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Chapter 11. Pretty Girl, beware of this heart of Gold
by Dirano
Dirano sighed as he sipped from the liquor. This wine was not really too refreshing, but then again it was of a cheap, inferior type. Normally the wildcat would not be caught dead drinking moonshine of this poor quality, but he had no other option right now. In times like these, you took what you got, and you tried not to let people know you had it. As it stood, he had been incredibly fortunate to have stolen this bottle at all.
Evankt just wasn't very stable right now, and it wasn't safe to go out of doors. Most vermin had fled to the far side, hoping to evade detection. Only a few, it seemed, headstrong or deluded, had stayed. Dirano was neither of these, but he knew he couldn't leave the city. His livelihood was here, the town was all he knew. Outside, he did not know his way around, and would likely get lost, or fall prey to woodlanders. Of course, none of that was on the cat's mind right now.
"So where are we going?" The male cat whispered, hardly daring to raise his voice even in the night. He gazed through the alley, where he was being taken by the paw. Leading him was a female cat, radiant and resplendent, full of muscular energy.
"Somewhere safe, love", the female cooed as she hurried through the alley and down another side street, "Marties' are in the streets after dusk sometimes, we need to find shelter."
Ah, so she would be taking him to an abandoned storefront, or an empty home. It didn't really matter to Dirano, as long as it was private, and nobody could see him slipping out.
He hoped she had plenty of valuables in her purse; otherwise this would just be a waste of time.
Do not get attached to them, Dirano thought. This kitten, Emma may be cute, but she is not the target here. Take them in, say you love them, and then wait until they are asleep. It worked every time. Trusting little fools, believing that he actually meant every word of it, it was just pathetic. Was it just instinctive, the way females blindly trusted anyone who could concoct a smooth story?
She was slowing down now, warily looking in both directions. They must be getting close to their destination. Dirano knew this part of town, he had pulled off many a job here, but something concerned him even more than that. The buildings were packed together pretty tight here, and yet none of them seemed to be broken in to. And that was odd for one reason especially-
"I heard the woodlanders have been through here the past few days," the cat said, voicing his concern under the guise of making conversation.
"Oh yes," Emma replied. "A troop of them, otters and whatnot, were in the neighborhood not too long ago. They didn't stay long though." She sounded tired and stressed, maybe a little over anxious.
"Are we nearly there?" Dirano asked out of curiosity. Surely they had been traversing often enough.
"Yes we are. In fact, this is the place." With that, Emma let go of his paw and turned to face the wall. Removing rubbish from its face, she revealed a door.
"Ladies first," The male cat said, wrenching the door open. She stepped inside, to the blackness within. Dirano hesitated a little on the eaves. It was completely dark inside the room, with nary a candle to light it.
"Come on in why don't you," Emma cooed. She thrust herself out of the threshold, and wangled her arms over Dirano's neck. "There's a special surprise waiting for you in here." With that provocative warning, she gently pulled him inside.
The door was now shut, and Dirano couldn't see a thing. He heard nothing either, except the sound of her breathing, mere inches from his face. He relaxed, letting the wine bottle drop to the ground. It broke open with a crack, piercing his leg with tiny glass fragments. By now, Dirano did not care. With both paws, he held her in his grasp and gazed into the light reflected off of her eyes.
"You know, it is a curious thing." Dirano commented after what seemed like the longest time.
"What is it that bothers you, love?" The female cat breathed, seemingly excited about the thrill and danger involved. Probably her first time, Dirano thought then. Of course I was nervous back then too.
"Why would a bunch of woodlanders, fresh with self righteousness, leave a vermin district unscathed?" Dirano felt that it was time to finally start asking her, just how they had escaped. "I mean, none of the doors we passed were broken down or otherwise molested. It was just as if everyone suddenly left one day, and never came back."
She said nothing, just looked at him silently. That was when Dirano noticed that her expression had changed. From the wild frenzy of passion, she was now calm and collected, one might say even cold.
The male cat grew frightened, removing his paws from her. He made to step back, but no, he was still being restrained by her paws. With a wild grab, he reached for her purse with his right paw. He might as well try to profit something out of this encounter, even if it turned out ill for him. Another shock: The purse was empty, flat as a board.
"Looking for this?" Suddenly Dirano noticed that her paws were no longer around his neck the right way. He was spun around in a headlock, and there was a knife to his throat.
"Wha- What is the meaning of this?" He sputtered, full of rage and confusion.
"Don't try to resist, Dirano Willowvane," she sneered. "My friends here won't like it, see. They might think you'll try something stupid, as your reputation certainly suggests."
With blinding suddenness, the lights came on in the room. His eyes adjusting to the sudden flaring of many lamps, Dirano male cat could see that it was full of woodlanders- Otters,hedgehogs and mice -all of them armed.
"That's impossible!" gasped Dirano, stupefied by how easy it had been, how agonizingly Simple. He had been the master seducer, now to be tricked by a mere street urchin! Now he was almost certain to lose his dignity. He would be lucky if he did not lose his life.
"Just so you know- you're not irresistible, kiddo." She mocked him, her laughter sounding like acid in his ears.
"That's enough there." It was not a command or a suggestion. It had the authority and temperament as a solid fact did.
The speaker emerged from the group, a large male hedgehog wielding a hatchet in both paws.
"He's with us now, girl. Hand him over like we talked about, and go home."
"Fine," she spat, thrusting Dirano onto the floor, to land upon his face. Before he knew it, the cat was turned over on his back, and his arms were being bound.
Wrenched roughly from the floor, he was held tight by several woodlanders.
"I don't get this," Dirano shouted, panicked and befuddled by his drastic change in circumstance. He looked at 'Emma' or whatever her name was and spat on the ground.
She did not answer him, just looked him in the eyes once more. Her smile seemed to transcend ages, as if she had seen it all in her lifetime. Somehow, that coldness made him shiver, more so than he had ever felt in all of his experience.
"That's quite enough," a loud voice from behind him said.
A sack was placed over his head, and Dirano saw no more.
He only knew that he was being dragged by a rope halter and that his captors were in a hurry. Apparently, they did not care if he banged into things or tripped, they just walked inexorably on.
"Please," he murmured once, "Have the decency to take the bag off of my head and let me see!"
This plea only earned him a cuff to the shoulder and harsh words.
"Don't talk about decent folks doing decent things! We know who you are, Dirano, and what you do to poor innocent maidens! If you had any decency, you'd be walking on your hands and knees begging for forgiveness! So just stop talking!"
The words stung Dirano, harder than any mere blow could. How could these Woodlanders talk of decency and honor when they barely had any of it themselves? As for 'poor innocent maidens', that was a pure lie. The wildcat had personally never met a kitten in this wretched island that wasn't already experienced and world weary. Sure, Dirano pulled off the occasional 'job', but the cats did not mind so much. They enjoyed his company; he thought so much that they would never miss what he had taken.
After what seemed like an indeterminable period, the group came to a halt. The cat could hear a loud knocking, then the sound of a door being opened.
Pushed forward, the sack was ripped of off his head. Dirano blinked, for he could see only blackness. Then, he was kicked from behind, and fell once more onto his face. The door was shut behind him.
So that was how it was going to be. Alone, and forgotten, destined never to see the light of day again. Dirano thought about crying out briefly then thought better of it. Nobeast would be listening to his cries, an even if they did, who would care?
Breathing, slow controlled inhalations repeating over and over again.
Alone?
Suddenly Dirano knew that he wasn't.
A paw shot out of the gloom, right in front of the cat's face. It was stretched out in a placating, even welcoming way. Squinting as his eyes got used to the light, Dirano could make out a face in front of him. It was the face of a rat, dressed as if he had come from far away or something.
"Name's Sheriff Brull," said the rat."They dump you in here too? What do they call ye by the way?"
Sitting himself up, Dirano looked around the room, taking in the other occupants. All males it seemed, he really couldn't tell in the darkness.
"Sheriff, you say?" asked Dirano. "In that case I wish to report a lawbreaker on premises. You ever hear of a nasty little kitten named Emma? One of the Oasis girls I think...I never asked their names before...Anyways she's turned, and thats why i'm in this hole."
His mouth felt a little dry at the moment. He could introduce himself now, but he had never felt so thirsty before.
"I seriously doubt it, but do you have any spirits in here?I'm dehydrating to death here, even brandy will do for now."
Brull just stared at him funny. Almost as if he was sadly deluded.
"You don't know anything, do you?" The rat proceeded to mutter something under his breath. Dirano couldn't hear him, but it sounded very much like...
"Of all things, why brandy?"
Dirano looked at the other captives in puzzlement. He recognized none of them, some of them looked quite foreign males, at least, one of them...he was not so sure. Hmph, sometimes you had to actually stoop to asking before you made a move. That was always uncomfortable though, for all parties concerned. To get back to the topic at hand though, he needed to ask something of them. Might as well, he had no choice in the matter anyways.
The wildcat asked the room, not really expecting an answer. "Is there anything to drink in this hole? My mouth is drier than desert sands."
Giving him a look of pity, and not quite answering him, a nearby stoat threw a lump of stale bread in his direction. It met its mark and landed on the floor.
"Well, thanks...whoever you are," Dirano replied. "Your generosity is unmatched."
"Antonio," the stoat answered him.
"The names, Willowvane. Dirano Willowvane.I doubt you've heard of me."
A smirk seemingly sincere, it seemed he had heard of him all right. Or maybe he simply had not heard him. It didn't really matter.
The wildcat bit into his bread with vigor. Wait-that didn't taste right, something inedible was in it-
"Ptooo!" Dirano spit the offending morsel out of the bread and tried to continue eating.
What was a piece of parchment doing in his bread? That made just about as much sense as-
"What are you doing, Sheriff?", Dirano asked as he saw Brull gaping at the floor.
The other occupants had arrived to his end too, intrigued by what they saw. Now that they were closer, Dirano could see them better. Two veritable monsters, one foreign, and one native. Well, the monitors were easy to deal with when you saw them every day, but that monstrosity...
Dirano was still closest to the parchment. Dropping the stale crust, he plucked the scrap up from where it had been lying by on the floor with his footpaws.
He, too, gave out an audible gasp.
The lettering could not be mistaken even in this mediocre light. It was a map, elaborately detailed, of the entire island. Annotations and notes could clearly be seen in the margins, and there were many arrows dictating possible points of interest.
It was a plan for escape, orchestrated from the outside.