Fleck awoke to Sparrow shoving her side, yipping eagerly like an exited puppy.
“Could we please train today?” he asked, sounding a little strained and shooting her an enthusiastic but desperately exaggerated smile.
“No,” Fleck grumbled, turning her head away from him and trying to get some more sleep before hunger overcame her. “Go away.”
“Please?” Sparrow pressed, greatly distressed. “Lately, you’ve always been to tired to do much training with me. And when we do, you’re always distracted and the sessions are short because you always have to leave early to do something but you never tell me what!”
“Ugh,” Fleck grumbled, waving him away with a slow-moving paw like he was some kind of pest--and in here mind he was. “Could you please just leave me alone? You’ve just given me an instant headache.” Fleck pointed repeatedly at her forehead to illustrate the untrue statement, still turned away from her apprentice.
“But you’ve hardly taught me a thing the past week!” Sparrow complained, beginning to pace around the hollow ash tree as he moaned. “Cinder and Ash can now actually almost defeat Jade! And GoldenSunn has been drooling more then ever! Well, I don’t know if that’s exactly a compliment, but--”
“Sparrow!” Fleck snapped, turned towards him. “Just shut up! I know that they have all done a pretty good job and I’m... uh, proud of them. But I think that you’ve progressed enough that there is very little left that I know that I could teach you! Did I tell you that... What was it? Yesterday?”
“Yes...” Sparrow grumbled unhappily. “But I miss training with you.”
Fleck heaved a heavy sigh. “Fine. I’ll train you today.”
Sparrow perked up by such a degree that he looked like a different cat. “Really? You mean it?”
“Yes,” Fleck replied with a shrewd smile. “I do. Are you ready to train?”
“What?” Sparrow gasped in a squeaky voice that made him sound like an extremely happy baby mouse. “Right now? This instant? Really? Of course I want to! I’m up for anything and I’ll do it the best way I can and oh I’m so exited and I can’t wait to start and thank you so much!” After he spoke, Sparrow took a huge gulp of breath.
“You’re assignment is to...” Fleck trailed off for suspense. “Catch as much prey as you can!”
Sparrow deflated a little. “What?”
“Yep!” Fleck announced excitedly, finally sounding fully awake. “You’ll hunt all day long and bring it back to me at sunset. Then we’ll count it and she how much you caught. The point of this exercise is to test your survival skills. You’ll be exhausted by midday, but you’ll press foreword! You will hunt until the sun sinks behind the horizon and by then you will have caught enough prey to make rations for a meal for all of the Commoners!” Okay, so maybe she was exaggerating a little.
“I’ll do it!” Sparrow said determinedly. “But what do I eat?”
“With you, you’ll bring a pack of a day’s worth of rations,” Fleck explained. “When you get to the forest, where the prey is most abundant, you leave it by a memorable landmark. Whenever you get hungry, you go over to the pack and eat until you feel full, just leave enough for the next meal. Then, you’ll continue the hunt and so o until dusk. Got that?”
“Yes!” Sparrow cried happily. “I’ll go right now!”
He started off, but Fleck restrained him. “No, no, no,” Fleck said with a motherly demeanor. “You’ll have to request permission from Slate and receive a pack full of your rations for today.”
“Okay!” Sparrow agreed with a nod. “I’ll go and do that right now!”
Fleck watched him go. Once he was gone, she curled back up and enjoyed her sleep. Tonight, she would have to report to Ember for further developments on the strange spy and who knew how long that would take. She should enjoy the peace in Slate’s kingdom while she could.
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Fleck slipped soundlessly out of the encampment by the cover of darkness late that night. This time, Fleck had brought a pistol for safety measures, seeing as there was an enemy on the lose. As Fleck darted through the forest, she was stopped by a sound: a soft rustling in the bushes behind her. Quick as a flash, Fleck dodged behind a particularly thick tree trunk for cover, drawing her weapon.
A light ginger paw emerged from the greenery, briefly followed by Ginger herself. When she was in the small forest clearing, she looked around for a few moments and then continued forward.
Fleck could her the she-cat muttering, “I know I saw someone leave the den and come here... But who was it?”
Fleck felt a rush of fear and waited a few long moments to let Ginger cover more ground. Then, she followed, but going by a different route. Next time, she would have to be more careful when leaving the guards’ den.
As Fleck made her way out of the forest, still a little shaken from nearly being stopped and found out. There, there was a meadow scattered with grassy hills. The moon cast a dim light upon the grass, making every blade sparkle silver. On one, there was the little weapon shed, which had seen more action the past two days then it normally did in two months. Even it, with it’s rusty roofing and blood stained side, was glorified in the rich autumn moonlight.
Once Fleck was out of the beautiful meadow, she entered the quiet little kingdom. Over the town was the hush of sleep. The drowsy veil of content ignorance to the world around it. Places like this were a rare treasure during a war. Yet the night before last night, Fleck recalled an eerie feeling that she was being watched. That gang members and crooks had stalked the streets and alleyways. But tonight was peaceful with not a waking soul in any one of these little houses and shops. Not one, that is, other then Ember’s.
Ember was bound to be awake, waiting for Fleck to come, as had been previously planned. All of the lights in the little windows of the houses were off for the night, leaving the room encased in a sleepy darkness. But one was on, that one plainly belonging to King Ember.
Fleck knocked softly, but no answer came. With a shrug, Fleck entered the house. What she was met by was a surprise and an unpleasant one, at that. Quince was there, a long silver knife glinting in the moonlight, pressed against Ember’s exposed neck. The blade had just pieced the skin, causing scarlet droplets of blood to run down the length of the knife and form a small pool on the dark wooden floorboards. Quince had a paw on Ember’s mouth, muffling his cries for help. In a second, Fleck had her pistol drawn and pointed straight at Quince’s heart.
“Drop that knife now, Quince,” Fleck directed steadily, gesturing to the floor with her pistol. “Or you’ll regret it.”
Quince immediately did as she had been told, not taking her eyes off of Fleck, nor did Fleck tare her eyes away from her.
“Now, why don’t you tell me just what you thought you were doing and just why you thought that you could get away with it?” Fleck’s question was not a mere request, but an order.
“Ha!” Quince laughed. “What do you think that I was trying to do? I was just about to kill you’re precious king. That’s right, I’ve been Slate’s secret spy all along and yet you fools trusted me! My stupid ‘master’ instructed me to assassinate Ember, ensuring that we win the war. But now it looks like I’ll just have to kill you, too.”
Quince drew a Purple-Plasma Pistol from her belt, pointing it at Fleck and smiling shrewdly. “It’s really a pity. You would’ve made a good friend if you just weren’t on the wrong side.”
“I thought that you were loyal!” Ember croaked, rubbing the wound on his throat, which looked fairly deep.
“You were stupid!” Quince laughed mockingly turning ever so slightly towards the cowardly king. “It was easier to get in here then any spy could have dreamed. All thanks to you, Ember, my dear dead king.”
In that moment Fleck shot her pistol, sending the Purple-Plasma Pistol skidding five yards away from Quince. She had aimed for her adversary’s right paw, as to knock the gun out of her grasp.
Quince gasped in pain and held her bleeding paw. It was a nasty-looking wound, but it had saved two lives. Fleck continued to point her gun at the orange tabby she-cat, at the ready.
“You wouldn’t dare,” Quince snarled. “You don’t have the guts.”
“Try me,” Fleck spat in reply.
Ember trembled and curled in a corner of the room. His eyes were squeezed tightly shut and he looked scared out of his skin. For a long time, the two spies stared intimidatingly at each other, neither one moving in the slightest. Then, suddenly, Quince lunged for her pistol. Fleck shot her own gun, Ember screamed with horror and everything happened to fast for anyone to immediately register.
Quince was lying on the ground, blood streaming out of a bad wound in her side. Her death had been almost instant. Fleck didn’t know whether or not she regretted that gunshot. But what was done was done and there was no undoing the pulled trigger.
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-KittyLover8
© 2013
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