The first thing Bella noticed, was that all the baby furs except Sammy and Jessy had taken to calling her Gramma, and even they slipped into it on occasion. They truly did see her as family, and would protect her the same they'd protect Sally.
She was amazed at how well they could pay attention, when any toddler she knew before would be more interested in the next pretty piece of wrapping paper. Maybe this is what Charlotte meant by them being the light side of childhood.
Bella admitted, she was a Good Witch, not a unicorn, a fairy, a kitsune, or a tanooki, but her students seemed to learn from her all the same.
She also had Merry, a boy lion baby fur mermaid... and his entire pack of various other aquatic baby furs who had apparently been from some sinking ships and submarine crews when the atomic bomb was dropped on Florida in an attempt to get rid of the baby furs.
Merry for his part, wasn't too sad about not being able to go land except for a magically animated bathtube, but more sad that most of his friends had to be stuck on such 'tiny' 'islands' while he and his friends had the whole ocean to have fun in and make friends with. They effectively had two thirds of the planet to themselves and any friends they found on the high seas.
However, mermaid magic again, proved some tricks of hydrokenesis, an with enough practice, Bella was sure Merry and his friends could literally take a ball of water with them whatever they went on land.
Bella admitted, she'd had some slight pointers from the spider Charlotte, but the baby mythics absorbed everything she taught them like dry sponges. The fact there hadn't been any imp assaults so far meant, A), they had lucked out and no imps had made it through and there was nothing to worry about, or B) they were building themselves up or preparing for a big move. Bella hoped Jessy was wrong and that bear had been just a bear. She'd rather that her granddaughter was never in any true danger from demons!
Tanooki were naturally better shape shifters than even kitsune... and it showed. While Sammy shocked himself at being able to appear as a little ordinary wild fox, then turned into his favorite two tailed fox video game hero, Jessy had already turned herself into a monk like statue of a baby fur raccoon, a normal raccoon, then into a turtle, and then a little wooden raft, (and was working on being able to turn into a dress). Both found that shape shifting made them both hungry afterwards.
Both had sent a letter to Franky Town and Doctor Sammy about staying My-Yam-Me for now learning from the first fur, which wasn't exactly a lie.
As for Gila... she insisted at always staying at the castle, and always being near Sally in case Cheetah, Bunnie and Horsey ever had to be away from their best friend. It was Gila's nature, golem were created to be protectors, and Gila was driven by her nature to make sure that Sally stayed safe even more so than the rest of Sally's friends. Gila felt neither boredom nor tired, and the living statue of a baby Sprongbok, Bella admitted would be an effective surprise protector. Gila did seem to truly enjoy mostly just sitting and thinking.
However... the news, that even manned by baby furs, still provided some information if you could read through the toddlers' way of speaking and seeing the world, and the human news channels for one had some actual news.
New ways had been found to keep the baby furs at bay.
Signs that read 'Please Baby Furs, Do Not Go Beyond This Sign' Stop baby furs dead in their tracks, after all, the sign does say 'please.' This also worked with posted notes on doors, messages written in the sand, anything as long as the baby furs could read it and it had obvious boundaries.
Some baby furs had tried to cross with blind folds (they weren't breaking the rules if they didn't read it) and were put to sleep with lullabies, other went with blind folds and ear muffs, but were turned around by the people wearing black space suits that protected them from Bella's now wildly out of control magic.
"Gonna need another way to spread friendship." Horsy said.
Bunnie seemed the most interested in helping friends. Horsy in making friends. And Cheetah in of course, making sure friends worked together.
Sammy thought of how he'd come all this way just for not-friends to have a way to be friends without becoming friends. But now... after learning it was to save every other universe out there from the bad things... he did now understand why it was more important. Amy The Armadillo was right, it did make him a little bit sad. He'd wanted everyone to consciously choose to become a baby fur like he did. But ... saving all those universes really was more important. At least everyone wasn't being turned into zombies or something where they couldn't do stuff that they did before being baby furs.
And Sammy thought, and felt a spark of a thought in his happy little head. "Bella, are we... are we like the imps?"
Bella thought of his for a few minutes and asked. "Jessy, if Sally asked you to hurt Sammy, would you?"
"No."
"Sammy?"
"Of course not!"
Bella said, "That is the difference. An imp HAS no empathy, they wouldn't hesitate. Princess would be stronger than them, so hurting a friend to protect themselves from her punishment makes perfect sense to them. You CARE about each other." Empathy was a learned trait... one baby furs kept, and Imps most decidedly did not.
"Charlotte, do ya think we could make the imps good again?" Sammy asked the spider. Who insisted on being NOT seen by any she did not need to be seen by, including the other mythic baby furs.
"Beware baby furs... if you have the power to free them from their corruption, then inversely, they'll have the power to corrupt you. You were never meant to meet. You would obliviously go from living your lives as humans, to living your lives as baby furs, and the imps would have to be satisfied with their own universe to rough house in. The mythic furs, like yourself, have only come into the world because you are needed to protect Sally from any imps who might seek her harm, since the spell's root lies in her until all the world has changed."
"... I was wonderin' too... could Sally make Bella, a baby fur with her new powers?" Jessy asked.
".... MAYBE... if she becomes as powerful as Princess... I don't have all the answer. I am simply a messenger of necessity."
"It's okay." Jessy The Tanooki gently patted the spider, then shape shifted into a spider and gave her a spidery hug.