Author's Note: Been binging Star Trek and Voltron to both catch up and get in a space mood. It's working. I own nothing.
9. The Village
The next dawn found Kathy up much earlier than anyone else in the castle save Coran who told her she had the run of the castle. He was apparently trying to let everyone sleep om a touch after the stress of the past few days. That was a concept that Kathy wasn't quite familiar with. Sleep was a necessity sure but not for relaxation, not at least while living with the Blades. She wandered for about ten minutes before growing bored. She changed into her paladin armor and made her way to the training room. She stood there feeling foolish for a few minutes. She cleared her throat.
"Ummm.. Start training program?" The computer beeped and an image of a tall Altean man appeared. He smiled slightly. He looked quite a bit like Allura actually. He bowed slightly.
"Hello, you must be the new red paladin. I am… Or rather I was King Alfor. You seem a bit unsure about the training rooms programing." Kathy frowned slightly.
"Yes, on all counts, but I'm sorry you were King Alfor. I don't understand." The ghostly holographic image nodded.
"I knew there was a chance that I would fail in defeating Zarkon so I placed my daughter in a cryo-sleep pod and hid the castle away. Before I confronted him I transferred all my memories, my very being into a computer bank to help guide Allura after I was gone. I thought I could lend a hand to the new paladins as well." Kathy blinked slightly, still confused.
"That's very kind of you." Alfor nodded and smiled again. He took her through a basic tutorial of the way the training deck worked. When he was finished he bowed out. Kathy was left alone duking it out in hand to hand with the gladiator.
Alfor smiled to himself. The new paladins were getting closer as a team rapidly, much more rapidly than he'd expected. The new green paladin was awake now, back in front of the healing pods that held the prisoners they'd freed. The new black paladin was doing sit ups in his room. The yellow and blue ones were still asleep. Allura was still asleep as well. She had stayed up nearly all night the night before trying to get the particle barrier back online. Coran was busy fiddling with something on one of the lower decks. Alfor smiled a bit sadly, he could only hope that they would succeed where he had failed.
Once everyone was awake the paladins agreed they should practice piloting Voltron a bit more. Who knew how much of a message Sendek had managed to send out to Zarkon, if any. Hours later they were re-entering the castle tired but bolstered it had gone pretty well. Lance grinned at Kathy and pulled off his helmet. He brushed back his hair.
"So Kit Kat, how far do you think my lion kicked that broken piece of alien ship? Had to have been like two miles right?" Kathy frowned.
"Your kick put us off balance, we fell. We need to work on that." Lance frowned and sputtered as Kathy carefully pulled off her helmet her ears unfolding from where they sat when her helmet was on. Hunk wrapped a hand around his shoulder and patted him on the back.
"Tough luck buddy. She's not gonna throw herself at your feet like the girls at the Garrison." Lance frowned. He had been one of the most popular students at the Garrison, a ladies man through and through, most of the girls at the Garrison threw themselves at his feet. He was widely hailed as the best pilot of his generation, but watching Kat fly, he knew he was an amateur. She was fantastic, both as a flyer and a fighter. If he was honest he was a bit in awe. Hunk patted him on the shoulder.
"Come on you can commiserate with me about the cute alien while you help me cook." Hunk dragged Lance off to the kitchen.
They were in the middle of lunch when the alarms began to ring again. Allura who had been talking to Shiro waved her hand at the wall. A screen appeared showing the bridge outside the front of the castle. A small creature was peeking out from behind one of the bushes. He seemed to take a deep breath then ran across the bridge and hid behind a rock. He repeated the act again coming closer and closer to the doors. Kathy stood summoning her Bayard.
"I told you I saw something out there the other day." Allura nodded.
"Yes, it appears you were right, I'm sorry I should have listened. But he looks harmless enough, a local Arusian." Kathy looked skeptical. Lance grinned at the small creature.
"He's so cute!" Allura nodded.
"We should go greet him, see what he wants." Kathy shook her head, she still hadn't put away her Bayard.
"I don't think that's a good idea, looks can be deceiving, he could be dangerous." Allura put a hand on Kathy's arm.
"Alteans believe in diplomacy first, Arus has been our host for ten thousand years. I think they deserve answers about the castle." Reluctantly Kathy put away her Bayard. She, Allura, Lance and Hunk headed out of the castle to meet the intruder.
His reaction was far from what Kathy had expected. He spoke clearly, calling himself Klizap. Then he spotted Kathy and dropped to his knees.
"The lion goddess." Kathy frowned, slightly confused. Lance grinned looking at Kathy, his finger tapping his chin.
"He's got a point, you do look very cat like. And amazingly pretty." He winked while Kathy blushed bright purple. Allura rolled her eyes and explained the situation to the Arusian, he agreed to lead them to the village. He kept glancing at Kathy though. But it wasn't the same way she got looked at in public space stations though, the look this small creature was shooting her was one of reverence not disgust. She warily followed the others to the village.
