A/N:
This idea has been in my head ever since I finished reading "Warriors: Omen To The Stars: The Last Hope" back in 2012 (Yes, it's been that long :p,), and I've finally decided to write out after much deliberating and time-finding due to work and shiz.
I am still writing my "Warriors" fanfic "The Twoleg Prisoner" (Check it, while you're at it :) ), but have left it on hold in the meantime.
Not much else to say really…
Read and Enjoy! :)
Title: Feathers Of The Same Crow
Rating: T
Characters: Jayfeather, Breezepelt
Description: After Breezepelt goes into exile, Jayfeather finds his half-brother wounded in ThunderClan territory. Jayfeather decides to help heal his brother back to health, despite his better judgement. But why does Jayfeather feel compelled to help the cat who hates him so? And why does his brother stare at him like that? Post-"LastHope" JayBreeze
Feathers Of The Same Crow
Written by mpkio2
Snow crunched under-paw as the ThunderClan medicine cat padded on through the white covered forest. Wildlife was little, especially when leaf-bare was as serve and as cold since any recent leaf-bare that had previously passed. Though the wind-chilling artic air hit his grey fur like spikes, Jayfeather carried on through the snow, ignoring the protest his body berated at him, telling himself that this was nothing compared to the hell that was occurring back in the ThunderClan camp.
Finally, after much walking and much ignoration of the elements on his part, Jayfeather found his small growing supply of herbs, saturated in the garden of abandoned Twoleg nest. Unfortunately for him, not much was growing, and any thing he did find, was either shrivelled, in the process to be, or was too small in amount for even a kitten to benefit from. But every little counted, he thought to himself with a grunt, especially with whitecough spreading through the clan like wildfire. He bit off the miserable amount of catmint, tansy and anything else he could find, placed all herbs into a big leaf and carried it, hanging from his mouth.
Not too pleased with his findings, Jayfeather turned back and started to pad through the snow, towards the ThunderClan camp. But just as he was moving away from the old abandoned structure, Jayfeather was sure he could hear whimpering, like that of kit, resounding from somewhere inside the nest. Despite the sound of the wind howling in his ears and the cold battering against his fur, Jayfeather could hear it, though when he tried to scent for anything in particular, he smelt nothing but the wretched stench of the Twoleg structure.
It's probably overwhelming any other scents, the medicine cat theorized, nodding slightly to himself, padding forward, trying best he could to scent anything at all. But no matter how hard he tried, nothing came his way, the snow covering every scent. Jayfeather relied on the wound of whimpering to guide him forward, entering the Twoleg nest and stirring through the structure.
When Jayfeather sensed himself entering a room, one which he believed shadows would find sanctuary and salvation in, the grey furred cat placed his bundle of herbs on the floor and whispered into the dark:
"Hello? Is anyone hurt?"
But before a reply could reach him, a familiar scent, accompanied with not too many fond memories, reached his nose, and when it did, he knew at once, knew who was whimpering inside this Twoleg nest. But although he had an answer, he didn't believe it, didn't understand how….that cat…could possibly be here on ThunderClan territory. It just….it can't be him?!
Jayfeather stepped forward, his paw-steps echoing slightly, the wood underneath creaking feeling eyes burning through his fur. He knew it was suicidal to approach…that cat…but something was wrong, Jayfeather knew it, could feel it, sense it, smell it in the air…
Blood…
He's wounded, Jayfeather concluded, the smell of blood and scent of that cat almost colliding together, thus concluding where the source of the blood was coming from. He will deny it at once. Suborn little mouse-brain.
"Don't move another paw-step," Came a dark voice from within the room, sliglt echoing off the walls. "Unless you don't want to leave here with a few scratches,"
Jayfeather felt the fur on his back rise. Even when he's injured, he still spills out this mouse-dung, as if he was invincible or something! He doesn't know when to quit!
"I'd like to see you try, Breezepelt," The medicine cat counted, sitting down on his haunches, his forelegs in front, staring gently to where he believed Breezepelt was lying on the wooden floor (Breezepellt's voice was a little lower inn height and, therefore, Jayfeather inferred this to mean that the tom was so badly hurt that he was lying and resting,).
A stunned silence greeted Jayfeather.
"How did you know-?!"
"Please!" Jayfeather cut in before Breezepelt could finish. "I may be blind, Breezepelt, but I'm not stupid. I knew it was you right after I got a whiff of your scent…"
"How could I forget-?" The wounded WindClan warrior muttered more to himself than addressing Jayfeather himself.
"Are you that badly injured that you would forget such a thing? Forget your own senses?" Jayfeather felt the shock, surprise and defence radiating off his brother.
"Wha-? But you can't see that-!"
"Of course I can't, mouse-brain!" Jayfeather snapped, feeling his indignation and anger rising; why was Breezepelt establishing things he already knew about himself? Doesn't he have a brain at all!? He breathed out slowly and replied "The blood…"
"W-what blood? I-I'm fine, ThunderClan swine!"
Defiant even when the truth is right in front of him, Jayfeather thought bitterly. Why must he always fight with me? Any cat with half a brain could tell that he was utterly lying! Just one whiff at all that blood and any cat could tell-
Bitterness and irritation wavered slightly and Jayfeather felt his heart-beat a little faster, only realizing how much blood he could smell now that he was closer to the WindClan warrior.
"Don't lie to me, traitor!" Jayfeather snapped, worry etching at his fur. The medicine cat approached his brother with small steps, each one weighing with concern, but irritation too that Breezepelt would lie over something as, obviously, serious as this. "I can smell the blood radiating off you from here! If your too blind to see, your seriously hurt and need medical-"
"I don't need the likes of you to tell me that!" Breezepelt bite back, and though the anger was there, Jayfeather could sense the wavering in his voice, how it almost crocked, how feeble it was beginning to sound. The roughening sound of something told Jayfeather that his idiotic traitor and easily deceived brother was doing yet another idiotic, mouse-brained thing.
"Sit down now!" And Jayfeather almost rushed over to him, ready to force him down if need be with both unsheathed clawed paws. "You'll make it worse, flea-pelt!"
A dark laugh responded. "I'd rather die than to listen to you, the one cat who ruined everything for me!"
Jayfeather believed him, believed that Breezepelt would rather end his life here and now in this horrible Twoleg nest, than to accept help from the cat he hated with a passion. And that, Jayfeather inwardly admitted, scared him, frightened him that with every move his brother made, would drag him closer to death. It wasn't due to Jayfeather's feelings regarding Breezepelt, but rather his duty, his pride as a medicine cat that pushed him forward.
"I don't care what you say, what you think of me, how much you despise me!" Jayfeather retorted fiercely, fur rising on his back, slowly moving towards his brother, who Jayfeather sensed was feeling fear above all else. "I'm a medicine cat and you will do as I tell you to-!"
Jayfeather sensed it was coming a mile off, predicted it would come, but he took it, accepted it all the while, the scratch marks Breezepelt left against Jayfeather's muzzle, stinging.
"Don't threaten me, m-medicine cat!" Breezepelt warned with a biting voice. "I take orders from no-one, and I suggest you turn around, unless you don't want to leave here still alive!"
Jayfeather, despite his brother's threatening words, turned and faced his brother with his bling, un-seeing eyes, a sense of gentleness and calm residing within them. He could partially smell the blood right inn his face, feel Breezepelt's breathe on his face, could hear the rasping in his voice. Regardless, Jayfeather stared at him.
"And you won't be alive for much longer if those wounds inflicted on you aren't dealt with," The medicine cat spoke with such calmness, it was unlike him, and he wondered as he went on, what particularly possessed him to change tactics so quickly. But the answer to that question was supplied, exactly after he licked the scratch on his muzzle, the one Breezepelt had only just given him.
"For StarClan's sake, flea-pelt!" Jayfeather meowed in an irritated voice, as if he was fed up with a kit he wouldn't stop playing. "It's obvious you're hurt, so stop denying it and let me help you! If your that mouse-brained as to think I will-"
"You will!" Breezepelt retorted back, not giving up on a fight he knew he could not win, obvious for both cats to see, but regardless, carried on to the bitter end, Jayfeather feelings his emotions a swell, anger and fear shifting to uncertaincy. "I know-" A cough…a spluttering cough…more blood. "I k-know…and I-I won't l-let…can't let you…you…you!"
The medicine cat had lost his patience at last. In one smooth swift move, he pummelled Breezepelt firmly to the ground with both paws, the black furred tom falling onto his back with a little thud. He yowled in both pain and protest, despite how weak Jayfeather sensed he was, how fragile his body was, how tired he must be. The smell of blood was all too much and Jayfeather was surprised that Breezepelt was still conscious, was still alive at all.
"Keep still!" Jayfeather yowled, still trying to keep the WindClan warrior held down, fighting him to defeat, Breezepelt fighting for ever on. "You need to conserve your energy! You've lost too much-"
"N-not from y-you, medicine cat!" Breezepelt yowled in return, his anger radiating off him in waves, Jayfeather sure he was about to topple from the strength in them. "No-not you! I will k-kill you for-! Y-you don't deserve t-to-"
Jayfeather could sense the strength in Breezepelt withering away to nothing, a sign he was falling unconscious. Delirious as he was, the medicine cat knew that whatever he was spewing held some truth in how he felt, in what he wanted, in how much he hated Jayfeather, a resentful and strong feeling he's held for as long as Jayfeather knew him, blaming Jayfeather and his littermates, LionBlaze and Hollyleaf, for how everything in his life was snatched away from him, ridiculed by his clan and hated by his father.
Soon, Breezepelt's force and strength turned to small movements and protest, his voice but a whisper as he finally fell asleep: "All y-your fault…". The WindClan warrior lay motionless under Jayfeather, too which the medicine cat was greatly appreciated for.
"Finally," Jayfeather muttered, loosing grip of his brother's pelt. "You're such a burden…" Once Jayfeather fully checked Breezepelt was out, he padded back to the entrance to the room and retrieved his bundles of herbs, knowing he had a herb for the treatment of blood loss.
"I don't know why I'm doing this, especially how you might kill me after I heal you," Jayfeather sighed, his sightless eyes looking down at where his brother lay. "StarClan, what am I doing?"
Breezepelt slowly awoke in a daze haze, not knowing where he was or what had happened to him before falling sleep. When he's eyes finally adjusted to the pitch darkness, he saw a familiar body moving over him, a rhymetic soothing sensation washing over a wound on his flank, like a tongue washing infection, and a familiar scent reached his nostrils, which combined all senses together, triggering his brain, memories flooding back to him in an instant.
Jayfeather, he found me here…and now he's….what is he doing?! He reported me to his leader, I bet he did! And I bet he's hurt me even more, made me worse! And I want to kill him now that he's here, ready for me to have and to savour every moment of it!
And the WindClan tom tried to move, tried to accomplish the very reason why he entered ThunderClan territory in the first place; to seek revenge and to succeed in accomplishing it, his target but alone ThunderClan medicine cat. But now that he was here, wounded and unable to move, he felt infuriated, his desire to kill all the more, because it was right there, but he could do nothing to achieve it in this condition.
"I wouldn't move if I were you," Breezepelt heard the brisk voice of Jayfeather. "You'll open up your wounds and then all my time and effort would be wasted,"
Time and effort?! What time and effort?! All he's done is stare at me and pity me and laugh at e, like everyone else in my clan, how they hate me…!
"You're lying," Breezepelt grunted out in a croaked, bitter voice. "Y-you've done n-nothing to he-help me, medicine cat,"
Breezepelt heard Jayfeather sigh after a moment's silence. "Fine. Don't believe what I tell you. You can't move anyway, seeing how you exerted yourself,"
Breezepelt laughed darkly, a cough escaping through his muzzle. Because it was funny, wasn't it? Ironic, actually! "A-And now you have yo-your chance…to get rid of me,"
"Why would I do that, flea-pelt?"
"Y-you hate me," Breezepelt stated, cursing the fact his voice was still unstable. "I want you dead more than a-anything in the w-world. So y-you hate me…"
There was a slight pause in which nothing was said nor anything done. Breezepelt took that as indication that what he said was the truth, but Jayfeather surprised him when he replied in a firm and quiet voice that almost seemed to break the darkness that surrounded them:
"I never said that, did I?"
"Y-you implied i-it!" Breezepelt almost yowled back in anger and would have, but his voice wouldn't allow him to do so. "You've always h-hated me, w-want me d-dead!"
Another silence.
"You absolute- you are the most mouse-brained cat I have ever met!" Jayfeather snapped in retaliation only to quieten his voice to a gentler tone:
"Tell me, Breeze, what am I doing currently?"
"Don't call me, B-Breeze, medicine c-cat!"
"Answer my question then! What am I doing?"
And in that moment, Breezepelt felt the rhymetic soothing sensation washing over a wound on his side continue. Curious as to what was causing him to feel so much calmer, he looked over his shoulder and down at the wound on his fur. When his eyes finally saw the answer in front of him, he almost choked from the shock.
Jayfeather sighed. "Now – do you – see?" The medicine cat asked between each lick. "I don't – hate you – Breezepelt. I just - need to help – you get better…"
"W-why?" Breezepelt mewed, afraid of the answer that was sure to follow, confused and shocked at what was happening in front of him. "W-why don't y-you k-kill me?"
"Because…" Jayfeather started, then halted, hesitated, and continued as he applied a wet substance to one of Breezepelt's wounds. "…you don't deserve it,"
"What?" Breezepelt asked, utterly confused, like a mouse being cornered into a tight spot. "No, y-your lyin-"
"Believe," Jayfeather cut in a stinging and brisk voice. "What you want to believe, Breeze. I'm just telling you what I think. Choose to ignore it if you want…"
Breezepelt choose instead to just lay there on the wooden flooring, soaking in everything that had happened to him, everything that had been said, the course of emotions that coursed through his body, changing all the while, swinging left and right, like prey he couldn't catch. It had happened all too quickly, and Breezepelt didn't know what to make of it.
"You're just lucky this place has cobwebs," Jayfeather grunted, applying a sticky substance to a wound on Breezepelt's fur. "I don't think I would have found any, not in this leaf-bare weather,"
Breezepelt said nothing in reply.
"Well," Jayfeather said after a short while longer. "That's the best I can do for you with what little supplies I have. I've stopped the bleeding, applied horsetail and secured bandages on the wounds. I've given you some water, but make sure to drink from the moss drenched in water over night. You need to keep hydrated…"
Again, Breezepelt said nothing and Jayfeather replied in a sour tone:
"Look, I know you're in shock or whatever, but the least you can do is thank me. I just used up some of my supplies, some I've come out to specifically pick for my clanmates-"
The medicine cat halted in his tracks and Breezepelt could sense that something was wrong.
"Oh, mouse-dung!" Jayfeather cursed lightly, Breezepelt spotting Jayfeather dash over to a leaf covered in many herbs, scoop them up, turn to the exit and speak:
"I have to go. Make sure you drink that water and…the best of luck,". The ThunderClan medicine cat said no more, and with that, left the TwoLeg abandoned structure without another word, leaving Breezepelt lying in the darkness alone, yet again.
Breezepelt had come accustomed to the darkness, lived with it like a clanmate, the only one he had after his exile. But now that he was but alone once more, he realized he didn't like it all too much anymore. In fact, he would actually opt to have the darkness be replaced with that cat who looked so much like their father.
Why…? Why did he help me? Why didn't he kill me instead?
These questions and more taught Breezepelt until the dead of moonhigh, starlight crusading down through the open square in the wall. The lone WindClan warrior looked through the open space in the wall and looked up at the moon.
Why didn't you kill me?
"Because…you don't deserve it," Came the answer in his head in the form of ThunderClan medicine cat who, until this very moment, he wanted dead, but now, perhaps, he wanted him, but for other reasons…
A/N:
And there it is! All done!
It took me over 5 hours to write this thing, but it was all enjoyable and well worth it!
So, what do you think? I tried to keep Jayfeather and Breezepelt in character as much as I possibly could; hope I done a good job of it, but am unsure as both characters are, IMO, very alike, thus the title of the fanfic.
I hope I conveyed the struggle that Breezepelt was going through, how he felt denying the good deed Jayfeather was doing and his feelings of hate, jealousy and resentment towards Jayfeather. Jayfeather himself was easier to write for me, but I'm still unsure if I nailed his "voice" right.
If you get time, go and listen to this song "Saved From Falling" by "LastDayHere" – I consider a theme song for Breezepelt. Listen to the links, for they fit his character perfectly.
LINK:
www. Youtube watch?v=RdjCuwHbCaI (Remove Gaps!)
Please leave a review telling me if you liked the fanfic and any criticism is fully welcomed with open arms! Thank you! :)
Do you think I should continue? Please leave any suggestions!
If I don't update, consider this fanfic a "One-Shot".
Until next time, peeps! :)
~mpkio2~