Welcome back! I hope you all enjoy today's chapter~
The view from the elephant village was beautiful. As the evening began to shift into dusk, the sky became tinted a lovely pink where once it was blue, fading into a sift yellow.
Having moved past her concern about falling, Leopara found the rhythm and routine of cutting down and tossing the fruits quite relaxing and fulfilling; helping the community that welcomed them, in a manner which they welcomed.
WilyKit played her flupe in the distance, a soft melodic tune.
Leopara enjoyed the sound of it while tending to the fruits. After a time, the trumpeting of an elephant joined in on her song. She spared a glance, spying Aburn from a distance, and smiled.
The song grew steadily louder, with more trumpets joining in. Leopara bobbed her head to them. Stomps joined them, rhythmic and powerful.
No, what really caught her attention was the sound of rocks bursting.
Leopara had just been contemplating whether or not she could ward the elephant's food stores in such a way it lessened the toll of the wraiths, and whether Anet would welcome the idea, when the sound shattered her train of thought. She twisted around and leaned over, trying to see what could possibly have done that.
Unfortunately, in her surprised state, she leaned too far. Her fear came true: she fell from the tree. Leopara let out a yelp as she plummeted, and all too quickly landed in a basket of fruit.
It squelched under her sudden weight and the speed at which she fell, its juices splattering not just on her, but on the area around.
The elephant woman she had been helping, Asa, paused- surprised by the sudden cat in the basket, before chuckling fondly and with amusement. Although her laugh was not mean-spirited in any way, Leopara felt herself blush from head to toe with embarrassment.
There she was… covered in orange juices all over her fur, her hair, and mostly her clothes, her nice dress and her stockings and sleeves.
Asa wrapped her trunk around her midsection and lifted her from the basket, gently setting her on her feet.
"There you are." the elephant said in a motherly tone. "Why don't you go wash up, little cat?" Asa couldn't remember her name, and so decided to call her that. Leopara was little in comparison, and she was certainly a cat, so the nickname checked out to her.
Leopara nodded, silenced by mortification.
The elephant pointed her trunk towards a wash hut, and Leopara awkwardly shuffled over. It took less than she expected to get the stains out of her dress, and the tome was thankfully unharmed.
Her hair, on the other hand, was a nightmare.
The fruit juices were very thick, but dried and hardened surprisingly fast- and they did not want to wash out of her hair without taking some of her very fine, wavy hairs with.
When it was finally over, she sighed with relief. Having washed her clothes first, she spent a little extra time using magic to dry them before she toweled herself off and got dressed.
Finally clean, she collected the tome and slipped out into the night.
It was pleasantly cool, with a gentle breeze. Very calm, as the elephants settled into a meditation circle. She had half a mind to join them, but Snowmeow found her first. He mewled from her right, lying near the hut.
"Oh, were you waiting for me, Snowmeow?" she asked him.
He grunted.
Leopara crouched next to him, petting him between the ears. "I'm sorry~ I've been up in that tree all day, haven't I?" Snowmeow seemed to nod. She hummed. "Have you seen Lion-O?"
Snowmeow swished his tail a little and grunted, lifting his head to look over her shoulder. She craned her neck to look behind herself as well.
There he was, running back into the village finally.
Leopara stood and swiftly began to make her way towards him, Snowmeow padding along behind her.
"Aburn!" Lion-O called.
Aburn looked at him with great confusion. "Aren't you supposed to be practicing with Anet?" he asked.
"I thought I'd do you a favor instead." he said proudly and with a shrug, at about the same time Leopara joined them. "I took care of your wraiths. They won't be bothering you anymore."
Aburn rocketed to his feet with a dire gasp. "Oh, you shouldn't have done that." he exclaimed.
Lion-O recoiled from Aburn while Leopara gave him a look of, "What did I tell you?"
"What? Why?"
Aburn stared deeply into Lion-O's eyes with a panicked expression. Suddenly, he glanced away more confused than anything. "I don't remember. But there's a good reason."
"Because the harmony of the universe is now out of tune." Anet's wise voice answered. For an animal so big, he was frighteningly quiet. "You see, Lion-O, the wraiths may have taken some of our crops, but their loud sounds were all that kept something far worse away from our village." As Anet spoke, the earth shook and trembled. He pointed towards the mesa's edge for them to look.
Leopara followed Lion-O to the edge, nervous.
Climbing, on all fours rather like an infant, was a giant earth elemental. It was hard to give a size to it exactly, as it was at a distance, but it made the elephants look tiny by comparison.
"Without its natural enemy patrolling the sky, this creature will do worse than just eat our food."
"I didn't know." Lion-O defended himself weakly. Snowmeow whined at it. To comfort him, she absently pet his neck.
Anet looked down at the elemental gravely. "We elephants may not remember much, but we never forget there is a delicate balance to all things." He turned away from the scene. "Come, let us meditate."
Lion-O didn't budge from his station, looking down at it with deep thought. Then, he turned to Leopara. "Come on. We can't wait for it to come to us. It'll destroy the entire village." She nodded in agreement.
They quickly ran towards the staircase, collecting the others on their way. WilyKit and WilyKat did not join them, instead heading off to the meditation circle to join the elephants in their contemplations.
Leopara had half a mind to join them, which made two halves of her that had thought about it that night.
But her magic would be invaluable to trying to slow the elemental down.
They took the steps a leap at a time, hurtling down two, three, even four in one go, then cut across the rocky slope to charge the elemental. Lion-O drew the Sword of Omens, calling out, "Thundercats, ho!"
And so, they began their onslaught. Lion-O used the Sword of Omens to carve chunks out the elemental. Cheetara used her staff to bash a column of stones from its arm, and Tygra used his blaster to weaken the rocky body before breaking the section with his whip. From highed ground, Panthro tossed giant boulders at it.
Snowmeow stood on hindlegs and, with all his weight and might, shoved the elemental. Even with all that beast, he only broke that section, which crumbled.
Leopara stayed back, spinning her staff to cut through the stone with the wind.
Where was its 'heart,' the source of magic that gave the elemental life? If they destroyed that, the elemental's essence would no longer be bound to this plane and its body would crumble. If they didn't, then its body would just reform no matter how much damage they did to it, no matter how much they broke it- as long as it was anything short of shattered.
Leopara had never heard of an earth elemental growing to such size before, not without becoming stationary. Was it because it was near the spirit stone?
Whatever the case, they needed to bring down this massive behemoth.
When they had seemed to reduce the elemental to rubble, the others stopped, exhausted. Leopara scanned the debris, looking for its 'heart.' It should glow and stand out-
A tree?
There was a tree growing on its head.
Leopara spun her staff, focusing on a powerful wind strike. It would have to be focused and precise to break its inherent magical defenses.
She unleashed the spell, just as the elemental's body shifted.
It had already begun to pull itself together.
"Whiskers," she murmured.
In just moments, it towered over them unharmed. The tree atop its head glowed, and walls of stone jutted up from the earth, boxing them in. Quite literally, as it shut them completely in the dark, isolated, with a roof of stone, too.
They exclaimed and shouted, generally surprised by this.
"No!" she exclaimed, smacking her palm against the stone wall. "Break!" she demanded.
The magically conjured earth did not break.
She heard Snowmeow roar not too far away, the sounds of thudding and thunks from the others as well. She let out a shout of frustration. If only I realised what its heart was faster!
Leopara was not entirely certain what happened after that. A few minutes passed, spent by each one of them trying to escape their earthly prison. But this was not regular stone, and there would be no breaking out of it as long as the elemental's heart pulsed. By the time it forgot about them, the village would be long destroyed.
And then, suddenly after those few minutes, the magic enforcing the prisons faded away. Almost in unison, they broke out of the rocky tombs through their own means- pushing, blasting, slicing.
The death of its magic so soon could mean only one thing: the elephants somehow destroyed the elemental.
"Snowmeow!" she called, holding out her hand. He bounded to her, and she caught his saddle horn and swung up onto his back as he continued galloping up the slope and back into the village.
There, lying in an undignified heap, was the stone elemental, dust still clouding the air.
She blinked in surprise and dismounted Snowmeow, rushing over. "You… did this?" she asked, looking at the elephants, WilyKit, and WilyKat. The elemental was completely shattered, and its tree withered and splintered. "How?" she asked.
WilyKit shared a grin with Aburn.
"We achieved true harmony." Aburn said cheekily. WilyKit held up her flupe and waved it.
Leopara processed that for a moment. "Is… that what happened earlier with the stone-shattering sound?"
WilyKit looked embarrassed, rubbing the back of her head. "Well…"
Before WilyKit could find the words, Leopara swooped on and hugged her. "That's incredible, WilyKit!" She leaned back out of the hug, studying her for a moment.
There was a hint of something there.
She glanced at WilyKit's flupe. The something entertwined with the instrument- but the something didn't originate from it. In fact, it reminded her of…
Oh. Magic.
And she had no idea.
Leopara smiled at WilyKit with a burst of new affection. She ruffled the kitten's hair. "You're pretty amazing, WilyKit."
WilyKit looked quite flustered for a moment before resigning herself to the compliment. "Thanks, Leopara." she said, rubbing the back of her head.
The others finally caught up, a little breathless.
"What happened? What did we miss?" Lion-O asked.
Leopara stood. "Oh… only WilyKit and the elephants shattering the elemental through song~"
"Through… song?"
"We achieved true harmony." Aburn explained again.
"You're telling me music beat that thing?" Panthro said in disbelief, pushing a chunk of stone. Not just music, there was magic- whether all from WilyKit or empowered by the spiritual monks with her- laced into that song.
"Yup! You should have seen it!" WilyKat exclaimed, bursting with pride for his sister.
Panthro let out a laugh. "Ah, I wish I had, kid."
Lion-O surveyed the village with a sense of remorse. The roof of one of the stone pavilions was gone, half of it in rubble and the other half simply missing. A hut had collapsed in on itself, and, of course, the elemental's giant remains littered half the village, a giant pile of rock that would have to be cleared away. "I'm sorry, Anet. I never meant for this to happen."
Anet smiled sagely. "You see, Lion-O, when you fail to look at the bigger picture, it becomes impossible to know the consequences of your actions."
"I guess it's no wonder why I'm struggling with Sight Beyond Sight." Lion-O said in a self-deprecating voice.
Leopara felt a pang of sympathy for him. Magic was not easy, it required true understanding to master. It didn't come easily for her, even now- well, maybe now, it was becoming easier. But she had been trained by Jaga for over ten years just to reach where she was now.
He had only had the Sword of Omens since the Fall, and no one to properly guide him. It didn't work like spells, and the relationship between magic and individuals was often incredibly unique and nuanced, something you could spend a lifetime learning and never truly master.
Even Jaga, considered by many to be a master of magic, had not fully explored or understood its mysteries nor machinations.
"Let's try it one more time." Anet encouraged him.
Lion-O drew the Sword of Omens and held it up. "Sword of Omens, give me Sight Beyond Sight." he commanded. The Eye of Thundera opened and glowed a dim red, as his eyes glowed blue. She watched, anxious. Several heartbeats passed before he lowered the sword. "The hut. The stone is in the hut!"
They gasped in surprise while Snarf snya-ed and Snowmeow groaned.
Lion-O sheathed the Sword of Omens and rushed towards the hut. They followed him eagerly, Cheetara, Tygra, the Wilytwins, Panthro, Anet, Aburn, and herself.
He grabbed the rope that hung from the heavy door and swung it open, dashing in without a proper look.
It was empty.
Save for a single, towering wooden broom, the hut was empty.
"I don't understand." Lion-O murmured.
"Perhaps a different approach is in order." Anet consoled him. "Go to the Forest of Magi Oar," at this name, Leopara's ears perked up. "-one of the most enchanted places on all of Third Earth. There the power of the sword will be amplified and your connection to it."
"Where is this forest?" Lion-O asked.
"Um, isn't it… um, uh…"
"I know." Leopara blurted.
Several eyes blinked at her, surprised. "You do?"
"I do." Leopara nodded. "I've been there before, with Jaga." The shock and surprise that rippled through the others did not escape her. "Since ancient times, it has been tradition for Thunderan sorcerers to create our focuses from the wood in the Magi Oar. Jaga took me there when I was young to create my scepter." She felt a pang of regret for having lost it; it was hers, and she had made it herself, poured her magic, her essence into that scepter. It was a precious memory for her.
Jaga's very own staff, the staff she now carried, was from the very same forest.
They blinked in surprise at her, even Cheetara. "I had no idea." she murmured.
Leopara fiddled with her braid. What was she supposed to say to that? Jaga never even took Uncio. He and Cheetara weren't sorcerers, and Jaga was not directly her teacher when she was first being trained as a cleric.
An uncomfortable feeling settled on her as she realised Jaga never invested nearly as much time or effort in Cheetara as he had Leopara. He had given Uncio more of his attention than Cheetara, too.
There was so much about Jaga that Cheetara had no idea about, wasn't there?
Once again, she felt a pang of loneliness.
Leopara had grown up surrounded by clerics, but she had always felt like she was in a completely different world than them. She had been in a completely different world, hadn't she?
Cheetara said once that Jaga was like a father to her… but had Jaga ever felt the same?
Or did he just consider her a promising, perhaps dear, student?
Watching her expression shift, Cheetara must have pieced together what Leopara was thinking. A heavy feeling of sorrow and disappointment washed over the Cheetah until she uncharacteristically looked at the ground.
"So you know where it is?" Leopara nodded at Tygra. "Great! You can take us there."
"Well… I need a map. Jaga and I traveled from Thundera."
Tygra sighed. "We'll just use the Book of Omens. I'm sure it can take us there."
"Then it's settled," Panthro butt in, "We'll head out in the morning."
"We should all get some rest." Cheetara said quietly.
They all nodded.
Leopara didn't know what to say to Cheetara.
No one but her seemed to notice the difference between Cheetara regularly, and Cheetara now. Doubt hung heavily over her.
Tygra and Panthro headed down the mesa to the Thundertank. The race earlier had pushed the samoflange and drivetrain pretty hard. When they had finally come to a stop, it had been trailing a plume of black smoke.
WilyKit and WilyKat followed the elephants to find someplace to sleep for the night.
Lion-O was absorbed in his own doubts and thoughts, laced with frustration. He stalked the meditation circle, silhouetted under the silvery light of the moons. Every step was watched closely by Snarf, curled up near a pond with the tip of his tail dangling in the waters.
That left her and Snowmeow.
Torn apart with uncertainty, she retreated to a nook under a tree with Snowmeow and the journal, opening it to the ritual she had tried to study earlier that day.
Wow… it had been a long day, hadn't it?
She reasoned that if she expanded her understanding of magic, she could help Lion-O wield the Sword of Omens and Sight Beyond Sight. That was her duty, as his sorceress, after all.
Leopara took it very seriously; Jaga had left behind a tall legacy to live up to.
Jaga…
It was a little daunting, sometimes. But Jaga believed in her, so she chose to do the same.
But he left behind a legacy for Cheetara too- she knew he did. He was grooming her to be the Head Cleric… wasn't he?
Jaga's legacy was their shared burden, not just her own.
She just worried that it weighed more heavily and was unwelcome for Cheetara at that moment.
Leopara glanced around, but Cheetara wasn't anywhere she could see from her nook.
She thought about getting up and looking for her, but something kept her rooted in place.
What would she say? What could she say?
Cheetara had come to the clerics close to the age of fourteen. Leopara had been sought out and brought to the Cleric's hall when she was three. Jaga had raised her, actually raised her- Cheetara had family before the clerics.
Leopara sighed softly, downcast.
It wasn't just Cheetara, though. She didn't know the words to help Lion-O either.
She believed in him; he would get it. No, more than 'get it.' Lion-O would master the Sword of Omens and Sight Beyond Sight someday, and be the greatest of kings to ever live, just as the Book of Omens prophesied, just Jaga had told her about long ago, as a young cub.
Er, he hadn't specified Lion-O. Just… the prophecy of the Greatest King.
Being forged through fire and battle had seemed so much more glamorous to a young cub.
She was embarrassed to admit imagining what such a king would look like. Big and strong, but compassionate and just, with a long flowing red mane and-
Leopara was still embarrassed to think about it.
Lion-O wasn't exactly big. His mane was definitely going to flow in the wind in a year or two, though, and Leopara would admit only to herself that she looked forward to seeing his red strands being teased by the breeze-
Stop. she thought forcibly, cutting off her daydream. Read.
She forced her eyes back to the pages, eager to forget about the mental image of Lion-O with long red hair that brushed his shou-
Leopara huffed another sigh and closed the tome, then leaned her head back against the tree. Why me? Why him? He's my king and… ugh.
He would frustrate her to no end if she let him, and he wouldn't even have to try. Her own imagination seemed happy to do the work for him. Since I'm just going to keep thinking about him, I should go talk to him.
Yeah, I'm worried about him. That's definitely why I can't seem to get him out of my head.
Having found an excuse for such odd and indulgent thoughts, Leopara stood with a smile. Her troubles weren't completely gone, but after checking on how Lion-O was, she could go talk to Cheetara. Just… ask her how she was feeling. Listen to her.
Yeah, that was it.
She brushed off her long skirt as she walked, flicking off bits of grass and dirt.
When she looked up at Lion-O, he was sitting by the lotus pond with Cheetara.
For reasons beyond her, her heart sank and her stomach twisted in a knot.
The two sat shoulder-to-shoulder and leaned in close to one another. Together, the pair were silhouetted softly in silver light. The moons' reflections rippled faintly across the surface of the pond, decorated with those same beautiful lotus flowers.
It was a perfectly romantic scene, something straight out of fairy-tale. From another angle, they may have even looked like they were kissed.
Her throat tightened at the sight, hands clenching her skirt before letting go altogether.
Cheetara was happy, a soft, gentle feeling that washed away doubts and left only pleasant affection. Lion-O was warm and happy, and… she could sense the bloom of love blossoming in him. It was a feeling she had sensed in others only a handful of times, and everytime, she had felt like an intruder seeing something she shouldn't.
It was no different this time.
Cheetara let out a girlish giggle.
Leopara spun hard on her heel before either one of them could notice her, quickly moving back around the tree.
Why did she have to have the ability to sense others emotions?
Leopara didn't want to feel what either of them were feeling anymore. She wanted to pretend she never had and she never knew and she never had to know-
With a heavy sigh that teetered dangerously close to a frustrated cry, she sunk back down to the ground.
Snowmeow stirred from his sleep with a grunt.
Then, radiating concern, he nuzzled her.
Leopara turned burning, teary eyes towards him and smiled weakly. "Thanks, Snowmeow." She raised one hand to pet him, and the other to wipe the wetness away from her eyes. "You're a good kitty-pet."
"Mrrow."
She chuckled. "Look at you! That was a proper meow!" she exclaimed softly.
For a moment, she swore Snowmeow beamed with pride.
Leopara smiled for another few moments, before slumping again. "Let's… let's go join Tygra and Panthro." she told him. She hadn't taken off his saddle yet, so she simply climbed on.
Snowmeow understood. He climbed to his paws and bounded away into the night.
I have some thoughts about this chapter, but first, thank you everyone for reading! If you had any thoughts about this chapter, why don't you leave a review? On this one especially I'd love to hear what you all think! And, as always, a special thank you to The Night Whisperer and Heart of the Demons~ you two are the best!
Onto my thoughts! WilyKit has magic?! Yes, yes she does; I've long held this idea. She puts people to sleep with her flupe! Who knows what the future has in store for her talents...
Cheetara's relationship with Jaga was never sold on me because every interaction she could have had was taken over by Lion-O; so I decided to lean on that for Hiraeth. Was her relationship with Jaga one-sided...?
Oh, and what's this? Leopara's been to the Magi Oar? Yes, and next chapter you'll get to see how this changes things!