Day after day Fleck attempted to take her leave and report back to Ember, but each and every time she failed. It was far to busy in this life--training the apprentices, catching prey and preparing for battle--without having to worry about her other life, where she was a spy. It was only a day until the battle, and Fleck knew that it was now or never. If she didn’t report to Ember soon, she would never be able to give him the information that he needed. And that was the whole reason why she was even here: to tell her king when something like this was about to happen.
Fleck looked at the sun, which hovered menacingly over her head in the immediate center of the sky. She sighed and looked down at her paws. She had spent all morning teaching Sparrow battle moves, and now she had to teach him how to hunt. This was just what she needed. She’d probably spend an hour or so training him and catching a decent amount of prey for Slate’s food stores. And then what? It would probably be more training. She knew that the extra muscle from the apprentices would be helpful during battle, but did she really want that? Anyway, all of this training was taking up a lot of her time, and she needed to get an open moment where she could go to Ember’s kingdom.
Fleck hadn’t realized just how helpful that transmitter had been. It’s true what they say, you don’t really appreciate things until they’re gone. Fleck knew that she had to get another earpiece when she was at Ember’s kingdom. But did he even have a spare one? Her old earpiece had been Sooty’s, which she had inherited when he had died as no one else had any need for it. But Sooty had gotten the transmitter when there was war, and the empire had had talented cats that could make such complicated devices. But now, there was no one like that left in Ember’s kingdom.
A voice broke through Fleck’s thoughts. “Hey, Fleck, aren’t we going out to hunt?” It was Sparrow. His tone was not obnoxious, he was just asking an innocent question.
Fleck lifted her head. “Oh, hello there, Sparrow.” She greeted him politely with a small nod of her head, which was a change from usual greeting. “And yes, we are going to go hunting. Right now, in fact. But first, you must know a couple of things. First of all, everything you catch has to go into Slate’s prey stores. He’s watching you up in that hollow ash tree and will probably kill you if you eat a single bite.”
“Um, what does Slate do with the all of the food in his stores, exactly?” Sparrow inquired with a small tilt of his head.
Fleck shrugged. “Well, he keeps in the freezing cold cellar and saves some of it for the winter, when we won’t be able to get as much food. Fall has come, and we need to prepare for the coming colder months. Anyway, a portion of the prey makes up the meals of the Commoners. Another fraction of it is our rations, which are each slightly larger then an individual Commoner’s meal. And the remaining prey is given to Slate. He can eat as much as he wants, the pig.”
Sparrow bopped his head up and down in an eager fashion and began to leap about the training grounds. “Now I see. So can we hunt now?”
Fleck shook her head and rolled her eyes at her student’s immense and slightly--in her opinion--exaggerated enthusiasm. “Yeah, we are, but could your to contain yourself a bit? You’re going scare all of the prey away with all that jumping around.”
“Okay,” Sparrow said obediently.
“Follow me,” Fleck instructed evenly.
Then they dashed off. Fleck had decided that it would be best to hunt in the forest near the stream, where prey would probably be most abundant and where there would be more cover. Once they were there, Fleck raised her head, mouth slightly open and eyes closed in concentration, trying to detect prey by scent. Sparrow copied her, breathing in deeply and scenting the cool forest air. Fleck could smell a robin, not far away from where they stood. Her eyes snapped open and her head jerked to the left, in the direction of the bird.
“Over there,” Fleck whispered as quietly as was possible, “there’a a robin. I’m going to show you how to catch birds in flight, now.”
“Okay,” Sparrow said in a bright but hushed tone.
Fleck indicated him to watch closely with her tail. She crept forward a few steps until the plump young robin was within view. She watched it closely with great anticipation. She wished that she could catch it the regular way, which took up less energy and wasn’t as risky, but she had to teach him this valuable hunting tactic.
“Now, when you aren’t teaching, you wouldn’t do this on purpose,” Fleck explained to Sparrow, not taking her eyes off of the nearby bird. “But since you might end up accidentally doing this, I need to show you.”
Fleck scanned the forest floor. She found a dry dead oak leaf sitting only half a foot away from her. She reached out a paw and brought it down onto the leaf, which made a nice loud crunching sound. The robin, alarmed, spread its wings and began its ascent skywards. Fleck flattened herself as low as she could then launched herself at the bird in flight. She leapt high into the air and came down a second later, gracefully landing on all four paws. She swept out a paw that was slightly curved inwards and held in it was the robin.
“You caught it?” Sparrow gasped, gaping at the bird, which Fleck was placing down on the ground.
“Don’t sound so surprised,” Fleck said with a bored demeanor, much like Jade’s. She was looking down at the bird with something like pride. It had been, after all, a marvelous catch, and one that she had a right to brag about. “Now, you try to catch something,” Fleck advised, looking up from her catch.
“Like what?” Sparrow asked, a little foolishly.
“Like that mouse over there,” Fleck answered harshly, lashing her tail in the small grey rodent’s direction. “Honestly, Sparrow. Do you have any hunting experience whatsoever?”
“I do!” Sparrow retorted, blushing bright red and looking extremely embarrassed.
“If you did,” Fleck whispered knowingly, “then you’d have kept your voice down instead of shouting. You’re just lucky that that mouse didn’t hear you.”
Deciding that it would be best to get on with hunting to avoid further humiliation, Sparrow lowered himself as best he could, his belly fur almost touching the forest floor. Inch by inch, he crept forward, until he was close enough for an easy leap. Lashing his tail with excitement, he pounced with great enthusiasm. Fleck strode over to see if he had made the kill, only to find him sadly sitting there with empty paws.
“Touch luck,” Fleck said indifferently, shrugging. “There’s more prey that you can catch. Anyway, I’ve lost lots of catches. You’ll progress and get better. I know it.”
Sparrow brightened at her words of encouragement. “Really?”
Fleck nodded. “Really.”
They spent most of the rest of the day hunting, which was far longer then Fleck had previously assumed. But their efforts had yielded plenty of prey for the stores and Sparrow had done quite well. Fleck couldn’t help but feel proud of her enthusiastic apprentice.
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That night, Fleck went to sleep with a heavy heart. What could she do now? She had not reported to Ember, and tomorrow was the day that the battle was to take place. How would she get this vital news to her king? Sighing, she fell asleep, but not without great difficulty. Yet she knew that she would have to rest up for the battle.
Minutes after Fleck had fallen asleep, the silhouette of a cat could be seen just outside of the guards’ den. The cat crept in as quietly as it could, it’s shadow falling across Fleck’s sleeping form like a spell of darkness. Closer and closer it came. In a moment the cat was at the edge of Fleck’s nest. It stood there, unmoving, for a few long seconds, as if waiting for something.
Fleck suddenly jolted awake, as if sensing the presence of the intruding cat. She whipped her head around to face the dark shadow of a cat. Her jaws parted in the beginning of a defensive hiss, when she was interrupted by the strange cat.
“Sh!” it whispered. “It’s me, Ember! Now quiet and follow me outside.”
Fleck hated being told what to do, but she obliged and followed Ember outside of the hollow ash tree. Once they were a good distance away from the den, Fleck flattened her ears and whirled on him.
“What is your problem!” she hissed. “What’s so important that you have to wake me up in the middle of the night? And this night, of all of them!”
Ember ignored the fiery rage in Fleck’s voice and instead cocked his head to one side in inquiry. “Why is this night so important?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. He looked a tad ridiculous with his head tilted and his brow raised.
“There’s a battle that’s going to occur tomorrow,” Fleck replied calmly, washing a paw causally.
“What?” Ember stumbled back a little. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? When time is it going to happen?”
“Well,” Fleck began, momentarily stopping her washing, “my earpiece got soaked from the rain and broke, so I couldn’t contact you that way. I tried to give you the news personally, but things are really busy here, so I couldn’t slip away without getting caught. And it will be fairly early in the morning.”
“Wait--” Ember shoved his face into Fleck’s. “why do you have to rest up for the battle? Isn’t it better that you’re tired? You aren’t going to actually be doing any battling, right? So it doesn’t matter that I chose this night, does it?”
Fleck was inwardly prospering, but acted completely calm on the outside. “Well, I have to make it look realistic, don’t I? If I’m half-asleep and doing nothing at all, they’ll think that something’s up. I’m not going to do any damage, but I need to make them think that I am. Anyway, what are you doing here? You could have gotten caught! Then both of us would be killed.”
“I came here to check on you,” Ember replied indignantly, chin up. “You haven’t reported to me in over three weeks and I thought that they might have killed you.”
“Well, that’s nice,” Fleck said flatly. “Anyway, you shouldn’t have come in person. They’d immediately recognize you as the enemy. Oh, and by the way, I need you to give me a spare communicator? You know, if you have any.”
Ember shrugged, looking miffed. “I don’t.”
Fleck hissed to vent out her rage. She wasn’t angry at Ember... Much. He, being the king, should make sure that his empire had this kind of thing, especially as during a war. “You should get back to your kingdom,” she told him evenly, acting as though she hadn’t been hissing a moment before. “You have to prepare for the battle tomorrow morning, don’t you?”
Ember nodded obediently, much like a dog being instructed by it’s owner to fetch a stick. “Okay,” he said, and raced off.
“Good boy,” Fleck muttered smugly under her breath.
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“All right, guards, we’re going to attack them right now!” King Slate announced.
Fleck felt slightly nauseous. Had Ember readied the battlements yet? She hoped so. And which side was she truly loyal to, anyway? Everything was so confusing. Who did she want to win the war? All she knew is that she was torn between the two empires and couldn’t find her way out of this horrible situation.
Fleck shook her head to clear it and dashed off with the other guards. On the way there, she talked to Sparrow and the other new guards, drilling them for battle.
“All you have to do is use that gun of yours,” Fleck told her apprentice. “I’ve seen you use it, and you have great aim. Make sure that you dodge the enemy’s bullets. And watch out for the Motherlord. It’s a pretty serious weapon and one of our own has fallen to it before. But I know that you can do this.” Fleck raised her voice so that the other cats could hear her better. “And all of you can, too!”
The hulking figure of the Motherlord could be seen on the horizon, the golden light of the sun glinting of its keen black edge. When Sparrow saw it, towering over the homes of Ember’s cats with minuscule feline silhouettes operating it at its base, he inhaled sharply, obviously shocked by its immense size.
“Is that the Motherlord?” Sparrow gasped, nearly tripping over his own feet.
“Yep,” Fleck replied flatly. Although, she and the other guards were all surprised at its size, even though they had seen it before.
“It’s huge!” Cinder said, sounding oddly enough both shocked and pleased with facing such a worthy enemy.
“It looks so cool...” Ash trailed off, in love.
“Not as cool and big as my mussels,” Tigger bragged stupidly.
Everyone looked at him for a long, awkward moment, still dashing speedily in the direction of Ember’s kingdom.
“We’re gonna lose, aren’t we?” Sparrow whimpered meekly, not paying any attention to the other guards.
“No, we aren’t,” Fleck said determinedly, a sly smile playing on her lips, eyes narrowed. She had a cunning and sly demeanor about her that got the other guards’ attention. She meant it when she said they they weren’t going to lose. “We’re going to win, I know it. Because I have a plan. Everyone, do as I say.”
All of the guards nodded in harmony, not seeming to have a problem with Fleck assuming position as ‘leader.’ Fleck motioned for them to follow her and they obliged, copying her and keeping low to the ground as if they were stalking prey.
All of the sudden, a massive cannonball from the Motherlord thundered through the sky and landed, inches away from Fleck. They had been spotted. More missiles where shot their way, coming as frequently as rain during a storm. Fleck dodged any that headed her way and continued to stay low. Most of the other guards were doing the same, frantically dashing for their lives. As before, once they were close enough they would be out of the Motherlord’s range.
A horrible blast behind her sent a hail of scarlet droplets onto Fleck’s pelt. Blood. She turned her head to face behind her, continuing to run foreword, to see what had happened. What greeted her was poor Mudsplash’s mangled, lifeless body. No! she screamed inwardly. Not again!
Fleck shut her eyes tightly to prevent herself from crying. She felt a lump of sadness rising in her throat. But she had to keep on charging forward. She knew that Slate was watching them up in his tree and that he had been disappointed when they had stopped the battle early last time. She would have to make this one count. She had to avenge Mudsplash!
“Sparrow!” Fleck had to shout over the constant noise of the Motherlord. “Help me take the Motherlord apart!”
Sparrow nodded and leapt on top of the towering weapon, Fleck on his heels. Using her dagger, which had previously been secured to her belt, Fleck unscrewed the bolts. She used her gun to smash and crumple the medal, so that Ember’s cats would have a hard time putting the horrible weapon back together, causing fewer deaths.
Eventually, the fast-moving pair leapt off of the now diminished Motherlord. Fleck looked around her. Ob was doing quite well; the enemy bullets didn’t seen to effect him much. GoldenSunn was sitting and drooling like a dummy. Cinder and Ash were like a whirlwind of teeth and claws, working together in battle like they’d been doing it all of their lives. Ginger and Jade were causing mass destruction with their guns, as they were experts with battle. Tigger was actually doing okay, shooting and slashing with much ferocity. Sparrow was doing even better; he was both agile and strong, much like Fleck.
Fleck joined the battle, shooting at the enemy cats and summersaulting to dodge any blows or bullets. She didn’t really care where her bullets went anymore. She didn’t really know who’s side she was on, anyway. The whole mess was especially as confusing during battle.
Mostly, the fight was a blur. Fleck’s bad leg was causing her pain, but she wasn’t shot. The battle seemed to be going well for the guards, but Fleck didn’t know if she was supposed to be happy about that or not. Suddenly, Ginger was at her side. They were back-to-back and continued fighting as they talked.
“Ob’s hurt,” Ginger paused to soot, “bad.”
“What?” Fleck gasped. “It seemed like the enemy bullets weren’t really effecting him. Is it very serious?”
Ginger looked grim. “Yes, and we’ve already lost Mudsplash. Anyway, it seems like they were targeting him because he’s the most threatening guards in our group and was doing a lot of damage. I, personally, think that we should retreat. He’s on the verge of death and if we don’t get him out of here soon, he won’t make it.”
Fleck nodded. “We’d better get going, then. Tell everyone else. Can you tell me where Ob is? I’ll go and try to gather some cats on my way over.”
Ginger didn’t say a word, just pointed in the direction of the middle of the fray. Then she left and was gone as suddenly as she had come.
Fleck followed her friend’s example and got a move on. On her way to Ob, she encountered Jade. Time was of the essence, so Fleck tried to be as brief as possible, feeling anxious.
“Jade! Ob’s badly hurt and we’ve got to retreat. Follow me!” Fleck dashed off, Jade tailing her.
When the two came to Ob, they were shocked at just how bad he looked. He was covered in sticky blood and it was pooled on the ground beneath him. He’d been shot a number of times and any other cat would have been dead long sense. He was not just any other cat, though.
Ginger arrived with all of the other guards and they worked together to carry Ob and Mudsplash back to camp. Fleck felt tears of both rage and depression slicing their way down her cheeks like hot knives. Many lives had been lost in this pointless battle of bloodshed and sadness.
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-KittyLover8
© 2013
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