Lilly waltz through the forest trees, easily keeping up with the talking owl. Unfortunately, her sister Stacy was not able to do the same and soon they were quite some distance apart. Lilly however would not abandon her human sibling in this. She glanced to the general direction of the bird as it flew, then turned back to Stacy, jumping from tree to tree until she crawled down the bark to where she was.
Stacy was panting, her cheeks flushed red and sweating. "Lilly! Go after it! I'll be fine."
Lilly positioned herself in front of Stacy. "leave the bag, and hold on to me. We'll catch it together."
Stacy wrapped her arms around her sister, holding onto her back, feeling the strange soft fur on her face. "L-Like this?"
"Yes. Just hold tight." She struggled a bit as she realised just how heavy Stacy was when she rose upwards. As strong as being an animal changed could be, Lilly was not super-human. Well- Super animal. "We'll need some magic." The teenage animal-changed concentrated, as the incantation of a stronger magical spell burned like a fire inside her soul. Stacy recognised the spell, and tried to do the same. It was a magic to reduce the weight of a person. Lilly was casting it on her sister to make it easier for her to hold on. Stacy could do the same spell, but could only reduce weight by a quarter, while Lilly seemed able to do it by about half. With their combined efforts, it made a huge difference.
Stacy was now much lighter, wrapped around Lilly as she took to the trees, The squirrel changed jumped with her powerful purpose built legs. The human sibling held on for dear life, as a sea of leaves flooded her vision. The lack of weight made it almost feel like she could just float away.
"Did we lose the owl?" Asked Stacy holding tightly.
Lilly glanced around, perched over a branch, balanced by her twin tails. "I think I saw it go in that direction but I don't know." She sniffed the air, but the owl didn't seem to leave any scent to follow.
Stacy had a thought and attempted another spell. "Cut that leaf," she said to her sibling.
Lilly did so with a swipe of her clawed hand.
Stacy knew how to do this spell better then Lilly. It was capable of divining a 'direction'. Whenever Lilly cast the spell though, she tended to get confused by the sheer number of things detected. The squirrel girl would be bombarded by Where someone has been, where someone is going, as well as all the connections they seemed to share. It was a lattice of so many points, and any of them could be what she was looking for. She was not quite able to work out how to 'fine tune' it.
A wind blew, and the leaves started to drift to the east.
"That way!"
Lilly followed the magically moving leaves, until they came upon a very large tree. It had curious leaves, all of them different colours making it look like the sun used to be. Sitting on top was the owl. It looked at the two curiously. "Hello." greeted the strange bird.
"Is... is this the entrance to the other world? "asked Lilly with trepidation.
"Yes and no." replied the owl. "For the animal changed, this is one of the ways in. I would not recommend it to a human though."
"But we're here to find our father!" said Stacy annoyed. "I might be human but I'm here!"
"There are... rules to this sort of thing. There might be consequences. The gateway on this tree is open for another five minutes... and will lead first to the Rainbow Road, where the Guardian awaits. just enter the tree's leaves. If you wish it." With that the owl went inside the tree and... disappeared.
Lilly and Stacy looked at each other. This was it... all their searching and they finally found a way in. But only for one of them.
"It's up to you sis," said Lilly. "I have to go. Our dad is there..."
"I am going with you," said Stacy adamantly. "I'm just sending a message to mom so she knows... I hope we get back soon."
"If we find Lucas and her time machine, it will be like we never left," said Lilly with a faint smile.
The human girl looked to her changed sister. "So you'll... let me go with you?" Stacy asked hopefully.
"Let you? You're my sister! Besides- I've done crazy things too. I was the batman amongst the super heroes." There was maybe just a... twinge of sadness. Lilly was never the 'chosen' one, and maybe its for that reason a goddess liked her (a powerful one to be sure) Still- the proudest thing Lilly ever felt despite all that she did... was just being Jen's apprentice, and to make her teacher proud of her.
Stacy smirked at that. "You sell yourself way too short. Besides- you're more the bat-girl." She glanced up. "Okay... Let's climb up."
Slowly the two went up the leaves...
...and like others, disappeared.
