Silent Shadows: Book Two - The River of Secrets

Prologue

Content Warning:
This book contains gore, major character death, heavy psychological themes, suicide, cannibalism and torture.

What joy may dawn bring?
When the sun only rises
Upon the cinders
Of what once lived

Souls drip from the walls of death
Yet no deliverance lies beyond the spring
Nor do dreams await
For dead leaves will still rot

Was abyss a destiny
For all that was felt?
Is all that is perceived
Simply the road to inexistence?

May choirs greet you
When the astral doors open
For millions to drown
For the universe to fade

And may the music we hear
Still sing of the past
May we become sorrow's home
Once our agony has ceased

Over tranquility and over terror,
Eternally shall we sleep
For time, the reason we awoke
Now has not even a dream to trace it

-

Theme songs

HAVE A NICE LIFE - Science Beat

KAYO DOT - The Mortality of Doves

NIGHTWISH - Planet Hell

MAUDLIN OF THE WELL - Stones of October's Sobbing

WITHIN TEMPTATION - Ice Queen

-

That morning, the sun rose upon a silent world.

Last night, the universe had trembled beneath a titanic blaze. It'd been known that there had been recent conflict between NightClan and BlazeClan, and the wildfire seemed to have been located in their territory. But the idea that a whole Clan had been exterminated in one night seemed laughable.

The wilderness now wilted beneath the gaze of the awakening sun, yet the ruckus of life still refused to arise from its slumber. The sky shifted into a smooth array of colours, its canvas gently painted in diluted violet and pink, all guarding the wings of golden luminescence upon the horizon. But no soul awakened to gaze at the glories of the sunrise.

"Shadestar, have you found anyone?" the AstralClan deputy inquired. 

"Nope. Nobody," Shadestar replied. She was seized by gooseflesh as the likeliness of the idea that they'd all been slaughtered grew. "There's no way they're all dead, though, right?"

Her second-in-command fell silent, immensely frightened by the possibility of so many souls being lost. She forced herself to turn her attention from the thought, catching sight of a silver tabby. She held a familiar scent, with a realization coming to oppose the deputy's fear. 

"Hey!" Shadestar called, also noticing the molly's scent. Her head snapped around to reveal terrified, maddened teal eyes as the two approached her. "Who are you?"

"Don't know," the she-cat meowed.

"If you can answer, do you know anything about what happened to NightClan?" Shadestar inquired.

She averted her eyes. "Don't know," she spoke again,  before she leapt forth and began to tear down into the wilderness. 

"Should we just try and make it to NightClan's territory to check it out?" Dreamrush suggested.

Shadestar replied with an unexpected chuckle. "No need," she answered. "We're nearly there already."

As they neared NightClan territory, the morning was suffocated by an immense aroma of smoke. The wildfire from the night before had still left its ashen footprints for the morning to see. They now neared the titanic moor which that announced the doorway for NightClan's campsite, twisting between herculean oaks to observe what remained of the Clan. 

But what remained, was nothing.

And there, with the sight before them, on that day it became known to all that an age of darkness had begun for the Clans.