The elephants threw a party that night.

Music, food, and drink spread out beneath the stars. Dancing commenced around the enormous bonfire burning merrily in its pit. Though the elephants ate no meat, there was plenty of fruit to satisfy their guests. The laughter swelled, transforming into rollicking songs around the time Aburn cracked the tenth cask. Anyone who wanted to ignore the destruction of the village, the heaps of wrecked machinery, and the mass grave now occupying one of the fields in the meadow below, certainly might.

"That place," Lion-O said, referring to the Astral Plane. He shook his red head. "It brought our worst desires and fears to life."

"But you overcame them," Cheetara said from atop a low stone wall that had somehow not yet succumbed to either artillery or gravity. She crossed her long legs. "Anet told us that the greatest challenge you would face would be yourselves. Neither of you accepted either your wishes or your doom."

"Almost, Cheetara. We almost died in there." Lion-O grinned into his mug, the firelight swimming, golden, over his face. "Would it surprise you to know that we fought to kill?"

"No," Cheetara and Felline said at the same time.

When the two women smiled at each other, Lion-O looked as if he didn't know whether to be offended or amused. To cover his confusion, he took a large gulp of what the elephants called mead. It tasted gentle, like everything about their giant friends, honeyed and lacking bite, but it made Felline lightheaded. She hadn't finished half her mug yet, mostly because she had to hold it in two hands because it was so big.

"You were gone a long time. What exactly happened to you in there?" Felline asked. She kicked her heels against the stone wall. If she hadn't been so sore and tired, she might have been out there dancing like Kat. She was content to sit near her king in quiet conference, soaking in the gladness that suffused her entire being because he was safe.

"The Spirit Stone hid from us," he said. "Or maybe the Stone was what made the Astral Plane possible. It showed us a memory and then trapped us in it." He paused. "When we were cubs, Tygra tricked me into falling into the ruins of Old Thundera, and then he abandoned me to die. We forgot about looking for the Stone and focused only on our anger and hatred of each other. It gave Tygra a Sword of Omens."

Lion-O stopped, his eyes on the antics of Aburn and Kit, playing their trunk and flupe respectively, but Felline didn't think he saw them. His blue eyes were dark, his thoughts turned inward. Felline watched while shadows of them flickered across his cream and gold face. Whatever he was remembering, it was between the brothers, and she didn't pry.

"Mumm-Ra played on our jealousies and fears," he murmured.

"Mumm-Ra?" Cheetara repeated, startled.

Mumm-Ra. Instantly, Felline seemed transported to the Tower of Omens, the thick stink of jungle clogging her nose, the ancient being's roars hurting her ears. They had nearly lost Lion-O that day, too. But Mumm-Ra's screams had dwindled into a bird's cawing, its wings black against the sky.

A black bird. Cawing.

"No way!" she exclaimed so suddenly that Lion-O inhaled some of his mead and started coughing. "Sorry."

"What is it, Felline?" Cheetara asked.

"I heard a bird," she whispered. "Last night. When Lion-O and Tygra went into the Astral Plane. The same bird I heard when Jaga's light reversed Mumm-Ra's transformation in the Tower of Omens."

"But he couldn't have been there –"

"Yeah, he could. He was," Lion-O said darkly. "Mumm-Ra was there with us, manipulating us. He wanted us to kill each other, but I found the Spirit Stone first." He slipped his hand into the Gauntlet of Omens and held it up to the flames. They glittered in the pink facets of the Stone, which was embedded in the gold Gauntlet above the knuckles.

"Besides," he added, his face and voice relaxed again, "Tygra would never betray me. He's my brother."

He smiled in a way that Felline had never seen before, looking down the hill to where Tygra stood alone at the edge of the great fire's light in a stone pavilion, staring across the moonlit meadows. Not surprisingly, the prince had needed some time alone.

"I'm glad you've remembered that," Cheetara said fondly, her eyes molten in the light. She slipped off the wall, running her fingers down Lion-O's arm as she went. She walked down the hill, long and lithe and as bright as a beam of sunlight. Lion-O's eyes followed her, and then he turned to Felline.

"What about you?" he asked. He nodded at the bandage taped to her cheek. "Aside from Panthro, it looks like the rest of you went through quite an ordeal."

"It wasn't that bad," she said, shrugging off his concern. It was a superficial cut, but the one on her arm, made by Slithe's knife, would scar when it healed. Felline couldn't stop a shiver. She could still feel Slithe's knotty fingers around her throat. . . .

He gave her a skeptical look.

"All right, yes, it was," she admitted. "I meant, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I understand now why they didn't go for the hut right away, since destroying it would have been the quickest way of undoing us."

"They didn't want to risk trapping their master in the Astral Plane," Lion-O said.

"Like Grune," she murmured.

Lion-O shook his head again, but it was with wonder. "Grune's gone. Forever. When I claimed the Spirit Stone, the Astral Plane collapsed. The unbound energies and took him with it. Who knew Panthro could be so . . ."

"Determined?" Felline suggested when he failed to find an appropriate word.

"Yeah."

Silence fell between them, but only for a moment. Lion-O finished his mead, set the mug on the wall, and grinned at her. "I suppose we'd better go check on him."

"All right," she said. She hopped down, and they skirted the dancing together.

Some of the elephant women had set Panthro in the shelter of one of their few roofed buildings, though it stood open to the party on three sides. The big, gray cat reclined against a broken column, the stumps of his arms bandaged in clean white.

"Ahhhh," Snarf said, proffering a spoon of vegetable mash.

"I don't need a blasted nursemaid!" Panthro roared at him.

Snarf, swollen to twice his chubby size, scampered off with a hiss that sounded suspiciously like a giggle. The bowl landed upside-down on the steps. Panthro gave it a contemptuous sniff.

"How're you holding up?" Lion-O asked.

"Know what I'll miss the most?" Panthro rumbled in answer, sinking wearily into his pillow. "The scars. Lot of history on those arms."

"You're gonna be okay," Lion-O said, giving Felline a glimpse of the future king inside him, his smile noble rather than placating. "Get some rest."

He turned away, looking for Felline as if it was the most natural thing in the world that she continue on with him. They moved together through the dancers, eating a few bites here and there, checking on the kittens and Aburn. Then Lion-O climbed to the summit of the village, where the stars shed their milky light on the blue grass.

Felline sat at the edge of the promontory, curling her tail and her arms, one of them bandaged as neatly as Panthro's, around her knees. A single, full moon stared down at them, mute and distant.

They didn't speak. There was no need. Felline closed her eyes, let the stars bathe her face. She thought of Lepra. For the first time, there was no pain. It was like she was talking to her sister, telling her of their journey thus far. The grief was still there – I miss you, Lep – but it was a kinder feeling, more peaceful – Don't worry about me, okay? I'm not alone.

We're not done yet. There are still some things we need to do. Felline ran her hand down her trousered leg, bare of the holster that had once held Jorma's rifle. Losing a gun could not compare to Panthro's sacrifice, but she felt it, a nakedness and a sorrow that tagged at her heels like a cub.

"Few could have faced what you did and come out victorious, Lion-O," Anet said, joining them. "You did well."

"You know, you said I'd be betrayed by the evening bell," Lion-O reminded him with a chuckle. "I thought your visions were never wrong."

"Did the evening bell ring already? I don't remember hearing it," Anet placidly said.

"Of course you don't." Lion-O rolled his eyes.

Felline giggled.

Not long after, as they made their way back down the hill, Felline with half a mind to find more to eat, they once more caught sight of Tygra. Except this time, he wasn't alone.

Cheetara appeared in the pavilion, moving gracefully from shadow to moonlight. She and Tygra spoke, too far away for even Felline to hear them.

Then they embraced.

They kissed.

Unseen, unthought of by the couple below, Lion-O and Felline stopped walking, absolutely rigid with shock.

From somewhere in the village, a bell tolled.

A/N: This is it, my friends! The end of the first book in the CC Trilogy. :3

I do owe some thanks to English Animes for providing each episode online for streaming. Dan Norton, for sharing his art and ideas on the ThunderCats reboot, which allowed me to create and insert Faun in episode eleven/chapter ten. And to you, my reviewers and guests, I shower you with my love and gratitude. Thank you for everything.

See you soon in CC, Volume 2! Don't miss it! :3

Anne