Chapter V
The situation was bleak. Both Cheetara and Lion-o were tangled in a lizard net. Lion-o was trying to cut apart the net but the restricted space made it hard for him to maneuver his sword.
With Cheetara and Lion-o out of action the lizards overwhelmed Tygra with their numbers. The loud crack of Tygra's whip made some of the lizard soldiers retreat, but not for long. The Thundercats needed help. Badly.
WilyKit and WilyKat had been observing the fight from the tree lines. They glanced at each other briefly, not needing words to know one another's thoughts, before leaping into action. They were no warriors, but despite their fear of the situation they acted swiftly and with purpose.
WilyKat dashed towards where Cheetara and Lion-o were, dodging the lizards attacks as he went. His small size was a great advantage to him. Expertly slipping his knife from his belt he began cutting through the thick net.
"Thanks," Lion-o said as he immediately re-entered the fray once freed.
"Go and hide," Cheetara ordered him, her voice urgent as she too stepped free from the net and blocked an onslaught of gunfire with her staff. Her warning went unheeded, as WilyKat had other plans.
Drawing his slingshot WilyKat hurled a rock directly into the head of a lizard had been sneaking up on Tygra. He grinned to himself. He would show them he and WilyKit weren't little kids that needed protection, they'd been living on the streets for years, they could handle themselves.
WilyKit went in the opposite direction of her partner, heading straight for the 'ansiblar', which was preventing the use of magic. Having slipped over to the machine without being seen by the lizard footmen, who were busy with Tygra, she carefully looked over the large metal square looking for some way to turn it off, or destroy it.
The machine had a glass panel on the side; behind it were tangles of wires. Flipping a small blade from her sleeve she shoved the blade through the glass and into the mass of wires. The ansiblar made a piercing screech before sputtering light and flashes before stopping completely, smoke hissed out of the hole. Smiling at her handy work WilyKit turned back to the battle.
But before she could she cried out in pain as her hair was yanked hard. Her hand flew to the hand that held a tight fistful of her hair. Her padded fingers felt the cold scales of a lizard claw.
Panicked she twisted as best she could trying to get away, but her captor held on viciously, but WilyKit was able to glimpse her captor, it was Slithe.
His mouth was twisted in hatred. WilyKit's whole boy was filled with fear and panic. Slithe grabbed the metal chain at the back of her neck and pulled it so tight WilyKit could barley breath.
"This. Is. Mine." Slithe hissed into her ear, making her flinch. With one hand trying to pull the chain looser WilyKit reached out for her knife, which was still sticking out of the machine.
Wrenching it out she stabbed the knife into Slithe's thigh. The lizard howled in pain, but he didn't loosen his grip. He jerked her head back by her hair making her cry out and pulled the chain back further.
She couldn't breath. Her paws clawed at the metal chain and device now acting as a noose. Her knees buckled, her sight started to swim, and the word started to go dark. Tears leaked from her eyes. She didn't want to die here.
"Let her go!" Lion-o growled. As Slithe turned to see him, Lion-o brought his blade down. The sword sliced through the lizard's arm. Slithe stumbled backwards, his stub of an arm still held out in front of him, and fell gasping in pain.
Oxygen flooded WilyKit's lungs as the chain loosened; the device now hung from her neck loosely. She felt a hand on her shoulder and she glanced up to see Lion-o kneeling beside her.
"You okay?" His blue eyes shone and with the sun directly behind him his flaming hair looked like actual fire. He looked like some kind of hero and he had just saved her life. She nodded dumbly, struck by the sight and his actions.
Lion-o stood and turned back to Slithe who was remained fallen, his body convulsing sickeningly from shock and blood loss. The second in command stood near by: Lieutenant Rezard. Lion-o's and Rezard's eyes locked. Lion-o's grip on his sword tightened, preparing for retaliation. Rezard, however, made no move to draw his own weapon.
The lizards had lost their general and their numbers had thinned. But the Thundercats also had injured. Neither side really wanted the battle to continue. Rezard must have been thinking along the same lines as Lion-o, giving him a small nod in silent agreement.
"Retreat!" Rezard called out. The lizards fell back and regrouped around him, the Thundercats stayed in attack position.
"But sir the item?" One of the lizards asked Rezard, glancing at the device that still hung around WilyKit's neck.
"General Slithe is severely wounded and needs immediate medical attention." Rezard replied flatly. He didn't really care if Slithe made it out alive; in fact he was hoping that by the time they got back to camp he would be dead. He did however, care whether he himself made it out alive.
The lizards retreated carrying the injured Slithe. Lion-o watched them go, sword still drawn until they were completely out of sight.
WilyKit was still sitting on the ground her hand tracing the bruise that Slithe had made on her neck.
"Kit!" WilyKat yelled out, rushing to her side and crouching down in front of her. Placing his hands on her shoulders he bowed his head in apology. "I'm sorry Kit, I should have been there to help you!"
The two kits had always been there for one another and now, when he hadn't been there, WilyKat felt like he'd betrayed her in a way. He had been helping their new companions instead of her. Which is why her words shocked him.
"It's okay Kat." His head snapped up. "It was Lion-o, he saved me." She smiled shyly. He didn't like that smile. He glanced up incredulously at Lion-o. Cheetara knelt down by the two kits.
"Let me see it?" Cheetara asked as kindly as she could. WilyKit slowly removed her hand from her throat revealing an ugly bruise. Cheetara reached out and placed her hand at the cat-girl's neck. The cool flow of mana healed the unsightly bruise. WilyKit felt her neck in awe.
"We should get moving, just in case they decide to regroup and come back." Tygra announced. He had a few cuts and lacerations himself. Cheetara rose and walked over to him.
"I'm fine." She didn't listen as she took the liberty to glide her hand over his arms, healing everything. He turned his head looking off into the distance, ignoring her, and even when she placed a hand on his cheek where he had a nasty cut he looked anywhere but at her.
Cheetara didn't say anything but it made her a little angry that he seemed to be purposefully ignoring her.
"There's another town close by here I think," Lion-o said as he collected their traveling packs.
OoooooooooooO
There was indeed another town. It was older, evident by the crumbling town wall. All the buildings were made with stone and had wooden roofs. Glancing around Lion-o noticed the amazing mix of species; it was almost as diverse as in the Capital.
They made their way to the inn.
As soon as they entered Lion-o tensed, as did the rest of his group. Behind the bar was a lizard. The bartender, who was a grey middle-aged rabbit, looked up at the sound of them entering.
"Get in the back." The bartender barked to the girl. The lizard woman looked dejected but left and the group relaxed. "Sorry about that, usually Cats don't come by till later…what can I get for you."
"A room, and dinner" Tygra ordered; the bartender turned and took a set of keys from the wall, and he exchanged them with Tygra for a sum.
"Have a seat anywhere," the rabbit said cheerfully before opening the kitchen door and yelling orders at the cook.
The group took a seat near the back and waited.
"What happened today?" Cheetara asked she got a questioning look so she clarified. "I mean, why did they attack us?"
"Because Lion-o's the king" Tygra answered mater-of-factly, as though it were obvious. Cheetara wasn't so sure though.
"You're a king?" WilyKit exclaimed grinning, Lion-o gave her a quick smile; WilyKat frowned.
"I don't think that was the reason why." Cheetara argued, "They said 'get it', so what's the 'it' they were talking about?"
WilyKit's hand moved to her necklace, her fingers tracing over the cool metal exterior. She wasn't sure whether she would be able to keep it if she told them. But after a moment she did speak up.
"It was-!" WilyKit began.
"Her necklace." WilyKat finished for her.
"The one Kat got for me from the lizards." She added. She took the device from around her neck and laid it on the table. Lion-o picked it up, it was metal, though that by itself wasn't unusual for jewelry. It was the strange ridges and marks that flickered in a strange way without light refraction that made him suspect it was tech of some kind. It had been a while since he'd been able to see any new tech. The device looked like an amulet, circular and metallic, with no obvious openings.
"It's Kit's." WilyKat said and took the amulet from Lion-o's hands. Before Lion-o, or anyone could say anything more, their food arrived. They were all hungry so the matter was dropped.
After they had eaten and the two kits had gone to the room and promptly fell asleep. Lion-o, Tygra and Cheetara stayed at the table talking over their plans and the route they would take to find the nearest town for Thundercat refugees, to drop the kits with, and then to continue on.
Just as the bartender had said, about an hour later the bar was filled with cats. The cats lined the whole of the bar. In fact it seemed that as soon as the cats arrived all the other animals had left.
"Hey long-ears, another drink over here!" One of the cats yelled. The derogatory remark made the bartender's jaw clench, but he just smiled and served them their drinks.
Besides the many town officials, which seemed to be all cats, there were some younger felines as well. Tygra eyed a group of the females laughing and drinking nearby. Every so often one or two of them would glance over toward Tygra as well and set off into a fit of smiles and giggles.
"How do you think they managed that ansiblar thing?" Lion-o asked.
"I don't know, but we need to find away around it for the future." She shook her head. "I never want to feel that way again." She shuddered.
The feeling of her mana being forcibly stagnated, being completely cut off from it, made her feel sick. It was just one more thing that made her dislike technology.
"What we need is more tech." Tygra put in; although it was clear he was only half listening to the conversation. His head turned in the direction of the female felines again.
"You're gun didn't seem to make much of a difference in the fight," Cheetara huffed, annoyed more at his apparent lack of care for the present conversation than his comment itself.
"But you two and your magic were taken out almost completely when they turned that thing on! At least I was still able to fight." Tygra replied, "Like I said, we need more tech, maybe some of those mechs too."
Before Cheetara could retort he stood. "But this conversation is getting us nowhere fast. We can talk more extensively once we have the book and can formulate an attack. Now, if you'll excuse me." Tygra excused himself. Lion-o and Cheetara watched as he made his way over to a cluster of cat-women who greeted him with flirtatious smiles and appreciative giggles. Cheetara frowned.
"What is he doing?" Cheetara asked, clearly annoyed.
"Well, Tygra's always been popular with the ladies" Lion-o shrugged. "You shouldn't let it bother you. But you know, we could-" He was cut off as she stood abruptly, a look or irritation and determination evident in her eyes. "Cheetara?"
She didn't answer him she just continued to advance on Tygra. Lion-o watched, blue eyes darkening with some heavy unnamed emotion. By now Tygra had now cornered a coyly smiling young female. Cheetara marched right up to him and clearing her throat loudly crossing her arms as she did so.
"I'm a little busy," Tygra only glanced at her briefly before returning his attention to the other girl, who was now eyeing Cheetara incredulously, her grip on Tygra's arm tightening in an imperceptible show of possession.
"Not anymore you're not." Cheetara grabbed his other arm and dragged him from the table, and down the hallway that lead to their room. Lion-o didn't bother trying to stop her, or go after them.
He wasn't sure he'd want to hear whatever exchange they might have. A heavy weight had settled somewhere in his stomach and he felt vaguely sick, so he tried to put it from his mind. It was an attempt made in vain. It was a childish thought, but wasn't she supposed to be his? Maybe he would follow them anyway
Once out of the public eye Cheetara whirled on Tygra in a green fury. "What are you doing?" She hissed.
"Jealous are we?" He raised an eyebrow suggestively giving his signature smirk. She glared angrily in response, but he saw her cheeks turned a shade of pink. It was cute.
"We are on a mission, to find the book of omens. A mission that will decide the future of the Thundarian Empire, we were having a discussion as to our next move and you leave to go pick up some young floozy!" She snapped, though he saw her face flush more fully. But whether that was just from anger he couldn't say. She took in a breath, preparing to continue her tirade.
"And what was with this afternoon? Why were you ignoring me?" She demanded.
"I wasn't ignoring you." Tygra defended, although she noticed he was back to looking past her rather than at her.
"You won't even look at me now!" She frowned indignantly. "If you have some kind of problem with me, just say so!"
He said it before he could stop himself, it just came out, and he immediately regretted it: "Do you think your 'engagement' to Lion-o means anything?"
"What?" She was genuinely surprised, her eyebrows knit together in confusion. He could see the wheels turning in her head, trying to connect the dots. And then she seemed to have some sort of understanding as to what he was saying. "Oh."
Tygra looked away a slight blush beginning to creep up his neck. This was a disaster. It stopped rather quickly though as he realized she hadn't actually understood at all, which was clear in her following words:
"You think I'm going to make a play for the throne." Her words were clear and methodical. "You don't have to worry about that. Lion-o and I never went through the actual engagement ceremony; I have no claim to being his fiancé. I'm just a cleric. And I don't plan on that changing."
"So are we good?" She asked smiling, her previous anger completely dissipated.
"Yeah," Tygra answered unenthusiastically, "Yeah we're good. I'll be back in a minute."
She smiled again and turned and made her way back to the main room where Lion-o still was. Tygra snorted a laugh when she was gone, half from relief and half from incredulous disappointment. He leaned back against the wall in defeat. He wasn't sure whether he was happy that she had misinterpreted his words or not. In either case he had gotten an answer.
Someone else had also gotten an answer too. The sick feeling in Lion-o's center seemed to boil over. He still smiled when Cheetara came out from the hallway to face him. There wasn't anything else he could do.
OoooooooooooO
Lion-o was the first the wake the following morning. He rubbed his eyes and looked around the room. The two kits were curled up around each other purring softly next to Cheetara. Tygra lay on Lion-o's other side, dead asleep like a rock. Looking at the time Lion-o realized no one would be up for a while.
He couldn't get back to sleep though. Last night still felt heavy in his mind. So he exited the room quietly and went outside into the brisk dawn air. It was still not fully light outside, the sun just peaking up above the tree line. Breathing in deeply Lion-o stretched, rolling his stiff shoulders, the inn beds hadn't been that comfortable. But it was better than sleeping on the ground. It was times like these he really missed his old room back in the Capital.
Playful yelps broke his train of thought. He saw a dog-boy and a rabbit-boy playing in the empty street, he smiled a little their emphatic and energetic games. It reminded him of Tygra and himself, when they were kits.
He heard the clatter of wood close by and looked down the ally way to see the lizard barmaid stacking firewood. She glanced up and jumped slightly at seeing him, immediately she cast her eyes down and started doing her task faster than before.
"Hey, I'm sorry about yesterday," Lion-o said to her. The barmaid stopped and looked at him surprised. "It's just most of the lizards I've met have been on the battle field." Lion-o explained. And it was true. The capital did have a population of lizards but they lived in the slum of the slums, a place even Lion-o had never visited before.
"But I know not all lizards are with Mumm-Rah…I mean it's an animal to animal thing not a species thing." He fumbled, her confused look let him know what he was saying was as silly as it sounded to himself.
Lion-o was about to say something more, when he heard a yell. He turned and saw three older cat-men glowering down at the two children, who seemed to have accidentally run into the group during their rough housing.
"You mangy dog!" One of the cats hissed grabbing the child's arm roughly "What are you doing out the street like this?"
The dog and rabbit boys, mere children younger than even WilyKit and WilyKat, seemed scared to death. One of the cats lifted his hand as if to strike the child.
"Hey!" Lion-o yelled, stopping the cat mid action. "He's just a kid, he didn't mean it."
The cats turned to face Lion-o, looking him over annoyed.
"They're not cats," one of the cats retorted. "They need to be reminded of their place." Lion-o was taken aback by his comment. Sure, he'd heard about this kind of discrimination, but he'd never really witnessed it to this kind of degree.
"It doesn't matter whether they're cats or not!" Lion-o pressed, "That has nothing to do with it!" Lion-o couldn't wipe the memory of the fight at the Tree of Life. Not only had there been dogs and rabbits on the side of Mumm-Rah, but even a cat! This war was not split by species, and that was made clear to him at that time, as shocking as it was.
At that very moment the ground began to shake. The cats and children tumbled to the ground, Lion-o was just barley able to keep his balance. The shaking didn't stop, instead it slowly started to grow in magnitude.
The old town wall seemed to shift as the earth did, and Lion-o realized it was too old to withstand the earthquake. He was right. The large stones began to shift out of place. With a horrific sound the large stones fell to the ground inwards, towards the town. In effect creating a landslide of huge rocks. Dirt and dust were thrown up into the air veiling the entire part of the town that was being buried.
Almost as sudden as it had started it stopped. The moment it did Tygra, Cheetara, WilyKit and WilyKat appeared in the inn's doorway; Cheetara and Tygra joined him outside the inn.
"What happened?" WilyKit and WilyKat asked simultaneously. They held onto the doorframe, no doubt expecting the ground to begin shaking again at any moment.
Lion-o didn't answer the question; he took off straight for the part of buried town. It was still early morning and that meant most citizens were still in their homes, homes that were now crushed or buried beneath several tons of stone.
Arriving at the scene there were already a crowd of observers. Lion-o went up to the rocks, trying to look through the space between them. There were likely survivors under the ruble.
"Help!" a voice yelped from somewhere within the stone pile. Lion-o turned to the crowd of people gaining their attention with a commanding yell.
"There are still people alive under there. We need to move these stones, get rope and get everyone who can over here to help!" Lion-o ordered, the crowd followed his directions though, clearly unsure as to what to do without any sort of direction.
When they were all re-assembled ropes and all, Lion-o noticed the suspicious look of the cats and the annoyed looks of the other animals towards the cats. Lion-o sighed heavily; this town had some serious class and species problems. But then it was probably the same everywhere; these were the same rifts that had been apparent in the capital city where he lived as well.
"We need everyone to be able to save these people!" Lion-o urged, "Right now it doesn't matter whether you're a dog or a cat, a rabbit or a lizard! What matters is helping our fellow townsfolk! These are your friends, families, and neighbors! Help them!"
His words had the intended effect. Soon everyone in the town was in the area helping to lug the large stone squares from the houses. Many were injured, and even dead, but there were plenty that were still alive. Scared little kittens and pups. Cats, dogs, rabbits, and lizard all worked together to clear the area.
Tygra was a good source of muscle, joining together with many of the well-muscled dogs who were hard laborers. Cheetara used her magic as much as possible to help, cracking some of the larger rocks into smaller pieces so they could be moved easier as well as locating where there were people still trapped by tracking their mana. WilyKit and WilyKat were able to get into the smaller areas to look for survivors. WilyKat was able to retrieve a dog-womans baby that had been trapped in one of the more hard-to-reach areas. WilyKit had smiled at his proudly, and WilyKat looked away claiming it wasn't a big deal, even if his cheeks were flushed.
The work was exhausting, by the end of it Cheetara was running low on mana, and Tygra was completely worn out. WilyKit and WilyKat had had to return to the inn because they had ended up inhaling so much dust from moving in and out and around the rubble so much.
At last the majority of stones had been moved to the outside of the town. Almost all of those that had survived the earthquake had been rescued. However, there was a particularly large rock that wouldn't seem to budge. Lion-o had seen a little kit passed out, blood matting his forehead, back behind the last few stones.
One of the cats that had been picking on the dog-boy and rabbit-boy earlier had identified the trapped kit as his son. The cat-man was frantically pulling at the stone, even using his claws to try and gain a purchase on the rock, but he was quickly becoming more and more frantic and agitated.
Lion-o was worried that if they tried to break the stone it might end up crushing the little kit beneath. He thought about sending someone to go get WilyKit and WilyKat; they could probably fit into the crack. But WilyKat had been coughing so violently, and WilyKit didn't seem to be fairing much better before Lion-o had sent them back to the inn.
"You have to save my son!" The cat begged desperately. Lion-o had to marvel at it; this was the same the cat distressed over his son and yet, just a few hours ago, he had been bullying a child of another.
The group tried again to budge the massive stone but to no avail. Everyone was tired from the work of moving stones from the earthquake – the sun was so low in the sky already and they had started in the early morning. The cat tried to reach his son with his hand reaching his arm as far into the opening as he could. But his son was too far. Lion-o could clearly see the life-force of the kit, it wasn't in vain, the child was still alive, but the longer he stayed trapped and unconscious with no help the more likely that fragile life energy was to slip away.
"I might be able to fit through there." A soft vaguely hissing voice offered. Lion-o turned to see the lizard barmaid.
"I won't let you kill him you stinking lizard!" The cat snarled, "You lizards just want us all dead; you and Mumm-Rah killing cats out of spite and hatred!"
Lion-o couldn't stop himself; he decked the cat so hard his knuckles hurt. The cat fell back his nose dripping blood.
"What are you doing?" the cat sputtered. Lion-o turned his back on him and turned back to the barmaid.
"Do you think you can get to him?" Lion-o asked her. She nodded, and he stepped aside to let her try to help.
The barmaid got down on all fours and wriggled into the small crevice. Her thin scaly tail disappeared into the darkness. Lion-o tried to see in, but it was too dark. He heard a moan of pain from within the crack.
"That beast is killing him!" The cat yelled angrily. Lion-o almost hit him again. Slowly the kit's head became visible. The kit was being pushed through the crack; luckily the kit was very young and could fit relatively easily. Lion-o grabbed the kit's shoulders as soon as they came out and helped to pull him out.
As soon as his son was out the cat ran to his son. The lizard barmaid slithered easily out of the opening, she was covered in dirt but no worse for wear. The cat looked up at her from where he embraced his son. He hesitated but then he spoke.
"Thank you." He bit out, "and…I'm sorry…about before." It was clear just saying these words seemed repugnant to him. The barmaid just nodded in response, but Lion-o noticed she did smile a little.
The area was still a mess, but the survivors had been saved. Lion-o would also like to believe that the cats and others in the town had maybe become a little less prejudiced after having to work together.
"You did good today," he turned to see Cheetara walking up to him a smile gracing her features.
"It's what anyone would do," Lion-o scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. In a way it was false modesty because he was actually very proud of himself for being able to lead such an effort. It was something very kingly. It made him feel like someday he would be able to take on all the responsibilities of a king by himself. But at the same time he knew Tygra probably would have done the same thing. Only maybe he wouldn't have decked that cat.
It was certain that to be a king, or a leader of any kind, to unite the people there was still a lot of work to be done. Could he do it? Perhaps, perhaps not, but he felt he owed it to himself and his convictions to try. But first they had to deal with Mumm-Rah.
"I'm not so sure about that." She smiled sweetly before leaning up and giving him a quick peck on the cheek. He felt the burn in his cheeks and knew he now had a very unflattering blush across his face. "You did good, Lion-o." She reiterated, emphasizing his name.
It could have just been Lion-o but her orange-golden eyes seemed to gleam a little when she looked at him, and he couldn't help smiling back at her after a moment. He wanted to reach out to her then, but she was already turning away to join Tygra, both walking back towards the inn. When he didn't' follow she looked back at him still smiling; this time she offered her hand.
For the moment Lion-o decided he wouldn't worry about it. So he grinned and ran to catch up with them. The sun was setting in the sky behind them painting the world in violet and pink pastel as the day ended to make way for night and a new dawn.
AoooooooooooN
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