Odd Eye

Chapter Three - Flickerpaw

For three days, Flickerpaw had been sick, deathly sick. He had lapsed in and out of consciousness, while the medicine cat Emberleaf fussed over him and his mother, Squirreltail tried not to cry.

Thrushwing brought him a water-soaked wad of moss.

"Drink it," he said kindly.

Flickerpaw hated to deny the medicine cat apprentice, but he could barely pry his jaws open. A few nights ago, he heard Emberleaf talking to his mother.

"I'm so sorry," she said, clearly in distress. "I have no idea what he has! I've gone to Streamheart, Strikeheart, Bloomwing and Saplight, but none of them recognise the symptoms. My herb stores are utterly depleted, and StarClan has not given me a single sign." She laid her tail on Squirreltail's shoulder. "Perhaps it's time to let him go."

Flickerpaw thought so too. Although he felt no pain, the paralysis in his limbs was starting to become a bother and his eyesight still hadn't cleared while his nose was blocked. He felt both blind and deaf. Sometimes, he saw cats in the stars far away. He tried to reach out to them, to call for them, but couldn't open his jaw. Perhaps it was better just for him to go to StarClan.

On the fifth day, the world had turned grey - the trees, the sky, everything. His mother's ginger pelt was now a monotonous white, her movements appearing slurred. Flickerpaw called out to her, surprised that he could speak. However, she didn't even react.

He stumbled to his paws and darted out of camp, heart pounding with fear.

"What's going on!" he yowled, frantic. He spotted a mouse and stomped up to it, however it couldn't hear his pawsteps at all. When he touched it, his claws went through the grey fur but left the mouse unharmed. He shrieked again, this time more out of surprise than fear. When he looked down at his ginger coat, it was the only bright spot in the entire forest. He breathed in, but smelt nothing. He tasted the air but it felt like tasting water - utterly unremarkable without any interesting undercurrents. He wasn't as blind or deaf as he was before, but somehow this felt even worse. Flickerpaw crouched down into a foetal position then opened his jaws to yowl once more–

Suddenly, a silver-white paw whipped out from underneath a bush and pulled him in. A small she-cat, probably a few moons younger than him with the weirdest yet prettiest eyes ever, was crouching in front of him, her tail lashing. Flickerpaw noticed that her pelt shone brightly as well in the grey forest, just like his.

"Okay," she said, her blue and gold eyes narrowed. "Who are you and how did you get here?"

Flickerpaw looked at her, dazed. "Am I dead?"

The she-cat hissed. "No! Trust me, I would be able to tell if you're dead."

Then, without any warning she dragged him lower into the grey mulch and pressed a paw over his head. They watched in silence from behind the leaves as a badger emerged from the trees. Flickerpaw had to work hard to not gasp in surprise.

He had seen badgers before once, when as a young apprentice he participated on a raid to get rid of a badger from ThunderClan territory. But this one was different. It was less bulky, with no distinctive shape. Its torso moved and shifted like a cloud, or a bubble, while its legs were completely disconnected from its body and instead plodding along beneath it. Flickerpaw noticed with a hint of surprise that its pelt was colourful like theirs, except it did have a grey tint to it. It also had glowing red eyes on its detached head, and it was sniffing the ground intently.

How odd, Flickerpaw thought. He couldn't scent anything in this odd world. Without any warning, a shape barrelled past him.

He yelped with surprise as the she-cat leapt onto the badgers back, snarling and biting. Her claws sank into its black and white fur as the badger howled with surprise and shook her off. The battle that followed was unlike anything Flickerpaw had ever seen before. He watched with fascinated horror as one of the badger's paws soared away from its body and began to slash at the silver-white shape. The she-cat hissed with fury and grappled it to the ground with the sharp black claws face-down, as the badger snarled and tried to wrench its paw free. It was the oddest thing ever, seeing the body move itself over and over again while the paw lay on the ground, now moving completely still as the she-cat attacked it. Finally, the badger gave up trying to regain its paw and instead pounded towards the she-cat. Flickerpaw held his breath, completely certain he was about to watch the small cat get torn from limb to limb. Instead, she jumped over the badger with ease and toppled its head from its body, driving it once more to the ground as the torso followed and buckled. She sank her claws into its head - then it gave one final twitch and was still.