Chapter Text
A shooting star streaked across the sky.
Laval might have been the only one that saw it. Its tail shimmered a bright green, which made it quite a wonder to look at. Something was definitely off about it. It almost seemed like it was getting closer. But he just as easily could have been paranoid. Like was about most things nowadays.
It was these sleepless nights when he couldn’t escape his own thoughts.
He found himself staying up later and later ever since the Perfect Illumination, over a year ago. It was supposed to be the end all be all he knew, the thing that would ensure perfect peace and prosperity for the rest of time, a happy ending for everyone. So why wasn’t it for him?
From what he’s observed, peace in Chima has always been temporary. Eventually, something would go wrong, and Laval needed to be ready for it. He wouldn’t let himself grow complacent like everyone else. Somebody had to be the paranoid one, so when a new evil inevitably rose, he would be the first to react. It was strange, to think barely two years ago he was one of the most careless animals in the world, and now this was eating at him. But he couldn’t let it go.
It was frequent for him to stay up for hours past when he meant to sleep because of that. Even if he did sleep, he would always find himself in the same nightmares of the battles. All of them, really, from his fights with Cragger to the massive battles with the saber-toothed tigers and mammoths. His dreams liked to remind him of those who had been killed or captured in such battles, and if Laval had just been a little quicker he could have saved them.
Something was definitely strange about that shooting star. It was heading straight for the Falling Jungle, as if it would crash there. Laval watched it get closer, closer, until…
Boom.
Laval couldn’t even hear the sound, but he did feel a small reverberation in the ground, like a mini earthquake. Anyone else would have slept through it.
Something had landed there. Something big.
Laval rushed to put on his harness and grab a couple chi orbs. Whatever landed there, he was going to see it for himself. There was no question about it. He didn’t have time to find his friends or wake the lion guards. If it was something evil, Laval would strike it down before it had the chance to recover from such a fall. Or it was a dangerous artifact that couldn’t fall into the wrong hands.
Chi-powered sword in hand, Laval slipped out of his room and rushed to his speedor. Whatever it was, he was going to get there first.
.
.
*
There were only a few close calls with falling trees on the way there. This was not the first time Laval had traversed this jungle, and he soon found a rhythm of dodging tree after tree. The full moon was definitely helping him out here, as it illuminated the trees so he could see what was falling.
He started to wish he had Eris with him. She’d be able to scout ahead from the skies, and make sure Laval was going in the right direction. Laval could have already passed it, for all he knew. Fortunately, a few moments later, his senses picked up a strange energy. He pivoted on his speedor, straight into a clearing in the trees.
Not just a clearing, a crater.
Laval turned his speedor and it skidded to a stop. Trees had been knocked backwards, leaving a small window to open sky in the dense jungle. Green energy sparked like lightning around the crater, leading into the center, where there was a…person?
Laval jumped off the speedor and approached warily, brandishing his sword in front of him. The creature that had made this crater was like nothing he had ever seen before. He was no bigger than Laval, with a pale mane on his head, but no fur or feathers or scales on the rest of his face. The creature was prone on his side, unconscious and barely breathing.
But he was alive, somehow. And he had a single golden sword strapped on his back, which looked slightly bent. That meant he could still be dangerous. Laval held his own weapon in front of him, ready to spring if the green-clad creature so much as moved. He did not.
Laval gently poked him with the edge of his sword. “Hello? Can you wake up?”
When that was fruitless, Laval knelt next to the creature. Whoever he was, wherever he came from, he must be powerful. What if Laval got vaporized or electrocuted by touching him? What if he was some kind of god?
Laval should kill this Green God now. Before he had a chance to wake up and destroy the hard-won peace in Chima. That was what he came for, wasn’t it? To stop whatever evil that had arrived before it had a chance to regain its strength.
But this Green God didn’t look evil. He looked hurt. And small. And really not like a god at all, despite the crater that he had created upon his fall. Was Laval really going to kill this unknown creature that had done nothing wrong? What would his father do?
He imagined his father saying something wise like, “Protect the greater Chima at all costs, no matter what sacrifice must be made.”
Well. It seemed Laval wasn’t his father. Laval reached out and touched the fallen star, fortunately not getting fried in the process, and dragged him out of the crater, over to the speedor.
“I’ve decided to save your life,” Laval told the unconscious fallen star, “so please don’t try to murder me while I take you to the temple.”
Before he got on the speedor, Laval grabbed the bent sword from the fallen star’s back and tossed it aside. That probably wouldn’t do much, since the god probably had immense power, but it was the only thing Laval could change.
With that, Laval loaded the fallen star onto the front of his speedor, and headed back home.
Traversing the falling jungle was much more difficult with a dead weight that insisted on sliding off the speedor. Fortunately, luck was on Laval’s side, and he managed to reach the Lion Temple before long. There was one guard on duty, atop a watchtower, but hopefully she wouldn’t think much of the lion prince returning, and wouldn’t see the other creature on the speedor.
Laval parked his speedor, and carried the fallen star the rest of the way to the infirmary. He dumped the fallen star on the nearest cot, and Laval sat down next to him.
Wow. He was actually doing this. He had just brought a fallen star into the temple.
After a moment to recuperate his thoughts, Laval began checking the fallen star over for injuries. The fallen star’s breathing was labored and quick. At least, it seemed that way. Laval didn’t know what exactly was normal for this creature, though his body structure seemed to have a lot of traits common to all Chimans.
What obviously wasn’t normal was a gash across the side of his forehead, which Laval had somehow failed to notice while outside in the darkness. He grabbed some rags to clean and put pressure over the wound, then prepared to suture it.
As he worked, Laval was able to get a better look at the fallen star under the light. There was something familiar about this creature. Laval had certainly never encountered a fallen star before, but he had seen some pretty strange things in his lifetime.
Then he remembered.
Over a year ago, when Laval and his friends had been enjoying a moment together, two strange beings, one green and translucent and the other solid, appeared out of nowhere from behind them. They had been fighting, briefly, then they disappeared again. Never to be seen again. Until now. Because this, now that Laval thought back to that moment, was certainly the same creature. Did that mean the other one he had been fighting was here too? Laval hadn’t seen any other shooting stars or felt any tremors, but…
He should tell his father about this.
It was probably rather relevant information that a being with the power to cause a miniature earthquake was in the Lion Chi Temple, which held the source of Chima’s power.
Father was asleep. And it didn’t seem like the fallen star was going to wake up soon anyway. It could probably wait a little longer. Father could get really cranky if woken up early. And Laval really did not want to explain why he’d brought a potential god into the home of the lions. It probably hadn’t been the best of decisions. But Laval couldn’t have imagined it going any other way.
He bandaged the fallen star’s head, brushing his filthy mane out of the way.
This, apparently, was the time the fallen star decided to open his eyes. His eyes were a bright, saturated green. Laval had only a moment to process this, to think of how he had never seen eyes that green, before the fallen star punched him.
So much for first impressions.