Of all the people Ernestine had met, Abigail was the strangest, but also the best friend she ever had.
Abigail was a deer-girl.
Nothing odd there of course- there were a lot of other kinds of animal-born-changed (Which frankly was the easiest sub group of the new species on Earth.) Ernestine had known Abigail since kindergarten. The slug-girl enjoyed racing and Abigail was the fastest runner with her powerfully built legs for sprinting so the two had a bit of a rivalry growing up. A slug foot was of course, not believed to be the fastest so Ernestine had to prove she could move as fast as a deer. It was a difficult task, especially when all the other animal-changed got into the race. However she had a realisation: if she made the ground slippery enough beforehand with her mucus she would get very fast. It worked- though with one tiny problem. During the match a lot of boys fell on the floor slipping because of it... all except for Abigail who somehow managed to keep her balance and keep running. The two ended in a tie, while the others ended up coated in her mucus.
... a lot of angry parents called.
Her mother, Jen, gave Ernestine a rather stern talking to that it wasn't proper for her to 'slime' the entire playground just for her own advantage. She was young of course and people were still learning the 'social limits' of their bodies without quite so many human sensibilities. Though Ernestine insisted that she had to win, as a lot of boys were telling her she couldn't run as fast as them with only a slug-foot. She had a suspicion Jen was quite pleased she was holding her own.
After this, Abigail and Ernestine became fast friends. The slug girl visited the young doe's family and it turned out she had been adopted by a human family. It was a surprise but Abigail didn't mind of course. She loved her adopted family, though she often wondered who her real parents were. Adoption was quite commonplace after the sun changed, given there was a sharp increase in the number of children in the world- both who had changed into children, and were being born as natural children.
After a few years later, they did find out who Abigail's mother was... a deer-woman by name of Julia. Though that was as much as they could find out from her adoption papers. Julia herself was so secluded, and secretive giving little hint about her life and thoughts. She apparently worked a number of minor jobs, and had what one might call a 'passing interest' in the church of Selene.
Julia never contacted her daughter, for reasons known only to herself. It was something that broke Abigail's heart whenever she thought about it. Why would her own mother not want to talk to her? Would she have better luck with her real father? These were pressing questions to her, to know where she came from and the circumstances of her birth. Endlessly she searched the internet and contacts to work out who her father might be. Given she was conceived right after the sun changed, this was not an easy thing to do at all, but they hit dead ends everywhere. There was absolutely no information on who her father was.. not even a hint.
Perhaps it would have been best to leave it at that, but Ernestine had far more resources given that her mother was one of the Four Element Keepers, the Head of a secret magic circle, and numerous contacts with abilities in magic. When all other options had failed, it was time to try the supernatural...
2 Years ago...
After school two girls were met by a boy... a human boy. He had something in his hand, that glowed strangely.
"I've got it," said Gwydion nervously. He glanced around and even up at the trees fearful that someone would be watching him. "Please don't break it, Lilly would be so mad at me." The young human was about the same age as them, barely eight years of age. He was the youngest member of the Gordon family and Lilly's younger brother. Unlike her squirrel sister, he was a human as his parents were. He loved magic, but had yet to work out how to make any of it work. In his hand, he held out a delicate object of strange crystals and mirrors wrapped in some kind of clamshell design. Within it there seemed to be a strange magical light... the crystal itself, refracted into various shades of a rainbow. It looked like a compass of some kind.
"Yes!" the slug-girl grinned. "Good Job Gwydion."
The young boy blushed a bit. he really liked helping Ernestine out. "Maybe we can race again?" he asked hopefully with a cheeky grin.
Ernestine giggled. "You wanna get all slimy again?"
"I'll be ready this time!" he insisted. Besides getting slimed like that was sort of funny.
The shy deer-girl looked between them then at the glowing object. It looked like a lot of work had gone into it. "How's that thing gonna help me find my daddy?" She asked. Magic was still a rarity, but this thing looked like the real deal... they were only eight years old, could they really do this? If their parents found out...
Gwydion shrugged. It wasn't as if he understood anything from the magic circle that his big sister was involved in. "Well it's a um- div- divining rod. You just gotta ask it what you want, and it should guide you to it- or him." At least that was how he understood it. Seemed simple enough. "It doesn't matter if you don't know who your dad is cause he's part of you so... it should work with just you touchin' it."
Abigail nodded and took a deep breath as she touched the strange crystal. It felt cold to the touch but also a feeling of electric on her soft brown fur. Magical energy was contained within this thing and she could feel it seeking out her question... all she had to do was ask now, and it would be answered. "Show me where my dad is please," she asked politely.
The crystal started to turn around, like a needle. However the crystal was not the pointer, it was the strange rainbow light it produced as it separated the sunlight above them into a spectrum. They waited patiently for it to show the way to go. The light moved faster and faster... as if the question had strained it- right to breaking point.
"Uh, it's goin' weird," said Gwydion taking a step back. Suddenly the rainbow light turned an inky black... pure emptiness and darkness shone outward, looking deadly as the compass warmed up turning for lack of a better word... 'glitchy'.
"Is... that normal?" asked Ernestine as the crystal looked to form a crack. Tendrils of darkness flowed out, like an oozing mass of slithery oil. Abby looked so shaken she was about to drop it, but felt like she couldn't. That shadow seemed familiar somehow.. like something from her worst nightmares.
"... I uh, I dunno," the human boy swallowed. "Lilly would know- should I call her?" His sister wouldn't have made anything dangerous, would she?
"Wait- hold it tighter Abby! I think it's working. See? It's... it's pointing somewhere." The strange mass was solidifying around the crystal now and it seemed to be pointing in a direction. "Let's follow it." The slug-girl knew they could get into trouble, but this was Abby's only chance of finding who her father was.
The compass, coated now in dark lead them to a strange place... right into the first church of Selene. The place was empty at this time, however the doors were open. The three children crept inside quietly. The floorboards creaked, and there was little light except that cast by the stain-glass windows. All was silent... ghostly.
"... I don't think we're supposed to be here," said Gwydion.
"My mother sometimes comes here," said Abby. Could her father be... a priest? Maybe that's why she couldn't find anything about him? It would explain a lot. That would be pretty weird but... slowly she followed the compass, as it lead them to the podium. There was a book there... with a bookmark.
"It's a bible- uh- about Selene," said Ernestine. "The compass is pointing to that?" She flipped the book around, and the crystal seemed to be pointing to a specific passage. Turning the page, they found a picture of the four magic girls, fighting the Enemy... with a shining bright light in the background. The final battle that was pictured... Ernestine started to read out the first part. "-and lo, the Enemy corrupted the Wolf with darkness... making her hide into sheep's cloths to hide amongst us and to bring a daughter in the world... this daughter is the child of the Enemy... the child of darkness..."
With those words the crystal compass suddenly burned out leaving the children cast into darkness.
They ran out of the church.
