice.

As Swiftfire went about fighting whoever, Batglare full attention was on Twistedpaw. Swallowing his anger was like swallowing lava, painful and near impossible, but he forced it deep down refusing to let it erupt. Taking in Twistedpaw's sensitivity and general lack of self-esteem, he didn't need the paw thinking he was upset with her in any way. This was utterly Batglare's fault. The warrior leaned over the apprentice's back to sniff at her stomach wound. The gashes were deep, she'd have new scars.

It wasn't hard to guess what happened, there was a dead rabbit nearby. She hadn't been paying attention to the border. Batglare spat and cursed within his head as he approached Twistedpaw's head. The violent anger and frustration in his green-yellow eyes were erased and replaced with concern and worry as he sniffed at his apprentice's bleeding ear.

He gave Twistedpaw's face a few comforting licks, trying to soothe her sobs with his presence. "It's not your fault, none of this is your fault." He meowed in a gruff whisper. Someone was going to pay for this, but not now. They had to get her home to their medicine cat. She was losing blood and those injuries were terrible.

"Swiftfire, leave it. Help get Twistedpaw on my back. We need to get her home now." His concern for his apprentice outweighed his desire for revenge. He would not waste his time picking a fight with his apprentice bleeding out like this. That didn't mean RiverClan wouldn't be paying in blood for this. They'd get what was coming to them, one way or another. Right now, they had priorities to take care of.

@TheNyanCatMinecart @Tiabirb @starry @Snowyfeathr