The following day, Fleck hurried out of the guards’ den having been awoken by a loud cawing. When she had rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, she nearly threw up at the horrendous seen before her. Hundreds of crows fell upon Frost’s mangled body and ate like pirañas. Soon, there was nothing more left of the vicious, slightly mad cat then a pure white, polished skeleton.
Fleck shuddered, imagining Frost’s spirit coming back to have her revenge on her fellow guards, who hadn’t properly stood up to their king to save her from this horrible fate. Fleck then found herself, oddly enough, glancing over her shoulder to make sure that there weren’t any ghosts creeping up behind her.
Shaking her head to clear it, Fleck dashed away, soon ducking underneath the flowering bramble bush. With practiced ease, she fitted the earpiece swiftly to her ear and spoke into it.
“Ember?” she called quietly, knowing that the other guards might awaken any moment now.
“I’m here,” Ember answered wearily. It was, after all, the day after the battle and, unlike Slate, Ember fought alongside his cats. His voice changed into a weak, pleading tone as he said, “Oh, Fleck, you were right and I should have listened to you! My cats were only half-trained and barely any know hold to even hold their guns the right way! Will you ever forgive me for my stupidity? If you do, then I swear to always listen to your advice...”
“Hm,” Fleck murmured in mock thought, smiling shrewdly. “Well, you did call me a ‘simple little peasant,’ so I don’t really know if I should forgive you.”
“Oh please, oh please, oh please!” Ember whimpered pathetically. “I’m sorry!”
“Oh, shut up will you?” Fleck snarled. “You’ll alert the other guards! They have my head for being a spy, you know!”
“I’m sorry,” her king said in a most un-kingly manner.
“Anyway, I forgive you, you overconfident royal bum!” Fleck released a series of small puffs of breath as she attempted to surprises her laughter. One day her king was making her go deaf with his fearsome shouting and the next she had him wrapped around her little finger, whimpering his apologies.
“Thank you! Oh thank you so, so very--” Ember cut himself off into scared silence, hoping that he had not made Fleck mad again.
“Twit,” Fleck said in a disgusted manner. “Anyway, I have a few things to report.”
At that, she told him of Frost’s death, Ob’s arrival and joining, Fleck wound and Jade’s miraculous survival.
“Ug,” Ember grunted angrily. “It’s like getting those guns and The Motherlord did absolutely nothing to help defeat them.” Noticing Fleck’s enraged release of breath, he added hastily, “I didn’t mean that they didn’t do anything--”
“Quite your blabbering, fool!” Fleck snapped. “So, you got any plans?”
“Well,” Ember said in a hushed and secretive whisper, “yes I do have one. Just one, but I’m sure that it will have a massive impact on the guards. We are going to assassinate Stinger, the captain of the guards!”
Ember’s voice had become so quite on that last sentence that Fleck instinctively leaned forewords. When she had finally digested the whispered words, she accidentally gasped audibly.
“Well,” Ember said in a gloating tone, “what do you think of my impeccable brilliance and immense intellect, hm?”
“I think that it’s horrible!” Fleck exclaimed loudly, forgetting to keep her voice down. “Stinger is a good leader and friend and hasn’t done anything to deserve an assassination!”
“Oh you have taken a liking to the enemy, have you?” Ember inquired shrewdly. “Why do you care about the leader of a group of murders? He probably killed dozens of my cats--our cats! And here you are... Here you are defending him, a killer! Are you even on my side? Or are you, too, now the enemy?”
“W-what?” Fleck stammered in shock. “Of course not! I killed an innocent cat who really had done nothing to deserve death to get you stupid Motherlord ammunition and you accuse me of averting into a foe? For shame, Ember! I’ll die if we get caught assassinating the captain of the guards, of all rankings, and you know it!”
“Ah, but their is barely a chance of that happening,” Ember said slyly. “We’re going to kill him at night!”
“At night!” Fleck scoffed superficially, determined to find as many faults in the plan to assassinate her friend as possible. “You do know that he sleeps in close-quarters with the other guards. And there are, hm let’s see... Six of us all together! It may not sound like a lot, but believe me, no matter how many of your sappy, petty little cats you bring, you’ll be outmatched.”
When Fleck was finished talking, she realized that she had counted herself in as a member of the guards. Was she becoming the enemy?
“Oh, no,” Ember said, chuckling heartily. “This is where you come in.”
“And what am I supposed to do?” Fleck snarled, deeply angered by her king’s great mirth.
“You will tell this ‘Stinger’ cat that you want to take a midnight stroll with him or that you want to show him something or that you want to have a drink with him or something else, and lead him to that river nearby King Slate’s empire.” He waved aside Fleck’s part importantly, as if he had much more pressing matters to be discussing with her. “Me and a few handpicked cats will be stationed there, hidden by the many bushes on the riverbank. You can pin him down or something and we will leap out and assassinate him. Like the plan?”
“Like the plan? Like the plan?” Fleck raged. She had to admit that it was a good plan, and that it could work out just fine, but that was a big problem. She didn’t want the plan to work and she didn’t want to have to betray her friend. “No, I do not ‘like the plan!’ It’s stupid and I hate it!”
“We will carry out this assassination tomorrow,” he said with a sort of stiff, commanding determination. “You will do as I say. Correct?”
Fleck sighed heavily. This was war. What had to be done had to be done. She didn’t want to kill Stinger, but did she have much chose? She had to abide to her leader’s commands, and Stinger was the enemy. She didn’t like it, but it was the truth. In a weary, voice, she mumbled, “Correct.” Fleck regretted those words the moment they passed her lips.
“Then farewell, Fleck my main man, er, woman!” Ember said cheerfully. Though she couldn’t see him, Fleck got the feeling that he was giving her a formal-but-clumsy salute.
“Farewell,” Fleck muttered in a depressed fashion.
At that, she set her earpiece down and, trembling, abandoned the bush. She ran in no particular direction, just wishing to get far away from that dreaded bramble bush. She regretted ever word that had been said within it.
______________________________________________________________________
-KittyLover8
© 2013
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