Brightheart

Brightkit becomes an apprentice, known as Brightpaw, along with her brother Thornpaw, and is apprenticed to Whitestorm. She can't wait to go out and explore the new territory. When Fireheart is being punished by being made to stay in the apprentices' den, she stares at him in shock.

Fireheart notices that Brightpaw has hunted well, and he asks her whether she took her catch straight to the elders. Brightpaw assures him that she did. When Bluestar asks Fireheart where Whitestorm was, he replies that he was out training Brightpaw. At a Gathering, Fireheart listens in on Brightpaw and a ShadowClan apprentice's conversation. When the apprentice asks if ThunderClan had seen any more of the rogues, Brightpaw replied coolly, saying that they hadn't scented them in their territory for nearly a moon. She is later seen play-fighting with her brother. After Runningwind's death, Fireheart took Brightpaw out hunting, and Sandstorm tagged along. When Brightpaw returned from a patrol, Fireheart asked her if she's ready to go hunting, and she asked if they had to go now. Fireheart says that they could leave now if she's not too tired, Brightpaw shook her head, and ran after Fireheart and Sandstorm as they left the camp.

Brightpaw meets Ravenpaw for the first time when he comes to tell Fireheart where Cloudpaw was, and seems eager to have Cloudpaw back with ThunderClan. When Sandstorm and Fireheart go and look for Cloudpaw to attempt a rescue, she goes back to tell Whitestorm where they had gone. Once Cloudpaw is rescued and returns, she greets him with a friendly nuzzle.

When Cloudtail is made a warrior early, she tries to be happy for him, while the other apprentices were envious and resentful. She and Swiftpaw thought that they could find and drive out the dogs at Snakerocks so Bluestar would make them warriors as well. When they found the dog, it turned out to be a pack of them, and they didn't stand a chance. This resulted in Swiftpaw's death and Brightpaw becoming seriously injured, losing one eye, receiving a large scar on one side of her face, and having one ear shredded. Before Cinderpelt nursed her back to health, Bluestar gave her the cruel name of Lostface. Cloudtail then never left her side and he promised that he would never say the name "Lostface."

She also lived with the elders for a short amount of time, forging a close bond with them, especially Speckletail. She was welcomed warmly by all the elders.

She goes along with Cloudtail, Graystripe, and Fireheart to see Cloudtail's mother, Princess, and feels hurt because Princess was frightened at her appearance. She asks to see her reflection, and realizes painfully why everyone is frightened of her. She takes comfort in Cloudtail's words that she is still beautiful in his eyes. 

After Bluestar died and Fireheart became leader, Cloudtail insists that Firestar changes Lostface's name, and she asks him too, as well. After questioning One-eye, he performed a rarely used ceremony to change Lostface's name to Brightheart.

Cloudtail begs for Firestar to make Brightheart a full Warrior, but Firestar questions this act because she could not hunt alone, and in case of a serious problem in a battle. Cloudtail continues to badger Fireheart until he finally approves.

So then Cloudtail begins to develop battle moves that Brightheart can use with one eye and ear, and they begin to train together. Soon she is able to beat other cats in practice fights using the moves. Eventually,Firestar allowed her to participate in the battle against BloodClan, and told her she could sleep in the warriors' den from then on, as she was a full warrior. She was able to use her moves effectively against BloodClan.

Brightheart is now a senior warrior under Firestar. She is seen in the beginning of the book, on a hunting patrol with Cloudtail and Brambleclaw. Her daughter, Whitepaw is seen as an apprentice along with Squirrelpaw,Leafpaw, Shrewpaw, Spiderpaw, and Sorrelpaw. She is also one of the first cats to notice that Brambleclaw is not in the warriors' den, and is not in camp. However, she doesn't think anything of it, and assumes that he has just gone hunting on his own.

She is seen twice in the book calming her mate Cloudtail, who is frustrated that Firestar won't let the Clan go into battle against WindClan and RiverClan.

She and Cloudtail later go missing. Whitepaw is extremely worried because no cat knows what happened to them. Leafpaw later infers that the Twolegs are taking away cats, after Mousefur struggles free of one, and she offers to go search for them near where the Twolegs are.

When Leafpaw is trapped by the Twolegs and is being held in a small Twoleg nest, she realizes that Brightheart and Cloudtail would be there, as well. She sees Brightheart and calls her name, and Brightheart answers warily, asking who was calling her. She is terrified at what the Twolegs might do to them. Two other Clan cats are trapped as well; Mistyfoot and Gorsetail. She later greets the rogue Sasha, when she is brought into the nest by a Twoleg, and shows concern for the rogue Coal when he is wounded by one of the Twolegs.

When the captured cats are being freed by a patrol, Brightheart's cage is having trouble being opened byCloudtail and Rainwhisker. Graystripe orders them to leave, and he quickly frees Brightheart himself. She races into the trees, reunited with Cloudtail, but she pulls away from him and gasps that Graystripe was grabbed by a Twoleg, and as they watch, Graystripe is taken away in a Twoleg monster. When they return to the camp, she and Cloudtail greets their daughter Whitepaw with fierce licks and purrs, happy to be reunited. Later, she participates in the patrol to aid ShadowClan, and returns with only a few scratches.

When the Clans reached the new territories, she tells some others that it is impossible to see what was down there in the dim light. As the Clans make their way down, she carries one of Tallpoppy's kits down the slope. She later compliments Squirrelflight on finding the new ThunderClan camp. On the way to it, she keeps guard with Cloudtail on one side of the traveling Clan.

She goes out on patrol to explore the new territory with Sorreltail and Cloudtail, and they find a hole between the roots of a tree. She identifies it as stale fox scent, and warns Sorreltail against going into the hole, as they knew that there was nothing inside.

During the battle for Onewhisker's leadership in WindClan, she and Cloudtail are put in charge of guarding the camp. Two ShadowClan cats flee from the battle and fall into the hollow, and she later reports them dead, as they have broken their necks.

She was jealous of Daisy, because Cloudtail, her mate, spends more time with Daisy than her, as Cloudtail was attempting to teach Daisy fighting moves. She later argues with Cloudtail about this. When Daisy is shocked by her face, she is very hurt.

She helps Cinderpelt with the medicine cat jobs and Leafpool thinks she was taking her place. It's most likely that Brightheart started to help Cinderpelt and Leafpool because Cloudtail was spending more time with Daisy. When Leafpool leaves, she thinks it was her fault because she was taking up a lot of medicine cat jobs and made Leafpool jealous, but is later reassured by Squirrelflight that she did not drive Leafpool away.

Brightheart decides to help Leafpool with the medicine cat duties after Cinderpelt's death. She later tells Leafpool that she will return to her warrior duties. Leafpool, who was earlier annoyed by Brightheart's help, wishes she would have stayed around to help longer.

Near the end of the book, Daisy tells her that Cloudtail loves her much more rather than herself, and Brightheart thanks her for telling her. She and Cloudtail rekindle their relationship, when Cloudtail asks her to go out hunting with him.

In between the the books The Sight and Sunset, her daughter earns her warrior name, Whitewing. She mentors Jaypaw for a short time before he becomes a medicine cat. Brightheart doesn't take him into the forest often, mainly keeping him in camp to tend to the elders.

When Jaypaw becomes a medicine cat, Brightheart is very hurt that she didn't get to keep her first apprentice she wanted to prove she can function well for an apprentice even though the pack injured her badly, though she is promised by Firestar that she would get to train Foxkit or Icekit, though this promise is later broken. It is mentioned that whenever Jaypaw tried to make her understand his new decision, she always changed the subject or made an excuse to leave.

When Whitewing tells the Clan of the dogs on WindClan territory, she is asked if they should really go and help out with the dogs. Brightheart thinks about it, but replies saying though they lost much in the past with the dog pack, they can't let that happen again to another Clan. Later, when there is a greencough epidemic, she assists Jaypaw while Leafpool is fetching catmint from RiverClan.

She is seen drilling Mousefur and Longtail on what to do if there is an attack on the camp at night. Later, when Hollypaw goes missing, she suggest she may be hurt. The idea that WindClan captured her is put forth, and she points out that now they have extra prey from the forest they could have taken a hostage.

During a border skirmish, when two WindClan apprentices crossed the border to kill a squirrel, Brightheart wrestles with Whitetail and then, with the help of Poppypaw, she rakes her ears with her claws. Her tail is minorly wounded when it is bitten, and Jaypaw later treats it with a poultice of oak leaf. After she's treated, she helps rub a poultice on Lionpaw's ear.

She lets Berrypaw know that Firestar would never give a cat a cruel name, when Berrypaw is worrying that Firestar will name him in regard to his tail by naming him 'Berrystumpytail', and tells the story of how her name was changed from Lostface to her name now, Brightheart. She is later seen sharing a thrush with Cloudtail, discussing Icekit and Foxkit's apprentice ceremony.

When Hollypaw runs back to camp to alert Firestar of intruders near the WindClan border, Brightheart is seen looking out from the warriors' den in alarm.

 

Back from a patrol with Birchfall, Brightheart reports that WindClan have once again crossed the border. She later is on guard duty at the camp entrance, and lets Jaypaw know when he leaves that if he needs help the dawn patrol is out. During the WindClan attack on the camp, she stays in the nursery to defend the kits and queens. In the aftermath, she is seen helping to weave brambles into the camp barrier to reinforce it.

She stays in the camp during the search for WindClan in ThunderClan's territory, and watches for WindClan warriors along the top edges of the hollow. She later helps Leafpool and Jaypaw with passing out herbs after the battle against WindClan and RiverClan, and keeps an eye on the severely wounded Squirrelflight.

 

She goes on the dawn patrol along with Ashfur, Thornclaw and Lionblaze. She reports back to Firestar after Ashfur and Lionblaze have an extra training session. Later on, when her brother Thornclaw is coughing, she goes out to get him a herb from Leafpool. She becomes angry at Berrynose and Spiderleg when they complain about Thornclaw's coughing.

Eventually, Brightheart catches greencough along with several of her Clanmates. She later moves into the abandoned Twoleg nest with the other sick cats. She is one of the cats to witness Firestar lose one of his lives. Once he revives, she gives him a drink from some moss, and tries to convince him to return to the camp. When he refuses, she states softly that she had known he would insist on staying.

When the Clan has healed, Brightheart and Cloudtail assist in dragging burnt branches away from the warriors' den after the fire occurs. She later goes on a hunting patrol with Ashfur, Lionblaze and Cloudtail, and hunts in the Twoleg garden with her mate.

 

Brightheart suggests that perhaps Ashfur's murder was caused because Ashfur caught Sol in their territory and they may have fought, but this idea is put down, as there was only one mark on Ashfur's body. She later goes on a hunting patrol with Dustpelt, Cloudtail and Icepaw.

She questions Sol's calmness when he is brought back to ThunderClan, thinking he shouldn't be calm if he had killed Ashfur. After Honeyfern's death, she expresses sadness, and wishes there was a herb to cure snakebite as she helps Hollyleaf put herbs away. Near the end, she calls Jayfeather to the nursery since Whitewing, her daughter, is giving birth to Birchfall's kits. They are named Ivykit and Dovekit, and Brightheart seems proud of her daughter.