Hello dearies, I'm back with the second chapter of Fire Storm and I hope you'll like it. Well I do and yes our little kitty really believes she does it for the good of her Master and all cats. And I sure hope that you guys know that without reviews I can't last long.

They had been walking for days and the wind nor the cold seemed to be able to stop Roaring Fire or Master as her mother called her, from continuing her journey. Needless to say the small kit was suffering greatly from her frozen fur and torn up pads, the moutains where cold and unforgiving to small creatures.

And so she had been walking blindly for days, unable to tell he difference between night and day as they where caught in the longest storm of her short life. The hunger didn't help, snow only fiercened the beast in her stomach and it was howling for food, anything, but there was nothing and her small body bore the signs of severe malnutrition as sure than the bones jutted out awkwardly from her ribcage.

That night thought was different, the cruel wind seemed to lessen a bit and the Master was kind enougth to let her nibble the bones, the marrow cold but filling for her shrunken stomach. That fact alone made her be happy about the current leadership, she had learned early that not all cats where this kind.

All the other kits had been like her mother, blind and ignorant, following the Master like newborns. But that was before the cold and lack of food had shaped their pelt to mold every bone in their frail body, they where silent now, small skeletons in a coffin of ice. She herself was only alive because the Hord needed kits, and because the Master had become fond of her in her own twisted way. She had even named her, not all cats received this privilege let alone four moon old kits but no one dared complain, they couldn't even think of it. So she had been named Shadow, an odd name for a white cat, she supposed the Master had her reasons.

One night, after another day lost wandering aimlessly around the mountains, the Master asked for her, beckoning the kit into her cave. Something was off, the Master didn't just invite cats into her sleeping place usually, so why did she let her in? Was it because she had been the first to chant her name, because she survived the mountains and kept walking or was it simply because she had become the closest thing to a friend the Master had? She just didn't understand so she followed Roaring Fire without a word, getting deeper into the maze of tunnels that where within the frozen heart of the mountains.

When they finally settled down in an apparently bare cave the Master spoke, that was the first time she heard the Master's voice in days.

"Do not fear young one, even if the scent rolls off your pelt in waves." said the master, but it didn't help. She heard her sigh, a tiny reminder that the Master was a living creature, and she turned her attention on her, waiting fo her superior to continue.

"We are strong, but the Great Master isn't satisfied yet, we must represent perfection if we want to convince the unbelievers that our ways are right." said fervently the Master.

How ironic she thought, they where lost in hostile mountains, half dead and not havin seen another cat in seasons yet the Master talked of perfection. No! She scolded herself, her faith in the master must no waver, it was her only chance to keep a shred of sanity in this world, the Master had her reasons.

"That is why we must have someone prepared to lead the Hord if the Evil tries to claim me too, do you understand?"

Shadow realised that was her chance, all she had to do was follow, not think because if she did the grief would be too much to bear, she had only done what she told her, surely there was no fault in following her Master? And of course she nodded eagerly, trying to ignore the burning feeling called ambition in her gut, the Master only could command and until the Master was no more she would follow.

"Good" said the master, she looked pleased. "I shall lead you in the painful ways of our ennemies too, because you have to sacrifice yourself and think to guide them all in the perfect ways of the Hord, do you understand?"

The kit nodded, and in her sould remained innocence because she could not see the coldness in her Master's gaze, nor could she guess what sheme the twisted molly had weaved. She just wanted to please the Master, to see approval in her gaze again. And because her own mother was too far gone to take care of her she looked up to the cruel creature who shaped their lives as she willed.

Shadow whimpered, she tried to shut her jaws but is was no avail because the pain caused by the srtiking claws was stronger than her will. So she just stayed crouched there, waiting for the daily torture to stop, to allow her to crawl back to the other Hord cats. But of course she deserved it, she was here of her own will after all, convinced by the Master's silver speech. She understood that if she could not stand the pain the she could not bear the burden of leadership, she understood her sacrifice was necessary, but it didn't stop her from being painfully aware of the curved claws tearing her open.

Did anyone love this small kit, did she have anyone to rely on if things got bad? No, and she knew that if she failed she would join her siblings in their bed of ice. But because she had never known better, because the Master's protection was a thing she was grateful for and because she had no chance of surviving alone she didn't complain.

That gave her strengh and after a moon of daily beatings she could stand still, not a hair in her body shivering, she barely felt anything now. Of course it didn't stop the master, her claws continued to shash teir way through her fur, but the pain had reduced so much that it was worth the scars that crisscrossed every inch of her pelt.

One day thought the training changed, and it began as usual with the Master calling for her in the night, and she feared that moment. After they had repeated the usual greetings, the Master breathing down her neck in her craving for undertandment.

"Dear Shadow, I have named you, I have protected you and banned pain from your body, now it is your turn to help the Hord."

Of course Shadow understood, it was only fair after all, but it didn't stop her from feeeling dissapointed. After all that the Master was going to send her to her death, as she that useless to her?

"This is the reason why you shall join the hunters."

She allowed herself to breathe out an inaudible sigh of relief, so she could maybe escape an even more cruel fate after all. Hunting was difficult in this frozen world and numerous where the ones who didn't return from the patrols. She still had a chance, it was small and wrinkled but she had one and that tiny spark of hope was enough to keep her going, hoping that one day she would be strong enough to please her Master. Yes, indeed she hoped for survival, that small kit thrown too early in a world she didn't understand yet, maybe was it that hope who kept her alive until now?

But even her broken mother knew that unless there was a miracle the luck wouldn't last long enough, the kit was too small and too trusting in the others to survive the sheme the Master had planned for her.

The Master never wasted her time.