Ulysses ended up laying calmly, letting Mary and her half-sisters nuzzle up to them. He had privately hoped that Gillie would have stayed longer as Tano and her sisters seemed to befriend the copper lioness fairly easily, but he knew she would have to get back to work.
"Thank you for being our friend, Uly," Mary said aftera few moments, nuzzling the top of his head against the bottom of his muzzle.
He gave a polite nod and lowered his own head to give her a few friendly licks.
"It's as I said," Ulysses told her, "your friends will always be there and... have you eaten anything?"
The sound of five rumbling stomachs cut him off before he could say anything more.
"Not since dinner, yesterday," Moja answered as she leaned against Ulysses's shoulder, "the hardness of... everything hit us right before breakfast."
"You really should eat something," Ulysses instructed, "It's nearly lunch time as it is. Not eating is bad for you."
"We know," Tatuli nodded, "I guess... we weren't thinking..."
Ulysses turned to lick the dark brown cub's check.
"Let's get some lunch," he spoke as he got up.
+++++++++
Inside the medical wing, Mother Glen chatted quietly wit Mal'akh and the other gallery lions, mostly as they were all curious about how things had changed. For Mal'akh, the most surprising thing was how friendly relations between the Pride and the Pack had become. Not that things were ever "bad" between them, but as far as she could remember, relations were not as good as they were now.
"They've all mellowed in through the passages of time," Mal'akh commented, "not as militaristic..."
"Maybe, though things have always been friendly as far as I can remember," Mother Glen anwered, "Gillian and I saw Blackie off when he went off for the First World War, and I saw him off again when he went for the Second World War..."
At a mention of that Mal'akh shuddered.
"I can't believe humans would do such a thing... part of me would believe rogue Lupmen doing that, but not humans," Mal'akh shuddered, remembering what she had read on the Second World War and the Holocaust.
"It is hard, I suppose," Mother Glen sighed, "Blackie says they also targeted Leomen, Lupmen, Felmen, and Dragons for some absurd reason or another... but I know there are a lot of things about that war that he doesn't like to talk about. And I've never pushed him on the subject."
"It would be uncivilized to push," Gillian said from beside her, "and wars are nasty by there very nature. I remember seeing photos of what the effects of the Civil War while in school... I can not imagine what Patrick went through."
Mother Glen nodded and then turned back to the gallery lions, "It has been wonderful visiting with you. But Gillian and I will need to be going. I will need to see that Gillian can settle into his old home until a more suitable home for us can be procured."
"I can stay with Gillie while we wait, dear," Gillian spoke, "and to be honest, I wouldn't mind seeing if they've changed anything at the station."
"Gillie's never changed her office," Fran told them as she came by carrying a few trays of meat to deliver lunch to the Pride. The present nurses and helpers were doing the same.
Gillian slowly nodded. He then glanced around to see Penny talking calmly with one of the lionesses, though the name escaped him for the moment. Umeko was still behind her, ready to move her wheelchair to wherever Penny wanted to go. Kirk was talking with Gary still, resting a paw reassuringly on reddish-brown male's shoulder.
+++++++++++
"Did Marie know how much of what Rachael told them was true or not?" Lawrence wondered, "from what it seems, Rachael claimed that she and Dillon had been over most of the globe with more adventures then even Marie had had."
"One would think that Rachael and Dillon had likely met Marie before if they were all true," Maddex commented, "I think that nearly all of them had to be exaggerated."
"Marie didn't know for sure," glass Marie answered calmly, "and like you, she did have her suspicions, but after having Katherine prove many of her assumptions of Felmen wrong, she did not say anything directly about that..."
+++++++++
Once the ship was unloaded, Dillon and Captain Wesley returned to the area near the ship from a small office nearby. Father Draco followed behind.
"How did it go?" Marie asked as Draco approached her.
"Quite well," Draco nodded, "He's taken quite a bit of money from Dillon and half of what I had budgeted to sail from Naples to here... but then we should be alright financially."
"Not that it will matter if the witches kill us," Marie reminded him.
"Have you seen that?"
"No, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong," Marie said nervously and silently thankful that Mary and Martin were busy trying to collect their children from Vatican's back and Rachael and Dillon were in the middle of a very passionate looking kiss... as awkward as it was for two feline muzzles to mimic a human's kiss. And they were speaking softly enough that Captain Wesley could not hear.
Draco only nodded.
"We are ready to go," Captain Wesley anounced as he looked to see the last of the goods coming from England being unloaded.
"Do you not need to provision the ship for the trip?" Katherine asked curiously from where she was seated, craddling Josephine while Mary and Martin gathered up Joshua, Bradly, and Adam.
"I was scheduled to make a trip to Virginia before the present war over religion started against James II," Captain Wesley told them, "it is provisioned, and actually New England is closer to us then Virginia is. The real key will be getting provisions for the return trip..."
"You may have to consider pretending to be Protestant," Marie advised, "or take refuge in a different colony."
"You can not help?" Captain Wesley asked.
"Our mission is rather clear," Draco spoke, "I apologize."
"At least you're paying well," Captain Wesley sighed.
The ship captain then turned to his crewmen and gave new orders to get things done to prepare for departure. Marie and Draco slowly followed with their bags and belongings. Vatican was quick to join them once all of his "passengers" were off of his bak. For the moment, Katherine was left alone on the docks with her sisters, nephews, niece, and her brothers-in-law.
"Be careful, Katherine," Mary advised, "I don't want to recieve a letter telling me that you died."
"I will," Katherine answered as she handed Josephine back to her mother and then turned to her nephews, "you'll be good for your mother?"
"We will," Joshua and Bradly said together. Adam nodded.
"I'll visit you when I grow up!" Adam promised.
Mary and Martin said nothing in response to that. Katherine meanwhile moved on to Rachael.
"You take it easy," Katherine advised as she hugged her sister.
"You too," Rachael responded.
"It was great to see you all," Katherine said with a smile.
"It was good to see you too," Martin and Dillon said, almost in perfect unison and hugged her as well.
With her goodbyes done, Katherine turned and made her way up the gangplank to stand by Marie looking over the side of the ship. Captain Wesley's crew soon pulled the gangplank behind her, and the ship was soon underway.
"No turning back now," Katherine said to her friend as they waved goodbye to her relatives.
"Quite right," Marie nodded.
"How long will the voyage be?" Katherine asked curiously.
"About a month, at the fastest, depending on the winds," Marie answered.
"Can you believe all the places Rachael's been? All the way to Japan!" Katherine commented, "did you ever run into her on one of your missions?"
"I do no recall meetng a felman like her," Marie answered, "although, I'd tend to think that much of that was heavily exaggerated. My father didn't get around that much, and I've known no human that could defeat a Lupman and Leoman at the same time in a wrestling match."
"Ah," Katherine nodded, "that did sound a little odd to me."
"Just remember what I've told you, Katherine," Marie said seriously, "do not let yourself become a killer. You're too good a person to let that happen to you."
"I'm doing this to protect you," Katherine said as she hugged Marie, "I have no intention of being a killer."
"Just a friendly reminder," Marie told Katherine.