32

Journey's End

"It's been a year," Fegreth said. He was looking at a photograph of Saber that had been taken in town at the photographer's shop a few years before.

His mate was in the kitchen trying to unclog the drain. It had clogged three times already that week. "A year for what?" she asked.

Fegreth sighed and set the photo down. "A year since Saber first left the Valley." He entered the kitchen and put an arm around his mate. "And I punished him for it. Dannika...what if that's why he left the second time? What if he was angry, and did it in rebellion? I could not bear it if I were the reason my son is dead."

Dannika shook her head and embraced her husband. "No, Fegreth, he was not the kind of boy, you know that. He always had the spirit in him to explore. There have been others. He just could not stay in one place. It was no one's fault."

"He's not dead," came a voice from the doorway. Both adults looked up to see their son, their younger son, standing in the doorway. He was clutching a soft stuffed canine that he had been sleeping with this whole time.

Drii's parents both hastily dried their eyes, not wanting to cry in front of the child and upset him more. Fegreth lifted him up. "You must face it, little one," he said gently, his voice kind. "We both miss Saber too. But we must realize that he is gone."

Drii sniffed and wiped his own eyes, pulling away from his father. "He's not dead!" he insisted. "Saber wouldn't ever die, he promised! He swore it!"

The two adults looked at each other, and as Fegreth set him down, the boy's mother knelt to speak to him. "Drii, he would never leave us on purpose. We know that. But sometimes things happen that we cannot do anything about. Some things are just more powerful than Erthrins." She drew the boy into her arms as he started to cry.

"I want Saber back," he sniffed as his mother held him.

"So do I, little one," she replied. "So do I."

She might have held her child one for a long time, had the interaction not been interrupted by a great crashing sound outside of their home, and some yelling. With a frown, Fegreth grabbed his sword and ran outside, actually happy to have the interruption. Dannika stood and followed her husband, Drii in tow, as he left the house. She found him staring in shock at what was outside.

The woman's eyes became as wide as her husband's did as she watched. What looked to her like a great beast bird, with razor sharp wings, flew down the streets, shooting fire from its eyes at the villagers than scattered from it. It shot at buildings, setting some afire, shot at the Erthrins, downing some of them. "My gods, Fegreth," Dannika whispered in horror. "Fegreth, what is it?"

Fegreth's face was pale. What everyone hoped would never happen had happened. The demons of the rocklands had come into the village and were exacting their wrath on the people. "It's a demon, Dannika," he whispered.

Drii was staring at the Icerunner, his jaw open, his eyes as wide and round as plates. He stared in equal parts abject terror and complete fascination at the beast of metal. This was one of the demons his brother had described to him that one fateful day!

Finally, Fegreth broke out of his shock. "Dannika, get Drii inside!" He ran out into the street. But he got no further than a few dozen feet before Hantrik, a warrior he knew from the village, grabbed him by the shoulders. His whole left side had been seared, as if from a hot iron in the blacksmith's shop. His face bled, looking like it had been mauled by a wolf or some other creature. "This is your doing!" he screamed, shaking the other man. It was not a strong gesture, as he was staggering, using Fegreth more for support than he was shaking him.

Fegreth frowned in amazement. "What?? This is my fault? What have I done?"

"Your son brought this all down on us, Fegreth! If you'd kept him here! The demons are destroying our village looking for him!" Hantrik screamed deliriously while his fellow warrior stared.

"Drii?"

"NO! Saber! Saber, who left the valley, who brought the wrath of the rocklands on us! Your boy has damned us!"

"Now just a second," Fegreth said, his voice shaking. "My son is dead! You'll not be speaking ill of him!"

A moment later, one of the female warriors came up and helped Hantrik away. "They're looking for him," she spat. "Damn you, Fegreth. You tell those demons that he is dead. YOU go and face their wrath!"

Feeling numb, Fegreth looked up at the metal bird, which was looking more to him now like a strange sort of vehicle that flew, than a living thing. He could now see that a red eyed demon flew it. His wife, having told her child to stay inside if he did not want to get the thrashing of his life, had joined her husband outside, and saw the damage the demons were doing. She saw another such vehicle-beast like the red-eyed one was not driving. "Th-they say they are looking for Saber..." Fegreth told her.

Dannika gasped. "Do they think it his fault?"

Fegreth nodded numbly. "Yes. If we survive they will probably haul it up in front of the village's council. If they think us responsible for this, I will be stripped of my warrior title and privileges. You will probably not be allowed to trade in the town...at the very least."

His wife nodded grimly. "I know how the council works. At the worst they will exile us beyond the Western Boarder, where Saber went."

Fegreth's expression hardened. "Hey!" he screamed, waving his weapon at the demon. What he was doing was unspeakable, and even though he head recovered fully from the injuries Earthquake had inflicted on him when he attacked, he still remembered it well. But now his family and his people were at stake here. "You are looking for me, stop shooting your fire at the villagers! It is me you want!"

"It is us you want" his wife corrected. She firmly took her husband's hand, vowing to stand by him.

He looked at her seriously. "If something happens to me, Drii needs to be taken care of."

She nodded grimly. "If something happens to you, we will be exiled anyway and likely die. Maybe I can prevent that."

He thought a moment and then looked back to the demon, who had stopped his flying vehicle to glare at him with his unnatural eyes. "Go to the village square, mortal!" he commanded, and flew off.

Fegreth narrowed his eyes and began to run. "Come on, Dannika!" He and his wife ran for the village square; where, he was sure, their fate would be decided one way or another.

Unseen by either of them, a terrified Drii had snuck from the house and run after them, clutching his stuffed toy still, running as fast as his legs would carry him.

"Infra."

Infra frowned at her brother's voice, and picked up the radio. "What?"

"I found the brat's parents, and am leading them to the town square!"

Infra laughed. "Good work, punk. We'll be there!" Infra got on the radio to everyone else and told them where to meet. Every available vehicle had scoured the valley, looking for the family of the boy, and maybe for the boy himself. Now they would find out if the brat was here and being hidden, or just had not yet arrived. Now they all converged on the town square, Skytomb not far behind. Aboard Skytomb, Mumm-Ra waited.

Meanwhile, Saber had whooped in delight as he saw the beginnings of overgrown crops, and ran for the village he knew lay ahead. But something was wrong; he smelled smoke. The boy shook his head, dismissing it. The Berbils were probably just having one of their phantom attacks, torching their own homes because they thought they were being attacked.

As he walked through the village, he thought his suspicion had just been confirmed. Buildings burned, and the road had been torn up by some kind of weapons, like those on the Lunattacks' strange vehicles. But wait a minute. The Berbils had nothing that could make that kind of mark, did they?

With a sense of anxiety, Saber ran through the streets, searching for someone. This was wrong too, last time the Berbils had raced around, seemingly at random, although the pattern was written out in their memories. But no one moved. Here and there he did see some of the strange little people, standing still, as if frozen in place. "Robearbill!" Finally!

Saber ran up to the Berbil he had befriended so long ago, and he still stood in the same place, staring up at the sky. "Robearbill, do you remember me? it's me, Saber!"

Now that there was something here to react to, Robearbill finally turned his head from the sky. His head made a thin squeaking sounds as he did, like a rusty hinge. "Saber!" he exclaimed, his mechanical, droning voice sounding dazed. "My, how you've grown."

Saber shook his head at the incoherancy. "Robearbill," he said, putting his hands on the Berbil's shoulder. "Robearbill, what happened here?"

"An-an-an aattack...there was an attaa-a-a-ack..." The Berbil said, sounding so devastatingly shocked that such a thing had happened. It had been so many hundreds of years...

Saber frowned. "A real one? You didn't do this yourselves?" Realizing that the Berbil would not know what he meant, since he thought the others were real attacks, he changed his tactics. "Who? Who attacked you, Robearbill?"

"The Lunattacks!" Robearbill cried. Some of the other Berbils were beginning to come out of their dazes as he said it. "It was the Lunattacks, ThunderCats!" Robearbill's programming was slowly rewriting itself. There had been an outside attack! Now they could go back to reacting the way they did. There was an attack, they must call for the ThunderCats to save them. The ThunderCats would come!

Saber now knew who the ThunderCats had been, and somehow knew what Robearbill was thinking. He watched, feeling a deep sadness as the Berbil ran off, presumably to call for help to these ThunderCats. And they would never come. Would they think they had been betrayed? Maybe. Or maybe their mechanical minds were just so far gone that they would create some other kind of reality to fill the gaps.

The boy shook his head, feeling much the same way as he had the first time he had come here: like he had stepped from the world he knew into a different time, to a place that existed outside of time...yes. A world of spirits. Suddenly he wanted to be as far away from the Berbils as he could.

Saber began to run, but then he stopped short. Smoke. He was still seeing smoke, and it was not coming from the Berbils' torched huts. It was coming from his village, his home.

Now feeling an intense fear, fear for his people's and his family's safety, Saber did run, ran as fast as he could.

Part 33: Interrogation

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