"Henry?" Ahamo managed when his heart had stopped thumping over aggressively. "What are you doing?"

The Robo-Rent had grabbed his fellow father and pulled him behind a pillar and had clamped a hand over the Prince Consort's mouth.

"Do you want to go fishing?" Henry asked in a low desperate voice.

Ahamo wondered if the witch's alchemists had damaged his circuits. "Fishing?"

Henry looked around the pillar and scoped out the hallway. "Do you know what time of the cycle it is?"

Ahamo admitted he didn't.

"It's that time of cycle! That's what time it is!" Henry hissed.

Ahamo blinked. Then he got it. He went pale and started to look around with agitated little jerks. "Oh, no! I forgot…I was separated from Lurline and the girls for so long I forgot! How could I forget something like that?!"

Henry shuddered, "And when women spend a lot of time together they coordinate."

A thought occurred to the Prince Consort, "But, your wife's a robot! How can she…?"

"It's a sub-routine that's supposed to emulate the biologic function of an organic female," Henry sighed heavily. "Look, do you want to go fishing or what?"

"I'll get my balloon."

----

Linus Georgeakopoulos, former slave and currant Assistant Royal Liberian looked up in astonishment as Ambrose Regent, Royal Advisor and Duke of Win-Kai and Raw son of Rawl, Ambassador at large for the People who Feel burst through the library doors.

"Do you think she saw us?" Glitch as a note of panic ran up his throat.

Raw shrugged, "Not know. Raw hope not."

"Is something wrong?" Linus asked taking in the sight of a paler then ever Ambrose and a Raw, whose hair fizzed out everywhere.

"We're not hiding if that's what you're thinking," Ambrose snapped.

Raw nodded emphatically, "Raw not scared. Glitch scared, not Raw."

At that Glitch glared at him, "I am not afraid. I'm just cautious…they can be unpredictable in this condition."

"Smell afraid," Raw sniffed.

Linus looked from one to the other with growing trepidation and not a little confusion. "What condition?"

Ambrose waved the confused librarian over. "It's that time of cycle," he said as if conveying the latest warfront news.

The librarian blinked. Crickets chirped.

"Once a cycle a girl gets very grumpy…" Ambrose prompted as if too someone very slow.

"Oh. That." Linus shrugged. "What's so terrifying about a monthly bleeding?"

Ambrose's nonplussed expression was interesting. "What's so terrifying? Do you know what they're like during this time of the month…The Queen and the girls go from being charming ladies to irritable termagants."

"They yell," Raw said this as if it explained everything.

Linus tried and failed to imagine the Royal ladies throwing a temper tantrum. The Queen was everything that could ever be good about royalty personified, Azkadelia tended to go to extremes to keep from reminding people of her possessed self, and DG was possibly the most pleasant tempered person he'd ever met.

Still, he'd concede that the bleeding was highly unpleasant and could make the most even keeled women a mite irrational. But, despite that he didn't see the reason behind the fuss.

"Why aren't you nervous? Whatever happened to male solidarity," Glitch flopped onto a chair.

Linus shrugged, "When I was fifteen I got turned into a girl for three months."

A stunned silence followed.

"Linus was a girl," said Raw flatly.

"A devotee of the God of War pissed off a priestess of the Virgin Goddess and she decided to teach him a lesson; but, he was wearing a protection charm and it bounced off of him and hit the nearest unlucky bystander," Linus paused for breath.

"For three months?" Ambrose wondered.

Linus shrugged, "Once I got over feeling emasculated, it wasn't so bad. The priestess was horrified that she'd gotten the wrong guy so she petitioned the head of the order and I got to stay in the temple for the duration." The librarian laughed, "I'm the only man in the history of the worlds that's listed as an honorary lay minister of the Virgin Goddess."

Raw looked at Ambrose. Ambrose looked at Raw. Then both looked at Linus.

Their identical stares were worrying.

"Does Linus understand females?" Raw just had to know.

Linus shelved a book, "I have a little insight."

Ambrose rubbed his hands together with glee, "Linus, my boy, do we ever have a lot to talk about!"

----

"That time already?" Jeb smiled as his father scowled and growled lowly.

Tin Man Wyatt Cain and Captain Jeb Cain walked down the muddy lanes that separated the barracks at the Thunder Mountain Training Camp. Around them soldiers in red and trainees in tan marched in formation, ran laps, and preformed various tasks.

A group of soldiers running in formation were singing something painfully familiar in cadence:

Ding-dong the witch is dead
Which old witch? The wicked witch
Ding-dong the wicked witch is dead
Wake up you sleepyhead
Rub your eyes, get out of bed
Wake up the wicked witch is dead
She's gone where the goblins go
Below - below – below

Sound off!

One-Two

Three-Four

Jeb laughed at his father's expression. "It's become very popular."

Cain absolutely hated that poem. He'd gotten it stuck in his head the day that damn poet munchkin had read in on Purple Pumpkin Day. If he ever caught up with that little man…

"Jody, got accepted into the nursing school she applied for," Jeb mentioned.

Wyatt smiled. Jody was Jeb's longtime sweetheart. The lawman approved of his son's taste in women. The girl's sweet nature was a good balance for Jeb's broodiness. 'Must be genetic,' quipped the Glitch in Cain's mind. 'Shut up', Cain mentally grumbled.

"She got two scholarships," Jeb went on. "The Royal Medical Scholarship and she's the first ever recipient of the 'Adora Cain Memorial Scholarship.'"

Cain shrugged uncomfortably. He'd been surprised to say the least when DG had tentatively asked his permission to use her name. It touched him that DG would want to honor someone she had never met.

Jeb rolled his eyes. Obviously, he wasn't going to get an explanation for that one. It seemed that whenever the subject of Princess DG or something she had done came up his father had two reactions: to go on and on and on for hours about how crazy she made him or he'd clam up.

"Is her time really that bad?" Jeb asked suddenly interested. He found Jody pretty scary when hers came up.

It was one of his policies during his campaign as leader of the resistance to just sorta lob the women, during that time of the cycle, at the Longcoats. He almost felt sorry for them once a month…almost.

"She turned a visiting Quadling emissary into a newt," Cain said calmly.

Jeb blinked, "A newt." Gods how he hoped Jody didn't have a hidden talent for magic.

"Not that I'm afraid of her," Wyatt said quickly.

Jeb nodded in understanding. "Of course not. A tactical retreat," he said soothingly.

Cycle month…I've decided it makes more sense.

There was gender switching magic in the Oz books. No, really.