Picture this: a tribe of savage cat-eaters is slowly lowering you into a pot of bubbling, boiling water. You shut your eyes tight, contorting your face and waiting to die. As you inch closer and closer to the pot, hot steam billows onto your face, nearly frying your fur off. And of course, you're really uncomfortable because you're being held by the tail. Ouch!
This could pretty much sum up how Breezepelt felt. His life flashed before his eyes: kithood, apprenticehood, warriorhood, and islandhood.
When he opened his eyes, he saw the water about to come in contact with his whiskers, and he closed his eyes again. He was scared. His body shook erratically. His final thought was one of Heathertail. He braced himself for the heat.
It never came.
Breezepelt blinked open his eyes. He was no longer staring into the boiling black water. The starry night sky stretched in front of him. Gratitude filled him, gratitude for his savior. He leapt onto his paws, trying to push away the ache in them, and looked around. Where were the flames, the twolegs? There were trees on one side, endless black water on the other. And behind him, Heathertail, Lionblaze, and Jayfeather.
"Heathertail!" Breezepelt ran over to his love - his friend. Kind of. Heathertail jumped away.
"You stink of twolegs!"
"Oh." Embarrassed by his uncharacteristic show of affection, Breezepelt backed away.
"You mousebrain! How did you get captured?" Jayfeather asked in his snappish Jayfeather way. His sightless blue eyes were full of annoyance, as usual.
Breezepelt felt a flash of indignation. It wasn't his fault he got captured! But no matter how offended he felt, he couldn't deny the fact that these cats had saved him from the evil twolegs.
"Well, one second I was chasing a mouse, the next this fat twoleg shoved me into a sack and bundled me away! It wasn't my fault!" Breezepelt meowed, trying to sound innocent, but failing miserably. Jayfeather sighed. Lionblaze sighed. Heathertail sighed. They all sighed.
"Breezepelt, have I ever told you what a stupid idiot you are?" Heathertail said. Her words were like a giant frown.
Jayfeather sighed as Breezepelt put on an offended face. "You guys, don't you understand anything?" Jayfeather whined. "If we are ever going to get back home, we need to cooperate! We can't be arguing, and fighting like we have been so much!"
Three pairs of eyes glowed at Jayfeather in astonishment as his companions turned to face him in the dark.
"Jayfeather," said Lionblaze, "did you get hit on the head with a coconut like I did? I've never seen you act so…I don't know, smartical."
Jayfeather normally would have replied with a nasty retort, but remembering his speech, he bit it back and simply glared at Lionblaze.
"What happened back there?" Breezepelt asked the others, returning to the subject of discussion. All eyes now turned to him.
"Well," Heathertail began, "we were watching from a tree as you almost died after we heard the chanting. Then we decided that none of us wanted to see you die, so while Jayfeather and Lionblaze attacked and distracted the twolegs, I grabbed you and ran. You fainted and so I had to drag you out by the tail. The twolegs chased us away and we came here."
For the second time that day, tears welled up in Breezepelt's eyes. "You guys would do that for me? Aw, thanks."
Jayfeather looked disgusted. "Quit blubbering, Breezepelt. Just because I've decided to be smartical doesn't mean I don't still hate you as much as the next cat." He flicked his tail in the direction of the 'next cat', who happened to be Heathertail.
At that exact moment, a small part of the orange sun rose and illuminated the dark water. All of the cats looked at it until their eyes started to hurt. Then they looked away.
Heathertail looked lost in thought for a moment, and then spoke up. "You guys, don't you think we should make sure this is actually an island before we decide there's no way to get back home without swimming?"
Lionblaze just looked at her and looked away without responding, while Breezepelt and Jayfeather nodded in agreement. "Great idea, Heathertail!" Breezepelt mewed a little overenthusiastically.
"Good. Just let me gather some herbs for a little while and we'll do a border patrol at sunhigh," Jayfeather meowed.
*SUNHIGH*
Lionblaze hissed at the ferns that blocked the clearing as they rustled, but quieted down when Jayfeather emerged from them, back from his herb hunting expedition. He beckoned with his tail for Lionblaze to follow him, along with Heathertail and Breezepelt, who were arguing about the bee incident (in Chapter One) on the other side of the clearing they were in. They all followed Jayfeather through the thick vegetation and to the sandy beach where he stopped abruptly. He and Lionblaze weren't so used to being so out in the open because of the fact that ThunderClan territory is mostly forest. The only trees there were were the island coconut trees. The water was a clear, sparkling aqua that reflected the rays of sunlight that were so plentiful here.
The four cats walked along the beach in silence. Breezepelt let out a little yelp every time the water splashed against his paws.
After a while, Lionblaze broke the silence. "How do you think we got here?" he asked.
"Maybe we got kidnapped while we were asleep!" Heathertail suggested.
"Maybe we fell down a hole and landed here without knowing it!" Breezepelt said, stupidly.
"That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard," said Jayfeather, "and I've heard a lot of dumb things."
"Well, do you have a better idea?" Breezepelt shot back.
"Of course. We were obviously hypnotized by twolegs that dumped us on a cargo ship that led us to this island."
Heathertail stared at him. Lionblaze stared at him. Breezepelt stared at him. They all stared at him.
"Yeah, sure. I'm sure that's exactly what happened," Lionblaze scoffed at his brother.
When he looked ahead, he gasped in shock. He couldn't believe his eyes.