Jaypaw collapsed into his nest in the ThunderClan medicine den. He wrinkled his nose. The herb smell was even worse here. Nightcloud was curled around Lionpaw and Breezepaw, grooming both of them with alternating licks, soothing the two still-trembling apprentices.

Leafpool tiptoed around them, trying to sort out herbs for them all. Her tail swept past Jaypaw as she moved.
"There it is," she mumbled to herself. She bent down and nosed a small bundle of herbs towards Jaypaw. He didn't question anything, just lapped them up.

He felt the effects almost immediately. A drowsy calmness began to bloat in his body. His eyes started closing of their own accord, and Jaypaw let them. Nothing would be better than a nice sleep to forget everything. As he started drifting off he felt Leafpool's eyes locked on him, giving him that strange feeling of being watched.

In his dream, everything was sharp and bright. In colour. In shape. He could see again!

Jaypaw laughed out loud, gazing around at the landscape. It was a small hollow in the ground, surrounded by impenetrable gorse, giving the area a safe and protected feeling. It became apparent to him that this was a settlement of a sort. There were a few dens made under the gorse wall, and long-faded scents clung to the area like spirits. The place had an air of melancholy, like a hallowed skeleton left whole in the blistering sun.

"For a prophecy cat, you really are quite unremarkable."

Jaypaw spun around. A tall, muscular cat was standing and watching him, whiskers twitching calculatingly. Jaypaw took in his stone grey fur, peppered with darker grey spots. Looking down at his own paws, Jaypaw noted that the cat's fur was much darker than his own. His eyes were yellow, also dark in tone.

"You're supposed to be special but you really have no intuition, do you? This comes down to common sense. You're blind and suddenly dream with normal sight about your leader receiving a prophecy about cats with powers, and it doesn't even occur to you that you're one of the prophecy cats? StarClan really messed up with you." The tom sauntered towards Jaypaw, his face neutral.

Jaypaw blinked. The way the cat talked to him felt very real. Referencing a dream Jaypaw had told no one about? Dreams couldn't reference dreams, could they?
"I'm... I'm in a prophecy? What does that mean? That dream was real? StarClan chose me?" Jaypaw questioned, eyes wide.

The other tom rolled his eyes.
"Yes, you foolish worm, your dream was real and you're in the prophecy. That wasn't too hard, was it?" He sat down heavily. "StarClan didn't want me to tell you. They thought you needed to work it out on your own. But because your plan of action was to do nothing and despair about your blindness and think alarming things about how you don't think you can make it as a Clan cat, I figured I'd better step in before you leave the Clan or drown yourself in the lake."

Tired of the tom's incessant monologuing, Jaypaw spoke up. "Who are you?" His words came out ruder than he'd intended them to be.

"Hawkheart. I was WindClan's medicine cat before Kestrelflight's mentor. I'm also, I suppose, your guide," he said. Hawkheart sat down, his tail resting on his paws. Jaypaw copied him, sitting down on the drying grass. He fought to keep his gaze fixated on Hawkheart.

"But I...I'm blind! Blind cats can't be in prophecies." His eyes left Hawkheart's face and he allowed them to slip past the tom to stare at the star-speckled sky. "This is just some dumb dream I'm having because I'm so tired and I had those poppy seeds," he mumbled.

Hawkheart let out an exasperated sigh. "Poppy seeds make you drowsy and take away pain, not give you strange dreams! And what's all this nonsense about blind cats not being in prophecies? Do you really think StarClan cares about that?"

"Well, everyone else seems to," Jaypaw replied cautiously. He wasn't sure whether to trust this cat. His tail hovered above the ground above his feet, uncurling from between his legs.

The yellow-eyed cat scoffed. "The Clans get caught up in such petty little things sometimes. Believe me, kit, blind or not, it doesn't matter. WindClan had a cat with a condition as a deputy, you know. Deadfoot. I knew him as a kit. Then again, I'm pretty sure the Clans are regressing."

Jaypaw hesitated to continue the conversation. He certainly didn't want to hold his tongue, but he was still processing what he'd been told and was still trying to work out if any of it was true. "If I'm part of this prophecy...what do I have to do? And what's this whole power business?" 

"I'm your guide, not your mother. I'm not going to feed you information straight from my teat. Learn to work it out yourself," he said shortly.

Jaypaw flattened his ears. "So you show up in my dream, tell me I'm in a prophecy, insult me, and then refuse to tell me anything? Some guide you are. This is badger-dung." Jaypaw stood, anger crackling along his whiskers, sending lighting pulses through his cheeks. The long-limbed tom began to stride off.

"Hey, wait!" Hawkheart followed him, his teeth bared. "Don't just run off like a stroppy kit." The former WindClan medicine cat's snarl dropped into a considering expression. "But I suppose you're right. I'd better get you started on the right path."

Jaypaw stopped walking and slowly turned around, though he didn't sit. "Go on,"

"Well... I can't tell you why StarClan needs you. It's, uh, something you need to figure out yourself. And you won't be alone trying to work this out. I mean, you've got three other brains to help."

Jaypaw huffed, flicking his tail impatiently. This was a waste of his time. This whole thing was too absurd to be real and Hawkheart wasn't being very convincing.

"And anyway, you've got a lot to do before you can work out what your prophecy foretells and why you're important, or before we can tell you. You've gotta find the other Three for a start." The grey tom said hastily, sensing Jaypaw's agitation. 

"Well, is there anything you can actually tell me? How about the power of the stars in their paws part?"

"I can see why you're not a medicine cat. I mean that line's very literal, isn't it? You're very powerful. You combined with the rest of the Four are more powerful than StarClan."
Jaypaw's mind was reeling. It retreated to the back of his skull and curled up, filling the space around it with emptiness. The idea that there could be anything more powerful than StarClan... He sunk to a sitting position, staring numbly at the grass under his feet.
"Oh, great. Now you're questioning your existence. Why do I have to be your guide? You're annoying. I bet the other guides aren't going to have this same trouble. Especially not that ThunderClan one...
"Ah, anyway. More powerful than StarClan. Let's go back to that. So you're very powerful when combined with the other Three, yes, yes. But, see, it isn't just power as in influence and political strength or whatever else power means. It also means power as in an ability. So you have the ability to do something a normal cat can't do," Hawkheart said.

Ignoring the headache beginning to hum behind his eyes, Jaypaw furrowed his brow. "I have a power? Like... what is it?"

The other cat grunted. "I'm starting to think it isn't the ThunderClan cat StarClan has to worry about. You really can't be any more harebrained, can you? You're a blind cat seeing in your dreams. A blind cat who's been blind since birth. You've never seen anything yet you can dream about it. Dreams that aren't seen my StarClan. Not normal, kit."

"So I can see in my dreams? That's my power?" Jaypaw nodded slowly to himself, trying to cement the idea of himself being in a prophecy in his head.

"Some of it. You'll get to figure out the rest. Experiment. Have fun. Mess around in your dreams is all I'm saying." Hawkheart's expression lifted into the first genuine smile Jaypaw had seen from him. "I get that it's a lot to take in. It sounds unbelievable. But I promise it's real. I'll prove it."
His vow was the last words Jaypaw heard before he woke up with his brain in his mouth, spilling all over the floor. Empty headed with the conversation from his dream singing the song of whipping wind across the moor in his ears. His heart simply couldn't be found. It had melted into his ribcage.

He took slow, steadying breaths as he tried to work his way around everything he had been told. Jaypaw found it so unbelievable, but he wanted it so badly. Surely I've learned not to dream. I'm blind. Blind cats can't be heros. They can't be prophecy cats. Don't hope for this.

He hadn't woken up from his dream pain-free; an ache had settled into his bone marrow and made a home there. He swung his head around as the scents of the area began to slip into his nose. ThunderClan scent was heavy. The stifling smell of herbs soaked into his fur. Disoriented from his dream he stood. The moment he did so the world swung alarmingly and he staggered, lurching to the side.

"Jaypaw!" Leafpool hurried over to steady him. He felt her recoil as she touched him. Jaypaw was too confused to pay too much attention to that.

"What's happening?" He asked, voice husky from sleep.

"You're in the ThunderClan camp. You're staying here until you recover and can return to WindClan. Remember, yesterday you saved your brother and Lionpaw's lives?" She prompted him.

Jaypaw blinked slowly as her words brought it all back. He could remember everything now. The waking world caught up with him, slipping down his throat like fresh water.

Leafpool's smile was sympathetic as she replied. "Poppy seeds can leave a cat confused. There's water-soaked moss in a ball next to you. StarClan knows the other two needed some water after all that dirt they swallowed. How about you rest and I'll get you some fresh kill?" The molly left the den. The tendrils of bramble concealing the entrance rustled as she walked through them, her heavy footsteps still loud and clear to Jaypaw's ears. 

Jaypaw spilled his guts all over his nest and let himself stew in it. What Leafpool said brought him back to reality. The poppy seeds make some cats confused. They might've induced the dreams. But Hawkheart said that was impossible. It disturbed him how much the idea that the poppy seeds caused his dream scared him.

"Jaypaw? Are you awake?" Nightcloud's voice was sleep-hazy.

He turned his gaze to her, a blurred and faded black shape to his blind eyes. He could see another shape with her, a cloud of cream fur. It had to be Lionpaw.

"Where's Breezepaw?" Jaypaw asked.

"He's with me," Nightcloud said. "Can't you smell him?"

"Not with these herbs clogging my nose." He wrinkled his snout. "His fur's the same colour as yours. I can't distinguish him from you,"

"So you're not totally blind then?" A hoarse and wheezy voice spoke up. Jaypaw turned to Lionpaw, the speaker. "I mean, you don't see all black? All the time? You talk as if you could see Breezepaw."

Jaypaw's gaze was piercing as he stared at Lionpaw. "I can see him. I can see faded colour and very blurred shapes."

"Wait, so you're not actually blind? But everyone knows you as the blind apprentice?" Lionpaw continued, oblivious to Jaypaw's fur slowly bristling and the anger starting to curdle in the heat of Lionpaw's questioning.

"Half-lid your eyes with your inner eyelid. Really squint them while you're doing it. That's how I see the world. Tell me, do you call that seeing? Could you navigate through that? I am blind. Having a little bit of sight doesn't change that," Jaypaw replied to him icily.

"You wouldn't tell a near-dead cat not to complain because he wasn't really dead," Nightcloud's naturally harsh voice softened as much as she could make it as she spoke to Lionpaw, to show him she wasn't angry.

Lionpaw nodded. "I get that." The silence that followed swallowed all four of them with a red-stained mouth, dripping scarlet onto the floor of the den.

Heavy footsteps announced Leafpool's return as well as another feline. Squirrelflight. Jaypaw remembered her scent from yesterday. Leafpool carried a hawfinch in her maw. She walked towards Jaypaw and dropped it at his paws. 

"I didn't know the rest of you were awake!" She exclaimed. "Here, let me go fetch some more fresh kill."

"Don't worry," Nightcloud said decisively, her voice hard. "I can get my own. Breezepaw's still sleeping. Lionpaw, do you feel up to stretching your legs?"

"Of course," Lionpaw seemed offended that she would even ask. But when he stood he groaned with pain and one of his joints gave a painful-sounding crack.

"Lionpaw, your legs are shaking! You wouldn't be able to walk, they'd just give way. Lie down, I'll get you something." Leafpool turned around stood to let Nightcloud leave. Nightcloud gave Jaypaw a reassuring purr before she left. As she walked past the other molly, Lionpaw uttered a quiet "woah." Leafpool left immediately after Nightcloud; her flurried footsteps suggested she was flustered.

"What?" Jaypaw flashed a question at the other tom.

"Oh, it's just the glare your mother gave Leafpool. It was terrifying! She must really hate her," Lionpaw said, weirdly cheerful.

"Of course she does," Jaypaw snorted. "Leafpool ran away with Crowfeather before they got together."

"Yeah but that's no reason to hate her. Cats can have more than one mate." Lionpaw twisted around to begin grooming his unkempt fur, cleaning his fur in long strokes.

"That's not exactly the reason. I'm not telling you all Nightcloud's business," Jaypaw snapped.

"Of course. That's not what I meant," Lionpaw dipped his head. Jaypaw was preparing for another uncomfortable silence but Lionpaw kept talking. "Thanks for what you did yesterday. It was amazing! How did you know what was happening and where we were?"

Jaypaw looked at him for a few heartbeats. He'd been trying to think of something to say to this question yesterday but in all the terror and tiredness he hadn't had a chance to come up with an answer. He couldn't very well tell Lionpaw he'd had a vision. 

A vision! Maybe this was part of his power. Maybe he was like a medicine cat. Great StarClan, I won't have to become a medicine cat, will I?  Maybe Hawkheart was telling the truth and it wasn't just a dream or a trick. 

"Uh... I guess I sort of felt it? I'm pretty connected to Breezepaw so I just got the feeling that something bad was going to happen to him. Nothing specific, just a hunch. So I left to see if I could find him and I started wandering around the hunting area. Then I heard you guys and that's when you fell in." Jaypaw tried to say nonchalantly.

"I get that." Lionpaw finished grooming himself and lounged back in his nest. "Squirrelflight and Leafpool are like that. That's how Leafpool realised where Squirrelflight was when she was going to give birth to me. She got the queen-wanders and got pretty far from camp. That's when she had me."

So maybe it wasn't a sign that Hawkheart was being truthful. Maybe it's a normal thing.
"And Goldenkit?" 

Lionpaw looked at him sharply. "How do you know about him? That's ThunderClan business."

"Bramblestar said something about not losing another kit when we were trying to dig you out." Jaypaw swallowed. He could hear Lionpaw's movements seize. Trying to ease the other cat's discomfort, he kept talking. "I had other siblings too. One was StarClan-lost and one died a little while after we were born."

The brambles swayed as Leafpool walked back into the den, a chiffchaff lodged in her jaw, and a mouse hanging as she carried it by the tail. Jaypaw's nose twitched as he smelled its woody scent. Mice weren't traditional WindClan prey, but he supposed it wouldn't be very different from rabbit.

"Lionpaw." She tread more freely around her den without Nightcloud's presence, but the den was still uncomfortably crowded. "Eat. It'll help get your strength up," she said. She surveyed the Clan and sighed, coming to the same conclusion as Jaypaw. "I guess I'll go and collect some herbs." She walked past Jaypaw, her tail brushing against him lightly. She jerked it away at the touch. "Make sure Breezepaw eats that chiffchaff when he wakes up," Leafpool called over her shoulder.

Both cats were quiet after Leafpool's departure. Jaypaw bit the inside of his cheek, not knowing how to return to their earlier conversation. He found a part of him wanted to keep talking to the other apprentice and he wondered why. 

"You know, I really missed Goldenkit when I was younger. I still do. It's not like I even knew her. She died only a few days after we were born. But it's like I miss the cat she could've been, you know? At least you have Breezepaw. It kinda sucks being the only kit," Lionpaw came to Jaypaw's rescue, breaking the ice between them.

"Well, growing up with a brother isn't all great. Breezepaw can be a real pain in the tail sometimes. You probably got that from when you met him at the gathering! But Heatherpaw was right. He can be really fun. If a fox tried to eat him I'd fight until my last breath to save him, but sometimes I just want to push him into the lake and leave him there," Jaypaw said dryly.

Lionpaw laughed and Jaypaw stiffened at the sound. He wasn't used to anyone except Heatherpaw and Breezepaw laughing at his jokes. Lionpaw's laugh died, trailing off. 
"Hey, I'm sorry if what I said earlier offended you. I didn't mean to belittle you or anything. It's just that I've always imagined blind cats as like totally blind. I didn't know you could actually see some things." Lionpaw pushed the bones of his meal to the side. 

"It's no problem. Compared to what other cats say about me, that was pretty tame. I don't get the option of being offended every time someone says something hurtful to me. If I did, I don't think I'd ever leave my nest," Jaypaw replied, shifting the moss he was lying on. Being stuck in one place was beginning to annoy him. He was itching inside his fur, his paws burning, wanting to move, work, run.

"You have it rough. I'm sorry about that." Jaypaw pricked his ears at the other cat's words. Lionpaw sounded genuinely apologetic to what Jaypaw was going through. But sympathy was too close to pty for Jaypaw's liking.

"Yeah, well, your sorries aren't going to fix other cat's attitudes," He said shortly, trying to stand. His bones and muscles burned, bones shattering and reforming. He clenched his teeth as his muscles were stretched taut. The world swung, in and out of focus, around him like it did when he first woke up.

"I can do that," Lionpaw offered.

"And when your Clanmates talk about me, remind them I'm more than just the blind apprentice. If they're gossiping about other apprentices, name me by more than my condition. I don't mean to tell them off whenever they describe me as blind. Because I can't stop that. That would make it worse because everyone would walk around me on eggshells. Being blind is part of me. It's like saying "Nightcloud has amber eyes" But talk about my personality or the things I've done. I'd rather be called 'Jaypaw, that lowlife piece of fox-dung' than only 'Jaypaw, that blind apprentice,'" he said wryly.

Lionpaw laughed again at Jaypaw's joke. Jaypaw felt a flash of surprise once again.
"Is there anything I can do?" Lionpaw asked, his tone serious again. Jaypaw stared at him for a long moment, eyes narrowed. What was this cat's deal? Was he really this friendly? Did he actually want to help Jaypaw? 

"Tell them to shut up when they gossip about me. Tell them to shut up when they insinuate that I'm not or can't be a warrior. And tell them to stop comparing me to that half-blind cat in your Clan. What's her name? Brightheart." Jaypaw urged his muscles into movement, slowly shuffling one paw after another. Everything scraped and pulsed painfully beneath his pelt, but he forced himself to move on through the cluttered den, leaving Lionpaw back in the den. The other tom didn't reply, just watched him walk out.

When he stepped out of the cave, bramble tendrils sliding off his shoulders, disorientation hit him, as if he'd just fallen into icy lake water. He had no idea where to put his paws. He had no idea where he wanted to go. Back in WindClan camp, he knew ever patch of uneven grass. He knew every boulder, where all the dens were, which areas of camp were busy zones, and which places a kit might crash into him.

"Jaypaw!" Nightcloud came to his rescue. He followed the sound of her voice, being overly cautious as to where he was stepping. The ThunderClan camp was cluttered with leaves and twigs. Jaypaw tripped over a twig, almost sending himself sprawling. He could hear the whispers of the few ThunderClan cats in the clearing and their stares. A low growl rose in the back of his throat. He picked his way over to Nightcloud and flopped down next to her, immediately relaxing as his pain melted into the ground around him.

"What are you doing up?" Nightcloud asked him affectionately. "You know you should be resting."

Jaypaw smiled up at his mother. "I know. But I couldn't stand just lying in my nest. I feel like I should be moving!"

His mother barked a laugh. "That's very much a WindClan thing. We love hard work. I know whenever I get sick or injured I get very antsy having to stay in my nest. But the most efficient way to get back on your feet is to give yourself time to heal."

Jaypaw nodded and didn't even protest as his mother began to groom his fur. He had plenty of things to think about. His dream lingered in his head as clear as a recent memory. Normally his dreams slipped out from between his claws as the day went on. But this dream was so fresh he could taste it. What if it's real? What if I really am in a prophecy? What if I really do have a power?
This situation wasn't the only thing occupying his thoughts. That cream tabby feline was also swirling around his brain. He felt some kind of connection with Lionpaw. He'd found it easy to talk to him about serious things as well as making jokes. And Lionpaw listened to him! He apologized for what he said and was trying to do better. Jaypaw's insides were coloured sunlight and shining.

He exhaled heavily. He didn't know what he was feeling. Was this a crush? The other apprentices talked about crushes all the time. Heatherpaw and Whiskerpaw were constantly teasing Furzepaw for her huge crush on Leaftail. And Heatherpaw had a whole list of cats she thought were attractive. She'd told Jaypaw that Sunstrike was the most attractive cat in WindClan, and there 'was nothing she wouldn't do for that molly.' She'd also told him that Ferretpaw from ShadowClan was 'really nice looking.' Jaypaw hadn't had any crushes that he could compare this feeling to. He remembered feeling bumblebees buzzing inside him when Antpelt brushed past him. It wasn't a crush, but in Heatherpaw's terms, he was "one handsome tom." Jaypaw wasn't feeling bumblebees in his stomach when Lionpaw looked at him. He didn't feel that kind of rush when the tom talked to him. So maybe it wasn't a crush. One time he was sitting with Heatherpaw and Breezepaw when she mentioned how she believed every cat came into your life for a reason. She said that StarClan brought certain cats who would change you forever, and you'd know who they were when you met them. Breezepaw had snorted and then growled "that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. What if that cat changes your life for the worst? What if they ruin your life? What if you and this cat broke the code together?" Then they stopped discussing it because they all knew what Breezepaw was referring to. But maybe Heatherpaw was right. Maybe Lionpaw had been brought into his life by StarClan for a reason. And if those weird dreams were anything to go by, Lionpaw was probably involved in this whole prophecy thing too.