Brightheart

Brightheart is a recurring supporting character in the Warriors series. As an apprentice, she and her friend Swiftpaw were being held back from becoming warriors, so they decided to impress their leader Bluestar by fighting off a pack of dogs. Unfortunately, their plan failed, resulting in Swiftpaw's death and Brightpaw being severely wounded. She was given the cruel name Lostface when she recovered to spite StarClan, but soon after her name was changed to Brightheart. She became mates with Cloudtail, and the two stared a family, eventually growing old and retiring from warriorhood together.
==Appearance==
Brightheart is a white she-cat with orange patches all over her thick, soft fur. Her tail is orange as well, and she has a sky blue eye. Due to the dog attack, her body is covered in scars, most notably the one on the side of her face that left her ear shredded and her other eye missing as well.
==Biography==
===The Prophecies Begin===
==== Into the Wild====
Brightkit is born to Frostfur and Lionheart alongside her sister Cinderkit and her brothers Thornkit and Brackenkit. When ShadowClan raids ThunderClans camp, the deputy Blackfoot tries to steal the kittens, killing Rosetail when she intervenes. Yellowfang stops him however, standing guard over the kits and driving him away.
Later, the ShadowClan warrior Clawface is sent to steal the kittens in secret, killing ThunderClan's medicine cat Spottedleaf when she catches him. Brightkit and her siblings are then taken to ShadowClan, with the intent to raise them there and make them into apprentices as soon as possible. With the help of the elders of ShadowClan, ThunderClan is able to raid the camp and steal back their youth, driving out the leader Brokenstar and his followers in the process. The kittens are returned, and Frostfur curls around them protectively.
====Forest of Secrets====
Brightkit and Thornkit become warrior apprentices, earning the names Brightpaw and Thornpaw (their siblings, meanwhile, had already started their training early). Brightpaw follows her brother's lead calmly, and after he receives Mousefur as his mentor, she is assigned to be the apprentice of Whitestorm. Excitedly, she watches her new mentor approach her, touches noses with him, and allows him to escort her back into the crowd of gathered cats as their Clanmates congratulate the two siblings. The two later go into the forest wit their mentors to practice hunting a fighting moves, and later, when Fireheart is briefly demoted to an apprentice as punishment for hunting for RiverClan before his own Clan, the two look at him with wide eyes in the apprentice's den.
====Rising Storm====
Fireheart speaks to Brightpaw outside the apprentice's den, who reports that she just got back from her first successful solo hunt, which pleased Whitestorm. She then adds that the prey she caught was given to the elders, and is reassured by Fireheart's praise, though silently the orange tom wishes that his own apprentice, his nephew Cloudpaw, was as reliable as her.
Brightpaw becomes annoyed when Whitestorm chastises Fireheart for letting Cloudpaw go out into the forest on his own already, and when the orange tom points out that Brightpaw was given a solo hunting mission not long ago, Whitestorm retorts that she did so in the safety of the ravine, and only for a short while. The white tom agrees that his student could use more battle training, taking her out to practice. When hearing of Brightpaw's pleasant day of training, Fireheart is still annoyed that Cloudpaw isn't as well-behaved as her.
Fireheart later listens to Brightpaw conversing with a ShadowClan apprentice at the Gathering. She's asked if there have been any more rogue attacks since Tigerclaw's coup, she calmly replies that there has been no trace of rogues on ThunderClan territory for a moon. Feeling she needs more experience with patrols, Brightpaw is put on the dawn patrol at Whitestorm's suggestion. Fireheart takes her out to hunt with Sandstorm later that day, and the apprentice is surprised by how busy her day has been. After she catches some prey, the two warriors see how tired she is and apologize for not giving her a chance to eat before she left. The three then scent a strange cat nearby, who they soon discover to be the ex-ThunderClan loner Ravenpaw. Brightpaw is happy to see him alive, as the Clan had believed he was dead, and when he informs the three that Cloudpaw is trapped in a twoleg house, she encourages the the two warriors to try and save him, remarking that she's missed him ever since his capture. They then send her back to camp to rest and tell Whitestorm where they're going before the two leave with Ravenpaw. Once Cloudpaw is saved and returns to camp, she greets him with a friendly nuzzle, relived to see him ok.
====A Dangerous Path====
Fireheart has Brightpaw, Swiftpaw, Thornpaw and Cloudpaw train together, and when seeing their improvement, he suggests he go ask Bluestar to make them into warriors. The apprentices all exchange excited glances. But Bluestar, not trusting anyone in the Clan since she lost faith in StarClan, denies making the apprentices into warriors, even when they're clearly ready. When finding out that Cloudpaw doesn't believe in StarClan, Bluestar promotes him - and only him - into warriorhood to spite StarClan, giving him the name Cloudtail. The other apprentices are incredibly envious this, and though Brightpaw tries to be happy for Cloudtail and congratulates him, she leaves soon after, silently angry about being held back as well.
When something begins stealing prey from ThunderClan, Swiftpaw announces a plan for all the apprentices to find out what it is and drive it out together, hoping to impress Bluestar so much that she'll make them into warriors. Thornpaw, Ashpaw and Fernpaw are all wary of this plan, but Brightpaw agrees to help. Early the next morning, Swiftpaw and Brightpaw sneak out of camp and track the prey theif's scent to Snakerocks. Fernpaw sees them, telling Dustpelt, who in turn tells Fireheart. The orange tom immediately starts organizing a patrol of himself, Cloudtail, Sandstorm and Graystripe to go look for them. Meanwhile, the two reach Snakerocks to discover that the once who have been stealing prey were a pack of bloodthirsty rottweilers that Tigerstar had lured into ThunderClan in an attempt to destroy the Clan. The dogs attack, with the pack's leader grabbing Swiftpaw by the throat, shaking him around before throwing him to the side. Brightpaw rushes to his side, before the two stand up and fight as the pack leader rushes towards them, the other dogs following. Despite fighting with all their might, the two are overwhelmed by the dogs. Brightpaw is severely injured, and hears Swifpaw's yowls of agony before passing out.
The search party finds the two at Snakerocks, discovering Swifpaw to be dead and fearing that Brightpaw is as well. When checking on the wounded she-cat though, they find that she's alive and rush her back to camp, where her sister Cinderpelt tends to her. While in a coma, Brightpaw repeats the words "Pack pack, kill kill", which is what she heard the dogs barking as they attacked. Despite being horribly wounded, Brightpaw slowly starts to recover, with Cloudtail staying by her side the entire time. He still worries she may die though, and begs Bluestar to give her a warrior name before that can happen. Bluestar cruelly gives her the name Lostface, as part of her face is heavily scarred and she's missing an eye, proclaiming it as a permanent reminder of StarClan doing nothing to save her or Swiftpaw. Cloudtail is enraged by this, but Bluestar retorts that StarClan would either accept her by the name Lostface, or not at all. Cloudtail then promises to never call her by her new name, continuing to call her Brightpaw instead.
Soon Lostface is able to wake up from her coma, is despair over Swiftpaw's death and her new name and appearance. Though he's reluctant to make her bring up her memories, Fireheart asks her what happened that day at Snakerocks. Once she's able to leave the medicine den, Fireheart has her recover in the elder's den, and the orange-and-white she-cat forms a bond with the elders while there. She becomes close with Speckletail especially, comforting her after her son Snowkit is taken away by a hawk, and allowing her to take care of her to cope with his loss. She becomes used to cats shrinking away at the sight of her scars, though that doesn't make her any less self concisions. She later goes with Cloudtail, Fireheart and Graystripe to meet Cloudtail's kittypet mother Princess. When visiting though, Lostface becomes insecure when Princess is horrified by her scarring, looking at her reflection for the first time in a puddle to see why the kittypet is so alarmed. She's devastated to see how badly she's been scarred, but Cloudtail assures her that no matter what, she'll always be beautiful. Later, when ThunderClan learns of Tigerstar's plans to lure the dogs to camp and destroy it, she evacuate with the rest of the camp to divert the pack's attention. She stays with Cloudtail at Sunningrocks as their Clanmates lure the dogs over the edge of the gorge, and returns to camp afterwards, relived that the threat of the pack is gone.
====The Darkest Hour====
With Firestar now the leader of ThunderClan, Lostface and Cloudtail ask him to change the former's name. The new leader finds out how to change a warriors name from One-eye and Halftail, previously known as Whiteeye and Sparrowpelt, and after Thornclaw's warrior ceremony he calls Lostface forward. She's hesitant and nervous, but comes up to the Highrock anyways, where Firestar gives her the new name Brightheart. She's overjoyed at this, and at Cloudtail's insistence the leader allows his nephew to be her unofficial mentor, so he may teach her how to hunt and fight with impaired vision.
Soon, with Cloudtail's help, Brightheart adapts to her new condition, able to beat others in mock-fights and learning moves invented specifically for her. Firestar makes her a full warrior officially, and later, she participates in the battle against BloodClan. During the battle, she and Cloudtail fight side-by-side almost the entire time. Soon BloodClan is defeated, and peace returns to the forest at last.
==Trivia==
*She was the first cat in the series to have their warrior name changed.
*Despite saying he would, Firestar didn't end up giving Brightheart another apprentice after Jaypaw became a medicine cat. Author Kate Cary stated that she intended to give her another apprentice, but simply forgot to, and if she could rewrite the series she'd give her one of the apprentices Rosepetal was given.
*After losing an eye, she is mistakenly described as having both eyes again numerous times.
*Even though she disagrees with him about it, Brightheart respects Cloudtail's lack of belief in StarClan.
==External links ==
Brightheart on the Warriors Wiki
==Navigation==
Category:Warriors (Erin Hunter) Heroes
Category:Book Heroes
Category:Fantasy Heroes
Category:Animals
Category:Anthropomorphic
Category:Female
Category:Siblings
Category:Spouses
Category:In Love
Category:Parents
Category:Fighters
Category:Protectors
Category:Protectors of Innocence
Category:Localized Protection
Category:Insecure
Category:Elderly
Category:Retired
Category:Tragic
Category:Nurturers
Category:Optimists
Category:Healers
Category:Bond Creators
Category:Bond Protectors
Category:Lawful Good