A living statue of a five year old Lupman pup stepped out of the dinning room mirror,
looking like it was stepping through the mirror and being covered in a film. For the older
by years Lilly and Cassandra, Whitney and Maddex's pups, it was like they were being
pulled through water standing on it's side. Their nineteenth century clothes vanishing as
they did so.
"Will you two be okay?" Abbey asked.
The carnelian colored pups felt a little dizzy but replied almost together, "We'll be okay."
Abbey hugged them and said, "I'm sure your papa will tell all about the story later, I'll see
you after the finale." And with that, Abbey stepped back through the mirror, not really
thinking of how many days she had been in there listening to Marie-Eliza's story.
Nor did Cassandra and Lilly.
"I can't believe we can't get to hear the end of story after listening to it for so long!" Lilly
lamented.
"I know it's just.... we should... maybe we should go watch TV." Cassandra said dully, and
Lilly nodded limply.
When Whitney saw her cubs, she didn't ask them where they had been all this time or
where her husband was. Instead she merely smiled at them, hugged them good morning,
and ushered them to the rest of the pups and cubs in the living room. The carnelian twins
not really feeling about talking about the witches story right now or wondering when their
father would come out of the mirror....
+++++++
Mal'Akh Bialyk had to ask, "How do you know your dance only works on humans? Joy said
so herself that she was mutated via your dance, and she is a lupman. Whose to say it
doesn't effect Felmans, Dragons, Gargoyles, or Leomans?"
Martha started, no one had really asked that question, they had only just assumed. "Well,
there's something about all the leomans I've met that prevents their species from being
changed, even by the game it can't seem to change their species, only turn them into art or
a decidedly leoman shaped somethings. As to weather my dance would mutate leomans
like my dance did Joy and Ingrid... I honestly don't know, and I doubt I'd find a leoman
who'd wish to be the test subject of such a thing... as for dragons, I've never met one face
to face so except maybe once I think in a formal manner and Felman I've again never
danced for them so even if they are effected I've never been in a position to test it."
"Well if your line is related to Twilight, I don't see why it wouldn't effect leomans or at least
making them ... like you in that way."
"Well call ourselves Shiva Wolves."
"Shiva?"
"A Hindu god often depicted as having multiple arms."
"Ah."
"And thank you for the warning. Even without the magic I've been told my dance is
hypnotic, which is only amplified when the other omegas, other shiva wolves dance with
me, even if it only lasts as long as the dance itself and doesn't allow me to implant any
commands. Most still find it enjoyable."
"And Joy and Ingrid?"
"I've heard them chatting among themselves when they don't think I'm listening, and by
that I mean J, O, Y, In, Gr, and Id. They're still happy they got to see me dance."
"And the way they are now?"
"The way they are is simply natural to them now I guess, and the six of them are separate
and unique entities even if three each shared the exact same childhood. I don't think they
can comprehend being apart."
"Thank you Prime-Omega-Martha. It's nice to know you care about us." J said.
Martha startled and her heads look in different directions seeing Joy and Ingrid on opposite
sides of her.
The twin nurses pointed at their ears, "It's not very bright to have a conversaation you wish
to be semi-private in a large open room with someone who had two extra sets of ears
with exceptional hearing."
"Oh... right... I apologize if anything I said was gossip."
"You are our Prime Omega." J said. "It's not our place to judge what you say as right or
wrong."
Ingrid's awake heads nodded.
'And that's the wolf pack I know.' Mal'Akh thought, 'Some things don't change.'
Bart considered the practical advantages of having multiple heads and multiple arms, from
a purely business stand point, you'd be able to work on some jobs three time as fast. Bart
didn't worry if his business partners would take him seriously, since it had nothing to do
with age.
Jenny meanwhile considered the legal aspect, 'You'd have to write at least a dozen new
laws just cover it all! Just imagine! 'I didn't take part in that crime! My other two heads
forced me to do it!' Would all three heads have to fill out tax forums? I wonder if Ingrid and
Joy do! Or does the pack pay taxes as a whole as a commune? I need to read up on that
more.'
Kevin meanwhile pulled on Mal'Akh's arm, "So you were alive during the witch trials? Did
you ever see a witch burned?"
Marcy pulled on her other arm, "What was it like during the civil war?" She asked not
knowing she was a couple centuries off, and she was still at the age where she thought
world war one and the civil war were one and the same thing and had never even heard of
the war of 1812 or the French-Indian Wars that set the stage for the American Revolution.
Martha INSTANTLY took charge. "Now now." Her head said in a very firm voice looking at
both children, "Don't shove her."
"We weren't shoving, we were pulling." Marcy defended.
"Leave the semantics to Alice please." Martha's head said cooly.
Zack meanwhile felt a nudge on his arm. He turned his head, and saw Amy. He tried to
huge her at once, but found his broken bones had a thing to say about that. Amy saw this,
and hugged her father instead.
"Amy...I'm happy to see you."
"And I'm happy to see you too papa."
"And... you're my Amy right? You're not some ancient spirit, some dead japanese priestess,
or ... or... or something?"
Amy hugged her father's arm, the only thing she could wrap around as things were. "I am,
always have been, and always will be your little princess."
"I think we have enough princesses already dear." June said looking at Jenny, and thinking
of Gretchen.
"One more won't hurt." Zack whispered happy to feel his daughter's body around his arm.
"Why are you here dear?" June asked her baby.
"A daughter needs a reason to see her recovering father and mother?" Amy smiled. Hope
and Grace felt a tiny bit envious of June.
Amy just smiled to herself, after everything that had happened, all the crying she had done
for those who couldn't cry for themselves or had no one to cry for them, she needed them.
++++++++++
Madam Serenity and Chief Gillie stepped into City Hall. Madam Serenity noted first how the
doors seemed much bigger than she remembered, and the place gave off the slightest hint
of a scent she couldn't identify.
And when they stepped inside... Gillie felt like she was going to have a heart attack. Madam
Serenity managed to take it a lot more in stride all things considered.
Naked lion women. All bald.
Brandi had of course chatted happily with her work mates and bridge partners spreading
the cascade to the rest of the city Hall staff.
Now the security for city hall were nine foot tall naked (except for their security gear) lion
women. All standing at attention, all in a room whose ceiling was now much much higher,
and all smiling and turned their heads when Gillie entered and one or two even waved at
her like they had been friends for years.
Gillie felt sick inside as she saw some of the paintings on the walls had also become those
of naked lion people. She knew it was just reality not allowing for all inconsistencies, but
that didn't make her feel better.
Gillie wondered what these lion women's names had been before they had become women.
Gillie however did spot the Janitor ... now a lion person, but still male... and she saw some
of the lion women smiling at him and starting at the thing between his legs. And she saw
other civil grunts and middle men who were still men if now furry and nude. The cascade
had had days to fully transform the city hall staff.
While Gillie was just twisted on the inside, Madam Serenity remembered what was said
about lion's naturally having a very large different in female to male ratio. Madam Serenity
correctly surmised the vast majority of gender changes to the wolves was purely due to
Jensen when he remembered being Jenny being a pervert (and Kaylee when she
remembered being Kyle doing her hardest to please him). But here she figured it had to do
with lions in the wild having a ratio of five to six females to one or two males.
"I didn't think it could have gotten this bad this fast." Gillie muttered.
"Welcome to compound interest." Madam Serenity said.
Meanwhile Sandi and her half-sister Catherine, and their half brother Aaron, were now
both proud members of the lion-people 'nudist colony' that continued to grow at a
growing rate.
Sandi and Catherine put on their school uniforms as was normal with a private school...
just because they were leoman didn't mean they could ignore that base rule. Though now
they had special sandals for their paws and holes in their skirts for their tails and of course
they were sizes bigger for the larger leoman cubs.
Of course the uniforms itched a little, but they got used to it soon enough and built up a
resistance.
Once at school the girls chatted with the other lasses at the private school. The ones who
weren't sociopaths in training transformed quickly enough, destine to spread it to their
families, or the ones who loved them at least, there would be a number of more recorded
adoptions in a few days.
Leomans normally gave birth to litters. The fact singular births were so overwhelmingly
common in Glendale and other parts of the country had been attributed to the curse. This
was fantasy, but the curse made a good scapegoat. Criminals had realized this a while ago,
and cons with PRETENDING to have the power of the game was relatively common, and of
course didn't set off Madam Serenity's sixth sense.
Sandi and Catherine talked with the other girls at the private school... not even seeing as
their hair the key vanity of many a little girl just up and vanished with no blinking an
eyelash, those with dyed hair ended up dyed fur instead (expensive, but well worth it to
these girls). The chairs all changed to allow for tails, and Sandi and Catherine's 'special'
uniforms were quickly becoming standard.
There were of course special outfit for Gym too of course, but these were quickly becoming
purely optional to the leoman students, those who did wear them did it mostly for the
sake of maintaining the sense of a learning environment.
Hair clips stayed, but keeping them on become more of a hassle.
One girl, named Rika, twelve years old, who had been a friend of a friend of Sandi's and
Catherine, who dyed her entire fur purple with sparkles this week (last week it was red
white and blue without sparkles). Stayed behind after class to add her two cents of
cleaning up the room of her own free will! Her teacher always appreciated this, and
admired her, even if he wondered about her sometimes. When she was done, and her
teacher thanked her, she turned her back to him, and took a package out of her backpack.
The little girl put the package on his desk and ran out before he saw it. He wondered why
she hadn't said good bye as normal. And the teacher saw the package, and wondered what
it was about. It wasn't his birthday. He opened the package and found a locket, kind of
expensive too. He wasn't quite sure what it meant. But if it was from Rika he wouldn't
reject it, that would been rude to his student when she had clearly put a lot of effort into it.
The teacher put it around his neck, in a few minutes, it was the only thing he was wearing.
And that was how the cascade entered the teacher population. the gym teacher was the
only one whose gender changed, but thought no one knew it, she was just as much a strict
but kind taskmaster as in the old reality.
Somewhere deep within her, Gillie still hoped that the leoman cascade would fade when
the game was gone. If she had more experience with magic, maybe she'd hope that when
the game was gone, the uber concentration of magic in Glendale would dissipate to the
rest o the globe, thus robbing the leoman cascade of the massive amounts of magic
needed to feed it. Or perhaps, she also desperate hoped, that the Leoman cascade would
not, and could not spread beyond Glendale's borders.
But there was a vector Gillie hadn't considered. The internet. Of course the vast, vast, VAST
majority of people online didn't consider each other friends in the real sense of the term,
even if they thought they did. But by sheer law of average, the few true REAL friends on the
internet had already caused the leoman cascade to appear in New York, San Francisco,
Britain, and Germany. This happened normally with voice chat.
The Amish population of course, stayed totally human, not only did they not connected
with the internet, they also kept mostly to themselves, and thus were HIGHLY unlikely to
form a die-hard true-blue friendship, or a romantic relationship, with outsiders. It seemed
Madam Serenity might not end up the last human on Earth after all in theory...
"Hey Gillie." Waved the mayor's secretary.
Gillie saw the name the lion woman on the desk, and repeated the name and waved back
at her not to be rude, that would be uncivilized. Gillie internally groaned, 'Great, now my
instincts betray me...'
At this point, neither was really shocked when they saw the giant lionman behind the desk.
Gillie was SO SO GLADE, and was actually thanking God in Heaven that the desk hide his
lower half.
"Hello and Good morning." Said the Mayor in a perfectly polite voice.
Madam Serenity noticed first the photo on his desk of the leoman and three bald lion
women and a cub in front of each. She considered asking about it, but knew it had nothing
to do with what she had come here for.
"Mr. Mayor... I am Madam Serenity... a cure for the game has been found."
The Mayor shuddered, his eyes went wide, and a expression that dared to hope. "Tell me
more... and do not leave out a single detail!"
He clinked on an intercom, "Brandi."
"Yes huh?"
"Cancel my other meetings, I think I'm going to be busy today."
"Yes dear."
+++++++++++++++
Marie-Eliza was sorry to see Cassandra and Lilly go, they had been good company.
Marie-Eliza spoke her mother holding her shoulders. Due to their mental link, Marie-Eliza
practically spoke for both of them. Eliza rarely having something separate to say.
Abbey came back a few minutes later, Lilly and Cassandra slipping out of the context in
their minds. Abbey evened out the wrinkles in her blue apron and white dress and sat next
to her half-sisters/cousins, once again perfectly entranced by Marie-Eliza's story.
The reflective blond furred and glass blue eyed witchling collected herself. Folding out the
wrinkles in her black dress with red runes she spoke. "The witches of course practically
spat in the face of the offer of Father Draco Fire to give them a last confession. After all,
the witches were the heroes, the hunters were evil, and the witches were rebelling against
a jealous vengeful God and the unfair world made by Him."
Marie-Eliza made a sharp, ironic, harsh, and lamentive laugh, "The sick joke is by aiding
'Free' the witches would have been executed anyway if they had been lobotomized of their
magic and gotten into the hands of slave owners. The south took a very, very, VERY dim
view of anyone who aided run away slaves.
"Ironically, some not ALL methods of identifying witches involved torture or dying weather
you were found innocent or not, but they make for less entertaining drama so aren't
covered much in documentaries.
Ever heard of the Lord's Prayer test? It was practiced in Europe during the Inquisition's
time, though the Inquisition itself found witchcraft an absurdity. The base idea was that if
a witch could say the Lord's Prayer without a mistake, or screaming in agony, they logically
couldn't be a witch since the devil wouldn't allow someone loyal to him to recite holy
words.
The other was 'The Witch Cake' you make a cake with the urine of the witch's victims, and
feed it to a dog. If the witch felt pain when the dog ate the cake, they were a witch."
"Dear!" Eliza said, being the one to interrupting the story for once, "You're going off track."
"OH!" Marie-Eliza realized, "Sorry.
"They didn't really have time to build a Gallows, so they'd use a tree instead... one that was
NOT loyal to the witches like the Boxing Trees that circled the city. In their haste to get it
over with, they'd pick a tree near where the witches' rune experiment blew up in their
faces, weather this aided the witches in placing their last curse or not, even I don't know.
What I do know is that the 'trick of fate' that makes that no one interrupts a game of
'transform of dare' once it's begun was also established at that point."
"Sister Marie Cruz wanted their execution done humanely, using methods again she had
cheated with her sixth sense in knowing. But Lewis, and Father Draco, wanted the
execution done as quickly as possible and didn't want to risk waiting for Marie Cruz to
figure out the witches weight (which they would have lied about anyway) and height, and
figured out the mathematics for the proper length of rope and drop height to kill them
instantly by the drop."
Maddex's heads said, "That came back to bite them, Glendale, and all of us in the tail."
Marie-Eliza shook her head, "Not quite. The witches would have been able to get their
curse across either way."