[ This is a continuation from my story 'Gravel and Dust'. This takes place in the same general location about six months later. Enjoy! Reviews welcome! ( This prologue was first written as the epilogue to Gravel and Dust. But I felt G&D was complete as it was. Plus, the style and message differed slightly but enough so that I felt it did not belong there. So, out of that I was left with this extra piece, which has grown now to be the start of a new story. ) ]
Shade sat and watched the moon come up late into the night sky. The moon shone brightly but was soon overrun by low clouds building in and extending across the sky. She turned and padded into the Warrior's Den. There at the back lay the most precious creature she had ever known: Silverpelt. The young she-cat lay curled up in a ball beside her mother. Marigold too was fast asleep. In the failing last rays of moonlight that filtered gently down through the bracken and to the floor of the sleeping area, the two looked identical. Mother and child slept and looked like larger and smaller copies of the other.
To Shade the sight of her apprentice filled her with pride. Yet it was more than that. What stirred within her was more than simple caring for her sister's daughter. It was joy. It was elation. It was a well of emotion that could catch her off guard, as it was doing at this moment; a well so intense she felt she could burst out with a purr that would wake the assembled company. Everything Shade had come to know in her life was being seen born anew through her time with this budding, precious eleven month old Warrior apprentice. The spirit and curiosity that woke up daily between her and Marigold was an eruption of life that shook the wise mentor and found her seeing each day's events as a refreshed stream of enticing discoveries, eagerly assaulted by Silverpaw's clever and curious mind. Shade had no idea how she had made her way through life without Silverpaw by her side. Certainly there had been years between her own birth and that of her apprentice. But whatever they had contained they seemed distant and almost empty in stark comparison to her life now with this young she-cat. There was no going back. A cut had been made in her life. Silverpaw's presence redefined everything to her.
Shade crossed carefully over to them. She turned and settled into her nest, adjacent to her sleeping apprentice and just opposite from Marigold. Shade lay with her head on her forepaws, watching Silverpelt's face. It was quiet now, relaxed. As Shade fell asleep she ran over the day's events, wondered what tomorrow would bring, and drifted away with the image of her niece floating before her closing eyes.