Chapter One, a Sheep, a Tiger, and a Lion

He was running. Faced with a situation like this anyone would have run, it was still shameful to run though. At least that's what Ben-Gali thought. He was 16, the oldest of 4 children, and was probably the oldest ThunderCat still alive. He needed to make sure no one got hurt, so he couldn't just die because of some stupid third earth predator.

Ben-Gali looked over his shoulder. The thing bleated loudly. What was he being chased by, a giant sheep? He turned back. He had seen it attack the deer he was hunting. This animal was nothing to joke about. About 10 yards away were the gates of the formidable fortress, Cats Lair.

He burst through the gates, bolted them shut, then walked upstairs to the control room. He was greeted by the laughter of the ThunderCats. They're probably laughing about me, Ben-Gali thought. It turned out that he was right. He opened up the trap door to see the other Cats laughing nervously at the surveillance film of the Warg, that was what the sheep was called, eating the leaves off of an Oak tree. His younger sister, Astrid, turned around and bowed mockingly. "Hail the conquering hero," she said voice dripping with sarcasm, "he's finally escaped from his worst foe, the giant sheep!" The other Cats all laughed at this. He laughed too. What the heck, it was a little bit funny but, only a little bit.

He smiled at his odd little family. Only they could turn almost getting eaten by a Warg into something funny. They all had their place here. There was Astrid, his twelve year old sister whose name was forever a reminder of how their parents met, the twins Ara and Leif, the youngest children at 9 years old, who probably didn't need their older brother looking after them all the time (they inherited their mom's speed). There was Jay, his 10 year old apprentice, his dark red hair and sky blue eyes reminded everyone of the missing King Lion-o and Queen Allie. His older sister was Queen Leeah, she was 12, technically the leader of the ThunderCats, and Astrid's best friend.

And then there was Ro. The panther had always been like a sister to him but, at the beginning of the summer he decided that she was something much, much, more. The only thing that kept him from asking her out was that she was Panthro's niece and he had once told Ben-Gali "If you so much as hug her in more than a friendly manner I will snap you in half." So he did what any sensible person would do. He watched her from afar and really hoped the panther wouldn't show up while he was doing it.

"So what happened to that deer you were hunting?" Leeah said

"The sheep ate it" Ben- Gali said, trying to defend himself,"That thing was vicious"

Leif walked up to him and tugged on his sleeve. "Maybe you could teach me to hunt. I could probably outrun anything that would try and get me."

"Yeah," Ara chimed in, "we're really fast"

"I'm aware of that Ara," Ben-Gali said.

"That's only because I remind you"

"As if"

Ben-Gali had just put the younger kittens to bed. It was around midnight and he was the only one up. He was just about to go to bed when he heard a scream from Astrid's and Leeah's downstairs bedroom. "Whiskers!" he thought, "Someone's attacking my sister and my queen!" He ran downstairs thinking "What if I can only save one of them?!" Ben-Gali often thought of this question. If he had a greatest fear it would be that one day they would all be captured and he would have to choose who to save. He didn't know who he would choose, and he didn't want to decide now. Ben-Gali kicked the door open. On first inspection of the room it seemed as if no one but Astrid and Leeah were there. Ben-Gali was about to start scolding them about how he thought that they were hurt, and if they screamed like that no one would help them when they needed it blah, blah, blah.

But, on closer inspection, you could see the body of a man curled up on the floor (it looked like Astrid and Leeah had gotten to him), not much older than Ben-Gali. And if you looked even closer you would see that it was a Lion.