Oh Jayfeather, how'd you get yourself trapped in this situation? The blind cat thought bitterly. He was currently tuning out the menial chatter going on between the three she-cats who insisted he tag along on their excursion; Poppyfrost, Cinderheart, and Honeyfern. They didn't say where they were going, or what they would do when they got there, and after rethinking it, Jayfeather didn't know if he trusted these she-cats so much anymore. It was at least nice of Leafpool to let him have the day off, with the insistence of the sisters, but he would much rather spend his days off alone or with his own siblings, not with these three going StarClan knows where.
"Can you at least tell me where we're going?" he asked out loud, they had been walking since daybreak.
"That's for us to know and for you to find out!" Honeyfern chirped. The tom could tell from her scent that she was next to him, and her sisters were in front; with an overall similar scent to Sorreltail hanging about the three. It made Jayfeather wonder who he smelled like as he remembered Squirrelflight's confession, but the tom figured he should push that idea out of his head and try to be more positive, considering these she-cats seemed happy enough and he didn't want to spoil their good time. Well they know who their mother really is he thought with jealousy pricking him like a thorn in his chest. Ironically enough as the band of cats kept walking, one of them (Poppyfrost) winces in pain.
"I stepped on a thorn!" she mewed, showing her pink paw pad to her sisters, a bead of blood next to the green thorn wedged in.
"Here, I'll get it,' Jayfeather offered as he sniffed it a second before pulling it out cleanly. "Since it's fresh, and the ground is compact here, I recommend a few hard licks and you'll be fine."
Poppyfrost smiled, "Thanks!" she meowed, taking his revered advice and licking her paw pad. Cinderheart, Honeyfern, and Jayfeather waited for her to clean it before continuing.
The tom felt a tail brush his shoulder and Cinderheart told him, "we'll turn left here, and then we're there!"
Jayfeather nodded, and he took a second to scent out where he was. It was a pleasant and new smell, possibly something new-leaf brought about. He took the left and accidentally bumped into someone.
"We're here!" Honeyfern meowed excitedly. Jayfeather wished he knew where here was, but all he could smell was flowers. Eventually the sisters, giggling, tore off into a field of beautifully diverse flowers, encouraging the tom to join them. He frowned, then decided that instead of frowning, he'd smile. It certainly felt better as he ran into the field himself, feeling the soft petals all around him. He could hear the sisters play-fighting and laughing, at he felt nostalgic as he curled up in the nest he flattened out for himself.
"We knew you'd like the field, Jayfeather!" Poppyfrost exclaimed as she started to weave a crown of blue flowers together. Her gray sister came around and wondered why. The calico whispered to her and Cinderheart called their other sister to them, making Jayfeather tilt his head in suspicion.
"Oh Jayfeather!" all three she-cats sung at once. The tom felt wary as he stalked forward, but only found something soft being placed on his head.
"What did you put on me?" he almost shouted.
"Don't worry, it's only a flower crown!" Honeyfern meowed.
"Flower.. crown?"
"Yeah! We saw WindClan cats wearing them at the last gathering and asked how to make them! They even told us where they got the flowers from!"
"Mm," Jayfeather started to purr, the crown made him feel important.
"So Cinder," Honeyfern drawled, "what's he like?"
The gray tabby snapped to attention, "who?" she mewed nervously. Jayfeather was confused again.
"You know who, the big, strong golden tom you've been mooning over!"
"Thornclaw?" Jayfeather asked.
"N-no! not him!" Cinderheart exclaimed.
"Oh, you can tell Jayfeather here! He wouldn't spill, would you?" Poppyfrost grinned. Jayfeather didn't know what he would spill, but he shook his head anyways.
"Begins with an L, ends with an E," Honeyfern continued.
"Lionblaze?!" Jayfeather meowed surprised. Cinderheart yelped a little, but her sisters patted her head.
"It's alright, we understand," Honeyfern meowed.
"Easy for you to say! You already have a mate!"
"True, but Poppy doesn't have one, and Jayfeather can't, and they're here for you too!"
Jayfeather didn't know what to say, he didn't know she-cats actually found his goofy loser of a brother attractive. Maybe it was in the way he walked like he had thorns in every paw, or his enthusiasm over terrible jokes. Or maybe the way he insists on calling everyone by their prefix, like 'Jay', 'Holly', and 'Cinder.' Though knowing the sisters did it too comforted him somewhat.
"Right," Cinderheart sighed. "What about you, Poppy? Do you find anyone particularly attractive?"
The calico cat rolled her eyes, wondering if any cat she had seen really had caught her eye. Well, that one stump tailed dork but she hurriedly dismissed the thought.
"No, not really," she meowed quickly.
Honeyfern and Cinderheart exchanged glances, but didn't say anything.
"Jayfeather? Are we allowed to ask you?"
"I don't find anyone attractive, I'm not one for looks." Jayfeather smiled a little at his own joke. When the sisters got it, they laughed a little awkwardly at it.
"But certainly some cat's personality?"
Jayfeather shook his head, "apart from being medicine cat and all, no cat is particularly interesting. At least, not enough to make me break the warrior code." he explained.
"You know, I think the law against having kits with someone from another clan is a little stupid," Poppyfrost suddenly meowed.
"But it's put in place for a reason! The kits might not know where their loyalties lie, and what's gonna happen when the clans their parents come from start to fight?" Honeyfern argued.
"Well they end up choosing one clan, don't they? Like Brambleclaw and Tawnypelt," Jayfeather's ear twitched when Cinderheart mentioned them, "and Tawnypelt is fully ThunderClan if you think about it."
"But shouldn't two cats in love be together, regardless of boundaries?" Poppyfrost wondered.
"Well I guess so, but then one of the cats should leave their clan for the others, no?" Cinderheart continued.
"But then their loyalty might still lie with their home clan, how would it work out?"
"Yeah, it's too complicated to really discuss, a lot of cats are half-clan and their situation works out differently for each of them."
"Some cats aren't even clanborn at all and their situations are very different! Take Firestar! He was a kittypet before becoming leader!" Jayfeather's other ear twitched; he wanted all three she-cats to stop talking at once.
"Berrynose too! And his siblings; they're all warriors, and just as loyal as any regular cat!"
"SHUT UP!" Jayfeather suddenly shouted, promptly shutting the she-cats up. "Ah, I'm sorry, I'm just—"
"Jay, you can speak if you want," Honeyfern meowed gingerly. He faced her, brows raised, then faced the floor, sighing.
"My siblings and I found out Squirrelflight wasn't our mother, and that Leafpool was— is." There was a lot he couldn't say to the trio, but he figured that was enough. He didn't mention that he was half-clan, or that Hollyleaf had killed Ashfur.
"We're so sorry. I for one wouldn't know what I'd do if I found out Sorreltail wasn't our real mother, or Brackenfur wasn't our real father," Honeyfern touched her nose to Jayfeather's shoulder, and her sisters comforted him too. Jayfeather sighed again, wishing his siblings could come together like this.
"We won't tell a single cat," Poppyfrost promised, with her sisters adamantly agreeing. Hearing that made Jayfeather smile. It felt like the cool breeze that passed had carried away his negative feelings.
"We should go back, the clan might be missing us by now," Cinderheart suggested.
"And Berrynose said he wanted to go to that warm rock spot near the nursery today," Honeyfern meowed, stretching.
Poppyfrost and Jayfeather stood up silently and started to follow the other two back to camp.
"Wait!" Jayfeather meowed. The sister trio looked back at him puzzled. "W-why did you invite me of all cats here? It's not like I can see the flowers or anything, and I'm not the friendliest cat around." His heart sunk a little.
The sisters looked at each other, and finally Honeyfern spoke, "we invited you because we thought you could use a little rest; you always seem so tired and grumpy, and we wanted our medicine cat to be a little more calm."
"Oh," the tom was happy with that answer. He gave the sisters a big smile and loud purr, "then,
"Thank you, thank you very very much!"
"See you around, Jay!" the trio chimed.
"See you around!" he faced forward but found himself in the middle of someone's fur.
"Jay? Where were you?" Lionblaze asked curiously. Instantly all his grumpiness came back as he remembered he had to go back to his normal boring life.
"None of your business," he retorted.
Lionblaze smiled, "nice to hear you're cheery as always. Hey, what're you wearing on your head?"
Jayfeather had forgotten about the flower crown, "it's nothing, C-Cinderheart gave it to me after I helped her clean her den," the medicine cat was a little impressed with how quickly he made that up.
"Aw, I could've helped her with it too."
Jayfeather's ears pricked, "you know what? Next time you should. And you should offer to take her on a hunting patrol too."
"Really? You think she'd want to go with me?" Lionblaze sounded excited. Jayfeather nodded.
"Alright, I have to go, Brackenfur wants me to stand in for Sandstorm as he takes Icepaw and Foxpaw out on a hunting patrol."
Jayfeather nodded again, and his bigger brother tore off to catch up with the patrol. He padded over to the medicine cat's den, found it was empty, and stuffed his flower crown under his nest, looking back and forth before leaving the den to go get some fresh-kill.