AN: Previous version had errors in it that I didn’t catch right away… “Nuts”. This version is the better edited one. Sorry about the confusion.
"Now all I need is his name and address," Kathy thought as she looked down at the letter she held, "I suppose I could wander around Glendale knocking on doors till I stumble onto his home... but that would be embarrassing, not to mention rude to the others."
Kathy sighed for a moment. She was thanking a male leoman cub for sending her on the path to becoming an anthro-pink house cat, but then at the same time, she had a few memories of her always BEING a pink anthro-house cat, afterall, how else could her parents, brother, and a friend of theirs also be anthro-house cats... Felmans... but she still also remembered meeting leoman cub. Somehow, he had to be responsible, and Kathy felt she had to thank him. After all, how could Kathy been part of a race that had always been, when there was only one family... or would there be more anthro cats in the world soon?
She'd talk with her folks to see if they knew anything. After all, they had lived in Glendale before. Perhaps they knew one of the leomans personally before they moved to Frostville, and they would be able to help get an address for the letter. She silently prayed to Bast that her parents would have an address for her.
++++++
"You will be with them, though your relations with them may not be as you know them," Gita told both Wises as the three stood before the two people.
"Please tell me where they are," Marcine Wise spoke, "bring them home... stay here with us... you'll want for nothing."
"No, we're going make you good," Goldwyn spoke, "so you can be with them."
Marcine glanced at the children and then at her husband. It was then that she noticed something different about him. He looked younger, wrinkles smoothing out, his clothing looking looser on him. She then looked down at her own hands. The signs of aging there were also fading away.
"What is happening?!" Marcine gasped in shock and surprise, "Joella! Help! Something is happening!"
The calls for help went unanswered as Marcine and Robert Wise slowly began to shrink down as they regressed toward a child's age. Their clothing grew steadily larger around them as they continued to regress in age.
"They will not need clothing soon," Griselle spoke up, making both of them gasp at what was happening.
"NO!" Robert yelled as Gita and Goldwyn began to disrobe them, his voice sounding higher, like a child's. For the moment he wondered if he should let Balthilde Volksheer go some time before she had been murdered.
"You'll be good," Goldwyn promised, "and you'll be with your children."
"Think of that," Gita added.
Robert and Marcine Wise traded glances again, and noticed that their eyes seemed to be larger, darker, almost a solid black. They also noticed their ears lengthening into a point, but growing longer beyond the triangular points that made the ears of house cats, wolves, foxes, the lupmen. As their ears moved toward the top of their heads, Marcine noticed white fur growing out of the inside of the ear and traces of golden brown fur on the back of the ear.
"What... what is happening?!" Marcine gasped as she raised her hands from where she had been trying to cover her own nudity.
She gasped down in horror to see her thumb, pointer, and pinky fingers shrinking, while her middle and ring fingers grew larger, and the nails had turned to a blackish color and were growing longer, thicker, stronger. After a few moments, her hands looked like a deer's hooves and golden brown fur was beginning to appear on her wrists and progressing up her arms. The same was happening to her feet, and to Robert.
"No!" Marcine gasped.
Gita, Goldwyn, and Griselle stood by quietly as the two now children began to increasingly take on deer like attributes. Golden brown fur began to cover their bodies, with the exception of the white underbelly and solid white spots along their sides. Both Robert and Marcine Wise screamed as their transformations continued, their heads extending into a deer's muzzle and their feet and hips altering to fit only a quadruped's stance. After a few moments, they were reduced to a pair of Gold Deer fawns, looking both frightened and paniced inside their former home.
Goldwyn quietly went over to a nearby door to the outside and opened it for them.
"Go on," Goldwyn urged, "They're with your herd. I'm sure they'll be excited to have their friends with them again."
Robert and Marcine Wise glaced at the three witchlings, and Marcine silently swore that Goldwyn's face looked like a good portion of it had been scarred away. In terror and panic they then fled, and began bounding away as hard they could.
After five or ten minutes of panicked running, and not really paying attention, the two of them literally ran into another group of fawns, standing near an adult Gold Deer Doe.
"Who are you?" the doe questioned as she approached, "where are your parents?"
"You talked!" Robert gasped.
"Of course I did," the doe answered, although in a deer's language, "now where are your parents? They should know better then to let their fawns run wild without supervision. The lupman and leoman may usually only prey on the bucks and the elderly, but do not assume that they won't take a fawn if given the chance."
Robert and Marcine were silent. They nervously began to back away from the doe, guessing she thought they had attacked her fawns.
"We didn't see any lupman or leoman," Marcine spoke, not really knowing where that was coming from. A part of her wanted to say that three little girls had turned her into a Gold Deer fawn, but the words never came to her.
"That's good, now where are your parents?" the doe asked.
"Dead," Robert spoke, "hunters."
The doe gave a sigh. "What are your names?"
"Marcine." "Robert, who are you?"
"My name is Swift Hooves, these are my adopted sons," the doe explained, "Please introduce yourselves, dears."
"Jack." "Roland." "Harry." "Adam."
"A pleasure to meet you," Marcine said to the young male fawns, "want to be friends?"
"Of course," Jack told the two of them.
Back at Mr. Wise's manor, the witchlings turned to Joella.
"What should we do?" Griselle asked.
Goldwyn turned to Gita, as she had seemed to be their leader.
"Best to make her a statue," Gita spoke, "we can come back with Princess for her later."
The other two nodded.
++++++
"Robert and Marcine Wise didn't recognize their own children?" Betty gasped.
"A side effect of the witchling's use of their power," Marie sighed, "and considering that at present, the prime buck and doe are Jack and Marcine... and that Gold Deer seem to pass their names on down from generation to generation... it would be rather incestuous of them to breed, as Marcine presently carries Jack's fawns."
"They were able to think THAT far ahead?" Lawrence wondered.
"No, not really," Marie explained, "as said before, even if they had second sight, it wouldn't work out that way. The loss of the blood relationship between Marcine and her children was a side effect, not even intended... similarly to what had happened to Joella. It is another rise why white witches try to avoid using the Infinite Chaos directly... as chaos is exactly as the name implies, chaotic. It doesn't behave the way one would expect, even if you lay out what would rationally become one thing or another. Chaos doesn't allow for such regimentation... it's partially why Kurse's actions on Big Bad Island could be countered. But that is getting off topic, and for the witchlings, their goal now was trying fix what they had accidentally done to Joella."
++++++
Amy sighed heavily to herself as she watched the things as they happened. Kirk had taken Penny over to the shade of one of the trees and the two of them were talking, though Penny looked ready to cry... and to a certain extent, as she thought about it, Amy felt like crying to. Much of what had happened wasn't fair, but there was nothing that Amy, Marie, or Penny could do about it. Not without risking their own destruction anyway.
She then glanced to see her brother, and the gem twins that were still there continuing to try and hit the statues with their water pistols. Paula was telling Amethyst about how her wrestling match was going with Saba and what she had been learning. The other gem twins were off, hoping to see their own parents.
+++++++
"Mommy?" came Giselle's voice they approached the door to the omega's room, their ears picking up passionate moans and howls coming from within, "can we come in?"
There was a sudden silence for a moment, and the twins could hear more movement coming from the omega's room. After a few moments, a very pleased looking Martha came to the door.
"Hello, dears," Martha smiled scooping up Giselle and Gretchen in her arms and then licking both of them at the same time. Her right head licked Giselle while her left licked Gretchen, "I thought you'd gone outside..."
"We saw Whitney, mommy," Gretchen spoke and licked her mother back...
"I had sent her to keep an eye on Mistress Amy and Master Zelipe," Martha explained, "but since you're here, dears, I suppose I have some good news for you."
"Is daddy alive, Aunt Martha?" Laura asked.
Martha smiled with both her heads. The term "aunt" was used a lot among the pack. In some cases it was truly fitting, as Fran, Julie, and Darla were all sisters, but outwardly it didn't in others. Kaylee was more of a step mother to Alice, Abbey, and Samantha, a nice one, and even a loving one, but still a step mother nonetheless. However, within the subpacks, referring to a female that wasn't a pup's parent as "aunt" seemed to be common, as "aunt" was easier to say then "Step mother".
"Hello, girls," Abdul came into view with Maddex and Ryan following behind, "it's good to see you again."
"DADDY!" was the cheer from all four.
Martha set Giselle and Gretchen down and allowed them and their half sisters to rush forward and hug their father.
"We missed you, daddy," Zulema, "We missed you so much."
"And I missed you four too," Abdul smiled and stroked the top of their furry heads, "I missed you too."
"Where is mommy?" Laura asked.
"Joy and your mother are helping Beta Julie tend to our injured pack mates," Abdul told her, "but both of them will be overjoyed to see you again."
"Where are Cassandra and Lilly?" Maddex asked, surprised at the arrival of the pups, but hopeful that he could see his own again.
"In wonderland with Lawrence and Betty," Gretchen told him, "they wanted to see what the manor looked like from inside the mirrorverse."
"Are they alright?" Maddex asked.
"Okay... they'll be happy to see you too!" Giselle commented.
"I need to see them," Maddex spoke, "I need to tell them that their parents are alive and well."
"We'll need to wait for Samantha to awaken or for Alice and/or Abbey to return," Martha told him.
They were then startled by another set of voices.
“This isn’t the medical wing, Mary, dear,” came Mother Glen’s voice as Mary and the massive snow white lioness came around a corner.
“I… I’m sorry, Mother Glen, I was just following Laura and Zulema,” Mary spoke, “I’d thought they’d want to see their mother.”
“We do,” Laura told the cub, “but we’d thought we’d start with seeing daddy first.”
“Plus we can’t stay long if mommy is working” Zulema added, “we’d get in trouble if we were underfoot.”
“You won’t be underfoot,” Mother Glen told them politely, “I am merely checking on the Pride and I am sure that they won’t mind a quick visit. My son, daughter-in-law, and future in-laws can help if your doctor needs an extra set of hands.”
Mother Glen then raised her head to look to Martha, “I’ll watch these to while they go to see their mother and will let you bond with your own children.”
Martha could only nod.
++++++
"Hey mom, you in here?" Kathy asked as she came into a small den, still carrying the envelope.
She found her mother seated in an easy chair reading from a book.
"I am, dear, can I help you with something?" her mother answered.
"Yeah, this may sound strange, but before we left Glendale I remember running into this leoman cub, who looked like an overgrown tabby, but obviously a lion... I had run into him outside a pet store... and well, there are things that happened that I feel I need to thank him for, and well, I'd wondered if you knew any of the Leoman well enough to get a mailing address?"
"I believe your father and I knew a lioness named Wanda, but I don't think she had cubs," her mother answered.
"That might not be too much of a problem," Kathy commented, "I learned in school that both the leomans and the lupmans are highly communal in nature. The ways they go about it are different, but they all still work together. If this "Wanda" isn't the mother of the cub, she might know who is and where his address is."
"And what are you wanting to thank him for?"
Kathy thought for a moment. She had originally been going by the pet store to converse with the cats there when she ran into this powerfully built, but still human, male grabbed her and pulled her into an alley. She managed to break free of his grasp, by kneeing him where it hurt, but he still managed to use the game against her before she could get out of earshot. She choose "dare" and he ended up daring her to sing the various songs from the Disney movie "Aristocats".
She was halfway through the first song when he tried to have his way with her in her distraction. She couldn't really fight back as her dare had her focused entirely on the concert. The memory of that made her ears shudder. She was saved, however, when a brown and gray leoman cub charged at the man. The man was clearly larger and stronger then the leoman cub, but after having his chest raked by the cub's claws and his jaws wrapped around his shoulder, Trever wasn't about to let go, and the man was not about to gain an advantage. The man then fled, leaving the cub with Kathy.
She was quick to thank the cub, and the cub did answer "anything for another felidae."
She wondered where the cub learned about the Latin name for the Order to which cats belonged, but he did know, and to a certain extent, Kathy didn't really care. The cub had saved her life, and she had to thank him for it.