The Cats and The Badgers-COMPLETED

Chapter 5

Echo

The news of Empress's death reached us shortly after its occurrence. It turns out she was able to climb out of icy waters and died of pneumonia shortly afterward. Both me and Poppy were devastated, but murders don't just helpfully appear out of thin air, so Poppy and I had to-retain.. our grief.

"So, what's the plan?"

My voice was soft, and my movements were-slower than usual."

"What do you mean?"

Poppy had been in a melancholy mood ever since the news, justifiably. 

"Like, what in the Badger forsaken fuck are we going to do now that we don't have Empress?"

"Oh- I-I think I have most of it worked out, but if I know anything, it's that we probably need to do it...faster."

I shrugged and nodded.

"Ok, so when will we..go through with it?"

Even as I asked, I knew subconsciously that advancing our plan to a closer date was risky, but Seth and his goons were becoming more violent by the minute, and the other Cats in the Warren were getting restless. Of course, all of them were furious at Seth for murdering our most respected elder, but they weren't yearning for the revolution Poppy and I had planned.

"I'm not sure, but considering the current mood of the rest of the Cats, we should attempt in the next two days. If we were to do it later, their anger would have already dulled, and if we did it today, Seth would be on high alert, considering that he was just attacked."

I was startled by the amount of depth Poppy had planned this at, she usually just goes along with whatever I've had planned-which is usually nothing, just go In and go hard.

"Wow. Ok, then we'll do it at around..noon tomorrow?

Poppy gave me a sharp nod, and promptly thereafter bounded out of my den.

I sat there, stunned at the sudden realization that we were planning a murder. The Idea seemed inane and frankly pretty unlikely to work. Yet despite the odds, I had trust. And hope- that this could work. Hope that after Seth's tyrannical reign of power was over, we could convince the Badgers that remained in the Warren to work with, instead of against us.

The following day, I was..apprehensive, to say the least. Poppy had this strange tremble that her leg did whenever she was nervous, and today it was bouncing around like a rabbit. When I had come to her den, I was awarded a..very undignified surprise.

"It's mud! We can use it as camouflage during the murder! And, it will mask our scent."

So there I was, plastered with mud, inching across a dusty tunnel, on my way to murder a Badger.

When we came to a stop, Seth was, as per usual, ordering around one of the Warren's Cats. When the cat left, Seth sat down contentedly. I tilted my head urgently at Poppy, trying to signal that now was the time to strike. Fortunately, she got the message and started to stealthily crawl towards Seth, unsheathing her claws.

Without any prior warning, Seth let out a high, maniacal cackle.

"Don't go thinking I didn't see you, girls!"

My hackles stood on end, and every muscle in my body tensed.