Secrets Embedded Within

Chapter 1

Sycamorepaw's POV

"Let's take some fresh-kill to Slimefoot!" Beepaw suggested, her bright yellow eyes sparkling.

"Can we? Can we?" I asked Meadoweyes perking up at the suggestion.

Slimefoot smiled at us, looking amused. "Have you done everything the toms told you to do?" 

We nodded.

"Okay, but take Eaglepaw!" she granted.

We jumped up and ran to find our sister.

"Where's my fresh-kill, frog-face?" 

We froze as we saw Acorntail looming over Eaglepaw, his eyes menacing.

"I-I'm sorry," she stuttered. "I was j-just-"

"She saw helping us clean the dens!" Beepaw interrupted, stepping in between the two. "She probably just forgot in the heat of the work!"

Acorntail snorted. "She isn't worthy of being called Eaglepaw. She should be Stupidpaw."

"Hey!" Beepaw growled. "You can't call her that!" 

"You can't call her that," Acorntail mocked. 

I hurried and grabbed a thrush from the fresh-kill pile, dropping it at Acorntail's feet. "There!" I breathed. "Can we go now?"

Acorntail sniffed. "A litter of full of she-cats. What a curse."

He grabbed the thrush and walked away.

"Are you okay?" I asked gently, padding toward my sister once he was gone.

"Yeah," she sniffed. "I forgot because I was helping Marshpaw sort out some herbs in the medicine den."

"I want to show that stupid fox-heart a piece of my mind," Beepaw growled. "I'll show him Stupidpaw. That's what he's going to be called in the Dark Forest."

"Calm down," I said, rolling my eyes. "It's not like you can do anything about it. You're just a she-cat."

"Yeah? Well- well-"

"Let's just go to see Slimefoot!" I interrupted. "Grab her that mouse over there."

Beepaw padded to the fresh-kill pile, muttering darkly. Once he grabbed it, we walked to the slave den.

"Hi!" Eaglepaw said. "How are you, Slimefoot?"

Slimefoot looked up from her paws. "Oh, hi! How are you guys? How is Mouse? Thank you for the mouse!'

"Meadoweyes is fine," I mewed. 

"And so are we!" Beepaw piped up.

"Good, good," she purred. "No trouble lately?"

"Just Acorntail being a son of-"

"Don't finish that sentence, Beepaw," I muttered.

Slimefoot mrrowed in amusement, but there was a sad look in her eyes. "Feisty as always, Beepaw?"

"Only for my sister!"

"Naturally," Slimefoot said. "How have things been with you guys and Mouse?"

"We're fine! Mother is getting treated amazingly! Why don't we get that treatment?"

"Well, maybe if you can grow to be respected you might be treated well," Slimefoot mewed. 

"How can we be respected?" Beepaw demanded. 

Slimefoot looked at Beepaw. "By not picking fights everywhere," she looked at me, "By seeing outside of the box," and she looked at Eaglepaw, "And by being brave."

"We're all of that!" Beepaw exclaimed.

"Yeah, I'm sure you are," Slimefoot purred. "Now run along. How about you get something for Smalleye?" 

"Okay!"

They quickly grabbed another mouse and trotted to the new slave den.

"Hey Smalleye!" Beepaw said. "What are you doing?"

The young tom looked up with his sightless eyes and smiled, but it was almost a nervous smile. "Hello, Beepaw, Eaglepaw, and Sycamorepaw. I don't have long; I think Bramblestar wants me to clean some junk later so they can cave in an escape route."

"Do you think we'll be attacked?" Eaglepaw asked nervously. 

"Well, Owlstar has been acting quite aggressive lately," Smalleye admitted. "But don't worry. If there's a fight, you can escape here."

"I want to fight!" Beepaw complained. "I'll show them to attack Oakclan!"

Smalleyes purred in amusement. "Of course you do."

"I don't want cats to be hurt!" Eaglepaw wailed. 

Smalleye turned quizzical. "Even the toms?"

"Yeah, even them!" she agreed. "I wish there were no battles ever!"

"Well, I think if there were no battles, life would be boring!" Beepaw retorted. "There's got be some action!"

"You've got plenty of action here!" Smalleye teased. "Cleaning dens, sorting herbs, throwing out crow-food-"

"That's not action!" Beepaw interrupted. "That's just chores!"

Smalleye mrrowed in amusement. "Yeah, I know. Why don't you go find my sister's kits?"

"Okay," I said before Beepaw could object. "Come on guys. Bye, Smalleye!" 

"Bye!" he called after them.

Smalleye's POV

I sighed as I heard them scuttle away. How innocent they were. They had no idea they were destined for great- and dangerous- things.

But was Eaglepaw really destined for such things? Could she face terrible battles and evil cats?

Frankly, she wasn't suited for any of that.

Especially not with a front leg that was permanently immobile.

AGH sorry for the short chapter, but I know y'all wanted it and FAST!

Poor Eaglepaw :(

Anyway, I didn't do alleigances cuz a) I'm lazy 

and b) it just seems unnecessary :P

Should I add pictures of the characters like last book?

"𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓽'𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓪𝓫𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓫𝓸𝓸𝓴𝓼. 𝓣𝓱𝓮𝔂 𝓵𝓮𝓽 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓽𝓻𝓪𝓿𝓮𝓵 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓶𝓸𝓿𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓯𝓮𝓮𝓽."—𝓙𝓱𝓾𝓶𝓹𝓪 𝓛𝓪𝓱𝓲𝓻𝓲, 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓝𝓪𝓶𝓮𝓼𝓪𝓴𝓮