Fleck awoke the morning after she had broken her leg feeling stiff and tired. The rays of warm, buttery-yellow sunlight had forced their way through the crags in the rotted wood of the old ash tree told Fleck that it was morning. As did the fact that the den was empty. Fleck realized that both Jade and Ginger’s spots where they slept--both of which flanked her’s--were still warm. If she hurried, Fleck might be able to catch up with everyone before the day’s training started.
Yawning, Fleck limped out of the den. She saw that her fellow guards were gathered around something. What had she missed?
“Hey, guys!” Fleck called, her pace quickening. “What are you doing?”
“Oh, good morning, Fleck,” Ginger meowed. “Right now, we’re selecting our gun. Most of us stick with the same gun at all times, but a few like to alternate.”
Ginger gestured to an array of guns that were being displayed on a silky silver sheet of cloth. Mudsplash had already chosen a medium-sized gun that had previously been labeled ‘The Firebrand’ which reminded her sadly of the empire’s old king.
Ginger explained that ‘The Firebrand’ shot out different temperatures of flame, depending on the selection. From hottest to coldest, their was, Blue-hot, White-hot, Yellow-hot, Orange-hot, and Red-hot.
Frost’s gun was called ‘The Stinger’ It had a curved tip so that its user could use it for stabbing as well as shooting. Its ammunition consisted of tiny round bullets that, when lodged in the victim, exploded.
Ginger’s chosen weapon was called ‘The Purple-Plasma Pistol’ and shot rounds of glass containers filled with flammable purple plasma that worked like acid, melting as much as possible into a pool of smoking purple liquid.
Jade’s gun was deemed the name ‘The Destroyer’ and basically launched rockets at the target. Not the very best end...
Fleck thought for a while, examining the remaining weapons. Eventually, she picked up a semi-small gun.
“What’s this one do?” Fleck asked.
“That gun is called ‘The Ultimate’” Ginger began. “It’s ammunition can be made of anything. You can put in dirt, stone, wood, medal, or anything else you might find and this gun will melt it for you, form it into bullets, and shoot out the super-hot little guys. The more mass the thing you put in has, the more ammunition you get until you have to put some more in. Like if you put in a bit of fern, that would make less bullets then a chunk of rock.”
Fleck nodded eagerly, looking down at the gun that she had chosen with newfound respect.
“Go on then,” Ginger urged. “Load it up and try it out!”
Hesitantly, Fleck started to obey. But then, she turned back to Ginger and asked, “Wait. How do I hold on to and use the gun?”
Ginger laughed, apparently at herself. “Oh, yes, I forgot about that. I’m glad you asked. Here. This is the answer to your question.”
Ginger had handed Fleck what looked like a medal human arm. It had a leather-like strap at one end, and a medal hand with claw-like fingers at the other end. Connecting these two this was about three slender medal rectangles that were joined together by small, bullet-sized medal spheres. These, Ginger showed her, allowed the medal arm to bend and twist like joints. The fingers also moved, bending, flexing and clenching at the wearer’s will. The artifactual joints moved in the same way.
Ginger helped Fleck strap her medal arm on, showing her how the arm would fold itself up into a kind of medal sleeve. Fleck grinned as she used the now unfolded arm to grab the Ultimate from where it lay on the slivery cloth.
“Okay now,” Ginger instructed. “Place your ‘fingers’ around the gun like this.... Yeah, there we go. Now, put something in that little circular opening up top. Okay, dirt’s fine.”
Fleck feed a fistful of dirt through the opening, nearly dropping her weapon in surprise when the opening closed and her gun glowed with heat.
“Yeah, it does that after you’ve given it your to-be ammunition,” Ginger explained needlessly. “Okay now. Why don’t you aim for something? Yeah, a rock’s fine. Okay now, ready? Pull the trigger!”
Fleck obeyed, willing the fingers of the medal arm to push the trigger of her weapon down. The fingers bent obediently, and there was a flash and a bang, durning which Fleck closed her eyes as tightly as she could. When she opened them, she found that there was a smoking hole going straight through the middle of the very rock that she had been aiming for.
“Well done,” Ginger said, raising her eyebrows.
“Yeah,” added Jade, whose presence Fleck had been unaware of. “Not bad for a rookie.”
Fleck was gaping at the hole in shock. “You’re guns can do that?” she gasped, both impressed and repulsed.
“Well, not all of them do that, exactly,” Ginger answered. “Look, the Purple-Plasma Pistol does this.”Ginger fired at the same rock that Fleck had shoot at and within moments it was a puddle of steaming purple goo.
Fleck shuddered as she looked at the mess that had once been a stone. “And you use these,” she meowed, aghast, “On other cats?”
“Well, yeah,” Ginger said, blinking.
Fleck swallowed and regained her composer. She released a drawn-out, fake yawn and said, casually as she could, “Okay, then. I’m just going to go to sleep now... I’m really tired from yesterday’s training.”
“O-okay,” Ginger mumbled suspiciously, eyes narrowed. “But come back in an hour, you still have shooting practice.”
“M'kay,” Fleck murmured in reply, taking off her equipment.
The moment she was out of the guards’ line of vision, she picked up her pace into a sprint (which was extremely painful, due to her broken leg) and ducked underneath the bramble bush. Snatching up her earpiece, Fleck pushed it into place and hissed into it.
“Ember! Ember this is Fleck!” she said.
A voice on the other of the earpiece that Fleck immediately recognized as Ember’s replied, “Fleck? What do you have to report?”
“Two things, actually,” Fleck meowed breathlessly. “The first thing is that Slate plans on attacking you six days from now.” Fleck paused as she heard a gasp from the other line. “And the second thing is that his arsenal is better--which means worse for us--then I thought.”
“What do you mean?” inquired Ember anxiously.
Fleck told him about the medal arms and the effects of the weapons. This led to another surprised gasp from Ember, shortly followed by a tired sigh.
“I shouldn’t be so surprised,” Ember said, heaving another heavy sigh. “I knew that they were ruthless, but not to this great extent...”
There was a long silence that followed this.
“Anyway,” Fleck whispered into the earpiece in attempt to break the ice. “I seem to have earned the trust of both the king and the guards.”
“Good, good,” Ember said. “Any other news you have to report?”
“Well--” Fleck thought about her broken leg. Would Ember be mad if she told him about her self-inflicted injury? She decided that she must tell him, nevertheless. So she told him about the broken leg.
Another log pause followed her statement, this time broken by Ember’s sigh.
“Well, I suppose what’s done is done,” he said. “It will make this upcoming battle extremely difficult for you, I hope you understand...”
“Yes, I do,” Fleck said shortly.
“Good,” Ember replied distantly. “Well, erm, over and out.”
At that the line fell silent, leaving an uncomfortable, ringing silence beneath the bramble bush.
“Well,” Fleck said to herself, sighing as she stood. “I might as well get some sleep before practice.”
She exited the bush and settled into the hollow within the tree, falling asleep soon after.______________________________________________________________________
-KittyLover8© 2013
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