Nobody got any sleep. Morning smelled like wet ashes, chilly and hushed.
"If you're tired, why don't you sit?" WilyKat asked from the ground. Kit's head was on his shoulder, but her golden eyes were open and fixed on the portal to the Astral Plane.
"I'm afraid to," Felline admitted. She stood with Anet, Cheetara, the kittens, and Snarf, half hypnotized by the play of singing golden light still streaming from the broom hut. "Panthro wouldn't let me take a break until I got the tank back in top order. He was really mad at us for bringing it here. If I sit down, I might fall asleep and never wake up again."
WilyKit giggled. She got to her feet, pulling her brother up with her. "What do you think it's like in there?"
"Like anything you can imagine," Cheetara said, her beautiful face serene. "It's a state of infinite possibility. It is a place of magic."
Felline glanced warily up at her. "Don't tell me you want to go in there."
"You don't?" Cheetara asked, her short, upswept eyebrows rising. "Aren't you the least bit curious?"
"No way." Felline put her ears back. "I like the Physical Plane, or whatever it is you call this."
Cheetara smiled.
"Besides, how is there air to breathe in there?" Felline went on, speaking some of her fears aloud. "Or gravity? What if it isn't three-dimensional? What guarantee would you have that you wouldn't die when you crossed over because it's boiling hot, or frozen solid?"
"It's all right," Cheetara said. She touched Felline's arm. "The Astral Plane will provide what is needed for them to survive because they will it. It would take a true force of evil to deny them air or gravity."
"So it depends on whether or not any outside force wills them good or evil. I couldn't take that risk."
"You are a real pragmatist, Felline," Cheetara said.
"Not always. Remember Berbil Village? My sister was the practical one," Felline said, saddened by Cheetara's affectionate tone.
Anxiety curved slowly through her middle. The Book of Omens and what it had done to both Jaga and Lion-O, the rapport the king and the Sword held, the magic that, even now, thrummed in Cheetara's new staff, all of these things made her fur stand on end. It was a power of a different, otherworldly sort, and she didn't understand it. It was too amorphous, too unwieldy. Kind of like Faun and her spirits, and what if Lion-O and Tygra ran into spirits in the Astral Plane? Isn't that what "astral" meant – a nonphysical realm of existence in which all living beings had a non-living counterpart? She'd had enough trouble with a corporeal Summoner, thank you very much. Without Faun and her tumblers, the spirits would have run amok.
Felline patted her rifle, snug in its holster. Give her some solid tech, and she was good.
Not long after this, Panthro joined them. "Bad news. The entire village is surrounded."
"How many troops?" Cheetara asked.
"If I had to guess, I'd say all of them," he rumbled, and then looked over Cheetara's head at Anet. "Considering how hopelessly outnumbered we are, maybe you guys could lend us a hand."
Anet beamed at him. "As always, we will seek to understand our role through meditation," he said.
"I'll take that as a no." Stone-faced, Panthro turned and walked away. The ThunderTank would help in the coming battle, but Felline and Tygra had severely depleted its ammunition the night before. The cats would be relying on their strength alone.
"I wonder what's keeping them," Kit fretted as the general's heavy tread faded.
"Keeping who?" Anet asked innocently.
"Lion-O and Tygra, remember?"
"Ah, yes, of course." Anet gazed at the portal. "They went after the Spirit Stone, didn't they?"
"I bet something went wrong," Kat moaned.
The wrinkles on Anet's face deepened. "I do sense a dark presence within, but on the Astral Plane they will face an even greater challenge."
"What's that?" Cheetara asked.
"Themselves," Anet said. "By evening bell tomorrow, Lion-O will feel betrayed by his brother."
He'd said the same thing the night before. Strange, that he should remember it so clearly, almost word for word, when at times Felline doubted he remembered his own gender. No one had anything to say, however, and the cats, restless, gave up their vigil.
The morning passed with no sign of the royal brothers. Felline followed Panthro around the village and the sandstone terraces of the hill, setting land mines and trying to come up with a decent strategy that didn't involve surrendering. They weren't having much luck.
"Look at Grune the Snaggletooth just sitting out there," WilyKat scoffed, holding Panthro's spyglass to his eye. He twiddled the knobs, and it beeped in response. "I bet he's scared."
"Ever hear how he lost his tooth?" Panthro asked.
The kittens and Snarf watched, wide-eyed, as Panthro joined them at the edge of the road.
"No," Felline said while she armed the last mine. They didn't have many. She hoped it would be enough. "What happened?"
"It was during the Lizard War," Panthro explained, his voice softer, without the usual rumble. "Grune and I busted out of a prison camp and were on the run. With no food, no weapons, and an army after us, we hid in a cave. Turned out, it wasn't empty. It was Spidera's nest."
"S-S-Spidera?" Kat asked, unable to stop a stutter of fear. "I – I thought Spidera was just a myth!"
"So did we." Panthro's scowl went grimmer. "Next thing we knew, that beast had us backed into a corner, fangs dripping with venom."
"What did you do?" Kat asked in a small voice.
"Me?" Panthro spoke with frank honesty. "When she had me in her web I prepared for the end. But Grune, he ripped out his own sabretooth."
"Ugh. Why?"
"Because he knew that beast had only one weak spot. Grune used his tooth and jammed it right into that monster."
WilyKit gasped, but Panthro didn't seem to hear her, lost in a reverie.
"Afterwards, Grune said something that I never forgot. 'Any sacrifice is worth the defeat of your enemy.' " Panthro's good eye slid sideways and pinned the twins. "You really think he's scared?"
"No," Felline muttered, standing and brushing the dirt off her knees. "But now I am."
"Yeah, thanks a lot," Kat said. He tossed Panthro's spyglass back to its owner and took off, leaving his sister staring after him.
..::~*~::..
They were as ready as they were going to get. The rumble and roar of the lizards' war mechs trundled ever closer like subterranean thunder. Foot soldiers, too numerous to count, blackened the meadow and began to climb the enormous stairs. Cheetara's fingers tightened on her staff, one foot propped on the edge of a broken wall. WilyKit tucked her hand into Felline's.
Panthro lowered the spyglass and powered it down. "It's time."
He turned to Anet. "So. Are you gonna help us, or wait for that army to roll over your village?"
"We were supposed to meditate on that, weren't we?" Anet asked. He chuckled. "Completely slipped our mind. Come, Aburn. Let's get right to that."
Shuffling along in their unhurried way, the elephants headed off as if nothing existed but their crumbling village at the top of a lonely hill.
"Of all the slow, dumb . . ." The rest of Panthro's complaint ended in a rumbly sigh.
Meanwhile, Cheetara could no longer keep quiet. "We can't stop an army that size," she exclaimed.
"No," Panthro agreed, holding up a bomb, "but I've got a few surprises that'll slow 'em down."
Without Lion-O to order otherwise, no one cared about killing lizards this time, because for sure, the lizards would show no mercy. The ThunderCats would protect the hut and the portal at all costs.
Felline squeezed Kit's hand. "Let's go, then."
"All right, I'm ready!" WilyKat said, holding up a fist.
"No," WilyKit said. She pulled her hand free, causing Kat's tail to droop. She looked at him, and he at her, their identical eyes unwavering. Then hers jumped away. "I'm going with Aburn."
With a flick of her tail, she was off, joining the herd as they sat cross-legged on their meditation circle. They made way for her, beaming.
"Well, I'm going to fight," WilyKat called after her. "Right, Felline?"
"That's right," Felline said. She nodded at Snarf, Cheetara, and Panthro. It was either fight or die. She knew that, even if knowing didn't stop her heart going cold. The lizards were coming for Elephant Village, just like they'd marched on Thundera. There would be no running today, no kind old hound or swift mount to shield her. They weren't fighting for survival; they fought to keep hope alive. "Stay safe. We'll be back."
"You too," Cheetara said.
Panthro was watching Felline with an inscrutable look in his mismatched eyes. He said nothing, and she allowed Kat to lead her away.
A/N: So, obviously, combining "Into the Astral Plane" and "Between Brothers" in one chapter, since the former was half flashbacks and half of this one is out of Felline's perceiving. I do apologize that this one is pretty much by the book - next chapter will change that. :3
Reviewer Thanks! CaptainCommanderLucy (Yes, it is, but I won't be able to show any of it. :( I'm so glad you're still here and reading! Thank you!), Darwin (You do! I'm really happy you caught that. :3 Thank you!), The Night Whisperer (YAY! Once again, my friend, that was exactly the reaction I was hoping for. *dances* Thank you!), Heart of the Demons (Thank you :3), Mooncloudpanther (Oh, gosh, your review - haha! Totally embarrassed laugh here. I had honestly not thought of Fellygra, only because Tygra is a character that I feel like I just don't get. I was terrified of writing him, which I think is the real reason they never really had any screen time before this. BUT. I will not say I'm averse to the idea. :3 I'm still kicking myself for not making it a Felline-Panthro story, but I had no idea they'd fit so well until I wrote it. Oops. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the great review!), Momochan77 (Yay, thank you so much! :3), KelseyAlicia (Thanks, again! Felline thanks you, too. :3), LeafeonLover (Haha, truer words were never spoken. Thanks for always reviewing! :3), Jaegermeister97 (Hey, cool, new reader! Welcome! Thank you so very much for that super kind review. :3), and Dream Dragoness (Oh my gosh, and another one! Welcome to my story! I can't ever say it enough, but thank you for reviewing!).
And that, my darlings, is all I have to say for tonight. I wish you all sweet dreams,
Anne
