AN Don't ask me why but this system wouldn't let me post my story in one post. Hopefully
the problem won't persist.
+++++++
The twins had split up as soon as entering the foyer under the gaze of the giant entryway
statue. Gissele and Gretchen had gone off to the Omega's chambers (right next to the cub's
joint room) in search of their father, while their half-sisters Laura and Zulema went with
Mary where their noses told them their mother and auntie would be.
As the golden pair ran back to where their mother was, the pair chatted among
themselves. Gretchen being on her pedestal as Gissele was her chain in reality.
The pair was honestly confused at how passive their mother had been with them before
going outside, barely able to understand how tired and worn out she had been.
While none of the twins born from the omegas had the extra limbs they should have,
Zulema had often wondered if that was because they were twins and had started out with
an extra of everything but then had split in half. This theory was actually a little comforting
to the twins. Like any children, being so radically different from their parents was as
discomforting as it was awkward. Laura and Zulema wondered if they had a triplet
somewhere their mother had never told them about to explain why there was only two of
them but their mother had three of everything. In spite of addressing their mother in
singular, many had concluded that Joy and Ingrid's three heads were three servers
connected to the same network... unlike the heads of the other Shiva wolves whom were
two terminals connected to a singular server.
Gretchen looked at all the letters next to the names on the name plaque of the various
rooms.
Gretchen said, "If I'm ever Alpha Female, the first thing I'm doing to putting the rank
system back in... if this keeps up we'll be no different from humans." That Bart had used
her father as a puppet had done nothing to not discouraged Gretchen's dream of usurping
Jenny throne as 'Princess of the Pack.'
Gissele asked her sister, "That's a bad thing? Being more similar to humans?"
"It's good to be unique isn't it?"
"We're twins."
"So?"
"Never mind."
That was when the two golden pups came in on their restored father, mother, and their
two step-fathers, in the middle of hot passionate love making...
++++++++
Alice and Abbey stood back as they watched the quadruplets use the power was that so
much like their own, only it worked in the outside world and not just in the reality inside
mirrors. Surprising everyone except the glass pups, the cubs proved to not agitated the
fawn or does... After all, cubs didn't hunt, and there was no smell of their mother... and
cubs who did not use even a fraction of stealth while hunting were likely too stupid to be
much of a threat.
The seven and a half year old Alice, and the five year old Abbey watched carefully as the
eight and three month year olds made their way to the does. Of course Marcine and the
others had seen their mates got into the water and not come out, though they also knew
they had been taken by the glass pups into a mirror and had come out the water before.
They weren't stupid after all. Golden Deer looked at white-tails and their other 'cousins'
the way lupmens did wolves, leomens did lions and humans did apes... Leomens and
Lupmens could have a basic dialogue with their non-sapient 'cousins' and humans could
teach a chimp a few basic words and a gorilla sign language, but that didn't mean they saw
those creatures as people.
The average Golden Deer option of a white-tail was likewise 'stupid, greedy, cowardly, and
did I mention stupid?'
But while a few lupmens and leomens were vegetarians, (and seen as completely bonkers
and living an unhealthy lifestyle) the Golden Deer both as individuals and as a unified whole
could not comprehend even the idea, let alone the concept of not being prey. It was
completely alien and for them a sign of insanity. Dying of old age was incomprehensible,
death by claws and fangs a fact of life. And like humans who advocated death in of itself as
part of life (or at least something to keep species from stopping reproduction to insure
genes were always being shuffled and enable natural selection to allow a species to adapt
to a forever changing environment), Golden Deer likewise had death by the hands of
predators integrated into the the foundation of their very social structure!
The gargoyles stood ready, their duty was to protect the pack after all, and by extension
their guests and immediate allies, thus Frontdoor and the other grotesques were ready to
swoop down in a moment's notice to sweep up the cubs if the Golden Deer decided to
crack in their skulls (the use of the words 'gargoyles' and 'grotesques' had been one of the
many divergences in the Colonial and British English languages). They were to follow with
Alice and Abbey once the Herd had gone through to where the majority of the Pack waited.
The purple Ulysses didn't like this, he felt it was his responcibility to do this, sacred or not
and being the second youngest of the teen wolves or not, (with only Amber being younger,
a fact she absolutely hated, in particular due to her short hight being mistaken for a cub by
people who didn't know her). Robyn and Maxine didn't mind not having to work, but did
feel having the cubs do this was crazy. Caroline/Cobalt herself was worried for the cubs
but she and Opal stood back. The rest of the teen wolves of course obeyed Robert and the
other gallery wolves orders to merely be on stand by as the cubs now tried their hands at
peacefully helping the does back to the manor.
While Nane didn't show it, she wanted -off- of this island as soon as people, the images of
seeing her mother's lifeless body sharp in her memory. Moja, still remembering the
original timeline somewhat, wondered if when their mothers' souls were divided up, if they
had been sent back in time to the quadruplets' conceptions, 'Then again, life is
complicated enough, no need to add time travel to the whole mess, and these memories
that are appearing in place of Mama-Elise's don't have me or my sisters acting like soulless
sociopaths...'
Nane approached a gold deer named Midge (as all first females of her line had been named
for three hundred years), who was mated to a buck named Dick... Nane had a -very-
surprising amount of self control when she chose to use it... She came, her claws seethed,
in the most non-theatening non-offenseive manner imaginable, she slowly, -very- slowly,
came up the doe, making soothing, peaceful noises reaching out with the palm of her
forepaw... This was not hunting behavior in the least. Brushing against the doe's side,
(feeling something kick within) she began to walk along side it still touching it take one
step at a time, "One, two, three..." And both were gone. Nane, doe, and fawn.
This sent some shock-waves through the does as the other cubs took some steps back.
"Midge is perfectly fine!" Alice said, "Midge is perfectly fine! Miss Midge is by now back at
Wolf Estate with Dick and the rest of the Herd's bucks! There is no reason for you to panic."
Alice said.
"Uh, yeah, it's okay." Said the teenage Robyn having no clue if the walking venison knew
what Robyn was saying or not.
Tom's mate, Nancy, with Saba was next. The dirty red cub inched towards the due, with her
paws exposed and her belly out to show she trusted Nancy. Thankfully culture clash didn't
result in anything bloody. "Okay Madam, okay, it's all right, now just trust me just for a
moment, just this moment, an you'll be back with Tom in no time, okay? One, two, three."
Veronica and Betty were taken at the same time now that a slight level of trust was being
established by Sita and Tano at the same time... honestly the pair wouldn't have minded
going into the mirror verse via the ocean, but they had promised to help speed up the
process and they did just that. This process continued until each of the cubs had taken a
doe with them.
A minute later the cubs returned ready for more. The cycle repeated, also taking the
occasional fawn, being double sure they weren't separated from their mother... parental
abandonment being another alien concept to the Golden Deer like dying of old age or living
without predators, but at the same time there was a deep seated fear of it, of parent and
child being torn apart by forces they couldn't control, almost like a genetic memory.
Biologists pointed out the sheer illogic of this, better to breed another day then to lose
one's life for a child who would die anyway after the predator had their way with the
parent... but like mating for life and accepting into their family a fawn that wasn't theirs,
the Golden Deer did many things that contradicted the supreme goal of survival (much like
man).
Finally all that remained on the island was Marcine, the Prime Doe, the one to whom all
females turned to just as all the bucked turned to her mate Jack. It hadn't felt the same
with Jack gone without Eve to speak to.
Marcine didn't trust these wolves that walked upright at all, and she didn't trust these lions
that walked upright either, anymore than she trusted the naked Sasquatch. And most of
all, she didn't forgive them for killing Eve and Eve Jr ... that all parties involved had been
entranced by Kurse at the time didn't really register in her brain.
Alice however was a very observative girl, it was only proper to go hand in hand with being
curious. And she knew the English Language better than seemingly anyone... most put it on
how she didn't need to sleep while in the outside world and could spend entire nights
reading when she snuck out past Marthy's security (which wasn't all that hard for a girl who
could pass through any smooth, flat, reflective surface). Ironically packmates and pride
members were less uncomfortable around this living piece of glass and her half-sisters
than they were of a pair of twins who had no such ability to cheat sleep and yet at age nine
were geniuses in regards to economics and law...
And Alice, knowing enough about the deer to even KNOW THEIR NAMES, could see in
Marcine's body language what the Prime Doe intended. She put a clear glass paw on
Mbili's shoulder.
"Mbili, do not try to take like Marcine like you did the other does. She will hurt you,
because she wants to hurt back right now, I can see it. Please allow myself and my sister to
take her like we did Jack and the other bucks."
Mbili stared at her, "How... how can you tell that?"
"Hurting the next cub that comes close to her is what she is saying."
"She's not saying anything, she's a deer."
"Yes she is. Not all words are formed from sound and letters. And Marcine can not use
letters or our sounds, so she uses other ways to speak." Alice said simply.
Mbili had to ask, "How can you talk about her kindly like that? Last month you invited us
into the mirror world and we ate the hind leg of her sister... "
"Predators is what we are. Prey is what they are. Neither of us judge each other for being
what we are. Or at least, I do not judge them, and Jack does not judge us. We are both just
doing what comes natural, doing our hardest to survive."
Mbili stared at the girl who was nine months her minor. "Alice.. you scared me sometimes."
Alice hugged her. It never stopped being a unique feeling, that smooth, room temperature,
moving glass against her body. "Thank you Mbili for being honest. One has to say what
they mean if they are to mean what they say."
Alice and Abbey together came up to Marcine, who knew better than to try and harm these
glass wolves, the last deer that had had ended up with a broken leg.
"It's okay Miss Marcine, you're going to be with Jack in a bit." Abbey promised.
The two led Marcine into the even reflective water and she entered the universe within all
mirrors and was dressed up like a horse with a hitch for pulling along a carriage. Marcine
remembered this from last time and did her best to ignore it, these were things of
civilization, something the Golden Deer as a point of pride never ever sought to be part of.
After taking three steps, the were in what somewhat resembled the giant backyard of the
mansion but with trees looking much younger and some trees with square-roots and a
number of Epileptic Trees discussing various conspiracy theories (mostly concerning
squirrels and the US postal service), and finally some trees looking to have been imported
from Mexico wearing boxing gloves ready to sock it to it anyone who came at them with an
axe or to do their business. Marcine did not even try to comprehend the Mexican Fighting
Trees. The way the grass was two different shades of green like a chess board wasn't even
something she noticed or would have understood.
A minute later Alice and Abbey led Marcine out of the mirror and back out into the other
universe that all others called home. She instantly smell and saw her Herd and mate. Jack
and Marcine instantly nuzzled each other. It was very very good to be home! The island
didn't really look that bad when they arrived even if it was totally alien, and under Kurse it
became an aimless, chaotic warped parody... but afterwards it still looked very strange...
but not all that awful either... but at the end... this was there home, and they wouldn't have
it any other way.
Alice and Abbey looked at each other satisfied promised themselves to remember to thank
Tano, Moja and their sisters for all their hard work, and went back into the mirror world
that was their home to travel back to Big Bad Island.
The gray and black Iota-Robert called out to his fellow gallery wolves and the teen wolves
and the gargoyles, "Okay! That's it packmates! Let's back it in and go home as soon as he
girls are back!"
"FINALLY!" Declared Maxine, having used all her will power along with Robyn to hold onto
remembering their adult selves long enough that they could tease Millie about. "That girl
better still remember her old, adult, whatever version of her when we get there..." Said
Maxine, "It would be too much fun lost if she's already forgotten."
"We ain't gonna really rememba' dis here fun eitha after ar' memories fade ya know sistah."
Robyn pointed out causing the other teen wolves to look at them oddly.
"Yeah but it'll be a great last hurray for the big guy upstairs or whoever remembers
everything that's never happened girfriend!"
Ulysses was looking foreword to a long nap, and his best friend Mary and and his 'not
everything is about blood' sister Sarah.
Coral, Tourmaline, Ruby & Emerald, Amber were also looking foreword to some well earned
sleep. Opal with Caroline/Colbalt likewise were glade to just get through this okay. Garnet
was actually tempted to stay on the island, but the duty to the pack came first...
The gargoyles didn't care one way or another, weather at the island or the estate their
purpose remained the same... protect the pack.
The gallery wolves wondered how their artistic companions were doing. Rose just hoped
everyone would be awake enough for 'pink wolves-only game night' she had been told
about. Of course Maxine had to promise Pearl repeatedly that they didn't do anything to
Zelipe...
++++++
No one gave Amy, Penny, or Kirk much attention as the four adopted siblings were
distracted by their seemingly futile game to score a bull's eye with their squirt gun on the
fountain heads while Amethyst watched them, Whitney kept one eye but not really listening
in on Amy and the two lions, and Mr. P of course watching over the lot of them.
Amy told Jenny all Amy knew, about the changes in reality, about the bloody fight, no, war,
at Big Bad Island, some of it was recap, some of it was not. The mutation of the yacht
passengers including their children. Fox and Elise's self sacrifice. The birth of Moja, Tano,
and their sisters when Fox and Elise realized they couldn't go back to being individuals.
The destruction of the witches' combined shade Kurse by Trevor, Father Paul, and Amy.
And in the aftermath of that much chaos, reality itself coming down hard to ensure that
the laws of cause and effect were obeyed along with one basic law, if something existed, it
therefore had to have existed.
Amy showed Jenny the scroll Amy was writing, in her own blood, the only medium she
could trust.
Kirk didn't look so good.
"I'm sorry, but I sensed you wanted to know the truth before who you were faded
completely." Amy said.
Kirk looking a little green said, "Thank you and all but... but -children- were mutated by
some witch's ghost?"
"Ghost implies spirit or soul, this thing was even less than that."
"That's not the point!"
"I know, I am sorry, I think I've been hanging along side Alice too long."
"Children, dammit, -children-!"
"Unlike the movies, children are not immune to the zombie plague or spontaneously vanish
as soon as the vampire invade... all the chaos used by Kurse is now being filtered through
Marie into Big Bad Island..."
"So..." Penny asked, "Reality itself, is fixing itself up so all of us were -born- as what we are
and for there to be a logical reason behind it?"
"As far as magic itself can be logical yes. Your power and mine is from our families
spending generations in a town so deeply saturated with magic it's been absorbed into
some families' genomes. The power of Martha-San's dance under a full moon, and that of
her fellow Omegas, and Alice and her sisters' forms. I'm not sure what logic reality has
created for Marie being the way she is."
"What's to keep her from becoming just another wicked witch? From what I understand you
remember being you-"
"You are always you."
"Point is that you remember being, okay the old you, but you've got to know you can't trust
that kind of power in an adult's hands let alone a child."
"I agree. And so does Marie, I don't know how to explain it better than, she got a look into
the eye of truth."
"That makes no sense."
Amy bowed, "Gomennasai. I did not say it would Penny-San."
"Then why say it at all?"
"Because it needed to be said."
"So how long?" Penny asked. "Before I forget being me? And don't start the 'self is self'
shtick again."
"Gomennasai. You were delayed in the changing of your memories because of how far
away you were from the rest of the pride... now that you've come this close, the process
will be significantly sped up... I'm not sure if I shall remember anymore than you, since
both our powers effect existence... which means using them now while things are in flux
could cause existence to simply reject us as a lost cause and we'd all have never been
born."
Kirk had to ask, "What about me?"
".... you'll forget before Penny does, since you don't have the power she does..."
Penny cringed, as did Kirk, if they were going to forget, she was hoping they could at least
forget together.
Kirk smelled it first, "I smell deer.... lots of them... they're... gold deer? ... How do I know
what those are?"
Amy sighed, "Those would be originally two of the yard workers employed by the smiths
before Jensen and Kaylee began mutating the staff... they were to create an independent
food source for the pack, now they provide for the Pride and Pack with their numbers."
"Wait... so if reality is making it all the same... all as 'ever was then'..."
"Yes, those two people, Jack and Marcine are their names... have always been nothing more
than food animals..."
Penny just stared out into the void in her wheel chair for half a minute, no expression, on
he face, then she began to whisper, "It's not fair, it's not fair! IT'S NOT FAIR!
ITSNOTFAIR~!!!" Penny roared.
That got EVERYONE'S attention! A grown woman even when she was on the mend from a
crippling injury, didn't begin roaring 'it's not fair' at the top of her lungs out of the blue.
Amy quickly turned around to her fellow naked wolf people, "Gomennasai. I told her about
Elise and Fox..." Not technically a lie, as she had, just not in the discussion that had led to
Penny's outrage.
Amy looked back at the crippled but still growling lioness, Kirk looking a bit scared of
Penny for a moment.
"Your absolutely positively right," Amy said daring to put a paw on her side, "It's not fair.
Not in the least. But the world has never been fair, take it from someone whose lived three
life times...."
"You don't think I don't know that brat-?! I'm a cop!"
"I apologize Penny-San." Amy bowed, "I meant no dishonor. And I didn't meant to
downplay the wrongness of this, but this is the only life any of the Golden Deer have ever
known.. and neither of our power will work on them... reality won't let us! It would be like
rejecting a transfusion... I am sorry if that barely makes sense. Reality is too injured as it is
to accept any more radical changes... Jack and Marcine's lines of Golden Deer have already
been hardwired into the curse's own origin...And the Herd itself wired into the existence of
the pride and pack... as the pride's existence reaches backwards slowly through time. I am
sorry Penny-San, I am truly sorry. But, as a cop, I know you know, there are wrongs you
can't right... and when you try to, you often create seven wrongs for the right you undid...
making the Golden Deer mindless animals now would be wrong, but making them have
hands and speak would fatally injure reality around Glendale destroying it... I am greatly
sorry."
"Every intentional revision to reality I've made has spawned an equal and opposite
reaction."
"It undoes itself?"
"No, what I am saying Penny-San is that any changes to existence have a ripple effect! To
sum it up, EVERYTHING has it's prince Penny-San. I used my power to restore Bart and
Jenny's shadows, and reality made sure to assimilate them into the wolf pack's existence in
the most effective, most direct way possible, using them nearly as raw material to cover up
any 'plots holes' by the reality warping of the game."
Penny turned away from Amy, she then looked at the male leoman next to her.
Penny said to her fiancee, "Kirk, Tell me about when we first met..."
Kirk opened his mouth, then looked confused, hesitated, then spoke, "I think I came to see
a Rodeo with my family, I remember being bored out of my skull, wishing I was at home
watching My Little Pony... and a little boy was next to us jumping and cheering at the horse
back riding... Or... was I the little boy sulking thinking how horses weren't interesting
unless you were eating them?... "
Penny realized to her dismay that Kirk was having trouble remembering being Katy... or
human. Penny ran though her own memories... she remembered the bloody fight with the
wolves clear enough (if it could be called that) ... But also she now had a memory of
crawling streaking blood across the floor managing to touch shaking finger tips to five
statues of her pack mates whispering, "You are leomen, always and forever." Her extended
claws just barely able to touch the toe of the lioness statue of Mal'akh before passing out.
She remembered the doctor doing scans to make sure she had not suffered internal
bleeding that was going to kill her in two day after her release from the hospital (it had
happened to a toddler Penny had read about once).
She also remembered a chat between MJ and Wanda Alpha-Kaylee developing a fetish for
souled statues, apparently Alpha-Kaylee was entranced by the idea of art that could think
about the audience as much as the audience could think about the art. One had one white
and red male wolf and four positively absurdly breasted Hokkaido she-wolves, in to
demonstrate their loyalty to their Alpha Female used the game to turn themselves into solid
gold statues. Since they had willingly and knowingly done to it themselves, were legally
sane, and their souls were still there (Penny couldn't remember who or how THAT had been
determined) it couldn't be precisely called suicide and actually was labeled under
'performance art.'
Amy remembered herself and Zelipe being told of their power by Moja and Amy convincing
Zelipe (that boy needed more backbone) to undo their 'lifetime performance art' ... and
getting an ear full from Yamato about not respecting their wishes... but this was all quickly
push aside when it was realized Amy and Zelipe's power could be used on UNWILLING
victims of the curse just as easily!
And the same day, Penny remembered Tano sensing and telling Penny about a power
similar to Amy and Zelipe that Penny had picked up from her family's long stay in this
magic saturated town much like Zack, Pearl and June's lines. And what shocked Penny
more than anything, was that KNEW who Tano was! She remembered being so proud of
Fox.
"Kirk, take me over there and let's lay down." Penny said simply. Kirk complied and lifted
her up. Amy knew when to back off.
Carrying her own wheel chair as Kirk carried her in his arms by her own instruction, Kirk
laid down in the shade beneath one of the crab apple trees, Penny in his lab her wheel
chair close by.
"Kirk... hug me, feel the base of my tail, feel my lionesshood, feel my breasts, stay close to
me... and keep telling me your name from before you were a statue and then things about
your life until I tell you to stop."
Deep down somewhere Kirk understood, when the last trace of Kathy ever having existed
was gone and only the male lion Kirk remained, Penny would ask him to stop.
+++++
Casandra and Lilly had no idea their mother was now free of being Bart and Jenny's
puppets along with the other omegas... or that she hadn't BEEN their mother until time
space and shuffled the deck to allow the twins to have an existence to accommodate the
inescapable truth that they DID exist, let alone the fact that until a few days before
yesterday they had been one person and had been a male day worker...
Lawrence asked, "So they were still under the concept everything they were doing was for
the better? And that they were saving children from being adults, and adults from being
adults?"
The black and red dressed Marie looked the muscular white wolf in the eyes saying, "They
always were. Up until they were hung and spat the game out at Marie Cruz and her four
teammates, the three of them and their familiars all believed they were saving children and
grown up children from the world of adults."
"Being adults isn't THAT bad is it?" Casandra asked sounding concerned.
"No." Betty said, "I won't say being a child isn't nice... this world is still pure to you, you
don't see things in this world yet that aren't so beautiful... that's how nostalgia works,
people think back to the good old days because being children meant they see the world
as a kinder, simpler place." Betty put a paw on both the twins shoulders, being an adult
being taking responsibility, it means giving back to the world that's given to you. It means
accepting the consequences of your own actions, it also means getting to shape the world
for the next generation." Casandra and Lilly looked at each other, barely getting anything
of what Betty said.
Marie said, "Marie Cruz said something very similar to Gaal when the witch gave her
justification for what she did when the two faced each other for the final time not counting
the witches' trial and execution. But like I said, we're a whiles off from that."
Lawrence asked, "So next the changed the Wises? The people who gave their grandmother
a job and them a home?"
"They were prejudice to the native American, same as many, but deep down they were
decent people, and the witchlings say their actions purely as an act of kindness."
Betty asked darkly, "Like the innocent children they made into deer and statues?"
Marie shrugged, "They're better off than most living art victims who aren't killed when their
bodies are turned to stone or another medium. Most wallow in agony or go mad. They're at
least happy and content with their existence opposed to most who know what's been
robbed from them."
"Not that they know any better."
"Not that they know any better." Marie echoed back simply offering no retort. "The witches
only real regret was that they hadn't figure out a way to permanently remain children
themselves while keeping their power..."
+++++++
They small coven of three waited till Mr. Running-Bear took the girls into town on one of
their routine trips. In spite of being with three European girls, no one questioned him, those
that tried to didn't get far enough to ask and instead walked away with a glassy look in
their eyes finding it all normal, yes, finding it all normal, yes, finding it all normal, yes,
finding it all normal, etc.
It was now the year of our lord 1673 and Gita was now nine years old closing in on ten.
Their mother was gone. Their grandmother was gone. Sickness having taken their father
and grandfather. It was like the "Great Mortality" itself carried something with it that was
not natural, (it would not be called the Black Death for another two hundred years). The
combined power the girls had from doing precisely what their mother had warmed them
not to was staggering. Of course they had princess filtering the chaos for them still... but
there was much to be done... "Yes, much to be done." Goldwyn said.
Goldwyn let Princess loose, of course this meant the girls would be plain as day to notice
with anyone with working eyeballs... but Princess had to keep Mr. Running-Bear busy while
the girl gave the gift to the Wises that the girls had given their sons.
Princess let herself be sensed by Joseph Running-Bear after letting herself be a bit of
distance between herself and her master.
When Mr. Running-Bear sensed what he did from the winds he frowned. This didn't feel
right, nor did it feel good. He looked at his foster daughters and said, "Gita, stay here with
Grisele and Goldwyn... there's something I need to do, stay right here."
The three girls smiled and nodded. Running-Bear didn't inquire further as he ran after the
wrongness he felt from the winds as Princess skipped along ahead of him. He have
wondered at the girls' smiling considering the news their grandmother's killer had
vanished off the face of the earth from his cell... but this wasn't something that could wait.
He trusted in the girls being able to defend themselves at least, and the winds sense didn't
feel any danger... to them.
The three girls stood quite until the native was out of sight and then they looked at each
other and giggled and skipped along to the Wises' household, knowing that Princess would
give their guardian a long merry chase, giving them plenty of time to do what needed to be
done.
They arrived at the place that had been their home easily without incident, and not finding
anyone to help along the way either.
They knew their way around the house like the back of their hands, they had lived here for
years after all. They didn't run into anyone else until they wandered to the study, where
they found the Wises speaking.
Ronald spoke harshly to his wife, "Marcine, you have to give up these fantasizes! Just
because you've failed to have children doesn't mean you should create fictional ones!"
"They AREN'T fantasizes Ronald! Jack, Tom, Harry, Adam, Roland! Can't at least -you-
remember them? They're you're SONS! How can the Devil's Work make you forget them so
easily-?!"
The girls all looked at each other from their spot in the doorway in absolute surprised and
confusion. Mrs. Wise shouldn't have been able to remember her sons at all... it make less
trouble that way... but... she did anyway? To where she could remember their -names-?
Gita herself blinked in blank confusion, 'Does Mrs. Wise have the gift?'
But that was absurd... how could prudes like this have the gift? That was supposed to be
impossible... wasn't it? 'Only good people like our family can have the gift... it's not
possible.' Goldwyn thought.
Little Grisele meanwhile, just hoped they changed the adults soon so they'd stop yelling.
That was the worst part of adults... the yelling. The endless yelling. She remembered that
from her own parents well enough. That was the first thing she thought about the day
when her parents were found dying from the Great Mortality... the yelling had stopped, she
remembered smiling so brightly that morning.
That was when they spotted one of the ladies hired to replace their grandmother at the
house hold after her death ( Balthilde in spite of her age had been very very good at her
job and was very hard to replace with just one person). It was a dark haired maid named
Joella who had come to the town with nothing, and had been accepted with christian
charity, and did her absolute best to hide her Jewish heritage from her benefactors.
Weather this was just plain paranoia or a precaution was up for debate.
"Grisele? Gita? Goldwyn?" She whispered seeing the girls ease-dropping, "You shouldn't be
here, the Wises are... having a discussion and Mrs. Wise is.. not feeling well, you should go
before she sees you, it might, upset her."
"You don't want us here?" The youngest asked.
She kelt down and looked Grisele in the eye, "I DO want you here, you girls are the most
wonderful girls in the world... and ... " She didn't want to say anything about her
grandmother and agitate wounds that might not have had time to close on a child, "I really
like you, but it would disrupt things if you were caught here right now..."
Grisele asked, "Joella, would you play with us right now if you could?"
"Yes I would Grisele but right now-"
"And you'd play with us later if you could-"
"Yes you know I will and soon as I get a chance and-"
"And you would have played with us before?"
"I did, remember that one time-"
"Do you like being here?"
"I don't have a choice, this is my responsibility now..."
"Then if you didn't have that responsibility-"
"I have to have it, adults can't just do whatever they want like you can."
"Then if you were a child you'd play with us?"
"If I had known you as a little girl of course I would have."
"Then it not fair that we didn't, and when something isn't fair, it should be fixed." Goldwyn
said entering the little chat.
A few minutes later the three stepped into the room. A black haired girl exactly Grisele's
age lay in the hallway against a wall with a traumatized look in her eyes as she lay limply
in a dress much too large for her. She was breathing, but her mind in shock from the three
witch's clumsy age regression without Princess to help them focus leaving her mind with
countless conflicting and self contradictory messages. They promised to come back for her
later, the little girl barely gave a nod the rest of her body limp. The three girls already
thinking how the rest of the staff would be happy to be their new friends' dolls and be able
to play forever.
It took a moment for the two adults to realize the three children were there.
"What... what are you three doing here? Please-please leave, my wife is ill-"
"I am not sick Roland! Our sons-"
"Don't exist!"
"Yes they do." All three girls said together.
the two adults turned.
"Their names are Jack, Roland, Harry, Tom, and Adam." Said Gita, "Jack always takes
change. Adam is always nice. Roland is always shy. Harry, and Tom are always getting dirty
even for boys which gets you upset."
"You.. you remember? OH thank the Lord!" Marcine said hugging the three girls at once.
"You shouldn't give into my wife's fantasy children."
"Oh it isn't a fantasy!" Gita promised. "In fact we're here to help you be with them again."
"Where are they? Please please tell me!"
"You want to be with them?"
"More than anything!"
"MARCINE THIS HAS GONE ON LONG ENOUGH!"
"Don't worry, you'll be with them too Mr. Wise..."
The three girls tapped into the magic.
++++++++++
Glass Marie said, "The methods Marie's god father used to train his god daughter in self
defense could sometimes be ... eccentric."
The first time Marie screamed as she fell, thankfully at her age her nature hadn't betrayed
her yet. She stopped falling when the rope ran out of length, not far enough to cause any
damage, just enough to give the girl a fright. Good thing she hadn't been wearing wearing
a dress (her god father didn't want to think what would happened to her if THAT was found
out).
Now however the eight going on nine year old lass fell off the rafter herself without
needing a kindly push and threw the knifes hitting the targets easily. Mutt barked at his
master's expertise. The common sense of having an animal below someone throwing
weapons at targets is best left not thought about.
The dog, given the simple name 'Mutt' by Marie when caught off guard asking what the
animal's name was to be. The poor animal had seemed terrified of humans when her god
father had first brought it home... but not so much around children like Marie... Godfather
didn't have the heart to tell Marie he had taken the dog from a repeat zoophile he had
killed after the convict had bribed for his escape and had caught the man before he could
flee the country, no one so much as spoke to the plague doctor with the sword hidden
inside his cane as he left the scene with the animal.
Marie Cruz's god father felt the chest pains once again... knowing his time would come to
it's end soon enough. If the winged skeleton in the white robe waving at him that Marie
couldn't see was any indication. His only regret was that he would not be likely able to tell
her good-bye whenever the hourglass ran out... "I plan to hold you off as long as I can."
The figure grinned, "Heh, good luck with that."
"Pst. I know this isn't the one that kills me."
"Oh no it isn't... but sooner or later it will be... Maybe I'll take a consolation prize until
then."
The rope from three years of training for the young girl into being able to defend herself
from the worst the adult world had to offer rotted and broke off... Marie for the first time
in two years screamed as she fell... she saw the ground coming up fast to meet her....
"MARIE!" Her godfather raced knowing he wouldn't make it in time.
"Wanna trade?" Death whispered.
That was when a stone figure that looked like a mix between a winged lion and a man
swooped down and caught the girl before she hit the ground.
"F!" Death cursed.
+++++++++
Kathy finished writing her letter to the mysterious lion boy who had given her her ears and
tail... that had apparently been the end result of her becoming a pink full anthro feline... it
contained her feelings, her thoughts, her opinion, her forgiveness, and her thanks...
Now she just needed to figure the lad's name and home address...