Author: Phoenixwing
Date: 2-18-08
Title of Book: Frost : Book 1 of Rising Flames
Announcement from the Author: Starting

Prologue:
"Caught ya!" murmured a voice in the shadows.
A flurry of feathers flew around the air as a shadowed shape of cat jumped into the air. The poor sparrow tried to escape the gleaming white fangs and claws but found his tail feathers trapped between those shining eyes.
"Wait!" stammered the bird, "Please! Spare me! The birds! Cats-"
The cat grunted and stopped his teeth right before they reached the heart of the bird.
"The birds! Elders- they said the cats-," the bird kept sputtering."they said, before the stars! The sky - would collapse! Into the hands of two cats! Children of the stars!"
"I don't know what your talking about, might as well kill you," the cat hissed.
"No! Wait, I beg you! Don't kill me! Listen, I tell you the truth! Children of the stars will destroy the sky! The forest will collapse! These two must be stopped! Cats! They had a prophecy! The elders predicted it! Two magical beings, in forms of cats! They fly with great wings and lungs of fire in the Other World. These birds! The beauty cannot be compared to anything else in the world, Fire Birds!"
"There are no such thing as those, they are only myths and fantasies," and with that the cat killed the sparrow.
----------------------------------------------------------------a few moons later-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Let all those cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath Highboulder for a Clan meeting," called Bravestar, a black cat that looked like a mixture of shadows.
"What is it now," grumbled a brown tabby cat with yellow eyes.
"Didn't you hear? Crystalfang just had kits! Two beautiful ones at that!" another cat meowed excitedly, a pretty tortoiseshell cat.
"Icepaw and Valleypaw are also getting their warrior names!" a white furred cat meowed.
"We are gathered here for a special reason, Icepaw and Valleypaw have reached the end of their apprenticeship! Crystalfang also has new kits! Flamekit and Firekit!" meowed Bravestar, and as he did his eyes gleamed with happiness for his mate, but a dark shadow passed over his face, disguised...

Chapter One:
"There will be two children of the stars that destroy the sky and the forest will collapse, only two magical beings can stop them...."

"Hey! No fair! You can't grab freshkill without going through me!" shrilled a voice to a orange cat.
"Oh yea! Come and catch me then Flamekit!" the orange cat jeered.
"Oh, I will ,Firekit!"
Flamekit jumped and yowled at Firekit as they got into a play-fight. They rolled around the clearing collecting snow in their flame colored pelts and accidentally bumped into a brown tabby tom who was washing himself.
"Hey! Watch it!" he yowled at the two scrambling cats.
"Sorry Mudstep," Flamekit mewed and stopped her play-fighting, Firekit, on the other hand, tried to nip his sister's tail as it wagged in the snow.
Mudstep grunted and made his way to the warrior's den to leave the two kits to play. Firekit had found something more interesting than his sister's tail and started playing with it while Flamekit prodded a piece of moss. The two new apprentices Whitepaw and Mintpaw had just came back from hunting and dropped warm freshkill into the pile.
"Hey Flamekit, Firekit!" Whitepaw mewed cheerfully to the two kits," Want some freshkill? I caught it all myself!"
"No you didn't! I caught WAY more than you did! Don't try to take all the credit," Mintpaw mewed scornfully.
Firekit was already pawing through the pile and picked out two mice for his sister and himself. The two apprentices went away quarreling about who was going to be the best warrior or hunter when Icefeather, Blizzardstorm, and Bravestar came out of the medicine cat's den. They all looked worried about something and padded away to find Crystalfang. Flamekit watched them pad away and before Blizzardstorm disappeared through the leaves of ice plants he whipped his head around and stared at her them then followed Bravestar. Flamekit felt a twinge of annoyance that always came to her when someone had something to hide. Her eyes flicked red for a bare second, and no one knew.

"Crystalfang! Where are you?" yowled Bravestar, looking around the den for his mate.
"Here, Bravestar," she purred and emerged from the shadows.
I have something important to tell you all, it's about Flamekit and Firekit...

"Don't you hate it when cats don't tell you whats going on and your left to wonder?" Flamekit spat.
"Not particularly..." Firekit replied lazily while pawing a leaf.
Flamekit's eyes flicked with annoyance at her brother's ignorance. She snorted and wondered about her apprenticeship. I wonder, will my mentor be Icefeather? I hope so! She's the Clan deputy! Oh, but she mentors Hailpaw. She quickly pushed the thought away and purred at the thought of being an apprentice and started cleaning herself of the leftover snow from the play-fight. She was almost six moons old. She would be an apprentice in a few Sunrises!

"Their apprenticeship is almost here, I would train them myself if they were not my kits, so I have chosen the two best warriors to be their
mentors and watch over them," Bravestar whispered," Icefeather, since you cannot mentor two apprentices, I have chosen Horizonfang and Shimmersky, your littermates, instead."
"Hmmm, who shall mentor who? They are both good choices, but different personalities," Icefeather wondered.
"Ah! Horizonfang, Shimmersky, perfect timing. I have a request, something that can only be heard within the range of us, and no one else," Bravestar murmured darkly.
Horizonfang and Shimmersky had just come in to the warrior den to find Bravestar, Blizzardstorm, Icefeather, and Crystalfang. They wondered what Bravestar would want them to do. Bravestar beckoned them to his den to tell him what happened twenty moons ago...

Chapter Two:
"This dream, of flying, it feels so familar....."

"Welcome young ones," murmured a cat in front of Flamekit.
Flamekit quietly followed the strange cat into a field of red trees that rose to touch the stars. She glanced sideways to find Firekit walking in step beside her. Her eyes widened when they came to a parting in the trees. A vast field of trees rose from the space below the cliff they stood on, but it wasn't the trees that had amazed her, there were cats, different colored cats, but what was the most amazing part was that they were flying with wings! She looked to see Firekit reaction, his face was frozen in awe and his eyes were glittering with stars.
The strange cat seemed amused and in a split second he also unfurled wings and lifted into the night sky,"Wait there," he called,"There is a cat that wants to see you," and with that he drifted off into the breeze.
Flamekit took the chance to examine the strange cats with wings, the wings were the most spectacular things she had ever seen in her life, they varied in colors of the whole rainbow and more. They flew majestically through the night like shining stars, Flamekit's eyes widened as she realized that the wings were actually shining and glittering. Some flew in loops and circles and others gliding, as she observed more closely she saw that each cat had it's own technique of flying, it showed like a personality. This is the....

...Most amazing part of my life!!!!!!!!! Firekit thought. Those cats! I want wings like those, it's my lifelong dream to fly!!! He gazed wonderously at the flying cats. They swirled and lit up the sky as the moon rose. Firekit stared at the rising moon, it was the bluest moon that he'd ever seen. Ice-blue and glittering like a jewel in the sky. There was a sudden stirring feeling that came into him and hit him like a tornado, it pained him from head to paw. He writhed for some moments that seemed like moons and then the feeling ebbed away. He stood up and saw that the same thing had happened to Flamekit. She was gasping as the feeling took control of her. She yowled into the sky. What's happening to us? Firekit panicked. Suddenly something had grabbed ahold of his scruff and he felt himself being lifted into the air. A voice above him hissed," Hold still!"
He fell still as the landscape under him changed, the trees parted to show a snaking river and mountains, the trees no longer there and under him he saw glittering stars. Stars can't be on the ground! Wait, those aren't stars, what are they!??? They look so disgusting!! Firekit observed the creatures before they disappeared into thin air. They were flying at fast rate and if he were to fall he'd die. Flamekit was still yowling as she fought the strange feeling.

What is this??? Why do I feel so nostalgic??? This feeling, it's hurting me! She gasped as another pained stab hit her heart. She couldn't take it, she yowled again. Suddenly the pain stopped, she found herself flying into a shining cave made of pure white stones. She whipped her head up to see a beautiful she cat with pure white wings and shining yellow eyes. Her brother seemed to be doing fine, he was carried by a well muscled tom with jet-black wings and glinting green eyes. They both headed into the cave and swerved to avoid a stalagmite that appeared out of nowhere. After some time of swerving, bumping, and turning, they appeared to arrive at their destination. The cave had ended into a hole shaped den with a opened top.
"Excuse me, where are we?" asked Flamekit, thinking of being brought into enemy territory.
"A dream, but dreams are real, cats say they aren't, they are wrong, they had already forgotten their past..."explained the white she-cat that had carried her.
"Then who are you cats? Why do you have wings?" curiosity filled Flamekit as she was told the explanation.
"I am Moonflight, and that is my brother, Nightwing. We are both warriors of our Clan, this place has been here for generations and past that, we were born with wings, every cat used to have wings, but there were ones who defied us, they are only legends now. Their names are Snowheart, Darkfang, Lakeclaw, and Breezewind. They were exiled for believing in cats without wings and left this world. They were stripped of their titles as "winged cats" and were torn from their wings. They arrived at your world, where nothing flew except birds. There they learned to live. They called our world the "dream world" we are the pass between their world and the high stars in the sky," she explained.
"You mean WE are not proper cats? But Snowheart, Darkfang, Lakeclaw, and Breezewind are legends!!! They created our Clans! They're our heroes! You mean all this time we're living a lie?!?!," exclaimed Flamekit, Firekit just gaped his mouth next to her.
"Yes.... you are right," a whispery voice answered.
Flamekit and Firekit both wirlled around to face the oldest, wisest, and beautiful she cat they had ever seen. She was a graceful queen that looked exactly like the twins. Her wings looked like flames of a fiery fire and her eyes glittered like jewel, one green and one blue, like Bravestar's. Those eyes flicked to a shadow in a corner and she hissed,"Shadowpelt! Why have you left these two in the open light of the Blue Moon?! You know at their stage they can't stand it's light! Well?!"
"I'm sorry my queen, I forgot today was a Blue Moon, I came to get you then found Moonflight and Nightwing instead," Shdowpelt apologized, and he bowed his head.

Queen? Clans have queens? I thought queens were she-cats with kits, doesn't he mean leader? Flamekit became confused and thought it over again. Why are we here in the first place? Are they telling the truth? Flamekit made her eyes slits and she stared at the "queen". Firekit brushed his tail against her flank to calm her down, but it didn't help her.

"Ah, they say we do look exactly alike, they were right. Dear youngster, I am no ordinary cat, I am the oldest cat you could have ever known. I've lived for thousands of moon, so many that you can't imagine. I've learned all the secrets of the world. Both good and bad. That is how I've brought you here. My name is Pheonixstar, there are very deep meanings to my name, you will understand when the time comes. The prophecy is about to take place, come here Flamekit, Firekit, and look into this pool," she beckoned to them.
They wandered over to where she directed to a clear pool, it reflected the image of the moon and didn't look real. They both gasped as the image of the moon swirled and in its place took two dark shapes with eyes. Pheonixstar leaned over and whispered," The children of the stars have come...."and a look of horror crossed her face.
"I was too late, I must start soon," she muttered to herself.
"What are you talking about?" Firekit asked.
"Come, my kin, come..... you will regret it," she was mewing to herself.
"My queen, you will need to rest," Shadowpool insisted.
"I will call you back soon, for i must teach you," she mewed to the two kits, and absentmindedly left the room.

Chapter Three:
"Your kin, your friends, it's all an illusion, your true kin lie within dreams....."

Flamekit woke with a start in her nest. Next to her Firekit was shaking his sleep away. Their mother, Crystalfang, poked her head in through the brambles and mewed cheerfully,"Oh! You two are awake! Bravestar is going to call a meeting soon, clean yourselves up!"
:"Does this mean what I think?" Flamekit mewed excitedly.
"You two are going to be apprentices!" Crystalfang purred.

"Let all those cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath Highboulder for a Clan meeting," called Bravestar.
Everycat had already gathered around for Juniperbush's kits had already spread the news through the Clan out of excitement for their denmate's apprenticeship.Flamekit and Firekit stood proudly in front of the crowd next to their new mentors.