Chapter 7

Panthro stalked down the walkway, eyes glowing a wrathful gold in the dark of the forest night.The path proceeded away from the tree and towards another, traversing a broad expanse of open air.It was here the panther stopped.

He took in the situation.There were betweenfifty and sixty insects, roughly half gathered in a mass in the center of the clearing, the rest actively attacking the warrior women on the village walkways around the perimeter.Wherever the human females managed to kill one of the flying horrors, another broke from the central group and took the fallen one’s place.

The insects were winning.High overhead, highlighted against the cool, distant moon, Panthro could see insect forms venturing above the tree-tops and to the north, unmoving human shapes dangling from their legs.Only Willa's arrow had prevented his fallen friend from being hauled away to whatever awful fate awaited these others.

"No more," the panther muttered to himself.He snapped his 'chucks from over his shoudler and held the red shaft in his left hand, focusing his attention on it.

The sentient weapon read it's master's will and responded.The closed feline fist that formed the end of the shaft opened, revealing the fire aperture in the center of the palm.As Panthro concentrated, a slender tube slid from the port.At it's tip was a ball, perforated with a ring of holes around it's equator.Finally, the fist reclosed around the shaft, leaving only the ball exposed.

Panthro looked towards the swarm of insects.Holding the blue 'chuck, he spun the weapon rapidly and snapped it towards the cloud of buzzing monsters.The force field connecting the shafts relaxed, propelling the red arm outward, arrow-like, towards the creatures.

Twice the weapon veered of it's own accord to avoid a collision with one of the flyers.When it reached the opposite side of the mass, it signaled back to the Thundercat, notifying him it was in position.Panthro pulled on the blue 'chuck, bringing the weapon back towards him, simultaneously sending it it's next command.

The air of the clearing exploded in a fireball thirty feet across, hurtling through the cloud of insects back towards the panther, taking the flyers in the conflagration.The fiery liquid from the red 'chuck clung to them, igniting their bodies, reducing their wings to ash in seconds.Dozens of insects plummeted to the forest floor in a rain of burning bodies.

Panthro smiled grimly as the red 'chuck returned to him, nestling beside it's brother in the Thundercat's open hand.All around the clearing, the insects broke off their attacks, racing to rejoin the few survivors in the center.There they milled around in disarray, their numbers halved, their momentum lost.

Then the insects reoriented, and Panthro's smile disappeared as he realized they were coming at him.His jaw clenched as he began to swing his weapon in a rapid figure-eight pattern in front of himself.The creatures swept low, below the level of the walkway, then rocketed upward, engulfing both path and panther in a cloud of armored, venomous fury.

Hooked insectile claws tore at him, sharp stingers split blue-gray fur, tracing bloody welts in the skin below, or thrust upwards between the boards of the platform, striking at the feet.Mandibles snapped, wings beat blindingly at the face, the awful buzzing filled his senses as the flyers struck at him again and again.

Panthro raged.His nunchaku crushed and rended on all sides, his clawed hands stabbed, his lethal kicks struck the monsters out of the air.Broken insect bodies and fragments fell from the swarm like rain from a thunderhead.

And then it was over, and the Weaponmaster of Panther Clan watched the decimated forces of his enemy flee back into the night sky and away to the north in pursuit of their brothers.As the adrenaline rush subsided, he became aware of movement against his leg.Looking down, he saw one of the fliers, it's stinger pinned beneath his foot, struggling to free itself.He stared at the creature a moment, trying to recall how he'd come to capture it like this in the heat of battle.

Then he shrugged mentally, reached down, and listened to it's metallic scream as he wrenched it's head off.He looked out at the forest floor, strewn with chitinous wreckage, lit in places by burning bodies like some insectile vision of hell.

He lifted the head to face his own.The mandibles still moved slightly as he looked into it's faceted, jewel-like eyes."I said you were messing with a sonuvabitch," the panther muttered.He threw the head over the side, kicking the decapitated body after.

"I meant it," he said, then turned and began to walk back towards the large hut.

The panther reached the open doorway and stepped cautiously inside.The girl (Nayda? he thought)lay trembling and moaning on a pallette on the floor.Beside her knelt Willa and two others, one examing Nayda's wound, the other cradling the suffering girl's head in her lap..Both of the strangers looked up at the Thundercat, but neither moved threateningly, only watching him with wary expressions.

They saw, he thought.He met their gazes in turn and inclined his head towards each in solemn greeting.When Willa did not look up or acknowledge his presence, he slowly approached.

While the one by the girl's head continued to watch him, the nurse opposite Willa was suddenly distracted as the child's body was wracked by a violent muscle spasm.Her back arched violently as a muffled scream wrenched itself from between her clenchedteeth.

He stopped, and in a few moments the rictus ended.He moved closer until he stood at the girl's feet.She saw him then, looked at him with streaming eyes and teeth clenched from pain and the toxin raging through her body.Muscle spasms racked her, her body becoming slack and limp one moment, then trembling violently the next.

He knelt before her, meeting her gaze.He knew this look, had seen it on Ender's face when a Mutant sword had spilled his guts, and Pierce's when the napalm had burned most of his hide off."Please don't let me die," it said.

"Come now, son," he heard Gideon whisper in his mind, his voice uncharacteristically soft."She's nothing special to you, just a serving girl they ordered to feed you..."

"They didn't order her to smile at me, Paw-Paw.She didn't have to be kind to me."

The big cat's face screwed up, his hands folded into massive fists, which he raised even with his head, then slammed down on the tops of is thighs.

"I hate death, I HATE IT!I've fought it all my life and it ALWAYS WINS!I couldn't save my friends!I couldn't save my family!I couldn't save my world!I couldn't even save this poor kid!"

The panther leaned back, his eyes closed, his face to the ceiling."God damn me, Paw-Paw.God damn me for a worthless failure."

He sat that way until another moan from Nayda brought him to his senses.He looked back at the whimpering girl, and it seemed as though he could feel something within himself dying alongside her, something that he'd never be able to get back.He turned to the nurse seated on his right.When he spoke, it was slowly, with exaggerated care and pronunciation."Is the venom always fatal?" he asked.

Without looking away from her patient, she said, "The poison paralyzes.It does not kill."

Panthro stared at her.

"It is the wound that kills her," she continued.She pointed to the discolored welt above Nayda's navel."Her gut is pierced and spills inside her.If she does not bleed to death, the stool in her belly will..."

Panthro snapped his head around to face Willa, cutting the nurse off."Willa, we can still save your sister."

No one moved as Willa, for the first time, turned her gaze from her sister's face.She met the panther's eyes, and Panthro had a split second before she threw herself at him.She came so fast, even the Thundercat's inhuman reflexes could not prevent it. With an inarticulate scream of blind fury, she seized him by the throat and drove him over onto his back.She straddled his waist, pressing the point of her bone knife against his jugular vein.

"You and your kind have taken from me the only thing I have to live for," she hissed."Now you offer some pact to deliver her back to me.Never!I will never yield her to you!Better a clean death than servitude in Hell!"

Despite her furious words, she hesitated to drive the knife home and kill the Thundercat.Keeping very still, Panthro spoke quietly, slowly, choosing his words with great care.

"I have a...a friend, who is trained in the treatment of wounds.If we get her to him in time, he should be able to save her.But," the panther hesitated, "You're going to have to trust me."

She hung over him, glaring into his eyes even as she weighed his words.Finally she leaned back, taking the knife from his throat."I have no choice," she said simply.

Now Panthro sat up suddenly, throwing Willa off balance.He caught her arm before she fell, pulling her towards him as he slid back to his knees.He gripped her knife hand, placing his free hand behind her head, forcing her to meet his gaze.He pulled the tip of the weapon back up to his throat again.

"No!" Panthro hissed."You do have a choice.You can finish what you started, or Goddammit you can trust me!"

Cat's Lair had never been intended as a hospital.The waiting room beside sickbay was there simply because Tygra had felt like it belonged there, not from any serious intention that it be used.

Now Willa and Merqua, the nurse, occupied the room's two chairs while Panthro leaned against the wall by the entrance.The women had not spoken in the hour since Wilykat had delivered them here, not to each other, certainly not to Panthro.

There was a pitcher of water on the table between the chairs.Custom dictated that Panthro wait until his guests drank, but he was pretty confident that condition expired after an hour.He went to the table, poured a glass, and returned to hisposition by the door.Again, neither human moved or reacted in any way.

He drank half the glass and sighed.The trip in had been much like this, pure business.There had been three other women injured in a similiar manner to Nayda, and a small caravan had been arranged to carry them to the Thundertank.Getting the superstitious humans in the vehicle had been even more problematic...

His reverie was interrupted as the door to sickbay opened and Tygra entered the room, still wearing his blood-stained scrubs.Willa stood up at last and walked directly up to the tiger.Pantro frowned.Why did that bother me? he wondered.

Tygra took a deep breath and said to Willa, "It was touchy for a while, but I think they're all going to be fine."He put his large striped hands on Willa's shoulders and gave them a reassuring squeeze.Panthro had to actively suppress an urge to punch the tiger.

Without any word to Tygra, Willa stepped away from him and out of his grip.She turned on her heel and crossed the room, stopping directly in front of Panthro."There is something you deserve to know," she said.

"Of everyone in the council, only Nayda spoke for you.It was my decision to take your head at dawn and place it on a pike to warn off the flyers.I did this to preserve peace in the council and to strengthen the courage of my warriors, not for anything you had done.It was...expedient to kill you."

She paused.Panthro made no movement and did not speak.He sensed there was more.

"This is...a shame upon me.Had I done this thing, I'd have killed an innocent, an ally,"she paused, her lower lip quivering, her eyes suddenly brimming with tears."And my sister," she croaked."I counted you an enemy because it was easier to do so.Now I have no right to ask it, but," she hesitated, lowering her eyes, looking at the floor.

"I...I ask you t-to forgive me," she said, her head hung, her pride demolished, as the tears began to spill out onto her cheeks.

Panthro couldn't think of anything to say, so he wrapped his great arms around her slender shoulders and drew her to him.He held her as she cried soundlessly against his broad chest, stroking her glossy black hair.For the first time he noticed that she smelled like flowers.

After a few moments, he placed is hands on the sides of her head and turned her face upwards towards his.

"This isn't over yet," he said."If those bugs are anything like the littler ones, then there's bound to be a nest out there somewhere.We'll help you, Willa.We're gonna find that nest and put a stop to this once and for..." he froze.

Confusion clouded Willa's face, then fear.As she watched, her new friend's expression became distant.The golden flakes in the big cat's eyes became agitated, vibrating, glowing.She stepped away from him and turned to see it on the tiger as well.

Then both creatures towards the room's single window.Willa followed their gaze and gasped.

Hanging in the night sky like a second moon was an image the color of spilled blood.It was the image on the badge both cats wore.And as she looked at it, awed, she felt a growing sense of dread.

Something was wrong.Terribly, terribly wrong...

Continued...