So...Here we're getting into some of the darker themes of this arc, the darker secrets of the Humanimals...Particularly the secrets of their spiritual leaders, the Shamans.
As Donatello and Arctica continued catching up in their walk through the woods, they came across a pond. They sat on a nearby fallen log near the pond and they continued their talk as they skipped stones on the water…
"So when I got back to my dimension…" Arctica said as she skipped a stone over the pond. "I told everyone my story and as you expected after two months things had significantly cooled off and everyone had been wondering how I just vanished without a trace. However after I told my story the Shamans didn't seem to want to believe I had gone to another universe with Animal People who weren't Humanimals...Instead those Shamans claimed I had just had a long journey through the Fairy Realm and I just thought it was another Earth...I was a little irritated but I had learned to pick my battles…"
Don scowled slightly hearing this, remembering how he had learned that the Grand Elder Council of Shamans hated that he was marrying a Humanimal because as he wasn't a Humanimal they couldn't control him, but because he was an Anthropomorphic Animal like the Humanimals he confused the 'Common Humanimals' who treated Mutants like himself as if they were the same thing as Humanimals.
"But anyway…" Arctica said "...Since I said I was sorry and that I had learned my lesson, I was mostly forgiven which got even better as I applied what I had learned and began helping my fellow Humanimals so in the past few months before you guys came to liberate us the Shamans betrothed me to a Young Wolf-Man named Gray Wulf...He was also a Mizzeran but he was also a powerful psychic and since I had gone on a journey where I had been touched by the fairies...They decided we were a suitable match…"
That raised some alarm bells in Don's mind, he had begun to suspect that the Shamans were doing some kind of 'Super Humanimal Breeding Program' with the Humanimal Population over the generations seeming to be trying to marry Humanimals who were supernaturally gifted or otherwise powerful in different ways...To what end? While the logical answer seemed to be to breed Humanimals who could better thwart their human masters but Donatello wasn't so sure…He wanted to bring up these concerns with Arctica some other time, as at the moment she seemed happy with her match and at the very least she said he was also a Mizzeran so he was probably not as easily influenced by the Shamans as the born and bred slave Humanimals…
Meanwhile, after that...Incident at the tea room. Marzipan knowing she had to fight for her relationship with Ichabod...With new passion tried to get him out of his funk, but Ichabod kept putting up a wall Marzipan saw it was clear he was stuck in the realm of the 'What if' what if it had been a Humanimal who had rescued her from Castle Vortex? What if she would be happier with a member of her own kind?
"But...Ichabod…" Marzipan pleaded "...What about the Prophecy? That when a human boy and Humanimal girl love each other with all their hearts that somehow that love will bring equality between the humans and Humanimals…"
"Then let it be be a human who deserves a Humanimals love!" Ichabod snapped "Like Edward or Casey Jones!"
And that's when a big clue was revealed to Marzipan...That a big chunk of this was Ichabod's hang ups about his body image…
Gray Wulf is a protagonist from one of my Fictionpress Mizzer stories I think Arctica will be happy with him, but Don is right to be concerned about the Shamans trying to create a 'Super Humanimal Breeding Program'