grassheart's kits were quite normal, hawkfeather supposed. his mate gave birth to a litter of two; squirrelkit and finchkit. the first was named for his brown coat and energetic personality, while the other was named for his size and swiftness.

however, one of the brothers, finchkit, acted quite unusually. he rarely interacted with other cats in his clan, and he seemed nervous or afraid most of the time. grassheart and hawkfeather dismissed this as just shyness, but as hawkfeather observed his son over time, he began to notice that something was not quite right with finchkit.

"look at me, hawkfeather!" squirrelkit squealed, "i'm gonna catch this leaf!"

the big brown tabby purred in affection as his son leaped and tumbled, in an attempt to grab it. then hawkfeather turned to finchkit. he noticed that the small light brown tabby was sitting alone near the nursery, pawing at the ground.

"finchkit?" he asked, walking towards him, "aren't you going to play with your brother?"

the little kitten gasped and turned, his bright blue eyes wide with fear.

"i'm sorry if i scared you there," hawkfeather mewed, "come on, let's go see what your brother is up to!"

finchkit hesitated, then slowly got up, legs shaking. he followed his father to where squirrelkit was playing, and hawkfeather said, "you should give him some company."

the young tom nodded slowly, and approached his brother rather cautiously, his tail flicking.

strange...he's treating his brother as if he's an enemy warrior from another clan...

"hi, finchkit!" squirrelkit chirped excitedly, "wanna play?"

"o-okay..." his brother replied after a brief pause.

hawkfeather watched him closely; he noticed that finchkit looked distant and withdrawn, and barely even played with squirrelkit.

"hawkfeather, why doesn't he want to play with me?" the brown tom whined, a note of frustration in his voice.

"maybe he's just tired," he answered, "maybe you can play with him later, perhaps."

squirrelkit let out a sigh and said, "fine..."

as the kit turned away and bounded back to the nursery, hawkfeather continued to look at his other son. something wasn't right about him...and he had to find out about his kit's problem.

"no!" finchpaw screeched, "i'm not sleeping in there anymore!"

squirrelpaw tried to restrain his furious brother from leaping at lightpaw. the golden tabby's eyes were wide with fear as finchpaw tried to swipe at him with unsheathed claws.

"what's going on?" said grayfur; he was a large long furred gray tom, and was the medicine cat of forestclan, "is there something wrong?"

blackstorm, another warrior, followed him, a look of concern on his broad face.

"what's happening?" grayfur growled.

"he's having one of his weird fits again!" squirrelpaw gasped as he tried to keep finchpaw from attacking the other apprentice, "i tried to calm him down, but..."

"'weird fits', eh? let me ask finchpaw about this, then," grayfur meowed thoughfully, "finchpaw, what seems to be the matter?"

finchpaw pointed to lightpaw, his wide eyes blazing with hostility, "it's him," he snarled, "he tried to kill me while i was sleeping!"

"is that so?" grayfur asked, turning to lightpaw.

"it's not true! he's talking crazy; i didn't even lay a paw on him last night!" the tabby yowled.

"liar, liar, liar!" finchpaw screeched, "you tried to kill me; i know it!"

grayfur narrowed his yellow eyes and approached a small silver tabby, who was watching the whole episode near the entrance to the apprentice den.

"hello, sleetpaw. i have a question; did you see lightpaw do anything suspicious while guarding the camp last night?"

sleetpaw bowed her head, "no, grayfur. i didn't see anything or hear anything in the apprentice den."

grayfur nodded his large stormy gray head, "thank you, then."

the old tom suddenly heard paws pounding the ground. hawkfeather and grassheart were informed of the commotion and came to see what was going on.

"we've heard of what's going on. can you please tell me, what is wrong with my son?" grassheart gasped, fear blazing in her amber eyes.

grayfur sighed. "your son is...having one of his 'weird fits' again, as squirrelpaw dubs it."

hawkfeather looked at finchpaw, a grim air about him. he knew it-he knew that there was something wrong with him, "tell me, why is he having this 'weird fit'?"

the old medicine cat narrowed his eyes, and murmured, "he thinks that lightpaw tried to kill him last night, as he was sleeping."

"but surely he must be just nervous, right?" grassheart asked, "it's not much of a big deal, right?"

grayfur sighed again, sympathy and pain flashing in his eyes, "i believe it is a 'big deal', as you put it. i've seen him; these fits and strange behavior is not uncommon. it happens quite often, actually. one time i approached him and asked him why he behaves like this."

"how come, then?" hawkfeather asked, "why is he acting like this?"

"he said the reason why is because he hears voices. he claims that someone is controlling him. the reason why he's like this," grayfur answered.

"but surely it's only a phase!" grassheart wailed, "maybe he'll grow out of it...?"

grayfur shook his head, and replied, "i'm afraid that hearing these voices and strange, erratic behavior is most certainly not a phase, grassheart. it's safe to say that your son is not of sound mind."

the two last words of grayfur's sentence caused hawkfeather to stiffen.

his suspicions were confirmed.

something was definitely wrong with finchpaw.