Chapter 8

The following characters reappear from Magic Ink III:

Michael Sean O'Connell (Mike)

Gus and Annie's son, 5'-0", 100 pounds, 9 years old, auburn hair, hazel eyes

Michael Patrick O'Connell (Pat)

Sean and Sara's son, 5'-0" tall. 100 pounds, 9 years old, auburn hair, gray eyes

Laura and Katie O'Connell

Gus and Annie's twin daughters, 4'-2" tall, 70 pounds, 7 years old, long flaming red hair, green eyes, some freckles, very cute

Gail and Margie O'Connell

Sean and Sara's twin daughters, 4'-2" tall 70 pounds, 7 years old, long flaming red hair, gray eyes, some freckles, very cute

While the lunch was very good, it didn't include as much meat as I would have preferred. Of course, there are few, besides Weres, who serve as much meat at a meal as I prefer. Afterward, while Laura and Lesia helped with cleaning up, Annie took me aside to talk.

"Your ladies are concerned that they don't have appropriate dresses for a formal dinner here. I assured them that whatever they had brought with them would be just fine since we don't insist that everyone dress for dinner like Katie and Margie do, but they are still upset.

"I could take them to town to look for dresses this afternoon, if that's all right," she told me. I was a bit surprised by what she had said, but had expected something like it since the Sisters had been so upset last night. Upset enough that they had forgotten about sex.

"I knew they were upset about not having dresses that they thought would be appropriate, but I didn't realize it was that serious," I told her as I handed her one of my credit cards. "Either Laura or Lesia can sign for the dresses," I told her.

"We won't be overly long, and Sara will watch the children while I'm gone," Annie told me with a smile.

They were gone for what I considered an extended period of time during which I needed to entertain the children, but I may have that backwards. It seems that the children were supposed to help weed the fields this afternoon. They insisted that I accompany them, and we spent several hours out in the various fields that they were responsible for. They taught me the spell used for weeding. I had never learned it, as I had little use for gardening and farming. As a Third Level, I had no trouble with it, but the children would all giggle when it was my turn to use the spell, as I would make a great show of reciting the short spell and extravagantly drawing its glyph in the air.

We had worked our way quite some distance from the others working on the fields, and were well away from any of the occupied houses when the two boys had a request.

"Uncle Conrad, could we see you transform into a tiger?" Mike, Gus's nine year old Son, asked expectantly out of the blue. I had seen him and Pat talking in whispers in the last few minutes but hadn't picked up what they had been saying. Apparently they had used a noise suppression spell so I wouldn't hear them, but this must have been what they had been talking about.

"Maybe!" I told them looking around for anyone else who might be around. "You must promise not to tell anyone else, if I do. Your Fathers would be very unhappy with me if they learned that I had transformed near any of you," I finished.

"We promise not to tell anyone!" Pat, Sean's Son, said and looked at their four Sisters. Those four, Laura, Katie, Gail, and Margie, had been looking on with big eyes. They were two years younger than the Boys were and seemed more frightened that their Brothers.

"You have to promise, too," Pat told them.

"We promise, but he can't come too near us," young Katie told him nervously.

"All right!" I agreed. "But there are a couple of rules. First: I must be naked when I change or I will ruin my clothes. So you must all turn your backs while I remove my clothes. Second: when I change back, I will again be naked, so all of you must turn around before I change back and redress. Third: I will only stay in my Tiger-form for five minutes. I don't want any of your Parents or relatives to discover me here in my Were-form," I told them.

"We never saw a real Tiger before," Gail said when I had finished.

"Do you know that there are several types of Tigers?" I asked them.

"There are?" several of the girls asked.

"Yes! The most familiar ones are the Bengal Tigers from India, but there are also Tigers in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. They are all slightly different from the Bengal Tiger in size and coloring," I told them.

"Are they smaller?" young Margie asked, curious.

"They are somewhat smaller, but all of them are quite large. Now, I am a Siberian Tiger, and they are a bit larger than the others and live in the cold north, whereas the others live in much warmer climates," I told them before adding, "All of you turn around now and no peeking."

They turned around, and I removed my clothes and shoes before casting the transformation spell. I instantly changed into Connard, my Were-self. I gave a low roar when I had changed and the children immediately turned around to see me standing there staring at them and my clothes on the ground near me.

"OOOH!" they all said on turning around. I could smell their fear and trepidation now that I was standing there and staring at them with my large cat's eyes and with my tongue out and my teeth showing. The girls were shocked by my size, but their Brothers sucked in a breath, moved forward, and started petting my coat. I sat on my haunches and brought my tail around my feet.

"See! He is just like one of our cats, just a lot bigger," young Mike told his Sisters who hesitantly began to approach me. They eventually reached out and touched my fur. That seemed to break their fear, and they were soon all petting me. Now petting may be fine for house cats, but it IS NOT something that Tigers are accustom to, and I was glad when the five minutes were up.

I stood up then, startling the children, and pushed Mike with my head. He got the idea quickly and led the other children away from me about ten feet and had them turn around. I used the trigger word and instantly changed back into my human-self. I had nearly finished dressing when I spoke to them.

"You can turn around now," I told them as I reached for my socks and shoes. They turned quickly and stared at me sitting on the ground.

"What did you think? How did you like my Tiger-form?" I asked, as I put on my socks and shoes.

"We didn't expect you to be so large!" Gail said before her Brother could speak.

"I am a little larger in Were-form than the average wild Tigers of my species are. Nearly all Weres are larger than their natural forms are in the wild," I told them.

"You weren't very loud!" young Laura told me in disappointment.

"I didn't want to attract the attention of others or startle you too badly. When I really roar in the forest all of the other animals will flee in fright," I told her.

"Even the bears and buffalo?" Pat asked.

"Most bears, yes. The buffalo don't want to have anything to do with a cat my size," I told him and the others before changing the subject.

"How many more fields are there to do?" I asked.

"This was the last one," Mike told me as the children cast the weeding spell for this field. We all transferred back to their houses after that.

We had been back for some time before the twins returned. I was hungry, having transformed twice and not gotten any meat to eat, but would be all right. The women came in together, laughing and giggling like young girls. The twins stopped abruptly on seeing me sitting on the sofa.

"What's the matter?" Annie asked on noting the change in their demeanor.

"Oh, nothing," Laura answered and brought up the box that she was carrying. "I just thought that Conrad would like to see the dresses that we bought," she said.

"Yes, come upstairs and you can change. I'm sure that he will like them," Annie told her and Lesia.

"I'll be up in a second," Lesia told the others and came over to where I was sitting.

"Are you upset?" she asked quietly after the others had departed.

"No, I'm hungry!" I told her, as she sat beside me.

"We know. We felt it when you changed, although Annie didn't seem to notice it. We also noticed when you changed back a few minutes later. What happened?" she asked quietly. I smiled at her concern.

"The children wanted to see me in my Tiger-form. We were out in one of the far fields. We had been removing weeds with a spell from the various fields. I made them promise not to tell anyone if I changed, and had them turn their backs while I removed my clothing. I only transformed for about five minutes, but I'm hungry now with no prospect of getting any real meat soon," I told her, a bit disgruntled.

"Here!" she said and opened a foam box that she was carrying in addition to the clothing box. Inside of it I found a large steak. It appeared to be done medium rare and was still quite warm from being in the foam container.

"Where did you get this?" I asked in shock.

"We removed it from the oven where it was being prepared and placed it in the box by Magic, and then transferred the box from the restaurant to where we were looking at shoes. Laura transferred a twenty dollar bill to their cash register," she told me before leaning in and kissing me. She handed me the foam container and transferred upstairs to where Laura was changing clothes.

I checked the area, but no one else was around, and I just picked up the steak and started taking bites out of it. It wasn't that large and could have only weighed a bit over a pound before being cooked but tasted great and would do for now. I was very careful not to get any of the juices on the furniture or the rug while eating and then disposed of the container in the O'Connell's trash can in the garage.

Annie and my twins soon returned in their new dresses. From their floor length and multiple petticoats, it was easy to see the influence of the senior O'Connell women in their choices, but they all did look stunning, and I complimented all three of them. They all blushed prettily.

"You need to change too," Laura told me following that. "Everyone will be dressing for dinner tonight."

"Even the children?" I asked.

"Definitely! They are all up taking baths now," Annie told me. Laura escorted me up to the guest room where our things were, and I changed into my slacks and sports coat after taking my turn in the shower.

"Why did you take a chance like that?" Laura demanded when we were alone and waiting for the shower.

"The children wanted to see a Tiger," I told her.

"You were lucky. I don't believe anyone else noticed the transformation spell, but you should be more careful, especially around all of these Magic users," she chided me.

"Yes, Dear!" I told her and kissed her. We were soon ready to return to the parlor.

Dinner was announced shortly after that, and we joined the Family in the dining room. Both Families were there, but they both have large dining rooms, and we all fit. The meal was delicious since Annie and Sara had both taken lessons from Margie and Katie. My twins were interested in the recipes and the O'Neil Sisters promised to send the recipes to them. The children were all well-behaved now. I attributed it in part to them having seen me in my Tiger-form. There was also O'Connell Ale after dinner, although the children didn't receive any, being too young yet.