[Mkguild] Dominion of the Hyacinth (8/10)

[C. Matthias]

Part 8 of Dominion of the Hyacinth!

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Jessica felt a great deal of relief when she saw the city of Lake 
Barnhardt spread below her. Despite the wind pushing clouds north a 
crosscurrent developed just north of the Keep where the valley 
abruptly widened that slowed her considerably. She made a mental note 
to spend a few hours every day investigating teleportation magics so 
this wouldn't happen again.

But the black hawk had finally arrived. She could clearly see the 
towers of the castle rising up from the water's edge, and one from 
the lake itself, while the city spread to its north in a wedge 
between the hills and the lake, wharves lining the lake both inside 
and outside the city walls. Fishermen plied their trade with haste 
and wary eye on the storm clouds. Townsfolk went about their business 
with a scrupulous glance heavenward every so often.

Yet out of all the people looking upward, only one of them was 
looking for something other than the clouds and sign of rain. Her 
heart pounded in her chest when she saw the red-banded hawk standing 
on the far-side of the barracks roof looking straight at her with his 
golden eyes. She circled downward, grateful that this would finally be over.

Rickkter has no doubt poisoned his mind against the hyacinth you planted.

With good cause, she knew. Yonson's hyacinth had been used in the 
service of a great evil; it only made sense that the raccoon would 
misinterpret Jessica's use of the flower. Clearly using its 
forgetfulness as a shield against scrutiny had not worked as well as 
she hoped. But she would explain and they would understand. Her 
husband would be the first to understand.

And understand by becoming wife to you, as you shall be her husband.

Yes, that was the logical and utilitarian thing to do. And after a 
month or two, just like the spell on Rhena, it would become 
permanent, freeing the hyacinth to power other spells. Of course, she 
had promised Rhena she would bring her a bulb to plant and tend. With 
the storm coming she could spend the night in Lake Barnhardt and with 
the morning soil fresh and soft from the rain claim the bulb for the 
skunk. That would give her plenty of time to explain things to her friends.

An image came to her of her friends all still children sitting in a 
semi-circle before a black hawk man listening to him explain very 
important and deep secrets. If they were going to be difficult, as 
she knew Rickkter at least would be, she could always keep them 
children until they were willing to behave.

Weyden waited with wings folded behind him, his eyes never wavering 
from her as she circled lower and lower until she stretched out her 
talons and gripped the stone atop the barracks. She swelled in size 
until she had returned to her usual shape. Jessica spread her wings 
one last time, casting a glance at the hyacinth which thrummed with 
warmth and a faint mote of urgency. It did not appear harmed and so 
she turned to her husband and rushed toward with outstretched wings.

"Oh Weyden! Is everyone else all right?"

"Naomi is looking after them. But you made them children." There was 
a hurt, accusing tone in his voice. She hated hearing it.

"Just to keep them from hurting the hyacinth," she explained, 
nuzzling her beak to his own. He let her hold him for several 
seconds, his posture rigid and tense. "Once they understand how I am 
using it for good in this Valley then they won't seek to attack the hyacinth."

Weyden's voice seemed empty. "What good are you doing with it, Jessica?"

She leaned her head back and regarded him with a hopeful avian smile. 
The crease in her hooked beak spread across either cheek as a slight 
shifting of the soft feathers there, dimpling the glossy down but not 
brightening it. Her husband's expression was one full of weariness, 
gentleness, and something else she could not identify. It was a 
hardness, a determination almost, that alarmed some part of her. She 
admired his courage, for courage was a virtue that both men and women 
should display, but what she glimpsed here in this, her sweet hawk, 
was something different from courage. Defiance perhaps? Desperation? 
Or surrender?

"You know of Maud and Larssen. How difficult would it have been for 
them to bring forth children while Maud was human and Larssen a 
giraffe? You know, my love, that is something they have long desired 
to share with each other. Maud always said that size didn't matter, 
but you know in your heart that they would have never been able to be 
together if not for my spell to make her into a giraffe. The first 
time I tried to make her a giraffe I nearly fainted from exhaustion 
holding the spell in place, and that after only a few seconds! Once I 
planted the hyacinth and bound the spell to it she was able to stay a 
giraffe. At first it only lasted a short while until I learned how to 
properly attach my spells to the flower. Now she's been a giraffe for 
a month and the connection is only growing stronger. Weyden, my sweet 
and wonderful Weyden, don't you see how much happier both Maud and 
Larssen are now that they are both giraffes? Isn't this much better?"

Her hawk's eyes narrowed as much as they were able and his chest 
seemed to deflate a little. "Aye. I see that. They are happier. I 
hope there is a way for Maud to stay a giraffe. Maybe there is 
another way a way that does not use the hyacinth."

There is no other way. No other incunabulum is a reservoir for magic 
in the way a hyacinth is.

"There is no other way," Jessica repeated, stroking one wing down the 
side of her husband's face. She could feel the plant behind her 
swelling in warmth, the pool of magic a thing of sparkling beauty and 
impenetrable depth. It nourished her as much as her spells. "I 
researched a long time, my love, but I found no other incunabulum 
that could serve as a reservoir for magic the way the hyacinth can. 
And the way that it has. And it has accomplished so much good! So 
many lives have been saved because of this one plant. Think of 
Lindsey! Thanks to my magic and the power in this plant I was able to 
protect him and help him get close enough to that loathsome Calephas! 
Now Calephas is dead and all of Arabarb is free and may soon be a 
firm ally of Metamor! Is that not wonderful? Is that not good?"

His posture tightened and a reluctant nod seemed to escape his head. 
The words were hissed, as if he were trying to scare away a larger 
predator or convince them to find some other prey than the one lying 
dead at his talons. "Much good has come from Lindsey's actions in 
Arabarb. But if he were here he would tell you the same thing. You 
have to let go of the hyacinth, my sweet."

Rickkter has certainly poisoned his mind if these two examples do not 
convince him! He will understand better as Weyda.

Jessica could feel the hyacinth's roots twisting deeper into the soil 
and piercing the stone blocks of the barracks roof and balustrade 
wall. The blossoms turned gently in their direction, rivers of light 
pouring across the petals to rush over the moss-strewn stones and 
bathe their talons. A moment's exercise of will and it would be done; 
Weyden would become Weyda and the strange resistance and breach of 
trust with Jessica would come to an end. Jessica wasn't ready to 
force the issue just yet. Surely she could yet convince him and 
regain his trust and cooperation. Once she had that she would 
transform them both with that vibrant silver and purple light into 
what they must be for Jessica's work to flourish.

"But it has served not just Larssen and Maud, nor just Lindsey and 
the people of Arabarb." She slid her wing behind his own and coaxed 
him toward the hyacinth. Weyden tightened his grip on the stones 
below, but she continued to press at his back. "Norbert and Richard 
will soon be husband and wife at long last! You know what scandal 
they have caused the Fellowship over the years. Thanks to the 
hyacinth that has been brought to an end, a happy ending at that! Oh, 
Weyden, my sweet and strong, Weyden, I have been able to help them 
and so many other families at Metamor. What the Curses did to them, 
to tear them apart and bring such hardship I have been able to make 
amends! Without the hyacinth they would continue to suffer. Do you 
really want them to suffer?"

"Suffering is good for the soul," Weyden replied with a shake of his 
head. "I suffered four months in prison because of Yonson and his 
hyacinth. I was once Captain of the ambassador's guards, and now I'm 
a mere soldier in Metamor's army without rank or distinction. I will 
never have a command of my own again. All of that has been a 
difficult and deep suffering I have been forced to endure. I will 
never see my family or any of my friends in Tournemire again; do you 
not think I miss them?"

Jessica pressed at his back more firmly watching the hyacinth with 
her left eye and her recalcitrant husband with her right. "Aye, 
suffering can be good for the soul. I suffered without you those many 
months as we journeyed to Marzac to defeat that terrible evil. And 
now I love you even more knowing we both have such courage! But, is 
it not wrong of me to see another suffering and to do nothing for 
them? The hyacinth has given me the strength to help so many who have 
been suffering. And there are so many more who I can still help with 
its strength. Wouldn't it be a terrible sin to see that, to have the 
power to do something about it, and to just walk on by? Would you 
love me if I could be callous to the suffering of others?"

Bring him closer. Loosen his grip.

Jessica's eyes flicked to the magic only she could see flowing around 
their talons. It was over a hand deep now and still climbing. She 
touched the eddying current with her mind and Weyden's talons slipped 
free of the stone. He took a few stumbling steps forward before 
tightening his grip again and pushing her away with his wings. "You 
talk about all the good you have done with this hyacinth, Jessica. 
You talk about it and I want to believe you. I do believe that you 
mean good for those you have said. But I know of at least one you 
have not said and you did not mean good for him!"

Do not stop now. Bring him closer and he will trust and obey you always.

Undeterred, she slipped to his side and more forcefully pressed her 
wing at his back. A little tendril of magic snacked up his leg, 
through his red-banded feathers, and circled round where his wing met 
his back. The muscles weakened and the wing folded between them. 
Jessica eased his talons loose and together they began a slow walk 
toward the hyacinth. The leaves spread wide in a welcoming 
invitation, while the blossoms all turned like a many-eyed head to 
watch them. The petals twisted as they gushed forth their brilliant 
power, a power that went forth but also returned, absorbed by the 
roots as much as any nutrients they took from the soil and from 
water. The hyacinth seemed to smile.

"Weyden, my love. It is good what I am doing. No matter whether the 
person I cast my spells upon requests them or not, it is what each of 
them need for the pains in their lives to be healed. Maud didn't ask 
me to make her a giraffe did she? No. I suggested it and after much 
coaxing convinced her to let me try. Only then did she realize how 
much her heart yearned for that more closer union with Larssen."

"And Kuna?"

The name was spat with such acid that Jessica felt as if she'd been 
slapped. She stopped pushing her hawk toward the hyacinth and turned 
to face him fully. "What do you know of Kuna?"

"I was there when you reduced him to a child! All because he had the 
effrontery to ask you to teach him the magic you used on him and so 
many others, that of bending and manipulating the Curses! You 
destroyed him for nothing more than irritation at his ego and chicanery!"

"Destroyed him?" Jessica gasped in surprise that so pejorative a word 
would be used to describe what she had done to the meerkat. "I never 
destroyed him! Kuna destroyed himself when he manipulated the other 
members of the guild into electing him Headmaster. Why should anyone 
else ever trust him again? He would have used my magic for ill, to 
advance himself at the expense of his betters."

He is distracting you from what is important.

Jessica felt the hyacinth's growing need and insistent desire to 
correct what had gone wrong between her and Weyden. She resumed 
easing him forward. Another dozen paces and they would be beneath the 
purple blossoms and within reach of its green, grass-like blades. 
Despite the hyacinth's admonition, she wanted desperately to explain 
herself so that Weyden would understand on his own. "I helped Kuna by 
making him a child."

"How is that helping him? How did making Rickkter, Charles, and all 
of our friends into children help them?" Weyden's eyes were no longer 
defiant but trembled in fear, limpid with the visage of the ravenous 
blossoms. He struggled with all of his limbs, but her spells made 
such resistance feeble. His steps were slow but they matched her own, 
talons scraping stone as they drew nearer the mound of earth from 
which her reservoir of magical power sprang; her incunabulum; her hyacinth.

"Kuna destroyed himself. But now, as a child, he can finally find 
that which he has always yearned for; acceptance. Do you know he has 
taken up with a small gang of urchins living in Metamor? I have seen 
them playing together, sharing the food they've stolen or begged, and 
sleeping together for warmth. They are dearest friends and brothers 
and they have accepted Kuna as one of their own. For the first time 
in his life he actually knows his worth and is surrounded by others 
who see it and welcome it. For the first time in his life he is truly 
happy! Like so many, my love, he merely did not know what it was he 
really needed. I gave that to him. I saw it in a moment, in a heart's 
breath that he needed to be a child. He needed to lose all pretense 
to honor and position to find what he had always hungered for. I did 
him a good of incalculable worth!

"Just as I have done for our friends. I kept them from destroying 
this hyacinth which is the source of so much good at Metamor. Please, 
my Weyden. It is time for you to join with me in this work."

"No! Jessica, please listen to me!"

She eased him forward another step. The stalk of purple blossoms bent 
forward like a sovereign greeting his subjects. "I am listening to 
you, Weyden. But you must listen to and trust me. Rickkter was right 
to destroy the first hyacinth. But he is wrong about this one. Do not 
trust him."

"I went to him, Jessica!" Weyden snapped, struggling against her 
grip, his voice rising an octave in his alarm at the moving plant. "I 
told him about what you did to Kuna! He didn't know who Kuna was. 
Nobody remembers Kuna but you and I! You've made them all forget with 
this hyacinth!"

"A kindness for Kuna and others. If people forget they will not 
single him out for further ridicule even if they did see him as a 
child. And some do not wish to remember their former lives; the 
oblivion the hyacinth provides the mind is a sweet nepenthe that 
heals; it is a good and a mercy. You will understand."

"It is an abomination!"

She felt anger flare in her heart at his words but she stilled it. 
This was her dearest love.

When you make of him Weyda, she will understand.

"It is time, isn't it?" she asked, turning toward the plant.

Yes.

"Will you heal his wounds?"

Yes.

Weyden stammered and tried to spread his wings, but could only manage 
the one not pinned between them. "Jessica, who are you talking to? 
Are you talking to the plant? Is it talking back to you?"

"It is nothing to be afraid of. In a moment I will use the magic on 
us both. We will be bathed in a new life, a new anointing of magic, 
transformed and renewed in our marriage vows. Only you will become 
Weyda my loyal wife, and I Jessic your noble husband. You will be 
able to lay us eggs and care for them while I continue this good work 
of healing the suffering of the Curses here at Metamor. We can have a 
family and bring the power of the Curses under control for everyone. 
Please trust me, my sweet hawk. Trust me as you have always trusted me."

Weyden's expression filled with a terrifying horror. "You want to... 
you... how?" His squawks seemed to drain of all energy and to her 
surprise he collapsed forward, pushing himself up into a supplicant 
squat. He folded his wings and clasped what hands he had as if he 
were praying. His voice seemed resigned but the strength had come 
back. "Jessica, I love you with all of my heart and would die for you 
without hesitation. You are my life and I will love you no matter 
what you do to me or to anyone else."

The hyacinth loomed closer, but she could feel a sullen impatience in 
it. A few feet more and its sinews could embrace her husband. "Your 
voice, my hawk, I can tell that you do not believe that I am doing good."

"You aren't," Weyden said through clenched eyes. She leaned forward 
and pushed her wing against his shoulder but this time he would not 
be moved. Her will spun about the pool of magic in which he knelt and 
pressed up on his knees to force him to stand. His will fought her, 
but slowly, inch by inch, he began to rise. "Just like Kayla thought 
she was doing good even though all her friends tried to stop her. You 
are doing the same thing as she tried to do."

Jessica tensed, her control of the magic faltering for a moment.

You are not under the power of Marzac.

"I am not under the power of Marzac!"

Rickkter and Murikeer examined you at great length and saw nothing.

"Rickkter and Murikeer examined me at great length, even just the 
other day, but saw nothing there."

"Rickkter was with Kayla every day, yet could not see the taint 
before his very eyes."

There is no taint on you.

"There is no taint on me, my hawk."

Weyden shook his head. "Kayla heard the voice of Vissarion assuring 
her that she was doing the right thing. You speak to the hyacinth. 
Does it assure you that you are doing the right thing?"

Vissarion was corrupted by Marzac. The hyacinth is a plant, a tool of 
which you make use and nothing more.

Jessica sighed and rested one wing on her husband's shoulder, urging 
him again through her magic to rise. "Vissarion was corrupted by 
Marzac many centuries ago. The hyacinth is just a plant. I was the 
one that gave it the ability to store power and bring forgetfulness 
to those in need. Not Marzac. It is nothing more than a tool that I 
have made use of."

It assists, it does not guide you.

"It assists me, it does not guide me."

Weyden squawked, a plaintive sound like a chick would make and not a 
mature hawk. "It has made you lose trust in all of your friends! It 
has turned you against them!"

Not against them. They merely do not see as they should. You will 
help them. You will condition them for the work ahead.

"It has not turned me against anyone," Jessica repeated with a heavy 
sigh. She stretched out one wing and brushed the feathers across one 
of the green petals framing the blossom stalk. "Our friends... they 
do not see the hyacinth and my work as they should. But I will help 
them. I will prepare them... condition them for the work ahead."

"Condition them? Jessica, do you even hear yourself?"

Once they feel my touch they will be enthusiastic helpers in the 
work. Once they feel my touch they will understand. You will subject 
each of them to one of the Curses. Change the gender of those who are 
beasts, and make those who are children into beasts as is proper.

Jessica willed her husband to rise, pushing more and more power 
beneath his tail feathers. His knees unbent as her tongue conveyed 
the hyacinth's words, the power suffusing her with such sublime 
sweetness as of honey from the comb. "Once they feel the touch of the 
hyacinth, once I have transformed them, they will understand and 
become enthusiastic helpers in the work. I think I will do for those 
already cursed to be animals the same as I mean to do for us. Charles 
to Charlene perhaps, Rickkter to Richta, Dallar to Dolly, Kayla to 
Kavin; I suppose I cannot leave Charles's children without a 
father... the Lady Kimberly can become... Lord Kamber perhaps. Van I 
can make into an animal like us, perhaps another hawk, or maybe a 
wolf or ram. All of us can be friends again and working together to 
bring about the great changes that must be made!"

Weyden struggled to crouch back down, his eye warily on the hyacinth 
and its blossoms which squeezed as if lips puckering for a delectable 
treat. Only a few inches separated them now. "This is madness, 
Jessica! This is Marzac speaking! Please, do not do this! If you love 
me, do not do this!"

"If I love you?" Jessica paused in horror at the suggestion that she 
could ever do anything less than love her hawk. "Of course I love you, Weyden!"

Do you not love and trust me?

"Do you not love and trust me?"

Her hawk stared into her eyes with an intensity that only hook-beaked 
birds possessed. He hissed his words, "Do you not love and trust me? 
Do you not trust me, Jessica? Is it not I who you love? What worth is 
your great work if you do not love me and trust me!"

"I do!" Jessica replied, heart aching from the sting. "You just don't 
understand."

"I understand that you are about to make me an obedient wife to 
something that frightens me to tears. I love you, Jessica and always 
will. But you do not love me and trust me if you do this. Will you 
not do what the one you love asks of you? Stop this madness!"

The words were like a knife to her heart, piercing into something 
deep that had been buried and forgotten. Rocked back on her talons, 
the hyacinth vainly quivering and puckering its blossoms over the 
red-banded hawk's head, Jessica remembered a creaky room rocking back 
and forth on the sea as they made their way north against the winter 
currents. In that room had been several comfortable beds for women, a 
small iron stove for heat, and all of her friends gathered around a 
red-furred kangaroo weeping over an oozing black thing trying to 
crawl back into her pouch.

A brilliant flash of steel and that black thing was destroyed, 
severed in twain and then carried out to the sea in a canister from 
which its evil could not escape. But something else had burned, 
something vastly important that should never have been forgotten. She 
recalled it, the hawk did, clearly captured between her wing claws. 
The parchment was burnt through and the writing, once pristine and 
ever so carefully laid out, charred into ash. But one line had 
remained, one line clear that spoke of something that had immediately 
made her heart turn with miserable longing to the very hawk she saw 
before her, the very hawk whom she had married and swore vows of 
fidelity before the gods.

'Do always what the one you love asks of you.'

She breathed those words with a gasp, eyes roving from the hyacinth 
to her husband and back again. In a weak voice she asked, "I love 
you, Weyden. What do you want me to do?"

Weyden shifted back as much as he could from the plant. Tendrils were 
snaking out of the ground toward his legs. One of them brushed 
against a toe and he squawked in alarm, unable to break free. 
"Destroy the hyacinth! It is corrupting you!"

He does not understand. Bring him to me and he shall.

Jessica felt the compulsion to obey the voice of the hyacinth and for 
a single moment she moved to comply. But she balked, those remembered 
words filling her heart and clearing her sight. The purple blossoms 
were not coated in a brilliant silvery light as she had first 
thought; rather they spewed forth a darkness like mucus and lapped it 
back up again as if it were drool and it a ravening beast slavering 
over its meal. Those bands of light stretching out to everyone who 
she had connected to the hyacinth were riddled with necrotic, black 
fissures pulsing like arteries through the magic. Good that she had 
done? At what cost?

With a cry of anguish and shame, she drove her will into the dark 
tendrils encircling her husband. The blow knocked them both backward. 
Weyden sprawled across the stone gasping for breath.

What do you think you are doing? You need the power of a hyacinth for 
your great work!

Jessica shrank in size until she could flap her wings and rise a few 
feet from the roof. The hyacinth's tendrils lifted to reach for her 
and drag her back down. The blossoms opened and closed as the stalk 
stretched for her. Inside the bottom of each purple blossom she 
thought she saw row upon row of red, glistening fangs.

"The great work of Marzac? No I do not! Now burn!" She felt the fire 
swell along her wings and with one more flap she struck the base of 
the plant. She felt the scream in her mind as the inferno consumed 
every blade and every blossom in jets or orange and yellow. The plant 
thrashed in its bed, the veins of fire following down into each root 
as Jessica sent cascade after cascade of energy into its base. She 
wept with the shame of everything she had done, as the veins of magic 
radiating outward from the hyacinth flared with vermillion 
iridescence and winked out.

Jessica collapsed on the roof, wings and talons sprawled beneath her 
as she gasped for breath between her sobs. Like a fog, the confusion 
of the last two months began to disperse, allowing her to see anew 
what she had wrought. And it filled her with loathing and shame.

She felt a wing touching her back, and then two wings enfolding her 
and lifting her up. She could not open her eyes to see, but allowed 
herself to be pressed within that warm embrace. She felt a hooked 
beak preening the back of her neck. In that embrace and with that 
touch she knew she was safe. But she could not stop the weeping.

"My Jessica, my lovely hawk, my wife," the voice of her husband said 
with such strength and warmth that she ached anew at what she had 
nearly done to him. "It is over now."

"We have to destroy the roots and bulbs," she blubbered.

"Then stand and do it. I know you can."

He helped her find her feet. His wing propped her own and steadied 
her as she tried to blink away the tears. How much anguish would 
there be throughout Metamor with the spells broken? How much anger 
would there be at her from those whom she changed against their will? 
Justified anger. What of Lindsey? Would he turn into an adult dragon 
or would he look like a young dragon still? And what of Berchem? The 
spell making him Rhena had nearly united with his skunk curse. Was he 
going to change back or was he trapped as Rhena still, only with all 
his memories returned to him?

How many messes was she going to be cleaning up in the days and weeks ahead?

Together the two hawks walked toward the scorched plot of earth. The 
blackened soil was covered in a haze of smoke and ash. The blossoms, 
the stalk, and the fronds were all a ruin collapsed in on themselves. 
It was hard to tell if there was any life left in the bed, but this 
time they would be certain of it. Her wing arms aching, Jessica 
stretched out her wing claws and grasped the sullen fabric of magic, 
winding it into a spell. The blackened earth warmed their legs, and 
then became scalding hot as it glowed a burnished brass. More smoke 
rose from that plot of earth as every mote of dirt was charred into 
clumps of ash. The feathers on their legs began to sizzle and blacken 
but they stayed there together, wave after wave of molten heat 
pummeling them with the power of a forge. Even the stones around the 
plot of earth in which the hyacinth once stood began to glow.

Jessica released the spell and the two of them danced backward, their 
legs and talons seared with pain. But the plot of earth was a barren 
lacuna of ash and nothing more. No bulb, no root, no blade remained 
of the hyacinth.

Above them the clouds broke and a patter of rain fell. It sizzled in 
the plot, hissing with the satisfaction of a well-fed serpent. The 
droplets of cool rain felt wonderful on their legs. Weyden nudged his 
wife and gestured to the sky and to their legs. Wordlessly she 
nodded, crafting another spell that soothed the burns. It took a 
minute for their legs to move again, but the pain was slight and the 
rain was gaining in strength.

"We should see the others," Weyden suggested, pointing to the open 
hatch. "They're waiting for us."

"We could jump off the side. It would be easier."

He shook his head. "They are expecting us this way."

Jessica nodded. "Lead me."

He gave her a tender nuzzle with his beak. "I will."

----------

"Five! Six! Seven!" Christina's meaty paw slapped the raccoon's 
posterior with sufficient force to leave a good sized welt. Her elbow 
pinned his back and free paw lifted his tail while she bent the 
naughty child over her knees. In the corner nearby an equally naughty 
rat whimpered from the paddling he'd already received. Thyla and 
Naomi kept watch on the other seven children who were giggling at 
their naughty friends.

And then to Christina's surprise as she landed spank number eight, 
the raccoon started to get bigger, tearing at the seams of his 
clothes as his chest, legs, and arms swelled to adult proportions. 
She was so shocked that she couldn't even let go of his tail. 
Rickkter blinked as understanding returned to him and to the other 
children all growing back to their normal sizes. "If you don't mind, 
madam, please let go of my tail!"

Christina laughed and grabbed the raccoon under one arm, and eased 
him off her legs. "Oh my! I'm so terribly sorry. Naomi, Thyla, fetch 
their clothes and gear!" Rickkter winced and rubbed at his thighs 
once before he grabbed a bit of ruined cloth and held it in front of 
his waist like a loincloth. The others all did the same thing, each 
of them looking around at the others with various expressions of embarrassment.

"What just happened?" James asked as he fumbled to conceal himself.

"The hyacinth was destroyed," Murikeer said, groaning and rubbing his 
forehead from the pain of using magic. "I can't see it anywhere 
anymore. Weyden must have... convinced her."

Thyla and Naomi unlocked the cupboard with their supplies and began 
handing out bundles of clothes. They brought Kayla and Maud's 
clothing out first, but were caught up short when they saw that Maud 
wasn't even a giraffe anymore. "It will be loose on me, but it is 
better than nothing," she said as she took the garments. She turned 
to Larssen who had a stricken expression on his long face. He reached 
out a gentle hoof-like hand and ran it down the bare skin of her back 
and face. "We'll be fine," she assured him. "This is how we thought 
it would be for us anyway."

Larssen sighed and nodded, turning both of them toward the wall as 
even the scraps of clothing he had left had proven insufficient to 
protect his modesty. "We will. Still, you know..."

She offered a small laugh and leaned against his hip. "Aye, I do."

Rickkter scowled fiercely at his friends as each of them received 
their clothes and gear. He also cast a withering glare at the bear 
who'd been spanking him a moment before. "If word of this get back to 
Misha, I swear I will make all of your lives so miserable you'll wish 
the hyacinth had won!"

"Oh I'm not telling Misha anything," Dallar said with a gruff laugh 
as he pulled on his trousers. "Not a bleat!"

"Is that anyway to talk to your friends?" Christina scolded with crossed arms.

Rickkter spun on her. "You're lucky... you're... just lucky. Damn 
that hurt!" And then he turned and gave the rat still attempting the 
loincloth look a rather superior smile.

Charles blinked at him and shook his head. "If you boast that you got 
fewer spankings than I did, no force on earth could keep me from 
telling Misha."

Murikeer, Kayla, and Van all doubled over in laughter. Rickkter 
blinked in surprise and then started to laugh as well. He took a step 
closer to the rat and nodded. "If you won't tell I won't."

"Sounds like a deal." Charles offered him a paw. The raccoon took it 
and they laughed together. For some reason, touching a Sondecki 
didn't bother him nearly as much as the soreness beneath his tail!

----------


May He bless you and keep you in His grace and love,

Charles Matthias