"A mysterious curse, a long history of lies and pain, and one she-cat who is ready to end it all. But at what cost?"
Originally posted on the Official Erin Hunter Message Boards in August of 2013, Curse is a super edition styled fan-fiction with darker themes and mature ideas that have drawn readers to it's lengthy pages for many years. [ For what reason I am still a little boggled by. ] On February 9th, 2019, Curse was finally completed at a whopping 1,016 pages and 209,345 words. [ God, save me. ] It now resides on a thread in the Warrior Cats Role Play Forums run by previous members of the Official Erin Hunter Message Boards.
Hi guys! My name is Amanda, or you may call me Shadowface or Shadow as I am known on the forums! (:
You guys have no idea how RELIEVED and HAPPY I am to have finally completed this monstrosity. [ I'm very proud of this monstrosity, don't take the word as a negative. ] With all of this content out of my head and on paper I can really start to delve into this world with a fine tooth comb.
Yes, I continue to write in the world I have created for the fan-fiction story Curse under the name: The Clans of the Valley Series. Several fan-fiction novels are in the works, and there are no plans to stop working on it any time soon. [ I mean, if Warrior Cats can help me write my future original novels, why not? ]
Yeah! I'm working on several original novels and series, one of them being a new translation of Curse called EVERGREEN. [ It's a perfect title, really. ] Evergreen is going to be written as a Young Adult fantasy novel with inspiration taken from Nordic mythologies and cultures. I am in the process of writing the second draft, and I hope to begin querying in winter 2019. [ Keeping my cursed flame lit! ] [[ Amanda, they probably don't understand that reference...]]
If you would like to join the wonderful community that has helped Curse blossom, then go to wcrpforums . com and sign up! There are many other authors on the site who are either published or plan on becoming published and still post their writing for us to see and enjoy. And if you are interested in more than just fan-fiction, there are other forums for role-playing, art & comics, off topic discussions, and topics covering every book that Erin Hunter has ever written! Come join us! [ Seriously, everyone is SO nice there! ]
Critiques, reviews and any feedback so long as it is constructive, will be seriously considered and looked over. [ If you want to just drop a comment to fan over one of my children/characters that's fine too. I like encouraging comments! ] I am always looking for ways to improve, and to help others do the same!
Thank you for taking time out of your day to read Curse! [ Keep in mind that this whole thing went through LIGHT revisions and is 5 years old...besides the later chapters of course! ] Enjoy!
Prologue Part One
And she pleads to the stars
The hunter waits. She is patient, silent, controlled; a perfectly tuned instrument of death.
She uses the shadows to hide from the eyes of her enemies, her pelt melting into oblivion.
It is a perfect night for a kill; for the moon is hidden away in its own veil of darkness and the stars are too cold and distant to shed their light onto the mountain side below.
Yet, she does not flex her claws against the earth in anticipation, nor feel the rush of blood roaring in her ears.
She is calm, silent, focused.
The only sound that can be heard is the aching creak of the ancient pines as they bend to the will of the wind.
Then, out of the darkness, comes the dim glow of a celestial being wrapped in a swath of stars. A thin halo of pure, pale light outlines her figure as she steps out into the pine needle littered clearing, the soft crunch of her padding across the ground breaking the tense silence emitting from the huntress.
The starry feline stops once she reaches the center of the circular clearing, her pelt wavering and shifting like a wispy fog caught on a hook, her eyes large and unblinking like an owls, glowing a bright evergreen.
"I know why you're here, my dear," the ghost-like being rasps, her voice scratchy and hoarse as if she had spent a lifetime screaming out to the heavens.
The hunter hesitates briefly, disturbed to have been found out so quickly and effortlessly. Reluctantly, she thrusts herself out of the brush, revealing herself as a young ginger, white, and black she-cat with the same exact evergreen eyes as the ghostly she-cat. "Don't call me dear. You have no right to call me that," she growls, her eyes as cold and desolate as the icy tundra.
Sadness and regret pools into the brightly lit she-cats eyes and she bows her head in submission. "You are right. I will only call you by your name, Jadefox," she murmurs.
Jadefox does not let her glare waver as the she-cat speaks, instead she locks in her legs, as if bracing for impact. "You know why I'm here, so let's get it over with. Tell me why; why did you do this to us?"
The she-cat shakes her head slowly, turning her flank away from Jadefox so she can gaze off into the forest without looking into her eyes. "He would have killed you if I hadn't," she says bleakly.
Jadefox takes a few steps forward so that she is upon the otherworldly feline. "That's a lie! You did it to save your own skin!" She spat.
The celestial apparition turns so that she can respond with a fierce retort. "I did not! I did it to save you, my daughter, and to save the many other daughters who will come after you! You will understand once you have kits of your own," her voice booms, echoing off the trunks of the pines.
Jadefox doesn't flinch, but now her claws are set deep into the ground, tethering herself in. "That won't matter now! Don't you see? This sacrifice that you have made will all be for nothing. You have cursed us all, Shadowhunter! You have doomed us to a life of darkness and death! Like you, we will all die alone!"
Silence meets her words.
Shadowhunter's evergreen eyes now glint with deep, raw, sorrow. She steps closer to her daughter, her right paw shaking as she brings it up to place it along Jadefox's cheek bone just below her own evergreen eye. She smiles painfully, swallowing thickly as she speaks. "I remember when your eyes were blue…so clear and beautiful…like the sky. They reminded me of your father…so brave and kind he was…"
"Mother…I-"
Shadowhunter shakes her head, moving her paw over Jadefox's muzzle to silence her. "But now this curse has taken him away from me, all because I made a foolish mistake. I thought I was in love with another…but he was nothing more than a shade, a trickster. He is the one who brought this curse upon us, Jadefox. He is the one who has taken our souls and marked us with the eyes of the cursed. Know this; I sacrificed my happiness so that you may live on. One day, you will have to do the same for your daughter." As she speaks, her form begins to fade, the trees becoming visible behind her fur.
Jadefox's whole body now quivers as her tether is broken. Her eyes are no longer cold, but they are sad and filled with longing as she reaches out with her paw to touch her once living mother's shoulder, only to have her paw pass through completely. "Wait, please! There must be more…there has to be a way to break it, right?"
Shadowhunter's body is now nothing more than a thin fog, her cursed evergreen eyes shining out into the dark. "The only way to break the curse is to speak its name; know its name, and you will have power over it." Shadowhunter meows urgently, her gaze becoming fearful as her body slowly evaporates. "Never forget the name! Name her - !" In a flash of blinding light, Shadowhunter is eradicated from the clearing, leaving Jadefox sprawled out on the ground, the blast carrying her off her paws and flinging her against the base of a pine.
Once she comes to, Jadefox is no longer in the dark pine forest, but is instead lying on the smooth surface of a rock jutting over a deep green valley below. She grunts as she sits up, her body weak and trembling as if she had been running for miles, but her evergreen eyes are now flaming with determination. She rests until the darkness clears and the sun begins to rise to the east over the valley, its light warming her cold, soulless body.
She looks up to watch as the last of the stars blinks out, the glow of the sun overwhelming them, its brightness swallowing theirs.
I promise mother, she thinks to herself, imagining Shadowhunter watching her with bright, loving, yellow eyes. My cursed daughters will always defy him, and we will fight for what we have lost.