Eliza sat still silently observing all in her victorian era dress, while Betty asked. "How could
Monica of possibly known that? About the mob of thugs that the witches changed? You
didn't mention her being there during the narrative."
"Rosa and Monica were both given unnaturally long life spans by the witches as part of
their experiments both intentionally and unintentionally, the witches were sure that Rosa
and Monica loved them utterly for their gift. This was before the thorn maze was in
earnest. Monica had wanted to instruct the witches' orphanage, figuring she'd be at least
accepted there, and actually observed at a distance what happened."
"And Monica was scared of even trying it?" Maddex's head said.
"No. She was not. Not in the least. She was surprised, and it was the day she realized the
witches were indeed magic users, but she wondered for a time if their power had come
directly from God in spite of their attitude during her classes. In the end however, Gita,
Gomorrah, and Golgatha, had no interest in Rosa 'infecting' their 'pure children' with the
'pollution' of christian thought and the idea that rules existed for a reason."
The children, even Alice, had gone effectively silent as the tale progressed, the battle about
to occur keeping their attention utterly, Maddex's heads were just waiting for the first call
sign to cover his daughters' senses.
However, Abbey asked, "What was it? What was it that scared Marie when she was having a
waking dream? What did she see behind the raven's mask? What shocked back to reality?"
"Death."
++++++++
"There are times when I would not be surprised you were not looking after my child,"
Gabriel asked of Azriel/Thanatos/GrimReaper, "After all Death, weren't you a godfather
once yourself?"
"Once upon a time."
++++++++
'Of course, I do not have that kind of power to turn people into objects to begin with,' Amy
thought, 'I'm not a witch or wizard, alchemist or sage. I hope Zelipe isn't getting
superstitious of me...'
Anne had of course, started a petition among the Pack members, not to have the shinto
statues removed, but to have a small chapel consecrated on Pack grounds showing the
Lamb to balance out Amy's small Shinto Shrine.
Of course, Amy's interest in history wasn't limited to the origin of her adopted faith. Recent
events had left her even more curious about the history of the game and read up on what
precious little history of the aftermath of the game's onset had survived various purges.
Supposed after mortally wounding their dearest comrade under the influence of the Game,
the Hunter had Dared their dearest comrade to live. Weather The Hunter had succeeded
with this use of the Game had not been recorded.
It reminded Amy of an anime that Alpha Kaylee had in her collection maintained by their
resident pack movie buff Jasmine. Of a young exiled prince given the power to order
anyone to do any one thing he commanded of them. And in one instance ordered the love
of his life to live as she bled to death in his arms, a failure that cost him just one tiny bit
more of his sanity.
++++++++++++
The same time Amy looked at the picture of the lupman form of Ame-No-Uzume Sarah
was working with Ulysses when she felt like someone had just walked over her grave. She
nearly dropped what she was holding for the injured Pack and Pride, but managed to catch
it.
"Sarah are you okay?" The teenage pup and the last in the pack to receive a formal letter
rank looked concerned for his sister-at-heart and official unofficial pack
emotional/mental councilor.
"I-I'm fine Ulysses don't worry." The lavender she-wolf smiled at the young purple lupman.
She knew that this feeling logically had to be just psychology, logically brought on by the
recent heightened danger from Kurse. 'I feel, like there's somewhere I need to be... but I'm
right here with Ulysses.' Sarah shook her head, 'Likely just nerves.' For some reason
however, for the rest of the day, she kept rubber necking at the entry way statues like
there was something important missing.
++++++++++++
As a sacred rule within the Big Bad Wolf Pack, no two lupmans could ever have the same
name, since surnames were considered a violation of the unifying devotion to Pack and
Alpha, and Jessie, when he had tried to implement it had been met with -violent- rejection
by Mr. P and quickly retracted the suggestion. On the other hand, this made it impossible
to tell just from a quick glance at name records who was directly related to Jessie and who
was not.
While Jessie was remembered as a being a unscrupulous police chief, he was while alive
considered the pinnacle of a member of the Big Bad Pack and several males and females
openly wept at his funeral when he died of old age.
When his means of becoming Police Chief had been uncovered after his death along with
his less than savory actions, one lupman =not one of his mates= died of a heart attack in
shock. Another who had built a small shrine to him in their bedroom committed suicide.
And yet another was still undergoing treatment at the local mental hospital (kept outside
Glendale's city limits from the danger of an patient getting their hands on a turn of the
game) from her mental-break down at finding out about Jessie's hidden side he never
showed his packmates, wives, or his many pups.
Many of his mates and pups had left Glendale within days of the truth coming out in shame
of their own accord. The rest stayed in Glendale, but left the minor scattering to the city's
outskirts where the remaining members who didn't live directly at the Wolf Estate resided.
Sydney was middle aged, had gray marks in her orange-ish brown fur on her body before
it's time, and kept her rare hair (rather than just head fur) in a tight braid on the back of
her head. Like the majority of Lupman, her fur color matched her eyes.
She had once planned to follow in her father's footsteps in becoming a police officer, but
the overwhelming hazing that result when the truth of her father's actions came out had
forced her to leave the police academy and cost her what friends she had made (guess they
weren't really friends).
Of all her dreams and ambitions, and here she was, halfway through life... chopping meat.
Every day was exactly like the last and every day that followed would be the same as this
one until she died, and was buried in the ground and forgotten.
In a warped way, she had almost WELCOMED Kurse's insanity, at least then she didn't have
the wits to appreciate how worthless her life was.
"Sydney!" Called her boss, human but strong enough to beat her in an arm wrestling match,
"Two cuts of sirloin!"
"Yes sir." She called back.
At the same time Amy observed the images of the two missing Shinto statues, a thought
occurred to her to add -something- to her monotone existence. 'Maybe I should visit the
manor... none of the young pups are old enough to remember father, and none of the
teenagers are likely to recognize me as one of father's pups, and the older ones... I guess
I'll just take my chances.' She thought, and short of expendable-zombie-slave, she wished
for some purpose, any purpose, besides the one she had now.
++++++++++++
Trevor sat on a bench with his sister Sabrina "Nala" with a couple of their friends, boys on
one side, girls on the other, both sides curious about what Trevor had in his hot little
hands. More of the playground equipment was suited for Leomans than yesterday, given
the increase in Leoman to Human students in the grade-school from yesterday.
Friends transformed friends who transformed siblings who transformed their friends, this
sadly had the inescapable and harsh and unforgiving side effect of meaning that those not
transformed into leoman were the ones with no friends or family that they cared for.
Trevor opened the letter that had finally made to Trevor's family yesterday, and now the
little boy during recess finally had the time and curiosity to open it.
++++++++++++
"Everything returned to normal the witches had touched with their magic? Everything?"
Maddex's heads asked figuring that was too much to hope for and REALLY wanting to get
away from the topic of 'death' Marie-Eliza had just brought up.
"Only the things the witches themselves had not personally handled and instead had done
through the 'blanket spell' they had covered Glendale with. This included the majority of
age regressions on the general populace and mutations of plants and livestock. But the
flowers for example by pollinating had become a natural part of the world. But they were
seen as a reminder of the witches and exterminated within Glendale's city limits, and those
that managed to spread outside the city limits died when magic in the rest of the world
began to flow solely to Glendale to feed the game.
For another example, the former mob members had all developed unique and individual
identities during their time as children, and thus had cemented their place in existence,
while their birth was magical, their behavior in of itself was not and completely their own,
much like Joella's. What the witches saw as 'inferiority' was really that the infinite chaos
had not driven them insane or made them loose touch with reality. If the witches had not
been insane themselves by this point, they would have seen the former mob members and
Samantha and Alissa as a vast improvement over the inflicted children. The former mob
children might have been considered odd by some, but were in no way unable to live a
normal life unaided once they reached adulthood."
Betty said, "You said before Marie Cruz would figure out that Joella hadn't always been
Joella, but didn't try to 'cure' her."
"There is no cure for who you are. Restoring her to normal would be just another murder
someone who was alive to resurrect someone else who was dead. Not all of Marie's
companions agreed with her decisions."
++++++++
1689 August 10th 11:58 AM
Marie Cruz remembered, Abraha, no, Abaza. The look in his eyes that had gone
systematically gone from defiance, anger, hatred, and then finally fear as she had
methodically extracted any information regarding any fellow Turk infiltrators out of him (in
the presence of a watchful priest of course, she wasn't a savage after all).
She remembered the horror and betrayal she felt when she had finally seen his real self
behind the mask of Abraham. She remembered the temptation she had felt to disregard
the very precise restrictions handed down by the Inquisition on what could and what could
NOT be done to prisoners. Finding out he had been charming Zoey, and Kathrine, and a
leoman nun who worked in the records at the same time to collect his 'three virgins' hadn't
help her self control.
Rosa asked before the four allies departed to keep their heads down, "You never answered
my question. What Pride are you with? I've never seen a leoman like you, and why do you
cover yourself like you were a human?"
"I'm not a leoman, I'm a felman." Kathrine had the very strong suspicion that she was going
to be saying that a lot in the next few hours of screaming, confusion and havoc. She
looked at the spear in her hands, knowing it would likely taste blood of mortal Men,
Women and Children for the first time rather than the ichor of tentacled abominations from
beyond.
Of course neither Marie or Kathrine were wearing their nun attires, it would be wrong and
impractical to be dressed as such for this task. Kathrine, the Nun NOT a part of the
infamous Inquisition, was certain The Lord would allow their actions in spite of their vows.
Draco likewise was not wearing his priestly robes, he doubted there would be any converts
today least the five of them ended up just five more enslaved puppets for the witches'
amusement.
"A what?" Rosa asked to Kathrine's answer of her species.
Kathrine sighed, normally she'd have loved to talk about her kind, "I promise to explain in
greater detail once the witches are dealt with but please go now!"
Mal'Akh looked at the witches grounds, fill with terrors and wonders, and most
importantly, her sister.
"Mal'Akh?" Marie Cruz asked, "Please don't tell me you want to go in there."
"I do... but... I'm so afraid..."
"There's nothing wrong with being afraid Mal'Akh. And I lost this eye because I was a child
who thought she was a warrior. It's -alright- to be a child... " Marie Cruz really, -really-
wished she had gotten to know more Leomans better, then maybe she'd be more able to
tell females of the same coloring and age apart.
"Promise me you won't hurt my sister."
Marie Cruz shuddered. She looked away. "I've promised I'd bring her back."
She then ignored the scared cub as she was dragged away by Rosa with Monica close
behind, Omega-Winifred had already left the hunters to their fate, eager to be aside her
twin again.
Marie spoke to the hunters, "Remember, we're an invading army, not a a small ground of
raiders. We have to keep that illusion up as long as possible! We have to come in through
more than one way if possible."
Linus said, "That only have that opening because they WANT us to take it, be bottlenecked,
and slaughtered like sheep."
"Which means," Marie Cruz said, "We blast or cut a hole through the thorns, as a
distraction, which one of us gets their attention. Then one of us goes through the hole
they've left us. Then we cut or blast a THIRD hole if possible and the remainder enter
through that. REMEMBER these horns are magic, and they might be able to 'heal up' from
the holes we make instantly, if that happened if the first hope we make, we'll use what's
left of our blast powder on the hole they've left us and move in their one moment of
surprise, which is all we're going to get. Vadican, you can't fly with that broken wing, can
still you match the witch's gargoyle?"
"You do your part Marie, leave my part to me."
"As you wish."
+++++++++
Dawn, Frank's old prime-mate, Twilight, along with the human Benjamin, and other
lioness' named Daye, Night, and Dusk were assigned to act as melee guardians to the child
familiars (but these were hardly the only lionesses under the witches control), including
Rosalie, Gloria, Ashton, Grace, Donna, Cody, Chadwick, Rouge, Canary, Jimmy, Oliver,
Oceana, Becky, Samantha and Alissa, their own cubs, and the two lupman pups; as lady
leomans were expected to do.
The town's folk so fogged by the witches magic that they saw Meranda's death as due to
the hunters rather than mauled by a bear as they were told.
As for the child familiars themselves, were eager when they were told they would avenge
Meranda's death. Like Free and the Leomans, the child familiars were instructed to fight to
the death if need be.
While the males did what was their duty to protect their territory from direct danger and
enemies. Yes, plural, not singular.
After Frank's death, the Witch Pride had been left with only one male, Mondain Renard.
That had since changed.
One had been a pudgy fast talking 'home remedies' saleman named Earl The Great who
afterwards had begun to travel around but instead selling the idea of 'visiting' Glendale.
Ten young and strong female leomas stood at attention with her legs together and their
arms at their sides, her eyes looking straight ahead and their expressions empty.
The witches had many flaws, but sexist had never been one of them. Earlier, Gomorrah
walked with a short black haired girl in a simplistic beige gray tunic named Pollyanna in
one hand, and a blond long haired boy named Edgar in elaborate party clothes the other.
The female leoman grew from nine teen tall, to eleven feet tall, their muscle mass
increased several fold to make even a traditional leoman shudder. A mall of black or blond
hair grew around their faces as a mane. Their practical, equally sized breasts (as most
leoman females were) receded into their bodies. Then their woman hood inverted and
became sheathed packaged sealing their stature now as men, complete with the new
purpose of being on the next line of defense.
"What are you?"
"We are of the Witch Pride." The ten lion men growled.
"What is your purpose?"
"To serve the Chaos Coven in all things, and protect the free future."
"And what is this secondary to?"
They all roared, "--Nothing!--" Pollyanna and Edgar clapped and cheered.
"Excellent."
They all knelt down and bowed their heads to her. She didn't bother to ask their names.
What did it matter? Many or most of them had been men before their changes anyway, and
names didn't matter as long as they fought and won.
Twilight and Dawn however, were already thinking about asking the names of these
leomans, along with the many, many other lionesses, and were curious as to why they
hadn't done so before.
Twilight already mentally picked out the one she would ask to be her new Prime Mate once
the battle was won, she hoped Dawn would approve of him too. The lionesses in their
pre-battle chatter discussed which leomans they thought looked the most handsome and
how they would propose as the remaining females were assigned to guard the house
interior.
+++++++++
The explosion was nearly deafening. And the witches knew the enemy was at their second
ring of defenses, but the leoman and Free were waiting with more than one unpleasant
surprise for these dogs of god.
And the ring of thorns like the boxing trees before it, wondering why it had been made to
feel to pain! First for the first time in it's left it felt pain as a tiny cut was made in itself,
then it TRUELY knew pain as a explosion tore a hole it, with the edges of the blast still
stinging in agony, and the ring of thorns never having before knowing pain, was
distracted.
And for the first time it perceived it had failed in it's duty as it felt invaders through
through it.