Welcome back everyone! Since episode two could not make up its mind about what time of day it is, I have taken liberties with this timeline for Hiraeth, starting in morning but progressing quickly to night time!
Sleep did not find Leopara well. She tossed and turned all night, haunted by nightmarish red eyes every time she began to drift.
As the pale light of dawn filtered through the curtains, she sighed softly and sat up.
Leopara changed out of her night gown and dressed in her pale blue dress, its straight skirt swishing around her knees while she walked, and sat in the chair at her vanity. She pulled her brush through her brown waves. Even beginning at the bottom and working her way up, the brush snagged multiple times on knots from her sleepless tossing and turning.
She wanted nothing more than to crawl into the library and hide from today. It was… not so good, no.
After tying her hair back in its usual style, a tight bun at the back of her crown with a long braided tail dangling to her lower back, she stood and finished dressing for the day. She secured her golden sash around her waist and pulled on long sleeves and stockings a few shades darker than her dress, which respectively ended just below her shoulders and above her knees, each lined with gold.
Her dress was nice and breathable; perfect hot summer day.
Keeping Cheetara's words in mind, she grabbed her scepter. It was an elaborate rod of wood no longer than her forearm, tapered at one end to form a point, the top fitting a crystal focus amidst elegantly carved branches and leaves. The crystal was clear now, unclouded, but by simply concentrating, it would magnify her magic and intent, and the crystal would swirl with color.
She closed her eyes to focus, to imagine the scepter shrinking and shifting to the size of a hair pin. She could feel it grow small in her hands. With another sigh, she opened her eyes.
It looked like a beautiful hair pin. She reached up, behind her head, and carefully stabbed it into her bun. Today was not the day for her to leave it behind, naïvely believing it would be unnecessary.
No, today had the cold feeling of an entity determined to make her life difficult. Perhaps it was fate, turned against her.
Perhaps it was essential dread from the day before, plaguing her.
Or perhaps, Cheetara was correct and she should never leave without her scepter. She spared a moment to wonder, how did she even know, anyways?
She swept her gaze over herself one last time in the mirror, from the symmetrical trio of spots dotting her cheeks, to the rosettes on her ears, to meeting her own eyes. A golden gaze returned her stare. She reached up a hand to rub at her rosette spotted ear, gaze flicking down to the golden choker that covered her dress's halterneck.
It looked elegant, what with the golden trim. It looked refined.
Leopara felt neither refined or elegant right now.
She felt sleep deprived.
Her shoulders felt heavy, heavier than any feeling of dread could. She yawned, stretching and turning away from the mirror.
Perhaps there would be tea in the mess hall?
She really hoped so.
With a heavy sigh, she made her way out of her room and down the hall, down the stairs, to the right and around the indoors obstacle course for the clerics. A few of the younglings were training on it, dodging the whirling arms of the spiked arms of the poles, the swinging pendulums. To move swiftly, but not to rush.
Leopara made her way into the mess hall at barely more than a shamble.
Multiple long, low lying wooden tables spanned the expanse of the hall, with sitting pillows scattered around them in a variety of colors. Red, blue, green, and a couple in dark shades of purple. They were rather simple, devoid of any fancy needlework that wasn't stitched by the clerics themselves. Even then, such pillows were more often personal belongings and weren't kept in the mess hall, where everyone ate and messes were made often enough. She had seen a very undignified food fight once…
There were a few clerics in the hall, gathered in clusters of three or four, with a couple lonesome pairs and… by herself, Cheetara.
Leopara made her way over, stretching her arms above her head with a yawn.
"Good morning~" Cheetara's eyes glimmered with mischief and her lips curved in a small, playful smirk. It was a little unfair how refreshed and rested she looked.
And Leopara normally thrived in the morning too.
"Good morning…" She sat down beside Cheetara, legs folded neatly as she sank into a plush pillow. Leopara continued sinking, resting her arms and cheek on the table. "I didn't sleep at all last night. Is there any tea?"
Cheetara nodded sagely and handed Leopara her cup. "Here, have mine."
Leopara can feel her entire body perk up at the thought. Reaching for the cup, she paused and glanced at Cheetara. "Are you sure?"
She nodded again and set the wooden cup into her opened hands.
"You are… as resplendent as the golden sun after rainfall."
Cheetara chuckled. "You should drink, Leopara." Leopara did not need more invitation to drink the tea, and gratefully sipped at it. She sighed happily. "I didn't see you in the library last night."
Leopara shook her head. "I wasn't in the library. I kept having these… nightmares last night. I wish I had gone to the library…"
Cheetara's expression was sympathetic.
"But anyways… you were following Lion-O yesterday?"
She nodded. "Jaga asked me to keep him out of trouble."
"Did you?"
"Mm… no. He kept finding it all on his own. You and he seemed to be getting along~"
Leopara sighed and rolled her eyes. "It isn't like that, despite what you may be suggesting… he's…"
"Interesting."
"I was going to say 'different,' but he is interesting too. He showed me a piece of tech he is trying to figure out. Some sort of disk?" Cheetara nodded in understanding. "Cheetara?"
"Hm?"
"Do you think technology from our fairy tales ever really existed?"
Cheetara pondered the question for a moment. "In some way, I believe it did, but tales and stories can be misleading."
"You don't think it does anymore?"
"I don't believe the tech Lion-O bought in the slums yesterday is real."
He bought it yesterday?
Leopara resisted the impulse to rub her temples. "I can't imagine what that disk does." she confessed. "If it really is real, I wonder what its purpose is?"
Cheetara shrugged, indifferent to the quandary.
They fell quiet for a little while, Leopara savoring her tea while Cheetara ate lightly. Finally, Leopara asked, "What are you going to do today? Are you 'keeping' Lion-O out of more trouble?"
She chuckled again and shook her head. "No, Jaga wishes for me to focus on studying and training today."
"Why? Is something wrong?"
Cheetara's brows knit ever so slightly. "No." A pause, then an honest, "Leopara, has Jaga been acting strangely to you?"
Leopara shook her head. "No. Well, actually…" she thought back to her conversation the previous morning. "Yesterday, I felt like he was hiding something from me... He kept telling me not to worry and asked me to enjoy myself at the party. That was a bit odd. I really feel like he knows more about this feeling I've been having, but he doesn't want to tell me. He likes for us to reach our own conclusions, so I just thought… maybe it was Grune? He's always unsettled me."
Cheetara nodded as Leopara rambled on. "I thought so too."
"You did?" Leopara asks, confused. Had Jaga told her of her portend of doom?
"Yes. Jaga is having me study texts about the Book of Omens today."
Alarm jolted through Leopara. She sat upright in a bolt. "But… that would mean…" He's grooming you to become the next Head Cleric!
Cheetara nodded solemnly.
"Cheetara… do you think…" Leopara's throat constricted and her heavy heart plummeted to her gut. Quietly, she finished, "Do you think Jaga's going to die?"
Cheetara looked down, rubbing a circle on the wood. She reasoned, "Jaga is very old, older than any living cat."
The thought of no Jaga stung, but… it was what she was being groomed for, wasn't it? The day Jaga would no longer be there to guide the next Lord of the Thundercats, she would take his place. It was daunting. The idea of having to one day live up to Jaga's legacy, without him, had always terrified her.
Leopara startled from her worries as Cheetara rested her hand on her shoulder. "Jaga doesn't wish for us to worry," she said softly, "so we should try to enjoy our time with him instead." Cheetara cocked her head. "Perhaps there is something else at work we don't yet see."
Wordless, Leopara nodded.
Cheetara stood with a smile. "I'll see you around, Leopara."
"See you around, Cheetara."
With a small parting nod, she walked away, leaving Leopara to finish nursing tea that had gone cold and eat a light breakfast that tasted of nothing at all.
Pacing in the library was frowned upon, so Leopara paced deep in worried thought in the turret. The sun cast deep shadows over most of the valley still, only shedding ambient lighting across its many features.
In a way, she was glad it hadn't risen more and not because she loved mornings.
She didn't feel ready to face the day.
Jaga… she stopped with a sigh near the window. A gentle breeze blew through, rustling her fur. Leopara turned her head to look out the window and approached, resting her hands on the window's sill. She could see cats preparing for their days, bustling around their neighborhoods. A she-cat with a couple of cubs running about as she washed the linens. A baker discarding his dirty flour. A gentle stack of smoke began to rise from the blacksmith's workshop as he pumped the forge and filled it with coal.
It was a nice, normal morning. Thousands of cats were getting up and preparing for their day ahead.
Out there was the only blood relative she had left, if she was still alive after all this time. Someone she barely remembered glimpses of, but whom she was reminded of by the scent of rain in the early morning. An older sister who had never visited her after Jaga sought her out as his apprentice and ward.
Leoparis.
When she was young, she had missed her terribly. But she had moved on and slowly stopped thinking about her except for rare moments. Sometimes, it saddened her that she hadn't made the effort to visit but… their parents had died, and she had struggled terribly to try and keep them safe. There were dozens of little reasons she could think of that her sister hadn't come to see her, and Leopara hadn't made the effort either.
Was that a mistake? Should she have taken the time away from her studies to look for her? To reach out?
… who was she left with, when Jaga died?
He was a father to her, the man who raised her, who taught her and provided for her. He listened to her when she needed someone to confide in and he understood her better than even she did sometimes. And… he was so, so patient.
Leopara sighed heavily, hanging her head.
"I guess… I should go meet Lion-O now…" she said aloud to herself. Her voice did not seem very loud in the empty, silent room.
The quiet was deafening.
The halls of Cat's Lair carried the sound of her footsteps along the corridors, pap, pap, pap, pap… The marble walls carried the sound of her breath too as she sighed softly.
By now the sun had risen enough that it crested the walls of the valley, spilling its light over the city and through the windows. The bell rang eight times, its toll gentle and melodic from within the lair. A flock of birds flew past the hall, the flapping of their wings reverberating inside.
Leopara raised a hand and ragged her fingertips along the wall, listening to the smooth bushing sound she could only describe as sounding like a dulled hiss.
And then, the distant, deep sound of the war horn. It sounded once.
She paused and turned her head to look out the window at the watchtower, so far away but so loud. It must have been deafening. What could it be this time? she wondered, approaching the sill.
It sounded a second time, urgency increasing.
Then, as she watched, a third time.
Leopara sighed heavily, the sound lost to wind as it howled near.
An attack.
Day passed quickly and urgently as the Army of Thundera mobilised. Nightfall fell quickly, as the hours of sunlight burned away with a sense of fervor.
She could feel steely anger from the king as they gazed at the distant, dark plumes of smoke billowing from the farthest wall. Sign of the lizards' attack. She could feel Lion-O's hurt and disappointment, Tygra's exasperation. Grune seemed… pleased.
Leopara felt numb from the dread that had plagued her.
There was no dread now, just the knowledge she had known something like this was imminent. She had been so desperate to know and find closure, she had assigned the feeling to Grune's return, to Jaga's age… instead of waiting patiently. If she had to ask, "is this the cause of my feeling?" surely it wasn't, in the end. She would know.
"This attack comes not a day after I pardoned two of those filthy beasts!" Claudus growled deeply and, clenching his left fist, faced his son to his right. "Now do you see the results of leniency?"
"I was only trying to act like a prince." Lion-O defended himself weakly.
"You undermined our power and made the cats look weak." Claudus whirled around and began to stride inside, past she and Jaga on one side, Grune on the other. He paused a moment to say to Lion-O, "It's no wonder everyone thinks your brother should be king."
Claudus continued to walk away as Lion-O stared after him, his eyes wavering. There was a sadness to Claudus, echoed in his son.
"Grune, Tygra, come with me. We need to ready our defenses. Jaga," he continued walking while speaking, turning left, "-ready your clerics."
Lion-O hurried to enter the hall. "And me?"
Claudus stopped to look at him, his face twisted with disappointment. "You will remain here."
Leopara watched quietly. Claudus paused again. "Leopara… you will come with me."
"Yes, your majesty." she intoned, joining him with one last look at Jaga who gave her a nod. Offensive spells were no specialty of hers, but, as she had told Claudus, she could heal and she could cast defensive spells, even charms like sleep. Leopara could feel Lion-O's gaze follow them as they continued down the hall stern and serious.
"He's lost all faith in me, Jaga."
There were screams of panic as they rode to the wall. Soldiers directed and funneled the terrified citizenry to the shelters, while even more armed themselves and fell in-step behind their king. She could see soldiers lining the battlements, releasing volleys of arrows in retaliation to the burning boulders the lizards had unleashed on the wall.
It was surreal.
She never thought she would be on a battlefield until she was a proper adult, more wise and sagely and powerful, with more control over her gifts.
Her head swam from the fear that filled the air, but her mount carried her true after the king and prince. She couldn't even feel their emotions… but somehow, she could feel Grune's vindictive glee.
Did he truly enjoy war and battle so?
A thought nagged at her, but she couldn't think it.
The wooden gates stood dark, with swooping silver running through, and closed as the four reached the wall. A bronze brazier was lit on either side of the gates and the soldiers stood arranged in two immaculate columns, parted to clear a path for them. Leopara lingered near Grune uneasily as they turned to face the soldiers.
Claudus addressed them.
"Thundera once again turns to you, noble warriors, to defend her. Tonight, as we go into battle, I only ask that you fight like cats. For our ancestors, for the pride!" he gestured to the gates as battle-cries erupted. The soldiers raised their spears and charged.
Claudus turned his mount and ushered it forward, rushing through the gate as it still opened. The only thing for her to do was follow quickly.
The earth shook as more stones aflame crashed into the walls and the ground below. "Fire!" Claudus commanded. A volley of arrows darkened the night skies, blotting out the moons and driving the lizards back.
The lizards regrouped and began to advance again. "For the pride!" Claudus outstretched his arm, and the archers fired again. Again, the lizards scattered, many of them struck and felled by arrows. "That's it! Let's send these cowards running once and for all!"
What did he even need Leopara for?
A loud roaring sound boomed in the distance. Leopara looked around in confusion as a hush fell. The droning roar grew louder and louder, yet they could not see it.
And then… this thing, dark and not dissimilar to an arrow flew over their heads, creating a wind so strong Leopara had to cover her face, hair whipping even in its bun. She turned to watch it soar over the walls, a white trail left in its wake.
They all did in stunned, fearful silence.
More followed, and confusion and apprehension turned to icy fear.
Giant plumes of flames and black smoke burst from within the city, one after another. What the-
A loud whirring, metallic and hissing sound thundered from the treeline. Leopara's eyes grew wide as she watched one after another of these metal… things strode from the treeline.
"By Thundera! What sorcery is this?"
It wasn't. She would sense it. In horrified awe, she murmured, "Technology…"
The machines continued marching forward, unwavering. They fired more missiles. The ground shook and the air blackened as even more of the city exploded into flames.
Behind the machines, the lizards emerged from the forest wearing helmets of iron, red goggles that glinted and flashed in the darkness, and brandishing long pole-like weaponry with a barrel and blade at the end. More technology.
They unleashed shot after shot, green blasts of plasma that drove the cats back. She thrust her scepter outstretched, channeling her thoughts and magics. A large, rippling barrier, like a whirling layer of water, sprung to life between her and the lizards, large enough to shield the other cats. She focused hard, straining to maintain such a large barrier, and one under such assault. "Ergch…" she grunted, grinding her teeth.
"Quickly, behind the wall! Behind the wall!" Claudus commanded.
Behind her, she could hear the clanking of pauldrons and chest-plates as the soldiers retreated, running with haste over the bridge. They stopped, gasping loudly. She dared glance over her shoulder, a bead of sweat dripping over her fur.
Standing in the open gates, cutting off their retreat and surrounding them, were more lizards. A great fire raged beyond them.
"How quickly things change for the cats." Slithe said with malice. "From top predator to endangered species," he raised his hand, revealing some sort of handle with a red button, "-in a single day!" He pressed the button.
Explosions rippled under the bridge, one after another. Leopara's mount reared back, panicked. Leopara's eyes widened as she was thrown. Her barrier shuddered. As she hit the ground with her shoulders, it collapsed, just as the bridge was. Breaking and coming apart with screams from all the cats that had been on it.
She gasped for breath and rolled to her side, climbing to her knees.
"Will nothing stop them?" Claudus gazed at the bridge and all its buried soldiers in horror. The machines continued firing their missiles on the city. Explosions rang out in a sickening rhythm.
No...
Grune approached, his movement catching her attention and her eyes snapped onto him. "I believe there is one thing, my lord."
He grabbed a hand held device from his pouch and raised it in the air, pointing at the sky, and pulled its trigger. A ball of light shot into the air, leaving behind a trail of wispy smoke. It burst into a brighter light that lingered in the sky.
Leopara could hear the whir as every machine ground to a stop. She climbed to her feet and backed away towards Grune. "It was right in front of me this whole time…" she murmured in disbelief.
His sense of wrongness, his ambition, his glee at this attack.
Claudus and Tygra both looked around, confused. They didn't know. Even now, Grune stood with his back to lizards, falling in line behind him.
"Grune, what is going on?"
Grune reached up and grasped the red stone of Thundera upon his chest and pulled. His armor creaked, and the straps snapped as he discarded it, followed by his helmet. The lizards offered forward a golden armor, and he put it on without breaking eye contact with the aghast king. His 'old friend.'
After he finished donning his helm, a lizard brought forth his weapon. A great and terrible mace, its club dotted with spikes.
"You sent me out to find the Book of Omens, Claudus. Instead, I found this." He smiled down at his mace as he settled its haft into his hands. "Ultimate power."
The segmented club parted, green electricity crackling. After a moment of building power, it released a green beam of energy that could have easily destroyed, or at least harmed, any of them. Instead, he used it to destroy a low-sitting lion statue.
"You would betray your own species?" Claudus demanded.
Leopara readied herself to create another barrier and pour everything she had into it. Anything that could keep them alive. Jaga hadn't arrived yet.
Even though the army was wiped out, they could still survive this.
"My allegiance to you has earned me nothing. Therefore, I have aligned myself with a superior force." He said it like it was the simplest, most logical thing. His eyes fixed on the Sword of Omens worn on Claudus's left hand. "And I will take what I want."
"Never!"
Claudus drew the sword and it glinted in the choked moonlight, its blade growing automatically. He settled into a defensive stance. Every muscle in Leopara's body strained from the tension as she waited to make her move.
"There's no need to resort to violence," Grune rested the club of his mace flat against the dirt and stood unconcerned. "I'm quite willing to make a deal for the sword."
"There is nothing you have that I want."
Grune raised his hand to gesture silently. Slithe turned to his lizards. Damn it… we're surrounded on two sides… she cursed herself for forgetting. Jaga… hurry, please.
"Bring forth the prisoner." Slithe commanded.
A giant machine that left Leopara gobsmacked rolled forth, rumbling over debris and grinding stone down, whirring as it came to an idling stop. The lizards shone a light on its long barrel- no, on something dangling. Vile and malice pierced Leopara and she groaned from discomfort, taking a step back into Tygra.
"Panthro!" Claudus exclaimed. "You're alive!"
No… it's not… the words choked in her throat as her chest constricted. It was… it was… that presence.
"Do we have a deal?"
No!
Claudus whirled on Grune, growling. Grune sighed and raised his mace. "I didn't think you would go for it. I guess I will have to take the sword from you!" he grinned, lopsided by his saber-tooth.
"You are forgetting one thing, Grune." He adjusted his stance. "Jaga's clerics."
Grune's widened, just as the whistling of the wind reached Leopara's ears. She turned her face to look. Plumes of dust rose high into the air, and widened as the clerics turned towards them. The clerics were upon Grune and the lizards within a heartbeat. She recognised Cheetara, even under her robes, skillfully leap and dodge around Grune before swiftly disarming and disabling him. Groaning, Grune fell into the dirt. The others set upon the lizards, nimbly side stepping and twirling out of the way of the lizards's blasts.
Sunda and Sundara swiftly dispatched a line by themselves, working in perfect tandem.
"I'm going after Panthro." Claudus announced, seeing the clerics had the battle well in hand. He turned and began to run, but Tygra was practiced at running down lions and catching them on the shoulder, and panic coursed through Leopara. Tygra grabbed his left, she grabbed his right.
"You can't leave the protection of the clerics!"
Claudus shook off Tygra. "And I can't leave my friend with those monsters!" He batted Leopara away.
"It is a trap," Leopara pleaded. "It's not Panthro!"
Her words fell upon unlistening ears. Claudus leapt down onto the crumbled bridge's remains and hopped his way across. Adrenaline propelled Leopara forward, hard on Tygra's heels as they chased Claudus.
"King Claudus!" she shouted.
All around them in the city streets, fires burned, consuming wood, foods, and the bodies of innocent cats, slain in cold blood while their defenders were outside the walls, besieged by technology they couldn't compete with on such a scale. It was sickening, the smell. She gagged and coughed, waving her scepter to conjure a gust of wind that cleared the air, and extinguished some of the fires. Claudus moved with single minded focus, so much quicker and enduring than her. Her muscles and lungs burned as she panted, stumbled, but pushed herself forward.
Forward, froward, forward.
The deep tracks the machine left in the ash and dirt and blood led to the coliseum, the once-pretty blue glow now eerie and somehow altogether wrong.
It was a trap.
Claudus didn't stop. He didn't care.
Somehow, Grune had gotten there first. He stood atop a winding branch, looking down upon them as they rushed in. Up higher, above him, the false Panthro, the presence hung, chains around his arms holding him upright and limply on his tip toes.
"Your rule has come to a long overdue end, Claudus. Now drop your inferior weapons!" he demanded smugly. Lizards began to swarm around them. Tygra backed up against Claudus, almost like he was surprised this was a trap, despite Leopara saying so. "How can you defeat technology if you don't even understand it?"
The lizards hissed and raised their guns, herding them into a circle. Leopara readied herself. Nothing had changed, they still needed that barrier.
"Luckily, I know a thing or two about it, you traitor!" Lion-O's hoarse, enraged voice called. Three of the disks, almost too fast to see, spun through the air and landed on the mechas. They beeped rapidly, detonating.
The three mechas surrounding them exploded with such force her tunic- her dress, really, but now she wore darker pants- and war cloak whipped around her waist.
Smoke filled the air, obscuring their vision. The whipping wind blew most of it away, and Lion-O emerged through the smoke atop a nervous mount, a brown satchel at his side. He had his head up, eyes forward. Proud, but fiercely angry. He drew to a stop in front of his father, who raised his gauntleted arm and bowed his head to Lion-O.
Then, Claudus turned, cloak billowing behind him.
"Where are you going?" Lion-O asked.
"To show the lizards that the Sword of Omens is the greatest weapon of them all." He drew the blade, immediately extending to its full length. Leopara was unsure whether it actually glowed with determination, or if it was an effect of the pool around them. But Claudus raised it above his head, pointing towards the sky above. It definitely glowed now, crackling as energy began to surge. "Thundercats ho!"
The sword burst with lightning. Leopara watched in awe.
Claudus charged forward, cutting through the lizards in his way, those who had recovered from the explosion and adopted a defensive stance, with powerful swings that left arcs of light in his wake. He made his way up, up to Grune. Grune aimed his pace at Claudus and began to charge a blast. He fired it, crackling green energy blasting towards Claudus. Undeterred, he raised Omens and blocked it with the Eye of Thundera. A small field forced the energy to part around him and he batted it away after a moment, leaping towards Grune with a heavy strike.
Like a kitten, Grune was knocked out of his way and fell prone onto a branch below, groaning in pain.
It was only as Claudus ran towards the presence that Leopara broke from her reverie. "No!" she screamed so loud her throat felt hoarse. She took a step forward, mind racing faster than her body could act. She had to get Claudus away from it!
Claudus ignored her and cut his chains. It fell onto the branch, groaning. He looked up. "You came for me." It said in Panthro's gruff voice.
"I'd fight an army twice that size to save you, old friend."
Lion-O and Tygra chased her.
Claudus turned his back to the impostor and raised the sword. "Now help me!"
"Move!" she yelled at him. Claudus looked at her, her wide eyes of horror and his sons' as the impostor drew a blade, and finally realised. He turned, but it was too late.
Lion-O reached for him. Everything seemed to slow, stretching those agonising milliseconds into eternity. Her heart pounded so hard she thought it would leap from her chest.
"Father! No!"
'Panthro' sunk his dagger into Claudus's chest. He screamed in pain, then fell limp and silent down the tree.
Tygra stopped in his tracks, watching in disbelief.
The sword fell from Claudus's grasp as he hit one of the branches, thud, and continued falling down down down into the water. It splashed, swallowing him under its surface.
Omens sung quietly, a dying sound, as it fell through the air and stabbed into a branch.
Without hesitation, Lion-O leapt from the great height. He dived into the water after his father. Tygra ran to dive as well, while Leopara jumped down the branches and to the water's shore and waited for them, shaking.
Lion-O resurfaced with him and, together, the brothers swam him to her. "Lay him down! I- I can heal him!"
Tygra carried him to the branch and they each helped gently lay him down, left arm over his waist. Leopara fell to her knees and put her hands to his chest. He looked so close to death, blood dripping from his injury and expression contorted, his mane somber.
She closed her eyes as Claudus breathed painfully. She could see it bloom as she focused, but there was a darkness around it, a purple.
"Father." Lion-O said, voice trembling.
"No matter what happens, you made me proud today."
"Sh-sh," she shushed him, taking a deep breath. The pain, it was slipping away- she pushed her magic through, but it was gone. She opened her eyes and frantically pleaded, "No, Claudus, I can- you're going to be okay! I can heal you!"
But the gauntlet on his arm had already lost its lustrous gold color, turning a cold gray.
"No…" tears welled in her eyes and spilled down as the impostor, the kingslayer, laughed.
Lion-O looked up with anger in his eyes. "You… a traitor too, Panthro!?"
"Not quite. Have you not considered that if," his voice began to change, "technology is real, then so are the things of your worst nightmares?"
Blue flames erupted around the form of Panthro, and from it, emerged the hideous face of…
"Mumm-Ra."
Another special thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far, Frankannestein, The Night Whisperer, and Heart of the Demons! I plan on wrapping up episode 2 in chapter 4 and moving on to Ramlak Rising in chapter 5 or 6 (if I have a good idea for original content)! See you all soon!