Hidden Stars ~ Chapter 1

Instructions

Eclipse leaped up onto a giant oak tree, her claws clinging to the bark viciously as she heaved herself up further, determined to get acorns for her caretaker- Thicket. It was his squirrel trap idea, of course he thought he could hide in a tree and set acorns out without the squirrel noticing he was there but she didn’t argue with him, and she already wanted to do that instead of trying to hunt squirrels which is almost impossible in her opinion. As she got to the first branch, her hood waved in the wind, which she quickly pulled up even though the hills contained little cats compared to the big sea of them where the king lived. Thicket made her wear a black hood to cover her ears and her back where her beautiful swirls of the celestial purple lay on her back, it was hard to hide, but she was happy to live away from the king's swarm of cats and here where there were not many. “Eclipse!” Thicket's voice broke her concentration, and she tumbled off the branch with a thud on the grassy ground. “Eclipse! Come here!” Thicket hissed again, and Eclipse quickly gathered herself up and bounded over to help. She saw a large branch blocking the entry to their straw nest, which was only barely big enough for them both. She clenched her strong jaws onto the branch and pulled with all her might. Thicket winced at her fangs then tried to turn away to hide it, but Eclipse knew that Thicket, even though she saved her sometimes, still thought of her as a monster. He was sometimes kind to her and other times harsh and demanding. She pulled until her jaws stung brutally and finally it pulled free. “Good job” Thicket meowed “I’m going to help the other cats around here clean up after the storm last night. stay hidden.” Eclipse simply nodded, the cats that lived there were few they helped each other, luckily they didn’t think much of her they always assumed that she was Thickets servant noting she came out of nowhere, even Thickets efforts to tell them it wasn’t that way never worked. She turned to the forest to hunt, the cats out away from the kingdom were only allowed so if they supplied a part of the kingdom with prey, a small part for each group of them but they gave half of there prey for it and it was hard to do. "ECLIPSE!!" Thicket's voice cracked through the silence with a sense of fear in his voice.