12 years later…
I never quite expected Shadow to become our leader, after all, who would’ve? At first no one would’ve even thought he could. Well, I guess I’d better explain, it’s been a while after all. Abbreviated, the story goes somewhat like this: after Shadow, Winter, I raised the prophecy kits for a while, not to mention Shadow and Winter fighting every two seconds, which was hard on both me and the kits… oh, I’m getting off topic, aren’t I? Anyway, Winter left soon after their biggest outburst, I can’t say I blame him; Shadow was a bit… abusive… after a little while. I never saw him again. Anyway, Shadow and I raised the kits together mostly, the boys all came up when they could to help, of course. But, well, one day, the kits left. They just left. We all looked everywhere and came to the realization they had ran away. All six of them: Brownie, Ruby, Velvet, Sandy, Silver, and Cinnamon. After that, we found no reason in staying in that dark, miserable place, so we left too. Not only cause we wanted to, we had to look for the kits. After we got all that stuff figured out, we still didn’t go back. Shadow and I went back to his old home for a little while and picked up some of his old buddies. After what felt like two eternities, we got to where we are today: the early Clans.
I yawned, stretching and padded out of Shadow and I’s dark, crusty den. Squinting my eyes as the bright morning sun threatened to blind me.
I spotted Shadow’s evenly muscled, sleek body with its back to me, appearing to be speaking with Lime. I couldn’t hear their conversation all too well, so I just sat and watched, enjoying the morning sun on my pelt.
A few minutes later, Lime nodded and hopped off the leader’s rock, signaling with a flick of his tail for Valence and Starfinder to join him on something, what I assumed to be a patrol. They both nodded happily and padded to join Lime as he slipped out of camp.
Shadow flicked his ear as he watched Lime leave camp. I watched him rise to his paws and stretch, shaking his tail as he did so.
He started towards my general direction as he padded towards our shared den.  My heart warmed as his eyes lit up at the sight of me. He sprinted towards me and pressed his muzzle into my pelt, purring. “Good morning, Lance! Did you sleep well?” He murmured into my fur.
“Quite well,” I started, licking his ears in greeting. “I noticed you woke up pretty early this morning, Shadow. You need to sleep better if you are to lead us properly. A good leader needs his sleep.”
Shadow rolled his eyes playfully. “Oh Lance, this leader gets plenty of sleep. I’m leading just fine, aren’t I?”
I nodded, pulling away from him a bit. “Oh yes you do, I’m not denying that.”
Shadow looked at me, I searched his eyes, finding deep love, gratitude and trust there. I knew those feelings were enclosed only for me.
“I knew you weren’t.” Shadow told me eventually. “You know what Lance?”
“What?” I mumbled, embracing him.
“You’re the best co- leader a Vee could wish for. I’m really happy that you agreed to be that Vee for me. I couldn’t have chosen better than you, Lance. Together, we’ll crush The Order and The Kin. Just watch us. Together, we’ll be unstoppable, unbeatable. Just you watch.” Shadow drew away as he said this, looking at me with the same things I had seen before.
I simply smiled at him and nodded sharply.
Inwardly, I expressed doubts about Shadow’s words. “What did he mean by ‘unbeatable and unstoppable? Does he really want to destroy The Order and The Kin?” I pushed the thought away as quickly as I could. What was I thinking? Shadow would never do that! He’ll be the best leader ever!
“Just you watch,” I told myself. “He’ll be great, just like you expect.”
That was when I noticed Shadow looking at me, seemingly a bit confused. “You want to say something, Lance?” He asked. “You seem like you do.”
I shook my head quickly. “Oh no, Shadow,” I said. “I was just thinking, that’s all. Nothing to say. Nothing at all.”
Shadow stared at me for a minute before shrugging. “Okay,” he walked away. “Now you should go eat something. We have a busy day ahead of us with this whole leadership thing and all.”
“Right!” I called to him. “I will!”
Shadow called something else to me, like a goodbye or something, but I didn’t quite catch it. I was too submerged in my own thoughts. What if I’ll be right about Shadow? Did his words mean anything? Would he really wage war with the other groups? I had so many questions… yet no answers.
“No.” I told myself sharply. “No, I’m taking this too far. I’m exaggerating again. This will be fine. He’ll be fine. We’ll all be fine. Nothing bad will ever happen.”
But even as I lectured that to myself, a spark of me still wanted answers.
“Will it? Will everything be fine?”