Chapter 4

In an instant there was a blinding flash of light and the Book of Omens expelled the messenger and the Sword. Tyler was the first to reach her, a look of horror on his face. The Sword of Omens was bound to his bride by the burns on her hands. The smell was enough to knock a buzzard off a gut wagon and he barely kept down the food in his stomach. Cheetara raced off to fetch Tygra and the medical staff while Leo retched into the nearby garbage can.

"Baby? Can you hear me?" The pumiger asked. A moan escaped her lips and he took that as a yes.

"Hang in there. Your mom went for help," he told her. She only moaned again, the pain having to be unimaginable. Ma-Mutt barked, letting her know he was there and hoping she'd at least try to communicate with him. She did not and it worried him. Even in times of hardship, she always spoke to him through their special link forged by her amazing abilities. Suddenly the medical emergency alarms went off throughout the building telling them that help was on the way. However Tyler was not comforted by the fact as he watched his mate slip into unconsciousness.

"How long do you think this will take?" Tyler wanted to know; afraid he'd have to explain to his beloved children what happened. Both were smart but also very young and some of it would slip by, not understood.

"However long it takes for them to figure out how to remove the Sword. She's already fallen into one of her healing trances but I seriously doubt that it would remove the Sword from her hands," Ben-Gali patted him on the shoulder knowing how helpless that feeling could be. Too many times he'd seen his own mate being worked on.

"Can't the Extractor help?" Tyler asked.

"Not in this situation. It requires a delicate touch and she was not impaled. Burns are a nasty business," Panthro spoke up, knowing he'd suffered some minor ones and they were unpleasant, he could not imagine how something of this magnitude would hurt.

"Who is with the little ones?" Lea walked over to Tyler and whispered quietly.

"Snarf. I have not told them anything. I should probably be with them but I…" the pumiger trailed off, unsure of his next move.

"They need their father. Go to them. Ma-Mutt is here and you can be sure he'll let you know when she is out of surgery," the lioness tried to reassure him as his mother would have had she not been busy trying to help his mate.

"The minute she is out of there…" he didn't even need to finish.

"I'll send Ma-Mutt," Lea nodded. Quickly the pumiger turned and ran off to find his children.

"We need to have a meeting now," Panthro said.

"Agreed," Ben-Gali nodded. The three of them headed over to Lion-O's bed where the King was resting. His color had improved and he seemed more like himself.

"What was the Sword thinking? It tried to kill me and then it harmed Sahara. I do not understand. I've heard nothing from Jaga. The universe is hiding some secret that I cannot be privy to. What have we done?" He asked his mate.

"We need what was necessary. Without Sahara and her status as Protector we would not know of events to come. We'd be flying blind. It is a role I accepted as a child and a role she has accepted as well," Cheetara was firm but she understood what Lion-O was saying. Life had not been easy for their first born and things were about to get worse.

To Be Continued…