{{ A short JayxHalf 'fic that will most likely only be 5-10 short chapters or so. Don't worry, DaN and Lies will still be updated just as often (which is, whenever I have the time in my life.)

NOTE: Takes place mid-way through Bramblestar's Storm. Very minor spoilers.}}

I padded through the darkness, knowing my fur was only a shades lighter smudge in the tunnels. I walked confidently in the black, although it was impossible to see where I was going. This didn't bother me, however, I was used to seeing only dark. That was my life, you know, being blind. Black. Dark. Dreary.

My paws were weary from walking, the pads hardened from trodding over the packed earth and stone so long over these moons of being stuck underground. I had left the chatter of ThunderClan far behind me and had lately taken to wandering the many warrens of tunnels under the earth. I twitched my whiskers as I remembered Bramblestar's protests when he had discovered my absences:

"You know no cats are allowed deeper in the tunnels! It's dangerous." I knew he was adding 'especially to someone blind' in his head, but he knew not to speak it out loud.

But I was not so hesitant to bring up that topic. "My blindness isn't a reason, if anything it should make it safer for me. I'm not scared of the dark," I added sarcastically, feeling that Bramblestar was smoldering. "and I could feel or hear or sense if something was happening long before any of you." I felt that the brown tabby was opening his mouth to argue (I felt warmth on the tips of my ears) and waved my tail. "I know the tunnels better than ThunderClan's camp. If you see me floating up on the tides dead, then you can tell me I was wrong, but no sooner. Cats need to be doing something; sitting around never helps a sick cat's mood. It just drives them insane. I cannot go out, so I have to walk the tunnels." I didn't mention how the tunnels reminded me of the Ancients and the Tribe and the time I had left.

The time I felt love, the time I could see, the time I was really free...

"Fine," Bramblestar growled. I knew it went against all his instincts to keep his Clan safe. "But one cave-in, one wet paw, and you are confined to the camp as you should be."

I nodded. "Thank you."

I found a pebble under my paw and stopped, stepping back. I flicked it, causing it to skitter down the tunnel with echoes and clinks as it hit the rock floor. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath and listening to the sound of stone on stone as it flickered past my ears again and again.

The sound reminded me of the mountains, and a vision of the jagged peaks flicked over my eyes for a heartbeat, leaving me to grasp at it as it escaped like smoke from my paws. The darkness felt heavier after having seen something. Pain as sharp as claws gripped my chest, almost a physical agony over what I could never have. Colors, shapes, light...

I let myself lean on the cool, moist wall with a shoulder as the blow struck me again and again. What irony, what painful irony, that the time I wished I could see is the time when it was too dark to see anything even if I could.

I missed my visions. I missed my dreams. I missed the forest, ThunderClan's and. . . of the past. I miss the Tribe. I miss Half Moon. I miss being Jay's Wing.

I stood there, my breath fluttering as if I were holding off sobs. Maybe I was.

Suddenly the weight left me, as if a wind had come and dashed it to pieces against the stone walls. I stood, a bit shakily, and opened my eyes.

To a light. There was light in the tunnels, something I could have only known if. . .I can see! I widened my eyes, taking in the rough walls and the grey floor. The shimmering water lightly brushed over everything, with the thin light reflecting it into silver. My paws, grey and tabby, with ivory claws poking out of the tufts of fur.

I spun around and raced back the way I came, my paws thrumming against the stone. The light followed me as I moved, as if showing me the way. For a moment I thought it was coming from me, but then realized the way my shadow was cast that it was slightly behind and above my back. I took the quickest route I knew up, one that wouldn't be covered in water that is. Although I hadn't been under the swollen lake; I knew better than that. I had stayed to the upper trails, the ones that covered the top part of ThunderClan and WindClan, and that reached far outside the borders where there was little fear of the lake flooding the way back out.

The walls fled past me in a rush as I ran, the tunnel growing brighter and brighter until I knew I was nearing the surface. I broke out under a thick hazel bush, taking a deep breath as I stopped, panting. The musical rustle of leaves in a light breeze filled my ears like it always had, but this time it was accompanied by color and motion. More shades of green than I could have ever imagined -or remembered- pattered the grass under the bush, moving and swaying with the leaves. Even more color was beyond, and I quickly shoved my way out of the bush to see the rest of the world.

I don't remember how long I stood there, taking in the forest with a new found awe. Time stopped then, leaving just me and the forest, and nothing else in my head by relief and beauty. This was only broken when a different thought broke into my head: ThunderClan. I shook my fur, the awe pressed to the side of my consciousness so that I could think again. I needed to find my Clan.

At first, I did not know where I was. I had never really seen the forest, and the time that I had was so long ago that the images were just blurs in my head. So I closed my eyes, snapping back to when I was blind. At first, I had quickly opened them again, my heart racing in fear that I had lost my sight while they were closed. But the forest again moved around me, so hesitantly I brought them closed again. Soft peat moss flexed under my paws, and the scent of mice and beech covered my nose. The sharp tang of pine echoed faintly.

The ShadowClan border, where the maples gave to beeches before pines. I opened my eyes and the smells vanished like shadows. How any cat could use their eyes and nose at the same time baffled me. Now oriented, I set my paws on a path to the new ThunderClan base in the tunnels. Joy fluttered in my chest as I realized the path would take me right past the hollow I had lived in all my life yet had only set eyes on for a couple heartbeats. I could also check on how far the floods had receded and report back to Bramblestar along with the gift StarClan had given me for I had no doubt in my mind that must have been what had occurred.

The trails were not new to me, I had walked them many of times, yet they were new in the way that I could see instead of feel them. I saw the mud as my paws squelched in it, brown and sticky. I saw the grass that ruffled my fur, so soft and green, shining with water. Soon all of the forest started to look the same, although I could still think back to the past and remember where I was. Bramble bushes crossed many of the paths -thrown by the winds, I knew, from the huge storms that have plagued the Clans- and twisted my thoughts around as I tried to keep my bearing.

Oddly enough, it seemed like the trails were more littered as I came closer to the camp, so much that it felt as if there were no trail at all and that I was cutting through the forest instead. Yet the paths always picked back up, leading my paws on familiar ways. It was within one of these littered places that I felt the camp should be.

I poked my nose into the brambles and was just able to catch a glimpse of the smooth stone walls before I was tugged roughly away by teeth in my scruff. Before even thoughts of fighting back came to me, I flashed back to when Half Moon had done the same thing to me all those moons ago.I'm really in the past again! But the cat that had a hold of me was not Half Moon. The cat dropped me with a snarl, and I looked up to see a dark grey tom, his ice blue eyes burning. "Don't cats have any sense?" he spat.

But I couldn't find any fear in me, however close to the badgers I was and how one might burst out of the bushes at any moment. Only excitement bubbled in me, and I leaped up, dashing into the bushes with kit-like joy, a grin on my face that I knew was so unlike me, I would've probably have had to treat Leafpool for shock if she had saw me. "I'm Jay's Wing!" I said, dashing off to the lake without another glance at the hollow.

I knew how to get to the mountains, and from there the new Tribe's home behind the mountains.

I was back.

{{ Yay, intros. F&F&R! }}