Edit: Re-edited on 08/08/2016 (I love the poetry of today's date).

Edit: This chapter was edited on 10/08/2015 and has been improved.

Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors, or anything you recognise. I do claim full rights for Ginger though :)

The story is set sometime after Ivypool and Dovewing become warriors in the Omen of the Stars series, and is before Ivypool listened to Dovewing and became a spy in the Dark Forest.

Enjoy.

Prologue

When you have no one left in the world to care for, and no one who cares for you, you have to live only for yourself. Otherwise you'll fade away to nothing.

You can't let yourself drown in misery and regret or you'll become submerged so deep that even if the one you loved the most came back, you wouldn't listen to them, hear them, or even see them. You would just... sink.

So that's what I do. I live life to the full. I pull pranks, steal prey, hiss at kittens, and fight dogs. Not to mention the she-cats. They fall for me like twigs from trees. I'm not cruel; I don't just turn them away. I give them kittens to remember me by. That's all she-cats want anyway - kittens. I even say hello every now and again, but the kittens annoy me... hence the hissing.

According to some of the toms, I'm heartless. They spit at me for giving a she-cat hope and then abandoning her. Pfft, I don't force them to fall for me. I can't help it if I'm too handsome for them to resist me. They each think they will be the one to 'tame' me and it's not my problem if they get their hopes up. Of course I have to dash them, I'm not going to hang around forever just to preserve some she-cat's feelings. They know what they're getting into with me, so they can deal with the consequences.

I've been living here in this town for many moons now. I used to keep moving, never settling, but the Twoleg town where I currently reside has a rather interesting point in its favour. Four groups of cats who call themselves Clans live around the nearby lake. It's a miracle they haven't yet been discovered by the Twolegs yet actually, and for that I admire them. However, they're also a bit dim. Believing in StarClan, their 'Warrior ancestors'? Please, only a kitten would believe in something like that. But really, they're none of my business. I'm content with roaming the streets of the Twolegplace; I won't bother them as long as they don't bother me.

I go by many names. Ginger being my current one. My real name is buried deep in the past, just like everything else. What other cats never seem to understand is why. They'll never find out. I just tell them I live in the moment. I never go back or reflect on the past because that way, I have no regrets.

I'm free.

Author's Note: Reviews are very much appreciated!

Thanks for reading!

~ Jay