As I walked towards the shelter of rock that jutted into the sky I noticed a group of cats lying about lazily. Upon seeing me they immediately stood erect in perfect rows. A golden brown striped tabby stepped forward and said, “Sir did you enjoy your tour of Fostoria?” I responded, “Yes. Thank you. Everything seems to be in order.” I didn’t know what they would make of that statement but I couldn’t think of anything else to say. As we were talking I could feel the hairs on my back raising and alerting me to the presence of danger approaching. I turned to see Hector approaching me stealthily. Locking his eyes on mine he said sarcastically, “Good day your highness! Is everything in the territory to your liking?” At the time I didn’t catch on to the sarcasm so I responded, “Yes everything is in order.” He glared at me angrily then quickly looked away smiling as if he was the only one privy to the joke. Changing his tone he demanded, “Where is Rizzo?” For some reason I felt a jolt of terror run through my body and a feeling of guilt quickly followed it. It was very strange. I had nothing to feel guilty about. “He’s not here?” I asked with surprise. “Of course not,” Hector exclaimed. “We all know he took you out yesterday morning to show you the borders of the territory. So how is it that you now act surprised about his absence? Something smells fishy.” I began to panic. What could I say? I really didn’t know what happened to Rizzo. I just assumed that after eating he returned to Fostoria ahead of me. But I couldn’t tell them that we were in Kliev. I had to lie. “That’s true,” I said. “He did show me the borders of Fostoria but after showing me the eastern border to Kliev he then told me to make my way back towards the shelter because he had something to do.” I looked around to see if they were buying it. Most of the cats nodded understandingly and some were not even paying attention. Hector however tilted his head to the side and with a scowl he peered up at the wall of rock. It appeared as if he had spotted something on the wall, but I knew that what he was actually doing was going over my story in his mind and poking holes in it. “He didn’t tell you what he had to do?” asked Hector. “As our official leader you have a right to know what your subordinates are up to.” I responded, “I didn’t think to ask him. It’s not that big of a deal. If Rizzo has something to do…” “You didn’t think to ask him?” repeated Rizzo interrupting me in mid sentence. One of the cats in the crowd spoke up. “Hector, if he says that’s what happened then we have to believe him. After all he is our leader.” Enraged, Hector began shouting toward the crowd, “You fools! You don’t even know this cat. No one knows where he is from? For all we know he could be working for Zarathustra or Socrates.” Suddenly the crowd was alert. Hector continued, “I don’t believe that Rizzo had something to do. I think that one of our own is missing and Christopher is hiding something about it.” Hector looked at me and continued his assault, “If Rizzo sent you back from the eastern border then why did you approach the shelter from the west?” “Was Hector following me the entire time?” I thought. “How much did he see?” I decided to go for broke. Instead of answering Hector’s questions I looked out over the crowd. Ignoring Hector I spoke to the crowd in an impassioned voice, “Brothers! The other day you unanimously elected me to be your leader. Are you in the practice of publicly interrogating your leader? In order for this arrangement to work out, it must be established in trust. I need to be able to trust you to support my decisions and act on them without questioning my motives. And you need to be able to trust me knowing that everything I do is in the best interest of the citizens of Fostoria. I promise you I will work hard to earn your trust. My question is, can I trust you?” The crowd was swayed. They began shouting with one accord. “Great is Christopher the ruler of Fostoria! Great is Christopher the ruler of Fostoria! Great is Christopher the ruler of Fostoria!” They repeated this for about fifteen minutes. When the crowd finally settled down I looked at Hector who was now looking very uneasy. I said, “Do you have any other questions you want to ask me?” Hector looked at the ground in defeat and said, “No.” To ensure my victory was complete I inquired, “No, what?” Defeated Hector looked up at me and said, “No sir.” I then said, “Hector why don’t you gather the rest of the gang including the border guards and meet me at the creek on the west side of Fostoria. We will discuss the future direction of Fostoria.” Hector’s eyes opened wide when I mentioned assembling even the border guards. He said, “With all due respect sir, shouldn’t we leave at least some of the guards at the border for the sake of security?” I sighed deeply and asked, “Do you trust me Hector?” Looking at my army of support he quickly said, “Yes sir. Of course.” I commanded, “Then do as I ordered.” Without another word Hector marched off to complete his mission. As soon as I was alone I began to shudder. Walking towards the creek I began to think about all that recently transpired. Everything seemed to be happening so fast I really didn’t have much of an opportunity to stop and take it all in. I was now the undisputed ruler of Fostoria with the exception of a number of small-scattered regional gangs. They trusted me to lead them in the right course. This was a great deal of responsibility. I worried, “What if I can’t live up to the challenge? I’m sure glad I have Socrates’ philosophy to back me up.” I nodded. “As long as I stick closely to the tenets of animalism, the results will be happiness for all.”
Later that day around evening all of the gang was assembled at the creek. There was a large stone at the edge of the creek, which was stationed at an ideal location to serve as a platform in addressing a crowd. I took my place on top of the rock and began to speak. “Brothers! You are all probably wondering why I had you gathered here today. We are here because it is time for us to wake up and realize where we are in the stream of time.” I pointed to the rushing waves of the creek as I said this. “We have a choice to make. We can drift about in a sea of confusion being born and dying without ever understanding the purpose of life or we can take our places in the pantheon of heroes, confident that our victory is inevitable because we are on the right side of history. Are you prepared…” While I continued my speech I began noticing individual faces among the crowd. Many in the crowd looked as if they didn’t understand anything I was saying but they nodded their heads in approval just the same. I realized at that moment that I could be arguing in favor of specieism or some other philosophy and this crowd most likely would still follow my lead. What seemed to matter to them was not the content of the message but rather the conviction expressed in the delivery. This thought frightened me a little. As I spoke a badger ran towards the crowd from the direction of the east. Out of breath he interrupted my speech by exclaiming, “We are being invaded!” “So it appeared that Hector didn’t follow my orders about the guards completely,” I thought. All of the animals looked worriedly towards the east but they refused to act without being given orders. Hector stood up and shouted, “You see! Had I listened to Christopher we would have had no warning of the coming assault. Brothers! Follow me and see how a real leader acts!” About a third of the gang began to rise and walk towards Hector. I shouted, “Halt! You are making a big mistake if you follow him. Remember what we said about trust? If you stay and continue to trust me you will be safe. But I can’t protect you if you follow Hector.” With these words the group that supported hector was divided and an even smaller number of animals defected. After they marched off, I looked out on the slightly reduced crowd. They looked worried. I decided to continue on with the speech although the distant sound of growling and hissing sometimes stole the attention of the crowd. I continued, “The other day when I spoke to the dog many of you couldn’t understand how this was possible? You need to understand that what I did was not from any special power of my own. Rather it was the realization that we are all brothers no matter what species we belong to. Many of you…” As I spoke I continued to notice the makeup of the crowd. It was not only cats that I was addressing. There were raccoons, squirrels, rabbits and beavers. They were spread among the crowd but it was apparent that they didn’t share the same status of equality as the cats. The inequality
certainly wasn’t as bad as what I’d seen during my brief stay in Cuyamonga but it still made me feel uncomfortable. I spoke with great emotion as I concluded my speech, “If we come to realize that the diverse breeds of cats and dogs and the various species of animals all belong to the same family we will begin to embark on a new journey. It will be a true brotherhood of animal and together there is nothing we can’t accomplish!” At this the crowd once again began shouting in unison “Great is Christopher the ruler of Fostoria!” They were in such fervor that they had forgotten all about the alleged invasion. With this larger crowd their shouting seemed to drown out all surrounding noises. That is why no one noticed the approach of a large army of assorted animals entering the camp. The citizens of Fostoria were suddenly on their feet and the crowd separated as the invaders approached placing themselves in the center of the crowd. Muffled noises could be heard among the group of invaders. It was soon discovered what these noises were as large dogs began emerging from among the invading army. Each of them was gripping with their jaws two or three cats by the neck. They deposited them at the center of the crowd. The defeated defenders tried to call out to the crowd but they had there mouths tied shut with shoestrings. They also had their paws tied tight with shoestring. For some reason the shoestring caught my attention. Something was familiar about it. “Where did I see this before?” I wondered. Before I had a chance to remember why the shoestring was significant to me, Niccolo walked out of the crowd of invading soldiers. They were split down the middle like a sharp knife cutting through soft cat food. As he walked among the masses they would look down to the ground to avoid making eye contact. This detail struck me as a little strange especially because we were all supposed to be equal now. Many of these soldiers had a blank look in their eyes as if they were under a hypnotic trance. Niccolo continued walking up towards the citizens of Fostoria and they too were split like soft cat food. Finally he approached the platform and jumped up onto it by my side. He placed his paw on my shoulder as he had done the previous day and whispered, “Well done Christopher.” Again I felt a warm feeling quickly spread throughout my body. Niccolo faced the crowd and spoke, “Citizens of Fostoria! You are now a part of the Union of Animals! Comrade Christopher will continue to lead you but from now on you will address him as Commander! Understood?” The animals in Fostoria looked at one another apprehensively then began nodding. Someone shouted from the crowd, “What’s to become of our fellow citizens whose only crime was to defend our borders?” Niccolo looked out at the crowd and responded, “The term is comrade. From now on you will refer to one another as comrades and not citizens. As far as what is to become of these traitors, I was just about to address that.” Niccolo then looked toward his troops and shouted, “Begin the purge!” I had no idea what was going on. Things were not going as I had imagined but Niccolo reassured me that everything was going according to schedule. He said, “Christopher, to purge means to refine or cleanse. It is a necessary process of animalism. But don’t worry. You wont have to do the work yourself. I’ve provided you with help.” He stepped aside and two Siamese cats with piercing blue eyes and elongated faces stepped forward. They were identical twins. It was impossible to tell them apart. “This is Truth,” said Niccolo as the one cat bowed. “And this is Justice.” His twin took a bow. “I am assigning them to oversee the purge. You of course are in charge but you will be busy with other necessary matters.” He placed his paw on my shoulder and said, “Truth and Justice have a very specialized skill set. This is not their first purge. Make use of them.” Niccolo then gathered up the majority of his troops and marched back to Kliev. He left a battalion of troops with orders to assist Truth and Justice. They were to take orders only from Truth and Justice. Hector and his cats were rounded up and marched outside the city. I asked Justice, “What is going to happen to them?” I was relieved to hear they would be freed. He said, “They are going on a freedom march. Since they felt oppressed by the Union of Animals they will be led to freedom elsewhere.
Breed The Secret Design To Maintain Racial Inequality Among The Despised Classes Page 7
