Fleck awoke at the crack of dawn. So took note that Mudsplash looked a lot better this morning. It had been almost a week sense he had gotten ‘fatally injured’. Or so they had thought.
Mudsplash was making a fast and impressive recovery. Oddly enough, the king seemed both puzzled and annoyed at this. Every once in a while, Fleck would hide in a little nook in the guards’ den ceiling. Once here, she was directly beneath King Slate’s floor, and therefore could here him perfectly fine. When she did this, Fleck could hear her king having fits about how his guards would now know that he was not always right, that he was faulted, and a bunch of other junk. He sounded like he was talking about a bunch extremely young children that he was unfortunate enough to be the father of.
When hearing him like this, talking about the survival of a loyal guard like it was something dead-awful, gave Fleck half the mind to brake through the old wool floor/ceiling and yell at him until they both became deaf. Ah, but she would then be executed and that would be her end. No, there was much to much at risk for her to do something so fool-hardy.
Anyway, she dreaded getting caught each time she entered to nook. Although she knew that it was unwise, she could not restrain herself. She just had to find out what he was saying up there.... What he wasn’t telling his faithful guards....
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One dark midnight of the new moon, as she lay awake in her little cove in the floor of the hollow, she heard the voice of her king, calling softly into the tree.
“Stinger,” he whispered urgently. “Stinger! Oh, how useless you all are! You could be killed in your beds and you wouldn’t miss a single snore, would you? Stinger! You lot are just a bunch of heavy sleepers, aren’t you? Stinger, oh will you wake up?”
At this forth attempt on waking Stinger, the king succeeded. Fleck twisted her ear behind her to funnel in the sound of dried moss being shifted as the captain of the guards awoke. At hearing him grunt sleepily, Fleck guessed that he did not know that he had been being addressed by his king.
“Stinger, you useless bag of filth, you!” Slate hissed through gritted teeth. “Up, now! This is your king, Lord Slate!”
“Oh, hi there king. Didn’t see ya there,” Stinger mumbled sleepily. “What is it that cha want? Not to be rude, y’know...”
“I need to talk to you,” the king replied urgently.
And at that, he was gone. Fleck could detect Stinger hastily rising from his sleeping spot and hurrying out of the hollow. Fleck gave a quick sweep of the room with her knife-sharp eyes, not missing even a twitch of a whisker. When she was finally assured that her fellow guards were all fast asleep, she hastened her leave. Within moments she was in the cove the was located high upon to tree hollow’s wall. She didn’t miss a single word of the conversation.
“You lazy bum! Didn’t you hear me calling you? I spent the best part of an hour trying to wake you, I’m sure,” the king raged, obviously disappointed by his new captain of the guards.
“I’m sorry, king,” Stinger said, although not very sincerely.
“Sorry indeed!” Slate scoffed. He then began pacing, as was indicated by the creaking of the floorboards. “Now, I have something very urgent to converse with you, so sit up straight and don’t interrupt.”
“You sound like my mother,” Stinger grumbled quietly in reply.
“Shut up, scum!” the King warned threateningly. Then in a more calm tone continued. “So, I have had my scientists do some inventing, and they didn’t disappoint. They made me some hoover guns, they’ll explain more tomorrow morning. It’ll be just you, them, and me, got that? Now don’t go blabbering all of this to the other guards, you hear? This’ll be the first test that I’ve seen, so the guns could be complete failures. If the guards hear... Well, let’s just say that it’ll be real embarrassing.
“I’m trusting you with this information and a chance to see the test to see if you truly will make a good captain of the guards. Don’t disappoint me. One slip up, and you’ll pay the price.”
Fleck’s sensitive ears detected the harsh sound of Slate’s claws slashing a rough ‘x’ into the age-softened wood. A death threat, Fleck realized with a shudder. How could anyone be so ruthless? Anyway, Fleck knew that she had to be there at the test. Then she would be able to see how they work, that is if they work, how many there were etc. But she had to play her cards well, otherwise the price could be her life.
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The following morning, before even the first bought of birdsong had began, Fleck, who was a light sleeper, awoke to the shuffling of Stinger quietly making his way out of the hollow. Fleck kept her eyes gently closed, her breath slow and rhythmic, her mouth slightly agape, and her body relaxed, feigning sleep.
She waited a few heartbeats after he had left and then sprang into action. Quickly but quietly, Fleck abandoned her bed spot and darted noiselessly out of the hollow, undetected by Stinger. She padded after him at a fair pace, sure not to step on any fallen leaves, twig, or other things of the such. Fleck saw the king and a group of strange cats--the scientists, Fleck figured--just up ahead.
Fleck ducked even lower and walked with even more care at this. A little voice inside of her head told Fleck to double back. This was far to dangerous! If she got caught...
No, Fleck told the voice sternly. This is my mission. I knew the risks when I took it. Now its time for me to stand by my fellow cats, to warn them of this potential danger that Slate has in store for them. It’s do or die right now, but I can take the risks.
Fleck slid silently behind a large bush covered with sticky-smelling small yellow and white flowers. A perfect hiding spot! Fleck thought jubilantly. She tensed and became more on-the-alert as she hear one of the three new cats begin to talk to King Slate. This one was a fluffy white tomcat with a smashed nose and cheerful brown eyes warm as hot cocoa.
“Aren’t they beautiful?” the tom said gleefully, examining the five huge floating guns with self-admiration.
“Hm,” the king replied nonchalantly. “How do they float anyway?”
“Well,” piped up a tiny orange-and-white tabby she-cat, “you know how molecules naturally repel each other?”
“No,” Slate mused indifferently. “But go on.”
“Well, we managed to magnify this by millions. There are giant invisible pads that are located beneath each gun. When the guns move, these pads move with them. You can control their motions with this control disk. And, of course, we made several copies in case the original or originals get lost or stolen or sabotaged or broken, and so on. These are our pride and joy, they are. Here, let me demonstrate how they work when firing.”
All five of the guns were huge, far bigger then any that a cat could hold. The control disks were smallish glass disks that were very thinly coated in medal. Each one had a number of buttons and toggles. The petite little tabby smashed a button and flipped a few toggles. The gun roared to life dodged up and down a bit at the scientist’s command. Then it shot from its gaping maw a few red-hot bullets big as the tiny tabby’s head. They melted stones and things of the like in a fashion similar to the purple-plasma pistol, except even more severer of damage. A huge boulder was instantly reduced to a puddle of molten red.
Oh no, Fleck thought, deeply troubled. These hoover guns were sirius business, and a huge problem for Ember and his kingdom. Although the empire was already likely to fall, these sealed the deal.
“Where do you keep them?” King Slate was inquiring. “What protection do they have? These are major weapons and we can’t have the enemy stealing them.”
“We keep them in the weapons room where we store all of the other guns and weapons,” the third scientist, a black tom with deep blue eyes, answered, gesturing towards a thin cave that even the scrawny orange she-cat would have a bit of difficulty worming through. “We’ve got about half a dozen Commoners guarding the place, so no worries.”
The king nodded. “All right then. Come, Stinger, let’s return before we’re missed.”
And at that, the two hurried off and the three scientists began to struggle through the narrow cave entrance. Fleck decided that she had better take her leave to take her leave, too. But first, she had to warn Ember of the oncoming danger and request orders. With a small nod, Fleck dashed away, heading towards the bramble bush.
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-KittyLover8
© 2013
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