Chapter 7

She was amazed at the prospects and the extent of her newly found abilities. She was also a bit more cautious that she had been in the past. She realized that she could very well cause harm to someone if she was careless in her activities. One word misplaced in a spell, and it could either kill someone or fail completely. The wrong amount of one ingredient or another, and she could have a potion that did something completely opposite of what she originally intended. So, in all matters of magic, she had become much more attentive to detail and infinitely more cautious.

Her first potion had been a reverse aging potion that she had decided to make for Lory and Ten. They both meant so much to her and done more than anyone else for her in her life. Certainly she loved her own father to pieces, but Lory and Ten had been more of a father and mother to her than anyone else. She wanted to reward them, and reward them she did. It would seem that that particular formula had the ability to shave 20 years off of a person's age. She had snuck it into the tea she had brewed for them and they were none the wiser for it. Ten and Lory both had just chalked it up to getting enough rest, a healthy diet, and their active lifestyles. She wondered what they would think if they knew that they were now technically in their 20's and 30's, instead of the 40's and 50's that they had been not even a month prior. Well, not even two weeks prior, to be perfectly honest. She was forcing herself to learn quickly.

It would seem to an outsider that she had completely forgotten the dilemma she had with the LoveME Section, but she hadn't. She had set aside time each day to mentally communicate and rehash any ideas that she and Tsuki could come up with to solve the problem. She had discovered shortly after Tsuki's 'birth' that they could talk to each other mentally whether he was summoned or if he were waiting patiently in his special place to be called forth by her. Although, she did keep him out with her most of the time, be it hidden in her clothing or out in the open perched on her shoulder or her head. The only time she had actually sent him back was during the moments when she had to go to school and absolutely couldn't have him with her.

It was strange. There were many things going on with her lately, the strange dreams, the elevated body temperature without being actually sick, her hair and nails were growing a bit more quickly, she was easily distracted by anything that moved quickly, and she had the taste for more meat in her diet, rare meat. If the other three 'victims' had discussed it with her, she would have discovered that they were experiencing the same things. The elevated body temperatures that were indicative to their animal kingdom counterparts; the predator/prey attraction instinct; finally, the craving for the appropriate dietary satisfaction. All of these things seemed to be getting stronger as the days faded away from the original date of when they donned their uniquely made costumes, that they had conveniently forgotten about.

What is going on? She asked herself, staring blankly into the mirror. Thankfully it was evening and she had the next day off. What stood before her was a human-lioness hybrid with black fur. She was too stunned to completely panic, and her mind was working at top speed on how to get out of this mess, unaware that the same thing was happening to three others at the exact moment. They were all too afraid to call one another and announce or corroborate their complicated dilemma.

What she wanted to do and what she should do were diametrically opposite of each other. On the one hand, she wanted nothing more than to run through a forest and hunt, and enjoy the freedom of being a predator. On the other hand, she knew that she should stay in her room with the door locked and search for a remedy to her situation via any means possible.

Across town, in his high-rise apartment, a blond male lion-human hybrid was pacing back and forth in his living room, trying to figure out what the hell had happened and why he was the way he was. This was one of those moments in his life that he'd felt completely helpless. He didn't dare to call Lory or his parents, they would firmly believe he was drunk or on drugs. There was no way in hell he'd call Kyoko and tell her, he didn't want to be seen as a complete freak of nature by her. Things between them had been complicated enough between them and he didn't wish to add to it.

Yukihito was in full panic mode, and Kanae could be found passed out cold on her bedroom floor in front of her full-length mirror out of shock. There really hadn't been much of a physical change for Ten or Lory, other than the fact that they both looked as though they weren't a single day over the age of twenty; although, during the past few weeks, that had been something that had been happening at a gradual pace and was completely chalked-up to getting plenty of sleep, and the mistake of biased thinking.

Meanwhile, Maria and Tsuki were nearing the end of Chapter One in her Grimoire and would soon be entering the more advanced techniques of spell-casting, conjuring, potions, elixirs, powders, poisons, hexes, curses, charms, and amulets. Maria was becoming more proficient at casting and divining. She had only just practiced a bit of potions and elixirs, she didn't wish for anyone to find the remnants of anything in the little office she had just off her room where she studied and stored everything. No, she really had no compulsion to hide much more than her Grimoire simply due to the fact that she'd always dabbled and none would find said ingredients or equipment out to the ordinary if discovered. In fact, one would find it more out of the ordinary if things like that hadn't been found. The only things she kept well-hidden were her Grimoire, her cauldron, the hot-plate to heat everything, her collection of candles made from various types of wax in a multitude of colors, and a small box of wooden matches to light said candles.

That night and overly-large pair of foxes would meet up and indulge in the call of the wild, and the pair of lions that everyone had been on the look-out for would be drawn to each other in the large park where they had been seen traveling to on Halloween night. Now, although the proper organizations had been looking for them initially, they were still able to meet with each other with very little effort and zero harassment. The initial search for them had been called off days after it had began with the thought that they had been a pair of pets that had been recaptured. It would seem that this pair of Panthera Leo were infinitely more cautious than they had been previously, not that they were aware of the need to be cautious. It was just something that told them instinctively that they could absolutely not be seen by humans or something bad would happen. Their partial changes would be witnessed by no one in the safety of their homes, and completely once they finally met their mates after cleverly sneaking out to their initial rendezvous points in the park for a breath of fresh air, a loss of inhibition, and a taste of freedom.