Virtual Quill

As I write this, Gran is training Kell in rabbit defensive strategies. At our Thanksgiving dinner at Aby’s I asked Dad about this; after all, Angelique had her rabbit identity taken away from her for the crime of selling rabbit strategies to predators. Dad acknowledged that, and said that as a member of the Rabbit Council he got special clearance from the rest the members for Kell to receive instruction. The big difference, of course, is that with Kell as CEO, rabbits are off the Herd Thinners menu. No predator wants to risk killing an in-law of the Big Boss, so they seek other game. (That raises another question: What happens to the rabbit population in the Spring?)
This all came about when Kell dropped the brave front she’d been hauling around since becoming CEO. Gran, her physical therapist, knows her current condition better than anyone and knows that she’s still in recovery mode from her broken leg. She needs helps, and she and Dad are giving it to her.
In Dad’s case it comes in the form of basic wrestling maneuvers. As the former Iron Rabbit he knows all about using leverage to gain advantage in fang-to-fang combat. In the brief time she has, Kell isn’t going to learn enough to join the WWE, but she might surprise an opponent who relies on simple brute strength.
With Gran, it’s mainly about attitude. Fighting among predators, even in contests to the death, comes burdened with centuries of traditional mores and customs. Gran is trying to strip all that away from Kell so that when the time comes she sees one goal: surviving to raise Coney.
Knowing Kell, that should do it.
I hope.

I’ve completed my research into past Herd Thinners challenges and came away with the realization that every single CEO has had to face an initial challenge alone.
This includes R.L., who founded his own predatory company and later on took over Herd Thinners. (Herd Thinners had the most illustrious brand, so R.L. kept it as the name of the merged company.) He was challenged by a Komodo dragon, but R.L. must have been tipped off that an attack was coming from him because R.L. arrived armed with a Super Soaker full of mouthwash. That killed the deadly germs lurking in every Komodo’s mouth, and with that threat neutralized R.L. won easily.
My overwhelming concern, of course, is for my mom. (And yes, Kell is my mom in every way except biologically.) I’d always assumed that her open and engaging personality had won her enough friends to win a fight for her, but it turns out that predators are just as fearful as any prey species; they’re terrified of throwing their lot with a loser.
So, the clock is ticking down to office party in mid-December when Kell becomes eligible for a challenge. Thanksgiving is this week, and everyone is coming. While we’re not Herd Thinners employees, at least we can show we support her.

Kell has been CEO for two weeks and she’s still discovering unusual facts about life at that rarified level. Perhaps the strangest was finding out that the “stuffed and mounted” heads in R.L.’s former office were actually live individuals sticking their heads through holes in the wall.
They’d been predators downsized by R.L. and hired back as temps for that purpose, basically to scare off future challengers. (Obviously they didn’t dissuade Mr. Mangle.) Kell unfortunately had to tell them their services were no longer required.
She offered to find non-hunting positions for them if they’d agree to back her in upcoming challenges. They all declined, which is worrisome. Kell was disappointed, but still wrote letters of recommendation for them all.
Why did they reject her offer? I’m getting concerned, and I need to do more research into Herd Thinners customs and practices. Kell is as good a predator as any, so I can’t believe it’s a reflection on her. I’ll try to find out what’s happened with other Herd Thinners CEOs when they’ve taken over.
Kell has flatly told two of her strongest allies on the staff to stay away during a challenge. My mother-in-law Desdemona (and Kell’s executive assistant) is a vampire bat who scares a lot of people but has no intrinsic predatory skills. (Her blood-gathering relies more on stealth.) Kell’s niece Corrie, the company’s webmaster, is technically half-wolf but that side of her is buried so deep it’s only come out once when Fiona was threatened by a cougar. Presumably her wolf side would again emerge if Kell were under attack, but that’s not for certain since Corrie isn’t able to control it. So, Kell has made both Desdemona and Corrie promise not to come to her aid.
So, who will?

Coolness. As CEO, Kell gets to be driven to work in a limo. The chauffeur is a pig named Wally, who was surprised to survive the day. Unlike R.L., Kell has a deep ethical streak that resists killing when the stakes are too heavily on her side. If she’s out hunting and is matched against prey in a fair fight, though, there’s no predator more effective.
Kell offered to have Fenton’s mom join her in the commute, but Desdemona prefers to fly. In addition to getting lots of exercise, I suspect she also uses those flights to search for ...um...meals.
Kell, meanwhile, met initial resistance to her directive for predators to hunt in packs without quotas. After all, that was how “things had always been done.” Most of the griping came from felines, who had to watch what they said since she knows their language. They got so mad, in fact, that in their anger they brought down more meat than any other team. More importantly, for the first day the total poundage for the company exceeded the previous quota, so the strategy was an initial success.
Looming over everything is the prospect of the inevitable challenge to Kell. It’s only been ten days since she became CEO so it’s hard to assess her physical condition. We’re all praying she heals fast.
Now, I have to go pick dead maple leaves out of my quills. Long story.