14

Village of Mist

"You're right, Wilytwins," Panthro said, making a face as they made to go into the woods. "This is creepy." He hesitated, then leaned over and asked them quietly, "Um, you didn't see any mutated bats flying around did you?"

Barely managing to conceal their smiles, they both shook their heads. "That's not to say there aren't any," Wilykit said, not able to resist. "But we didn't see any..."

"Great," he muttered

As the ThunderTank pulled up, everyone got out and surveyed the dismal village. It felt bad. It felt like it was no longer a place of civilization. but a town of the wild, the unnatural. "We call it Village of Mist," Wilykat ventured.

Cheetara, more than anyone, felt it. She was shaking as the twins led the way into the village. Lynx-O had been away far too long to know it well, and the others had been far too young. At the moment, the twins knew more about the layout of the town than anyone.

"This place is wrong," she said, her face a mixture of trepidation and disgust. "There's something wrong here."

"I know," Wilykat said. "Even we felt it a little when we first came here. It's creepy, and the stuff we found out was even worse." They showed the others everything they'd found, the homes that had all their things still in them, and the few that were cleared out.

"Those belonged to the others that moved out to go to the island," Lynx-O said sadly.

"We figured that out when we read your diary," Wilykit said. "And we went into the forest, too.. We saw the meteorite, and, well...we should show you."

"Yes," Lion-O said. "I want to know everything before we decide what to do." He turned to the others. "Be wary of attack by...by anything." He could not bring himself to think too hard on the creatures that had once been his people.

And so the twins led the others through the mists, and listened to them speaking, and exclaiming about what they saw, and felt. They too were discovering the things they had discovered upon going into the forest, and they also felt the wrongness of the place.

When they began to near the place where the meteorite had landed, the twins warned the others. Already they were beginning to feel its draining energy, and moved closer to each other.

Lynx-O grimaced in disgust, as he too had felt it once before. But now he would be spared the sight that greeted their eyes when they entered the radius where the mist did not obscure everything in shadows.

Most of the ThunderCats gasped, and Cheetara nearly collapsed as they neared the meteorite. Lynx-O caught her arm as she slumped net to him and guided her away from the thing, feeling his way through the trees. Knowing the cheetahs' powers, he had no doubt the overwhelming sensory input her sixth sense received must have been great. And even touching the mutated trees was unpleasant, and his hand was soon covered in a thin coating of slime.

"My gods," Tygra said, looking like he might vomit. "By Jaga...I have never seen Thundranium affect anything but Thunderians, and not in this way, surely."

"W-we told you," Wilykit said. She and Wilykat had refused to get any nearer; they were feeling sick already from the Thundranium, and could tell it was affecting the others too, but like they had when they came upon it they were riveted in morbid, horrified fascination. "It reacted with the forest somehow, the-the gasses, or the magic that made it go...go bad like that..."

"That is the most vile thing I've ever seen," Panthro said in disgust.

"We need to get away form here," Tygra said, "The last thing we need is Thundranium poisoning."

This seemed to break the unwholesome spell, and the Thunderians retreated quickly.

Panthro wobbled a bit as he made his way back to the Lair in the ThunderTank with the others. But they all got back in one piece, although Wilykat had vomited once.

"That was foolish," Tygra realized. "It was foolish, doing there without any protection against the Thundranium. From what you told us," he said to the kittens as he tended them. They were small, and so it always affected them a lot more than the adults. Tygra was still a bit sick, but Wilykat was still vomiting, and Wilykit was having difficult staying awake. "From what you told us about how those poor villagers were mutated, twisted form the forest's effects...and with you already having gotten a dose of it..." he shook his head. "I should have thought of it sooner."

"N-no kidding," Wilykat said shakily, holding a bucket in his hands in case he needed to throw up again. "H-how could if have already affected us? I-I mean...i-it only took twenty years for the people to...to...de-evolve like that."

"Something needs to be done about it," he said, finishing his examination of them. "I don't think any permanent harm has come to either of you but we all need to recover for a while and talk about what we're to do."

The tiger gave Wilykat a shot to curb his nausea and vomiting, and washed him down with an antiseptic formula that felt good to the boy, who felt hot and feverish. He gave the same treatment to Wilykit and told them both to lay down on the medical beds and get some sleep.

They were only too happy to obey.

The next week was spent talking about what to do. After a couple of days of recovery, the twins still looking pale even after that time, the lot of them were seated in the council room talking. Snarf had already given each and every one of them (the guests included) a lecture on doing foolish things without preparing, and was not satisfied until Tygra assured him that no ill effects remained.

He now at on the windowsill while they spoke.

"The place is evil," Cheetara said. "It...it needs to be destroyed, or something needs to be done about it. It's a danger."

"You can't do that!" Wilykit said, her expression horrified. "There are people, well, I mean they used to be Thunderians in there! And living creatures!" but she bit her lip, remembering the squirrel they'd found with eyeballs bulging grotesquely from its body like swollen sores.

"Yes," Tygra said grimly. "There is that. And then we must decide, is letting them live the right thing to do or a cruelty?"

"Who are we to decide?" Panthro pointed out.

Lion-O sighed. This was a decision that he did not want a hand in making, but he had no choice. Yes, it was a danger to his people, and anyone else on the planet. of course, he realized, most of Third Earth stayed away from the place. maybe they were more intelligent tan they were, lion-O thought with a bit of grim humor.

"Maybe there's a way to get that meteorite out of there without it really messing us up," Wilykat suggested. "Maybe Tygra and Panthro can figure out some kind of protecting suit that can shield it from us...or at least shield most of the radiation. Maybe it'll help against the mutating...whatever, too."

"That's a good idea," Tygra mused. "But we don't know if the creatures are being affected like that because the meteorite's still there or if it's already reacted with the forest and changed it still more, so that no matter what we do with the meteorite it will still be a danger."

Panthro growled low. "This is a difficult thing to decide."

"Perhaps," came Lynx-O's quiet voice. He and his two friends had sat quietly,. listening to the ThunderCats speaking, He had remained respectfully quiet until now, but their lord seemed to welcome advice, even from those not of the nobles. "Perhaps the wise thing to do would be to observe. Conduct tests on the air, and the trees. See how much of the forest has been affected and how badly." he frowned. "Maybe find out why it's expanding so quickly, as we saw in the town. That is also a danger. The greenery seemed to have some kind of decaying properties that are breaking down stone and wood in a matter of months from what Wilykit and Wilykat reported."

"It's almost sentient," Cheetara said, her face troubled. "Not completely, but there's a lurking, primitive sentience in that woods; collective, throughout the whole forest. It...it's tainted by evil, by the magic that Mumm-Ra used when he blasted it." She shuddered. "It needs to be taken care of, stopped, one way or another."

"Find a way to stop it from expanding," Wilykit said.

"Hold on a second," Wilykat said suddenly. "The Darkside...the forbidden territory. Why is it forbidden, Lion-O?"

"Well I am not sure. Most of it's superstition, but other than that, there's Fire Rock Mountain, which, as I don't have to point out, could very well be fatal to us if we were to get too close."

"Well I was thinking if we get those suits made up we could go through the Forest of Mists into Darkside, and see if it's expanding there, too. See how different it is over there, and maybe get some idea on how to control it. I mean the sensors say it's all rock over there. That means the forest ends."

"It's an idea, " Lion-O said, and smiled at the boy. "And not a bad one, either." He looked at Tygra. "I think we've got a lot of things to do in the next few weeks, my friend."

"And we'll all help," Panthro said. "But meanwhile, we need to get one of those hovercraft working so we can check out that island and retrieve these guys' things form the island. " He looked at them. "That is if you would like to stay here."

Bengali and Pumyra exchanged excited glances. All they had known was the tiny island., and would like the chance, at least for a little while. to stay at this magnificent fortress, and to help the ThunderCats! people that were only myth to them until now.

Lynx-O smiled. "I believe that we would, Panthro. Thank you."

"Then it's settled. We can do this, I know we can." Lion-O smiled at the group. "Meeting adjourned."

Part 15: Plans

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