Riley looked at the young man before her. She felt sorry for him; he must feel so terrible, blaming himself for causing this almost-catastrophe. In a sense he was kind of right; even with things joined back together, Hedgeton would probably never be the same again. However the other world had integrated into this part of Earth, she was sure it wouldn't leave things the same as they had been, and people would have to adjust to that. And anybody who had changed back...what would happen to them? Would they be changed again by the sun, or simply revert to whatever they had been? She didn't know.
But...he was only trying to help, he had said. He obtained some new power and tried to use it to help, and things had only gone wrong because he didn't fully understand how this power worked. Was that so different from her? She had figured out her solution and jumped right into implementing it, only to discover that it was harder than she thought. And though she had more or less achieved what she set out to to, the results weren't perfect; there were still places in which the two areas were separate, and something strange seemed to have happened to time; she wasn't sure whether that was only momentarily until she got it threaded back together, or if it would persist...
No, she was hardly that much more qualified than him. And even if she felt like giving her power up, she couldn't - it was a part of her. Being One was who she was. Maybe Adam wasn't so connected to this "air stone" thing, but it was his, wasn't it?
"Nope," she said, handing it back to him. "It wasn't your fault, you didn't know. This is yours, not mine."
"But...if you hadn't come along," he said, "they'd all be..."
Riley sighed. "Yeah, but I didn't get it perfect, either. YOu made a mistake, but you can still do a lotta good with that, right? Just maybe wait on anything else until you really understand it..." And maybe that went for her, as well. She wondered how she could go about more fully understanding her powers. If only there were someone who could teach her more...
Adam smiled in spite of himself. "I'll...I guess I'll try," he said. "They're going to need help getting things back to normal around here, I suppose..." He'd want to be careful, find subtle ways to help that wouldn't draw any more attention to this stone he possessed, or someone might want to use it for their own ends. "But...I should...I'll expose myself, it's only fair..."
The magical girl gasped. "What? Y-you can't do that, not just to...to punish yourself!"
"But...I gave everybody a false hope and now it's taken away," he said, sighing. "If they have to live with this, it's only fair that I should..."
Riley gazed pityingly at him. "I guess I can't stop you," she said. "But you shouldn't do it just 'cause you feel bad about this..."
Adam smiled slightly. He still felt responsible, still felt like he owed this to the people of Hedgeton, but the little girl's concern made him feel a bit less terrible. "Thanks..."
Eric had been growing increasingly concerned that, as they re-approached the center of town, there was no longer any sign of her changing back. Was...was this no longer part of the other world, then? Was that what the flickering had signified? In the other world the sun had returned her to humanity and manhood, but here she was just...this, this skunk-girl thing.
But that couldn't be the end of it, could it? Those cracks, the stranged jagged openings in mid-air, scattered here and there over the strange dual-landscape melange, maybe those were the key! Maybe they led back to the other world...she wondered what all awaited her there. She'd only seen a bit of the place before they'd been wrenched back to Earth. If she went there, if she became her old self again...could he stay there?
There hadn't looked to be a lot to work with, but if he could get back and forth between the two worlds easily...maybe she could handle being a skunk-girl during supply runs or something, if it meant he could be human the rest of the time...but how much time would that be? His job was on Earth, his house was on Earth...he could camp out, maybe, but for an extended period? Maybe...maybe people would build another town, in the other world, where they could all be human...
But for now, for now she just had to even find out if this was possible. She struck out across a field towards one of the cracks, one that looked like it might be big enough to fit through. (She wasn't sure if the edges would be pliable or not, or whether she could get hurt trying to find out.) It was a bit of a slog through the tall grass, and by the time she reached the little hillock on which the crack rested, she'd picked up a dozen cockleburrs stuck in her leg-fur that she had to stop and pick out, but she was heartened by the sight of the desolate alien rockscape on the other side of the crack.
Standing up, Eric peered through for a minute, trying to work up the nerve to go through with this. She took a deep breath, and thrust her hand through.
Nothing. She tried it again. Still nothing. She began to feel a little bit of panic. Maybe she had to be all the way through? She took another deep breath and stepped through the crack. She felt her fur just brush the edges, but no injury seemed to result. She was through, in the other world, and...
...and still a skunk-girl. Dammit! This...this couldn't be how it was, right? She couldn't be...couldn't be stuck as...as this! No, she couldn't. After all, she hadn't changed back immediately upon arrival, it was when she went out into the sun that she'd become human again. Did she have to wait until sunrise for this? How was that fair? She'd become a skunk-girl again right away when they got back to Earth, even though it was night out...why couldn't it be the same here? It was like Earth somehow exerted more influence...argh!
"Argh!" she yelled, whacking her fist on the dirt. "Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhh! I don't wanna wait until morning! I want to be me! I-" Eric broke off abruptly as she heard a sound behind her. she whipped around to see a...uh, a...a thing clomping up towards her.
It was the size of a large man, and vaguely humanoid in build, but it had four arms that ended in structures more like paws than hands, with thick, stubby digits tipped with wicked-looking claws. The two legs were much thicker but had similar paws, though the toes were a little longer, and there was a large toe with an equally large on the back of each, probably for support. The torso was more barrel-shaped than that of a human, but had the same kind of conical broadening out at the shoulders.
The face was...she didn't quite know how to think of it. It reminded her somewhat of magnified pictures she'd seen of a spider's head, though it didn't actually look like any kind of bug. It was fairly round in shape, with four dark red compound eyes spread out across almost a 180° swath, probably giving it a full range of vision around the front and sides. The mouth was curled into a snarl by two massive, protruding fangs that jutted from the top jaw, pulling the lip up to expose a row of gleaming, dangerous-looking teeth. Three sizable horns that seemed to be made of the same bluish crystal as the pillars dotting the landscape grew from its forehead. There was no hair, but some thin fleshy tendrils around the perimeter of the head sort of suggested the appearance of hair.
The whole body was covered in rough bluish skin that looked quite tough. It was unclothed, though she couldn't spot any kind of familiar sex characteristics. Not that she was looking very hard at this point; Eric was somewhere between trying to control her fear and fully embracing it, her whole body trembling. The creature stepped toward her, eyeing her with an expression she couldn't decipher. Those teeth...she didn't want them to get any nearer.
"S-stay back!" she said, edging backwards, trying not to trip. "Stay back, ya freak!"
It paused, tilting its head as if it was trying to understand. It leaned in a little closer and its two large nostrils flared as it took a deep sniff, then another. It snorted, its hot breath striking her face, and she began stepping backwards a little faster. "Get back, creep!" she yelped. It began to close in further...
Panic seized Eric, and instinct took over. She turned and bolted a few yards, then hiked up her dress as she lunged forward onto all fours. She braced her feet against the rocky ground, lifted her tail, and sprayed, a coarse chemical mist shooting forth. For one brief moment, she was glad the dress hadn't come with underwear. The reaction was near-instantaneous - the creature snarled, pawing at its eyes, then roared plaintively as the effect really took hold.
With that, she was off, bounding on all fours towards the crack and diving through - luckily, it was widest at the ground. She kept going through the hayfield until she was completely out of breath, then collapsed in the grass, terrified, aching, and covered in a couple dozen burrs. She coughed; only a little of the musk had stuck with her, and it was somehow less offensive to her, but still...yow. She started crying, partly from terror, partly from the chemical scent stinging at her eyes a little, and partly from embarassment at what she'd just done.
