The Cost of Mistakes Made
Part Seven
New Thundera: Cat’s Lair
Dusk
“Can we talk?”
Cheetara looked over her shoulder, although she did not have to do that to know who was asking the question. Lion-O stood in the doorway of her guest room, waiting for an answer.
After they had finished showing Kiros everything in Cat’s Lair, Cheetara had spent the remainder of the afternoon with the other ThunderCats. Then they all had dinner. Too much time had not passed since then. The cheetah had gone to her room to unpack.
Since her arrival at Cat’s Lair, Cheetara had been careful around Lion-O. Although her sixth sense had not warned her of danger yet, Cheetara was not a hundred positive that she or Kiros was safe. Her sixth sense did not always warn her of precarious situations. However, she had made certain that she stayed away from Lion-O. Kiros had also been warned to be cautious around his father.
Now that she was truly alone with Lion-O, Cheetara was waiting for her sixth sense to warn her. It did not.
She turned back to her task of unpacking and said, “What do you want to talk about?”
Lion-O walked into the room and sat down on the edge of the bed. He watched her unload her suitcase. “I don’t know. Anything and everything.”
Cheetara glanced at him then turned her eyes back to the pile of clothes. “You look like Claudus with your blond hair.”
“Ah, the signs of aging,” Lion-O remarked. “And the stress I went through looking for you.”
“I didn’t want to be found.”
“Apparently,” he replied. “Wherever you were, it was even too far for the Sword of Omens to find you. Where did you go?”
“Welkin, a planet four days travel from here.” Cheetara walked toward her closet to hang her clothes. “The people there are nice. They always treated me like I was one of their own.” She walked back to her suitcase to get another stack of clothes.
“If you didn’t want to be found, why did you return?”
Cheetara looked at Lion-O, putting her clothes back on the bed. “I never expected to return. However, when Kiros shared with me that something was beckoning him, I knew I had to bring him to New Thundera. As far away as we were living, I had hoped that he wouldn’t feel the Sword of Omens calling for him. It never occurred to me that his sixth sense would bind him so tightly to it.”
“I see,” Lion-O commented, disheartened.
“Oh, Lion-O,” Cheetara replied. She sat down beside him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. But you’ve got to understand, my sixth sense went off that morning I heard your conversation with Jaga. I thought I was in danger.”
The Lord of the ThunderCats looked at her quizzically. “Your sixth sense went off? Are you sure?”
She nodded her head. “Yes, it did. Why?”
“That doesn’t make sense,” he remarked. “You were never in danger, at least not by me.”
“What are you saying, Lion-O?”
He gazed at her and grasped one of her hands. “I never intended on doing what Jaga asked. Even as I agreed to do as he asked, I was telling myself that I couldn’t do it.”
It was Cheetara’s turn to look surprised. “You lied to Jaga? You broke the Code of Thundera?”
Lion-O stood and ran his hands through his hair as he paced. “What else could I have done? I wanted to appease Jaga. Yet, I wanted to be with you.”
A sudden realization hit Cheetara. Almost in a cry, she said, “If my sixth sense didn’t go off because of you, that means I was in danger...because of Jaga!” She put her hands to her mouth and looked at Lion-O.
He stopped pacing and knelt down in front of her. “I haven’t talked to him in years. I don’t know if he’ll even come back.”
“But what if he does come back to kill me...or Kiros?”
“I’ll never let him hurt either of you,” he said with anger in his voice. “That is a promise!”
“The Sword of Omens will protect Kiros. But I am vulnerable here. It’s a good thing I have decided to return to Welkin.”
Lion-O gasped at her. “You’re going to leave?”
Cheetara stood up and put her attention back on to the task of unpacking. “Lion-O, I have to return. I will be safe there. Otherwise, Jaga would have attacked us there. Besides, I have a good life there and...friends and...”
He walked up behind her, putting a hand on her back. “You can’t go back, Cheetara. I won’t let you leave me again.” Lion-O turned her around. “I still love you. Don’t you love me?” He kissed her softly and repeated the question, “Do you?” He then kissed her harder and asked again, “Do you love me?”
Cheetara’s senses were reeling. She felt Lion-O’s eyes penetrating her as he waited for her to answer. The cheetah breathed heavily, “Yes, Lion-O. I do love you.” She gazed at his mouth and kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his neck.
Just as quickly, the cheetah pulled back. She took a few steps away from him, shaking her head. “I can’t do this. I have to return to Welkin. Too much has happened between us.”
“You’ll be safe with me,” Lion-O protested.
“No, Lion-O. I am afraid that even you cannot protect me from Jaga. We both saw him fight Grune. We don’t know how powerful he is in the astral world. I have to leave. I already bought a ticket for a trip to Welkin,” she announced. “I’m leaving in a couple of days.”
“I will not let you leave. I forbid it!” He spat out.
Cheetara sighed, tears forming in her eyes. “It’s the only way. You can’t make me stay here.”
Lion-O walked back to her and embraced her tight. As she wrapped her arms around him, he whispered, “I lost you once. I don’t want to lose you again. Tell me what I have to do to keep you here.”
“There’s nothing you can do. You can’t fight Jaga, not while he is in the astral world. I wouldn’t let you anyway.”
She looked at him and smiled weakly. “You have me for a few days. Let’s make the best of it.”
Cheetara pulled away from him and sat on the bed. She motioned for him to sit down beside her. The cheetah then dug through her suitcase and pulled out a photo album. “Pictures of Kiros,” she explained simply. She opened the front cover, showing off baby pictures of their son. At every picture, Cheetara shared memories of that moment with Lion-O.
They spent several hours going over all the pictures. Lion-O had so many questions, and Cheetara answered them all. As the cheetah put the album away, he asked, “Do you think Kiros will make a good Lord?”
“Yes, I do. He has you, doesn’t he?” Cheetara replied with a grin.
Lion-O laughed and kissed her one more time. He pulled away, something coming to mind, but he was not sure if he should bring it up.
Sensing his hesitation, Cheetara questioned him. “What is it?”
“Nothing,” he answered.
“Lion-O, I know you want to ask me something. Just ask me.”
As he held her hand, Lion-O gazed at her. “Tygra told me that the Mutants...tortured you while you were their prisoner. Will you tell me what happened?”
“Uh, I don’t know if I’m ready to share that,” Cheetara replied, getting up.
“You have to tell me, Cheetara.”
She shook her head. “Why? I would rather forget those memories.”
“I need to know. It may be something I can use.”
Cheetara looked back at him. “Use? For what?”
He explained, “I got a call from the Mutants this afternoon. They are threatening to attack us.”
*****
New Thundera
Cat’s Lair
“The Mutants are going to attack?” Cheetara gasped. “Why?”
“They think we have spies,” Lion-O answered. “They told me one of them tried to attack them.”
Cheetara groaned and closed her eyes. “I think I know what this is about. I saw Monkian at the cheetah headquarters. At that moment, I didn’t know about the peace treaty between Thundera and Plun-Darr. I thought he was making trouble, so I ran to stop him. Thankfully, Candra stopped me in time.” She looked back at Lion-O. “Monkian recognized me and thought I was spying on him because I once was a ThunderCat.”
“That must be what the Mutants are talking about,” Lion-O concurred. “You’ve got to tell me what happened to you.”
The cheetah sighed and rubbed her temples. “Okay, Lion-O. I don’t see how it will help, but I’ll tell you.” She turned back to him and remarked, “It will be easier if I show you.”
Cheetara stood up and walked away from the bed. With her back to Lion-O, she inhaled deeply one last time as she gathered her courage. Just as quickly, she began lifting her shirt up.
Lion-O’s eyes widened as her torturous scars were revealed. Five long, harsh lines crossed over each other as each scar ran a different path along her back. Although the scars had faded to a pink color after all these years, they still could easily be seen. “Why did they do that to you?” he questioned loudly.
The cheetah could hear the anger in his voice. She let her shirt fall back down and turned back around to Lion-O. “Can we go somewhere else and talk? A place more formal?”
Lion-O stood up. “We’ll go to the council room.” He put a hand on the small of her back and led her to the room designated for meetings. The lion smiled when Cheetara took her usual chair without pausing. He sat down next to her and took her hand in his. “Is this better?”
“Yes,” she replied and smiled warily. Cheetara cleared her throat and began speaking. “It had started several days after I was captured by the Mutants...”
“Let’s go ThunderCat!”
Cheetara backed herself against the wall as the door to her cell was opened. A monkian, with a whip in one hand, stood at the doorway and waited for her to come to him. “I said let’s go!” The Mutant scampered toward her. He grabbed her arm and pulled her up.
The female ThunderCat knew what was coming. At first, she did not believe the Mutant threats, chalking them up as idle. But when she saw the whip, fear rose in her throat. Cheetara fought the monkian with all her strength. She tried to pull her arm free as she used her nails to claw his face.
“Woo! You’ll pay for that!” the monkian spat, grabbing her arm tighter.
Cheetara lowered her body weight to the floor so that the Mutant had to drag her. He shouted out in frustration when she kicked him, making him fall to the ground. Seizing the opportunity, Cheetara raced out of the cell. From one direction, two reptilian Mutants were running toward her. She quickly turned and sped the other way. A locked door blocked her. She pulled with all her strength on the door but to no avail. Hearing the Mutants coming, Cheetara panicked. She began trying to break the door down with her shoulder.
“Get her!” the monkian ordered the two reptilian Mutants. The two reptiles blocked the hallway and grabbed her arms. Cheetara cried out as they dragged her down the hallway.
As they made their way to the other end of the corridor, the ThunderCat could hear the protests and threats by Tygra and Panthro.
“You fool! You’ll regret this!” Tygra yelled.
“Take me instead of her, you miserable Mutants!” Panthro yelled, pounding on his door in anger.
The Mutants dragged Cheetara through a heavy wooden door, and as they shut it, she could no longer hear her friends. They continued to carry her down the winding hallways as she struggled against their firm grasps on her.
The monkian opened a cell door and said, “Bind her up!”
Cheetara’s wrists were tied together as well as her ankles. One of the Mutants fastened her tied wrists on a large metal hook that hung from the ceiling.
“Leave me alone with this she-cat,” the monkian hissed. He cracked the whip against the floor, the snap of it echoing throughout the cell. After the two Mutants left, he walked in front of Cheetara. “We’re going to have so much fun,” he laughed, unfurling the whip again.
“Why did they do it, Cheetara?” Lion-O asked, interrupting her.
The cheetah shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I still haven’t figured that out. When he was through, they put me back into my cell. I slept through the pain for a long time. It was Tygra who awoke me...”
“Cheetara!” Tygra hissed, waiting for her response. “Cheetara!” he yelled again when she did not respond.
The cheetah opened her eyes and groaned as the waves of pain hit her. “What is it?”
“How are you doing?”
“I was feeling better when I was asleep,” she replied. The cheetah ran her right hand over the top of her back. Trying to ignore the pain, she pulled it back in view and sighed in relief when she saw no signs of fresh blood. “I’ve stopped bleeding,” she relayed to Tygra.
“That’s good,” Panthro called out to her.
She sat up on the makeshift bed in the corner of her cell. The movement caused her head to swim and a new surge of nausea to surface. Cheetara closed her eyes and willed it back inside of her. She laid back on the bed and curled herself into a ball. The sheet on the small cot did nothing to keep the cold away. The walls and floor of her cell were made of a dark gray stone. The doorway was wooden but several layers thick. A small opening at the top of the door, braced with metal bars, allowed the prisoners to hear each other.
“When do you think the others will get us out of here?” Tygra asked.
“I don’t know,” Panthro answered.
Tygra pounded on the wall. “I hope its soon.”
Cheetara moaned as the same words rang in her head over and over again. I’ll think of something. I’ll think of something. I’ll think of something. I’ll think of something.
“Wait, listen,” Panthro announced. “I think the guards are coming!”
A door down the hall creaked opened. Two Mutants walked their way, the sound of keys clanging. “Today is your lucky day, ThunderCats!” one of them cackled down the hallway. “Yeah,” the other remarked. “You get to go home.”
Cheetara ran to her door as she heard the Mutants open one door. “Come out, ThunderCat!”
“I’m coming. Stop shoving!” Tygra growled.
“You too. Out you go!”
“If my hands weren’t tied, I would rip your heart out!” Panthro hissed, angrily.
One Mutant began laughing. The other pushed Panthro and Tygra toward the door. “Let’s go!”
“What about Cheetara?” Tygra asked, looking over his shoulder.
“She’s coming later,” he stated. “Move it, or we’ll keep you here!”
I’ll think of something. I’ll think of something. I’ll think of something. I’ll think of something.
Cheetara heard the door slam shut. Her heart sank into her stomach as she feared that they were not coming back for her.
I’ll think of something. I’ll think of something. I’ll think of something. I’ll think of something.
Panicking, she pounded on the door. “Let me out of here!” she wailed.
Suddenly, she heard Tygra’s voice in her head. “We’re waiting for you. Where are you?”
“I’m still in my cell,” she mentally answered. The sound of gunfire shook the walls around her. She looked up out of the ceiling, through the wooden beams, and saw the Feliner leaving, as yellow shots flew around it. “NO!!” she shouted out, falling to the floor. It had happened as she feared.
I’ll think of something. I’ll think of something. I’ll think of something. I’ll think of something.