Harriet was still getting used to being the child of the moon...
It was nice to spend the time with Jenny like this. While Harriet was not a magic girl, her transformation set her aside from everyone else, far more then others. Jenny had that same aspect to her as well, though was not simply 'four' for the rest of her life... Harriet on the other hand, was Artemis as well- forever. A title, and name of one who Selena would call her daughter. She wondered why the pretty woman wanted a daughter. She didn't even realise how much time had passed on Earth, while she was with her. How her parents had worried...
She was always going to be Artemis.. she knew that. She didn't mind it... when she was a girl she always looked up at the moon. She was always sure she saw a face there... could that have been her new mother? Also how did this work? Why did a goddess want her like this?
"The sun made you my daughter dear, I did not..."
Artemis looked up slightly hearing her voice. She smiled softly, feeling re-assurance. Cass and Lucus were... strange to her. The way they associated with her mother as 'worshippers'...she didn't really understand the need. Selena didn't derive power from worship, it just didn't work that way. The moon simply was a fact... and Selena was the personification of that fact...
Jenny however was looking at the moon child. They had walked together doing a patrol around a few areas of the town after school. Having the child of the moon as her ally, Jenny had foreknowledge of any unusual disturbances. Whatever this enemy was still worried the magic girl though...
"Harriet?" Asked Jenny in the end.
"yeah?"
"You was talkin' to that cartoon-girl?" she asked. The difference between 'anime' and 'cartoon' was of course, lost on the young girl. "About your other mother?"
"Uh huh," said Harriet. It was nice that Jenny called her Harriet. For some reason it reminded her of her own normal family... Selena, even as a goddess, could not replace her family. She simply joined it... she hoped her birth-mother was not too angry at her for it. She knew though she was unhappy about some things. She had to be taken to the doctors to make sure she was okay. They found that she had bumped her head a little at some point, but other then that she was in perfect health.
So why does her earth- mother act so... weird to her now? It was fortunate that uncle- er- her aunt Violet allowed her to stay with her. Such was only going to be temporary though, until her aunty talked to her mother to accept her again-
Did that mean... her earth-mother rejected her? Because.. she was Selena's daughter too? Why would she though? She was still the same! ... ... ... wasn't she?
Jenny looked again as the very introspective girl had not gone into further detail. "Who was she? A messenger?"
"She says I gotta make friends with Lilly. An' Selina sent her."
Jenny sighed. She wasn't really sure it was anyone else's business. It was barely her own. What did adults really know about how complicated some of this stuff could be? Now they were just putting pressure on Harriet, who was going through enough as it were. Lilly had upset them both, but for some reason forgiveness came easy to Jenny. Like part of her was able to imagine what that other girl must be going through. She also knew what Harriet was going through being different to everyone else in such a... not so subtle way. Jenny was magic girl four... giving her that insight.
So why couldn't her two new friends find some commonality in the other? Was she going to have to pick who to be friends with? It wasn't fair! She liked them both on their own merits... Although Harriet was more helpful with her abilities to fight this enemy. Whatever it is. Lilly could be fun to be around too... even if she couldn't help 'magic girl-four' much. She regretted the little girl finding out her secret and causing that explosion of tears... "'is your choice Harriet," said Jenny softly in the end. "She hurt me too... but Lilly is really nice. See? She gave me a bracelet," She said showing it. It was just underneath her totem, and it felt comfortable to her to have.
Harriet sighed. This was just so silly! Silly-Lilly didn't even want to be a girl and Harriet didn't want to be friends with an icky boy anyway. Why in the world was her moon-mommy asking for something so... trivial? They had more important things to do. Like fight the Enemy.
Jenny continued to walk around though she had not detected anything odd today. Neither had Harriet. There were several shops they passed, and everything seemed normal. Jenny was starting to get used to these strange beings. She was even... enjoying it? She hoped that wasn't mean of her, but she liked how colourful and interesting the world was. She couldn't really remember a time when it wasn't like this... but when she went back to those memories all she could remember were... shades of greys, and black...
"How 's your mom?" asked Harriet to Jenny as they turned another corner. Patrolling could be really boring.
"She gave 'er blood to Melanie. It made her like us. She's okay. bit sick but gettin' better." the child said thankfully. She didn't know what she would do if Muriel got hurt. She owes her too much for saving her from being... alone. Memories of that night still brought a tear to her face. She never wanted to be alone like that. Never again.
"An' Melanie is now like your sister?" Artemis looked curiously.
"I- I guess," said the white haired girl. she still didn't really know how to work out that situation. Still, at least Melanie was now an ordinary girl, even if she was insect=like... "hows your mother?"
"Which one?"
Jenny blushed. "Um- both?"
Harriet sighed. "My earth mommy can't understand anythin'. She's as bad as Lilly's. Keeps thinkin' I'm sick. An' my Moon Mommy has been really busy. I talked to her the first time in ages..."
"When?"
"jus' now."
"but- you ain't gone anywhere?" Jenny asked trying to keep up. She just had a conversation with her mother? She was now really confused.
It was Harriet's turn to blush in embarrassment. Her moon-marks turned a slightly darker shade. "It's just the way sometimes it works for me. Moon-mummy says it's cause she ain't like us." For some reason that made Harriet feel sad... she kind of knew why though. But she wasn't sure she could explain it well. People here had certain ideas about who the gods were, and it affected the way they presented themselves... though it didn't change what they really were. It was best to think of Selena as Selena, rather then the goddess Selena She knew that those two 'followers' of her treated her as a person... and while that was nice, she knew it wasn't exactly who she was either.
Selena was a Force...
"Does your mother know who the enemy is?" Jenny asked suddenly.
The moon-child looked hesitantly a moment, like a rabbit caught in a trap. She turned to Jenny meekly. "Uh huh," said Harriet quietly.
"S-she does?!" Jenny looked wide eyed. "Who is it?"
"She can't say... it ain't time yet. But she says we'll know some day. An' that its all part of some.. cycle." her wistful gaze turned back to the sky, as she walked with jenny.
The magic girl looked a bit annoyed. But what could she do? If she was supposed to protect them, she had to know... but something told her, the moon goddess wouldn't budge on certain things.
Artemis still couldn't understand why Selena was worried about her friends of all things. It still bugged her. Her moon-mommy never asked anything of her before, and the first thing was... this? "She says I gotta stop thinkin' bad of Lilly..." Okay there was the one time when she was really mad she imagined the moon dropping on her head... but she wasn't really going to do that... Selena for one wouldn't do it anyway.
"bad thoughts aren't good," said Jenny stating the terribly obvious.
"I know. but I was upset.. an... I dunno what else to say," the moon child said with a sigh. She had to go back to her aunt soon anyway.
Alex spent the rest of the day feeling a little sore, but otherwise... okay. It was a horrible experience, but it was over... for now. How often would this happen? Suddenly she wasn't sure if being a girl... was okay... at least not a dragon girl.
She had this vague instinct to check on her eggs now and then. She had wrapped them in a blanket, and just.. put them in a corner of her room. She should throw them away but at the moment, she just couldn't bring herself to. It was like- someone else might find it?
She couldn't play any games, or do much but watch a little television. Even then, the dragon girl was restless... her sister glanced at her anxiously.
"Was it really that bad Alex?"
Alex bit her lip. "It hurt.. but.. its over." She had to be truthful to her sister. It wouldn't do well to lie... they were in the same situation. "Thanks for your help."
"Any time," she smiled. "You want me to make you some food?"
Alex looked wide eyed. "You're offering to cook for me?" Sally never did that before!
"Sure! Anything. You name it whatever you want."
Alex thought about it. "Just.. um.. some soup would be nice," she said with a sigh. Perhaps a lie in bed would ease her sore muscles. Everything inside her felt like it was still.. settling itself.
Les gave his situation a great deal of thought. He realised that if there was any way to understand the sunlight, they had to remove all preconceptions of their science before it. Use it as a guide perhaps, but don't rely on any assumptions. An application of Occam's razor... eliminate everything impossible until you are left with the truth. His lab was supposed to study what people changed into by simulating various environments. There was a loose association like that. People near large bodies of water might turn into sea creatures... but it wasn't a hard and fast rule. What they needed was to trend all the data, of what everyone turned into, and work out the individual circumstances for some kind of common...
No...
That was thinking in the old way. The 'common' trigger is the sunlight... but there were a few clues. It had to be something to do with humans. Humans were self-aware... what if it affected self-aware creatures? Dolphins were considered fairly self-aware... and their brains were almost as complicated as theirs... yet there has been no reports of them changing into anything. So it wasn't sentience exactly either.
Just humans....
"I will find the truth," he said to himself. But first he needed some much needed sleep.
