Ulysses found Sarah sorting several items in one of the supply closets in medical wing, mostly bandages and excess things. With no classes scheduled for today, as a result of the wounded needing the attention of the Pack's doctors and any available helpers. He didn't really know where Mary and the other cubs were, but he didn't know what to do if he were to find her. He and the other teen wolves had heard the cries of the quadruplets at the loss of their mothers.
Unfortunately for him, he couldn't think of anything to cheer up them up, which part of him felt he had to do. Mary was cute, for a leoman cub and Brian had on occasion trusted him to watch his daughters. This led to some "layered" levels of baby-sitting. Mary watching Alice, Abbey, and Samantha and he watching her and her half-sisters.
So that sent the purple furred male in search of the she-wolf that had become his adoptive big sister while his parents were off on their mission to enlarge the Pack's territory.
"Do you need any help?" Ulysses asked as Sarah pulled down several bandages that Fran had requested for those wounds that would need to have the dressings changed. The broken bones, protected by casts couldn't be changed, but there were a few open wounds that would require changes in bandages.
"Oh, Ulysses," Sarah gasped, "Of course, thank you."
She then handed him some of the bandages she'd been gathering. It was then that she noticed the look on his face.
"Is something wrong Kiddo?" Sarah asked, "Maxine and Robyn being too rough on you again?"
Ulysses shook his head. The pink and magenta wolves were pretty cute for females, even if some of their antics made him nervous.
"No, this has to do with Mary and her sisters," Ulysses spoke weakly.
"You can't bring their mothers back, Kiddo," Sarah told him.
"No not bringing them back," Ulysses answered, "I'm talking about cheering them up."
"I'm not sure there is anything that can be said or done to cheer them up," Sarah answered, "death is always hard to take. It will take time for them to heal. Eventually they'll be the same happy and cheerful cubs they were before, but it will take time. My best advice is that you just tell them that you are there for them, and that you will always support them."
"But what should I say?" Ulysses asked.
"That is up to you, Kiddo," Sarah said to him, "just make sure it comes from the heart. And make sure not to say anything offensive."
"I'd never offend them."
++++++++
"So how did Marie deal with the problem of the witches powers?" Samantha asked, "she had to have been successful, if the Transform or Dare curse was something the witches laid down just before they were executed... and she was already thinking about that... so how did she figure out a way counteract them?"
"That was a troublesome part for Marie," glass Marie sighed, and straightened her dress, "while she had the capacity to counter them magically, she had no training in magic and other then her second sight never touched it... if she had, she probably could have case some mark or brand that would have protected her and her allies, much the way Amy did to protect the Pack and the Pride when you went to liberate Big Bad Island."
Betty, Alice, and Abbey nodded at that, as they were the only ones who had gone on that mission. Samantha was asleep back at the manor, recovering from what Kurse had made her do as "Glass". Lawrence, Cassandra, and Lilly were already on the island and enslaved to Kurse. Maddex was still one of Bart and Jenny's shadows at the time.
"But since Marie Cruz didn't have those abilities, that left her trying to think of someway to protect them from the witches," Marie spoke, "as effective sniper rifles hadn't been invented yet, and even if they had, killing them at long range would make it impossible to try them."
"Why did she want to try them? Use due process?" Lawrence wondered, "I mean, I'm sure it would have driven the witches nuts because of system of laws that it backed... but if the witches had truly gone evil and insane by that point, a trail wouldn't have worked. We commonly let people GO because of insanity today, and given their power, would having them sit before a judge be the smartest thing to do?"
"Once they got to the trail, Marie gave them a large dose of opium, which at the time was perfectly legal as a pain killer and other sorts of "medicines"," Marie explained, "the witches magic would somehow keep their minds clear enough to answer the questions, but wasn't enough to allow them to use their magic at that point... and if they tried, it would have been completely harmless and would have had no effect on what it hit... which is why the Curse wasn't laid on Glendale until just before the witches were executed. The drugs wore off by that point."
There was silence for a moment before Marie continued, "and at the time, Marie was still pondering on how to beat the witches..."
++++++++
Marie found herself wandering through the Vatican almost absentmindedly pondering the problems she faced. She had a rare off day from various Inquisition missions and she was using the time to think over her problems.
"The witches could just turn me into a toadstool from a distance," Marie said aloud, although as quietly as she could manage, "I have nothing to use that would protect me or my allies... If the Inquisition accepted the mission, they would provide the relics needed for such a fight... but even there that wouldn't work. Every church claims to have fragments of the True Cross, and if all the splinters they've gathered were put together, they'd have enough wood to make more then one cross..."
Marie then sighed and glanced a fountain.
"There has to be something that can be done to protect us, but what?"
She sighed again and looked out over the courtyard. She soon noticed a figure making his way across the the far end of the courtyard. The figure wore the robes of a monk, though he was much larger then the average human... almost as large as an adult leoman male, but was also wearing bandages, as if trying to hide what he was, and reminded her of Draco.
"Draco had said something about dragons being immune to magic... or was it resistant?" Marie thought, "it's been so long... but he's not connected with the Inquisition... and if I show myself to him as an "Inquisitor" I could be in real trouble."
Marie then sighed, "but if I can't figure this out, we'd all end up enslaved to three girls who have not been taught properly..."
+++++++
"Dragons are immune to magic?" Cassandra asked curiously.
"Not immune, but highly resistant," Marie explained, "Much of this comes from theories that like the fairies that Griselle had created, dragons naturally channeled the infinite chaos in a way that didn't harm them... which is one of the only connections between European dragons and Chinese/Japanese dragons. In the orient, the Dragon is revered for multiple supernatural powers."
"But you said Draco was only given to the church as a peace offering," Betty commented, "to end the conflicts between humans and dragons."
"Draco was descended from European dragons," Marie explained, "but European and Chinese dragons all posses similar powers and abilities. European dragons merely developed a far more warrior based culture then Chinese dragons."
"Sort of like how different countries have different cultures?" Lawrence asked.
Marie nodded, "Yes, now many of a dragon's powers would later be explained scientifically, but all dragons still posses natural connection to the Infinite Chaos. And Marie's somewhat vague memories of what Draco had told her of this connection, lead her to actually seek him out in the hopes that he would provide a spell like what Amy used to protect Big Bad Island's liberators. Although, her meeting with him would generate a response that Marie wasn't looking for, and much like Katherine's offer to help, Marie wanted to avoid, at least until she realized she had no choice...