TC is the property of WB and its affiliates. Any concepts not originating from the TC universe are the property of these creator(s) unless otherwise noted.
Characters will not completely resemble the 1985 rendition, nor the 2011 rendition. This is a reimagining of the Thundercats series as a whole and not entirely based on either series. Nor is it based on any other fan work. The creator(s) of this work reserve the right not to answer any questions or respond to any reviews. This is meant to mimic a professional work and will be conducted as such.
Episode 13
The Cure in the Blizzard
"Ever get the idea that you're not welcome somewhere?" Cheetara lowered her arm. "I waved at that lady and she just turned around and ran up the path."
Lion-O scanned the path, and looked at the bleak fields on either side of it. There was plenty of green but no golden crop, no buds or flowering. With the warm weather he would have thought this area would have several harvests in the year. "Is this the only route to the pass? I don't want to alarm them."
"The only one the Thundertank can make it through without making a mess," Panthro said. He stroked the side of the vehicle and Cheetara climbed out. The roof was down because of the heat, sun baking the metal – there was a cooling system but they did their best to conserve fuel – but the air was thick and wet. It was hardly an improvement.
North of Tropo by several leagues, the pass toward the mountains was muggy this time of year, and incredibly green and shrubby. The trees were short and the odor of vegetation was overwhelming. Cheetara kept checking the bottoms of her feet, uneasy over the damp grass. "Lion-O's right, look at their fields. I think rice is the only thing growing."
"Not enough to provide all the nutrition they'd need," Tygra said. Cheetara scanned the flat land and the puddles with sympathy; rice was fine and well, but it wasn't much use for making anything more sustaining. The village likely traded for its necessary goods, and that could get pricy. Both kittens popped their heads over the dash and looked around.
"It smells weird. Is it supposed to be so smelly here?" Kat asked.
Snarf appeared too and sniffed heartily. "Yes, I think so. There's a small settlement further up the path. And I think I smell a creek, or a branch of a river. The village might fish for its other food."
"We have to pass through regardless." Lion-O fingered the Sword of Omens and Cheetara followed the motion with her eyes. "Let's just be civil."
The tank forged over the path without much issue, even as the trees thickened and the smell of water intensified. Cheetara covered her nose and Lion-O glanced to their right with a frown.
"There's the creek all right. It's big. And look at all those reeds growing. Do you think their drinking water comes from there?"
She stepped toward the side of the path, noticing that the ground inclined toward a bank. "It looks clear. And look how deep the middle is-"
The mud under her sole was slick and Cheetara suddenly fell, slipping down the incline. A few tumbles through some weeds and one great splash ended with her sputtering and hauling back to her feet, tail sticking straight out. "How's the water?" Tygra called.
Lion-O started toward the bank but she waved him back, pushing through the tall reeds with a growl. "Ugh, they stink! The water's cold too." Shaking off, Cheetara began wringing out her hair and coughed a few times. "Ow…"
"You okay?" Kit asked. Tygra tossed her a blanket so she could dry off. Nodding, Cheetara began to smooth her fur. "It really does smell weird out here."
Panthro stopped the tank suddenly and everyone looked at him. "...Something's wrong here," he said. Cheetara paused in her grooming and followed the earthy path with her gaze to see a village up ahead, one that looked as if it had once been very cozy and pretty.
It wasn't any longer. Dirty walls and dried-grass roofs looked dead, and the smell was worse as they drew closer. There was no sound of children squalling. Cheetara didn't hear merchants or farmers either, or their wives chattering. It was very quiet, and she tucked the blanket around her shoulders. Lion-O stood beside her with his hood up and his tail twitched. "It's so quiet," he whispered.
Snarf hopped out of the Thundertank, sniffing the ground with his ears and tail up, alert. "There are people inside the houses." He trotted to the nearest door and rapped a paw on it. "Hello? Is anyone there? Is something wrong in this village?"
For a moment nobody came to the dry, flaking door. Then it cracked open and a cat's face appeared, just a sliver of eyes and whiskers. "We have nothing to trade. You should leave."
Snarf frowned. "What's wrong? You don't need to be afraid of us. We're just travelers heading north."
"'North?' Like the Luna?" The cat's eyes narrowed and Lion-O approached.
"Have there been Luna here? Isn't it too hot?" he asked. Snarf stepped back to sit on his haunches beside Lion-O's feet and the cat warily pulled the door open another inch. "We're just heading toward the mountain pass."
"You really don't know about the Luna, do you?" The cat opened the door fully and his orange face seemed ratty and matted in the sunlight.
"Know what about the Luna?" Tygra had gotten out now and paced toward the building, eying everything. "What's going on here?"
Another cat came to the door, and what looked like an amphibian. Its skin was blue and green, and it looked shockingly dry and withered, large eyes filmy. Cheetara glanced at the creek; there was water, wasn't there? Why did he look so dehydrated? They all did, in fact. Their lips were cracked and Cheetara heard the doors opening slightly around the village. "You don't know of the beast? And the curse?" asked the other cat, a brown female.
Panthro grunted. "Three. Two. One."
"Do you need help?" Cheetara asked just as he said the last word. Lion-O was examining each person he could see and Cheetara had spied a little boy with patches of fur falling out behind the two cats at the door. "We don't have many supplies, but…"
"Unless you have medicine and a way to lift a curse, there's nothing you can do." The woman sounded wry, impatient. Lion-O glanced at the Sword of Omens.
"What's the curse, exactly?"
"The beast lives on the nearest mountain, further up the hills. He looks like a Luna but much larger, the size of a giantor. He has demon horns and whenever he roars he brings winter on his breath. He first came here three months ago, and he cursed the water with sickness."
The cat's name was Ocel and his wife's was Latt. He was the one speaking, walking in front of them as they progressed through the village. A few houses looked splintered, as if something huge had crashed through them, and Lion-O gave each gap a hard look. "He made these last time. The owners tried to drive him out of the mountains with torches to protect the sick and he grew angry."
As the doors opened and the buildings aired out, all of them could detect the odor of illness as it crept through the village. Lion-O caught glimpses of cats and lizards lying within walls on cots, some still and hot with fever. Many of them seemed to be jerking in sick frenzy. "You live with lizards?" Tygra asked, observing these motions.
"They fish, we grow crops. We survive well together as our ancestors settled the land. They were the first to grow sick because they swim in the waters, but we quickly followed." Ocel spoke tartly, as if telling them a story he had grown tired of. "Anytime anyone goes to the bank for water, they come down with the illness. A few have pulled through. Many have been sick for weeks, and they worsen every day."
They stopped a fair distance from the bank and Lion-O heard a humming noise. He shifted around a tree and spotted a great machine. A thick pipe fed into the water of the stream and seemed to be pulling water into a metal container. It was a very oddly shaped, spindly thing. "What's that doing?"
"Purifying water. It's the only way we get any drinking water at all." Ocel scoured it and honed in on a great valve, turning it. There was something like a faucet protruding over a clean basin near them, and fresh water poured into it. "We put it together when we realized we couldn't drink the water as it was. It's not nearly enough to drink for the whole village, let alone enough to bathe in. We survive by sharing this and drinking dew."
Lion-O watched the machine with growing confusion. "This seems more like a bacteria or microbe problem."
"Most of the village doesn't know about such things. We refer to it as a curse for them. And it moves like one, inspiring madness in its victims. We can't do anything whether it's magic or science." Ocel looked at them with his orange fur wilting. "If you think you can help us, please do. Because we're on the verge of death."
"You trust us so quickly?" Panthro seemed surprised. "What if we decided to quarantine the land and burn it?"
Ocel smiled, not pleasantly but wearily, as if he'd heard a bad joke too many times. "That might be better all things considered. Besides, what other choice do we have? Other than to die slowly."
Lion-O glanced at the others. "Tygra? You know a little more about science than most of us. What does this sound like to you?"
Tygra looked at the water for a while and Lion-O couldn't help but remember that Cheetara had fallen in. She seemed fine though, and Lion-O felt nothing from the Sword of Omens. If it were a curse wouldn't it have started reacting? "Tell me about this Luna. He brings cold with him?"
"He calls down blizzards and snow storms. I assume you noticed our meager crop?" Ocel sighed. "It's because of his ice that so little has grown. It fades with time if he returns to the mountain, but it's enough to kill our rice. The sickness started when he first arrived, and the grasses and weeds seem to feed on it."
"Why didn't you leave when you found out this place was making you sick then?"
Latt spoke now. "The Luna calls down snow whenever he pleases, and we must get inside when he does or we'll be killed by his blizzards. The sickness is what is killing us and this land; if it were gone we could recover, and fight back against him. If we enter the pass he drives us back down, and we have no way to cross the sea. Our boats would be shattered by its waves."
Tygra put his hands in his pockets, pacing slightly. "It could be bacteria. Could you get me some water samples? I have a microscope; I'm a far cry from a doctor, but I could analyze a purified sample and a regular one to see the differences. Then we can talk to those that have recovered that you mentioned. And Snarf, you know about herbs…think you can find something that would help treat fever?"
"I can certainly look around." Both of them looked at Lion-O, who knew what they were asking without hearing it.
He shrugged. "We haven't abandoned anyone yet. Why start now? Besides, maybe this Luna 'demon' will have some information we could use. Everyone keep away from the water; we can stretch our supplies to last a few days if we're careful."
Kit and Kat – who had kept close together and stuck to Panthro's side – beamed. "Yay, we're gonna help!"
Panthro didn't protest this time, looking moderately peaceful. "I'm tired of fighting the inevitable."
Lion-O didn't want the kittens near the water, so he used a bucket from a ledge over the stream to get some "tainted" water for Tygra's analysis. He'd nearly forgotten Tygra had kept the microscope from the lake base, but he found he was glad. Snarky as Tygra could be, he had a level head when it came to such things, and these villagers needed that more than anything…other than antibiotics perhaps.
Tygra also took blood samples from a few people, and within a few hours he was examining them. "I don't see anything yet, but I'll analyze it every few hours to see if something's growing. I find it very odd that the disease would affect cats and lizards the same so quickly; normally it would have to mutate to spread to different species. If it's a virus all we can do is treat the symptoms. Let's work to bring down the fevers and see if we can't improve that water device."
Whatever their misgivings, it seemed very much as if those who avoided all water save for what the village had purified stayed healthy as they listened and worked and the evening drew on. The machine couldn't process enough for dozens of people, which was why there was a dehydration issue. The amphibians in particular were weakening quickly. Lion-O had Panthro start working on it, Tygra assisting when he wasn't looking at the samples. Cheetara assisted all of them, and did what she could to comfort the people. Snarf and the kittens hunted for herbs that Snarf claimed could ease fever and discomfort, and others that could be consumed in lieu of the fish the village usually ate while waiting for their crops. They pretended they were looking for treasures hidden in the forest. Which, Lion-O supposed, they were.
He and Cheetara decided to see what the illness did and try to help treat the sick. They brought dried herbs for tea into one of the houses that contained the sick and Lion-O smelled the odor of heavy curtains containing sickly-sweet smoke. "Why are you burning that stuff?" he asked, gesturing to a nearby bowl of petals.
"To drive any sickness spirits away so they won't make things worse." The old woman's face was somber, spiritual. Lion-O glanced at Cheetara, who put down the bag of herbs. The people of this village were very superstitious, and less developed in technology and medicine than Thunderans were. It was sensible to think the odor being kept at bay might stave off sickness based on this thought process, but Lion-O thought fresh air might be better.
"If it's a curse causing this, I don't think burning the herbs has helped. Perhaps using them for cooling broths would be better. The Creator says he hears the prayers for the sick, and I'd be glad to pray with you for their recovery," Cheetara offered. The woman agreed and Lion-O followed the pair beyond the brown, thick curtains. Six cots were placed in the long, thin room and he had to squint by candlelight to see.
The one nearest him was a young lizard. He seemed to be sweating and panting, twitching as if he were having a bad dream. His amber eyes were wide open though, settling on them as they entered. A woman beside him – probably his mother – was whispering to him and wiping his brow with a wet cloth. Sweat, he realized. They had no water to spare.
Beyond him was something much worse and Lion-O drew up short, breath catching. A woman about his age was lying in the next cot but her wrists and ankles were bound to wooden stakes placed at the corners of the bed. She was staring at nothing, spittle running down the corner of her mouth. "What are you doing to her?" he asked, barely containing his horror.
"When the illness goes further they become angry, violent. She will try to kill anyone who comes close, even her father and brothers. We can't care for her unless she's bound." As if on cue the girl snapped her teeth and bared them, panting. The ropes holding her creaked as she lunged at the bonds, and the sound she made in her throat was like a storm.
The woman hurriedly stroked her brow, trying to soothe her. It seemed to work, for her eyes roved around several times before she leaned back against the cot, still breathing shallowly.
Lion-O touched the hilt of the Sword of Omens. No reaction. "How long before they die?"
"If they receive care they may last a month. If they don't, a week. She's been sick two weeks now." The woman dabbed at her mouth with a rag.
"Nothing makes us sick but getting down in the water. Not even their blood or feces. It just makes no sense." Latt was leaning in the doorway, her spotty tail flicking. "Tygra's speaking with the people that recovered. Would you like to join him?"
"I suppose so," Cheetara said. She wiped a hand across her forehead and Lion-O turned his attention to the move. Catching his glance she blinked. "I'm fine. Just warm in here."
He frowned. Cheetara sighed and pulled her hair tie out so she could bind it up away from the back of her neck. "I'm all right Lion-O. Really. Let's go help Tygra after I pray with the elder." She sat in a rickety chair by the bed and bowed her head, and Lion-O listened to the prayer with one ear.
He did believe in the Creator. Very much so. But Cheetara's faith – her loyalty – was something strong as death and he envied it a little. Lion-O shut his eyes and mouthed the end of the prayer, thinking of all the sick in the village and, in spite of her words, Cheetara herself. She'd fallen into the water after all…but she hadn't drunk any…so she should be all right, shouldn't she? Perhaps Tygra would have something over the next day or two and she could take a dose just to be safe. His stomach was a mass of nerves regardless of this, and he hoped Tygra would have noticed something in the water by now.
They went with Latt in silence. She had not reacted to the prayer at all, but the old woman had seemed slightly more hopeful. Lion-O heard Tygra as they neared the tank and one of the rickety houses the village had afforded him to examine things in. He sounded slightly irritated and Lion-O's hope that this would be a quick fix died without a word. "No, now stop asking. I'm not using sanctified tools. I don't even know if that's a thing! And holy water won't do anything!"
One of the lizards exited the hut looking scandalized. Cheetara and Lion-O slipped through the door and saw a makeshift table with the microscope on it, along with several other tools from the Thundertank. Snarf was on the floor with a basket of herbs, and he was nibbling on one of them as if to test it. "This one's good. Have someone with fever bite into it and suck out the liquid and it'll bring their temperature down for six hours. This…I think it's just a flower. Smells pretty but no medicinal qualities." He tossed it aside.
"Fine, use that one to cover the smell. It's getting to me." Tygra sounded frazzled and kept running his claws through his hair. "Have you guys noticed anything weird around the village? Any clues?"
"The illness inspires madness is what it seems. A month with care is the longest anyone lives." Lion-O looked around and saw Panthro in the corner, looking through a box of rough tools and muttering about the poor quality. "I suppose you haven't had time to really find anything yet?"
"No. The water seems clear, but I'm going to give it time to sit and cultivate any microbes. The blood I don't see anything unusual in either, although I think the temperature of the samples is high. Given the fevers that's hardly a surprise." Tygra sat down in his chair and gave Lion-O a look. "We might be here a little while, Lion-O. And not just because these people need us. I've been talking to Ocel and he says that no one is able to enter the pass toward the mountains without a blizzard starting. That's their main exit from the area. Whoever this Luna is, he doesn't want them getting near the mountains."
"So he's probably part of the group that's been heckling us," Cheetara said, kneeling beside Snarf and helping him with a particularly sticky leaf that was stuck to his paw. "Do you think that's where the disease came from? Why would they make a village sick?"
"I have no idea. It doesn't make sense to me. Maybe they wanted to test a biological weapon or something," Tygra said darkly. Lion-O checked over his shoulder for the kittens.
"They're fine. I have them picking berries right now. They're in the village," Snarf said, reading the move and wiggling his sap-covered paws. "So we can't get to the mountains to reach the north until we deal with this threat. The villagers say they haven't seen the Luna in three weeks but that it will snow faintly sometimes."
Lion-O looked through the door and frowned. "He calls up blizzards? That could be a source of water if we deliberately make him angry."
"It's being considered," Panthro said. "I took a gander at their purifying system. I can make some adjustments to improve its speed but I don't want to build an entire new one; we wouldn't be able to test it. And I can't alter the other one too much since I don't want to cut off their only supply of fresh water."
Cheetara took the plants Snarf offered and stood up. "These poor people…everywhere these traders go they spread more pain and death," she said with quiet outrage, claws shredding the leaves. "Has the Sword of Omens reacted?"
He lifted the silent blade in answer. "Not at all. I think it is an actual illness, but after the message we saw with the Luna woman, I don't believe we can rule out curses as being contributing factors."
Tygra scowled. "Curses. I only know about how to deal with what's real. I can't do anything about voodoo curses and crazy stuff."
"I'm not asking you to. I just want you to discover what you can about this and try to help ease the suffering here. I'll look for the Luna and Cheetara…?"
Lion-O turned to her. She had wiped her forehead again and in spite of her good color Lion-O's stomach dipped. Her voice was clear as she said, "I'll stay in the village and help tend to the sick. Say prayers, clean, bring water. If you see anything you need to call for us."
"Don't worry. I won't try to handle him alone. If he really made those holes in the walls, he's no pushover." Lion-O tried to sound confident as he added, "We can do this. We've handled everything that's been thrown at us so far, and this won't be any different."
Three days and six deaths later, all of their spirits were low and Tygra's temper had shifted from worried to inflamed. He brooded over the samples, testing the effects of herbs and plants, cursing frequently when nothing seemed to happen. None of the survivors of the illness could explain why they had pulled through. They had only sickened a little for a short while and then improved greatly. Oddly they had turned violent quickly until the fever broke. Tygra tried to examine their blood but it showed no differences. He would need DNA samples to test any further and he had no machinery capable of doing something so intricate. Only Lune or the Imperial City itself had such advanced supplies.
Panthro managed to get the machine producing more clean water. The reeds were still and silent as the clear-seeming water pumped into the machine, and it improved the water supply a good deal. People still had to stretch but tongues were no longer burning and cracked. A few children managed to play outside with the kittens.
Cheetara prayed and tended the sick, and her kind nature seemed to soothe some of the most terrified and anguished. One dying man had held her hand as she spoke a funeral rite from the scriptures and told her she was the Creator's messenger sent to help them gently home. Then he died and she had to work to free her hand from his vice grip. She cried afterwards and Lion-O gazed into the sky as she buried her face in his neck, wondering if the Creator was watching it.
The kittens were spared the worst. They scrounged and gathered plants and food, running errands and helping Panthro fix the walls that had been broken. Snarf mixed medicine with Tygra and scouted the forest, sniffing for the Luna. He found occasional frost spots but never actually saw anyone.
Lion-O explored the area and did what he could to help each of the other cats. If Tygra needed more water to examine he fetched it, or if Cheetara needed clean rags he brought them. Sometimes he felt that if he only looked around quickly enough he would see a beast watching him but there was never anything there. He told Snarf to stay with the kittens at all times and ordered them, under the threat of never being able to have any of his dumplings, ever, to remain in the heart of the village and stay safe.
None of them wanted to consider leaving the village to die, but as the sunsets ticked away, they knew it was only a matter of time before something happened. It would have been wiser to leave quickly. Lion-O tested the idea that the mountain pass was guarded only once; as soon as he started up the trail he heard a distant, echoing roar and the temperature dipped. Flakes of snow descended into the lush greenery and he turned around and headed back to the village. The flakes stopped but the mountain above them wafted cold down on them for the next hour.
Cheetara heard Tygra cuss when she opened the door and winced. "Do you need another water sample?"
"I've got six samples in here and none of them are telling me anything! No, I don't need another." He had sat down in a chair with a scowl and his tail whipped from side to side. "There is literally nothing in the water that could be causing this. What am I supposed to do about this stuff if it's magic? Of all the stupid Ghen-holes we had to run into…"
Cheetara opened the door a bit. "Look, why don't you rest? Let Panthro look at these. Some of the people here are going to pray with me, and after that I'll set some tea on-"
"Oh Ghen, Cheetara! Praying…how many times have you prayed in the last week? How many times has it helped?" Tygra stood up and Cheetara was quiet, wiping her forehead. She got warm too easily lately, but she told herself it was just nerves and the environment. Because it couldn't be anything else. She wouldn't let it be.
After a minute she contained herself and made her voice solid. "I'm not asking you to pray with us. But I think it helps them to think the Creator is listening."
Tygra was generally good-humored, but his face was tired and drawn right now, and nothing was more cutting than a sour tiger. Their tempers were renowned and Cheetara saw his yellow eyes narrow. "You seriously buy that?"
She sighed. "I do. And even if you don't, it gives them hope."
Lion-O was approaching, and she turned in time to see his familiar hood come down. "The trail is frosty. I didn't go very far before it got hazardous." He paused, seeing Tygra's dark expression. "Tygra, have you slept at all?"
"No, I'm working on this. Cheetara's off to prayer, so everything'll be fine in five minutes I'm sure." Tygra kicked the chair over and Cheetara crossed her arms. "Who needs medicine, the sainted Creator's listening, right? Oh, but everyone's still dying? I wonder why. Maybe he gets his kicks that way!"
Lion-O stared at Tygra in confusion. "Look, I know you don't believe, but you've never been like this about it. You need rest."
"Every time I go to sleep, someone else dies. And then I think, 'Maybe if I'd just stayed up I would have figured this out and they'd be okay.'" Tygra was definitely exhausted and Cheetara tried not to lean on the doorway. She felt warmer than ever and put her teeth together, trying to keep quiet. "If you want to help, run some of these sample herbs to the sick houses nearby. Maybe something in them will help. Ghen, if it kills them faster it might be better than watching them waste away. Oh, thank the Creator for small mercies!"
He snorted and Lion-O took the basket and gave him a long look. "These people need care Tygra, not hate and anger. Get some sleep and we'll have Panthro look over some of these for a while. You've done all you can."
Tygra returned the look and finally rubbed his eyes. "…All right. I…whatever."
Cheetara watched him sit in the corner and lean on his knees with misery. She didn't know the Creator's ways in everything, and what Tygra said hurt. Not because he said it, but because he was saying it just to spite her. He was only exhausted and upset, but Cheetara's throat ached a little when she took one of the baskets. She had to swallow and wondered if the Creator was listening.
Lion-O walked beside her and said, after a moment, "He's very upset he hasn't found anything."
Cheetara nodded, watching the dirt path under her feet. It felt hot and dusty, and she blinked when it seemed to blur. She didn't want to cry, not when Tygra probably hadn't meant what he said. "I think I'll start looking through the samples too. He needs more rest. I think you should go get some sleep after the prayer too." He seemed to delicately consider his words before adding, "I think it helps. I don't why this is happening, but praying sure can't hurt anything. So don't let what he said get you down. I don't think he even means half of it."
She forced herself not to consider the idea that Tygra might be right, that the Creator didn't care. He did. She knew it. He had to. Even in the darkest places there was a little light, and she believed in that with everything she had.
Cheetara stumbled. "Cheetara? What's wrong?"
What indeed? Her tongue was pounding and her knees buckled, the herbs spilling from her basket as she tripped. Lion-O grabbed her and pulled her into a sitting position. "Cheetara? Cheetara!"
So hot. So bright and hot. She covered her face to hide from the sun and jerked, trying to push away from the hot ground, from the hot sun, from the hot arms holding her up. His arms were warm, suffocating like the sun and the air and her blood. Lion-O cursed and it was the first time she'd ever heard him do it out loud. She felt as if his clean mouth had been sullied. "Ocel! Latt! Panthro! Cheetara's sick!"
She opened her mouth and hissed, almost ready to smack him if it would just get those too-warm arms away from her. Lion-O picked her up – he smelled of herbs and it made her head pound – and started running. The breeze was welcome but Cheetara just bared her teeth at nothing, wishing her mind would work instead of melting into a haze of angry sickness and something with the consistency of hot butter.
But melt it did, and she was aware of nothing else for the next several hours.
"She didn't drink any of the water."
Tygra sat beside the bed, claws digging into the wood of the chair. "She fell in but she never drank it. These people told us everyone who caught it drank the water."
"Did they?" Panthro had put one great palm on her forehead and his face wrinkled with something like worry. "She's warm. If she starts acting nuts it's the same thing they've got. It can't be airborne because none of us have come down with it. Ghen I should've spent some more time in the med bay when I was training…"
Both kittens stood on the other side of the bed, tails literally dragging the ground as they stared. Cheetara's lips kept moving as if she were about to say something but her eyes never opened. "She's…gonna be okay, right?" Kit asked. "She'll get better, won't she?"
Tygra opened his mouth and shut it, standing up too quickly and nearly hitting Lion-O on the way out. "I'm going back to the samples. I must be missing something. Maybe she'll be one that pulls through really quick."
The bed was neat and small, and Cheetara might have had a plain fever if not for their surroundings. So many people rolled in their sheets, and in the next room he heard the violent ones spitting in anger. Cheetara lay under a thin blanket, eyelids flickering as dreams rolled. Lion-O tried to swallow and found he couldn't.
Cheetara had fallen into the water. He should have known she would get sick. His insides screamed at his mind but logic ruled for one thing; what could they have done any earlier? How would they have been able to stave off this strange disease? They knew nothing about it. Lion-O saw her fingers twitching and reached for her hand.
Panthro suddenly cut the move off. Lion-O shot him a look of confusion, fur lifting. "You can't catch this. You understand? We won't take any more risks. If there's even a chance you can catch this from contact…"
Panthro's eyes were still hard but the corners of his mouth seemed less like knives than usual. "She's tough, we've got time. You and I are going to help Tygra, so just keep calm."
Lion-O gave her one more look – her eyelashes seemed wet against her cheeks – and nodded. He wanted to punch Panthro for being right. "Right. Kat, Kit, stay away from the water and help gather herbs and plants for Snarf. Cheetara's going to be fine."
He almost convinced himself of it. The kittens ducked their head in determined nods and bustled out the door. Snarf, who had merely sat at the foot of Cheetara's bed for several long minutes, rubbed his furry side against her ankle and hopped down after them.
Two days passed. Four people died and Cheetara was not among them.
Lion-O brought broth – it cooled the insides and consisted chiefly of certain mints, purified water, and a few Snarf secrets – and let Snarf take the bowl. The little fellow had been sitting beside the bed watching her, curled up to rest after foraging for hours. "No luck?"
"None. There's no bacteria at all. Tygra passed out so Panthro's experimenting now. He just shoved Tygra's chair over so he could get to the samples."
Lion-O was still not allowed to touch her and he had nearly hauled off and clawed Panthro when he said – for the sixth time – to let Snarf give her the broth. "He's a different species, so he's least likely to take sick." He wanted to snarl that it affected lizard and cat alike, but it would have made no difference.
Snarf had no qualms with this. He tilted the bowl to her lips and Lion-O watched to make sure the majority dripped slowly into her mouth. She swallowed automatically and he counted the droplets that fell from her chin. She sighed when the bowl was done and might have opened her eyes a crack. "She's warmer than before."
Why would the Creator let someone so kind and faithful get sick? Lion-O mouthed another prayer and wondered darkly if Tygra upsetting her had made her pass out in the first place. It had probably been a contributing factor. That wouldn't be the Creator's fault but Tygra's.
Not that he would ever say that to Tygra. He was suffering enough already. The look on his face when Lion-O put Cheetara on the cot had been stricken. Lion-O mentally scolded himself for thinking it at all. Soon all of them would be snapping and spitting at each other.
Lion-O claws twitched as she turned her head and hair fell over her face like damp straw. He wanted to brush it back. Snarf did it for him, very neatly with his tiny paws. Then he shook his furry head. "I didn't mean to get attached to any of you, you know."
Lion-O glanced at him. "Really. I liked you all and thought you very brave, but I wanted to just stay like that. I didn't know what would happen if I got invested in your lives." Snarf's tail flipped back and forth. "Now I'm afraid I care too much. I've not had friends before, save Sarfina."
Cheetara coughed and her eyes opened wider. Snarf jumped. "Cheetara? Can you hear me?"
She blinked several times and focused on Snarf. Her lip curled and she hissed at him, spitting between bared teeth. Snarf scooted back in alarm. "Oh no…"
Lion-O forced his legs to hold him in spite of his muscles suddenly feeling like water. It was the same illness as all the others, but that came as no shock. She rolled onto her side, slowly, as if she were dizzy. "Cheetara, it's Lion-O. Can you understand me?"
She said nothing, breathing hard and slowly shutting her eyes and slipping back into her fevered sleep. "…We should tell the others," Snarf said. Lion-O nodded, but his mouth fell open an inch. Snarf prodded him. "What?"
"You weren't with us in Rana Village. But…"
Lion-O dared to brush back her hair and tugged one eyelid back to check her pupil. Dilated, as if she were awake and tense. He stood there for a minute, and then he suddenly flung himself to the door, sprinting. "Stay there! I think I just realized something!"
Snarf sat at Cheetara's side dumbfounded, watching the door swing shut.
"How would they have altered Mutation enough to disperse it in a creek?" Tygra looked like an old man hunched by the machines, leaning on the table with his palms flat.
"I don't know. They planned on using a gaseous form to infect people in Tropo, why not in the water too? It would make sense of why people get violent, and why there aren't any bacterial cultures in the stream. Barring a virus, it's the only thing I can think of." Lion-O rummaged through his pack and brought out a canister of antimutagen. Its rich purple sloshed from side to side in the glass. "Can you imagine how many people they could infect if they could put it in the water supply? They…they could infect a whole planet if it could maintain its chemical form in water."
"I haven't found any signs of it in the water samples. Besides, it would require a lot of water being drunk to make up for the dilution. That's assuming Mutation particles can maintain their chemical structure in water, which I doubt." Tygra watched Lion-O search the bag. "We can't afford to waste antimutagen on something that might not work. How much do we have left after all we've done?"
"Only a couple. We're running out." Lion-O stood up with the vial and continued, warily, "I have the recipe for antimutagen in the Thundertank. We had no way of knowing how far the drug had spread, and we only had so many resources on hand in the Imperial City. No one thought it would be this bad, but we wanted to be prepared."
Tygra tapped his claws on the table. He looked drawn and pale, and Lion-O wondered at what it would be like to have a sibling fretting about him like Cheetara and Tygra. They fought so much but it was plain they cared, and it made his heart warm and feel hurt at the same time. What had happened to Tygra that he'd gotten so attached to a merchant family? "You really think this is caused by some Mutation derivative?"
"Maybe. We can test it anyway, can't we?" Lion-O turned the canister over and over in his hands. "We have to do something. I'll get the list and see what we can do."
Tygra turned away. "Fine. I'm not finding anything so far, so shooting people up with antimutagen is actually starting to sound good."
At any other time Lion-O would have tried to reassure him, but time was their most valuable asset now. He left the room after a moment of hesitation and headed out to the Thundertank. Panthro was looking through the back for something and Lion-O called to him, telling him in undertone about his idea.
Panthro said nothing until Lion-O was finished. "It's interesting, but we're still in a bad spot. If the water's got some kind of Mutation leak, we'd need to get the people out of here to where they could get enough clean water and crops to survive. We can't go south because the ocean's there and Tropo would be a wreck trying to deal with refugees from a diseased area, and we can't go north because of the Luna. And climbing the mountains in the east or west would be suicide for these villagers. And what are the chances of this area having just the ingredients we need to synthesize more antimutagen?"
Lion-O's hopes dwindled more and more with each sensible, deathly word. "Most of them are common derivatives from nature. Only a few are rare." He drew the carefully folded page out but he didn't go back in, just looking at it. "…If I used my authority I could have everyone here taken care of," he said suddenly. "Call in doctors, medicine, the best treatments."
Panthro jerked up from the trunk and gave him a scrutinizing look. "Lion-O…I know this is hard. But you know why we can't do that."
"I know!" Lion-O didn't mean to growl and he looked away. "I know."
Panthro paced to where he was standing. "You want to help these people. And anyone with half a brain can see you care about that girl. But this ain't something you have a choice about. It's difficult, but you've got to keep this secret. If it comes down to leaving this village…"
Lion-O glared at Panthro. "I get it, okay? 'No matter what, no one can find out.' Even though they couldn't give me a reason, I have to swallow my questions and listen. I've done it all my life, I can do it now. Just help me and Tygra look this list over, okay? We're nearly out of antimutagen anyway."
The minutes trickled by and he counted each one as they examined the list and Lion-O worked to convince them to let him try using a canister to test his theory. "I don't want to waste it but this is the only idea we've had in days."
In the end they agreed. Ocel and Latt listened to the plan with some skepticism but offered to let them try administering antimutagen to one of the sickest in the village. "If it helps, well and good. If it does nothing or kills him, it's no worse than before." The cat was older, gray and black with his fur growing in uneven patches. He was so weak he couldn't sit up even to snap at them, and Latt said, "He's been sick three-and-a-half weeks. His time is coming."
"It shouldn't hurt him no matter what," Panthro said doubtfully. Lion-O did not think a whole canister ought to be used, so he used a needle to draw out half. It felt wrong to test his thoughts on a living person, but Lion-O pressed the needle in and fought his shudder. It clicked like a trigger.
For five minutes the cat simply sat still, lying in the sheets. Then he shut his eyes and started to snore, softly. "He's asleep," Ocel observed, confused. "A peaceful sleep. Check his temperature."
Tygra checked it with a flip of the hand against his brow and then his neck. He drew his palm away and blinked. "He's sweating. And his temperature is going down."
The fever had broken.
Lion-O heard Ocel and Latt begin to whisper in awe but cut them off. "Don't say anything yet. We know the antimutagen helps, but it doesn't solve the problem of having enough for the village, or fixing the water issue. And he might relapse." Reluctantly he showed them the list of components. "Do you have most of these plants present in the area? If you do, help Snarf find them and bring as much as you can. We might be able to find a way to mix them to help the others."
Heart racing, Lion-O began giving out orders with new life, for everyone suddenly looked to him, ravenous for hope. Ocel and Latt were only too happy to acquiesce, and Tygra no longer groused; he seemed to have rallied under the opportunity to do something. Panthro went to check their equipment to see if they had the tech they needed. "I knew it wasn't some crazy curse," Tygra said, light returning to his eyes. "Those particles might be smaller than the microscope could pick up. No wonder I couldn't…"
All the while Lion-O thought of all the sick people in the village and Cheetara most of all. If this worked they'd be all right. His chest loosened with relief. He wanted to immediately run to Cheetara and give her a dose but he looked at the half-full canister and knew he had to wait until they returned with the supplies. Cheetara was strong; there were villagers at death's door even now. She wouldn't want him to save her at the expense of someone else.
He literally sat on his hands to keep himself in place.
Snarf bounded through the door to the hut where Tygra's research was, carrying a mouthful of broad leaves. These he deposited on the ground. "The forest contains the items used to form the antimutagen serum. The Thundertank can be used to apply the necessary temperatures from the formula. There's just one problem."
Lion-O picked up the leaves and set them on the table. "What's that?"
"Well, two problems actually. The first one is that we can't find one of the plant derivatives we need. Ocel and Latt say it grows in the forest but we haven't found it yet. The other is that even if everyone grows well again, the water will remain an issue. There simply won't be enough for the people to live here. And we don't want them to get infected again. So we have to find a way to either fix the water or get them past the Luna. Neither of which would be good for time."
Lion-O mentally checked off each ingredient they had, stopping on the one item they didn't. "A Medella Fern? Have you ever heard of it?"
"Certainly. They tend to grow in wet areas with relatively warm climates, and I believe they're cultivated as house plants in the west, along with being used for medicinal purposes. There's no good reason it shouldn't be here, but if it's further into the forest then we might run into the Luna." Snarf shook his head. "Tygra says that it's the most important component from his view. It should be the active ingredient that breaks down the Mutation stored in the body by non-Mutants. For lack of a better word."
Lion-O nodded, checking the gauntlet for the Sword of Omens. "I wonder if it'll be willing to show me a vision in a dire situation like this?" he asked wryly. Snarf shrugged and Lion-O lifted the blade, glancing over the unscarred stone. "Sword of Omens, please, please give me sight beyond sight."
Snarf's fur seemed to puff up with static when the sword twitched and Lion-O winced; using the blade was difficult, as its visions flickered now and it seemed to sense he feared it. But for once it gave him a vision that he really needed, a patch of dark red fern leaves sprouting out of a dead stump. It grew deeper into the forest along with more swatches in the shade. "I think I can find it. Come on Snarf, you and I are going to go find some."
Panthro was already gathering a few well villagers in small groups and arming them with knives and telling them how to avoid a large enemy. "Holler and scream and we'll come running. We're looking for the Medella Fern."
"It's red, and some should be growing around detritus from the forest," Lion-O added. Panthro gave him a sharp look and he shrugged in reply. They didn't have to know how he knew. "Kittens are staying here to assist Tygra, don't get anywhere near the water. Everyone needs to check back in one hour. The forest isn't that big."
"Would the fern grow on the mountain?" asked a woman.
Snarf shook his head. "In damp places with dead plants. They also need warmth to grow healthy. The Luna might leave you alone if you avoid the mountain pass, so give it a berth." He then trotted toward the looming trees and flicked his tail. "Come Lion-O. I'll hunt along the ground."
He all but ignored the men that explored with him, hunting for the stump he'd seen in his vision. An hour passed and then two. Snarf's nose was sensitive, whiskers twitching as he snuffled through the grass and undergrowth. "I don't like this," he said suddenly. "There's no smell of a processing area or metal. How is Mutation getting pumped into the water? There must be a source if it's still making people sick and being washed away."
"Why aren't we picking up any particles is what I'm wondering. Of all the samples Tygra's taken, we should have spotted at least a little in the water, even just a random clump," Lion-O said. The odor of the trees grew thicker and he stopped. "Look."
Snarf spotted what he gestured to and his tail writhed happily. "There it is!" He bounded forward and plucked the leaves from the rotten stump, sniffing them heartily. "Ah, good specimens. We can transplant these roots to encourage growth in the village." With careful paws and tail he took parts of the other swatches, leaving enough to grow again. He turned around and started waddling back on his hind legs, carrying the precious ferns with care.
Then he jumped forward just in time to avoid being crushed by sapling being snapped in two like a stick, rolling into Lion-O's ankles. Lion-O scooped him up and drew the Sword of Omens, feeling a sudden chill hit him as more trees fell, roots digging up and trunks plummeting. The other ferns were covered in dirt and trees; it would take hours to dig them out now, hours they didn't have.
The beast that had knocked down the tree seemed puzzled, looking for splattered Snarf presumably. Lion-O's brain took in little details – the long, cracked horns, the giantor-height and girth, the pale violet and blue of his skin – and took two steps back. The tiny eyes under the sloping brow seemed like a dumb animal's, mostly black and barely visible. His jaw was incredibly heavy and his teeth hung out slightly, and he dwarfed Nfumu. His clothes were black and brown, pieces of leather and animal skins sewn together carelessly. And on his wrists he had metal bracers, round metal coverings protruding from them and protecting his knuckles as he shifted on all fours. His back legs seemed slightly squashed, deformed, and when he spotted Lion-O he growled. The shape of the body was somewhere between beast and person, and the bullish nostrils flared.
Snarf huddled into Lion-O's elbow. "Run."
Lion-O took off in the opposite direction, tucking Snarf to his side so the creature could hang on to his belt. The Luna – he must be a Luna of some kind, though he'd never seen such a monster in his life – followed more slowly, charging relentlessly. He could hear trees shattering behind him as he ran, ducking between them and trying to think of what to do. If he could find a good place to get some leverage, he could probably cut the creature's legs to make it stop-
Something massive closed on the back of his cloak and Lion-O yelped, lifted from the ground by the creature. He was shaken twice as if a giant were trying to pop his limbs out of their sockets and Snarf fell from his side, the ferns tumbling out of his little paws. The Luna made a pleased, grunting noise and hurled Lion-O into the brush. Stunned, Lion-O rolled over and staggered to his feet only to see the Luna taking off, lumbering quickly away.
Snarf shook himself and tried to hobble after him, hind leg twisted. "No! He's got the Medella!" Foot hovering, Snarf buckled and yowled in anger. "Go! We need the fern!"
Lion-O didn't have to be told twice. He started running, feet a blur through the grass and over fallen logs left in the Luna's aftermath.
The cats that had been trailing along with him just gawked in terror before running to find Panthro. Snarf limped after them, bawling Snarf-curses.
If Lion-O had been paying attention, he would have remembered barreling through the village after the Luna and felt the splinters of wood digging into his feet from shattered walls and smashed fences. He might have heard Tygra yell and grab the kittens, dragging them out of the path of the oncoming force and the screams of civilians running indoors.
All his focus was dedicated to not losing the Luna. That might be the only Medella Fern in the forest and Lion-O wanted it back. They couldn't dig up more right now. And even if there were more, what right did this beast have to take something that would help sick people? None at all. Why had he grabbed the Medella anyway? Why make these people sick in the first place? His mouth opened to pant as he sped up, feet pounding and leaving blood smears on the grass. It added fuel to his fire and Lion-O moved like an angry bird of prey after a creature that had attacked its chicks. He fused with the air in his run, shifting into a predator, sleek with fury and pursuit.
The grass turned to rock and he felt the ground slope upwards; they were heading into the mountain pass. The Luna's greater weight made him slower and Lion-O leaped forward, swinging the Sword of Omens. He nicked the Luna's leg and the creature snarled, turning around and lowering his head. Lion-O ought to have drawn up in alarm but his response surprised even him; he bared his teeth and roared back. The sound echoed, tearing through his throat and bouncing back from the stone.
The Luna hopped backwards, eyes widening. He made several questioning grunts and Lion-O's fierceness lessened slightly as he realized the thing was actually afraid of him. "Give back the fern," he ordered hoarsely. The roar skirted his low voice.
But the Luna only stomped and pitched back his large head and let loose a guttural howl, throat working like a pump to make a curious, heavy noise. Lion-O covered his ears and felt the temperature drop by fifty degrees in a second
A tearing wind kicked up and Lion-O saw clouds explode overhead into a whirling snowstorm, tumbling down on them. His sweat froze in a second. The Luna took off again and Lion-O was hot on his heels. If he lost the thief in this storm he'd never find him, and the Medella would be gone.
A thin layer of snow crunched beneath his feet, numbing the scratches on them. So the Luna could cause blizzards after all. Lion-O tried to think of a way to stop the pursuit and recklessly shoved his hand into the gauntlet and lifted it, firing the cords at the Luna's back. It took three tries and about a hundred more long, frozen paces before they tangled around the legs and arms, sending the Luna sprawling with a bellow.
At last he caught up and Lion-O slowed enough to realize his lungs were burning. The Luna was already back on his hands and feet, grimacing and pulling himself free. "Give back the ferns."
Showing his teeth, the Luna struck him in the stomach with an open hand. The impact took just long enough for Lion-O to realize the strength of the beast – and how foolish it had been to come out here on his own – and go flying, breath struck from his body. His back hit the ground and he bounced before coming to a full stop. Lion-O gasped, unable to feel air moving in and out for a torturous moment.
He forced himself back up. The Luna couldn't get away. If he did…
That plant was what they needed to cure these people. Cheetara's life was riding on this. Her damp hair and the crinkle of her pained brow seemed more real to him then than the earth beneath his feet. Lion-O ran at the creature, newly infuriated by the gall of it. How many people had to die and suffer because of this trade, because of these experiments?
The Sword of Omens struck true this time, cutting into the arm as it lunged for him. He coiled around it, dancing in the snow and whirling again to jab. Lion-O had never had the bad habit of poor breathing during a duel, but this was a fight in frigid temperatures now and his breath came like smoke out of a broken chimney. The Luna roared again as he delivered bruising swats to Lion-O's sides and the snow intensified into a thick blizzard. The cold grew worse, dropping and dropping until Lion-O felt ice forming in his fur.
He still didn't stop. He couldn't have ever said later how long they fought, but suddenly he felt something different when the blade hit; the Luna fell back, clumsy and thick, and the ferns fell crumpled from one massive fist. Something had happened to a tendon, and the Luna had started, sitting on its rump like a dumb animal.
Lion-O had to catch himself to stay the blade. He was angry and his chest was hurting, expanding in the white, icy world and contracting again. "You. Do you know. How many people. Have died?"
Lion-O's hand tightened on the Sword of Omens. The Luna sat staring at him and his blood was a lovely purple on the snow. It was already an inch thick and Lion-O could barely see him under the powder. Only those beady dark eyes really stood out. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
To his disgust the Luna shuffled backward, pushing up snow as he moved. "What, you think you can just run away after this? Why did you want the ferns? Answer me!"
He lifted the sword until it was perfectly level. The Luna stopped, staring at it with new fear. "Tell. Me. Why."
Lion-O had never been so angry in his life, save for when Nfumu had nearly killed Kit. That anger had been a flash; he hadn't noticed it until the deed was done. The blood pounding in his arm was hot, even though he was rapidly chilling in the wind, and he moved so the blade was in front of the Luna's face.
The Luna looked at him almost dolefully. "Mama say to."
His voice was softer than Lion-O expected and as deep as a snowdrift. His jaw moved sloppily, and his words slurred. Lion-O's eyes narrowed. The Luna whimpered. "Who is 'Mama?'"
"Mama Luna. Tell 'Amok watch what happen in village. Report. Stop cats.' So take cat's plants." Amok, if that was his name, huddled into a hulking mass, taller than Lion-O even curled up and cried, "Want Mama!"
Looking at him now Lion-O knew he couldn't possibly be a regular Luna. Something was wrong about him. And he sounded so dim wailing for his mother – whoever she may be – that Lion-O lowered the sword. Amok didn't charge or attack. He just sniffled and tried to scuttle backwards.
Lion-O had to get back to the village. The ferns were lightly frosted now but he scooped them up and tucked him into a pouch on his belt. Giving Amok another look, Lion-O tried to find the anger in his heart to do what needed to be done. "…Why are you working with 'Mama?'"
Amok's lower lip trembled. "Love Mama."
"And she sent you out here? On your own?" This Luna-being, he realized, ought not be alone. He could speak but only just, and he acted so much like a lost child. He whimpered and hid his great face in his hands, nails slate gray and cracked. Lion-O would get no more information from Amok; it would be wisest to kill him so he wouldn't get in the way, or report back. Stupid he may be, but he was dangerous.
Amok just kept crying for Mama. Lion-O watched him and his eyes flicked to the Sword of Omens. Ignorant or not, the Luna had caused the deaths of many villagers. He was so simple though; could he have known? Did he realize even now what he'd done?
He had killed Nfumu and he could kill Amok.
He could. He could.
"Did you want to hurt those people?" Lion-O couldn't help but ask.
Amok seemed confused. "People sleep. Sleep bad?"
This was so ridiculous that Lion-O laughed, sour and chill.
He weighed the blade in his hand and then sheathed it. "Go on home. Leave this place. You'll make it through the mountains fine."
Amok gave him a stupid look, as if he'd invited him to tea. "Go away. You let these people wander their land. I don't want to see you here again. And stop making blizzards!"
Lion-O made clipped shooing motions at him and Amok waddled back on all fours like a chastened pet. His legs really were deformed, curved and club-like. Lion-O would not feel pity but he fought something hot growing in his throat. "Go. Go home."
His face had lost all feeling and Lion-O realized he was sleepy. Not a good sign. Stumbling, he started running back toward the village, hoping that as he put distance between himself and Amok the snow would cease.
"Mama Luna?" "Ma?" Tug-Mug had claimed they were working for his mother and he'd seen the images of the aged Luna in the messenger; what kind of woman was she, sending her children into these places where they might easily die? As if they were as expendable as pawns in chess…
Tygra had never seen the like. Minding his own business, grinding up some ingredients to mix for antimutagen, he'd been quite focused when a gargantuan, freak Luna came barreling through with Lion-O sprinting after him like a fiend. He'd grabbed the kittens, gawking with them as it smashed through walls and fences, leaving splintered wood and cracked mud stone everywhere. Lion-O had never faltered, pursuing him up into the pass.
And then the snow had started, falling silently over the village out of what had previously been in a clear day. Swelled, puffy clouds had dropped snowflakes for an hour before stopping, just long enough to make half an inch. Panthro arrived with Snarf, livid that the Luna had run off and Lion-O had followed. It took an hour to calm everyone.
Before they could enter the pass, the snow was already melting and Lion-O came down the way.
His whole body was covered in frost, making him look like a white lion. He shivered and shook, mouth sealed shut as he entered the village. His hands seemed unable to open, tail stiff with ice. Snarf hobbled to him in horror and the kittens ran to his sides. "Lion-O! Are you-?"
He extended his hands and offered a pouch filled with crisp, cold Medella leaves. He smiled and then buckled, numb and unconscious in the middle of the town square.
Panthro picked the lion up and carried him to find a bed and some way of treating his injuries and the beginnings of hypothermia. Tygra dared not waste any time; he rushed to his shed where he'd been grinding ingredients and had the kittens get the recipe for him.
The antimutagen was their only chance.
Snarf's tail curled up as he stretched, examining the bandages on Lion-O's feet and chest for blood stains before nodding in satisfaction. "Soup broth and blankets have warmed him up right."
"Well, the whole village should be back on its feet in a matter of days." Tygra drew a healthy syringe full of antimutagen – fresh as spring, purple as a new violet blossom – and leaned over Cheetara to inject it into her arm. She spat at him, pulling at her bonds. "Ah, shut up. You'll thank me later."
It had taken a day to mix the antimutagen and another to test its effectiveness. Their remaining supplies of Mutation had been used on the very sickest while they waited for the results of their new batch. As it happened, Lion-O had been right. The sick recovered, appetites improving and their fevers disappearing, but this brought the food supply into question. Tygra sighed. The people couldn't fish because of the toxic water, and their crops wouldn't grow because of all the weeds which had most likely been caused by said water. What they would do when the forest's resources were depleted he didn't know. They'd probably have to cross the mountain pass and abandon their land now that the way was clear.
Lion-O hadn't killed the Luna, Amok. Tygra couldn't believe it at first. They'd checked the pass and found, in the melting snow, great footprints walking away from the place where Lion-O's prints turned back to the village. They hadn't been able to follow them before the snow melted entirely. Tygra only shook his head as he looked at the sleeping lion; he was too soft for this kind of thing. Had Amok played innocent, or had he escaped? The Nfumu thing had upset Lion-O, and Tygra couldn't quite understand why. Was such a foul, wicked life worth something? Really?
Cheetara whined and Tygra flinched. The recovery was not pleasant, sweat pouring from the body as it struggled to shake off the mutation's grip. The old man's peaceful sleep had been interrupted by bouts of agony they'd later learned. It had all the signs of Mutation, but the fact that they couldn't find anything in the water was killing him. None was present, none at all, and Tygra leaned on the side of the cot and shut his eyes and ears to his surroundings.
Everyone who drank the water got sick. But not when they drank from the purifier. Its pipes stretched over the banks and sucked up water and cleansed it, pulling it to the basin further back. If people drank from this, they didn't get sick. So it had to be the water, right? Tygra's neck ached from being stooped over samples and he rubbed the tight place at the base of his skull. Nothing had ever turned up in the water, so how could it be that? But how could it be anything else? Something wasn't clicking and it was making his head throb.
"It's so hot."
He lifted his head and looked at Cheetara. She was staring weakly at the ceiling, still feverish, and Tygra shook her arm gently. "Cheetara? You're recovering right now; you're going to be okay."
Her nostrils flared. Her hair was filthy and tangled – no water on hand to wash it had quietly troubled her – and she pulled at it in distress. "It's so hot in here."
She hadn't heard him. The complaint was the same for all those recovering, although he supposed it was pretty warm in the area now that the Luna had gone. Snarf hopped up to Cheetara's pillow from Lion-O's, and he checked her temperature. He didn't fear sickness at all now since it was Mutation, and he gestured for a bowl. It had the minty liquid, and Tygra passed it to him. "Drink this, it'll make you cool down."
Cheetara turned her head away, twisting. Tygra bit the inside of his mouth as a little spilled on her. "C'mon, I know you hate tea. Poor, deluded thing. But this stuff is good for you."
"Ngh. The water…no water!"
Snarf tried to put the brim to her lips but she wouldn't take it. His ears slumped and Tygra resisted the urge to bop her on the head. It wasn't her fault, she was sick and confused. "Try to sleep then. The others are already getting better."
Her eyelids fluttered and Snarf tugged back the sheets. She was damp from sweat and curled in a ball, holding her temples. "Too hot," she whispered. "My head hurts."
"I'm going to see if I can't get some soup for her. She's got to have fluids, even if she doesn't want them." Tygra stood up and left the house, sunlight burning his eyes. He rubbed them furiously and went in search of the kittens. They'd been given kitchen duty and had helped with gathering food in the village.
He saw Kat running and wondered if they were playing a game for a second. Then he realized the boy was pelting toward him and went to meet him, frayed nerves starting to race again. "Don't tell me someone's sick again-!?"
"Tygra, the water's not making people sick! It's the plants!" Kat's face was pale and he was gasping for air, tail switching and twitching.
His heart stopped. "What? You mean the Medella-?"
"No! The weeds that have been growing along the stream! Me and Kit were looking around and – just come on!"
Tygra just picked Kat up and sprinted down to the stream, unwilling to wait for the shorter legs to lead. Kit was hunched by the beginning of the weeks that sprawled down the bank into the stream and Tygra stopped beside her, aware that Panthro was approaching by the sound of heavy feet in the earth. "What is it? What's wrong?"
"Look. But don't breathe on it." Kit had used a stick to push down the stalk of one of the weeds, bent down like wheat. Kernels of what Tygra had thought were seeds rolled free when she roved the stick over them. With the flatter part of it she crushed the kernels and pointed. "We saw some of the seeds fall, and we were poking them to see who could smash the most…"
The seeds had crumbled, revealing glints of a muted, green glow. Tygra took the stick and took a vial from his belt – it had contained one of their many batches of antimutagen – and nudged the objects into it, sealing it carefully. "But people drank the water…" Panthro began.
"They went down to the stream to get the water," Tygra interrupted. "They had to pass through the weeds. And Cheetara fell in, and she went down in the weeds. The purifier pumps water out and over the banks, so no one has to go into the plants."
"And the glow goes away. See?" The glow had indeed dimmed, and in the sunlight Tygra had to squint to make it out. "Nobody ever saw it because they thought the water was making them sick. I bet that's why the bad guys put them near the water!"
Panthro pulled the kittens away from the weeds. "Tygra, go run some tests on that stuff. I'll tell the villagers."
Tygra did as he was told, mind whirling. For two hours he analyzed the substance, and his examination turned up interesting results. The weed was a plant hybrid, altered to contain the properties of Mutation, but it was diluted compared to the processed drug. It was meant to be breathed in, and it wasn't absorbed through the skin. It took more than a breeze to loosen the seeds, and the plants were indeed draining the nutrients from the soil, leaving the crops to wither. It was a spectacular blend of minerals, chemicals, and plant that made Tygra feel surly and impressed. It wasn't a perfect experiment, as it wasn't as powerful as Mutation, but it was certainly ingenious.
He also discovered that fire was a good way of getting rid of the seeds. Heat made the kernels pop and turned them to cinders.
Tygra pushed away the microscope and took off to tell Snarf. The village had woken up, and Panthro was telling Latt about what they'd discovered as he passed. If Lion-O was up he would be ecstatic to hear this.
Snarf popped out the door before he could enter. "Lion-O's awake. He's looking after Cheetara."
"We found out what was causing the sickness." Tygra slipped through and paused. Lion-O was indeed up, looking very rumpled, and he was sitting in Snarf's vacated chair. Other than the bandages on his feet and chest and his slow movements, he seemed well. Cheetara was leaning on him, murmuring about the heat.
Lion-O was drawing a brush through the worst tangles in her hair. It was such a tender gesture that Tygra stood there and watched for a minute. Cheetara's eyes were shut, lips muttering indistinctly. Lion-O brought the abandoned bowl of liquid to her lips and coaxed her into drinking some of it, tilting it delicately. She accepted the bowl reluctantly from his bandaged hands and seemed to find comfort in the way he swept her hair back. He put it down after she sipped it and sighed, and kept brushing her dirty hair. "You'll be okay," he said softly.
That Lion-O liked Cheetara was quite obvious, but Tygra realized for the first time that it might be turning into something other than a crush. A large part of him – the part that was most shaped like a brother and remembered her as a motherly, bratty sister – did not like this at all. And yet, the other part was touched every time the brush went through her hair like a kid brushing a doll's curls. Lion-O quickly braided her long hair with a few twitches of his fingers, as if he'd done it a thousand times.
Tygra shook himself and said, "Lion-O. We've found the source." The lion paused, looking surprised that Tygra was there. His face went slightly pink. Tygra rolled his eyes and approached quietly. "The weeds growing along the banks are where the Mutation is."
"What?" Lion-O draped Cheetara back down on the cot very gently. He tucked her braid out of the way of the pillow. "What's happened? Did you make the antimutagen?"
Tygra realized Lion-O had only just woken up and had no idea what was going on. "I'll tell you by the stream. Everyone's gotten a dose of antimutagen and Cheetara's recovering."
In spite of his bandages Lion-O seemed hale again and followed him swiftly. Tygra had an idea of how to get rid of this stuff once and for all.
"So you see, when you went to get water you had to wade through the reeds and plants. You said the water was toxic and causing the weeds to grow, but that's not what happened." Tygra spoke well to groups Lion-O noted, watching the tiger gesture to the plants behind him. He sounded like a noble's son, clear and confident. "If my hypothesis is correct, the Luna that was here was placing an experimental form of Mutation here and kept you in the village so he could report back to the head of their group about how a test group was affected. They've been trying to produce more Mutation more quickly, and this was a great habitat for them to infect with their experiment. The fact that you thought it was the water played right into what they wanted. It meant the plant was able to grow without being disturbed."
The people murmured, the recovering wiping their foreheads. Lion-O felt lightheaded from the days he'd been sleeping and from relief; Cheetara was awake now and sitting beside him, listening intently. Her hair had been neatly braided even though it was still dirty, and Lion-O touched her shoulder. She glanced at him with bright eyes and smiled a little. "I'm okay," she whispered.
Tygra had gathered the villagers along the bank, just steps away from the plant that had been spreading the Mutation-hybrid seeds through their numbers. Many of them held torches. "The water has been fine all along. The purifier was built so the pipe stretched unintentionally over the weeds, so no one had to go through them to get water from the bank. If we burn out the plants and pull up the roots so they can't grow, your village should recover with time." Tygra lowered one torch to the top of a weed to demonstrate. It took a moment to kindle but when it did the top burst into popping sparks, the stalk eaten into ash in seconds.
Several villagers started forward and he held up a finger. "Don't touch the plants though. If you inhale the seeds again you'll need to get another shot of antimutagen. Just take it a little bit at a time. I recommend a path to the stream first."
They nodded and Ocel was the first to start the fires. They were controlled and small, and Lion-O watched them dig up the roots and burn them as well. One crackled then another before it began to sound like a sap-filled campfire in the area. The land would be rich here as long as they got rid of all the Mutation, made new by the layer of ash.
"One thing I don't understand," Cheetara said suddenly, "is why some people got sick and others recovered."
Lion-O fiddled with his tail and released it after a minute. "Remember how I said some people have genetic structures suitable for Mutation?"
"Like Slithe and Gyp, and all the others that maintain their minds?" Neither one wanted to say Mutants.
"This was just a test to see if Mutation could be bred into plants. It worked but not well enough; the Mutation was diluted, so it just gave people fevers and made them act like Timbyr until their bodies wore out. The people that can utilize Mutation were the ones who probably burned through it and came out all right after being sick a little while. We'd need a lot of investigation to confirm it, but…"
She nodded thoughtfully. "The people that got well could control themselves under the influence. Huh. So I guess I wouldn't be genetically suited for it? Call me crazy but I'm all right with that."
Lion-O grinned. "There are worse things. As long as everyone's okay…that's all I care about."
"Well next time wait for me to catch up before you go running off after some Luna-thing." Panthro sounded gruffer than usual as he came close, digging with a hoe to help break up the roots. Lion-O and Cheetara tried to get up but he waved a hand at them, telling them to sit down. "That wasn't a pureblood Luna. No way."
Lion-O frowned. "I didn't think so. He…seemed to be off somehow. He had giantor traits. But I didn't think giantors and Luna could procreate."
"They can't, any more than dogs and cats. I don't want to know how he was made. Probably in a test tube." Tygra too was attacking the roots but he had stopped to speak in undertone. "This Mama Luna isn't like Slithe or Gyp. She's in control here, and she knows what she's doing."
"She hasn't stopped us yet which has to be driving her mad." Snarf rubbed his sides against Cheetara's ankles. "She's trying to keep us from the north. I wouldn't be surprised to see more agents getting in the way. We must be getting closer."
Cheetara drew him into her lap and cuddled him against her chin. "I wonder if these plants came from Red-Eye or Gyp," she said. "They were sending out samples and plants."
"That might be where these seeds came from," Tygra said. "They had to be spliced with some advanced technology, and the Luna have the scientists to do it. Gyp might have helped work on them too." He turned to survey the burning of the weed and Lion-O watched carefully as the people dropped fire on the plants and paced back, avoiding the places with the care of stealthy predators.
"We'll leave them some emergency stock of antimutagen just in case. As long as the plants are burned out they should be all right." Lion-O watched the flames dance and continued, "They should probably leave this area until it can be treated."
"That would be safest," Tygra agreed.
Cheetara sighed. "I'm just glad everything's all right now. All I want to do is leave and message Mama and Daddy." She leaned on Lion-O's arm which surprised him, but he didn't move. "You did really well, Tygra. You and the kittens and Panthro and Snarf and Lion-O. You all helped stop this."
"You did too," Lion-O said. She glanced at him skeptically. "Hope is essential. Without hope we would have given up." His cheek brushed the top of her head as he nudged her.
Tygra gave them a curious look and coughed. "Cheetara?" She looked at him and he seemed ready to speak but then scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Nothing. Just…sorry about…y'know." She looked confused and Lion-O couldn't figure it out either. "I know you and I don't see eye to eye on the Creator, but I shouldn't have gotten so spiteful. I was…worried."
Lion-O felt Cheetara's fingers close loosely. "I know. I'm just grateful to him that this all worked out. Him and all of you. If you don't feel that way, that's your right."
Lion-O noticed that Tygra looked away. "Yeah. Anyway, I think the next thing on the list should be getting through this pass. Hopefully Amok will have gone on."
Wincing, Lion-O rubbed his forehead wearily. "I know you think I should have offed him. Maybe you're right. But you didn't see him."
Tygra put up his hands. "Hey, it was your call. I'm just trying to think of the pass and getting through it. It's just the beginning of summer now, so we should have plenty of time as long as we don't get held up forever."
Panthro nodded. "We should leave in a day, two tops. Make as much antimutagen as you can so we'll have a good supply."
The kittens looked at each other and pumped their fists in the air. "On the road again!"
"Man it got rocky quick."
Cheetara helped Kat and Kit up a particularly steep spot and heard Panthro cuss when the Thundertank's wheels started spinning out. "Doesn't it have treads for mountain terrain? Scratch that, every terrain." Tygra called. He had gone ahead and was looking back with his arms folded for warmth.
"Not for this kind of steepness," Panthro shot up the path.
The village had been a storm of activity when they left, smelling of clean air and freshly caught fish and grasses that could really breathe for the first time in months. Lion-O had left the village some information on how to contact the Imperial City and the nobles if something did happen, and they'd made good their exit after loading up no fewer than fifty clean canisters of antimutagen. The road into the mountain had thawed in Amok's absence very well, but the grass turned to lichen and moss and shrubs very quickly. Two days found them nearly at the peak of the path, and once they reached the highest place they would be able to see their route into the pass. Panthro had described it as a great canyon with cliffs stretching out for miles to either side, one that filled with ice when the winter snows started.
Getting the Thundertank through the pass wouldn't be too bad as soon as they found a proper road. The Tank could tear up the land, but its weight worked against it as they forged up the mountain on a scrabbly, loose path. This was the third time Panthro had to get out to push. Lion-O went to help and Snarf climbed into the driver's seat to push on the gas pedal. Panthro still didn't like anyone to actually drive the tank.
"This is what I imagined when I thought of adventuring. Walking long distances up mountains." Kit paused again as they waited for the Thundertank to be freed from a cracked rock. "…Wow, old-style adventuring is boring."
"Why do you think the fairytales always skipped ahead to the location? Fifty pages of wandering across the wilds gets a little dull." Tygra rounded the machine and braced up beside Lion-O and Panthro, helping them push. The Thundertank clunked and rolled forward, freed from the crack. Cheetara nudged the kittens out of the way of the Tank and pulled up some shrub branches. When it next looked like the wheels would get stuck she had them stop and put the scrub under them.
Panthro actually looked relieved. "Thanks."
Cheetara stared at him. "You just thanked me. Without any sarcasm or our lives being in danger." He grunted and she smiled. "Aw, Panthro."
"Don't get all mushy on me girl." With this practice the Thundertank made it up to a smoother patch and everyone took a break.
Cheetara was cold in the high wind but warm under the sun, so she felt feverish in the mixture. But it was nothing like being sick and she reveled in her returning strength and health. She noticed Lion-O watching her – he'd been babying her a little since she recovered – and gave him a cheeky wave. He smiled and shook his head; she was fine, but he hadn't let her do so much as lay out her own bedroll. She refused to acknowledge the catch to her breath and how tired she got if she walked too long.
"I'm fine now, really." Cheetara prodded Lion-O's side. "I'm feeling good."
"Are you sure? We don't need you to have a relapse." He was holding the legend map in his hands now, leaning against the side of the Tank as he tried to figure out their location. She gave him a look. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry I've been coddling. I guess I just…well, all of us were worried about you."
Tygra clucked his tongue. "He was fretting after you all right. All of us were, but he was a mess more than anyone." Lion-O's eyes roved to him piercingly, as if to warn him to be quiet, and Tygra gave him a wicked smile. "Careful Lion-O. We might start thinking you-"
"No!"
The teasing stopped and all of the cats – and Snarf, who was in the passenger seat now – turned to the kittens. Both stood further ahead on the path, but Kat's cry had carried over the brittle air. Cheetara sprinted up to them first, taking his shoulders. "Kat? Are you okay?"
His face was white, eyes wide. "There…it's not winter. How…how is it…?"
Cheetara turned to see what he was pointing at. Her heart fell.
In warm sunlight it would have been a glorious canyon made of silvery stone, deep enough to hold a tall peak and long enough to be seen as a crack in Third Earth from space. It stretched out seemingly to the horizon and she felt weak at the thought of driving through it.
Panthro reached them and gaped openly. Tygra reached them and took in the sight before putting a hand to his mouth to muffle an oath. Lion-O and Snarf were the last to see it, and they both stared for a silent minute.
The pass through the mountains – the low, safe, passable route they had traveled so far for – was coated in hard, pure ice. Snow must have been falling to cause the white mist in the distance and the clouds were deep gray, fat with flakes. If the ocean had poured into the canyon and frozen it could not have looked more desolate below them.
It was nearly ten leagues out where the ice began, forming what looked like an iceberg stranded on land. Nearer was no ice, but it was blocked from that point on. Lion-O's hands fell to his sides helplessly.
"How did this happen? The water is still in the ocean. Where did this ice come from?" Cheetara looked from the wall of ice down to the chunk of canyon still open. "What the…?"
She pointed into the canyon. The path led down into its depths like the deepest caldera but there was no sign of lava having ever been near here. It would take a day to cross even in the Thundertank, and the ice cast cold, night black shadows over it in spite of the sun. But the strangest thing was that, in the shadiest part of the ice, a building rested. It looked like a factory with towers jutting in the center, carved from blue stone and ore that could have been from the sides of the canyon. It was massive if it was so easy to see from here. "Who would build that here? The canyon floods every spring when the ocean rises," Lion-O said.
"I don't know. I'm more worried about them." Tygra crouched and Cheetara followed his gaze to see a shifting throng. "Monkians?"
Some of them had white fur like Nfumu but there were blacks and browns and even reddish gold mixed in the numbers. They seemed to be camping in the west, a place where the canyon branched into caves and greater rocks. "What in the world is going on down there?"
Cheetara felt her cheek warm and looked over; Lion-O's gauntlet was shining and he took the Sword of Omens out, squinting against the gold and red glare. The blade lengthened and his eyes widened, everybody turning to him as he muttered. "There's…a group of soldiers. Thundera's soldiers. They're down there, hidden. The monkians are waiting for them-"
He broke off and held his head. The jewel's glow faded and the blade shrank again. "They need help. We have to get down there." Panthro immediately turned to the Thundertank and climbed in. "Maybe they'll know why the way is frozen already."
Cheetara recalled that Panthro was part of the military and realized these might be friends of his, perhaps part of a Thunderan outpost. Everyone got into the tank and buckled in; it wasn't quite as steep down this side of the mountain but Cheetara held her stomach anyway as the descent began.
She curled her fingers against the expanse of the clouds and moved them in a spiral. The sky twisted black and purple to follow her motion and the white snow falling intensified. She didn't fear the ice; she gloried in it as she had on Luna, before their world died. Her hand opened and she uttered her spell.
Amok appeared in the snow before her as if he'd fallen like a comet, covered in ice and snow. She hated wasting her magic on transporting Amok, but all he had to do was start a blizzard for him to pull him through, so why wait longer? "You failed to stop them?" she asked.
He blinked his tiny eyes and whimpered, proffering an arm. A long, violet scratch across it was swollen. "Kiss? Amok miss Mama."
She slapped him across the face. Amok lowered his head without surprise. "I'll discuss your punishment later. Right now I have a storm to finish. The ice is nearly done; you go see Chilla for now. Tell her what happened. I can't stomach listening to you two right now."
He went without a sound and she raised both hands, shutting her eyes. More cold, more ice had to fall on the canyon. It was so far away but even here she felt the storm's pressure. Alluro would have to deal with the cats if they were to keep the area under control. The Arietta bird would make short work of the ice if she were freed, and her limbs were trembling from the exertion of doing it once. Mama she may be, but would not be able to do this again.
She wasn't strong enough yet. And she wouldn't be strong enough if Alluro didn't make good on the job she'd given him. The mutated were essential to it, and time was running out faster than she'd expected.
Mama turned around and headed back up the snowy hill without a word. Enough blood to fill a sea would flow, but if it made it possible to control the Harbinger, it was worth it.
Every last drop.
End of Episode 13
Hello everyone.
Due to the busy nature of our lives, Harbinger is going on a temporary - note that word - hiatus for six weeks. Check back May 27th for the continuation of season one. In the meantime, let us know what you think. Where will the story go? Favorite episode? Or go back and enjoy the tale again. If this story is enjoyed, the years constructing this project are worth it. And we do mean years.