Opportunity and Luck...

While Terra Prime demifoxes are no longer lycanthropic in nature, we still have the boons of that condition....

While not as strong (or as swift) as some of my manimal brothers, I dare say that have a rather satisfied smile on my vulpine face as I pull ahead and out of sight from my annoying canine companion. Then, turning and running back I shift into my intermediate (naked) form and tackle the bloody beast bodily!

The dog gives a screaming yelp as I wrestle him to the ground. Being that Terra Prime demifoxes still have the boons of neo-lycanthropy without the banes, I can accomplish such feats of strength.

"Go to sleep!" I snarl through my vulpine teeth as I deliver a sharp rap to the top of the confused and frightened dogs head.

The dog collapses into what appears unconscious heap, and thus relieved of it's annoyance....I change back into my full fox form and proceed, unhindered.

Finally arriving at the place Sir Rodney's scouts told me about, I then proceed to do some spying.....while not appearing to be anything but an ordinary fox when.....I feel a familiar twinge of magic!

I and other demifoxes are, of course, immune to such magicks, but I am very well familiar with it. See, the various Freds and Astras who'd been turned into demifoxes have a spell like ability to instantly (and permanently) to tame all (mundane) canines. This instant domestication is genetic, so all offspring of the affected canines are also slavishly loyal to human beings (and appointed masters) as well. There is now a great demand for domesticated wolves (up to and including Wargs) and.....foxes. Well, being that I'm part fox myself I have a few reservations about the later....but then again there are the facts that: 1) they are only animals and 2) through this domestication program the programs at culling their numbers (necessary due to Terra Prime foxes being organized into packs rather than being solitary animals like Earthern foxes) have stopped (and are even on the rebound).

I hear the magical incantation carried on the breeze that very weakly mirror the inherent ability of those still young D'Honaires. I hear it and for some reason I remember a discussion I had long ago with that mechanical maiden, Inquirer.

It had been between magic classes and we were in idle discussion. The topic drifted that famous Sage/Magician Jefferson Poggi, who'd basically summed up the affairs of behavior and changes in species thusly: "Turn me into a shark and I would quickly cease to think and act like a human being....but a shark....in as far as a shark can be said to 'think'." I asked her, out of a moment's whimsy, what makes for a successful spy.

That is what she had been, at the bottom of it all, when she'd been in the employment of the Military.

She'd smiled and said it was a combination of luck and knowing when to take opportunities when they present themselves.

Granted, I must be careful here. If the mage who's cast this precursor to a long winded binding spell to create a magical familiar catches on that I'm not what I appear to be, then I could be in big trouble. Over the years, I've been musing over whether anything could happen to prevent me turning back when I chose. It occurred to me that if anyone could put a collar on me, I probably couldn't turn back without risking choking myself, as my neck would be larger in my intermediate and most human forms. Another possibility might be some sort of spell of stasis which could inhibit any transformations.

After that, I shudder to think what she (for that is who is casting this spell....I can now see) would do!

But being a weilder of magic means, most likely, that this woman is well placed in the hierarchy of the camp. As a pet, I'd be in a perfect position to listen in!

1. Being that the guards are calling for her argues for this course of action....

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