4. Exploit - (v.) benefit unfairly (n.) a bold or daring feat.
1) Red
2) Quote inspired by an author
3) Madness
Gold lay on one of the cushions, her golden pelt was ragged and she had not bothered to eat in the last few days, again. Blue eyes were usually sharp and always searching had dulled and stared at nothing. She didn't know how much time had passed since her brother had betrayed her, but it felt like an eternity. He had called it a simple parting of ways, as if they could ever be parted.
Didn't he understand? They were supposed to be a team, that was what their father had always said; she the the brains and he the brawn. How dare he leave her behind! Then there were the times when she thought she heard his voice or saw him through the window, but it was always her imagination. Why did he leave her alone?
"Are you alright?" A tenor voice echoed along the paper thin walls of the spacious bedroom. Sunlight sliced through delicate worn out curtains. Burly shoulders fleeting in and out of the transparent light.
Marmalade spoke again, quieter this time, "do you need anything at all?"
"I'm lost without him." She wailed. Her nose trembling under her dirt covered paws. The large ginger tabby huffed not wanting to be swept under the turmoil and despair as his once, proud leader had succumbed to.
"You're better without him. Better without any of those fools." Marmalade soothed. His thick tail coursed down her flank. He tried not to flinch away as his tail tip detected every lining bone of her rib cage; blanketed over with rubbery skin and fur.
Gold whimpered. "I-I can hear him sometimes. When you're out hunting and Pale tending to her young. I can sense his presence. The flash of his silver pelt and those eyes…" She rubbed her bony cheek against her forepaw, purring so sickly sweet.
"Oh, why did he have to leave? We were a perfect fit. He and I…" She sighed mournfully. Murmuring her precarious memories into a sightless past.
The ex-soldier recalled how the golden she-cat tried so hard to keep them from falling apart. The words still rang fresh in his thoughts as if he was re-entering that hellish night of stinging rain and hot blood. Adrenaline coursed through his veins and blood pounding in his ears. Silver-turned-Valention lashed out with words to his littermates and not his claws.
It was something to break even the most resolved of cats. Gold, being that cat. Marmalade sat on his haunches as the anguish in her eyes reflected his own confusion.
They had won the battle, but in the end they had lost their chain-linking every one of them that night. The hefty tom's claws gripped the rotten floorboards reminiscing his claw-deep memories.
"...Never was your equal!"
"Don't you ever call me by that name." Silver growled. "Never again." Stripping himself from her, from his birthright.
Her blue eyes sought to quell their senseless fighting, in front of all their cats. Gold and Silver were joint leaders, meant to bring down even the toughest of enemies to their knees. For where one sibling lacked the other picked up and sewn their tyrannical rule. It was a set example of perfect partnership molded into something this city has ever seen before. They were inseparable, or so they believed.
"No brother of yours...Gold...No more...It's over." Silver tore himself away from the bond that woven Gold and him so tight that nothing would unravel them. But something did. They fell away caught in the wind like a loose spider's web.
Gone. Gone. GONE.
Valention had ruined them all.
Marmalade looked up wanting to say something but another shape filled into the stuffy room. His battle-scarred ears perked up, eyes lite with renewed wonderment.
"Red," he breathed. "What in gods' name are you doing up here? Where's your mother?"
The tiny scarlet kit fumbled around the room. Sniffing at the ragged carpet and all the broken glass and scorched wood. Her dainty paws catching a feather drifting in a gentle breeze.
Marmalade sighed heavily, crossing over to her and seize any more needless actions from the three month old she-kit. "What are you doing?" He asked again.
Red looked up this time. Her yellow eyes, dull and with traces of determination gleaming in them. "Pouncing. Ma said I have to get really good if I want to hunt for myself. She said, it's never too early to learn." She continued with her frolicking not minding the behemoth of orange fur and paws stopping her from her pretend practices.
"Hunt? Pouncing?" Gold broke free from her reverie. The tired old she-cat grunted. "We have hunters to tend to the young. Where's your father? Scarlet is his name?"
Red looked up. "Scarlet is my sister, and no, Papa is right here with me."
The young she-kit tipped her head to Marmalade who steered clear from her innocent gaze.
"Ahem, mind you, I've told you not to call me that. I see no reason why Pale had to go and blurt such nonsense but I am not your father, Red." He said stiffly. All the while the dark she-kit pranced around his toes and swatted at his muscular underbelly.
"Either way, you treat us better than our own father would. Right, Papa?" She squeaked making the tom groan.
Gold croaked, rising to her paws in a failed effort to stretch. "Damn straight." She wheezed. "Marmalade is the finest guard I know." She turned to the ginger tom, her scrawny limbs shaking to keep steady.
"Do you remember, Bee and Tigerlily? You weren't fond of kits then as you are now. They were far more helpless than Red and I have little faith in her, yet."
Marmalade frowned. "Yes, but those were many seasons before their little mishap with Twolegs. I would not be surprised if they're dead by now. Tigerlily, mainly, because of her sight and her...dependent nature."
Gold hummed, recalling those long forgotten days. "Bee would never let anything happen to her so long as he was around. He would have made a fine soldier if not for his little distraction."
"Things come and go as cats do." He answered, scooping up Red in his jaws.
Gold dropped her head, a shiver passing down her legs. "What's become of us? Cats are broken wanting to be mended and those who are are petrified to become broken again. We're lower than scum and too cowardly to fight back for more than what's been lost." The golden she-cat's voice barely reached a whisper as she mumbled to herself again.
She was losing herself as the day stretched to night and broke to dawn again. He pitied her he truly did but nothing he did would mend her shattered resolve. That heartbroken soul would take more time than he could spare.
"We should go hunt," He suggested. "That's something we haven't done in a while. Once I take this little rascal back to her mother." He lifted Red higher from the ground though her feeble attempts to escape did not seem to bother.
Gold sighed wistfully. "Hunting is good. Perhaps I can muster up what else there is left for me in the outside world. Oh, and take Red with us. We can spare Pale a few moments of worrying over her adventurous daughter."
Marmalade gave a disdainful snort but did not object. Red's bushy tail tickled his chin as he padded out of the room. The older she-cat trailed after him. Her thoughts mulling over into a sweeter moment in time.
. . .
"Tuck your paws in more. You look like a hibernating dormouse plump from its leaf-fall harvest."
Red visible creases in her face formed into scorn. Her muscles ached already as much concentration and effort she put into her stalking not once has yet to satisfy the critique tom.
"No, no, no!" He growled, forcefully putting pressure on her lower half. She squeaked, reeling her head up and scared her potential prey who was haring into the ground. She hissed, glaring daggers at her teacher who's eyes shown just as much contempt.
"Red, you're very poor in listening." He shook his head, looking towards to orange-red skies. "And Pale expects you to learn on your on. Yeah, good luck with that." He bantered.
She bristled. "I'm trying okay? It's not like I can learn all of this, tail lifting and paw drifting over, and whatchamacallit-'master skills'. I'm just three moons, Papa!" The last remark came out as a mewling wail.
His nose wrinkled. "Pathetic. Whiny and unwilling to improve. You're a waste of time." He turned away, ready to leave when a regrettable huff followed up to his ears.
"I'm sorry." Red scuffled a dark red paw over the drifting frost and earth. "I just...I want to get good and in a hurry. Mama said that 'he' won't be around for much longer and that she'll be relying on us to hunt when she won't be able to." Her ears drooped a little.
Marmalade paused, staring down at the little scrap of fur. She was no bigger than his tufted tail end. "Well," he glanced around noting that the sun was dipping into it's horizon-calling for its closing departure. Her head rose up looking hopeful at his next phase of words.
"We could stay a few moments longer." He could see relief wash over her anxious gaze. "I should find Gold first. Stay put." He said with a meaningful look. His hefty paws crushed what little vegetation sprung up from the cracks and crevices of the rundown apartment complex.
"Gold?" A chilling wind ran down his back seeding a trickle of fear in his conscious. He hadn't seen his ex-leader for the past sunrise. Where had she wondered off to?
"Gold," he yowled this time but the only reply was an echo of her name. His ears swiveled left and then right. No sound. Barely a thin scent trail to nudge him in the right direction.
The hefty tom was to call for the golden she-cat when he spotted her at least; staggering around some dumpster just as a trio of yellow monsters were demolishing parts of their old home.
"Gold," he cried just as he steered clear from a clash of rubble and debris as it scattered across barren ground. The remains showered overhead making him squint his eyes, barely missing her pale golden shape disappear from his peripheral vision. A metal piece clanked-burying deep within the uprooted soil and caught on his flank-marking it-taking bits of his fur with it.
He coughed inhaling too much of the dust, finally deciding to crawl to avoid more damage to himself. He blinked up as her pelt flashed before him again.
Gold stood on a high enough concrete slab avoiding the large massive paws of this unholy behemoth. It reared back its ugly, dark head, roaring and spitting speckles of earth right back at her. She snarled in retaliation.
The monster tested its strength with the ex-city boss. Hideous beast raring to go battle against the former victor of the Eastern Twolegged creatures' realm.
Marmalade could only watch. She seemed to be saying something along her smarting remarks. He couldn't hear what she was saying out right as the terror of being caught up in this storm freight him to the core and deafened his ears.
Tail lashing she steeled over. Her resolve to finish off the monster shattered within heartbeats. "Silver?" She mouthed. Something had caught her eye, moving her exterior away from her for and to something far more important than the delicate balance of life and death, survival and utter defeat.
Then, the mighty beast clambered down on the bramble thorns and man-made rock, taking Gold and any living remains within its jaws.
Instincts went into overdrive as he plowed through the clouds of earth. Claws kicking up dead leaves and bramble thorns. He caterwauled, rivaling the monstrous beast's threats for death and devastation. Blood roared in his ears but that didn't deter him from clambering between the jagged teeth and a single two-colored paw. He made a forceful leap feeling his muscle wrench as he was pulled up into the purple-orange night.
His own large, russet forepaw reaching for hers. He could almost feel the brush of her toes...Light and soft to the touch.
He could feel black dots drift into his gaping eyes. His world was spinning and he could feel his body lay heavy the more strain he put himself in.
"Nearly there..!"He hissed softly as another muscle gave out and another. His claws scored down the yellow monster's cheek as he slipped. Marmalade locked his eyes to Gold's paw as if the smallest of twitches marked hope in his heart. Searing pain exploded through his back leg, ridding him useless. He twisted and writhed before landing with a sickening thud.
. . .
Nostrils flared minutely sniffing any familiar scents of home. Paws feeling around a hard, smooth surface. Bright lights replaced the space of where forest smells and warmth should be.
White. Stagnant. Air.
His breathing was irregular as he forced his body to pull forward and upright. Something shifted beside him as foreign being slipped his tail passed his flank.
"I see that you've awakened." A honey-toned voice tickled Marmalade's tufted ear. His head tipped to one side, vision blurred by the surrounding lights.
A mackerel-striped tabby came to view. Dull gold eyes-yellow, almost like an egg yolk. His long tail flicked to and fro drinking in every fiber of the tattered tom's being.
"And you must be my respectful, late father-sister's lapdog, no?" The tom didn't give Marmalade enough time to respond. "He speaks so freely of her and their little fiasco back in his days of glory and power." He flexed his thorn-sharp claws.
Marmalade cleared his throat though it did little to shake the raspy, aged vocals. "Who are you," he croaked, trying to get a better view of him. "I've never known you were in Gold and Silver's group?"
A deep, audible breath escape the dark tabby tom's lips. "Yes, how incompetent of me. You wouldn't know me at all. Not even that insane little she-cat you try to protect from the inevitable."
The ginger tabby's attention heightened fully as the opposite tom regarded the former eastern city leader with little care.
His lips peelled back into a ferocious snarl. "Don't speak of Gold like that you little mongrel. I'll wipe that smirk off your flea-bitten face!"
"Excuse me of my rudeness." He bent down to lick over his delicate paws before swiping his ears two-to-three times with them. "I've forgotten that her most loyal soldier also had a, ah, short-fused temper." He meowed.
Marmalade still bared his teeth at the dark tabby. "What's your name, mange-pelt. Or do you prefer me calling you all sorts of ugly names? I'm sure you're way more used to that" He spat acidly.
"Amadeus, leader-in-training. More or less escaping my blood sister and death itself." His devilish smirk didn't phase Marmalade one bit. Irritation pirckling his pelt.
He swung his head around only regretting his irrational choice. He took in the off-white walls, silver-meshed dens and pellet food and sweet-smelling water.
"Where am I?" He demanded.
Amadeus's infamous smile played on his profile once more. "Whitepelt territory. This is the crème de la crème of places to get tossed, locked up, and sold to the highest bidder." He said simply. His eyes watched the large tom's features shift into comprehension.
"You mean...we're..." Marmalade tried to slam his body weight into cold, prickly cage. His claws rendered useless against the Twoleg-made contraption. His eyes ran wild all over spotting cats-young and old miserable in their state of capture.
The tabby stifled an idle yawn, tongue curling over his fangs. "Be still, or they'll come and inject you with sleep." Tail wrapped tightly around his paws. "You'll regret that decision, mind you."
Marmalade rounded on Amadeus, eyes lite anew. "Where is she?" He was on the edge of his sanity, chest heaving with unease.
"Easy there. She's alright. That one. Though, I'm not so sure that she will live in the next two sunrises, give or take." Amadeus's muzzle pointed to a lower cage to the she white floor. A brown mat soiled with her fluids. He could detect the stench from it as a lump formed in his throat.
"Gold." The huge tom's paw pad rested on the silver mesh below him seeking to reach for her. Gold didn't so much as twitch in his call.
He sighed. "She won't live past today." Sharp distress ran thick in his mew. His resolve lifting into the surface of his shattered mind. "What will happen if we somehow do escape?" Marmalade asked.
"There's only one way to get out of here. Death is one." The heavily striped tabby enjoyed the desolation sliding over Marmalade's face. "The other," he tipped his head to one side letting the answer drip down his mouth.
"Become a kittypet."
"So, a chose between life for the amusement of Twolegs or death." Marmalade said dryly, restating Amadeus's words.
Amadeus shrugged his shoulders. "Not much of a bargain but something is better than nothing. The watch around here has tightened after that little escape of a she-cat a few days back." He poked at the lock caging him from within the den.
"Now there's only that option. Won't be long now." He drawled. "Too many of us are filling up the silver dens. They'll put you up for display and if you're not taken within a certain amount of days, then you have no choice but death."
The orange tabby circled around his den only finding his side denmates words to be truthful. The cold, metallic mesh surrounded all sides of the cage. He had no where else to turn to but the thought of freedom melted into his racing thoughts.
He took a slow, steady breath and then another before turning back to Amadeus who was dipping his narrow head down to lap up a few mouthfuls of the tainted water.
"Silver found a way to live without Gold or even the cats he left behind. Troublesome cat. Gold's far too complex to figure out and I fear her final days are closing in. There's only one thing left for me and I'm ready for what lies ahead.
"Even if it means tearing myself up in the process."
. . .
She couldn't keep track of the passing sunrises. Though, thoroughly, she remembered the constant padding of Twolegs paws as they changed her dried rabbit droppings and stale water. How they caress her back and whisper sweet nothings in her ear. Her wounds cleaned. Her fur in mid condition; soured with strange scents they spritz on her every so often.
It was a daily routine that she would expect from hairless, pink upwalkers. One day, however, the Twolegs he was most familiar with-a female-treated him with particular care. Cooing and murmuring softly in his tattered ear.
Her eyes peered over to Amadeus who was being treated with care just as much as him. The dark striped tom didn't mind the extra attention. He encouraged it with loud purrs and behaving obsequiously along her long pale colored arms.
Hmph. Fawning over your captures, eh? Gold mused in his own thoughts. She saw the whitepelt upwalker unlatch Marmalade's den, grabbing the muscular body of the fully grown tom.
She grimaced. Her battles have been fought and won. Her time was ticking by heartbeats now. The end was coming or so she believed. Gold's heart clenched as both Marmalade and she was taken away through separate corridors.
She had already given up on her life, accepting the inevitable. She hadn't realized what she's been keeping her alive up to this point.
"Mar," she mewed weakly. Her head fell to one side of the Twolegs forearms her brushed her neck soothingly.
The large ginger tabby almost was identically walking with her. His dark amber eyes shining, grief-stricken. She forced a small, sad smile on her mouth.
Live, be free of your own choices. I can't guide your pawsteps. I can't keep you away...
That was what she intended to tell her former soldier. He prized and spectacular warrior of her realm. The wall split the two cats away. One being sent to the outside to live another day, the other finally given the peace that one attempted to find from within.
A/N: Ack! Longest one-shot I've done so far in the Warriors fandom. Silver/Valention's name is pronounced as "Vah-lee-tion." The Italien nae Valentiono means brave or strong. Explains why he keeps the root of his power and discards anything that reminds him of his sister, Gold. Also, Gold and Silver is based off a very popular game. Though I've only played the updated versions which are still pretty good.
We'll get to see more of those darling siblings again in another time.