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Seeing Through Different Eyes

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Jayfeather sniffed at the plant. "Burdock root." He determined. The medicine cat apprentice had been searching for herbs, the search finally taking him close to the WindClan border.

A shift in the wind caused the smells and sounds from WindClan territory to waft over the border. Jayfeather turned, the wind catching him in the face. He smelled WindClan cats...three of them. He raised his head and sniffed, searching for scent and stretching out with his other senses.

"Tornear. Ashfoot. Breezepelt." He picked them out, one by one. And they were hot in pursuit of...rabbits. A lot of them.

Jayfeather couldn't see the chase, but he could hear the scratch of claws against the dirt as they ran after their prey. He reached out and felt the intensity in the minds of the WindClan warriors with his own mind...and he felt something else.

Frowning, he tried to focus on what he had felt. At first he thought it was one of the cats...but he soon found that it was one of the rabbits.

"I never tried using my powers on anyone but cats before." Jayfeather realized. "I wonder what a rabbit's like..."

Jayfeather's every muscle stiffened as his mind brushed against the thoughts and memories of the rabbit that attracted his attention. He was unprepared for the depth he found....it was like falling into the lake, only he couldn't feel the bottom. The medicine cat felt his mind fall in, deeper...and deeper...until—

"Watch out!" Jayfeather whipped his head around to see--"wait, see? How can I?"--Breezepelt bearing down on him, claws extended and looking much, much bigger than he normally was.

"What are you doing?!" Jayfeather hollered at Breezepelt, jumping to the side. The WindClan warrior didn't seem to hear him.

"Move you runt or I'll slap your ears off!" Jayfeather turned just in time to see a large rabbit bowl into Breezebelt's flank, sending the WindClan warrior rolling over. Then the rabbit turned back to him. "Well?" He demanded sharply before cuffing Jayfeather's head. "Get a move on!"

Gasping in shock, Jayfeather was too stunned to do anything but follow—in a lopping, hopping pace? Jayfeather ran ahead, moving much faster than he'd ever gone before...and he couldn't help but notice he was much closer to the ground than usual...

"Great StarClan!" He moaned. "I'm a rabbit!"

"Hurry up!" The big bossy one snapped. "Or you'll be a dead rabbit!" Running up a hill, Jayfeather followed the big one down a burrow. The WindClan cats had given up pursuit already.

They were greeted by another rabbit, who looked at them worriedly. "Did you lose them?"

"Yeah," the big one panted. "We gave them the old slip."

"Little brother?" The other rabbit asked. "Are you alright?" Jayfeather looked confused...until he realized that the rabbit was talking to him.

"Huh? Oh, r-right, I'm fine." Jayfeather stammered. "Fine."

"Do you want to rest?" The brown eyes of his rabbit 'brother' filled with worry. "Why don't you go below and have a good night's sleep. It must've been a close call out there...you even smell like cat!"

Jayfeather bobbed his head, then regretted it when a long ear flopped down over his face. "Right...sure...see you in the morning." He lopped his way down a burrow shaft.

Nodding after him, his 'brother' called out, "Good night Fiver."

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"Jayfeather? Jayfeather!" Leafpool called, looking this way and that for her apprentice. She had sent him out long ago for herbs. When he didn't return she decided to go out looking for him. She followed his scent to the border with WindClan..."StarClan give him enough sense not to have crossed it." The ThunderClan medicine cat prayed to herself.

Then she spotted him. "Jayfeather!" She was surprsied when she scetned his fear scent like crazy as he jumped and thrashed to and for. "Jayfeather, what is it?"

When Jayfeather crashed into the underbrush beside him. "W-who's there? I—I can't see!" He sounded frantic. Leafpool rushed towards him. "Jayfeather? It's me Leafpool! What's wrong?"

"Whose Jayfeather?" The blind cat demanded, his sightless eyes blinking up at her. "My name is Fiver."

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To Be Continued...

Warriors ｩ Erin Hunter

Watership Down ｩ Richard Adams