Leading the Blind

1

"Ahhhh!! Noo!"

"Help!"

Screams rose from the village, as two dark shapes cast their shadows on the ground and rained fire at the people's feet.

"Get inside! Go, now! Go!"

"Look out!"

"Mama!"

"Nya-ha-ha!" From above came a shout of triumph, as the lasers of a Skycutter struck the left leg of a fleeing Wollo. "I'm one up on you!"

"Not for long, Jackalman!" Monkian growled, firing at a small child, who was trying to get to his mother.

There was a scream of anguish from the woman as the lasers strafed the ground, and cement and dust rose. She started to sob until she heard the child crying and saw that one of the other women of the village had tackled him away from the blast.

The mother ran, falling to her knees and gathering the child into her arms. She hysterically thanked the woman for saving her child's life.

"Blast! I missed the little bastard, hoo, hoo!" Angry, Monkian came around for another shot, but the threesome was running away now, a moving target.

He missed.

At the edge of the Wollo village, Jackalman and Monkian were having a morbid contest. Wagers had been made, exchanges of work duties and belongings; the one that could hit the most villagers would be declared the winner. Jackalman had made the only strike so far.

As the first cry of "Call the ThunderCats!" rose from the citizens, Jackalman decided it was enough. Neither of them wanted to tangle with the felines. "Let's go!" he called gleefully.

"Not so fast, Jackalman!" Monkian protested. "Just 'cause you're winning…!"

"You want the ThunderCats to settle the wager, you moronic monkey?"

Monkian growled and grumbled, trying to find an excuse to stay…but Jackalman was right. For once. That didn't stop him from trying to hit the people as he left. But he was not a very accurate marksman from the sky, and no one was hit.

As he neared the edge of the village, Jackalman grinned, spying a generator that powered many of the buildings on that street. He fired. Accurately.

There was only a small explosion, which disappointed him, but then he grinned. The scream of what sounded like a young girl came from behind the machine, and he believed he had hit her as well. "That's two!" he crowed, flipping a rude gesture towards Monkian.

"Hoo, look out, you moron!" Monkian pointed frantically.

Jackalman looked around and his brown eyes widened as a barrage of fire lanced towards him. He took his Skycutter into a tight spiral, which saved his life, but did not save him from taking several glancing blows. The jackal howled as one of them tore a deep furrow in the flesh of his bicep.

The Hovercat was airborne, closing in on the cowardly attackers. Their sensors had seen them long before the Wollos could even call them, and now they were here, and they were angry.

Panthro roared below in the ThunderTank, with Wilykat at the guns in the back. They charged after the simian.

The fight did not last long. The Mutants retreated fast, after taking only a few shots, and the ThunderCats did not give chase. They landed in the village, much more concerned with their allies than chasing down the two assailants.

Tygra and Pumyra jumped out of the ThunderTank, their medical supplies at the ready to help the healers of the town. The twins also hopped out and began running from person to person, helping clean up, or helping Tygra and Pumyra when it was needed.

As Lion-O landed the 'Cat and Snarf jumped out behind him, he could hear the cries of the injured. "Any casualties?" he asked anxiously. Panthro had begun to help the people clean up the damage.

"N-no…" One of the adults answered. He was a healer, kneeling next to a stunned man. "But two serious injuries…numerous minor ones. I-I don't think we have the means to…"

Lion-O followed his gaze to an unconscious man being tended by two others. His left leg had been torn off by the laser fire, and he lay groaning, slipping in and out of consciousness. "By Jaga! Tygra! Pumyra! Over here, a priority!"

The pair looked over, and Pumyra gasped. She and Tygra hurried to the unfortunate man and began helping the healers stop the bleeding and cleanse the wound. "Good gods," Tygra said. "I can't believe this…"

"Any others?" Lion-O asked, looking around to see if anyone would answer. The one man had said there was one other.

"Lord Lion-O!" called a female voice. A woman knelt by the girl that had taken cover behind the generator. She was screaming, hardly audible over the sounds of the crying and the cleaning and the talking in the town. Her father had her head cradled in his lap.

Lion-O looked the situation over quickly, then called to Pumyra. "Come over here, Pumyra! Let Tygra handle that one!"

The lithe puma ran over, her medical bag in her hand. "By Thundera," she whispered. Kneeling, she pulled out a jar of a light blue salve from her bag, and began rubbing it gently into the girl's wrists and neck.

"But…but her face is what was hurt…" the girl's befuddled father said.

"I know," Pumyra told him, her normally bold voice now soft and soothing. She continued administering the salve. "But this is a bit of a sedative. It will absorb through the skin and into the bloodstream and dull the pain. It works fast."

Almost as if to prove Pumyra's words, the girl stopped her screaming, and quieted to a soft whimper. Her mother soothed her bloody hair.

"All right," Pumyra said softly. She took a damp antiseptic cloth from its package and began to clean the child's face. The girl whimpered, but the painkiller was dulling her senses, and that was all the outcry she gave.

As Pumyra used a second, then a third cloth, she could see that her patient was not really a child; but more of a young adolescent. 'Just the age to start being interested in boys," she thought to herself.

Another thing was becoming apparent: the girl had been blinded. The explosion was minor, but she had been at ground zero, and her upper body had taken much of the brunt. Only a few tufts of the light fur clung to her face, and ugly burns covered it. The puma wiped carefully at the girls' eyes with the cloth, making her cry out. Even in the after-chaos of the attack, Pumyra heard only the cry of her patient, everything else dimming to the corners of her awareness. "Shhh," she whispered. "I know. One more, all right?"

Once the blood was cleared, the healer was sure. Her open eye was burned badly enough that the orb was misshapen, with no chance of there being sight left in it. The other eye was seared shut, with a thick liquid seeping from the corner of it…and this told her that eye was also destroyed.

Tears leaking from her own eyes for the child, Pumyra still smiled at her, digging out a vial of light yellow liquid. She smoothed the girl's hair back. "Hey," she said. "Can you hear me?"

"I-I can't see," the girl whispered.

"I know," Pumyra said gently. "I am going to give you a painkiller, all right? But you have to drink it for me." The victim nodded weakly. "Good girl." With Pumyra's help, she downed the vial. Almost immediately, she fell limp, alarming her parents considerably. Before they could say anything, Pumyra said to them, "It's all right. It's only a sedative so I can finish up without hurting her further."

The parents nodded as the puma finished her ministration, stripping the girl's shirt from her and cleaning and bandaging her torso. She applied a healing salve to her face and also bandaged it, careful to leave plenty of breathing space.

Then she sighed, hating some parts of being a healer. "I hate having to tell you such bad news…" she said to them. "…I'm afraid she's been blinded. Her eyes were severely damaged. Her life is not in danger any longer, but…" She trailed off, taking a brief moment to get a hold of herself, "I'm afraid she will never be able to see again."

The mother sobbed and buried her face in her husband's shirt. The man put his arms around her and looked at Pumyra. "There's nothing you can do for it?" he asked, his own voice shaking.

"No," Pumyra whispered. "There was too much damage." She wiped her eyes, thinking of something her fellow apprentice had told her once on Thundera. 'You're too emotional," he'd said to her, after seeing her burst into tears at the death of their mentor's current patient. "Healing'll kill you."

Maybe it would, eventually…but Pumyra was of the opinion that if you didn't feel, you shouldn't be a healer. Feeling was a part of it.

She gave the parents a few moments, then pulled some jars of the healing salve form her bag. She told them how to apply it, how often the change the bandages, and what to expect, physically. She put the jars and some bandages in a small sack and handed it to them. "That's all I can do." She bit her lip. "Can I help you get her to your home?"

The father shook his head. ", we can get her there. Thank you, Lady Pumyra, for your help." He grasped her hand.

"I'm sorry I couldn't do more." She squeezed the man's hand, then returned to where Lion-O was helping finish with one of the other wounded, and the others were finishing with some of the clean-up. As the patient was taken away, the exhausted Tygra stood, having finished with the crippled man and simply moved on to the next. "Are you all right?"

The puma nodded and leaned against him when he put his arm around her. Had it been only an hour since they arrived in the village? It seemed like at least a day. At least.

"Come on," he said. "There's no more we can do here."

Nodding once more, Pumyra let him lead her from the village.

Pumyra of course filled the others in at the Tower of omens, and noticed without surprise that Lynx-O showed particular interest.

And then she rested.

Pumyra checked back on the young girl a couple of days later, and a couple of days after that. She was healing well, physically, but Pumyra was saddened at the girl's state of mind. It was to be expected, but it still saddened her to see how depressed the poor child was. She wished the parents luck as she left.