Maternal Instinct
4
Pantro sighed and stared at the
screen without comprehending. Then, the signal of an incoming message got his
attention. He immediately turned on the comunicator
screen and picked up the microphone. Willa’s face greeted him.
“What is it Willa?”
“Pantro, we
have some news for you Thundercats. And well, Nayda bring her in.”
As Pantro
stared, his eyes suddenly spread so wide he felt certain they would pop
straight from his sockets. The girl Nayda was carrying was still asleep but Pantro knew immediately she was Thunderian. She looked to
be a member of the kittens’ clan at closer glance.
“Pantro,”
Willa continued. “I checked her. She isn’t from our time.”
Pantro
shook himself out of his trance. “What?”
“It’s a talent all Warrior Maidens
have. She from about fifteen years in the future.
You’d be forty-six, Tygra forty-three, Cheetara forty-one. Lion-o would be
forty, Lynx-o about eighty or seventy. Pumyra, thirty-six,
Bengali thirty-five. The kittens would be about twenty-seven because of
the weird way their clan ages. She’s about five or six, I’d say so I don’t know
for certain. But I do know this: She is not from our time.”
Pantro
swallowed hard. “Is she hurt? What’s her name?”
“No she isn’t hurt. Her name’s…”
“Tabithina.” A new voice said. The panther turned and
WilyKit came in. She only had on a robe over her nightclothes but her eyes were
blood-stained from crying and lack of sleep. Her cheeks burned with the slight
feverish flush.
“How did you know, Kit?” Willa
asked. Pantro turned around.
“Hang on a second Willa.” He closed
the connection for hold and turned to face the kitten. She cringed at his face.
He softened his features. He spoke gruffly.
“Kit, back to bed.
Now.”
“But I…”
“Now, Kit.”
“Pantro,
I…”
She stopped. Pantro
looked up at her. His voice deepened. “WilyKit.”
He saw the concern on her face. “Pantro,” she asked. “What does this mean? That kitten was
in my dreams and in Cheetara and Pumyra’s too. They told me.”
The panther sighed. He thanked Jaga
for the genes that didn’t allow him to hurt anyone in a fit of anger. He spoke
again. He wasn’t angry, he was worried, anxious. When he got that way, he got snappish.
“WilyKit, I don’t know. I’ll talk to
Lion-o and we’ll call a council meeting in the morning. In the meantime, you go
back to sleep. I’ll take you there myself if I have to.”
Kit once more tried to protest,
surprised that she was standing up to Pantro so
easily.
“Pantro…”
“Kit,” his voice was soft. But threatening “I haven’t had to put you to bed since you were
six. Don’t make me do it again.”
Kit sighed. “Alright.”
She left. Pantro shook his head. He turned back
around.
“Sorry about that Willa. Now what
does she want to do?”
Willa shrugged. “All she said was
that she wanted to be with the Thundercats until her Mommy came and got her.
She says that her mother promised her she’d get to her somehow.”
The panther nodded, seriously. He
knew it was crazy to believe that a normal Thunderian could find a way across
time but.. then again. When a
Thunderian Mother made a promise to her kittens, she kept it. He seemed to be
thinking. Finally, he spoke again.
“Well, why don’t I send someone in
the tank to pick her up? We have plenty of room for her here. The kittens can’t
come, they need their rest. Kit has had some really wacko dreams and so have
the other females. Her brother has been with her all night. but
I think some of the rest of us could come. What’s she say?”
Willa turned to the child. She
smiled, having woken up while Pantro spoke to Kit.
She spoke and her voice was high but sweet and gurgly.
She stuck a finger in her mouth shyly as she spoke into the visual. “Ya gotcha
kittens?” she asked.
Pantro
smiled and spoke directly to her. He knew that she’d probably want kittens
around because they were closest to her age. “Yeah, kid we do.”
“Yours?”
“Not exactly.
We love them like they were though. And we’ll help you get home to your
mother.”
Tabby smiled and nodded. Pantro spoke again.
“I’ll send someone in few minutes.”
Tabby nodded. Nayda spoke up.
“I think she needs to get her stuff
anyway.”
“Her stuff?”
“Yeah, she’s got this neat little
bag that causes things to shrink. When she was zapped away, she said her mother
threw her something.”
“Oh.” Was the panther’s only response before getting up to alert the others.
* * *
“Mother help
me,” the voice echoed in Kit’s ears as she woke up the next morning. She crept
out of bed and stole into the bathroom. Her brother had woken up a while ago.
As she stepped into the shower, she hurried. Already, she felt as if she knew
this girl. Didn’t know how or why but she sensed something strange about this
girl. She wondered again as she had last night, why she was wondering. Cheetara
had the sixth sense but it was her that felt closest to the girl. Why?
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