(AN: Sorry, came down with a cold over the weekend.)
'This is like some twisted and warped layer of Hell.' Gillie thought. 'Everything just blurring
together... I can't even keep track of the days anymore... like a floating sea of events that
just happened to bump into each other... '
Gillie knew it was a rather defunct statement, but she really really felt like her sense of
reality was falling apart. 'I just hope I don't end up in the mental ward... I've spend so long
without going crazy... it would suck for this to be the thing that does me in.'
Gillie managed to get through most of the day before the constant use of the word 'Madam'
began to make her crack. It was when one of her officers brought in a midget who was
apparently a -real- cat burglar (a human sized black cat that went on two legs), that she
finally snapped and headed home.
Who she found waiting for her at her front door didn't make things easier.
"GILL? Is that you?" Madam Serenity said looking at the nine foot tall copper furred naked
and BALD lion woman in front of her.
"Yes.... it's me Serenity... and... sigh, it's Gillie now."
"I'm sorry... I've been here... I can give you some tips to help with the transition..."
"I'm hoping that reality will 'piggy pack' once I try out the whole 'hypnotist' scheme is tried
out..."
"I still can't believe you Gill! You'd wan to leave me ALL ALONE? Hypnosis, brain surgery,
magic rocks, NONE of those can effect what I remember. On the bright side I means I'll
never suffers from memory loss or senility, but Gill, how could you just abandon me?"
"Stop whining like we're married." GIllie said looking down at the small old human.
"NO! We're not, we never were. But we have been friends longer than most people have
been alive! And you've been the one thing that's helped me endure! I can't go insane, but it
can destroy me! I went from being proud Patrick Aloysius F. X. O'Duffy who could bench
press most of these animal people, to being a petite black woman in an age where people
were still struggling with the idea of Africans people being people! Let alone women! You
should consider yourself LUCKY!"
"LUCKY-?!" Gillie roared, literally. Madam Serenity didn't fidget. "That's what you call this
Hell?!"
"Yes Lucky! Your family still knows you and loves you and still ACCEPTS YOU. You're still
seen as a person! You still have the respect and authority to do your job! ... And since
reality screwed with your life, that means you don't need to refit your house! And you
didn't lose the strength of the body you had been building carefully and determinedly for
years!"
".... look, I get that you go through the same a lot, and that you're screwed over, but if I
have a chance to finally end it you want me to let it go for you?"
"You mean -let you- commit suicide?"
Gillie tried to change the course of the discussion, "So you came here just to tell me that?"
"No. I also came here to talk to you in person on needing to speak with the mayor and
getting access to Glendale's water main so we can use the curse within the water system to
create one big right around Glendale and end in the curse in one fell sweep..."
"And you think that would work?"
"Father Mike and Father Paul seem to think so, the ones who created the cure to be used
during the battle with Kurse."
Gillie wished things could go back to being much more simple. "Fine. I have his number. I
know for a fact for the tourist board will be overjoyed it won't have to spend money on
cover ups and making up lies to keep the tourist from running away from Glendale
screaming..."
"GILLIE! WHOSE YOUR HUMAN? IS HE NICE?"
Gillie knew that voice, and turned to see Gillian The Second, along with Mother Glen waving
at them, from clear across the street. Gillie was so glade no one else seemed to be out
right now.
Madam Serenity also turned in surprise at the scene.
"HER name is Madam Serenity, she's a PI who works in regard to the game."
"OH! Sorry! I keep forgetting female human have manes too."
"Hair... it's called hair dear." Madam Serenity corrected him, "Like some Lupmans have. And
it's humanS when plural."
"Sorry, I apologize," Gillian II bowed at once, "It's not civilized to use such incorrect terms."
Madam Serenity looked at Gillie.
"My grandparents." She whispered.
Madam Serenity only nodded.
"It's not civilized to shout out a discussion across the street and ... did you find a house?"
Gillie had to ask.
"As a matter of fact we did... this one." Gillian gestured to the house right across the street
from Gillie.
Gillie groaned in agony. This was even worse than being turned into a lion woman. Madam
Serenity also patted Gillie as high as her arm could reach.
"And this street is mostly owned by the pride anyway." Gillian II said.
At the moment a mother and son came home from school, both lion people in a large
van... a father came out to greet them, and in moment had became another leoman with a
mane and a distraction for Gillie between his legs. And the house changed shape to match
the inhabitants.
'Is this the doom of the human race?' Gillie wondered. Not knowing the divorce rate and
crime rate dropped with every transformation.
++++++
"Azrael, Thanatos, whatever you wish to call him or what theology you assign him to, he
was Death. And being equal to all things, he accepted the position of judge to the witches.
Perhaps the only one who could be unbias and act as judge to the witches."
And as said before, while Marie Cruz felt unsettled by him, she had no idea that the 'final
enemy to be defeated' was to act as judge towards the witches."
Finding someone who'd understand the situation of the witches, and act as an impartial
jury on the other hand... would take some doing. Monica of course wouldn't go to the
natives, after all, they were 'savages.' Though she and Mal'Akh of course wanted a jury fast
and quick so the witches would hang faster... Rosa was about the only one who was
interested in an actually fair jury."
Maddex asked, "So what are we going to skip next? You completely skipped what Marie did
with the witches they confronted each other for the final time. Which I think was suppose
to be the entire climax of this little story of yours. In particular in the version of reality
without Joella there to take the knife. No offense, but that felt very bad on your part."
Marie-Eliza shuddered, "Yes... and I apologize for that... but since like I said, I'm the
witches as they saw themselves... speaking about that is liking experiencing it for myself...
and it wasn't pleasant... in particular when the witches saw Marie Cruz with the skull of
their grandmother which threw them into a pure and absolute rage."
++++++++
1689 August 10th 7PM
With Linus and the doctor tending to fallen, Marie waited outside the door for what felt like
hours until she finally knocked on Kathrine's door... 'This feels like the time she spent a
month locked in her room after I punched her... I was barely able to save my own hide
after that...'
"Kathrine? Are you okay? You in there?"
"Yes I am... I just... I couldn't stand those horrible screams anymore..."
'I've gotten used to them.'
"Marie?... Are you really a nun? Or are you an Inquisitor pretending to be one?"
That was a bolt in the gut. In particular since Marie had been thinking the same thing a
short time before.
"I.... I don't know..."
"I know they're monsters.... but we're supposed to be kind to everyone aren't we? I... I'M A
MURDERER!... I'M A MURDERER!!!!" Kathrine howled. "I am going to Hell!"
Linus looked at Marie and the door with a completely unreadable face.
Marie made a decision.
"I'll do it." Marie said lowly.
"What?" Linus asked.
"Gita. Goldwyn. Griselle. .... the witches... I'll defending them."
Across time and space. Linus, everyone within ear shot, Kathrine included, and everyone
listening to Marie-Eliza's story including Eliza-Marie, all shouted together,
"WHAT!!!"
Marie-Eliza let the echo settle for a time. Then she continued.
"Part of Marie Cruz's defense would later at the trial that if the witch really were insane,
that they could not be therefore held accountable for their actions. And that the actions
they had committed as children, had been done in total ignorance and not maliciousness."
"SHE CHOSE TO BE THE DEFENSE FOR THOSE MONSTERS?/YOU HAVE TO BE MAKING THIS
UP!" Maddex was so besides himself his heads were actually speaking different lines out of
sync, making his two daughters actually yelp in fright of him.
Linus in 1689 said, "YOU are clearly delusional!"
"I can assure you I am quite sane Linus, and as an Inquisitor I am to observe due process...
and in the name of due process I chose to defend them... they're mad dogs, but they still
deserve a fair trial."
"YOU ARE INSANE YOURSELF! ... "
"If I was I could just shrug off everything I've done... but I can't, all of my choices have
been my own. I have no excuses."
Linus was seething with rage when he said, "I will remember you said that, remember that I
will.... "
Betty said sadly, "Linus became the prosecution didn't he?"
"On the spot." Marie-Eliza said simply. "Linus would argue the witches were too dangerous
to allow to live as part of his argument."
"And he won of course." Lawrence said.
"... You'll see."
"But the witches were execution so of course he won."
"Yes the witches were executed and that was where they struck the curse on the five
hunters. Weather Linus won during the trial or not however you'll have to see."
++++++++
1689 August 10th 7PM
Joella listened, half of Free laying on a corner, how the big gargoyle was able to tell she
was still alive was a mystery to Joella, but she didn't want to believe he was lying.
Joella listened, Grandpa Joseph stayed in the background, doing this or that, anything to
stay out of the way and away from the furry he had seen in three children before, and he
dreaded was going to rise up and devour this child as well, and cursing himself for finding
no solution in all this time to stop history from repeating itself.
Joella listened, and worried about her mothers, remember how they absolutely hated it
when she called them that, but honestly no other thing she called them felt right.
Joella listened, and thought about Lark, and thought of Rosa, Samantha, and all the other
children the witches had brought under their wings. Of how beautiful her mothers had
made Glendale, of the protect they had given it. Of the happiness they had handed out to
it's towns people. Of the evil they had fought in the wandering demons and the paradise
they had been trying to make for everyone to be free and enjoy.
Joella listened.
"And your 'mothers' were forcing their will on others, robbing people of their freedom of
will, attacking the very thing they said they wanted to give to everyone."
"Free chose to be what she is."
"Others didn't."
"My parents were angry, and the gang of monsters who wanted to kill me, kill my family,
kill my friends, all because we were related to the witches. I didn't like seeing that
happen... but angry people do harsh and rash things... I hope I wouldn't have done that if I
had been in that place... but I don't want to think of the world without Lark, Rosa, Rouge,
or any o the rest."
"Who?"
Grandpa Joseph said, "Lark is the name of the girl upstairs sleeping."
Vatican thought back to the gang of thugs that Linus had mentioned vanishing when they
chose to go after the witches.
"You're very well spoken for a human your age."
"I'm told I'm very smart for my age."
"Then you must know what your 'mothers' have done."
"I know what my parents have done, they've done because they care about people."
+++++++++
"Bullshut." Maddex's head said together.
"Tell that to Joella... " Marie-Eliza said matter of fact.
++++++++
Monica wanted to ask the town people assuming they had gotten their wits back, to be the
ones to pass judgement via jury to the witches. Mal'Akh wanted that as well, the genetic
condition within all Leomans that drove them to be 'civilized' in all things seemed ... off
with her to Rosa's opinion. 'Likely due to Aimiliona... " Sociopathery was an unknown
among the leoman... all the same, Rosa made a point to keep a close eye on Mal'Akh in the
foreseeable future.
Rosa had pulled ran by age, and Mal'Akh by that logic had to follow along begrudgingly,
and out numbered in this instance, Monica too had to come along with the two naked lion
cubs.
Monica had no desire to ask the savages for help, after all, they likely approved of what the
witches were doing to try and tear down civilization. It wasn't like they had any civilization
of their own.
Monia had no way of knowing that the natives would have been almost as eager as the
towns folk to see the witches hung... though given random acts of kindness by one of the
witches earlier that day... it was a mixed bag all the same.
Rosa led, but of course she had no idea where she was going... where could they hope to
find any impartial jury of large enough numbers who understood magic who'd.... "What is
that?"
They were at the ring of the boxing trees (They never attacked people as far as they had
seen, not having seen them attack the hunters) and saw the larging gapping hole in their
defenses.
But what really got their attention, wasn't the burning wood or half smoked deck of cards...
It was a doll sized naked human female with solid color eyes and insect wings and tiny
feelers growing out of her head... she was... sticking a cross in the ashes?
"Fairy!" Monica screamed in terror and tries to run but accidently trip and fell on her face
instead.
+++++++
"Terror?" Abbey blinked, the blond she wolf pup in her white and blue Alice style dress
asked. "But Fairies are nice."
"Everything is nice nowadays." Marie-Eliza said, "But faries, like genies, werewolves,
vampires, zombies, kitsune, and countless other creatures of myth had been -tamed- by
modern story telling, becoming only morality tales of not fearing the unknown and not
judging those who are different. ... But faries were originally the ghosts of women who
died before they married. And thus were dangerous to lure men to the world of death...
The Beldam from the book Caroline is actually a more precise depiction of how fairies were
originally shown."
Samantha then said after her twin, "But Pucca and the others were more the modern
version then."
"Golgatha's second sight strikes again?" Betty asked feeling tired of that excuse.
"Yes."
++++++++
"Who are you?" Rosa asked, "What do you want? What are you doing here?"
The little fairy looked up, "My name is Titanna, I, my family, and friends, are here to pay
respects to those who died in the line of duty, knowing no one else shall, and their
saplings will never know them."
The fairy placed a tiny cross in the pile of ashes. When Monica dared turn around, her eyes
widened at the symbol.
"You're christian?"
"We acknowledge there is a power greater than our own, yes."
The three girls looked at each other, not expecting that answer.
++++++++
Present Day Present Time
"How do you think we are sis'?" And there was Hope with her biting sarcasm. The she wolf
with milk chocolate colored fur looked at her sister, "We marched straight into the mouth
of Hell, fought against things born from the nightmares of a lunatic along with mutant
crystal things that were our own pack mates, while you and Jensen, got to enjoy a
foursome as one of you fetishes."
Kaylee startled and blushed. She hadn't thought about how she, Luna, Sunny, had all
enjoyed Jensen together when they had been that statue Kurse had turned her into, and
then lured Jensen and Luna and Sunny into... effectively giving them Jensen in a round
about way like the two had always wanted to steal her man (or that was how Kaylee always
perceived it).
While Kaylee fetish for 'souled art' was well known, she wanted to tell herself that Luna and
Sunny wouldn't make any rash decisions, but at the same time she felt some deep dark
satisfaction that they be no more threat to Jensen's coupling with her.
Though even thinking of the two was like trying to see a spilled milk during a snow storm.
Kaylee was only about to 'see' it because she knew it was there to begin with.
"Hey Hope, don't be so hard on her, that witch screwed with her as badly as she did us, she
could barely stand when she got back." Isabelle said.
"Heh. I wonder why."
Kaylee reacted, "HOPE!"
"I'm joking! Don't take it so personally."
Of course some of the leoman bedded up WOULD ask if they were quadruplets. And Millie,
by virtue of being the only she wolf with her eyes not on the alpha female informed them,
yes, they were quadruplets, but NOT identical, and no, they were not dyed. Kaylee herself
and her sisters let the questions and comments go, having learned to live with it.
Then came the next natural unavoiable question of why they were named 'Hope, Grace,
Kaylee, and Isablle.'
There was still the joke that circulated on occasion that Isabelle should change her name
to Charity, but Isabelle while amused at the idea positively refused. This one the tiny
pebble that would not move, compared to the otherwise laid back attitude of the dark
chocolate she-wolf who was famous for being a follower not a leader.
Isabelle said, "We're doing fine sis', all things considered. You didn't need to come down
for a visit. You should be resting yourself you know."
"I wouldn't be much of a sister if I did that." 'Little' Red Riding Wolf replied.
"I know, and thank you for that." Said Grace, who wasn't a solid color like her sisters, but
an almost bizarre mixture of white, gray, black, and brown. "It's wonderful to know you
care about us like an Alpha should."
"This isn't about me being an alpha. This is about us. I'd do this if I was alpha female or
not."
While it wasn't written down, and certainly in modern times had become less of an issue, it
had been a tradition for centuries that sisters to usually marry the same male.
For the triplets it had perhaps more to do with their supreme sense of unity that they
cherished and had only been broken once by giving birth to their daughters at not quite
the same tie. They wasn't to say they didn't each love Jensen, they very each did so.
That was what made that Kaylee and her own sisters were married to three different
lupmans rather odd according to Mr. P's traditionalism. Kaylee had earned herself the
position of Alpha Female. While Hope and Grace had fallen for Jensen's best friend and rival
for Alpha hood Zackery. And finally Isabelle carrying little for such things had fallen for the
prince of heart throbs Nick.... Which rather fit her 'let it happen as it happens' attitude
given that Nicole made it very clear who had first call and first pick of Nicolas.
Some had joked that Alexandra, Nicole's cousin, was an Omega in a Zeta's body, with her
pure and absolute devotion to the pack and to the Alphas, whomever they might be.
Kaylee carefully hugged each of her sisters, each of whom had found their own place in
life.
For a human being, such a strung together union would have been maddening, but for the
Lupmans, it simple was.
"That's so sweet," Pearl said, "I wish I could hug you right now dear, but I'd scared I'd
opening up the stitches."
Zackery just nodded.
While all of the she-wolves were known to be loyal to their husband, Zack's mates were
known on occasion to be positively fantastic devoted.
If her sister and the triplets hadn't beaten her to it, most were sure Grace would have
married Jensen, she was so defensive of him sometimes you'd think she was his mate.
Zackery had apparently caught Grace on the rebound and had never let go. There had been
of course the rumors that had it been a political scheme to get close to Jensen, but nothing
ever proven. And Hope had come to Zack, not the other way around. Maybe she had been
secretly pinning for Jensen too, her entire relationship with Zackery had started with her
making a joke that Zack was jealous of Kaylee having Jensen!
Some found it a wonder Hope had any friends, but she was honest, caring, truthful, and
perhaps even was what balanced out some of Zackery's other more sublime and unpleasant
traits.
The way Pearl acted, you'd expect her to be just another dumb blond, she certainly acted
like it. But this was a farce for a keen and almost dangerous intelligence and once a
crushing low self esteem.
It was shown how dangerous Pearl could be when Pearl had single handedly, on her own,
via the power of petition, nearly gotten Jensen -voted- out of being Alpha Male and Zack
instated in Jensen's place! This had earned her the title of being Zack's 'minion.'
Jensen however, in the end, brought nothing negative onto Zackery for it.
After all, Zack had been Jesen's best-friend. That friendship from Jennifer and Zylphia from
the previous timeline hadn't gone away, and perhaps was now more real than it was in the
old timeline rather than Zylphia being mere one of Jennifer's minions.
Once upon a time the silver and gray June had begun to question Zackery's motives and
attitudes. When Pearl's attempt to bring the two back together (using the game) had nearly
resulted in the two breaking up, she had drunk herself sick.
Thankfully for Zelipe, Beatrice was there for her. And thankfully for Amy, June had
returned to Jensen of her own free will.
++++++++
The Monkey Prince statue of course now would have four sheaths, on anyone else the
would absurd, even grotesque, but as a god, he carried it well.
Sunny dreamed of her, Amy, and a felman with Amy's fur pattern, and dragon with Sunny's
fur pattern in scales, all having green tea with the sun.
Sydney/Uke Mochi watched as the flesh and blood lupmans went about, going this way and
that, moving about, never in one spot for long, hurrying along from one spot to another.
But always moving, always transient, never constant.
One thought went through Sydney/Uke Mochi's mind, 'Am I really one of them?'
'Only if you chose to be.' The Monkey Prince/Kira replied.
++++++++++
The Valkyries, a female dragons only devision of the Army or Air-Force (depending on the
Administration of the term) was forged during world war two... at the time they had been
death in the skies... as airplanes improved in design their presence in the air took on a
more supportive role. And in modern terms were mostly assigned to the middle east where
the terror and chaos of facing -naked-women-soldiers, left Islamic fundamentalists often
at a horrid psychological disadvantage.
Dragons had never been known for large numbers, but natural selection had bred what
remained of them into terrible killing machines indeed. After three hundred years of
breeding and conditional enhancements, anything short of something that could pierce a
tank was a waste. Making most armor a waste, and only carrying straps for equipment
relying on their third lung for firepower.
Dragons had stopped going around naked a thousand years ago, but this was in service of
their country, and let it never be said any dragon was ashamed of their bodies even if these
filth were unworthy to gaze upon it.
They had even picked up a new nickname in the last seven years, 'The bane of Islam.' Of
course for terrorists and insurgents this meant switching to mines, bazookas, and suicide
bombers to deal with them.
But unlike fantasy settings where the non-humans never adapted to the new styles of the
humans, the Valkyries simply learned to adapt in turn, learning to ambush their opposite
numbers, which in fact -added- to their psychological advantage.
That was the history document being shown to Trevor's father Jacob Tyson right now on
the news said.
Trevor's Marie meanwhile asked her son again and again to go over every detail of his
rescue of the pink felman girl from the thug who had used the game on her to apparently
make her sing and dance the songs from a Disney cartoon.
At least it didn't seem to be anything negative from what she could tell.
"It seems you've earned a friend." Marie said.
"Girl friend!" Nala teased.
"Sabrina. You know a boy and a girl can be just friends."
"They can?" Nala blinked.
"Yes Sabrina they can... also... your teacher tells me you're signing your work as 'Nala'
again."
"I am Nala!"
"No you're not."
"You don't look a thing like her from the cartoon." Trevor retorted.
Nala just stared at her mother and made a face at her younger brother.