Mountains of Magic - Ch.38 - Doubling Down (Patreon)

"Thanks dad! That's perfect," I said as he set another box down on the pile. My tail was wagging slowly as I added, "I really appreciate all your help, we wouldn't have gotten half this far without you."

He smiled as he straightened up, "I don't know about that kiddo, you and your friends all seem pretty capable to me."

"Anyways I'm always happy to help out," he added. "And your mom and I are both glad you're all going to be safe here. And comfortable too, this seems like a great home for all you girls."

I wanted to smile back but my tail stopped wagging and I ended up grimacing a little instead, "Yeah it's a great place and we're lucky we have it. You're right about being safe too. I'm just sorry we have to worry about that sort of thing."

It was early afternoon on Saturday the ninth of October, and we were already more or less moved in to that big luxury home on the land Gaia gave us. On the one hand it seemed almost too fast, like we'd only just laid eyes on the place from the car less than seventy-two hours earlier when we drove past. But on the other hand so much had happened over the last three days that dad was right. It was nice having somewhere to ourselves where we knew we'd be safe, but without being cooped up in a tiny one-bedroom apartment for days on end.

The craziness began late Wednesday afternoon, not long after we got back from that first visit to our new land. All four of us had only just signed our contracts when the news broke about demi-humans like us working for Gaia.

It started with a press release from England, they'd posted some photos and video footage of a government official meeting with two cute hunky catboys and their wildcat friend. The guys were apparently a couple who'd been camping together in a national park in Scotland when the mountains happened. And now the British government had told the world that Gaia's ambassadors to the UK were a pair of gay catboys, while the wildcat was one of her direct representatives.

That news set off a huge shitstorm on social media, where it felt like half the internet were calling for any and all demi-humans to be arrested for associating with terrorists. Except some folks didn't think arrest was good enough, they wanted us shot on sight as enemies of the human race. And while not everyone felt that way, the ones who did were very vocal about it.

Soneya nearly had a fit when we found out some of those angry hate groups were reposting images and information about demi-human sightings, including a picture of the three of us that was taken while we were still in Quebec.

The UK announcement also led to a few more countries speaking up. Thursday's news included an official report from Australia about a koala girl and a wombat boy who were working with a local possum. Another official report from Brazil documented a pair of panther-girl sisters and their capybara associate. And an unofficial report from Austria identified a European wildcat working with a cat-enby and a kitsune of all things. I didn't even know those were real, but there were also unconfirmed reports from southern England of another kitsune hanging out with some kind of bird girl.

And needless to say, with all that going on the four of us decided we needed to get out of my apartment building and away from the city sooner rather than later.

So I spoke with my folks, and dad took Friday off work to rent a moving van. Meanwhile mom came over to my apartment with a bunch of empty boxes to help us pack. With all of us working together we managed to clear out the apartment and get most stuff into our new home that evening. And this morning we all went over to Robyn's place and got her stuff packed up and moved out as well.

Now dad and I were just unloading the last of Robyn's belongings from the van, while the bunnygirl and our wolfgirl were up in one of the bedrooms putting her bed back together. Mom was here too, she was still in the master bedroom unpacking the last of the stuff we moved yesterday. And Lia was outside somewhere, probably having fun running around in her fox form again.

"How are Robyn's parents taking all this, do you know?" dad asked as the two of us headed back outside to get more boxes out of the van.

My ears drooped as I shook my head, "She hasn't told them yet."

He gave me a worried look as he grabbed another of the heavy boxes, "Oh? They're not transmisic are they?"

"I don't think so," I replied as I picked up one of the smaller boxes. "She's been texting and emailing them over the last few days, so they know she's trans? It's the magic stuff they don't know about yet."

Dad grimaced, "Ah, yeah, that makes sense. I don't imagine she's going to be able to keep that from them indefinitely though, right?"

I shook my head again, "Definitely not. Last I heard they really wanted her to come by this weekend so they could all have a talk? Obviously that's not happening. Especially with all the craziness on the news lately."

"I'm pretty sure the plan is for her to tell them the truth once we've finished getting settled in here," I added. "Maybe she'll call them tonight? Or tomorrow. We ordered more furniture online yesterday, that's due tomorrow and Monday, since the place is so huge. Not just furniture, but all kinds of stuff really. Housewares, linens, the works."

My dad smiled as we set added two more boxes to the pile in the front hall, "Pretty soon it'll feel like home."

"Yeah I hope so," I nodded. Then I asked, "I know this is probably too soon, but have you thought about our offer at all? It doesn't have to be the orchard place, there's other empty homes if you'd prefer something else."

"I know Soneya's hoping to get her folks to move up here too," I added. "And her friends Shane and Michael. Plus if things work out ok with Robyn's folks they'll probably be invited as well. So um, if you like a spot you should probably pick sooner rather than later, to make sure nobody beats you to it."

Dad smiled again, "I'll have to talk to your mom about that first kiddo. I don't mind saying, it'd be a heck of a big move for me? To go from working in a commercial print shop to growing apples for a living? But the way the world's going these days, it might not be a bad idea."

Then he suggested, "There's only about a half dozen boxes left, so why don't we get those inside? Then you and I can go find your mother, and maybe the three of us can have a little conversation about the future."

"Ok dad," I smiled back.

It turned out there were more than a half dozen boxes, but five or six trips later we had the moving van completely empty. Dad stowed the ramp and slid the door closed, then the two of us went back into the house together. We went up the wide curving staircase to the second floor, and through the large double-doors into the master bedroom.

That one room was easily the size of my entire apartment in the city, and my queen-sized bed felt almost lost in all the space. On the other hand the wall-to-wall carpet was thick and soft, and we had a walk-out balcony with a beautiful view of the backyard and the woods beyond. And the en-suite bathroom was incredible.

Mom was in our new walk-in closet, where she'd just finished hanging up the last of our clothes. She'd even organized everything so my stuff was on one rack, Soneya's was on another, and Lia's was on a third. And the closet was still more than half empty.

"Hey you two," mom greeted us both. "How's it going?"

Dad replied, "We've got all Robyn's stuff out of the van, it's all in the hall downstairs."

Mom frowned, "What's it doing down there? I hope you don't expect that adorable little bun to carry those heavy boxes upstairs by herself!"

My tail twitched in amusement as I suppressed a grin. My folks had known Robyn for years, but mom had no trouble at all accepting that my friend had suddenly become a tiny bunny girl. And both my parents were great about respecting her new name and pronouns, same as they'd been for me and Soneya.

"I'm not going to leave everything for Robyn to carry herself!" dad protested. "We just wanted to get it all inside first, before we figure out where to take it next. I'm sure she's not going to want it all upstairs in her room, considering at least some of those boxes came from the kitchen in her old place."

Mom rolled her eyes, but I spoke up before she could respond with some sort of witty comment.

My ears were pointed forward and my tail down low as I commented in a serious tone, "Actually mom, I was hoping you and dad and I could maybe talk about that suggestion I made yesterday? It doesn't have to be the orchard place, but there's a handful of empty homes here and I'd love to have you both here with us."

"And I'd feel a lot better knowing you two were safe," I added with a sigh.

A thoughtful frown settled on her face, "I understand Tori. And I know the government keeps telling people to remain calm, and that we should all just carry on like usual. I worry about you too hon, and your father and I are both glad you and your friends are all going to be safe here. But I'm not sure either of us are ready to make that kind of move ourselves yet."

Dad nodded, "I know you pointed out the train station, but it's a heck of a commute for me to get to work from here. And I'd still need to take a bus or something once I reached the city, to get from the train station to the office. On the other hand I'm not sure I'd want to spend an hour or two in the car every day either..."

His voice trailed off, but from the sound of it neither of them wanted to join us here. Neither wanted to come out and say it though.

My ears drooped slightly and my tail hung down a little lower while I sighed, "You wouldn't have to keep going to work though dad, that's the whole idea. Gaia's paying me enough money to cover things like food and other expenses for all three of us. And utilities like electricity and heating won't be a problem either, Gaia's going to set it up so we can power everything with magic. And in the long term we'll be able to grow all our own food, so we won't even need to worry about groceries."

"I know hon," mom said as she pulled me into a hug. "It's a beautiful plan, and I'm sure it's going to be lovely. But your father and I need a little more time to get used to the idea, ok?"

Then dad suggested, "Tell you what kiddo? How about you give your mom and I a week, to think it over and sleep on it. We'll come back next Friday or Saturday to see how you girls are settling in, and we can talk about it more then. Would that -"

"Fucking morons!" Soneya's angry shout carried through the whole upper floor, cutting my dad off.

The three of us exchanged a worried look, then we all left the master bedroom and hurried down the hall to Robyn's room, to find out what was wrong. The cute bunnygirl was standing in the middle of her mattress, while Soneya stood next to the bed. Both of them were staring at something on the wolfgirl's phone, and from the looks on their faces it wasn't good.

Robyn's bunny ears were drooping down low to either side of her head, while her eyes were wide with worry. Meanwhile Soneya was scowling, almost glaring at her phone while her tall lupine ears angled forward and her tail swished angrily from side to side.

"What is it, what's wrong?" I asked from the doorway.

Soneya responded with questions of her own, "Can we get the news on TV? Is it hooked up yet?"

I shook my head, "It's hooked up but we don't have any cable or anything. And no internet yet, so we can't stream either."

"What's going on Soneya?" my dad asked in his 'calm reasonable' voice.

The wolfgirl let out an angry sigh as she gestured to her phone, "News out of the States. Nothing official, but social media is blowing up again. They're saying the military have launched an attack on the magic mountains. There's pictures of artillery batteries, dozens if not hundreds of big guns, in both Kentucky and Arizona."

"Seriously?" I responded, while my ears folded back and my tail twitched. "Could they actually hurt the mountains with canons? How can they even be shooting, shouldn't the anti-tech zone stop them?"

Robyn answered that, and it was a very strange experience hearing her talk about military hardware with her small cute bunnygirl voice. "Modern one-fifty-five millimetre howitzers have a range over twenty klicks. According to the stuff we're seeing, they have gun batteries set up outside the no-tech area, but inside the effective range of the guns."

"And I don't know if they'd do anything to stone mountains," she added, "But they're going to chew the hell out of the landscape around the mountains. Between the explosions and the shrapnel they can pretty much kill everything in a couple-hundred meter radius around the base of the mountains if they want. Or they could start lobbing incendiary rounds and set everything on fire."

Soneya shook her head as she glared at the phone again, "Idiots. I'll bet the only real thought that went into this was nothing more than 'We've got guns so let's shoot them!'"

After a slight hesitation my mom asked nervously, "Didn't Gaia say not to try and fight her?"

"Yeah," I nodded slowly. "She said she'd start moving her goalposts if people tried to fight her, or deliberately attacked the environment."

Dad sounded anxious as he asked "What do you suppose she'll do? Make the water situation worse?"

Before anyone could answer that question our wolfgirl's phone pinged with another alert. She tapped the screen then her eyes widened while her tail slowly hung down until it was almost between her legs.

"I don't know about the water situation," she stated in a soft uneasy tone, "But Gaia just retaliated against the USA. Four new mountains appeared in the last few minutes. And it looks like the no-tech zones are a lot bigger than before. They're saying it's a fifteen to twenty mile radius now, instead of six miles like the original ones."

I gulped, "Where are the new mountains?"

Soneya read out loud what was on her screen, "Cheyenne Mountain, near Colorado Springs. That's where a bunch of government and military stuff was located, in big secure bunkers? A new magic mountain came up right through the middle of it."

"Another sprouted up in San Diego Bay," she continued. "That took out the US Pacific Fleet, and cut power to all of San Diego. The third popped up at the mouth of the Chesapeake channel. That wiped out the US Naval HQ, and people are already saying it's going to block all the ports from Norfolk to Baltimore."

Then she paused before reading the last one, "Arlington Virginia, right up through the middle of the Pentagon. They're saying all of Washington DC is in the no-tech zone. Which means the entire US government has been cut off. No power, no communications, and no motarized transportation in or out."

My dad summed up all our feelings with his reaction, "Holy shit."