"I... I have a friends, Doctor Sammy, she's trying to figure out the way that Baby Furs work... could you... maybe... if you wanna... visit her? She'd be really excited to meet you." Sammy said, really not sure what else to say. He'd come so far... and this... this felt... this felt so wrong.
"I... I'm not sure if that would be wise." Sighed the sad old woman.
"So you talked with Amy The Armadillo too?" Sammy sniffled.
"Who? I'm sorry my dear, but I haven't met a child by that name." Bella said looking surprised.
Sammy blinked, but.... Amy had said she'd met the first fur... and that she'd learn the truth about baby furs. Wasn't this what made Amy unhappy when she'd been on the same quest as Sammy to figure out a way for Baby Furs to better control their magic and let not-friends not become friends if they didn't want to?
Jessy herself felt VERY confused... but the old lady was sad, and Sammy was sad, and that made her sad. She didn't want them to be sad, but she didn't know how to make it better, and that made her sadder.
"Everything Bella says is true, and she says the truth to the best of her knowledge, but it isn't the whole truth."
The little furs looked to see a little white spider. Not a baby fur spider. Not a cartoony spider. Just an ordinary little, eight-eyed, eight-legged, white spider garden spider. But she'd spoken. Who was sitting on the window cell, and waved one little white leg at them.
Bella looked at the little spider in surprise, and her eyes narrowed. "You're not a familiar. And while you... you... you're the same spider... the spider that made me miscast the spell."
"I was supposed to remain unknown to you, but Sammy The Fox and Jessy the Raccoon will continue to feel sorrow as you continue feel sorry, and so all their friends will feel sadness, and so it'll spread until all the links in the chain are weakened, and the enemy is able to break through."
Sammy realized this sounded a lot like what Amy had talked about.
"You said intended... did fate itself manipulate the death of my child and Sally's parents to bring this about?" Bella asked arkly.
"No. Not in the least. It was intended for the first fur to appear somewhere else, and for it be someone else... but when it was seen you were preparing to cast a spell that would have the same result as was intended, it was realized this would throw the enemy anticipation off, as well as be where they had not expect it to be. So I was created, to serve as the momentary distraction needed so fate would take a course that would enable this world to be a protective barrier to protect others."
It was Jessy The Raccoon who asked. "Who are you Miss Spider?"
"I'm a servant of necessity. I do not have a name, but if you must call me something, call me Charlotte."
"Like Charlotte's Web?"
"Yes. I created so Bella would miscast the spell that would create the First Fur, and so your kind would come into existence, and change the human race into what you are."
"But why?"
"You are a barrier. Each baby fur a link in the chain-fence. The fence is still being built. Until then, the tigers can escape. And when they do... "
"Whose they?"
"You're everything GOOD about being a child, you even still carry the spark of ambition that children have..." Charlotte gestured outside with one of her legs.
Sammy The Fox saw a baby fur pronghorn outside wearing a hard hat. He was going over blueprints with his friends, a baby fur panda and a raccoon baby fur but with different fur colors than Jessy (he was bright orange and yellow) also wearing hard hats. The blue prints would have been nonsense scribbles to human eyes, but to Sammy The Fox were plain as day. The pronghorn architect and his friends were designing a new building. And Sammy The Fox saw the glint of creativity and ambition in the pronhorn's eyes.
"Even as you remain eternally young and eternally innocent, you will to grow. 'they', are the other side... if they break free... and get past your world... the world beyond will be naked to their grasping clutches. Imps. The adopted daughters of chaos. 'The Innocent Malice.' Normally it would be one of Sally's inner friends, Horsey, Cheetah, or Bunnie, who'd be explaining this, as they have with others who came to Sally seeking answers, but you are the first to meet Bella first."
Bella asked. "Speak plainly little spider."
"In another world, the innocent malice converted all humans alive to their kid, but the first of their kind, quickly grew bored of her kingdom now that there were no more humans to add to her collection of subjects/playmates/toys ... Imagine how bored the Goblin King looked at his own court in Labyrinth.
So the imp sought to expand beyond their reality and claim others as well... A world's fate is its own, whatever it brings upon itself is the fate that it has chosen, since the imps were born upon that earth and had once been human, their earth was theirs to do with as they pleased. But once they decided to expand to other worlds... other realities, they became a plague that needed to be stopped... but their nature would make force of arms would only add to their numbers... so... one reality, that would be the first to be devoured by their magic, was chosen, and was wrapped around their universe, and was to be made populated by beings who their black magic couldn't touch and add to their numbers. To be so pure a world that they could not even enter it, and would be forced to be content with only their own universe.
"Sally's power increases as the number of baby furs increase. As she is the birth point of the magic. As the number of baby furs increase, so does her own power. Once all humans are changed, she'd be actually exist on equal footing with their princess."
"She's technically a queen, but Princess sounds more appealing to her. You must beware Bella, your sorrow, it'll be a beacon to them. And once you are the last human on Earth, they will use your home as an entry point. You'll be the only being on the planet they'll be able to turn into an imp."
"The imps... what are they like?" Sammy asked, bewildered.
"Remember Pleasure Island from Pinocchio? How the children acted? Multiply it as many times as you can. That's them. They take 'rough housing' to a whole new level. Except they don't turn into donkeys, they turn humans into little monsters like them. They're like you baby furs after a fashion, each one is unique. You were fashioned as the light to their darkness. Imagine red skinned little girls in white swim suits with black horns, white hair, and yellow eyes. But that's ALL that they have in common."
Sammy The Fox thought about it. "That's what it means... for the baby furs to be more important than one person, one universe."
"The change was supposed to happen obliviously, humans nor baby furs would ever realize their world had changed, they would just continue to make their own choices and live their lives. But instead... humans and baby furs were aware... There is worry, that in that flash point of fear and anger... that some imps slipped through. If that's the case... Sally will be their one true target until the fence is complete... "