Time went on like this, six more days of shooting practice. Fleck actually found that she enjoyed training. All of the guards had warmed up to her, even Frost. Fleck tried not to enjoy spending time with them, but this was impossible for her to do.
Anyway, the night before the battle, Fleck felt a tug of nervousness at the pit of her stomach. Attempting to ward away the butterflies that had apparently made it their home, Fleck thought about yesterday’s training practice, durning which she showed off her skill with the dagger. Everyone, including the king, had all been impressed by her performance, telling her that it amazing how she was able to use the knife merely by gripping the handle in her jaw, and how impressed they all were with her speed.
Sighing contentedly, Fleck rolled over and fell asleep with a warm glow of pride in her chest.
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Fleck awoke early the next morning feeling extremely bleary-eyed and as if she had had no sleep whatsoever. Nevertheless, she pushed herself to her paws, yawning loudly. Fleck turned her head to glance at her hind leg, which still wasn’t healed all the way. Fleck looked around the hollow and found that she was the only one up.
Noiselessly she left the den, hoping for early practice. Although she would like nothing more then to go back to sleep, she knew that she was still quite new to her magnificent gun, ‘The Ultimate’. She had only practiced for a handful of minutes before she decided that she should tell Ember about the attack, which, according to Slate’s latest update, was going to be at eight.
When she had done this and returned to the training grounds, she found Jade there, who was shooting rounds of rockets from her gun, ‘The Destroyer’, at boulders.
“Hey,” said Jade in her bored, slightly dry voice. “What were you doing? I saw that you weren’t in the hollow, but you weren’t out here, either, where you?”
“I...” Fleck found herself at a momentary loss for words. “I was... drinking!”
“Ah, I see,” Jade said as she reloaded her gun.
Nervously Fleck searched for a new conversation to turn to. “ Well, um, today’s the day.”
“Yeah,” Jade meowed as she fired rockets into a tree. “I can’t wait.”
Disturbed at the fact that her friend couldn’t wait to kill her fellow cats, Fleck said nothing. She was saved from having to start up another new conversation by Ginger, who had just exited the ash tree.
“Hey, guys!” Ginger said brightly, stretching, her tiny bobtail twitching with excitement. “You ready for the battle?”
“Uh-huh,” Jade muttered as she checked her gun.
“Yeah,” Fleck said, feeling awkward and not ready at all.
Ginger strapped a medal arm to her forepaw. “Fleck, you better get suited up,” she advised as she picked up her Purple-Plasma Pistol. “The others’ll be out her any moment now.”
Fleck nodded and did as Ginger had said. While they waited for the time to come, the practiced. Ginger was right--Fleck had barely shot two rounds with her gun when Frost and Mudsplash appeared from the depths of the ash tree.
All to soon, the king called to them that it was time for the battle (this statement was greeted by exited whoops from Ginger and Jade).
Fleck felt her insides squirm at the thought of the battle... Ember had told her that he had no defenses whatsoever. She wouldn’t be surprised if they lost all of their territory after this first battle.
Jade nudged her heavily in the shoulder. “Come on, let’s go!”
The nudge had probably been playful in Jade’s world, but a large, painful bruise had now formed on her shoulder. Sighing heavily, Fleck picked up her gun and dashed off with the other guards. After what seemed like forever, they arrived at Ember’s peaceful-looking empire. Fleck felt a fresh wave of nausea at the sight of it. It was, or at lest looked completely unprotected. After the long journey to Ember’s kingdom, the cats had a short rest.
“Where is Slate?” Fleck inquired. “He ought to be here...”
Fleck’s tone darkened at this last statement.
“Oh, I suppose that his royal hide is to important to be risked,” Ginger replied hotly, rolling her eyes.
This was greeted by several whole-hearted growls.
“Well,” Fleck sighed, looking down at her gun. “I suppose that we’d better go and fight. It is getting kind of late...”
Ginger and Jade nodded eagerly, Mudsplash set his jaw in a sort of grim determination, and Frost grinned in a mad fashion. Fleck glanced around at them all and picked herself up. Her gun clicked as she reloaded it with a jerk of her metal arm, and she and the other guards charged forth. They were met by a swath of untrained, unarmed cats. Still, they were greatly outnumbered.
You’re trying to win this battle for Ember! Fleck reminded herself. It’s a good thing that you’re outnumbered....
Ginger, Jade, Frost, and Mudsplash all shot randomly into the swath of cats. Fleck felt a lump rise in her throat and her eyes swim with tears as she heard cries from her fellow cats...
Shaking her head to clear it, Fleck, too, fired at the cats, purposefully missing them. She saw familiar faces, like that of Thistle and Tansyflower, fall. She just couldn’t bear it all. She didn’t want to have to be on the opposite side of her cats. But she had a job to do. Straightening, she thought about her duty. These cats had not died in vain, Ember’s empire was to win this war, whatever the odds.
She ducked away from the claws that had been attempting to slash at her. Once the fight had become more direct, once she was in the middle of it all, Fleck didn’t even touch her gun. She just darted here and there, evading both claw and tooth. Every once in a while, she would lash foreword at them with a sheathed paw, just to make it look like, in the eyes of the guards, she was fighting.
Her broken leg, which was still mending, stung every time she moved. Wincing, she looked around her.
Ginger and Jade were standing side-by-side, carelessly firing rounds of deadly ammunition into the fray. Mudsplash was locked in battle with a golden tabby she-cat, and Frost was cutting through the enemy ranks with a smug grin appropriately worn by cat celebrating a great victory. And perhaps that was what they were going to be doing after this battle....
A black-patched white she-cat with green eyes glowing with fury landed in front of Fleck, slashing wildly at her.
“Badger!” Fleck hissed over the din. “Badger, it’s me, Fleck!”
Badger, whom Fleck vaguely recognized, froze in mid-swipe, blinking. After several moments, Badger darted back into the fight, flushing with embarrassment, to assist the golden tabby with Mudsplash.
The battle raged on. Slate’s cats were causing mass destruction. Fleck blinked away tears as she gazed at the blood-soaked ground... So many cats, gone....
She knew that Ember was going to lose this battle, this war, right here and now.
Then with a jolt of fear, Fleck heard Ginger call, “That’s it girls, everybody out!”
Fleck wondered what had happened. Ginger’s tone did not sound like she was happy at all... Where they retreating? Was this battle so easily won? But why?
Fleck’s question was soon answered. She saw Jade hauling a bloody figure out of the mass of now-still cats. Fleck recognized this scarlet-soaked cat as Mudsplash. Her mouth fell and she felt her stomach twist. Fleck rushed foreword to assist Jade in carrying Mudsplash across the battlefield, but Ginger beat her to the post.
“What happened to him?” Fleck asked, bewildered, as she walked alongside them, followed by Frost.
“Well,” Frost said pointedly, brow creased, in a sarcastic tone. “It looks like he’s been scratched and has lost a lot of blood and--”
“Frost, will you shut up?” Ginger snarled through a mouthful of bloody fur. She then explained to Fleck, “Well, I just found him like this, underneath a tabby she-cat that was about to deliver the death blow... Knocked her off him just in time. I didn’t know that Ember’s petty little cats could play dirty.”
“Just as dirty as us,” Fleck murmured gazing at Mudsplash’s unconscious body.
Once they had reached the tree hollow that they called home, Ginger and Jade set Mudsplash down. As Fleck looked at him, covered in bloody cuts and half-dead, she though, Ember’s cats are just as bad as Slate’s. Just look at what they’ve done to Mudsplash by ganging up on him... And they would have done worse. No, we’re no better then they are...
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-KittyLover8
© 2013
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