The lion had aged considerably over the years. His face had become more hewn with the start of wrinkles defining his eyes and mouth. His hair had more blonde strands than red.

A snarf wobbled into the doorway. He knocked on the door and entered the room. “Are you going to eat tonight?”

Lion-O nodded his head as he continued to go through the stack. “Yes, Snarfer.”

“Will you be joining us at the table, or shall I bring it to you as usual?”

The lion paused for a moment. He then looked at Snarfer. “I’ll go to the dining room.”

“Well, you should go now. Dinner will be ready in a few minutes.” Snarfer walked out of the room and thanked Jaga once again that Uncle Osbert was no longer alive to see Lion-O. He would be agitated and fretful over Lion-O’s condition, despite the lion’s improvement.

Lion-O sighed heavily and leaned back in his chair. He rubbed his forehead, giving up on the chore. Needing a break, he got up and walked out of his study. He strolled down the hallway toward the dining room. At one open door, he peered in. The Lord of the ThunderCats saw Pumyra and Ben-gali playing with their two children, who were nine and seven.

He could not help but smile at the scene. Pumyra glanced up and saw him looking in at them. She smiled back at him and said, “Would you like to come in?”

Lion-O waved his hand and shook his head. “No,” he declined. “Did Snarfer come by here?”

“To tell us about dinner?” Ben-gali questioned. “Yep. He was here just a minute ago.”

“I’ll see you at the dining table,” Lion-O remarked. He left them and continued down the hallway. He soon entered the dining hall and took his place at the head of the table. WilyKat and his family were already sitting and waiting.

“Hey, Lord Lion-O. Did you decide to join us tonight?” WilyKat asked.

Kat’s wife elbowed him and replied, “We are so glad you made it tonight.”

“Me too,” Lion-O laughed. “It’s not often that I’m free to come.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” WilyKat started. “The Mutants are coming with a convoy tomorrow.”

Lion-O rolled his eyes and sighed. “As many times as they come, I’m beginning to wonder if that peace treaty is worth the hassle.”

“Well, what else can we do? Nuke them out to space?” Kat questioned rhetorically.

“Of course not, WilyKat,” his wife replied sternly. “But anything is better than the threat of war hanging over our heads all the time.” She turned to Lion-O and said, “I think that is one of the best things that you have done.”

“Thanks,” he responded without any emotion.

At that moment, WilyKit entered the room. She sat down and cried out with a dramatic flair, “You wouldn’t believe the day I had today!”

“That bad, Sis?”

She groaned and gave WilyKat an awful look. “It was terrible! One of the clerks in security was checking in a cheetah Thunderian when her computer crashes! I thought it was just her computer, but I was wrong. The whole system broke down! Now I’ll have to redo everything all over again. Not only that, but the clerks are blaming me for what happened. They think my program was faulty.”

“Was it?” WilyKat asked as he watched Snarfer bring out food.

WilyKit growled and said, “Kat, I’m going to kick you. Then it’s going to feel so good that I’m going to kick you again!”

WilyKat’s wife laughed and winked at her sister-in-law. “He needs a good kicking every once in a while.”

“There will be no kicking at the dinner table,” Snarfer announced.

“Aw, Snarfer. You take away all the fun,” Kit whined playfully.

Ben-gali, Pumyra, and their children came into the room and sat down at the large table.

“Snarfer, where are the others?” Snarfer asked.

“They are running an errand for me. I got a tip today, and they are checking it out.” Lion-O answered.

“Another sighting?” Pumyra questioned.

Lion-O nodded his head. “Yep. Will someone pass me the salt?” He turned to WilyKit. “So, what did happen?”

She looked up at him and finished chewing the bite of food in her mouth. “You want my honest opinion or an answer that makes sense.”

“Your honest answer of course,” he replied.

WilyKit knew she was going to hear about it later, but she went ahead and told him her theory. “You remember me telling you that the clerk was checking in a cheetah?”

Before anyone responded, she continued. “Well, the clerk told that before the computer crashed, she checked for the cheetah’s name in the database. It didn’t show up. The clerk said that the cheetah became nervous and asked her to check again. When the clerk went to try it again, her computer blanked out on her.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Ben-gali asked.

WilyKit took another bite then continued with her story. “The clerk also said that that she was about ten years older than me and had a red cloak on.”

At that, Lion-O nearly choked on his food. He coughed and took a drink of water.

WilyKit raised her eyebrow at him and shook her head. “I think our new resident caused the system failure.”

“That is interesting,” Pumyra commented.

Lion-O excused himself and left the room. Snarfer glared at WilyKit and shook his stubby finger at her. “Why do you bring that up in front of him? Now you’ve got his hopes up once again.”

“Really, Kit. You should know better,” WilyKat commented.

“But we all know it couldn’t have been her. I just wish that Lion-O could accept the fact that she is dead,” Kit remarked.

Snarfer fell down in a chair. “You’ve got to be more understanding. All the evidence we have to that fact is a glimpse of a few pictures.”

“But her body was hanging from the rafters,” Ben-gali pointed out.

“Not in front of the children!” Pumyra chided.

“Mutants have known to lie. They’ve done it to us before,” Snarfer added.

“But why would she fake her death?” WilyKit asked. “That doesn’t make sense.”

The adults nodded their head in agreement. None of them could give a plausible explanation, especially Snarfer. “Let’s just finish our dinner with more pleasant conversation,” he suggested.

After the meal, WilyKit helped Snarfer put the dishes in the kitchen. “I’m sorry, Snarfer about my remarks. I didn’t mean to cause such a ruckus.”

“Snarfer, that’s okay. I know you didn’t mean it.” Snarfer shook his head as he poured soap into the running hot water. “Nothing has been the same since the accident. It won’t ever be the same. But you must admit, you can’t blame Lion-O for looking.”

“I know, Snarfer. I understand. I remember that I didn’t believe it at first when I heard. I use to look out my window and imagine that she was on the next aircraft heading home.”

WilyKit sighed heavily. “But after a few years, I realized she was never coming back. That’s when I accepted it.”

“Maybe tomorrow will hold better things,” Snarfer said somberly.

*****

The front door to the house was thrown open. Mara walked into the small sanctuary followed by her son. Kiros fell down on the sofa, dropping his sword, and moaned into a pillow. “I’ve never worked so hard as I did today.”

“This is only your first day of training. You’ll get use to it,” his mother remarked.

He looked up from the pillow and glanced at her. “You did pretty good today. I never knew you could move like that.”

Mara raised her arms up and winced. “I used to work with the best. But I am afraid that I used muscles today that haven’t been moved in years. I’m out of practice.”

“Are we going to go running again in the morning?”

“That’s a stupid question,” she joked, throwing her towel at him.

He laughed and threw it back at her.

A knock at the door interrupted their fun. Mara peered out the window. “It’s Candra. I wonder what she wants.” The cheetah opened the door and let her leader into the house. “Hi, Candra.”

The cheetah leader nodded her head curtly and folded her arms. “You’ve caused us quite a stir already.”

Mara frowned and turned to her son. “I don’t think I understand what you are talking about.”

“Lord Lion-O was here last night upset.”

Mara’s jaw dropped. “What? What in the hell did he want?”

Candra leaned against the wall and stared at Mara. “I was going to ask you that.”

She shrugged her shoulders. Kiros leaped off the couch and stood beside her. “Is the one you mentioned who left you and Father in the Mutant prison?”

“Yes, Kiros,” Mara answered. She turned back to Candra. “I don’t know why he was here. What happened?”

“He asked me if I knew where such and such was. I didn’t know what he was talking about. I could tell he was very upset, almost furious.”

Mara rolled her eyes and took a drink of water from her flask. “I don’t know. He couldn’t have been looking for me. He has no reason to.” She quietly thought to herself, “I couldn’t have been in much danger. My sixth sense didn’t go off.”

“Well, I had a difficult time convincing him that I didn’t know what he was talking about,” Candra remarked. “He finally left, but I think he’ll be back. If Lord Lion-O does come back again, I‘ll have to find you two another place to hide.”

Candra walked out of the house and closed the door.

Mara could feel the old rage and hurt building up inside her again. She hissed and threw her water against the wall. “I knew better than to come back. I should have you let you come alone, Kiros.”

He placed his hands on her shoulders. “Why don’t you go back home? I can handle things from here.”

She shook her head. “No. I want to see his face when you overcome the anointment trials. This is something I have waited for a long time.” Mara walked away from him. “Besides, I have a score to settle with some Mutants.”

“No, Mom. Let me take care of them. When I become ruler of Thundera, I’ll wage war against them. I won’t stop until everyone of them are dead!”

Mara turned around and faced her son. “You can’t do that! Not all of them deserve to die. Just those who...” The cheetah female broke down and began crying. She fell to her knees as she sobbed heavily.

Kiros knelt down and embraced her, letting her head fall against his chest. He ran his hand over her hair. “Please don’t cry. I won’t let you down.”

“I know you won’t,” she sobbed. “It’s just all these memories are resurfacing. I thought I had forgotten them until now.”

Mara rubbed her eyes and wiped away her tears. She looked into Kiros’ eyes and smiled. “You have your father’s eyes.”

“Yeah? What else do I have in common with him?” Kiros asked.

She closed her eyes and let the pictures come to her mind. “You have his build. The strength and intelligence are the same.”

Mara opened her eyes and ran her hand over her son’s face. “Sometimes, you say things that remind me of him. It doesn’t help that you sound almost exactly like him.”

Kiros had never heard so much about his father than those statements. His mother never talked about him. She did not like to bring him up. It hurt her too much. But while she was willing to open to him, Kiros would ask her questions. “Was he a good man?”

That was the wrong question. Mara frowned and turned away. “He was a very good man. I loved him until the very moment he died.”

Kiros knew his mother was closing the subject on him again. He quickly asked, “What about family? Does he have any living relatives?”

Mara quickly shook her head. “No family that I am aware of.”

Kiros sighed and leaned away from her. “I wish I had just had a picture of him.”

“A picture could not show his true nature,” Mara commented.

“Still, I would like to know what he looked like.”

Their conversation was interrupted again as a loud noise erupted outside. “Now what?” she muttered looking out the window again.

Kiros peered out the other window. “It’s a space ship!”

“A Mutant space ship!” Mara spat out. “What are they doing here?”

Her son growled and picked up his sword. “I don’t know, but I’m going to make them leave!”

“Wait!” Mara yelled out to her son, stopping him. She quickly ran to her small chest and threw it open. It was her private chest where she kept her personal and private mementos. When he was much younger, Kiros looked through it once, his curiosity getting the better of him. Mara caught him and gave him a huge lecture and grounded him for a month. He never did it again.

Now, she rummaged through the chest. At the bottom, she pulled out a small staff. “Ah ha! Here it is!”

Kiros peeked over her shoulder into the chest. She closed it before he could see anything. “Let’s go!”

The two cheetahs ran out of the house to the headquarter building where the ship had landed. They entered the building and made their way to the war room where a Candra was surrounded by a few Mutants.

“Get away from her!” Kiros growled at them.

The Mutants turns to the two cheetahs running at them. They coward down as Candra shouted out, “Stop! What are you doing?”

“We’re helping you,” Kiros explained in a confused matter.

“You aren’t doing anything but hindering things!” She turned back to the Mutants. “Are you satisfied?” the cheetah leader asked them.

Their leader, an older Monkian, nodded his head. “Yes, there’s nothing here. Let’s go!”

As he began walking out of the room, he looked back and gazed at Mara. With a loud hoot, he pointed at her and cried out, “What is this? I know who you are! You are that ThunderCat! Is this some kind of trick to attack us?”

Candra stepped in between them to diffuse the situation. “You’ll have to excuse them. They obviously don’t know about the peace treaty between Thundera and Plun-Darr.”

“Peace treaty?” Mara repeated in shock. She fell into a chair, feeling the blood drain from her face. “I can’t believe that he did that!”

“No matter. You can be sure Lord Lion-O will hear of this!” the Monkian spat out. He left the room with a disgusted look on his face. Candra followed him.

Kiros sat down beside Mara. “What was he talking about you being a ThunderCat? Does he have you confused with someone else?”

Mara shook her head and began crying again. “It’s time I told you the truth, Kiros.”