Beta-Julie and Beta-Darla were father surprised when the medical wing's good luck charm
sprang to life as a full sized lupman woman and began helping around with the sleeping
and half awake leoman and pack mates. When Beta-Julie managed to dully asked what
was going on, the good luck charm said happily, "Don't worry, this is just a dream you're
having, no need to worry."
"But we CAN'T be sleeping at a time like this! Our pack mates are depending on us!" Beta-
Darla protested her sister echoing her voice at the same time while Beta-Fran shuddered
in her sleep.
"Oh! Okay! Look, you're -sleep-walking- so while you're dreaming this, everything you're
doing you're actually doing, and you're lucid dreaming, so you're in control of your own
actions."
"Oh...okay... that makes sense... we guess..." The two triplets said together, her heads
swimming, deciding to accept the help for the night, even if she was just a dream. The
good luck charm in the morning will be quick to tell them that it was best they didn't talk
about their dream and became a proper good luck charm again where she belonged.
Meanwhile, everyone commented on how beautiful looking this morning the giant solid
god sun goddess clock statue, and the giant solid silver moon goddess star-chart statue
with the sunlight hitting them just right with the equally giant bronze lupman statue
between them. All three looked a little extra happy this morning if that was possible for an
set of inanimate art (if tall enough that if they stood up straight their ears would go
through the ceiling) they everyone remembered being commissioned and assembled in the
house when Alpha-Jensen was still a pup.
+++++++
1689 July
Sitting around a make shift table, injecting their thoughts and ideas about how to basically
save the world Marie Cruz said, "They think there's an army of us Mal'Akh says? I vote that
we take advantage of that and make them think they're going up against an army. They'll
be on the look out for a horde, not one or two raiders. It won't really help us more than the
element of surprise and getting just a little bit closer, but it'll have to do. And remember
what Running-Bear said, the pendants he fashioned slow down and make it harder for the
familiars and witches being able to change us, it doesn't outright make it impossible."
Everyone nodded.
"Our best bet is to divide their attention. Make them think we're coming from all directions
instead of just one or a few. We don't know if the trees are geassed to be invincible like the
familiars are, but Draco's fire, and I trust Linus can provide with a mix of blasting powder
that can produce the same effect. The locals aren't trained soldiers so we have that on our
side. I'm going to see if I can carve what left of our... supply from the graveyard after I
made the throwing knives into something that can cut through the thorns so we don't have
to play by where they want us to go, or I can at least shape what's left along the cutting
edge of the blade." 'I also suspect the Running Bear used some of those bones in these
pendants he gave us, but... I do not wish to know.'
"Those cannons need to be reloaded after each use, that is your only advantage and like
any cannon can be well aimed at extremely close range. And then there's the leoman
themselves and the gargoyle to worry about... I'm hoping we can use the cannons
themselves to break through the house, if they haven't been hexed to have security to keep
them from being used by anyone who isn't loyal to the witches... I'd ask Mal'Akh to do test
things but... it's clear she'll never go near that house again as long as the witches live. ...
They won't be counting on us being resistant to their magic, that's one advantage we'll
have, but it once last long once they realize what's up and concentrate their efforts like
hornets defending the hive. We won't have time for delays or set backs or retreats or
second guessing ourselves once it all starts and all madness breaks loose.
"And remember," Marie Cruz sighed, "This isn't just us at stake, nor one town, or one child,
this possibly the entire world, I suggest you all pray to The Lord that we succeed. Our lives
are forfeit in front of this task."
"Marie," Kathrine put a hand up on her shoulder, "I'm sorry, but I'm not going to discard
you life in this or anyone else's here."
Linus and Draco stayed silent.
Marie smiled, "You're a wonderful nun Kathrine, you deserve it a lot more than I do... and
in a kinder world you'd be the best of all people. ... But our lives don't mean as much in
regards to all this."
Kathrine's eyes narrowed, "And the lives of all the children the witches have enslaved?"
"We've all chosen to put on their mantle, none of them have! None of them were given a
chose over what happened to them." None of the hunters so much as reminded Marie Cruz
that Mal'Akh had said that the slave Afua had apparently become a part of the witches'
entourage of her own free will. And none of them knew at this time that the gang Linus
had reported of murderous thugs who had vanished that were now among those innocent
children the hunters sought to free. "I did my absolute hardest to keep you from following
me here Kathrine. Father Draco could have turned me down and even reported me to the
authorities for my crimes. Vatican could have chosen to honor his oath to protect The
Vatican over his oath to my father to protect me, and Linus could have chosen to simply let
us pass! All of us have chosen to walk down this road, and we'll have to see it through to
the end."
++++++++++
"It's my birthday," Joella thought, "And that means I can do whatever I want!" True, her
foster-mothers had declared she was free to do as she wished whenever and whatever she
liked anyway, but on her birthday those boundaries were somehow pushed even further
back, and if she wanted to see Mal'Akh on her birthday! Then she'd seen Mal'Akh on her
birthday!
The witches, in particular Golgatha and Herodias, would have normally noticed Joella's
departure at once, but like the children they claimed to be still at heart (with the
immaturity to match) they let slip the responsibilities, and Golgatha in particular was
distracted by an odd dream she had been having lately, incomplete half images, it would
come together perfectly when she'd have her final vision that would inspire her and her
sisters to defy a victory handed to them by fate and give secretly give Joella to their god-
father along with a child familiar for protection so Joella would be in position to sacrifice
herself for her mothers.
Humans were built for enduring unforgiving climates, endurance, climbing, and the most
precise and fine and delicate hands of all the species of Man and thus the ultimate tool
user. And her mind was on Mal'Akh. As she walked out of the witches' grounds, the thorn
maze changing shape to allow her to pass without so much as turning a corner, and Free
not interfering in her will in anyway... it took a while for Joella to realize she was being
followed.
'Where is she going? Why is going where she is going? Why is she going alone? Why is she
not going with someone else? What is at where she is going that is not someplace else she
could go? Why is it there and no elsewhere?' Lark thought curiously tilting her head like a
bird would when she noticed Joella leave mostly cause she was waiting her turn to play one
of the more popular games.
Jimmy was riding 'horsie' with Mondain Renard, the adult male of the Witch Pride along
with Oliver. Lark considered waiting for him, but her curiosity won out, and she followed
Joella (Joella still wearing an incredibly beautiful birthday dress given to her as a present
that very day that would make some real princesses green with envy and no Puritan would
ever dream of buying for it's absurd emphasis on appearance and thus vanity).
"Where ya going?" Betty asked as Flora and Peter Renard (the Witch Pride's cubs) were
painting and drawing on every inch of her naked body like was a canvas.
"I'm just gonna go see where Joella is going." Lark answered honestly.
"Oh okay." Betty nodded and went back to giggling as Flora and Peter continued to paint
her.
++++++
Marie-Elize wondered how long it would take before one of her audience to remember
Renard had been Fox's maiden name, and was NOT just happenstance they were the same.
++++++
For Lark, it was like she was setting foot on a new world, she felt like she hadn't step foot
outside the witch's ground her entire life (she was right).
The various horses had become ponies, a breed of horse smaller and much more tame that
traditional mares and stallions. The animals obeyed their younger and younger masters
with almost entranced perfection. Not to mention many of them were colors that had no
business existence outside of a rainbow.
The various other domestic animals had undergone various other changes, becoming
brightly colored, and become stunningly docile and tame. The donkeys of course were the
last to go, their world famous stubbornness fighting to the bitter end until they too, were
little more than flesh and blood toy animals with obedient little minds to match.
The plants had grown nearly to weed, all brightly colored, all cheerful, all pretty looking,
some in a growth pattern as if they were smiling! The poor woman who had suffered
miscarriage, now looked like they had never been pregnant, or two looking too young to
even be properly wed.
The girl with her dark hair in a pony tail not wearing a stitch of anything save for the band
that held her hair in place walked behind Joella without a peep of alarm of complaint from
the puritans, which should have been a dead give away about how thick the fog in their
perceptions had become. If the little boy wearing shorts far too large for him riding a
purple pony through a field of flowers that had once been main street for fun was not a big
enough clue.
Lark looked at all of this in wonder. Joella smiled seeing how her foster mothers were
making the world a more beautiful place and giving everyone their youth and innocence
back, after all, they all LOOKED happy didn't they? Happier than she remembered them
being a year ago. She knew they'd find a true cure for the wandering demons soon!
The houses themselves were becoming garishly colored, some even slightly changing
shape to accommodate their changing residence.
Joella arrived at Mal'Akh's home, she saw Mal'Akh's parents who seemed younger than
when Joella had last seen them, she smiled and waved at them, and they smiled and waved
back. She smiled when she saw the tiny hints of rainbow color in their fur... yes.. her
foster-mothers, (not that she'd call them that to their faces) were healing Glendale, she
just knew it.
"Mal'Akh... are you home?" She called out.
Silence.
"Your mom and dad let me in! I hope I'm not intruding..."
Finally, the lion girl who looked like a slightly older version of Aimiliona peaked out from
behind a couch.
"Why--why are you here?"
"I wanted to visit." Joella didn't want to risk yet hurting her feelings and tell her it was
Joella's birthday.
"Why did you bring one of -them- with you?"
"Huh?" Joella looked around and finally noticed the human Lark standing as naked as a
leoman a couple feet behind her like she was on a family outing.
"Lark?"
"Yes Joella?"
"What are you doing here?"
"To see what you're doing here."
"Why?"
"Because I didn't know what you were going to be doing here, and I wanted to know."
"Why did you want to know?"
Lark blinked her big eyes and placed her chin against the back of her hand thinking,
"Hmmm.... I guess I just wanted to know why. This is your birthday, so that makes
everything you do special right?"
"Today is your birthday?" Mal'Akh thought, 'witches have birthdays?'
Joella looked as red as the ruby broach she was wearing, "Uh... I didn't want to bring it up."
"Happy Birthday." Mal'Akh said as was civilized. "Couldn't you have at least brought
Aimiliona?"
"I didn't mean to bring Lark, but she wanted to come, she was curious."
Mal'Akh remembered, this girl had been watching them always while at the witches'
grounds, like a predator laying wait, ready to spring, (fear was not a trust worthy
interpreter of events).
The child familiar side stepped Joella and stuck out a hand to the leoman cub, "I'm Lark, I
think we've met before, right?"
"Yes... I think we have..."
"Oh goodie! That means we're friends! And you're Aimiliona's sister right? Cause if I'm
Joella's friend/sister, and you're Joella's friend, and if Aimiliona is my friend/sister, that
makes us sisters right?"
Looking at this creature, this servant of evil in front of her wearing a smiling face,
declaring they were family then and there when her own sister had barely even recognized
her since going mad, at last, something in Mal'Akh broke.
"I AM NOT YOUR SISTER! YOU ARE NO ONE'S SISTER! You're not a girl! You're not a hue-
mans! You're not a person! You're just a bird! An animal that those wicked witches turned
into something that LOOKED LIKE a girl! You're just ah-ah A -THING-!"
A look of dismay, horror and confusion crossed Lark's mind. And her childish imagination,
began to spiral like a whirl wind, 'I'm really a bird? Is that why my name is a bird? That's
why I can't remember any stuff from before I lived with-ow! Is that why I can't-ow-
remember?'
Lark broke down crying right into Joella's shoulder. "I am too a girl! Am too a person!"
Alice asked, "Did you Marie-Eliza, not tell us before at some point in this story, or at least
narrate as such, that souls have no genders or species? Or am I thinking of one of a
spiritual discussion that Ami took part in?"
Marie-Eliza simply nodded, "Indeed souls aren't defined in such terms, but Mal'Akh had no
way to know that. And she was angry, scared, worried, desperate, and all those things will
make any child lash out at any available outlet, Lark had the misfortune of being such."
Joella looked at the crying girl just a little under a year younger than her (the witches kept
the familiars ages all the same too). Joella remembered the bad men with guns, she
remembered her guardians' wraith, she remembered how they had given all those bad men
a chance do their lives over again not weighted down by the bad things they had done
before. But Lark was no longer that bad person! She was alive! A person!
Joella hugged her, "It's okay Lark, I promise, you've always been human. You're a real girl."
"P-promise?"
"I promise..." Joella said stroking her hair, "You're not a bird."
Mal'Akh meanwhile also stared in shock... monsters didn't cry... did they?