"Did they fix Joella?" Cassandra asked again as the group listening to Marie's story of the witches, curious and hoping that they did, in a way.
Marie only sighed but did not immediately answer.
"I don't mean to get you off topic, Marie..." Samantha began, "but when Kurse took over Big Bad Island and turned me into "Glass" and mutated the rest of the pack... I felt... I felt a lot of hatred and anger. Like they hated us with a passion. Like the whole battle was revenge for something."
Marie nodded, "I felt it too."
"Does this story have any explanation for why they hated us so?" Samantha.
"Hey, we asked first!" Lily and Cassandra pouted.
"Girls," Maddex spoke to them, "remember to be polite."
"It is alright," Marie sighed, "We are beginning to get to the parts of the story where you will have a good sense of what is coming and what you will not like. I'm merely trying to find a way to answer it..."
+++++++
In Europe, Marie Cruz and her godfather walked quietly along the Tiber River. Marie was still shaking from her ordeal with the vampires and clutching a bandage around her head and covering her lost eye.
"Marie, I am very disappointed in you," her godfather said firmly.
"I'm sorry," Marie cried.
"You could have been killed or worse..." he continued.
Marie looked up into her godfather's eyes, tears visible on her own face. She clutched firmly at his arm.
"I just wanted to be brave, like you," Marie spoke.
Her godfather looked down at her in surprise and lifted her up in a firm hug, even if the church forbade monks, priests, and friars from doing such things. His defense for it, if caught, was that he had adopted her and he had committed no real sin. Although, if caught, while he might not be "punished", he'd still lose Marie to a convent or orphanage.
"Marie, I'm only brave when I have to be," he spoke calmly, "the things I've had to fight are dangerous. Not for children to face. I'm training you because I fear I can not spare you being brought into my lifestyle... but you are not ready for that yet. I want you to never do something like this until I'm sure you're ready and I can help you."
"But you're not scared of anything!" Marie protested.
"I was when I learned what you had done," her godfather replied, "I thought I might lose you. You may not be my biological child, and I may not be able to give you everything you want... and I am terribly sorry for not being able to find your family... but I have come to love you the way any parent would their children. I would not know what to do with myself if you died... I don't..."
++++++
"If only Nane were here," Lilly commented, "That's like the that scene in the Lion King."
"White Fang is a better movie," Cassandra commented.
"What about Call of the Wild? Or Never Cry Wolf?" Lilly countered.
"They're good movies too, but I like White Fang best," Cassandra answered.
"Ahem..." Marie cut off their interruption.
++++++++
In the new world, the young witches continued to try and become stronger. For the moment it was intended to fix Joella, whom Goldwyn still risked her life to visit periodically, to let her know that they still cared for her. But things were getting tougher. Mr. Running-Bear had become very suspicious of any house cat on his property and insisted that the girls stay close to the house.
His reasoning was that there was an ill wind blowing, but Goldwyn got the sense that he as suspicious of something. She didn't know what, but she knew it was something. She thought it might have had something to do with their efforts to improve Glendale and make everyone good. Part of her wondered if he would have approved of it, and a part of her, she was discovering didn't really care about anything much more then her "mission".
This was normally where Princess would reinforce her with the words that what she and her sisters were doing was good. But the cat was off somewhere today. Goldwyn didn't understand where or why. Princess knew that the day was one that she sneaked out to try and inform Joella on their progress.
"Hello, Joella," Goldwyn spoke to the statue as she approached the hiding place, "things are going slow... Princess hasn't pinpointed Griselle and Gita's familiar's yet, and Mr. Running-Bear seems afraid of something. But we are trying, I assure you Joella. Soon you will be a good little girl and you'll be with us."
Goldwyn then stroked Joella's stone check, "I promise..."
"Promise what?" growled an irritated voice.
Goldwyn turned to see a powerfully built male lupman with black fur and gold highlights.
"I mean you no harm," Goldwyn said weakly.
"You're on my pack's land," the lupman, John, spoke firmly, "What are you doing here."
"I was visiting a friend..."
"The Pack's pups do not know you," John answered, "What are you doing here?"
"I told you," Goldwyn insisted.
"If you knew the pack's rules, you'd know that all guests on the Pack's land are to report to the gate, give their name to the guarding wolves, and say who they are here to see and what their purposes are," John answered, "those are the rules and all of the Pack's guests know to follow them. Be they Human, Leoman..." he then shuddered... "or even Felman. You have come wandering on our land without permission."
"I mean you no harm!" Goldwyn insisted, shuddering at the military level of regimentation that the wolf was operating under.
"Then why are you talking to a statue out here?" John questioned, "Have you stolen something from us?"
"No, sir."
"Then what is it doing here?"
"You're protecting her for me and my sisters," Goldwyn answered honestly.
"Protecting her from what? From who?" John questioned, "If you've stolen it, it's only going to cause me trouble."
"It's not stolen," Goldwyn insisted, "It's not..."
"All the same, you and "it" are trespassing," John cut her off, "I will escort you and the statue back to town. From there, it is not my problem."
"NO!"
John looked down at the forceful word used against him by a human child, no less.
"Excuse me?"
"You will not touch her or me!" Goldwyn said firmly.
"If you wish to drag it to town, be my guest," John shrugged.
"She stays here! Where she's safe!" Goldwyn yelled and pointed at the lupman as if to make a point.
What happened next was not entirely what Goldwyn planned. John felt like something powerful gripped him, as his whole body went rigid. When Goldwyn lowered her hand, John was flung forward. Goldwyn ducked under him to avoid being hit by him, but could not save Joella. John hit the statue and knocked it backward into rocks. John fell to the ground, and as the statue of Joella teetered back and forth. It then finally fell forward and broke. Joella's stone head ended up at Goldwyn's feet.
"What... what have I..." Goldwyn began in utter horror, "What have you DONE!?"
She then raised her hands again, this time deliberately and shot bolts of lighting from her fingertips into John. The black and gold lupman howled with pain and tried to crawl away. Goldwyn kept the lightning coming until more howls were heard and a brown and gold female appeared. The female looked at John, writhing in agony and easily smelled his burning fur and flesh, and then at the girl who was torturing him.
"You WITCH!" the female snarled and in one quick lunge, swung her left paw down, claws ready.
The blow knocked Goldwyn back and out, and left her face horribly scarred. One of her eyes was gone.
"Victoria..." John said weakly.
The female, Victoria, then left girl where she lay and turned to John. In the trees, not that far away, Princess watched on with confidence that her future was sure to come. Once Victoria had carried John away, Princess moved down the tree to insure that Goldwyn wouldn't die from the wounds she had sustained.
++++++++
Lilly and Cassandra were nearly crying at that.
"They shouldn't have hid Joella on the Pack's land to begin with," Maddex spoke, "it was an accident waiting to happen."
Marie nodded, "And Joella's death was an accident. But Goldwyn didn't see it that. She saw John's following of the Pack's rules as a lack of "goodness" and took Victoria's defense of her mate as a personal attack on Goldwyn. She never saw herself or her sisters at fault for what they did. And the dark times are fast approaching."
++++++++
In the master bedroom, Jensen and Kaylee were shaken awake when a loud roar echoed through the manor. It was somewhat muffled, but served more then enough to awaken the two Alphas.
"What was that?" Kaylee wondered.
"One of the pride, I'd assume," Jensen sighed as he looked at the beside clock. It was now in the early evening hours.
Both of them felt more rested then they initially had after coming out of the stone form that Kurse had wrapped them in.
"We'd best check on the others," Jensen spoke, "See what help they need."