What happened to the rest of Shade's colony mates after disaster? We follow Muirheart and Chervildrop, two girls without a destiny as they battle the perils of the journey and find themselves in the strangest of places while trying to find the way home. The story takes place in the setting of the first two books and mostly follows original (and background) characters, although we meet plenty of familiar faces along the way from the wilderness of the boreal forest to the southern rain forests.
Prologue
Cold wind like ice howled through a still forest, a roar of giants telling of autumn, the humid days of summer fading. Each vibrant leaf was dulled without the shimmer of daytime, their colour washed out. But as the last of the sun sunk away to sleep, the horizon bloomed gold and purple, so that green faded to flames of reds, yellows, and oranges and set the forest alight.
Winding through trees, Muirheart flew. She climbed above the canopy in a brilliant dusk, then dove back towards the fire, heart swelling from the simple joys of flight.
And she was alone.
No echo calls of her friends, no mothers drifting after wayward children, little hunters growing ever more fierce each night. Not the chirp of crickets. Not the rustling of leaves or the soft snapping of twigs as beasts roamed after prey.
A single bright light shone between the dark trees. Muirheart squinted; it was blinding. And it pulled at her. She steadied her breath angled towards it. Soon there was only white, yet when she sang out an echo, no image flared back.
Closer and closer she came. Then as quickly as the light engulfed her, it darkened. Stepping forward, a bat stretched out her wings. Her black hair flowed around as if lifted by a gale, dotted by hundreds of stars, while gold speckled her cheeks and shoulders, dew drops of moonlight.
"Chervil..."
A prickle like pine needles, a shiver. Something shook through Muirheart, deep into flesh, into bone, into marrow, all her fur fluffed out on end.
This wasn't her friend, it was something else. Something as loving and warm as it was dangerous, threatening. Its eyes blazed with light.
And a voice echoed brilliantly in the frigid silence.
Stay in the starlight cast, by shadows while the light lasts.
a.n.
Super short prologue but if you gave this a read I really hope it was a lil likeable. (｡• ᵕ •｡)
I have an artfol account where I might post silly drawings sometimes artfol.co / thelightlasts.