The guard swung at them with the butt end of his spear. “No talking, you two! You'll have plenty of opportunity to run your yaps soon enough. The guard swung open pair of massive oak doors. A long room filled with benches-most occupied by a werecats, was revealed. At the far end of the spectator benches were several more seats. Several were high backed and had a hook for the lead to be tied to. Those were obviously for the prisoners. In the very front of the room was a high stand  with a large mallet. That was where the judge sat to make descions. On eithet side of the stand steps rose in a high daise to a platform with two ornate and cushioned chairs. One oviously was for the reigning Werecat monarch and the other was for her consort. The guard led Patch and Slash to two of the prisoners chairs and tied the ends of their leads to the hooks in the chair.  The guard then stood off to the side, spear at attention. Neither the judge, queen nor consort were anywhere to be seen. Patch whispered to Slash. “Where do you suppose they are?” Slash shrugged and whispered back before the guard glared at them. “Sheba loves a grand entrance. You know that.” After about ten minutes of waiting, They heard a stir behind them, and a large, grizzled black tomcat with a white, hammer shaped mark on its back came strolling casually down the aisle. This was Gavel, Magistrate over all Werecats. Gavel climbed into the  magistrate's stand where he had sat as a judge for many many years. He look his human form, that of a man on the high end of middle age with silvery hair. He gripped the gavel, swung it down and barked in a voice deepened and weathered by age. “All rise for the entrance of her High Majesty, Sheba, queen of all Werecats!”
    With those words, Sheba entered, purring as she ascended. There was no doubt about it, the queen of the Werecats was a beautiful woman, and she knew it. Sheba carried about her body the dusky look and swirling dark hair of a Middle Eastern woman. She looked like a figure of legend carried from the pages of Arabian Nights, wrapped in the mists of time. Unfortunatly, that was about all she WAS wearing. Her garment clung to her form and revealed more than it concealed. Patch immediately turned his blushing face away from her scantily clad form. Slash leered at her. “There she is. The Whore Queen herself.”
     Patch muttered. “Please. I'm trying to not look at her her.” Patch could be heard whispering a quick prayer. “Lord, help me to keep my mind and thoughts pure. Keep impurity from my eyegate.” The General, in his  human form entered the courtroom chamber and ascended to the consort's throne. Gavel banged his gavel on the stand. “All rise in honor of her majesty, Sheba, Queen of all Werecats!” the entire courtroom of Werecats stood and shouted. “Hail to her majesty!” Sheba adjusted the thin band of gold on her brow and purred out. “You may be seated.” There was a rustle of cloth as the entire courtroom full of people retook their seats. Gavel turned to Inky, the baliff, whom he had served with for many years. “Inky, what's the docket of cases for today?” “Only two.” Gavel sighed. “Okay. Lets get them over with so I can go home and get out of this ridiculuos getup.” Inky nodded. “The first case is The Werecat Kingdom, versus Slash, son of Cedar.” “Is this case civil or criminal?” “Criminal your honor.” Gavel adjusted his seat position to be more comfortable. “What are the charges the prisoner is facing?” Inky read off the parchment, holding it close to his nearsighted eyes. “Insubordination, assualt on an officer of the Royal Werecat Army, and treasonous and insolent remarks directed at her most benevolant Majesty, Sheba Queen of all Werecats” Gavel nodded. “Is Slash, son of Cedar present in the courtroom here today?” Slash stood, stepping forwards as far as his leads would stretch. “I am,  your honor.” Gavel nodded. “You have heard the charges leveled against you. How do you plead to these charges?” Slash sneered. “Not Guilty, your ornery!” Gavel growled, showing his Feline fangs. “Have a care, Slash or you may be spending time for contempt of court in addition to your other crimes!” Gavel calmed down some. “By what reason do you plead not guilty?” Slash took a deep breath before plunging into shark infested waters. “By reason that these charges are very trumped up and unfair. I did make a comment or two concerning the morality of our beautiful but very loose-belted queen.” Sheba's face contorted into a mask of anger as she released a hiss of pure fury and frustration. Gavel banged his gavel down on the stand. “Silence! This court will not stand for this kind of pure impudence! If you continue acting in this manner, then I may have no other option than to send you to prison until you get some manners through your thick skull!” Slash leered a little. “All respect, sir, Three months in jail with continual beating and interrogation have not taught me any manners, I doubt that any more prison time would teach me any manners.” Gavel sighed and rubbed his temples in an attempt to ward off the headache he knew would be coming. “Slash, you're probably right. That skull of yours is too think to hold any civility at all.” He turned to Inky. “Inky, is the Prosecution here to give their side of the story?” Inky nodded. “The right honable General of the Royal Werecat Army...the....er...The General.”  Gavel motioned to The General. “You may state you complaint.” The General climbed off the Daias and began to pace back and forth between the prisoner's chairs and the judge's stand.- “Thank you, your Honor. I am the one who brought the accucastions before the prisoner in the dock for a multitude of execellent reasons. This grubby, scrawny excuse for a werecat you see tethered to the chair beofre me talked back to me, his ranking superior when I gave him and order. When I pressed the issue of his disobedioence, he flew into a fury and attacked me, leaving me permanently scarred for life, and during the course of the fray he ended up making several crude and treasonous remarks against her High Majesty, Sheba the Magnificent! It was for these reasons that we was imprisioned. And he continues to hold to the sam stubborn and impertinet attitude that found him in the prisions to start with. Time after time, day after day I have given him opportunity after opportunity to recant his position, but the prisoner proved incredibly unyeilding.” Gavel nodded sagely. “And did your imprisonment include those strongarm teqniques I've heard about your goon boys using there in the cell block?” The General blinked. “I have no idea what you're talking about!” Gavel sighed. “Yes you do. While I stand for the same principles you do, I do not approve of all of your tactics. The tactics you use down there are more torture than interrogation. I do not think you'll get a prisoner to recant by beating the snot out of them!” The General sneered. “You're sounding like one of those weak spined Werepuppies, or one of those pathetic Underground members, begging your pardon, your honor.”
     Gavel let loose with an animal snarl as he slammed his gavel down on the podium. “If you weren't the consort to the queen, I'd sentence you to be clapped in irons for that attitude. I can see why Slash jumped you. What he did was wrong in that it broke the law of the land, but I now understand his actions much better!” The General looked taken aback. This was not stunning legal upset he had hoped and longed for all this time. His revenge on Slash for the whipping he had received was starting to crumble. The General tried to save face a little as he waked wit as much dignity as he could muster up to his seat on the raised dais. Slash let a smirk spread across his gaunt face as he muttered to himself. “So it's not coming up all sunshine and roses for Genny Boy like he wanted. Good. There is a little justice left in this cruel old world after all.” Gavel thought for a moment, then muttered more to himself than anyone listening to him. “Hmmm. Slash, what am I gonna do with you. I have the feeling as long as you and The General are in the same general area, you're going to fight like crazy.” He cleared his throat. “Inky, what do the laws say about the charges against the prisoner. Are they executable offenses or not?” Inky shuffled his parchments around for several minutes, holding a lot of them close to his old eyes to make them out better. Inky cleared his throat., “Best I can make out of these dusty old scrolls, Gavel is that no, it's not a executable offense. He can be banished, though.” Gavel nodded sagely again. “True. It separates him and The General and lets the rest of us keep our sanity. If those two aren't fighting and clawing each other all the time, it'll be good for the rest of us. What do you say, your Majesty?”
   Sheba had not really been paying attention to the whole thing, but had been busily engaged in drawing little geometric designs on the armrest of her chair with a filed and painted fingernail. She looked up, startled. “Uh? What”  Gavel sighed and repeated his question. “What do you think about banishing Slash from being a member of the Werecat society?” Sheba blinked before purring out in her soft smooth voice. “That sounds good. Just get rid of the filthy runt.” Gavel nodded. “Slash, you are hereby exiled from this village and are stripped of all rights and privedges as a member of Werecat society. You are to be given a pack of food and a canteen of water and left to fend for yourself.” Gavel swung his gavel down on the wooden stand with a resounding bang. “So be it!” Slash breathed a sigh of relief. “Finally. I'm rid of the General forever.” he said quietly to himself. Gavel looked at Inky. “What's the next case on the docket?” Inky shuffled the papers around until he found the right one and held it up to his face so he could read it. * “The Werecat Kingdom Versus Patch the Orphan.” Gavel nodded. “Civil or Criminal, Inky