#klonoa

Progress:

I forgot to add the tail at this point so he's just human I guess

“No no no! What do we do?!” Popka panicked. Klonoa’s body was no longer visible in the abyss of the empty crevice . “How could we be so stupid?! Everything happening right now, it’s just like the chaos! We should have known it’d have been empty again! And we let him jump straight into the cliff!” He kicked the rocks around them pacing back and forth. Lolo sat by the cliff too stunned to speak. She just stared at the last spot she saw her friend.

  ‘I didn’t mean to…’ her arms shook. Popka looked towards his friend, realizing that screaming would not help.

  “Lolo.” he lifted her tear filled face. “Get up, we gotta go in after him. He’s gotta be okay.” Lolo nodded her head, picking herself up from the ground. They both looked down into the dark abyss.

  “Right… let’s go save our friend.” Lolo retorted. “I won’t give up on him… He’s gotta be okay.” And with not another word or hesitation, the duo began to climb down into the cliff.

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  “LEORINA!” yelled a dark colored cat-like creature, she floated through one of the many hallways in the Terminus of Tears. As she ran, another figure was floating the opposite direction.

“LEORINA! WHERE ARE YOU? COME ON, WE NEED YOUR HELP!” yelled another cat-like creature, this one looked identical to the dark one, but was white. This one was floating through another hallway in the castle.

The two cat creatures ran into each other and in a flash of light, became one. Their colors clashed next to each other, one taking a side of the body and vice versa. “URGH! She’s so annoying when she doesn’t answer. This palace is too big to find her anyways.”

  “Tat! You called?” a voice spoke from behind the cat creature. A woman with ginger hair and dark skin wearing a dark blue suit walked over to the feline.

  “Oh, about time you answered!” Tat pouted, “I need your help with fixing this ceiling over here!” She pointed her claw towards a massive hole in the ceiling of the golden hallway. It was covered with a tarp to prevent rain from entering.

  “What exactly do you need my help with?” Leorina asked, putting a hand on her hip. “You can fly and put the new furring strings in, right?”

“IT’S NOT THAT!” Tat yelled back blushing, “I can’t hold everything at once. Urgh, do you mind finding a ladder and just holding some stuff for me while I work on this?” She pointed towards a supply closet. “I’ve been trying to call others, but I haven’t been able to find anyone from the other kingdoms all morning.”

  “Hmm? That’s odd. The Volkan’s should’ve arrived by ship today specifically with materials for repairing the castle.” Leorina retorted. “But sure, I can help you with that in the meantime. Let’s get to work.” She shrugged, walking towards the closet.

  A while later the two were working on patching the ceiling, it wasn’t perfect, but the furring was finally holding the beams in place and the two were ready to proceed. Leorina leaned on the ladder wiping her head, “Phew. About time, any word on the Volkans comin’ with the other tools for this?”

  “Not that I’ve heard.” Tat replied, “Communications have been off since this morning.” 

  “Hmm. How odd…” Leorina wondered, “The Volkans are never late with these deliveries…”

  Before either of them could continue, a quake rang around the Hyuponian castle. The jolt of the quake caused Leorina to lose balance on the top of the ladder. “Leorina!” Tat yelled as she flew towards the ladder.

  “Gh, shi-” she was unable to balance herself as the room continued to shake, the uneven weight distribution caused the ladder to fall. “UAHH!”

  “GOTCHA!” Tat yelled as she caught Leorina before she hit the floor. “You okay? That was scary.”

  “I’m good. Thank you, Tat.” Leorina high fived her friend. The two looked around the room, the quake was still going, but from Tat floating, it no longer affected them directly. “Get towards the door in case anything else falls.” Tat nodded as she floated the two towards a nearby doorway. The two looked out a window, watching as the strength of the quakes destroyed some of the restoration to the Hyuponia.

  “All our hard work…” Tat stared at the destruction outside.

  “This is not a normal earthquake.” Leorina noted, “Tat, you don’t think…” the two looked at each other and nodded. A short moment later the quake ended and Tat was able to lower Leorina back to the ground. From there the two started to head to the rebuilt throne room to see the damages from there. Like every other room, some areas that were reconstructed were once again damaged by the quake.

  The middle of the room, which was the same room where Klonoa once faced off against the original King of Sorrow. He was a desperate king of a fallen and forgotten kingdom when Lunatea once viewed Sorrow as dangerous and needing to be hidden. After the original king’s defeat, Klonoa made the promise that Sorrow wouldn’t be forgotten any longer, and that he wouldn’t be alone any longer as sorrow is just as important as every other element for Lunatea. With this promise, the original king was able to pass away peacefully and reincarnate as the future ruler for the rebuilt kingdom of Hyuponia.

  A giant crater was in the ground that has been there for eons. It was recently filled during the kingdom’s reconstruction, but the quake caused it to be cracked once again. Leorina and Tat felt devastated by the sight of the hard work of everyone being destroyed. 

  “MRYAAAA! We were doing so well!” Tat yelled. “What the hell is going on that ruined all of this?!” 

  “That quake was just like the ones we- I caused back when…” Leorina muttered. Tat turned to her friend, putting away her rage to show concern.

  “You don’t mean..” her eyes focused, “is this the chaos?” 

  A sharp, sour note chimed from the Bell of Sorrow above them. The ring was loud and caused the two to go down covering their ears. Cries of spirits of the lost kingdom roared through the Terminus of Tears as dark mist floated surrounding the duo.

  “Gh- What is this?” Leorina shouted. A familiar voice whispered through the room, circling Tat and her.

“Lakuru… Reemna…” ‘is that….’ Leorina’s expression dropped to an emotion of dread. She tried to look around but the mist was blinding.

  “YOUNG MAJESTY! Where are you?!” she yelled. “Tat, the prince! He wasn’t supposed to be back from Mira-Mira!”

  “Huh?! He’s here? I don’t see him, heck I can’t see anything!” Tat responded, “Mryaa! We gotta find him and get him out of here, if anything! This isn’t safe for him!”

  The two tried to clear the mist away but nothing worked. “Urgh! Enough of this!” Leorina yelled reaching into her pocket, what emerged was a ring with a red gemstone. The wind ring replica she made from copying the data of the Dream Traveller’s wind ring. “TAKE THIS!” she shot multiple wind bullets around the mist, causing it to clear away instantly.

The area became visible again, as Tat and Leorina’s eyes adjusted they prepared to take the young prince Sorrow to safety. “THERE!” Tat pointed towards a silhouette that looked like the young prince. Leorina sprung forward towards the prince.

  “Majesty Sorrow! I’ve got ya!” She yelled ready to grab him, but before her arms could reach the young boy, thin gold ropes wrapped around her waist. “Wh-huh?!” Before Leorina could properly react, she was violently swung to the ground. The ropes held her down as she groaned in pain. “What… is this?” Leorina looked up towards where she thought she saw the young prince. Though dizzy from the hit, her eyes tried to align to make out this potential fake prince of Sorrow.

  This was not their young heir to Hyuponia’s throne. Though they had a very similar silhouette, this one was covered in a dark mist, head to toe. Their height being much lankier than the young prince, almost resembling more close to his previous self. Wings sprouted on their head and back as dark colored feathers covered their body,  and holes were in place of where their eyes were supposed to be. They wore the same gold scarf as the original King of Sorrow though this one was much longer with more threads. These were what was holding Leorina in place. It was the King of Sorrow, ‘but how was HE back? Wait… no he was reborn… and isn’t even supposed to be here right now?!’ Leorina thought.

“Lakuru… Reemna…” the soft voice rang in Leorina’s head. ‘An apparition?’ she thought. “LAKUTO!!!” The voice cried this time going through the entire room. The ghost of Sorrow put his hands over his face almost writhing in pain.

  “LEORINA!” Tat yelled running towards the two. Leorina struggled to break free from the King’s threads, as she wiggled, she looked up and saw another thread getting ready to strike her. ‘NOT GOOD.’ Her movements became desperate. “GET… AWAY FROM HER!” Tat yelled as she swiped her claws, cutting the ropes holding Leorina in place. Leorina rolled away just in time as the charging thread struck the ground, only barely cutting most of her ponytail clean off. The ropes that were torn, quickly disintegrated as the ghostly king grunted in anguish.

  “That’s not the prince,” Leorina said out of breath, “there’s no way that’s him.”

  “We need to get out of here.” Tat responded as her eyes darted looking for a quick exit. “There!” She picked up her friend and began flying quickly to an opening in the throne room. 

  “I… won’t let… you get away… alive!” screamed the ghostly King of the past. Leorina turned her head to see the possible danger, to her horror she watched as the late King summoned a bomb-like object. 

  “Tat, go. NOW!” she yelled, they made it to the opening where down below was an abandoned part of one of the villages of Hyuponia. Just too late. The blast of the bomb thrown by the king pushed the two out of the palace. The heat of the blast washed over Leorina’s body as the sharp sound of ringing went through her ears. She couldn’t even focus on the fact that she and Tat were now falling.

  “Ghk,” Tat moaned in pain, she quickly recollected herself. As she opened her eyes, she began to realize they were falling from the throne room of the Terminus of Tears. Below was the hard rocky ground of one of the Hyuponian villages. “-Gasp- LEORINA!” she looked to her friend who fell unconscious from the blast. ‘Quick!’ she needed to react now, it was only mere seconds before they would hit the ground. Tat wrapped her arms around Leorina and braced impact for the floor as she attempted to float to soften the fall.

  SLAM! The impact was hard, but not enough to hurt Leorina too much. Tat felt the wave of pain rush through her arm, she winced in pain as she rolled off of Leorina. “Arghh…” She didn’t want to but the pain made her look to see the damage. Tat’s elbow was pointed in the wrong direction, the impact from the fall caused her arm to break. “Urgh… just great.” She groaned.

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  Leorina opened her eyes, her entire body was sore and felt like it was on fire. She remembered her last memory was her and Tat falling from the Terminus or Tears. “-Gasp- Tat!” Leorina yelled as she jolted up. “Tat? Where…” She looked around her surroundings, it seemed like Tat and her took refuge in one of the abandoned houses from the village. She noticed her left boot was missing but had new bandages wrapped around her knee. 

 She was sitting on a bedframe, next to her was a broken nightstand with an empty first aid kit, and a glass of water. ‘Tat… where are you right now?’ Leorina thought, getting herself out of the bedframe, she put her boot back on since it was next to the nightstand and made her way into the living room. Upon entering, she saw her cat friend.

  “There you are.” She let out a sigh of relief. Tat turned around from hearing Leorina’s voice. “Dear Claire! Your arm!” 

  “Geez, you couldn’t keep quiet about that?” Tat whined. “You're welcome by the way.” Her eyebrows furrowed as she turned herself to the side to hide her arm.

  “Ugh, Tat you know it’s because I’m worried for you! Hold on.” Leorina removed her scarf and went to aid Tat’s injury. “How’d we even get here… wherever we are?” She asked while wrapping up Tat’s arm into a sling.

  “Well, we got hit by that explosive the king threw at us… At least that’s who I think that was.” Tat muttered, “I managed to barely break our fall by floating. We’re currently in one of the abandoned villages right now, if we can just settle here for a bit, we should be able to go back and-”

  “No.” Leorina retorted.

  “‘No’? What do you mean ‘no’?” Tat asked, looking at Leorina with an angered look.

  “Tat, look at you! Look at me!” Leorina responded, “What happened there, that was not the King of Sorrow. We don’t know what’s going on right now, and we’re definitely not prepared at all to fight that thing.”

  “What?!” Tat yelled. “If that isn’t his majesty, then he could be in actual danger! We need to get out of here and find him! Are you saying we just stay here?”

  “For the time being, yes. We’re both injured and that… impersonator… ghost, I don’t know, but his majesty is still out there for all we know.” Leorina replied, “Look, I just don’t want anything bad happening to you. Last I heard, Klonoa came back into our world, it’s likely he’ll be able to help us.” Leorina picked up her ring replica, “Lets just stay here for now, and wait for their arrival. I can defend us here with the replicated ring.”

    Tat rolled her eyes. As annoyed as she was with Leorina’s rejection of leaving their current hiding spot, she was right. Leorina was injured by the mysterious ghost of the king’s old self. When Tat checked Leorina’s body, she saw her knee was badly bruised, possibly sprained, and she had burn marks on the back of her head and body from the explosion. And Tat herself wasn’t well either, the landing broke her arm. And with the severity, she couldn’t split into her two forms until her arm was better, and who knew how long that’d take. 

  ‘UGRH! Our world is in danger though! We can’t just sit here.’ Tat thought as she sat down. She looked out the broken window of their abandoned home. The cliffs that’d usually have waves of water around the kingdom were dry. ‘It was only this bad when we caused the chaos… is that what’s happening again?’ Tat chose to put her anger aside, while she was allowed to feel angered, it wouldn’t help in this situation. ‘Dream Traveller… wherever you are… please save our world again.’

[Author's Note: HI! SORRY FOR SUCH A LATE CHAPTER RELEASE, I had this one done since the beginning of June but slept on making the illustration. Tbh Art Fight kinda helped spark that grind of motivation to finally draw. Anyways, hope you liked this chapter getting to have a look at Leorina and Tat's situation, they will show up again soon, but next chapter we'll be back with the main trio.]

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