Jayfeather's Lesson

Chapter 8

Chapter 8 

            Icepaw couldn’t ever remember being colder. The rain that was falling down chilled him to his very core. The howling wind did little to help as he and Jayfeather hid under a tree.

            “We can’t just stay out here like this!” Jayfeather called out, his voice barely audible in the wind. “We have to keep moving and find some real shelter.”

            Icepaw couldn’t agree more. The tree that they were huddled under gave them little protection from the wind and the rain. They picked up their bundles and moved on, but they barely made it to the next tree before they were once again huddled up against its trunk.

            Once more they ventured out. This time Icepaw lost his grip on the bundle of herbs he was carrying and had to chase it down. Luckily, it did not come unwrapped when it got caught in some brush. He slowly made his way back to Jayfeather who looked like he had fallen in the lake.

            “This is ridiculous! How are we supposed to travel like this?!” Jayfeather yowled at the sky. Icepaw figured this had to be even harder for Jayfeather who uses his other senses to move around. The howling wind was blocking his hearing. The rain interfered with his sense of touch. And the whole forest smelled like wet trees, nothing unique about anything anymore.

            They crowded into a tiny hollow under a tree and waited for a while, hoping the storm would ease up, but it seemed to only be getting worse. Soon the hollow that they were staying in began to flood and they had to make their way out into the storm again.

            Icepaw looked all around him, trying to find something they could use as shelter but he could barely see a few tail-lengths in front of his face. The icy cold rain was stinging his eyes and his paws felt heavy, caked with mud as they marched on.

            While they were resting under another tree Icepaw had a thought. “What about the abandoned twoleg place? That’s not too far from here; we can wait the storm out there.”

            Jayfeather nodded as he gripped the bundle of herbs tighter in his jaws. They set out for the empty twoleg nest straight away. What would have been a five minute walk took what seemed like an eternity but they finally made it to the abandoned nest. Once inside they dropped their bundles in a dark corner and collapsed onto the cold, hard ground, drenched and drained of every bit of energy they had.

            “I feel miserable,” Icepaw moaned as he curled next to Jayfeather. They started grooming each other, trying to get the excess water off of each other and warm themselves up. After a while Icepaw felt Jayfeather’s breathing slow down and noticed that his mentor had fallen asleep. He closed his own eyes and, now that he was feeling at least a little warmer, drifted off to sleep as well.

            The clinking sound coming from all around woke him up. Jayfeather was awake too, and turning his head back and forth. Icepaw got to his feet and ventured towards the entrance of the twoleg nest and looked all around him.

            “It is ice! Falling from the sky! Everything is getting coated with it!” he exclaimed. If it wasn’t so cold and trapping them in the abandoned twoleg nest he might have thought that it looked beautiful, but instead it just made him worry even more. “We’re going to be stuck here even longer than I expected.”

            Jayfeather was now standing next to him, his tail calmly resting on his back. “We are warm and dry here. There is plenty of prey here as well. Don’t worry.”

            Icepaw started to relax as they made their way back towards the center of the room. Now that he was not shivering from the cold and worried that they would never make it home, he started to explore the nest more closely. It looked like it had not been lived in for a long time. It was big and empty and everything had dirt and dust on it. There were holes in some of the smooth looking walls and the scent of pray was all around.