Yuki and I ended up spending most of the day in our four-tailed foxy kitsune form. It wasn't until dinner time when the novelty finally wore off and I turned us back to normal. We still had our four tails though, which made both of us happy.
In the meantime Cara regaled Shirley and Wes with a somewhat embroidered tale of how she chased the humans off our land thanks entirely to her clever strategy and cunning intellect. Our raven was gracious enough to credit Yuki and I for providing moral support, and my tails may have been wagging again when she scritched my ears and called me a good girl for knowing when to keep quiet and let her handle things.
Wes prepared a nice big dinner to celebrate our victory, then the five of us relaxed in the farmhouse's cosy living-room with some drinks and something on the TV.
At Cara's insistence we tuned into the news at ten, and I was expecting to see something about the attempted raid. A handful of MI-5 agents and a dozen or so soldiers wasn't exactly huge, but I was positive it would have made the news. There was nothing though, and I couldn't find anything on social media either.
Instead the top story of the night was the mysterious disappearance of the Tower ravens. There were a few interviews with various pundits and experts, including one of the Yeomen Warders.
"Good thing there's absolutely nothing more important going on in the world," Shirl commented with enough sarcasm it was practically dripping.
Wes grinned, "Hey this is serious stuff. You heard what that talking head said, this might signify the end of the Britain."
Cara ruffled her feathers slightly where she was perched on the back of my chair, "That is a certainty my dear, unless the humans start learning from their mistakes."
"Yeah," I sighed.
Eventually the cute arctic kitsune and I decided we'd had enough of the news. We bid the others a good night, then headed upstairs. Soon enough we were in bed, and I slipped inside to join her. The two of us exchanged a long hug, and finally drifted to sleep cuddling together in headspace.
And that's where I remained until I was jolted from my sound sleep the following morning by my sister's voice shouting, "Aster!"
My ears folded back as I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes, while my four tails twitched back and forth in irritation.
"Aster!" Shirley called again, and this time her voice was accompanied by some impatient knocking. "Are you awake?!"
"I am now!" I replied grumpily.
"What's going on? Is something wrong?" I added.
She sounded uptight as she asked, "Does your phone still work?"
"That's why you woke me up?! I was having a really good sleep sis," I growled.
My bedroom door swung open to reveal an uptight wolfgirl. Her ears were angled forward and her tail flicked back and forth as she glared at me, "I'm serious Aster. Can you please check and see if it still works?"
"Fine," I sighed as grabbed my phone from the bedside table to check. The screen came on like usual and all my apps were there so I turned it around to show her. "Yes it works. See?"
My sister shook her head, "I don't mean it powers up. Do you have a signal? Can you get online, or make calls?"
I frowned as I took a closer look, and this time I noticed the little 'No Service' indicator in the corner.
"Huh," I said as my ears folded back.
I tried opening the web app, but just got a spinning gear for a second before it popped up an error that I wasn't connected to the internet. It was the same with my messaging apps, they wouldn't connect. And the phone app gave me an 'Invalid SIM' error.
After a few more attempts I finally looked up at Shirley and shook my head, "Nothing. Maybe there's something wrong with the local tower?"
Shirley looked and sounded stressed as she replied, "Or maybe the government's had our accounts blocked."
"I was talking with mom when the line went dead," she added, while her ears and tail all drooped. "When I tried to call back I got an error about no service. So I checked Wes's phone and it's the same."
Yuki spoke up from headspace, "Maybe this is the humans taking revenge on us for not cooperating yesterday? Those agents wanted to confiscate our phones, so maybe they decided shutting them down's the next best thing."
"Maybe," I frowned while my tails slowly swished from side to side. After thinking about it for a few seconds I shrugged, "We can always pick up some pay-as-you-go SIMs. For that matter we could just buy new phones. It's not like we can't afford it, with the money Gaia's paying us."
My sister grimaced, "I guess. Maybe I'll drive down to Hastings after breakfast. We should probably stock up on groceries and things too, just in case."
"I'm also worried about our parents," she admitted a moment later. "If the government really want to get to us they might try going through our folks."
"Damn," I sighed. That was another thing to worry about, now that we knew the authorities were onto us.
After a couple seconds Shirley grimaced again, "Anyways sorry for waking you up Aster. Wes is working on breakfast, if you want to come down and join us it should be ready in about ten minutes."
"Thanks sis," I replied as she pulled the door closed behind her.
A few minutes later I was dressed and heading downstairs towards the kitchen when I heard Wes start swearing.
"What's wrong now?" I asked as I joined the others in the kitchen.
The cute little dogkin was practically pouting as he gestured towards the stove, "The power just went out, and none of this is done yet. If it doesn't come back on soon all this food's going to be ruined."
"I don't think it's a blown fuse," Shirley added with a sigh. "The fridge is dead, and the lights don't work either."
Yuki's tails were all drooping down in headspace as she asked, "Do you think it's the government again? First they killed our phones, now they cut the power?"
Cara ruffled her feathers where she was perched on the back of a chair by the table as she commented, "In that case I think perhaps we should be the ones paying them a visit. No sense waiting for them to return to try and harass us again."
"We can't exactly take on the whole government," I pointed out, while my ears folded back and my tails flicked back and forth.
Our raven sniffed then admitted, "Perhaps not. I'm sure we could ask our employer to have some words with them on our behalf though?"
That made me cringe, "I don't want to be the reason she wipes out London. It was our job to try and avoid that happening, remember? It feels like admitting failure if we have to go asking her to intervene."
"You can't have it both ways Aster," Shirley stated. Her tail swished behind her as she continued, "You don't want to go to Gaia for help, but you also don't want to deal with the government? If we don't do anything at all then where's that leave us?"
Wes looked sad as he answered, "It leaves us with runny eggs, rare bacon, and raw toast."
My sister gave her boyfriend a look, "You mean bread. There's no such thing as 'raw toast' Wes. We call that bread."
"It's totally a thing," the dogkin protested. "It stopped being bread when I took it out of the bag and put it in the toaster. It's proto-toast. Incompletely cooked. Hence, raw. Raw toast."
While my sister and her boyfriend continued their low-key argument about the semantics of un-toasted bread our raven hopped from the table to the counter. Then she plucked a strip of greasy pink bacon from the pan and started tearing it apart with her beak and talons.
"What are you thinking Aster?" Yuki asked quietly.
I slumped into one of the chairs and sighed, "Without power we won't have hot water, so no more showers. The laundry machines won't work, or the dishwasher. We won't even be able to heat the house."
"The food in the fridge is going to go bad," I continued. "Without phones we're cut off, without power nothing else works. And for all we know the government might be doing the same thing to our parents. Assuming they haven't already arrested mom and dad. And those two are going on about toast."
The little arctic kitsune's ears and tails all drooped as she responded, "I could try and use my lightnings to power things for a while? Maybe I could keep the cooker going long enough to get breakfast made."
"That's not a permanent solution though," she added sadly. "I don't think I can do that indefinitely Aster. I couldn't keep the whole house running, and I couldn't keep things running full-time."
I sighed again, but before I could respond we were both distracted by Wes shouting.
"Aw c'mon Cara!" the dogkin glared as he stomped one of his little feet. "Now you've got grease all over the counter! Couldn't you at least put it on a plate first?"
Our raven responded with a condescending comment about keeping our maid busy, so of course Shirl had to come to her boyfriend's defence. And from there all three of them were arguing, which just made me slump down further in my chair.
Everything came to an abrupt end a minute or two later when another voice called from the hallway, "Knock knock! I hope you don't mind I let myself in."
"Gaia!" I gasped as I scrambled to my feet.
Sure enough the planet's teenaged avatar walked into the kitchen. If she knew about all the tension in the room she was ignoring it, and the wide smile on her face made me think she wasn't here to send us on another mission.
Shirley bowed her head towards our boss while Wes did his best to curtsey. And Cara quickly gobbled up one last little piece of bacon before giving Mother Nature her full attention.
"Sorry to interrupt your lively debate," our boss stated, which all but confirmed she knew exactly what she'd walked in on. "I understand the local humans have been testing my patience, trying to ascertain what they can get away with under my radar."
Our raven responded with her typical confidence, "That's correct. Yesterday they sent government agents and armed soldiers onto our land to try and coerce us into willingly surrendering our freedom and property."
"As I'm sure you know," the large black bird continued, "I was able to send them packing thanks to a little help from some of my associates. However, the humans have upped the ante this morning by disabling my colleagues' communications devices. And now they've deactivated the power to our lands."
Gaia nodded, "Thank you for the update Cara. That's actually why I'm here, to help you with those problems."
"I started handing these out last week," she continued as she reached her hand into that canvas satchel hanging by her left hip, "But I was prioritizing groups who didn't have any other options. Fortunately Berthold's been able to solve the last of our production issues, so I've got more than enough for everyone now."
She placed five identical new smartphones down on the kitchen table then explained, "They run on magic, and don't rely on any human networks. So the humans won't be able to interfere with your communications going forward, nor will they be able to eavesdrop either."
"Oh wow," I smiled as I picked up the one nearest me. "How does it work? And is it possible to copy stuff over from my old phone?"
Yuki added, "Who's Berthold?"
Our boss answered me first, "Just touch the new one to your old phone then push some magic into it. That'll activate it, and automatically transfer everything over."
"Berthold's a genius when it comes to industrial fabrication and assembly techniques," she replied to Yuki's question. "As you can imagine, he's been a very busy beaver lately. Along with Bettany the badger and Beatrice the bee."
"Oh and I took the liberty of upgrading your vehicles too. They both run on magic now, so you won't have to worry about buying or burning petrol any longer," the teen added with a smile.
That caught me by surprise and I looked up at her while my mind started racing as I tried to picture what a magic-powered Rebel would look like. Or how it would work.
Meanwhile Shirley moved closer to pick up one of the new phones. As she did so she asked our boss, "I don't mean to sound ungrateful for the phones ma'am, but is there anything you can do about getting power to the house restored? We kind of depend on that for pretty much everything."
Gaia nodded again, "Yes! I also brought you a magic generator, but I've left it at the castle."
"That's where you're supposed to be staying," our boss added in a slightly reproachful tone. "I'd like you to prioritize that. You have plenty of money to purchase furnishings or fixtures or whatever else you need. Take that as your new assignment if you like."
She continued, "I'd also like you to consider inviting some other like-minded people to come and join you here. I assume you have friends or family who might be interested? Perhaps they can move into this residence once you're in the castle. By like-minded, I mean people who share your and my values when it comes to the environment."
My sister and I exchanged a glance, but Yuki was the one who spoke up first.
"They're not in danger, are they?" the little arctic kitsune asked warily. "Our family and friends, I mean?"
Our boss shrugged, "Possibly? But that's not what I meant, sorry Yuki. It's an idea a few other groups around the world came up with independently, and the concept's been spreading since then."
She explained, "They're taking the land I've given them and using it to create enclaves or communities where people who want to work with me can gather and live safely. Think about folks like yourselves, who'd appreciate the additional benefits of that magic water you have stored in your fridge."
Shirley's ears were folded back and her tail down low as she asked Gaia, "Sorry can you elaborate on that thing about our family being 'possibly' in danger? Is the government messing with our mom and dad?"
Mother Nature hesitated a moment before sighing, "Maybe."