Chapter 8: In the Blink of an Eye

Leppria didn't know what to make of the tiny flower people, but they seemed to be as equally wary of her, all except for one. The smallest flower crawled through the crowd and beamed up at them with eyes the color of periwinkles, wide and bright in the way that only a child's eyes could be.

"What are you? I've never seen people like you before!" he cried, running as fast as his leafy legs could carry him to stand before Lion-O's form, massive compared to his own. "Are you from here in the briar? What's that in your hands? Did you make it?"

The flower began firing off questions one after another, pointing his petal-like fingers all over the cat king from his scarlet mane to the gleaming Eye of Thundera. Leppria exchanged an amused smile with Cheetara as the little one climbed up and placed his hand on Snarf's nose, giggling when he found it wet and cold.

"You're not like the others, are you some sort of pet?" he asked, turning back to Lion-O when the furry creature didn't answer. "Do you grow from seeds like us? What's that red crystal? How tall are you anyway? Why're you covered with hair? Why do only some of you have spots? What kind of…"

The king pressed the pad of his finger against the flower's mouth, silencing his barrage of questions before he hurt himself. The little flower wriggled his arms a bit before calming down, blinking up at the larger man as he took his finger back. "Okay, slow down, you sound like me when I was your age."

The child dissolved into giggles, the other plant-people joining him, and even Leppria couldn't suppress a chuckle, feeling a similar Deja-vu while watching the young flower fire off question after question, not unlike herself when she first discovered Jorma's stall in the slums.

"I see you've already met young Emerick." Another voice sprouted from the crowd, a plant creature whose petals had been withered with age stepping forward with the help of a miniature staff.

Cheetara kneeled before the elder, more so out of convenience than respect. "Who are you?" she asked.

"What are you?" Tygra added.

The elder gestured with his staff to the rest of his people. "We are the Petalars." He said. "We come from a far-off paradise called the Garden, but long ago a great disaster befell our people. A terrible wind unlike anything our people have ever seen whipped through our homeland, sweeping up the entire Petalar race and carrying us a across the sky to bring us here, to Briar Woods, where we have remained for generations."

"Generations?" the prince repeated, his head tilted with confusion. "Is this place so big you couldn't find your way out in all that time?"

Leppria had a similar thought, the briar didn't seem unnavigable but then again the Petalars were pretty small, maybe it wasn't hard to get lost when you're that small.

Little Emerick scampered closer to them, holding up a leaf as big as he was with a look of beaming excitement on his face. "We have a map though! It's very old and it'll lead us out of the briar to the Cliff of Winds, if we can find it we'll be able to ride the winds all the way home!"

Lion-O took the leaf, examining the scribbles and symbols, Leppria felt herself slide in beside him, raising a skeptical eyebrow at the near unintelligible map. Something about this didn't feel right, but before she could say so her king had already made up his mind.

He was really annoying when he did that.

"We'll help you, and find a way out of this briar together." He declared, using the pad of his finger to delicately ruffle Emerick's hair. "You can count on me Emerick, I promise."

The periwinkle-headed child cheered, climbing onto the king's shoulder and swinging tufts of his mane as if they were flags of victory. "Hooray for Lion-O! Hooray for Lion-O!"

The other Petalars joined in, cheering for the Thundercats that had decided to aid them on their quest, and while Leppria still had a weird feeling in her gut, she couldn't help but smile. It had been a while since the group was able to help others rather than survive by the skin of their teeth, in fact, it was the first time they had ever had the opportunity to do so.

"Looks like Emerick's found a hero." Cheetara mused, Tygra scoffing beside the two women and not even trying to hide his dismissal.

"He's too young to know any better."

Leppria almost punched him in the arm but was stopped by a shiver going up her back. She almost swatted at whatever it was but stopped herself when she heard giggling from beneath her ponytail. A trio of Petalar children no younger than Emerick had climbed their way up her back and had begun playing with the barley brown strands of her mane.

They were so small and adorable she instantly felt bad for almost swatting them.

Her green eyes met theirs, the children smiling up at her. "Hello!" one of them said, their petals the same shade of pink as a sunrise. "I'm Linden!"

The leopard smiled, Linden patting his hand against one of the arrays of spots across her cheek while one of his friends ran their hands through the fur along her neck and shoulders. "Hi, I'm Leppria." She replied, watching the little Petalar climb her like a tree.

Following their pink-petaled companion, the other two flowers shimmied down Leppria's bangs as if they were ropes. The one on the left, who was as yellow as a buttercup and just as bright, swung back and forth playfully. "I'm Orrin, and that's Clove," she explained, pointing to the Petalar on the right. "Don't listen to anything Linden tells you, I always have to keep him out of trouble."

She couldn't stop the snicker that spurted out of her mouth despite Linden's cry of protest.

That sound way too similar to someone else she knew.

Lion-O walked ahead of them, Emerick perched on a branch nearby as the two most likely regaled each other with anything they had, the lion even bringing out his sword and directing the flower boy's own thorned weapon.

"Trust me Orrin, I know the feeling." She sent a knowing wink to the tiny girl, Orrin covering her giggles with her hands when they both heard Linden scoff from his place on Leppria's shoulder.

Orrin, Linden, and Clove had firmly decided to cling to Leppria as they began their trek through the briar, the rest of the Petalars walking close together and feeling safe as they were flanked by their new feline friends.

Cheetara thumbed one of the markings on the map, her brow furrowing as she scanned their surroundings. "I can't recognize a single landmark on this map." She said, ruby lips scrunched with slight frustration that was almost invisible on her stoic yet warm features.

Emerald eyes twitched as Leppria felt Clove brush against the strap of her cannon. "What's this thing do?" she asked, distracting the leopard from the cheetah's navigational gambit. She ran her leafy hands along the leather, tracing it to the cannon's barrel and widening her pollen-colored eyes when she touched the cold metal.

"It's a plasma cannon, Thundrilium crystals rub against each other to create energy, and that energy gets compressed into a blast, and I point it to shoot at things." She explained, the clover hopping into her palm and giggling as she placed her on top of her head before she unhooked the weapon and held it on her shoulder.

Linden's eyes sparkled beside his friend, "Cool…" he gaped.

"What things do you shoot at?" Clove asked, her head tilting. Leppria blinked, realizing that the Petalars had no idea what she was talking about, or even what shoot meant. It was possible that this little race of flowers had never known war or violence.

How lucky for them.

A screech from overhead pulled her attention away, the squawk of a large bird of prey echoing out as it swooped down towards the Petalars. Leppria's hand flew to her cannon, but she wasn't fast enough as little Emerick cried out from within the bird's talons.

"Help me Lion-O!" he cried, waving his sword uselessly.

The king raced after the bird, his own sword brandished aggressively, "Emerick! Fight back!"

The boy stabbed his thorned sword into the bird's leg, the animal screeching as it dropped him and Emerick screaming as he fell into the underbrush.

Movement rustled beneath her ponytail, "I hope he's okay, it's been so long since I last saw him…" the voice next to her ear was unfamiliar, so much so that Leppria flinched and darted her gaze to the pink-haired Petalar perched atop her shoulder.

"Where'd you come from?" she asked, the flower chuckling as it leaned against her cheek.

Another voice chimed from down by her feet. "We've been here a while Leppria, you'd think you'd recognize Linden when you saw him."

"Linden?"

The pink-haired boy jumped from her shoulder, landing beside the girl on the ground and tickling her stomach before getting slapped away. "Last time I checked!"

The leopard's gaze shifted to the girl, finding something familiar in the smile on her face and the petals on her head the color of buttercups. "And you're Orrin?"

"Who else could keep this guy on his toes?" Orrin punched Linden's arm, the teenage boy glaring but only nudging his friend harmlessly in response.

The two ran forward after that, chasing each other and razzing on each other like they did when they were kids, but Lep had to shake her head to convince herself that was only hours ago.

How the hell was that possible?!

The pair couldn't be who they said they were, appearing to be old enough to be Leppria's senior in Petalar terms, but Linden and Orrin were just little kids! They played in her hair and hung off her every word when she described the logistics of her weapon. The two before her hung off of each other the same way, but there was something more now, something that only formed over years of knowing another person. For Linden and Orrin that time had passed before Leppria could even look over her shoulder.

Cheetara stood beside her, a sapling grasped gently in her hand, the child giggling aimlessly as they were carried. "An ancient Thunderan philosopher once said that time is relative." She said, setting the child down and watching as it grew into a pre-teen right before her eyes. "This child was a baby just hours ago, the Petalars' entire existence seems to pass in the course of a single day… but to them…"

It's a lifetime.

The shorter cat couldn't bring herself to say anything, she could only watch as Linden took Orrin's hand in his, not letting go as the two walked together.

"They've become so close…" she thought aloud.

A Petalar that could've only been Clove emerged from her mane, the teenager having grown taller and her eyes wiser. "They've known each other a long time." She said, leaning against Leppria and looking out over her fellow flowers. "Are you as close with your friends?"

Without thinking about it, her gaze fell to the twins, watching the children play and giggling when they participated. She watched Cheetara hand the map to Tygra, an annoyed scowl on his face that was quick to fade in the cleric's presence.

She also looked at Lion-O, the boy-king who was busy talking to Emerick again.

Clove's question made her ears twitch with the realization that she didn't know anything about her companions. Their thoughts and feelings, or even who they were before their home fell, if they were different, if they would have ever spoken to each other otherwise.

She had no doubt Cheetara would have met the princes, she was a cleric after all, the protectors of the crown, but Leppria… the simple blacksmith's apprentice who spent her time reviving junk and who wasn't nearly as memorable or as important… would she have ever said a word to them outside of respectful greetings?

The answer was obviously no, though her encounter with Lion-O that day in the slums came to mind for a moment.

They wouldn't have been friends then, and they could hardly call themselves friends now.

They were just survivors, remnants of Thundera that weren't even strong enough to call themselves a proper rebellion. They had no weapons or supplies besides what they could fit on their backs, and it was exactly as Lion-O said; if they faced the Lizards in their current condition they'd die, and the Thundercats would fade into nothing.

Leppria clenched her fists, looking down at the ground and wondering where Panthera was above them, if she was still shining or if she too had been swallowed by the briar's darkness.

"I don't know." She finally answered, Clove being left with only that.

A Petalar fell as another was born, the elder falling to his knees before scattering in a flurry of withered leaves carried away by the wind. The seedling fell into its mother's arms, completely content and unaware of the life she was replacing.

"Are we making any progress?" Cheetara asked, paws gliding lightly across the forest floor.

Tygra scoffed loudly, the map gripped tightly between his fingers, if he squeezed any harder the leaf might have crumbled. "If the map is meant to lead us into every thorn bush in the briar than yes! We're doing great!"

The leopard grimaced, sighing glumly as the group became even more lost. Although, it did seem good that they were lost, because if they didn't know where they were, there was a good chance the lizard army didn't know either.

Leppria smiled at the scene between new mother and child, watching as the female Petalar touched her forehead to her giggling baby's. She eventually fell into step beside Lion-O, his frustrated mumbling pulling her out of her own thoughts.

"I don't understand what he wants from me, if it wasn't for me he'd be in some creature's stomach by now!" he fumed, not so much talking to her so much as he was talking in general. "He's so stubborn!"

She couldn't stop the laugh that tumbled past her lips, she barely even tried. "Said the pot to the kettle…"

He looked back at her, ears perked. "What's that supposed to mean?" he grumbled, looking offended, but Leppria honestly couldn't take him too seriously.

She just shrugged, "Emerick is hot-headed and would rather let his anger tell him what to do instead of using his head… sound familiar to you?"

"I don't do that!" he yelled stubbornly, but she just shrugged again and he sighed, running a hand through his fiery hair. A pause stretched on between them as they walked, Lion-O looking over at her and Leppria quick to break eye contact out of old habit, though she chose to ignore the burn of embarrassment beneath the fur of her cheeks.

I can't believe it's taken me 8 chapters for Lion-O and Leppria to have a single conversation! But don't worry, they will be talking more next chapter as Leppria tells him exactly what she thinks of him. Also, as horrific as the war is, the cats have to admit they would never know each other without it. Cheetara would probably never admit her feelings to Tygra, sworn to the clerics. Tygra and Lion-O wouldn't work out their grudge against each other and love each other as brothers are supposed to. The kittens would probably still be scavenging in the slums, and Leppria would still be wasting her life in her little bubble. Till next time! Ciao!