Chapter 10

His eyes went wide. Looking down, he saw the sword sticking out of him. The sword in his hands dropped to the ground. It wasn't possible. Blood began to soak his uniform.

Bob backed away from the Lord of the ThunderCats. Turning his head, he saw Cheetara. A small smile crossed his face and he collapsed on the ground.

Cheetara looked at the blood on her hands. What she had just done still hadn't sunk in. The cheetah looked over at Lion-O and quickly she overcame her shock. Hurriedly, she went over to him. The Lord of the ThunderCats was pale and there was still blood coming out of his leg wound.

"Lion-O, you have to stay awake." She ordered him.

"I'm tired." He told her.

"I need you to help me. Command the sword. We need to close up the wound on your leg." Cheetara said. She lifted the Sword of Omens and had Lion-O put his hands on the grip. Then the Lord of the ThunderCats said a very weak,

"HO!" A bolt shot out of the Sword and sealed up the wound. Unfortunately, Lion-O had lost a lot of blood and he was still fading. Cheetara knew she wasn't stronger enough to carry the Lord of the ThunderCats back to Cat's Lair. Lion-O was covered in mud and his skin felt cold to the touch. The rain continued to fall and Cheetara knew she had to get him somewhere warm and dry.

There are some caves close by; maybe I can drag him over to one. She thought to herself. Carefully, she tried to lift Lion-O off the wet, muddy ground. It was hard and she slipped quite a few times. Now they were both covered in mud.

"Lion-O, you have to help me. Try to lift yourself up." She begged him. The Lord of the ThunderCats looked at her. He could see the concern in her eyes and he nodded.

"Ho!" He called out weakly and the Sword of Omens extended to its full length. Lion-O then tried to stick the Sword into the ground. Cheetara understood what he wanted and quickly, stuck the Sword of Omens into the ground. The blade held firm and Lion-O carefully lifted himself up out of the mud.

Cheetara then wrapped his arm around her shoulders and they slowly hobbled off toward a warm dry cave. Lion-O slipped a few times but the two ThunderCats continued on as best they could. The cave was dark but dry and this would give Cheetara the opportunity to come up with a plan.

"I'm cold." Lion-O whispered.

"I know. Everything is going to be ok, I promise." Cheetara couldn't hide the worry in her voice. There had to be someway to get Lion-O back to Cat's Lair. Snarf couldn't control the Hover Cat or Thunder Claw so there was no point in trying to use the Sword to summon him. However, leaving Lion-O alone in this state wasn't an option either.

Snarf was beginning to worry about Cheetara and Lion-O. They had been gone a long time and it was almost dark out. He wanted to go out and look for them but he couldn't leave Rober-Belle alone. That's when he heard the control room doors open.

The faithful companion whirled around to find Rober-Belle hobbling her way into the room. Snarf had managed to fix her knee joint according to Tygra's instructions from the Feliner. When Cheetara had rushed in and dropped the Berbil off, she hadn't said what was wrong with her. Rober-Belle had just said that she had fallen down awkwardly.

"I think I'm going to go home now. I'm sure that Rober-Bill will be wondering what had happened to me." The female Berbil said.

"On that bad knee, I think not." Snarf told her."Oh its not that bad. Besides, I should get back to see if I can help repair the communication system." Rober-Belle said firmly. Snarf was about to argue but he stopped himself. If she wanted to go then he could look for Lion-O and Cheetara.

Back in the cave, Cheetara had pulled Lion-O close to her to try to share some body heat. The Lord of the ThunderCats felt like ice and she feared that if she didn't get his temperature up, he might slip away from her.

Outside the cave, the cheetah could hear noises. It sounded like something searching for something. The Sword of Omens remained silent, so she tried to focus on saving Lion-O. He seemed to be getting warmer and she tried to keep him from falling asleep.

"I hear the best way to do this is to be completely naked." Lion-O suddenly whispered. If he wasn't in such a way, Cheetara might have smacked him upside the head.

"Funny, I don't remember hearing that." She smiled.

"How are we getting back to Cat's Lair?" He asked his voice still soft.

"We'll get back. We can go when it gets light out." Cheetara told him. Lion-O didn't say anything and she looked at him. Though the cave was dark, her sharp cat eyes picked up everything she needed to see. The Lord of the ThunderCats eyes were closed and she was immediately frightened that he wasn't breathing. However, her fears were calmed when she could still feel his chest moving up and down. Soon the cheetah herself was fast asleep.

Rober-Belle hobbled into the Berbil village and Rober-Bill and about ten other Berbils met her.

"We were about to go out and look for you. When the storm fried our communication equipment, we were so busy trying to fix it that we didn't notice you were gone." One of the Berbils explained.

"You're hurt! Come let's get her off her feet." Rober-Bill exclaimed. They were about to help her when the female Berbil told them to stop.

"We have to go out into the forest and look for Lion-O and Cheetara. They were in the forest fighting with…" She stopped. Should she tell them about Bob?

"I'm sure they are fine. After all they are ThunderCats." Rober-Bill tried to calm her down.

"But I was just at Cat's Lair and they weren't there!" Rober-Belle protested. This made Rober-Bill stop in his tracks.

"Where were they?" He asked.

"In the forest." She told them. Rober-Bill took command of the Berbils surrounding him. Two were ordered to take Rober-Belle home and the remaining Berbils were to go with him to the forest. Torches were lit and the Berbils set off in search of their ThunderCat friends.

Snarf was searching around Cat's Lair but he couldn't seem to find a trace of Lion-O or Cheetara.

"Where have those two gone?" He said to no one in particular. Calling to any animal friends in the area, Snarf continued to hunt for them. None of the animals said they had seen them until one critter mentioned that he saw two large cats fighting in the forest. Snarf thanked his friend and went off as quickly as he could to the forest.

To Be Continued…