Being a Medicine Cat, Firetooth had become attuned to noticing the more subtler changes in mood or demeanor; with a sick patient, those small details made all of the difference in regards to treatment. Outside of the Medicine den, he tended to ignore when his clanmates happened to pick up an attitude from a bad day of hunting or personal drama, but that was different with Jetfire. To be fair, everything was new and different with her, and although Firetooth wouldn't trade any moment with her for the world, it was hard not to feel anxious when he began to pick up on how troubled she was lately. It took more self-restraint than he cared to admit to force himself to wait, to give her the time and space she needed until she was ready to open up to him on her own. Perhaps it was just in his nature to always want to solve the problem, regardless of if it was actually his to solve.

He lifted his head from his work when he heard her come in; the sound of her pawsteps already so familiar that he didn't need to turn around. His apprentice Fawnpaw was already fast asleep on the far side of the den, the peace and quiet being broken up by her gentle snoring. The ginger tom smiled as he leaned into his mate's touch, letting out a soft purr before glancing at her curiously. "Is this about Sunclan?" Firetooth guessed. There had been rumors floating about in the clans lately; how Bloodystar had finally been disposed by Littlestar, but there had yet to be any direct word from his new mother-in-law herself, at least none that had reached Swiftclan yet.

Well. That was a lot more than he had been expecting. Internally Firetooth alternated through a number of conflicting emotions as Jetfire relayed the story; shock, disgust, relief, anger...but no emotion could compare to the pure, unadulterated disbelief that sunk to the pit of his stomach. Disbelief that Bloodystar had been so far gone that the former High Priest had been completely and utterly willing to let his entire clan burn or boil to death for the sake of his deluded vision and ego, with Sunclan only saved from total destruction by the chance return of Littlestar. There was a word, whispered in late-night tales to kittens that described cats so cruel and insane. Far beyond a villain. Bloodystar was a monster in its purest form.

Ironically enough, however, the Sun God's punishment for such a monster came as no surprise whatsoever. "You're underestimating the power of a curse," he reminded her with a comforting lick on the ear. "The Sun God isn't a fool; he remembers what Autumngossamer and I did to him. Bloodystar wasn't just allowed to walk away. If I know the Sun God, whatever fate Bloodystar got would make death seem almost merciful." In fact, he welcomed the challenge; a race to hunt down the cursed monster, with the prize being the privilege of personally shoving deathberries down his throat. But that was neither here nor there right now.

Instead, the Medicine Cat raised a brow in mild surprise. "Littlestar wants us to visit Sunclan?" Honestly Firetooth had never entertained the thought of going back, but if there was a threat against Jetfire and the kits... "If she has something important to say, then I think we should hear her out." As uncomfortable as the thought of going back made him, if it wasn't for Littlestar, Jetfire would've died during kitting. Moral disagreements aside, they had found an understanding in their shared desire to protect Jetfire. "But only on the condition that my family is pardoned for their 'crimes' against Bloodystar. Like it or not, Sunclan was home for some of them, and they deserve the right to go back if they want without punishment."

Firetooth frowned, taking Jetfire's words into consideration. "It's true that Littlestar was here when our kits were born - you wouldn't have been here without her - but not mentioning them doesn't necessarily mean anything. I don't think she'd expect us to herd a litter of two-moon-old kits the entire trek to Sunclan and back. But you said that the messenger specified all of your kits?" The Medicine Cat was trying his hardest to think this through as logically as possible. On one paw Littlestar might not have told the messenger about the second litter on purpose, to protect them from anyone who might figure out their true parentage otherwise. But why send a random Sunclan warrior with seemingly no ties to Jetfire, who could spread news of her location to the rest of the clan? It seemed almost counterproductive if Littlestar wanted to preserve secrecy. Did that disaster injure so many cats that she couldn't send anyone else? A thought then came to mind. "This messenger, what did they look like? Did they give their name at all? Tell me what they said exactly; as word-for-word as you can remember."

Firetooth fell into contemplative silence as he listened to Jetfire recount the message, weighing their options. "Assuming that the messenger, who is probably either a very young warrior or an initiate if you didn't recognize them, didn't actually screw up the message at all, the phrasing almost sounds like she wants us all to move to Sunclan, doesn't it?" Why else would Littlestar request all of them to travel all of the way to Sunclan? The only explanation would be that the danger was from within Swiftclan itself, but then why wouldn't see request Indigopastels and her kits as well? Of course, this was all assuming that the message actually came from Littlestar, and wasn't actually a trap set by Bloodystar. But wait...

His green eyes went wide at the realization and he suddenly sat up straight. "Jetfire! The message did come from your mother!" He exclaimed. "The messenger said she wanted 'the medicine cat', right? Outside of Swiftclan, only Littlestar and Skipstep know that your association with me extends beyond that of a healer and patient; if this message was from Bloodystar, he would've requested Ghostcrown instead."

"I absolutely agree," Firetooth replied with a curt nod. Regardless of the reasoning, it was still too dangerous in the clans for anyone other than them to visit Sunclan, and even just the two of them going still made him feel somewhat uneasy. "Indigopastels, Ophelia, and Ghostcrown should be fine watching the kits, and Fawnpaw's gotten far enough along in the basics that I don't see an issue with leaving her in charge of the Medicine Den for a day..." He took a breath. "Honestly, I don't exactly like the sound of this either, Jetfire. But if Littlestar insists that it's necessary for the kits' safety, then we can't just ignore it. And if your mother yells at us for not following directions, we'll just tell her that her message was vague and ambiguous and we're not idiots. At the very least I suppose I'll get some rare herbs out of the whole trip..."

"Tomorrow morning is fine," The Medicine Cat agreed; regardless of whether his family agreed with this decision or not, it was better that they all at least know where they were going in case something went wrong. Noticing still how uptight his mate was, Firetooth gave her as comforting of a smile as he could, wrapping his tail around her shoulders. "Hey. It's going to be alright," he purred, leaning in to groom Jetfire in an attempt to calm her nerves. "Ancestors know that I won't let anything ever hurt you or the kits. We'll protect each other, okay?"