Jaypaw's ears perked as he heard Berrynose yowl, "what do you think you're doing here?!"Curious, he padded down from the medicine cat's den and came to stand beside his brother in the center of camp. He leaned towards the firey-furred tom and whispered, "what's going on?"
Lionpaw glanced at his brother, "an intruder or something. I can't really see over Berrynose's fat head."
"My head is hardly as fat as your head!" Berrynose retorted. " I think a headghog couldlive in your fat head it's so fat you-"
"Shut up," Jaypaw hissed. He turned back toward's where the "intruder" was crouched,opening his mouth slightly to dronk in the strange cat's scent. "Kestrelpaw?" he pacedforeward until he was before the Windclan cat, "Kestrelpaw, what are you doing here?"
The the tawny furred apprentice looked fearfully at him with yellow eyes, "Jaypaw! Y-you have to help us!"
"What is it?" Leafpool mewed, coming to stand beside her apprentice.
"Windclan is sick!" the apprentice mewed, his voice shaking, "Barkface can't find a cure . . . and . . ." his voice faltered into an anguished squeak, "and a two kits, an elder . . . and an apprentice had already died . . ."
Jaypaw felt his breath catch in his throat. An apprentice . . . had died? He shook himself. Who cares? It was a cat from another clan. Sure it was sad, but . . .
Why was he so worried? He could feel similar fear emminating from Lionpaw.
"W-we'll go and help, right?" he asked.
"Of course, " Leafpool mewed soothingly.
^-^ ^-^ ^-^
Jaypaw could smell the sickness before they even reached the Windclan camp. It reaked of death, and he retched a few times. Slowly, he set down his bundle of herbs as he passed the four bodies in the camp's center.
Cautiously, he flet his paw along hte bodies until he found the apprentice. leaning down, he breathed in the dead cat's scent under the overwheling reak of death. Sighing in relief, he backed away and picked up his herbs again. It wasn't any cat he knew personally, and he could tell Lionpaw that it wasn't Heatherpaw either.
As he followed Leafpool into the Medicane cat's den, he almost gagged again. The small was overpowering here. Quickly, they began to administer herbs to the sick cats. As Jaypaw tried to shove another wad of herbs into a cat's mouth, he heard a soft voice behind him.
"Jaypaw? What are you doing here?"
Jaypaw's heart stopped. There was no mistaking that voice, though now it was weak and lacked it's usually sarcastic tone. "I'm here to help . . . Breezepaw . . ."
Breezepaw glared up at him with amber eyes from where he lay on the ground, "You're late, " he coughed, "Morningflower, Swallowkit, Duckkit, and Thornpaw are already dead . . ." He coughed again, "and soon more . . ."
"Quiet!" Jaypaw snapped. He pushed a wad of herbs into the apprentice's mouth, "swallow that and get some sleep, mousebrain." He walked away and continued on with his duties. So it wasn't until dusk that he made his way back around to Breezepaw.
The black apprentice's breath was shallow and fast. Crowfeather stood over him, a feeling of helplessness eminating from him. "Didn't . . . . Didn't you give him any herbs?" His voice was choked with greif.
"I-I did . . ." Jaypaw's heart was pouding with fear, "It's not working . . ." what was he suposed to do? at this rate, Breezepaw would . . . Breezepaw would . . .
"Jaypaw," Leafpool's voice was clam and close to the tops of his ears, "Can you help him?"
Jaypaw raised his head up towards his mentor. "Are . . . are you sure?" He asked. If Windclan found out his powers . . . But even with that risk, he felt that he would have done it anyway. He stepped over towards the dying aprentice and lay down beside him. closing his eyes, he sped up his breaething to match Breezepaws and let his heart rate slowly drop. As he began to slip into the world of dreams, he heard Crowfeather's voice.
"What's he doing?"
"Saving your son," Leafpool replied.
^-^ ^-^ ^-^
The gray furred medicane cat apprentice opened his eyes to see the endless rolling hills of Windclan territory. His blue eyes scanned the area, but there was no one around. his heart fluttered in fear. "Maybe I' too late . . . " Then, on the hill above him, he noticed a sole black cat standing with his face to the wind.
"Breezepaw!" He called, running up to meet him. he couldn't hold back the relief from his voice, "Breezpaw!"
Breezepaw turned to look at him, "hey, this is Windclan territory. You really shouldn't be here." But he didn't seem really all that bothered by it. quite the opposite from his usual attitude.
"Breezepaw . . . This isn't Widclan." Jaypaw mewed, "Doesn't it seem different to you?" He flicked his tail towards the sky, "the stars . . . can't you see how close they are here?"
The Windclan appretice glanced at the sky, "you're right. That's really weird." Then his eyes met Jaypaw's, shock and excitement reflecting in them. "How did you know that?" He stepped even closer to the Thunderclan cat, "Jay . . . what color are my eyes?"
Jaypaw blinked at the strange shortening of his name, caught off guard, he whispered, "a-amber . . ."
Breezepaw smiled, "you can see?'
"Only when I'm dreaming," he mewed, "Breezepaw, we have to go back. Don't you see? this is the border between Winclan and Starclan."
Breezepaw looked away, unfased by this announcement. "No," he whispered. "I won't go back . . ." His eyes were full of greif now. "No one cares whether I die or not. My clan doesn't want me. My father only needs me to prove his loyalty. No one would care if I just disspeared."
Jaypaw couldn't argue with most of that, but he found himself choking out the words, "Th-that's not true . . ."
"It is true . . ." Breezepaw choked "and you know it . . ." He turned to look at the Thunderclan appretice, his amber eyes shining with tears, " Let me die . . ."
"NO!" Jaypaw burst out, "How could I let you do such a thing? Don't be ridiculous!"
"Why Not?!?!" Breezepaw retorted, "No one needs me! In the eye's of my clan, I'm worthless, I-"
"I need you!"
Breezepaw looked over at the other tom. Jaypaw was standing a few tail lengths away, his beautiful blue eyes streaming with tears. "I . . . I need you Breeze . . ."
"Wh-what are you saying?" Breezepaw whispered, his voice shaking.
"I don't know, " Jaypaw sobbed. "All I know is that . . . when I heard that an apprentice had died . . . I was so scared it was you. And coming here, I kept thinking, 'don't let him die.' I don't know what's wrong with me . . . Up In the mountains . . . something must have happened to me . . . to us. And that's why I can't just let you go Breezepaw! If you die . . ." he tried in vain to blink back more tears, "I need you here with me . . ."
As long as there was just one cat who needed you, that's enough, isn't it? Someone who says that you mean something to them . . . Breezepaw stepped foreward and touched his nose to Jaypaw's. "Thank you . . ."
^-^ ^-^ ^-^
The Windclan apprentices eyes flickered open to see Leafpool standing over him. "Good, you're awake," she mewed. "I finally had to tell your father to go and get some sleep , he wouldn't leave. I'll tell him you're awake if you'd like."
"Th-that's okay." His father had been worried? he was sure it had been a lie. But even so . . . he smiled slightly. "Umm . . . Where's Jaypaw?"
Leafpool's eyes flashed, "he's busy helping the kits over there," she flicked her tail in the direction her apprentice was, "why?"
Breezepaw glaced over to where the gray tom was treating Sedgekit, "I had a dream about him . . ."
"It was just a dream, " Leafpool whispered insistantly.
^-^ ^-^ ^-^
"Thank you so much for all your help, "Onestar mewed, "Windclan would have fallen apart if you hadn't come."
Jaypaw coughed, knowing it wasn't Onestar who'd even sent for them. Barkface had had to beg his leader to send out for help. As he and Leafpool turned to leave, Jaypaw felt a paw bat against the end of his tail. He turned to face the other cat, slightly annoyed, "what."
"Jaypaw, what color are my eyes?" Breezepaw whispered softly in his ear.
Automatically, and without giving any thought to the matter, Jaypaw answered, "amber." Then, horror burst into his mind at what he'd done. "Breeze, y-you can't tell anyone!"
Breezepaw smiled, "about you being able to see in dreams, or about what you said to me on the border of Starclan?"
"The seeing in dreams part!" He snapped. "and . . . uh . . . that other thing too."
"Jaypaw."
"Huh?"
Breezepaw leaned foreward and licked Jaypaw's cheek, "as long as you need me . . . I won't die. Not yet." He pulled away and let amber eyes meet blue. "Thank you."
Jaypaw flet his face growing hot and whirled around to leave. but his paw wouldn't move. "I'm such an idiot . . ." he muttered, "Starclan . . . forgive me. I'm going to break so many parts of the code . . ." he sighed and turned back to the Windclan apprentice. With out a seconed hesitation, he pressed his nose the other's. "I love you . . ." he whispered.
Breezepaw pressed his face into Jaypaw's cheek, "you realize that's bad, right?"
he licked the other tom's forehead, " First off, we're from different clans. Seconed, you're a medicine cat. And third . . . we're both toms." His eye's met Jaypaws, though he knew the other wouldn't be able to tell, " you're fine with all that?"
"I don't care."
"We'll get caught."
"No we won't."
"But Heatherpaw and Lionpaw did."
"Yeah. But . . ." Jaypaw blinked warmly at him, "we can meet in dreams."
RANDOM AUTHOR RAMBLE
Wow. so i got like, four or five requests for more JayBreeze just from my silly little poem . . . wow. I was surprised, thank you guys! I hope to bring even more JayBreeze fans together! (but you'll have to wait for inspiration to strike me after Sunset comes out. And I get to go see Erin! Who dares me to ask her what she thinks of Warriors slash pairings?) I really want to write some FireTiger and BerryBirch fics in the future.
