the fall.
Anticipation and dread thudded in Tallstar's starry blood as his sharp eyes locked almost fearfully on the vision forming in the pool. Over his nine lives he'd seen many a cat die, many a cat killed—ending with his own, final death. But the fact that Russetstripe was ready to show him his murder, and having seen the events of the present where Assassin's claws had struck so swiftly…
Well, the tomcat had technically done a great service—avenging his leader and destroying an incredibly dangerous and unbalanced rogue. It was the complete lack of emotion in the dark warrior's eyes as he'd slit the giant tom's throat, the utter expertise with which he completed the act, that unnerved the former leader so greatly. The rogue had swatted aside an experienced warrior like Blackblizzard away with a paw, and crushed the Clan Leader to death between those massive jaws. An unbelievably dangerous opponent—but he'd fallen with a stroke of Russetstripe's son's claws.
Had those same claws felled Russetstripe as well? Tallstar felt a strange reculance to see the events that might transpire, a reculance to see that young, dark form with the dancing eyes erased and replaced with that cold, professional aspect that the tomcat had just shown below. Russetstripe said he was a warrior—did Ficklestar know Assassin was like this when he let him join his Clan?
The large, starry ginger form at his side sighed as finally the shattered fragments of memory eased into a smooth, flat plane within the stellar surface of the water. "Here we are," the tomcat meowed quietly, "As I said—the end of a long story. I hope I haven't bored you, Tallstar."
"No, no," Tallstar said quickly, flinching slightly, "By a contrast, I am quite intrigued. I had heard the events in my Clan were growing difficult, and I'm quite surprised to see this all. I must be quite out of touch with the living world, I'm afraid."
"Good," Russetstripe said, nodding vigorously, "And I would be the same—sometimes those fields are tempting, but I can't abandon my daughter. I have to make sure she's safe." For a moment that voice was almost shrill, frantic. "She's in terrible danger—Assassin killed that rogue, but Blackblizzard was the one who sent him… and Orangeflash is right about to walk into his trap. Something happened between them earlier, something I missed…"
"How could you miss it? What do you mean?"
"Icetail stopped by to chat, and I took my eyes away the pool for a few minutes to talk to her—and next time I looked, Blackblizzard was on his way to camp to trap Ficklestar, and Orangeflash was taking off after him!"
Tallstar's eyes widened. "What did Icetail say?"
Russetstripe toed the soft earth beneath this paws in frustration. "Something about how I'm wasting my afterlife peering over our daughter, and that she can take care of herself—but obviously she can't—look at everything that's happening! Every time that woman pops in here to lecture me, I miss something…!"
Abruptly the black-and-white leader remembered there was a memory waiting for his attention, and turned his clear gaze back to the pool without making a comment. Icetail's right… the last thing she'd want would be Russetstripe's guidance…
***
"Orangepaw! Will you please just listen to me?!" the Russetstripe in the scene looked desperate and frustrated—his shining pelt was marred with scraps of dust and grass, and he looked wild. "I don't want you to get hurt, you have to stay away from the borders. I'll talk to the leader and get you off border patrols…"
"Screw that," the apprentice spat, her brilliant fur fluffed up in a storm of fire as those intense eyes shimmered with fury, "You don't tell me what to do!" Russetstripe's eyes were cool and disapproving as he reminded her, "I do tell you what to do—I'm your father and your mentor!"
"No you're not—you're not the only one who can pop into the leader's den and whine and throw a fit until you get your way—there's going to be a ceremony tomorrow to change mentors." Orangepaw's molten gaze was shimmering with triumph. Russetstripe reeled back in shock, a stormy look gathering on his brow.
"You are absolutely impossible!" the larger tomcat shouted, lashing his fluffy tail in agitation, "You're worse than your mother!"
"Oh, go cry me a river," Orangepaw snapped, turning and stalking away. She paused for a moment against the wind, the sun lighting up her vivid pelt as the breeze ruffled that long fur. Her look of scorn was the last Russetstripe would ever see as, agitated, he watched her vanish out of camp. There was no way he could stop her.
The sun crested noon and began to fall; the lazy warmth of late afternoon filtering through the camp as WindClan stopped to rest and share tongues. Orangepaw wasn't back yet—and Tallstar could tell from the expression of worry on the tomcat's face that Russetstripe was already worrying.
"Icetail," he stopped the snowy she-cat as she padded by, sounding urgent, "Have you seen Orangepaw? Do you know where she went?"
The crystalline warrior gave him a look down her nose that was very similar to her daughter's. "Probably as far away from you as she could manage," she said dryly, "Try the borders. She's probably bound to head there, since you forbade her not to." The she-cat sniffed, touched him with the tip of her tail, and sauntered away from the very mournful tomcat.
Russetstripe got to his feet and bounded out of camp, looking terribly concerned, and broke into a complete run as he crested the gorse ridge. Just as he vanished from view, the brilliant figure of Orangepaw padded into camp from the other direction, stretching luxuriously. "Is it time for my mentor-changing ceremony yet?" she meowed, cheerful. "I can't wait. Maybe I'll actually be able to talk to some of the other apprentices."
Her mother purred and brushed whiskers with her kin. "It will be soon," she assured her daughter, "And you won't have to worry about your father, he just left camp looking for you." Orangepaw let out a meow of laughter, pleased, and trotted off towards the hollow where the apprentices slept, probably to boast or some such.
An expression of minor forboding crossed Icetail's serene face for a moment, until she glanced over and saw another cat watching her curiously. "What're you looking at?" she snapped at the tom, and he turned away, embarrassed, as she padded away.
***
Russetstripe pressed his sculpted nose to the ground and bounded along the border. The small section of forest that lay within WindClan territory was the only part concealed enough that he could not immediately sight out his daughter's vibrant pelt, and he was sure she was here. He'd tried to track her, but she was already experienced enough in that aspect that she could obviously cover her trail.
He was so focused, so worried— desperately searching for his little girl that could probably fight off a whole Clan by herself—that his senses could not, did not pick up the scent of an intruder—a border trespasser. His hazel-green eyes scanned the brush for the sight of orange fur, not of orange eyes; a pair of flamelike slits glittering in the half-darkness of sunset.
The cat who watched was near invisible, a creature of the shadows; not given away by the glint of fur or the shine of claws; not even the sound of his breath alerting Russetstripe to his danger. The tomcat slid along the branch of the tree, light and soft; each footfall noiseless as if nothing had ever been there at all.
This was, after all, what he'd trained his whole life for. If he'd been a Clan cat, he would have aged only as the newest of warriors—in the rogue world, this was his initiation. The act he had to complete to prove himself.
What are you going to do, Assassin? Demon had asked him, Where are you going? The tomcat had answered, quietly, immediately, as she'd taught him. "I am going to find Russetstripe." The answer was flat, and held none of that young sparkle Tallstar had seen in him as a kit. And what is Russetstripe? What is he, Assassin? She whispered.
"He's my target."
There was no more emotion in that voice than there had been when the older version's needle-sharp claws had torn across Firestorm's exposed throat, no more emotion in this assertion of murder than there had ever been. And now the thin, black rogue perched in the shadowy tree, waiting his turn, biding his time—the flamelike irises the only slits of light in the smoke and ash of his form.
The large ginger tom was turning his head, calling, "Orangepaw! Orangepaw, come home! It's dangerous out here!" when he was attacked. He had no warning, no expectation, and it was only by pure chance that he was not killed at once.
Assassin struck with precision, but Tallstar noted almost immediately that he was rough, unrefined—whatever expertise he'd shown on the night in the present had not yet been built into his blood. The claws were just as sharp, just as clever—but they were not yet so dangerous that Russetstripe could not put up a fight.
With a yowl of surprise and pain, the longhaired warrior threw himself sideways, crushing the spidery tomcat beneath his weight as he rolled. Assassin let go, spitting, and crouched down for only a moment before immediately attacking again. Russetstripe seemed dazed, shocked, and he very nearly missed death once again as those dark thorns sizzled past his throat. Throwing up a huge paw to block the smaller cat, the tabby roared in outrage and bit down on the black rogue's shoulder.
The night-cloaked tomcat did not so much as yelp, just slashed with the other paw viciously, cutting a dark scratch above the ginger warrior's eye. Russetstripe did yelp, and leap away, but immediately prepared himself for the flurry of claws that slashed and bound at his body, tucking his white paws underneath him and driving himself forward with an infuriated yowl.
"Who are you!" the tomcat roared, "Why are you here?!" Assassin did not deem to grace this question with a response and merely slid beneath the larger cat's belly, aiming to gut. Tallstar revised his earlier opinion—though he'd been trained well, Assassin was still too young and inexperienced to take down a warrior like Russetstripe. Demon had underestimated her former mate.
Catching the dark rogue in his claws, Russetstripe wrestled the spidery cat beneath him. Both of them bled freely from scratches in their shoulders and haunches, and the gash above the warrior's eye dripped and stung his eyes. Finally the older tom pinned the rogue beneath him and gasped out, "Do you yield?"
Tallstar felt a shiver of uncertainty run down his back—he couldn't stop thinking about how lighthearted, how spirited Assassin had been once. Was this what Demon had done to him? Made him a soundless killer? When was the last time the cat had cried, since his kithood?
When the rogue spoke, the black-and-white leader felt incredibly relieved that the flat, harsh look was neither in his gaze nor voice. Challengingly, Russetstripe's son hissed, "I will never yield—not until you are dead!"
Green eyes rolled as exasperatedly the warrior sighed. "Why so violent, little rogue? I've never done anything to you— who are you, anyway?!"
Defiance gleamed in Assassin's sharp orange eyes as he meowed, ringingly, "I am called Assassin, son of Demon; and you are Russetstripe of WindClan!" Choking, the tabby recoiled, staggering backwards and freeing the starless stray, who was immediately on his feet and lunging. Russetstripe was now on the defense, only barely blocking the blows his son threw at him.
"Son of Demon?! Oh, StarClan!" he was choking in his shock. Those green eyes shone in utter astonishment and horror as they crossed the expressive, sculpted visage of the black tomcat before him. "StarClan… you're my son!" he choked. Assassin was colored like his mother, but there was no mistaking those glimmering eyes, that angular face—that slightly lanky, good-looking form.
With another pounce, the inky tomcat had pinned his father to the ground, the cat still too stunned and horrified to even put up a struggle. Triumph gleamed in Assassin's bright gaze as he met his father's eyes, triumph as great as those in Orangepaw's as she'd confessed what she'd done.
Russetstripe's effort to resist faded, slowed, until he was merely still, chest heaving with breath, Assassin's slender weight holding him easily down. They met one another's eyes, and there was no fear or pleading in them. Just sadness. They were both still for a long moment.
"Please," Russetstripe said softly, "just…just do it. I… I am so sorry… please, forgive me, Assassin…" he closed his eyes as he begged his spirit to go to StarClan, though he would not deserve it, after all he'd done…
After a moment he cracked an eye back open, noting he was not dead, and saw Assassin still standing there. That harsh, defiant gleam in his eye was gone now, replaced with a twinkle of lighthearted mischief that was very like Russetstripe himself, a twinkle that told Tallstar that Demon had failed after all.
"Do you yield?" the black tomcat asked with a quirk of the whiskers.
Russetstripe was struck completely speechless.
This has got to be my favorite chapter.
One of the best things I've ever written, I think.
I've always made a lot of references to this scene ^^
But I've never actually written it out. I actually got really emotional.
Lol. Please read and review xD I'd love that lol. This is the last chapter before the epilogue.