Ulysses had worried his words of kindness and sympathy had sounded worse than fake,
had sounded worse than contrived. As it turned out, Mary and her half-sisters plus Fox
and Gary's daughters weren't -looking- for poetry. They were looking for kindness.
Something Ulysses had always had in spades.
Ulysses wasn't a muscle bound wall of muscle like Lawrence or Roger or Zack, or Alpha-
Jesen... Ulysses wondered if he needed to bulk up, if that was really what women of all
species of man loved.
But Ulysses found himself under a pile of reddish-gold, midnight black, and dirty orange
fur of little girls who were quick to show their appreciation to the teenage boy. Ulysses
realized that he didn't feel as nervous or feel his heart pounding when the half-sisters
Robyn and Maxine were flirting with him.
'Maybe it's better that I'm a lupman and Mary's a leoman...' Ulysses thought, if Sarah's
taught me anything, family isn't -just- about genetics...And maybe I just feel more comfy
about around.'
Of course the age difference would make -anyone- turn their heads, but none of the
leoman cubs or Ulysses actually -care-.
Realistically, Ulysses realized he had thought Lawrence and Roger looked nicer before their
discomfort at appearing feminine had inspired them to abandon all else in favor of bulking
up. Apparently Roger's sister, Megan, had a falling out with her brother over his new
lifestyle for a year before they had finally made up. Ulysses had no idea that Lawrence had
already and was going to come under fire from his aunt over abandoning his books for
weight machines.
In spite of all of them, few if any words were actually spoken... 'Maybe... maybe I just need
to be there for them after all...' Ulysses thought.
+++++++++
"Hey Gillie." Said the black and gold male lion man in a tone like they had known each
other for years. Gillie held back a sigh. "I just wanted to say thank you for letting me know
where my sister was this morning, I know I disappointed you when I didn't become a cop
too, but I'm just glade you don't hold it against me."
'Sister?' Gillie wondered, She darted with her eyes looking at the male lion man and Wanda
trying her hardest NOT to look at the package between his legs (which since her
transformation had become more distracting than the things hanging from all the woman's
chests). She saw the similar fur color.
She stared blankly for several seconds which the lion man in front of her apparently
mistook for harshness and his posture become less tall. That was when it clicked.
Gillie did her absolute hardest NOT to scream this time, or faint, neither would do her any
good and would only bring trouble. Instead she put on her best poker face and said, "It's,
okay... everyone's free to make their own choice, and the life of a cop isn't for everyone..."
That was when he hugged her, "Thanks Gillie!"
Gillie struggled to stay conscious until he finally let her go. Realizing there was no sublime
way to figure out Tabby's new name without hurting people who were apparently as close
as family, Gillie knew she'd just have to wing it.
"It's alright..."
"So you're the head of police?" Asked one of the lion women Gillie didn't recognize.
"I am..."
"My name is Mal'akh Bialyk, as you heard, I have watching people grow old and die in the
gallery since before your grandmother was born... I'd... I'd... OFFICER BIALYK reporting for
duty!" Mal'akh did her hardest to stand at attention and failing pathetically.
Gillie groaned... she really didn't need this, "Look I, that is, I'm honored but, you see, ugh...
I'm happy to see someone whose that dedicated to their duty but, you just get healed...
then I think, I hate to say, but I think you're going to have to see how the police have
changed in the last two hundred something years...."
"...oh."
"Are we out of the running?" Lexi asked her sister.
"Naw." Nellie replied and did her best not to laugh least she feel agony, "You know Chief
Gillie, no way she'd ever take a mate. Tad is still open season."
"I'm standing right here you know." Tad pointed out simply.
++++++++++
"In their paranoia, the witches thought the people of Glendale themselves had called the
five 'witch hunters' on them. And of course, that brought back memories of the angry,
superstitious, paranoid, ruled by fear locals that had cost them the life of their mother. ....
Rather ironic since Marie's group tried to fight -against- the madness and paranoia of the
witch hunts in Colonial America that began a few years later. Needless to say this made
them even more ruthless and desperate. Maybe they saw defeating these witch hunters as
avenging their mother."
"And why are you mentioning this now?" Betty asked.
"Just cause for the last time in their lives, the witches had someone they cared about other
than themselves, (their familiars and what little emotional endearment they had remaining
towards their godfather not withstanding). YES! I know! They did MAKE this Joella,
customized her utterly, making her the perfect 'friend' they wanted."
"'Body do what they wanted' so she was a puppet?" Maddex asked.
"Only the way we're all puppets of our memories. Joella, for that was who she was now,
fully accepted her friends were now 'big', she was hammered not to refer them to as 'grown
ups' or 'adults.'
And since Joella didn't drop dead like a puppet whose strings were cut when the witches
died. Marie realized Joella was a living being with a heart and mind of her own. So even if
Marie had that kind of power, or rather, gave into the temptation of using the game, or
curse that way that was struck onto her by the witch's dying breath for that purpose, Marie
realized that doing so would be killing an innocent person to bring back into existence
another innocent person, in short, making her no different from the witches."
"And Joella herself?"
"Thankfully they didn't give her magic. So she wasn't a part of their grand scheme. She was
passed off as simply an orphan they had found and adopted. Of course their geasses took
care of problems, but the incomplete damaged Geasses did mean they had to work -
harder- to make everyone accept this story."
"And Runner-Bear believed this?"
"He figured they had renamed an orphan child Joella in honor of their dead friend, but he
never guess the full horrid truth though some of his guesses came close.
"As for Joella herself, they spoiled her rotten, they dotted on her and lavished her. Unlike
them however, Joella had a desire for actual friends, rather than just things. The witches
made her the Joella of their idealized memories, but of course they didn't run those
idealizations to their logical conclusion.
"So while Joella did love them, that DIDN'T stop her from loving anyone else, empathizing
with everyone else, and caring about everyone else, in a genuine manner, or with her
'grandfather', rather than the fantasy world the witches lived in now. In a way she was like
me. They also magically regressed her age by one year after every birthday so to keep her
at that age until their ideal world was created. She didn't start growing until after her foster
parents were dead."
"I don't like where this is heading." Maddex said.
"Everyone monster has a another side. Stalin was devoted to his mother. Hitler in his final
day finally married Eva Braun before they ended their lives together. Al Capone looked after
his son. This didn't make them any less -evil-, make them any less deserving of
punishment, but at the end they were all still people. And while their Joella might have
been a replacement for the original, they used her as the final justification to create an
ideal world for her."
+++++++++
1686 Winter
"Come on come come on! Is that all you've got?! Come on I know you can run faster than
that! Now move it!"
"AAAH!" Kathrine finally gave in and scream.
Armando said confidently in front of the panting Kathrine, "You can bet I'll make a lion out
of you."
1687 Spring
Armando said aggravated at the sleeping felman in front of him where she had fallen
asleep standing up her knees knocked her body still in position, "I am somehow going to
make a lion out of you."
1687 Summer
"Have you seen Kathrine? All those bruises and claw marks? I think she even lost a fang a
bit back... those wolf-cubs are monsters I tell ya!"
1687 Fall
Armando groaned and turned his head away from the broken sight in front of him, fall on
the ground face first, "I'm tired of this. Your progress is patheitc. Go home. Make up
whatever lie you need to. How could I ever make a lion out of you."
"Where In The Lord's Name do you think you're going?... We're not done yet!"
Armando started and turned around. "What did you say?"
It was like a mask had fallen off her face.
The felman covered in blood staining her painfully bright fur crimson, "We're not done yet!
You said three years right? They're not up yet!" Kathrine said fire in her eyes. "So come
back here!"
Armando narrowed his eyes.
"And I a felman! Not a leoman! And I am proud of it! It is what God chose me to be! I am no
one's lion but His! So be silent! Unless you're scared one tiny little felman can surpass a
lupman."
Armando roared and came at her, Kathrine didn't need to duck as far as another would, and
drove the spear foreword past him, then swung the butt of the weapon up and smack him
in the face right on the nose.
The elder lupman watching this laughed and clapped. This felman would do just fine.