TFLOC IS in indefinite hiatus. The novel will be unfinished and I won't make a webcomic adaptation. BUT, I felt bad about leaving this series in a cliffhanger at the very beginning, since I took many years to plan this interpretation. So I'm going to post the summary of the story instead. Most of the nuance from the micro interactions between characters will be lost, but hey, at least my fans and I will have peace knowing that the story wasn't just abandoned.
This is a story about war. To sugarcoat it is to treat it like it's not a reality for many people in our world. Previous episodes were tagged accordingly, but this summary doesn't go in-depth enough to warrant the M tag.
The morning after Laval was ambushed during the party, his father, appalled by the Crocodiles’ behavior, began to rant about them at breakfast. Laval felt uneasy at Lagravis’ words, and tried to tell him of the good deeds the crocodiles did, but the lion prince felt conflicted between his father's speech and his own experiences (in other words, Laval's view of Lagravis as a role model began to conflict with his reality and convictions).
After that, Laval, Eris, Lagravis and his bodyguards went on their way to a royal meeting in the Raven Village— the king had received a letter from Reabait during yesterday's party. Many tiny raven jets scouted atop the village, as if they were monitoring something. However, during the ride, Laval got surprised by Cragger, who sneaked inside the tank just to see his friend. The lion prince grew anxious about Cragger being found by Lagravis; with growing tensions between the Crocodile and Lion Tribes, Cragger's actions could snowball into something worse— and it did.
Inside of the village, among many ravens fighting each other to survive, or dying from terrible diseases, Cragger noticed a poor, sad raven, covered in mud, sitting on the sidewalk. He felt bad for the bird, which made him run after them on impulse. Before Laval could try to save his friend, Lagravis caught him. At that point, the truth couldn't be hidden, and Laval screamed for help, pointing at the direction where Cragger was taken to. Lennox rushed with his Chi-powered tank across a shady alley after the perpetrator. Laval began to cry, overthinking about the situation, believing that he should've been the one to be kidnapped instead of Cragger, because he thought he failed his friend. A Chi bullet was shot from the tank’s cannon; the light revealed that Wilhurt was next to the raven. The wolf attempted to take Laval as well, but got shot by Lagravis before fleeing the scene.
Infuriated by the Ravens’ seeming collaboration with Wilhurt & Cruz, Lagravis sent out a loud warning roar, summoning heavy backup to guard the entrance to the village. He began to hyperventilate. Laval hugged his dad in an attempt to comfort him, but it only escalated the king’s panic attack. Lagravis glared at Cragger, as if he was about to snap. Yet, he remained without uttering a word, latching onto his son. Ravens hiding in their surroundings began to caw, like they were sending a signal to someone. Longtooth sheltered the three kids in the tank, while Lennox drove the vehicle out of the alley, towards the Raven Palace.
Inside the tank, Cragger started to bawl. He hiccuped and cried, repeating over and over again that he only wanted to see Laval and didn't mean to hurt him. Eris panted. She embraced the crocodile with a warm hug to comfort him as her arms trembled. Laval wanted to rest next to them, but his body was frozen. He could barely breathe. A terrible feeling haunted him, like a voice, whispering to him about the perilous future of Chima and his friends. Cruz wanted them dead, what if he succeeded? What would happen to Cragger if he fell in the claws of these villains? How much would the relationship between the Lion and Crocodile tribes be strained until it broke under pressure? And his father… Laval feared for his father, too.
The Raven Palace looked very different from the outside village. It had many riches, fountains, gardens, and could house a few hundred ravens all at once. Lots of maids cleaned the paths and tended to the plants. Some of them came to greet the visitors, who greeted them back. There, Eris encountered Razar wandering around the place. She couldn't hold her excitement of meeting the prince of ravens, and she almost immediately began to ramble on and on about her studies of Raven Tribe technology. Laval noticed her stuttering a bit. He assumed she was hiding her anguish from before, due to her hands shaking a bit, yet she still smiled wide as ever. Razar bashfully laughed with Eris. Laval held his hands tight to his chest in relief.
Lagravis ordered the guards to protect the children while he discussed matters with the king of the Raven Tribe, Rawzom. Rawzom greeted Lagravis in a prideful, boastful manner, eager to show how he managed to ‘save’ his tribe from its long lasting misery. The lion king, who was just moments before exposed to the unfortunate side of the Raven Village, huffed at Rawzom. Lagravis, appalled by Rawzom’s hypocrisy, scolded him about his greed and pride. Reabait, a renowned raven engineer and geographer (and Rawzom's best friend, which explains his high position) explained that the Raven Tribe suffered a surge of organized crime after the Wolf Tribe stopped sending them supplies like medicine. Specifically, there was one big gang that terrorized the Raven Village (led by Razcal). Laval put the pieces together about the jets hovering above the Raven Village and that gang— he thought: what if they're the ones working with Wilhurt?
Rawzom, in the blink of an eye, seemed to remove his facade of pride, and begged Lagravis for help. He said that, after the gang's takeover, he had almost lost all power over his tribe; ravens received Crocodile and stolen Wolf weaponry, plus Chi and the supplies they needed, although scarcely, in exchange for following Cruz’ and Wilhurt’s plans. Lagravis blames Rawzom’s egocentrism on the misery of his people, and threatened him to solve his village’s crime problem, or he would treat the Raven Tribe as an enemy, because of the ties Razcal had with those who were currently endangering Chima. Laval became even more determined to aid the Wolf Tribe, as he believed that, by freeing them from Wilhurt's hands, they could start to support the Raven Tribe’s population again.
While they were returning back to the Lion Temple, a warning roar echoed from afar. Lagravis ordered Lennox to plug as much Chi into the vehicle. When they arrived, they saw a huge army of crocodiles rushing inside the castle. The entrance had been demolished by Chi-powered warriors. However, no wolf was in sight. Laval feared for the worst; a successful invasion could be the fall of Chima! But in the sky came eagle jets in a clutch, and they began raining chi lasers down on the crocodiles. Some of them were attacked by raven planes zigzagging through the air. Lennox rushed away from the scene, escorting Lagravis and the others into the secret cave underneath the Lion Temple. The lion prince held his breath as his heart pounced tight with the sounds of jets crashing, guns firing, animals dying. Laval felt so sick, he couldn't hold his anxiety anymore, and fainted.
The damage was done. Days had gone by, lions were working tirelessly to rebuild what was ruined, but a majority of the civilian houses next to the entrance were destroyed. Laval, from his room, stared at the debris of an eagle jet whose pilot sacrificed themselves to block the crocodiles’ path. Raven, Eagle, Lion and Crocodile bodies were scattered around the ground. Laval mourned their deaths. He audibly questioned the existence of war, as he began to think about his friends… Eris, Cragger, Razar, Worriz… They're all animals, just like the ones who died… Why fight and kill those who drank from the same river? Why take away lives for the sake of greed? What could possibly justify an animal taking the life of another? Laval couldn't wrap his head around Cruz’ motives or actions. Laval couldn't understand violence. That was why he tried skipping Lavertus’ training classes, even if his father told him not to.
Laval desperately wanted to know what was going on, if his friends’ families were okay, if the wolves had gotten help... But he couldn't. It was too dangerous to leave his room. Everything could turn from bad to worse in an instant… He curled inside his bed, convincing himself that maybe, just maybe, it would be best to stay at home; “Father knows best… right?” Laval felt conflicted, again, between his own wishes and Lagravis’ orders. Suddenly, Lavertus opened the door. He sat next to his nephew and gave him a tight hug. Laval, drowned in tears, tried to ask his uncle if anything happened, hoping to calm down his intense anxiety. Lavertus' wide smile slowly faded away. Winzar had volunteered to be a subject for the Chi harness surgery, but the amount of anesthetic plants were dwindling by the day, and there weren't enough to keep the wolf unconscious. After the difficult and painful surgery, the experiment had been declared dangerous and impractical. Laval sobbed, distraught.
A week later, Wakz called all tribe leaders to an urgent meeting. Lagravis couldn't leave the Lion Temple unattended again, so Lavertus called for backup from both the Eagle and Gorilla tribes to protect the castle from any further harm. Laval held onto his father's tunic. He grew afraid of all that constant movement across Chima. All of the violence he had witness during these months of war were still lingering fresh in his mind.
TO BE CONTINUED
