Madame Serenity awoke to find herself hunched over the table she and Father Micheal had been working on to produce more of the cure. Th two of them had worked practically non-stop until about one thirty in the morning when both of them finally feel asleep. Serenity never noticed Paul placing a blanket over her.
"Meow," a feline voice "spoke".
"Trever?" Serenity spoke absentmindedly remembering Trever's previous incarnation.
As her vision cleared, she found that the cat wasn't Trever, but Judas.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Serenity chuckled, "I should know better. Trever's with his family now."
The black cat nodded politely, making Serenity wonder on how he knew how to do that. Trever could, but Trever was human first. A human turned into a cat... but then Trever had said Judas was descended from one of the familiars of the witches. She guessed that was it, and his magical lineage allowed him to understand concepts that usually flew over the heads of mundane animals.
As she got up and stretched, she noticed something that made her jump, almost. Laying where Paul had been was something that Serenity did not expect. The figure looked far more human then before. His hair was still the same red-orange color of an orangutan's, but the only spot where it was thick was on his head, and again in much the same way that a human's hair was arranged. The rest of it looked rather thin, and probably wouldn't do well for insulation... though not that his fur/hair as an orangutan would have done well in the winter, being a tropical creature that the orangutan was.
Serenity was almost ready to say that he had become human again, but the obvious thin fur on his body and a few other things dispelled that. His arms were still long in comparison to his legs, as a normal orangutan's was, and his jaw did push forward slightly. He looked as though orangutans had had completed an evolutionary path similar to humans... which was theoretically possible since orangutans were primates and fairly closely related to humans, though not close as chimpanzees and bonobos.
Father Michael was relatively unchanged.
"Paul?" Serenity gasped in shock.
Paul looked up, noticed her confusion and then looked down at himself.
"I'm more human-like!" Paul sighed.
"Paul?" Father Michael gasped as he began to awaken from his own sleep.
"It is me," Paul signed, "what has happened?"
"I don't know," Serenity spoke, "you look like you've changed into a human-orangutan hybrid."
"Orangutan-monkey, actually," Paul sighed after a moment and then looked over at his partners with a puzzled look.
"Orangutan-monkey?" Father Micheal asked.
Serenity then looked over at Father Michael to see that the hair on his head now matched Paul's in terms of color, as did the fur on his tail that was still there. Evidently reality was still healing to essentially purge people's links to the game.
"This has to be realities alterations to heal from Kurse's attack," Serenity commented nervously, "the Pack, and likely those related... or still related to those Jensen originally transformed have become "big bad wolves"... that for them, they come from an evolutionary line that started with wolves, rather then chimpanzees with humans... or something like a chimpanzee. You'll forgive me if my knowledge on humanity's scientific origins aren't perfect."
"And the police turned into lions I'd assume have been repaired the same way," Father Micheal spoke, "but how could it have done this with Paul? He's still my brother."
"Yes," Serenity nodded, "you both held the firm belief that you were brothers, and being more aware of the curse's powers then others, I'd guess that reality couldn't just make Paul a trained ape and you the victim of out of whack hormones... so it created two more sentient species, one from orangutans and one from some species of monkey."
"How could that be possible?" Paul signed, "Soviet scientists in the thirties experimented with the idea of cross-breading humans and other apes... and despite being closely related, according to scientists, the experiments were a failure."
"I don't know," Serenity sighed, "I'd simply be grateful that it's kept you both related."
Paul and Father Micheal both nodded.
+++++++++
Meanwhile at Wolf Manor, Sunny and Luna's consciousness seemed to awaken after spending the night with Kira.
"Sleep well?" Kira's voice
"Very," Sunny and Luna answered, mentally hugging Kira, "thank you."
"You're welcome."
They were then cut off by a third voice that Sunny and Luna had never noticed when they had first joined with Kira for the night. It was Trinity.
"You'll let them go now, right Kira?"
"Trinity!"
"Yes, it's me," Trinity answered, "I joined in as I felt too tired to go the rest of the way to the single wolves' rooms."
"Did you sleep well then?" Kira asked, "and why did you join in? You voted against joining us when we first went back to a "living art" existence."
"I didn't want to spend all my life as something admired by the rest of the Pack as artwork," Trinity spoke, "to coin a phrase, "it is a nice place to visit, but I do not wish to stay here"."
"You know we won't force you," Kira pointed out.
"Yes, but I'd tend to think you'd be a bit mischievous," Trinity commented, "trying to talk Sunny and Luna into staying."
"But would that be bad?" Luna asked, "We could finally be with "Jensen"..."
"You need to let that go," Trinity sighed, "Jensen is married to Kaylee and the triplets. Deciding to be a statue to "have" him isn't fair to the Pack, especially as it appears as an escape from reality."
Sunny and Luna didn't answer.
"And besides, there is still much work to be done," Trinity spoke, "our pack mates and friends to take care of. We can not just abandon them... and as for concerns on mates, there are plenty of lupman males out there... but you'll never meet him like this."
"It was fun, though," Sunny protested.
"Of course it was," Trinity mentally nodded, "a little escape every now and then is perfectly fine... but we can't run away from our responsibilities."
Sunny and Luna both sighed, "You're right. Thank you Kira for a lovely night."
"Come back any time if you're looking for an interesting night," Kira told them, "I and any other of the gallery wolves wouldn't mind having guests for a little while, every now and then."
"Count on it," Sunny and Luna mentally smiled and then focused on returning their their original forms.
They shrunk down a bit and bronze shifted back into fur, and Sunny and Luna were back to being furred wolves again. Trinity got up and slowly put her arms around their shoulders.
"Don't worry," Trinity promised, "we'll all meet a nice Lupman male soon. There are plenty of fish in the sea."
"I hope so," Luna commented as she glanced up at Kira's statue, which appeared t smiling, "but you can't deny that last night was fun."
"It was," Trinity nodded, "but what makes it fun s that it's temporary and you have the choice of leaving. Those of us that got caught by the game and sent to the gallery spent a lot of time unable to move... fearful of being smashed or broken... and trapped."
"But we can always visit Kira or the others?" Luna asked, "even if only for a little bit?"
"I'm sure," Trinity nodded, "now come on. They'll be changing shifts soon for dealing with wounded."
++++++++++
Tabby rolled over as the sunlight filtered through her bedroom and hit her on the face, warming her. She sat up and looked across the hallway Wanda's room. Knowing it was empty, Tabby quickly got up and set about getting dressed and getting breakfast. Then she would find out where her friend was laid up after this battle that the pride had fought.