Such the Fairy Tale Ending. A fanfic by Glowy.

[glowlynose]

Crow says we have to post this. So.
Story Title: Such the Fairy Tale Ending
Author: Yours truly
Character(s): Rain (Me), Analucia, Willow, and Clementine (All NP)
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG, for mild romantic content (and the depression of seeing what the clans are keeping Rain from D:)
Warnings: Honestly, if you don't want to get upset with the fact that things didn't turn out the way they did in this fanfic and are happy with Rain's spot in PineClan, don't read this.

Author's Note:

The universe can work in strange ways sometimes. Most people think that the universe is always working to make them happy, but that's not the case. It is certainly not the case for this fanfic, for the events that transpire below shall never happen in reality. The events described here were never supposed to actually happen, so they will not. I, the author, merely wanted to give you a taste of what would have happened had Rain never found the clans. Happy reading! :3

Such the Fairy Tale Ending[/font]

As nighttime settled over the tranquil Colorado valley, three cats awoke from their day's slumber. Three she-cats they were, a mother and her children. Two shared the same pelt color, a ginger so vibrant that one might think the two to be forged of flames, not flesh. The odd one out was a rather nondescript pale gray. It was not long before the trio set out on their journey. They were silent for a while, but then the gray she-cat, being unable to bear the silence, spoke.

"Mom, can you tell us a story? Please?"

"Not not, Willow. Hush and keep moving." The mother's snarled reply was clipped and harsh. Her gray daughter had been in a strange mood lately, always asking for stories and to play games, and it had worn down Analucia's nerves. She had no idea why Willow was being this way. Her daughter had matured into a very quiet, reserved she-cat, and all of a sudden she was acting like a troublesome kit again. What was this? And why was it always stories? Tell me a story, oh please, won't you tell me a story? Rain had always been the one to tell the girls their stories. Analucia sighed. Willow was probably just missing her father.

"It's okay, sis," piped up the other fire-pelted she-cat, "I can tell you a story. I remember all of dad's favorites. Which one do you want to hear? Wanna hear about Superman, or Cinderella?"

"I want mom to make up a story, Clem."

"But she doesn't want to tell you a story right now."

"And I don't want to go any farther until she tells me a story!" With that, Willow promptly sat down and started grooming herself, but not without first sticking her tongue out at her sister.

"Wil, come on! Mom says we have to keep looking for dad, no matter what. We have to keep moving. Don't you want to see dad again?"

"But you said the other day that-"

"Oh, fine." Analucia sighed once more and shook her head at her children. No, not children, kits. What was wrong with them tonight? It was mostly Willow's fault, asking for stories and being so pigheaded about it. She could be so like her father sometimes. He was certainly where she had gotten her stubborn streak from. "I'll tell you your story, just come along. We're wasting moonlight."

She heard her daughters snicker once or twice before falling into step beside Analucia. They were undoubtedly laughing at her strange custom of travelling by night. It was strange, yes, but she had her reasons. There was a method to her madness. It was much cooler at night, so they could travel farther. Besides, during the day, there were no stars out. She liked the stars much better than the sun.

Ah, but now what to tell a story about? It had to be something extravagant, something perfect. Her children were waiting now, completely focused on her. Analucia laughed softly. She could guess which story her daughters were hoping for. They wanted to hear the one story they had never heard. They wanted to hear about their parents' past. Willow would be especially interested in this story, seeing how very similar she was to her father. She would want to know why he hadn't found them yet, or if he was even still looking for them. Of course, he was hardly to blame for his absence over the past year. Analucia and her children, then only five months old, had been taken up by a group of humans and brought to live with them. Rain could not have tracked them into the heart of the city no matter how much he wanted to. Yes, they would want to hear the story of their parents. It was unfair, really, keeping it from them any longer.

"Okay. Once upon a time, there was a young, beautiful princess. She had everything she could ever want. Her parents loved her very much and practically waited on her hand and foot, and her castle was the biggest in the whole wide world. You should know, though, that the princess was not happy at all."

"Why not?" Willow and Clementine chorused together, perfectly on cue. A knowing smile passed between the two before Analucia continued.

"Well, little ones, the biggest castle in the world don't mean a thing if you don't have a friend to share it with, and this princess didn't have a single friend. She got to be very lonely sitting all alone in her room inside the castle. She was still very young when she started to take trips outside of the castle, and eventually, off the castle grounds, to try and find somebody who would be her friend. Most others were afraid to be her friend, see."

"Did she ever find a friend, Mom?" Willow asked, bright eyed and grinning. She always loved to help the story along like that.

"Patience, young grasshopper. I was getting there." Analucia paused to laugh and cuff her daughter's ear before continuing. She'd forgotten how good it felt to tell stories. "Anyway, one day she bumped into a prince who was about her age. This prince was very special. He was incredibly handsome, and he came from somewhere far away that the princess had never heard of. He called it 'the wild,' and he said it was all around them. The princess was intrigued by this prince, and so she started to spend time with him every day. She showed him about her world and he showed her about his. They eventually became the best of friends."

Willow smiled contentedly, happy to be lost in her mother's story, but Clementine could only sigh softly and roll her eyes. It was obvious where this was going. This was their story, Rain's and Analucia's, and the ending wouldn't actually be an end. There would be no happy ever after to this fairy tale. The prince and princess would fall in love, run away, get separated, boo-hoo-oh-woe-is-us, and then the end of the story would be them looking for each other. No resolution, just bam, cold hard reality. Well, her mom and sister might be content to look for that loser until their paws fell off, but she wasn't. She was sick of walking and looking, always walking and looking. "Keep your chin up, girls! We might find him tomorrow." "Oh, it's just another cliff to cross. Now Clementine, be careful and try not to fall this time, okay honey?" "Just another day, then we can rest." It had been "just another day left" for the past three months. They were never going to find him. All this search was was Analucia's defense mechanism, her catalyst for her refusal to accept the truth, find a new man, and move on with her life.

How much longer would it be until they gave up? Two years? Five years? That was ridiculous. Clementine was a year-and-a-half old already. She should have found a mate by now, and be settled somewhere happily. However, it was sort of difficult to find a mate when the only tom you'd ever met in your life was your father. Despite what she had told Willow earlier- oh yes, very clever acting indeed- she wanted nothing more than to abandon the search for Rain. Then maybe she could find a nice, respectable tom and raise a family somewhere.

"Did they fall in love?" Willow beamed as she asked the question, for she knew the answer already. It was yes. Of course they had. What sort of fairy tale would it be if the prince and princess didn't fall in love? Of course, this was no fairy tale, being the story of her parents and everything (oh yes, she could tell from the look in her mother's eyes). Still, the prince and the princess always fell in love.


"Of course they did, idiot. Any kitten could tell that," Clementine sneered at her sister, who promptly hissed back.

"Yes, you were both right," began Analucia with a harrowed sigh, "The prince and princess fell in love with each other. They could have been quite happy together, but there was a little problem. Their parents didn't want them to be together. The princess's parents didn't think the prince was good enough for her, and the prince's parents didn't want their son to be in love with anybody. They tried everything they could think of to keep them apart from one another, even going as far as to threaten war. They told them to either split up or leave, so the prince and the princess left. They ran away to an unclaimed kingdom where they could be far, far away from their parents. Once they made their own castle, they met two little princesses. The little princesses came to live with them, and they were all very, very happy together.

"One day the prince had to leave his princesses and go off to fight a big, evil dragon. He promised never to leave them again once he had killed the dragon, but when he was gone, something terrible happened. A group of wizards came to their kingdom and stole away the three princesses and brought them to a horrible tower where the prince could never rescue them. They eventually escaped, but once they made it back to their kingdom, the prince had long since gone off to search for them. So they set out to find the prince too, and to this day both the prince and his princesses are searching the world for each other."

"Will they ever find each other, Mama?" Willow tilted her head to one side, trying not to let her confusion show too much. Did her mom actually still believe in their quest, or was she just continuing the search because she knew nothing else? Was Willow the only one with any hope left for Rain? Clementine had given up long ago, and it seemed like Analucia was starting to give up as well.

"Yes, Willow. Yes, they'll find each other eventually." Analucia smiled sadly. It wasn't like she'd lied, really. Just because they might not find each other when they were alive didn't mean that they wouldn't in the afterlife. Willow had never specified the state that they had to be in when they finally found each other, after all.

A new voice now issued from the darkness, seeming to come from a pair of luminescent green eyes. It was deep, masculine, and though slightly gravelly from long disuse, mirrored perfectly the amusement that glinted in the strange tom's eyes. "That was a wonderful story, miss, but I mus' say that the ending was a bit... off, ta me at least. I've an idea for a bettah one though."

Before the dumbfounded she-cats could utter a single syllable of protest, the strange tom, still hidden in the shadows, launched into his new ending. "When the prince returned home and discovered his princesses to be missin', he was distraught. He waited at home for many days tryin' ta tell himself that they were jes' out huntin'. He waited for two weeks there. When they still weren't home by then, he set off ta search for 'em.

"The prince scoured the land for over a year, checkin' ehv-uh-ree possible place that he could think they might be. Sometimes he could've sworn that he'd searched the entire world for 'em. Then one night, just as he was 'bout to give up hope for good, he heard voices. He thought that maybe, just maybe, those cats might've seen his princesses. So he went over to check." The mysterious tom stepped into the moonlight now, grinning for all the world to see. He was a large, muscular cat, with gorgeous gray fur and a smile fit to kill. The she-cats were openly astonished when they saw him. Analucia's head tilted to the side, Clementine's mouth dropped open in disbelief, and Willow let out a confused whimper. Then slowly their confusion grew up into understanding, and understanding into excitement, and excitement into a full blown screaming, yowling, whooping welcome.

Rain had thought for many days about what he would say when he finally found his family again. He'd prepared countless speeches, but now, with Analucia pressing up against him once more, telling him how worried she had been, he abandoned every single one of them. A speech would have sounded superficial and ridiculous anyway. All he could do now was stay where he was and let her unleash all of her pent up worry, anguish, and depression.

"Look up to the sky, Analucia," he said softly, smiling. "Remember our star? I made you a promise on that star. It's still up there, ain't it? All ya had to do when you were worried was look up and see its light. That star's always gonna be there, just like me. I promise you, I ain't never leavin' y'all again, not even to fight the meanest dragon of all."

For the first time in what seemed like forever, the four cats could all say that they were happy.
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