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Post by Redfleck on Jul 31, 2016 11:06:23 GMT -5
~Envypool~ posted:
Herb List
Alder- Tall tree that grows in boggy, wetland areas. Leaves are simple and serrated (toothed). The bark is dark and often covered in moss. Twigs are spotted and sticky to touch. The bark can be eaten or licked to cure a toothache.
Adder’s Tongue- Found buried in soil, has purple-blotched leaves. Induces vomiting if eaten. Poultice can be applied to swellings and ulcers to treat them.
Beech- Large tree usually with a thick trunk that grows in sandy or chalky soil. Wood is rather smooth and usually somewhat gray in color. Iconic oval leaves with defined straight lines. Leaves are often used to carry medicine supplies. Also can be used as a bowl of sorts. Oil from the nuts can be applied directly to wounds to fight and prevent infection.
Bindweed- A vine-like plant with white, trumpet-like flowers and distinctive arrow-shaped green leaves. Grows almost anywhere like ivy. Vines can be used to tie things, most importantly sticks to broken legs to set the break.
Blackberry- Also called bramble. Very common and grows in most forests. A stout bush characteristically very prickly. Leaves grow in threes and are olive-green with reddish-brown tinged edges. Younger leaves are completely brown-red. Chewing the leaves into a poultice can be applied to bee stings to bring down the pain and swelling.
Bloodroot- Grows in rich open forests. Has a wax-like white flower, a single leaf with a pale underside. The roots are orange-red and smell bitter. Very poisonous.
Borage- Commonly found in gardens and old dwellings. The whole plant is rough with white and prickly hairs. Flowers are blue or purple and star-shaped. Leaves are eaten to stimulate milk in queens. Can also bring down fevers.
Broom- Hardy meadow shrubs with small leaves and tiny yellow flowers that grow upwards in a tall cone. Is used to make poultices for broken bones.
Burdock- Stout plant with large wavy leaves and purple flowers inclosed in a burr. Found in damp areas. Has a very sharp smell and dark leaves. Leaves can be eaten to treat indigestion. A poultice of chewed root is very important in the treatment of rat bites.
Burnet- Small bush that grows in dry meadows. Has multiple oval-shaped leaves on multiple single stalks. In Leaf-Fall and late Green-Leaf, large clusters of small flower buds grow on the top of the plant. It is eaten as a travelling herb to keep a cat’s strength up. Little is known about it.
Catchweed- A very small weed with fuzzy green orbs that grow tiny white flowers on long stems. Found where ever there is a lot of long grass and low vegetation. Burrs are very rarely used to keep poultices in place without irritating the wound or skin.
Catmint- Also known as catnip. Is very rare to find in the wild and can normally only be found in two-leg gardens. Is a very delicious-smelling plant that is low to the ground and possesses small, bumpy, slightly fuzzy leaves. Are eaten to treat Greencough and Whitecough. Collect in the day so the morning dew will be gone and it won’t rot in storage.
Celandine- An uncommon yellow flower with four petals and long pollen-stems. Has a prickly, fuzzy stem. Found in sunny areas of forests or meadows. Nectar is trickled into damaged eyes.
Chamomile- A small, daisy-like white flower with a large and bulbous yellow center. Has a heavy and sweet smell. Only found in two-leg gardens. Blossoms and petals are eaten to strengthen and calm the heart and mind. Also given for strength when traveling.
Chervil- A sweet-smelling plant that is large and very leafy. Has fern-like leaves and small white flowers. Roots are dark brown, gnarled and knoby. Grows in forests among rocky areas. Leaves are chewed and spit out for the juice on infected wounds. They can also be eaten to sooth a bellyache. They also assist in nausea that sometimes occurs when kitting.
Chickweed- A tall, vibrantly green plant with a hard stem and broad, almond-shaped leaves. Sometimes has tiny, five-petaled flowers. Found in forest areas among rocks. Eaten to treat greencough, but is not as strong as catmint.
Cob Nuts- Smooth, brown nut that is a member of the hazelnut family. Found under hazel nut trees. Chewed and made into ointments that would otherwise be too soupy to apply. Also used to attract prey.
Cobwebs- Webs from a spider, normally old or abandoned. Can be best found in dark and secluded areas. Used like a cloth on open wounds to stop bleeding. Applied to recovering wounds to keep medicine in place or protect the wound.
Coltsfoot- Found the most around wet places. Has iconic hoof-shaped green leaves and fluffy yellow flowers that look similar to dandelions. Leaves can be eaten to cure a cough. A good thing to give to kits that are having trouble breathing or have kitcough.
Comfrey- Small, short plant with very large and broad leaves and very tiny, purple, bell-shaped flowers. Found in damp and grassy areas, mostly where there are a lot of dew-filled mornings. Roots are chewed into a poultice. Treats broken bones, soothes open wounds, applied to wrenched or twisted claws. Leaves ease stiffness in shoulders and legs if lined in a nest.
Coneflower- Rich purple flower whose petals are seated in a high cone. Is very sweet smelling and tasting. Grows in northern rugged areas near short pine trees. Roots and leaves eaten to give strength and disease resistance.
Daisy- Small plant with a circular, iconic white flower with many petals and a yellow center. Found nearly everywhere. Dark oval leaves are chewed into a paste to apply to aching joints. Can also be eaten to prevent ***** pain when traveling.
Dandelion- A memorable yellow flower with long, weak, hollow stems. A half moon after the weed blooms, the yellow flower turns into a white sphere of minuscule smaller flowers that blow away in the wind. Is extremely, annoyingly common. Liquid within the hollow stems is applied to beestings to help them get better. Leaves can also be eaten to treat pain but taste awful.
Deadly Nightshade- An obviously deadly poisonous plant. It is found under the shade of trees, on wooded hills, and will grow very luxuriantly, forming bushy plants that are several feet high when not exposed to a lot of sun. Leaves are dull, darkish green in color and of unequal size. The lower leaves are solitary. They are all oval in shape and begin off of short petioles (leaf stems). Soft, downy hairs may occur on young stems and leaves. The veins of the leaves are prominent on the underside. The leaves both smell and taste awful and bitter. In Leaf-Fall, around the base of the petioles will grow shining black berries about the size of a small cherry. Despite their sickeningly sweet taste, these berries are the most fatal part of the plant.
Deathberries (Yew)- A quite large and poisonous plant. Found in most forests. Identifiable by it’s red and stout, pealing trunk and pine-like leaves. It’s red, pitted berries grow on the stems of the needled leaves and are very poisonous to eat. Are sometimes used to end a suffering or old cat’s life, but only if they ask for them.
Dock- A common, large leafed plant with a tangy, almost sour, smell and taste. Doesn’t grow on mountain-sides but is easy to find in leafy, relatively flat forests.Leaves can be applied in a poultice to reduce swelling, help skin issues, and heal broken or injured pads. Stings quite badly when applied. If placed in nests, can sooth the pains of recent wounds.
Elder- A short-trunked, few-branched tree with corky, furrowed bark. It has feather-like leaves with toothed leaflets that smell horrible when touched. It grows in woodlands that are not too cold and have weak winters. It is most commonly found near rabbit holes and badger sets. Can be used to help treat sprains. However, never eat - they cause a horrible unknown sickness. (Cats wouldn't know, but the leaves and most of the other parts of the plant contain cyanide.) Added by ||Stormbird||
Fennel- Has very tiny yellow flower clumps on thin stalks. Very thin and spiky leaves. Grows wild in most temperate areas. Easily fond around streams and on the coast. Juice can be consumed for treatment of chronic coughs (Whitecough mostly) and ease the pain of Blackcough. Eating fennel suppresses hunger. Also helps pain in hips.
Feverfew- Composite plant that grows nearly everywhere, but most commonly near water. Has numerous, small, daisy-like heads of yellow flowers with outer white rays. Leaves are broad and downy. Most commonly eaten to sooth a fever. Also eaten to treat coughs, colds, wheezing, and difficult breathing. Can help with colic. Is very bitter.
Foxglove- A flower that is long and bellshaped. Is pink and hollow. Grows in temperate regions. Tiny black seeds can cause paralysis and heart failure, but in small quantities can treat heart problems.
Goldenrod- Grows on moors. Is a tall plant with clumps of bright, tiny yellow flowers and narrow, pointy leaves. Chewed into a poultice and applied to wounds. Considered the best herb for speeding up the healing of wounds and treating them in general. However is rarely found in forests or mountainsides.
Heather- A common moor plant known for its purple or grayish-purple, tiny clumps of sweet flowers on stalks. Is sometimes used in mixtures to make them easier to eat with their sweetness.
Holly- Plant with shiny, dark green, spiky-edged leaves and plump red berries. Berries are very poisonous.
Honey- Golden and sticky liquid made by bees and found in their hives. Taken with bitter herbs to get them down easier. Mixed with some poultices to make them hold to wounds easier. Can be given to kits without someone to suckle from as a nutrient substitute. Is very good for smoke-damaged throats. Also gives energy.
Horsetail- Found in temperate northern regions. Fernlike in appearance with fronds that resemble pine fronds with its needle-like leaves. A decoction applied directly to a wound will help stop the bleeding and promotes a faster healing. Also can reduce eye swelling.
Ivy- Found in vines growing on trees, cliffs, and rocks. Has green leaves with white edges and a half-star shape. Vines still growing on a wall or tree-trunk be used to store herbs.
Juniper Berries- Dark-green bush that grows in areas that aren’t wet. Has very spiky leaves and clumps of purple or blue berries. Berries are eaten to sooth bellyaches. Can be used to give strength and calm cats. Tastes sweet.
Knotgrass- A very common weed found relatively anywhere. The stems can grow up to six feet in length, with leaves that alternate and are stalkless. Leaves are narrow and oval. Roots are very strong and branching. A tonic can be made out of knotgrass to treat diarrhea. It can be directly administered to kill worms and fleas.
Herb List Part II
Labrador Tea- Found in taiga and mountainous biomes. It is a shrub that grows to a height of four to five feet with irregular and wooly branches. Leaves are alternate and elliptical or oblong. The upperside of the leaves are smooth and the underside is woolly, edges are rolled back. Bees are greatly attracted to the large, white, five-petaled flower clusters. It can be made into a poultice and rubbed on the chest and neck to treat coughs and chest infections. Tastes and smells spicy, slightly like mint.
Lamb’s Ear- A small, very soft, fuzzy whitish-green plant. Fuzzy leaves resemble sheep ears. Very common on mountains. Eaten to give strength.
Lavender- Found in two-leg gardens and near thunderpaths. A grassy bush with tall clumps of small purple flowers. Has a sweet and calming scent. Cures fever and chills if placed in a cat’s nest and inhaled constantly. Also placed on the bodies of the dead to hide the scent of death, especially at burial.
Mallow- A short plant with fuzzy, three-pointed leaves that are somewhat bumpy. Sweet-smelling purple flowers with narrow, heart-shaped petals. Grows best near the seashore. Only harvest at sunhigh when they are dry for they rot easily. Eaten to sooth bellyaches.
Marigold- Found in wet meadows and along streams. Showy dark-green plant with a very large buttercup, usually red or yellow. Infusion of flowers prevent seizures. Poultice can be applied to wounds to prevent and fight infection. Can also be used for inflamed joints.
Mint- Low-growing plant with downy and serrated leaves. Leaves can be anywhere from green to purple to yellow but keep their white fuzz. Very sharp, minty smell and taste. Found anywhere that is wooded and rugged. Rubbed on a dead body to hide the scent of death. Also can be eaten with food or rubbed on a queen’s belly when her kits are having trouble suckling.
Mouse Bile- Stomach bile taken from a dead mouse. Used to remove ticks and fleas from pelts.
Oak Leaves- Dry leaves are taken from the forest floor. Best found in Leaf-Fall. Poultice chewed and applied thickly on wounds to stop infection from spreading.
Oleander- A lesser known poisonous flower. All parts are toxic to most animals, including cats. It is a shrub that can grow up to twelve feet high with wide, white, red, or pink roselike blossoms. Leaves are thin and waxy. It thrives in hot or sunny places.
Parsley- Found in moist soils that have a lot of sun. Grows low to the ground. Leaves are broad and crinkly and have ragged edges. Has tiny clumps of five to eight white or yellow flowers on a branching stalk. Generally has little use in most mammals but can stop milk flow in some queens. Is poisonous to birds.
Poison Ivy- A very powerful irritant that causes horrible, itchy skin lesions and can cause fur loss. Widely distributed in dark parts of forests. Roots are reddish and branching. Leaves are rather large and three-parted. The central leaflet is the longest and the lateral ones are almost stalkless. When dry the leaves are papery and brittle, sometimes with black spots. Plant grows low to the ground. It can be ingested for a nervous system sedative (temporary paralysis), but causes irritation and delirium.
Poppy- Common field flower that is a rich scarlet color. Seeds are eaten in small quantities for relaxation and as a sleep aid. Too many too often can cause addiction.
Ragwort- Tall shrubs with yellow flowers. Leaves are tiny but numerous. Always tastes rotten. Found in cool areas that get a lot of rainfall. Applied in a poultice to treat aching joints and keep the joints’ strength up.
Ragweed- Commonly found in the mountains among mountain rocks. Is a ragged-leaved plant that looks similar to a fern. Eaten for strength and energy.
Raspberry- Looks very similar to a Blackberry (or Bramble) bush, but leaves are soft to the touch with sharp toothed edges. Has red berries that look exactly like blackberries. Leaves are given to queens to stop bleeding during kitting. Berries can be used to coax out prey.
Rosemary- Tall, needled bush with small, light-purple flowers. Found relatively anywhere that is dry. Put on a dead cat to hide their scent, especially at burial. It is seen as a bad omen to smell rosemary when there is none around.
Rush- Long, very very thin leaved plant with dark reddish-purple heads on its stalks. Grows in soils that don’t seem to grow anything else. Hard stalks are used to bind broken bones.
Snakeroot- Best treatment for poison, especially from snake bites. Is a short-growing plant with numerous, very tiny white flowers in clusters and pointy and narrow green leaves. Chewed and applied directly to snake bites.
Saffron- Grows in meadows and forest clearings only in Green-Leaf. Low plant with grass-like leaves and lily-shaped pink flowers. Parts of plant eaten before and/or after kitting to prevent or stop heavy bleeding respectively.
Sage- Generally grows about a foot high and has wiry stems. Leaves are in pairs up the stem and are oblong with rounded ends. They have prominent veins. Flowers grow only in late GreenLeaf and are in whorls, purplish and lipped. All parts have a strong herbal odor and have a warm, bitter taste. Most commonly found in forests near the coast. Drinking a tonic of water and crushed sage can soothe the throat. Fresh leaves can be rubbed on teeth to strengthen them in Elders.
Sorrel- Tall plant with arrow-shaped leaves. Tiny round red flowers on a stalk. Roots and leaves used to help with heavy bleeding. Grows pretty much anywhere. Is also used to give appetite.
Stick- A thin twig usually found on the ground. Given to cats in pain to bite on to keep them from crying out too much. Also used in binding broken bones.
Sticklewort- A woody root with black stem, some spikes, and small flowers and leaflets. Found in dry thickets in fields. When mixed in a tonic of water and honey, can be ingested to fix the worst stomachaches and, surprisingly, snake bites (if taken immediately).
Stinging Nettle- A strange-looking bushy plant with yellow-green, long, and toothed leaves. Is most distinguished from its strange strings of very tiny bulbs. Has tall, hard, brown or green stems. Leaves and steps can be covered in hairs that are either soft or spiky. Found all over forests, and most common in moist fields. Seeds are eaten by a cat to induce vomiting. Seeds and leaves can also be chewed and applied to swelling areas. Can be mixed with comfrey to help heal broken bones. Stems also help with infection.
Sweet Sadge- Thick, reed-like stem with long corn-like buds at the top. Grows only in Leaf-Bare. Most common near rivers or streams. Sap is swallowed to ease internal infections.
Tansy- Vertical and leafy stem, very tall. In leaf-Fall, yellow flowers grow described as round and flat ‘buttons’. Can generally grow anywhere in a wood. Poultice applied to sprains and swelling.
Tormentil- A small yellow flower with tiny stems and a strong aromatic smell. Found in most cool or even cold areas. Poultices can be applied to all wounds and even snake bites.
Thyme- Commonly found in twoleg gardens, old dwellings, or at the base of rotted trees. Has very small, narrow and elliptical, dark leaves. Small, pink stemmed buds grow out of the topmost leaves. Thyme is generally combined with other herbs. Alone can be eaten to treat headaches and toothaches.
Valerian- Stout plant with thin leaves and fluffy purple flowers on a thin stalk. Found on mountains in cool but not cold areas with open skies. Roots are eaten to calm nerves, dull pain, and promote sleep. Seen as a stronger poppy seed (read tranquilizer) because body actually becomes numb and weak from consumption. Leaf juice can be rubbed on claws.
Water Hemlock- Grows in wet and marshy areas and occasionally partly submerged in water. Has thin, jagged-edged leaves. Tiny green or white flowers grow in umbrella-shaped clusters. Causes pain, writhing, and foaming at the mouth (seizures).
Watermint- A green and leafy plant with small purple flowers that grow in a sphere. Eaten to ease a bellyache. Found in streams or very damp soil.
Wild Cherry- A large tree that produces white, pink, and (very rarely) red blossoms. Also referred to as sakura. Bark is very dark and reddish, nearly black. The cherries are about the size of a pea and are glossy and sweet. A tonic made of bark can be used as a sedative and is a surprising treatment to Greencough.
Wild Garlic- Strong smelling, grass-like plant with white, round roots. Found at forest entrances. Rolling in it can disguise scent. Can be chewed after vomiting to get rid of bad breath. Can be applied to bites or scratches to prevent infection, especially those from rats.
Willow- Tall and thin tree with long, curtain-like strands of multiple narrow leaves and flowers, usually brown, light green, or white. Bark can be chewed to ease pain or bit on when in pain like a stick. Willow leaves can be eaten to stop vomiting.
Wintergreen- Very similar in appearance to holly. Has small, dark green leaves and tiny red berries. Was thought to treat wounds and poisons but should be avoided because of looking so similar to holly.
Witch Hazel- Found in the Northern East of most continents. Looks similar to an apple tree but much smaller. Has smooth gray bark, oval leaves with prominent veins and slightly wrinkled. The leaves fall off in Leaf Fall but small yellow flowers appear at that time. A poultice heavy in water with a slight oil content from the plant can be applied to wounded eyes to help treat them. A poultice made of both crushed seeds and leaves can be applied to the most painful of swellings to sooth them.
Yarrow- Grows pretty much everywhere. Stem is hard and long. Small white flowers grow in clumps. Eating any part of the plant fresh induces vomiting. Dry yarrow eaten in small quantities has been known to open bloodflow (when bitten by snake or in shock) and to help with colds.
Terminology
Ingest- To eat or drink, consume.
Sedate- To make sleepy or make fall asleep. To calm.
Tonic- Similar to a poultice, but ingested. Herbal material is crushed or chewed then placed on a broad, cupping leaf where water is applied to make the mixture a drinkable liquid.
Poultice- A soft, moist mass of material, typically of plant material, applied to the body. Medicine cats chew and spit out or crush (depending on the oils in a plant and how they may affect oneself if ingested while chewing) a plant’s leaves, roots, or seeds to be used in a poultice. Sometimes water from moss may be applied to make the poultice more moist. Occasionally honey may be used to make the poultice stick to the body better.
Techniques
- Gently nipping or poking a cat’s spine is done to see if the backbone is broken. Can also be done on the tail or legs to see if they are broken as well.
- Licking a cat’s fur is done to help clean wounds, calm a cat in shock or grieving, or warm a cat that is extremely cold. Normally kits’ fur is licked the wrong way at birth to help them start to breath and warm them.
- Herbs such as mint and lavender are placed on the dead before burial to hide their death-scent.
- Using honey, plants such as berries or mint, or prey’s blood can be used to make herbs easier to eat.
- Holding a swelling wound in cold water helps soothe and heal the swelling. Cats can also soothe scraped pads by soaking them in water. Added by ||Stormbird||
- Soaking moss in water should be used to cool feverish cats or provide for those that are too weak to get their own water.
- Telling a cat to yowl, wail, or yell loudly can sometimes clear their lungs and chest of mucus.
- Patting a descended belly while your ear is pressed up against it can determine if a patient is pregnant, has worms, or is bloated, depending on the sound and feel of the belly. Belly will be hard and sound like distant rushing water if pregnant, will sound dull and have a painful give to it if it is worms, and will sound bubbly if bloated.
- Swimming is great therapy for cats with weak muscles or bones. Also helps elders with inflamed joints or muscles.
- When removing a burr or torn claw, do not pull directly upwards but instead at an angle. This limits pain and makes it slightly easier to remove.
- If any herbs are wet, leave them in the sun to dry. It is best not to harvest herbs in morning or right after a lot of rain. Wet herbs will rot.
- Never completely deplete a herb where it grows so it can grow more later, unless the clan is truly desperate and/or you are positive there is another supply somewhere.
- Berries that are poisonous such as holly and yew berries can be used to kill predators, but can also be used to kill a suffering cat ONLY if they ask for them and you know there is not much else you can do to treat them.
- Its not always best to gather fresh herbs directly when stock of one gets low. Leaving camp too often in search of herbs is inadvisable. Instead, try to plan herb gathering trips when there are three or so piles getting low. Never wait too long however.
- Never give a pregnant cat more than three herbs during their kitting or poppy seeds (as they may become too sedated or sleepy to push). Some herbs and herb combinations will cause them to bleed more or prolong the kitting. Choose which herbs you give to a kitting queen wisely, or give none if it is not truly necesary.
Illnesses
Kitcough- An uncommon illness effecting weak kits. Usually happens to kits that had a difficult birth or did not start breathing right away. Identified by a harsh cough that weakens the kit. Usually harmless but very persistent and can lead to weak lungs.
Whitecough- Synonymous to a cold. Characterized by a running nose and eyes and a lasting slight cough. If left untreated, it can turn into Greencough.
Greencough- Similar to the flu. Symptoms include a running nose and eyes, chest pain, slight trouble breathing, a wet and loud cough that produces mucous, and tiredness. Sometimes causes a really bad fever. Can cause death if left untreated.
Blackcough- A horrible but rare disease that can come from nowhere. There is no known cure, only ways to help cope with it. It almost always results in death. It is unlike Whitecough or Greencough and does not come from those illnesses. It begins with chills and a cough with a lack of appetite. Weakness, dizziness, and nausea then ensue along with a worsening cough that results in blackish blood being hacked up. Wheezing and difficulty breathing are the worst part and normally are what kills the ill. It is believed that blood that is coughed up can cause Blackcough in any that touch it. Not formally featured in the Warriors series.
Shock (Emotional)- Can sometimes happen when great trauma has just occurred to an individual. Characterized by a lack of emotion or empathy, denial, ceasing to communicate, and rocking back and forth. Treat with poppy seeds, comfort, and, in extreme cases, valerian.
Shock (Physical)- Occurs due to blood loss and/or extreme pain. Characterized by chills, numbness, rapid heartbeat, low blood pressure (not that cats can really check that), and weakness. Is life-threatening because poor blood supply and breathing can lead to cardiac arrest or cellular damage (again, cats wouldn’t know the science behind it but they can know that it kills at least.) Treat by giving water, honey, and small quantities of dry yarrow. Cover and treat any bleeding wounds or broken bones.
Smoke Inhalation- Is caused by the obvious: breathing in smoke. Severity is determined based on the amount of coughing, if wheezing and nausea are present, and listening to victim's chest.
Cloudmouth- Or rabies as it's known in real life. It is to be noted that, as of now, rabies has not been featured in the Warriors books. Credit to the name goes to DreamCloud96. Cloudmouth is very contagious, spread from the mere bite, scratch, or saliva contact of someone infected. Depending on what stage the infected animal is at when they come in contact with the victim, Cloudmouth can have no symptoms until two weeks to a year after the contamination. Characteristics of this disease include a distinct fear of water, inability to swallow, sleep, drink, or eat, mania, foaming at the mouth (to which the disease is named), paranoia, rage, and, three days to a week after symptoms show, always results in death. There is no treatment as of now. Infected cats should be heavily and carefully sedated and sadly left to die outside of clan territory for the safety of the rest of the clan. If cleared by the clan leader, feeding deathberries to cats with Cloudmouth may be a dire action to take. Those suspected to be infected that still have their sanity should always be asked if they want this option.
Medicine Cat Code
1. A medicine cat cannot take a mate.
2. A medicine cat cannot have kits.
3. A medicine cat will never let personal feelings get in the way of his or her duties.
4. Medicine cats are outside Clan rivalry and are, in most cases, not to be touched when they are traveling across borders.
5. A medicine cat may be trained in as a warrior before becoming a medicine cat, but it is difficult for a medicine cat to become a warrior.
6. Medicine cats are outside Clan rivalries, but they still must learn basic fighting moves.
7. A medicine cat is the one to interpret signs and omens from StarClan.
8. Medicine cats cannot reject an injured cat.
9. A medicine cat must do everything in his or her power to save a sick or injured cat.
10. A medicine cat will give his or her life to save a cat.
Medicine Cat Tasks
- Knowing all of the herbs and store a supply of them in their den.
- Treating wounded and sick cats.
- Assisting queens while they are pregnant with kits, giving birth, or nursing.
- Actively checking up on the health of Clan cats.
- Visiting the Clans' sacred place at every half moon to seek guidance from StarClan.
- Interpreting prophecies and omens and sharing them with the Clan leader.
- Upon the death of the Clan leader, accompanying the deputy to the sacred place to be appointed as the next leader.
- Training an apprentice as the Clan's next medicine cat.
- Visiting StarClan when in a crisis that requires direct communication with StarClan.
- Preparing deceased Clan members for burial.
Common Practices
- Apprentices, at six moons, are brought to the clan's sacred place to be introduced and named before StarClan.
- Despite popular belief, medicine cat apprentices are not generally expected to treat cats themselves. They are to watch and observe, only treating a cat as they are instructed to do so.
- An apprentice is to be given their full medicine cat name by their mentor, not the clan leader, at the clan's sacred place.
- Once becoming a full medicine cat, the apprentice gets full duties even if their mentor is still alive.
- Medicine cats normally preform their duties until death.
- Though medicine cats are not allowed to take mates or have kits, a warrior that has previously had a mate and kits but no longer has their mate may become a medicine cat.
- Most medicine cats and their apprentices are briefly taught to hunt but normally stay in camp.
- Medicine cats are to visit the clan's sacred place to communicate to StarClan every half moon, however they can miss a moon here and there with no repercussions save they might worry about not receiving important information.
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Post by Redfleck on Aug 3, 2016 5:18:04 GMT -5
The forums started April 17th, 2009, and ended August 12th, 2016
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Post by Redfleck on Aug 3, 2016 5:18:37 GMT -5
Jayfeather to Jay Frayther by Whitelegs and Firefall
1Reply to "נᴀʏғᴇᴀтнᴇʀ тσ נᴀʏ ғʀᴀʏтнᴇʀ - Chap 13 is up!"
Prologue
"Hey Jayfeather!" a paw prodded the tom's side, though rather unnecessary as the voice already dragged him out of his slumber. Groaning as he opened his eyes, he lazily batted the paw away before curling up back in his next.
"What is it Brairlight?" he asked with a sleepy, irritated voice. He heard Brairlight let out an irritated huff in return though he sensed –what with her cheerful attitude- that she did not hold any genuine annoyance with him.
"Sandstorm wants to see you about her stiff joints, lazy furball," Briarlight informed, "she claims it to be nothing much but I talked her into seeing you. You know, just to make sure that it isn’t anything too bad."
So I'm not the only one suffering from stiffness lately, Jayfeather thought as he lifted himself from his nest. Just as he thought about it, both his hind legs clenched uncomfortably when he stood upright followed a painful, burning sensation crawling around his joints as he so much as shifted his body. This odd stiffness started in late new leaf, starting at the jiont in his back paw but it wasn’t anything too bad. Nowadays, it just felt agonizing and with the herbs not being of any ailment it only alarmed Jayfeather further.
I hope this isn’t a sign of something worse, that concerning thought came to mind again. Despite his own fears and pain, Jayfeather spoke with impassively to Brairlight, "I'll see to it, thank you Brairlight." There was no reason for the warrior to be concerned about his own legs with all the problems and training she had to deal with over her own legs. No, he will deal with the issue on his own. Jayfeather picked his way to the store, though it took twice the normal effort just to force his legs to co-operate, and sniffed around for any fresh comfrey root.
"Hey, Jayfeather, are you alright?"Brairlight asked, dragging herself over to Jayfeather's side. "You've been walking really oddly lately."
"Yes, I'm fine," he replied bitterly, though thinking it over repling like that would tip Brairlight off about his problem.
And obviously, it did. “Maybe you should stretch out your legs a bit or if you’re having the same jiont problems as Sandstorm, you could use the comfrey or ragwort leaves if it really hurts,” Briarlight suggested, though Jayfeather couldn’t help but groan. He already tried that, everything he could think of from stretching to exercise nothing worked.
“Look, I appreciate your suggestions, I really do,” Jayfeather said, rushing about to prevent him front snapping at Brairlight, “but I got Sandstorm to treat. If anything arises, I can care for myself. You know that already.”Deciding to leave the conversation at that, he grabbed the comfrey and stormed out of the den. Though as he moved sluggishly how, he felt his front paws seem to lock up. It was not painful, but it was like when he first started getting the pains.
Ach, this isn’t good, Jayfeather thought, scowling as he tried working with now four locked up joints. Is the pain spreading like green cough during leaf-bare?
The green-leaf sunlight warmed up his pelt as he entered the busy clearing. Since he was walking slower than a slug, he decided to listen to around and listen to the placid chatter around him. There was Lilypaw still bragging very loudly to Amberpaw, Seedpaw, Dewpaw, and Snowpaw on how the leader was her mentor. It was rather annoying to hear that even after moons of the fact, but Jayfeather couldn’t help but chuckle a tad at their behavior, even when Dewpaw retorted rudely back to Lilypaw that she was being trained by an elder.
It is true, Bramblestar is old but he still has plenty of life left in him, Jayfeather thought. It was interesting that after the battle of the Dark Forest the warriors den loss most of its warriors not by battle, but by age. The elders den swarmed with new elders, largest gathering ThunderClan has had in some time. Though the amount of elders might be rivaled by the amount of kits pretty soon, judging by the conversation Jayfeather heard from the nursery not too far off.
“Don’t you think Frostkit would be a cute name for a tom?” Dovewing asked.
“You should go for it then if you find it so cute, Dovewing,” replied Cinderheart, though her voice was drowned out by her own kits swarming around her.
Blossomfall, who was a new edition to the nursery, let out a mrrow of amusement. “Um, need some helps with your own kits, Cinderheart?”
It was just another peaceful day all around. The threat of the Dark Forest was gone, leaf-bare came and went, and life was flourishing in ThunderClan’s camp. Even the Clans were still at peace with one another after the battle, something that Jayfeather didn’t expect would last so long.
And yet the feeling of dread still continued to swell inside Jayfeather as now every step he took was just agonizing to bear. The burning feeling crawled up his front legs, spreading the pain rapidly. Not to mention the calm chatter of the camp slowly turned to a high-trilled buzz, like if bees were swarming around Jayfeather’s head and stinging him constantly. Once he was in the cool shade of the elder's den, did he feel some relief return.
“I’m here,” Jayfeather spoke, navigating around the nests without stepping on any tails over to Sandstorm.
"Ah, thank you Jayfeather," she said in a calm voice, "sorry for any hassle, Brairlight talked me into seeing you. My leg is just locking up on the shoulder, nothing too bad."
"Yeah, I know the feeling," Jayfeather said, chewing the comfrey up into a paste to smear onto her shoulder.
He heard a soft chuckle from Graystripe, "You're a bit young to start having aching joints already."
I think this is worse than that,Jayfeather thought, noting that the pain was still there even when he stood absolutely still. "There, you're finished," he said to Sandstorm, before turning to Graystripe and Millie, "hey if Brairlight comes around, tell her I'm out. I need some fresh air."
"Alright Jayfeather, we’ll tell her,"Millie replied just as Jayfeather stepped back outside. He found himself starting to limp, the pain slowly spreading up to his shoulders and encroaching around his belly. That never happened before, this is really bad, Jayfeather thought. Since he was limping, Jayfeather moved as fast as his legs would allow him to, trying to avoid grabbing unwanted attention from his Clanmates.
"Hey Jayfeather!" Lionblaze’s call startled Jayfeather. He willed himself to retain his cool, by the smell of prey on Lionblaze, along with Foxleap and Toadstep, his brother had just returned from a hunting patrol.
I must have almost ran into him, Jayfeather thought and returned a less cheerful greeting in return.
"Are you heading out?" Lionblaze asked.
“Yeah, I’m going to get some fresh air, may be awhile,” Jayfeather said, walking around his brother. Although, he shouldn't try to hide this situation from his brother. “I might not even be back until dusk.”
He could feel worry and curiosity ebb from Lionblaze. “Is it urgent?” he asked, his tone low. Jayfeather nodded, although even just nodding began to hurt. He was glad that his brother let him go when he heard him say, “Alright, but if you’re not back by dusk I’m coming after you.”
Jayfeather nodded again and walked into the forest, away from his brother and the camp. He just walked aimlessly, with no real direction decided in his mind. Although it didn’t stop him from walking straight ahead, keeping his direction towards the lake.
With every step he took, the pain worsened and worsen to the point that his entire body felt like it was being strengthen and pulled. Eventually his limbs just stopped moving altogether and he fell down on the forest floor, letting out a high-pitched wail. He felt as if the whole world was rocking back and forth like a leaf falling to the ground but being cradled by a wind, sending waves of nausea wrapping around him along with the pain. The noises of the forest world soon began to fade, along with all the feeling in his body.
That was when Jayfeather blacked out.
Reply to "נᴀʏғᴇᴀтнᴇʀ тσ נᴀʏ ғʀᴀʏтнᴇʀ - Chap 13 is up!"
Chapter 1
The sound of morning birds chirping and the distant waves of the lake awoke Jayfeather to a comforting ray of light peeking through the canopy. Yet the most of the clamor of the forest sounded so far away like he was plunged underwater or not even audible, even with his above average hearing. Not to mention the only sharp scent his nose could catch was the dirt and foliage. He couldn’t scent any prey on the air, nor the stale trails of previous patrols. Just dirt and foliage, And even that too was limited as he couldn’t seem to differentiate the different plants scents from each other.
His stifled alarmed him and shook of any drowsiness he had when he blacked out, but when he tried to lift his head up did Jayfeather took notice of his own stiff body. His neck could barely crane a whisker length up from the ground; his body felt as heavy as a tree truck and just as mobile.
It started to feel very uncomfortable keeping his deadweight head aloft, so he plopped his face back down on the dry ground. Wait, I can’t feel my whiskers, Jayfeather noticed, not feeling the whiskers bending and brushing against the ground at all. In fact his whole face felt bare of fur entirely. His eyes widen and lips pulled back in concern, yet it drove more alarm when he noticed more things wrong with his face.
I-I can’t move my ears! No matter how much he willed his ears to pull back, swivel around, move in any way he could think of his ears didn’t budge the slightest. And what’s with my forehead? He felt his whole forehead pull up and down with heavy exaggeration, especially above his eyes. It was rather jarring on how he could move his forehead but his ears remained stagnant.
His concern soon turned into panic. Hoping that he wasn’t entirely paralyzed, Jayfeather tried to move his limbs. Fortunately, they thrashed about on command and somehow he managed to roll off his belly and onto his side. Unfortunately, Jayfeather legs felt so bizarre, so hard to move that he thought that they were not cat legs at all. His hind legs were long, crooked and swung like a branch caught in a heavy breeze. His front legs were even more chaotic as they moved not only back and forth, but can be splayed out in an angle that would imply severe dislocation for a cat.
He didn’t need to go into more details on how wrong everything felt, Jayfeather connected the dots quickly. Somehow, and StarClan knows how, Jayfeather did not have the body of a cat. And he knew just what creature he had transformed into. However the acknowledgement alone made Jayfeather’s new body tremble; he could no longer restrain his panic. He let out a tremendous scream and cried out, "StarClan, no! I turned into a twoleg!"
Jayfeather pulled these twoleg limbs close to his body, wrapping himself into a ball. "Wake up, th-this is just a dream. A re-really bizarre dream!" he begged to himself in this unnatural sounding twoleg voice. He felt himself struggling to breathe as the stress started to wear him down. His eyes started to sting terribly he felt warm water drops leak from underneath his closed eyelids.
I can’t breathe! What’s happening to me? Jayfeather felt his panic worsen as his breathing grew immensely ragged. His throat closed up as he attempted to inhale and exhale, making horrid choking noises when he did catch a couple of scant breaths. And all the time his eyes itched and burned as more water dripped down his bare face.
Was he going to die? He was already choking and floundering about in this body! This uncomfortable pain and awkwardness of his body felt too real to be even be a dream. Was he to die like this, drowning in air like a fish out of water?
With his mind in a chaotic mess and strangling by his new body’s mechanics, Jayfeather did not hear the approaching steps of another creature until it had already made itself known.
"Oh my! Sir, are you alright?" a voice called out to Jayfeather, followed by loud crashing of footsteps through the undergrowth. Jayfeather froze - well as frozen as he could be as his body still trembled and shook - as the creature kneeled over him, its own worry and shock that eradiated from it rivaled Jayfeather’s own feelings.
It was a twoleg. A talking twoleg that Jayfeather could perfectly understand.
Jayfeather did not have too much time to wrap his mind around this revelation as he felt the twoleg’s paw press against his shoulder. "You’re bruised up, did someone attacked you? Do you know who? Are you injured in any way?" the twoleg shot off many questions in rapid succession.
Jayfeather squirmed and swung his front limb to claw at this stranger, though he only lightly smacked the twoleg’s crooked leg with by a claw. Though the gesture and a gurgled half-choke, half-hiss did make the twoleg scoot back and lift up his paws off of Jayfeather.
"Hey, hey, calm down," the twoleg’s voice dropped to a deep cooing, "Look, I’m not here to hurt you, I just want to help you out, sir."
"I- I don’t ne-need help!" Jayfeather stuttered in a threateningly low voice. Once again he thrashed his limb again, though he hit nothing the second time around. However the twoleg did not appeared swayed this time around as Jayfeather felt the twoleg’s large claw clamp tightly around his paw.
Jayfeather flinched instinctively; the fear of this twoleg’s presence scent his heart racing more than the momentary struggle to breathe. The twoleg still kept his friendly tone despite Jayfeather’s own hostile attitude. "Everything’s going to be fine, sir," he insisted, "look, I’ll call the authorities and they can take you to somewhere safe and sound. You’ll be fine, I promise."
Mouse-brained twoleg! Jayfeather thought as he tried to tug his limb free, I swung at him twice and he still wants to help me?
"Let me help you," the twoleg kept insisting, tightening his grip on Jayfeather slightly. Jayfeather let out a nervous sigh, glad that his breathing somehow returned back to normal, and gave up trying to tug his paw free.
"F-Fine," Jayfeather spoke guardedly, "but you are not taking me to these ‘authorities’ to which you speak of or taking me out of my forest."
This order on Jayfeather’s part took the twoleg by surprise. "You can’t stay here though. It’s too dangerous in your condition," he said, then muttered, "Besides this isn’t your forest anyways."
"I won’t budge, either we stay here or you go leave me alone," Jayfeather snapped. This is ThunderClan territory, it is my forest, you dumb twoleg!
The twoleg didn’t directly say anything to Jayfeather, mumbling something under his breath that Jayfeather didn’t catch. For a moment, Jayfeather believed he got the twoleg stumped, until the male spoke again, "How about this, I won’t take you to the authorities but to my house. It’s not too far a drive from the lake, only a half an hour off, if that makes you feel any better."
Jayfeather could tell that this twoleg did not wanted his original plan to change, but the tight grip around his limb said that if Jayfeather disagreed the male would stubbornly carry out his early plan.
Ugh, I’m dealing with a twoleg version of Brairlight, he thought, groaning loudly. Well, what choice did he have if he did get what he wanted? Stay here unable to move and wait for his Clanmates to find him like this? Feeling just as annoyed as the twoleg, he begrudgingly replied, "Fine then, but I want to come back here as soon as possible, got it?"
"Alright then, I will," the twoleg said, "let me help you up." With that as his only warning, Jayfeather felt his body being pulled up by his shoulders. Jayfeather let out a tiny shriek of surprise at the change of height and fell right onto the twoleg’s side.
"Ah, sorry!" Jayfeather felt the twoleg pull him upright again, allowing Jayfeather to stand on his elongated feet. Jayfeather swayed precariously, his new legs threatening to give away and let him fall again, but stabilized when the twoleg pulled his front limb over the twoleg’s shoulders. "There we go."
Jayfeather dug his claws into the twoleg’s odd feeling coat to dear life, grumbling negative comments under his breath at any bump or shake during their walk. Really the twoleg was doing most of the walking whereas Jayfeather’s feet just dragged across the debris littered on the forest floor. This morning had been too stressful for Jayfeather to handle, the old prophecy never been as stressful as this phenomenon!
"Oh, sir, I think I should introduce myself," the twoleg spoke after a few heartbeats of silence, "my name is Ulysses Hartwell."
"You have a strange name,"Jayfeather responded bitterly, feeling embarrassment amass from Ulysses the moment he said that.
"I personally don’t think of it as odd, at least not for me," Ulysses muttered, though loud enough for Jayfeather to hear. Clearing his throat, the twoleg then asked, "Mind telling me your name?"
Jayfeather swayed his head away, the noises the twoleg made was starting to become rather irritating to listen. Hopefully he’ll stop talking if I do. "My name’s Jayfeather."
Ulysses let out a snort of laughter, the sound so unusual sounding coming from a twoleg that it nearly made Jayfeather stumble away from him in surprise. "What’s so funny?"Jayfeather asked.
"Sounds like the pot's calling the kettle black, Jay,” Ulysses replied coyly, "I say your last name is defiantly stranger then mines."
The two fell in silence afterwards. Jayfeather didn’t know why Ulysses fell silent for he was too dumbfounded to use his powers.
What is StarClan’s name did he just blabbered?!
Reply to "נᴀʏғᴇᴀтнᴇʀ тσ נᴀʏ ғʀᴀʏтнᴇʀ - Chap 13 is up!"
Chapter 2
If Jayfeather knew a head of time that to get to Ulysses’s house they would need to ride in a monster, he would have fought with Ulysses until the twoleg let him go. With barely a heartbeat’s moment into the drive, he felt utterly nauseous. It certainly didn’t help what with the belt wrapped him tightly to the seat and the coat Ulysses gave him made his back uncomfortably warm. It was just peculiar to be sitting down and yet be moving at speeds he never imagined going before. How in StarClan could twolegs stand getting into these creatures’ bellies to begin with?
“Tell me, how long did you say we’ll be at your house?” Jayfeather groaned, tilting his head to the right to shoot Ulysses a glare for this horrible inconvenience.
“Just a half an hour’s drive, don’t worry about it,” Ulysses replied.
“Well that tells me a whole lot, thanks,” Jayfeather couldn’t keep the caustic comments to himself, even though he was in no position to act rudely to a stranger that is another creature entirely while being inside a monster. “How long is half an hour?”
Ulysses’s disbelief washed over Jayfeather before he even heard the twoleg let out a muffled snort, “It’s half an hour, Jay. Thirty minutes.”
“That still doesn’t help!” Jayfeather snapped and then broke off into a groan when the monster jumped slightly. He rested his forehead against the cool glass, closing his blind eyes in hopes it would clear his nausea. “And my name is Jayfeather, Ulysses Hartwell, don’t call me Jay.”
Disbelief soon turned into confusion and concern as the monster slowed to a halt. Jayfeather was about to ask why the monster stopped in its tracks but Ulysses beat him to the punch. “Tell me, Jayfeather,” he said, “what do you remember prior to me finding you?”
Jayfeather scowled and picked nervously at the coat around his shoulders. Should he tell him? No doubt that if he did Ulysses would think of him as a loon. Then again, I am a twoleg, he thought cynically,what have I left to lose?
“Before you found me, I was a cat. I live with a group of cats called ThunderClan and I’m their medicine cat, as I treat the injured and the sick,” he said slowly for the twoleg to understand. “I started having these pains in my legs during new-leaf and it only got worsewhen it became green-leaf. Last sunrise was when it got so worse that I passed out. When I woke up, I’m now a twoleg all of the sudden!”
The monster picked up and began to drive again shortly after. A very uncomfortable silence filled the air shortly after. Jayfeather could feel Ulysses try to process what he just spewed out to him, like if he did speak cat then and there.
The silence didn’t let up for some time. Jayfeather could feel his belly flip-flop more and it wasn’t from the monster’s movements. I haven’t tried to see into Ulysses Hartwell’s mind. I wonder if it’s possible to read the thoughts of twolegs. Jayfeather, though hesitant, decided to give it a try and he took a look.
Focusing on the road, working on a science project, had to care for Xavier, the college campus, the house, lights, people, bills… so many things ran within this twoleg’s mind in rapid succession. And what Jayfathear found out quickly is that these weren’t even conscious thoughts, these were thoughts kept in the back this twoleg’s mind. Jayfeather fastened his eyes shut and immediately tuned back out as bile raised in the back of his throat.
Come on Jayfeather, don’t give up! What is he thinking about? he encouraged himself to press on. Ignoring his nausea, he tried again this time searching for current thoughts.
…is insane? I should take him to the authorities after all? He really needs more help then I initially thought. At last he found thought, although what Ulysses was thinking about made Jayfeather grit his teeth in anger. Ulysses promised he wouldn’t do that! He already took him out of his home already, he shouldn’t dare do it!
Not wanting to say anything hasty, Jayfeather kept probing Ulysses’s mind. He does seem to have trouble walking, could he have suffered concussion and his motor skills are impaired? the thoughts were strange to Jayfeather, almost as confusing as the rest of Ulysses’s mind, could he be an amnesiac or heavily delusional? I think I should take him somewhere else to get him some help and maybe find out more about him.
Ulysses spoke just as soon as his thoughts ended, making Jayfeather flinch. “Alright, change of plans, Jayfeather. I’m taking you to my lab team to get you tested.”
“What? You said you’re not taking me to the authorities!” Jayfeather squirmed as his fears were confirmed. He almost wished to tell Ulysses that he wasn’t an amnesiac or had any concussions, but he didn’t want to explain how he could read his mind. He already made himself sound crazy enough as it is.
“Why do you want to evade the authorities so badly, Jay?” Ulysses said, once caring voice turning into one of suspicion.
Jayfeather growled through his teeth. “I just don’t want to go see anymore twolegs, it is bad enough that I have to deal with you. I didn’t want to go to your house to begin with! But no, I have to be taken from my home, ride in a monster to StarClan knows where, while stuck with a liar that so far has given me no choice to do anything while stuck in a twoleg body!”
The rant left Jayfeather panting heavily and had spooked Ulysses to being quiet for a couple of heartbeats. “I-I’m sorry, Jay,” Ulysses’s voice dropped to a quiet tone, “I really am. I want to help you out, but it’s just that…”
Ulysses trailed off and Jayfeather completed his thought with rancorous voice, “It’s just that I have bees in my brain, correct?”
Ulysses muttered something inaudible under his breath and the two returned back to that awkward atmosphere of silence. The only noise being made was the gentle purr of the monster racing across the thunderpath.
“Hey Jay,” Ulysses tried breaking the silence, but Jayfeather kept his head turned to the glass. “Jay.” He still refused to respond. Ulysses let out a weary sigh, “Jayfeather.”
“Yeah?” Jayfeather grumbled. Finally, he used my full name.
“Look, I’m still keeping my promise to you about taking to my house, we need to stop there anyways,” Ulysses explained, “afterwards, I’ll take you to me my associates and I’ll explain to them what happened. Well, without telling them prior to me finding you.”
Jayfeather hung his head, letting the glass be the only thing to prop his head up. “Fine, fine, just anything to get me out of this creature,” he groaned. “Why do we need to stop at your house if we’re going to your associates anyways?” Associates awfully sound a lot like authorities, although by this point Jayfeather’s options have been whittled away to nothing at this point to even really get some sort of good compromise out of the situation.
The twoleg chuckled a bit and the monster crawled to a stop. “Well, I’m not taking you over there without any clothes on,” he said. There was a flicking sound and the monster’s purr silenced. “Come on, I’ll let you borrow my clothes.”
“Oh goodie,” Jayfeather muttered.
---
The second drive wasn’t too long as the one to Ulysses’s house. He even mentioned that he normally walked to the “college campus”, but only drived since Jayfeather showed back at the house that he couldn’t walk nor knew how to use his limbs at all.
“I kind of a touch jealous of the students here, they’ve got two month break while I’ve still got work to complete,” Ulysses talked on and on as he dragged Jayfeather out of the monster and helped guide them towards their destination. “Although, this time it has its advantages since no one’s really around to see us and my associates’ work here most of the time. We surely can’t miss them.”
Jayfeather inwardly groaned, missing the awkward silence from before. When this guy talks, he runs with it to irritatingly high levels. Matters made worse with the discomfort Jayfeather had with his new clothes, it chafed his vulnerable skin and made it incredibly itchy. And it was an itch that Jayfeather could not scratch.
“Please, sorry to interrupt, but, um,”Jayfeather broke into one of Ulysses’s chatters, trying his best not to sound cross, “are we at their den site or near some sort of door yet? Not that I don’t mind you talking, it’s just that I’m confused and can’t see where we are.”
Ulysses shifted his shoulder a bit, making Jayfeather stumble a bit. “I can take a hint you know, I’ll shut up,” he grumbled, though he didn’t keep to his word for long, “and yes, we’re at the room. I think Kaufmann’s inside at this hour.”
Ulysses opened the door and the two stumbled inside, their noise catching the attention of other twolegs already in the room. Their presence made Jayfeather’s baby grip onto Ulysses instinctually tighter. “Hey,” Ulysses spoke, “I’m sorry to drop in at sudden notice but I need some help.”
A few of the twolegs returned the greeting, most of them silent by the sounds of things. Though they all shared the same feelings abroad from what Jayfeather could tell: anxiety and confusion.
“Hartwell, who is this man? Is he injured?” a male spoke, approaching up to them and leaning in a bit. Childishly, Jayfeather swung his head away from the twoleg and buried his face into Ulysses’s side when he felt the male’s presence drew too close for comfort.
“Not from what I can tell Lander,”Ulysses said, patting Jayfeather’s back. This gesture felt like he as being petted like a kittypet and did motive from hiding like a scared kit. “I found him at Hareview Campsite when I went to visit and walk around, he had no clothes and he can’t walk. I think he’s suffered some memory loss, severe enough to impair motor skills and make him delusional.”
“Well, why didn’t you call the paramedics or the authorities, Hartwell?” Lander barked, “Why did you take him here?”
“Because I didn’t want to be taken by these authorities,” Jayfeather snapped, though became quieter when he knew he got the twoleg’s attention. “And I didn’t want to leave the forest, but Ulysses Hartwell wouldn’t let me be until I was out. So now I’m here to see his associates.”
Ulysses forced a nervous chuckle, pulled Jayfeather away. Jayfeather let a small ’oof’ as Ulysses plopped him down onto a nearby chair. “Uh yeah, Lander. I want to see if Kaufmann can run some DNA tests on this man.”
“Why do you want me to run a DNA test, Hartwell?” a female voice answered and stepped up. “This man needs to go to the medical ward; he doesn’t need a DNA test.”
“I know it sounds weird, but he won’t cooperate with me any further on the issue. And besides,” Ulysses’s voice dropped to a whisper. Jayfeather leaned his body forward, but only caught one word and that was “cat.” He leaned a bit too far forward as Jayfeather slipped off the chair and fell on the cold, hard floor.
“Mouse-dung!” Jayfeather cursed, squirming around on the tile to attempt to pick himself up.
“Here let me help you up,” Lander said, pulling at Jayfeather’s arms before Jayfeather could even think to protest. Jayfeather backed away from Lander, taking a few clumsy steps on his legs before ungraciously falling back onto the chair.
“Fine then, Hartwell, I’ll do it. But once we are done getting some samples he’s going straight into the ward,” Kaufmann replied loudly, walking over to Jayfeather’s side. “And there will be no complaints over this. Do I make myself clear, sir?”
“Does it look like I have a choice?”Jayfeather retorted back with a drained sigh. “Let’s get this over and done with.”
And for like the fifth time that day, Jayfeather was tugged onto his feet and brought to another location.
Reply to "נᴀʏғᴇᴀтнᴇʀ тσ נᴀʏ ғʀᴀʏтнᴇʀ - Chap 13 is up!"
Chapter 4
As he slept, his blindness transferred from real life into his own dreams. All Jayfeather could remember from them when he awoke was just darkness and silence, no StarClan cats coming to see him, not a visit from Rock, nor even a dream where he chasing a juicy mouse through the undergrowth.
Jayfeather licked his parched twoleg lips, saliva dripping a bit from the corner of his mouth. He had gone a whole day without eating or drinking anything, all the chaos from before plus the stress and exhaustion made his belly passive for the most part. A drink of stream water and a bite of mouse sounded pretty good about now. That is if twolegs did eat mice to begin with.
“It looks like you’re up, mister,” a voice made Jayfeather jump up slightly in sheer shock. The soft nest he lied on trembled as he turned to face where he heard the voice. It sounded female, so it defiantly isn’t Ulysses Hartwell. How long was she there for? He couldn’t help but silently curse over the fact with what a big nose he had now, it was utterly useless for the most part. I would of noticed her the moment I woke up, if I was in my real body.
The female gave a good-hearted chuckle, no doubt humored at Jayfeather’s pathetic movements. “I’m sorry, I assume you don’t like being snuck up on,” she said. There was a gentle thud nearby; it sounded like she placed something down.
“You know someone that does?” Jayfeather said in a husky voice. He cleared up his dry throat a bit, tongue prodding around his dry mouth. “Hey, do you know where I can get a drink around here?”
“I have a glass of water for you and breakfast right in front of you,” the female said, “you like scrambled eggs do you?”
Jayfeather sniffed a bit, coaxing his weak nose to actually try to catch a scent. It took a good couple of whiffs and scooting around to do so, but Jayfeather did smell a fresh, odd scent. “That doesn’t smell like eggs to me,” he said, grimacing. He never really took a liking to eggs on the fresh-kill pile to begin with; it was too much of a pain to eat. Though these scrambled eggs, even with his weak nose, defiantly did not smell like eggs by any stretch of the imagination.
The female let out a small hum. “Okay, I’ll guess I’ll take this back and get you something else.”
“No wait!” Jayfeather swung out his limb, cursing when his hand smacked against a hard object. At times he really regretted speaking out whenever there’s something he needed. “Wait, don’t take it. I’ll eat it.”
“Alright, alright, I won’t take it,” she said placidly. “Do you want me to help sit you up?”
“No thank you, I had enough of being picked up like a helpless kit as it is,” Jayfeather grumbled. He tossed and turned against the bed, worming across the bed paw-length by paw-length. Though entertaining as it was (at least by the twoleg, from what Jayfeather could tell) these movements were hardly productive. Eventually the female twoleg drew him up and angled him so that he sat front of his food.
“There. Ulysses did tell me about your issues on walking,” she said, “and about lifting your body up and moving your arms. I might have to mention that when you fell asleep, we found some- er, what are you doing?”
Jayfeather was ignoring the female at this point, leaning his face into the meal and slurping down in rapid bites. The scrambled eggs felt very slimy against his tongue, but not unpleasantly so. It could be because he hadn’t eaten in a whole day, but Jayfeather did like the taste of these eggs even if they didn’t really taste like eggs. In fact, arguably, they’re better than the raw stuff!
“I’m eating,” Jayfeather curtly replied, bobbing his head up from the eggs. “You said you have the water, where is it?”
“Um, right to your left,” she said, picking the glass up, “if you’re going to eat like that, I think I’ll have to feed the water to you myself.”
“I can take care of myself, twoleg,” Jayfeather replied, leaning down to finish up his eggs.
“I’m not questioning you capabilities, sir. It’s just that you have some motor abilities that can be hopefully corrected,” she said, sounding calm if feeling a touch scathing, “and my name is Doctor Kate Dausset.”
Jayfeather rolled his shoulders to express that he didn’t give a mousetail and swallowed the last bite of his eggs. It was a pretty filling meal but hardly enjoyable since his throat is as dry as the lake during a drought. He turned himself slightly towards Kate. “Can I have my water, now?” he asked.
“Here you go,” Kate tilted his head back and placed the glass against his lips. Water forced itself down his throat and spilled on his chin. Jayfeather squirmed away, coughing as the water nearly dripped down his windpipes.
“Mouse-brain! Are you trying to choke me?” Jayfeather snapped as he coughed a bit. He felt Kate pat against his back.
“I’m sorry, I guess I was a bit too rough,” Kate apologized. She repeated the motions again. This time Jayfeather expected it and drank down the water in rapid gulps. Some of the water dripped and splattered against his borrowed clothes, but managed to drink up the water until the cup was empty.
“Thank you,” Jayfeather said as he went to gather his breath.
“Don’t mention it, Jay Frayther, was it?” Kate asked, to which Jayfeather nodded. Although he shook his head afterwards when he released that she made a mistake. Though by the sounds of the shuffling around the room, she did not see him shake his head.
“Mr. Frayther, let me review some of the questions I asked before, for some of them I don’t really understand,” Kate said.
“It’s Jayfeather,” he grumbled, resisting the urge to snap at Kate for her incompetence. Can’t anyone get my name right?
“Here’s what we have,” she said, having not heard what Jayfeather mumbled. “You don’t remember your date of birth, social security number, or any form of identification, correct?”
Jayfeather tilted his head, just vaguely recalling the questions asked of him yesterday. “Erm, no. I really don’t know what social security is or what you mean my date of birth. I think I was born in new-leaf or sometime like that.”
“And your age, you told me that you were forty-six months old,” Kate asked sounding very skeptical, “are you sure that you mean years?”
“Forty-six moons, Doctor Kate Dausset,” Jayfeather corrected, “unless you call the moon the month or something like that.”
“That can’t be possible,” Kate said slowly, “if you are forty-six months old, then you would be around roughly around four years. I doubt that a grown man like you is the age of a pre-school child.”
Jayfeather sighed and shook his head, “When I say moon, I do mean moon. I am forty-six moons.”
“This is more serious than I thought,” Jayfeather overheard Kate’s mutterings, scending a chill down his spine, “And your only profession is, and I quote, ‘Medicine cat of ThunderClan.’”
“Yes,” he respond flatly, not really surprised at every time he felt Kate’s skeptic, confusion, and concern grow. Was it really worth arguing over if he was a cat or not?
Kate let out a sighed and placed the thing she picked up down. “Mr. Frayther, I think it would be best if we find some neurological help for you,” Kate said, “obviously this problem is beyond anything I can do. Not to mention that you have no identification on you, perhaps you may have lost it at some point, and we’ll have to call the authorities to help find them.”
“Look, Doctor Kate Dausset, I never had any of this stuff,” Jayfeather insisted. “The help I need is a way to get back home and find a way to turn back to normal. You can’t send me away to StarClan knows where!”
Kate did not say anything for some time. She moved around the room and shifted things around; making Jayfeather feel like his plea was ignored. Jayfeather hung his head. Is this how it ends?
The door suddenly slammed opened and someone rushed into the room panting heavily. Jayfeather snapped his head up, not recognizing the twoleg he spoke in a hurried tone. “Kate, Kauffman needs you and Jay over stat.”
“Ulysses Hartwell! Where were you?” Jayfeather asked, sounding bitter but deeply relieved that Ulysses didn’t abandoned him alone with Kate.
“We’ll follow you there, Ulysses,” Kate said, Jayfeather’s question being ignored over Kauffman’s call. Before Jayfeather got another word in, Kate lifted him off the bed and followed Ulysses out.
---
Four twolegs conversed rapidly with one another when Jayfeather, Kate and Ulysses entered the room. The four fell quiet at their arrival with two of them jogging up to them. Excitement, confusion, doubts; so many emotions overwhelmed Jayfeather. Whatever Kauffman found must be pretty big.
“I can’t believe it!” Jayfeather recognized Lander’s gruff voice that was heavily clouded with disbelief, “we must do this test over again and collect newer samples from you now that your cleaned up from your check up.”
“Wait, why?” Jayfeather growled a tad, remembering the pain of having the twolegs prod his body in the name of collecting samples.
“All of the DNA samples, skin, hair, saliva,” Kauffman spoke with a whispery tone, “none of them matched to any human comparison.”
“Surely that is some mistake,” Kate said, dragging Jayfeather away to set him down on a chair. “We could have grabbed some DNA from some other animals. He was coated with fleas, covered in debris and wearing Ulysses’s clothes at the time.”
“I keep my pelt clean,” Jayfeather grumbled at the mention of fleas in Kate’s description. He felt so distant in these transactions, feeling nothing more like a spectator.
“I do find it hard to believe myself, Dausset, but I checked many times,” Kauffman said, “the samples did not match any other animal samples and were fundamentally the same all across.”
A twoleg male Jayfeather didn’t recognize spoke, “Well, you did find one, though.”
“Yes, that’s right Elston,” Kauffman said, “The samples were very close to cat DNA, aside from notable alterations.”
“So it proves it then,” Jayfeather said, leaning a bit, but not too far to let him fall out of his chair, “I told you all that I’m not crazy.”
“Don’t be so hasty, sir,” Lander butted in, “this might be some error. It’s better that we test again and collect a larger sample.”
“Fine then, we’ll do it again. We’ll do it as many times until you believe me,” Jayfeather said, scowling. StarClan, if you’re still with me, send them a sign or something!
“You know, thinking it over, it kind of makes sence,” Ulysses said, with some mutters from the other twolegs protesting against him, “it isn’t quitecat DNA, but it’s something we never seen before. Not to mention, Kate and I both saw that he had no sign of concussion nor he did he remember any forms of identification.”
“You know, I second that notion,” Kate said, “it just didn’t add up with the questions, especially reflecting on the fact that he suffers no injury so to speak. He’s says he’s four years old but he’s an adult, but it’s reasonable for a cat. He has an odd scale of time and his movements could be caused by unfamiliarity to walking as a human.”
“Well how do you explain how he talks so well? Aside for odd vernacular, I doubt that this is leap from cat speech to human speech,” Eltson argued. Afterwards it soon became a chaotic mess of arguments that Jayfeather couldn’t follow. Some humans were skeptical; others think it’s plausible, the remainder don’t know what to think. This noise was just a headache to listen.
“Hold up,” another male Jayfeather didn’t identify spoke up, “Mr. Frayther is cat that by some phenomenon transformed into a human, what should we do about it? He already no paperwork to speak of, no social security number, no ID or any knowledge on human etiquette. He basically doesn’t exist, as far as the bureaucracy’s concerned.”
“Oh, you got a point there, Pauling,” Elston said. There was a pause for thought. “If he has no paperwork to begin with, we can’t even go through the bureaucracy to make him a legal citizen. Not like that will be of any help.”
“Ugh, I didn’t think we’d be tangled in some sort of illegal business when dealing with this guy,” Lander said, apprehensively, “I guess our only option is to keep him inside homes and avoid anything that requires IDs or any paperwork.”
“W-Wait a minute, what’s going to happen to me if the bu-rock-crazy catches me?” Jayfeather decided that now would be best to join the conversation.
“Don’t worry about it, Jay,” Ulysses said, sounding uplifting for Jayfeather’s sake, “really, you’ll avoid trouble if you don’t try to go to explicit areas, payment, or apply for a job. Besides if you’re a cat, you don’t really need to concern yourself of those things.”
“Yeah, Ulysses could take care of you and let you crash at his house,” Kate purposed. Both Ulysses and Jayfeather gave her odd looks as she continued to the other associates, “While the team will test on this phenomenon further, Ulysses could teach Mr. Frayther the ropes and keep him out of danger for the most part.”
“Up, wait a moment, I don’t think I could-” Ulysses tried to protest, but Kate cut him off.
“Nonsense, Ulysses, you two will do fine,” she said reassuringly, “think of it if Annabelle still lived with her and she turned into a human or Xavier. If you could do it for your pets, you can do the same for Mr. Frayther.”
Afterwards Kaufman dropped in. “Well, let’s get the samples now so that Mr. Frayther has time to relax at Hartwell’s place.”
Jayfeather was pulled up once again and taking towards the room to grab more samples. He didn’t know who was carrying him until he spoke. “So Frayther, huh? I think that would be a good alias for you Jay,” Ulysses said, “it’s similar to your name and easy to remember.”
“Ugh, can you just call me Jayfeather, just once?” he let out a sigh of annoyance.
“Oh, Ulysses,” Kate dropped in step besides the two males, “before you go, I must give you the medicine and the brush to comb out the knits and eggs still in his hair.”
Ulysses let out a groan of disgust and Kate chuckled in confusion. “Hoo boy, Jay, I don’t think you’ll like the first day at my house,” he said.
What could possibly top the stress the three days I had so far?
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Post by Redfleck on Aug 3, 2016 5:20:04 GMT -5
2Reply to "נᴀʏғᴇᴀтнᴇʀ тσ נᴀʏ ғʀᴀʏтнᴇʀ - Chap 13 is up!"
Chapter 4
A trill-like bark greeted the two when they entered Ulysses’s house. Jayfeather gritted his teeth, squirming in the other male’s grasp as the small dog bounded up to them. In contrast to Jayfeather’s unease of the dog, Ulysses’s feelings was one of endearment.
“Hey, Xavier, sorry that I haven’t been home for too long,” Ulysses cooed to his pup as he dragged Jayfeather across the room. “We have guest staying at our home for a while. I’m sure the two of you would keep each other in good company.”
“Come on, he’s a dog! I bet he didn’t understand a thing you just said!”Jayfeather baulked crossly as he was plopped down on the floor instead of a chair. He fidgeted when he felt Xavier’s wet nose prod his flesh, sniffing him around. He shifted his arm to ward off the dog, but it made him loose balance and made him collapse onto a soft cushion behind. The dog let out a curious whimper and licked Jayfeather’s arm, obviously not bothered by Jayfeather’s behavior.
“If that dog tries to bite me, Ulysses Hartwell, I won’t hesitate to attack it,” Jayfeather warned. He heard Ulysses scoff while as he was being uprighted.
“Nonsense, Xavier is no biter,”Ulysses said, sitting behind Jayfeather on the elevated cushion, “and Xavier is alright with cats. Frankly you’re lucky to have him warm up to you already.”
“Are you sure that his sociability isn’t just because he’s confused at why a twoleg smells like a cat?” Jayfeather retorted. He heard Xavier scamper away, most likely no longer interested of him after a few licks and sniffs.
“You mean why a human smells like a cat,” Ulysses corrected, chuckling a bit, “seriously, twoleg is the best you can come up with? You seem to know different species of birds, judging by your name, but the best you come with us is twolegs?”
“Well, you are walking on two legs,”Jayfeather reasoned. He felt Ulysses run his hand part the fur on top of his head and a cold, claw-like thing run through the strains. He gritted his teeth as the claw got stuck and tugged against his hair. “Agh! Be careful with that!”
“Sorry, your hair is filled with knits,”Ulysses apologized quickly before steering the conversation back on the argument, “birds have two legs as well, they even have two wings. Why do you know a jay from, say, a robin, but the best you come up with human is twoleg?”
Jayfeather grumbled at another painful tug at his hair. “It’s what it is, Ulysses Hartwell,” he snapped, “if you’re wondering, why don’t you go back to the first cat who decided to call humans twolegs? Maybe they could enlighten you then!”
Ulysses ran the small claw through his hair again, letting out a thoughtful hum in response. “You can just call me Ulysses, Jay,” he said, admitting defeat by no longer trying to press on the aregument, “tell me, how far can you count?”
Jayfeather scowled from pain of his hair being pulled off his skin, the bitterness of being called ‘Jay’ yet again, and from utter astonishment at Ulysses’s question. “What, you want me to list them all? There’s a whole lot to count you know.”
“Yes,” Ulysses said, “I want to see how many you know.”
Jayfeather let out a sigh and counted away in a monotonous voice. Counting out loud did help pass the time with the painful process of Ulysses yanking out the knits in his hair, even when the more painful tugs made him fumble his words. He spanned through the numbers and eventually stopped at ninety-nine.
“Why did you stop?” Ulysses asked. This question along with Ulysses’s expectant attitude made Jayfeather let out a small snort of amusement.
“It stops at ninety-nine,” Jayfeather said simply. “Are you saying you have a name of anything passed ninety-nine?”
“Yes, one hundred,” Ulysses said and added on, “and the number after nine-hundred-ninety-nine is called one thousand. But that’s just all dandy just the same. I’m honestly surprised you know how to count so far.”
Jayfeather fell speechless, unsure whether to be amazed that Ulysses knew more numbers then he did or offended that Ulysses implied that he was mouse-brained for knowing any at all. He chose to act offended. “What do you mean that you’re surprised that I can count?” he asked.
He swore he almost heard Ulysses’s belly drop to the floor judging by his reaction to his question. “Um, I didn’t mean it like that, Jay,” Ulysses said, trying to save face, “what I mean is just- well, cats we have seen- studied, I mean, well we can’t say for sure-”
“Save your breath,” Jayfeather grumbled, “I know what you mean; to you twolegs, cats can’t count at all.”
“No, I don’t mean it like that, Jay,”Ulysses still kept trying to correct his error in judgment, “I mean, you’re the first cat that we can actually speak to. The fact that you know some high double-digits like that-”
Ulysses’s groveling became rather annoying to Jayfeather. It was pretty clear that Ulysses thought that cats were just dumb like any other twoleg because they can’t understand cats. I wonder how his dog puts up with him,he thought. Opting for a meaner approach to quieting Ulysses, Jayfeather snapped “Look can you just shut up! I get it already! Just hold your tongue before you really make me mad, Ulysses!”
Shortly afterwards things became deafly quiet in the room, not even Xavier made any noise at Jayfeather’s outburst. The awkward silence did not console Jayfeather by any means, especially with Ulysses’s hurt feelings bombarding. The picking of his hair grew much rougher in those silent moments, it almost made Jayfeather’s twoleg eyes water. It almost made him feel regretful for snapping at the male.
Eventually Ulysses broke the silence with an aloof tone of voice that seemed so unusual for him. “Jay, this attitude of your is not going to help you out in the long run,” he said.
Jayfeather, despite his regrets, still sounded bitter when he responded, “What? Do you expect me to act like a cheerful mouse-brain all the time when something frustrating or bad comes my way?”
“No, but I do expect you to at least hold your tongue and keep any negative comment to yourself,”Ulysses said abrasively, “whether you like it or not, you’re human and as such you have to respect our culture and our ways of doing things. And to do that, I must teach you if you want to even function properly in society.”
“Why should I care? It’s not like I need to interact with other twolegs for a living,” Jayfeather said.
“You think you’re going to be a shut-in in my house with just my company and Xavier’s?” Ulysses questioned, his underlying frustration started to become apparent, “Here, let me put this in a more helpful perspective for you. To do those testing back at campus, we need to walk. Obviously you don’t want to be dragged and carried around, right?”
“Yeah,” Jayfeather responded, having had enough of that for the two and a half days he had been as a twoleg.
“So I’ll have to teach you how to walk in order to head to the campus,” Ulysses said, and then added, “and since from what I’ve notice so far, you’ll need help in navigating due to being blind.”
This struck a chord with Jayfeather. It had been such a long time ago that cats judged him for being blind that it was just old, washed up days from the past. This careless comment brought back those old memories and the infuriation he felt. Hastily yanking his head from Ulysses, he turned and snapped “Just because I’m blind doesn’t mean I can’t navigate, you piece of fox-dung! I can do that just find without your help!”
“When you were a cat, Jayfeather, you can whiskers to help navigate!”Ulysses snapped back, unable to take any more of his rude behavior, “You were lower to the ground and had two paws ahead of you to feel where you were going. Well, newsflash, you don’t have that anymore! You’re taller, you walk on two legs, and you don’t have those special cat senses anymore. So you’re navigation as a blind catmight as well be useless as pocket lint about now.”
Jayfeather’s anger quickly washed away at the unsuspected outburst and he hung his head. Thinking it over, Ulysses actually did have a point. His senses were much duller then normal the moment he became a twoleg and everything from whiskers to tail was gone. Normally an outburst wouldn’t have made Jayfeather feel so regretful if it weren’t for the fact that Ulysses used his real name to hammer the point.
He was about to open his mouth to apologize but his voice still remained silent as he felt Ulysses wrap his arms around him in some strange embrace. Ulysses felt much calmer and equally regretful over his own outburst and promptly apologized.
“I’m sorry, Jay,” he said before pulling away, “but you got to understand, my team won’t be the only one that will see you at campus. Many people are still around campus and much more after summer ends. If they see a blind man floundering about, talking weird, acting weird, and looking like a mess, it won’t generate a positive image about you. Do you really want someone to look down on you like that?”
“No,” he said, the memoires of his kit and apprentice days playing back in his mind, “I don’t want to feel that way again.”
Ulysses’s patted Jayfeather’s shoulder, “Well, here’s what we plan to do. I’ll try teaching you how to walk, clean yourself, and basic etiquette like that. On top of that, we’ll buy a batch of clothes for you and other essentials you need.”
“What about you’re team?”Jayfeather asked, “they said that they were going to do some tests, weren’t they?”
“Yes, they’ll help you out if I fail to teach you in some areas,” Ulysses said, “don’t be afraid to ask for help.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll make sure of that,”Jayfeather said, though he doubted that he would due to his own stubbornness.
Ulysses sifted his hand through Jayfeather’s hair again. “I think we got most of the knits out of your hair,” he said.
“So they’re all gone, right?”Jayfeather asked; though quickly found out that it wasn’t the case by Ulysses’s hesitance.
“Eh, it’s far from it,” Ulysses said briskly, standing up, “we still have a lot more to go.”
Jayfeather felt a familiar uncomfortable feeling in his belly as Ulysses brought him to his feet. It had been awhile since he ate, but that feeling was defiantly not the case. He fidgeted in Ulysses’s grasp. “Um, Ulysses, I have to go make dirt. Do you know where I can do that?”
At first Ulysses didn’t seem to understand. Though as Jayfeather fidgeted more, Ulysses finally got the clue and immediately felt embarrassed. “Oh, that. Erm, looks like I have to show you how to use the bathroom in order to do that,” he said.
“Wait, I have to learn to make dirt?”
---
The day droned away just like that. Ulysses managed to pick put most of the knits from all his hair, though he mentioned of having to keep a thorough cleaning to make sure they were all gone. He learned the basics of walking like a ‘toddler’ as Ulysses put it and that portion of the day was filled with falling, bumping into things, and an insane amount of bickering. Although Ulysses always apologized after their bickering went a touch too far and he was the only one who bothered to apologize. By the evening there was diner that Ulysses ‘cooked’ – though by the smell of it Ulysses was burning chicken across an open flame. Jayfeather recalled the former farm cat, Daisy, mentioned chickens living at the farm and with pitiful attempts to eating with human utensils Jayfeather could see why the farm liked the birds so much. The two talked most of the time, especially on etiquette of eating, until their meals were done. Ulysses left Jayfeather to his own doing to complete some work he had put off since Jayfeather’s arrival. This left Jayfeather pulling out of the chair and toddling to another room
After a few minutes of bumping into things and falling, Jayfeather pulled himself on top of the couch and spread across it in a tired huff. He nearly kicked Xavier off the couch while doing so, not noticing the dog at first until Xavier let out a startled whimper.
“Urg, sorry,” Jayfeather at least apologized, “I’m so exhausted; feel like I can sleep for a whole moon.”
Xavier made no noise, but licked Jayfeather’s drooped arm as if to assure Jayfeather of his predicament. He hastily pulled his arm up and turned his back to the dog. “Don’t do that,” he grumbled, “If you or Ulysses Hartwell needs me, I’ll be asleep.”
It didn’t take long for Jayfeather to fall fast asleep. In his dreams he was in a vibrant forest, back in the body of a cat. He ran around the beautiful paradise that he assumed to be StarClan’s hunting grounds, laughing merrily as he was back in the familiarity of his own body.
Sadly this was only just a sweet dream, a memory of sorts of living free as a proper wild cat. Yet this fact did not discourage him as he took a look around the forest. If this is StarClan’s hunting grounds then that means that-
“Jayfeather!” the voice of his sister caught the gray tabby’s attention. He turned around and ran up to a black she-cat with starlight in her fur and a faded ginger and white tom.
“Hollyleaf! Fallen Leaves!” Jayfeather purred, touching his nose to theirs. “I’m so glad to see you. StarCan hasn’t abandoned me!”
“Of course not, Jayfeather,” Hollyleaf said, licking his ear, “you know that StarClan would never do that.”
“In fact, we have been trying to find you,” Fallen Leaves said his green eyes vibrant of relief, but his tone levied with seriousness, “we have seen you transform. We were worried once we caught up with you that we may not have been able to enter your dreams.”
Jayfeather’s purr turned silent when returning to the subject at hand. “What’s happening back at ThunderClan?” he asked, knowing that he had been absent for three days since.
“All of ThunderClan worry for you,”Hollyleaf said, “they scented the twoleg scent of that male that took you away. Leafpool has taken medicine cat position again in your absence and a patrol is being set up to look for you.”
“Can you tell them what happened to me and that I’m okay?” Jayfeather asked, “The twoleg that picked me up, Ulysses Hartwell, he’s trying to help me out and he knows the situation.”
“I think we can do that,” Fallen Leaves said, “I know that StarClan can’t reveal much to the living, but this is no ordinary problem we’re dealing with.”
“Thank you,” Jayfeather said, “thank you so much.”
“Don’t thank us yet until we find a way to turn you back,” Hollyleaf said gravely, “you’re future is clouded in darkness from us, Jayfeather. I can’t tell what will happen to you.”
Apprehension clenched Jayfeather’s belly. Was he disconnected to StarClan because he was now twoleg? He felt the forest around him seem to grow from vibrant green-leaf to dull, leaf-fall.
“You’re about to wake up soon,”Fallen Leaves said, “remember this, Jayfeather. Your powers helped you when times were at their darkest. Never forget that they still aide you.”
Jayfeather could feel a cold wind buffer against his pelt and he could see the forest around him start to fade to darkness. He looked out to Hollyleaf and Fallen Leaves, watching the drift away into his darkening vision. He could hear Hollyleaf try to say something else, but all that came from her mouth was nothing more than gibberish.
Jayfeather awoke, feeling some warm against his cheek as sunlight streamed in the house. He felt something draped over his body as he shifted around. Lifting his arms around the object, he ran his hand across a long cloth-like material that wasn’t there when he first fell asleep. Hearing footsteps and scenting very strange, but enticing aroma, in the air, he figured Ulysses placed it over him. Though why, he’ll have to ask a soon as he pulled this off him.
Reply to "נᴀʏғᴇᴀтнᴇʀ тσ נᴀʏ ғʀᴀʏтнᴇʀ - Chap 13 is up!"
Chapter 5
Two weeks has passed since then. Jayfeather quickly familiarized with the twoleg calendar when the days of being trapped in this body grew numerous. He now knew that seven days makes up a week, twenty-four hours makes up a day, sixty minutes makes up an hour, and sixty seconds makes up a minute. In addition to that knowledge, Jayfeather learned half of sixty is thirty and now he finally understood what half-an-hour meant. He still had a lot to learn in the ways of the calendar alone, he had yet to learn the system of counting hours in a day. This made Jayfeather dreading while simultaneously intrigued on learning more about calendars and numbers. He dreaded it as it was just more information to learn on top of everything else being force-fed to him. Yet he was fascinated since it seemed rather organized and easy to understand. It gave numbers purpose then just listlessly counting meaningless moons. Perhaps once he’s back to normal he could introduce this to the Clans-
Focus Jayfather! He snapped himself out of his daydreaming by slapping himself in the face. His cheek stung terribly and the pain brought him back out of his dazed senses. You shouldn’t give two rat-tails about calendars. You should focus on finding a way to get back to normal before this twoleg stuff clogs up your head!
He found that focusing was harder than expected with the weather. He went out of the house to practice walking with his cane, which is used for navigation. It was pretty effective in moving around, he could feel for the stuff and avoid tripping over them. And there were a lot of things in Ulysses’s house to get around. Though walking out here in this dreadful heat was just unbearable. The heat felt unnatural after exiting the always cool house and the sunlight burned against his wet skin.
Jayfeather groaned irritably as he wiped his wet hands against his clothes. He had no idea how he got wet with the air so dry. It didn’t seem to help cool his body; it just made him very uncomfortable.
“I can never really get used to this body, can I?” he complained to Xavier. The dog had scampered around the backyard with him yet eventually stopped after ruefully tripping Jayfeather over. Xavier made no noise, he just panted heavily from exhaustion from running in the heat.
“Ugh, listen to me,” Jayfeather groaned as he awkwardly sat down on the stone ground that jutted up from the grass. He felt Xavier daintily sniff his clammy skin for a moment and drew away from the dog. “I’m talking to a dog about my troubles! Have I got bees in my brain?”
He let out a sigh and tilted his head up towards the blistering sun. Even if he tried, he simply couldn’t get used to this body nor this life. And I hope I never do.
The two sat the day away, waiting for Ulysses to return from wherever he went off to. Soon enough, the host of the house slide the glass door open and made his way over to Jayfeather. “Hey guys,” his greeting was followed by Xavier scurrying eagerly over Jayfeather’s lap to his owner. Jayfeather let out an annoyed gasp, contrasting Ulysses’s cooing, “Aw, nice to see you again Xavier. You miss me boy?” Though this ridiculous cooing Ulysses made over Xavier made Jayfeather chuckle every time. It just seemed odd silly for Ulysses to be acting like that.
“Well, you sound chipper today, Jay,”Ulysses said, his voice returning normal but his cheeriness still waved off of him strongly, “well I’ve got something to tell you. This is one among special days for us humans, and I think you should participate.”
“Did humans find a way to make things cooler and you’re celebrating for it?” Jayfeather asked sardonically.
“There’s already an invention for that, it’s called air conditioning and it’s in my house,” Ulysses shot back, “but today is Nationality Day and Lander has invited us over to the park for a party, a great celebration. I say it’s good to show how you how we interact with other people.”
“So just like a gathering,” Jayfeather murmured under his breath. He raised his voice to ask, “so what are the rules to a party?”
“Well, have a good time without ruining it for others,” Ulysses joked before responding seriously, “really we don’t have rules for parties, depending on what party you go to. In our part we just eat, talk, play games and dance. Although in your case, I think you’ll have so rules to abide to, for instance, you can’t go blabbering about our tests and experiments publically.”
“Yeah, yeah, I don’t think telling other’s the blind twoleg’s a cat from ThunderClan would be taken seriously,” Jayfeather said bluntly.
“Yeah but it does danger others view of you. Do reframe from using that odd vernacular of yours,” Ulysses said. “What do you call a male human?”
“A man,” Jayfeather answered quickly. Ulysses did sometimes dropped these random questions periodically as a “quiz” for him. It felt like learning and remembering the names of herbs all over again.
“Female?”
“Woman.”
“The children?”
“Boy for the male, girl for the female.”
“Singular use for children?”
“Ah, it was- child! It was child!”
“Name the articles of clothes you’re wearing.”
“Shirt, trousers, socks, and shoes.”
“Pretty good,” Ulysses complemented, “I will have to teach you about public life versus private life since we’ll be entering a public zone.”
“And that is?” Jayfeather asked in an expectant tone.
“Well, the fundamentals is that there are some things that you normally keep quiet about in your life from others. For example, you do not tell them that you had fleas and lice. People would be pretty disgusted by it,” Ulysses explained.
“But they’re all gone,” Jayfeather said, “I don’t think it’s much of a worry now.”
“You still don’t go talking about it, Jay, those are personal matters that could negatively affect you if publicized,” Ulysses responded, “same if someone is asking something about you that they’re encroaching on your private life, that’s normally a warning that you should stay away from them. Hopefully we won’t run into them at the park, but do be on your guard and keep things close to you.”
Jayfeather nodded in affirmative and fell silent as he thought about the party. In essence it was like a gathering, you can talk to others from the Clan but you can’t give away too much. Though in the gathering’s case the consequence of doing so is giving information the enemy Clan could use against you or risk being friends that you’ll meet on the battle field. He just didn’t see much risk in the twoleg world. He learned the twolegs either live alone or live in small families with mate and children. Everyone is very distant and far away. What is the risk of giving away to other twolegs who wouldn’t plan to battle you in the near future? In fact, why have a party? What’s the point of “Nationality Day” to twolegs?
Jayfeather was dragged out of his thoughts as he felt Ulysses tug his arm. “Come on, I bought you something that I think would look good on you,” he said barely containing his excitement, “let’s try in on and get going on the road.”
Jayfeather pulled his arm away from Ulysses’s touch and picked himself up on his clumsier, shaking legs. Well, he could ask those questions later after he tried on those new clothes.
---
“What is Nationality Day?” Jayfeather asked, resting his head against the cool glass of the car’s window. They had left after getting him into his nice clothes and spreading some substance called “sunscreen” over his skin, which Ulysses said that it will prevent from “sun burns.” He didn’t get to ask his question until half-way during the drive, his belly still did flip-flops when they drove and Ulysses was busy explaining the appropriate party-etiquette.
“It’s a holiday that comes every July seventeenth,” Ulysses said, “it’s a holiday in celebration of our country’s creation to put in simple terms.”
“What do you mean by country?”Jayfeather asked, “You humans, don’t really run like a Clan if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“Well, a country is similar to a clan, in being that it’s a collection of people,”Ulysses explained, “but, a country is much bigger and the people are spread apart. We’re only part of one town, which is part of a larger region, or state, which in turn with other states is part of the country. We all may be different depending on the regions we come from, but we all are catered to the same system of rules and benefits from those who lead the country, in our case the Parliament lead our country.”
“That sounds really hard to manage, how does one human from some far away region learns if Parliament changes a rule or announces a battle?” Jayfeather asked skeptically.
Ulysses chuckled a bit at Jayfeather’s disbelief. “Well, humans have created some useful tools to help us get messages of important world affairs,” he said, “I could show you some things at home or pull out my phone to show you for the quicker methods. But since we’re nearing the park, you’ll learn about communication by social gatherings.”
Well that would explain why parties exist. “Is their only one country?”Jayfeather asked, “or are there more than that?”
“Oh, there’s a whole lot, Jay,” Ulysses said, “I can’t tell you the number off the top of my head there are so many. Our country’s called the U.E.S. which is short for United English States and the people who live in the country are called the English, if you want to know that term.”
“Wow,” that was a lot to sink in. So as he puzzled that out for a bit, the car slowed to a halt and a muffled sound of people reached his ears.
Jayfeather lifted his head away from the glass. The belt around him snapped away with Ulysses pushing the button, allowing Jayfeather to exit freely. The muffled sounds of chatter outside turned sharp and loud with shrieks and chattering becoming much crisper. Jayfeather grimaced, so far not pleased with the chaos of the park. Along with sounds, there was a nauseating scent of cooking food and the uncomfortable heat wrapped around him. He dared not move from his spot until Ulysses came up beside him with Xavier following them by a tether.
“Relax Jay,” Ulysses said, “just stick close to me or any of my team and you’ll be fine.”
“Easier said than done,” Jayfeather grumbled as he pointed out his cane. Okay, remember sweeping motions and avoid other twolegs if you can.
He felt Ulysses tapped on his shoulder, “Let’s go!” As soon as Ulysses and Xavier began heading off, Jayfeather followed after them, sweeping his cane across the hard ground. It was much disoriented as they entered the fray of people; there were so many noises that Jayfeather feared that if he strayed he could not be able to find Ulysses or the others.
He could feel stares of strangers stare into him with mixture of fascination, supison, peculiar and even disgusted feelings. Jayfeather’s grip on his cane grew tighter as he made his way through the crowd. Was there something about him that made them stare at him so? When his cane tapped against a leg and hearing Xavier’s whimper following afterward, Jayfeather halted and let a sigh of relief.
“As Hartwell, Frayther! I’m glad you two joined us,” the voice of Jonathan Lander greeted them. Jayfeather learned quickly from the experiments ran at campus, Jonathan was the leader, or rather “head scientist” as Ulysses put it, of the team. Though from what Jayfeather witnessed firsthand, Jonathan wasn’t really much in the terms of a leader like Bramblestar or Squirrelflight. Well, in terms of taking charge like one at least. He’s more like a patrol leader, he thought, the extent of their duty is just to choose location and make sure their patrol does their task.
“Mr. Frayther,” Jonathan’s expectant voice jarred Jayfeather out of his thoughts. He could feel a wave of anticipatory from both Jonathan and Ulysses.
“U-Um, yes?” Jayfeather fumbled, having been disoriented from the distractions he became slow to react.
“Remember what I said when you greet someone?” Ulysses asked, leaning over to Jayfeather so only he could hear.
“Oh, right!” Jayfeather extended out his free hand and felt Jonathan grab his hand and shook with vigor that made Jayfeather stumble.
“There we go,” Jonathan said, much more delighted, “though keep your handshake firm. You wrist was bending too much.”
Jayfeather frowned, pulling his arm back close to his body. Great another thing to remember, he kept the unpleasant comment to himself as he said, “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Well, come on, Kauffman, Elston, and Pauling are already here with their families,” Jonathan said, leading the way. Hearing them starting to move, Jayfeather mobilized and kept right beside Xavier and Ulysses.
“Is Kate coming?” Ulysses asked.
“Dausset said she couldn’t make it, her schedules so busy that she couldn’t take a break for the holiday,”Jonathan’s voice, though a bit drowned out, was still audible over the crowd.
“Oh, that’s a shame,” Ulysses said, his enthusiasm suddenly was replaced by disappointment. Jayfeather tilted his head towards Ulysses. Kate Dausset was not part of the team but part of the collage’s staff of doctors, or medicine twoleg as Jayfeather called them. She did join in at time to time but only to conduct those rather unpleasant tests in identifying what Jayfeather should eat and how he should be cared. Otherwise she was mostly dealing with other things and Jayfeather hardly saw her around.
“You can’t blame her,” Jonathan’s voice grew closer. Jayfeather’s cane tapped against a hard object and he halted again.
“Hey there Hartwell, Mr. Frayther,”Andrew Elston greeted them and shuffled around to walk up to them. “Kauffman wants to see you, Ulysses.”
“It’s about the report?” Ulysses asked.
“Yeah, she just got your copy,”Andrew said, “why don’t you settle that with her and I’ll take Mr. Frayther to hang out with Pauling and I. We’ll take your dog too.”
“Okay,” Jayfeather felt Ulysses slipped the tether in his free hand. “Hold on tight Jay, Xavier will bolt if given the chance.”
Jayfeather nodded reluctantly, not wanting to hold both a cane and the tether but once again finding no option but to follow Ulysses’s order. Ulysses quickly sauntered off and he was left alone with Andrew.
“Well, Mr. Frayther, looks like it’s just us bachelors for a while,” Andrew said in a joking tone, “come on, let’s go see Walter. I think he’s with his wife and kids at the moment.”
Jayfeather followed after Andrew across the grassy terrain until he felt shade of a tree cast over them. He let out a present sigh along with Xavier when he felt his skin began to cool down. Though that pleasant moment didn’t last long as Jayfeather grew aware of other watchful twolegs watching him, all but one gave him the same feelings as the crowd did when he walked in the park. That exception was Walter Pauling, who was the only one to go up to greet them.
“Hey there Andrew,” he said. Jayfeather tilted his head, feeling some pain waving off Walter. Was he hurt?
“You feeling better?” Andrew asked.
“Sadly no,” Walter replied, shuffling his body to sit down, “my headache’s been killing me lately.”
“If it doesn’t clear up dear, we might need to take you back home,” a female responded in a caring way, Jayfeather assumed this to be Walter’s mate, “I don’t think you’ll stand the fireworks tonight at this rate.” This was accompanied by some groans from the children.
“Fireworks?” Jayfeather couldn’t help but question aloud. Though when confused gazes returned to face him, along with Walter and Andrew’s alarmed ones did Jayfeather quickly correct, “I mean, they are, um, having them tonight? Right?”
“Oh yes,” Andrew spoke quickly, “it’s clear skies from the forecast if you wanted to know Jay. You won’t miss them for sure.”
The heated air grew more intolerable with a wave of awkwardness that levied over them. Jayfeather frowned as the children kept staring at him with that peculiar look, it felt like fleas crawling under his skin the way they stared.
“What’s with all the stares?”Jayfeather couldn’t help but ask through gritted teeth. If this was because he’s blind, he would forget being polite to these still strangers.
A boy, possibly near full grown man, said with a bit of dry quip, “There’s just something about you Mister, not that you’re aware of it, but you look rather odd.”
“Michael,” Walter’s mate gave a stern warning for the young man to halt. It worked, but right after the girl picked up afterwards.
“That’s Mr. Hartwell’s dog,” she said, her gaze off of Jayfeather and towards the dog. She then chuckled with Michael, “I guess Mr. Hartwell knew you from his local hair parlor. You two must be close if he trusts you with his dog.” Though it sounded friendly, Jayfeather and the other adult humans could hear the insult lying underneath.
“What are you implying about Ulysses Hartwell?” Jayfeather took a step forward, voice rising as he struggled to keep his anger under control. “What’s he got to do with any of this?”
“Nothing, you two are just weird, that’s all,” the girl acted like there was nothing wrong with that statement, but her cheekiness said otherwise.
Andrew tugged at his shoulder and pulled him a bit a ways. “Mr. Frayther, please calm down.” Jayfeather didn’t realize it yet, but he was shaking with fury.
“How can I? They’re insulting me and Ulysses!” Jayfeather snapped, wrenching away from Andrew.
“I’m sorry about Michael and Julie’s attitude offended you,” Walter chimed in, and then he sounded annoyed, “isn’t that right you two?”
They muttered empty apologies, not truly sorry for acting rude but doing so by order of their parent. Jayfeather’s hand clenched into a fist and shook as his anger was left unsolved.
“Hey look, how about I take Mr. Frayther a walk around the park and meet you guys up when its lunch?”Andrew suggested, pulling Jayfeather away again.
“Fine by me,” Walter responded and turned to his mate to say something else that Jayfeather didn’t catch.
When they were a ways from the family Jayfeather grated, “I can’t believe it, Andrew Elston! Ulysses got on my case about being good to others and those two are acting openly rude right in front of my face!”
“Mr. Frayther, I know, Walter’s kids can be quiet nasty brats at times,”Andrew said, “but you can’t stoop to their low because they provoked you. Just shrug it off and move on, okay?”
Jayfeather nodded slowly as he felt his anger ebb away in the heat. Andrew patted his back. “Come on, a few walks with Xavier will do you some good,” he said and lead Jayfeather away with Xavier in toe.
---
“Hey, where have you two been? I was looking for you,” Ulysses said when Jayfeather sat down on the picnic table’s bench. He grunted in response as he hooked his legs over the seat, something he hadn’t tried doing before, and nearly fell right on top of Ulysses as he sat down.
“We went out for a walk,” Andrew said, sitting some ways away. “He was rude to Pauling’s kids, though they were acting equally as rude. I took him away and reminded him of certain things.”
“So that explains why Michael and Julie look so bitter when you finally came by?” Ulysses asked, sounding a touch annoyed at Jayfeather's first encounter of someone new.
Jayfeather shrugged and gave a glance over to where he heard them talking to their parents and other children of their ages. Their eyes glanced over at him and Jayfeather felt slight pent up annoyance come from them.
“Well, do you mind serving the food, Lander. I think we’ve all waited enough,” the voice of Cherith Kauffman almost surprised Jayfeather. He had yet to hear the more reserved woman speak and for once it was not directed to him. He heard plates move around and Jonathan saying something to other people, no doubt children and mates of Lander and Kauffman speaking, he felt Cherith’s gaze boring into him. There was no nothing to suggest shyness from her from, all he sensed was cold and calculating thoughts. He felt like he was being watched by those children again only without the malice, yet it was enough to make Jayfeather avoid talking to her.
“Mommy, can I play with that man’s doggy?” a young child asked, her gaze locked on Jayfeather, “Or is he one of those dogs that I can’t play with because they help the blind?”
Wait, what? “That dog’s Mr. Hartwell’s dog, Mr. Frayther was just looking over him,” Cherith answered to the child. It sounded like she was attempting to coo at the child, but it sounded forced. But for all Jayfeather knew, it was because Cherith always sounded cold, her feelings were genuine from what he could tell. “You can ask him after we eat.”
“What does she mean by that?”Jayfeather whispered to Ulysses.
“Oh, she’s talking about seeing-eye dogs,” Ulysses said, “There are dogs trained to help guide the blind, usually in place of the cane. Though those dogs tend to be much bigger breeds, Xavier is not from a breed to guide the blind.”
“Ugh, I’m glad,” Jayfeather grumbled. The thought of being guided by a dog sounded more humiliating then being guided by a twoleg.
Jonathan stood over him and placed down a plate in front of Jayfeather. He patted the table around and grabbed onto two plastic handles. He placed them in each hand, the thicker handle for the knife in his left and the thinner for the fork in his right. He still was bad when it came to his utensils, so it was much incentive to take it slow and easy then look like more of a fool.
The main part of the disk was the meat, juicy with a pleasant charred taste that Jayfeather would admit he loved. There was some cool creamy substance with a strange taste that Jayfeather couldn’t name. He didn’t eat most of it; really the meat was the only thing worth eating on the plate.
“Hey, Mr. Frayther,” Cherith’s voice caught his attention from his finished plate. She whispered something and a few seconds later he heard Ulysses smack something down in front of him. “Have an apple.”
“Okay,” Jayfeather said slowly. They eat apples? That was something he didn’t expect for twolegs to eat. He lifted his fork and knife to cut the apple but stopped when he felt a tap on his elbow.
“You pick it up,” Ulysses whispered through his teeth. Jayfeather set his utensils aside, grumbling that the humans shouldn’t change their rules so much and grabbed it. He lifted the apple to his lips and took a hesitant bite.
The taste was something very surprising to Jayfeather that he almost spat it out. He chewed slowly, letting the juices of the apple swish around on his tongue. Whatever this taste was, it was really good. He took a couple more bites of the apple to savor this great taste but placed it down as it felt so overpowering. He never expected a taste like that and from an apple no less.
“Well, let’s start the games now that most of us are done,” Jonathan’s voice boomed loudly, “Who’s up for BINGO?”
There was a commotion afterwards and Jayfeather felt Ulysses lean close to him. “I’ll explain the rules to you for the games; BINGO will be first for sure.”
Ulysses chatted away the rules of the game, but Jayfeather couldn’t really listen. Cherith was still staring at him; her judging gaze didn’t leave him for quite some time ever since he took a few bites of the apple. She gave that apple to him for some reason. Did she want to see how he reacted to the apple? If so, then why?
---
The party was decent for the most part. The games were interesting by their thought but not much during actual play. Afterwards the day was spent talking and dancing to an odd rhythmic noise, though the noise was not unpleasant to listen. Ulysses told him that this was “music.” He wasn’t crazed about dancing, but the music fascinated Jayfeather. Hopefully he could hear it again.
Yet he never managed to reach back to Cherith about the apple. She was too busy with entertaining her children or talking about a project or do something only twolegs understood. It seemed as though she kept her distance from Jayfeather as though she knew what that he wanted to ask her something.
The heat died as the night approached, turning into a nice cool temperature. With the fireworks on their way, Jayfeather was tugged away by Ulysses to sit down on a blanket.
“Well, I don’t think you’ll like the fireworks when they come on Jayfeather, I know Xavier doesn’t like them much,” Ulysses said as he sat next to Jayfeather. “But I wish to stay and watch. If you can’t stand the show, just tell me and I’ll take you back home.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Jayfeather said dismissively, “though I think I can handle it.”
He listened to the others arrange around them, Andrew was talking excitedly to Walter who sounded unsure and still in pain from his headache. Jonathan conversed with his mate while his children talked in some nonsense to Walter’s children. It was like they said words akin to “fox-dung” and “mousebrain” every other word to sound entertaining or intelligent but only came off as conceit. Jayfeather grumbled and huddled closer to Ulysses’s side to block out the drivel of a so-called conversation.
“I sure to wish Kate was here, I think you’d enjoy the party more if she was around,” Ulysses said. “She’s a whole lot of fun.”
Jayfeather didn’t respond, letting the silence flow between them. He didn’t really know what to respond with. His disappointment returned, the same when he got news that she wasn’t showing up, Jayfeather thought.
He didn’t have much time to contemplate as a whistle pieced the air followed by a large explosion. Jayfeather let out a gasp and immediately clutched onto Ulysses’s arm. He heard Xavier whimper loudly, feeling the same sentiments. Ulysses was amused. “Not expecting that, huh?”
“What do you think?” Jayfeather snapped, willing his heart to calm down. Of course the first boom was quickly followed by two more booms, Jayfeather couldn’t let go of his death grip on Ulysses arm. How can twolegs enjoy this? Wondering where the source of the noise really is, he peaked though Ulysses’s mind.
There were a few heartbeats of silence. Gray smoke drifted across the dark, starless sky like a spider’s web. A small light flew up in the air and disappeared and just after a branching shower of red light bloomed in the sky like a beautiful flower. Then followed by a large boom. That time Jayfeather didn’t flinch, but his jaw drop at what he saw in the man’s mind. He remembered earlier that Ulysses said that Nationality Day is a holiday in time celebration of the U.E. Now it made sense why they would choose fireworks to celebrate something so big as the creation of a country.
Jayfeather scooted closer to Ulysses and stayed in the man’s mind to witness the variety of sparkling colored lights bloom across the sky and leave behind webs of smoke behind. He felt a deeper appreciation for the day he had; the party may have been so-so, but the fireworks are worth going through with it.
Eventually Jayfeather slipped out from Ulysses’s mind and just listened to the loud noises that no longer frightened him. He reached over to pat Xavier’s head as the dog still trembled and whimpered fearfully from the display. It was odd to say that the foreign noises of the fireworks, though loud and boisterous, couldn’t prevent Jayfeather from feeling sleepy.
“You doing alright?” Ulysses asked as Jayfeather rested his head against his shoulder. It wasn’t concern but curiosity.
“Yeah,” Jayfeather said, a yawn escaped from him, “it’s actually pretty good once you get past the noise.”
“I’m glad you like it,” Ulysses said. There was a pause then he added, “you know what’s interesting. Your eyes, they glow just like cat’s eyes in the dark.”
“They do?” Jayfeather blinked his sleepy blind eyes. He wasn’t going to bother to look into Ulysses’s mind again to see for himself, he already knew about that.
“Yes, it’s very fascinating,” Ulysses said, “though it’s rather unusual for a human, since our eyes don’t glow, but for you it isn’t all that bad.”
Jayfeather let out a thoughtful hum in response and closed his eyes. They were in silence for a while, watching the fireworks. Jayfeather didn’t remember how the show ended at the park, but he did remember drifting into another dreamless sleep right afterwards.
Reply to "נᴀʏғᴇᴀтнᴇʀ тσ נᴀʏ ғʀᴀʏтнᴇʀ - Chap 13 is up!"
Chapter 6
When Jayfeather awoke he noticed that he was sleeping on something different. Blinking out the sleep from his blind eyes, he pushed himself up clumsily and rather slowly. His fingers ran through the curves and folds of the unknown material he lied on. He wasn’t sleeping on the couch that’s for sure, but what was it called? Jayfeather tilted his head back and forth until he let out a small noise of his memory. He was on a bed. The bed felt so much comfortable then the couch did and this time he didn’t awake with a sore neck!
Ulysses said he only had one bed, I wonder where he slept, he thought as he kicked off the blanket and slipping onto the floor. The floor felt different from the normal wooden floors, it felt like a thick-furred pelt that spread flat against his feet.
He took a small step forward and already kicked something down in the unfamiliar room.Fox-dung! Jayfeather dropped to his knees and patted around to feel for the object that felt over. He ran his fingers down a cool metal stick and being thicker and rougher at the end. Jayfeather smiled, recognizing the tool and grasped the handle, My cane! Well it was good to have this helpful thing nearby, he would repeat the early days and bumped into everything in the room.
With his body upright, he swept his cane across the furry ground and guided himself to the door around the clutter of the room. His cane poked underneath a gap and Jayfeather reached out to pat the wall. It was wood so it must be the door. He glided his hand around until he found the handle. At first he pulled the door and it resisted.
No that isn’t right, I’m so glad that Ulysses isn’t here to see me act like a mousebrain, he thought. He rotated the handle a bit, nothing. He then tried pushing the door and the door swung open slowly. Aha! With a small sense of triumph over something trivial to a human, Jayfeather strolled out into the hall with a small smile.
The pungent smell of brewed coffee was not hard to miss even with his human nose. Jayfeather entered the kitchen where the scent was strongest, tapping his cane around the tile until it hit the side of his chair. As he sat down, he listen to Ulysses gulp down the bitter drink and flipping papers around; nearby Xavier was crunching down on the kittypet slop Ulysses gave him rather happily and loudly too.
“Good morning Jayfeather, you were sure tuckered out last night,” Ulysses greeted rather dully as he was still groggy. “I’m surprised how you could have passed during the fireworks, those things are exactly sleep-music to the ears.”
That comment jogged Jayfeather’s memory about the party before. “Oh yeah, I remember that.” How he became so tired during it was just as confusing to him as it was to Ulysses. “I don’t know about music part, that music at the party sounded way too, erm, fast, I guess, to be something to sleep too.”
“Oh there’s some gentle music, I think I should loan you my iPod and listen for the various music I have,”Ulysses noted, flipping the papers again, “I had to carry you after it was over and I gave you my bed for the night.”
“Thanks, Ulysses,” Jayfeather said, then asked out of curiosity, “What happened when I passed out?”
“Other than missing the rest of the fireworks, Pauling left early,” Ulysses said, “he was so fatigued and in pain from watching that his wife had to carry him to the car. I hope whatever’s going on isn’t serious, he’s been like for some time.”
Jayfeather tapped his fingers against the table. Hearing that Walter has been hurting for some time made Jayfeather reminisce on his post in ThunderClan. They were fortunate they had Leafpool to take over when he was gone, but he can’t help but worry. Maybe, at least to put his impatient mind at ease, he could try helping Walter out in return.
“Tell him to eat some poppy seeds, it’ll help dull the pain and make him sleep,” Jayfeather suggested, “and maybe some juniper berries could help with the fatigue and let him gain some strength.”
Ulysses spluttered loudly, it sounded like he was choking on his coffee. Jayfeather flinched in sheer surprise of his reaction. “You alright? What just happened?” he asked.
“No-No, I’m fine,” Ulysses said, clearing his throat, “but poppy seeds and juniper berries?”
“Erm, yes. It is medicine we use,”Jayfeather explained, concern fading to uneasy. If Ulysses was going where he thought he was going, then that uneasiness will surely turn into some sort of anger soon.
There was silence that fell over them; it felt really awkward for Jayfeather. However he did not sense any awkwardness from Ulysses at all, only wonder and humor. Did he thought what Jayfeather said was humorous?
“Well?” Jayfeather droned out, now feeling irritated that Ulysses would think of his methods as something to laugh at.
“I’m so sorry,” Ulysses giggled, “but I don’t think poppy seeds or juniper berries would help.”
“What do you mean? They work for my Clan many times,” Jayfeather objected, “besides you don’t know anything of medicine, so how would you know?”
Ulysses attempted and failed to stifle another burst of laughter. “I don’t know about archaic medicine, Jay, but I have eaten poppy seed bagels before and they never made me sleepy or numb any pain.”
That came to a surprise to Jayfeather. “Well how many are there in a poppy seed ba-gel?”
“I don’t know, probably dozens upon dozens of them in one bagel,”Ulysses replied. This time around it was Jayfeather that spluttered in surprise. If he had given that amount to any of his Clanmates he would surely kill them!
“Besides we use aspirin tablets to kill out pain and it’s much more effective than feeding Pauling seeds or berries,” Ulysses said.
“Wait, you use the bark of aspen right? Then you are still are using plants and trees to help you,”Jayfeather pointed out.
“Aspirin, Jay, though from my guess we used to use the chemical component from aspen bark to pain,”Ulysses said, “but the tablets have much more of the chemical then the actual bark does and probably with other stuff as well.”
Jayfeather let out a drawn out sigh. He now felt like a useless mousebrain for suggesting herbal remedies to the man. They always work with his Clanmates without much hassle, though he had yet to see how humans heal themselves. He doubted that they used cobwebs for cuts or rush for binding broken bones. Just what did humans use to heal themselves? Maybe he could as Kate once they head over to the campus for testing.
“Jay, tell me,” Ulysses chimed and took Jayfeather out of his thoughts, “how did you learn about herbs and remedies? It’s archaic by human standards but I never seen any cats that look for herbs and learn their uses, let alone apply them to other cats.”
Jayfeather let an inward groan. There he goes again, the back-handed complements that imply his species’ apparent idiocy. “I was taught under apprenticeship of my mother, Leafpool,” Jayfeather said, “and she was taught by her mentor, Cinderpelt, and she by her mentor, Yellowfang. It goes back for many years since the dawn of the Clans, Ulysses. That’s all I can really say.”
Ulysses was moving something around and plopped it on the table. He could feel the man lean in, now drawn in with an awe of fascination. “You know I have been meaning to ask what your Clan is like, it very organized from what you just told me so far. What are its basic structures?”
Jayfeather’s mild irritation turned to one of flattery. Ulysses was like a fascinated kittypet, wanting to know everything about the wild cats by the lake. Who knows, if he was a kittypet he could make for a good medicine cat. He didn’t seem to be like a hunter or fighter type from what Jayfeather could tell.
“Well we have our leader who conducts ceremonies, declares battles, and the last deciding choice on major issues. They have nine lives-”
“Ah, so those myths were true,”Ulysses interrupted by saying something Jayfeather would never would suspect to hear from a human. Though by his playful tone Jayfeather became unsure if Ulysses was serious or joking about it, “cats do have nine lives. Or is it just the leader?”
“Just the leader,” Jayfeather said, making his tone sharp to show his distaste of any interruptions, “then we have the deputy who manages the day to day business like setting up patrols and is usually there to help the leader run important decisions. After a leader dies, the deputy takes their place and appoints a new deputy after them.”
“So this isn’t by family base? The leader doesn’t select their child or appoint an heir?” Ulysses asked, obviously not taking a hint. He scribbled something down on the thing he brought out on the table as Jayfeather explained.
“Sometimes they do, but for the most part they choose deputies from cats that prove themselves a capable and a potential leader,” Jayfeather said quickly, “Afterwards there is the medicine cat, which I am. We heal cats and watch over the ill, but there’s more than that. We-” For some reason Jayfeather hesitated. He never really told Ulysses about StarClan. He may have exclaimed it at times but Ulysses could of just passed it off as a word like fox-dung. Would he believe him at mention of StarClan?
“You do what?” Ulysses asked. His curiosity nipped at the edges of Jayfeather’s mind. After another second of thinking about it, Jayfeather shrugged. If Ulysses could buy Jayfeather being a cat then he could buy StarClan, right?
“We speak to StarClan, where loyal and faithful warriors go after they die.” Jayfeather said, “They’re our warrior ancestors, they communicate to us medicine cats by dreams weather to bring omens and prophecies or good greetings.”
He sensed skepticism irradiate from Ulysses, his early thoughts confirmed. It was not too out of the ordinary that some creature, no, some cats even would think Jayfeather had bees in his brain. He expected Ulysses to scoff at him for believing something so preposterous but he gained a different response, “What do you do to please StarClan?”
Jayfeather’s face scrunched up out of confusion. Ulysses cleared his throat and clarified, “What I mean is, what do you do for worship? Any rules to abide to? Need to offer sacrifices or food items? Any place to go to in order to honor them?”
It was strange, these questions where surprisingly put in a lot of thought and consideration. From what Jayfeather could remember or heard about, no one ever asked such in depth questions like that before. Maybe twolegs have some sort of StarClan as well. Though that’s a big assumption because no twoleg I’ve met gave any hints.
“Well, we medicine cats go to Moonpool every half-moon to visit StarClan,” Jayfeather said, “We take leaders there to receive their nine lives from StarClan. Other than that we have a warrior code all Clans follow and a separate medicine cat code. StarClan at times got angry if we break those codes, so maybe that counts as rules to abide to.”
“All Clans?” Ulysses asked, “There’s more than one Clan?”
Jayfeather nodded. “Four Clans: ThunderClan, ShadowClan, WindClan, and RiverClan. We all follow a fifteen number code like forbidding Clans from entering another’s territory, don’t waste food, you can’t have mates or friends with a cat from another Clan.”
“Wait, why not? Why do you forbid having friends or mates from another Clan? Aren’t you all neighbors?”Ulysses asked.
“It’s not as simple as that, Ulysses Hartwell,” Jayfeather said with a sigh, “The four Clans are enemies and their warriors must remain loyal to their respective Clans. We aren’t harsh on cats being friends, but they must remember from cats they meet in a peaceful gathering they will run into the battlefield. And mates, that’s only just worse for them and it never ends in anything good.” He let his head bow a bit as he thought of his parents and the grief causes for them, their Clanmates, and Jayfeather and his littermates. Even after all has been forgiven, it couldn’t be forgotten.
“But just being mates and friends in your own Clan would cause some issues,” Ulysses objected, “you all follow StarClan and have similar, no, exact structures from what I can tell – so there can’t be a deviation or another form of StarClan to the other Clans. Why separate each other and fight?”
Jayfeather snorted. “Oh, so you think it’s as easy as that, isn’t it?” he said, not out of anger but of spite, “I guess you twolegs are so perfect that you get along with everyone; there’s no differences what so ever you’re all one entity.”
“Er,” he entrapped Ulysses with his own hypocritical accusations like cornering a mouse. A few moments of fumbling, Ulysses caved, “No. We still fight with other countries and we have our own disputes to say the least within our own country.”
“Oh, so even you can’t go to other countries that are like you and suggest becoming one big country, am I right?” Jayfeather didn’t ask for an answer, it was rhetorical on his part, “that’s why we can’t be one clan. It’s too big to manage for starters and all Clans live in separate regions different from one another; not to mention that the other cats are so awful that they could just go stuff themselves full of rattails for all I care.”
Ulysses didn’t say anything for some time, scribbling something down again. Jayfeather believed he had beaten Ulysses’s own twoleg logic but he then realized that Ulysses was contemplating a response back.
“If that’s the case, why haven’t you chased them out?” Ulysses asked, his gentle and curious tone contrasted his rather violent approch. “If they’re your enemies that risk attacking you at any moment, why keep them around nearby?”
“Chase them out, Ulysses Hartwell? Rather cruel thought,” Jayfeather said nervously. It’s something that Tigerstar or Brokenstar would agree with and the memories of the battle with the Dark Forest still were strong. “We’re not enemies all the time, we do depend on each other and have temporary alliances when something bad happens. I mean, the best that I could explain it is that it’s better to have neighbors with similar ideals and customs then rouges with no code or honor.”
“That makes sense, I think you stole one out of Theodore Churchill’s book- well minus the expansionistic thoughts,” Ulysses said at first humoredly then suddenly concerned, “but I don’t know, Jay. It bugs me how if the Clans have similar ideals but yet restrict so many freedoms. If those rules apply to laws today, I wouldn’t be friends with Kate or my team. And I bet anyone of mixed ethnicities would be treated particularly worse for being something they had no control over. From our experiences in the country and still happening today segregation never leads to anything productive; no one is equal when kept apart.”
Jayfeather mouth parted as he was about to explain why the code was the way it was, and then closed it once Ulysses’s comment sunk in and he thought about it. Humans are very different, they lived in smaller families caring only for themselves and yet focusing on caring for everyone else or looking good to such a wide society. Yet the Clans from the old stories started as such but those families began to fight for needed resources and the Clans were made for a bunch of families to have equal supply in their turf but making sure to defend from other clans’ thieving and grabbing over the same material. If we changed the first rule of the code, would we change for the better or for worse? He thought.
No, it would make it worse. That code has remained strong countless of times and any half-clan blooded cat could prove loyalty regardless. If that rule was rid of, everyone would have no idea where their loyalties lie, what constitutes a border would be questioned, and fighting for every Clan’s rights would just be impossible.
Jayfeather listened as Ulysses scribbled something down and placed the thing away. “I think we could continue this discussion later. Xavier needs his walk and I’m expecting a call from Lander soon about your upcoming tests pretty soon,” Ulysses said as he stood up and pushed the chair, “Though I probably should keep my interruptions to a minimum since we couldn’t finish up the Clan’s law and structure, sorry about that.”
“You actually noticed that?”Jayfeather responded dryly, “I hope you remember that next time because that was a headache to go through.” He rolled his eyes as he could hear a faint chuckle from Ulysses as he chirrup happily to his dog about walking outside.
“Why don’t you come with us, Jay?”Ulysses suggested, “it’s pretty boring alone in the house.”
“You’re only gone for a few minutes Ulysses,” Jayfeather said, “I think I can handle being bored for a few minutes.”
“Okay then, see you in a bit,” Ulysses said with his voice becoming distant as he lead his dog out of the house and slammed the door behind. Jayfeather leaned back in his chair, head bowed and a held back sigh released in a drawn out fashion. That talk could have gone better. He didn’t get the chance to explain the code in full detail or its origins for being there. He didn’t even get into the medicine cat code for that matter, something very important that his profession followed.
“We can’t mate, all our Clanmates our like our children,” he recited, “we can’t share signs from StarClan unless we’re certain about them, our affairs go beyond the borders-”
Something didn’t sit well as Jayfeather recounted the rest of the medicine cat code. He tapped his fingers against the wooden table, at first silent then slowly reciting the warrior code. The discussion ran through his head again and he returned to his earlier thoughts. He remembered the old dream he had with Brambleberry, how the Clans were like honeysuckle with shared roots and how StarClan does not see boundaries that aren’t there yet are. In a way, didn’t Ulysses recant a similar argument only with the Clans loosing certain freedoms and touching briefly on the problems in makes rather than fixes?
Leafpool and Crowfeather, Jayfeather thought about his parents, then of Yellowfang and her relation with Brokenstar and of Bluestar and her kits. Both codes have been broken too many times to count despite being the most prevalent one. No, the second code is most broken one since we never respect our borders at all!
Jayfeather reconsidered over his earlier thoughts on revising the first code and possibly revising all of it sounded best. Fixing the first code it would stop with all the heartbreak of unwanted kits. Plus with everyone having mates or relatives in different Clans as something someone would accept, wouldn’t that minimize fights and disputes over borders?
“No, that’s just preposterous!” he shook his head, agreeing with his earlier thoughts then this idealistic thoughts that wouldn’t work in the slightest. “Come on Jay, you’re a ThunderClan cat not a U.E. human! The code lasted this long, you can’t fix something that isn’t broke-”
Wait, did I just called myself, Jay? It took a second longer than it should have to realize what he said. He smacked himself in the head, calling himself a mousebrain and every insult he could think of over his slip of the tongue. “Look what this is doing to you! You’re even calling yourself by that dumb nick name! Are you going to call yourself Jay Frayther next and willingly? It’s Jayfeather! Jayfeather!”
He groaned in frustration and propped his head up with his hand. This was concerning, he was even starting to think like a twoleg with all the questions and even considering changing the code for all Clans supposed “betterment”. His Clan-life his fine the way it is, what does a twoleg know about that harsh life of the wilderness, seeing that they lived the spoiled, sheltered life from the outside! Though, being sheltered did seem to give them time to make all these interesting gadgets, maybe made them more peaceful with their neighbors, and-
-made them lazier then a kittypet!Jayfeather let his head slide off his palm and smack the table. The abrupt pain made his twoleg thinking come to a stop. He really needed to get back to ThunderClan and live the life in a cat body or at least dream about it so that he couldn’t forget who he really is supposed to be. He is not a human – no, he isn’t a twoleg and he’ll make sure that he doesn’t fall in their mindset.
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Post by Redfleck on Aug 3, 2016 5:20:39 GMT -5
3Reply to "נᴀʏғᴇᴀтнᴇʀ тσ נᴀʏ ғʀᴀʏтнᴇʀ - Chap 13 is up!"
Chapter 7
The weeks of being human Jayfeather’s dreams consisted mostly of talking to Hollyleaf and Fallen Leaves on the news back home. They mentioned that he missed a gathering, Dovewing had a litter of four, and a patrol that has been sent to look for him returned home. When he wasn’t talking to Hollyleaf and Fallen Leaves, he dreamed the usual dreams: chasing after prey, searching for herbs, just living the life of a real cat. And occasionally he had no dreams at all and remembered nothing.
However this day he dreamed of something different. It started out with just darkness, nothing. However he knew there was something as he could feel himself lying on something cold and he could sense eyes looking down at him. He felt someone pat his shaky, sweaty hand. “Just relax, Jay, we’ll make this as quick as possible,” it was Ulysses that was comforting him in that soothing tone of voice. This called attention of his state of his mind. He was nervous to what was going to happen. He just couldn’t relax at all.
His nervous disposition worsened as he heard Jonathan call out for Ulysses and he was left alone. He didn’t move from his spot, as if he had a command not to move from the start. Despite being alone he heard a voice of a man he did not recognize boom loudly in the room and very suddenly he felt his body being pulled inside a narrow tunnel. Shock wavered down his body, it took all of his strength not to scream or move a muscle in his container. A high-pitch frequency noise grated into his ears like talons of an eagle sinking into the flesh of his prey. He almost didn’t hear that stranger’s disembodied voice with the noise of the tunnel and his rapidly beating heart echoing in his ears.
I want out of this. Get me out of here!
Jayfeather awoke breathing heavily and his heart racing as fast as when he was still in the dream. Taking a few seconds to catch his breath, he sat up on the couch and crossed his legs. He ran his hand through the hair, welcoming the relieved of his chilled palms against his overheated skin.
“That never happened before,” he pointed out to himself. He never had a dream in his whole life where blindness transcended into the realm of sleep. What could it possibly mean?
Xavier let out a muted-bark, making Jayfeather jump up in surprise. He was still absorbed in the oddity of his dreams he didn’t hear Xavier enter the living room. He turned to where he heard the dog, face scrunched up to show his sourness.
“Don’t scare me like that,” he grumbled. Xavier didn’t comply - or at least didn’t take a hint from his angry expression – as shortly after the dog leapt up onto his lap. This time making Jayfeather let out a high-pitched shriek.
“Get off of me!” Jayfeather jabbed the side of Xavier’s body with a finger and the dog quickly scrambled away whimpering as if what Jayfeather did injured him. “Dumb dog.” It was a touch harsh, but at the moment of recovering from a really bizarre and somewhat frightening dream Jayfeather just didn’t want to be bothered by Xavier nor Ulysses.
Though speaking of Ulysses, where is that man?
“I wish I knew what time it is, it’s so hard to tell when I’m cooped up in the house,” Jayfeather said with a slight snort, lying back down to rest his head on the couch’s arm, “then I’ll know if he’s at his hair parlor appointment, he did say it was around this week.” Apparently those insults Walter’s children said months ago had an element of truth. Ulysses always went to a place “twice a month to get his hair trimmed.” Jayfeather would of let that reason alone slide, being that humans were already strange enough for him to accept the idea of a location just for grooming hair, but the defensive attitude that gave off of Ulysses suggested that there was more than he was letting on.
“Well, I guess I’ll have to wait for him,” Jayfeather said. Ignoring the absence of Ulysses, Jayfeather returned his thoughts back to his dream. Why he was still blind in his dream and what was happening in it? He pondered over the two major questions his dream presented for a while, tapping his bare foot against the air and curling his arms behind his head as he passed the time thinking.
When it dawned to him what the answer was, his eyes widen and jaw dropped a bit. “What a minute, what happened in my dream actually happened! How could I forget?”
A week ago, they took him someplace to look at his brain somehow. Jayfeather was pretty much in the dark those whole weeks leading up to that day and even afterward. All he was aware of is that he had to get into a machine called an MRI, not move for several minutes, maybe even hours, as it scanned his body and head. The idea of how a tube could look inside his body to see his innards stumped him to miss out on other details. He could only vaguely remember Andrew, Walter and maybe Kate mentions something about having to pour “money out their own pockets” into this. Plus the team was talking to some other human he could not catch the name of; apparently the person ran the MRI stuff and because they were telling their secret to another human outside their team made everyone nervous.
Other than those minor and confusing details, that was the extent of Jayfeather’s knowledge. It bugged him how much gaps in his memory was in there. Though he quickly blamed that being encased in a tube with a high pitch buzz for what feels like hours would make anyone miss out on those inconvenient details.
“I know for one thing,” he said to himself, “I don’t want to ever go through that again.”
Jayfeather stayed laying on the couch for the most part, recalling that the stranger in his dream was asking a bunch of questions when he was in that tube. He was conducting multiple tests within that tube! A whole stream of confusing information poured in as he filled in his memory gap and it made his head throb. Eventually Jayfeather tore his thoughts away with just a shake of his head.
He had no motivation to try to make something he could eat nor did he bother to find Xavier and play with him to kill time. He just lied there, bored and with a headache until the door clicked open.
“I’m home!” Ulysses called over Xavier’s excited barks, followed by an abrupt slam of the door. “It took a much longer than normal, Lander just called me about the MRI tests. He wants us over at Lower Hengest Medical Center for further discussion.”
Jayfeather could now feel Ulysses hovering over him, Ulysses emotions becoming jovial to irked in half a second. “You’re still in your pajamas, Jay? How long have you been like this?”
“The whole day,” Jayfeather said flatly, “there’s nothing much for me to do in your house Ulysses, if that wasn’t obvious.”
Ulysses groaned, “Well you could of, I don’t know, go take a shower and get changed you know. That could have killed sometime or play with Xavier or make something quick to eat – I doubt you’ve eaten anything since I’ve left.”
“Ugh, if it pleases you so much or make you stop nagging me about it, I’ll get up,” Jayfeather grumbled, sitting up and pushing himself onto his feet.
Ulysses let out a short huff. “You can be unbelievable at times, you know that Jay?” Jayfeather scowled at Ulysses, almost daring him silently to try nagging at him again. After a second of silence in an intense stare down, Jayfeather won and Ulysses caved in saying, “come on get changed so that we can go to the center now.”
“Fine then,” Jayfeather replied, stepping around Ulysses to grab his folded clothes off a small table beside the couch and his trusty cane. Ulysses muttered something else under his breath as he passed by, but all Jayfeather could catch was something about how unkempt he looked.
Like I care, Jayfeather thought as he retreated away to the bathroom to change in less than comfortable clothes. As a cat I could have just licked myself clean and the only pelt I cared for was the one that grew on my skin. Now I must clean myself with water, soap and wear multiple pelts to look respectable to strangers I could care less about. He hoped whatever this MRI stated, it could be one step closer to being a cat once again
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Jayfeather finally remember the name of the human from a week ago. Well actually the man told him his name, but Jayfeather made a note to himself to actually remember it this time around. The man’s name is Jean Cushing. He was a doctor like Kate but with much more narrow focus then just outright healing humans on the campus. (He is a doctor in neurophysiology and from the loosest of understandings he had, Jayfeather assumed it meant that he knew what MRIs did and how to use them.)
“It’s nice to see you again, Mr. Frayther,” Jean said as he lead Jayfeather and Ulysses to some room in the medical center. His voice matched the huge waves of fascination Jayfeather sensed from him. Yet Jayfeather did catch a small bit of skepticism from the man, “Dr. Lander did help clarify some things for me about you when I showed him the results of the MRI scan.”
“Lander told you everything about this project, Dr. Cushing?” Ulysses asked, sounded a bit guarded.
“Everything, Mr. Hartwell,” Jean said quickly, as though he didn’t wish to talk to Ulysses at all, “your whole team is inside the ward and we could discuss about it in private.”
Jayfeather frowned as he felt annoyance come off of Ulysses as they entered the ward. He seemed offended by what Jean had said, but what Jean said didn’t sound at all offensive to Jayfeather. Though the tone of voice Jean used when he addressed Ulysses could understandable tick off anyone. Jayfeather shrugged it off as some sort of old rivalry or something between the two. For all he knew, Ulysses and Jean could have known each other already.
When the entered the room, the two were greeted by an upbeat greeting from Kate, that quickly made Ulysses’s spirits return to his normal cheerful self. “Hello Ulysses, Mr. Frayther. Take a seat.”
“Hello Kate, I’m glad you can make it,” Ulysses said, walking ahead away from Jayfeather as he went off in his own direction for a chair. He swept his cane around until in hooked a metal chair leg. Pulling the cane closer to his body, Jayfeather reached his hand out and pulled the chair over and plopped down.
“I wouldn’t miss it, Lander did say it was a sight to see,” Kate responded with Jonathan grunting eagerly in response.
“You’ve been vague in what the images bring,” the more cold and unappreciative voice of Cherith chimed in, “may we seen them now, Dr. Cushing?”
“Why yes, I’ll go get them now Dr. Kauffman,” Jean responded back in an eerily cold manner before walking off and closing a door behind him. Listening to the doctor over Jayfeather remembered similar attitudes when Jayfeather first arrived for this MRI. Jean seemed to have some distain to Ulysses, Kate and Cherith whenever they talked to him from what he could recall, though the reason why is another mystery to Jayfeather.
In a way, he was like me when I first became a medicine cat apprentice,Jayfeather humored, only that Jean Cushing is obviously holding back like a coward.
Jayfeather, absorbed in listening to the conversation, jumped when he felt a hand unceremoniously slapped his shoulder as intended to be a playful manner. He turned to the offender and immediately sensed a pain more than his own.
“Aren’t you exited, Mr. Frayther?”Walter asked in a clearly strained voice. He cleared his throat and in a much lover tone, “Sorry, are you excited is what I meant. I can- can’t seem to talk right as of late.”
“Yeah, I can tell, have you taken something to deal with that headache?” Jayfeather asked, wearily.
“Oh yeah, I have,” Walter sounded surprise at the subject change, “I’ll be better- fine, no need to worry. I think we must focus on your tests.”
“Yeah and right after we’re done, you should check in one of the wards to see how you’re doing, Walter,”Andrew added in.
From what Jayfeather could tell, Walter offered no response to his companion’s suggestion. When Jean strolled back into the ward, everyone’s attention returned to the tests. Yet Jayfeather couldn’t really focus, not with the pain wavering from Walter biting the back of his mind.
He should go now, instead of later, he thought, that way I don’t need to share his own headache.
“Here are the scans depicting several activities in each center of Frayther’s brain, both dormant and active,”there was a small shuffle of odd sounding paper as Jean handed something to someone.
“Wow,” Ulysses audible amazement reached Jayfeather’s ears just as Jayfeather felt the charged emotions from everyone (with exception of Walter, who still remained sitting beside Jayfeather.)
“I never seen such activity in any human brain before,” Jean mentioned, “that’s why I took a week until I showed you these images, I was looking for a comparison to both human brain-” there was shuffling of something “-to a cat brain.”
Everyone’s amassment started to bug Jayfeather’s own curiosity; he now wanted to see what got everyone riled up. Clutching his cane in a tight grip Jayfeather concentrated his powers until he squirmed into the mind of one of the scientists – that being Ulysses.
Dr. Cushing’s pale hands held out two images above another image Lander was holding. On each of the waxy papers, a ghostly gray image of a hollow human head and cat head with bright colored splotches in areas of the brain. The activity in Jay’s head is baffling, I don’t know what to say, Ulysses’s thoughts rang loud and clear.
“The activity in Jay’s brain is like a combination between the human and the cat,” Kate said breathlessly, pulling Jayfeather sharply out of Ulysses thoughts.
“Looks like he has a much more developed temporal lobe then the human does,” Jonathan said, “and frontal lobe by the looks of it, I would never guess that.”
“I know, his brain seems to be much more developed then any normal human in some areas,” Jean chipped in. He paused and the turned to Jayfeather, “Mr. Frayther have you ever became blind in some point of your life?”
“No, I have been blind since as long as I can remember,” Jayfeather said edgy. That’s a weird questions, what made him have to ask that?
“That’s strange,” Jean responded, answering Jayfeather’s thoughts, “I took a blind human for comparison and the activity in both occipital and parietal lobe is different than your own activity in those same lobes.”
“Look, I really don’t understand where you’re getting at with all this. I have no idea what you mean by brain activity or pectoral lobes, or whatever you just said,” Jayfeather groaned, unsure if he was just feeling Walter’s pain or if he was getting a headache himself.
“My apologies, these are terms that you’re unfamiliar with,” Jean said with a tone of arrogance that made Jayfeather scowl. He wasn’t the only one that picked up that conceited nature as irritation waved off of everyone else.
“To put it in perspective, Mr. Frayther,” Cherith replied cooly, “the brain has various functions to which we scientists simplify and place those functions to various regions of the brain. The functions range from cognitive, in which you consciously decide on an action, to automatic, in which you have no control or choice on.”
“Mind you that’s the most simplistic way of putting it,” Jean interjected, “but it is a good place to start off.”
“Dr. Cushing, there’s something-”Jonathan said something to get the doctor’s attention. Jayfeather leaned back and inwardly groaned, not bothering to listen in on more headache inducing brain-stuff that he had no measure or basic understanding in.
“Yeah, it can be had to wrap your mind around it but that is the fun in neuroscience, its complexity,” Walter said. “I can’t think of any other field I would rather be in that really captures that joy of unraveling then enigma that neuroscience holds.”
“Then how come you can’t use the MRI so that I don’t need to listen to that guy flex his swelled head,”Jayfeather whispered.
“Our campus isn’t a medical faculty-facility, it’s hardly a science oriented university, so we can afford to owe an MRI machine,” Walter chuckled. Then he let out a fatigued sigh as though even laughing was just too much to handle, “and I’ve been in such pain nowadays I’ve been having trouble concentrating. Sorry that I haven’t been as much help as I wish to be.”
The conversation ended with a small groan of pain from both men and silence afterwards. Jayfeather tuned back into as Ulysses finally got in a say.
“-I think he has the potential of having superhuman intelligence,”Ulysses said, “from all the accounts he told me when he was a cat, he and his family have the behavior of a small tribal society.”
“That’s preposterous, Mr. Hartwell,”Jean said, “That could be fabrication now that he has a human mind.”
“That doesn’t seem likely Doctor,”Kate responded, “how could a cat fabricate something he has yet to know when he becomes a human? Already they have some sort of language similar to ours that when he transformed he spoke perfect English, which alone could imply some sort of intelligence like humans if he need to communicate to his peers.”
“Yes,” Ulysses said boldly when Kate backed him up, “I mean his Clan has an organized system in place and even an organized religion in the whole region. I doubt all of that could be fabrication, Dr. Cushing.”
“How are you so sure about that?”Jean’s tone rose a bit, sounding much on the level of a threat. Jayfeather smirked as at the anger and nervousness under Jean’s skin as his mighty intelligence was challenged.
“We could try to find the cats and run a scan on them. Ulysses found Mr. Frayther at Hareveiw Campgrounds,”Andrew said, “we find one-”
“-place it under an MRI and compare the scan between a normal cat and to these supposed hyper intelligent cats,” Jean interrupted, “just what I was thinking, good call Dr. Elston.”
“Thanks,” Andrew said rather dully. “We’ll have to ask Mr. Frayther about it and see how we get a cat scanned here without anyone noticing.”
Jayfeather bit his lip slightly. He honestly didn’t expect that idea and he didn’t like it at all. The idea of trying to kidnap his own Clanmates and take them to this terrible place just didn’t sit well, not even if it meant helping him in the long run.
“What happens after the testing?”Jayfeather asked, “You are going to return them back, right?”
“Oh sure we will, they’ll be back home safe and sound in just a blink of an eye,” Jean responded off-handedly. His tone of voice made Jayfeather’s skin crawl. That tone did not trust the safety or return from his Clanmates. “So what do you say, Mr. Frayther? Like this idea?”
They’re twolegs! How can you forget that most you meet want to capture cats and turn them into kittypets?Jayfeather thought, hesitating to say anything, they have given me options with no choice on my part, I refuse to let them do this again. StarClan help me out here!
Almost on cue of his silent call from help, he felt something land right on his lap. Jayfeather gasped and out of reflex pushed his hands out to grab it. His finger ran through thick hair and sweaty skin, and trembled underneath Jayfeather’s touch. Jayfeather’s eyes widen in horror when he realized whofell in his lap.
“Walter!” Andrew gasped. Footsteps followed after and Walter’s body was quickly yanked from Jayfeather’s grasp.
“I’ll get security! We need to rush him to the emergency ward!” Jean’s shouts sounded distant as he ran off in some direction. The air of the room was charged with the chaos of voices and panicked footsteps. Jayfeather just sat there in his chair, listening to Jean find help and Andrew frantically calling out Walter’s name.
No! I didn’t want this to happen!Jayfeather brought his trembling hand to his mouth. He didn’t want his Clanmates to be taken away but not on the cost of Walter’s life.
StarClan save him!
Reply to "נᴀʏғᴇᴀтнᴇʀ тσ נᴀʏ ғʀᴀʏтнᴇʀ - Chap 13 is up!"
Chapter 8
It was strange how frayed emotions, loud noises, and the urgent chaotic atmosphere of the hospital waiting room seemed to lull Jayfeather in sleep. Perhaps he stayed up for too long, waiting for Walter to awake from his “surgery” as they had told him. He didn’t know how long it had been, nor did he know how he could fall asleep in such a preface of his, um, acquaintance’s health.
Jayfeather stood in the middle of the forest, feeling an autumn wind buffer against his pelt. “Hello?” he called out, raising his hoarse voice over the wind, “Hollyleaf? Fallen Leaves?”
There was no response, no shimmer of stars or faded outline of his sister and her mate. He was utterly alone much to his frustration.
“What? Are you guys afraid of meeting me in a hospital?” he growled, “or, are you ashamed of me for falling asleep like a lazy mouse-brain?” He paused, “Unless, there’s a reason for me to be dreaming when no one’s here to greet me.”
Still no response, but the wind picked up violently and shoved him back. He bowed his head, feeling his paws drag against the ground.
“Ugh, what is with this wind?”Jayfeather grumbled. It took a few moments for him to understand. It’s heading out into the distance. But there’s nothing out there. Unless they want me to leave to-
“Walter’s dream!” Jayfeather realized at last and tore off running, “I can save him like I did before! I just hope that humans can dream in the first place.”
The tom kept at a good pace, lifted by the wind, his eyes narrow in deep concentration as he tried to push through Walter’s dream. He found the land underneath his paw sway uncontrollably and the colors of the sky and ground swirling together ina mass of colors.
Come on, come on! Jayfeather tried not to get distracted by the changing landscape. The more he concentrated the more the land swirled, and the harder it was to run through. He ended up tripping over some blod of color that usued to be grass and fell down a deep, dark abyss.
For a split second Jayfeather thought he awoke as he saw nothing, though the odd sensation of floating seemed to correct his judgement. He didn't hear any noises from the science team or hospital waiting room, so that meant that he was still in a dream. Grunting Jayfeather rotated in the air until his feet touched the ground. The feeling of weightlessness was gone in that moment and he quickly stumbled.
Ah, I’m in my human body, Jayfeather thought as he straightened himself up. I wish I had my walking cane on me, hopefully I won't run into anything.With that, he wasted no more time and set through the darkness, starting slow then picking up speed. He ran through the dark for what felt like hours until he saw a gleam of a white coat contrasting with the black. Picking up new speed, Jayfeather raced up to the white coat until it shaped itself in a lonely human, half turned away from him.
The man’s skin was pale, a frightening white with a bluish tint that made Jayfeather speculate that he wasn’t meant to be this pale by human standards. His black hair was short and messy and he had a black patch of hair that surrounded his lips. He was a portly man, chubby like a kittypet. When Jayfeather came close enough, the man’s gray-blue eye dart to the side and he turned his head. Jayfeather gasped, seeing a bead of blood dripped down the side of his face. The man didn’t seem to notice as he put on a relieved smile.
“Mr. Frayther I didn’t expect to see you of all people here,” he said.
He’s Walter alright, Jayfeather thought, recognizing the voice, did not expect him to look like this though. He cleared his throat awkwardly, “I’m taking you out of here. Come follow me.”
Jayfeather turned made a few steps away from Walter, and then looked back. The portly man did not budge from his place. Jayfeather grumbled, marching back and tugging sharply on Walter’s arm. “Come on, you can’t stay here!”
“I can’t move,” Walter said, hanging his head. There was some emotion in his voice Jayfeather couldn’t tell. Disappointment? Acceptance? Fear? Well whatever it is of no concern at the moment. Right now Jayfeather must help him get out.
“That’s no excuse, Walter Pauling!”Jayfeather snapped, hoping his callousness will snap him into action, “If you stay here any longer you might-”
“-die?” Walter interrupted, looking back up at Jayfeather with that same emotion he couldn’t identify. When Jayfeather hesitated, he shook his head, “I can’t move, even if I wanted to Mr. Frayther. Look at my legs.”
How did he know that I could see him? Jayfeather thought baffled. Never the less he looked down. Walter’s legs, unnoticed before, were faded into the darkness. It was up to his knees and it was steadily climbing up to his waist.
“Then I’ll just pull you out then,”Jayfeather said, not willing to loose Walter when he thought he had a chance of saving him. Clutching tightly on his hand, Jayfeather tugged at his arm and took a few steps away. He didn’t get far as soon Jayfeather’s feet slipped and slid on the same location. He too was stuck.
“Mr. Frayther, please stop!” Walter choked out in pain. Jayfeather relaxed his grip and looked up. The bead of blood on Walter’s face was now a small stream; the darkness was now above Walter’s belly.
“I don’t think I can make it, Mr. Frayther,” Walter said, pulling his hand back from Jayfeather’s loosened grip. “Please make sure my family’s safe and happy. Can you and my friends do that for me?”
Jayfeather hesitated, his hands bunching into a fist. He failed hadn’t he? Surely this wasn’t Walter’s time to die like that moment with Flametail? Letting out a bitter sigh, he said with a stone-cold voice, “We’ll watch over them Walter. You don’t need to go in to whatever afterlife humans go worrying over family.”
Walter started chuckling when he said afterlife, as if that was some sort of punch line to a joke. He spoke in a whisper, “Thank you Mr. Frayther. Thank you and my department for what they have done.”
Jayfeather watched as the darkness absorbed the remaining parts of his body, his chest, then his arms, and the finally his head. Suddenly, whatever ground was in the darkness was slipped from under Jayfeather’s feet and he fell into consciousness.
“Jay, wake up,” Ulysses voice reached to Jayfeather’s ears. It took a few seconds for Jayfeather to orient himself to wide wakefulness. He quickly lifted his head off of Ulysses’s shoulder and spinned his head around. He could hear a woman crying violently, hiccups from three other people and an eerie silence from everyone else.
“Is Walter dead?” Jayfeather asked with his voice dropping into a whisper. He assumed that the crying people were Walter’s wife and children. He wasn’t sure who was the fourth person crying.
Ulysses hesitated to speak for many seconds. “Yes,” he said, voice shaking as he tried to hold back his own sadness. “The doctors were too late to save him. I feel so bad for Anna and her children, and Andrew isn’t taking it well either.”
Jayfeather didn’t say anything. He felt sympathy for Walter’s family and colleagues, but he didn’t feel the same grief everyone else did. He felt disappointed and frustrated at not being able to save him, but Walter was still a stranger to him nonetheless.
Bu there was something else that bothered Jayfeather. Something about Walter’s dream and death that made Jayfeather feel frightened. Yet he couldn’t place on why he felt like that.
---
A few days had passed since Walter had died. Jayfeather was surprised that during this time there was no burial for the man. The man did deserve one, or did the Pauling family just wanted the burial in private? He didn’t get the chance to ask, what with Ulysses bouncing around doing something like renting a “tux” and calling any of his friends up on the phone. Jayfeather was left in the dark, letting his confusion idle under restrained annoyance. As much as he wanted to snap and demand for an answer, he knew better than to demand when a friend’s death was so fresh in their minds. It’s simply common courtesy.
He finally got conformation when he heard the back door open. Jayfeather was in the backyard, foreseeing Xavier running about blissfully in the significantly cooler air. Jayfeather did have some inkling of envy of the happy dog; he didn’t get to bear the burden of courtesy like Jayfeather.
“Yes Ulysses?” Jayfeather asked, not turning to face the man.
“Hey,” Ulysses said in his usual gentle tone, “I came to tell you that Walter’s funeral is two days away.”
“Now you guys bothered to bury him?” Jayfeather grumbled, keeping his voice cold and leveled. He felt Ulysses hand grip his shoulder and he could feel resentment eradiated from Ulysses’s at the comment.
“Of course we’d bury him, Jayfeather,” Ulysses said, “it just takes a couple of days for the funeral to start. We had to wait conformation from Pauling’s family on if they’ll have a public funeral, and when they do they’ll have to pay for the expenses for the funeral and call up their relatives about his death.”
Jayfeather turned face Ulysses at last, still holding his scowl. “Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner Ulysses Hartwell? You’ve kept me in the dark for so long!” he asked, now releasing his idle frustration. He found it ridiculous for it to last this long over preparations of a burial. By now Walter’s body was cold, it just wasn’t right to leave a body out for so long.
Ulysses pulled his hand from his shoulder at last. “Sorry, I guess I couldn’t find the time to tell you Jayfeather.” Ulysses sounded genuinely apologetic for the inconvenience he put Jayfeather through.
Jayfeather sighed, “Just don’t do it again.” He couldn’t be angry for long; there was no time for it. Frankly he was sick of the depressing atmosphere clouding around them.
A small little jingle from Xavier’s color distracted Jayfeather as he felt a wet nose prod his calves. He sharply pulled away, pulling his walking cane closer to his body. This action, by the sounds of chuckling, lifted Ulysses’s spirits.
“Hey Xavier, you tired boy?” Ulysses spoke in a half-hearted coo. Jayfeather felt Ulysses’s arm sling around his shoulders and lead him gently to the door. “Come on Jayfeather, the tux’s I rented are here. Let’s see if one of them fits you.”
Jayfeather rested the tip of his walking cane down on the ground, listening to it drag against the concrete of the patio. “Ulysses, do funerals usually take this long to prepare?”
“It depends on the type of funeral Jay,” Ulysses said. There was a pause for Ulysses to slide the door open. “Sometimes they can last one day for preparations, others maybe even a week at most.”
“Ah, have you been to one that had quick preparations or one that went straight to the burial?” Jayfeather asked. Now that he thought about it, this was the first time he ever seen a human’s death and attended their funeral. He had yet to see that happen when he was a cat and already they were much different than Clan burials.
There was a pause and Jayfeather realized he had invariantly stuck a nerve. There was a small sniff and Ulysses responded in a wavering voice, “Yeah. I’ve been through that.”
He did not press on and out of curiosity Jayfeather prodded his mind for a quick second. He served through the depressing emotions and thoughts as quickly as possible and got one work from the quick search: Annabelle.
---
Not only did preparations were different, Jayfeather found out that human funerals were much more lavish then Clan burials. Jayfeather hadn’t been a part of such a congregation of humans since the party a couple months ago. Majority of gathering was in the form of elders. Walter’s parents, along with Anna’s parents, were there and so were the Pauling (and Ramound, as Anna’s family had a different last name) aunts, uncles, and cousins. Jayfeather was unfamiliar of these labels for family members and he had to hold this in the back of his mind. Now was not the time to ask what certain terms meant.
For the most part Jayfeather kept his distance away from the funeral-goers, even standing alone when Ulysses, Kate, Cherith, and Jonathan left him to mingle with the Ramounds and Paulings. Jayfeather had not run into Andrew, or rather Andrew did not seek out Jayfeather, but he could hear his grief stricken voice conversing with Walter’s parents.
Eventually Ulysses fetched Jayfeather and they took their seats to listen to a man called a preacher begin the memorial with a speech, then followed by Anna, Walter’s parents, and Walter’s many relatives. Even Andrew got up to speak on his friend’s behalf.
It just drags on, Jayfeather dug his nails into the soft fabric of the tux. He didn’t really want to be the one to feel sour about a funeral, but he couldn’t stand how it didn’t let up. Every warrior knows when it’s time to stop mourning.
Jayfeather then hung his head, trying to tune out the depressing atmosphere and keep it from smothering him. Then again, they aren’t warriors. I never seen any of these humans go out into battle and return with wounds, most of their work is to something random, he thought. Did that mean that humans don’t experience the loss of loved ones as readily as his Clan did? Is that why they mourn for so long? Because it’s rare for humans to see the ones they care about die?
That still doesn’t make this unbearable to sit through, Jayfeather thought, hearing Anna’s parents starting to drone out their misery. StarClan make this stop!
Thankfully it did stop after what felt like hours of sloughing through speeches as the funeral-goers stood up to disperse. Jayfeather took the opportunity to leave the stuffy building and into the fresh, cold air. He walked around with his trusty cane in the small garden that was close by until he heard noises. It sounded like a metal claw scrapping the ground. Jayfeather turned and went to investigate and he found himself in the presence of a stranger. The noise was coming from him.
“Hello?” for some strange reason Jayfeather felt like he should respond, the first time he spoke since he got to this place. “What are you doing?”
“Hello,” greeted a kindly man. “I’m just raking the leaves. Fall hit us early and already the leaves are shriveling up and falling.”
It’s fall already? Jayfeather thought. He leaned a bit into his cane, listening to the man rake up the leaves. “Why do you bother to rake them?”
“To make sure the cemetery is clean and orderly,” the man said, his voice seemed to have some sort of edge to it, “it’s my job to oversee the people that enter these grounds, dead or alive.”
Jayfeather let his eyes narrow a bit. It almost seemed as if that man was speaking in code. “Well I think that’s a bit a waste of your time,” he said cautiously, wanting to see how the man would react as his strange manner of speaking, “soon the snows will come and cover the leaves. You’re not going to rake up the snow are you?”
The man didn’t seem fazed from what Jayfeather could sense. “There are some things I can’t do, I can’t control the snow or when the leaves fall,” he said, “but I can make sure the graves are tended for and the people are alright, sir. And are you alright?”
Jayfeather sighed, “I’m fine. I just needed to get away from the depressing place for a while.”
“That’s alright with me, sir,” the man spoke, “death is a change that no one likes. You just have to accept it and change it like how the leaves and snow falls.”
“Thanks for the comfort,” Jayfeather said dully, deciding that what the man was talking about didn’t have any real significance behind it.
The noise of claw on leaves stopped abruptly. “You certainly have gone through a lot of change sir, most of it against your will,” he said.
“C-Come again?” Jayfeather straightened up.
The man continued, “to some extent you’ll return back where you came from, but you’ll never be the same if you decide to go back. Staying here and seeing things like funerals will change you more and more.”
Jayfeather felt unnerved as the man spoke in that code again. “I’ve seen plenty of deaths in my lifetime, this death is no different,” he said, “and besides I’ll go back home and everything will be fine.”
“There’s no grantee on that, the summer before will not be the same as the next summer, sir, that much I’m certain. You may even return during spring or fall, and they’re nothing like the summer,” the man said with his hidden wisdom. “And this death is important to you since you attended his funeral.”
“No, he’s a stranger that I happen to know,” Jayfeather grumbled, “and also I’ve seen his death. You can’t really walk away when you see someone you know just enough die. I just wanted to see that he was properly buried.”
“You mean the body, the man has been long gone by the time of his death,” he said
“Yeah, but it’s still best for his body to be buried,” Jayfeather said, “I just hope he’s in a better place.”
“He may not be in any place,” the man said gravely, “but that isn’t for me to say. He may have gone somewhere and he may have not.”
Then suddenly it hit him, why that dream had made Jayfeather frightened. What the man said reminded him of Mothwing, whom once did not believe in StarClan and was never touched by them for some time. The same was for Walter. And if he had nothing to believe in, then he had nowhere to go to when he died.
Walter was essentially gone forever.
Jayfeather felt tears drip down his eyes for the first time over Walter’s death. He quickly wiped his face frantically, hating how the stranger managed to weaken him emotionally with a coded talk. Suddenly he felt warm, as though someone wrapped their arms around him in a comforting embrace.
“Do not be sad for that man, I’m sure he lived a good live worth living,” the man said, “I myself didn’t know him like you nor could have been any help other then make his grave look nice through the seasons, but I can help you. You seem like the guy that has people watching over you. You have some sort of power that comes off of you and that’s mighty good as that can’t change so easily.”
Jayfeather took a shaky breathe not daring to speak as he recovered himself. “Just who are you?”
The man chuckled, simply repeating “Someone who oversees the people, dead or alive.”
Suddenly the warm around him was gone and Jayfeather felt suddenly cold. He turned around when he heard footsteps approach him.
“Jay!” it was Kate, “are you alright?”
“Um I’m fine,” Jayfeather said quickly, relaxing his body.
“Are you sure?” Jonathan’s voice spoke, “it sounded like you were talking to someone, but I didn’t see anyone.”
Jayfeather blinked and turned his body half way to where he heard the man. He didn’t sense any presence other than Kate and Jonathan. He couldn’t have time to walk off without my notice or without Kate or Jonathan seeing him.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Jayfeather said, turning back. Though neither did the two – nor he – believe what Jayfeather said.
Kate tugged at his arm. “Come on, Ulysses was worried about you taking off like that.” With that Jayfeather was pulled back to the building. Though he couldn’t help but look back many times.
Who exactly is that man?
Reply to "נᴀʏғᴇᴀтнᴇʀ тσ נᴀʏ ғʀᴀʏтнᴇʀ - Chap 13 is up!"
Chapter 9
The mundanity of life kicked back just within the month. The testing had been delayed and so did the plan to take a cat from his Clan. Jayfeather thought that the delay was over Walter’s death, much to his understandable frustration, but Cherith eventually corrected him. Ulysses had taken him out to shop for fall and winter garments one day and they ran into her by pure chance. Ulysses left them to talk, too eager to find suitable clothes then to chat.
“August is when the students will return to college,” Cherith answered with her icy tone, which sounded even colder from exhaustion, “we have a job as professors to teach our students and we must prepare for class lectures. Your testing will resume once we settle back into the college's schedule.”
“So your real job is teaching people? Like a mentor teaching their apprentice?” Jayfeather queried, keeping his voice lower than normal so no one around them could pick up on his words.
“Apprenticeship is much different than our method of teaching,”Cherith corrected, “we instruct in large groups and help students one on one when they need it. The kind of teaching you are familiar with goes along the line of internship.”
She paused for a second, muttering under her breath but just enough for Jayfeather to make it out, “Though with you still around, we might need to cancel any incoming internships.”
“That sounds difficult,” Jayfeather said, glossing over Cherith’s mutter, “teaching one on one would help ensure the student will learn efficiently and it won’t be so stressful on the professor, wouldn’t it?”
Cherith’s attention was not on Jayfeather. “Sweetie, please put that back, we’re not getting that,” she chastised her daughter lightly for whatever her child picked up. For a moment, Jayfeather thought he would have to repeat himself but Cherith did return to Jayfeather’s earlier comment as the child pattered away, groaning in disappointment.
“In classes like mine that specialize in a branching subject of genetics, there’s a majority of people that wish to peruse that route as their job,” she explained, “In other classes, it’s common for people to be in the class just to gain college credit, not to pursue an occupation. There’s an advantage in teaching in large groups, we help out the people to gain credit to pass through college and bring aide to the people who want to commit for a career and we teach all students to learn and work from each other in large groups.”
She paused when Jayfeather heard the child’s footsteps pattered back to her mother. “And besides,” she added, “I do work one on one if any of my students has issues to work out. Though for those who came here to waste their time and party, I do not care for. They wasted their money and it isn’t my responsibility to mother them into acting responsible.”
Afterwards the conversation veered off as Cherith left the isle with her daughter in toe. Jayfeather returned to Ulysses to try on the new clothes he picked out for him – which were much more bulky, longer and thicker than his summer clothes – and returned home. During the soothing drive home, Jayfeather told him about what he learned from Cherith.
“She seemed cold, well colder than normal, about teaching,” Jayfeather said. “In a Clan a warrior mentors an apprentice to retain the necessary skills needed for survival and usual the two forms a close bond. Here you seem to teach in large groups, making it hard to bond, and you don’t care if someone fails in that group.”
“Well from your society, at least from what I can tell, you have two things to specialize in: medicine or warrior training,” Ulysses noted. “You are in a situation where you lived off the land to survive, so harboring close connections and teaching specialized skills is important. For us, more options then just medicine and warrior training; and there will be many competing for the same job. So it helps to see who will have the drive to pull through in the end, it doesn’t mean we want them to fail.”
“Yeah, but it still isn’t right for her to leave some people in the dust like that,” Jayfeather said. Though now that Ulysses mentioned it, there were hardly any options to choose from back home. It’s either a warrior or medicine cat, and if a cat can’t be either then it’s off to the elder’s den or nursery for the rest their lives. He remembered that he wanted to be a warrior but in the end was forced to become a medicine cat. Don’t get him wrong, Jayfeather loves being a medicine cat now and still does, but from the day he was born he was pushed into a pre-chosen path over and over again with hardly any input of his own. Being a human with the many freedoms didn’t seem too unappealing.
“Well, college for many is usually the first stepping stone for adulthood since a good chunk of our students are teenagers now completely on their own in the first time of their lives,” Ulysses said, “they have to learn to manage their freedom on their own since college is a choice in it of itself. If they don’t care to manage their classes to their day to day lives, then I shouldn’t tolerate any excuses on their part. It isn’t my duty to parent them; it’s my duty to teach people that actually care to be here and help them be able to deal with the real world. For those who choose to waste their money like that, then they better be ready to face the music.”
Jayfeather chuckled. “That makes sense. There are some cats I would expect going through that whole, er, ‘song and dance’ as you call it.” He paused and turned his head to the driver’s seat. “Cherith also mentioned that you guys would probably have to cancel internships because of me, just as a head up.”
Surprise came and then quickly turned to a mild discontent. “Oh, I guess she wants to be precautious,” Ulysses mused, “Though I don’t think it would be too much of a hassle to watch over interns and do your testing, but I can see the risk of them finding out about you.”
“Yeah, why are you afraid of people finding out about me?” Jayfeather asked. That question had been like a tick on his fur for the past several months. It’s about time it should be removed.
“Well,” Ulysses stretched the word, sounding very hesitant on what he was about to say, “for starters we’ll look very crazy if someone got a hold of this and spread the word.”
“Jean Cushing believed you with presenting some evidence,”Jayfeather pointed out, “I doubt that’s the real reason you don’t want me to be known publicly.”
Ulysses grumbled something under his breathe, a wave of annoyance washed from him at the mention of the annoying doctor’s name. “Yeah, sometimes people won’t believe you even when you have scientific evidence to help you, it’s just that-”Ulysses trailed off, unsure of what to say next, “You know what, just forget about it Jay.”
“Forget about it? Don’t dodge my question, you know how I do not like being in the dark,” Jayfeather snapped, “It wouldn’t possibly hurt to tell me.”
“I just don’t know how to word it, okay Jay,” Ulysses said a touch sheepishly, “and I kind of don’t want to jinx us by saying the possibility.”
“Jinx?”
“Jinx means that what someone says, usually indicating bad luck, will happen,” Ulysses said, “eh, I shouldn’t be so superstitious but I can’t help but have a bad feeling about this when someone mentions the risk we take on this research. I really don’t want to mess us up.”
Jayfeather rolled his eyes and turned his head so it rested on the window. “Okay, fine. Don’t tell me,” he grumbled bitterly.
There were a few moments of silence. It was partially uncomfortable, at least coming from Ulysses. Eventually, out of boredom and irritation from Ulysses’s awkwardness, Jayfeather broke the silence. “Um, mind telling me what you do at work?” he asked clumsily. It was the first thing he could come up with that would constitute good small talk.
Jayfeather felt a small burst of excitement come from Ulysses. Oh no.
“Okay then, I usually…” and Ulysses began to jabber off like an annoying robin. It was like that the whole trip and Jayfeather tuned out most of it as best he could. When the car entered into the garage, he stepped out and turned to Ulysses.
“On second thought, would you mind if I attend a class and see what goes on?” Jayfeather asked, not bothering to hide his displeasure of Ulysses’s lengthy talk.
Ulysses’s jovial attitude waned just a bit, but he used to Jayfeather’s easily irritable behavior to let it bother him for long. “Hmm, I’m not too sure,”there was a pause to think, “oh, I’ll let you come, just don’t make yourself a distraction, okay?”
“You honestly think I would make a distraction of myself?” Jayfeather said flatly. He felt a lighthearted pat on his back.
“I know, but it’s better safe than sorry, right?”
---
Much to Jayfeather’s dismay, it was raining. He was started to enjoy water, as long as it was in the bathroom and hot. Anything else it was just unpleasent, especially since Ulysses pushed on walking over there.
“You’re crushing my arm, Jay,”Ulysses said with a sly tone. Jayfeather glared at him for his smugness and clutched tighter onto his arm. He wanted to make sure that he was well under the umbrella Ulysses carried.
“Why couldn’t we just drive?” Jay asked, cringing as he felt his shoe splash against a puddle. Already he could feel it soak to his socks. And why couldn’t you find some water-proof shoes for me when we went shopping?
“Because it’s just a short walk always,” Ulysses said, “and I do not like wasting gasoline if the campus is this close by.”
“Yeah, but we’d be dryer,” Jayfeather grumbled. There was a loud buzzing sifted over the tumble of rain, growing louder until suddenly speeding by them. It hit a puddle as the splash right sprayed Jayfeather’s trousers. Letting out a surprised yelp, Jayfeather hopped back and went to the other side of Ulysses, cluching his arm again when he felt some of the rain drops splatter on him.
“Hey there Professor Hartwell!” a boisterous man called as he passed by with phenomenal speed. The buzzing slowed down as the man returned back to them. “Sorry did I spray you?”
“Oh no, not at all Mister O’Reilly,”Ulysses spoke for them respectfully, “though next time be a little more cautious on bike.”
“Yeah, I’m cautious,” O’Reilly said. He paused, his arrogant attention now on Jayfeather, who grumbled under his breath on how he did splash them with water. “Oh, you got a girlfriend over the summer, Professor Hartwell?”
Both Ulysses and Jayfeather spluttered in surprise and Jayfeather quickly let go of Ulysses’s arm. “I am a man, thank you very much,”Jayfeather snapped, trembling both from the cold and embarrassment. Can’t these human’s use their noses correctly?
“Oh, so sorry,” O’Reilly chuckled, though didn’t sound the least apologetic, “I didn’t see you too well and the coat kinda looked girly on you.” That jogged Jayfeather’s memory: humans don’t go by scent, they went by sight. Still, it was no excuse. “So are you two-”
“-friends,” Ulysses answered, his joking smugness now gone and replaced with embarrassment, “he wanted to see where I worked, Mister O’Reilly.”
“Right,” O’Reilly said, unnecessarily stretching the word out. Jayfeather grumbled, wishing that the smug man would leave them alone. I wonder what’s so funny to him, he thought. He considered probing his mind for the answer, but that would mean that he would have to slog through the insufferable man’s rather insufferable thoughts. To be frank, Jayfeather already had enough of the man to not bother.
As though Ulysses sensed Jayfeather’s annoyance, he said quickly, “look I better check into my office and I assume you have a class to go to? So see you later, O’ Reilly.”
“Yeah, I’ll be seeing you nest class actually, Professor Hartwell. So see ya then!” O’Reilly said and sped away on his noisy bicycle – this time splashing water on Ulysses.
“Who does he think he is,” Jayfeather grumbled, burying one of his hands in his pockets to keep warm.
“Eh, I think he had a great summer,”Ulysses replied with an equally bitter tone of voice. “Come on; let’s not stand out here any longer.”
Ulysses and Jayfeather only made some minor chit-chat when they reached a building. They ran into Cherith, Jonathan, and Andrew, greeted them and other professors before heading to Ulysses’s office.
“My class won’t start until twelve, so I’ll have some time to prepare and get situated,” Ulysses said as he took a seat. Jayfeather navigated around with his cane until he sat down on a chair./
“I’ll also warn you, now that classes are now in secession, I will be gone for the most part on Mondays, Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays for night classes and seminars,” Ulysses said, “I’ll take you back home around six and get you something to eat but I’ll be returning back here afterwards.”
“Ah, what will I do on afterwards? At days you’re at work, I mean.”Jayfeather asked.
There was some tapping on the keyboard as Ulysses paused, but he pulled his concentration away from his computer and back to Jayfeather.
“Well, you wouldn’t mind taking care of Xavier, would you?” Ulysses asked, “I think he’ll be happy to go out more often now that you’re around the house. You could also watch some television programs to pass the time if you like. And maybe you can do some yard and house work while I’m away? I defiantly guarantee that you won’t be bored or at least be doing nothing when I’m gone.”
“Goodie,” Jayfeather said flatly. Doesn’t that sound exciting? “So what about food then?” Already he felt hungry; something nice and hot would sound pretty good about now after the trip in the rain.
“I guess you’ll have to learn how to feed yourself while I’m away,”Ulysses said, “or when I’m passed out in the mornings since my night classes tire me out.”
Jayfeather nodded simply and a comfortable silence fell upon them. Ulysses worked on his computer and Jayfeather just sat there to his own thoughts. That’s what I’ve been doing haven’t I? Sitting and doing nothing but think, he thought, ugh, I’m going to become chubby as a house pet if I don’t do something productive. Hopefully the house work won’t be unpleasant.
When the hour reach eleven forty-five did Ulysses finally took off, dragging Jayfeather along with him. So far Jayfeather wasn’t impressed with the work environment, mainly because he was bored over anything else. All Ulysses did was type on his computer then occasionally darted out to get some printed papers. Jayfeather hoped that seeing Ulysses teach something wouldn’t be as boring as sitting around his office.
Jayfeather followed Ulysses’s quickened gait, struggling to keep up against a wave of students. As much as Jayfeather wanted to go at his own pace, he knew if he lost track of Ulysses he’ll be lost for sure. He sure did miss being able to follow crisp scent trails then relying on noise of footsteps, voices, and others thoughts and emotions to guide him.
“Hello Ulysses, Hello Jay,” the merry voice of Kate thankfully slowed the man down to a stop, allowing for Jayfeather to catch up.
“Oh, hello Kate,” Ulysses greeted, all sense of rush gone the moment he greeted the doctor, “I’m just on my way my class and letting Jay see how my day goes.”
“Well that’s great,” Kate replied. Then there was a strange, but brief pause before Kate turned her attention to Jayfeather. “And do you like it Jay?”
“Er, yeah, it’s great so far,” Jayfeather said quickly, not really expected her to ask the question. He was frankly distracted by Ulysses’s and her changing emotions. They were subtle, but it was striking enough that Jayfeather didn’t glance over them. There was a sense of boldness to Ulysses when he talked to Kate and a feeling of longing when the subject stirred away from him for a moment. There were some similar, yet downplayed emotions like that from Kate as well. It was enough to make Jayfeather believe that they would forget about their duties and their surroundings and only focus on each other.
I’d be a moron to not recognize the emotions associated to love,Jayfeather thought, yet this just doesn’t feel right.
“Look, I better dart back into my office,” Kate said quickly. Apparently while Jayfeather was lost in thought Kate and Ulysses were chatting away about something he did not care for. “It sure stinks that the first day back is a rainy day. We’re going to have a flood of sick patients by tomorrow, I can guarantee that.”
“Yeah, and I- well Jayfeather and I should get to class and stop distracting you,” Ulysses said clumsily. Jayfeather inwardly groaned, suppressing the temptation to say a snide comment about Ulysses’s behavior.
“Yeah you do that, see you two later,”Kate said, voice stifled as she walked a good distance away from them and the crowd of people’s collective voices washed over her own voice.
There was a horrendous pause afterwards; neither Jayfeather nor Ulysses said anything. Soon, Ulysses cleared his throat and broke the peculiar silence, “Um, let’s go.”
Jayfeather obliged and took quick steps so that he was by Ulysses’s side. “That was really bad there,” he said bluntly, “tell me Ulysses, is there a way you get any more obvious?”
Ulysses let out a forced laugh. “Really? I have no idea what you’re talking about, Jay,” he said. Instead of sounding painfully happy, like someone would sound like when they’re caught off guard and need to make a noticeable lie, he sounded pretty disappointed.
Jayfeather groaned a bit. At least knows that he isn’t fooling me, he thought. Clearing his throat he asked in a much gentler tone, “Tell me, honestly, was there something going on between you two?”
There was no reply for a couple of moments. All Jayfeather could sense from Ulysses emotionally was just disappointment and longing. Yet there was no grief or anger, nothing that indicated something bad between the two and it bugged Jayfeather. It seemed rather uncanny of lack of any fervent emotions when bringing up a break up.
“There was,” Ulysses said, some of the perk returned in his voice, “but now we’re just close friends and we’re quite happy with that.”
Are you? Jayfeather thought. He considered on probing Ulysses’s mind to find an answer but the man spoke quickly enough to prevent Jayfeather from begining the search.
“Well let’s not waste some time, class is about to start,” Ulysses said as he opened a creaky door. “Take a seat in the back, Jay. The seats are right up against the wall.”
Jayfeather nodded, entering the room and maneuvered around desks until he reached the back. The curiosity about Kate and Ulysses was quickly abandoned. Frankly he shouldn’t care so much about snooping into people’s love life; he didn’t care about it as a cat he could care less as a human.
Yeah, that’s right, Jayfeather thought as he and many other humans took their seats. He tilted his head up and listened to the beginning of Ulysses’s lecture. He felt some astonishment at how different Ulysses sounded when he began lecturing. It’s like Ulysses had become Cherith, professional and passive. It was simply intriguing to listen to even though Jayfeather didn’t understand the professor’s jargon.
I don’t care at all.
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Post by Redfleck on Aug 3, 2016 5:21:10 GMT -5
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Reply to "נᴀʏғᴇᴀтнᴇʀ тσ נᴀʏ ғʀᴀʏтнᴇʀ - Chap 13 is up!"
Chapter 10
Jayfeather rested his chin on the table, listening to Ulysses and Xavier shift around the kitchen. Ulysses brewed with a cloud of sleep hanging around his mind and Xavier loudly scarfed his food with gusto. It was past noon, Ulysses awoke only a few moments ago. Ulysses wasn’t joking - he really did sleep like a rock after his night classes. That meant Jayfeather had the mornings all alone but he sometimes snuck into Ulysses’s room. Part of the reason was that he wanted to just check up on him and see if he was alright after a long night’s work.
The other part was because Ulysses’s room was much warmer than the living room. The autumn chill sunk through the house and his blankets didn’t warm him up at all. So Jayfeather would sit at Ulysses’s bedside, sometimes accompanied by Xavier, and enjoying the more comfortably warm room until Ulysses awoke.
However this action usually resulted in waking Ulysses and Ulysses became uncharacteristically cantankerous when he was rudely awoken from a well-earned rest. He gave a pretty hilarious reaction the first time Jayfeather woke him up. It was pretty downplayed as the months went by, and oddly enough, Jayfeather stuck around longer out of the enjoyment of teasing Ulysses.
“You know you could go out and walk Xavier or rake some leaves, Jay,” Ulysses spoke after drinking a few big gulps of his coffee. “You don’t need to wait for me to wake up.”
“It’s cold out, I like to wait until its warmer,” Jayfeather responded lamely, propping his head up with a hand. In the past autumn mornings weren’t so much of a hassle, but after being cooped into a house with a heater, the mornings outside felt like diving into icy waters with no fur. The living room may be cold, but it was nothing compared the chill outside.
“Yeah, but must you wait in my room until then?” Ulysses asked sourly, pausing again to drink some more coffee.
Jayfeather smirked. “Oh might as well see how you’re doing while I wait, right?” he chuckled playfully, “and it’s Thursday, so I have you most of the day.”
“I’ve got papers to grade, but yes I’m free for the most part,” Ulysses said, now sounding less bitter. There was a pitter-patter of paws approaching them on the tile and Ulysses turned his attention to the dog. “It’s certainly been awhile since I actually played with you, hasn’t it Xavier?”
Xavier responded with a merry whine. Jayfeather rolled his eyes. “Yeah, do you mind walking him this time around? I’m sure he wouldn’t run away from you like he tried with me,”he suggested.
“He’ll run even if I’m with him, he’s an opportunistic fella- aren’t you Xavier?” Ulysses cooed, “Though I will walk him this time. I’ll let you take a break.”
Jayfeather let out a relieved sigh a leaned back into his chair. He nodded off for a few seconds before a knock at the door snapped his head back up. He flinched a second time as he felt Xavier brush past his legs in fright of the loud noise.
“I’ll go see who it is,” Ulysses said scooting his chair back and exited the kitchen. Jayfeather heard him open the door and greet a familiar face.
“Oh Kate! And Lander,” Ulysses said, sounding pleasantly surprised then becoming just surprised. “What brings you here?”
“I paying a personal visit with you, Hartwell,” Jonathan said in utmost seriousness, “normally I would call you but things came up and it was faster to meet you in person.”
This made both Jayfeather and Ulysses become tense. It didn’t sound like Jonathan came to visit over good news. No one really came in person for any good news, cat or human otherwise, Jayfeather thought, leaning back to listen in a bit better.
Sensing the nervous atmosphere, Kate said “Well, I tagged along with Lander. I’m off duty for now and I wanted to know if it’s alright if I could take Mr. Frayther out? Like for a haircut or shopping?”
“Well, Jayfeather could use a haircut and a shave,” Ulysses said thoughtfully.
“I do think Dr. Dausset has a good point, I think Mr. Frayther should go out a little more often,” Jonathan said, though rather hesitantly, “he shouldn’t be sheltered inside like a hermit. Just as long as you two are careful when you’re out, I think it’ll be fine.”
“We will be, Lander,” Kate said with a slight huff at Jonathan’s doubts.
“Alright, I’ll get Jay then,” Ulysses said. Jayfeather straighten up and tapped his hand against the table to look like he didn’t listen in. He brushed his hair back, feeling his long, messy hair.
Huh, I guess a hair cut would be good then, he though, brushing his hair away. Next thing I know, I’ll be doing this twice a week like Ulysses and do StarClan knows what to my hair!
---
“Just sit on the chair there, sir,” a painfully polite woman said as Jayfeather guided himself down to take a seat. He let out a quiet sigh, knowing that it was rude to make any noise to show his frustration. He wasn’t dumb because he was blind.
No it wasn’t just the being treated differently because he was blind that infuriated him for once. He looked into the hair cutter’s mind to confirm the obvious reason why she was so polite. Instead he found another reason.
“He’s nice looking for an old man,” the woman thought humorously as she draped something over his neck and body, “age has been kind to him, I’m jealous.”
Old man? He was four years old (approching to five,) he’s not even close to being old! What made her think that he looked like an old man anyways?
“How much do you want off?” the woman’s voice dragged him back to the present situation. He paused, unsure of how to answer.
“Just six centimeters would be good, don’t you think Jay?” Kate asked from beside, she then turned to her own personal hair cutter. “I would just like three on the back and cut my bangs up to my eyebrows.”
“Yeah, I’ll just go with what she’s having,” Jayfeather grumbled as his usual bitter attitude returned. She’s paying anyways, so I could care less.
“Alright,” the woman said and began to pull and comb his long hair back. Jayfeather gripped the arms of his seat as he heard the snaps of the scissors cutting close to his ear shortly after. What would happen if this dumb-bell messed up and cut his ear?
“How’s your September going Jay?”Kate asked.
“Boring,” Jayfeather replied. Well, somewhat boring. It was the first time he even experienced grueling labor beyond his normal job of a medicine cat. He finally could make his own meals and prepare a bowl for Xavier, he raked the leaves, he walked Xavier and cleaned up his messes (much to his “delight,”) and he cleaned the house with raunchy smelling chemicals. It wasn’t prideful work, but it made him remind him of home in caring for his Clanmates and doing chores, usually caring for the elders.
It’s been so long since I’ve seen my Clanmates, Jayfeather thought as the woman tilted his head down to trim the back, I’ve been so distracted lately with all of this that I’m forgetting what it’s like to be with them. So many human customs to learn, chores to do, knowledge to obtain – it all distracted him from the real problem.
“Well hopefully we’ll get things back on track,” Kate mentioned, though keeping her statement vague for the women not to eavesdrop, “I think Elston has been starting to get back into gear of things and Lander’s got some news, good or bad is up to you Jay.”
“Yeah,” it sure doesn’t sound like it, he added silently, “what was he going to tell Ulysses?”
One of the women interrupted the conversation before Kate could respond. “Ulysses? Ulysses Hartwell, right?”
“Um, yes,” Jayfeather said, tapping his fingers against the arm at the rude interruption. I got to be polite, he thought, feeling his frustration bubble in his chest, less she might actually decide to cut my ears with those scissors. “Do you know him?”
“Oh he’s a regular here,” the woman chuckled, obviously not taking his subtle annoyance, “and even if he wasn't, I wouldn't forget him. He has intresting tastes; he always come to straighten his hair and dye it blond.”
“Dye it blond?” Jayfeather asked before he had a chance to think. If he he did, he wouldn’t have prolonged the interruption. Well, on the plus side I’ll finally know what Ulysses’s been doing to his hair.
Kate was laughing, though Jayfeather could feel that she was just annoyed on to of being humored. “Oh, that means he likes to change his hair to a different color,” Kate replied, “I’m surprised he hasn’t told you by now.”
“That’s right,” the woman said. There was a bunch of clicking and clacking of objects being moved around, then followed by a buzzing noise. “How long have you known Ulysses, sir?”she asked, drawing the buzzing noise closer to Jayfeather’s face. He grimaced and clutched the arms of the chair again again.
Oh mouse-dung.
The buzzing was from the machine that shaved off the hair on his face; somehow it worked in a way to where he didn’t peel off his skin as well. It was just loud enough to drown out the obnoxious women’s voices, they never stopped their chatting. Jayfeather only got to continue with Kate’s conversation when it was all over and paid for.
“Kate, what is Jonathan going to tell Ulysses?” Jayfeather asked once they were outside. He rubbed his hand against his face and hair, quiet impressed at the handy work. He felt cleaner and neater now.
“Well, he got word from Dr. Cushing,”Kate said with a low cautious voice, “He wanted to know when we can continue with the research. We needed a comparison from your family.”
She’s not telling me the whole truth,Jayfeather thought, noting her tone of voice. Not to mention that if it was all Jonathan had to say, he wouldn’t need a private chat with Ulysses.
He probed her mind. “Not to mention that Cushing has some medial staff now suspicious of him from our visit. At least it’s nothing too bad, Jayfeather doesn’t need to worry about that,” Kate thought.
Jayfeather frowned, clutching his walking cane tightly from once again being kept in the dark and the mention of retaining one of his family members. “I thought you forgot about that,” he said.
“No, we wouldn’t,” Kate said apologetically, “we’re sorry for the wait. You must have been impatient for turning back into a cat.”
Actually no, well not impatient over that, Jayfeather thought. It was strange, the distractions and interesting things he experienced had made him seem distant from his old life of a cat, I still want to be one again, but it’s just… not so urgent as before.
“Jay,” Kate’s gentle voice dragged him back out of his thoughts, “look I can see how uncomfortable this is, and so if you have anything against doing this we’ll understand. We won’t coerce you into doing something you don’t like.”
“Oh no, Kate,” Jayfeather said. It’s about time to stop sitting around and just thinking and take some action for once. He won’t back down. “I want to know, not only will I take a step closer home and get to see my family – I’ll get to know a bit more about humans and their interactions with actual cats.”
Kate chuckled and she patted his shoulder. “You kind of sound like a scientist with that kind of talk, Jay. We’ll tell Lander and Ulysses when we get back at the house.”
Jayfeather shrugged away from Kate’s touch. “Well, just make sure my family’s back home, safe and sound, alright? I won’t go with it if you’re going to make them into house pets.”
Reply to "נᴀʏғᴇᴀтнᴇʀ тσ נᴀʏ ғʀᴀʏтнᴇʀ - Chap 13 is up!"
Chapter 11
Returning back to the lake was just plain strange. It was refreshing yet at the same time almost disgusting. Everything sounded wrong, everything smelled wrong, even the autumn air felt wrong.
It's basically everything that a human would experience the first time they came to the lake. It just teased him relentlessly about his current being, it made his feel like he lived a foot in the human world and a paw in the cat world.
Jayfeather felt much better in the warmer reception building. He sat in a cushy chair, in his lap he held equipment that the team borrowed from Jean. They had yet to tell him what it was for, so Jayfeather was forced to wait to ask once they sorted out their priorities. He waited with Kate and Ulysses, hardly talking while Andrew and Jonathan talked to the receptionist. Cherith couldn’t make it due it being her daughter’s birthday.
That, or she didn’t want to listen to this, Jayfeather thought aridly as the conversation with Andrew, Jonathan, and the receptionist went in a complete circle.
“Listen, ma’m, we just want to conduct some research, we’ll be done as quickly as possible,”Jonathan insisted in a polite, professional tone. He hid his frustration quiet well, but he couldn’t hide his emotions from Jayfeather.
“That area is restricted, sir,” the woman repeated sternly, “I’m sorry, research or not I can’t let you go there.”
“We’ll avoid the quarry, mademoiselle. We wouldn’t dare put our jobs and, especially, your job on the line due to negligence,” Andrew piped in a flirty voice. Yet his voice still sounded hollow to Jayfeather’s ears even though he felt no sign of genuine grief. “We have proper reason to be in that region, as my collogue explained. We’ll be quick, since we do not wish to be a burden to anyone.”
The flirty voice managed to calm the woman’s frustration with Jonathan (though it did the reverse for Jonathan.) Yet she remained guarded, asking more questions, “So what are you researching exactly?”
There was a brief moment’s hesitation. Jayfeather tapped his fingers against the arm of the chair as he felt the tension arise between his collogues. They haven’t thought on why we’re here? he thought, doing all in his will power not to get frustrated with them. Looks like I’ll have to help.
Andrew spoke slowly, “well, we’re researching-”
“-badgers,” Jayfeather said out loud, smirking slightly at the momentary surprise from everyone in the room, “they’re quite common in that particular region, ma’m, and I doubt that they would stay out of an off-limit area.”
“Why yes,” Ulysses caught on, shifting away from Jayfeather over to the receptionist, “we need to see how the population is doing. It certainly has been awhile for a population census after the lake nearly dried up.”
The receptionist groaned. “Oh. That whole fiasco,” she said. Jayfeather inwardly groaned, feeling the same sentiments from the previous heat wave and badgers blocking the water down river.
I guess humans and cats alike would worry of the lake drying up, he thought, though I doubt it’s for the same reasons.
“Alright, I’ll let you stay there for only two hours, no more than that,” the woman said. “One of you will have to fill out the paper work.”
“I’ll stay,” Andrew jumped on quickly.
“Alright, Mr. Elston is it?” the receptionist said, sounding a touch more friendlily, “You can stay and your colleagues will go. By the time the paperwork’s done, you’re time will be up. There is a lot to fill out.”
“Yes ma’m, we won’t waste any time,” Jonathan said.
Everyone became mobile rather quickly. Jayfeather felt the weight of the materials on his laps decrease, allowing him to stand up and grab his cane with a free hand.
“Let’s go, Jay,” Ulysses said eagerly while Jayfeather followed him with more restraint. But he too shared that excitement.
I’m going to see my Clanmates at last.
Jayfeather could feel the large stones through the sole of his shoe as they walked on the shoreline. There was a sharp scent of pine, so Jayfeather assumed they were walking by ShadowClan territory. He told them not to go after the other three Clans’ cats since that was unethical. Though, thinking it over, it would have been less of a hassle after that drawn out talk with the receptionist. Of course ThunderClan would be the restricted area.
As they walked down the shoreline with only the sounds of the water, stones, and birds breaking any silence, Jayfeather decided it was time to ask them about the equipment.
“Ulysses, what is this equipment for anyways?” he asked.
“Hmm, oh the equipment is to help, er, retrieving the cats,” Ulysses said, pausing to pick his words carefully. He didn’t sound like he was hiding anything and all Jayfeather could feel was embarrassment. He probably was going to say "capture" or any word with a dark undertone.
Yet that still kept Jayfeather on edge, “what exactly do we have?”
“A cage for transporting the cat,”Ulysses explained, “we also have tranquilizer darts so that way it will be quick.”
“Tranquilizer darts?” Jayfeather asked.
“They’re darts that makes the cat become unconscious. That way there’s no struggle on part of the animal and we can conduct research quickly,” Ulysses explained, “and we also have leashes if we need to use them.”
Jayfeather abruptly halted. He didn’t like the sound of the equipment; it sounded like it would hurt his Clanmates.
“Jay?” Ulysses halted beside him, “is there something wrong?”
“You’re not using those tools!”Jayfeather said, loud enough for all of them to hear.
“What do you mean by that Mr. Frayther?” Jonathan asked, flabbergasted, “we’re not going to hurt your Clanmates with them.”
“How do I know that?” Jayfeather challenged, “knocking cats outs and using a leash sounds like they’ll get hurt!”
“They won’t,” Ulysses insisted, gripping Jayfeather’s shoulder. He pulled away, ignoring the shock and hurt on Ulysses part, “these have been used before and proven to be safe. We wouldn’t put any cat in pain, especially your family members.”
“Then let’s try a different way in getting them then,” Jayfeather said, still opposed to using the darts or the leash.
“How? Do you propose to negotiate with them?” Jonathan asked sardonically. Jayfeather nodded and he heard a grunt of disbelief. “Are you serious?”
Kate, who had been quiet during the little argument, chipped in calmly, “We should respect Jayfeather’s wishes. We won’t use any of the tools if it bothers him that much. We’ll have to try more conventional ways.”
Thank you, Kate, Jayfeather acknowledged her silently, though he did detect that Kate didn't like the idea of him trying to negotiate with his Clanmates.
“Ugh, fine. We’re wasting time standing around here,” Jonathan caved in with a huff and he quickly picked away. Jayfeather followed beside Ulysses and Kate, heading back home.
“Your Clan made their home in the quarry?” Ulysses said after a while of walking. Jayfeather shivered, feeling much colder underneath the shade of the trees. He really has been out of tune from the forest if this was cold for him.
“Looks like we’ll have to wait nearby and wait for any cats to show up,”Kate suggested.
“Sounds like a plan,” Johnathan chipped in, “I could set down the cage and cover it.”
“No,” Jayfeather said, pausing to feel where the chilly breeze was going, “we’re up wind of them. So they already know we’re here. They would think twice to enter into a strange cobject covered in leaves with your scent all over it.”
“Well that’s great,” Jonathan groaned, “if they already scented us, they would have scattered by then.”
“No, I’m pretty sure they’ll come to investigate,” Jayfeather said, “they would want to see what would be so near camp and would plan to draw us away.”
There was a long pause from all three; their feelings went around from impressed to doubtful. “That sounds like methodical planning there,”Ulysses commented.
“I’ll scout ahead, you three stay behind me and try to stay hidden,”Jayfeather said, putting down the equipment he carried and through a bush. The leaves and branches scraped harmlessly over his trousers, but made a lot of noise. He swung is cane around him in a half-circle, hitting nothing but air.
Looks like I’m in a clearing, Jayfeather thought, lifting his hand to signal them to stop. Now I’ll just have to wait.
After waiting for some time, his patience was rewarded when he heard a loud meow right in front of him. He quickly peered through the mind of Ulysses to see who was in front of him since he couldn’t identify them by scent anymore. Ulysses’s gaze was fixed right at a gray cat with blue eyes. Dovewing! A golden tabby cat and silver and white tabby cat where mostly obscured in the leaves, but Jayfeather could recognize them as Ivypool and Lionblaze.
At last, Jayfeather left Ulysses’s thoughts and returned to his actions. He never felt so much astounding joy in his whole life. He crouched down, extending a hand out to Dovewing. He tried to sense her emotions, yet nothing came up. No emotion that would be as apparent as facing down a twoleg so close to camp.
Are my powers useless with cats?Jayfeather thought in surprise. Thinking it over, he never did try to peer in the mind of a badger, fox or human up to this point. My powers only work if I am that creature.
He was dragged out of his thoughts as her felt Dovewing’s head against his hand. He smiled and gently rubbed her head. “It’s been awhile, Dovewing,” he whispered. He wondered if she, Ivypool or Lionblaze recognized him.
Though he doubted it as Dovewing pulled away, her meows growing distant as she tried coax him to follow her. “I’m sorry,” he said, not bothering to turn his head that direction. He spoke up louder, “you guys can come here now.”
There was a sharp rustling in the bushes as Ulysses, Kate, and Jonathan awkwardly stumbled through the bush. It felt weird not knowing what Dovewing, Ivypool and Lionblaze would feel in such detail. He strained his ears, trying to listen for any sound they made.
There was a loud, frightening hiss and a yelp from Ulysses. Jayfeather snapped his head up. “What happened?” he said, loud enough to get over the cats’ growling but soft enough not to alarm them.
“Ah, stepped a bit too close,”Ulysses said, keeping his shaken voice soft and gentle, “I’m fine.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to use the leash?” Jonathan asked, trying to sound calm. Jayfeather couldn’t help but humor that sure large creatures like a human would feel so terrified to a small cat.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Jayfeather said. He leaned, supporting his body now with one hand while the other tried to coax Ivypool and Lionblaze over to him. Come on Lionblaze, look right at me. Try to see that it’s me, Jayfeather willed silently. He remembered Ulysses saying long ago that his eyes glow in the dark like a cats. He hoped there was just enough shade from the trees could help make his eyes glow.
He felt one of them sniff the tips of his fingers, their growls silent but they dared not to approach any further. He wished to know what they were thinking. Did they recognize him or did they stopped growling just because they didn't want to mess their plans up in luring them away?
“Come on, kitty,” Ulysses began to coo. Jayfeather felt Ulysses’s arm brush right beside his, Ulysses's voice dropped to a whisper. “Do you want to get the golden tabby or the silver and white tabby?”
Jayfeather gulped. It felt like he was choosing over a vole or a mouse for lunch. “Ivypool. She’s the silver and white tabby,” he grumbled. Lionblaze had kits and a mate to care for and so did Dovewing. He would have to apologize to Ivypool countless time until his tongue fell out to make up for this.
“Okay,” Ulysses said gently and repeated his coos. Jayfeather retracted his hands away from them slowly. He waited patiently until there was a surprised yowl that erupted from Ivypool and a sharp pain that came from Ulysses.
“Ach! I got her!” Ulysses said though gritted teeth, standing up sharply. Jayfeather tried to stand up quickly, but he stumbled right on his bottom when Lionblaze swiped his hand.
“Ow!” Jayfeather gripped his hand. Now he understood why they were afraid of cats, that hurt worst then a slap in the face! This human skin of his was utterly flimsy. Fortunately, Lionblaze didn't attack him anymore, but by Ulysses cry of pain he had only changed his targets.
“Ulysses, be car-woah!” Kate’s call was cut off as a patter of paws, presumably from Dovewing, stood behind Jayfeather. “Ach! Back off!”
“Ulysses! Give me the cat!” Jonathan came bounding just as Jayfeather pushed himself on his feet. A scream quickly followed afterward and a thud of something falling.
“Ah! We dropped her! Yeowch!”Ulysses cries gave Jayfeather minimal warning as he felt claws and teeth sink through his trouser and into the flesh of his leg. Jayfeather shrieked in pain, dropping his cane and shaking his leg to push the cat off of him.
“I’ll try to grab her!” Kate called, the voice lowered that was barely heard from the cats yowls, “Easy there girl.”
Jayfeather fell back on his bottom once again, at the mercy of his kin’s claws. Through a matter of minutes, everyone was bruised, cut, and dirty. Lionblaze, Dovewing and Ivypool sped out of their grasps and retreated back to the quarry. Defeated the four picked up their stuff and retreated out of the forest. Jayfeather hung his head, dragging his cane behind him in defeat.
“I better dress your wounds. No offence Jay, but I doubt your family has the cleanest mouths or paws,”Kate said, breaking the silence.
“I don't care,” Jayfeather replied tartly, closing his blind eyes. He didn’t really want to speak, his pride and his feelings took a bit too much damage from that attack. He was too hopeful to assume that Lionblaze would recognize some random twoleg in their territory.
What do I smell like to him? he thought, allowing himself to think as Kate didn't press on. He doubted he smelled like a cat at this point. All scents that made him Jayfeather was gone. If I was being generous, then I just smell like Jay Frayther. But really, I would smell just like any twoleg out there, he thought, they’re all the same in a cats’ eyes.
The distant voices of Andrew and the receptionist reached his attuned ears, getting clearer as they approached them. They sounded much more delighted then the group felt at the moment. It was gone when they saw their disheveled bodies.
“Lander! Hartwell! What happened to you guys?” Andrew asked.
Jonathan groaned, “we ran into some trouble. I doubt you’d believe me if I told you the details.”
There was a lofty sigh from the receptionist, “I assume that you failed to find any badgers.”
“I think we would need more than two hours to find them, you dolt,”Jayfeather grumbled, ignoring Ulysses gripping his shoulder to quiet him. He tugged his sore shoulder away from Ulysses and gave him a glare.
“Look pal, I’m just doing my job. I didn’t have much leeway to give you, jerk, enough time,” the receptionist snapped, “after risking both our jobs and what I get in return is your attitude, I kind of regret allowing you back here!”
“Fine then, we'll never come back to this place ever again if that makes you happy!” Jayfeather snapped, marching ahead and rudely pushing through Andrew and the receptionist. He could hear Ulysses and Andrew frantically apologizing for him and trying to explain his behavior. Jayfeather picked up his steps and began to run back to the car, the quicker he didn’t hear their voices the better.
StarClan why? Why doesn’t anything work? he thought, wincing as his wounds began to burn from his running. He slowed down, the landscape under his shoes became smooth as it turned into pavement. He approached the car, tugged its door handle. When it didn’t open, he screamed up at the air and plopped right down on the ground as his wounded legs couldn't support him any longer.
With shaking, scratched hands he wiped away the tears from his eyes. His chance to know more about what happened to him was gone. The key to why he transformed and possible way for him could transform back botched.
“It's not fair! It's just not fair,”Jayfeather choked out in heavy sobs.
Reply to "נᴀʏғᴇᴀтнᴇʀ тσ נᴀʏ ғʀᴀʏтнᴇʀ - Chap 13 is up!"
Chapter 12
The two men drove back home. The atmosphere lathered in a very uncomfortable silence; Jayfeather still frustrated with what happened and Ulysses feeling rather irked from his behavior. The silence only brought a false sense of reassurance to Jayfeather until they arrived home.
“That was uncalled for back there, Jay,” Ulysses said very tartly.
“Of course you’re going to bring that back up,” Jayfeather scoffed. Seeing that it wasn't worth sparing a second to be scolded like a child, Jayfeather slammed the car door open and behind him. He didn’t get a few steps away until Ulysses’s door opened and shut and the man rushed up right in front of him.
“And you honestly thought that I wasn’t?” Ulysses said, “That woman risked both our jobs for us to even set foot back in your forest.”
“And what good did that do? We failed, Ulysses!” Jayfeather snapped, trying to push his way past Ulysses. Instead, Ulysses grabbed his shoulders, pushed him back and held him in place.
“That doesn’t change the fact at how rude that was Jayfeather!” That had made Jayfeather tense up in sheer surprise. It had been so long since Ulysses called him by his real name in person. “You still have to appreciate someone’s hospitality and generosity, something I would think you’d learn since the first time you came here.”
Jayfeather quickly yanked Ulysses’s hands off his shoulders. “Oh shut up Ulysses! You-”
“No, I’m not going to shut up, Jayfeather,” Ulysses snapped, “not until you get over this moody fit of yours and apologize.”
Jayfeather’s left hand balled up into a fist. “Moody fit? You think living as some-some twoleg is just a moody fit of mine?” Jayfeather barked, “You either shut up about this or I’ll make you shut up!”
Jayfeather could feel Ulysses's lean in, breath ragged in anger and almost ready to go up against Jayfeather's threat. Yet Ulysses’s voice captured a note of chilly serenity, as if he became so anger he went back to being calm. “Fine then,” he said backing away and marching into the house.
There was no victory from the argument, not even in the short-run. In the short-run Jayfeather felt even angrier. In the final span of the day, it faded and was replaced by loneliness. Ulysses took to heart and had kindly shut up for the rest of the day, but he also avoided Jayfeather for the rest of the day as well.
It would normally not bug Jayfeather as much; in fact it would just irritate him. But he spent the most of his anger and they were the only two in the house. There was Xavier of course, but he was just a dog – good for one-sided personal conversations and that was it. Even then it seemed Xavier would rather hang with Ulysses then Jayfeather, as he followed his owner into separate rooms.
The only words spoken from Ulysses was cold and brief, saying that he had to go make his lesson plan as an excuse not to eat dinner in the kitchen with Jayfeather. The only good side Jayfeather could see from that is they both wouldn't need to drag their heels in a painfully awkward silence. But it ultimately just made Jayfeather even lonelier and even unwelcome. He nibbled on the pasta dish Ulysses prepared, listening to Xavier chow down on his food loudly.
“Should I apologize?” he asked out loud. There was a momentary pause from Xavier before the dog proceeded to crunch down his food. Jayfeather pushed his bowl away from him. “Ugh, I hate how this is bothering me so much. I really shouldn't care so much.” He got up, threw the remaining pasta away and the bowl in the sink. He then plopped on the couch and forced himself to sleep on his empty belly. It will all be better in the morning anyways.
In Jayfeather’s dreams, he was greeted being close to Hollyleaf's furious face.
“What in StarClan’s name were you thinking?” she barked in such volume that it made Jayfeather jump back in shock. He growled, feeling his anger return from such an outburst.
“What did I do wrong?” he demanded at last, frustrated at how angry everyone is with him. “What gives Hollyleaf?”
“I think all this twoleg stuff has gotten in your head, that’s what gives Jayfeather!” Hollyleaf snapped, her tail lashing back and forth like a snake, “you tried to kidnap Ivypool!”
So that's why she's in such a fit,Jayfeather scowled. “Do you have bees in your brain?” he snarled, exasperated, “you would know I would never try to turn my own Clanmate into kittypets!”
“How do you know that?” Hollyleaf snarled, her gaze relaxing only slight to show her worry, “I know you wouldn’t do that Jayfeather, but how do you know that they wouldn’t change their minds? It’s bad enough ThunderClan lost you, they don’t need to loose Ivypool too.”
Jayfeather flicked his disbelieving gaze away from Hollyleaf and to Fallen Leaves. Her mate spectated quietly, surprised at Hollyleaf’s anger but his own expression mirrored her same sentiments.
“You two can’t be serious. Did the fact that my powers encompass the ability to read people’s thoughts slipped out of you mind?” Jayfeather retorted, “I would know if they would go against my orders and turned Ivypool into a house pet.”
“Just because you can read their minds doesn’t mean you can control them, mousebrain!” Hollyleaf said, shaking her head, “this act was just utterly reckless, what do you honestly thought from accomplishing this?”
Jayfeather grumbled and turned away from both Hollyleaf and Fallen Leaves. His anger exhausted him physically and mentally, and yet this discussion proceeded to make his anger boil more and more. He swore his own heart would give out at the stress he felt the whole day!
“They wanted to know what kind of intelligence we already have to begin with,” Jayfeather reasoned, “we all thought that it would help me get one step closer to returning back to a cat.”
“This is ridiculous,” Hollyleaf scoffed, “the amount of intelligence from all of ThunderClan has nothing to do with how you transformed! I don't even know how they could correlate seeing that your raw intelligence didn't just magically transform you to another creature entirely. This is just plain selfish Jayfeather, utter selfish twoleg nonsense.”
“You don’t know that!” Jayfeather snapped, digging his claws in the soft dirt. He hung his head, gritting his teeth just so he could avoid screaming and lashing out at his sister. But Hollyleaf’s words implanted something he hadn’t thought of after the incident. That the risk wasn’t even worth the trouble, nothing would have been accomplished if they took Ivypool. Hollyleaf did have a good point there.
But how could any of that with the ultimate goal in trying to return to ThunderClan be selfish?
His outburst was met with silence. He could feel the charged air simmer down between them as both he and Hollyleaf began to settle down.
“You’re right Jayfeather, we don’t,”Fallen Leaves said in a needed soothing voice, “but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t trying to find out ourselves. You don’t need to use your own Clanmates as leverage to do this.”
Slowly Jayfeather turned back to face them, allowing his usual bitter attitude wash away to a horrendously pitiable one. “Please, I do need them,” he said, “maybe if you told them then there wouldn’t be needless fight-”
“No Jayfeather,” Hollyleaf said in a tired but stern tone, “you don’t need them; they just won’t help with this problem.”
“Come on Hollyleaf!” Jayfeather exclaimed, “I can’t think of any other way!”
“Yes you can, you’re not that dumb Jayfeather,” Hollyleaf said with a fraction of humor leaking in her voice, “we will help you Jayfeather but StarClan’s duty is too foresee the safety and well-being of the Clan no matter what. This matter should not bring your Clanmate's in the path of harms way.”
Jayfeather didn’t get another line in as Hollyleaf and Fallen Leaves promptly vanished and Jayfeather awoke to the dark world he was used to. He realized he awoke in the middle of the night with how silence and cold it was in the room. He let out a sigh. that was the greatest dream he ever had, being scolded by his sister when he could of been spared from the anger-inducing fights.
Then it hit him on why he felt so lonely. His heart ached for the companionship of his Clanmates, more than just talking to him but really being a part of their lives. If one Clanmate got frustrated with him for the day he could speak to the others until they simmered down enough to make amends. Here the only true companionship was Ulysses, he was here all day unlike Fallen Leaves and Hollyleaf, who only appear in his dreams. It is good to see them and know they're watching, but Jayfeather needed company that was beside him in his life not just spectating it.
I also miss sleeping beside them too,Jayfeather thought as he began to shiver under his blanket. He didn't sleep in a large group like the warriors did, technically he had the medicine cat den all to himself with Briarlight sleeping in her separate nest. However when leaf-bare came around the two shared a nest to keep themselves warm just like the warriors would do in their nest. Would Ulysses mind if I shared his bed with him?
Jayfeather kicked off the blanket and stood up, flinching as his bare feet touched the cold floor. He walked over to Ulysses’s room, opening the door as silently as he could and wandered to Ulysses’s bedside. Despite his best to remain silent, he could hear Ulysses beginning to stir.
“Jay? What are you doing here?” Ulysses groaned, too tired to sound annoyed with him, “it’s like twelve fifty.”
“I woke up,” Jayfeather said quietly.
“You had a nightmare?” Ulysses asked.
“Not really,” Jayfeather replied, “but I came here to say that I’m…” He found himself trailing off. It shouldn’t be so hard to apologize. “That I’m sorry. Okay,” Jayfeather said even softer than his whisper.
He doubted that Ulysses could hear what he said, but the man got the idea nonetheless. “Couldn't you have waited until morning?” he asked as he let out a tired yawn.
“I came here for another reason,”Jayfeather said, “Since you woke up I might as get that off my chest.”
“What do you need in the middle of the night?” Ulysses groaned sluggishly, almost about to fall back to sleep.
“Do you mind if I can sleep in your bed with you?” Jayfeather asked, “I think I know why I was so moody lately. I really missed being with my Clanmates and sleeping beside them and you’re the only one here that I can have a decent conversation like my Clanmates.” That and your bed is much warmer and more comfortable then the living room couch, he added silently to himself.
There was a reluctant pause that came from Ulysses as the man's tired mind processed Jayfeather’s request. Jayfeather didn’t know why he hesitated, the only idea he had was that humans that live on their own like Ulysses were used to keeping their beds to themselves like rouges tending to their own dens.
“Alright, I’ll let you stay,” Ulysses said, shifting away, “but only once.”
“I wouldn’t ask for more, thank you,”Jayfeather said gratefully and climbed onto the bed. He didn't feel cold anymore as he got comfortable and he wondered why Ulysses didn't try buying another bed just for Jayfeather. Then again he isn't planning on me to permanently live here, he thought with a tired yawn.
“Well, good night Jay,” Ulysses yawned before turning his back towards Jayfeather.
“Good night Ulysses,” Jayfeather said closing his eyes and shifting a bit as well so he was well underneath the covers. He should tell Ulysses what Hollyleaf told him, though thinking it over that receptionist wouldn’t allow him back there regardless of the fact that he didn't need his Clanmates anymore.
We can find another way, Jayfeather could feel his thoughts go off. Before he fell into a much more comfortable and relaxed sleep, he couldn't help but think You know I never stopped to ask what a human dreams of…
Using his powers, he entered into Ulysses's dreams.
Reply to "נᴀʏғᴇᴀтнᴇʀ тσ נᴀʏ ғʀᴀʏтнᴇʀ - Chap 13 is up!"
Chapter 13
Jayfeather appeared to be on the edges of a town. He only found that out when looking around in awe with the place. He turned to see the grand scope of the place, only to see behind him that the charcoal colored road plunged down deep into a large abyss. The darkness of the abyss was massive, even consuming the horizon skyline in darkness. Upon discovery, Jayfeather quickly stepped a good meter away from the chasm.
“Okay, that’s just weird,” Jayfeather said, not sure of how to feel about that. “I guess I’d better go find Ulysses.”
Jayfeather turned back and ran into the safety of town. He slowed down to a walk, continuing to admire the view of the town. The buildings and the design of the town were all geometrical shapes, all giant prisms of varying heights and textures. There were red blocks interlacing in one wall where another was uneven creamy-colored stucco. The doors were all the same height with different frames and different materials; some were even made out of glass.
It wasn’t really a perfect copy of actual towns, but Jayfeather wasn’t one to critique the architectural desgins created by dream. He took his gaze away from the synthetic structures and watched as the people walked by. A huge crowd with humans of every age, height, color and even shape crowded around the sidewalk. Many spilled into the street, which strangely had no cars to speak of, walking like if it was like another average day.
“How on earth am I going to find Ulysses now?” Jayfeather grumbled as he passed through the crowd. He didn’t have much to go by in appearance. He knew from the hair cutter that he died his hair blonde, but there were dozens of men with blonde hair!
“Great, maybe I should…” Jayfeather began to trail off as the frenzied movement of the crowd suddenly fell to a standstill. He forced himself to finish weakly as everyone around him were stopped in place, “…ask someone?”
“Well that’s out the window,”Jayfeather grumbled as he encircled a mother and her young child. The child hung off her mother’s arm, leaning back and face frozen in excitement. The mother held no obvious expression to tell how she reacted to her young daughter’s eagerness. Jayfeather leaned in, waiting for any movement in her face, a twitch of her lips, a blink of her blue eyes, a sway in her long black hair. Just anything to indicate life.
“Nothing huh?” he grumbled, leaning back, “you know you kind of fit Cherith. You have the right look to fit an ice queen like her.”
“Come on Jay, that’s a little harsh.”Jayfeather flinched in surprise at Ulysses’s sudden appearance. He turned slowly to face Ulysses, eye wide and a bit flabbergasted to feel any anger for sneaking up on him.
How Ulysses looked was nothing like how Jayfeather imagine. He was a blonde and it stuck out like a sore thumb against his brown skin. Though judging by his furrowed eyebrows, Ulysses’s hair was originally black. His irises were a lighter shade of brown, something Jayfeather never seen in any cat. The man before himwasn’t looking at Jayfeather, but rather at the woman and child with this worried expression.
“I can’t believe Cherith’s frozen up like this too,” he said, “Kate, Jonathan and Andrew are the same too.”
“So this is what Cherith looks like?”Jayfeather turned back, smirking slightly at his lucky guess. He wasn’t as worried as Ulysses was, this was a dream after all. A really strange dream. Do humans usually have dreams this strange?
Jayfeather may have answered his own question since Ulysses didn’t bat an eye at the fact that he could see what Cherith looked like. “Yep,” he said it as a fact and did not press on the subject further, “well I’m glad you’re not frozen Jay. We might be able to do something about this.”
Jayfeather stared at Ulysses, jaw dropped. “Um, did you not notice what I just said, Ulysses?”
Ulysses tilted his head, lips pursed slightly and once eyebrow raised. “No, why?” he asked cluelessly.
“Oh come on,” Jayfeather couldn’t help but slap his forehead with his palm, “I know you can be a ditz at times but you’re not this stupid Ulysses!”
Ulysses crossed his arms, looking mildly annoyed for a brief moment before shrugging. “Oh whatever, come on, Jay.” He walked away towards the sidewalk and Jayfeather ran to catch up with him.
“Did you forget that I am blind?”Jayfeather asked.
“No, I remember,” Ulysses replied casually, head turning as if he could find the solution somewhere almost the crowd.
“If that’s the case, why aren’t you curious that I can see now?”
“Why didn’t you seem all that worried about Cherith and our friends’ condition, huh Jay?” Ulysses shot back, “You seem to be quiet relaxed about this absurdity.”
“And I can say the same about you,”Jayfeather grunted, turning his head away. Maybe Ulysses was thinly aware that he was in a dream, hence why he wasn’t too bothered by the utter weirdness.
They passed a reflective window and Jayfeather halted as he caught his transparent image in the corner of his eye. This was the first time he ever saw his reflection, wasn’t it? He took a tentative step forward just for a closer look. In the reflection was a frail looking man. His flesh was a pale pink, his body and face gaunt. His hair was a mess of dark gray with silver strands and dark gray stubble was around his jaw, chin and under his nose. There were lines and wrinkles under his eyes and cheeks.
Now he saw why that hair cutter thought he looked like an old man.
“Jay, what’s wrong?” Ulysses returned to his side and gripped Jayfeather’s shoulder.
Jayfeather glanced to the reflection beside him. Ulysses’s face was warped in the window, nothing more than a blur which baffling seeing that Jayfeather’s reflection was crystal clear.
“Nothing,” he said, straightening up and facing the real image of Ulysses. He wasn’t going to let this elderly look bother him. “Come on, let’s go find a way to fix this mess up.”
***
On top of their usual discussions, Ulysses’s talked about his own dreams. It began on a whim that night Jayfeather visited his dreams for the first time, mentioning how unusually vivid it was prior to his other dreams. It began something of entertainment to Jayfeather, even though he already saw what happened in Ulysses’s dreams already. Yet it was just icing on the cake listening to Ulysses point out all the flaws in logic on his own part and the environment, as if he was critiquing a poorly made (yet hilarious) story.
“You know, throughout all my dreams I had with you Jay,” Ulysses mentioned, after telling his dream where he was a marine fighting ghosts on some alien planet, “you’re always able to see for some miraculous reason.”
“Interesting,” Jayfeather said, still chuckling from the little story. It was fun to play dumb sometimes. He didn’t tell Ulysses that he had powers to enter dreams and read thoughts. Mainly it was because he forgot to tell him, his powers became a helpful tool instead of a dark secret that could change anything. It would be like telling Ulysses that he just breathed today, it was just unnecessary.
“Yeah, and what else is pretty interesting is that big smile of yours,”Ulysses added, “I haven’t seen you this happy before, Jay.”
Jayfeather snorted, yet his smile didn’t waver. “What? I have feelings too, ya’know.”
“I know, Jay,” Ulysses said, playfully nudging Jayfeather’s shoulder, “it’s just that you’ve been happy for two weeks. Before then you could barely keep a smirk for a second before it turns back to your scowl.”
“Do you miss me scowling?”Jayfeather asked, making a mock scowl which looked more like a pout as it generated a burst of laughter from Ulysses.
“Oh no, I like it when you smile Jay. It suits you.”
***
It seems like he could only hold a smile for two weeks before returning to his usual unhappy attitude. Well if Jayfeather was an optimist he would see that though he wasn’t happy, he wasn’t feeling bitter or anger like he usually did. It was nice talking to Ulysses about what he did at work, what his family was like, what humans were like, and even the nonsensical dreams he had on occasion. Jayfeather even occasionally talked with Cherith, Andrew, Kate and Jonathan about such matters but they weren’t as open to conversation as much as Ulysses.
Yet they had a common theme among them. They weren’t forced into their position, they didn’t have the huge burden of caring for the entire country, and they weren’t bombarded with prophetic dreams foretelling their inevitable destinies.
They lived a simple life with many liberties that a kittypet would only wish to have. And now Jayfeather was sharing a piece of that life.
This longing to live like a regular man jarred Jayfeather out of his enjoyment. He recalled Rock telling him to make his own destiny when he momentarily thought that he and his littermates were not part of the prophecy. Now he legitimately felt like he could make that happen.
“But, wouldn’t that just be selfish of me?” Jayfeather asked Xavier. Once again they were out on the yard, but they stuck to the patio with how blisteringly cold it was outside. He heard Xavier whine a bit in response as the dog cuddled close to his leg for warmth.
“I have a duty to ThunderClan, I know that,” Jayfeather said, “but they’re not entirely defenseless. I mean, they have Leafpool and maybe Briarlight would train under her if I choose to stay. I don’t think I’m ready to give up on the knowledge and freedom humans have so readily Xavier.”
Xavier’s head perked up slightly when Jayfeather said let out a soft whimper. Jayfeather wondered if the dog understood what he said, but he highly doubted it. Maybe he knew a couple of words but for all he knew Xavier was more concerned about the cold then Jayfeather’s troubles.
“Fine, you can go back in,”Jayfeather grumbled, “I’m staying out here.”
Jayfeather opened the screen door and then made his way across the yard and propped his arms on the fence. He tried to return to his thoughts but Xavier let out a shrill bark. Jayfeather flinched at the noise and turned back around, hearing Xavier run over to him and barking yet again.
“What? What are you barking for you annoying mutt?” Jayfeather snapped, flinching again. Xavier was a quiet dog most of the time; shy as Ulysses would call him. What would he be barking for?
“Xavier? Jay?” Ulysses called from inside the house, “is something wrong?”
“I don’t know,” Jayfeather grumbled, walking back over to the house with Xavier right at his heels, “he’s been barking for some reason.”
“That’s odd,” Ulysses said thoughtfully. He paused in thought and then said, “Maybe he was afraid that you were going to leave.”
“What makes you think that?”Jayfeather asked, picking up a sudden sullen mood from Ulysses.
“Dog’s work well in packs, Jay,”Ulysses explained, his voice not giving away any sadness he may have had, “and we’re his pack mates essentially. Since you stay at my house more than I do, I think he just has a closer bond to you. He must of thought that you were going to leave the yard and just panicked for a moment.”
“Is that really it?” Jayfeather questioned, “I know my Clanmates well, and they wouldn’t have a sudden panic attack if one of us stepped camp for just a moment.”
“Cats are different then dogs, Jay,”Ulysses said, “and you’re Clan is already special case. Cats normally don’t stay in such large of groups like yours.”
“Well maybe you don’t know cats as well as you think you do,” Jayfeather grumbled.
“I had taken care of a cat before, Jay, I know a thing or two on how a cat behaves” Ulysses said defensively, “and there are countless of studies on that same subject. You and your Clan are far from any cat behavior those studies have shown.”
Jayfeather was close, he knew there was an underlying reason and he was going to get it out of Ulysses. “And what did ever happen to your cat, Ulysses?” Jayfeather asked, “What did you really know about her?”
He didn’t mean to insult Ulysses, but the other man took it as one as anger waved off of him in an instant. “I took good care of Annabelle, Jayfeather! There’s no more I could of have done!” Then the anger succeeded just a bit as grief and hurt washed over Ulysses. “It’s just that… It’s just that-”
“-some things happen,” Jayfeather finished in a softer voice. He paused, allowing Ulysses to regain his bearings before he asked, “What happened to Annabelle?”
There was a large amount of hesitation before Ulysses could respond. “Just only two years ago before I found you, I left for work like usual and left Xavier and Annabelle alone,” Ulysses explained, “I usually left the flap open so that way Xavier could go outside when I’m not around and sometimes Annabelle leaves the yard. When I came back I found Xavier sitting outside just staring at the fence. Annabelle wasn’t around so I figured she left like usual and would be back soon.”
“Yet she didn’t,” Jayfeather said. This made him think of Firestar back when he left his housefolk to join ThunderClan all those moons ago. It left an uneasy feeling in his gut now that he was hearing the human’s side of the story.
“Yeah. So, when she didn’t come back I got worried and went to report her missing,” Ulysses said rather slowly, “I put up missing posters, asked my neighbors and colleagues if they saw a brown tabby cat around. Yet nothing came up for days.”
“So she was gone?” Jayfeather asked, “You didn’t see her after that?”
“No, I did,” Ulysses replied, sniffing a bit. “I kind of… I kind of wish I hadn’t though.”
Jayfeather almost wanted to peer through Ulysses’s mind to see what happened to Annabelle in the end. Yet hearing Ulysses sniff and hiccup from an upcoming sob, he decided against it. It would be pointless otherwise to look, knowing the only fate that could have befallen the she-cat.
Jayfeather took a step forward and wrapped his arms around Ulysses in a comforting embrace. “I’m sorry, Ulysses,” he mumbled. He could hear a small whimper come from Xavier. The dog could of mourned for Annabelle too, couldn’t he?
You really do care for us.
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Post by Redfleck on Aug 8, 2016 13:17:54 GMT -5
Guide to become a WCF mod The Ultimate Guide to becoming a Moderator! You all know that you want to become a Moderator, so I thought I'd help out by making a checklist that you need to follow to become a Moderator Go to school. Every day. Even if it is home school. Or the weekend. Or Summer. 1] Be good to your teacher. You're going to need a good recommendation further down this list. 2] Do your homework. Do I need to say why? Good. 3] Bring your teacher an apple. See the part about a good recommendation? Right, so make sure the apple hasn't gone bad or something. Reach age 15. 1] Get a part time job. You're going to need money. Lots of it. Start saving now. A job as a welder should do it. Or a Crane operator. Or Bulldozer driver. Continue going to school while working part time. Get good grades and earn a lot of money. No, I mean a LOT of money. Turn 18 years old. By now you should have lots of money and have graduated from, or are soon to be graduating High School. Oh, did I forget to mention what to do with the teacher recommendations? That was just to keep your parents happy while you were saving money to buy everything you need for the next step. Bribe Jana 1] Send her Ice Cream. Not a little bit of Ice Cream. Like a truckload of Ice Cream. Remember, you're bribing her. Overdo it. a) She likes Pistachio. Hint. Send her some. And by some I mean 900 or 1,000 gallons of it. Minimum.  And Mint Chocolate Chip. Send that too. c) And Rocky Road (you didn't think this was gonna be cheap, did you?) d) And Butter Pecan, just to be a little different. Bribe her, don't bore her to death. 2] She hates the Yankees, they make her lose sleep. a) Send her a Red Sox hat And a Derek Jeter voodoo doll. With pins stuck in it. Silver ones c) And a crate of Tylenol so that she can sleep when they lose, which is a lot. 3] She needs a way to eat the Ice Cream. a) Send her a box of Sporks. By box I mean crate big enough that it needs a forklift to move. Lot of Ice Cream, lot of Sporks. OK? 4] Every Moderator in the world likes Skittles. True Story. a) Send her a year's supply of Skittles Sour. That'll be an inexpensive bribe, because those are awful. 5] She might be out of Ice Cream. You don't want that. a) Watermelon Sorbet is good. Just sayin' Profit. If it all went well you can bask in your new Moderatorness. Or at least feel much lighter now that you no longer have all that pesky money hanging around. [typo fixed -dave] ------------------------------------------------------- This site is powered by 4 hamsters on wheels. I feed them brownies to keep the site going. |
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Post by Redfleck on Sept 17, 2018 20:22:19 GMT -5
This is a concept I had. Not sure yet if I'll expand on it or not but I want to know if anyone would be interested. _________ The moon glows red in the sky, bright and ominous. It's a crescent moon, but the odd red coloring makes it look like a claw sliced the sky. We call this the Dead Moon, because whenever the moon takes on this crimson color there is nothing but death. HE comes out... HE wreaks havoc... HE is out for blood... And right now, his sights are set on me, a small 7 year old girl who was just trying to escape these terrifying creatures. This huge monster, Methus as we humans have come to call him. He is death incarnate, a demon, a sign of the end. They say that once he locks onto you, there is no escape. You can only hope you die quickly. This monster is huge, tall as a skyscraper. He has seven heads, a huge body reminiscent of a dragon, but with no wings. He has four legs with huge, razor sharp claws and a long sweeping tail. There are five smaller versions of him at his side, though they are still much larger than a human. We call these creatures Methus's Disciples. They are always here, and always on the hunt. We do not know where these creature's came from. They just suddenly appeared several months ago. They do not eat the humans they kill, and they have a certain intelligence about them that is... unnatural. They want to shed blood, and cause fear. These hellish demons do not want anything more than to destroy us. I back away in terror, before I start running. My wide green eyes were filled with tears. This is it, this is the end. Methus brings his middle head close to my face and stops me in my tracks, his sharp, yellow teeth showing as he snarls. I swear I can almost see an evil grin on his face. He raises his front claws and pins me to the ground. I close my eyes and cover my head with my arms, waiting for the end to come, hoping it would be quick. But it doesn't. I dare myself to slowly open my eyes, my breathing shallow and quick. All seven of the monster's heads are staring off into the distance, down the road from where we were, an angry snarl on his face. I look and see a bright golden light, it's almost blinding. Out of the light approaches a huge lion, his golden mane flowing in the mystical air around him. His face was oddly... sorrowful. Methus let's out a deafening roar, releasing me and heading towards the lion, it's huge tail lashing and knocking me into a wall with a sickening thud. I wince in pain, tears finally streaming down my face as I clutch my aching side. I watch as Methus lunged it's heads at the lion, but then the lion roars in a way that was both terrifying, yet comforting to me at the same time. Methus screeches out in pain, heads thrashing wildly as if in pain. It turns away from the lion and thunders away, knocking over the remains of buildings as it goes. My sight starts to darken, I know I am about to pass out from pain. Before I do, however, the lion approaches me. The lion reaches his muzzle towards me, and I feel a warm sense of comfort and peace before I finally slip into unconsciousness. |
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And Mint Chocolate Chip. Send that too.