There was a cry. A painful cry. An agonizing cry. A cry that pleaded for help, and mercy. But who? Why? What could have such pain and despair? It was nothing that young Flametail had ever heard before, and he couldn't understand it. He was only able to make out, the mere idea of where it was coming from. The light that he was so used to, was so bright that the only thing he could see was the slight gleam of his whiskers in front of his face. And also, he had just a minute ago, been with a patrol. Where were they? Why was he alone suddenly with this horrifying scream?

Flametail cleared his throat and called, "Featherear? Are you there? What is that sound? Do you hear it too?" But the voice of his friend did not break through the blinding light. However, the light slowly but surely, began to cease. Flametail waited for his eyesight to resume, but things just turned to black. And though the light had faded to nothing, the cry did not. In fact, it seemed louder. Now filled with fear, he leaped into the air. And at that moment he could feel the blazing hot sand, and see the the long land of dirt that lay out ahead of him. He could see again. And he felt different. He was dreaming.

"Goodness how could I be so foolish...?" Then he realized that, the cry could still be heard. He bit down on his tongue really hard, "Come on wake up!!" It was so painful that he nearly cried out himself. But nothing changed. The distant cry did fade away though. Like something dying a horrible death. He stood up, gasping at the blood dripping from his mouth. He hissed from the pain. Or perhaps at himself for doing that.

"There you are you lazy fleabag!" He turned to see Featherear, and his apprentice, Ashpaw approaching.

Featherear scowled, "Apprentice! Do not speak to the deputy in such a way!" Then he saw Flametail and his eyes widened in shock. "Did you catch some prey?"

Flametail did not answer, but gasped and squinted from the pain through blood.

Featherear stepped back momentarily to try and guess what was going on. Then he shouted, "Ashpaw, go find Dovewing and bring her here!"

"At your service!" Ashpaw dashed off towards HorizonClan camp, kicking sand up in a swirl behind him.

Dovewing arrived a while later, when most of the bleeding had already stopped, and Flametail's jaw was covered in dried blood. He lay there on the sand breathing heavily with his eyes closed, wishing that the pain would stop. Dovewing slowly opened up his jaw and peered inside to see what the bleeding was coming from.

"I'm assuming he bit his tongue."

Featherear flicked his tail in annoyance and confusion,"Why?"

"Well...we could ask him but I doubt the wound will let him answer. Come now Flametail. I was rushed here so fast I could not bring anything with me to help. But surely you are able to walk. Let's go back to camp and we'll see what we can do."

Flametail nodded, and stood up, trembling and followed the others.

Entering camp, Featherear was struggling to get him to speak, or speak clearly.

"What caused you to do this? It must have been something."

"It's a dream..." was the first thing Flametail was able to studder out.

"Unfortunately, this is not a dream, as much as you wish it was. Everycat must suffer at sometime though."

"The dream....was...it must have been...."

Now Featherear just stared at his friend as if he had been hit in the head too hard.

"The scream...."

Dovewing interrupted,"Hush! Come with me to my burrow now."

Ashpaw raced ahead of them into Dovewing's burrow. She stuck her head in after him.

"Out of there. This is no time for you to be snooping, you little nuisance." She nudged him playfully as he crawled out.

Flametail hesitated before going into her burrow, wondering whether he should tell her about what he had experienced or not, after all she was the medicine cat. He just followed, trying to lick some of the dried blood off, but his tongue hurt too much for it to be moved.

Dovewing gave him some herbs that would ease his hunger for a while, since he would not be able to eat, and also rubbed the fowl tasting liquid from a plant stem on his tongue. "Leave it. It may not taste like a treat but if you want it to heal, you must deal with it," she said.

After leaving her burrow, he was approached by the HorizonClan leader, Sunstar.

"How did this happen?" he asked. One of many.

Should I tell him? Flametail wondered. "I got surprised and bit myself by accident," he lied.

Sunstar seemed to be questionable about his answer, but just walked away without saying a word.