Mary stood quietly as all the excitement seemed to die down. Maxwell and Sonia erupting a meeting the one who had wounded their cub, and then backing down in shame as the pack explained that it was an accident. Then Jensen and Kaylee's arrival in the medical wing. She clutched at her father's paw as the quote from Lee commenting on the slaughter of Union soldiers at Fredericksburg met with the agreement of everyone.
"You'd best go back to your sisters, dear," Felicity told her and stroked her head and upper back, "we'll be fine."
If Mary could purr, she woul have. But she knew she couldn't. The only big cat that could both purr and roar was the leopard, which she wasn't. She did have spots... but they were beginning to fade into her red-gold fur.
"We've been having a water war with the gem colored twins," Mary spoke.
"War?"
"With squirt guns, no one is to be hurt," Mary explained, "Miss Amethyst won't let anything violent happen."
"Run along then," Felicity smiled, "and have fun."
"Go with her dears," Joy and Ingrid spoke to Laura and Zulema. The two pups hugged their mother before trotting after Mary.
"We'll need to get Giselle and Gretchen," Zulema told Mary.
"Right."
"I shouldn't be too much longer," Mother Glen spoke to Julie.
Julie nodded as she watched Jensen and Kaylee lift Fran up. Jensen was strong enough to carry the dirty blond triple by himself, but in their exhausted state from th fight against Kurse and then being trapped in stone, they weren't taking any chances.
++++++
Outside, Amy lay quietly finishing with her scroll. Part of her wondered if she should show it to Zelipe... but she didn't want to upset her brother over what was gone... had never been. Penny continued on with her own personal history with Kirk looking on. As Amy carefully blew on her blood to let it dry, she noticed the movement of beings approaching them.
"Be prepared, Penny," Amy warned.
Penny blinked and looked up to see eight cubs coming up with the Pack's twins and Zelipe following behind.
"Miss Penny! Miss Penny!" was the repeated call from the cubs as the cubs arrived.
"All the deer are back, I guess?" Penny asked slowly, not sure what to say, but also realizing that she recognized Moja and her sisters as well as Tano and her sisters.
"Yes," Tano nodded, "Alice and Abby went to be with their sister... and I see you were successful in freeing Kirk."
"Kirk?" came seven voices.
Kirk then looked up to find all of the cubs, with the exceptions of Tano, Zelipe, and the pack's pups, jumping on him to deliver their hugs at seeing a member of the pride freed.
"It's good to see you again Uncle Kirk," Sita nuzzled her head under Kirk's muzzle.
Kirk managed a smile and nuzzled the excited cubs back as best he could, and not mentioning that their landing on him had knocked the wind out of him. Much like the Pack's pups referring to females with each sub-pack as "aunts", if they weren't the parent of that pup, the pride was very similar. Any female that wasn't the parent was called "Aunt", with the obvious exception of Mother Glen, and any male was called "Uncle".
"It is good to see you too, Sita," Kirk managed to gasp out, although failing to cover the fact that he'd had the wind knocked out of him.
"Why are you looking so sad?" Saba asked as she came up to Penny, leaning on the pale white-biege female's shoulder.
Penny nervously glanced at the scroll she had written on that Amy had given her and then back to the eyes of a cub she had never known... yet had also known as long as the cub had lived. Fox's daughter. Images of Fox cradling Tano and Sita while she had been allowed to hold the infant Saba.
"Just thinking about the things lost," Penny said cryptically.
"You should be happy," Nane encouraged, "Kirk is back again, and the curse is gonna go bye bye."
"Nane!"
"What? I thought she'd be happy to know that," Nane responded.
"That is good to hear," Penny sighed, "I'm just thinking about what we've all lost to get rid of the curse though."
"But you got Kirk back," Saba spoke, "you should be happy for that."
"I am... I guess," Penny sighed and glanced at Kirk, Moja and Mbili hugging his neck, and then thought, "So noble, so patient... he'll be a wonderful father..."
Penny then shook her head as that was part of the new reality seeping into her mind and healing around her. She also guessed that the cubs had had their shifts in reality completed, or very nearly already. She then paused for a moment that when she went from Penn to Penny, the only cub in the room was Mary, and she'd already used her turn... so according to the old reality, where did these two sets of quadruplets come from?
In the new reality they were the daughters of Gary and Fox, and Brian and Elise. And all of them seemed rather upbeat, given that their mother's had been killed by Kurse within the past 48 hours.
"You all seem rather happy," Penny commented, "considering everything."
"Mom knew what she was getting into," Tano spoke, "We know you and Fox were close friends... like sisters... even if not by blood... so I'm sure it's hard..." she sniffled "and I'll miss her terribly... but she did what she had to do. Wars are bad, but what Kurse did the Pack and to the world made it necessary."
"She did what she had to do," Nneli finished.
"I should have been there," Penny sighed, "I could have helped her."
"It's not your fault," Zelipe spoke up nervously before ducking behind Pence, and not knowing that the comment sort of implicated Yamato, "you didn't know the Curse's attack on the Pack and thus didn't know of Yamato's mission to rescue the wolves trapped by the Game."
"And we could have done more research onto the names of those lupman sent to the gallery," Amy admitted, sticking with the new reality, "Yamato-san tried his best to explain, but he is still a warrior born, and tied to a very strict code of honor. Without knowing the names, any misunderstanding could become a fight... and was probably destined to be a fight."
Penny was seeing more and more of the new time-line's fight with the Japanese wolves now as well.
"I probably should have been more patient," Penny sighed, reluctantly deciding to go with the new reality, she didn't like all the lives it was destroying, but neither did she want to kill everyone trying to reset the old reality, "I was so eager to get Ka... Kirk back that wasn't really listening. I'll probably receive a lecture about being uncivilized for behaving so."
"All's well that ends well, then," Nane commented, "You'll be walking again in no time... you and Kirk will get married... and you'll have large litters of playmates for us."
"NANE!" "What?"
"Let's not get ahead of things, Nane," Penny sighed and then turned to the gathered wolf pups that had tagged along, "so what are you all up to?"
"Paula and I have been wrestling," Saba spoke up, "She's pretty good... though it's been more a class then an actual match. I don't think knows enough about wrestling to be a judge."
"The rest of us have been having a water war," Tatuli spoke up.
"We're winning!" Nane cheered.
"Only 'cuz Mary came in and caught me off guard," Jay countered, "we'll win in the end."
"Wanna bet?"
"Yeah!... what are we betting?"
Penny shook her head with a sigh. How could naked animal people bet anything. She supposed wallets could be carried on a chain or belt, and a purse wouldn't overheat any of the females, but as reality continued to shift, she could not remember ever seeing a female leoman or lupman carrying a purse anywhere... maybe they'd all worked out extensive credit deals with the city... or maybe they just weren't shopping.
"A "gentleman's" bet," Nane answered, "If we win, you have to say how great we are, and if you win, we'll say how great you are."
"Deal," Jay nodded, "may the best side win."
"You and I are out of the game though, Jay, along with Mbili," Toni told him.
"Pence and Zelipe will lead our side to victory!" Jay boasted.
Zelipe gulped.
"The object of the game is to soak the other side, Aunt Penny," Moja then explained, "No one is to be hurt. Miss Amethyst, Mr. P, and now Whitney have been watching us... Alice, Abby, and Samantha's pet was here too, but he ran off when you and Mother Glen arrived."
"I wonder where Chester went," Paula commented, noticing that the Chihuahua was no longer there.
"We're also waiting for Mary, Gretchen, Giselle, Laura, and Zulema to get back," Pence added, "Mary went inside with your gran'ma and the others went to go see their folks."
"I know," Penny nodded, "I saw Mary lead my Grandmother in."
"Is their anything we can do to make you happy?" Sita asked.
Penny sighed. Most of her "depression" was at seeing how reality was changing, which she couldn't alter in any way. Nothing could be done about that.
"Just have fun," Penny encouraged.
The cubs smiled.