Interest in books....

Demifox Fred

I pause for a half second, blinking at how.....natural and normal it all seems now. Accepting of the idea of friendly dopplegangers. I guess that it should follow that if one doesn't almost instantly hate your double....then the polar opposite will occur. There is no middle ground in such cases I've been told. It didn't happen instantly, but swiftly. I have come to love this strange "brother".....as well as the.....er......less "fur bearing" versions of myself as closely as I did and still do love my long departed brother, Charles. From the way "my" Astra looks up at her "sisters" the same goes for her as well. It has something to do with our "matrixes" as Charles told me in some long discussions (that mysterious quality that acts in so many ways....including as something of a mental/emotional anchor to prevent the spirit from wishing to return too quickly to the "other side" from which it came from.......too quickly as in one wishing only to die to shuffle off their mortal coils.....to the point of committing suicide). That is the reason why, now stripped of all fears of myself, my love, and my children losing all due to our no longer being human, my desire to return to being human has vanished like the morning dew. Indeed, looking back now I feel about my old body...... Too big..... No glorious tail and silly, flabby ears with no character what so ever. Yes, all to do with our "matrixes".....a natural part of ourselves as God has ordained it to be...... All very strange, but.....I feel so much better now having met this new brother....and I so fear for my missing kin and his companion. 

"Yes....I did," Fred the Manfox sighs, closing the books softly, but leaving a bookmarker to keep his place, "And it is worse than what we feared." 

"What?" I ask simply, awaiting. I note that my tail's fur is beginning to stand up in nervous anticipation. 

"Their gone.....that is.....their bodies live.....but their spirits and minds are.....gone," the manfox says softly, in a low voice, rage slowly creeping into it. He continues on, showing how the text of the book finally changes, showing the final transformation of who the other Fred and Astra. The Freds and Astra more familiar with this pyramid had told of similar changes in text happen in other leather bound volumes in the room, denoting the departure of the old spirit and entrance of a new soul into the mortal vessel of either Fred or Astra. Some of the newcomers were people named Hannah, or Frank Marn. or Ravenmane. Some of the text paragraph/sentence structure was so primitive as to show the conversion had reduced the subject to a mere animal. The later had happened, alas. 

No mention of what the ultimate purpose the Book had in store for the resultant creatures the now missing Fred and Astra had become (i.e. no mention of the revelation of the other non-human races actually being the product of transformed human beings), but it's enough to get everyone.....very angry.....and frightened. Some get so up in arms that they, having figured out a vague idea of the general area of where the Book may be located (if the dirty limericks some had heard is any clue back in episode 14830), should go and try to burn the magical, nameless Book! 

Others familiar with the possible danger of trying such an attack, shout their objections. Loudest of all is the young magic user known as Jarlath 2! 

"Wait a minute!!" he finally bellows, taking the lesson of volume to heart. "That's almost sure suicide!" 

 "I fear that the young mage is correct," a male voice (familiar to some who've met somebody like him already), says from the translation stones that Demifox Fred and Demifox Astra are still wearing. 

1. I and my love's ear's stand straight up in surprise at that one! 

 Go Back