Feeling curious and excited about finally getting to meet the first fur, Sammy and Jessy both smiled as Bella set them down on the floor of her bedroom. They looked up to see that Bella looked a bit better as she stood up. She smiled down to both of them, which Sammy could see was kind and caring. It made him feel better that the woman looked better.
"So, are you ready to go?" Sammy asked.
"Yes," Bella gave a kind and caring smile, "I might wish that things could be better.... but I suppose that if there there is more to this than what happened with the spell... I can't remain down on that. And I will always look to protect my granddaughter."
Sammy and Jessy both nodded and slowly followed Bella as the woman lead them through her home again and then out the front door. They waved to Charlotte as they left as the spider sat quietly in her web. They made it back out onto the sidewalk in front of Bella's home, and the two baby furs actually took Bella's hands as they walked toward a corner.
"The first fur lives in a sandcastle?" Jessy asked.
"Yes, the same sandcastle she was building when the news reported her existence to the world," Bella answered, "and when she began making friends, they began to join her. Bunnie, Cheetah, and Horsey were the first."
"Why doesn't she live with you?" Sammy wondered.
"I suppose my guilt at transforming her made her feel sad... and after her transformation... she couldn't figure out how to make me feel better and that made her sad," Bella said slowly, "unable to see her cry, I urged her to go out and have fun. And so she went and built her sandcastle."
They walked along quietly and made their way toward the beach. They passed more baby fur houses and the group that were planning out a new home. Sammy and Jessy waved to them and they waved back. They blinked for a moment at seeing Bella, but went about their "work" as though nothing had changed. Whether that was a result of Bella's immunity to her own spell or some mention that Sally as the first fur had made to all her new friends was unknown to Sammy and Jessy. They simply quietly walked along on the sidewalk on the route toward the beach.
After a few short moments they began to get closer to the beach, Sammy and Jessy both began to see the castle beginning to poke over the horizon of buildings near the beach. They could see towers of soft tan sand that poked above the buildings closest to them, and as Sammy and Jessy saw them, they both began to become more and more excited, softly chanting "first fur" as they walked. Bella smiled and continued to lead them along. Then they came up to a wooden boardwalk, or at least what looked like a wooden boardwalk. As Sammy's paws touched it, he could feel through the pads on his feet and toes that the boards were actually plastic made to look and feel like wooden boards.
"So, what do you think?" Bella asked to the two baby furs she was escorting.
Sammy and Jessy both marveled at the castle. For the moment they ignored the baby furs that were splashing in the water of the ocean, playing beach volleyball, and even getting a "tan" and looked at the two to three story structure that had been built. It was made out of sand and stood out above everything on the beach. A part of it touched the ocean where the waves came in, but the water didn't seem to erode the sandcastle the way one might expect. Instead the ocean's wave's seemed to bounce of the sandcastle's foundation like it was stone, not sand. The structure stood as tall as a two or three story building, Sammy and Jessy weren't sure, and was rather simple. It was a large square structure with rounded towers on its corners little red triangular flags flew from the top of each tower.
And that was about as far as the sandcastle had in common with the European Medieval fortresses. Facing them was a large open drawbridge in the center of the wall closest to them, and Sammy could see that it lead into a sort of hallway, rather than an open courtyard type area that was typical of Medieval castles. Sammy could also see what looked like windows in places along the sandcastle's walls. It held a great deal of interest in both Sammy and Jessy. They looked at it with amazement and didn't say anything for a few moments.
"It's amazing," Sammy said after a moment and began to move forward with Jessy and began to practically pull Bella forward.
They made their way through the crowd, with a few waves and doing their best to stay out of the way of those playing other games and eventually came up to the sandcastle and continued to marvel at the structure as they continued to come closer. As they got closer to the drawbridge, they were greeted by a pair of German Shepard based baby furs standing on either side of the door with what looked like sergeant's stripes on the front of their diapers and they held a pair of water pistols as though they stood sentry over the castle.
"Halt! Who goes there?" one of the guards spoke.
"Sammy the Fox," Sammy spoke politely and waved to German Shepard baby fur closest to him.
"Jessy the Raccoon," Jessy waved as well.
"These two have come a long way to meet my granddaughter," Bella said to the two guards, "and they mean no harm."
"Pinkie swear to be good?" the other guard asked holding up one hand.
"Pinkie swear!" Sammy and Jessy cheered.
The two guards nodded and the one closest to Sammy than said, "the first fur is playing with Bunnie, Cheetah, Horsey, and a couple of other friends in the bounce room."
"Bounce room?" Jessy asked.
"Yeah, it's fun... it's like a giant but soft spring that'll shoot you into the air when you jump on it," the guard closest to Jessy answered, "It's fun."
"Cool... where is it?" Sammy asked.
"You just go in and it's the third door on the left," the guard closest to Sammy spoke.
"Thanks," Sammy answered and lead Jessy and Bella in. They had come a long way to meet the first fur, and now they were about to do just that!