`` V I S I O N A R Y

&& lost myself in a world

apart from reality

Two WindClan warriors are caught up in a deadly plot against the WindClan leader—can their deceased father uncover an answer through visions of his own past before it's too late?

My charries. Don't touch them.

Except those aforementioned that belong to Streakz.

Don't touch them either, actually.

Tallstar and Warriors are not mine.

Credit for the events of the 'present' are shared equally with Streakzes.

Take ANYTHING and I'll come after you with a weed whacker.

That would be one painful death, dude. OUCH

Hurts just thinkin' about it. So don't do it. Lol.

c h a p t e r t w o – the truth.

The silver surface of the pool flashed, swirled—and Tallstar abruptly found himself looking once more at the scene in the present, where the ginger form of Russetstripe's daughter hurled herself across the moor to stop what happened below.

"What's going on here?" he asked the younger StarClanner, whose tail was twitching in agitation.

"There's a rogue," Russetstripe murmured, not to Tallstar but to the trio of cats moving still unawarely into the city, "There's a rogue… turn back… don't trust him…"

"Russetstripe, what's happening?"

Even as he said it, Tallstar saw another glint of ginger in the scene behind a shabby white twoleg den. He thought at first it was Orangeflash arriving at last, but he was wrong—for a moment later a ginger tabby of massive size flickered past, stealthily creeping past one of the thornbushes. And there was nothing sane in those glittering eyes.

"Stay there, Assassin…" the StarClan warrior meowed desperately.

"Russetstripe! If you want to help, you're going to have to do more than stare into that pool yelling at your children that can't hear you!"

That accusing pair of forest-green eyes turned onto Tallstar, but a moment later that harsh glint faded into weary agreement. "Very well. Let's go back to me, as I was once—back when I still walked the forest as a warrior."

^^ : ^^

"Northpaw!" the small gray apprentice scrambled up in the den to meet Icetail's foreboding gaze.

"Yes, Icetail?" the little tom asked anxiously, "What's wrong? Has something happened to Russetstripe?" The white she-cat muttered to herself, something that sounded like "No, but he's about to." In a louder tone, she meowed, "I'm taking you out training this morning, Northpaw—Russetstripe's busy." Her voice was saturated with disgust.

"Okay. Where is he?"

"I have no idea. But he has no business neglecting his apprentice."

One could tell by the scene that Northpaw was now quite used to his mentor's fickle nature and merely followed meekly in the older she-cat's path as Icetail prowled back out into the main camp.

The scene skipped their training, but it was obvious from the mere glimpse Tallstar saw that Icetail was an adept, experienced warrior, and Northpaw would be much the better for Russetstripe's neglect—wherever he was.

What was happening resumed—the two had obviously just finished their training session and both were breathing heavily from whatever scuffle the two had just completed. "Good job for today, Northpaw," Icetail praised, and Northpaw fluffed up his smoky fur in pride. The two began to pad back across the moor—and then they saw him.

The young, dark amber warrior in all his glory—the rays of the sun illuminating his ruff of ginger fur in golden light. He was surrounded by a crowd of his buddies—and it was obvious this was no hunting patrol.

"Hey, Russetstripe," one of the warriors asked, "Is it true that the deputy of ThunderClan came up to you and asked for a tuft of your fur?" a meow of laughter rippled through the circle and the young tom smirked.

"It seems no she-cat can resist my, mmmm, magnetism," the faintly striped tomcat boasted, waving his plumy tail in a way that made Icetail pause and her eyes light up with fury.

"Are you ever going to choose one?" one slightly jealous tomcat asked. Russetstripe gave him one of those winning smiles that made even Tallstar frustrated with the stupid cat.

"Ah, but I have such a wide variety to pick from! I'll have to wait a little longer." Northpaw was shrinking back behind Icetail, realizing for perhaps the first time that Russetstripe wasn't just too busy to train him—he didn't care.

Maybe that was what set Icetail off. Tallstar didn't know why she'd waited so long—perhaps she felt sorry for the young warrior's idiocy. Perhaps she and her sister hadn't gotten along. Whatever had happened, that white she-cat wasn't going to wait a minute longer to stalk up to Russetstripe and tell him something no cat had ever told him before—the truth.

"You stupid piece of FOXDUNG!" Russetstripe turned his head in surprise to see a blizzard of ice and alabaster fur streaking at him. His hazel-green eyes widened with shock. His friends thought this was hilarious, and started shouting out comments. "Looks like Icetail doesn't like getting rejected!" One particularly witty one cried out right before she clobbered him on the side of the head.

"Go back to camp, all of you!" she snarled, "I'll be talking to the leader about all of you pitiful warriors." As their senior they had to obey, and their ears paled at the thought of her influence. Icetail was a very influential she-cat—she'd been a candidate for deputy and had lost only because she'd gotten in trouble around that time fighting with a RiverClan she-cat.

"Get BACK here, Russetstripe!" the alabaster warrior shrieked, and the young tom froze from where he'd been slinking off to. There was no shame in his position as he turned, that strangely attractive mix of cockiness and arrogance in his face.

"Yes?" he purred, tone becoming alluring, eyes shining for a moment. Obviously he thought he could win her like he'd won every other she-cat, even toms, to his beauty. He thought wrong.

Icetail hit him so hard he flew back feet into the air and came down hard, knocking the wind out of him.

Tallstar nearly cheered.

"You're an idiot." The raw disgust in the warrioress's tone made Russetstripe look up—utter shock erasing the seduction in his expression. "I don't know how you even got your warrior name, except maybe you charmed your mentor—you're worthless. You're too busy strutting around to hunt, you're too much of a coward to fight. You've shown quite clearly how good of a mentor you are." Her eyes flickered back to Northpaw, who was sitting quietly, shocked, up on the knoll.

"I…" Russetstripe sputtered, beginning to be offended. Nobody had ever spoken to him like that before.

"All you can do is break hearts and ruin lives," Icetail spat, "You're too stupid to realize what you're doing. You know Cloudflight threw herself off the gorge because of you? You know how many kits have been born since you started flirting with every cat to look in your direction?" Her accusation filtered into Russetstripe and he was crouching suddenly, gasping.

"I… Cloudflight died because of me?" his shock and horror was obvious.

"Yes." Icetail bared her teeth. "And she was pregnant with your cursed kits. It broke her heart when you told her you didn't want to be with her anymore—she was going to tell you. You killed her, Russetstripe. And you have the nerve to brag about it."

It was the final straw and Russetstripe broke, opened his jaws in a wail of agony. "No!" he wailed, "No!"

The senior warrior shook her head. She had nothing to say. "Come on, Northpaw," she meowed, and stunned, the apprentice trailed behind her. He didn't even look back at the broken, crumpled figure of flame-colored fur and pain crouched on the ground.

As they reached the crest of the hill for a moment the young apprentice glanced back as a howl split the air, a howl of raw sorrow and grief that made Tallstar recoil with the pain of it as he saw the dark ginger figure turn, run, fly away from the camp and the plains with his cry of agony winding, echoing, behind him.

^^ : ^^

Tallstar for a moment touched the other tom with his tail and looked him over with his clear amber eyes. Russetstripe was older—more mature. More experienced. That experience of 'not being loved' had been good for him, he thought.

"I was an idiot. She was right." The cat's eyes were filled with empty pain. "I wasted my life. And now I'm wasting my death, perched over this cursed hole in the sky, watching my children destroying themselves." The empty lack of hope in his tone infuriated Tallstar.

"You're an idiot if you give up," the black-and-white leader growled, to which Russetstripe straightened up. "You're right," the tom agreed.

"To make things short—I left the Clan. I was broken—broken and hurting, because I'd been living in some kind of fantasy land. Some kind of imaginary place where I had all the she-cats I wanted, where nobody ever said a harsh word to me, where I was surrounded by friends and admirers and I could do no wrong."

"You left?"

"I ran. I ran away. Icetail said I was a coward. I was about to prove her right." The next scene began to form and Tallstar leaned forward to watch as far from escaping his troubles with his cursed good looks rogue and loner she-cats followed in Russetstripe's wake, rain and snow woke the spoiled warrior up to the real world outside of the Clan. At long last, the cat found a large, faded red twoleg den and curled up within to sleep.

The barn was not without previous occupants, however…

w r i t e r c o m m e n t s –

Lol Russetstripe is an idiot.

Review! Please Hahaha

I have no reviews which I find amusing.

I think I'm the only one who's read this.

-rofl- I'm quite amused. Anyway.

If you have the urge—REVIEW WOOT.

I'm not gonna beg.

I'm proud, like Icetail. And Demon, who you will meet soon.

But I might mention that I still have that weed whacker.

And I'll zing it at your face. I can do that you know.

8D lol I worked hard on it so help me out, man.