User blog:Mosswisker&Stealthfire/Preview!

(S) - Okay, here is an excerpt from Code Name: Shadowed! Enjoy, and remember to comment! P.S.: I know it's long, but I've been working hard on it. Also, I'm trying this style out for the prolouge, but I might just put a different one in every book. Not sure yet. Any input is welcome!

PROLOGUE

Part One

The Dark Forest wasn’t dark—not really. The darkness was constantly interruppted, by the sickly, glowing mushrooms that sprouted wherever wood was rotting; by the flicker of a lightly colored pelt, glimpsed briefly between the trees and undergrowth; by the many pairs of malicious eyes that never looked away. There were thousands of them. They were the eyes of cats whose evil had been great, and would not let them fade away. Of course, their pathetic lives had never produced anything great enough to be remembered. And so only their eyes remained, glaring at every sign of movement in the undergrowth, drifting among the dark and endless paths. Even as they watched, their memories faded, lost to all who might go looking for them. And so they hated without purpose, without any cause except to hate. They were nothing but ghosts, vessels, promises, imprisoned in torment for crimes committed long ago. The only thing they could ever hope to do was hate, and perhaps one day vanish for eternity.

That won’t be so with me! Tigerstar flicked his tail, half in dismissal, half in worry. He refused to be forgotten. Not until his revenge was complete. Yet even now, he felt the power of oblivion ensnaring him, directing his fate to lead into the deadly web of nothingness. He reached out and dug his claws into the leaves that were the ground here, made slippery with mildew. He would not let that happen to him, but it was already happening to Hawkfrost and his other followers. He bared his teeth, and snarled in anger at the oppressive mists that surrounded this place, keeping him imprisoned.

Curse Jayfeather for finding out about this! Curse whatever fool told him in the first place! For soon after…that, Jayfeather had warned all the cats that they must stop telling stories about any cat that made their residence here, in the Place of No Stars. Followers and instigators, all must be forgotten, and made to pass into oblivion. Curse them with foxdung and leaf-bare! But I won’t be forgotten! I refuse to be!

And Tigerstar took extreme pleasure in the fact that he wouldn’t. He was as solid as the cats that remembered him, and there were quite a few that wouldn’t be disappearing anytime soon. Firestar, for one, was always having stories told about him, and he remembered Tigerstar quite clearly. One of the few benefits that self-righteous kittypet had ever provided him with, although Tigerstar’s paws still itched with fury when he thought of how Firestar had evaded his claws, time and time again. His whole being itched to kill Firestar with his own four paws, kill him the same way he himself had met his death, all those moons ago.

At the very least Firestar, wasn’t enjoying his immortality, and that made it much easier to bide his time until this perfect moment—the perfect cat, the perfect time, and the perfect plan. No one would suspect until too late—past too late. And Firestar would watch his Clans fall to pieces in front of him, while he watched helpless… Tigerstar’s eyes glowed in the endless twilight. The thought of revenge was what kept him going now. Revenge. As long as he kept thinking of it, he would not fail. Revenge. Revenge.

Part Two

A blue-gray she-cat warily sniffed the air, frequently glancing back into a clump of gorse where three small kits were hidden. She milled frantically about, and when a tiny mew came from the furze, she instantly shushed it with a terrified hiss. She turned her head again, and at that moment, a badger burst through the heather. The queen hissed at it furiously, but the badger only swiped a paw at her. The she-cat dodged and darted in close to swipe her claws across its face. Enraged, the badger turned and bit her tail. The she-cat screeched in agony, and the gorse trembled. The badger’s paw came down on the she-cat with a brutal blow. The she-cat let out a blood-curdling screech and collapsed to the ground.

The gorse bushes were profoundly still.

The badger turned its head and surveyed the little clearing with its black, beady eyes. When nothing else happened, it turned to go. At that moment, four cats burst from the heather, yowling at the top of their lungs. The badger turned again, this time to fight, but every attack made on one cat was coupled with an assault from the others, time and time again, until the badger gave up and shambled off into the grasses. It didn’t stop until it was a long way from any scent of cats.

“And don’t come back,” the smallest one yowled after it. The rest of the warriors were still a moment, trying to catch their breath. A white tom looked over the other three.

“Is everyone all right?” he asked at last.

“I think so,” a blue-gray she-cat answered, licking a scratch on her foreleg, “Nothing serious.”

“Treedapple? Slopepaw?”

“I’m fine,” a brown tom replied.

“I’m fine, too, Flintnose,” answered the smallest one promptly.

“No, you’re not,” pointed out Treedapple sternly, “That gash on your side looks nasty.”

“It’s not that bad,” muttered the brown she-cat sullenly, “It’s not even bleeding, hardly.”

“Slopepaw, how many times do I have to tell you?” Treedapple sighed, “Warriors don’t need to conceal it when they’re hurt. In fact, when they do that, it almost always gets infected, and then you can’t serve your Clan for a moon, not just a few sunrises.”

“Well, maybe Mushroomstem should take a look at it,” Slopepaw admitted, looking at her paws.

“That’s more like it,” Treedapple said approvingly. He licked the young cat’s ear. “You fought well.”

Slopepaw perked up immediately. “Really?”

“Really,” Treedapple purred, “I’ll talk to Thymestar about your warrior ceremony as soon as we get back.” Slopepaw’s entire face lit up, and she started bouncing on her paws like she was going to race all the way back to Thymestar, wounded or not.

“It’s a shame,” the other she-cat said softly. The others turned to look at her. She was standing over the body of the dead queen. “I wish we could have saved her.”

The white tom rested his tail on her shoulder. “I know, Hillbreeze, but sometimes you just can’t.” Hillbreeze turned and buried her head in his flank.

“Look,” said Treedapple softly, “Flintnose, why don’t you take Slopepaw back to camp and get her scratch treated, and Hillbreeze and I will bury her.”

Flintnose nodded, and beckoned to Slopepaw with his tail. “Let’s go.” He padded off onto the moor, with Slopepaw close behind.

Treedapple turned to Hillbreeze. “Let’s hurry.”

Hillbreeze nodded, and bent down to the body, and paused, sniffing carefully. “Do you smell that?”

Treedapple scented the air carefully. “I don’t think so. What should I be smelling?”

“It’s probably nothing,” Hillbreeze downplayed.

“No, really,” Treedapple insisted, “What do you smell?”

“Well…” Hillbreeze took a deep breath in over her scent glands. “If I’m right…” She padded over to the gorse bush and stuck her head inside. A moment later, she gasped. “Kits!”

Part Three

A she-cat strode atop the edge of the cliff, pausing every few steps to pluck some leaves from the bushes growing there. Her white coat glowed brightly whenever the moonlight fell on it. Behind her, a smaller cat followed, carrying more leaves in his mouth. Silentflight flicked her tail irritably at a gnat that landed on her pelt, then froze and gasped.

“What? What is it?” Herbpaw asked immediately, then followed her gaze and froze as well. Two flashing red and green lights were flying across the night sky. They soared over the camp for a brief moment before the two cats lost them among the pine branches above them.

“Is it a prophecy?” the apprentice asked in a hush. The she-cat nodded. “What did it mean?”

ThunderClan’s medicine cat spoke as in a trance: “Fire and Moss must travel far—”

Part Four

“—And fire will devour the blaze.”

“But what does that mean?” asked the incensed medicine cat, her paws shifting at the edge of the pool. Try though she might, her ancestors were already fading, and the medicine cat wanted to yowl her frustration to the stars, and hope that one of them would answer.

A tiny voice came from the entrance to the cave. “Currentstripe?” her apprentice asked quietly, “Is something wrong?”

Currentstripe sighed. “No, Mosspaw, nothing is wrong.” Nothing I can tell you about!