Cookie's Escape

*Noon of the 4th of Lebra, 884*:

Cookie had been having an alright morning. The Master and Mistress were out on business in the big city, and Leona certainly wasn’t going to be in his fur today. She had been organizing a small safehouse and cache of supplies for the Socialist Workers Party in what used to be the old groundskeeper shed. Since the sudden move over a decade ago, the family had slowly been cutting costs around the former vacation home to save what fortune they had, and so the shed was free for Leona to do with as she pleased.

Cookie was quietly whistling to himself when a Royal Guard came into the kitchen. This quickly diminished his cheery mood.

“Excuse me sir, are you aware of any terrorist or radical activity on this estate in the past two weeks?” the Guard asked him in a blandly official way.

As a member of the SWP, Cookie was greatly unnerved by the presence of this Royal Guard in his kitchen. He had to play along for now, until he could figure something out.

“Uhm, good sir, I don’t know what ye mean?” Cookie said, trying to stay calm, “perhaps I could show ye ‘round the house and talk to the other staff?”

Cookie was panicking internally, he knew that there were only two other staff still working here, and that he certainly couldn’t lead the Guard anywhere near where Leona and her friends were. There was also his supply cache in the kitchen that would certainly need to be avoided.

“I uh, I reckon that the butler and maid are prolly aroun’ somewhere. I can look for them with ye if ye’d like.” Cookie said, while trying to keep his cool. He’d dealt with plenty of Royal Guard before, however usually the circumstances were more favorable than at present.

“Fine, we’ll take as long as we need to root out the suspected criminals from this estate” the Guard said bluntly.

This statement concerned Cookie greatly, but he figured he’d come up with a plan sooner or later, he always had before. He led the Guardcat out of the kitchen and started leading him down the hall.

“Now good sir, I think a good place to look first would be, uh,” Cookie paused to think of a room that would surely be empty this time of day “the conservatory! I reckon the butler is cleanin’ in there as we speak.”

*A half hour later:*

Having checked through a few rooms with nobody in them, the Guard was beginning to lose his patience, and Cookie was running short on ideas to delay him. The two were walking down a hall together, near the bedrooms of the house.

Cookie began to suggest another room to the Guard “I suppose we could check in the dining room, we staff usually eat a lil later than-”

The Guard turned and faced Cookie “Look I’ve had enough!” he shouted. “I’m going to head out, get some of the other Guards and we’ll lock down this damn house until the damn mice come scurrying out!”

It was at this moment that Cookie saw Leona and her two friends start coming down the hallway from behind the Guard. He knew he just had to keep this Guard distracted long enough for the trio to help him out.

*Another half hour later*:

It had been a whirlwind of chaos since Leona’s trio had caught up to Cookie. Plans had shifted and changed rapidly as the minutes quickly ticked away, and now Cookie found himself hiding behind a statue by the estate house with only three rounds left and taking heavy fire from the Royal Guard from behind the house. Cookie reckoned he didn’t have much time until they’d catch him or he’d perish at their paws.

He had two rounds left in his clip, and a spare that Orwell had tossed him before the trio had left for the city. Cookie definitely appreciated the gesture, although he feared it might be in vein.

He sighed to himself, trying to calm his nerves. Then he leaned out and took two shots in rapid succession. He thought he might have hit some of the Guards, but he certainly wasn’t going to poke his head out and check.

With one round left, he thought for a moment about what he should do. He told the trio that he’d meet up with them at Olive’s hideout in the city, but he knew that when he told them that plan that it was a pretty unrealistic pipe dream. The situation was dire, and Cookie briefly thought to himself that he might want to use the one round left on himself. He’d be damned if the Guards took him alive.

It was at this moment of fear and doubt that Cookie heard more gunshots, coming from the woods near the house.

Cookie was definitely happy that the Guards had someone else to shoot at, but he was worried that these new people might be another problem for him. There wasn’t exactly a shortage of groups around these parts that’d take his head given the chance.

The exchange of fire between the Guards and the unknown group continued for a few more minutes, until the guns had gone quiet. Cookie cautiously loaded his last round into his trusty rifle, and peaked around the statue to try and catch a glimpse of whoever it was had survived the encounter.

“You can come out Cookie, it’s just us!” a familiar voice called out.

Cookie was confused, it couldn’t possibly be who he thought it was, surely? He stepped out to get a look.

“Dawn!? I thought ye’d been killed a year back?”

The old cat and their small band of rebels approached the confused cat, “I had to go into hiding for a while, Inquisitors damn near caught me!”

The two old friends embraced each other, and laughed. “It’s good to see ye again, ye old devil!” Cookie said with glee.

“You should know better than to think the Royals could keep me down!” Dawn said with friendly warmth.

After another moment, the two pulled apart from each other and tried to pull themselves together. It was a near impossible task, given how these two had missed each other after so long apart. Cookie felt somewhat safe now with Dawn and the few Free Mountaineers they had with them. Cookie knew they had a lot to catch up on, but he had somewhere he needed to be, and folks counting on him.

“Listen, Dawn, I’m sorry to say, but I’m gonna have to leave ye a bit early sadly, got some folks waiting on me in the big city.” Cookie said with some remorse.

Dawn had pretty much expected something along those lines. “Nah that’s fine big guy, I understand. I probably need to get back to my safehouse too, got some youngins to look after these days. If you’d like though, we could meet up at Olives place and try to get something to eat, you still owe me for that lunch a year back!”

Cookie smiled at Dawn “I’d like that a lot, just let me know whenever yer in town!”

And with that Dawn smiled at Cookie one last time today, and started heading back to the woods with their crew. Cookie sighed as he watched them head out of sight.

After a few minutes, Cookie remembered that he somewhere to be. He scavenged what rounds he could off the dead Guards, loaded his rifle, then started making his way over to the big city.