As the water war began to power down, Kirk continued to follow the wrestling match between Saba and Paula. Saba seemed to have a lot of experience, as if she'd been trained in various forms of non-lethal combat and had some experience at wrestling. Kirk guessed she was just a natural with her sisters to practice on. Paula, as Saba had said earlier, was a quick learner and had figured out a way to use her smaller size to her advantage.
Without a pad of paper, though, Kirk found it difficult to actually keep score. He mostly found himself making sure that the two didn't hurt themselves and that neither violated the rules of the match... as that was the best they could do. Neither of them deliberately anything against the rules, but Paula did have some difficulty with her claws, as wolf claws were designed purely for traction while running and thus weren't retractable. But there was no real problem.
As Whitney and Amethyst gave the ten minute warning, Saba finally managed to get a grip on Paula's shoulder and pushed until the topaz colored pup was on her back.
"Pinned ya!" Saba cheered.
"Saba wins the match," Kirk said nodding.
Paula looked a little down, "sorry I'm so new with all of this."
"You did good!" Saba encouraged, "a little practice and you'll be the best wrestler in the Pack... and we'll take Glendale to state!"
"State?" Paula asked curiously.
"The state wrestling tournament for high school wrestling teams," Kirk explained, "although the school board has tight restrictions against leomen and lupmen."
"Why?" Saba asked.
"Our size," Kirk sighed, "we're too big and strong to safely wrestle humans... or they're too small and fragile in comparison to us. I heard a story that before these restrictions were put in place, a leoman male accidentally broke an opponent's collar bone during a match."
"We could still join the team, couldn't we?" Saba asked.
"You could... but unless one of the other schools has leoman and or lupman wrestlers on their squads, you'd essentially be a mascot as you wouldn't be allowed to compete."
Saba looked down at that.
"You can always practice with me," Paula offered, "It was kinda fun, even if I'm no good at it."
"You are good," Saba answered and hugged Paula.
Kirk smiled at the bonds of friendship being forged.
"Come on you two," Kirk spoke calmly, "let's get this mat picked up and go on in. I believe your nannies said it was dinner time."
Saba and Paula nodded and quickly set to rolling up the mat, which was nothing more then a spare cloth the Pack kept for such outdoor events.
+++++++
"Do you wish to go in to eat, mistress?" Umeko asked, "Or shall I bring something out to you?"
Penny looked up to see the soaked pups and cubs on all fours vigorously shaking the water out of their fur to the point where it wouldn't make too much of a mess when they went inside, while her grandmother, Mr. P, Gillian II, Amethyst, and Whitney all gave them room. Amy and Zelipe stood by the fountain watching this as well. She looked down at the scroll and then sighed. She wouldn't have minded having something brought out to her, but she was a guest on the pack's estate. She didn't want to be rude or make Umeko do more then was necessary.
"We'd best go in," Penny sighed, as she carefully rolled up her scroll. She would likely forget all about Penn by the time she'd get a chance to finish writing, but it wouldn't be civilized to stay out like a hermit while everyone else ate... and besides, Kirk was going in too.
"I'll place you in your wheelchair, mistress," Umeko spoke and then carefully placed one paw under Penny's thighs while putting the other under her shoulders.
"Does your back hurt?" Penny found herself asking as her shoulder was pressed in one of Umeko's over-sized breasts.
"It does not hurt, but their weight is noticeable, mistress," Umeko answered, "My sister wives and I were cursed with both blooming early and a long lasting period of puberty... now I do not necessarily mind being "large", but this is too much."
"You could have that fixed," Penny pointed out.
"We've tried to get appointments set up with Beta-Julie to make them smaller, Chiyoye I think even wants Julie to make her completely flat chested, but I would guess that is a ninja's wish to be stealthy and swift," Umeko commented, "but every time we'd get close to have the surgery to reduce them, something else came up... vaccinations, occasionally accidents, commonly involving little Alice and her half sisters, and most recently the fight with Kurse."
"Little Alice has hurt others?"
"Not deliberately or even through her own actions," Umeko explained, "she and her sisters can be curious about things and and have had some things that are just strange coincidences. I can not remember if it was Abbey or Samantha, but one of them was hit on the head by a buzz saw that had fallen off of a shelf... but since they are physically indestructible, the buzz saw got the worst of that collision... but the fragments of it ended up hitting Betas-Fran and Darla which Julie had to take out."
"Tough luck," Penny commented from her seat in the wheelchair while Umeko began to push her forward.
"Yes," Umeko replied, "but she's a sweat girl and so are her sisters."
Penny nodded and held on to her scroll.
++++++
Jacob and Gillie sat in silence for a few moments. Gillie didn't really like all these changes in reality, she did feel thankful that Jacob was listening and was letting her vent all her problems... but then the transform that Brian had given the officers was to insure that the leomen would "civilized"... and so far, the definition of "civilized" didn't appear to be all that different from humans, although by Jacob's use of the words "Prime Mate", Gillie guessed that the leomen were polygamists on some level, as "Prime" was another word to loosely mean "first" or "most important". She then hoped that the male didn't have any lewd ideas.
"You're not here to mate with me, are you?" Gillie asked.
"What?" Jacob asked back.
"You're not here to mate with me, are you? I'd assume that the Pride is polygamist," Gillie repeated.
"That depends really," Jacob answered, "most of the Pride's females are single, actually. Only a few of the Pride's males have Prime Mates, now Marie doesn't mind, but she'd want to know before hand if I were to mate with one of the others... and I would still need that female's permission first. It would be uncivilized to rape someone... and I don't think you're looking for a mate at the moment. I'm here to help and give you some comfort."
Gillie breathed a sigh of relief at that.
"There isn't anything you can do to help," Gillie answered, "You can listen, but that doesn't change the fact that everything going on is wrong. Lion people... wolf people... gargoyles... cat people... dragons, or dragon people should not exist... but if everyone else knew this, they'd all go nuts."
"And you don't like this?" Jacob asked, "knowing or remembering all this?"
"There times I wish I could forget it like so many others seem to," Gillie admitted weakly, finding it strange to actually talk with someone about all this.
"I know this may sound strange, but what about using the game for that then?" Jacob asked, "Madame Serenity told Marie and I when she brought Trever back to us that the game's mind is dead now. It shouldn't be that dangerous to use."
"Why do so many people think they can use the game... even if it's for good intentions?" Gillie thought and then spoke, "there are plenty of reasons NOT to use the game. I can't remember the exact wording used by the prick that cursed me and trying to use the game to counter it would throw a bigger wrench into the whole works and reality would likely say I'm too costly to try and reformat and just kill me to make its work easier."
"There's got to be SOMETHING we can do," Jacob commented, "if this is really giving you so much trouble."
"I'm sorry, Jacob, there is NOTHING that can be done," Gillie told him.