Preface

I had decided after reading Kitty-flower's utterly phenomenal fanfic The Alliance, which would reccomend to anyone looking for a good read, that I should write a story that has some Gingerstar-worthy torture in it, but also a cute master/slave pairing. So I decided to write it! I was looking at some of my other documents and decided to do one Challenge of 100 Tales chapter in between these chapters, but it might be scarcer if I don't get many good reviews. So review if you want another chapter. Otherwise this will be deleted. I'm warning you. Plus I'll pm you a special mini-story about some of my characters if you do! By the way, Winterpaw is just for you, Kitty-flower

Also since this chapter is short then I'll update sooner-perhaps tonight or tomorrow

Those Hidden

Pawsteps drummed the forest floor. Two sets. Three sets. Four sets of pawprints crushed the long tall grass and weaved through trees. Adrenaline was high. Faster and faster, more and more frantic. Faster, quicker, harder.

The cat in the lead broke away from the others, streaking ahead and bursting through the tunnel of ferns up ahead. Wild pawsteps still followed her. She skidded to a halt, turned around anxiously. The others were right there- so close! Her eyes widened.

"You lost!" she yowled, leaping up to butt her brother on the shoulder and then her other two denmates. "I told you I'm faster than you."

"What. Ever. Fire. Paw." Kestrelpaw panted between breaths. "So. What?" he fought to catch his breath. The four apprentices had been racing and Firepaw was proud she had finally showed her bossy brother and the others what was what.

"No, that was pretty good." Treepaw put in, shaking her light brown tabby fur. "Are you part WindClan?"

"Hardly," Firepaw snorted. "'Ole Kestrelpaw's a slowpoke." she grinned, but Kestrelpaw just gave a her a look. Rolling his eyes, he picked up the squirrel he had dropped and padded across the camp and deposited it on the fresh-kill pile. It was sunhigh and the camp was bathed in greenleaf sun. Winterpaw and Treepaw were padding after him, so Firepaw hurried and grabbed the mouse she had caught.

"Well done, apprentices." Sunstorm's kind voice reached them. Sunstorm was the sister of Firepaw's mentor, Limefur. They were both very pleasant cats. "If you'd take that to the elders, that would be great." Sunstorm never seemed to give direct orders, either.

Firepaw was the first to pick her prey back up. "Okay!" she raced to the fallen log with the others behind her. Mintfoot and Cedartail were lying in the sun. Mintfoot looked up as she skidded to a halt beside him.

"Show off," Kestrelpaw muttered to her. Firepaw stuck out her tongue.

"We brought you some prey," Winterpaw thrust them aside and dropped his sparrow. "Are Twiststripe and the others in the den?"

"Yes, but-"

Before Mintfoot could finish, Firepaw bounded into the den. Twiststripe, the caramel tabby, and Pineheart, a very old gray she-cat, looked up angrily at beind disturbed from their nap. "...they don't want disturbed." Mintfoot sighed.

"Sorry." Firepaw grinned at them, then dropped her prey and backed out quickly.

Their glares followed her and she thought she heard Pineheart mutter, "Stupid, disrespectful kits..." The others were looking annoyed at Firepaw as well, and Kestrelpaw's eyes gleamed at her and his whiskers were twitching. Firepaw ducked her head. She knew she should stop showing off.

"Sorry, everyone." she repeated. "Well, we've fed you, soo..." Firepaw continued to back away, suddenly eagar to leave.

"Wouldn't you young'ns like a story first?" Cedartail had sat up and clearly had forgiven Firepaw before she'd asked. "Stay for a bit." He took a bite of the sparrow and motioned for them to sit down. Reluctantly, Firepaw sat down beside Treepaw, glancing at Winterpaw and Kestrelpaw, who were clearly still annoyed at her show-off nature.

"What kind of story?" Treepaw asked shyly, wrapping her tail around her paws. Firepaw wished she looked as pretty as she did, but Treepaw had once asked her if she noticed how the older apprentices- Barkpaw and Copperpaw always made eyes at her.

Cedartail looked thoughtful. "What kind of story would you like?" he asked them.

It was Winterpaw who answered first, earnestly. "One with action."

At least that was something they had in common. "And violence!" Firepaw put in, waving her tail.

The cool thing about Cedartail- he may be an old geezer but he was pretty awesome, Firepaw thought. Cedertail didn't even blink when she mentioned violence, but Mintfoot snorted and turned over. "Okay, I've got a good one. It's called Those Hidden."

"Sounds great." Firepaw purred, settling down to get more comfortable.

Cedartail shifted and sat up. "It's an older story, old even when I was a kit. But I think I remember it." he meowed. "Here it goes:

"Once, many, many moons ago, a group of twolegplace cats- though not kittypets, mind you- stalked the nests beyong our borders. They scent-marked along our borders, that's what set the ThunderClan cats off. They didn't know what to think. Kittypets marking their territory?

So the ThunderClan leader sent out two warriors to find the mysterious cats. They never returned. Days passed, so the leader led a patrol this time to find them himself."

"What did they find?" Firepaw burst out. Kestrelpaw let out an annoyed hiss.

"Shh, listen, young Firepaw." Cedartail meowed. "I'll finish."

"They searched for a long time, and finally a tom confronted them. He denied they had ever seen anyone come in before, and didn't know what he was talking about borders. So they were forced to go back. For a while, nothing else happened. But then..."

"What?" Firepaw gasped.

The elder glanced at her and then continued. "About half a moon afterward, a rogue broke into their camp and was getting at the nursery. They chased him off, but not before he almost killed a kit. The security was heavy for about a moon, and as soon as they let guard down, two kits were stolen in the dead of night.

"At the gathering, the other leader reported the same thing. The cats lead an attack to twolegplace, but found nothing. No remnants that cats had ever been there, apart from some lazy kittypets. And no cat ever saw them again."

The apprentices' eyes were huge. "Is that a true story?" Kestrelpaw asked at last.

"I don't believe so. Maybe it was a queen who told it to scare kits. But it certainly could be real." Cedartail murmured.

Mintfoot snorted again. "Don't fill their heads with fantasy, Cedartail. Off you go, apprentices. And thank you for the meal."

Firepaw got up and stretched, then began heading back to the main clearing of the camp. "Yep. The story was great, too." She waved her tail and then headed for the fresh-kill pile where she snatched up a vole to eat. A lot of the Clan had come out of their dens to eat now, and Sunstorm, Froststar, and Limefur were nearby as Firepaw grabbed her prey.

"Hello, Firepaw. Where've you been?" Limefur asked.

"Feeding the elders." she meowed, padding over to sit beside him. "Cedartail told us a story."

Limefur began grooming his chest. "That's nice. After you're done eating, would you like to go hunting again? I've not been out yet today. But I hear you've been doing good."

Sunstorm winked at her.

"Okay, that's great." Firepaw began gulping down her vole. "I don't have anything better to do." After she was done eating, she followed her pale-pelted mentor down the gorse tunnel and out into the warm forest. It was still bright, but lazy clouds floated across the sky. "Sure is nice out here."

"Yes, it is." Limefur agreed. He scented the air, paused, then dove off. They were near twolegplace now, and recalling Cedartail's story, she shuddered. Then she reminded herself it was just a story for kits and followed Limefur's example, scenting the air.

She caught the scent of squirrel, that must be what he'd scented. Then there was also a faint smell of mouse. Pinpointing the direction, Firepaw began padding slowly toward it. It was right by the fence bordering twolegplace, a wooden one with just two sideways sections and a large gap in between. Here, among the pines, it would be harder to stalk it.

Just as Firepaw was in pouncing range, something made her freeze. Two eyes were staring at her from the shadows on the other side of the fence.

The mouse scurried away.