Chapter 12

Shelly growled at Darcy with a threat.

She had expected the male to roll over and submit to her. Stray Dogs were not welcome. They kept a watch for the Dogs of the other packs but they rarely ventured this close to their home. Darcy, however, just sat as if he had every right to be where he was.

She noticed that he was not coated the same as the other Dog. She watched warily as the other Dog joined the first and sat just to the side and slightly behind him. This was odd behaviour. He was indicating that the first Dog was his Alpha.

Shelly sent a mild probe at the first Dog and was shocked when she heard a ‘hello’ in her head. She sat facing them with a good five metres between them. ‘What are you doing here, Dog?’ she asked him aggressively.

‘Oh, we’re just visiting the neighbours. Hello neighbour,’ Darcy sent back.

Shelly was confused by the amusement in his thought speech. He was not the least bit intimidated by her. She sent a thought to Milly and told her to join them. She watched the alpha Dog to see his reaction. To her annoyance, he wasn’t the least perturbed nor was his friend. She heard him great Milly as his neighbour as well.

‘What’s going on?’ Milly sent to Shelly.

‘No idea, these two arrogant males simply wandered in as if they belonged here,’ Shelly replied.

‘Not strictly true. We do have several purposes for our visit. I’m Lightning, and this is Speeder. Grand Dame Huntress sends her regards. We have had a few problems with a rogue element and we believe that in the next couple of days they may come to annoy your people. It’s a bit of a long story. Can we possibly come and talk to your Grand Dame?’ Darcy replied.

‘Why haven’t you dealt with the rogues?’ Shelly asked with some contempt.

‘Well, strictly speaking, they haven’t done anything wrong yet. At this point, it’s conjecture. If however, they do come here, then it is intent to do harm and we can deal with them,” Darcy replied.

‘How many in this supposed pack do you expect?’ Milly asked.

‘Possibly six to nine, twelve at most if our intelligence is correct,’ Darcy replied.

‘You do not think like a male Dog,’ Shelly shot back at Darcy.

Darcy chuckled mentally. He knew he had the females a little rattled. ‘That is part of what I need to speak to your Dame about. We have had some changes at Mount Dog.’

‘What sort of changes?’ Shelly asked. Darcy, however, didn’t answer her, to her frustration. He just sat and waited for her to make a decision. He had made his request. She was of a mind to chase him off but something stopped her.

She already suspected that he was no ordinary male Dog. His speech and manner suggested he was one who expected to be listened to and obeyed. He certainly had the arrogance and a self-assurance that she had not encountered in a male Dog before, it was more human.

‘Come,’ she commanded and stood. She turned and started running.

Darcy happily trailed the attractive butt in front of him.

He was amused that when he was in this form, he had developed an appreciation for the finer points of a female Dog. Having the genes of different forms of animals in his system had changed how he thought. While he didn’t forget his humanity, he had found that certain characteristics of the form did colour how he thought when in that form.

The female, who had not bothered to introduce herself, was an interesting colour. If she had been of the setter breed, he would call her liver coloured. She even had the brown nose and amber eyes. Her friend was darker, more a shade of russet and she also had the brown nose.

They were smaller than the females in Huntress’s pack, being of similar size to him and Speeder. He had also noted their muzzles were shorter and their ears more rounded on the tips. Darcy started wondering if the genetic traits that caused these changes had something to do with why her people moved from the mountain.

They had not been far from the den and they slowed as they approached. Darcy was pleased to see land under cultivation and even spied a herd of Antelos (a relative of deer), that had Dogs guarding it.

Shelly barked at a Dog, who scurried off to tell their Dame they had visitors. ‘Wait,’ she said to Darcy. She then disappeared down a hallway.

Speeder thought at Darcy, ‘Looks like home doesn’t it.”

Darcy nodded as he too looked around the community area that was set up almost identically to the one in the mountain. It soon became apparent to him that the liver and brown colourings were the dominate coat colours here.

Darcy’s eyes stopped at three women who approached him. They stopped and waited for another woman to join them. She came from the same hallway the livid coloured female had gone down. Darcy was entranced by the shapely female who joined them.

“Report Shelly,” the shorter and older female who stood between the two taller ones said.

“My Dame, we found them to the west. The one with the curly hair called himself Lightning and his friend Speeder. They come as emissaries from Grand Dame Huntress. They say a rogue element from their people plans to harm us,” Shelly replied.

“Why?” asked the Dame.

‘Shelly, please tell you people not to be alarmed. I’m going to change to human,’ Darcy thought at Shelly.

“What?” she exclaimed loudly.

Darcy barked sharply at her. Shocked, she straightened and turned to her mother, “My Dame, the one called Lightning says he can change to human form and for us to not be alarmed.”

“Oh, how exciting, please change for us,” the Dame responded and looked expectantly at Darcy.

Darcy told his pack to appear in front of him. Using his tail, he opened it and extracted a sarong. He grumbled to himself that he needed a spell to form clothing when he changed. He wondered if a glamour would work.

He was amused when his entity chuckled in his head and gave him a positive feeling. ‘Damn,’ he thought. ‘Now I think of it.’ Shrugging off his dumbness, he held the corner of his sarong with his teeth and reared up on his hind legs as he changed. He quickly caught the sarong and whipped it around his hips, before he tied it off.

He was amused by the gasps. He was pleased that his practice of the manoeuvre was now very smooth. Speeder had also practised and he now stood beside Darcy in his sarong that was similarly tied. Boner and Roth had also been amused the first time they saw Darcy attempt the move and now they too could emulate him.

Darcy bowed, “My human name is Paladin Darcy Dibir. My Dog name is Lightning. I was human, but I’ve acquired a certain trait that has transformed me into a Shifter. My friend is called Shield Mage Speeder. He has not selected a human name as of yet. He was born as a male Dog.”

“Due to the trait I carry, I was able to pass it on to four Dogs; one was a female who had not been able to change to human. Four Guardians including Huntress and one human born male Shifter were also infected. They can all change gender and form, between Human and Dog. Some have also found other forms they can take.”

The dame looked at him speculatively, “Come, sit,” she said and moved to a table. “Sage, get us refreshments please.” She was soon seated with her guards behind her, Shelly and Milly on her right, and Darcy and Speeder on her left. Several of the other women also took seats and many others crowded around the table.

“You may call me Brindle, Darcy. So how do you pass on this trait?” she asked with interest.

Darcy accepted the offered cup and sniffed it. He took a cautious sip and smiled at the woman who had served him. He then turned to Brindle, “An exchange of saliva seems to work well. However, we are still not sure if it works on those who don’t have the shifter gene and/or some level of magical ability.”

“A disagreement between some of the community and Huntress over my offering of this trait has resulted in her temporary banishment from the main community. Once her pups from one of the transformed males are born, to prove that she is still a Dog based Shifter, she will take charge again. The others who also agreed to change did so for their own reasons.”

“So this rogue element you came to warn us about is part of this split in your community?” Shelly asked.

“Yes, we have some who don’t believe that the change will enhance their community. I agree that I have inadvertently caused this mess but they will die out as a race if they continue on their current path. They have a legend that a saviour would come and for some reason, some of them believe that is me.”

“Huntress wishes to know more of your community and if you have had problems similar to her’s with regards to some of their women not being able to mate with the males and if they too mostly have male pups.”

Darcy watched as many of the women gave each other a variety of looks. He counted twenty women in the room and as many Dogs, all of whom were male.

“You are very candid,” Brindle replied.

“I’m a Paladin, or to you, a special type of Shield Mage. It is not my habit to lie if I can help it. We are worried about the survival of a race and you people are obviously of the same race even if your colouring is different. We didn’t know if you had Shifters or not. It was only when I learnt about the road that I began to hope.”

“Even if you don’t wish to join us, Huntress will be pleased that you didn’t kill your first-born females, as they were led to believe. I will have to warn you that if any of you wish to undertake the change, you will infect any you lick or have sexual relationships with and they too may change.”

“One other important thing I must mention. We found that Huntress’s medallion had a bad spell on it. We think that the spell that locks you within the shield has been broken but we have not been to the edge of the shield to prove this. Plus it has shifted since I re-seeded the crystal cavern. You will find that it now almost reaches the road on that boundary.”

This information caused a lot of excited chatter. Darcy and Speeder drank their tea as the women talked amongst themselves. Darcy’s attention was drawn to Shelly. He was a little worried by his fascination for her. She stood just a little shorter than he did and her eyes had taken on a greenish tinge making them appear a lime colour that he found very attractive.

He also liked her body shape. She was a little wider in the hips than Blaze and her breasts were also a little larger. Her skin was more what he thought of as dark peach in colour. He noticed that she had a blonde streak in her dark auburn hair. She was exquisite and she was affecting him.

He sniffed and then groaned. “Shelly, are you aware that you are coming into season?” he asked her. He was a little relieved that it was her pheromones that were affecting him. But a small doubt also sat in the back of his head.

“Are you sure? I haven’t noticed the tell-tale signs,” she retorted.

Speeder nodded, “Yes, by tomorrow others will smell you. Milly too,” he added.”

Brindle’s eyes fixed on her youngest daughter. She had lost her first pup not long after birth and had not fallen again. This had become a problem that the Mage had not mentioned becoming more frequent with his pack.