Jayfeather woke to the sound of his grumbling stomach. He'd spent the last two quarter moons in the tunnels living off of not more than the fish that swam through the underground river. His belly longed for forest prey and the fish were beginning to figure out his hunting methods.

With a sigh, Jayfeather got to his paws and padded through the the tunnels. That's what he'd spent most of his days doing; wandering the tunnels. Occasionally, his eyes would become sighted and he could see himself playing in the tunnels with Dove's Wing or sharing fresh-kill with Half Moon or play fighting with Fallen Leaves or Falcon Swoop licking his fur.

Why is this happening? This has never happened before.

Jayfeather found himself walking towards the tunnel that lead to the surface. He paused. Did he really want to leave the tunnels right now? Leave the comforting walls surrounding him? Leave behind the memories that keep coming?

His belly yowled again and he felt disgusted at the thought of anymore fish. He padded out of the exit tunnel and felt the warm sun hit his fur for the first time in days.

With a quick sniff, he realized he was still on ThunderClan territory. Good. He didn't want to eat any frogs or lizards like ShadowClan and while rabbit was good, he didn't have the speed to catch them like WindClan cats. And he definitely didn't think he could eat any more fish. He was no RiverClan cat.

It took a moment for Jayfeather to figure out where he was. He didn't know if this was a good hunting place, he'd never gone on a hunting patrol. He'd caught prey before but usually it wasn't intentional. Medicine cats were supposed to learn to hunt and fight but Leafpool never taught him. She always thought he wouldn't be able to because of his blindness even though he showed her time and time again that he could handle it.

He tried to remember what Lionblaze and Hollyleaf had described to him as apprentices. Sniff, taste the air, make sure you're down wind, follow the trail, stalk, keep your tail up, hunter's crouch, don't step on any twigs or they'll snap, pounce, kill.

Jayfeather realized he had no idea how to do most of those things. How was he going to hunt?

"Dove's Wing, Jay's Wing, stop that," Falling Rain was saying. "I want to show you something."

Jay's Wing and Dove's Wing were chasing scattered leaves that crunchy and orange like they were in leaffall. They abandoned their play and obediently walked up to their father.

"What is it?" Jay's Wing asked.

"I want to show you how to hunt," Falling Rain told him.

"We can already hunt," Dove's Wing said. She turned back to the leaves. "Watch this!"

Dove's Wing ran at the leaves and pounced. Leaves flew everywhere but she's successfully pinned one under her paw with a yowl.

Jay's Wing purred and was about to join his sister when Falling Rain put this tail tip on his shoulder to stop him.

"Hunting leaves won't feed you when you're softpaws and it certainly won't when you're sharpclaws," Falling Rain said. He looked over the two of them. He still thought of them as his newborn kits but they weren't. Still kits now but not for long. They had to learn how to hunt.

Falling Rain beckoned them with his tail to follow. The kits fell silent and padded after their father. He lead them towards a more forested area. He sniffed the air.

"Watch and don't make any noise," Falling Rain said. He flattened himself against the ground and stalked forward towards the roots of a tree. When he got close, he pushed himself forward with his hind legs and slammed his forepaw down. A sharp squeal could be heard. Falling Rain lowered his head and gave a sharp nip. He turned back to his kits with a mouse in his jaws.

"Wow!" Dove's Wing said with shining eyes.

"That was amazing!" Jay's WIng agreed.

Falling Rain put the mouse down. The kits moved closer but he stopped them. "A sharpclaw must feed himself first. You are kits, you don't get much other than the extras that the sharpclaws catch. It's time for that to change, you must feed yourself. Copy me."

Falling Rain dropped into a crouch. Jay's Wing and Dove's Wing mimicked it. "Good. Both of you, adjust your paws. Dove's Wing, yours are too far apart. Jay's Wing, you look like you fell out of a tree and broke both your legs. Keep them straight and angled forward."

The two grey kits shifted.

"Better," Falling Rain told them. "Now, scent with me. What do you smell?"

Jayfeather snapped into the present and his sight returned to its usual murky darkness. He sniffed, he smelled squirrel. With the rest of the hunting lesson in mind, he opened his mouth and perked his ears. He located the squirrel a few fox lengths to his right.

He assumed the squirrel was facing the opposite direction because it didn't flee when he stalked towards it. He could hear it eating away at something. Jayfeather usually thought his blindness didn't affect him much and was bothered when other cats treated him differently but he was realizing how important sight was. He had no way of knowing if the squirrel could see him or not

Jayfeather managed to get pretty close. He even managed to step over a root. He knew the squirrel was only a few pawsteps away when he stepped on a twig with a crack.

He sensed the squirrel freeze. Before it could run away, Jayfeather launched himself forward. With no way to aim, he ended up crashing into the squirrel instead of landing on it.

The squirrel gave a cry of alarm. Jayfeather was almost too surprised and disoriented to locate it again. I can't miss this!

Jayfeather felt the squirrel's tail brush against him as it darted away. Jayfeather launched himself after it. His paw made contact with its tail. He tried to grab it with his claw. He held onto it for a moment but it tore away with the sound of ripping fur.

He'd drawn blood. That was easy to track. He could hear the squirrel running towards a tree. Jayfeather raced towards it but it was already running up the trunk when he caught up.

Jayfeather sniffed. A drop of blood dripped onto his face. He leaped upward and lashed out with one paw. The squirrel was knocked from the tree and hit the ground with another crack.

Jayfeather pounced on it. It tried to run but he had it pinning. He killed it with a swift bite to the neck.

Jayfeather was panting a bit. This was an incredibly messy kill but he didn't care. He'd caught his prey.

He realized that his clanmates would probably see the blood and smell his scent in the area. He hoped they weren't too worried about him. He knew he should return to camp but his most recent memory flash made it ever more clear he just wasn't ready.

Picking his squirrel up, Jayfeather carried it back to the tunnel where he had his first satisfactory meal since he left camp.

Dovewing followed Cherryfall through the territory. Ahead, Cloudtail was leading the two she-cats and Birchfall on a hunting patrol.

"Let's try and catch something good for the elders," Cloudtail said. "This is usually a good spot for squirrels. There are a lot of nut trees around here."

"Let's spread out," Birchfall suggested. "No sense in all of us hunting with in two tail-lengths of each other."

"Alright," Cloudtail said. "Everyone spread out. I'll stay here, Birchfall head towards WindClan territory, Cherryfall the opposite, and Dovewing go up ahead."

The three cats nodded and moved in the direction they were told. Dovewing walked in the direction of the lake and soon made it to the small clearing where she'd been planning on hunting.

She opened her mouth to taste the air and sniffed for squirrels. She smelled squirrel but it was faded. She smelled something else too… Jayfeather!

She began looking around the area in hopes of some sign of him. Almost immediately, she saw blood splattered across the clearing. She stiffened in panic. "Birchfall, Cherryfall, Cloudtail!"

A few moments after she yowled, the rest of the patrol appeared.

"Dovewing, what is-?"

"Scent the place," she instructed. The three cats did just as she had done when she walked into the clearing. Cloudtail walked up to a tree that had a trail of dried blood running down it and sniffed. He relaxed a bit after a moment.

"I think it's squirrel blood," the white tom announced. Dovewing exhaled in relief.

"Jayfeather caught a squirrel?" Cherryfall questioned. "I didn't know he could hunt. I don't think I've ever seen him on patrol or carry fresh-kill back to camp."

"It looks like a messy kill," Birchfall commented. Dovewing nodded. It was true. There was blood and scuff marks by the roots of a tree then spots of blood on the forest floor going from there to the tree where Cloudtail was. "Jayfeather is blind, I'd bet anything this was his first kill."

"I've seen him hunt before," Dovewing said to the others' surprise. "Last time we went to the mountains, he went looking for herbs and came back with a vole. I didn't think much of it at the time, I guess he must've caught it."

Cherryfall looked impressed. Cloudtail began sniffing around again.

"His scent disappears again," Cloudtail said, "just like last time."

The rest of the patrol began scenting. Cloudtail was right, the scent was really just in the clearing.

How is Jayfeather doing this?

"We should report back to Bramblestar," Dovewing said.

Cloudtail nodded. "Right. After we finish hunting. Finding Jayfeather isn't going to fill the fresh-kill pile."

Author's Note: So it seems Jayfeather's connection to Jay's Wing is strengthening. He had a memory flash of being able to hunt just as he did with the fish.

Thanks for the reviews! Those are like author fuel. I'll try respond to them all on chapter 10.