Jayflight's Vision (OLD)

Chapter 13

"Jaypaw, where has your mind been? That's not marigold, that's tansy."

Sunwatcher's voice snapped Jaypaw out of her trance. She was sorting herbs, and she had gotten the marigold and tansy mixed up. Her mind had been elsewhere, and she guessed the leaves had just looked similar in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Sunwatcher. I thought that was marigold." Jaypaw's mind had been occupied with thoughts of the prophecy, Darkspirit, and Ravenpaw for a while, and now it felt like she had no more headspace due to the news of her father.

"Jaypaw, you've been all over the place since the gathering." Sunwatcher said. "Did something happen there?"

Jaypaw wanted to yowl "Yes, something happened! I learned something that changed how I look at my family!" but she had to keep her family's secret safe. "No, nothing happened." she sighed and went back to her sorting, starting the tansy and marigold over again. "I've just been tired recently."

"Are you sure, Jaypaw? You seem in the clouds very often." Sunwatcher looked genuinly concerned for his apprentice. 

"Yeah." Jaypaw said. "I think I'm just going to take a walk through the forest and clear my head." 

"Okay." Sunwatcher said with relief. "I hope it helps you." 

As Jaypaw walked into the clear sunlight, she breathed in the crisp, pine scented air. The beautiful scents and sights helped clear her head and help her think better. She was glad that Sunwatcher was getting better- his health was good enough now that he could walk around camp and help Jaypaw with the medicine cat duties.

What am I going to do? She thought. The Ripplemist thing I can handle, I think, but this prophecy...It's messed up my relationship with Ravenpaw, for this little amount of time, at least. And I know the Shadows are rising, just like the prophecy said. I can feel it- something's going to go wrong soon. If only I-

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud rustle in the bushes about four fox-lengths away. Jaypaw turned, and she looked into the thick brambles. She took a few steps closer, but then the bush rustled again and she stayed where she was. If there was something dangerous in it, she didn't want to get hurt. 

Jaypaw peered into the bush, and saw a pair of clover green eyes staring back at her through the bush. It was a cat, an oak-colored tom, and all Jaypaw could see of him was his spotted forehead and his emerald eyes.

Jaypaw and the brown spotted tom looked at each other for a few moments neither of them daring to speak, and right as Jaypaw blinked, the tom rushed off. Jaypaw caught a glimpse of his slender body weaving through the trees before he had completely dissapeared through the ShadeClan forest. 

Something about the cat- Jaypaw felt sure she would see him again. She felt some kind of pull towards his presence, almost. She nearly took off after him, and she would have, if she didn't pick back up on her thoughts.

If only I could tell someone about the prophecy. Someone like a parent. She would love to tell Echosplash, but Echosplash would worry about her, wanting to protect her kit, and she would also want to tell Twigstar and Duskblaze and Sunwatcher and the whole Clan would be in a panic after a moonrise. 

Then it hit her- Sunwatcher! He was another medicine cat, he would understand. She hadn't told him before, because she didn't want to raise panic, but...now seemed like she had waited long enough. The rippling echoes line had jarred her, and she hadn't wanted to tell him before, but now she felt that it was time. 

Jaypaw trudged back to camp, her mind on the prophecy and the spotted tom. She still felt so sure that they would meet again. She decided, that if she saw the tom again, or the instinct of sureness came up when she saw another cat, she would follow it. It might be a message from StarClan!

She would immediately tell Sunwatcher or Twigstar about prophecies before anyone else, too. Not Ravenpaw. Though she cared about her brother, she needed the entirety of the Clan to be safe first. 

This prophecy was an example of how not to handle something important like this, but she told herself, it was her first time, and this was still only her second moon of training, almost her third. She would get better.

As she returned to camp, she almost ran into Dovepelt. "Hello, Jaypaw." Dovepelt said. 

"Where are you off to?" Jaypaw asked. 

"Just going hunting." Dovepelt said. She was Echosplash's sister, and therefore Jaypaw's kin. Dovepelt and Echosplash had raised kits together in the nursery, as Jaypaw and Ravenpaw had been born shortly before Dovepelt's kit, Alderpaw. 

I wonder if she knows about our father, Jaypaw thought with a pang of irritation. Why hadn't Echosplash told her who her father was as a kit?

"Are you looking for Sunwatcher? He just went to collect herbs." Dovepelt said. 

"Yes, I was looking for him. Thanks for letting me know." Jaypaw dipped her head and headed into camp, making herself think of something else. 

She padded into the medicine den, and found Blackkit whimpering at the entrance. The black-patterned kit's face melted into relief when he saw Jaypaw.

"What happened, Blackkit?" Jaypaw asked. "What's the matter?" 

"I got a thorn in my paw!" Blackkit whined. "Can you help me?"

Heatherkit, who was sitting next to her brother, said, "We were playing in the forest, and Lynxfur doesn't know we were gone. She thought we were napping, so she went to go hunting since we're almost apprentices." Heatherkit's eyes were wide. "Please don't tell her we were gone, Jaypaw! We don't want to get in trouble."

"Don't worry, I won't get you in trouble." Jaypaw said. "As long as you stay in camp when you're supposed to from now on." Blackkit nodded aggressively.

Jaypaw proceeded to gently extracted the thorn from his paw and warned him that if either of them did go in the forest before they were apprentices, the foxes would sneak up on them. She did feel a little bad for him, though- the thorn was decently sized. 

A few minutes after this, Sunwatcher came back. Jaypaw came up to him and said, "Sunwatcher- there's something I need to tell you." 

He simply nodded his head, and they went to the back of the den. Jaypaw told him all about the dream and the prophecy, and it felt like she had lifted a thousand mice off of her shoulders. 

When she was finished, there was not anger on his face, but there sure was surprise. Thankfully, he didn't lecture her on the fact that she should have told him earlier- she already knew that. 

But, one thing he said shocked her.

"What was the big black and white tom's name again?" He asked. "The amber eyed one that you saw in the Shadow Sea." He said it as if he hoped there was another black and white tom, as if he hoped it wasn't Darkspirit.

"His name was Darkspirit." The shock on Sunwatcher's face was apparent, in his expression and amber eyes. 

"Jaypaw." he said. "I never told you my story, did I?" When Jaypaw shook her head, confused, he said something that made Jaypaw's mind whirl again.

"Darkspirit was my brother."