The magic lessons continued on fairly well, and Sammy and Jessy both enjoyed the lessons that they got from Bella worked out quite well, and Sammy found a lot of it very interesting. While the lessons were held in Bella's home, the elderly white witch was very doting on the "upgraded" Baby Furs that came for magic lessons, which included a fair number of hugs, ready made foods that were tasty, and stories at bedtime at the end of the day. In a way, it was like Sammy was with his own grandma again, and it felt surprisingly nice. It made the magic lessons fun in a way that enabled Sammy to master many of the sort of elemental powers that as a Kitsune Baby Fur that he had gained. Jessy had also learned a lot with regard to her powers as a Tanooki. Some of them were similar to Sammy's but others were different.
The powers they shared were in shape changing, but Jessy found that she was better at that than Sammy, though Sammy didn't mind that. His ability manipulate raw elemental power, be it fire or electricity wasn't something that Jessy couldn't do. Most of Sammy's training with those abilities was in to create a barrier with them or provide power for some of the things that needed fire or electricity to power. Bella was actually quite helpful with all that, and he soon found he could get increase the reception range and broadcast ability of baby fur's radios with the magic to manipulate electricity. The fact that Baby Fur radios were made of plastic and seemed to work without being plunged into to an actual power source didn't seem to matter. The thing that Jessy could do that Sammy couldn't was talk to animals, and while Sammy couldn't do that, he was interested in watching that.
"So... how does talking to animals work?" Sammy asked Jessy as they sat in Bella's backyard looking out at the lawn around them, "Is it like us talking? Or do you just feel what they're thinking? I didn't hear it say anything?"
The one thing that made watching Jessy practice her ability to talk with animals was that many of the pets in My-yam-me tended to obediently follow their owners about the town, and Bella didn't want to panic the Baby Furs that owned pets with needing to borrow the pet for Jessy's practice with her powers. That left stray animals, but they seemed to be hesitant to approach even the Baby Furs, and wild animals which could be difficult to find and seemed to do even more to avoid Baby Furs than they would have with people in a similar situation. Sammy and Jessy also both agreed that it'd be best to left the animals that naturally lived outside My-yam-me alone. As such, they still had to find some animal for Jessy to practice talking with. Sometimes it was a song bird and at other times it was an insect. The most recent attempt had been with a butterfly.
"Course, not," Jessy answered, "butterflies can't talk. At least not like us."
"But you could talk to him," Sammy stated.
"Her," Jessy corrected, "but yes. She was a very nice listener."
"But how did she answer?" Sammy asked, his curiosity knowing no bounds, "Was it tel... tele... mind talking?"
"It wasn't quite like that," Jessy answered, "some of it was just how she fluttered on her wings and so on... and some of it was also seeming just... un-der-stand how she felt and thought."
"What did she think?" Sammy asked.
"That my fur was soft and had no nectar," Jessy answered, "that would be about it."
"Really?" Sammy wondered.
"She was a normal butterfly," Jessy answered, "it's not like she's going to discuss the imps..."
"I'd thought we could do something like that," Sammy commented, "that animals could see the imps and warn us."
Jessy slowly nodded, "and that could still work... but if the animal I talk to hasn't seen an imp... it isn't of that much use."
Sammy sighed and looked down at the grass that he and Jessy were sitting in. The lawn had been fixed up since Bella started feeling better with regard to her granddaughter becoming the first fur and it left the lawn soft to sit in and enjoy the warm Florida sun. The grass didn't tickle too much and they'd both also found out that the grass couldn't stain their diapers. It was a quiet day for them there in Florida, but at the same time the warnings about the imps had created some odd feeling of fear and worry in the back of their minds. In a way, it especially scared Sammy as the imps didn't sound like being real friends and that they wouldn't be kind to anyone. That was where the idea of seeing if animals had seen any imps, but for the moment they hadn't had any luck and Jessy even said that she might need some more practice.
Sammy hoped it worked. There were many things in his life that had changed and seemed odd in a way. Some of it related the appearance of the Baby Furs and then his becoming one. His goal at first had been to find a way that they could make friends without turning people into Baby Furs, and in a way he wished that could be preserved, but the threat posed by the imps was such that there might not be an option available that wouldn't involve normal humans becoming Baby Furs. On that, Sammy hoped for a way that could allow for things to be a bit more willing and understanding, but something in Sammy felt like things were rapidly changing.
It was especially after he went from a normal Red Fox Baby Fur to a Kitsune Baby Fur. In a way it felt like he could feel Sally's powers growing and thus Baby Fur's abilities were expanding, giving some indication that there were more Baby Furs appearing, but at the same time he had this odd and almost sinking feeling that felt as though the imps were actually trying to get spies into their world, or had done so. It didn't sit right and made Sammy worry a bit, as if they caused trouble or got too many into the world and things wouldn't get any better from there. In fact, if Charlotte the spider, and she was a real spider not a Baby Fur, was telling was the full truth, even if they could protect Sally from the Imps, that did not mean that the Imps wouldn't make things worse for everyone they came across.
"But once I get things perfected, I'm sure it'll work and we'll have a whole bunch of animals on the look out for these Imps," Jessy commented, "and with your magic and the others... we could send them back to THEIR home or put them in a timeout."
"You think so?" Sammy asked, looking a bit hopeful.
"Yup," Jessy smiled.