| What happens next is rapid in the extreme, but....
Frederigo D'Honaire, were-fox snarls and pulls the cutlass he had salvaged
from the pirates ship and leaps at the elderly Pack Leader, ready to end
the tin plated dictator who had harassed him for days on end.....
Carradene, about to greet the obvious stranger with a warm welcome,
instead barely manages to raise his glowing staff. His reflexes might have
not been what they used to be....when he had first recovered his wits and
found his body had....changed, but the old magi stil remembered a thing
or two about the defensive arts of the staff!
The demi-fox, Synizn, yelps and throws up a hasty magical barrier between
himself and this party and the obviosly insane male man fox. The normal
vixen, instead of running, growls and bares her teeth at the attacking
manfox, in obvious defense of mate and infants!
Malachi is about to toss a devastating barrage of spells when, she catches
a signature gesture that only ONE person she know of has when casting spells.
"SYNIZN?!" she shouts in shock. "What in Tiamat's name are you doing
here, with HIM?!"
"Malachi?!" the demi-fox gasps, suddenly seeing the truth before him
with his....mystical senses. "What happened to you?! I thought that you
were dead from battling Synizn!? Did Moreau somehow resurrect you and force
you into that shape?! HOW?"
This causes the taboo to coming to a screetching halt! The grey furred
wolf turns to his demi-fox companion. Fred turns back and looks at Malachi,
his love. The normal vixen cocks her head at Synizn, a puzzled --and disturbingly
intelligent--look in her vulpine face.
"You know these people?" they all ask together (well, the vixen just
makes an inquiring yipping noise....but it seems like that's what she's
asking).
A temporary truce is called, and sides introduce themselves. It becomes
confusing very quickly.
"Wha....?" Fred begins, then shakes his head rapidly in frustration.
"That isn't right! I never got a chance to save Astra, much less marry
her! And what's this about me and these other people being jumped by Moreau?!
The only Moreau I know of is Minestus Moreau. The wyrm is
named Moreau from his Joining with a now departed and loved member of his
Dragon Circle, but......."
"And this thing about me being a willing quisling!" rages Carradene,
tail thrashing about in anger. "Yes! I do admit that I played the willing
fool, but ONLY to bide my time and TRY to get Malachi here to come
out and transport the Pack off this gods forsaken isle!! By the Fate, I
swear that when I though she was dead, that I was going to go inSANE. Four
decades, and she wouldn't come....because of that damn Council of Wyrms!
I couldn't even think about casting even the simplest of spells, for fear
that Moreau would detect it, and snuff my life out! Four decades of sniveling,
and groveling to that b###h with scales!! Then, I learn from the lizard's
lips herself as she's crying....and moaning about her '....poor brother
was dead!' As she crowed about how she had fixed the 'vile humans and their
pet wyrms' I knew, that I had to....HAD to take my chances THEN AND there......"
Carradene takes in a deep breath and tries to calm down before continuing,
and then halfway smiles as his new aquantence continues the tale.
"Basically," Sigin says while absent mindedly scratching the adoring
normal female foxes head before she goes back to tending to the demi-fox
kits. "With the threat of retribution from Minestus gone, my friend here
went for broke and engaged her in magical combat. Frankly, I'm amazed that
a magi so out of practice could defeat a wyrm like that, but......I guess
my furry friend was motivated! Excuse me, please."
The demi-fox goes over and magically creates clothing for himself and
swaddling cloth for his brood. Then, with another spell, creates several
cribs to lay the little ones head down. The little demi-fox sighs, and
then rocks the cribs back and forth with magical gestures and a soft lullabye
he had learned from association with his kitchen staff, and then smiles
along with the normal vixen as the little ones drop off to sleep.
"What is that?" the golden vixen asks in surprise, enthralled at how
it had charmed the littles ones (and herself....actually).
"It's a lullabye," Fred explains quickly, frowning at the odd reaction
his love had to it. "It soothes the infants so they fall off to sleep.
We can talk about it later."
"Anyway," Carradene begins to end his tale. "I won, that the hand of
Fate, but.....I was so injured by that battle I was weeks in bed. I finally
recovered enough to be about, and then was about to get around to examining
this Crystallic....whatever that is.....when Linx came running and yowling
about how a pack of foxes just turned into humans....with fox parts."
"I think what we have here is a case of doubles coming over from other
worlds." Sigin things aloud as he pets the adoring head of his....mate.
"I can't think of anything else that it could be! I detect no falsehood
from Carradene nor from...this Lord Frederigo. My Fred never had anything
like THAT happen to him, what with being turned into a....were-fox....a
Manimal as Carradene called it. No Pack turned against him, nor did my
Fred fall in love with Malachi....because MY Malachi.....is dead."
This brings silence, and then Fred looks back questioningly at Malachi,
who looks shaken. She nods a quiet affirmative, signifying that she also
had detected no falsehoods from those before her. And the only way that
could be, with all the conflicting facts was.....some people here were
from different worlds! That, or had talked themselves into believing it
so much that to them their story was the real thing.....
"Okaaay," Fred says finally, relaxin somewhat. "Now what?!"
"First we go outside to complete this transport spell," Malachi states.
"Then, I'm going to my Lair to try to find out just what we can do about
this mess!"
"Oh," Sigin says, tossing the Crystallic that had landed at his feet
to Malachi. "You might want to use this. It may not be too late to use
it on yourself. I'd need something like thirteen of those things to bring
myself back to normal but perhaps……"
Sigin then explains to an increasingly happy pair of were-foxes how
the Cyrstallic worked, according to what his friend Synizn had told him.
"You know," Fred says as everyone left the cave (infants beds towed
along magically behind Sigin). "This Synizn sounds like a good guy. I'd
like to meet him sometime!"
"You might just get to……" Sigin starts to say, and then trails off in
surprise at what he sees.
This place is not what it should be. The inside of the cave had something
wrong with it, and now the werefoxes finally put their finger on it (and
mentally berate themselves for not figuring it out before!) It looked like
everything was partly melted….as if a magical fire had razed everything
inside!
Outside, the ground was charred and melted if by magical fire, but also has signs of….snow? The sky is sunny and warm, but there is….snow on the ground….and of a sickly grey color at that! Something about the whole thing makes the hairs on the back of the canine's
necks stand up on end, for something is…..subtly wrong about the snow itself.
Like, the very water is slightly poisonous.
A nervous Malachi speeds through the transport spell, and the group
of canines find themselves in the comfortingly familiar (to the dragons)
combined Lair of Malachi's Dragon Circle. But……
|
