12

Confessions

"Is that what you have called it?" Lynx-O asked, his voice mildly curious.

But Lion-o was looking far more suspicious. "And how would you know that?" he asked them. "Have you and Wilykat been going into that forest?"

"Well..." Wilykat said. "Not exactly..." He fidgeted in his chair.

"The village is on the far side," Wilykit said, resisting the urge to squirm. "You guys haven't checked that area out yet."

Lion-O narrowed his eyes. The twins were looking guilty as sin, and he had the suspicion that they hadn't exactly heeded the rules for their exploration. "And just how would you know this?" he asked, keeping his voice calm.

"Well..." Wilykat said. "We mighta, kinda, gone past the boundaries Tygra set," he said. He held his fingers about an inch apart. "Just a little bit."

The young lord gave them both a look that plainly said that they would discuss this in length later, but turned back to Lynx-O, who looked mildly puzzled. "This Forest of Mists..." he said. "Is this where the meteorite landed?"

"Well, it is more a swamp than a forest," Lynx-o said. "Now, at least. But yes, deep within, it fell."

"A swamp?"

"He's right, Lion-O," Wilykat said. "The gasses come out of the grou---" Oops. Okay well he'd messed that one up, too. He winced and tried to give lion-o a winning grin, but it looked kinda sick.

"So you did go in! Wilykat, do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"

Wilykat scowled, suddenly angry. "Yes," he said, his voice suddenly a bit cold. "I do. We understand a lot more things than you think we do, Lion-O. And we've found out a lot! We found their old village." He looked at Lynx-O. "We found your diary, lynx-O, the one you left behind."

He looked surprised. "Really! Then you understand much of what I have told you! Extraordinary."

Not willing to pursue the argument further in front of their hosts, Lion-O merely growled a bit at the twins then turned back to Lynx-O. "We will help you find the rest of the colony, Lynx-O," he said. "And if any in your village still live - "

"They don't." This was Wilykit. She and Wilykat were in big trouble already, and she felt that these castaways should know. "Their village is completely deserted and the forest's mostly taken it over." She looked at Lynx-O. "Your house has got vines all over it, and the mist is all inside it... Can't even see the back half of your house. And a vine broke your bedroom window."

Lynx-O frowned, uneased. "Yes. I once thought that the forest had gained some kind of unnatural sentience. The woodsmen had been very busy clearing the scrubbrush and even sprouting trees from the edges of the villages. We lost one of our crops to a parasitic vine species that had destroyed it."

Lion-O looked at the twins. "And what of this colony? Do you know anything about it?"

Wilykit winced, and was very reluctant to say it, especially not after the news about Thundera. "W-well..." she said. "I know what happened to it." Pumyra and Bengali were looking at her with interest, but Lynx-O had sensed the kitten's sorrow, and had slumped back a bit in his chair, dreading the information.

"They...they've all been killed," Wilykat said, biting his lip. "They were killed by Mumm-Ra."

This time, Lion-O also looked shocked. "How do you know this?" he asked skeptically.

"He told me, remember Lion-O? I told you most of what he told me that time. I just kinda, mighta, forgotten to mention the Thunderians part." Wilykit said.

Her brother spoke. "And we went to the island, found a map in one of the homes that had it marked on it." He gulped. "It was blasted flat, the sand had gotten so hot it'd fused into this smooth rock. There was nothing left living on it."

"My gods," Pumyra whispered, turning her head away. Wilykat felt bad when he saw there were tears leaking from her eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said, looking upset.

Bengali growled, and suddenly stood up. "I don't believe you," he said to Wilykat, and then turned to Lynx-O. "Are we gonna sit here and believe these ridiculous stories from two children? I will not." And with that, he stormed from the cabin.

Before anything else could be said, Wilykit too ran out of the cabin. Odd, Lion-O thought, for her to be upset enough to run away from something so small. But when he heard her confronting Bengali, he actually almost smiled. That was far more like her. "I'm sorry," he said to Lynx-O. "I had better go out and make sure Wilykit's not starting a fight."

Pumyra looked angry, and wiped her eyes. She and Lynx-O also stood. "If someone starts a fight, it's likely doing to be Bengali, and just like him to start a fight with a cub, too!' she said. Everyone went outside to where the two angry Thunderians faced each other.

To one who did not know Wilykit, the picture might have been an amusing one. Bengali was a strong looking young man, and a good deal taller than Wilykit, whose wildcat blood made her even smaller. Thin and wiry, she was facing the tiger spiritedly enough for ten Thunderians, and a flush had tinged her face pink. She was mad.

"Just watch how you talk to me, cub," Bengali was saying, narrowing his ice-blue eyes at her. "I don't want to hurt you, being a child and all, but if you anger me, I will."

"Go ahead and try, Bengali!" she said, and Lion-O noticed that he bristled upon the kitten using his familiar name. "I may be a cub, but I know what I saw! Everything else I said went along with what Lynx-O remembers. You were just a baby, how would you even know? You just don't wanna face what's real!"

"Okay, that's it!" Bengali growled and lunged for the girl.

Pumyra winced and moved forward, as if to stop him, but Wilykat took hold of her tunic, and said, "It's okay. My sister can handle him, honest." She looked down at him, doubtful. "Trust me. She's kicked Mutants' tails before."

She stayed put, although it was clear she was reluctant. Lion-O and Lynx-O merely stood side by side and watched (Lynx-O listened) to make sure things did not get out of hand.

Wilykat was right, though. Bengali was strong, from life of rugged existence and hard work, but he was unskilled in fighting. Wiry and quick, Wilykit had been trained to fight. Seeing his rather clumsy charge, she leapt up nimbly in the air, higher than one would expect someone so small to be able to leap.

She landed lightly on the ground as Bengali had to stop short to avoid running into a nearby tree. he growled and turned around to face her. There was a moment of tense silence before he lunged at her once more, and she dived at his feet, grabbing them both and refusing to let go until he reached down to throw a punch at her. Then the young ThunderCat released his legs and ducked it, if only barely. "Okay that's it!" she said. "You wanna fight rough?" Crouching on all fours still, she sank her claws into his leg and sent four gouges down his thigh.

Bengali roared in pain and anger and lunged forward once again, catching the girl by the arm and twisting, Wilykit winced, but was flexible enough to avoid injury. She twisted, throwing herself on the ground as he threw another furious punch, which caught her a glancing blow in the face. She shook her head and caught the arm as it punched at her again, sinking her claws into it, too.

Lion-O shook his head. "Okay, that's enough," he muttered. They'd had plenty of time for their show of testosterone. And he wasn't even sure if females had any! Knowing the Sword of Omens would not and could not harm a ThunderCat, he aimed it at Wilykit and cried "HOOO!" He willed it to merely knock her away from her opponent.

Wilykit yelped as the energy beam caught her and sent her sprawling harmlessly to the soft sand, and Lion-O quickly ran to stand between them. "All right," he said. "That's enough. If you two had something to prove, " he looked sternly at both Wilykit and then Bengali, "then you've proven it quite enough."

Wilykit stood up rubbing her cheek, which was starting to bruise. Her arm also began to show a bruise, but she didn't complain, only glared at Bengali. Wilykat ran over to her and asked her if she was all right. Wilykit nodded.

Bengali did not stand up quite at first. he was staring at the Sword of Omens as it showed its power. "By Thundera," he whispered. "Lynx-O was right. You must be a descendant of the king!"

"Actually they changed royal families after you guys left," Wilykat ventured uncertainly. "There was a new ruling body, and has been for a while. Lion-O's the last member of that."

'Unless he and Cheetara..." Wilykit said very softly to her brother, and didn't need to finish the sentence. She and Wilykat snickered softly, then looked back at Lion-O and Bengali.

The young man then stood up and looked somewhat abashed. "I'm sorry, my lord," he said, evidently flustered when he realized that he was, in essence, speaking to a king. "I...I guess I didn't believe you. I've only heard about the Sword of Omens in the history books, and fables...I couldn;t ebelive what my eyes told me I guess."

Lion-O shook his head. "Please, call me Lion-O. Since there are so few of us left, and I'm not so much one for titles, I would rather not go into formalities." He smiled at Bengali. "I'm not offended. I think Wilykit might be the one who's offended." he noticed Bengali's bleeding leg and the trickles of blood on his arm. "If we're going to discover what happened once and for all, we are going to need to work together."

This time he looked hard at Wilykit, who scowled for a moment and then relented and nodded. "All right," she finally said.

Lion-O nodded. "Good. Shake hands, you two." He gave Wilykit a hard look. "And there had better be no trick anythings in your hand when you do so, either."

Wilykat stifled a snicker at this as Wilykit gave her leader a dirty look and stepped forward. Feeling a little odd, she stuck out her hand to Bengali, who took it after a moment, and they shook.

"All right," Lion-O said, looking to Pumyra, who looked impressed, and Lynx-O who looked merely amused. "Well the first priority is for us to see if Wilykit and Wilykat are correct." He held up a hand as Wilykit began to protest. "I know what you saw, and I know you're speaking the truth," he said. "But everyone makes mistakes. It could have been the wrong island. They could have gotten there to discover it already like that moved elsewhere."

"But Mumm-Ra--"

"And you took his word for it?" Lion-O said, kindly but pointedly. Wilykit fell silent, frowning, and felt a little silly. He was the enemy, why would he tell the truth? "I guess you're right," she said. "I still think he was way too smug to be lying, though."

Lion-O turned to the others. "I don't want to get your hopes up. it may be as they say. But I am sure you would like to make sure."

"Yes," Pumyra said firmly. The others nodded.

"All right. First, then, we must get everyone to the mainland. You are welcome to stay at the Lair for as long as it takes to get this thing figured out if you are willing. Then we need to devise some way besides the spaceboards to drive on the water. Then we can begin to sort this thing out."


Bengali and Wilykit

Part 13: Truce

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