Chapter 18: The Drifter
"So, the four Stones of Power are what gave Mumm-Ra his unimaginable strength… the Clerics of the Dark Ages said that Mumm-Ra stole his power from the four corners of the world, it seems they were referring to the stones this whole time." Cheetara mused, delicately running her claws along the spine of the Book of Omens.
Tygra nodded in agreement, "If he gets a hold of them again, we'll be in serious trouble."
"Which is exactly why we have to find them before he does." Lion-O added, taking the book from the cleric and bringing it over to the Thundertank, tapping it against the side and smirking as it created a metallic echo. "The Book knows where they are, so we'll have to connect it to the Thundertank."
Leppria's ears flicked restlessly, "The internal structure of the Book of Omens is completely different from the Thundertank's… it'd be like connecting my plasma cannon to… Snarf."
"Snyah?"
The twins giggled at Snarf's reaction but the leopard wasn't laughing; hooking up a complicated, not to mention ancient and extremely delicate, piece of tech like the Book of Omens to a literal tank was nothing to sneeze at. The mechanisms of the book were impossible to crack even for a master cleric like Cheetara, how was Leppria supposed to get in there? Especially after the last time she had tried to crack it, which resulted in an immediate rejection that had nearly killed Lion-O. The book practically had a mind of its own, it wasn't willing to obey her like all her other projects.
Lion-O laid his hand on her shoulder, smiling and dropping the Book of Omens into her reluctant paws.
"Come on Leppria, you're the expert here." He said, patting her back and giving her a thumbs-up. "I know you can do it."
Her brow furrowed as an unenthusiastic groan slowly left her body; she really didn't think she could do this… the Book of Omens kind of scared her… but she couldn't exactly say no.
She'd never shied away from tech before, and the Book of Omens was the peak of current technological advancements… what she learned from it would result in a cornucopia of upgrades and new projects…
Leppria hadn't noticed Lion-O take the book from her until she saw him dangling it in front of her like a mouse on a string with a smirk on his face that said he knew he'd already won. Her fingers twitched in her crossed arms before she grabbed the book.
"This'll take a while; I can't have any interruptions." She laid out, her conditions final and unchangeable.
The young king exchanged looks with the other cats, all of them silently agreeing. "You got it."
She took a deep breath and cracked her knuckles loudly.
"Get me my samouflange."
When Leppria got her claws on a new piece of tech, she dissolved into a manic form of joy as she took it apart and put it back together a dozen times. She was always beaming and smiling with drill bits and tools scattered about.
This time however, she wasn't smiling; her brow was pinched in intense concentration, tongue squeezed between her lips as the bags beneath her verdant eyes grew bigger and darker as the hours passed.
The Thundercats watched her work with a twisted fascination, as she grabbed more and more tools before eventually beginning to start ripping the Thundertank apart at the seams working through more and more combinations of wires and gears to connect the Book of Omens to the tank's navigator.
Panthro's foot tapped nervously as he scowled, "She stays in there any longer and my tank's gonna be nothing but a scrap heap!"
Tygra passed the time by training, doing one-armed push-ups on the ground and frowning. "She's been at it for two days straight… has she even been sleeping?"
Their answer was a loud crash as another hunk of metal was thrown from the Thundertank.
Lion-O winced, both from the crash and from the harshness of Panthro's glare. Do something, or I will! It said, the redhead holding up his hands in a calming manner, settling the old General and walking towards the danger-zone.
"Hey Leppria…" he said, peering over her shoulder as she was attacking a circuit board with a screwdriver. He knew he had to tread carefully, less she use that screwdriver on him. "Maybe it's time for you to take a break?"
"Don't need one, I just need to find the right wire." She replied hoarsely, grizzled from lack of sleep.
Lion-O looked back, Panthro and Tygra making pushing gestures. He shrugged, turning back to the smaller cat. "You're not going to connect the Book of Omens like this."
"You can't rush perfection." Her eyes burned with intensity, and Lion-O knew she was far too close to cracking.
That crack came abruptly when she connected two multicolored wires to the circuit board in her lap. The wires sparked and the circuits exploded, the tech smoking uselessly as her hands hovered motionlessly above it.
Leppria roared and threw the circuit board to the ground, screaming and cursing wildly as she grabbed her biggest wrench and made a beeline for the Book of Omens. Lion-O flew into action, quickly throwing his arms around her and picking her up. Literally prying her away from the book as she flailed and struggled in his hold.
"Leppria!" she hissed and yowled angrily, elbowing the king in the face as he carried her away from the tank. "No, no, no, no, no, no!"
She needed a break, and was thoroughly outvoted when she objected. Her arms were crossed tightly as she pouted, Snarf's tail tickling her back as he sat on her shoulders, Lion-O grabbing their packs and a bag of money from Cheetara.
Her forced break was given in the form of finding a nearby town for supplies, her tools and the Book of Omens commandeered by Tygra and Panthro.
"I'll get this hunk of junk up and running in no time." The prince reassured, doing absolutely nothing to put Leppria at ease.
He made a grabbing motion with his hand, Leppria reluctantly handing over her tool-belt. Apparently taking a break meant no tech at all, which was just unthinkable, so she couldn't be blamed for holding onto her belt tighter when Tygra tried to take it from her.
The two cats dissolved into a makeshift tug-of-war, the tiger winning as he ripped the toolbelt from her grip.
"Just be careful with the motherboard, don't just leave it lying around." Lion-O came and started dragging her away again before she could latch onto the Thundertank again. "And don't touch the tools on my desk, they're in perfect order!"
"We'll be back in a few days!"
It had taken hours for Leppria's seemingly permanently raised hackles to finally settle and for her to stop fidgeting so much, Lion-O didn't think it was possible for a cat like her to actually relax completely, but he supposed she was as close as she was going to get without any tech to keep her occupied.
They passed the time with small talk as they walked, chatting about ranging subjects from the amount of metal ore they would need for future repairs to their personal stashes of technology they kept when they still lived in Thundera.
When they finally reached the nearest town, the sun was just beginning to lean over the remaining half of the day.
Snarf rested comfortably in Leppria's backpack as they came to a massive wall of metal. It stretched around the town, a closer look revealing it to be made of hundreds of broken and discarded blades welded together.
A skull marked the entrance gate, two swords crossed beneath it. The leopard grimaced, not impressed by the blatant disrespect towards the well-crafted blades. "Seems friendly."
"I've heard stories about towns like this, just never seen one before…" a bird flew by, cawing loudly and scaring Snarf off of Lep's shoulders to hide behind Lion-O. He smiled down at the chubby little kittypet, "Don't worry Snarf, we'll get what we need for the tank and leave."
He looked to Leppria who gave a single firm nod. No one wanted to get back to the Thundertank than her, the thought of Tygra manhandling her tools and rubbing his fumbling hands all over her beautiful babies making her nauseous.
"Think you could lend a hand, Friend?" Lion-O jumped, bumping into Leppria as a new voice joined their conversation. The pair scanned their surroundings but found nobody, "Up here!" they called again.
They found themselves looking at a nearby wooden fence, Leppria still behind the lion as she looked over his shoulder, finding a long-eared person hanging from a fencepost by the scruff of his clothes.
His body billowed in the wind like a piece of fabric, a relaxed smile on his face.
"I seem to have snagged myself, again." He said.
Lion-O and Leppria exchanged glances, blue meeting green before she gestured to the stranger, the king approaching him. "What are… who are you?"
His whole body shrugged, "Just a drifter I suppose…" the cat scaled the fence, untangling the stranger's tunic from the fence and watching curiously as he quite literally drifted to the ground like a fallen leaf. "Thanks for the assist."
Leppria pointed her thumb towards the iron wall, "Maybe you can return the favor, we're here for supplies." She explained.
The drifter's brow furrowed, "Well, find them somewhere else. This is a swordsman's town, stranger, and they duel for keeps." The leopard's ears perked at that; the dueling for keeps part didn't sound very attractive, but now she knew for sure that this town had iron ore to spare. "Leave, before it's too late… or don't… I don't care."
He leaned against the fence, propping his cheek in his palm and ignoring them.
Lion-O scoffed, unsheathing the Sword of Omens, "I can handle myself alright."
The drifter chuckled, and Leppria had to admit she'd rolled her eyes a little bit too. "This town loves guys like you, swaggering around with your fancy sword thinking you can't lose… but you will… they all do."
While the lion's pride was misplaced enough times to be annoying, Leppria could at least put faith in his skills as a swordsman, as well as her own as a blacksmith. She didn't spend hours sharpening it and repairing the cracks in the gauntlet for nothing.
"Well, his is more than just a fancy sword," she said, "It's the Sword of Omens."
She crossed her arms and Lion-O sent her a cocky grin. "And with it, I never lose."
"Like I said," Drifter didn't give them a passing glance. "Take my advice and blow out of here… or don't… I don't care."
Another gust of wind picked him up and carried him over the wall out of sight, leaving the pair of cats with quirked brows and slightly bruised egos.
"He was… strange." Lion-O hummed, Snarf mewing in agreement as he scurried back up Leppria's back to curl around her shoulders.
The freckled she-cat hmphed deciding she already didn't like this town and wanted more than ever to get this supply run over with so she could get back to her beautiful technology.
The market was extremely barebones besides the basic tools and materials for blacksmithing, what the vendors lacked in rations and clothing they more than made up for in iron ore and forging supplies. Most of the stalls possessed tools in prime condition, but there were some that Leppria grimaced at, picturing Cougra's drunken judgment of the disgraceful treatment of a blacksmith's own tools.
A smith who treats his anvil like a common table, and his hammer like a fly-swatter, isn't worth the chipped metal of his own broken sword!
It was a strange image, Cougra actually working, but it made Leppria smile as she and Lion-O chose the vendor with the most steel to spare.
The stoutly person was more than happy to sell a full bag's worth of ore to them, along with rolls of wool and a few hunting traps, but when Lion-O dropped a few Thunderan shillings into his outstretched hand, the vendor arched his eyebrow and scoffed.
"A Thunderan shilling ay? Sorry, we don't deal with antiques."
He flicked the coin back to the cat, Lion-O catching it. "Thunderan coins were one the most prized in the land," he said, unconsciously dragging his thumb over the indented profile of Claudus, the picture bulky and inaccurate but still his father.
"Well, now they're relics of a fallen empire." The vendor took back the supplies he'd sold them, tucking them behind his table.
Leppria's eyes narrowed, "Then what does pass for money around here?"
"And how do we get some?" Lion-O added, the salesman shrugging.
"What everyone else here does," he pointed towards a clearing between the stands, townspeople gathered around a vertical slab of stone. "Sword competition."
Both of their ears perked at that, eyes meeting as Lion-O sent her a knowing smirk that she amusedly returned. He unsheathed the Sword of Omens, its raw, deactivated form short but shimmering like a fang.
"Wanna bet they've never seen a sword like this?"
They left him with their supplies, hoping he would hold them until the cats were able to pay, settling into the crowd as a jackal swaggered up to the stone. The gashes of many swords carved into it like tallies.
The jackalman's sword mirrored his own height, the blade wide and long like the oar of a grand ship. Leppria marveled at how he seemed to easily lift the massive sword, extending his arm and balancing the weight of it with clear experience.
"The Great Olacat! It's blade forged in the lava pits of Mt. Tiramabu, witness its awesome power!" he called, the crowd cheering as he lunged, slashing Olacat across the stone and adding another mark to its surface.
The mark was longer than Leppria's arm, and a referee nodded his head in approval as he measured it. Cheering animals were pushed aside as a piggish man barged through, his own sword held high, though Leppria wouldn't use that hunk of steel to cut butter.
The hilt as obviously too heavy in his hands, and the blade itself was wavy like it had been dipped in the water too soon, not even very sharp.
"Nice, but nothing compares to my sword! The gods themselves fear its edge, behold!" If Lion-O heard Leppria snicker loudly into her hand he didn't mention it, only watching the pig waltz up to the stone and swing his arm into it.
The blade struck the stone, but only clanged loudly, the rock not even chipping under the blunt hunk of metal. Everyone in the crowd erupted into laughter when the sword cracked and shattered, the pig being carted away as the referee shook his head.
Leppria bit her lip, trying her hardest not to fall to the ground laughing. Tears of mirth pushed against her eyes but she held it in successfully, only a few chortles escaping her.
The final competitor stepped up to the stone, a dark hood drawn over his face and he pressed his lips against his blade, whispering intimately to it like it was a lover.
"The wind, the trees, the morning dew on a delicate orchid…" he said softly. "They all tremble before my beauty of the blade of Kurokai."
Everyone seemed to wait with bated breath as the hooded man let the wind drift over each individual wave of his sword. Unlike the pig's piece of scrap, Kurokai was forged with spearhead blades melded together like hooks, Leppria didn't quite understand the practicality of it, but it was beautifully made.
The man roared and struck the stone, ripping out a large chunk of it. The strike wasn't as long as the others, but it was the deepest, Kurokai truly was deadly.
Writing down his measurements, the referee gestured to the crowd. "Is there no one else who will accept the challenge?"
Leppria heard Lion-O purr as he pushed through the crowd, the she-cat following him and standing behind him as he approached the ref.
"I accept."
The crowd dissolved into whispered speculations, the ref looking the lion up and down before his eyes settled on the Sword of Omens, an eyebrow arched in clear skepticism.
Nevertheless, he shrugged and accepted Lion-O's challenge.
"Do you have anything to say?" he asked.
"Only to the other competitors," Lion-O turned to the crowd, cockiness shining in his blue eyes. "You're all vying for second place!"
Leppria sighed as the crowd laughed, her king's arrogance well-earned but still unnecessarily patronizing. She knew he could beat anyone and everyone in town, but did he have to be so annoying about it? He was just asking for trouble.
She almost called him out for it, but the loud, obnoxious laughter continued. A large dog howled, massive arms crossed over his frame as he looked over the short Sword of Omens.
"I wouldn't pick my teeth with that sword! Why don't you put it back in the trash where you found it, kitty cat!"
Leppria's eye twitched, the dog continuing to laugh at them. Her eyes narrowed as a growl pushed out of her throat, forget avoiding trouble, Lion-O was going to show those mangy mutts not to laugh at the Sword of Omens.
She grabbed his arm, teeth ground and verdant eyes glowing with rage. "Lion-O… get in there, now."
He happily obeyed, his sword growing to its full strength as the laughter quieted and he aligned the blade with the stone.
Raising it high, and bringing it down with a thundering roar, Lion-O… missed?
Laughter echoed all around them as the townspeople boasted over his apparent loss, but his cocky smile didn't fall from his face, and the people quickly fell silent once more as crackling noises carried up over them.
It seemed impossible but it was happening right before them, but a perfectly symmetrical crack formed in the stone, and with a booming crash, it split in two and fell to the ground.
A moment of stunned silence stretched before everyone began to cheer, the dog who had opened his fat mouth standing agape with his mouth hanging open. Lion-O smiled at him, pointing to the sword at his old belt.
"Are you sure it's not your sword that belongs in the trash?" he asked, the dog growling and leaving with his tail between his legs.
Leppria grinned, pumping her fist and putting her hands on her hips. "Take that!" she said.
The two cats turned to the referee, both of them bright from their victory.
"Where do I get my money?"
He gladly handed them a pouch of metal rings and shimmering shells, neither of them aware that a dark-eyed swordsman was watching them, each of his many swords catching the sun on his back.
As much as Leppria's character does revolve around her love of tech, this episode she's going to get back to her blacksmithing roots, and i hope you like Leppria and Lion-O spending quality time together as much as I do! Trust me, this slow burn hurts me as much as it hurts you! Ciao!