Welcome back, everyone! I hope you enjoy today's chapter~
The lands outside the walls of Thundera at the mouth of the mountains had always been rather… desolate.
Or at least, Leopara found them lacking in any interesting features.
It was just a wide and two-mile long stretch of short brown grass. The sun beat down on them, hotter than it had been in the earlier, and cooler, hours of the day. The ground was dry and dusty underfoot.
She doubted the grass was alive and if it was, it was a near thing.
In short, it looked like a drought had hit the land outside of Thundera's walls.
Maybe that was because they had built dams and lakes and aqueducts, so they never had to deal with a lack of water themselves.
They walked under the vengeful sun for about forty minutes. The kittens seemed completely wilted by the unrelenting heat bearing down on them. Leopara opened her cloak, pitying them.
She recalled Jaga had let her hide in the shade of his cloak, once.
It made her even more hot and exhausted to have kitten-burrs stuck to her side and a distinct lack of a breeze, but Leopara suffered it in silence.
By the time they reached the trees, the great forest that had been cut down from the walls of Thundera so any dangers could be spied from afar- and a lot of good it did the cats in the end- Leopara wanted to collapse in the shade with relief. It was much cooler.
But apparently, Lion-O wanted to keep going.
She spared a moment to adjust her cloak, lifting it awkwardly to rest bunched and draped over one shoulder, allowing the gentle breeze to cool her body.
"Thanks, Leopara!" WilyKat called gratefully, darting forward into the trees. WilyKit chased after him and they leapt from root to fallen tree trunk to rock to whatever protruded over the uneven and mossy ground.
Leopara sighed a little, envious of their enthusiasm and energy.
They continued trekking like that for days. Lion-O barely stopped for rest, and when he did, it was because Leopara, Tygra, and Cheetara argued with him for it. They would lay out their bedrolls in a cluster while Lion-O stubbornly sat by himself, curled into a ball nestled against a tree trunk in the crook of its roots, against a rise of dirt, or, foolishly, a stone. The kittens would curl up with each other on the cloaks.
Lion-O's bedroll went unused.
The lizards trail did not get any fresher as they followed.
There was no way they could keep up with the pace of their machines, and sooner or later, the trail would be gone. Where would that leave them?
As they pushed onwards, they passed many beautiful sights. An unusual ravine with formations of stalagmites and stalactites that supported the ground above. The land, parted by the ravine that snaked through like a river, had beautiful green grass that waved in the wind.
In the forest, they found a natural spring surrounded by lush life. Snarf and the kittens drank from it, while the four watched. Lion-O's gaze was, at best, indifferent, but more likely impatient and annoyed. Leopara, Cheetara, and Tygra watched with fondness, disregarding their irritable king to enjoy the little moments.
If they didn't, Leopara was sure one of them would snap and then they'd be lugging Lion-O around unconscious.
Well, now that she thought about it…
They hiked through a beautiful, ancient wood with long and tall ferns that unfurled high above even Tygra's head. Sunlight barely filtered through the dense canopy above and the dirt felt pleasantly damp and cool underfoot.
Lion-O seemed oblivious to each beauty, made blind by his drive for vengeance.
Leopara didn't even know how he was navigating, anymore. They had lost the trail fairly early… although she supposed he was taking them to the Sand Sea on a hunch that Mumm-Ra's lair lay beyond it.
Why?
She had no idea.
She dreaded the moment the trees thinned out and a burning sun scorched the earth, cut by the wind. Tall, pointed spikes jutted from the earth at an angle. They were the only thing she could see for as far as the horizon stretched.
They weren't seriously going to travel out into that during the day, right? Even with their cloaks- which only the four of them had- that would be hot.
Everyone knew to hide from the desert sun and travel at night.
Lion-O didn't care. With unflinching determination, he walked out onto the scalding, dry earth.
Leopara stopped with a completely dumbfounded expression that Tygra and Cheetara followed him without pause. WilyKit and Kat paused in the shade, gulping.
"Sure seems hot out there…"
Leopara looked at them. A guilty pang of sympathy pierced through her. The four of them had cloaks, but the twins didn't. "Try not to stand on one foot for too long."
WilyKat tilted his head, puzzled. "Huh? Why?"
"Because that dirt," which was cracked and parched for water, "has been absorbing the sun's heat all day. If you keep your feet on them too long," she shouldered her bedroll, "you could get burns."
The siblings looked each other in the eyes and gulped loudly.
Pulling her hood up, Leopara reluctantly followed the others.
The earth was scorching underfoot, even through her fur. It was her toes and heels, unprotected by her footwear, that suffered the most, but she did her best to follow her own advice. Ahead of her, she could see Tygra and Cheetara taking shelter under one of the spikes, and then hurry, although not run, to the next one.
The twins exclaimed at the heat and made like the two.
Good idea, if Lion-O's going to be insane.
Leopara followed suit, hurrying her steps to a half jog until she reached one.
The shade was a blessing, the dry earth delightly cold and refreshing.
They continued like that well into the chilly night. With nothing to hold in the heat, all of the day's warmth evaporated, and every insect and beast that hid during the day came out to hunt and creep once the sun set on the desert.
Lion-O gave it a rest when even the fire of his anger couldn't keep him from shivering, and WilyKit and Kat's chattering teeth had turned to cause for alarm.
They barely had the supplies to start and sustain a meager fire.
They all rolled out their bedrolls and, somewhat begrudgingly, gave the Wilytwins the cloaks in exchange for Leopara's dusty blanket, which she shook hard. Specks of pale dirt scattered through the air. Satisfied it was cleaner, she laid it on her bedroll and made her way to Lion-O, who sat on his bedroll with his legs outstretched staring into the small, flickering flames.
"Give me your hand." she demanded, sitting on her knees beside him.
She expected him to fight, but he didn't. He held up his paw for her to take. Too relieved to question his compliance, she took it and closed her eyes.
It was hard to see the blossoms of pain, the spots in her vision...
It had been so easy that night, when they defended the lizards in the stockades from the protestors. She had been anxious and nervous all day, but she had been…
Empathetic.
Empathy, the ability to feel and conceptualise the suffering of others as one's own. It was one of the characteristics and skills that made healing magics possible.
It's absence in numbness and an amalgamation of pain made it difficult.
Like a thick, grey fog with spark of red racing through, misleading the lost.
She sighed heavily, shoulders slumping.
She couldn't see them. Lion-O's anger only assaulted the part of her that was intuitive enough to read his body language and see the emotion in his eyes.
"Sorry."
"It's fine."
Leopara stood, looking down at her hands. Disappointment hung heavily on her.
She made her way to her bedroll and sat down. Cheetara pressed food into her hands. Her hands that couldn't heal anymore… not right now.
The thought of Jaga's quiet disappointment if he could see them, see her, right now was enough that she felt her heart break again. Tears welled in her eyes, stinging even more harshly after a day of the heat drying out her eyes in a cycle. She raised her hand to wipe them away and gasped her sob as silently as she could.
Without looking at what the food was, she took a bite. She chewed it without tasting, and swallowed it down.
Lion-O had not learned his lesson from the day before.
Although his feet were surely blistered and sore, he marched them through the desert day. In the afternoon the landscape shifted. No longer were they surrounded by wind-worn spikes clawing through the earth and wide expanses of empty grown, but rather clustered rock formations, like a supersized cub had played with stacking toys and built them up passably, but they were all wonky and curvy in mildly alarming ways.
The sweltering heat was, somehow, worse despite the additional shade they provided. It surrounded them, kept in by the rocks. The air waved from its intensity, distorting everything in sight.
Eventually, exhausted and sweating heavily from the heat, they stopped.
Cheetara sat on a small rock, while the kittens collapsed on the ground back-to-back and panted. Leopara unclasped her cloak and let it unceremoniously fall to the ground behind her, and leaned into the underside of the formation that provided them with relative shelter. There, she stayed, panting against the dusty stone.
The brothers stood at the edge peering out, the ever faithful Snarf sitting at his master's feet.
"We've lost the trail, Lion-O." Tygra said, finally pointing out the obvious.
They lost it long ago.
Cheetara turned the bag upside down. It was empty, flapping vacantly as she waved it. "And our supplies are dangerously low."
Lion-O glared. He whipped his cloak a little as he thrust out his arm and pointed. "I don't care. We keep moving forward."
He turned and stride out into the heat. He's insane.
Did he even know which way was 'forward' anymore? Did he have some special sense derived from his vow of vengeance? Or was it just the ground that lay before him?
The five of them and Snarf lingered in the shade, watching him in shock.
Leopara looked to Tygra. "This has to stop."
As if to prove her point, poor little Snarf collapsed in the dirt, exhausted and heat stricken. "Snya…. Na?"
"What is that?" cried WilyKat. Lion-O bounded back towards them to look in the direction of Snarf and the kitten's gazes. Leopara turned her gaze as well.
She had no idea how they had missed it.
A tall, and long, and thick wall of layered stone towered not so far from them. In its base, a hole was carved. On the other side, if Leopara's eyes did not deceive her, were waves of golden sand-water. They lapped against the beach.
"Snarf just found the Sand Sea." Lion-O said victoriously. "Mumm-Ra's lair must be just on the other side."
It was a scramble to get their cloaks back on and chase after Lion-O and the twins.
"Do you see a way around it?" Tygra called.
Leopara looked. The sandy waves stretched the entire length of the horizon. They continued towards the waves, slowing to a stop. Leopara raised her hands in front of her cloak, shielding away even more of the sunlight.
The kittens gasped.
"I think I see something even better!" WilyKat called out to them all, pointing into the waves.
Leopara followed his finger.
Floating atop the rolling gold was a pile of fruits and ribs and haunches. It looked like a small feast!
"Food." Lion-O said, confirming they weren't the only ones seeing it.
Logic leapt out the window as Leopara's stomach growled and twisted, sending a stab of pain through her body. She exclaimed in relief and excitement. The others cheered and they all began to praise that there was food. Then, like a pack of hyenas, they waded out into the waves and set upon the food. They tore into fruit and pieces of meat like they were starving already- which it certainly felt like.
"Hey." Cheetara interrupted after a few bites of her fruit. She regained her senses first. "Anyone else wondering where all this came from?"
Leopara straightened and the others looked around. "Yeah, now that you men-"
The sand-water erupted around them as a net pulled shut around them all, interrupting Leopara uproariously. They all shouted and, Leopara was only slightly embarrassed to admit, screamed, as they soared through the air, uncomfortably squashed and-
They crashed hard on a wooden deck. All the breath left Leopara's lungs and she groaned while Lion-O began to growl deeply.
As she regained her senses, she looked around frantically from under Tygra and the kittens' crushing weight.
Fishmen, tall and slender with too-long arms moved in, first four, then more. Their toes were webbed, and so were their fingers. A fin lined each of their heads, traveling down their shoulders as far as she could see whilst craning her neck to look around Tygra.
They smelled damp and musty.
"Quite the catch, I'd say." said a koi of white with red splotches, in an accent. She didn't know what accent, but it was… odd. He peered down at them with large green eyes.
She and the others struggled and strained against the net and each other, but it was of no use. Tygra's ammunition belt dug into Leopara's gut, something she did not appreciate. One of the Wily twins knees dug into her thigh and the other's elbow into her side. Her leg was tangled with Lion-O's and she could feel Cheetara's ankle-weight jab into her hip.
Oh, this is a perfect mess. How are we supposed to get out of this?
"What's all that racket?!" a voice shouted. Leopara heard the sound of water dripping, pouring, and heavy footsteps. She craned her head back to watch, world upside down, as the pale head of another fishman arose from the lower deck. Whiskers of red sprouted from his chin, and one blue eye was permanently shut. "That better be the ramlak you spineless jellyfish are carrying on about."
Her first thought should probably have been, the what? But it wasn't.
Her first thought was, rude!
She heard a mystifying wheeze every time the fishman took a step. Until, she saw it. His left leg, like the rest of his body looked torn and ragged, had been replaced by a peg leg with dark bellows between the golden stump and the peg itself. Leopara gawked at it, dumbfounded. What the-?
The fishman left a small trail of water as he approached them. He eyed them with disdain and disinterest.
"Another worthless haul." he said as a fat, red fishman with a golden ring in each whisker approached, eyeing them greedily. "Take what the crew doesn't eat of them, and turn it into chum." The way he said it was very nonchalant, not in the least concerned he was suggesting to eat fellow Animals and not beasts.
The red fishman, dressed in filthy clothes and an off-white apron, grinned with delight and scraped his skinning and butcher knives together while chuckling low to himself.
That's terrible for sharpness. She observed blandly. He's not even going to be able to make it a neat, clean cut. Leopara thought dully before her mind caught up and rebelled. She was not going to get eaten, especially by a stupid fishman with no sense of hygiene or to keep knives!
"Whiskers." Lion-O breathed.
The other fishmen strode forward, half of them with harpoons and the other half with rope. "Now, let's get you chum all untangled~"
Leopara hissed as one reached into the net. If he didn't smell of stagnant water growing mold and algae, she would have bit him then and there. Instead, she laid back her ears, and struggled to grasp the net underneath. If she could just pull her cloak to the side, she could then grab it and use her magics to fray the ropes as she had before-
The fishman picked Tygra up by the torso and another maneuvered her and Lion-O's legs to get them apart. She shut up with an embarrassed and grossed out whimper.
Don't think about it. she told herself, feeling cold, slightly slimy residue seeping through her footwraps and sent shudders up and down her spine.
Lion-O protested, "Hey!" sharply.
With Tygra's weight off of them, the twins tried to scramble and cut through the net, but the fishman dropped Tygra back onto Leopara- she gasped in strangled pain as his elbow drove into her gut and all the air was forced from her body like the cheeks of a kitten holding air being pushed in.
"Sorry." grunted Tygra, also trying to get up, but having great difficulty with Leopara and Lion-O and Cheetara, and all their cloaks.
Leopara groaned.
At least he moved his elbow from her gut.
Cheetara was pulled out of the net after the kittens were rounded up and tied together with rope. Cheetara, being the clever and quick cat she was, yanked herself out of the grasp of the fishman. One quickly threw themselves on top of Tygra, barring any attempts from them to escape or be cut free while they corralled Cheetara.
It was a lucky rope that caught her around the ankles as she charged forward across the deck she had just crossed, tripping her. They hastily pulled her across the slippery wood and tied her up with the kittens.
After she was secured, the fishman got off the pile and they easily pulled Leopara out after lifting Tygra again. He tried to punch the fishman through the net, but the ropes were just taut enough, being pulled the other way to create an opening, that his fist was stopped about a whisker from the fishman's stupid, slimy face.
She was too winded to put up much of a fight, so she didn't.
They forced Leopara back onto the deck next to the kittens and they kept a hold of the three while expanding the ropes to include her. Lion-O followed, to Leopara's right, and Tygra was last, tied between Cheetara and Snarf.
All of them sat on the deck back to back, tied up and a little battered, still hungry, still tired, and now without cloaks and surrounded by cat-eating fishmen pointing harpoons at them.
It was a great day and an accomplishment Lion-O was sure to be proud of.
Her plan to free them was still a go- in fact, this worked to her advantage. She remained calm while the others strained against their bonds.
The captain, she surmised, began to speak again, having watched in silence as his crew rounded them up and tied them together. "That bait was meant for the beast." he sounded quite aggrieved.
"I am Lion-O, Lord of the Thundercats and I order you to release us!"
The captain recoiled with a, "Huh?" And then the crew and captain exploded in uproarious laughter. "It talks! And it's still got some fight in it! Well," he leaned in with a mad look in his eye and what passed for a smug smile, "-Lion-O, Lord of the Thundercats, I," he pointed his thumb at himself, "-am Koinelius Tunar, Captain of this ship, and I order you flayed."
The cook scraped his knives again.
"Let's start with the little ones. Their meat will be the most deliciously tender~" He grinned.
The kittens shuddered in horror.
Leopara grinned darkly at the cook as he continued sharpening the knives. You're going to pay for that. she thought.
A boom sounded against the side of the ship, rocking it hard. All the fishmen were thrown from their feet and she blinked. She didn't do that… did she? The ship rocked again and the captain staggered.
A long vine whipped onto the deck, slithering towards one of the red fishmen. It picked him up around the ankle and raised him high in the air, whipping him back and forth before pulling him, screaming, down into the golden sand-water.
Several more, giant tentacles of dark green, studded with green bumps that turned red near the tips, reared up out the sand-water.
I definitely didn't do that , she thought.
"Ramlak! At long last my wretched quarry returns!" the captain exclaimed.
The beast moaned loudly, the sound carrying over the waves and crackling of the ships thrusters.
Thrusters? Fishmen had technology?
Leopara shook her head. Now wasn't the time to think about that. A tentacle slammed into the deck, breaking the deck. The fishmen shot harpoons at the rearing tentacles while Leopara shifted and got her hands on the rope, and willed it with all her anger to come undone.
The rope began to fray and spin and unravel where she touched it. The course strands struggled and snapped.
They were free!
They all lept up and scattered across the deck.
All the same, the green tentacles whipped across the deck, searching. Leopara cried out in shock and alarm as it hooked around her ankle, grabbing her. It slithered up, coiling around her midsection and squeezed hard as it lifted her in the air.
Leopara hissed and squirmed, trying to slip free, or get a hold of her scepter, but she struggled to move her arms, elbows pinned to her sides by the immense strength of the ramlak. If she could just…
It tightened around her, tensing.
Oh no.
From afar, with a crack of thunder and flash of lightning, she heard Lion-O's warcry; "Thundercats, ho!"
Omens hummed and sang in her ears, and a calm clarity filled her. She turned her palms up and touched the tentacle, envisioning in her mind the sinew and muscle unraveling quite like the rope, undone by an invisible force.
And it did.
She fell gracefully, landing in a crouch before running towards Tygra and Cheetara. She swung her scepter from afar, channeling that feeling again. Her well of magic surged as Lion-O swung Omens and freed the twins. The cutting wind from her scepter cut clean through the arm holding Cheetara and Tygra.
Water spilled from the thrashing stumps as the two landed on the deck.
Across the way, she heard the captain exclaim, "The food's fighting better than you!" to his useless, huddled crew. Leopara rested on her knee for a brief moment, catching her breath. Omens had stopped singing, and the focused exhilaration from its song left her. "That's it, boy-o, show this cowardly crew how it's done."
The ramlak groaned and more of its tentacles slithered onto the deck.
She had never successfully used magic like that before. Her focus had always wavered. Lightning would fizzle out, water and wind would disperse harmlessly. She looked down at her scepter. Could she do it again, even without the power of Omens thrumming through her?
Leopara prepared herself, locking her gaze onto a tentacle that raced towards the twins. She crossed her arm over her chest diagonally, preparing for an upward slash that would send the wind hurtling towards it-
She drew from her wellspring of magic, deep inside, and thrust it into the scepter, it's jewel flashing and swirling mint-green, and swung. The mint green flung from it into a thin sheet of near-white. It raced the distance, leaving a long cut in the wood- a brief feeling of excitement ran through her. It was… working! Actually working!
It dispersed once it hit the tentacle, nothing more than a gust of wind.
Leopara balked.
Whiskers!
She had lost focus.
Another one wrapped around her leg again and yanked her off her feet. Her scepter clattered away from her across the wood, and the tentacle pulled her with alarming speed towards the railing.
Leopara cried out, digging her claws into the wood to try and resist its pull and break free. Her body jolted as her claws pierced into the damp wood.
And then, with a forceful tug, she lost her grip.
The sound of a blaster, byew! and a flash of green as Tygra shot it with expert marksmanship freed her.
"Thanks!" she called, scrambling to her feet and lunging for her scepter.
The rocking of the ship sent it rolling one way, then the other. She staggered, off balance. A tentacle whipped it away, all the way across the deck.
Leopara raced after it, jumping over a tentacle with a stumble in her step as she landed, and sliding under another. She snatched her scepter as she slid by, but crashed into the wall. She sat there, dazed, amongst the crates.
Snarf nuzzled her hand with a cold, wet nose. "Snya?"
"I'm okay." she reassured him after a moment, climbing to her feet.
The ramlak groaned and its tentacles rose up, and began to descend back into sand-water whence they came. The captain ran to the railing awkwardly with his peg leg and sheathed his sword. He slammed his hands on the wood.
"Run, you coward!" He shook his fist. "You can't escape me forever! I'll follow you straight to the flaming pits of," and Leopara was unsure if she heard correctly, "magmel before I give you up!" Koinelius raced and vowed.
You certainly will.
They all gathered angrily behind Lion-O, she, Cheetara, and Tygra. Leopara had her arms crossed, but Cheetara and Tygra held theirs still.
Lion-O took a few steps forward, demanding in a hard voice, "Now, what were we talking about before the interruption?"
The tides had turned on the fishmen.
"I believe we were discussin' how we'd flay you," he stepped in close to put a hand on Lion-O's shoulder, "But had I known you were such fine warriors, I would've gladly served my own firstmate to you on a platter."
The white and orange koi gasped inaudibly, stunned.
Leopara scowled, disgusted.
How could he talk about cannibalism so mundanely? As if they were discussing the consumption of beasts!
Hmph!
She didn't like this Koinelius one bit. It was apparent he was filled with anger and vengeance, apathetic to those around him and lacking in morality. As long as he got his prize in the end.
The ramlak.
Damn any who got in his way or fell behind, right?
"We're not stopping."
"We're on a mission to avenge our father and you want to play babysitter?"
The wind howled as he turned to his crew, a motley, ragged, miserable lot, and raised his arms. "Listen up, fishies," he announced, "these fine fellows are our new shipmates. So treat 'em like you would your own scaly brothers." He turned and looked at WilyKit and Kat. "And fix the little ones some food." Koinelius grabbed Lion-O by the shoulder and walked him away.
"Food!" exclaimed the twins in united delight.
Leopara kept her arms crossed, watching Koinelius lead Lion-O across the debris-littered deck of the devastated ship. Torn tatters of the sail flapped in the wind and were carried away.
She didn't like those two together.
Not at all.
Thank you so much for the reviews on last chapter, The Heart of The Demons, The Night Whisperer, and Frankannestein! I received some of the highest compliments I could have for this fanfic! (I hope it only keeps getting better as we continue!)