Chapter 9

He woke on impact, landing face down in a shallow pool of thick, viscous liquid.Instinctively, he pushed his face and upper body clear, but it was too late.The liquid had gotten in his nostrils, his mouth, filling both with the sickly-sweet taste and incomprehensible stench of rotten, decayed meat.

Lion-O's stomach revolted even before his brain had cleared enough to realize why, vomiting violently over and over again.When there was nothing left in him to expell, he rocked there on hands and knees, retching helplessly.Finally his senses began to innure themselves to his surroundings.Weak and shuddering, covered in foul, maggot-ridden slime, the young Thundercat Lord looked around, trying to guess where he was.

He'd lost his glow-globe and the Sword of Omens, but as his eyes adjusted, he realized there was some dim light.Looking upward, he saw a hole high above him, and beyond that, the dark night sky.

No, not dark, he realized.Deep purple.Morning is close.Even so, there would not be enough light to see well for at least another hour or two...

From somewhere in the dark, he heard a low, sighing moan.He cast around for the source, but only silence met his efforts.He began to crawl through the reeking sludge that covered the floor of the pit.His movement raised clouds of foul gasses, forcing the young lion to halt as another wave of gagging wracked his body.When the spell had passed he continued more slowly, holding his breath as best he could.

Soon he could just see a darker patch of blackness, lying facing the wall, a shadow that moved in time to it's rapid, shallow breathing.He reached her, knelt behind her and rolled her gently onto her back, supporting her head on his thighs.

"Cheetara?" he whispered.

The thick slime had matted her fur, making it smooth and slick to the touch.Her clothing was in shredded tatters that hung loosely from her.Her eyes were wet patches in her slime-encrusted face.Her body...

There was something wrong with her body.Her belly was large, swollen out, almost pregnant-looking.He leaned over her and stretched out his arms, rubbing his hands over her skin, trying to guess what had...

Something moved inside her, reacting to his touch.Lion-O yanked his hand back as though scalded.Her head rolled against his legs, sliding off his lap and back to the floor.He put it back, placing his hands on either side to steady her.As he did, she reached her hands upward, closing them around his wrists.

Suddenly her grip tightened, driving her nails into flesh.Her body went stiff as an almost silentkeening hissed out from between her clenched teeth.Lion-O's heart jerked in sudden panic."Cheetara, what's wrong?" he demanded.

The keening transformed into a series of hoarse, rapid gasps.She fell silent.Then her mouth flew open wide in a deafening scream, followed by another, then another.

"Cheetara!" Lion-O cried as she lolled side-to-side on the filthy floor, her legs kicking violently.Her back arched and the endless screams transformed into a single soul-tearing shriek of absolute agony.Then at last, mercifully, she collapsed back to the floor, her cries reduced to tortured whimpers.

Tears washed through the sludge on Lion-O's face.He was helpless, he didn't know what was wrong with her or what to do.Jaga, help us, please!, he thought, even as he felt her claws dig into his arm again, heard her muted cries transform to harsh panting gasps.

Lion-O heard a wet tearing sound.He looked up; there at the peak of her bulging abdomen, the skin split open and from the hole emerged a delicate black, segmented limb, waving wildly in the air.

Now Lion-O's cries of terror joined the female's renewed screams of agony as first one, then another mewling horrors pushed it's way through the split in her stomach.Then the drum-tight skin tore open from sternum to groin, and more than ten tiny replicas of the flying monsters launched themselves into the foul air of the chamber.They wheeled rapidly around the room, rejoincing in their freedom, then shot upward, through the opening far above and into the pre-dawn sky.

Lion-O watched them disappear.He looked down at the trembling body in front of him, where the skin sagged hollowly into the empty space where her insides had been.

She was no longer screaming.She stiffened.She went limp.And then she was dead. 

Lion-O's mind went away for a short time.When it returned, he brushed the hair away from the slack face and leaned over to kiss the cooling skin of the brow.

"Don't worry, Cheetara," he told the corpse as he continued to comb the limp, filthy hair."I won't let them hurt you anymore.I know I messed up at the clearing when I let them take you, but that really wasn't my fault.I hope you understand.We'll get out of here as soon as you're ready, okay?"

Then his mind went away again.When it returned, he began to cry.After a moment, he began shaking the body at the shoulders.

"Wake up," he sobbed in a small child-like voice."Please wake up.It's dark here and I'm scared, momma, please?Don't go away again, please momma?I miss you.Don't leave me here all alone, momma.Momma, can you hear me? Momma?"

And then he was quiet again.And as the young lion's psyche crumbled, his memory found an image and threw it before his mind like a rescue line to a drowning man.In that vision, he saw Panthro's hand, holding a small bit of shiny, black shell, a snake imprinted on it.

"They are his creatures..."

And then Lion-O drove his clenched fists into the air and named his enemy in a roar that swore bloody vengeance to the distant sky high above.

"MMMUUUUUMMMRAAAAAAA!!!"

Continued...