Chapter 9: Leaves Passing in the Wind

Dusk cast shadows over the briar and another Petalar passed away into the wind, and Leppria frowned as no newborn seed came down as a harbinger for new life, something good to outweigh the ever present sorrow.

"What's the point of it all?" she heard Lion-O whisper, his eyes downcast as his arms hung limply beside the sheathed Sword of Omens. He watched the Petalars continue on, still trying to return to their precious Garden while most of them had probably never even seen it, their ancestors having long since faded away, never able to go home. "Kingdoms rise and fall, lifetimes come and go… are any of us even here long enough to make a difference?"

Leppria stared at the king for a long time, considering him and all that he was and used to be. She came up to stand behind him, almost by his side but hesitating slightly. "When you pardoned those Lizards at the festival… I thought you were an idiot who didn't know anything."

He looked back at her, not saying anything, so she continued.

"I thought poor little prince who wants to help the Lizards, what does he know about anger or loss, he's never even been outside the city…" Lion-O looked like he wanted to defend himself but she continued before he could. "I heard the rumors about how Tygra was the prince who should be king, and you had your head in the clouds… I never thought you'd give another thought to why the Lizards don't deserve forgiveness or mercy… why the cats hate them and why those families never came home…"

When she trailed off he closed his mouth, understanding passing through his azure eyes.

It was true she scoffed at his minute efforts to be a proper prince, and truth be told she had never really cared, much rather hiding away in the forge than dealing with the politics of cats and lizards; she hated them and that was not ever going to change, but she did realize how foolish it was to think Lion-O had never experienced hardship because of his royal blood.

Now that they stood together in their tight little band, trying so hard just to make it to the next day… she knew he did suffer loss, and he did have to put aside his anger for the good of everyone around him, he'd proven that to her and everyone else that day with the Ramlak.

"But…" she added, seeing his ears perk from the corner of her emerald eyes. She turned and looked him in the eye, and she wasn't a blacksmith's apprentice looking at a prince, she was a cat looking at another cat. "I don't think that anymore."

"You sound like old geezers talking like that." Emerick called, sword of thorns hanging loyally at his side. He smiled up at them, "With so many great adventures ahead of us, we still have the chance to make our marks!"

Lion-O chuckled, a much welcomed sound compared to his melancholy silence. "Yes my friend, many adventures I hope."

The leopard girl smiled, feeling a little bit better.

"He talks a big game, doesn't he?" a clover-colored Petalar snickered. Leppria looked over her shoulder, Clove crossing her arms over her chest, looking down at Emerick as he walked with his head held high.

The pair smirked to knowingly to themselves, walking together through the briar and anticipating the coming of dawn, hoping the sun would begin to peek through the thick branches soon.

Emerick suddenly stopped. "It can't be…" he ran head of the other Petalars, grabbing the map out of Cheetara's grasp and holding it up to the light. His eyes widened and he laughed victoriously, "This is it! The gateway to the Cliff of Winds! Once we get through this pass we'll be free!"

They all cheered, and Leppria sent Clove a teasing look when she saw the now adult flower pull her hands to her chest with pink cheeks, never taking her eyes away from Emerick as he lead their people through the prickled gateway.

Cheetara and Tygra looked to Lion-O, the king smiling at his people, as few as they were.

"Then let's go."

The lion took only a single step forward before a flash of light shot through the underbrush and struck him in the back, Lion-O falling to the ground with a pained shout as the plasma bullet sucked the air from his lungs.

"Lion-O!"

Tygra ran to his brother, whip drawn, but was quickly incapacitated by a strike to the back of his head, Cheetara in a similar state as she was knocked down. The twins tried to run to Leppria only to be wrapped in the tight bonds of a bola, the cables electrocuting them until they stopped struggling.

When the Lizards emerged from the shadows Leppria felt her hackles raise, her hand flying to her cannon until she was stopped by a scaled foot to her back, pushing her down next to the other cats and punching her hard in the face when she hissed.

They laid together in a pile, helpless to their attackers as the Lizards gloated over them.

"You were fools to try and outrun your fate…" one of them laughed mockingly, pushing the barrel of his gun to Lion-O's head. The king snarled feeling the cold press of a foot against his back, struggling to force his brain to just think of something to get out of this.

But there were guns pointed between his eyes on all sides, just itching to end his life as well as the lives of his precious subjects, so few as they already were… the lizards wanted to snuff them out while they were down, squeezing out every last ounce of satisfaction from their hopelessness.

He needed a plan, he needed to think.

Every raging thought instantly quieted with the cries of the Petalars, only they weren't cowering in fear like they did before the Thundercats, they were crying out in triumphant determination as they charged towards the enemy. Emerick held his sword high as he let loose his battle-cry, jabbing it into the flesh of a lizard before blinding them with a flash of pollen, the golden powder's sting pulling pained shouts from their jaws.

As quick as lightning, Cheetara's staff came up and shattered the teeth of the lizard holding her down, the scaly bastard falling on the ground in a puddle of blood and teeth. Tygra was next to break free, following the golden woman as he smashed his head against his own captor and smirking when he fell in an unconscious heap.

Leppria hissed at the lizard behind her, sweeping his legs out from under him and upper-cutting him with the butt of her cannon and aiming with a harsh glare at the other. He smirked behind his bulging goggles,

"You can't fight what you can't see." With a ripple of light like that of a disturbed pool he vanished, cloaking himself with the same technique she'd seen Tygra use constantly.

Kit and Kat came up beside her, flanking her left and right sides as they held up plum-colored orbs of fruit. "We can fix that!" the boy purred, the Wily duo throwing the fruit and grinning wolfishly when they splattered vibrantly across the lizard's camouflaged skin.

"I can see you now." Leppria trilled smugly, blasting the lizard away with a flash from her cannon.

The enemy now incapacitated, Emerick smiled victoriously over them, standing tall despite being physically unable to. "Charge!"

With his word, the Petalars ran through the gateway, the cats having to crouch down in order to fit, brambles brushing harmlessly across their ears and faces as they crawled along. Leppria sneezed, rubbing her nose and silently cursing the pollen they had used against the lizards.

She wasn't a cat adept to nature, not when technology was where she shined.

"You were great out there Emerick, and here I thought all you could do with that sword is wave it around." Clove chimed, smirking beside her periwinkle-headed companion and snickering when he sent her an indignant pout.

Lion-O agreed, "She's right, you've really grown into quite the young man."

Emerick smiled up at him, "I had a great role model." He swung his arm around Clove, surprising her as he held out his sword. "Now, the Cliff of Winds awaits!"

When the brambles cleared and the gateway opened up on the other side, Leppria was expecting to see a cliff basking in dearly missed sunlight, but she felt her smile fall as all she saw with her verdant eyes was the expanding image of more briar.

Kat sent his sister a confused look, breaking the silence. "Uh… there's no cliff here."

"Or wind!" Kit added, checking as she licked the pad of her finger. "Just more woods…"

Lion-O stared ahead of him, eyebrows furrowed tightly as he clenched and unclenched his fists over and over. "I don't… understand."

So much fighting and death, all in the span of a day, only to be met with nothing in return.

Tygra had turned over the map in his hand at least a dozen times, comparing it to their surroundings with an unbroken gaze. "Maybe I read the map wrong…" he finally said, shadows dancing across his striped face.

"Or maybe there is no Cliff of Winds…" his brother said, shoulders so tense a breeze could break him. "Maybe the map is a lie."

Emerick only looked forward, wrinkles creasing the corners of his eyes as he stuck close to Clove. "Perhaps our forefathers wanted to provide us with hope." The cover girl looked up at him, pollen-colored eyes bright with belief in him. "Hope, so we'd never stop looking for our way back home."

She had never seen the garden, neither had her parents, or her grandparents, and Clove would not lie to herself by saying she'd never doubted its existence when all she had ever known was the never-ending briar. At one point in her young life, she had doubted it was ever real, and that she would one day wilt away with her head full of dreams. But… when she looked up at Emerick, so full of life as he stood tall with his sword, she felt for the first time that maybe the journey home was something worthwhile.

He gave her hope, the kind of hope a fairy tale never could.

Sorrowfully, Lion-O did not share in her sentiment.

"Is that all hope is?" he whispered to no one. "An illusion?"

Leppria wanted to say something, but Tygra and Cheetara had quickly turned to them, eyes full of worry as they fell into familiar fighting stances. Questions rested on her tongue before she smelled it.

Smoke.

"Things are about to get a little more hopeless," the older prince chimed, pointing behind them at a steadily growing light through the tightly knit branches.

The briar was on fire, and the leopard might have the lizards to thank for that.

Lion-O spat, clenching his fists as the Petalar huddled together in fear. "We have to retreat, now!" he called, scanning their clearing for a way through the woods, but there was nothing, just growing flames on every side.

"No!" Emerick suddenly said, watching as two curled ferns unraveled to form a path, twining together a forming… a cliff. "We must go toward it!"

"Towards the flames?! Are you crazy?" the lion replied, haunches rising as the flames licked closer.

Emerick however was not afraid.

"Can you feel it Lion-O? Do you know what this is?"

It was then that Leppria stopped, the kittens held close to her sides. Pieces of her bangs had sprung free from her ponytail, and they rustled lightly, tickling her cheeks as warm gusts of air brushed them upwards. Her eyes widened as she quickly grabbed Lion-O's shoulder, pointing to the unfurled vines when he looked at her. "Look!" she said.

When he saw it she knew he understood. "The updraft from the fire…" he watched the smoke journey upwards, destruction carried away by the push and pull of a simple breeze as he realized. "It's making wind!"

"This is why you never give up hope!" Emerick shouted out, the Petalars looking to him. "We're going home!"

They cheered loudly, gathering any leaf or petal they could carry and taking it to the edge of the cliff, even the cats helping in any way they could, holding up the young or feeble, even Leppria carrying who she knew to be Linden and Orrin in her palm, their seedling clutched between them.

One by one they fell over the edge, the powerful gusts from the flames blowing their leaf boats upwards, above the branches, above the fire, and finally above the briar itself. Their pollen caught the light of Panthera, shining like stars as they flew away on the winds, cheering and laughing and crying tears of joy as they finally took their last steps on their journey home, a blessing Leppria was happy to witness.

She looked over her shoulder at Lion-O as he crouched beside the last Petalar, the withered old man struggling to walk.

"Hurry, there's not much time left… literally." As he reached to help the old man, the graying flower fell into his palm, smiling.

His face crinkled as he did, obviously too weak to continue on, but oddly enough he did not seem sad or regretful of that fact. "No…" he muttered, "I'm afraid this is… the end of my journey."

It was then that Lion-O saw it, the thistle that fell from the palm of his hand, the thorned blade his friend had held high his entire life.

"Emerick…" he said, voice shaking.

His periwinkle petals had faded into ashen gray, but he still placed a comforting hand on Lion-O's finger. "It's alright… old friend…"

As he gave his friend comfort, Leppria felt her eyes sting when she saw the flutter of aged clover petals fall away from Emerick's hand. The last remnants of the girl with pollen-colored eyes that loved to hide beneath her mane.

"In the blink of an eye."

The leopard girl bit her tongue, holding it still when the twins buried their faces in her sides, creating identical tear stains on her shirt as they silently sobbed over Emerick. He was dying. It was exactly as Lion-O said, in the blink of an eye a life can pass, kingdoms can emerge from the dust or be razed to the ground, and hopelessness or hope can consume a person's heart or be seen in the darkness.

The Petalar smiled, watching Clove's petals be carried away by the wind, as if in her final moments she really had made it to the Garden.

"In the end, what matters isn't how long we've lived… but how fully we've lived." He closed his eyes and leaned his head back, completely at peace. "The good we've done, the friends we've made, and the love we shared along the way."

Leppria looked at her comrades, her friends. The cleric, the princes, and two scrappy orphans, none of them tied together by circumstance or by previous fates but by the single fact that they all shared one path forward together. Who they were didn't matter anymore, whether or not they would have ever met or shared friendship didn't matter.

They were all in this together now, sharing in their grief over Emerick, not divided by anything, but one in their struggle. Whether or not she could have previously said so, Leppria proudly called them her friends now.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get you to the Garden." Lion-O said, gnawing his lip to keep his own tears at bay.

One final chuckle left him. "It's the journey Lion-O, remember that…"

His last breath rang in all of their ears, Emerick succumbing to death and his body crumbling before being swept away. Though he was gone, he had not been reduced to nothing, because for as long as they lived, it was unlikely they'd ever forget him.

The Petalars joined together in their song, the notes every bit as sweet and soft as they were when Leppria first heard them what felt like a lifetime ago. She held Kit and Kat close to her, the scruffy little tom wiping his tears away with abandon while his sister was content to let them fall.

As they sung, the Petalars glided into the air on their shining boats, carrying their song with them as they were finally taken home, a gift Leppria couldn't bring herself to be envious of.

Their lullaby and their light eventually left, leaving the Thundercats alone in a burning briar.

"So what now?" Tygra voiced, the cubs breaking away from Leppria.

Cheetara scanned their surroundings, "We could try to find another way out of here…"

"If we stay above the fire we might outrun it," the leopard continued before the lot of them turned to Lion-O, the king keeping his eyes silently trained on the sky. She could only guess what was running through his head, no doubt the weight of his friend's final words.

After a long pause, he brought his eyes back to Third Earth, no longer clouded by sorrow, but sharp and determined, as if he was about to charge forward with every bit of confidence as the small flowers had against fully armed Lizard soldiers.

"Retreat? Thundercats never retreat." He said, smiling. "I say we face the Lizards! And hope for the best…"

Despite the prevalent sense of hopelessness, no one noticed it. They were cornered, surrounded by enemies and severely outgunned and outmanned, but they weren't defeated yet. Leppria smiled, exchanging it with her fellow cats, those who would stand too far above her in Thundera but now stood beside her as equals.

"We're all just leaves passing in the wind, here and then gone, but while we're here… we live to the fullest!"

Lion-O held the Sword of Omens proudly, the Eye of Thundera shining through the darkness with a raging beam of red light cast into the sky.

As the Petalars had done, the Thundercats ran towards the flames, swords held high and guns drawn as they broke through the underbrush into the Lizard army's camp. They had the element of surprise on their side as they began their attack, Cheetara entering first with her unrivaled speed, nothing but a golden flash of light as Lizard after Lizard was torn down by her staff.

Leppria was right behind her, her cannon heaved on her shoulder as she emptied the clip in an explosion of plasma that lit up the clearing like a star. Two lizards tried to tackle her down but she was quicker than them, slamming the butt of her gun into one's face and unloading another blast into the second.

The crack of Tygra's whip echoed out, keeping the soldiers away from them long enough but resorting to his pistol and his bare fists when they got too close, fighting with every fang and claw he had to protect his comrades and brother.

The Sword of Omens shone like a beacon, the boy-king, no longer a boy, defending his people with everything he had.

The cats fought and were prepared to fight until the bitter end, but that end inched closer as they became surrounded, soldiers and mechs closing in and aiming their full artillery. Everyone stood tall, their backs to one another as they prepared to face their demise together.

"There's too many of them…" the lion whispered.

Tygra sighed through his nose, "Father would be proud of your bravery Lion-O." his voice shook slightly, afraid of death, but glad he was facing it with his brother.

He smiled, "A glory I'm honored to share with all of you."

"My service to the crown has always been a cherished privilege." Cheetara added, gentle and warm as she had always been, a beam of sunlight in a stormy sea.

Leppria kept her finger on her trigger, both her and Cheetara shielding Kat and Kit. Things were more than bleak, they were damn near hopeless, but she found herself smiling anyway. "We might be surrounded by enemies, but it's nice to die among friends."

They all smiled at each other, grateful to not face the end alone, but their smiles quickly faded as the Lizards drew closer. One of the mechs had powered up, preparing to finish them in one fell swoop.

Leppria closed her eyes, not brave enough to look her killers in the eye, but when the end never came she forced herself to peak them open.

The sound of gunfire and explosions rang out like thunder as something emerged from the forest, rolling towards the army with speed and strength as it rammed itself into the line of mechs, knocking them over as if they weighed nothing.

The leopard's ears perked as the familiar roar of engines filled the clearing, plasma bolts firing out from the mysterious machine as one by one the Lizard army crumbled, their mechs reduced to scrap as their soldiers fled in terror.

In the blink of an eye they'd been saved, but by who Leppria didn't know yet.

"I hope that's on our side…" Kit whimpered as she clung to the spotted blacksmith, her claws gripping her toolbelt in fear.

Lep however wasn't pay attention, her gaze focused intently on the towering work of machinery, recognizing its design from countless blueprints she'd scavenged from Jorma.

It was a tank, and she barely held back her glee as her eyes sparkled with overwhelming delight. If she was given the chance she had to get her hands on it, who knows what it's mechanical innards could tell her.

A figure emerged from the top, pulling her attention back. A lizard lunged for him, but he swatted them away as if they were no more than a bug in his way. Leppria felt her eyes widen as she looked at his towering image.

"Who are you?" Lion-O questioned.

Leppria knew who he was. She could never forget his face.

He looked her in the eye as he told her her parents were dead.

"Name's Panthro."

This was a long one, but I knew exactly where i wanted to end it, and yes, Panthro was the one who told Leppria about her parents when he returned from the Lizard War. This isn't a spoiler but both of her mother was a combat medic while her father was an engineer, so both of them knew Panthro. He remembers Leppria too but denies it, ashamed that he let them die. I love the Petalars episode, it's possibly my favorite. Anyway, see you next chapter! Ciao!