"So what's the plan, what are we going to do?" I asked Yuki and Cara as the three of us exited the little farmhouse together.
"You two go talk with them. Keep them busy while I'm gone, but do not admit to anything," our raven told us as she took to the air. "I'll join you in a few minutes."
"What?! Where are you going?" I half-shouted as our bird friend disappeared behind some trees off to the west.
Yuki pointed out, "We should keep moving Aster. It feels like they're trying to surround the castle for some reason."
The little arctic kitsune was right about that, and I was just as confused as she was. Unless they literally hadn't realized we were using the farmhouse, maybe they actually thought we were camped out inside the ruins or something.
The three vehicles had already left the parking area, I could feel the car and one of the vans driving north along the footpath to the west of our castle. The second van was on another footpath that took it eastward to the south of the castle moat, then turned north along the east side.
"I have no idea what I'm doing," I muttered quietly as I hurried south across the field to meet whoever they were.
Yuki responded, "Just don't panic Aster. I'm here with you, we'll handle this together."
Sure enough she joined me out front in our body, and I knew our hair and ears and tails and eyes all changed to reflect our dual nature.
When we rounded the side of the little cafe just north of the castle and moat we found the intruding car parked there in the middle of the footpath. And there were three middle-aged men in dark suits and sunglasses standing next to it as they waited for us. The two vans had both stopped out of sight, but Yuki and I could sense them, along with all the people who'd emerged from them.
The first van was behind a small copse of trees by the north-west corner of the moat, and eight people had emerged and spread out there using the trees for cover. Meanwhile the second van parked at a bend in the footpath to the east of the moat, where it was hidden by another line of trees. Seven more people had emerged over there and were spreading themselves out along the north-east, using those trees over there as cover.
It was pretty obvious the three business suit guys were undercover cops, or some other kind of law enforcement types. And even though there weren't any visible weapons I was positive all three of them were armed. For that matter I was pretty sure all the other people we couldn't see were probably carrying guns too.
"Hi there," Yuki greeted the three men with a friendly smile and a swish of our tails. Then she gave them an apologetic look as she continued, "I'm afraid the cafe is closed for renovations. If you gentlemen were looking for refreshments I believe there's a pub just off the green in the nearby village."
Two of the men exchanged a silent look, while the third kept his eyes on us. Then we all noticed the large black raven that swooped down out of the sky to land on a low branch of a nearby tree. It was just off to my right, but I realized a moment later the bird wasn't Cara.
Then a second raven came to land on the peak of the cafe roof, followed a moment later by a third. A fourth and fifth settled on a couple branches of another tree to our left. The three suit guys were glancing around silently as more large black birds descended from the sky, and within a half minute there must have been at least fifty ravens perched in trees, on the cafe, and a few even landed ontop of the guys' car.
And over the next several seconds, more ravens kept coming.
By the time a full minute had passed dozens had become hundreds. It almost felt like every raven in south-east England had turned up, until they were perched on just about every surface in sight. They were even lining the tops of the castle walls and towers.
I was positive the three men had to be freaking out, but they were doing a really good job of hiding it. They quietly looked around again, then exchanged another glance, before finally turning their attention back to Yuki and I.
And at long last one of them finally spoke up. His gruff voice was almost monotone and it was obvious he was trying to sound dangerous and threatening as he stated, "We have a warrant for the arrest of one Aster Davies, and the woman known as Cara Campbell. The warrant also covers the seizure of a Honda Rebel 500 motorcycle, and all mobile phones and computing devices on your persons and the premises."
"We're authorized to use deadly force if you attempt to resist," the second guy added, and he sounded almost happy about that.
Both Yuki and I decided that one was the 'bad cop', based on how he seemed like he was really hoping for an excuse to use violence. Neither of us were sure about the first guy though, he didn't feel like a 'good cop' type. Since he spoke first though we decided he was probably the leader of the group.
The third one revealed himself to be the 'good cop' today, based on how he sounded almost conciliatory when he said, "Things will go a lot easier for everyone if you're willing to cooperate."
"What the hell's the deal with all these god damned birds?!" Mr. Badcop suddenly demanded, and he sounded kind of agitated.
His companions both gave him a look, like he obviously spoke out of turn or went off script or something. Meanwhile my favourite little arctic kitsune and I took advantage of the distraction and had a very quick conversation in headspace.
Then I did my best not to sound scared or even all that worried as I shrugged, "I honestly don't know why they're here. I've never seen anything like this before."
"Can I see some badges or something please?" I added, although I was having a hard time keeping the anxiety out of my voice. "And if you're here to make arrests, can I ask why? What are the charges?"
The three men glanced around at all the ravens again, then Mr. Leader pulled a thin leather wallet from his jacket pocket and opened it to show me an official-looking badge. As he did that he stated, "We're agents with the Security Service, counter-terrorism division."
"Ooh," Yuki blurted as our eyebrows jumped up. "MI-5, cool!"
Unfortunately that didn't impress the three agents at all. It didn't make me feel any better either, and our tails ended up down low behind our legs while our ears folded back.
"The charges include terrorism, treason, and attempted murder," Agent Badcop stated with a grim smile. "That's just the top of a very long list, but those are the big ones."
I tried not to look too scared, although I suspected I wasn't fooling anyone with my acting. Instead I focused inwards again and asked nervously, "Yuki what do we do? They're here to arrest us, and those charges are serious!"
"Cara said to stall them until she got here," she reminded me. She tried to sound confident as she pointed out, "They can't possibly have proof of all that. They're just trying to scare us into cooperating."
"It's kind of working. The scaring us part anyways," I grimaced.
The head guy suddenly spoke up again, distracting Yuki and I from our internal conversation. He asked in a pointed tone, "You are Aster Davies, are you not? You don't look much like your ID photo."
I hesitated as I quickly tried to figure out what to say. It almost felt like a trap, if I said no then maybe they'd try and arrest me for identity theft but if I said yes then they were definitely going to try and arrest me for terrorism and all that other stuff.
Unfortunately not answering right away was probably just as suspicious, and after a second or so it looked like Agent Badcop was about to comment or something. Except as soon as he opened his mouth there was a little flutter of movement through the hundreds of ravens as they all ruffled their feathers. It almost seemed to wash around the area like sports fans doing the wave, except without any cheering. And it was enough to make the three agents uneasy again.
"If you could call off your birds that would go a long way to helping your case," the good-cop guy suggested. "I'd call that positive cooperation."
That made me grimace as I responded, "I already told you I don't know why they're here. I don't have anything to do with them."
"Then who the hell does?!" Agent Badcop demanded.
"This unkindness belongs to me," Cara's voice rang out in response, and I'd never been so glad to hear her.
She swooped down out of the air next to me, and as she reached the ground she smoothly shifted so she was in her human form just as her feet settled on the grass. She was completely naked, but as usual she didn't seem to care about that in the slightest.
Then she addressed the men in her most imperious tone, "My fellow ravens are here for me, they answered my call."
The agents all took a step back, and despite their dark sunglasses I could tell all three of them had eyes wide in shock at Cara's sudden arrival and transformation. They were probably a little taken aback by her nudity too.
The tall hot bird-woman was a step ahead of Yuki and I, and about a half pace to our left. It meant she was partially blocking us from the three agents. And with her height and poise it really made it seem like she was in charge.
Cara spoke up once more before the three agents had a chance to try and take control of the situation, "Tell me humans, why are you on my territory? Why are there men in combat fatigues carrying automatic rifles while they stalk my land and hide behind my trees?"
"My associates have you and your comrades surrounded," our bird-girl added in a calm cool voice, "And we outnumber you more than twenty to one. There's over twenty score ravens here and they all answer to me, while I answer only to Gaia herself. So consider your words carefully."
The three agents glanced once more at the hundreds of ravens around us, then at each other. Finally the lead guy addressed the tall statuesque woman standing before us.
"We're with the Security Service," he stated. "We're here to arrest Cara Campbell and Aster Davies."
Agent Goodcop did his thing again, "Things will go a lot easier if you two cooperate."
Mr. Badcop kept quiet this time, but he definitely looked like he was still hoping for the opportunity to use force.
"They want to arrest us for treason and terrorism," I added quietly, so Cara would know all the details. "And attempted murder, and a bunch of other things."
Without looking back at us she replied in an unusually gentle tone, "Thank you dear, that's enough for now."
Despite my surprise it was easy enough to get Cara's point. Now that she was here she wanted me and Yuki to stay quiet. I also caught the fact that she didn't use my name this time. She usually did when she was being condescending or treating me like her pet fox, so it was clear she was avoiding that on purpose.
Sure enough that turned out to be something the agents wanted to know. The lead guy asked, "I take it you're Ms. Campbell then? And that uh, individual behind you is Aster Davies?"
Cara responded in her typical haughty imperious tone, "Those are human names. I am a raven, and the beautiful young vixen behind me is my helper fox. You have no jurisdiction over either her or myself. We are all Gaia's children."
Hearing our gorgeous friend refer to us as a 'beautiful vixen' suddenly had my cheeks on fire, but while I was trying not to let myself get too flustered by the compliment Yuki picked up something else in the bird-girl's statement.
"Aster!" she exclaimed internally, so nobody else could hear her. "Cara wants you to shape-shift us! Turn us into a fox! Show them proof that we're part of Mother Nature's family, not bound by human laws!"
My eyes widened as I gasped inwardly, "What?! You know I've never done that before! Cara knows it too!"
Our three tails flicked behind us as the little arctic kitsune replied mischievously, "You haven't done it yet, but we've talked about it a lot. And I know you can do it. Cara knows it too. So let's go Aster! It's time to fox us up!"
"Alright," I grimaced inside. "I'll give it a try."
That little internal conversation only took a half second, and the three agents hadn't had a chance to respond to Cara's words yet. It looked like the bad-cop was about to speak up though, and I was sure he was going to threaten violence again.
For now I tuned all that out and called up my power. Or rather, our power, since Yuki was still co-fronting with me. I focused on a four-legged fox form, and triggered my shape-shifting magic.
A moment later our perspective shifted as we suddenly got a lot smaller, so our long fuzzy snout was closer to the ground than usual. It took Yuki and I a couple seconds to extract ourselves from the mess of human clothes we found ourselves in, but once we were free we sat down ontop of the pile of fabric and looked around.
The three human agents were all staring down at us with another look of shock on their faces, while Cara didn't seem the least bit surprised. In fact our bird girl's expression suggested she knew all along I could do it, and she was pleased that Yuki and I correctly interpreted her message.
The tall naked beauty gave us a satisfied smile as she commented, "Good girl."
And just like that I was blushing hard again under our fur, while our four tails all started wagging happily behind us. And it only took another second or two for that to hit me.
Four tails!?