"So where are we going to find your friend?" I asked, satisfied that Jessica and I wouldn't be bothered by the menacing dogmen. "She tends to hang around near the Midway area of the Carnival District," replied my companion. She's a cute blonde and the men like to flock to her. Once they're in her company, they tend not to be men for much longer," said Jessica, with a slight smirk.
I began to have a sneaking suspicion that my buddies Tim and Hank had met up with this very lady when we first arrived at Pleasure Island. This was starting to sound pretty worrisome. "Wait, does she have bright green eyes and wear a neon pink sweater with a jeweled pine tree pin on it?"
"Oh yeah, that's definitely Julie," responded Jessica. "She always wears that pin -it sort of goes with her overall 'thing.'"
"And what's that?" I replied.
"Mmmm, turning men into forest creatures. But she likes to mix it up. Last week, it was deer but two weeks ago it was birds: blue jays, robins, cardinals, owls. The entire island looked like an aviary with a bunch of birds perching all over the place."
"Wait, I thought you said that Circe's magic wouldn't let the island change people all the way into animals."
"That's true," Jessica replied, "but Julie's half wood nymph and she has some pretty powerful magic of her own. Unfortunately, she has trouble controlling it. It sometimes overrides Circe's protective spells, allowing the Island to change somebody all the way. It took Circe close to a month to transform all the guests back and a few are still missing. Julie felt really bad about the whole thing but it wasn't intentional."
Jessica's description of her friend Julie's powers was troubling. Could Julie control them enough to ensure that I didn't change all the way into a lion? More importantly, what about my friends Tim and Hank? I'm pretty sure they wouldn't want to be animals for the rest of their lives. Jesssica and I picked up our pace.
As we passed by a narrow and dimly lit alley, I heard a strange sound. It was...