Hello everyone! It's been a while, hasn't it...? *sweatdrop* Considering my update schedule with Nothing to Hide and the fact that Unwritten is on a kind-of hiatus, I'm tacking a "slow update warning" onto this story.
Please note that this is the SECOND book in my Secrets of the Past series. I highly recommend that you go and read that first in order to understand the plotline of this story. So, without further ado, here's the prologue to Heart and Soul!
...Almost forgot. Disclaimer: We've been over this enough times...
Prologue- What Happened Before
In, out…in, out…in, out…
"I won't ask again. What are you doing on our territory?"
"I…uh…" Cinderpaw's eyes widened as her mind raced. What was she supposed to say? "Hi, I'm Cinderpaw from LightClan and I just wanted to find out if someone from your Clan was spying on us!"?! Yeah, right. That's why she needed Splashpaw here.
"All we want is safe passage to the Starfall. Nothing more, nothing less." Look who finally showed up, Cinderpaw thought. Thank StarClan…she added immediately afterwards.
Splashpaw's eyes glinted through its icy haze. She may not have been able to see exactly where she was going, but she knew LightClan territory well. Now that they were in IceClan, however, she realized she might have to rely on Cinderpaw a lot more than she thought.
"The Starfall, hm? I know that neither one of you are the medicine cat apprentice, so what would you be needing to go to the Starfall for?" the cat asked, a smug grin slowly growing on its face.
Seeing Splashpaw hesitate as she figured out what to say, Cinderpaw stepped forward and, quite literally, spoke up, tilting her head skyward towards the bigger cat. "We're scouting out a new path. You know how the current one's going, pretty soon our own medicine cat won't be able to get past all those hills and ditches," she finished. Now let's hope he buys it…the she-cat desperately thought.
There was a long pause after Cinderpaw's comment. The apprentices glanced at each other while the IceClan native studied their excuse for overstepping boundaries. Splashpaw eventually took to shifting her weight between her paws. Cinderpaw attempted to keep a confident look on her face, though she too was beginning to doubt her words. The silver-furred apprentice had never been on the way to the Starfall before. What she did know was that IceClan had a lot of rolling hills around their borders, and Cinderpaw hoped those hills were along the path to StarClan's resting place.
Apparently, the LightClan apprentices' worries and what-ifs were for naught, as the warrior seemed to believe their words. "All right, then. That old path wasn't going to last much longer, anyway. Send Emberfur my regards."
And with that, the IceClan warrior stalked back to his patrol and out of sight.
Yes, I know it's short...
A quick note for those planning to continue reading this series: this book will not have the same way of POV storytelling as Nothing to Hide. For example, here we focused on Splashpaw, Cinderpaw, and their journey. The actual first chapter will focus on Rainpaw, Nightpaw, Rosepaw, and LightClan in general. Got it? Good. See you next time!
-Dream