Hello fellow authors and readers! Welcome back to the series I lovingly call "The one where Fireheart has everyone panicking." This is the third installment of Just a Dream, called Shadows and Secrets. For those of you who have read Forest of Secrets, the third book in the original Warriors series, expect some changes because Fireheart is not the same cat we all know and love. Surprisingly enough, the more I write of this story, the more that I find most of the characters are nothing like their book counterpart. Anyway, here's the prologue to Shadows and Secrets, with everyone's favorite depressed leader, Bluestar!
Prologue
Cold gripped the forest, fields, and moorland. Snow covered everything, glittering faintly under a new moon. Nothing broke the silence in the forest except for the occasional soft rush of snow sliding from branches of trees and the faint rasping of dried reeds when the wind swept through them. Even the murmur of the river was stilled by ice that stretched from bank to bank.
"I still can't believe what you've asked of me." A large, red-brown tom let the howling winds swallow his words, but his companion, a blue-grey she-cat, heard them anyway.
"You don't have to. They've settled in well?" She demanded sharply.
"I wouldn't have it any other way. We're lucky they don't look exactly like either of us. They're both stone-grey with blue and green eyes. Could be any cat's." He sneered.
"But they're yours now. You'll do right by them, I know it!" The she-cat demanded fervently.
"I still can't believe what you've asked of me." He scowled. "I know you weren't expecting to have them so soon, but you couldn't give them to a queen of your Clan?"
"It has to be this way, Oakheart." His mate insisted. "Maybe one day I'll tell you why."
"I look forward to a wonderful explanation, m'dear." He sneered.
"But I don't want our last words to be of bitterness and anger." He murmured, nuzzling her throat. "I love you, Bluestar, even if I don't understand why you've done what you have."
"I love you too, and I promise you that I always will."
It's just not the right time.
Her thoughts went unspoken, and they burrowed in the snow together.
Perhaps Mosskit will see me after all, she scoffed as she closed her eyes. It's not like any of this was worth it.
Bluestar snapped awake to find that it was not nearly so cold, but getting there. She watched the lichen that covered the entrance to her den sway gently in the breeze.
Oakheart was gone and her kits likely had no recollection of her.
It's not like any of this was worth it…
The blue-grey she-cat rolled to her paws and padded out of the den. There was no point in going back to sleep.