“I have chosen the new captain of the guards in-training. Once he learns how to fight properly, he’ll become the captain. All of you worthless slugs’ll train him together, okay? That’s all. Now get a move on!” King Slate snarled, clawing at the ground and eagerly dashing back into the safety of his den.
The ‘new captain of the guards in-training’ was a fat, golden tomcat with amber eyes permanently glazed over in half-sleep and rolled up in his head, showing the whites. A thin stream of slightly foaming saliva trickled out of the corner of his mouth, which was slightly agape. He lay limp as a rag doll, not showing any sign of acknowledgment towards his fellow cats. His name, stupid as it was, was GoldenSunn.
“Ew,” Ginger grimaced, warily nudging a lump of fat hanging limply at GoldenSunn’s side with the tip of her gun, unwilling to touch the repulsive creature that looked nothing at all like a cat. GoldenSunn didn’t seem to feel the gun or hear Ginger.
“Agreed,” Fleck said with a disgusted nod and a shudder.
“I wonder what we’re supposed to do with him,” Jade said aloud, uncaring of GoldenSunn’s feelings. But it didn’t matter because he appeared to be to stupid to know what was going on around him.
“Well, I suppose we train him,” Mudsplash said, looking quite unhappy about this.
“Wull, maybur ‘e’ll booy all righ’, y’know?” Ob suggested optimistically. “Urf wur gonna trion ‘im, woy should booy nice t’ ‘im, righ’?”
“Perhaps.” Fleck gave a disgusted shrug. Then, a brilliant idea hit her and she added, in the same uncaring tone, “Well, if Slate’s gonna add dummies to our group, I’m gonna add some cats.”
“What?” Mudsplash exclaimed worriedly. “No way. You’ll get in so much trouble if you recruit cats without your king’s permission...”
“And what will he do to me if I do?” Fleck sniffed, completely unconcerned.
“H-he’ll kill you!” Came Mudsplash’s frantic answer.
“Hah! That’s funny,” Fleck said. “No, he can’t kill me. I’d slit he’s idiotic little throat before he could lay a claw on me!”
“Hear, hear!” Ginger and Jade cheered happily in agreement.
With that, Fleck departed, smiling broadly.
______________________________________________________________________
Fleck mingled with the Commoners, attempting to pick out a couple of cats that would make good guards. But each and every single one of them seemed to have a problem. She looked them over with slightly excessively critical eyes, pinpointing their behavior and loyalty to the guards by taking them aside and looking them up and down.
“Too overconfident.”
“Too stupid.”
“Too scrawny.”
“Too underconfident.”
“Too disloyal.”
“Too weak.”
“Too arrogant.”
“Too lazy.”
“Too unfocused.”
“Too... Flaky.”
“Hm. Strong, loyal, slightly overconfident, slightly lazy, but good all the same.”
The cat that she had chosen would probably make a good guard, and had amber eyes and a dark brown tabby coat. He was mildly lazy and arrogant, but also muscular and much better then any of the other cats that she had seen.
“I’ll take you,” Fleck said, still looking him over. “Just two questions. One, do you want to be a guard? And two, what’s your name?”
“My name is Tigger, and I would love to join the guards.” Came the reply.
“Tigger? Honestly?” Fleck asked, repulsed. “Ugh, just stay inside of that cave over there until I get back to you. I’m gonna go see if there is any other Commoner that’ll fit the job, too.”
After he nodded and entered the random cave, Fleck took her leave and continued to search, once again dismissing cats at a crazy fast speed. Finally, she came across a scrawny but mildly muscled dappled brown tomcat with bright, clever golden eyes. He had a white muzzle, chest, belly and paws. He seemed to be neutral loyalty-wise and had just the right amount of confidence in himself, underestimating his strength and speed and things of the such ever so slightly.
“Perfect!” Fleck exclaimed gleefully. “What is your name, cat?”
“I’m named Sparrow,” the tom answered, with a slight defiance. “What is it that you want from me?”
“My name is Fleck and I’m wondering,” Fleck began, eyes narrowed, “if you would like to join the guards.”
Sparrow, which was the best of the horrid names that she had heard today, looked quite surprised at this. “You mean that you would just let me... Join?” he inquired suspiciously. “What’s the catch?”
“No ‘catch,’” Fleck answered with a casual shrug. “All you have to do is prove yourself by listening to those who train you and doing your best. Also being loyal, I suppose.”
“Then sure, I’ll join,” Sparrow said, still mildly surprised any raising his eyebrows.
“I’m going to keep on combing through you dolts the Commoners. You go over in that cave over there. There should be a tabby tomcat Tigger in there, he’s going to join the guards, too,” Fleck explained briskly.
“Dolts--” Sparrow fumed.
Fleck pushed Sparrow to start him on his way, muttering repeatedly, “Go on, go on.” She then hurried briskly off on her way. She was quiet desperate to find another good cat or two. Fleck knew that the amount of guards King Slate had was a bit sad and could use more then just two additions.
Soon, she came across two gray kittens. They both had bright green eyes, and were marbled with different shades of gray. The pair were chasing each other around. They looked about eight months old, but Fleck decided that she might as well try them. By their looks, they were spunky, playful, energetic, loyal, fast, and a bit overconfident. Ah, well, what pair of kittens wasn’t? Anyway, they looked like, despite their age, they would make wonderful guards.
“You, there,” Fleck said in a gentle tone. “Hello, kittens. What are your names, little ones?”
“I’m named Ash,” the male kitten said. “We’re twins. And also--”
“And I’m called Cinder,” the female kitten said with a small, polite nod. Then she added, much less politely, “And don’t call us ‘kitten’ or ‘little ones!’ We aren’t babies, you know! We’re perfectly fine and well adults, if you didn’t notice.”
“That was what I was about to say!” Ash exclaimed. “Heh, you stole my line, you sneaky little--”
Fleck cleared her throat loudly. “Anyway, I was wondering if you two would like to become guards in-training. Even though you’re a bit young--”
“No we’re not!” Ash objected loudly.
“Yeah, sure, we’d love to join you guards,” Cider said. Then adding, “If you stop calling us all of those dumb kid names!”
“Sure,” Fleck agreed. “Now you two completely liable adults came with me.”
“If you’re beggin’,” Cinder joked, laughing along with her twin brother at this.
Fleck then led them to the cave, where Sparrow and Tigger were dutifully waiting for her to come.
“Why are we stopping at this dumb old cave?” Ash asked critically, looking it up and down with a skeptical eye.
“There are two cats who are also going to be training to become guards waiting in here for me,” Fleck snapped. She was already regretting adding these kittens. But she knew that they would make guards, despite their extremely annoying nature.
Cider opened her mouth to object, but was luckily (for her sake, as Fleck was at the end of her patience) cut of by Sparrow, who poked his head out of the cave to see who was speaking.
“Fleck!” Sparrow exclaimed in immense relief. “It feels like I’ve been waiting for hours. Tigger here is very annoying...”
“Likewise with these two.” Fleck wrinkled her nose and jerked her head in their direction. “They’re named Cinder and Ash, and they’re twins. Ash’s a boy and Cinder’s a girl.”
“How’re we supposed to tell they apart?” Tigger asked, emerging from the cave to join Sparrow, Fleck, and the twins outside.
“Well,” Cinder began impatiently, like this was a very frequently asked question, “I have a darker patch over my right eye, and Ash doesn’t.”
“O-kay,” Tigger replied skeptically, rolling his eyes.
“I don’t like that guy,” Cinder whispered in her brother’s ear. Ash nodded gravely in return.
“If you say another word--” Tigger began, voice a threatening snarl.
“Shut up,” Fleck snapped, glaring at Tigger with hazel pits of fire for eyes. “I don’t want a word out of you, slug.”
“I like her,” Ash murmured to Cinder, who grinned at this.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Fleck arrived at the guards’ training grounds a bit later, as she had had to stop Tigger from throttling Ash. Her little troupe paraded behind her, the kittens grinning from ear to ear in triumph and anticipation.
“What’s that you got there?” Jade inquired, raising an eyebrow at the group of trainees.
“Well, these are the a bunch of Commoners that are soon gonna become fellow guards,” Fleck explained to Jade as the other guards gathered.
“I can’t get one of these cats, all of whom look as though they have a proper head o their shoulders,” Ginger moped, sulking with her head lowered. “Dumb old Slate gave me brainless, dumb-dumb, idiotic, stupid, and male GoldenSunn to train. But he can’t be trained! He doesn’t listen to a word I say and won’t make a move to defend himself when I strike him, the idiot!”
As she said this, Ginger waved a pa in GloldenSunn’s direction. He was still drooling, as, Fleck figured, he always would.
“Well, why did he force you to train the dolt? That’s just unfair,” Fleck said.
“Because I’ve been a guard the longest!” Ginger moaned. “I don’t see why he has to punish me for it! Oh, I’d give anything to be a new-be like you right now.”
“Huh. Well, I’m taken this little gal right here,” Jade said, nudging Cinder in the shoulder with a playful wink. “She sure looks like she could take down a dummy like GoldenSunn with a single blow. What do you say, kiddo? Think you can do it?”
“You know I could!” Cinder exclaimed eagerly, oddly enough not objecting to being called a ‘little gal’ and ‘kiddo.’ “But not without my brother, Ash,” Cinder added seriously.
The guards stifled their laughter at this.
“Yeah!” Ash said loudly. “Can you make me your apprentice, too? You look like you cool, and I don’t want to end up with someone like him.” As he said this, Ash gestured towards GoldenSunn, who ignored him completely.
“Sure, I’ll take you,” Jade meowed, grinning as she sized her apprentices up.
“I’m next!” Mudsplash said, pushing through the crowd. “I’ll pick... You. You look like a strong one.” As he spoke, Mudsplash gestured towards Tigger.
Grinning, Sparrow muttered, “Strength isn’t everything, you know.”
“Well said,” Fleck agreed. “As I believe that I’m next senor anyway, I’ll train you. How’s that sound?”
“It sounds great!” Sparrow nodded and shrugged in a hurried, eager fashion. “When will we start training?”
“Well,” Fleck started, glancing up at the setting sun, “I think that it’s too late to do much today, why not tomorrow morning?”
There was a general murmur of agreement from the gathered cats.
“The it’s settled,” Fleck said. “I’m going to bed.”
At this, Fleck headed into the hollow tree, hoping for a good, peaceful and undisturbed rest after a long day.
______________________________________________________________________
-KittyLover8
© 2013
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