rekindleme | It's my party...

Diarmuid does understand, or at least as much as he can. He's not sure when his birthday is here because of how different the calender is, but he's sure it has passed by now and the idea of his father not being here to celebrate with him makes him sad. Kit is probably feeling the same way, only worse.

"This is the first time you have been away from him when it happened and it's not the same. He should be here..."

Kit figured out when her birthday was here mostly by counting days. Since days here seemed the same length as days on Third Earth, then there, at least, it was her birthday. Or so she thought. It felt like it, anyway.

And how it felt was... wrong. And lonely. "He should be here," she agreed. "All my friends should be here. Lion-O, Panthro, Cheetara, Tygra, everyone." She paused slightly before adding, a bit more quietly. "Anyone." But she was still alone. And she was beginning to think that she might end up staying that way while she was here.

"That's... kinda why I didn't tell anybody beforehand," she said. "They'd have probly wanted to throw a party or something, and I know that they'd just be trying to be nice, but... it doesn't feel right, celebrating without Kat or the others here. Especially Kat. We're twins. We've never not been together on our birthday."

"I just... miss him," Kit said, hugging her knees against her chest. "I miss everyone. I always do. But usually I can think about other things. That's just... really hard today. You understand?"

"I think I do. I don't have a twin, so I can't know exactly, but if my brother was gone from here, I would be very sad. Especially on certain days," Diarmuid looks around the tree and finally finds a branch low enough that he can pull himself up. Once in the tree, he makes his way over to Kit to give her a hug.

"Even when you have friends here, it's not the same as the people who you are missing from back home. We don't replace your friends and family. We add to it. I really wish your brother was here with you..." Not only would it make Kit happier, but Diarmuid would love to meet the brother that means so much to her.

"It's okay to miss them. There is nothing wrong with that. Do you want to tell me about them? Will that make you feel better? It's not the same as being with them, but it's something!"

Kit smiled a bit sadly as she leaned gratefully into Diarmuid's hug, gladly returning it. It was easier to talk to Diarmuid, somehow, than it might have been with a grown up. He might not have had a twin, but he was her age. He knew how it felt to be a little kid in a big world.

Kit didn't say anything until Diarmuid was finished, just enjoying the hug for the moment. But she nodded, pulling away from the hug to settle back against the trunk again so they could talk more easily, allowing them both to get as comfortable as was possible in crook of the branches.

"Wily-Kat...," she began, then trailed off for a moment when she realized she didn't know quite where to start. "Wily-Kat's a little braver than me. Just a little. But he's more reckless too; he's probably getting into all kinds of trouble back home without me there to keep him from doing dumb things. He was the one who convinced me that we should leave home and look for Eldara to help our family."

She paused there a moment, looking puzzled. "Did I ever tell you about Eldara?", she asked. "I can't remember."

Diarmuid is happy to hug Kit for as long as she wants it. Fortunately, he has spent so much time in high places, that it doesn't take him long to settle into a comfortable spot once she pulls away and starts talking.

"That sounds like my brother. He's brave, but doesn't always think about what he is doing before he does it. Sometimes it works and sometimes it gets us in trouble. When we first learned what chocolate was, he ate so much of it that he got sick because he didn't know better. It tasted good and how could something that tastes good be bad?"

He pauses when she mentions 'Eldara' and shakes his head, "I haven't heard that word before. What is it?"

Kit smiled a bit. "Yeah, that sounds like something Kat would do, alright," she said. "He just doesn't think sometimes." Of course Kit herself was guilty of acting without thinking at times herself, usually when her friends were threatened, but she liked to think she was a bit better about it than Wily-Kat was.

And in answer to Diarmuid's question, Kit reached into her pouch and pulled out a carefully folded piece of paper, unfolding it to show him. It looked like a page torn from an old book, and pictured on it was a drawing of a magnificent city.

"This is Eldara," Kit said. "The city of treasure, hidden somewhere in the furthest corners of Third Earth. It's so beautiful that it's called the Jewel of the World. It's warm in the winter and cool in the summer,and there's always enough food to go around. Even desert! And every family there lives happily ever after."

Kit's expression, which had brightened a bit while telling the story of Eldara, now became more thoughtful again as she gazed down at the drawing. "Mama said that the only way Kat and I could help the family would be to find Eldara," she said. "So that's what we're going to do. And we'll bring back enough riches that she'll never have to worry again."

Diarmuid looks at the picture thoughtfully as Kit talks. It sounds like a dream place or maybe even a fairy realm of sorts. It also kind of reminds him of his father's house...

"It's too bad your family can't come and visit my home. I bet you would really like it. There is a lot of good food and people have fun and help each other. We all have enough to make us happy!" To be honest, Diarmuid doesn't see the appeal of the riches side of things since a lot of what makes his father's home so happy is the people and how they treat each other. Then again, it's the house of a god of love and things are just a little different there than elsewhere.

"How is your search going? I mean, before you were brought here. Did you have an idea where the city really is? Were your friends helping you look for it?"

Kit smiled a little, though it was still tinged with sadness. "Your home sounds great," he said. "Our farm was happy like that too, before Papa died. We didn't have much, but we had each other, so we were happy. The city of Thundara was a lot different, though..."

She trailed off a bit. How to explain what Thundara and her people had been like without making herself look like a bad guy? She really wasn't, at least she didn't think she was. And most average cats weren't really bad people either. But there were a lot of things wrong about Thundara too. Especially how the cats treated anyone who wasn't one of them. Or even was one of them, but had a tail. Lion-O was trying to fix things, and unite the animals of Third Earth, but there was still a long way to go before things were really better.

She was spared from trying for the moment, though, by Diarmuid's question. She shook her head. "Uh-uh," she said. "We don't know where it is yet. Though we figure going a long with Lion-O and everyone is the best way to find it. We've seen so many new places and met so many new people since we met up with him. I know we'll find Eldara somewhere out there."

"There's really more important things to worry about first, though," she said. "Like finding the four Power Stones before Mumm-Ra does. If he gets them first, finding Eldara won't matter, cause he'll use them to make everyone on Third Earth his slaves."

"He wants to make everyone his slaves?" There are so many things Diarmuid wants to ask her about from the mention of Thundara being different to what she will feel if she and her brother never find the city--will all the friends she has made and experiences she has had help make up for that? However, the mention of what Mumm-Ra wants to do distracts him from all of that. It's such a terrible thing!

"You are right. That has to come first. How is your search going? Do you have many of the stones yet?" Diarmuid really wishes he could go and help them find the stones because he doesn't like the idea of anyone being enslaved, especially not his friends!

"There is no way he can be allowed to do that!"

And who knows? They might even find Eldara in the process!

Kit nodded. "Yeah," she said. "Or worse things. He's really powerful and really evil. And if the stories about him are true, he can't even be killed. According to them 'as long as evil exists, Mumm-Ra lives'. I dunno if that's true or not, though. I hope it's not anyway, or the most we'll be able to do is seal him up, like he was before."

"We've found three stones," Kit said. "The War Stone we've had from the start. We call it the Eye of Thundara; it's set in the hilt of the Sword of Omens and is the source of the Thundercats' power. The Sword and Claw Gauntlet are the royal treasures of Thundara, and have been passed down from one Lord of the Thundercats to the next, way back to Leo, the first Lord of the Thundercats and the one who founded Thundara, all the way to Lion-O, who's our King now."

"Then there's the Spirit Stone," she said. "Lion-O found it in the astral plane. It adds to the Claw Gauntlet's power, and even was able to bring him back to life after he'd died. Those are the two we have."

"We found the Tech Stone in Evista City, a city that floated above the clouds and where a tribe of Birds lived," she continued. "Their leader was a snooty vulture named Voltaire, who acted like he was better than everyone else. But it turned out that the Tech Stone was what was keeping Evista City up in the air, so Lion-O couldn't just take it. Mumm-Ra didn't care, though, and there was a big fight between him and Lion-O in the chamber where the stone was kept. In the end, Mumm-Ra got the tech stone, because Pumyra, who we thought was our friend, had been secretly working for him the whole time. It powered Mumm-Ra up even more than he normally could, making him grow like 20-feet tall and giving him a scary-looking suit of armor."

"Lion-O and the other Thundercats only survived cause Wily-Kat and I brought back help in the Forever Bag," Kit said. "All the people we'd helped on our journey came back to help us; the Elephants, the Dogs, the Fish-men, and even the Berbils. Everybody working together managed to drive Mumm-Ra off, but he got away with the Tech Stone. Luckily Panthro was able to land the city without anybody getting hurt too badly."

"But now there's just one stone left to find," Kit said. "We don't know where it is, or what it does yet, but we know that we can't let Mumm-Ra find it first."

"Everything casts a shadow..." For a moment, Diarmuid's eyes seem much older than they should be, "There can't ever be good without evil or evil without good. That is why the fight never ends. He probably is immortal."

Of course, that isn't exactly comforting...

The old look seems to fade out of Diarmuid's eyes and he shakes his head, realizing that what he said probably upset Kit, "That doesn't mean you can't beat him, though! Good usually finds a way to win out and grant peace for everyone for a while. I know you will find that stone before he does. Don't give up, okay? Even if things get really hard or scary. If Lion-O came back from the dead, just imagine what else can happen! Anything!"

There is one thing he has to ask about though, even if it seems like kind of a silly thing with everything else that she mentioned.

"What do you mean you put them all in that bag? People don't fit in bags..."

Kit blinked in mild surprise at the change in Diarmuid's eyes. But she nodded. She kinda figured he was too. The stories may have been off on some details, but they'd been right about all the big things so far.

She brightened slightly when Diarmuid did though. "Yeah," she said. "I know we can. And we will. Cause we have to. It'll be hard, but I know we can face whatever happens. And We'll find even more friends to help us along the way."

"Oh! Yeah, normally they don't but, well, the Forever Bag is special," Kit said. "It's magic, and cause its inside is in the astral plane, it can hold tons and tons of stuff. Kat and I even lived in it for a little while! Before we stole it from Tookit, a racoon who was tricking kids like us into stealing for him til they couldn't go back to an honest life cause they were wanted for the crimes he made them commit."

"I hope you will find so many friends! They are so important and they make you stronger! I wonder what kind of people you will meet next," he remembers all the stories she has told him and all the different people she has met are so interesting! He really thinks she is lucky to have gotten to meet them.

Diarmuid listens closely as she explains the Forever Bag, but he is still confused. It sounds so weird, "What is the astral plane? Is it like a fairy realm? What about that mean Tookit? Were you able to stop him from hurting other kids?"

"I don't know," Kit said. "There are lots of different animal tribes on Third Earth, and even others who aren't Animals, so there's no way to tell. It'll be cool to find out, though."

"The Astral Plane?", Kit said, before having to pause and think about it. "Well, I'm not really sure what it is exactly. It's sort of a different world, but it's also connected to ours, even if it isn't really part of it. At least I think that's how Cheetara explained it. But a lot of the rules of our world don't apply there and sometimes your thoughts and feelings can affect it; they can change the scenery around you or make things appear out of thin air. The inside of the Forever bag isn't like that though; it's just a really big space. I guess the wizard who first made the bag made it that way somehow." She shrugged, indicating her lack of further knowledge on the subject.

"But yeah, we got Tookit good," she said, smiling a bit again, remembering. "We got the other kids to help us and made some fake Forever Bags out of cloth and stuff that was in the bag. Then, after Tookit tried to get us to steal a big, expensive jewel for him, we and the other kids used the fakes to get him out in the open and confess everything in front of the Dog City constable. Then he ran off, thinking he had the real Forever Bag, but since it was really one of our fakes, the Constable caught him, and all us kids were able to go free. I don't think he'll be trying anything like that again for a long time."

"Hmmm..." Diarmuid rocks side to side slightly as he thinks about what she has said. He is careful not to unbalance himself, though, "It sounds a little like a fairy realm and a little not. Fairy realms are connected to the regular world too and all kinds of things can happen in them, but I don't think their form can be changed like that. Maybe by a god or a really strong Fae creature, but I still don't think that would be the same." But, at least he has some kind of frame of reference now.

"I am glad you were able to stop him. You played a trick on the person who was tricking everyone else! That is the best way to get someone to stop doing something bad if you ask me," Diarmuid doesn't know what karma is, but that is a good example of it. "Do you know what happened to him after that? I bet no one would ever want to trust him again! And the kids wouldn't either!"

Kit nodded. "Yeah, I don't really get how it works either," she said. "If Cheetara ever shows up here, you can ask her about it though; she'd probly be able to explain it better."

"As for what happened to Tookit," Kit said, "the dog Constable probly took him to the Pit. He'd have to fight slaves and other criminals in the arena, and if he won 100 fights, he'd be allowed to go free. I don't think he'd make it, though; he wasn't very tough. That is, if he didn't escape somehow; he's sneaky enough to."

"Okay, I will!" He nods excitedly, though his excitement fades when she mentions the Pit. While Diarmuid believes someone like Toolkit should be punished, the punishment she describes seems very harsh.

"Do...a lot of people die there?"

Kit thought for a long moment. "I think so," she finally said. "Not all the fights there are to the death; they'd probly run out of fighters too fast if they were. But some of them are. And deaths can even happen sometimes if the fight isn't to the death, if someone get hurt badly enough, or if their opponent is nasty enough."

"I don't think it's really the best way of dealing with criminals," Kit said. "But it's the Dogs' City and we can't tell them what to do, so..." She shrugged a bit. The cats were no longer a real political power, and even if they were, even she knew that trying to interfere in another tribe's business like that was just asking for trouble.

"It's not! The ones who survive might just end up nastier!" But, there is at least a small chance. If there is one good thing about it all, that is it. Still, it makes Diarmuid uneasy and that shows in how he twists his hands together. "You can't tell them what to do, that is true. You can suggest something, but that is it. Maybe they will change someday."

"Is it okay if we talk about something else now?" He's not sure what, but he would really rather not keep talking about that. It's a dark part of society he's just really not ready to face.

"Maybe," Kit agreed. She didn't know how likely it was, but it was always possible. Maybe once Mumm-Ra had been taken care of, they could get Panthro to talk to his friend Dobo?

But Diarmuid was right, it was about time for a change of subject. "Maybe we could talk about some of my other friends?", she said. "That's what we were going to do anyway, before we got to talking about other stuff."

Diarmuid nods enthusiastically when she agrees to the change in topic. As he does, some of the nervous energy seeps out of him and his hands drop to rest in his lap, "Yes! Tell me more about your friends. I want to know all about them and then things you learned from them!"

"Well," Kit said, "there's Cheetara. She's the only other girl of the Thundercats. Pumyra's a girl too, but I'm not counting her, cause she was a traitor working for Mumm-Ra the whole time we knew her. Anyway, Cheetara's a Cleric. Probably the last one, since Jaga's... sorta dead." Jaga's situation was... weird, and sort of another story, so she left it at that for now.

"Cheetara has spots in her hair, and fights with a staff, like all Clerics," Kit continued. "Her staff is special, though. It's made from a branch of the oldest tree in the Forest of Magi Oar, one of the most magical places on Third Earth. Viragor, the forest's Guardian, gave it to her as thanks for helping protect the forest from people who were hurting it, since he kinda broke her old one when we thought he was a bad guy."

"Cheetara knows a lot about magic and things too," she said. "The Clerics kept all kinds of secret knowledge and can tap into the world's magic. It lets them sense things, helps them live longer than most cats would, and lets them run and fight super-fast! Cheetara's fast even without magic, but with magic, she's really, really fast. She ran right up the wall in the Tower of Omens after the stairs got broken! She spiraled around and around all the way to the top!" Kit gestured with one hand, miming how Cheetara had spiraled up the tower's inner walls. It would have been so cool if Mumm-Ra hadn't been trying to kill them all at the time.

Sort of dead? How can someone be sort of dead? Wondering about this distracts Diarmuid from Kit's story for a little bit, but he pushes his curiosity away soon enough so that he doesn't miss anything. After all, considering all the weird stuff that happens on his world, why can't something equally weird happen on her world?

"Wow! She sounds like a druid and a warrior all wrapped up in one person! Sometimes warriors are bards and fighters, but they usually aren't druids and fighters..." Considering how long it takes for a person to become a druid, there really isn't time to learn anything else, "I really wish I could have seen her run up the walls like that. I am fast and I like being in the air. It would be so neat if I could learn how to do that!"

"Do you know how long she has been training for?"

Kit nodded. "I'm not sure what a druid is," she said, "but the Clerics are warriors, yeah. They're sworn to uphold he Thundaran crown, but back when there were lots of them, they generally didn't get called out to fight unless there was real trouble. Stuff the normal guards and soldiers couldn't handle."

"And I think she said she's been training since she was a little girl," Kit said. "Not too much older than we are. Some Clerics started even younger though, especially if they lived in the city of Thundara itself. That's where the main Clericy was, and kittens who had potential were sometimes taken on as personal apprentices of older Clerics, sometimes when they were really young."

"Druids are healers and historians and magic workers. They start their training really young, but they don't usually go out to fight. They tend to be called to advise rulers and stuff like that. Really good ones are said to be able to see the future!" Diarmuid thinks about her description for a while and then nods, "I think your Clerics are more like the Fianna than they are like druids. The Fianna are a group of the best of the best. They are all heroes in their own right and they all have trained from a young age too."

Kit nodded. "Yeah, our Clerics do sound more like your 'Fianna' than Druids," she said. "Just overlapping in a few places. I don't think Clerics really do much healing, unless it's a special kind that needs magic to work. Healers are a separate job, and usually work with herbs and things. Mama knew a little about that, but not nearly as much as a real healer would."

"Anyway, who's next...?" She thought for a moment before deciding to leave it up to Diarmuid. "Do you wanna hear about Panthro, Lion-O, or Tygra next?"

"Healing is really important, so it is good your mama knows some! Yay for her!" Diarmuid grins widely for a moment and then grows thoughtful. Who should he say next? He has heard a little bit about Panthro and Lion-O from Kit before. Tygra is new, though...

"Tell me about Tygra!"

"Tygra is Lion-O's big brother," Kit said. "But he's always been the second in line for the throne, since he's adopted. That's always bothered him, even if he's getting better about it. Even if he does still have a pretty sarcastic sense of humor."

"He's actually better at a lot of things than Lion-O is," Kit said. "He always has been. But when you spend time with them, you can tell why the Sword of Omens chose Lion-O."

"Tygra fights with a bola-whip," she continued. "He's also got a small laser gun that he took from the lizards. Plus he's got magic that lets him turn invisible! It's really cool, though I'm not sure if it's him doing it or if the whip is magic."

"Oh! It's like the story we made up when we were telling stories to Luke! I thought maybe you were picking stuff from a tale you knew. I bet it is hard for him knowing he can never have the throne. I am glad he is getting better about it! If that is the rule, it is the rule. There is no reason to be angry with people about it if it is not their fault!"

A curious look crosses his face, "I have never seen anyone fight with a whip before. What is it like and how does a laser gun work? I know a little about normal guns from being here, but I haven't ever seen anything about a laser gun before."

Kit giggled a little. "Yeah, I kinda borrowed a lot from Lion-O and Tygra's real story," Kit said. "I hope they don't mind if they ever find out."

"And I don't think Tygra wants to be king as bad as he used to," Kit said, sounding a bit more thoughtful. "He was king for a little while while Lion-O was dead. But he never wanted it that way. And I don't think it was as easy as he thought it would be."

"I'm... not really sure how to describe fighting with a whip, though," Kit said. "It makes a loud crack when he snaps it and sometimes he can use it to wrap around people or things and tie them up."

"And there are different kinds of laser guns, but Tygra's is small. It's about this big," Kit held up her hands in front of her demonstrating the approximate size of the gun, "and he carries it in a holster at his hip. Laser guns shoot beams of light that can burn things or even make things blow up. Bigger ones can cause a lot of damage."

"I doubt they will mind. After all, it just shows how much you like and respect them! It's an honor to have people tell your story...at least it is where I am from!" That is a big part of a bard's job, after all.

"I don't think being a king or a queen or any kind of ruler is ever as easy as people think it will be. That is why I will be happy being a knight. I will let others who are better at those kinds of things be the ruler. I will just go and protect those who need to be protected!" Diarmuid excitedly raises his fist into the air before remembering he is on a tree branch and putting his arm down again so he doesn't loose his balance.

"Both of those sound scary. Just in different ways! I don't want to run into anyone using weapons like that against me...though I would like to see them used sometime!" Especially the whip since Kit seems to be having a hard time describing it. Unlike the laser, it sounds like a person has to be really skilled to use a whip and that is the kind of thing that impresses Diarmuid. Skill, not just a lot of damage.

"Yeah," Kit said, "if it was easy being in charge, then anybody could do it. And it's pretty obvious that some people should never be in charge." Like Mumm-Ra for an extreme example, though there were plenty of far more petty people she would never want as her king or queen.

She nodded at the notion of both weapons being scary. "I haven't seen anybody with laser guns around here," Kit said. "At least, not that they've used. And it takes skill to use a whip without hurting yourself, so unless somebody comes here who knows how, we probably shouldn't try to do it ourselves or anything. Tygra's really good at it, though; he must've practiced a long time."

Diarmuid nods his head eagerly in agreement with her. He would never want Donn ruling anything, for example. That man couldn't be a good knight or father There is no way he could be a good ruler!

"Yes, we definitely can't practice with a weapon like that when we don't know how to. Weapons are not toys and have to be treated with respect!" Diarmuid falls silent for a moment as something crosses his mind, then a wide smile covers his face, "I want you to keep telling me stories, but lets go somewhere else!" He reaches out to lightly pull on her arm, "I want to take you out for your birthday! Ice cream or pizza or whatever you want!"

Kit nodded at the suggestion that they go somewhere else. "Yeah," she said. "Up a tree isn't exactly the most comfortable place for story telling."

"And ice cream sounds really good," she said. "It's been awhile since I went out for ice cream."

"Then we need to fix that!" Diarmuid grins at Kit and then carefully starts to get down from the tree. Once he is on the ground, he looks up at her, bouncing on his feet as he waits for her to join him.

"Ice cream and stories! It's a great way to spend the time on such an important day!"

It's my party...

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