Burn

 B U R N

prologue

"Commander! Commander Pike!"

Several heads swerved in surprise as the messenger came barging in on the Assembly. One burly black tom leaped to his paws, opening his mouth in a snarl, but was cut off before he could say anything.

"Silence, Zorius. Let us hear what news he brings us." The brown she-cat who'd spoken was not the largest, strongest, or by any means prettiest cat in the room, yet she was clearly the leader. Her luminous golden eyes appeared sharper thanks to the abrupt slope of her sharp, prominent muzzle -- rather similar to the pointed nose of the fish she was named after -- and her claws were abnormally long; even sheathed, their wickedly sharp points clicked against the ground.

The messenger looked like he'd run miles to deliver his message; his flanks were stained with sweat and his breath came in gasps. He cast a scared look around the Assembly, as if worried about their reactions, and then blurted, "He's dead."

A crack appeared in the cool facade of Pike's face. She stepped forward, looking ready to seize the messenger and shake him. "Who's dead?" she demanded.

"Warren."

The room erupted into murmuring, the cats of the Assembly shifting nervously and exchanging shocked glances. The color drained from the Commander's face. "No... No! Did the scouts intercept him? Do we know what he wanted to tell us before he was captured?"

Positively cowering now, the messenger shook his head. "No. He was dead when found."

The Commander's scream of frustration and rage made several cats jump.

"What are we supposed to do now?" cried one cream she-cat. "We have nothing against the Sceptre, nothing at all."

"Quiet!"

The entire chamber fell silent at once. Commander Pike's keen gaze swept the Assembly as though personally assessing each member for any sign of weakness, which they all immediately sought to hide. "We will proceed with our mission. We will find a new way of bringing the Sceptre down. Warren's information might be lost, but we will rediscover it, because his spirit lives on. We will never let this go."

A strange smile spread across the Commander's face, a smile that made her look twice as dangerous as when she was wearing her normal grim expression. There was a strange bloodthirstiness in her face, an overeager zeal, like a fire simmering just beneath her skin. She turned on the messenger and flung out a paw, pointing. He nearly tripped over his own tail scrambling backward.

"Him. Cats like him. Our youth. We will raise up a new generation for Shield. The fight will never die," she hissed.

"Usque ad mortem. Until death."