"I know she said it was a fixer-upper but this is a bit much," Shirley frowned as she looked at the large but crumbling stone structure around us. Her black fuzzy ears were angled forward, while her long black furry tail slowly swished back and forth down low behind her legs.
After another few seconds she shook her head, "Honestly I don't see why we can't just stay in one of the newer buildings on the property. Why not just leave this place like it is?"
I shrugged, "We'll probably be staying in one of the modern buildings for now anyways. But c'mon sis, don't you think this would make for a cool home? It's about as far from a one bedroom flat as you can get! Anyways you know Gaia said this would be a good project to get you up to speed with your magic, remember?"
"Plus I think Cara's already decided that this is our new official home," Yuki added with a smile, while her tails swished around mischievously in our headspace.
Our raven friend responded from where she was perched high above us ontop of one of the towers, "Indeed. I've no doubt our employer chose this location especially for me, considering how well-suited it is for someone of my stature."
Shirl rolled her eyes as she glanced up at Cara, "Uh-huh. That would be your stature as a bird, right? Except according to the internet, the gatehouse is home to a bunch of bats. Not birds."
"The gatehouse tower is the one at the north entrance," Cara stated calmly. "With the bridge, where you feather-deprived types came in. This is the postern tower. It guards what was once the south entrance, and it belongs to me."
Before any of us could reply we were all distracted by the sound a large splash somewhere behind us.
"Damnit Wes!" my sister growled, while her ears folded back and her tail twitched. Then she turned and stalked back the way we came as she shouted, "How may times did I tell you to stay out of the moat?!"
"Go easy on him sis!" I called after her, while my tails swished around and I did my best not to giggle. "It's not his fault his breed loves the water!"
Shirley just shook her head as she marched across the courtyard, through the gatehouse, then out onto the drawbridge. There she proceeded to tell off her small dogboy boyfriend, who was currently swimming around in the deep murky water that surrounded our new castle.
That was probably the biggest surprise of the past seven days in fact. The property our boss set aside for us was actually home to a fourteenth century castle, along with a handful of more modern buildings. I certainly wasn't going to complain about it though, and neither was Yuki. Not after the way this past week unfolded.
Both Shirley and Wes were understandably shocked after their transformations on Sunday. For that matter so were our parents, considering it happened in front of them at the dinner table.
My sister was now a tall strong wolfgirl. Her changes included black-furred ears and a tail, plus a few centimetres of added height and a more athletic body. Which translated into greater physical prowess than before, especially in terms of speed and strength.
At the same time her boyfriend became part dog, and it didn't take us long to figure out that his canine half came from a rather small breed. He was part schipperke, which were known as energetic and mischievous, as well as having a fondness for the water. Allegedly that last detail was due to them being bred as canal-boat watch dogs.
Wes's transformation was a lot more than just the cream-coloured hair, fuzzy ears, and furry tail. He'd shrunk down to about my size while his features softened and his voice raised in pitch, leaving him almost completely androgynous. Which meant it was suddenly very easy for people to mistake him for either a younger lad, or even a girl. Something that apparently led to some very confusing emotions for the cute little dogboy.
Fortunately everyone seemed to get over the worst of those shocks fairly quickly. My sister even went back to work first thing Monday morning, although her new ears and tail meant she faced some new challenges there.
She handled customer service calls for an insurance company, and her job usually required her to wear a headset when she was speaking to clients on the phone. With her ears suddenly a different shape and in a different place the headset no longer fit right, so she was forced to make do with a traditional handset until her employer could find some other solution. Same with her chair, it wasn't tail-friendly and that meant she couldn't spend all day sitting in it without some serious aches and pains.
Wes on the other hand didn't even think about returning to work. Instead he called off sick for the week, but it was clear from the start that he wouldn't be returning to his old job. That was partially because he was afraid of how his coworkers would react to his transformation, and part of it was due to his work clothes being laughably oversized for his new body. But the bottom line was he simply didn't think he could do the job anymore. And he had a point.
He drove a local delivery van for one of the big international shipping firms, but his transformation left him unsure if he'd still be able to reach the pedals while trying to see over the steering wheel. He also doubted he could reach parcels on the top shelf of the van. And even if he could get his hands on them, there was a good chance he no longer had the strength to lift a lot of the packages anymore.
So my sister continued working, while her boyfriend stayed home and hoped the two of them would quickly develop some magic to go along with their new bodies. And that Gaia would turn up and offer them both the same sweet deal she'd given Yuki and Cara and me.
Then on Wednesday things took a distinct turn for the worse.
Thanks to a government press conference that afternoon, the evening news was all about those two Scottish catboys and their wildcat friend. Not just that they were working for Gaia, but also that the catboys were in a relationship with each other. The government made sure to share that detail, along with outing one of the catboys as trans. It seemed obvious they'd done that on purpose too, the queermisic bastards.
Suddenly social media was up in arms, with right-wing folks accusing all gays lesbians trans people and furries of being terrorists in league with Gaia. Some were even demanding the authorities start rounding up anyone who 'looked or acted a little too different', so they could either stuff us into camps or ship us all off to who knows where.
So it was almost a relief when Shirley got the call late that evening, instructing her not to come to work Thursday morning. On the other hand it meant both she and Wes were going to end up unemployed.
It probably wasn't a coincidence that both of them figured out their magic that day, between not having anything else to do and dealing with the growing stress of the situation. Needless to say our parents were worried too, they didn't want any of us to even leave our flats incase we were attacked.
So it was a bit of a relief when Gaia dropped in on us yesterday with good news. She'd secured some suitable land where all five of us could live, well away from the city. She also had job offers for my sister and her boyfriend, although the positions she had in mind for them weren't as interesting as the jobs she'd given Yuki and Cara and I.
Shirley and Wes were now officially our assistants. They wouldn't be accompanying us on any missions though, assuming Gaia ever got around to assigning us any. Instead they were to be more like a cross between housekeepers and maintenance staff, tending the property and looking after the three of us when we got back from whatever jobs the planet's avatar came up with.
To be honest I didn't think either my sister or her boyfriend would want that sort of work, but they both jumped at it. Then again, considering they were offered the same salary and benefits as the rest of us, it's entirely possible the money played a big part in their decision.
And with their first pay in hand, Shirley and Wes insisted on a little celebration last night. As much as we all wanted to visit another fancy restaurant or even a night club, everyone agreed it was safer to have something brought in. It was still a nice meal, and a bit of a party, even if we didn't go anywhere special.
In fact we had enough fun that we all stayed up kind of late last night, which meant we had a very slow start this morning. It was almost noon before everyone was up and we'd all had some coffee. We had leftovers for brunch, then eventually figured out where our new property was on the map so we could come and have a look at it.
Shirley drove herself and Wes in his Mini, while the three of us came on our Rebel. It was a bit of a drive too, the property was about sixty kilometres north-east of Brighton so it took us over an hour to get there.
Our new home was next to a little village in East Sussex, less than twenty kilometres north of Hastings. And there was a lot of it. A very quick calculation told me we were looking at over a hundred and fifty hectares. It was shaped roughly like a pizza slice pointing to the east, a little over two kilometers wide and nearly one and a half kilometres high along its western edge.
The western border was made up of a couple roads and the nearby village, while the southern boundary was actually the River Rother. The north-eastern line of the property followed a smaller tributary called the Kent Ditch, up to the point where it flowed into the Rother.
In addition to the stream and the river and the moat we also had a couple ponds on the property. And in terms of buildings there was the old crumbling castle plus a gift-shop, administrative building, cafe, and even some farm buildings. Which made sense, since the land included over a dozen farmed fields, separated by trees and hedgerows. We also had a good-sized copse of trees to the north, and in the south-west corner the castle and moat were surrounded by plenty of mature trees and manicured lawns.
We'd already toured the castle when we first arrived in mid-afternoon, then we walked all around the property and looked in a few of the other buildings. Now it was getting towards dinner time, but it seemed like none of us were hungry just yet. We still had a lot to think about, and some decisions to make.
"What do you think Yuki?" I asked my adorable arctic kitsune headmate. "Do you want to live in a castle, assuming Shirley can fix this place up with her magic?"
She tilted her head to one side as a thoughtful expression settled on her face. Then her tails all swished around as she smiled and nodded, "I think it would be extremely cool Aster, even if it means the National Trust is grumpy with us for taking one of their landmarks. And I'm sure your sister will do a good job with the repairs, once she masters her earth magic. Just like I'm confident Wes will get the moat and ponds cleaned up with his water magic, so there'll be plenty of fresh water to drink."
"Maybe," I said as I looked around the courtyard. "It feels like there's lots of opportunities for both of them to practice their magic here."
Yuki nodded again, "Us too! This is perfect in here, nobody can see us. Or if we wanted lots of space we could go out into the fields. That way me and Cara could try some dangerous magic, without worrying about accidentally knocking any walls down with her wind or my lightnings!"
"Please don't break our new castle," I responded with a smile and a flick of my ears. "We just got it and I don't know if Gaia kept the receipt."
The little arctic kitsune giggled, then we were both distracted by my sister. She and Wes were still out at the drawbridge, but it seemed like something else just surprised or upset her.
"Holy crap!" she exclaimed.
"Shirley?" I called out, "What's wrong?"
She held up her phone and said, "Look at the news Aster! Some serious shit's going down in America!"
I quickly pulled out my phone, and within a minute I was staring at a special breaking news report. Apparently the US tried blowing up the magic mountains there, so Gaia dropped four more on them instead. Only this time they weren't in the middle of nowhere. Three of the new mountains appeared in or near populated areas, and the fourth one actually took out Washington DC.
"Damn," I mumbled to Yuki. "She's not playing games."
The little arctic kitsune responded quietly, "Uh Aster? We have a visitor."
I looked up from my phone, and found myself face to face with a very stressed and weary-looking Gaia. A moment later Cara swooped down from her perch to join us, by landing ontop of my head.
"Aster, Yuki, Cara," our boss stated in a quiet voice that sounded like she was keeping her emotions in check. "I have a job for you."
My ears folded back and my tails all hung down low behind me as I gulped, "Yes ma'am. What sort of job?"
She gestured at the news report on my phone, "It seems like the UK minister of Energy and Climate Change thinks today is a good day to try and sneak something past me. He's setting up a back-room deal with one of the petrol companies, to pump as much oil out of the North Sea as possible before they're forced to shut it all down. I'm told his goal is to line his and his co-conspirators' pockets as much as possible, by taking advantage of the chaos that's about to ensue in the coming days and weeks."
"My first thought was to simply raise a new mountain up through the middle of Westminster," she added with a sigh. "Then I remembered I had the three of you here, waiting for your first assignment."
My gut lurched as her words sank in. A magic mountain coming up in the middle of London would probably kill thousands of people just from the earthquake. And millions more would be left without power, and no way to communicate or even flee the city. It might even change the course of the Thames, depending on where exactly the mountain appeared.
While all that was going through my mind Cara asked calmly, "What exactly do you want us to do?"
"Stop him," she stated. "I don't care how."
Then she sighed once more and added wearily, "I don't want to destroy another city, I don't like hurting any of my children. But nothing else seems to get through to the humans. The only thing that matters to them is money, and their own thin skin."
"We'll do our best ma'am," Yuki replied softly.
I nodded, "You can count on us."