After returning to camp and dodging his questioning clanmates, Jayfeather returned to the medicine den where Leafpool was sorting herbs and Briarlight was doing her stretches.
"It's about time you got back," Leafpool grumbled.
"Sorry," Jayfeather responded but he didn't sound like he meant it at all.
"Now are you going to tell me why you were gone for a moon?"
"Nope," Jayfeather said and turned to Briarlight. "I'm really sorry I wasn't around. This was really important. Have you been keeping up with your exercises?"
Briarlight nodded then remembered that Jayfeather couldn't see. "Yeah. But I'm really glad your back. It's not really the same without you."
"Thanks," Jayfeather purred. He could feel Leafpool's glare boring into him. I am not apologizing to her. She's been a real pain in the tail lately. "Would you like some help?"
"Thanks."
Jayfeather walked over and pressed his paw against her hindquarters. He frowned. They were tighter than he'd felt in a long time. Not a good sign. "I'm going to work at your muscles a bit, alright?"
Jayfeather began kneading and messaging her hindquarters. He felt Briarlight relaxed under his paws. Jayfeather could still sense that Leafpool was shooting him angry looks behind his back but she couldn't really compain while he was helping Briarlight.
After awhile they switched to some exercises. Jayfeather lifted the useless part of the dark brown she-cat while she reached out with her paws and tried to support as much of her own weight as she could. Once they both tired, Jayfeather set her back down and they did it again.
"Okay, that's enough for now," Jayfeather grunted as he set her down for the fifteenth time.
"Thanks," Briarlight huffed. Jayfeather could hear her breathing hard. "I really like those ones. I mean, there hard but it feels like I'm working really hard and I like that. But no one really knows how to help me with them."
"I'm sorry I was gone for so long," Jayfeather apologized again. He truly felt bad. He knew how much Briarlight relied on him. He relied on her too. He'd spent seasons living alone with the isolated life of a medicine cat. He would never wish injury upon any cat but since Briarlight's injury caused her to stay in the medicine den with him, he'd gotten company, a friend, and an escape from the lonely life of a medicine cat. And she helped him out a lot. Not as much now that Leafpool was back but he preferred Briarlight as a denmate over his mother.
Briarlight waved his apology off. "Whatever you did was important."
Jayfeather heard her belly growl. He snickered. "You should go get some fresh-kill. Exercises always did work up your appetite."
Briarlight and Jayfeather exchanged a few more words before the she-cat said goodbye and dragged herself out of the den to the fresh-kill pile.
With Briarlight gone, Jayfeather turned to the herb stores. He tried his best to ignore Leafpool but they kept bumping into each other which made it difficult.
"Are you really not going to tell me what you were doing?" Leafpool asked as Jayfeather nosed into the borage store.
"Of course I'm not. Why would I? Its none of your business."
"I'm your fellow medicine cat. We share these kinds of things."
"I kept the prophecy from you, didn't I?"
"Is this about the prophecy?"
"No."
"Is there a new prophecy?"
"No." Sort of. I found out it was longer than I thought but nothing new.
"Then what was it?"
"Important stuff."
"If it was that important you should've told me."
"It doesn't concern you."
"How could it not? It was important enough to make you of all cats disappear for a moon. You left me to take care of the clan on my own, you should at least tell me why."
"You used to seem to love reminding me that you took care of the clan on your own for moons before I was kitted. I did the same for seasons, I know it wasn't that hard so stop it, Leafpool."
"But if StarClan shared something with you that important, then it must be important enough that all the medicine cats-"
"This has nothing to do with being a medicine cat!" Jayfeather snapped, his famous temper finally showing through the neutral and passive facade he'd been wearing since he got back. "Stop asking. If I thought you needed to know or if I wanted to talk about it, I would've told you already."
"Fine," Leafpool exasperated. "Can you put the juniper away? I collected some this morning."
"Alright." Jayfeather took a sniff and located the juniper. He snatched it up between his teeth and then noticed something beside it. "What are these?"
"Oak leaves," Leafpool responded. "I heard something about using them for medicine once so I collected them when I saw them but I don't remember who told me or what they're used for."
"They are used to prevent infection when dried," Jayfeather responded immediately.
"How did you know that?" Leafpool asked surprised.
How do I know that? Jayfeather tried to remember.
"Broken Shadow!" Jay's Wing wailed and ran towards his mother. He stumbled but quickly recovered and shook his pelt. He was only two moons old and his paws were still a bit too big for his tiny little body.
"Jay's Wing!" Broken Shadow got up from where she was sharing tongues with Running Horse. The she-cat looked over her son for a moment before realizing something was missing. "Where's your sister?"
"Dove's Wing got hurt!" Jay's Wing cried.
Broken Shadow looked alarmed. "How? Where is she?"
"There's some twoleg thing in the clearing where we like to play," Jay's Wing explained. "The one near that birch. Her paw is bleeding."
Broken Shadow looked to Running Horse. The older tom knew a lot about the ways of healing. Broken Shadow's wordless gaze sent a clear message and Running Horse got to his paws.
"Let's get to that kit before some fox comes along and snatches her up," he rumbled. Jay's Wing looked horrified. Running Horse swiped his tongue over his ear. "Don't worry. Foxes don't come 'round these parts much since we drove out that pack when I was a young sharpclaw. I'm sure that sister of yours is fine."
Jay's Wing still looked worried as he scampered off and lead the two older cats to where his sister was. The three cats ran deep into the forest and found a clearing.
"Jay's Wing!" Dove's Wing called out at the sight of her brother. She was lying down with her paw held out in front of her. Blood oozed from it and stained the forest floor. Her eyes fell on the adult cats. "Broken Shadow! Running Horse!"
Broken Shadow rushed over to her daughter and began fussing over her. Running Horse approached more slowly to inspect her injured forepaw.
He glanced aside and saw a sharp device poking out of the ground. "Typical twolegs. Leaving their two leg things where they don't belong."
"Is Dove's Wing going to be okay?" Jay's Wing squeaked.
Running Horse nodded. "She needs stay off that paw, we should carry her back to camp."
"Badger ride!" Dove's Wing squealed in excitement.
"But we should treat the wound out here," Running Horse continued, "where we don't have to travel far to find herbs."
"Can you go look for some?" Broken Shadow pleaded. She looked worriedly at her tiny kit. "I don't want to leave her like this."
"Of course," Running Horse said. He beckoned Jay's Wing. "Come with me. Your young eyes are sharper than mine even if they don't know what to look for."
Running Horse padded steadily out of the clearing with Jay's Wing close behind.
"What are we looking for?" Jay's Wing asked.
"You're looking for cobweb," Running Horse told him. "You know what that looks like, right?" Jay's WIng nodded. "I'm looking for Burdock Root, Marigold, maybe Chervil or even Goldenrod."
"What do those look like?" Jay's Wing asked.
"Don't worry about it, you just look for those cobwebs," Running Horse said.
"Like those?" Jay's Wing pointed up at a tree with his tail.
"Sharp eyes," Running Horse purred. Jay's Wing purred too. "Wait here, I'll climb up to get them."
Jay's Wing watched the old tom climb up the tree but was soon distracted by the leaf-fall colors and seasonal changes. Some leaves lay around him and he began swiping at them.
"Hey, don't do that," Running Horse said as he dropped down with the cobwebs. "Those are oak leaves. Dried too. Good find, sharp eyes."
"What do they do?" Jay's Wing asked. His whiskers wiggled, he was pleased by the nickname. Sharp eyes. He liked that.
"They help stop infection before it starts," Running Horse explained. "We can mix it with these cobwebs. Grab some, sharp eyes, and we'll get these back to your sister.
"Jayfeather?"
Running Horse and Jay's Wing walked back to the clearing.
"Jay's Wing!" Dove's Wing greeted. She then looked at her paw. "It hurts."
"Jayfeather?"
"I know," Running Horse soothed. "Hold it up and keep still. I'm going to put this-"
"Jayfeather!" Leafpool suddenly put her paw on his shoulder. The motion startled Jayfeather out of the memory. His head snapped back in a jerking motion and a pain suddenly spread through his head.
"What?" he snapped and began backing up.
"You just stopped moving," Leafpool said. "It was like you were frozen."
Like I was frozen? Jayfeather's head throbbed and the pain jumped down to his neck. He flinched hard.
"What happened? That's not like you." Leafpool told him.
"I.. I, uh," Jayfeather couldn't form words. It was like his jaw was locked.
"Are you alright?" Leafpool asked, suddenly concerned.
Jayfeather felt some of his muscles spasm. "I need to go…"
"Jayfeather wait!" Leafpool yowled as Jayfeather charged out of camp ignoring the stunned looks of his clanmates. He ran through ThunderClan territory and down the first entrance to the tunnels that he could find.
Jayfeather didn't stop until he reached the underground river. He collapsed beside it, trembling and breathing hard. He put his head down on his paws and squeezed his eyes shut until the familiarity of the tunnels soothed the pain in his back and neck and his body stopped shaking.
What is happening to me?
Author's Note: Uh oh. Another flashback but this time, Jayfeather got snapped out of it before it could finish and it doesn't look like it went too well.
I imagine that the flashbacks are kind of like how they are in the Giver except without the whole Giver-Receiver part and it's unintentional. Jayfeather physically stops and his mind goes into a memory which he experiences first hand, like a small movie in his head. Since he'd been away from other cats for so long, he didn't know that he freezes or that being pulled from a memory would be so painful.
Reviews-
Wormy- I like it, that's really the kinda thing I'd love to read/ write. I'd PM you for details but you don't have an account. I'll consider it. That idea really has potential and I'd love to write it for you. If I decide to, it may take some time. It seems like I'd have to plan it out pretty well. I've been pretty busy irl so I'm thinking this'll just be a short story. I'll try to get started but I'd really like it if you could give me some more details on it. You don't have to but if you have an account, I'd like to PM you about the story idea. Or you can just review. Either way, thanks.