Huh?

"Your....Lady Alicia?" Rifts sputters, not believing this.

"The one who designed these new fangled pistols?" Tarin asks, pointing at the revolver on the table.

"Aye, amongst other things," Alicia smiles as she strokes her own tail absently. "All descendants of Prestor John.....and many of the land of Ethiopia......are by needs skilled in many crafts. My small gift is in the sciences.....leaning into weaponry by necessity.

"Being a Christian island in a Muslim sea means by force one must repeatedly defend oneself," the shefox finishes. "To be honest, I admit that Prestor did a few things that made the Muslims angery with him, and this kept coming back to haunt us, but......what is one to do? It had gotten to the point that it was now a blood fued between the local Caliphs and Us, and there was just no reasonable end in sight....until the coming of the Phage changed everything......"

And this version of Ethiopia was doing a damn good imitation of Isreal back Home, Inquirer thinks to herself.

"But what of......," Rifts begins, and then turns pale in shock as he makes a connection. A connection with some of the darker rumors of the Syndicate that he didn't want to believe. Rumors that involved human experimentation, and a certain powerful mage of some type.

"By Jesus," Rifts whispers hoarsely. "You and the Pack are that 'super soldier' project........"

"Yes, but Minestus had plans of his own," Fred the Manfox explains, remembering what Probe had told him about what he'd overheard the night they'd recaptured Aqualaria (re: 2145). "Basically, the dragon mage played the Syndicate for fools, using them to gather resources more easily in his mad quest to create a new species all together. The end result is....us. The Manimals."

"And thus you are no longer lycanthropes," the lawyer shivers as he sat, recalling the rumors. "Able to regenerate as a lycanthrope, but without the banes....and any bitten victims won't become Manimals."

"Thus preventing an adversary from gaining the same advantages of being a Manimal," Probe pipes in. "Duke Zular pretty much confessed everything before he was put to death by Queen Astra. It was more of a mercy by that time, since Zular was in the final stages of fatal withdrawal from Oberon Ambrosia or whatever......"

Probe and the others give an edited version of what has gone on, from the time this world's Fred had entered and encounter the Dragon of the Southern Cavern (Minestus)....and his "otherworldly brothers" (editing the parts that the audience need not.....had no business.....knowning about).

1. "So that's why dragons protect their Horde and gather so much treasure," Tarin says in a dazed voice. "It's a matter of life and death for them. I thought it was just.....greed......"

Add New Option

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree