| "Do we believe him?" Fred asked Astra. "His words have the ring of
truth to them," she answered. "I can usually detect a lie, and I think
he believes what he says to be true. And though I have never heard of demifoxes
other than as werefoxes, but I imagine Minestus was capable of creating
such creatures. Though Malachi thought we were werefoxes, even she was
not omniscient. There are a couple of things that don't quite add up if
that is the case, though. Most importantly, why did you change after we
- er - coupled? Then there are smaller things, like why did our cuts and
grazes from crawling through that small tunnel into Minestus's lair heal
almost instantly? And why did we need the assistance of magical items before
our speech could be understood by humans?"
The dwarf was impressed by this analysis despite himself. He reserved judgement on the male, but the vixen clearly had some brains. "None of those characteristics are unknown amongst halfling creatures," he said. "We've had creatures created by Minestus reach Walants before, and some of those have been like that." "So I wonder if that means that our supposed time-limit for visiting you know who no longer applies?" muses Astra. "Would it be possible to be changed back at any time however far in the future? Though I admit I'd prefer it to be before giving birth to a litter of foxcubs - or whatever they turn out to be - rather than afterwards. Still that won't be for forty days or more yet, so I suppose we'd have plenty of time to go to the dragon's lair and back."
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