[Insidious]

R A Z O R F A N G

“Have you seen my parents?” The familiar tone of the deputy's apprentice caused Razorfang's ears to prickle, head swinging over muscled shoulder blades in search of the two faces he could potentially single out as Russetpaw's parents. "I haven't seen Brookrun or Snoweye either - they aren't with my parents," Roselight's voice only offered the slightest soothe to the deputy's current, frantic mindset upon gray-green irises landing within the depths of her own cerulean for a short moment. However, this minor calmness was quick to be shattered and replaced by worry. If Brookrun and Snoweye had happened to fall behind, he had to at least try and find them. Russetpaw would be devestated, had he simply brushed off their disappearance and continued with leading the rest of RainClan to safety.

With an inward sigh, the deputy protruded his neck to spare a glance over both Russetpaw and Roselight's heads. Momentarily, his search seemed futile. However, as if by a random spark of pure luck, he spotted the familiar fur of Brookrun and Snoweye – what where they?... Razorfang's eyes widened upon realization that the two elders were attempting to cross the rising water; continuing to slip each moment they attempted to place their paws upon a new rock.

With a disapproving huff, Razorfang pushed through the two RainClan felines before him to approach Brookrun and Snoweye. He didn't take it upon himself to inform neither Russetpaw nor Roselight that he had located them. He simply assumed that – upon the duo recognizing his newly inhabited urgency – they would allow their gazes to wander in his direction and see the unfolding scenario for themselves.

Razorfang skidded at the river's edge, water piling atop of his large, blacks paws and soaking them down to the bone. He shivered against the sudden blast of cold, though refrained from allowing his frame to give in to the arising temptation of stepping back and saving his own pelt. The hazelnut-masked deputy considered winding his way toward the two elders to assist them in crossing, though he was equally as quick to consider the water level and how horribly dangerous and life-threatening it would be for him to do so. “It's impossible for me to get out there safely! You need to cross, fast!” His voice boomed over the spitting water, blinking urgent eyes toward Brookrun and Snoweye.

How he hoped the two elders, by some miracle, could reach safety on their own. As the water continued to rise, however, it became more apparent that they were incapable of advancing forward on their own. The thought that slipped through Razorfang's mind wasn't anything close to pleasant, but unfortunately, it seemed to be accurate. The lives of Brookrun and Snoweye were in grave danger.

[Fawn]

RUSSETPAW _{and Roselight}

Though the risen temperatures were to blame for this whole fiasco, Russetpaw felt as though he had swallowed chunks of ice, where they had slid icily down his throat to settle in the pit of his stomach, weighing him down with the strength of his trembling.

Just as Razorfang had discovered the two struggling cats on the opposite end of the bank, so too had their son, his emerald eyes full of frightened desperation, as if somewhere in his very heart of hearts, he had grasped the gravity of the situation. That didn't mean he was just going to stand there and do nothing!

Overcome as he was by the horrible possibility of losing the two cats closest to him, a shout rose up from his chest like the screech of a hawk, making sure they heard him. "Don't move, Mom, Dad! I'll get you!" Vocals booming over the now insidious-sounding swirl and squish and slosh of the overflowing, overwhelming waters.

What answered him was a lethal hiss just behind him, and Russetpaw had to dart like a fish caught in the crosshairs of a bigger fish's hungry gaze, missing Roselight's pounce by the skin of his teeth, his cousin having grasped just what it was he was going to do.
I'm saving my parents, and you can't stop me!

As if he could just stand here, so close yet so far, and watch them struggle to find their footing. As if he, their son, could allow his own flesh and blood, the two cats that had taken care of him, had brought him to be what he was today, try and brave the floods alone. Though he was conscious of his mentor nearby, but it wasn't the voice of Razorfang that rang in his ears from the opposite side of the river.

"Russetpaw you stay where you are!"
It was the commanding voice of Snoweye, the normally very relaxed, steady tom speaking in a tone that gave away a little of his fear in the harshness of his tone, and Russetpaw skidded to a stop at the water's edge in surprise.
"Razorfang, you keep him on that bank!" Barked Snoweye, the tom grunting as he felt Brookrun lean her weight against his shoulder, the two trapped a few fox lengths away from their side of the bank, the warriors having found the shallowest place to cross. Unfortunately, it was still high enough that they were constantly getting drenched, pinned down by the dragging pull of the water and their own stalwart desire to rejoin the others. Backing up no longer seemed plausible.

Stay on the bank? STAY on the bank?

Throwing a challenging glare at Razorfang, Russetpaw lunged for the water, resisting the urge to yowl as he felt Roselight's teeth scrape against the skin of his tail, the she-cat having attempted to bite him by the plume and drag him back if she had to - but he was too fast. As the young tom slid into the water up to his chest, water slapping him in the face though all four paws could still touch the downward sloping side of the bank, the worst thing happened.

With a terrified yowl, Brookrun lost her footing, slipping from the rocks right into the icy depths below. Snoweye, who had tried to grab his mate by the scruff of her slick gray fur, was pulled in by her pregnant weight, and the two warriors went tumbling in together in a mess of brownish gray and flailing claws, the river seeming to swallow them up whole.

[Insidious]

R A Z O R F A N G

Under any other circumstance, Razorfang would have literally smacked that challenging glare right off of Russetpaw's features – hadn't the situation been mildly understandable for him to be on the receiving end of such a glance. Razorfang had been about to shout over the raging water to assure Snoweye and Brookrun that he would keep Russetpaw safe, hadn't he been cut off by the apprentice's abrupt dash into the rising rapids. Black ears pinned forward swiftly, determination to keep Russetpaw safe surging through his frame in the same moment the reddish brown fur of his apprentice was swallowed whole beneath the crashing rapids. A look of pure shock was momentarily spared toward Roselight, his large paws crumbling the wet earth beneath his weight with a forwardly spring followed by a plunge into the water directly where Russetpaw had vanished a moment prior.

Immediately, his head surfaced once more, blinking the cold sting of water from his gray-green eyes as he searched for Russetpaw's familiar, reddish brown hue. The shortest moment was spared to glance toward where he had left Roselight at the water's edge, spitting a mouthful of freezing water from his lethal jaw. “Stay where you are. I'll find Russetpaw!” The last thing the deputy required was a worrisome cousin following him into the rapids to assist in saving Russetpaw. That would merely put another life on the line, which he certainly wasn't willing to let happen. For the time being, Roselight was helping by keeping herself out of harm's way.

By swimming in one place, the cold was beginning to almost paralyze his limbs paddling beneath the rising waves. Thankfully, his gaze had befallen the familiar features of Russetpaw in the nick of time – bursting forth with an immense power in the motioning of his hind limbs as he cut through the water's surface once more, gasping for a large breath as the entirety of his large frame became submerged beneath the swirling river.

Perhaps, it had been pure luck, but Razorfang was able to recover to the surface merely a mouse-length away from his apprentice whom was paddling vigorously to where Brookrun and Snoweye were stuck. Without gifting Russetpaw time to create more distance between them, he struck forward – sharp teeth grasping at the reddish brown fur of Russetpaw's neck and tugging backward with a powerful force that could be expected from the deputy. Immediately, he began to cautiously maneuver back to where Roselight was, hopefully, still in wait. He was unable to check and witness for himself whether or not the RainClan she-cat had stayed where Razorfang had asked, for he was mildly distracted by the task of carrying extra weight through the river that was attempting to swallow both of them whole; all the while this extra weight proving to flail with clear disapproval toward being dragged back to shore.

The few seconds of swimming seemed to pass within the same time frame as an eternity. Razorfang was bordering exhaustion, nearing his breaking point from where he would no longer be able to fight the vigorous waves that so desperately wanted to pull the both of them under. His eyelids momentarily fluttered shut, only to feel Russetpaw's weight suddenly grasped free from his subconsciously releasing jaws. This abrupt lack of weight was enough to revive the necessary amount of strength for Razorfang to pull himself free from the cold sting of the water, shaking himself free from clinging droplets only for his gaze to befall the creamy furred frame of Roselight: a soaked apprentice clamped in her jaw. He spared the she-cat a glance of gratitude for her assistance, catching his breath with quick gasps for clean air before finally glimpsing over his muscled shoulders to where Brookrun and Snoweye were... no longer present.

He knew that the duo had likely fallen in during his wrestle with Russetpaw upon returning to shore. Though, the entire thought of them no longer being there seemed so... inaccurate. Razorfang glanced to his side, as if expecting the two felines to be standing there: safe and secure. It was only when the thought of their death had fully registered that his gaze flickered back to Russetpaw and Roselight sprawled upon the terrain nearby.

[Fawn]

RUSSETPAW

Through no fault of the freezing water that soaked him to the skin, Russetpaw let out a low, mourning keen of misery, emerald eyes darting from left to right as though he might glimpse a skyward reaching claw or a maw stretched wide in a desperate cry for help.

Anything to hint that there was still life somewhere in that churning, dark, hate-able water. Growing numb, he unconsciously struggled further against both Roselight and Razorfang, no longer aware of their cold fur brushing against his own water-slicked red coat, the icy droplets dripping from the tips of his ears and down his whiskers, his cry of anguish growing louder.
Oh StarClan please, bring them back. Please. Just this once, I'm begging you.

Ceasing to struggle, his movements having grown stiff with the cold, Russetpaw squeezed his eyes shut and stood stock still, as though the tragedy he had just suffered might've turned something so full of life into nothing more than a pillar of stone, devoid of all compassion and warmth and soul.
"Please come back...I-I don't have to be leader or deputy someday - I'll find something else, just come back!" In a soul-shattered mixture of a prayer to StarClan and a son's plea to his lost parents, Russetpaw babbled in shock at the shifting and splashing body of water that had swallowed them whole. That was a fair trade, wasn't it? If he gave up his dreams, he could have his parents back? If he promised to bow his head in deference to StarClan, to no longer try and be the controller of his own destiny, then StarClan would return what had been stolen?

He did not want them to be the faces he saw when he received his nine lives. He did not want nine lives anymore. He did not want leadership or any semblance of it. What was the point of nine lives if they weren't going to be in any of them?

What was the point, if he couldn't see them anymore?

A crushing weight fell from the sky just then, hammering him in the back with the force of a gut-wrenching loss, his back legs buckling into a sit that was no more voluntary than it was preventable, the strength driven clean from his body. Hardly conscious of Roselight pressing her muzzle into the soaked fur of his neck, or of her tongue gently rasping over his ears, something murmured to him that his grief-stricken self could not detect, a wall was put up between him and the two warriors nearby, the young tom out of the water, but somehow still drowning.


Snoweye and Brookrun were dead.

And so too, was his spirit.