Judas didn't know how to read, he has Father Mike read the black cat the Scripture.
However, Judas could still watch TV as well as anything with ears and eyeballs. Judas
noticed the changes in people and place happening across Glendale in the local news no
one seemed to notice seemingly but him. This didn't feel like the curse placed on the town
by the masters of his ancestor Herodias, more like, like the damage from the curse being
healed over somehow, or at least scabbed over. "Finally the shame of my line ends." Judas
meowed to himself. "I hope big and little brother both take it well."
++++++
Omega Abdul was the least shiva of the Shiva-wolves, possessing only a extra tail and a
extra wolf-hood, but he knew precisely how to please Martha, and the brothers Maddex
and Ryan were quick to follow his lead.
No extra heads, no extra arms, no third eye, no second set of nipples, Abdul was almost
plain when compared to the other omegas; much like Martha was the only omega whose
fur was a solid color rather than also possessing a highlight, but the shiva wolves had
discarded such prejudices generations ago. Indeed, Abdul would have been considered the
lowest of the low, while Joy and Ingrid would have been at the top of the pecking order
together. But Omega Martha was the best at what she did, and thus why she was 'prime
omega' (a joke title when it was originally introduced but had evolved into it's own) chief
maid, and why the other shiva wolves referred to her first, but all of them still referred to
ultimate Alpha Jensen.
'Master Jensen,' Omega Martha thought, 'I doubt the pack has had ever so radical an
Alpha... ' Master Jensen, or Alpha Jensen or simply Jensen as he preferred, had not only
appointed three females to the point of Beta, but had encouraged the pack members to
discard the pecking order that had led to so much (often violent) in-fighting over the
generations. The last lupman to do that had been a man named John who had been
formally record as Nil John in the pack family archive.
"I missed you so," Omega Martha's heads whispered, one to Ryan, one to Maddex, her
forehead eyes looking right at Abdul.
"As did we dear," Said Omega Maddex's heads.
"As did we." Repeated Omega Ryan's heads. Ryan and Maddex's extras were much like
Martha, the only difference being the obvious difference between men and women and
were doubled like Martha's were. Martha -almost- wished she had an middle head like Joy
and Ingrid, but she felt such a thing would have ruined her symmetry, the two sides of her
body were truly beautiful reflections of each other.
"As did we all," Abdul finished.
"I forgive you for lying to me." Martha's head said.
The males started, then Abdul said, "We couldn't feel loss being the pup's shadows, we
couldn't feel regret, we only felt sadness at the incompletion of a task, the will of the pups
was everything as we acted as their voice and hands in the world of adults... technically
speaking the assets we accumulated as their mouth pieces belong to us."
"I'm sure they'll serve the pack well." The pack had a community sense of ownership, that
omegas couldn't own or control pack property had been done away with a few generations
back.
"We know they will." Five male voice said in reply.
Omega Martha leaned back in her pillow bed chair, closing her eyes as she felt the males
fall over her. She didn't want to think what her life would be without them, and was just
glade she didn't have to walk the dutiful and necessary path of Omega alone.
Martha felt five muzzles nuzzling her two and with her lower arms embraced the silver
with blue highlights shiva brothers feeling the small of their backs while her upper arms
reached out and embraced the blue with gold highlights shiva male in front of her and
pulled him in. She felt two at once enter her body and pulled them in deeper. She felt
Abdul's paws rubbing her upper breasts while the brothers rubbed her lower breasts with
their upper arms rubbed her back.
Martha put her legs around Abdul's rear and locked him in place as the males strokes her
ears and the base of her tails and her belly button. To the outside observer it was a mess
of arms and wolf heads... to the participants, it was Heaven.
Moaning echoed through out the wing (there was a reason the pup's room was the only
sound proof room in the mansion).
++++++++++
After shaking themselves relatively dry (then shaking themselves again this time far
enough away not to splatter each other) Toni and Mbili had gone into the household and
found a chalk board in the surprisingly well organized basement and came back to write
down a score board for the proceeding water war.
~
Water War Current Losses:
Gem Twins:
Toni
Jay
Pride Quadruplets:
Mbili
~
"Should you include Mr. P?" Jay asked Toni as she finishing writing up the losses for their
side.
"He was more an innocent bystander than a combatant." Mbili said before Toni could
comply.
Toni nodded a this.
The mighty beast sitting next to the door as in plain view of the 'battle field' said in a gruff
voice dripping dry, "If I was actually taking part in all this you kids would be look like
drowned rats." Underneath him, the glass pups' pet Chester squirmed where Mr. P held
him fast.
"How pleasant." Mbili said.
"He's only joking, Mr. P is like that." Toni defended.
Mbili asked, "Why do you call him Mister anyway? I thought you lupmen don't have Misters
and Misses'."
"I'm right here cub." Mr. P said calmly even laying down he was huge compared to the
young lion cub. "If you must know... I guess I'm so old now that I kinda fall out of the
typical pack order... I was old when yer grandpa was in diapers."
Mbili giggled at that image. But since it wasn't direct interaction, her grandfather (in
particular Elise's father) remained human a hundred miles away.
"Besides youngster, Snowwhite ain't your mother, and you call her Mother Glen don't ya?"
"That's Mother Glen to you too."
"Don't worry kiddo, she likes it."
Pence his gun empty tackled and pushed Tatuli on her tail as he leapt toward the fountain
to refill, however a large sparkle purple paw lifted him up a moment too soon.
"No rough housing, remember the rules." Said the pack's largest busted she-wolf next to
the parody size japanese she-wolves.
Pence not having Moja's focus for manipulating the rules, and having a deep respect for his
elder said, "Yes Psi Amethyst."
"Please, Miss Amethyst Pence."
"That's your name isn't it?"
Amethyst having helped the cubs, but not being technically an Omega had rewarded her
with the letter Psi as her name prefix, the second to last letter in the greek alphabet.
Similar to Ulysses' and Sarah's prefixes. "Yes, but I'd like it if you called me Miss
Amethyst."
"I thought Miss was for Leomen and humans."
"Well I like it too." She put him down and smiled, her chest weights swinging as she leaned
down to look at him, "And we can continue talking about this if you want, but you'll gonna
get soaked if you do."
Pence turned to see Tatuli and Nneli both charges at him looking to return the favor. Pence
ran for the fountain like there was no tomorrow.
Wanting to take himself out rather than give Tauli and Nneli the satisfaction (Yamato would
have been proud), he leapt right at the fountain.
The lion cubs sisters Tatuli and Nneli charge, then skidded to a halt, looked at the
fountain, then around, then at each other.
"Er, who were we chasing again?" Nneli asked her fellow art girl.
Tatuli took a moment to appreciate the fountain though she had seen it a thousand times
before (she always loved stone the way Nneli loved glass) seeing the three adult wolves
back to back spitting and the marble male lupman pup in the middle grinning with his
arms behind it's back.
"... I forget." Tatuli admitted.
Meanwhile Jay was moaning if he had a twin like the rest he wouldn't have been blasted so
easily, everyone ignored him.
Tatuli and Nneli turned their backs on the fountain, and were instantly squirted. They
instantly turned back seeing the jasper fur colored Pence grinning at him among the legs
of the three statues.
"HEY!"
"HOW DID WE MISS HIM?!"
Pence just giggled and managed to leap the entire distance of the fountain's basin and onto
the edge gracefully and land on the other side forcing the girls to go around after him.
Pence wasn't sure what just happened, but he looked back at the statue who he swore were
looking at him and whispered, "Thank you." Jay cheered his brother still in the game on.
Meanwhile hearing Amethyst referred to as Psi had perked Mbili's natural cat curiosity and
she asked Toni, "So how do the prefixes in your family work again? What's yours?"
"Oh we're pups, so we don't have any until we turn eighteen or gain one honorary before
that, Uly' has one honorary. Martha and the other shiva wolves are the omegas.
Alphas Jesen and Alpha Kaylee are Alphas, Betas Julie, Darla, and Fran are our Betas.
Gamma-Zack is Gamma, Gamma-Pearl, Delta-June, Delta-Hope, Delta-Grace.
Nick and Nicole and their mates are Epsilons and Zetas. Lawrence and his mates are Etas
and Thetas. Roger and his mates are Iota and Kappa. Yomato, and the Hokkaido she wolves
are Lambda and Mu. And Robert and his mates are Nu and Xi.
Miss Amethyst would technically be Kappa-Amethyst, but she works with Miss Martha so
much to carter to our every whim- I mean look after us that why she's called Psi-Amethyst
instead.If the pack is -really- big live in the same place, then every sub-pack is given the
same letter."
Mnili's head spun in a tail spin and made an emergency landing almost resulting in the
loss of passengers and crew, "Wow, sounds really -really- complicated, what about pack
members who don't live here or aren't married?"
"It is really complicated, that why I think Alpha Jensen told all the adults to just get ride of
it! Lot more trouble than it's worth. He says we should just be the Big bad Wolf Pack: not
divided up into ranks and tiers. Miss Amethyst says we need to learn -about- it just cause
it's part of our heritage. She says we're gonna be the first lupmens in like, forever, not to
be given a rank letter when we grow up, and Uly' is gonna be the last to be given a letter.
Those aren't married are given a stand alone letter or grouped together depending how big
the pack is. Luna and Sunny are both Chi-, Trinity and Kimberly are Phi-, and Sarah and
Uly' are both Upsilon ... yeah, it really makes my head hurt too..."
"Maybe you should be glade your Alpha is getting ride of it, keeping all those relatives in
your head must be really really really really hard, memorizing a bunch of letters would be
even harder."
"Yup!" Toni nodded glade she could explain things and agreeing with Mbili's statement
they wouldn't have to learn a bunch of new letter once they grew up. Life was complicated
and confusing and contrived ENOUGH.
+++++
For Penny it was rather disturbing, as the icing on the cake, to see her mother become
'bald' as Kirk's mother had apparently from the transformation from human to leoman. It
also dawned on Penny just how much lionesses looked similar in comparison to the men...
deep down she felt rather insulted by that. She wondered if that had to do with biology, or
Brian and Felicity only knowing about lions via the Lion King (not knowing they had actually
done a small amount of research before they had transformed to save their family and
Madam Serenity's crew from Nicole kidnapping squad).
The look on her mother and grand mother's faces was a duel assault was something she
had never been able to defend against as Pen, and couldn't defend against now. But what
could she say? What did she -dare- say? She looked at Kirk who looked as helpless as she
did... Penny actually wheeled back some in her wheelchair. If her legs were working at least
she could make a lame brain excuse and run for it. Now that wasn't an option.
"It... involved restoring Kirk, and the other pack member who were turned into statues and
sold off: Arael, Armisael, Mal'akh, and Gabriel, but I got into a fight with a band of art
thieves who wanted them and a bunch of other victims. I can't say anymore until the paper
work for the report is written up. And I'm told nearly all the pack is really banged up from
the mission so that could be a while."
'I think, I loved riding on her back before... wait, what? NO! DAMMIT!' Penny thought with
shock and horror, 'No! I don't want to forget being Pen! I don't want to forget my grandma
being human! Dammit! This isn't fair!' Penny thought with anger and sadness at their
realization.
She also felt a alien memory of a lion cub who looked a lot like Fox, 'Heh, a lioness named
'fox', never gets old,' speaking to her about sensing something new about her, the magic
that saturated Glendale for three hundred years apparently granting Penny a power as well.
"Please God,' Penny thought, 'I don't want to forget. I don't want to forget being me...
please...'
"What's wrong sweetie?" Mother Glen asked seeing her grandchild in dire straights, like
Patrick, Mr. P, she was old while others who were old were young, but she loved every
member of her family not the same, but each in their unique way.
"It's... it's nothing."
"Don't try to lie to -me- child."
"It's... personal, I promise I'll tell you after I'm out of the chair." 'If I'm even still me at that
point.'
[i] 'If I'm even still me at that point.' [/i]
Amy mentally read back what she had finish writing down as she leaned back letting
Whitney gave her a talking to about being reckless and going on the roof by herself, Amy
didn't consider herself in any danger while on the roof, but knew better than to say that to
her care taker.
As the bucks of the Herd were brought out in pairs of two to the Pack's estate by Alice and
Abbey, (not giving as violent a reaction as Jack-sama and Tom-san), Amy and Zel-kun
were led to the front yard, least they get the bucks agitated as Nane-chan had apparently
accidently or something or other.
Whitney-san found the entire front yard in perky bedlam. The relatively organized lion
cubs against the directed chaos of the gem twins and apparently the added firepower now
of Mary-chan.
"Oh dear, stand back Master Zelipe, Mistress Amy." Omega Whitney said her four arms
pushing the pups back from the mess of little naked wet fur.
Amy looked at her -very- precious scroll, and had no intention of it getting it wet (or
letting Whitney know Amy had been writing in Amy's own blood).
Amy counted how many pups there were, and how many cubs there were. It seemed the
pups were numerically at a disadvantage.
Amy thought, 'Hmm, that's no fair.'
Amy looked at her brother, who was looking at this with awe. 'He's such a mama's boy,
nothing wrong with that at all, but he needs some more friends.'
"Zel-Kun." She said looking at her half-brother.
"Yes Amy?"
"Why don't you join?"
"What-?"
"It wouldn't be fair if both of us joined, but right now our pack mates are at a
disadvantage, and that's not fair either."
"Life not fair! Nya nya!" Nane called out her round ears not just for show.
Amy nodded, "True enough," She looked at her brother, "But that doesn't mean WE don't
have to be fair Zel-kun..."
"I'm unarmed..."
Amethyst having seen Whitney arrive with Zackery's pups in two shouted, "Not anymore
you're not!"
Amethyst produced another squirt gun from who knows where and marched over and
knelt and handed the gun to the pale pink lupman boy.
"There ya go."
"HE'S A VIABLE TARGET! GET'EM!" Sita declared as she and Nane began a two pronged
assault.
Zulema grimaced as the new-comer dove behind the gem twins for protection. "Just what
we need, another boy."
"Welcome to the army draftee." Pence smiled holding a hand out to Zelipe glade to have
another Y chromosome on the team.
Zelipe look it as the spot he had been a moment before was hit by several water squirts.
Amy smiled, knowing this was what her brother needed. She wondered if she or glass
Marie would have a chance to comfort Penny by the time things were over.
She and Whitney stood back on the front porch with Frontdoor still at the island the view
was not obstructed except the fountain's statues.
+++++++++
Alice and Abbey let their sister Samantha to her rest, they could handle the bucks without
her, just made things a slower going. Finally, the many bucks of the herd were back where
they belonged on the estate. The majority of the personal who had been meant to help with
the experiment had been members of the family or close friends, so she trusted to keep
Alice and Abbey's quick relocation to and from Big Bad Island from spreading too far.
Jack, Tom, Harry, Roland, Adam and the other bucks were back among their native home.
'Now is the time to reunite the Gold Deer with their beloved does and fawns.' She looked at
Adam, 'Those bucks who can be reunited with those care for at the very least.' Alice
wondered if it would be kinder to take down Adam next tim the pack hunted so he could
be reunited with Eve in death.
Jack actually admitted to himself he actually -liked- the body paint... if only they had
fingers to do it themselves... though that might made their duty a little -too- awkward.
The smaller glass pup Abbey looked at Alice, "Sister, The two sets of quadruplets of the
pride told us after we arrived with Mr. Jack and Mr. Tom that they could help by teleporting
the does back to the estate."
"You are correct sister." Alice wondered how to tell Abbey that was also were the cubs
mothers had just died, Alice knew more than children her age had a right to, she actually
envied Samantha and Abbey like that, well, at least Abbey now, Samantha had been
drenched in the sea of infinite chaos, that would leave scars inside her forever. Alice was
very very very glade that the wicked witches were gone forever.
"Shall we ask for their aid sister?"
"The majority of them were and appear to be engaged in a mock-battle with squirt guns. It
would be improper to interrupt their game sister."
"We did imply sister that we would accept their help once all the bucks were back on the
estate sister. Would it not be -more- improper to now ignore their offer for help?"
"... Perhaps you are right sister. But let us bring along a white flag so they might know we
seek not to engage in their war."
"A white flag sister? Where shall we find a white flag to use to show we mean not to add to
their war?"
"If you follow me sister I shall show you and we may acquire what we need to create one."
"Very well sister."
The two half-siblings marched off Alice taking the lead.
Sunny and Luna lamented on their inability to win Alpha Jensen's heart, and how unfair it
was that Martha got to keep three perfectly fine lupmen all to herself as they cut up the
meat to bite size for their grievously injured pack mates and allies.
Alice and Abbey made no sound as they moved just as they had no scent in the world
outside the mirror, and Luna and Sunny did not look behind themselves. They would
wonder where the white cloth had gone when they eventually did, along with the spare
soup spoon. They would eventually conclude they must have misplaced it and went back to
their responsibility to their packmates and allies.
Alice and Abbey behind her emerged from the kitchen's outer door, and waved the white
flag they had created. This got the attention of everyone.
"TRUCE! PARLAY! CEASE-FIRE!" Abbey called out as they marched right into the battle field,
their ears getting soaked in the process, of course, it all rolled off them like rain on a
polished window.
Finally after a minute the wolves and lions settled down.
"We now have all the bucks back at our Wolf Manor's estate. Would you like to aid I and
Abbey bring the does back to the estate?" Alice said the nearest cub, who happened to be
Tano.
"We promised we would didn't we?" Tano said.
"No you did not promise," Alice said, "You asked if you we needed help. And to let you
know if we -NEED- help. We do not NEED your help because we can still accomplish our
task anyway. But it would take much more time to accomplish."
"Then let us help you."
"If that's what you want."
"We didn't -exactly- promise, but there's more to words than their precise meaning."
"A word's precise meaning is everything." Alice replied instantly.
"All the same," Tano looked at her sisters and cub-mates, "Everyone wanna help?"
Eight paws raised up.
"Sorry Mary, I do not think you can really help here."
Mary started, having been caught up in things, and merely nodded and took a step back.
Nane gave Gretchen a hug then rushed to the glass pups.
"Come on." Nane said taking Alice and Abbey's hands, "Let's show you how we do it!"
"You remember where the island is?"
"Like it was the place I was born." Nane said strangely and did three steps and she and the
glass cubs were gone.
"Hey don't leave us behind little sister!" Sita said and telported away.
Saba looked at Paula and hugged her, "Be back soon promise." Paula nodded and Saba took
three steps.
The rest of the quadruplets followed suit.
"I wouldn't have minded going back." Zulema said wondering how different the island
looked now.
Amethyst looked at the gem twins and Zelipe. "I guess the battle is on hold until they get
back! Who wants some target practice on the statues?"
"Maybe we can all wrestle after all." Paula said.
Toni sighed.
++++++++
"HAIL! HAIL! The gang's all hear!" Nane declared Alice and Abbey holding her hands still as
she stepped into existence among the teenage wolves.
Garnet (who had the agitation of her name often wrongly written down even by her
packmates as Gargent) yelped and the teenage wolf held a hand to her chest, "Don't do
that! I almost had a heart attack."
Abbey and Alice mimed a curtsey and apologized while Nane giggled, "Hehe, sorry."
"Just be glade you didn't scare the does and fawns." Emerald said.
"Well, no harm no foul." Nane defended to the teenage wolf.
"What are you doing here?" Ruby had to ask.
"Just here to help." Nane smiled.
"Your kind of help?" Emerald raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. Their kind of help." Alice said simply.
++++++++
"For the record," Lawrence said remembering his years of study before his feeling of
inferiority to Epsilon Nick and Alpha Jensen had driven him to bulk up and neglect his
studies his parents had been so proud of him for. "The Nazis targeted not just Jews, but
also Gypsies, Catholics, Russians, Homosexuals, and the mentally retarded. Hilter simply
targeted the Jewish people in earnest because he had petty, small, personal reasons for
hating them."
Lilly and Casandra looked at each other, most of those words going over their heads. For
the record, both of them were dressed like proper young ladies of the Victorian era in
matching red/purple dresses with matching hats. While Lawrence was dressed as a
victorian gentleman and his aunt Betty an odd white dress with a lot of ruffles.
Glass Marie nodded, "It was just an example. And not really the point. The sisters were now
the single most emotional unstable thing in creation, children who had suffered loss. And
like any child were ready to lash out at what had hurt them. Joseph knew this very well. And
did his absolute best to make sure the girls didn't forget their grandmother's dying wish or
his own promise to her."
++++++++++
"Revenge -won't- make you feel better little Gita," Joseph warned Gita as she did drawing
of a being eaten alive by a big snake for the third time that week, "It won't at all. Revenge
will only leave you with an even more empty feeling than you have now... I know people
who have given into revenge... it never made them happy."
'It would make me happy.' Gita said ignoring what her guardian said using but barely
enjoying the gifts given to her.
Mrs. Marcine Wise had paid for Balthilde's funeral, for her years of loyal service, and as an
act of kindness for the girls now in the hands of that 'wicked man' which she was sure had
something to do with her sons Jack and the others vanishing and being forgotten by
everyone but her. Most figured she was trying to fill the void she felt from not having
children of her own, she swore on a bible she had had several sons but they had vanished...
everyone thought she was harmlessly mad.
She tried to argue that she'd be in a better position to take care of the girls, but each time
she seemed to be making headway, the person she spoke to got a glassy look in their eyes
and dismissed her with few words.
"Grandma said be good... grandma said be good... Mr. Running-Bear said we should honor
what Grandma said... " The child to be known one day as Golgatha said stroking 'Princess'
whose true name unknown to the girls until she became their familiar was Herodias. The
girl's voice was like ice. "That's what Grandma said... it's the last thing grandma said...
helping those other kids from becoming bad adults was a good thing right Princess?"
"Yes Goldwyn, it was." 'Princess' said soothingly, calmly, encouragingly. With the old
woman gone, Herodias now now focused mostly on deflecting her presence being sensed
by the native who had the same second sight as the old woman. She could let nothing
interfere with her mistress Goldwyn's glorious destiny.
"Mr. Running-Bear says revenge is wrong... Grandma said to listen to him didn't she?"
"That she did." 'Princess' answered.
Goldwyn looked at her sister, then at her other sister looking blandly out the window as
light snow fell.
The black cat Herodias warped her own in the cloak that made her unnoticed but not
invisible.
Goldwyn took her coat (another gift from Mrs. Wise), and walked out of Running-Bear's
house behind his back. No one stopped to ask what a child was doing out in the final days
of winter. They barely even saw her. Holding onto 'Princess' the entire time.
She walked into the jail unopposed not even the constable from before noticed her. The
cell a lice infested joke that resembled a mattress with a chamber pot for a toilet, Goldwyn
felt no pity.
The man laid on the floor of his cell, looking at the world barely understanding the world
around him. Goldwyn put down 'Princess.'
"You killed my grandma." Goldwyn said.
"Ehhh nevvah keeled anneh-boode... " Said the hopeless drunk.
Goldwyn narrowed her eyes as she knelt down began petting 'Princess.' The face was the
same, the clothes were the same, the smell was the same, the voice was the same, the
sickly diseased and twisted aura was the same. This was the murderer. Why waste time
bowing down to rules that wasted everyone's time?
Goldwyn had no idea, years ago, some superstitious paranoids, thought the same thing
about skipping due process for her mother...
This sad, broken mess of a man had murdered her grandmother over money she didn't
have.
"Yer facesss... eh luuks leek ah skuuul...why wuud et luuk leek ah skuuul?"
Goldwyn ignored his comment.
"You killed my grandma for money."
"Nevvah keeled anneh-boode! Nevvah keeled anneh-boode! Pupppeet strungs ... spiiidur
wubs... spiidur en mah haaandez...Wei yah luuk leek ah skuul? Yuuu haave anni-monee?"
"Grandma before you murdered her said for me and my sisters to be good." Goldwyn said
the air around her darkening by her mere presence, "Before she was murdered by you, she
told us to be good. And before she was murdered by you for money she didn't have she
told us to listen to what Mr. Running-Bear said... Mr. Running-Bear said 'turning the other
cheek' he says to forgive people. My big sister Gita wants you to be a mouse and eaten by
a snake for murdering our grandma... Mr. Running-Bear says revenge won't make her
happy. Grandma said before you murderer her to listen to what Mr. Running-Bear says... I
want my big sister to be happy... Mr. Running-bear says revenge won't make her happy... "
"Wei yah luuk leek ah skuul? Du yuu hav' annee-boooze? Den wee caaan taulk, den everey-
thang make send-ense. Yuuu smill leek floweres... "
"Adults almost never turn out right, why wouldn't anyone want to become an adult? If you
were a child again, you'd just become an adult again and murder other people again... No
one should have to become an adult... You need to be fixed."
"Yuu're gonna make et so ah can't have kittens?"
Goldwyn face palmed and she placed her palm on 'Princess'' back.
"No."
The deranged drunken murderer began to shrink.
"Why... does your face... look like a skull?"
Goldwyn said nothing to the mad ramblings now.
The lunatic continued to shrink, the hair on his head vanished, his arms and legs became
cubby as did the rest of his body, his eyes becoming larger and rounder as his nose
became tiny and his head larger to the rest of his body.
As he continued to shrink, the murderer sat up, put his hands together on his belly, and his
mind filled with the precious few memories he had of his mother before she died of small
pox. He smiled, then grinned at the memories reliving them over and over in an endless
loop.
"Consider this, me forgiving you." Goldwyn said her voice like frost.
The murderer's body stiffened, becoming panted clay.
Goldwyn looked ice cold at the life size figurine of a baby with it's hands together around
his belly grinning.
"That doesn't quite suit you."
Her emotions below the surface a raging fire. The human infant then morphed into the
figurine of a newborn chimp the pose remaining the same. Resembling the forth chinese
monkey whose proverb was 'Do no evil.'
"That suits you much better." She said to the soul that still existed in part within the small
figurine. She left the jail house. She then hear men shouting about the prisoner having
escaped naked into the snow, most figuring he'd freeze to death before getting far...
"I did good?"
"You did very good Mistress Goldwyn... you did very good."
She next visited the innkeeper who had found their grandmother five minutes too late.
"Huh? What? What are you doing here? Little Miss Goldwyn is that you?"
"I forgive you... you did all you could... and... someone as well meaning as you... doesn't
deserve to be a prisoner and a slave to this world of rules adults have forced everyone to
live in. I have a game I wish to play with you."
A few minutes later a lone and lonely Sasquatch wandered off with a dazed look in it's eyes
out of the town toward the rocky mountains a thousand miles away.
Goldwyn smiled and waved him off. She then calmly returned home.
++++++++
Molly and Library cleaned though the library's basement, to rotate out the items that were
kept in the tiny wing of the library that functioned as a make-shift museum. Molly was
concerned while her son hadn't called her today, but shrugged it off, she wasn't about to
worry yet. Library was less concerned about Backdoor, she was a complete gargoyle, and
she had Frontdoor, he had no reason to worry about her, they both had their duty and
places to protect.
As Molly went through what items were due for show or not she came across an item from
Glendale's own personal history.
It was the mask of a plague doctor: shaped like a bird's face based on the idea the plague
was air born and could draw the plague from the victim and into the doctor's attire and
containing a primitive gas mask.
The records said it had belonged to one of the witch hunters who had killed the three
witches who had brought upon Glendale The Game that everyone pretended wasn't there
and the tourist board insisted didn't exist.
One man theorized the hunters had in fact poisoned the witches to create the illusions of
the plague to get them desperate and drop their guard, then disguised a plague doctor
killed them in their sleep. The holes in this theory were mind numbing (most notable on
how there were to Molly's knowledge any plague doctors in colonial America to blend in
with, and if they were poisoned why do something as contrived as that and not use a
strong enough poison to just kill the witches?).
Another was that the witches had been trapped in a burning building and the witch hunter
had worn it to be fully effective in the smoke filled house leaving the witches at a
disadvantage in a climatic battle. But this didn't match up with all records saying the
witches had been executed.
Molly's own theory, dismissed by the majority of the historical society, was that the mask
had belonged to someone dear of the witch hunter and was a loving keep sake.
+++++++++
The minister observed, "You rather like dogs Marie."
"They're better than cats." The short black hair lass smiled rubbing the loyal canine's head.
"As it would seem." The man nodded. "I trust you finished your studies for today?"
"Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto
him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. John eleven, thirty-
nine."
"Very good." He tossed a coin in the air, the child in one motion took out a throwing knife
and in half the same motion threw striking the coin easily. "You have been practicing."
The devoted mutt itself stared in amazement at the feat the child had accomplished.
"As you've told me to papa."
"Have you forgiven the old man who tried to hurt you before yet?"
Marie looked down, "No, I haven't. .. I... I can -say- I've forgiven him... but... I feel exactly
the same afterwards."
"Then you haven't really forgiven him, I'm glade you can recognize that. Forgiveness is
about letting go, if you don't, the weights will drag you down into darkness... And if you
pass judgement on someone else, you face judgement yourself."
"Yes papa... you tell me everytime you go out to always remember that truth is god's world,
but you keep telling me to tell adults I'm a boy... isn't that lying?"
"If God had created a fair world."
"God should have."
"Marie... if God had created a fair world, how would we prove we were fair?"
Marie Cruz blinked at the worlds.
"... I'll explain when you're a bit older."
"Yes papa."
++++++++
"So her god father was like a super-hero with a secret identity?" Casandra now actually
interested.
Glass Marie nodded slowly, "In a manner of speaking... he wanted to help people inside
and outside the Vatican, and he occasionally made enemies of some very bad people. He
had intended to hold onto Marie Cruz only until he found relatives of hers to hand her off
to... he never found any. Thus how he ended up her god parent. A girl couldn't be an alter-
boy however."
Lawrence sighed waving his hand, "And he was teaching a child how to use weapons
be~cause?"
"Mostly when he realized Marie would eventually be drawn into his double-life weather he
liked it or not... "
Casandra asked, "So are we going to learn who the other three hunters were or not?"
"Marie didn't know weather or not the templar gargoyle would agree to her request. And
she KNEW from her visions she'd -die- or -worse- if she tried to tackle the witches alone...
one 'hunter' if you want to call him that, she didn't meet until she arrived in the colonies
with Vatican and the other two. As you can imagine, it wasn't easy for a one-eyed woman
who believed in magic in the seventeenth century to find allies."