Maybe Jayfeather should eat some big orange snakes on this journey so he wouldn't be blind anymore... heh heh heh, just kidding.

BeeQueenBeezy Thanks for all the feedback, and I've corrected the errors you pointed out. I don't have an editor and I stink at catching my own mitsakes.

Guest Ivypool is cool. She should have a couple more chapters for herself.

Moonlight Talon of the Night Medical Laboratory Technician? Metallic Loop Test? Millitary Liaison Team? Mutton, Lettuce, and Tomato(sandwich)?

Inkie the Pen-smoker Jay is the best name! :3

Espritduchat Trying to describe human stuff in cat-talk is fun.

MistLion Ughh, I'm bad at fight scenes but there are a couple coming in the very near future.

Hot sunlight warmed Jayfeather's ruff as he padded between Jayjay and Cash along the side of the thunderpath. They were leading him along the border of the twolegplace, keeping him as far away as possible from the twolegs and monsters that lurked within. But the long hot days were starting to wear on Jayfeather's pads and ear tips. Without the cool breeze off the lake or shade from the trees, the thunderpath baked under the new-leaf sky and he found himself panting even when he wasn't tired.

At least his injury from the fox was healing up nicely. The flesh around the bite was still tender and furless, and even though he might have an ugly scar across his shoulder for the rest of his life, it wasn't infected. He was lucky to have found a few useful herbs to take care of it. The forest where he had run into the fox had passed five days ago. Now instead of trees, wide fields of twoleg plants were to his side as he padded along the edge of the thunderpath. When the traveling cats got hungry, or couldn't take the heat anymore, they would slip in among the plants and catch the mice that scurried within. Jayjay and Cash were decent hunters for such young cats with no warrior's training, and even though Jayfeather caught his own prey occasionally, they were always eager to present him with their catches. He was the most interesting thing in their world right now and they were constantly asking him about what life in the Clans was like.

Even though he was blind, the intense sunlight made his eyes ache. He had them narrowed into slivers as he listened to the kittpets' questions. He was happy to answer since it passed the time and he was starting to notice that the two toms were actually very different from one another. While Jayjay was interested in hearing about fighting and borders of the Clans, Cash seemed more inclined to learn about herbs, how the warrior code worked, and the powers of the leader and deputy.

"- but why would you feed elders and kits first when food is short?" Cash asked, padding a few steps ahead of Jayfeather. "Wouldn't it be smarter to feed the warriors since they do all the hunting and fighting?"

"The Warrior Code doesn't always decide things just because they are smarter," Jayfeather rasped, his throat dry. He licked his lips but it only seemed to help for a few moments. "Kits are the most precious part of a Clan since they are its future and elders are the most revered part because they are the Clan's past. The code looks out for those who can not look out for themselves and warriors are honor-bound to uphold it even at the cost of their life. Every true warrior would proudly sacrifice themselves for the good of the Clan, and by this code, the Clans stay strong."

There was a moment of awed silence as Cash digested what he had said. "That sounds like a really cool way to live! Why would you leave all that behind and become a rogue?"

Jayfeather stared blankly ahead as he padded along the thunderpath. He had already told them that he didn't consider himself a Clan cat anymore and that he was on a journey to find a new way of life. "I have my reasons. Clan life isn't for every cat. Especially when StarClan makes you think you have a significant purpose and a part in their plans, only to toss you aside and say you're life is now meaningless once a dumb prophecy is complete-" he stopped and took a deep breath, feeling the frustration start to bubble up in his words.

Over the past few days, he had plenty of time to think about his old life in the Clans. He had been raised from birth to believe in his warrior ancestors, and even though he hadn't always agreed with them, they had been his guiding force back when that was all he knew. But now that he thought about it, everything had always been on their terms whether he liked it or not. His blindness, his destiny of being a medicine cat, his sister's death- everything had been part of StarClan's plan, and he didn't have a say in what happened. But he wouldn't blindly follow them anymore. A cat's destiny should never be in the paws of another so he was taking his back. "Ask me about something else," he meowed dully, not wanting to talk about StarClan. "Jayjay, you've been quiet for a while, ask me something."

The other young cat took a quick breath of excitement- happy to have a turn to talk. "What do the names mean? From what you've been saying, there are all kinds of names like Leafpuddle, and Bramblejump, and Lionstar and stuff. Does every cat have a first part and a second part to their name?"

Jayfeather nodded- his fur rustling in the wake of a monster that roared past. They still made him uncomfortable, but they always seemed to stay in the middle of the path. It was their smell that he was struggling to get used to. "When kit are born, their parents give them the first part of their name. Usually it has something do do with what the kit looks like. The second part of a cat's name changes as they grow, so at first it's 'kit.' They get their apprentice's name at six moons and their name changes to 'paw.' Once an apprentice is deemed ready, they will become a warrior and the Clan leader will pick a new second part of the cat's name- usually something that makes sense with the first part."

"So like jay and feather," Cash deduced.

Jayfeather shook his head. "It's different for medicine cats like me. My mentor, Leafpool, took me to the Moonpool and changed my name in front of StarClan so they could approve it. But for other cats, yes, a leader picks a name that makes sense."

Jayjay picked up his pace to walk beside Jayfeather. "So what would our warrior's names be?

Jayfeather rolled his eyes. "You aren't warriors so you wouldn't-"

"I bet mine would be Cashclaw!" Cash cheered, leaping in the air with excitement. "I would know everything about the warrior code and other cats would come to me asking for advice. But if they wanted to fight I would claw them so hard even their kits would be named 'Scratchedkit.'"

"And I would be called Jayjayclaw!" Jayjay announced proudly.

"That would be dumb," Cash pointed out. "We can't both be called 'claw.'"

"Fine, then I'll be Jayjayfeather!"

Jayfeather sighed in annoyance. He should have seen this coming. But he couldn't help but feel honored that they were so interested in what he had to say. The two toms jumped about gleefully chanting their 'warrior' names. For a real Clan cat, one of the happiest moments of their life was when they received their warrior's name. Of course, these two cats were still far to young to be warriors even if they were Clan cats.

I still remember when Leafpool gave me my medicine cat name standing beside the Moonpool. Hollyleaf and Lionblaze already had their warrior names given to them moons ago, but I was still proud. He also remembered how the Clan hadn't shown nearly as much interest in his new name as they had for his littermates'. A bad sickness had been spreading through the Clan at the time so most of his Clanmates were too busy to care.

Jayfeather padded along as Jayjay and Cash broke into another one of their play-fights, arguing about who had the better warrior name. They tussled together in a tangle of tails and rolled straight off the edge of the thunderpath and down into the field below.

Jayfeather paused and listened to them scuffling in the dry plants. I guess we can take a break. We haven't eaten anything since this morning anyway.

"Then my name is Cashfang!"

"Jayjayblaze is even better!"

Both of those names sound enormously mouse-brained, Jayfeather thought in silent amusement, stepping past them to begin his hunt. He had noticed as they were traveling that it wasn't always the same plants the twolegs had arranged in their giant gardens. Sometimes the plants were sickly sweet, while other times they smelled like normal tree leaves. The ones this time were very thin, tall, dry to the touch, and rattled slightly in the breeze as if they had some sort of tiny seeds clumped together at the top.

It didn't take him long to locate his first mouse gnawing happily at a starchy stalk. The small creature was blissfully unaware of Jayfeather's presence just a few tail-lengths away. He crept closer with the silence and precision of a shadow. He would never be as good as Ivypool or Dovewing, but his catch-rate had gotten a little better with so much practice. Without his normal medicine cat chores he could spend more time every day honing his other skills.

Once he was withing striking distance, he pounced. To his happy surprise, he felt his claws sink into fuzzy flesh and he dipped his head to deliver the death blow. The taste of fresh blood on his lips gave him a surge of exhilaration in a way he had never felt while he was picking herbs. Either I'm getting better at hunting or these mice are just extra dumb.

He was pleased with himself regardless and picked up his fresh-kill to bring back to the kittypets who had finally stopped play-fighting. They where panting together in a pile of flattened twoleg plants and he dropped his mouse in front of them. "How about we take a break from traveling for the day," he suggested. "It's too hot to be going anywhere."

"I like that plan," Jayjay purred, the plants crunching as he shifted. "Whenever it got this hot outside our old housefolk's place-" but he stopped suddenly as if he had said something wrong.

There was a sudden flash of hot emotion from Cash which caught Jayfeather by surprise. Where they hiding important information from him? "Is something wrong?" the medicine cat asked cautiously, narrowing his eyes and flattening his ears. "Is there something I should know?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Cash sighed uncharacteristically. "It's just hard to talk about our life before we became street-roamers."

Jayfeather blinked. He had spent the past few days talking about himself and the Clans, but he realized he still knew next to nothing about Cash and Jayjay. He almost felt guilty for never asking them about themselves. "Tell me everything," he meowed, nudging the mouse towards them. "Eat while you explain."

"Oh no, you caught the mouse, you eat it," meowed Cash respectfully. "And you don't want to hear about our past life, it's not nearly as special as the Clans."

But Jayfeather wasn't taking 'no' for an answer. "It's tradition in the Clans to share fresh-kill among friends, so I insist. Besides, once you're done, we can hunt some more and rest until tomorrow morning."

There was a hesitant moment between the two kittypets before Jayjay reached out with a paw and snatched the mouse. "Okay, but don't expect the story to be any good."

Jayfeather nodded. "Go on."

"Cash and I were born to different mothers but the same father," Jayjay began, taking a bite from the mouse and pushing the rest over to his companion. "And soon after we were born, we were captured by housefolk and brought to something called a 'shelter.' It's a building where homeless cats are grouped together by special housefolk until other housefolk come find us and bring us to a new home. They keep cats safe and well fed until they get a new place to live."

Jayfeather tipped his head to one side, already struggling to follow the story. He hadn't heard of shelters before, but then again, he knew very little about twolegs and what they did with cats. I wonder if Firestar went through a shelter while he was still a kittypet.

"We were adopted together by this nice family of housefolk not long after we arrived at the shelter," Cash continued where Jayjay had left off. "We were still kits so they must have thought we were too cute not to take."

"-And we were happy for a few moons," Jayjay meowed distantly, remembering the times in his head. "We always had plenty of food and water, we were never too hot or too cold, we had a soft place to sleep, the housefolk kits played with us all the time-"

"But then they were gone," Cash interrupted with a growl, finishing the mouse and rolling over onto his back. "They took all of their stuff and left us behind to fend for ourselves on the coldest day of the coldest season. That's when we moved onto the streets and we've been keeping each other safe ever since."

"Soon after we escaped, we met Sentinel, the leader of the gang cats," Jayjay added. "And we thought we would stay with him, but he was mean so we dumped water on his head and ran away. He would probably hurt us if we ever went back into the house place so instead we'll stick with you."

Jayfeather closed his mouth which had fallen slightly ajar. It was plenty of information to take in all at once and he wasn't sure what to make of it. "I'm sorry about your housefolk leaving you," he began, trying to sound comforting. Sympathy wasn't one of his stronger affinities. "But sometimes things don't go the way you wanted. You just have to grit your teeth and move on."

"Thanks, Jayfeather," Cash meowed sincerely. "I hope you will be our friend for a long time."

Jayfeather's fur rose slightly in alarm. He hadn't expected to continue traveling with the kittypets after he reached the mountains. Did they want him to stay around the twolegplace forever? He quickly changed the conversation. "Tell me more about this Sentinel cat and his gang. They sound like the most dangerous thing to be worried about around here."

"He's tough alright," Jayjay growled, his claws tearing at the dirt beneath him. "And mean, too. But he and his cats won't usually cause trouble unless you do something to upset them first."

"Like cut holes in his box so rain water falls on his head while he sleeps," Cash mumbled guiltily. "It was Jayjay's idea."

"Liar!"

Jayfeather couldn't stop the chuckle from rising up from his chest. "So we'll just stay far away from him and stick to the edge of the twolegplace- or housefolk's place as you call it. But right now, let's hunt." He was about to pad deeper into the field but a faint sound caught his attention and he pricked his ears in alarm. Something big was rumbling in the fields and it was getting closer.

After a few moments the kittypets heard it too because they suddenly leapt to their paws. A trickle of fear-scent tainted the air as whatever was making the noise stomped closer.

"Only one thing makes a sound like that," Jayfeather growled as the ground beneath his paws began to shake slightly. Panic filled his head as he realized he couldn't tell which direction the sound was coming from. "There's a monster in the field!"

"Follow me!" Cash ordered, racing away through the plants.

At the same moment, the monster pounded into the nearby plants, chewing them up in its jaws with a harsh whirring noise. Jayfeather didn't need to be told twice and pelted after the two kittypets as they fled in the opposite direction of the plant-munching beast. The creature sounded different from the monsters on the thunderpath, and to Jayfeather's relief, it was also much slower. As he charged through the evenly spaced plants he could hear the field monster's howling behind him.

"I can see an old housefolk's den up," Jayjay meowed, racing beside Jayfeather. "We could shelter there. The field-monster can't follow us inside."

Jayfeather grunted in agreement. The monster had startled him, but it wasn't much of a threat if it didn't move as fast as a regular monster. I'll just have to remember never to fall asleep in a twoleg field. He could sense the bulk of the twoleg den up ahead and as they approached, the soft springy dirt beneath his pads slowly changed to tiny loose pebbles. Even though he despised twolegs and everything about them, anything was better than getting eaten by a monster.

"There's a small opening in the side of the wall here for us to squeeze inside," Jayjay announced as they slowed to stop beside the huge den. "Cash and I are small enough to fit, but I'm not sure you-"

"I'll fit!" Jayfeather growled, stepping closer to the kittypets. "Just show me where it is so we can get as far away as possible from that thing behind us."

A couple of giggles buzzed in the air as the medicine cat approached the twoleg den but the kittypets didn't say another word.

Cash guided him with his tail to a spot in the old wood and Jayfeather felt the size of the opening with his paw. It was a rather small gap and for a worried moment, he thought he really wouldn't be able to squeeze through- especially after eating so well over the past moon. But he wasn't going to back down from the challenge. He was naturally a thin cat so as long as he could fit his chest through, he would be fine. Without hesitation, he leaned back on his hindlegs and pushed his head through the opening. The old uneven wood scraped against his shoulders and belly, but he soon made it through without too much difficulty. The two smaller toms slithered in behind him.

The air inside the den was much cooler than outside but the vile stench of mold and twoleg rubbish overwhelmed him and made it impossible to distinguish one scent from another. He also hated how sounds bounced erratically off the smooth flat walls, confusing him. A dust cloud billowed up from where his paws touched the ground and he tried not to sneeze- but failed.

"You okay, Jayfeather?" Cash mewed, stepping in front of him.

"It's just a sneeze. I'm not dying," Jayfeather muttered, his nose still tickling. He could only remember one other time being inside a twoleg den and that had been while he and a small patrol chosen by Firestar had been sent to the mountains to help the Tribe of Rushing Water deal with their rogue problem. He could still hear the muffled roaring and clattering of the field-monster outside but it didn't worry him.

"I can't see a thing," Jayjay growled, padding deeper into the old twoleg den with cautious steps. All the windows are boarded up and there doesn't seem to be a door anywhere."

"You're eyes will adjust," Cash meowed helpfully, still standing by the opening they had crawled through. "This is farther than either of us have traveled, Jayfeather, so we don't know what's up ahead."

Jayfeather nodded in understanding but then remembered it might be too dark for them to see. "That's alright. As long as we stay out of the thick of the housefolk's place and away from Sentinel's gang, we'll be fine." He made a mental image in his head of where he figured they were in relation to the thunderpath they had been following. It couldn't be much longer before they took the turn that lead to the mountains. "There will probably be mice around if we wanted to hunt. Since its cool in here, we could even stay for the night."

"I like the hunting idea, but it smells too horrible to stay all night," Jayjay purred. Even though he had just shared a mouse with his companion, his belly was still rumbling loud enough for Jayfeather to hear. "But I can't see very much and I can't smell any mice- I can't smell anything other than that rubbish!"

Jayfeather sniffed the air. Jayjay was right; the musty air shared no hints that mice lived inside. "Then I guess we keep moving. I'll admit I would like to spend as little time as possible inside a housefolk's den. We'll hunt once we find a way out."

The three cats trekked into the shabby den, feeling with their whiskers more than seeing. The whole time Jayfeather kept his ears pricked for prey or predators, but the place seemed abandoned by all creatures. What animal would want to live in such an awful smelling place anyway?

"I think the exit it over here," Jayjay announced loudly, making Jayfeather jump in surprise. The eerie silence had been starting to creep under his fur. "But it looks like it's blocked by some housefolk stuff. We might have to find another way out," he added in disappointment.

"Maybe we can hunt while we search because I think I just heard a mouse," Cash added eagerly.

Jayfeather froze. The scrabbling in his ears was caused by claws much to large to belong to mice. "Get behind me," he growled quietly as shrill squeaks and chirps began to fill the nearby shadows. He couldn't see anything but he knew what they were, and he suddenly realized why the den had seemed empty before. "This place is infested with rats!"

Sorry for the long wait but I wasn't satisfied with the chapter half way through and scrapped most of it to start over.