Robert rolled out of bed surprisingly early. She stood up, feeling pleasantly groggy - whatever was in that "house specialty," it stuck with her for a while...yet there was nothing like a hangover effect. What had happened last night? She was relieved as she remembered that she'd simply had a chat with some of the other devil-folk at Hell's Kitchen and then gone home. It was nearly three by the time she'd gotten back, yet she wasn't particularily tired; she slept anyway, but not because she needed it. She noticed her casual clothes were crumpled up on the floor, and she wasn't wearing anything; apparently she hadn't bothered putting on her pajamas.
She stretched, yawned, and tried to remember...oh yes, today was the day when the devil-changed were going to have their counter-protest. And...she needed to find Rachel, the devil-girl, so that she could ask her to get the angel-changed to take part, to offer their own side of things.
She dressed herself and headed over to the church. Out in the cemetery, she questioned Father Maxwell, but he didn't know how to get ahold of either of the girls. Robert sighed; maybe it wasn't going to work out, after all. She didn't remember their last names, and she was sure the police department wouldn't be eager to tell her...
...but, oddly enough, there was Rachel, naked as ever, walking on the street past the cemetery. Robert dashed over toward her, ignoring the discomfort of her breasts hitting each other for the moment. She finally caught up with her just as the devil-girl stopped to take a look at the church.
"Oh," Rachel said, frowning. "You."
Robert sighed and hung her head, her hair hanging down into her face with two little gaps where her horns parted it. "I'm...I'm sorry," she said. "Before I say anything else, I'm sorry. I was wrong about you, about all of the devil-changed...and I'm sorry it took this for me to see it."
Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Uh...that's...okay, I guess..." Truth be told, she still wasn't exactly happy about it, but she didn't enjoy holding grudges, and her curiousity was nagging at her. "Sooo," she said, putting on a sly smile and sidling up next to the priestess, "how do you like it?"
Robert stiffened; she'd seen the girl act like this toward her angel friend, and she understood as little then as she did now. But she tried to keep her cool. "I...it's foreign to me," she said. "But I believe the Lord has a purpose in allowing this to happen. Which is what I...ah!" She pulled her leg away from Rachel's tail. "Which is what I wanted to talk to you about..."
Suddenly the devil-girl was back in serious mode. "Me?"
Robert nodded. "I don't know if word has reached you, but...there are people who are going to protest against the devil-changed this afternoon, here by the church. Some of the people from Hell's Kitchen are planning a counter-protest...or rather, a sort of a demonstration that they're not evil, to show people what they are like. But we're worried that people will only see us in opposition to the protestors..."
Rachel frowned at her use of the word "we." "So...where do I come in?" she asked. "I can be there, no problem, but..."
"Well," Robert said, "what we wanted...was to ask the angel-changed to stage their own demonstration, similarly showing the public what they're really about and that they have no affiliation with this group either. If you could ask your friend to relay that message to...to..." She sighed as she thought about the place the angel-changed must have, the place she'd rather be...but no, if God wanted her among the devils...as one of them...in all things I am content, she recalled to herself. God, help me to be content in this...
The devil-girl nodded. "Sure, I can pass that along," she said. "I can't guarantee anything, but they seem like a pretty amiable bunch. I gotta get going..."
Robert nodded. "Have a safe trip..."
Rachel smiled and headed off to school.
There was a soft knock on the door of Mrs. Crawford's office. She took a deep breath and sat up straight, drying her eyes. "C-come in," she said.
The door opened and Becca entered. "Mrs. Crawford?" she said. "I saw you out by the bathrooms, and you looked sad..."
The vice-principal nodded and slumped back into her chair. Becca rushed over to her and clutched her hand. "A-are you okay?" she asked, concern in her bright young eyes. Emily sighed. "Everything went so wrong yesterday...I only wanted to help people, but...I don't know if I was too harsh...now they hate me..."
Becca hugged her. "You were always nice to us kids, Mrs. Crawford," the little girl said. "Ever'body knows that. Maybe they're mad right now, but we all know you're a nice person...you were nice to me, even when I wasn't being good..."
Emily smiled in spite of herself, and hugged her back. "Th-thank you," she said. "Thank you...you should get to class, Becca."
The little girl smiled. "Okay. A-are you gonna be okay?"
She sighed. "I will, yes." Eventually...
The sun was high in the sky by the time Erica woke up. She rolled lazily onto her back, feeling the grass of the little glade through her fur. She stared up at the sunlight filtering through the canopy as she felt her arm pinned under something. She slid it out from under Sam...
...Sam?
She gasped as the memory of everything they'd done last night flooded back in upon her. She could hardly believe it was real...but it was. She really had...she trembled, overwhelmed with multiple feelings at once. She was amazed and alarmed at the speed with which she'd given into this other side of her, physically pleased by the memories, and above all, grateful beyond words that when her instincts had finally won out, it had been voluntarily, with someone she cared about...someone she loved. It wasn't just animal lust, it was natural instinct in harmony with her human emotions, and consequently it was something special.
She sighed and moved a little closer to Sam. He was a good man, she found him attractive, and they liked each other...she supposed if...if she had to adjust to life as a woman, he was the guy she'd want to do so with. What a thought that was...that for as much as she'd wanted to return to her old form, for as much as she'd risked in hopes of keeping it when she so briefly got it back...there was no going back now, was there? Even if it were possible, if she were given the choice...it wasn't like before. She had ties to womanhood now, she had a mate, they had the promise of a life together, there was even the possibility of raising...
Erica gasped as the pieces fell into place. Time travel...Nikki's confusion at her age...her own befuddlement at the little girl's claims of relationship...and the note for Erica from Nikki's mom, who seemed to know so much about her trip back into the past...she had denied the claim at first as much out of revulsion as due to its seeming absurdity, but now that...now that she couldn't deny what she was, and now that she knew what kind of crazy implications time travel could bring, it was so obvious...
Even as her mind boggled at the thought, she bolted toward the den. Nikki, of course, was long since awake and about, but to her relief hadn't wandered far. The little skunk-girl turned and stared at her, and Erica realized she was still naked. But...well, so was Nikki. She wasn't sure she wanted to make a habit of this, but she had far more important things on her mind right now. She picked up the girl...her daughter...and held her close. Nikki sniffed audibly, and Erica cringed as she realized what she must smell like to someone who grew up knowing how to use this sense of smell. But the young skunk-girl just smiled. "You and Daddy did fall in love, after all..." she said.
Erica nodded and hugged her. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you," she said.
Nikki nodded. "That's okay. I guess it made sense..."
Erica set her down and sat on the grass next to her. It was all so unbelievable...that she would become pregnant - or perhaps she already was? She didn't really know that much about how it worked - and that the fruit of her own womb sat beside her right now, months before she would even be born, and yet already a young girl. What could you even say in a situation like this?
"S-so, tell me," she said. "What are...we like in...in eleven years?"
Nikki sighed. "I can't tell you, mom," she said. "You told me not to. It says in the letter you want everything that happens to happen natur'lly..."
The young skunk-woman nodded thoughtfully. She supposed that made sense. Telling her past self how her own life was supposed to unfold might make it feel fake, somehow...but she still wanted to know...
"Mornin', ladies," Samuel said as he walked up, still working the button on his pants into place. Erica looked him up and down, seeing him both as the world at large saw him and in a new light shed by her experiences last night...she smiled without even thinking about it. "Good morning," she said. "Listen, Sam, there's something you should know..."
He hunkered down next to her and looked her in the eye. "What's that?" he asked.
Erica sighed. "Sam, I only just realized it myself; Nikki...is our daughter."
He blinked in surprise, thought a minute, and gave a low whistle. "You're just full a' surprises, aren't you?" he said to the little girl, who giggled and nodded. "I told Mom she's my mom when we met," she said. "But I couldn't say about you until you an' her fell in love."
He smiled and ruffled her hair. "You're a good girl, Nikki," he said. She sighed happily.
Erica sighed and stood up, and it was now that she wasn't sitting next to her similarly-unclad daughter that Sam noticed she was still naked. He smiled. "So, what happens now?"
She shrugged. "I'm not sure. The only directions I got are to be back where we arrived at the end of the week, so I suppose that's when we get to go home. I don't know what we're supposed to do until then."
He grinned. "I can think of a few things..."
"Mmm," she murmured, thinking back on last night again. There was always that...after all, from what she'd read, a heat cycle wouldn't just go away after intercourse; she had two or three days left on it, probably. Her appetite had been sated temporarily last night, but it would be back. And even after that...well, they had to make certain Nikki was conceived, didn't they?
Still...at the moment she still felt a bit grungy. "I'm gonna go wash," she said, stretching.
Sam grinned. "Well, if I can't risk getting too far from you..."
She smiled. "Nikki, would you see if you can scare up something for lunch?"
The little girl nodded and bounded off into the bushes, and Erica and her mate strolled lazily down towards the stream.
Keith had been riding all morning as fast as he could manage. If he'd had his spurs he might have been able to coax the animal to go faster, but some asshole in the Indian camp had stolen 'em while he slept. All the same, he was making good time; if he was lucky, he'd be across the state line by tomorrow night. Now, if he could find a railroad and sneak aboard a train, he could put some real miles between himself and anybody pursuing him...
He slowed to a stop as he came up to a river. Damn, there was no way he'd get the horse to swim this. He'd have to look for a bridge somewhere along it, but upstream or downstream? He wasn't sure; Joe of his gang was the one who knew the land well. He'd just have to pick one or the other; it just angered him that he stood to lose a lot of time if he picked the farther distance, that was all.
As long as he was here, though...he slid off the horse's back, tied the reins to a stump, and groaned. Damn it, why couldn't they have given him a saddle? Just because they rode bareback...he was sore all over. His poor crotch in particular was almost numb; he didn't have any stirrups to stand in or saddle to put padding between him and the horse's spine. And for some damn reason, his chest was sore and tender, too; his rough shirt was rubbing against it annoyingly. He pulled it off and tied it around his neck; at least the weather was all right for this.
Come to think of it, maybe this was what the man had meant in saying that he'd be back...well, he was damned if any little aches and pains were going to make him turn back. He looked back at the horse, thinking of starting off again, but he needed to rest for a bit. ...was it just him, or did the horse seem a little larger? He shook that thought off and headed down to the river. It moved quick enough and looked fairly clear, the water couldn't be too stagnant. He waded out past the shallows and leaned down for a drink...
Keith stared. The turbulent water distorted the image before him, but even so...something was different. A few somethings, in fact. His face...looked softer, less rough, his hair seemed a little longer, and...green? His eyes weren't green! No, that wasn't the eyes, that was...some kind of light...within them?
He stared. He drank and splashed himself. He stared again. No change. He could confirm the changed feel of his face and the length of his hair with his own hands, and the light...God almighty, what did that mean? What did any of this mean? He couldn't have got another half-inch of hair over the course of a day...something was wrong here. But what? What was happening to him?
He remembered the dream...the not-a-dream...whatever it was, and shuddered. You will never be the same, he'd been told, even now, your shell cracks...
No! No, that couldn't be true! But if that wasn't what they'd meant, then what? What was happening to him? How could he make it stop? He had no idea. But if he didn't know...God dammit, he was going to have to go back! No, he couldn't go back, not when he could be escaping! But if he didn't do anything to stop whatever this was...he roared angrily. Why did this have to happen? Why was he caught between making his escape and preserving himself?
