Flashback to a sealed room....

They had stayed up late into the night, discussing things. Astra had felt a touch put off by Willian's relutance in bedding her. She was a bit put off by his old fashioned views on relationships in general, but he was from the Kingdom and she was from the lands to the south of the Kingdom; a land that was a tad more progressive in it's attitudes about physical relationships and marriage and woman. She and Alicia shared similar views....which was strange. Her land was a land who Prestor John, the Gifted, ruled. Strange how quests had been mounted for John's fabled lands, and the land that some call Ethiopia (a land that had been able to resist the influences of the infidel Muslims for so long). John's land was a place of wonder. It was a land advanced in the technical and magical arts. How it had faired with the onset of the madness of the dragon both she and Alicia shuddered to think about.
 
 

That is something to the aside. They need to talk about Fred and the Pack.
 
 

"So....what do you think about how Fred has.....changed?" Astra asks the pacing Willian. Clearly, Will is agitated about something.
 
 

"What do I think?" Will echoes. "What do I think about how Fred has changed? Let me tell you, love.
 
 

"In some ways, he's changed for the better." he admits. "I mean, before he met Alicia.....he was okay, but.....somewhat stiff in his attitudes about what was right and wrong. Had to do in large part to the way his father was. He seemed to have....loosened up a bit for want of a better word. Oh, he's still a man who lives by honor, but now he doesn't get on his high horse on several annoying subjects. Used to drive me up the wall...."
 
 

"I think the term is 'he's growing up.'" throws in Astra as Will takes a breath. He nods and then continues.
 
 

"Exactly!" Will says. "But despite the fact that Fred and the rest of the Pack haven't turned into monsters and lost their reasoning ability....they aren't....human. I mean, I'm not saying that they're not people....I'm just saying that when they stepped into the realm of the supernatural.....even unwillingly, they were changed in more than a physical sense."
 
 

"You mean that that beyond the demands their body makes on them under the sway of the Moon, turning them into animals trough and through," Astra points out. "Their bodies seem to have some effect on their bodies during the daylight? Instincts?"
 
 

"Not at all," Will say emphatically. "However, you can't expect to get changed like that....I mean....a human who's changed into a different species entirely soon begins to take on the views of the new form....or go mad! Synizn went into gross details about it. He also seemed somewhat disturbed about it. He really wants to get a cure for his condition!"
 
 

"Yet, while Fred wants to become human again, he seems to become ....more comfortable as a were-fox?" Astra asks. "Am I imagining things here?"
 
 

"No," Will says. "I think your correct. He seems to feel honor bound to find a cure for lycanthropy and this Phage, but I don't think he'll feel totally distraught if he doesn't find a cure on this upcoming quest of his. He'll have kept his word of honor by attempting to find it. Nobody could fault him is he fails to find something that thousands of people have tried and failed to find for hundreds of years!"
 
 

Astra nods, but remains silent about a nagging doubt about the Phage cure. Yes, a cure would be excellent....but it wouldn't help those already dead. Also, something about this whole thing was making her sixth sense go off in alarm. Something about the alien Golems and Lizardmen was connected to the Phage! She could feel it in her bones!
 
 

Astra and Willian turn to face an approaching couple.
 
 

1. Fred and Alicia come up, smiling. Something is in the air.