Hello again! We have one more chapter for Native Son, just to keep these chapters from going on for 5k each.(Also, 100+ reviews! You guys are amazing! There was a time I couldn't imagine anything I wrote having 100 reviews! Thank you guys ;_;)
Leopara was still torn between disbelief and dread when Caspin led them into the Chieftain's Hall. A fire crackled in the center, unlike the dead hearth in the main cavern. Two large logs draped in furs were positioned parallel to the rectangular hearth-bed on either side. Three tigers sat on the left and four on the right, with room for more. When they entered, all seven were facing away from them, instead looking at a tiger of impressive stature. He sat upon a sturdy and neat wooden throne with fur lining its back and seat. Curved spikes resembling tusks protruded from the top of it like horns.
She glanced around at the curved wooden braces that supported the heavy stone walls. Chests, pots, end tables, and a rack of blades were pushed up against them, and a green banner hung from the left. Further down the wall was a display of two swords. A great, white pelt dominated the far wall. On either side were two archways covered by tattered, simple purple curtains.
"Look who it is, Lord Javan!" Caspin announced them.
The seven did not stir from their reverie, but Lord Javan, the tiger in the throne, lifted his gaze from the burning embers.
Leopara hesitated to expand her senses for worry of the hundred anguished souls- but she reached out nonetheless. Despair, heavy and hopeless, weighed the tiger down. Genuine joy pierced through the darkness at the sight of Tygra, who stared back with just as much surprise and shock.
"Tygra? Is that you?" Javan asked. He leaned forward on one elbow, peering at Tygra over the bed of flames between them. This finally shifted the attention of the six tigers towards them.
"I can't believe it." Tygra murmured. "All this time, I thought I was alone and here you are."
Hope roared and fluttered within them- but so too did pain burst and flare. Javan's excitement was quickly waning. He leaned back on his throne, putting some small distance between them. "It's quite a surprise to see you." The despair swallowed his joy, leaving it hollow.
Tygra's shoulders sagged, crest-fallen.
"Forgive your father." Caspin said. "Your return is nothing short of miraculous."
The words niggled on Leopara's brain. Puzzle pieces shifted and tried to slot together- foreboding, anguished souls, Javan's despair- but she was missing something. Lion-O glanced at her, then at Tygra. When his brother stayed quiet, he took a half-step forward.
"We always suspected Tygra had to come from a lost clan, but where did you come from?"
Javan looked at Lion-O with a steady, calm gaze. "In ancient times, the Tiger Clan was the pride of Mumm-Ra's elite fighting force. During the Great Mutiny, we stayed loyal." Leopara gasped as a piece slid into place, but Javan kept speaking. "And because of it, the Tigers were treated as outcasts by other cat clans. Our people settled in these mountains. Even under such harsh conditions, we prospered for generations, until-"
"Enough of our banal history." Caspin interrupted, Leaning in front of Leopara and Lion-O to look at Tygra. We want to hear about you, Tygra. Tell us how you came to be a prince among Lions."
Leopara pushed Caspin back, taking a defensive step between him and Tygra and cutting him off before he could answer. "Don't tell them anything, Tygra. They've treated with the Ancient Spirits of Evil- I can feel it in this place, on them!" she jabbed her finger towards Caspin.
Caspin's expression darkened. Like a dark cloud, discontentment swirled through the other tigers- save for Javan. Regret pulsed through him.
"Is that true?" Tygra asked.
"Of course it is!" Leopara hissed. "Magic doesn't lie."
Javan opened his mouth, but Caspin, the lanky and slippery tiger he was, slipped around behind Lion-O to Tygra's other side. "Our ancestors did… occasionally ask them for help. But it's been quite some time since then." Caspin shot a sharp glare at Javan, who's expression settled on sternness. "Isn't that right, Javan?"
"Your friend speaks the truth." Javan said. Leopara admired his honesty for a brief moment. He looked up at the ceiling of the cave. "Now, look. Darkness is falling. You need to leave for your own safety."
"Not until I get an explanation."
In eerie silence, the seven tigers stood and filed out of the room. They didn't even bump into the three of them as they did so. With great reluctance, Caspin split off to follow them. Javan stood and approached them. As he did, he offered as explanation, "This village has long been haunted by an unspeakable evil. I only wish to keep you safe from it."
"Is that why you gave me away?" Tygra angrily demanded. "Because of bogeymen?"
Javan stopped in front of Tygra and Leopara. He towered most of a head over Tygra; not quite as tall as King Claudus, but dwarfing her nonetheless. "If you cherish your life, you will go now."
He did not wait or allow for a response, striding past them with pride.
Frustration welled and bubbled in Ty-
Claws sank into her mind dragging and tearing. She clutched her head, gasping and whimpering. Squeezing her eyes shut, she felt pain blossoming across her body. Aches in her bones, sweat clinging to her fur, her throat raw from coughs that wracked her entire body- and then for it all to fade away into piercing spasms stabbing through her body like spectral spears.
"-para?!"
She snapped to attention, her gaze immediately meeting Lion-O's. Concern filled his blue eyes. His hands were on her shoulders, keeping her steady.
"You were right." Tygra snarled. "I wish we never found this place!"
Lion-O tucked Leopara against his side, stooping down so he could sling her arm around his neck and wrapping his muscular arm around her waist. "He's your father, Tygra." he said gently, trying to soothe his brother.
"Claudus was my father." His eyes slid to the side, pupils narrowed in anger. "He's just a cat who abandoned his child."
"Give him a chance." Lion-O urged him. "Don't let your pride-" pride? "-get in the way of forgiveness." Leopara's head swam. Tygra was just rejected.
Still… "He loves you." she murmured. "But he's full of despair. They all are."
A high-pitched squeal cut into the night before Tygra could respond to either of them. He whipped around to stare out into the dark cavern that the Tiger Clan made their home.
"What was that?"
More and more shrieks joined the chorus and claws clacked on the stone floor of the cavern. Leopara shuddered. Lion-O slipped her off of his shoulders and drew the Sword of Omens. "I think it's the bogeymen."
Leopara sank to her knees. Her head throbbed with pain, a ravenous, dark desire to see this coil unraveled- for…Leopara took a harsh, gasping breath and pushed through the stabbing pain to stand. Lion-O gave her one last, worried glance before he and Tygra dashed forward. Leopara drew Jaga's staff and swept it through the hearth, collecting its flames. They wreathed around the end of the staff, licking at the wood without burning it. She lept after Tygra and Lion-O.
The creatures crept from all directions of the room, surrounding them for the ambush. The glow of the flames illuminated their twisted and gnarled faces and purple skin, yellow eyes. She lept over the incapacitated ones the two left in their wake to join them and scanned their surroundings with urgency. The hearth that had been cold and dead just earlier was now lit.
"What are they?" Lion-O asked.
Dark shadows began to unnaturally writhe around them. They stood, eyes flashing with light. "Whatever they are, they're not going down." Tygra observed grimly.
"But we will if we stay here!"
Lion-O didn't need to repeat himself. Leopara sprinted towards the first tunnel she saw after a grand sweep with her staff that unleashed all the fire she had gathered. The flames licked at the creatures with a rushing roar that quickly extinguished. The demons flinched from the flames and shrieked, but were otherwise weren't harmed- at least not in any way that mattered, just as the strikes of Tygra and Lion-O had only bought them.
Demons.
The thought made Leopara's blood turn to ice, then fire as adrenaline rushed through her.
Her thoughts raced as fast as her heart pounded in her ears. All around her, the tunnel quickly turned from stone to ice as they fled down it. Sharp icicles crowded the ceiling above them and the floor was slick. It was by pure adrenaline that Leopara didn't lose balance and careen into the walls.
The demons chased them with a cacophony of shrieks, running on all fours and gaining ground on them.
"Guess your father was telling the truth!" Lion-O looked over his shoulder. Tygra quickly outpaced both of them. Lion-O gave her a little push for speed and lept up. With a precise swing of the Sword of Omens, he cut through the gargantuan icicles above them. They crashed and pierced into the ground- a blockade. Through the gaps in the ice, the demons forced their hands, their heads- whatever limbs they could squeeze through. They shrieked with uncanny whispers that continued to chase them as they fled deeper into the caverns.
"What are you doing?" Tygra asked, glowering at her.
The orb of light sputtered out. Leopara huffed. Her ability to concentrate was shot- her mind kept circling around to demons?! and the pain from before wasn't without repercussions. "I'm trying to create daylight."
"...daylight?"
"It's the only thing demons are vulnerable to. It's just… hard to replicate." The truth was, Leopara had no idea how to alter her mage light to be daylight. She knew how to identify the difference; her mage light would never emit warmth like the light of the sun. Jaga had managed to conjure it as just a soul. The radiance of it as it exploded had saved them and the Book of Omens from Mumm-Ra.
"Like Mumm-Ra?" Lion-O guessed.
Leopara nodded. "Exactly! Well… not exactly, Mumm-Ra is much more powerful…"
Tygra looked ahead at the door leading into the Chieftain's Hall. Leopara would just have to imagine what sort of trepidation he was feeling as he looked ahead. There was something vicariously satisfying about Tygra getting the opportunity to demand why he was abandoned and then have the chance to reconcile with his father. She was a little envious.
"Good luck." Leopara smiled.
He took a deep breath. "Thanks. Don't get into any trouble while I'm gone."
"Oh, come on. We never get into trouble."
"You always find trouble, Lion-O. And drag me into it." Leopara crossed her arms.
Lion-O gave her a lopsided grin. "Yeah, but you wouldn't have me any other way." Thump-thump, thump-thump.
"I don't know, I'd like it if you took me somewhere nice every now and then, without anyone or thing trying to steal the sword or kill us." Leopara said, hoping her voice didn't betray her. Tygra heaved a heavy sigh, reminding them that he was still there. She cleared her throat. "Well? Get going. It's not everyday you get the chance to reconnect with family."
Tygra studied her for a moment before nodding.
"What now?" Leopara asked.
Lion-O scanned the cavern. Where there had been no one the day before, the village now bustled- maybe that was too strong of a word- with life. Tigers gathered around the hearth to chat, cubs played, but… it all seemed muted and tame. Like going through the motions instead of living life.
"Let's look around. The demons had to go somewhere."
Leopara nodded.
"Do you notice anything odd?" Lion-O asked abruptly.
Leopara looked up from the icy floor of the tunnel. It bore numerous chips, scratches, and deep gouges on its surface, no doubt from the demon's wicked sharp claws. But Lion-O wasn't looking at the tunnel. He was looking back out at the cavern.
She approached his side and followed his gaze to the tigers. "What do you see, Lion-O?" she asked.
"There's no kittens."
Leopara's brows furrowed as she gazed at the tigers. She particularly focused on the women, who were more often seen with kittens in their arms and on their hips in Thundera. Her eyes skimmed over the group of women still perched by the hearth, chatting quietly. From her childhood memories, she expected them to be doing some sort of chores- washing or folding clothes, cooking together for the village, watching kittens and cubs while their parents were busy.
But they were just… sitting there, not a kitten in sight, no clothes, no food cooking.
"I see what you mean. They're also… not doing anything." Leopara glanced around. Even the men weren't busy. The cavern didn't exactly have farmlands to tend, so she wasn't sure what she expected to see. Perhaps dressing a kill- or hauling one in. Instead, they congregated in cliques, brooding around the village wherever they pleased.
…on second thought, that wasn't so weird, actually. If rural toms weren't doing back-breaking labor or out hunting and fishing, they usually just lounged around. The fathers would let their kittens crawl all over them and play with their cubs, but were otherwise quite busy resting.
There still weren't any kittens in sight, though. Younger cubs, yes, but no kittens. How could a village be 'prosperous for generations,' but have no kittens?
"Hm." Lion-O hummed. "You're right. Something's not right here."
"Besides the Ancient Spirits of Evil and demons?" Leopara asked, crossing her arms. Of course something wasn't right here- she told him that before they even entered!
Lion-O nodded along with her, looking lost in thought. "We need to get to the bottom of this. Let's go." Lion-O swept his cloak around him and led the way through the village's winding path and out to the mouth of the cave. As they passed by, tigers stopped what they were doing and watched them in uncomfortable silence.
She could only return their discomfort.
Thank you for reading! A special thanks to The Night Whisperer, Heart of the Demons, and Hestia28 (That's such a great idea for a side story! Unfortunately, we won't see much of the twins in the next, er... ten chapters, maybe more? The rest of Native Son, The Pit, Curse of Ratilla, Birth of the Blades, and then Recipe For Disaster... might be something I write just because it sounds silly and fun! Also, yeah, these episodes were weird. Lion-O grows up so much in the Trials of Lion-O and so does everyone else... I'm going to work hard to keep that development intact while also keeping the story beats consistent!) for reviewing! Also, I know what you're going to say… "No Tygra explaining his origin story?" No, sadly for him, Lion-O already did that in chapter 22. I try not to repeat myself too much.