"Are you telling me I'm becoming some... animal?" You ask, your eyebrows raising in disbelief.
"Does the idea disturb you?" Frankie retorts with a predatory grin, apparently having found her courage again after your last outburst. Her twin chimes in shortly after, mirroring her expression. "Here we thought that you wanted this..." Their hypnotic rhythm no longer faltering, Frankie continues "...but perhaps we were wrong."
"Didn't I tell you two to back off?" Lucy interrupts.
"Mind your place, runt!" Gerri hisses. "We've got this handled," Frankie adds.
"You mind your own places. Are you forgetting that the runt doesn't have one? I do what's needed."
"It's possible for even a runt to go too far," Gerri says with a snarl before Frankie continues, "You do your best to remember THAT." The twins stalk off, apparently done with the conversation.
"Er... that seemed kind of bad," you say to Lucy, blinking.
"Wouldn't be the first time," she replies with a grin. "Believe me, everything will be patched up over a few drinks tonight."
"Still, they seemed pretty pissed at you undermining their authority."
"If you stick around, you'll learn that's my job. You've got people to enforce the rules, and people to break them."
You chuckle, feeling a bit more at ease. "Sounds like fun."
"It can be, if you let it."
"That's why I was asking. It's damned hard to pin you three down to an answer."
"Think of what I've told you so far. It's a lot to swallow, isn't it? Why else would we use metaphors and riddles to tell people about it? Who would believe it if we told them flat-out?"
"But isn't it more than a little dishonest?"
"I haven't lied to you. Not once."
"You haven't lied to me, but I still don't know what it means that I have an... an animal spirit in me now."
"I told you. People have forgotten the old ways. Most of what we do has been stamped as the devil's work for centuries. More primitive people didn't bat an eye at the thought that someone could... change."
"There's that word again. Am I... am I going to?"
"That's up to you, but I think you're starting to feel it already."
"And at sunset?"
"That's when the real party starts..."