Chapter Three
The Meeting of the Tribes
The Bridge
The Lion Temple
Chima
'The Wolf shall be here soon, wait for the others.' I hear the Wolf Legendbeast in my thoughts and I nod. 'I shall wait for you. Hurry, for the others are here.' I then turn to see the other six Legend Beasts before me, their young escorts standing beside them. Two I have met. The other five I have not. 'Lion.' It's the Croc. 'Yes?' He seems to be concerned. 'About this…Wolf…you said she can speak like us? In our minds?' 'Yes.' I turn away from them to gaze over the plain that surrounds my territory. 'She can. She also wields a blade similar to the young Lion's.'
…What have I gotten myself into? I'm surrounded by gigantic animals. At least I know that I'm here with people I actually know. Draco is the Gorilla. Rambi, of course, is the Rhino. Kris is the Croc, no surprise about that…maybe a little. Ben is the Eagle. Hayley is the Raven (Have no idea why), and Zelda is the Bear. All of us, including me, are still getting used to being like this, but it seems to be a fresh start. No wars, no fighting, just peace, for once. "Who are we waiting on?" The Lion Legend Beast turns to face me. "The Wolf."
I've never gone this fast before. Not even Sara can run this fast. I suddenly realize that I miss her, and wondering how she is doing. …I didn't even say goodbye. Maybe because I thought I could defeat Tom anyway….and look what happened. As we near the Temple, I notice that people are everywhere. In the water, on top of trees, in the grass. And they are all watching me. Feeling uncomfortable, I look away, towards my destination, the Lion Temple. Guardrails line the massive quartz steps leading up to the walkway that spans the area of the small lake that laps against the bottom of the main structure. A stone gate in the shape of a male lion's head hangs over the beginning of the bridge. Further down the bridge, huge marble paws and a lion head mark the entrance to somewhere. The Temple itself faces south, and is surrounded be woodland, and a river goes off far into the distance from the Northeast. "Are you ready? We appear to be late. Climb down from my back. Go to the others. I must speak with the other Legend Beasts." I slide down the Wolf's back, and she thunders off in the direction of the bridge. I'm alone. Now what? I gaze around me, only to notice gates with animal faces on them. "…What…" I walk over to one, and let a paw rest on it. It feels cold, and smooth. I think it is marble, but I'm not exactly sure. Statues line the sides of the gate, and they seem to be eagles. Noting this, I step back to look at the face. Seeing a resemblance to the statues and the face, I believe this is where some form of Eagle must live.
I've figured out the order of the gates. Starting clockwise: Wolf, Gorilla, Eagle, Bear, Croc, Rhino, and Raven. With the Lion Temple in the center. Above me stands Mt. Cavora, the floating mountain that has its waterfalls flowing with this substance named 'Chi'. The biggest one seems to be flowing into the Temple itself. I decide to walk up the steps and see who is on the bridge.
…..I never want to do that again. Having climbed at least twenty steps, and having lung and knee problems, I personally don't feel like doing much of anything. Right now, all I want to do is breathe properly. A few minutes later, having regained my composure, I rise from where I collapsed from climbing the stairs. …I need to do something about this…maybe a spell could fix my problem. All I can do is wait until the pain in my chest goes away.
I can at last start walking around normally. Straightening, I pad over to the railing of the bridge. The lake shines in the sunlight far below me, and I'm reminded of how Fox Lake did the same thing. I'm so caught up in my memories that I don't hear something come up behind me. "You must be the Wolf, then." I turn, only to see a full-grown male lion standing before me. "…You….You're the one who spoke to me…" "Yes," the lion says, shaking his mane, "I am the one who told you to find that sword you now carry on your back. I am one of the Legendbeasts, the one who carried you here is the Wolf. I am the Lion, and I do believe some certain individuals wish to see you. Come." The Lion turns from me and begins to walk across the bridge. Looking past him, I notice movement. I decide to follow what would be considered a "Guardian" back home. Funny how Earth and Chima are similar…perhaps too similar….
"Silence! The last member of this meeting of the Tribes has arrived. Now, settle down, all of you. Greet this young Wolf and her friends just as you would greet your own Tribe. They are not from our world, and they were not born as the Tribe members that you will see them as today. Treat them well, and perhaps they will treat you as such." The King of Lions, Lagravis, steps back to let the Lion Legend Beast through. Behind him, walks a Wolf. I then notice the sword. And, not caring about what might happen to me, I run.
"You're alive!" Feathers. I'm surrounded by them. …Is that who I think it is? "Lay off, Ben. She's probably just as confused as the rest of us." The feathers go away and I notice a bird standing before me. Wondering who it is, I lift my gaze to who just spoke. A figure is standing with a crowd of animals. It's a Lion. The Lion leans on something. A sword. One that I know well. It's not mine, but I recognize it. Could I have found everyone? I walk past the bird, past most of the Legend Beasts, until I reach the Lion. He nods. "So. What do you think of all of this? This to me seems like a bad dream that I can't wake up from. But I know this is real." I step closer to the Lion, and reach out towards his sword. If that's the Master Sword, then I guess our weapons transformed because we transformed. "Link?" He nods, and hoists his sword to his shoulder. "In case you're wondering, the bird that ran into you is Ben." Link turns to the other animals. "All of you come here." They do so.
Soon, I'm surrounded by my friends. We talk almost nonstop for ten minutes. "Are you alright?" "Yes. You?" "I'm fine. If you could count being like this fine." "…I thought we were done with this." "So did I. But Tom is alive. So something happened between a few hours. We need to return back home and deal with him for good." "Uh, hello? We can't turn back into humans right now. We don't even know if we can go home. We may be stuck here." I turn away from my friends and once more walk over to the railing.
This is nice and all, but I'd like to get home as soon as possible. But yet, I feel as if I have been here before…why do I feel this way? I put my paws on the golden railing and gaze down at the lake below me. I think I'm still in shock from what's happened to me. I wonder if we can still transform into animals or not. I overhear Rambi talking with another Rhino. "So. It feels weird being able to walk on two legs, but back home, when I'm human, I walk like this. Maybe that's the reason I don't feel as strange doing this as a Rhino. Would you like me to show you what I look like back home?" "You can do that?" "Yes." "Then, by all means, show me!" I turn to watch the following take place: Rambi transforms, but he's huge. Like Legend Beast huge. He seems surprised. "Why are you so far away?"
Then the Lion steps forwards. "Because you have transformed. All of you, transform now." The rest of us are scattered across the bridge and we just look at each other. We don't want to make the Legend Beast angry at us so we transform.
I'm easily twice the size of Worriz, who is standing in front of me with his jaw hanging open. "…You…" He looks around frantically then back to me. "A Legend Beast? How…" "We know. We know everything about these eight strangers. More so about the Lion than the rest." I turn to face whoever is speaking. A group of old-looking Lions are standing in front of me. Then the one who seems to be the leader of them smiles up at me. "Welcome to Chima, Animagus."