Fan Fiction ❯ Beyond the Years ❯ Watchful Eyes and Minds ( Chapter 3 )

YAY!!! I made it to chapter 3!!! I don't need to remind you that I only own my characters, nothing else………that includes my new character Maoris…

~*Chapter 3*~

"Cheetara, do you think that you can use your powers to find Jaguara?"

"I believe that I can. I can at least trace her to the right planet by searching the past." She smiled at Lion-o, knowing that she'll be completely drained afterwards, but she was willing to help find him find Jaguara. This obviously meant a lot to him. He had spent hours a day, everyday for seven years with the girl, but the others had not. Everyone spent his or her own time dealing with separate issues, knowing only her age, her name and that she was Jaga's daughter. Cheetara wondered idly if that was the reason they felt the stinging pain of regret surface every time she crosses their minds. She slid her slender hand through her thick silky hair; letting it fall back into place, before taking a reassuring breath. Lion-o looked at her sympathetically.

"Cheetara, you know that you don't have to do this, right?" asked Lion-o slowly, his nervousness evident in his eyes. He wished with all his heart to see his long lost friend again, but as the Lord of the ThunderCats, he couldn't ask Cheetara to do this for him, especially since it pain her to do this each time. Almost whispering, he added, "We can always find her another way………"

She smiled at him, knowing full well just how much he wanted to find her. He had wanted to go after her and find her for years, but his hope of finding his playmate slowly dwindled as he got older, leaving nothing but regret and pain, burying the reminding hope, but not killing it. He had refused to let it die until, as he vowed, he had either found her or her body. Even then, as many of the ThunderCats who knew of this believed, he would refuse to allow her to just be gone. Jaga's spirit knew that he could be stubborn at times.

"Of course I know, but I want to find her just as much as you do Lion-o, so I'm willing to look." The others gave her curious looks, knowing that she, too, had not spent a lot of time with Jaguara, but there was the possibility that she wanted to make up for that by finding the girl and bringing her home. `Of course, if she did survive, then she wouldn't be a little girl anymore,' thought Snarf as he smiled faintly to himself, trying to imagine her grown up as he watched Cheetara give her premonition.

~*~

"Here. They were here." Jaguara muttered to herself, fingering the old footprint pressed deep into the ground. They were obviously Thundarian footprints, one set she even recognized as belonging to Panthro. These prints, though, were old, almost non-existent and indistinguishable. Sighing, she stood up slowly as wind from the outside entered the cave and blew her hair around her face, effectively destroying the last of the prints, the wind howling as if to mock her. She turned, towards the wind, closing her eyes and sighing again, rubbing her forehead in frustration, as she thought of the other rumors she had heard. There were thousands of rumors, ranging from the ThunderCats being attacked to lava monsters, acid mist, and ancient lunatics to the ThunderCats, blasting off to an unknown universe. This was one of her last few leads since the rumors of the ThunderCats began years ago, just as Malison began to grow her first real teeth. Shaking her head, Jaguara's mind wondered to distant years in the past, mostly to happy memories spent with her energetic young playmate, Lion-o. A smile graced her lips as the memories flowed along with the wind, with the young woman not even realizing that she had began to walk towards her current home, her jacket flying behind her. Her ears perked up in alarm suddenly as a noise behind sounded her, forcing her to turn suddenly, right into the chest of the man with green skin and who stood almost a head taller than her still. He wore clothes of blue and gold, his boots curved at the toes.

"Hi there Maoris……….What brings you up here?" her question sounded with a warm smile to the man who had captured her and taken her from her home, Thundaria, against her will.

"I'm just checking up on you, Little One," he countered, his still face showing no emotion, but his eyes showing a smile of their own. "How have you and the children been? How is Snarfette?"

"Everyone's fine, though Snarfette still refuses to speak to you. She's still "slightly" upset with you about kidnapping us and then with my "training sessions"………"

At this, Maoris smirked; remembering of old times when the Snarf female had fought against him and defended Jaguara, and even argued about his table manners. A chuckle escaped his lips as he gingerly felt the back of his head at a spot where Snarfette had nailed him with a frying pan in a more recent argument. He decided to call it her attack and christened the attack "The Frying Pan of Doom," much to the amusement of Jaguara and the kittens. He focused his mind back onto the young woman in front of him, the young woman he had helped to raise, looking amused as he made a daily trip down memory lane. She laughed softly, as he returned to the conversation at hand, but his mind was still elsewhere, but now focusing on a main thought he had had since she had forgiven him for kidnapping her at age eight. The daily vow he kept, one filled with the promise of protection from enemies, friends, and potential mate, burned it's way up as he quietly said his goodbyes to the ThunderCats female and disappeared as suddenly as he appear, neither one noticing the presence of another figure, one that was blanketed with shadows and hid low to the ground, two glowing red eyes flashing as the mentor and his pupil parted ways.

~*~

Ma-Mutt growled at the green man, his master's eyes watching though his own. He turned towards the direction of the female, moving slowly and watching her as she skipped and jumped along the mountain ledges, disappearing once again amongst the rocks and boulders. Ma-Mutt knew this area well, mostly from wandering around when his accursed master had banished him from the pyramid. He knew of her true location and of the Thunder-kittens that resided with her and the old snarf. He also knew that she would not being going home now. She would be heading towards a small hidden waterfall that camouflaged against a thicket of dense trees. That was where he used to follow her and she had tended to his wounds, at which his master believed the children of the Barbarians had done. He could feel his master's demands to follow her as he raced forward, but instead, the clever canine followed another trail, away from Jaguara's spot and towards her home. Hiding amongst the debris of rocks and other things, he watched as two children, one large and one small emerged from the dwelling, carrying a basket. As the girl raced forward, the boy close behind, he shouted a careless goodbye over his shoulder, stating that they were going to find some more fruit. The mutt's eyes narrowed. He smelled mutants near by………

~*End of Chapter 3*~

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