John is petrified. Like a mouse staring into the eyes of a snake. She's hungry. And to her, john looked more like the main course than the one she chose. John new it too.
Lieta: YoUr LeaKiNg SssTaRs... I Can SeE thEm. YoU hoLd MoRe pOWer tHaN tHe KInG And GuArdiAn ComBiNeD. FAaaAr MoRe.
Lieta jumps and reaches for John. John races down the ceiling frame like a frightened mouse. His tail high in the air as he races across the room for dear life. Lieta jumping at him and destroying the frames trying to get up to him. As soon as she shrank back down to fit the frames, john somehow squeezed himself into a hole in the wall that led to another, smaller room. Inside was dark except for the little blue stars dancing on the ground around a small stone.
This is it. This is what John felt called to him. Enchanted by the glow, John walks to the stone. It looked like a ring. As soon as he picked it up, Lieta slips half of her body through the hole and gets stuck. John is trapped inside.
Rexar: well. That's unfortunate. What to do? What to do?
John: smart ass.
John pulls the stone chip from his pocket and slips the pieces together. A shock of light flashes and blows Lieta out of the hole making it bigger. She screams as she falls to the ground. John walks out of the hole holding the completed stone. His tail doubles, his ears large and pointed, his new claws sharp like razors, and his eyes focused and calmer than before.
Sicily, her father, and Casper see Lieta on the ground looking up at John. She roars and jumps at him. He jumps to the far end with one leap and grabs hold of the edge on the other side. He climbs the edge and looks down to see Sicily and the others below him staring at him like a strange phenomena. He looks at his new claws and immediately knew what they were looking at. Lieta roars as she falls back to the ground on her shoulder. There was a loud snap the moment she hit the ground. Sicily creeps up to her now limp body. John jumps down in front of her.
John: I wouldn't if I were you. Lets get out of here. Did you find anymore pieces?
Casper: no. We have everyone in the city looking, but we can't find anymore of them.
John: there has to be more around the place.
Lieta growls as she stands on three legs instead of four. Her leg was permanently broken.
John: keep looking. We got time. Keep look for them.
Casper: got it. Sicily, come on!
Sicily: what the hell is that?
Mason: move, girl!! Don't ask questions! I'll stay with you to hold her off.
John: what!? With me? Oh no. I'm going to look for those pieces with them. Forget that thing. Bye.
John runs out of the room.
Mason: what?!
The others chase after him. Lieta staggers quickly behind, wailing loudly.
John finds himself back in the throne room. It was dark and quiet. The footsteps from the others break the silence. They all hear Lieta hissing close behind. John looks around and notices a few figures around the room. He goes to the nearest one and checks what it is. It was a guard. He was dead. The body had a hole in its chest and a scale in its hand. As soon as he takes it Lieta was in the room with them. She was very angry for a moment, then her anger turned to shock when she saw john with a scale. She charges him, shoving the others out of the way. John thinks quickly and breaks the scale.
Lieta's chest cracks open as she pounces John. The floor breaks from the pressure and they both fall into a dark pit below. Casper rushes to the hole and sees the bodies of other guards around him. Some of them had scale in their hands. He takes them and breaks them one after the other as fast as he could. Before he snaps the last one, Lieta sores back out of the hole and her body falls to pieces on impact. John crawls out after her with a broken arm. His head was as red as his hair. He was covered in his own blood.
Casper sees John and notices his tail was gone and ears where back to normal. He looked human. A large figure crawls out next to him. Casper slips into fear when he sees it clearer. A large black mane lion with hardly any flesh to hide its horrifying skeleton. It stepped next to John's side. Dark crimson and black little stars falls to the ground from the beast like a fog as it follows john to the broken Lieta. Casper drops the scale to the ground and backs away from it.
John looks to him and the disfigured lion goes to get the scale and brings it back to him. John takes it and snaps it in half. Lieta screams softly as she falls into powder and dies. It was finally over. John drops to his knees and lets out a sigh of relief. The stars from the lion turn blue and fade away. The lion disappears with them. Casper sneaks around him to Sicily and her father, who look at john just as frightened.
John looks to the opened doors of the throne room to the outside. The sun was rising. Its light healing John's wounds as the rays crept into the room and touched his skin. Rexar appears from behind him and purrs at his side.