Welcome back, everyone! I hope you had good holidays and a happy New Years! My New Years' resolution is to finish Season 1 of Hiraeth before the end of the year, how about you guys? Let me know in your reviews if you have any interesting ones!
After the cats had a day to relax and recover, it became obvious what they should do. Panthro needed new arms to get back into the action.
If anyone could make them, it was the Ro-Bear Berbils.
Thanks to Tygra, the Thundertank was already on the mesa, which made it much easier to load up Panthro. Together, the lovebirds, Tygra and Cheetara, were able to convince him to let them handle it, so Panthro begrudgingly sat in the back.
That part was easy in comparison to the next.
Snowmeow growled at Leopara as she tried to push him forward. She groaned and strained vainly against him as he sat stubbornly and unmoving.
At the shoulder, Snowmeow stood close to an elephant's hip and closer to an elephant's shoulder or full height when he stood on his hind legs. He was giant and… well, there was no way she could force him to move when he didn't want to.
And right now, he didn't want to.
He growled again, lashing his tail. Her foot slipped over the flat stone and grass underneath her. Leopara sighed heavily against his blue fur.
"Come on, Snowmeow." Leopara pleaded with him.
"Roawr." Snowmeow protested.
She huffed. Tygra just had to drive the tank straight up a mesa the hard way, didn't he? Now Snowmeow didn't trust the tank! She pushed her bangs out of her face. "What if he drives it down first? Will you get in then?"
Snowmeow seemed to consider her words for a minute, then shook his head.
Leopara did not restrain her frustrated half-cry, half-scream this time. She stomped around to the front of the Thundertank where Tygra was getting comfy at the controls with Cheetara sitting beside him. She smacked her hands down onto the Thundertank, which earned a protest of "Hey! That's my baby!" from Panthro.
She jabbed a finger at the surprised tiger, then pointed towards Snowmeow. "Apologise to him!"
"What?"
"Snowmeow. You traumatised him with your driving!"
"That's ridiculous." Tygra responded, rolling his eyes.
Before Leopara could smack the tank again, several hundred pounds of Snowmeow leaned on it with his front paws and loomed over Tygra. He let out a deep, unhappy growl. The tank ever so subtly leaned in his direction.
Leopara gestured. "See?! He doesn't want to get in while you're driving."
"My driving was just fine." Tygra said defensively.
"You did go straight up a cliff." Cheetara pointed out. "He probably didn't like that."
Exasperated, Tygra replied, "Well, that's his problem, isn't it?"
Snowmeow could have no possible way of knowing what Tygra said, but he clearly didn't like his tone. He opened his mouth and unleashed a point blank roar.
Leopara would not shame Tygra for the jolt of fear that raced head-to-toe through his body.
"Alright, alright. I'm sorry, Snowmeow. I promise, after we get down from the village, I will not do anything like that again." Tygra pledged with the utmost- Leopara used this loosely- sincerity.
Snowmeow chuffed at him and got off the tank, bounding around to climb inside.
Tygra turned his attention towards her, flaring his fingers and opening his eyes a little wider. "Are you happy now? Can we go?"
"Yes, we can go." she replied, tossing her braid over her shoulder as she climbed up the tank and slipped into the back through the hatch.
"-happy about this either." Panthro groused to Snowmeow.
Conversationally, Snowmeow grunted at him. Rather like he understood Tygra, the felyne was curled up against the front-most wall where he would not suddenly go tumbling in one direction.
She eyed the many puncture marks in the floor with a, "Hm." Then she sat next to Panthro. Across from them, WilyKit and WilyKat kicked their legs while Lion-O idly stroked Snarf's back.
He was still having a hard time completely coming to terms with Cheetara's rejection and subsequent mating with Tygra. She knew he was trying not to think about them; his feelings of jealousy and hurt were obscured beneath a layer of general amusement.
Leopara was still nursing some feelings of pain and longing, herself. She was trying to ignore them and carry on as if everything were fine.
Everything was fine.
The Thundertank growled to life and rolled forward. Tygra's face appeared on the screen looking in at them. "Brace yourselves, this is going to be a bit bumpy." he warned them.
Leopara had just enough time to weave threads of magic around Panthro's closest leg before the Thundertank dipped forward and slammed, almost pointed in a nose-dive, against the cliff-side.
"Whooa!" the Wilytwins called out, sliding against the wall.
Lion-O caught himself with one arm against the wall just before he crashed into the kittens. Panthro grunted and grumbled to himself, but the threads held him in place so that he merely swayed. Leopara bumped into him and stopped.
The tank rocked as it rumbled down the side of the plateau, and then jerked harshly as it reached the bottom. She sighed and tried to relax, closing her eyes to rest for a bit.
It was going to be a long ride, huh?
The Berbil village was just as quaint as before, something odd but beautiful that could easily have passed as a surreal painting. The sun shone warmly on them as they disembarked the Thundertank.
While Tygra's driving hadn't been terrible, she was still relieved to stretch her legs. No one, not even Panthro, was more glad than Snowmeow, who bounded out of the tank with glee and flopped in the green grass.
With a whir, the Berbils rolled out of their homes and over to greet them.
"Ro-Cats return!" A few of them chirped with an inflection of excitement to their monotone voices.
Ro-Bear Bill rolled to the front of the gathered Berbils, and looked up at them curiously. Before he could decide what to say, his beady eyes landed on Panthro being walked out of the cargo hold by Lion-O.
He gasped, attracting the attention of his fellow Berbils. They looked up at Panthro, at first with a chitter of excitement that quickly turned to horrified gasps.
"Ro-Cat Panthro!" Ro-Bear Bill cried out. The range of his expression was limited by the restraints of his voice. "Where are Ro-Cat Panthro arms?"
"I lost 'em." Panthro curtly explained. "Need new ones; think you can whip me up a pair?" he asked, his voice losing its edge and growing both affectionate and hopeful.
Ro-Bear Bill considered him for a moment. "Thundercats help Berbils. Berbils love Panthro. Berbils make new arms for Ro-Cat Panthro." he agreed.
Panthro sighed with relief, visibly sagging against Lion-O. "I wouldn't trust anyone else."
Ro-Bear Bill strode forward and grabbed Lion-O's pant leg, pulling on it to lead him away. The small robot in no way had the physical force needed to actually move Lion-O, but he followed along with a soft chuckle nonetheless.
"What should we do now?" Tygra asked.
Leopara and Cheetara exchanged a glance. Then, Cheetara strode forward and took Tygra's hand and gave him a warm smile. A flood of adoration warmed Tygra as he gazed at her with the softest of expressions.
"Ew," WilyKat said.
"Groooss." WilyKit agreed.
WilyKat exchanged a look with his sister. "Let's go, sis." Without further ado, he bounded away on all fours like a gremlin, and his sister followed. Leopara watched them make a beeline for the candy fruit trees with a sigh.
By the time she looked around again, Tygra and Cheetara were halfway across the Berbil village, leaving her alone.
Well, mostly alone.
She looked at Snowmeow and shook her head. "What did I expect?" she wondered aloud to him.
Conversationally, he let out a low meow. Leopara chuckled and sat down with him, leaning back against his side.
Snarf was the herald of Lion-O's return. She hadn't been cloud-gazing for very long when he lept onto her, letting out a frantic "snya!"
Leopara chuckled. "What? What is it, Snarf?"
"Lizards." Lion-O answered ominously. "Where are the others?"
Leopara blinked at him, amusement wiped clean. Lion-O was… focused. She expected him to be frustrated or upset bearing news of 'lizards.' "Oh… I don't know."
Lion-O was quiet for a moment, with growing realisation tinted with hurt, turning into annoyance. "They just left you here?"
"Well, we were expecting to rest and relax, Lion-O." Leopara set Snarf down atop Snowmeow and stood. "I'll help you look for them." She didn't want to say it, but it would be easy to find Tygra and Cheetara; she just had to follow the growing feeling of… love.
Lion-O shook his head. "No, never mind them." A small seed of grief and resentment pulsed in Lion-O, before quickly fading. "Follow me."
She watched him stride away. He didn't glance about or hesitate; it reminded her of his single-minded focus when they had first begun this journey, and of the sun setting on the Sand Sea- and his era of rage.
"Come on, Snowmeow. We're going for a walk." Snowmeow attempted a meow as he climbed to his paws, then nudged against her hip. "Okay, okay." she laughed, letting his head and then swinging onto his back. If Lion-O wasn't worried about the others, she doubted he was worried about Snowmeow's saddle.
She rocked in time with Snowmeow's gait as he followed after Lion-O, and climbed the slope out of the Berbil village much quicker than him.
"Why didn't I think of that?" Lion-O asked as he drew close. He laid a hand on Snowmeow's shoulder and ruffled his fur there. "Mind if I ride too, Snowmeow?"
Snowmeow simply crouched down, about as much of an invitation he gave anyone- to Leopara, the impatient cat made demands.
Lion-O grinned. "Thanks." He swung himself up behind Leopara and scooted a little closer. Snarf scurried from Snowmeow's neck to his master's shoulder, snya-ing as he did so. Absent-mindedly, Lion-O reached up to scratch Snarf's chin.
Both of them swayed as Snowmeow stood, the motion gently rocking her back against Lion-O's chest. Her face burned hot for a moment.
No. I am not going to be like one of those sad lovelorn girls. I need to focus.
She was getting very tired of telling herself that, for everything. Focus on this, don't lose focus on that...
"Where to, Lion-O?" she asked him, pushing aside her feelings.
"The canyon."
The wind tugged at the skirt of her dress and at her braid. Down below, red dust whipped through the ravine.
Down below, a patrol of lizards swept by on a hovercraft.
She looked at Lion-O. "What are they doing so close to the village?"
For the attack on the elephant village, she understood, but now that they had claimed the Spirit Stone, there was no reason for them to be in the region... was there?
"I don't know. Let's ask them." Lion-O cheerily suggested.
"Just the two of us?"
Snowmeow grunted conversationally. With a sigh, she corrected herself, "The three of us."
"Yup."
In classic fashion, Lion-O gave her a cheeky, lopsided grin. His blue eyes twinkled, as if to say, "Come on, you know you can't say no to this face- can you?"
Leopara refrained from sighing as she resigned herself to the inevitable. "You're just going to do it no matter what I say, aren't you?"
"Yup." Lion-O answered again with no hesitation.
At least he was honest?
There was nothing more for it. Leopara nodded. "Okay. I'm with you."
Instantly, Lion-O's lopsided grin leveled out into a full-blown, beaming smile that reached his eyes. "C'mon, let's- whiskers." he muttered, frowning down at the canyon. "They're gone."
"We can still follow them. Look," she pointed out the trail of unsettled dust. She was sure once they got close, it'd be obvious where the lizards had passed through. The red dirt would be disturbed and set in unusual places.
Lion-O nodded, with a determined look on his features- brows slightly knit, lips almost pursed, and eyes fixed ahead. "Let's go."
He stood and offered her his hand. Leopara didn't think twice; she accepted his hand, as she had every time he offered it to help her up. "Thanks." She smiled at him.
The canyon was arid and dusty, even without the passing of the hovercraft. The wind held aloft small clouds of the dust, spinning slightly in the air. "Remind me to wash my clothes later." she said to Lion-O, holding up her hand to conjure her barrier. Particles of dust scattered on the surface of the sphere.
"I can taste it on my tongue." Lion-O groused.
"Just remember, Lion-O, you wanted to come ask the lizards what they're doing."
He snorted. "Don't remind me. Why didn't you talk me out of this?"
"Me? Talk you out of something? When has that ever worked?"
Lion-O coughed with embarrassment into his fist. "Right…" Then, he let out a forlorn sigh. "What did I do wrong, Leopara?"
Leopara's brows knit. She craned her head to look behind her at Lion-O. He was leaning back slightly, head tilted to look up at the cloudy, blue sky. His features were relaxed, so much they seemed to droop. "What do you mean?"
"With… Cheetara. I…" he sighed again, looking down at her. "No matter how much I try to, I just keep thinking about it."
"Lion-O…" Leopara paused, unsure what to say. He didn't do anything wrong. There were hundreds of poems about mistaking the affections of others and how love hurt; but Leopara never paid them much attention. What did she know about love? What could she say? The quiet stretched for a few heartbeats, what seemed to stretch for forever. Softly, she said, "You'll be okay. I'm always going to be here."
He let out a small, derisive chuckle. "Thanks."
Leopara didn't need the ability to sense emotions to know he was sullen; his shoulders slumped and expression was ever-so slightly tense, his eyelids drooped a little lower than usual, and his gaze fell towards the ground.
An oppressive quiet fell over them as she tried to think of what she could say, and failed. The only sound for a few minutes was Snowmeow's footsteps in the dusty earth, and dust scattering against the barrier.
When the silence broke, it was because of Lion-O.
"You know what she told me?" he asked, voice sounding strained. Leopara glanced back at him, but didn't get the opportunity to ask. "She said she had no idea I had feelings for her. She thought I… that I liked you."
Leopara looked down at Snowmeow, who had one ear swiveled towards them. Would that have been so bad? she wanted to ask.
"Yeah… She told me too." Leopara said instead, swallowing her feelings about it.
Lion-O was still hurting and… wasn't it when he was hurting most last that he got so attached to Cheetara? The idea of Lion-O liking- choosing- her because Cheetara didn't return his feelings made her stomach twist in knots. No matter how much he made her feel warm or made her heart beat fast or made the world around them seem to fade away with his smile- she knew instantly, in that moment, with that thought, that she didn't want to be with him. Not if she got it like that.
Lion-O let out a sardonic chuckle. "Part of me wishes she was right, but… I think I drive you crazy enough as it is. Could you imagine if we were mates? You'd strangle me to death."
"Yup." Leopara agreed, forcing a lightness and playfulness into her voice that she didn't feel.
This time, he genuinely laughed. "Thanks, Leopara. I'm glad to have you as a friend."
Awkwardly, Leopara forced a smile, looked at him over her shoulder, and nodded. If her eyes were stinging, it was because of the canyon dust that got into her eyes earlier. "Of course, Lion-O. I meant it when I said I'm always going to be here."
"I know."
The sun was starting to creep towards the horizon when they finally arrived at an opportune overlook, having followed the lizards from the dusty, red canyon into a rocky, grey labyrinth of a canyon.
It was made up of dozens of different paths that branched off in all directions, with walls that built up in places like a towering, tiered cake that made her uneasy. The terrain was overall uneven, large stones jutting out of otherwise smooth slopes and long, flat stretches. It looked like it had been carved by dozens of rivers.
Far down below them, they watched a squadron of lizards slink around their camp. It seemed well-established, maybe a forward camp for marching the army on the elephant's village.
The lizards kept to the darkness, looking around in constant worry.
Leopara squinted. "What are they doing?"
"I'm not sure…" Lion-O lowered his scope, frowning.
"Do you still want to go ask them?"
A quick survey over the camp revealed at least six of their hovercraft and at least thirty or forty lizards. Not good odds for just the two of them.
"No… let's watch for now." Lion-O finally responded after a good, hard look.
Now, Leopara could get behind that.
"Maybe we should get closer?"
He nodded. "Good idea. We'll circle around on foot."
"What about Snowmeow?" She gestured towards him. He was big and blue- well, she supposed all three of them were rather blue. It wasn't the sneakiest combination.
It was a shame Tygra wasn't there.
Lion-O thought about it for a moment. "We'll be too easy to spot riding him, but it'll be dark soon. I think he proved how quiet he can be when climbing these rocks." Lion-O praised him. Then, he concluded, "He can come with."
Snowmeow's tail wagged and he let out a happy attempt at a meow, leaning forward to nuzzle Lion-O. Lion-O chuckled and pet him behind his ears. "You think he dislikes being left behind?" Lion-O asked cheekily.
"Well, after an exciting ride like that with Tygra, I think anyone would dislike being left behind." Leopara joked. She hadn't thought about it, but they parked the Thundertank pretty high too- did Tygra drive it straight down the cliff? Or did he take it down the path they'd walked? How did he even get to it so fast?
All questions she would never have a satisfying answer for; when they had questioned him about it, he just shrugged and gave a vague excuse.
With a chuckle, Lion-O began to lead the way down the slope. With his long legs and superior balance, Snowmeow quickly outpaced him. Leopara lagged behind, lacking the sheer confidence in her movements that Lion-O possessed in spades. She watched him like a hawk, following in his path while taking deep, calming breaths.
It was a long drop down the side of the canyon, and a very noisy fall. She didn't fancy the idea of the bruises nor was she keen to make such a loud clatter that it attracted the attention of the lizards.
She leapt down a small distance to land next to Lion-O, and prided herself for a nice, stable landing.
"You're getting good at this." he murmured, so quiet she wasn't sure if she was meant to hear it. He effortlessly slid down a long slope and took a few steps from the base, where he then turned to wait for her.
Leopara took a deep breath and bunched up her skirt in her fists. Nervously, she rested one foot on the slope and scooted her other foot forward until she jerked into the slide. Her first instinct was to cry out, but she swallowed the sound with a brief whimper. As she reached the bottom, she tensed her muscles and jumped, landing next to Lion-O and swaying in place.
She let out a sigh, and then huffed to get her bangs out of her face. "This is child's play to you."
"Well," he shrugged, "when you're the crown-prince."
He didn't finish the statement before turning away and walking after Snowmeow, who was so far ahead he had paused to look back at them.
Leopara accepted the half-articulated thought without argument, following after him. "It's not just you… Tygra's so athletic too, and Cheetara's a cleric." The training she went through spoke for itself in the way she moved. Graceful and reserved until the time of action. "Even WilyKit and WilyKat." How she wished she could move as fast as those two did, and they never ran out of energy.
"You studied books. Tygra and I studied martial arts. Cheetara's a cleric," he agreed, "And WilyKit and WilyKat… they're tough kittens."
"I'm feeling like studying all those books was the wrong choice." she admitted.
Not all of them.
But as many as she did? Looking back, she couldn't think of much else she did than read and perform magical exercises with Jaga.
"You're an amazing sorceress, Leopara." Lion-O replied by way of rebutting her statement.
Her shoulders felt heavy. "I've learned and… gotten better at manipulating magic out here." Leopara stopped, looking out at the canyon. The dying sunlight washed the grey out in pinks and oranges, and cast deep blue shadows where it could not reach. "In the months since Thundera fell, I've come to understand my magic more than I ever did reading a book."
Lion-O's soft footsteps told her he was by her side. "I guess it's true then, there's no better teacher than experience." he reassured her. Leopara looked at him. The soft pink light of the even washed half his mane a lighter, softer color, and cast the other half in deeper darkness. The light and shadows perfectly complimented his face, high-lighting his youthful cheek and the severity of his gaze. His eyes were even more brilliantly blue like this, she thought.
He turned his head towards the sun. "Come on, we should hurry while we still have light."
Leopara nodded and followed behind him quietly.
She didn't understand why Jaga had sheltered her so much, why she had spent so many years feeling like she made no progress with her magic just for it to all but burst into a kaleidoscope of possibilities; she could do so many things now that she hadn't been able to, things she hadn't even thought of and wouldn't have been brave enough to try, back when she first met Lion-O.
But now wasn't the time to talk about it. Lion-O was right; experience was its own teacher, and she had learned a lot from everything they had been through. They'd had many times when their lives were on the line, the stakes were just too high- times when hesitation and doubt weren't an option.
They continued onward down the twisting canyon wall until they were finally plunged into deep shadows.
They settled behind a jutting rock and watched the lizards stealing down the canyon path with no weapons or armor- and it wasn't a small group either. At least twenty. What could they possibly be doing?
"They're… they're deserting!" Lion-O whispered in shock. A feeling of hope fluttered in him.
"Are you sure?"
Lion-O nodded and passed her the scope. She raised it to her eye and peered through. The lizards were nervous, antsy, looking over their shoulders. She imagined she could hear them hiss and murmur in raspy voices. She zoomed in the scope on the ones in the back, sweeping the ground with their tails to…
"They're covering their tracks."
Lion-O nodded.
"What do you want to do, Lion-O?"
"We need to tell the others."
Leopara nodded. "Let's go."
Lion-O, apparently, couldn't agree more. In unison, they strode towards Snowmeow. Lion-O lifted her up and onto him, then hauled himself up behind her. "Back to the village, Snowmeow." he said, clutching handfuls of Snowmeow's fur.
Snowmeow grunted conversationally, as if to acknowledge Lion-O, and began to gallop down the opposite side of the ridge.
Thank you guys for reading! And a special thanks to everyone that reviewed last chapter~ The Night Whispered, Heart of the Demons, Frankannestein, and GabrielaMartinez199, you're the best~ My original plan was to start episode 14 in this chapter, but I couldn't get it to... go. I think these conversations were necessary to lay some more groundwork before next chapter (which will be the entirety of episode 14).