Between all the excitement of our mission on Tuesday, hiking in and out of the Cairngorms on Wednesday, and the long bike ride home yesterday, Yuki and I were tired enough that we ended up turning in early last night. Almost as soon as we finished dinner, in fact.
Now it was Friday morning, we'd had a good night's sleep, and we were looking forward to seeing what progress Shirley and her magic had made on the castle while we'd been away. So after quickly freshening up and pulling on some clothes, we headed downstairs to the kitchen to join the others.
There was fresh coffee waiting in the machine so we helped ourselves to a mug of that before joining Shirley and Cara at the table. Wes was standing by the cooker again, looking after a big pan of bacon and a second full of scrambled eggs.
"Morning Cara, Shirley, Wes," I greeted them all before taking a sip of our morning drink.
Wes replied happily, "Good morning Aster, Yuki. You're right on time, breakfast will be ready in just another minute or two."
"Sounds good," I smiled. Then I realized his voice was maybe a little different this morning, like softer or perhaps the pitch had even changed a bit more. So after another sip of coffee I looked closer at both him and our sister and asked, "Hey did you two get any more benefits out of that magic water you had last night? Or did anything else change?"
Now that I was looking, I realized the wolfgirl actually looked a bit taller and stronger than before. It was harder to tell with her dogkin boyfriend since his back was to us, but I was pretty sure he'd had some subtle changes as well.
Neither of them answered my question though, and looking at Shirley again I realized she had a serious expression on her face, like something was up.
Sure enough she sounded a little tense when she finally responded, "Good morning Aster, Yuki. Have you two been following the news while you were touring Scotland? I didn't want to bring this up last night since I knew you were tired, but your business in Aberdeen made the national news."
"Oh," I frowned as my ears drooped and my tails tucked down under my chair. "We looked at the news Tuesday night when we got to Inverdruie, all we saw was a few comments about our bedsheet parachute stunt?"
"Wednesday night after we got back from the hike we saw a thing that the police wanted to fine us for that," Yuki chimed in.
She rolled her eyes while her tails all twitched in headspace as she explained, "They don't want anyone else trying to copy it, because it was dangerous. And I suppose it caused a public spectacle or whatever."
Cara ruffled her feathers and huffed, "They've nothing but grainy long-distance video footage. Even if they had a clear view of us Aster disguised their body, and I defy any humans to pick me out of a line-up of ravens."
Shirley shook her head, "I'm not talking about the jump, I mean the mission itself. You short-circuited a secure lift and basically broke into private property, then caused a power failure and disrupted telephones and other communications devices. And you assaulted a receptionist then nearly killed the CEO of one of the country's top petrochemical firms. You also delivered an implied death threat. Obviously the authorities are involved!"
Yuki cringed a little in headspace as she sighed, "It does sound kind of bad when you put it like that."
"Bad doesn't begin to cover it," my sister stated. "The police already released some stills from the security cameras you didn't disable, the ones in the building's lobby. Aster was in disguise, but Cara wasn't. They know what your human form looks like now. They say you two are 'persons of interest', and they're searching for you so they can bring you in for questioning!"
By the time she'd finished I was slumped down even lower in my chair, cradling my coffee mug to my chest while my ears and tails all drooped a little further.
Meanwhile Cara stated calmly, "All of that is irrelevant. Our actions may have ruffled some feathers amongst a few of the so-called ruling class humans, but their laws have no bearing on us. We are agents acting on behalf of the planet herself, there is no higher court than Gaia."
After a slight pause the large black bird added, "Regardless, they have no way of connecting Aster and Yuki and myself to those so-called crimes. My colleagues were in disguise and I can simply remain in my natural shape should anyone come looking. So let them search. They will find nothing."
I could tell from my sister's expression she wasn't impressed with the raven's confidence. Shirley didn't respond right away though, she stayed quiet while her boyfriend set out a platter of bacon and a bowl of eggs on the table, followed by a plate full of sliced and buttered toast.
That's when I finally got a good look at him, and sure enough there'd been some subtle changes to the small dogkin as well. Where Shirl was a bit bigger and tougher-looking, he'd become more petite, and looked even cuter than before.
"Dig in folks, get it while it's hot!" he announced with a smile as he took his seat.
That actually got my tails wagging as I sat up and grinned, "Thanks Wes!"
"Yeah thank you!" Yuki chimed in.
We helped ourselves to a few strips of bacon and a big scoop of eggs, then put a much smaller serving of eggs on Cara's dish. She wanted bacon as well, so I took another piece of that and cut it up into bite-sized chunks for her while Shirl and Wes loaded their plates as well. And finally we took a couple slices of toast, although I cut one of them in half and shared it with our bird girl.
The food definitely got my mood back up again, same with my favourite little Arctic kitsune. My sister continued to look uptight though, even as she munched on a piece of delicious bacon.
And while Shirley had some valid reasons to be stressed, right then I was way more interested in whether the magic water did anything else for them. Like whether or not it made their magic any stronger. I was also curious to hear what they thought of the changes I'd already noticed. At least Wes seemed happy, so I was pretty sure he didn't have any complaints about things.
Shirl spoke up again before I could ask, and I finally found out what else had her so tense. "Last night the news showed a motorway camera photo of you on your bike, Aster. It's all but a given that the police have your motorcycle's licence plate number. And they announced that they'll be focusing their inquiries in and around Brighton, after receiving a few tips of 'beast-girl sightings' there over the past two weeks."
"I doubt it'll take them long to track you from Brighton to here," she added with a sigh. "In the meantime they'll probably be paying our parents a visit too, since they'll have gotten your name and everything else from the bike's registration."
I stopped eating in mid-bite as that news hit me. Yuki was worried too, but Cara didn't seem the least bit bothered. She continued pecking away at a piece of bacon like we weren't talking about anything more serious than the afternoon's weather report.
After a few seconds I finally said, "That's all circumstantial though, right? I was in disguise the whole time we were at Stevenson's office, and we didn't take the bike there. It was in a carpark halfway across the harbour."
"The point is they've got Cara's human image from the security camera," my sister explained. "And they've obviously figured out you're involved somehow, if they're releasing images of you on your motorcycle. All they have to do is find some witnesses who've seen you and Cara together."
Then after another sigh she added, "Honestly they don't even need that. They obviously know you're involved somehow, since they went to all the trouble of finding that motorway photo and publishing it."
Wes finally chimed in, "When you did the first job, how close to the minister's place did you park your bike? You know London's covered in security cameras, odds are there's at least a few images of you in the area. And did you take your own mobile with you, or did you use a burner? If you brought your own phone to either job, and if it was turned on, they'll be able to track that too. If you had it for both jobs they'll know for sure."
Once again I found myself slumped down low in my chair, while my ears drooped and my tails were tucked down underneath. I didn't even have to say anything, my sister took one look at my expression and she knew the answer.
"Shit," she muttered. "So they've probably already tracked your mobile here. They'll know exactly where you've gone after both assignments, they'll know you're here right now. At this point it's only a matter of time before they show up at our door. The only question is, will it be a few police inspectors? Or will they send in a tactical unit."
"Or will they send the army?" Wes added unhelpfully. "Shirl didn't mention it yet, but some of the news folks last night were calling the Stevenson job an act of terrorism."
I somehow managed to slump even lower, and I'd completely lost interest in breakfast after hearing all that. Cara however still wasn't the least bit concerned. She continued happily pecking away at her eggs and toast for another couple seconds, before she seemed to notice I'd stopped eating.
"Aster don't let this fine food go to waste," she chided me. "Not after our dogkin servant put so much effort into preparing it for us."
Shirl frowned, "Please don't call him that. His name Wes and he's not your... Ok I suppose technically we're both on the payroll to look after you three as well as the land, but still. There's no need to be rude about it."
"Mmm," Cara shrugged her wings noncommittally.
Wes didn't seem bothered either way, "It's fine Shirl. Like you said, this is the job we both signed up for."
"In that case perhaps I should start referring to you as our dogkin maid instead?" Cara asked in what I took to be a teasing voice. "Meanwhile our wolfgirl is clearly the estate's groundskeeper."
Without waiting for either of them to respond our raven continued, "At any rate Gaia has already made it clear that the humans cannot harm us. If you're worried though, I suggest we simply bar them from entering the property. She did say that was an option, that we could ensure no humans entered our territory without permission."
"That just means they'll be waiting for us outside the perimeter," Shirley pointed out. "We'd be sealing ourselves in at the same time as locking them out."
Wes agreed, "It also means we wouldn't be able to get any more deliveries. So no more groceries, or take-away."
All five of us were quiet for another couple seconds, before Yuki made the decision. The little arctic kitsune stood up tall in our headspace, although tall was a relative term since she and I were both petite cuties. Then she announced, "We will not bar the humans from our lands. Not yet at least. We can already tell when they enter the property, so we'll have some warning if anyone does turn up. Maybe we can steer them towards the castle, and use that as our official meeting place."
"They can't hurt us, they can't force us to go with them," she reminded me. "We could even openly admit it was us, if they ask. Like Cara said, we're working for Gaia and we're under her protection. There's not a lot they can do to us."
Shirley shook her head, "They can't hurt us, but they could still go after our parents. And they could make our lives a lot more difficult."
"They could publish our full names and where to find us," she continued. "That would all but guarantee we'd have to deal with public harassment, in addition to any official nonsense they try and pull. They can cut power to our property, cut service to our mobiles, they could isolate us completely. We still need to eat, and unless Cara or Yuki know something I don't, none of us know the first thing about farming. We have plenty of fields, but it'd be a full year before we could expect a harvest. And that's assuming we could get some seeds or something, and figure it all out on our own."
"They could do any and all of those things," Cara responded in a tone that suggested she didn't actually care one way or another what the humans did. "But what do you suppose will happen if they do? Gaia demonstrated a week ago what sort of response the humans can expect, should they attempt to persecute her employees. She already told us herself she was prepared to turn Westminster into another mountain. If the humans try and threaten us, I will simply remind them of what happened to Canberra."
Wes nodded slowly, "FAFO. America and Australia already found out."
"Let's hope our government aren't stupid enough to get the UK added to that list," he added with a sad little pout.
My sister's comments left me worried about our parents, and Wes's family too. But I couldn't really argue with the points Cara made. And Gaia pretty much said it herself, we were doing Mother Nature's work because it was either that or obliterate London. And while breaking and entering along with assault sounded bad, we hadn't actually killed anyone. I doubted the police would see it our way, but we could even claim that our actions saved millions of lives, since the capital hadn't been wiped off the map.
After another little sigh I tried to push all those concerns aside for now, and focused on breakfast instead. I managed to get through another piece of bacon and some toast, before we all felt the vehicles rolling into the castle's visitor centre carpark.
"Feels like a car and two vans," Yuki commented as her ears folded back and her tails all twitched back and forth in headspace.
Cara agreed, "About a dozen and a half humans in total, I think."
"Come along Aster, Yuki," the raven added as she finally moved away from her breakfast. "I believe it's time for us to get back to work."