A Summoning, Part XLVII

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Part XLVII
~Temperance, Part 2~

"How's uh—what do you think of this place?" Jack asked as she drove around looking for a parking place.
"Smells fine," Boreas answered.
"Uh, great. They've got..steaks, and burgers, and chicken and fish, and stuff..." She parked the car and got out, stepping around toward the front door.

"Sounds nice. You been here before?"
"Just, a couple of times...eep!"

With no warning whatsoever, Boreas had come up next to her and slung an arm across Jack's shoulder, then started walking—pushing the shorter, red-haired girl along with her. "Something wrong?" Boreas murmured, stopping. "I haven't actually been on a date before."
The combination of being held by her like that, and that deep, sexy voice murmuring practically just in her right ear, was making Jack's heart race and giving her that..weird, fuzzy feeling down between her legs. She was starting to like that feeling more, too. "Uh—um. J-j-j-just, Iwasn'texpecting youtoget physical, so...so fast..?"

"I can stop if you want," she offered.
"Uhm. Th-that's..okay. Let's...go on in," she said, her voice going up to a kind of helpless squeak with the last few words.

"A'right." With that, Boreas started walking again, and Jack went with her. They were close enough that, with Jack's tail excitedly wagging back and forth, it occasionally made brief, accidental contact with the taller woman's seemingly-lifeless tail. Each touch made her heart race for a second or two...but Boreas seemed completely numb to it, which was even stranger!

She did finally let go at the door, to go open it up and wave her through. The redhead needed to take a couple of deep breaths as she headed through the doors, in order to calm down enough to speak more or less normally to the host. "Uh—table for two, please."
"Is a booth okay?"
"Sssure."

It would've been possible for both of them to squeeze into one side of the booth, but Boreas sat across from her instead. Jack was...mostly relieved, but also a little bit disappointed. Admittedly, it would've been very hard for her to carry on a conversation with Boreas making continuous physical contact, plus the possibility of their tails touching again.

"What do you do? Student at, that college 'round here?" Boreas asked after someone got their drink orders.
"Y-yeah. Sophomore, uh, second year. I haven't really figured out what I'm doing entirely, yet, though. Just—majoring in business."

"Sounds reasonably practical," she said neutrally.

"I guess? It's mostly 'cause the classes are easy, nothing like lab hours to take up extra time, so I can go to a lot of parties and stuff without hurting my grades enough for my parents to notice." Jack only wondered after saying that aloud whether it was a good idea to admit that to someone Boreas's 'actual age'. "I..guess that sounds kinda irresponsible, huh?"
"Not necessarily. Plenty of careers where being friends with the right people matters more than expertise. And, young folks should have their fun while they can," she said with a shrug. "Moon knows I did my running around at your age."

"Oh, wow—really? What was that like, uh...however many years ago?"
Boreas shrugged. "Can't imagine it's that different. Though, the folks I knew were from the wilder side of werewolf culture. Sometimes we went out into the woods for weeks on end to run around, fight, hunt. Our folks didn't worry too much for safety with all of us together. I'd always get an earful from my master and a lot of extra work when I got back, but he was only trying to help me succeed as an alchemist."

"Man, that sounds like some real old-school pack stuff. But you said you were a 'lone wolf' before, right?"

Boreas nodded. "Being surrounded by a pack is nice in small doses, but...I can't stand a crowd for too long. Awful opinionated too, even back when I was younger. I was much better off making just a few good friends and keeping up with 'em than trying to get along with everyone in the pack. Though, all of 'em have passed away by now..."

The waiter came by to deliver their drinks at this point, and Boreas took a long chug of hers before just staring into it for a long moment. Nothing about her tone of voice, nor expression, had changed during that whole exchange, but Jack still felt sure there was some loneliness there, a desiderium she lacked anywhere near enough life experience to relate to. So she concentrated on picking out what food to order, and Boreas did the same, picking up and scanning through the menu. Hopefully this awkward silence wouldn't last too long...

---

Prama thought her physical stamina was reasonably good, from walking around campus frequently and all of the standing and moving around to work on potions she did on the rest of most days. But she only lasted a song and a half or so at the club before her body unilaterally demanded a break. She dragged herself, panting and sweating, over to the tables they had out to the side of the dance floor, found a free one not too close to any occupied ones, and collapsed into the chair, planting her face squarely inside her elbow on the table.

She waited a little while, just listening to the wall of noise, and the loud music blaring on top of that. Maybe Jess was right...she hadn't felt too nervous so far. Now that she was still, all those sounds seemed to join into a singular, meditative droning, putting her in a strangely peaceful mood. She knew this wasn't destined to last—Jess would eventually come check on her, and probably try to drag her back out onto the floor. Well, letting loose hadn't been so bad either. However, the interruption she wound up dealing with came sooner than that.

"Hey, uh, you okay there?" Someone standing slightly behind the chair on the opposite side of the table asked, barely loud enough for Prama to make out over the din. If whoever that was thought she was collapsed for some kind of medical reason, there'd be a big fuss...so she dragged herself just upright enough to face the stranger.
"I'm f. F-fine!" she said, the last word at most being audible over the club noise. Well, maybe the one who'd asked would hear the whole thing anyway. It was a girl probably half a head taller than Prama, with very long, dark-brown hair and, more notably, wolfish furry ears and a tail. She was wearing a knee-length skirt and leggings in mismatched colors, and a blouse (which matched the leggings but not the skirt) that had been buttoned up incorrectly, leaving no button available for the top couple of slots—and apparently, rather than thinking to undo all of the buttons and try again, she'd just decided it was okay to have most of her neckline showing. Despite this fashion disaster...she was fairly cute overall. The problem was with the painter, not the canvas.

"You sure? You look like you could at least use a drink!" the strange wolf-girl said.

"I'm nuh. Noh. Not old e-e-enough for that," Prama eventually managed to spit out.

"Whoa, I didn't mean that kind. Yeah, I—I can't buy alcohol either," she said. "But they've got like lots of mocktails and stuff, some with energy drinks. You sure I can't buy you something like that?"

Now that it was clear what she was offering, Prama realized she was kind of thirsty. A free drink sounded kind of nice..or even just someone going and coming back with some cold water would be helpful. But the idea of accepting a gift from a stranger made her want to curl up into a ball and roll herself out of the building. "Ah. Uh. Mm."

"Oh, sheesh, you must be really outta breath! Hang tight, I'll get you something!" The wolf-girl dashed off, ignoring or possibly just not noticing Prama weakly holding an arm out to try to stop her. She didn't feel at all like getting up and chasing someone down just to tell them no, so she collapsed back into her elbow and hoped the strange wolf-girl just forgot about her.

About a second or two later, some horrible thoughts entered her mind. Male or female, someone in a place like this offering her a free drink—which they had access to for even a moment outside of her sight—was a big red flag. Prama bolted to her feet then, resolving to disappear before the stranger could come back. Going outside would definitely be less safe, so she went back to the dance floor to try to blend into the crowd.

---

Maybe forging a new connection or two wouldn't be so bad.

Before becoming young again, Boreas had more or less resolved not to get too involved with anyone. He'd put up a firm wall, and not even the relatives of his closest friends could get past it. The pain of losing someone close was something he'd felt enough times to form the opinion that it wasn't worth inflicting on anyone else. He made it no secret that he expected to get just old enough to make a mistake with a potion and be found dead at his shop by the next would-be customer.

But things were different now. Taking on an apprentice had worked out all right; Boreas no longer had the excuse of being past a normal human's life expectancy, at least physically. And...she had grown a certain suspicion about Araneus's daughter. Not even he knew why she'd suddenly asked to have a potion made. Lucent had never really been one to keep a journal or anything like that, as far as Boreas knew, but...perhaps she'd stumbled across some old photos or something. Araneus wouldn't know if she had happened to ask her mother who those people were instead. Perhaps, for some reason, she wanted to know about some ancient family history. Well, if Lucent's granddaughter was, at worst, half as bad as his son, then...Boreas could at least stand to talk with her a little bit about old times.

She shook her head slightly, hidden behind the menu. Maybe that was all just wishful thinking...but this person, right in front of her, was another, decidedly more real opportunity. A strange one, certainly—was Jack brave or stupid to want to vault over that wall Boreas kept up without even thinking, and ask directly for a date? She'd never been romantically approached in her entire life before this, but watching the smaller girl blush and squirm in response to her touch was...kind of nice.

The waiter came to see if they were ready to order food at this point. Boreas asked for a rare steak and some vegetables; Jack hesitated briefly before requesting a medium steak with some more carb-loaded sides. Then the menus were taken up, and no longer available to hide them from each other.

"S-so uh..aside from..the one I'm testing? Y-you work on any interesting potions lately?" Jack asked. It seemed she was a little more perceptive and considerate than Boreas had expected, and was trying her best to steer the conversation into a new direction.

"Sure. Some of my more complicated recipes have needed a restock for a while, and I'm finally feeling bold enough to actually work on 'em again. Thought I'd just end up with a permanent 'sold out' sign on those varieties."

"But—this is the only experimental thing, I guess?"

Boreas shrugged. "For now. But working on it's got me itching to do more proper research again, maybe dig out my old notebook of ideas and see if I come up with a way to make some of the more impractical ones work. Maybe my 'genius' apprentice will have some ideas of her own, too."

"What's, uh, her deal anyway? She seemed..."
"Nervous? Apparently she made some kind of 'deal' with Zotha, making her a genius in exchange for having no social confidence...or something like that."

---

Fel, holding two identical glasses of drink in her hands, hurried back to the table only to find it deserted. "...Huh?" Looking around, she didn't see the girl with the long braided twintails who'd seemed too tired to move from the spot earlier. Maybe she'd suddenly needed to go to the bathroom?

Wanting to track her down and give her the drink, Fel found herself sniffing the air without knowing why. A brief pause allowed her to work out that if what she wanted to do was find someone or something, then the easiest way to do it was by scent. Perhaps her 'wolf side' felt that way, but since Zotha's "unite" thing had been done to her, there wasn't really any separation; and so the thought of tracking a person by scent came off bizarrely as simultaneously a slight surprise and a completely obvious conclusion.

Well..she didn't want to be holding the extra drink all night. The ice would all melt before long, and ruin the flavor! If that girl had gone to the bathroom, it'd be easy enough to find that out, and she could just..go back to the table after confirming that. So...she went back to sniffing the air near the recently-vacated chair, a little bit more intentionally this time. The club actually had a huge variety of scents to pick through, but...it actually didn't take her that long to find the one associated with that particular stranger. It helped...probably...that she'd been a bit drenched in sweat. Another good reason to make sure she got her drink!

The trail didn't lead the werewolf toward the restrooms, but rather the dance floor. Maybe...a friend of hers, not realizing that she had a drink coming, had dragged her out here? She didn't look particularly athletic, so she might have been taking a break from dancing at the table. Actually, that was very likely now that Fel actually thought it through—why else would someone in this place be physically worn out?

Another advantage of her 'animal side' revealed itself, as her ears picked up the voice of the person she was looking for not long after walking out onto the floor. She couldn't make out what was being said, but the tone of voice sounded...kind of squeaky and panicked? Well, that was concerning. Fel was..actually much stronger than she looked, being a werewolf and all, so...if someone was bothering that girl...

She quickly shook her head. No no no! Violence might be what her 'wild side' wanted to do to protect someone, but that was an extremely bad idea in this place! Besides, she was probably just overthinking things!

At any rate, Fel managed to track down the person she owed a drink to. But, seeming to recognize her, the short girl immediately yelped and ducked behind someone else—an only slightly taller, much curvier woman with bright purple eyes. Or...well, it wasn't so much that the color was all that bright, but maybe the lighting around the club made them appear to glow somehow?

"Uh—hi! Is, uh, she a friend of yours?" Fel said.
"Yes, and also very nervous around strangers," the purple-eyed woman said, putting her hands on her hips. "What are you doing chasing after her?"
"Oh! Wow, I—didn't really mean to uh. I just—she looked kinda very tired and thirsty, so I bought her a drink," the werewolf said, hefting the one in her left hand. "Aand one for myself," she added, lifting the one in her right.
The shorter one said something into the purple-eyed woman's ear that Fel couldn't entirely make out, except that the word 'roofie' was definitely somewhere in the sentence.

Fel's ears popped entirely upright. "Wha—oh wooow. Sheesh I did not even think of that! H-hahah..I'll just, leave you two alone then!!!" She took a few slow steps backwards and got ready to turn and run in the opposite direction, the same way a person might behave upon unexpectedly encountering a large, dangerous predator.
"Hold on," the purple-haired one said, making Fel stop short. "If you seriously didn't think of that—you'd be willing to drink either one of those, wouldn't you?"
"Huh? Uh—yeah. I mean I was just gonna drink both of them, oor pour the rest into a sink if I got tired of it or something," Fel said. "Uhhm." She took the one in her right hand and sipped some of it. "Oh wow that's, way fruitier than I expected."

"Then I think this is just a misunderstanding." The purple-eyed woman stepped forcibly aside, gesturing to the one Fel had met at the table. "This is Prama; I'm Jess. You?"
"Oh, uh—Fel," she said quickly. "Can you, tell I've never been to a place like this before?"

"Yep."
"Uh-huh," Prama added fairly quietly.
"Why don't we, go back out to the bar so we can actually talk, huh?" Jess continued, gesturing toward the nearest edge of the dance floor.

"Y-yeah! Maybe I can buy you something you actually want this time, and uhh..not come anywhere near it!" Fel said, turning and starting out that way.

---

The date seemed to be going well now! Once Jack got her talking about her job, Boreas had plenty to say. The younger werewolf didn't necessarily understand what she meant, or recognize the names of the alchemy ingredients she was talking about—and a few she did recognize, she really hoped weren't quite literally what their names said. But..despite the alchemist's dry demeanor, she was almost certainly having fun. Anyway, she definitely seemed to have an appetite; Jack couldn't finish all of her plate and still have room for the desserts now being set before them, but Boreas had eaten every bite available, and was tearing into her last course.

After handing the waiter some cash to pay their check, Boreas said, "Say, Jackie—you mind if I call you that?"
"I-uh. N-no, that's fine.."

"Mmh. Anyway, are you feeling any strain?"
"Uh—strain?" She shrugged. "No?"
"I mean: Do you feel the way you would if you'd maintained full wolf form for about this long?"
"Oh!" She'd...almost forgotten that she hadn't been permanently turned female by that potion. "Uh..no. I haven't, noticed anything weird. No more than my usual ears-and-tail, fangs, and stuff," she said.

"That's good," she nodded. "The potion's effect is only meant to use moonlight to help convert between the two forms."

Not long after that, they finished, went out to the car, and Jack(ie?) drove her 'date' back to the alchemy shop. Boreas didn't say anything during the drive, but when they parked, she said, "You'll need to come in and get your things. Maybe change back."
"Uh—right," the redhead agreed, getting out of the car. Their paths converged a few steps away from the shop's front door, at which point Boreas made a sudden movement closer to the smaller werewolf, and picked her up. "W-wah!"

"Oh, sorry. Just..I've had a good time. Successful dates're supposed to end with some gesture of affection, right?"
"U-uhm.." Jackie felt her face flushing, heart racing, and the weird, fuzzy feeling between her legs again. "Y-yeah..?" It would be very difficult to say no, even if she wanted to.

"Well, I'm not up to a kiss yet. Maybe a little of this?" Boreas reached her hands up and gently rubbed the smaller girl's ears.

"Rrrfh..!" It was a couple of seconds from that to feeling the back part of a soft, warm tail sliding across the base of her own. "A-a~aah..m-m~mmnh.." She couldn't help herself, and leaned forward, burying her nose in Boreas's cheek.

"Mmh..that's all right. I don't mind," she said, seeming to sense Jackie's uncertainty, and then gently nuzzled her back. "Rr~rfh." A few soft, low barks rumbled from her throat.

After a good, long moment of petting, she let go of the ears, maintaining the hug, and slowly slid her tail free again. Then Boreas gently set the smaller girl down and took a small step back. "Well, how was that?" she said, sounding entirely unaffected by the whole thing. But..her face was about as red as Jackie's felt!

"I-i-i-i-i-it was great! I'm uh, I'm gonna. Goinsideandchangeclothesnow!" Feeling equal parts excited and terrified, the redhead ran for it. Maybe she shouldn't have; her legs didn't want to function quite right, and she had to use the wall to support herself a couple of times after getting inside the front door. But she did manage to avoid falling over before getting into the room with her original clothes, pulling off the tight borrowed outfit, and changing back into a man.

---

"Errr..." While Prama scanned through the menu of non-alcoholic drinks, Jess realized that she was kind of thirsty, too.

"Hey, let me have the one you're not using," she directed Fel—having sat between the two of them to make her former roommate feel a little bit safer, for now.
"Uh—you sure?" she said, offering it over.
"Yes. I have certain privileges, so—you couldn't poison or drug me no matter how hard you tried." Her goddess was in total control of her form, which included Zotha being able to decide what affected her, whether it was ingested, inhaled, or injected. And obviously Zotha had no interest in letting her 'high priestess' be harmed that way.

Prama gently poked Jess on the shoulder as she was setting down the glass after a first (rather long) sip, and gestured at the menu. "I-I'll have, uh, this one," she half-mumbled, pointing. Jess nodded, ordering the drink, and Fel paid like she'd offered to.

"Y-yeah, so—I'm really sorry about, causing that whole misunderstanding," the wolf-girl said—trying to lean around Jess to speak toward Prama. "I—I always try to be nice, and kind, to people, but usually it's just way too much and I wind up being nosy and annoying. It doesn't help that I'm usually really unlucky, too."

"L-luh..llll.." Prama sort of stammered at first.
"Yeees?" Jess prompted her.

"Luck is an illusion."

Fel tilted her head. "A—?"
"Everything is a consequence of your actions, and those of others. Even the gods do not control the world," she said, a little louder and more confidently. "Why do you think you're unlucky?"
"Uh—well. It's just that, when I try things, even good ideas, they don't work out. A-and sometimes bad things just—happen to me."

"How much time and effort do you spend planning and preparing? Anticipating failures and mistakes?"
"Uhm.."
"I'm guessing none at all. If you want things to 'work out', being reckless and hoping won't accomplish anything, no matter how good your intentions."

At this point, the bartender brought Prama's drink. "Oh, good," she mumbled, picking it up and chugging maybe half of the glass.

While she did that, Fel sort of stammered uncertainly for a moment before trying to defend herself. "Well—I—it's. I mean I'm not stupid, I do try to make good plans, they just. Like, how—there's things that have happened to me that I had no way to plan for! Like—I-I was bitten by a werewolf and didn't even know those existed!"

"I'm sure avoiding that is not dissimilar to avoiding an attack by a wild animal."

"I still don't know when it happened, though. I don't remember an attack or anything."

"What, you think you were bitten in your sleep?"
"I don't know!" she said, spreading her arms out.

"You must be incredibly inattentive, then."
"Okay, okay—cool it a little bit, Prama," Jess said, gently patting the top of her friend's head. "We can't expect to control everything."

"I still think you can do better. I'll bet I know something Fel hasn't told either of us."
"Uh-huh? What's that?" Jess said.

"You seem awfully generous with your money for a college student."
"Oh, well, that's because—"
"You're not one, right? You didn't say you were underage before, you just said you couldn't buy alcohol. I'll bet it's because your ID doesn't look at all like you do right now. Is it a man's picture on it?"

"Uh—!" Fel's startled jump of a reaction more or less confirmed Prama's guess.

But Jess said, "How, exactly, did you come to that conclusion?"
"Well, look at how she's dressed, for one thing," she said, gesturing. "Even I know how to put on a blouse properly."

"Uh—huuuh?" Fel looked down at her top. "D-did I miss a button or something?"

"More than that. And your skirt still has a sticker on it from when you bought it. Anyway, I don't know how exactly—maybe something to do with you recently becoming a werewolf, or that rain the other day, or whatever—but I guess that form looks younger than what you're used to, and you wanted to go try to hang out with people who look that age for some reason."

"Well uh. S-soooort of? It wasn't really, about age, though. Just—I-I-I guess I can admit it." Fel slumped down slightly. "I, I'd be..embarrassed to go out and 'party' as my, uh, 'real self', you could say. I'm worried what...people I know might think. And when I wa—I'm gonna sound like such an old person but—when I was your age, I..didn't really do any of that. Have any fun. I just, studied forever. And I've always regretted that. But, I—I guess I also actually don't have any idea how to do it, right, either? So, I guess this is just another badly-thought-out 'good idea', huh?"

"Well," Jess said. "If you're still in the middle of making a mistake—if you recognize it—then there's still time to course correct." Seeing that all three of them were more or less finished with their drinks, she hopped off of the stool and onto her feet. "C'mon, we'll at least show you how to let loose on the dance floor. Prama's already figured it out in just one try."

"Oh, r-really? Uh, thanks..."

---

Zotha's dream Friday night was short and to the point. No images, not even the experience of being in a place for any length of time. It was just four words, composed into two sentences, in Bastet's voice: "Tomorrow night. Be ready."