Lionized: Part 1
"The night burns on
the people run, but in
the end they scatter their ashes"
Fast Forward
The young prince sat on the lonely hill top, watching as the day ended, leaving purple, pink and orange streaks behind. The sky's beauty could mean less to him and only brought him sadness. "Brother..." he sighed; it hurt him to think of his brother. He was going down a savage and self destructive path, and he could do nothing but watch him smile in sick happiness and bleed in pain afterwards.
The sun disappeared and along with its rays. Now what lay around him was darkness and the twinkling of the fallen warriors' souls. His nostrils took in the fresh smell of nightfall while his ears perked at the sound of chirping crickets. He stood and raised his head;
"Leo, great ancestor of mine and those before me, I pray to you these words; my eldest bloodline please save him. He's self destructive and I know beneath that he is self loathing. But please I'm begging you, save him!" he spoke respectively as if he were talking to his own father. He clenched his fist, the gods would never help him or his brother, but sighed and unclenched his fists, there was no point in being angry at his ancestor. Sadly he turned and headed back to the palace. "Brother, what would she think if she saw you? Would she be proud? Or would she look away, ashamed that her son could do such a thing?"
Present
A month had passed and now the people were rejoicing with the autumn festivities, each dancing with joy obvious on their faces. Even the king and his guard were celebrating. These were happy times but not for slave lizards who were forced to work or the small tiger tribes who had to compete with the lizards for the thrown away or unwanted food.
"Head, Deitous!" a newer guard called.
"What is it?" The head guard was getting agitated with needy lower gaurds.
"He, heading, horde!" the young guard said though pants.
"Calm down." Deitous scolded. "Now what?"
"A riot broke out-"
"Well then you and the other posted guards deal with it!" The snow leopard never realized how truly stupid the new guards were. With a snort he turned and walked away.
"It's the lizards, they're fighting against their handlers!" he yelled. Blue eyes widened, teeth grit and a snarl escaped. "Deitous?" he asked.
"Men grab your weapons and be prepared to separate scales from flesh." Each guard around Deitous straightened, spears in left hands while blades in right, and ran further into the market. "There will be blood..." the snow leopard hissed as he too, headed in that direction...
...Guards in sight threw their excess baggage into the pit while others still fought with it. The smell of blood and testosterone filled the air. Deitous speared a hissing lizard below his foot while he stabbed a charging one. Afterwards he pried the lizard off his blade and turned to the crowd who stared in horror; his white spotted fur was matted and clumped with blood and his vibrant blue eyes were wild.
"Daddy? Daddy!" a small gray scaled lizard pushed through the horde of legs to see his father, dead at Deitous' feet. "Daddy!" he screeched running to the body.
Deitous and the crowed watched as the lizard grieved for his father. "You miss daddy? How sweet." He mocked before kneeling and pulling the kid's head up, "What's your name?"
"No. 3094" the boy whimpered, trying to hold back the tears.
Deitous smirked, "Well in honor of you father..." he pushed the boy onto his back, stomped a foot onto his stomach and brought the blade down to boy's chest. The boy winced and closed his eyes. "You can replace him." He pushed the blade into the boy's right forearm. The nameless boy cried out in pain, grabbed his arm and curled into a ball once Deitous removed his foot. "Take him to his new quarter's number! No. 1720!" Deitous yelled knowing that was his father's cell number.
The people stared while some whispered, "Maybe the snow IS indeed cold."
Tygra reached for the blossom and caught it. He smiled when he looked closely at it before handing it to the little girl, who looked seven.
"Here." he said.
"Thank you!" she smiled and giggled when she brought it to her nose and the pollen tickled her nose.
"Desirre!" a voice called.
"Over here brother!" she answered still looking at the brightly colored blossom. Tygra's heart pounded what would her brother think of him? Would he run him out? His thoughts were interrupted when a tall, lean tiger came though the bushes with a vest like shirt and a black loin cloth.
"I thought I told you to stay in my sight-" his eyes shifted to Tygra "Who are you?" He walked to stand protectively in front of the girl.
"No, it's okay! He just got this blossom for me since I couldn't." She looked up at him and then to Tygra with a big smile. The brother narrowed his eyes and approached Tygra.
"What tribe?" his voice came out gruff and somewhat demanding.
"None", he thought of more to say. "I was born in Egybtio, and came here recently." There was silence for awhile until he reached out his hand.
"No. T56037." he said as Tygra shook his hand, then he headed towards his sister. "We have to get back to the tribe before the guards notice." the girl nodded and followed leaving Tygra alone. He sighed and leaned on the nearest tree. "Egybtio born, you coming or you gonna stand there like an idiot?" Tygra looked to see them there, waiting on him.
"Yea, sure." he replied, jumping up and jogging to them. Once they reached the tribe, Tygra stared in amazement; there so many of his kind! Each tiger walking this way and that, having their own agendas. No. T56037 lead him through the tribe and instantly the smells of meats filled his nose.
"What? You haven't seen another tiger or meats before?" the older tiger snorted.
"What- Oh no! It's just that-" Tygra's words fell apart and his face grew red, this earned him laughter from the brother and sister.
"You're funny!" the girl squealed as she wrapped her arm around Tygra's in friendly gesture. Tygra's response was a small smile until the brother pulled him aside.
"This is a man's conversation, and get back to your room before the guards come to pry." he ordered to his sister, she nodded and did as she was told. After she left the two walked in silence throughout the tribe. Tygra turned towards the sky; it was already darkening.
"Why don't you have a real name?" Tygra asked.
"Here we are named like the slaves but the "T" for the exception. My sister is No. T60423 but I renamed her." he explained. "You probably don't know this, since you're new, but tigers are at the bottom of the chain here. We get beaten, tormented and even tortured by the guards and the people."
Tygra swallowed and closed his eyes, he had to pretend like he hadn't gone through that and that he knew nothing about that. "I'm so sorry." was all he could say.
"No you shouldn't feel sorry for me or my kind, here all were raised to hate striped fur, and we were taught how to deal with it; separate from the hate." he paused then continued, "Even the Thuder Cat's history tells of why we are despised and how they should treat us. Supposedly once our kind retreated from the shadows, our fur was tainted with sin and impurity while the other children retreated more beautifully than ever." He paused and sighed, "It's a bunch of crap if you ask me, we're all the same if you take away skin and bone."
"Maybe they don't see it that way." Tygra whispered.
"Hmph. It doesn't matter if they hate my kind as long as we have strength and courage to prove them wrong or at least fight back, someday-" Tygra turned to the brother when he stopped speaking and saw that he was looking to the distance. "Damn, the guards!" he grunted as he stood and headed north, Tygra quickly followed. Instantly they were hit with hordes of people running in the direction they just came from. Tygra forced his way through but the sea of people were too frantic and dragged him back with them.
He called for the brother but his calls went unheard and soon his vision blurred. 'Tiger...' the voices hissed. 'No, not now!' Tygra grit his teeth as he tried to fight through again, but was pushed back...
...Tygra stood and saw that night had completely fallen and the stampede of people were gone, all that was truly left were spears, personal belongings and foot prints. He shot off running when the brother and sister came back into mind. His eyes darted left and right searching for them but he also had to watch out for oncoming guards since they obviously didn't want the tigers roaming around past certain times.
Soon two figures came into view, one smaller than the other. He ran to them and saw that it was them. "Are you okay?"
"Yea." was the muffled answer. Tygra approached and saw a spear stone wedged into the brother's jaw, it was bleeding and there was obvious swelling. He fell and crawled on his knees to check the wound properly.
"What happened?"
"There were too many guards this time, and I got in the way of one. But at least I got her" Tygra's eyes widened when he leaned in and kissed her on the lips. "We're not blood, three years earlier she made me promise that I would be her first at everything. Her brother, her closest friend and eventually her husband." the brother smiled.
Tygra couldn't help but smile, they were so close just like he was with Calixto or had been. His heart hurt at the thought of his once closest friend but he shook it off and carefully pried the spear out of the brother's jaw. Afterwards, he scouted for whisky or any kind of wine and quickly found some, then he headed back to them. He could hear the wound sizzle as he spilled the red wine over it.
"Argh!" he groaned in pain.
"Hopefully it'll heal before morning."
"No we have to go back to our quarters now! The guards come back out to either kill or enslave the tigers who aren't in their homes!" his eyes were filled with fear for his sister. "Egybtio born, take her to her quarters and I'll go look for a shelter!"
"What? You can't ask me to do that!"
"I'm not asking!" He weakly stood and handed her to Tygra, who unexpectantly opened his arms to catch her. "There will be many guards outside her quaters, that's how you'll know." He limped off leaving Tygra to do his task and take her to her quarters.
'The tiger will burn like fire through the night' the voices hissed once more. Tygra knew it was a threat...
A tall muscular saber stood in front of the king with an equally sized panther beside him. "Grune and Panthro it's good to finally see you both." Claudus said as he stood. "My wife and queen, Leira."
"My king" they said in respective unison while bowing.
"I've heard many rumors of your fighting skills and how both of you can easily wipe out an army of a thousand or more lizards. If that's the case then I want both of you to fight as Commanders of Thundera's army."
Both men nodded, "Yes, I and Grune accept your offer, my king" Panthro said.
"Good, you both start training at dawn."
"What? My king we have already trained and you, yourself said that we excel the average soldier." Grune shouted, which earned a hearty laughter from the king.
"You train the new soldiers and I trust you both with choosing the finest." He stood and walked to them, giving both a one arm hug. "Remember I didn't choose-"
"We know, we are not children, Claudus, maybe when we fought alongside each other but not now." Panthro interrupted.
"Besides our King has other 'priorities'." Grune added while looking at Leira. "You always got the pretty ones." The three broke into laughter while Leira watched and smirked 'Old friends.'
Tygra tried to breathe but the air escaped him as he hid beneath a rock. Several feet paced back and forth, each belonging to a guard, 'Damn, there are too many.' He had already taken the girl where he needed to but now he had to leave undetected. He could only see through the crack that luckily was to low to be spotted.
Then he saw a shadow figure run and leap at the guards, quickly over powering each. "What the-" the figure shot to the girl's quarters peaked in and raced toward him.
"Egybtio, I know you're there." Tygra slid out of the tiny opening and stood to face the brother. His head turned to the right when a fist hit his cheek. "Hmph. You didn't fall or even cry." he smirked.
"I've been through worse." Tygra mumbled. He quickly looked over the brother and saw that he wore the light body suit that guards usually wear under their armor. It was obvious that he had stolen it from the poor first guard who encountered him.
"Thank you, for everything you've done for her." the brother showed Tygra his hand and as he was going to shake it, he pushed the brother back and backed up, himself.
"What the- Why'd you do that?" the brother cursed before seeing the spear that would've hit him stuck in the earth.
"Move!" Tygra yelled when a his ears picked up the sound of chains being dragged. The brother stared in horror when he saw a huge masked cat a few feet ahead.
"That's him, the one who enslaves!" The brother shot up and picked up a nearby blade. Tygra plucked the spear from the ground and ran towards the masked cat. "Wait! You can't do it on your own!" He called after Tygra.
The lone tiger ran, hand ready to throw the spear when the voices hissed again, 'Darkness, emptiness, apathy that is what you are tiger!' Tygra ignored them and kept running no matter how his legs screamed at him to stop. Then the world began to slow, his once rapid movements were heavy and idle and a hand curled around the spear. Tygra turned his head and saw Xynol, the voices' form. He tried to pull away but his hand seemed to be stuck onto the spear.
The whole world was silent except for the echoes of his movements. Then the world sped up again and as if on impulse he threw the spear. He saw as it shot through the air and land in his target's chest, instantly the sound of dragged chains was gone and the body collapsed.
"Egybtio! Egybtio!" Tygra heard the voice call out, but it sounded very distance because it echoed. 'Huh?' his right eye closed followed by the left and gravity pulled his body down. The famine was too much...
..."Proud as a lion, this boy lives
May the Gods look down on you with pride and not disgust
May they be proud of their striped son."
Golden eyes opened at the sound of chanting, and saw a cloudy sky. They blinked until the memories flooded back in. "The tribe, the siblings, the guards!" the tiger yelled jumping to his feet.
"Calm down, Egybtio." Tygra turned to the direction of the voice and saw the brother. He was glad to see the older tiger but the look on his face said otherwise. As if he had read his mind the brother spoke, "We were arrested last night after you collapsed, apparently the guards are angry at us for killing the enslaver." Tygra looked away but then noticed the chains that bound him, his eyes then traced the chains and saw that he was linked to every other tiger even the brother...
"I'm a prisoner,
Bound to these chains
And I watch the night burn on"
~~~Contagious~~~
By: Trapt
I was sick of restrictions
Sick of the boundaries
About to close the door
Such a lack of conviction
No real connection
What should I settle for
But you caught my attention
You built on the tension
And you left me wanting more
Now I don't know what I can do with myself
Do with myself I don't want nobody else
I let you in, I let you in
And you infected me
Can't get enough of you
Can't get enough of you
I breathed you in, I breathed you in
And now I'm in too deep
Don't think I'm pulling through
Don't think I'm pulling through
Can't get enough of you
(Can't get enough of you)
You're so contagious
Running through my veins
You're so contagious
Holding onto every word
You're so contagious
And I can't get away
You're so contagious
And now I know for sure
There is no cure
I saw your intentions
I gave you permission
Go ahead and start the war I was out of addictions
By my own admission
Oh, I've been keeping score
But you made an exception
You taught me a lesson
Who cares where I've been before?
You would never leave me all by myself
All by myself You don't want nobody else
I let you in, I let you in
And you infected me
Can't get enough of you
Can't get enough of you I breathed you in, I breathed you in
And now I'm in too deep
Don't think I'm pulling through
Don't think I'm pulling through
Can't get enough of you
(Can't get enough of you)
You're so contagious
Running through my veins
You're so contagious
Holding onto every word
You're so contagious
And I can't get away
You're so contagious
And now I know for sure
There is no cure
I am burning in your fire
(There's no cure)
I have only one desire
(There's no cure)
Now I don't know what to do with myself
Do with myself
(I can not deny her)
(There's no cure)
Now I don't know what to do with myself
Do with myself I don't want nobody else
I let you in, I let you in
And you infected me
Can't get enough of you
Can't get enough of you I breathed you in, I breathed you in
And now I'm in too deep
Don't think I'm pulling through
Don't think I'm pulling through
Can't get enough of you
(Can't get enough of you)
Can't get enough of you
You're so contagious
Running through my veins
You're so contagious
Holding onto every word
You're so contagious
And I can't get away
You're so contagious
And now I know for sure
There is no cure
You keep running
You keep running
You keep running through my veins
(You're so contagious)
You keep running
You keep running
You keep running through my veins
(There is no cure)
You keep running
You keep running
You keep running through my veins
(You're so contagious)
You keep running
You keep running
You keep running through my veins
A/N: Finally added Panthro, Grune and lizards!:)