I edited previous chapters to match their AO3 counterparts, removed verbal commands from Leopara's magic and associated dialogue, and removed her hiking clothes so she is still in her dress. Remember to check out my tumblr allurasgrace, where I've posted a reference sheet for her!

I also added a a little bit to the last scene of chapter 7~

Leopara sighed softly as she sunk down in the roots of a tree.

Nearly a week had passed since they disembarked from the oasis, and days since they left the Sand Sea behind them.

She was glad, really. They had supplies; foodstuffs, a water purifier, canisters for water, and fortune had them traveling along a river for most of their journey westward. A steady supply of fish, caught mostly by Cheetara and Tygra, and berries, foraged by Leopara with the twins, had kept them well fed. They had lost their tarps and cloaks, but they would make do without the extra protection.

Everything should have been fine- better, certainly, than the weeks before.

Their determination had been renewed, she could sense and heal again, and Lion-O had redirected his efforts toward finding the Book of Omens, just as Jaga had told them. He had been so unwavering in his quest to defeat Mumm-Ra...

Leopara sighed again and brought her knees close to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs, dropping her face into them.

He was so, so tired. In the absence of his anger, doubt now clung to him now. It dampened his fire, burning so hot it was hard to look.

And he wasn't the only one.

She could sense and heal, and she could conjure a barrier, but that was all she could do, wasn't it? When she tried to do anything else, it… it…

Well, she had lost her scepter. That explained her capabilities as a sorceress well, didn't it?

She clutched at her shins.

It could have been me. No. It should have been me.

Jaga would have been able to get through to Lion-O all those weeks of travel. They would have the Book of Omens by now. He would never have lost his focus, he would never have lost his staff; the only reason he was ever parted with it was because he chose to be.

And now that was all she had of him. His staff.

No, that wasn't right. She had the leatherbound journal, too.

"Not you too."

She startled, looking up at Tygra. His amber eyes were filled with exasperation and disappointment, but seeing her look at him, he approached and knelt down to be at eye level.

"What are you sulking for?"

"I'm not…" she started to protest. She stopped herself before Tygra could even arch his eyebrow at her in challenge. "What do you want?"

He met her gaze evenly. "Besides the obvious?"

"Are we talking about the crown?" she snapped, ears flattening. "It's quite obvious how you feel about Lion-O's leadership."

Tygra took a deep, calming breath to keep his cool; she could feel anger swelling against self-restraint. Was it his? Was it hers? Was it both? Did she know? No. "He wasted our time chasing Mumm-Ra, almost got us all killed, and now he mopes everywhere we go."

"He's still moving forward, Tygra." she defended Lion-O.

"I can't believe you're defending him." He sounded genuinely offended. "You protested his decisions the most."

"They- they were bad decisions! I wasn't going to just let him- or anyone- abandon kittens."

Tygra shifted to sit on the root proper, crossing his arms. "I wouldn't have tried abandoning them."

She crossed her arms and sat up on her knees. "Oh really? What would you have done?"

"I would have made Lion-O stay with them."

"Lion-O?"

Tygra nodded. "Your healing magics and barriers are too valuable, and you saw through Mumm-Ra's guise. Cheetara is a trained fighter with experience and good instincts. Lion-O's a cub playing at swordplay." She stared at him, shocked. "It's the duty of the royal family to protect our people. But," he stared into her eyes, "you never answered my question."

Leopara opened and closed her mouth for a moment. "You really think you would be a better king than him?" He shrugged, declining to answer. "You could spend the energy you use criticising and tearing him down to build him up to be a better king, a- a better leader, someone you'd be proud to stand by. Why- why?"

His neutral expression turned into a frown and he straightened. "Whatever you're moping about… get it together. We don't need you and Lion-O slowing us down." Without waiting for her to say anything at all, he stalked away. Anger made his movement stiff and rigid.

She didn't try to stop him from leaving.

Instead, she just stared after him.

Doubt clung to Lion-O in the place of anger, but anger filled Tygra in the place of mourning, and he let neither emotion deter him from what he considered to be his duty.

He was just quite a bit more… abrasive in his anger.

She let it wash over her and inspected the emotion with scrutiny. It was old and twisted, tangled with new tempers.

Leopara took a shaky, deep breath as his presence faded, and the anger trickled away with him. She slumped back and lifted her hand to her face.

Why did I say that?

"I knew it! WilyKit loves the froog!" WilyKat shouted from somewhere to her right, beyond the campfire they had started hours ago to cook dinner.

His sister's voice carried over the distance in protest. "No. I. don't! You dared me!"

Despite herself, her lips curved into a small smile.

At least someone's having fun.

She stood and brushed herself off, watching WilyKit chase her brother through the trees, and approached the clearing as they ran past her legs unapologetically.

The sadness grew heavier as she grew close. She paused, ears pricking at the sound of Lion-O's voice. "I- I know it sounds dumb," he rambled quietly, "but I… I thought he would live forever. He gave his life and for what? We have nothing left."

Leopara's heart tightened, a sharp piercing pain. She knew his feelings, not just as his own but as hers. But she had been afraid Jaga would die, and she would be alone-

"We have the sword. We have each other. But most importantly, we have hope." Cheetara rebutted him in the most gentle voice, as though she was trying to cradle his wounded heart with sound. It would be the softest embrace, the warmest and safest cuddle.

-except she wasn't alone, not completely. She had Cheetara.

"Do we?"

A pause. Snarf interrupted the quiet with a, " Snyarf!" Leopara heard a thud and snapped her attention to the clearing, peering around the tree she settled against to listen.

Snarf clambered atop Lion-O's red mane, a fact his master didn't seem too pleased about. "Are you kidding me? Now?" he exclaimed angrily. With a roll of his wrist, he demanded, "This better be very important, Snarf."

She stepped into the clearing as Snarf hopped down into Lion-O's lap, scrabbling at his chest frantically. "Snya, sna, snyaaa!" he babbled. Reaching out across emotions, she could feel fear from him and immediately reached out, physically, to scoop him up from Lion-O. "Sna snya."

Cheetara leapt from where she sat, taking two steps and bounding into the nearest tree branch that would support her. Lion-O followed, then Leopara with Snarf clinging to her shoulders, and finally Tygra and the twins. They all crouched low to the branch, as if afraid to be seen from such a distance.

In the distance, a swath of destruction- a dark trail of fallen trees, illuminated only by the eerie green lights of the lizards' mechas. It was a straight path leading directly to them.

"It's the entire lizard army." she told them. It couldn't possibly be the entire army, Leopara thought; the force at Thundera had seemed far greater, and why would the entire army start chasing them now? "Just say the word, Lion-O."

Lion-O glanced away, quiet. "No." He looked once again at the lizards. "If we stay here, we die."

He stood.

So did Tygra. "Thundercats do not retreat!"

"With a situation this hopeless, I'll make an exception." Lion-O reasoned.

"Hope comes from action." Tygra argued while they watched. "Isn't that what Father told us?"

Lion-O bristled with anger, teeth gritting. "And what happened to him?!" he demanded. Leopara frowned. "Now come on." He turned and lept to the next branch, expecting them, with certainty, to follow.

And, once again, they did. Even Tygra, even as heated as he was.

They lept from tree to tree, fleeing the army bearing down on them, until the forest opened into a clearing, or what would have been a clearing if it were not filled with a dome of twisting, gnarled brambles that would have engulfed the royal quarter of Thundera with its size. She turned towards Lion-O, ears straining to hear any commotion behind them.

Alas, the lizards were still far enough away that she couldn't hear them.

Lion-O pointed. "They won't be able to follow us in there."

"You're asking us to what?" Tygra bristled all over again. "Hide among the brambles waiting for the lizards to just go away? This is not how we're going to win this war."

Lion-O met his brother's gaze. "I'm not asking," he stated.

He jumped down, chased by Tygra's retort, "You may be king," Leopara hopped forward with Cheetara and the twins, but his words still carried down, "-but I'm still older than you!"

"Snarf!"

She stumbled as she landed, nearly dropping Snarf who lept from her arms nonetheless to chase after Lion-O. Cheetara paused, waiting for Tygra. Leopara hurried after the pet-cat and the twins, who were simply in want of safety and shelter.

Lion-O waited for them at the entrance into the bramble he had found; a conveniently sized gap that, effectively, formed a tunnel funneling them inside. He entered after her, with one last look over his shoulder at the treeline, as if he expected the lizards to burst from it at any moment, and quickly made his way to the front with the Sword of Omens when the tunnel narrowed, and then ended altogether.

Leopara didn't know how long they had been cutting a path through the bramble- minutes, an hour?- when her ears caught a faint sound. They perked up, straining to hear better.

It sounded like… singing? Voices raised together, wordless.

She moved closer to Lion-O, standing on the tip of her toes to strain through the brambles. More brambles.

"What are you doing?" Tygra groused.

"Shhh, I hear something." she hushed him, reaching back to gesture behind her. They all paused for a moment, listening.

Tygra crossed his arms. "I don't hear anything."

Cheetara crowded forward calmly. "I do. It's faint…" she trailed for but a moment to listen more. "What is that?"

"It's singing!" Leopara exclaimed softly, quietly.

"Singing?" Lion-O murmured.

They continued onwards, not quite quick enough for Leopara's tastes. One swing, then another, a third, and then a fourth- the brambles dropped into the dirt to reveal a clearing amidst the mess and tangle.

A dozen small faces whirled to look at them, gasping in horror and clinging to each other with green arms like leaves. They shook and quivered as they, the cats, loomed over them.

They stared silently, shocked.

A little one, with hair like purple petals crawled through the crowd of...leaflings? It looked up at them with wide eyes. Leopara expected another gasp, but instead, it blurted, "What are you? I've never seen people like you before." And before they could blink, it had run up to them, jumping up a tendril besides Lion-O's foot. "Are you from the briar? What's that in your hands? Did you make it?" It slid down a small vine in front of Snarf's face. "You're not the same as the others. Are you some kind of pet?" On a branch, question after question. "Do you grow from seeds like us? What's that red crystal?" It pointed. "How tall are you anyway? Why are you covered with hair?" It pulled at its purple petals. "What kind of- mmf-mm-mf."

"Okay, slow down." Lion-O interrupted, holding his pinky finger in front of the plant-creature's mouth. "You sound like me when I was your age."

The others chuckled with Lion-O, but Leopara stared at them with a furrow to her brow. Did he know what age the leafling was? When the other leaflings joined in on their laughter, she shrugged and smiled.

Just like that, the tension and fear dissipated. The leaflings, who she would learn were called petalars, quickly ushered them into the clearing and crowded around them with barely contained curiosity and enthusiasm. After a sufficient amount of gawking at them, a petalar stepped forward, with green-blue petals atop his head and a blue wrap about his torso.

"You've already met young Emrick. We are the Petalars." He raised his leaf-like arms to gesture around. "We come from a far-off paradise called The Garden. One day, long ago, a great disaster befell our people. A terrible wind like none recorded in all our history whipped through our homeland and swept up the entire Petalar race, carrying us across the sky and bringing us here to Briar Woods." His expression saddened. "And here we have remained, stranded, for generations."

"Generations?" Tygra repeated with surprise, and none of the anger he aimed towards his brother. "Is this place so big that you couldn't find your way in all that time?"

It had seemed quite large… could she have underestimated its size? Or, she supposed, it would be- was- difficult to navigate through.

Emrick excitedly bounced up with a yellowed leaf. Crude, dotted lines had been drawn on it with a sun in the upper left corner, smiling down at the tangled mess depicted beneath it.

"But, we've got a map. It's very, very old and it will lead us out of the Briar to the Cliff of Winds." Her brow furrowed as he explained. It couldn't be that old; it wasn't browned at even the tips. "If we can find it, we'll be able to ride the winds all the way home."

Lion-O reached forward, gently plucking it from the two children.

"We'll help you," he promised softly, "and together we're both gonna find a way out of here, Emrick. I promise."

The petalars broke into a merry cheer.

Leopara looked at him, confused. Were they… lost? I thought we came in here to hide…? Wouldn't leaving be as simple as picking a direction and cutting a path out?

Emrick ran forward, grabbing onto Lion-O's red fringe and swinging. "Hooray for Lion-O! Hooray for Lion-O!" he exclaimed with joy.

"Seems like Emrick's found a hero." Cheetara commented softly.

Tygra watched for a moment before dismissively saying, "Hmph. He's too young to know better."

Lion-O laughed as Emrick hopped onto Snarf.

Leopara looked at Tygra and Cheetara. "Are we… lost?"

She must have looked quite puzzled, because Cheetara chuckled at her and reached forward to brush her stray bang from her face.

She didn't, however, receive an answer.

Thank you to all my reviewers, especially Frankannestein and WAR-Operative who listened to me go back and forth about this chapter for months in discord! Additional thanks to: Heart of the Demons, The Night Whisperer, and Yato-Is-Best-Girl.