Amory had already decided that Eric had to stay with him in the jungle as his mate. That he had now fallen asleep was helping in making any changes needed for that. Eric wouldn´t need to know if Amory didn´t want him to, simple as it is.
The reason for him asking about his friends was also simple. Amory had always felt lonely, and even if he would have a mate with Eric, they would still be alone here. He had thought about keeping the others here, as well. Eric wouldn´t lose his friends, it would just be another life for all of them.
But first, Amory had to scan the group to access their profiles. Eric only had scanned himself, and later Amory, but none of his friends. And without the scan, Amory couldn´t change them as he intended. So, with a sigh that he needed to move to their camp, Amory used the app to keep Eric asleep for now. It wouldn´t do for him to wake up when Amory moved or while he was away, after all.
It was a quick travel back to the camp, then doing an area check for them before heading back. Only after Amory had returned to Eric did he look over the data he had scanned. He now had the data for Greg, Tyler, Dean and Max scanned, as well as someone by the name of Jeff. “Weird. I didn´t sense anyone nearby. Maybe the range was just wide enough for that person. Not that I need him, so he can stay as he is. He will most likely be out of range when the others change, anyway.”
Amory had no idea that Jeff was Greg´s brother, as his data showed no last name for Jeff, and he hadn´t read further. Therefore, he had no idea it was the jeep parked right beside the tents.
Now Amory needed to decide on what to do with Eric´s friends. He would keep them all here, no problem. But should they stay as their animal-hybrids? But that would set them apart from the natural wildlife in the jungle. Making them full animals of their chosen animals would take them away from Eric, as there would at least be a language barrier. And if they were more animal, at least Dean would need to fear Eric for being a predator.
That left only one other option in Amory´s opinion, making them jaguar-hybrids as well. While jaguars normally were loners, he could use the app to edit them a bit. And they weren´t natural jaguars, so a slightly different behavior would fit. They would all be just more submissive to him.
Knowing that he wanted to keep the phone because of the app, Amory used it to make it his phone, so Eric wouldn´t miss it. Understanding that a phone would need energy in a way that he hadn´t in the jungle, Amory changed the phone to have an infinite battery, so he wouldn´t need to charge it in any way. He also made sure it would not break or get destroyed in any way.
To not lose it, Amory made a small edit to his own body. He understood Eric´s dislike for clothes, but the idea of a pocket wasn´t bad. So, he added one just for the phone to his left arm/ foreleg to carry it around. As a small safety feature, he made sure he could “call” it back to said pocket if he ever lost it. He saved the changes. He felt no pain when the pocket formed, it was invisible if you didn´t know where to look.
With the matter of the phone now settled, Amory started to edit the profiles of the group. First, he unchecked the awareness for all of them, so they wouldn´t protest their new lives. Their changes would happen at the same time, so there would be no questions asked later.
Next, he made sure each profile listed for species “jaguar-hybrid”, just like Eric´s and his own profile listed. The changes would be permanent for them. No need to change them into anything else, and if that was needed later, well, he had the app for that. They would age like humans did, just like Eric and him as well.
For their behavior, like he decided beforehand, they would be slightly submissive to him. While Eric would be his mate, and was submissive too him by nature, he raised that a bit more, too. They would all accept him as their leader without question.
Seeing their slightly varying levels of intelligence, he aligned it for the five of them, around the same level as Eric was natural, but slightly lower than himself. Why Eric had made him more intelligent than he was himself Amory had no idea, but he liked it. While both Tyler and Max lost a little bit of intelligence this way, Dean and Greg raised up, being a few points behind their friends in that department.
The last question Amory needed to decide in for now was the gender one. None of them were gay, so keeping them all male would make this uncomfortable. Making only Eric female as his mate also wouldn´t do. It would be unfair to him.
Then he got an idea. Why not make all five of them both? While Eric would be off limits for the others, why not give everyone both options? It would either end with two other pairs, or they would switch around. And that way, even Eric could mate the others if he wanted to. And so, Amory programmed for all five of them to have both male and female body-parts.
Satisfied with his programming, Amory put the phone in his new pocket, intending to activate it later. He would look if he could change their campsite, or if he needed to remove the things there completely. With a smile, he started to wake Eric up, as all this work had used some time, and it would be dawn soon. Eric would need to get back to the camp for a last time, after all.
“Five more minutes, mom” Eric mumbled when Amory gently started to shake him awake.
Amory chuckled. “You need to wake up, little cub. You need to return to your camp, or the others get angry again.”
Eric opened his eyes, and, looking into Amory´s grin, blushed in embarrassment. “Sorry, Amory. I didn´t think. Please don´t be angry for calling you mom.” He sounded a bit panicked.
Now Amory laughed at him. “Not to worry, little cub. But maybe calling me dad would have been more fitting, huh?” he laughed some more at the now deep red Eric. In his thoughts, he added: “Maybe you will do so the next time you wake up.”
After Eric was fully awake and had returned to a more normal color, not that Amory didn´t tease him a bit more about it, he stood to track back to the camp. He was sad, knowing he wouldn´t see Amory again. “Wait” Amory said, seeing how sad his future mate was looking.
“It won´t get easier if I stay longer, Amory. And I can´t stay, you know that.” Eric said, sounding depressed and unhappy.
“I just wanted to make a suggestion to you. How about you invite your friends down here to meet me? We could enjoy the day together. You can say you made a friend that wants to meet them.” Amory suggests his plan. If Eric was against it, he could follow him and change them all in their camp, but if they changed here, maybe the camp would be simply forgotten by them.
Eric seemed to consider it. “Are you sure? What will you do if they freak out? I have kept you hidden from them because I feared their reaction to you. What if they attack you or force us apart?”
“Don´t worry, cub. If they don´t like me, I will go my way, and you will go home later. And if they accept me, we have a nice day together.” Amory said calmly.
“Okay, I will speak with them. Hopefully I will see you in a few, Amory.” With that, Eric slowly moved back to their camp, thinking about what to say to his friends to bring them over to Amory.