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The Red Star Reappears
Standing before a mirror, Brigid twirled her new dress. It was black in colour, knee-length, had only a left shoulder and no sleeve. She was an Evabon, a race native to Third Earth, her skin charcoal grey, her eyes red and her long hair black. She kept her hair in a ponytail and upon her wrists were a pair of gold bracelets. She was only eight years old, a descendant of Zuvowang the Magnificent, who was to Third Earth as Heracles was to Second Earth.
Smiling at her reflection, Brigid giggled and jumped up and down, before taking a moment to spin around. It was almost as if there was no war on Third Earth, no Mumm-Ra…
Mumm-Ra…
Were her friends the ThunderCats even now facing that demon? Brigid could only wonder.
Walking out of her room in the Hall of the Zuvowangidae, Brigid walked over to the stars that led up to the roof. The stars were out, the moon shining down, what a perfect night it was!
Once more twirling her dress, Brigid did a little dance until her eyes fell upon one certain star, a mysterious thing that only appeared on certain occasions: the Red Star. Brigid had seen before and transported back in time, as had her dear friend and arranged fiancé Balor.
Why did it appear again? Was this a dream? It could not have been there for her again? Could it?
Her eyes grew wide and suddenly, Brigid felt herself fall back onto the roof before her eyes shut completely.
When she opened her eyes, she found herself amongst a ruined city, the wind blowing through the streets. Taking a quick look around, her eyes landed upon a great palace that she had heard described by the ThunderCats and it was at that point that she knew where she was.
She was in Thundera!
But something was wrong. She had been told that enslaved cats had been rescued from the rats and would be living here in Thundera, rebuilding a ruined city.
Where was everyone?
Walking through the streets, Brigid heard someone calling her… But who knew she was here?
As if under a spell, Brigid followed the voice until she came to a castle in the city, battered and ruined and overall looking like some dreaded mountain looming over lesser ones. Her red eyes wide, Brigid believed she had heard of this place… The Belfry of Thundera… A cursed place that ghosts were said to haunt…
Hearing her voice called once more, a voice unfamiliar to her, Brigid stared at the archway that the voice was coming from. Why? Why was she being called? Who was calling her? Hadn't she had enough strange adventures when she had encountered that double of hers?
Still, as if under a spell, Brigid walked through the archway and everything changed. Gone were the ruins and instead she saw Thundera as the ThunderCats had known it. It was a bustling, shining city, with many a cat walking by… And she was herself… An Evabon… And in her eyes that meant she was a barbarian… A savage.
Letting out a sad sigh, Brigid looked up at the Belfry of Thundera and to her alarm, found it unchanged. While everything else was beautiful and shining, it was like a black spot upon the city.
NOTES
This particular story is inspired by the tale of the Princes in the Tower, Edward V of England and his brother Duke Richard of Shrewsbury. I was inspired to write this particular chapter in the Evabon Saga when I saw "Richard III" last year at Stratford, where Richard was played by Colm Feore.
Brigid's black dress is something that is derived for the story I am writing as an original piece of fiction. I have it so the Evabon clans have their colours with members of each clan wearing a specific colour on their person and in the case of Brigid, her clan colour is black. A bit real-time strategy, but it is a work in progress. The clan Gard and Balor come from has red as their colour, Donalbain's has blue, Orsino has violet, Jaques (who died back in "The Battle of Sengann Fortress") has green, Dalv and Kernunnos have white and there are two clans with no one affiliated with them yet who have orange and yellow as their colours respectively.
As for Zuvowang being referred to as "Zuvowang the Magnificent" rather than "Zuvowang the Terrible", I did some switching around of the epithets, but Gard is still "Gard the Untamed".