Mountains of Magic - Ch.39 - Official Business (Patreon)

"Please mom just listen ok?" Soneya said into her phone. "I know the nearest mountain is hundreds of miles away, but Williamsport is right on the Susquehanna River, and that river empties into Chesapeake Bay!"

Thanks to our tall fuzzy ears, both Robyn and I had no problem hearing our wolfgirl's mother protest that it didn't matter since the mountain was practically in the ocean and not upriver from her.

Soneya shook her head, "Mom the changed water moves upstream. Plus it gets into the air, into the clouds. It comes back down as rain. I don't care if that hasn't been officially announced yet, I know it's true."

"Just please, will you talk to dad?" she added in a pleading voice. "Pack up your stuff and come up here as soon as you can. Preferably before things get any worse! We have loads of space, and there's a house here you can move into right now."

We hadn't left Robyn's bedroom yet, all of us were still in shock from the news out of the USA. It sounded pretty dire, but at least a few of the big networks were reporting that Air Force One departed Washington about an hour before the new mountains appeared. So odds were the president got out, and there was probably a functional government in the process of setting itself up somewhere else in the country.

The bunnygirl was sitting crosslegged ontop of her bed, while Soneya paced around the room as she spoke with her mom. After watching Soneya for another few seconds Robyn fished her phone out of her hoodie pocket and opened up a messaging app, then started composing a new text.

I had a feeling she was going to invite her folks to come join us immediately, which probably meant she was also about to come out to them as part bun and one of Gaia's new employees.

With that in mind I motioned to my parents, and the three of us exited the bun's bedroom. As we headed back to the master bedroom I asked, "Do you two still need a week to think it over? Because it sounds like things are going to start getting worse a lot sooner than we were hoping."

Mom and dad exchanged a worried look. Then dad asked in a tentative voice, "What do you think hon? We've still got the moving van..."

"We can't move our whole house in a day Trevor," mom sighed. "We're not talking about a one-bedroom apartment. And we haven't even thought about packing. We don't have enough boxes, and we couldn't fit everything in that van anyways, so we'd have to do multiple trips."

I suggested, "So move the most important stuff first. Your bed, clothes, some kitchen stuff. Enough that you can stay in the new place. Then go back and get the rest later."

"Keep the van as long as you need it," I added. "I'll help you both with packing and moving. We'll -"

My voice cut off suddenly as I sensed strangers entering our land.

That was one of the safety features of our new property. Nobody could enter it without the four of us knowing. If we really wanted to lock things down we could even make it so nobody could set foot on the land without our explicit permission. The main reason we hadn't done that yet was we were expecting a bunch of deliveries over the next few days.

My ears flicked and my tail twitched while my eyes widened, as I counted four vehicles pulling into the long drive that led to the visitor centre we were going to use as an embassy. While I wouldn't know for sure until they got out of their cars, I was positive there was over a dozen people there. And something told me at least a few of them were armed.

"Oh no," I half-whispered as I remembered my small sister was out there alone, frolicking around in her fox form.

I turned and dashed out of the master bedroom, then nearly collided with Soneya in the hallway. The two of us stopped and looked at each other and at the same time we both exclaimed, "Lia!"

Meanwhile Robyn darted around us and dashed down the stairs then out the door. We still didn't know what kind of magic she had, but the way she moved I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with speed because she was out of the house before either the wolfgirl or I had a chance to react.

"Let's go!" Soneya stated as she charged off after the bun.

I followed, and as soon as we were outside we turned and headed straight for the woods. Our new embassy was over a kilometre away, but neither of us bothered with the car. If we drove we'd have had to take the long way around, and that would have taken too much time.

So we ran as fast as we could, through the trees and around the southern end of our mini lake or oversized pond, then made our way north-east towards the visitor centre and its parking lot.

Soneya stopped just short of the tree line, where we found Robyn waiting for us. I came to a halt next to the pair of them, and while both the wolfgirl and I were breathing hard from the run our small bun seemed just fine.

"Cops," the bun scowled as she pointed towards the building. "And I'm assuming those other guys are government types."

Sure enough the four vehicles we'd all sensed were parked near the entrance. There were three SUVs and one limo. The limo and one SUV were all black with tinted windows, while the other two had RCMP markings on them. And standing around in between the cars and the building was a large group of men.

I counted at least eight guys in police uniforms, with guns on their belts and everything. Nobody was carrying rifles or shotguns though, which was a small relief. And there were four more guys in dark suits and dark sunglasses, who were probably secret service or undercover cops. And finally another four men in suits, but instead of being cops they looked like politicians. In fact I was positive I'd seen at least two of them on TV over the last couple weeks.

However I was less interested in the humans and more interested in finding my small sister. I looked around while my ears twitched, "Have either of you seen Lia? Do you know where she is?"

"I don't see her," Soneya shook her head. "And I haven't heard her either."

With her more sensitive ears Robyn's hearing was even sharper than ours, so it wasn't really a surprise that she was able to locate our missing friend. She pointed, "There she is."

"Oh no," I mumbled again as I watched the little red fox emerge from the woods on the far side of the building.

She trotted slowly across the grass then the parking lot, as she made her way towards the group of people. Her ears were up but her tail was down low behind her, and I got the feeling she wasn't really happy about going to see them. Which made me question why she was doing it at all, when she could have just stuck to the woods and gone around them without them ever seeing her.

Meanwhile Soneya sighed, "Let's go. We can't leave her out there alone."

"Right," I nodded.

After a deep breath to try and brace myself, I emerged from the woods alongside my two companions. The humans all looked our way as soon as we were in the open, but my eyes were on Lia. She spotted us as well, and I waved to her. She responded by swishing her tail, and instead of continuing towards the humans she broke into a run to come and join the rest of us.

The men all watched quietly, and while some of them looked anxious or wary none of them reached for their weapons. A few hands were hovering near holsters though.

The politician-types took a few steps towards us, accompanied by the plainclothes guys. The uniformed cops hung back a few paces, but they also spread out so they all had a clear line of sight towards my friends and I.

"Greetings," one of the older politicians called out. "I take it you're Gaia's representatives here? My name is Tony Acevedo, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. I'm here to find out if Gaia is interested in opening diplomatic relations with Canada."

He gestured to another older guy next to him, "This is Andrew Mischler, Deputy Minister of the Environment and Climate Change."

Acevedo motioned to the other two politicians as he continued, "That's Steven Lanford, from the Ministry of Public Safety. And Martin Puchalski, who works in the Prime Minister's office."

So far he sounded friendly enough, and all four government types looked earnest about wanting to talk. The rest of the men all seemed a lot more uneasy, but considering they probably knew what just happened in the States I couldn't blame them for that.

After a short awkward pause the foreign affairs guy asked again, "You are Gaia's representatives to Canada, are you not?"

I gulped but nodded, "Yeah. I'm Victoria Chapman, and this is Soneya Amarïs. We're ambassadors? This is Robyn McGee, she's our embassy assistant. And uh, this is my little sister Lia. She's Gaia's representative."

It felt awkward introducing a small furry fox to the government men, but with the news from the last few days they already knew what to expect so they took it in stride.

Then Soneya half-demanded, "How did you find us? How did you know we'd be here?"

Lanford responded, "We knew Gaia had reclaimed the nature reserve and its buildings. And that was correlated with reports from the public, people have seen you young women coming and going. It wasn't hard to put two and two together."

Needless to say, that didn't set our wolfgirl's mind at ease any. The foreign affairs guy could probably see that too, so he tried to change the subject slightly.

"Perhaps we could talk somewhere more private?" he asked. "Do you have an office or meeting room inside that we could use?"

Puchalski added, "We'd really like to try and open a friendly dialog. The Prime Minister is eager to ensure Canada does not share the same fate as our neighbours south of the border."

"I'll bet," Robyn commented.

I frowned, "That only just happened in the last hour or so. How'd you get here from Ottawa so soon? Or were you in Toronto or something?"

"We were already on our way here to meet you when we heard the news," Acevedo replied. After a slight hesitation he added, "We're also privy to some information that hasn't been released to the public yet, but perhaps we can discuss that in private?"

None of us were particularly eager to start doing official embassy work, but considering we'd all accepted Gaia's offer it was basically our job.

Half the RCMP guys stayed outside while everyone else followed us into the visitor centre. The rest of the uniformed cops stayed in the large dimly-lit foyer, while the secret police and government types accompanied us down a dark hallway. Finally the plainclothes guys stayed in the hall as the four politicians joined us in the board room. It was a decent-sized room, with lots of windows overlooking the nearby woods.

The government men all sat down in the big comfy leather managers' chairs on one side of the large rectangular table, while my friends and I sat across from them. I had Soneya to my left, while to my right Lia was still in her fox form as she perched on her comfy leather chair. And further to the left, Robyn was seated on the other side of Soneya.

"Sorry I can't offer you any drinks or refreshments," the bun apologized. "As you can see, we still don't have power in this building yet."

The public safety guy grimaced, "That might be our fault. I'll have to double check, but I think the power and water were both cut off after Gaia seized the property."

"Let's just get on with things," Soneya stated, and she sounded uptight again. Her ears were down low and her tail stood out straight behind her, through a gap in the back of the leather chair. "What is it you wanted to talk to us about?"

Deputy Minister Acevedo nodded, "Of course. As I said, we were already en route to try and meet with the four of you when news broke about the situation in the USA. The Prime Minister contacted us directly just before got here, and she gave us a slightly updated mandate. Based on what's already been made public, and information the Americans have not yet released."

"What sort of mandate?" I asked.

Our wolfgirl added, "And what's the secret information? I'm assuming you're going to tell us what it is, otherwise you wouldn't be flaunting that you have it in the first place."

The four men were quiet for a few moments as they sort of exchanged some looks between them, like they weren't sure where to start or who should go first. The public safety guy seemed to win that silent debate, because he spoke up a moment later.

Lanford began, "Obviously we want to protect the Canadian public as much as possible. Gaia has been very clear so far about her intentions and her demands, but I'm hoping we can work out some sort of schedule or timeline that's actually practical. By which I mean, something that won't financially ruin the country or cause undue hardship to its people."

"In addition," he continued, "We'd really like some sort of assurance that the rest of the country won't be punished in the event a smaller percentage of the population attempts to take action against Gaia on their own initiative."

That last part left me wondering what exactly he was talking about, or if he had something specific in mind already. Robyn already seemed to guess what he was referring to though.

"You're talking about Alberta," the bunny girl stated while her tall ears twitched. "That's where the other magic mountain's located. And their premier has been pretty vocal on TV about defending their oil industry."

Acevedo sighed, "Correct. There's been some rumbling from out west that they'll defy any orders from Ottawa to reduce or cease oil production."

Soneya asked again, "So what's happened in the States that we don't know yet? What is it that's got you all so scared?"

"Beyond the obvious, like maybe having Ottawa disappear under a new impossible mountain?" I added.

Puchalski replied in a solemn voice, "News reports are suggesting that the president escaped Washington on Air Force One prior to the attack, but that's not quite true. The Vice President, Speaker of the House, and Secretary of State were on Air Force One. But the President, Secretary of Defence, and a few other high-ranking US government officials were on board their National Airborne Operations Centre."

He paused a moment then shook his head, "Both planes appear to have suffered a complete loss of power just minutes after the new mountains appeared. They and their fighter escorts fell out of the sky without so much as a mayday call, and from what we've heard there were no survivors in either crash."

Our wolfgirl's eyes widened and her face paled as all that sank in. If it was true then the US just lost most of its federal leadership.

"So what can we do to ensure Canada and its government don't share the same fate?" Deputy Minister Lanford asked, as he looked to Lia in particular. "What can we offer Gaia's local representative, to guarantee that our nation and its government and our way of life are preserved?"

The small red fox stood up on her chair and leaned forward, with her front paws on the edge of the big table. And with her tail wagging in excitement she exclaimed, "We want food!"

"Oh," Lia added as her ears drooped. Her tail slowed then drooped as well while she continued, "Also Gaia says to please stop mining, drilling, extracting, and transporting oil and other fossil fuels immediately. Shut down all pipelines and stop shipping oil by train or truck."

My small sister added, "If Ottawa gives the order but other people ignore it, Gaia will know who's responsible and she'll act accordingly."

Finally her ears and tail perked up again while she stated happily, "Gaia also says that her representative and ambassadors can get some food if they want! So oil bad, food good!"

I found myself suppressing a smile as I told the politicians, "I hope that answers your questions?"

"Just so you guys know," Robyn added in a serious tone, "Gaia will see through any attempts at trickery. If Alberta ignores orders from Ottawa and the Prime Minister doesn't do anything about it, we're all going to know it's just lip service. This isn't about political theatre to fool the public, this is life and death."

"Of course," the foreign affairs guy nodded slowly. "We understand. And we thank you all for your time. I'm sure we'll be in touch again in the next few days."