Well, crap, people. Looks like this is actually going to be a three-parter.

Previously on Thundercats:

"The Forbidden Woods..."

"There are stories about what's in there,"

"Someone lives here..."

"Surrender, Cat!"

"You outsiders all talk highly of peace and yet you continually wage your petty wars and wanton destruction!"

"I have never seen eyes like yours before..."

"Willa, please end this, I don't want to hurt you !"

"You show mercy knowing you would not receive any yourself."

"There is a terrible monster roaming our forest."

"We will hunt this beast down, we will slay it, and then Lion-O you and I will be wed over its corpse."

"Willa, wait!" Lion-O begged as the warrior queen dragged him back to her hut, "What is going on here, what do you mean 'beloved?' What do you mean 'wed?'"

"I've never taken a lover before, Lion-O" She confessed, tossing him through the door and onto her bed. "I must admit I find the possibilities... intriguing." She leapt on top of him and started running her fingers through his mane before kissing his neck.

She was right about one thing, she hadn't done this before. Her kisses were sloppy and lacking in any subtlety and she kept scratching him accidentally with her her nails. He tried to fight her but she knew how to use her greater size to her advantage until he finally manged to get his feet under her to kick her off.

Rather than making her angry it only seemed to spur her on more, she crawled over to him seductively. "Truly you are a beast!" She purred, "Come to me, make strong love to me now, my handsome savage!" She attempted to crawl back onto the bed again but Lion-O leapt over her and ran for the door.

"What's gotten into you?" He demanded.

"Speak no more to me, my love. I want you, I need you," She picked herself up and ran towards him. "Let there be nothing else in this world but you and I!"

"No!" Lion-O yelled, pulling himself up by the door frame and kicked her with both feet back into her hut. She flew backwards, tripped over the bed and landed on her rump on the far side. Lion-O ran into the night. Willa walked over to the door and watched him flee.

"It's alright, beloved, I can be patient." She sighed.

Lion-O had to run all the way to the back of the hut in order to reach the bridge that would take him away and back towards the heart of the village. As he was rounding the corner he ran into someone coming from the other side, bowling them over completely.

"I'm sorry," He gasped, "I wasn't- I didn't mean to... Nayda?" He recognized the slender form of Willa's younger sister. "What are you doing here?"

Nayda had no answer, She simply stared at him with her big brown eyes.

"Are you alright?" He asked as he knelt down to help her up. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

Again she was silent, her cheeks flushed bright red as he pulled her up and she clung to his arm as if for dear life.

"Do you need me to stay with you? I was just heading back into the village to... check on the other Cats."

Still no response, but she followed him as he walked the torch-lined bridges and planks between the trees.

"Your home is very beautiful," He mused as fireflies darted here and there and nocturnal birds sang their strange music high above in the canopy. "All my life I would have never dreamed of anything like this." He leaned over the rail of the walkway to look at the other huts below in the multilayer sanctuary they had built.

Nayda still said nothing but lay her head on his shoulder, rubbing her face against his fur.

"Uh... okay." He said uncomfortably, resisting the urge to shrug her away. "You sister is very... passionate. She reminds me of someone I knew-know, someone I know. She's gone now, though."

So that was it. Nayda could see the sadness in his eyes before but now she knew the cause. A great swell of pity washed over her which was quickly followed by guilt. What she was doing was wrong, she was not only taking advantage of him but also...

"Nayda, wait!" Lion-O called as she pulled away from him and ran. "My luck with women is astounding lately..." He added sourly.

"This is a fine bucket of litter..." Panthro griped. The other cats sat around hut the Maidens had set aside for them.

"We could just leave." Tygra suggested, "We've got our own problems to deal with and nothing to keep us here."

"Lion-O swore to help the Warrior Maidens with this monster that's attacking them." Cheetara said, "We all know he's not going to leave until it's done."

"In other words he's a stubborn as she is." Panthro snorted.

"And the long he stays here the more she wants him..." Tygra concluded, flopping down on one of the beds.

"Well she can't have him!" WilyKit hissed, jumping to her feet. "Lion-O belongs with us, I say we go grab him and leave. The sooner the better!"

"We're not going anywhere." The other cats turned to see Lion-O standing in the doorway. They all recognized the look on his face: Don't ask, I'm not in the mood. "I gave Willa my word I would help her and I intend to keep it. No matter how... aggressive she is."

"We all know you're a Cat of your word, Lion-O." Cheetara said supportively, "But don't you think you're so dead set on helping Willa because she reminds you of-"

"I know who she reminds me of," Lion-O cut her off, "And that's not the point. I can't just ignore someone in need, besides we need all the help we can get in our struggle."

He was right, the Battle of Avista had proved that Lion-O's good deeds were appreciated and rewarded. The Warrior Maidens could be powerful allies in the fight against Mumm-Ra.

"Aren't you afraid Willa might get the wrong idea though?" Cheetara asked, "She already seems to think of you as more than just a friend."

"Willa can think whatever she wants, I've already told her I'm not interested."

WilyKit bounded over and hugged him. "Good! Because you're our king, let her go find her own."

Lion-O patted her head. "Get some sleep, we've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

"Pumyra!"

"It's too late already, Lord of the Thundercats, body and soul she is mine!"

"Why didn't you save me? You saved everyone else, why didn't you save me Lion-O?"

Lion-O awoke in a cold sweat. He threw his arm over his face, it was the same dream every night. How much longer would this go on? He could see from the hut's small window that it was still dark out so he rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

"Good morning, beloved."

Lion-O's eyes snapped open and he found himself face-to-face with Willa, she caressed his face gently.

Lion-O made a sound not unlike a Snarf who's tail had been stepped on and fell off the bed. The warrior queen peeked over the side.

"Are you alright? Perhaps you should lay down, come put your head on my-"

"No!" He insisted, "I'm up, I'm up!" He rubbed the back of his head painfully, "What are you doing here?"

She offered him her hand. "Come with us that we might show you a wonder."

Outside there was a small procession of Maidens, six of whom carried something a litter draped with a shroud on their shoulders.

"What is this?"

"This used to be our sister, Pporah."

"Oh Willa, I'm so sorry... When did this happen? Was it the beast?"

Willa laughed, "We do not grieve for the loss of our sister. Lion-O. Pporah lived long and richly and now she is the chrysalis for a new life."

Lion-O remembered what Nayda had said about the sacred bog outside their village. He realized that he was being offered a great honor by attending the ceremony. He allowed himself to be led by the hand by Willa through the village and down to the forest floor below. The path they followed was straight and broad rather than the broken and winding ones that weaved their way through the muck and mud.

Eventually they came to a place where the branches of the trees arched low overhead forming a kind of tunnel. The end opened up into what was like a vast cathedral with the canopy overhead filtering the dawning sun tinting everything and otherworldly green. Directly ahead the path sloped down into a wide muddy pit that bubbled and spurt occasionally. It was undoubtedly an ancient, deeply magical, sacred place and Lion-O felt as if he were looking directly into the heart of the earth itself.

Every head (including Lion-O's) bowed as the six pallbearers placed the litter and the dead maiden on top of the mud. Willa squeezed Lion-O's hand as it sunk into the bog and when he dared a glimpse at her he saw tears running down her face. She smiled at him sadly before leaving his side to address the assembled.

"From the earth are we all born and to the earth we shall all return. We commend the body of our sister back to our mother so that we may receive new life in exchange. Let us teach the child as the woman taught us, let us love her as she loved us, and when it is her time to return us to our mother let her rejoice at the prospect of new life as we rejoiced at her own coming. Let us not grieve the loss of our sister, let us remember her with honor, let us remember her with love, and let us remember her through the legacy she now gives to us."

Willa then waded into the bog herself and plucked out a muddy little bundle Lion-O had initially mistaken as just another large bubble. As she wiped away the muck a baby's cry rang out and he could see that she was holding a perfect little baby girl. Her skin, like the other maidens, was the color of earth and her hair had a slight greenish tint.

"Who is willing to care for our new sister until such time as she can run, and hunt, and fight on her own?"

One of the red-headed guards Lion-O recognized from his fight with Willa stepped forward.

"I will." She said.

"And what will you name our sister that we may know her?"

She held the baby in her arms for a moment before answering. "I shall call her Khasha, after the tree that heals."

"Let it be so."

"That's the most amazing thing I've seen in my entire life..." Lion-O confessed as he walked hand-in-hand with Willa back through the path to the village.

"You shall see it many more times when you are our husband and king." Willa answered, "And it is a marvel every time."

Lion-O stopped short. "Willa, I will not marry you. I have a responsibility to my own people."

"You have a responsibility to me!" She snapped. "You will speak no more of leaving, you are the one who invaded our lands, you are the one who demanded trial by combat, and you are the one who invoked betrothal!"

"What are you talking about?" He demanded.

"I, we had fallen and you showed mercy by offering your hand!"

"You're saying that we're engaged because I helped you up?"

"No, it is so because we were felled by your hand and you saw fit to raise us back up as your equal! That is the rite of betrothal!"

"Willa, I was just trying to help you back up, I'm a stranger here, I couldn't have known about your customs."

"It is not the same among the Cats?"

"Of course not, just common courtesy. If we had to marry everyone we bumped into..." Lion-O trailed off as he remembered last night and what happened after fleeing Willa's hut. "Oh no, we have to get back to the village, now!"

"We don't understand, what has happened?"

"It's Nayda!"

When they got to the village there was no trace of Nayda. The other cats helped with the search but even with all their skills no one could find her. Lion-O was with Willa in the throne room when the other cats walked in and handed over a small scroll.

"We found this under her pillow."

It was written in a dark blue ink or paint but hard to read where what appeared to be tears had fallen and smudged the writing.

"I have sinned against my sister and my Queen. I am not fit to sit with my sisters in the places of honor and therefore have gone to confront the beast of the forest that currently afflicts us. Whether I return triumphant or am consumed alongside my fellow sisters I only pray that I am redeemed. May Mother Earth protect me and guide me."

Nayda

Willa immediately armed herself with a bow and a quiver of arrows.

"Wait, I'm coming with you."

"You have done enough." She said bitterly.

"Willa, I never meant to hurt anyone."

"And yet you seem to have a talent for it!"

That hurt, "There was no way I could have about known your traditions but that doesn't mean I can just ignore my responsibility in this."

"She is our sister!"

"She's also my friend, and I don't abandon my friends. Ever."

"Do as you will, Cat." She spat as she pulled a spear off the wall, "But know this: If our sister is not returned safely your people will be turned out of our forest minus their machine and their king, for both shall be buried at the bottom of the swamp."