Fault

Fault
by
NansJns

There was a heavy smell of death in the air.  Panthro felt his stomach twist as he tasted the tainted, misty air, and he began to run.  He wasn't sure how long he ran, but the high walls of Thundera suddenly loomed ahead of him.  For a moment, he felt relief at the sight of of those high, safe walls.  He ran through the open gate, not even stopping to wonder why it was open and unguarded.  Inside the gate, however, was no city.  A massive graveyard stretched off to the horizon before Panthro's eyes, each grave marked with Thunderian writing.
“No!” Panthro cried in horror.  He spun around, but the walls and gate were gone; all that remained was the endless graveyard.  He turned back, and saw a familiar figure standing several feet away.
“Surely you're not surprised?” Grune asked, and laughed.
Panthro snarled.  “You bastard!  How could you do this?”
Grune just kept laughing in response, and Panthro roared in fury.  Panthro charged at the saber tooth, but before he could reach his friend-turned-enemy, something grabbed his leg and sent him sprawling to the ground.  The panther general spun around, and saw boney fingers wrapped around his ankle.  As he watched in mute horror, the graves began to stir.  Corpses burst through the dirt, clawing their way up and out.  They crawled or staggered over to Panthro, groaning and reaching for him with  rotted hands.
“No – no!  You don't want me!  I had nothing to do with this!  Grune - !” Panthro snapped his head around, but Grune was already overwhelmed by the dead.  Why are they coming after me?!  Panthro thought as he struggled to get away.  “I couldn't stop him, I tried, I didn't know - !” he continued to plead with the corpses as he broke the grip on his ankle and got back to his feet.  Panthro reached for his nunchucks, only to find them missing.  “Please, I didn't - !”
“Diiiiiidnnn't knoooooow?” A deep, sluggish voice said behind him as a large, decayed hand fell on his shoulder.  Panthro looked into what remained of King Claudus's face and couldn't stop himself from screaming.

Panthro awoke with a jolt and didn't know where he was for a second.  The last threads of the nightmare finally broke, and he realized he was by a camp fire.  Lion-O and Tygra slept on the other side of the dwindling flames, and Wiley Kit and Wiley Kat were under one of the Feliner's wings.
“Everything all right?” Cheetara asked in a whisper from a pool of shadows under the trees.  She was fully awake and dressed; it must have been her turn for guard duty.
Shaking off whatever remains of the dream were still lingering,  Panthro waved the cleric off.  “It's fine; just a dream,” he whispered back.  He rolled over and squeezed his eyes shut, whispering to himself “It's not my fault; I didn't know he was a traitor.”  He wondered for a moment why those words sounded hollow before he drifted back to sleep.