"You said tested it on the neighborhood 'children' plural, so in other words--" Maddex
lead.
"Yes." Glass Marie picked up, "Those two boys weren't the second to last. Sadly. Or rather,
tragically. Remember what I said. They wouldn't even TRY going after the lupmans or
leomans at first, the leomans which ironically in the witchs' opinion had proven the most
'worthy' of being granted their 'gift' of 'pure absolute freedom' due to being the most
civilized.
"Yes, I know that doesn't make sense when their grudge was against civilization in
general. But remember, at this point their actions were more bad therefore meant civilized
things in their minds, rather than civilized things therefore bad which was their thinking
process."
Alice said in her ever articulate form of speech, "You were not pretending before when you
told myself, my half-sisters/cousins, and pack mates that by this point in time the three
witches had gone quite mad as Hatters."
'Leave it to Alice to use that term,' Lawrence thought to the eldest of the three glass
wolves.
Marie looked like she was somewhere around Abbey's age... but at the same time, she
acted like she was as old as Mr. P, and again like nothing more than a pup who had seen
too much too soon too fast.
"No, I was not." The red and black dressed blond pup said. "One powerful Geass around
Joella later, the witches knew that the children of Glendale would accept candy from a little
girl more readily than strange adults. And soon after taking the candy they would leave,
forget Joella had ever given them candy or had even seen her that day, and promptly went
insane as their vulnerable naked minds were opened up to the full scale of the infinite
chaos.
It was an epidemic, which that Joella honestly felt sorry to see so many of her friends
acting with all the reason of animals, other as empty as seemingly the many figurines she
had that looked like her, -yes the failed experiments to create her though she didn't know
that- and others now trapped in mental fantasy worlds only they could see, some
beautiful, some awful, and some so alien that the poor children made no sense to anyone
around them.
She unwittingly threw suspicion off the witches for a time as she acted like a half century
early version of Florence Nightingale. Helping in any way she could with the mad children.
It was how she had been born, the witches saw themselves as heroes, and so this Joella
was everything the best friend of heroes would be. She -wanted- to help them. So made
friends easily. Just as I have the wisdom and understanding the witches THOUGHT they
had, Joella too had the kindness and compassion the witches THOUGHT they had."
"She had no idea it was the candy she had given all the friends was cause?"
"No. She never found that out. She was with her 'grandfather' when the witches made their
run with the leoman cubs, fearing for her safety in case things turned ugly.... Of course,
the infinite chaos being what it is, of the many children the witches turned mad via Joella
(who they saw simply as helping them save people rather than as a tool as you might
think), a handful developed a tiny spark of the Gift rather than going -completely- insane
and simply saw the world a legitimately different way rather than seeing one that only
existed in their minds."
"And that makes it better?" Maddex asked insulted.
Marie sighed, "I wish you'd stop acting like I was trying to -defend- them. Joella as I said
easily made friends with boy the human children of Glendale and the many fairies created
by the witches in their own childhood years. She was actually sad to see them go when they
said their debt was paid and departed.
"And when Solome died... she cried, of course her 'parents' -thought it was a term they'd
loath and despise using despite it's logical application- didn't tell her the whole truth of
what happened. Just that a mean dog that killed Solome, and Joella assumed it was a mad
dog so the witches were doing the poor animal a favor by putting it out of it's misery. Of
course she visited the leoman cub who came down with the 'wandering demons' as some
of the locals had begun to call it, others nicknamed it the 'shadow of despair' ...
"Did she learn the witches' true nature at that point?" Betty asked.
"No. And even if she had, she'd have thought it was some -other- witches who had done
so. She was a child after all, and wouldn't have wanted to accept her family (a term the
witches were somewhat more accepting of since it didn't automatically imply adulthood).
As it was, Mal'Akh was there to tell her tale to Joella, and she simply tried to help the mad
cub in any way she could. Thank again to the geass around her, created by the witches for
the precise purpose of -protecting- her, no one question how the adopted child of three
husband-less women could possible afford such gifts to give or such dresses to wear ... "
"Did the other witches lose their familiars before the final battle?" Betty asked.
"No. Lilith and Herodias were part of the final conflict."
"I have to ask." Lawrence asked, "What was Joella told, or did she see it happen?"
"She was told her foster parents came down with the same epidemic that had plagued
Glendale's children, and died trying to bring happiness to Glendale, not technically a lie."
++++++++++
Still in her wig and Kimono, Umeko pushed Penny's wheelchair along like the willing slave
she was. None of her 'sister-wives' spoke to her, nor her husband, as far as the Japanese
wolves were concerned, until either Yamato or Penny could walk, she was the legal
property of the Pride, in particular Penny.
Gary asked, "So are you going to tell my little cubs you plan to basically be their mentor
from now on? Or am I going to have to?"
"I'd rather not." Penny said simply, "THey're still grieving, and I'd rather wait until after the
funeral to tell them so it doesn't look like I'm trying to replace their mother."
'Replace their mother?' Gillie thought, cursing her new somewhat more sensitive ears (they
were going to make sleeping torture, she was sure). 'Oh my God... don't tell me, Fox or
Elise were ... were MARRIED TO GARY in this new reality!!! But how.. that's not the path of
least resistance!!! Is it?'
Gillie also finally notice the aliens-from-Mars-wolf-women with fur patterns like they
were NPCs in a game to precisely show they were of the medical profession. Gillie just
hoped more such moronic cliches didn't pop up.
"Hey Chief." Said the tall blond wolf woman who had gotten cozy with Jensen when he had
come in. He guessed this was either Frank or Daryl but he had no clue to which. "I know
you don't want to hear it but, I kinda think I'm out of commission too along with Darla until
everyone is up and walking again. I don't think I can do my job with the Pack and my job
with the police at the same time, sorry... I know Julie's our Pack's medic, but I can't just
leave my sister to face all this alone."
Gillie needed a drink. "We, are going to be so short handed..." It was going to be a
headache to get her remaining office enough sleep and to keep law in Glendale.
"I know, I know, I know, I'm sorry but... they're my Pack, I just can't abandon them."
The dirty blond said with the same tone Gillie would expect from any close nit family.
"............. I understand."
++++++++
"Time for he daily Mass, can you and Paul take over for me down here while I'm up there?"
Father Mike asked simply.
"I think we can manage, go take care of your business... And... good luck on explaining
being mutated -twice- now."
"After the first time, the second time isn't as bad..."
++++++++++
1688
"That isn't the spear we've been using." Armando noticed.
Kathrine stood full and at attention, she had acquired more than a few scars since taking
up her learning with Armando. It was actually kind of jarring to see such bright blue fur
with his inner pink patches and green accents to have slash marks that showed off her
mended flesh.
She refused to wear trousers when learning from Armando, she was a woman after all. She
absolutely refused to go around naked. She and the church she had promised her life to
considered the lupman warped enough for going around in the fur themeless, it wasn't like
it would kill them to wear loin clothes.
"I got the idea after I managed to pry a few of Marie's encounters out of her, she felt they
might scare me out of following her... The man who forged it was told it was for the
service of the Church, not a lie."
"Whatever. Come on then, start running."
"I'll stay right here thank you."
Armando didn't look impressed, "If you want to be in a split for six months..."
"My choice." Kathrine said simply.
"Whatever." He repeated and charged. 'And there she goes. using the exact same trick as
before. Stupid cat, she needs to learn that repeating yourself only gets you killed, she can
reflect on that while her bones mend and -"GUH! What? Uhhhhhhh..."
The spear had a hollow shaft. The butt of the spear had disconnected from the rest
revealing a weapon with the cutting edge on the wrong side. The side where the cutting
edge should have been had struck against Armando's side, causing him to hold his ribs.
"You..." He gasped, deep breathing feeling painful.
"Just a trick I picked up from Marie..."
"Excellent cat." The old lupman watching all of this using the slur like it was a proper and
formal term of addressing someone, "Just keep remembering the same trick doesn't work
more than once on the average person..."
Kathrine only nodded.
Armando grunted, "That weapon is useless, the killing edge is on the wrong side."
"It's on the right side for me, I'm no killer!"
"You're going to have to be if you want to survive."
Kathrine didn't dignify his words with an answer.
Later that day, as Marie and Kathrine passed each other in the hallway.
Both had taken their true vows. Both had sworn their lives to the Church and were married
now only to God.
Marie Cruz was now twenty-three, while Kathrine was twenty-two.
The rigid but determined if nothing else Abigail had her sights set on one day becoming
the new Abbess.
Zoey and Alaba had become best of friends since both had nearly been used as sacrifices
by the turk spy Abaza.
Abaza, using the alias Abraham, the one man who Marie had dared open her heart to
since abandoning her identity as Marius.
"I wonder how Gillian is doing right now? Or Lobo for that matter... it's been so long... Do
they even remember Marius by now? It was so long ago.
'If I don't leave soon now, I KNOW I'm going to be too late. I'm simply out of time.' She
looked at Kathrine. She stopped. She touched Kathrine's shoulder.
Kathrine looked at her. "Yes Marie?"
Kathrine startled when Marie actually blinked a tear away with her good eye.
"Kathrine... I beg you, please... don't kill yourself over this, I don't think I could forgive
myself if you did."
With that, Marie shuffled off, clearly tired or she would have said more.
Kathrine wondered what Marie meant. Well, not really. After all, Marie was certain that
Kathrine just wasn't built for this sort of thing.
Kathrine got to her room looked in the mirror, and cried out in shock at her reflection.
"Is that... is that really me?" Kathrine thought her heart racing.
The face looking back, wasn't the one Kathrine had known most of her life. It was like a
limit had been reached, and had finally gone over the top. Kathrine saw a woman she
didn't recognize.
This woman had her fur coloring and eye coloring, was her species and age, but there was
something about this woman that was not Kathrine, and that scared her.
Kathrine began to suspect what Marie really meant by Kathrine killing her 'self' over this
training.
That was when another question struck her. 'Who is Kathrine? For seventeen year she was a
happy face and a cheerful voice. But who is she? I liked the Kathrine who wanted to be
friends with everyone, didn't I?'