The Snakes Bite

"Thanks for them mood lifters, Nyitzcha!" The middle aged man shouted through a hoarse voice.

Nyitzcha hadn't bothered looking up, her focus was on washing away the stain left on one of her polished wooden tables. She huffed and pressed both palms into the wet rag, scraping along the dried stains with effort while nodding her head to his words.

"Ay! Tell yer buddy nex' time he gives me a tip, it'll cost him double!"

The man laughed as he pushed through the doors, stumbling as someone pushed past him and entered. It was a slender figure with a feminine form, pulling her hood away to reveal a familiar red top with peircing teal blue eyes. Her son followed behind her, pulling his hood away as his long, silk-like brown hair fell across the sides of his head like a waterfall covering his pointed ears. Nyitzcha looked from the corner of her eye as several more figures followed behind her, each wearing a full body cloak disguising their appearance with a baggy hood to hide their cat ears from public sight.

"Hmph, get comfy. Jus' finishin 'ere." Nyitzcha muttered, her stubbornness and determination paying off as the dried stain submitted to her repeated wiping motion.

Janette and Syri were next to arrive, with Janette wearing a scarlet kirtle dress with a lace that lined up the front of her chest, a girdle around the waist, sleeves that hugged her slender arms and a skirt-like design that reached past her knees like a proper dress. Syri in turn wore a similar bagged cloak as her sister and mother, although brown in color and choosing a matching veil to conceal her feline features atop her head instead. Her long tails quickly snuck in from under the cloak to pluck the veil off her head, her cat ears wiggling from exposure as she removed her cloak and placed both garments on a round table nearby. She was left in a more revealing natural look, nearly naked but with a tight top around her breasts and short bottoms that kept her womanhood modestly covered while reaching just above her thighs.

While Dimyri neatly folded her mother's cloak and placed it aside, her mother took notice of her youngest daughter Syri's choice of clothing. An interesting thought crossed her mind but she kept quiet as she began gathering some chairs around in a circle. Dimyri sat down beside her, choosing to keep her cloak on.

Spi'Reto checked with Nyitzcha, leaning over her when she started grumbling to herself while fiercely running her hand around in a repeated circular motion on the table.

"Something wrong?" He asked innocently.

Nyitzcha smacked her lips and hastily tossed the rag on the table in frustration, hopping off the chair and marching behind the bar in search of an alternative method. Spi'Reto watched her walk away, his eyes following her movement and reading her fairly obvious body language. He turned his head to face the table in front of him, his eyes quickly taking notice of the rather small stain which refused to leave its claim on the surface. A wooden chair squealed as its legs dragged across the old wooden floorboards, pushed aside as its owner returned with a bottle in one hand and a handkerchief on the other. Hopping on the stool, she stood up angrily muttering to herself when her anger froze and she was momentarily baffled. Spi'Reto reached around her and placed the worn rag down, leaning in as he peaked into her reaction. Her eyes scanned the surface and did not fool her, the stain had disappeared.

Looking back at the young elf, they temporarily made eye contact. Spi'Reto smiled, Nyitzcha huffed and pushed him back as she jumped down to place her equipment away. He watched her leave yet again, this time scooting the stool back in place before returning to the gathering that was beginning to take place.

The last to arrive where the main couple as they pushed through the double wooden doors, with the Nekomata wearing her familiar aged brown cloak and not bothering to keep her hood over her head as her soft white cat ears stood in plain sight. She had her arm linked around her mate, her head leaning on his shoulder as Felix waved hello to the familiar company who waited patiently. Nyitzcha snuck around the group, pushing two stools out for them to sit before grabbing her own stool and sitting next to the two elves.

"So, is everything okay or should we be worried?" Felix took the initiative to ask, his brown eyes scanning the group to see their faces. It was a fairly large gathering, and seeing how they gathered in the tavern rather than somewhere more hospitable and local, he was suspicious that this were to be troubling news. From left to right sitting side by side were Nyitzcha, Spi'Reto, Alma, Zimi, Na'Vi, Reta, Emyri, Dimyri, Syri, Janette, and Kuli to his right.

"We can begin by saying it's wonderful being here together again, I hope everyone is doing well these past moons." Emyri began the meeting with a motherly smile, glancing over at her close friend. "Where is Nukka, dear?"

"She fell asleep and I didn't want to run the risk of upsetting her. You know how inconsistent that girl is with her sleep." Zimi smiled back with the wave of her tail. "She's in good hands, our daughter is back at camp if she has another nightmare."

"That's great." Emyri leaned back, crossing her leg over the other while Alma stood up and cleared her throat.

"It has been many moons since we have settled into our current homes. As you know, my group and I will be departing once our gratitude is fulfilled."

"Meaning once the house is built." Emyri added for clarification.

Alma nodded to her friend. "We have placed our quarrels behind and gracefully moved forward wherever fate guides us. However, it has come to my attention that regardless of the wicked man's passing and the destruction of the tower in the forest, some of us have recovered, yes, but not without a parting reminder of our past."

"What?" Felix seemed rather puzzled, and a look around the circle showed that he wasn't the only one making a weird face.

Alma placed a hand on her hip. "Meaning some of us have experienced some changes after the battles."

"You mean, in here?" Kuli asked curiously with a tail pressed to her temple.

"Is this like when you gave us the talk when we were around thirteen of age?" Syri leaned forward, her paws on her thighs.

Janette stood up with a sharp breath. "She is talking about me. We set up this meeting because months ago, I did a... a thing."

Everyone stood quiet, eyes staring at the brunette who stood there, hands fidgeting with the fabric of her lace. No one knew what to say, most were curious to know what she spoke of. Kuli leaned in, removing her arm from around her mate's arm and standing up from her stool.

"What's going on, Jay?"

"I haven't been honest with you guys." Janette couldn't look her in the eyes, her hands busy with undoing the lace in the front of her dress.

"We didn't think it was a problem at first, maybe a scar or something. People were hurt after everything happened, so..." Syri added, leaning back and hugging herself with her tails when her mother gave her a look. "So... we told Auntie Alma."

Now Emyri turned her head to her elven friend, who stared back unapologetically.

"And she in turn informed me." Reta contributed, raising her hand to include herself in the discussion.

"Aye, just git on wit' it, I dun' like bein' kept waitin!" Nyitzcha shouted, speaking what Felix guessed was on their minds.

Janette glanced one more time to Syri, who nodded her head slowly while keeping eye contact. Pressing her lips tight, Janette closed her eyes and pulled apart the opening in the middle of her dress, slowly turning around to show everyone what she was hiding.

"A snake tattoo?" Nyitzcha snickered, "Dat's yer big problem?"

"Didn't know you had a thing for snakes." Reta added.

"It's not a tattoo." Syri corrected her with a raised voice, before calming herself. "It just started growing there."

"Growing?" Felix repeated to himself. The texture of the mark did not look like any tattoo he was aware of. Kuli even shared a glance with him, and he knew that she agreed without sharing words. Both turned back to look at their friend as Janette sat back down, making no attempt to conceal her mark.

"What happened?" Emyri asked her.

"Is this because of Vy?" Everyone turned to look at Felix, who kept his eyes fixated to his worried friend.

Janette nodded. "I don't know what's going on or where this stops."

She paused momentarily, her hands squeezing her dress when Syri leaned in and nudged her arm. She took a deep breathe and continued.

"I haven't had a good night's rest for several moons now. Sometimes when I do lay in bed, I dream. But they are not my dreams, the voices don't belong to anyone I know. When I come to, I see things that aren't truly there. I-I see Vy looking back at me. It's like she is taunting me with that smile."

"This began after the tower fell?" Emyri questioned her, turning to her youngest daughter. "And you knew?"

"Not at first, she told me when we started talking again as friends. I just wish she told me sooner, I didn't know what to do. I told her we should tell Auntie."

"And why didn't you come to me first?" Emyri asked with a stern tone in her voice.

"Because, I wanted to show you I can take charge and make decisions on my own."

"I'm your mother, when you're in trouble you come to me or your sisters."

"I did-" Syri muttered in a soft voice. Now Emyri turned her glare toward Dimyri, who seemed rather shocked with wide eyes.

"Something you want to tell me, young lady?"

Dimyri hissed to her sister, who in turned snarled back. Emyri stomped her leg, causing the two siblings to behave with their heads bowed, albeit reluctantly. Dimyri raised her head first, looking around before stepping forward.

"I guess now is as appropriate as ever to show you this." She removed her hood and cloak, the blue fabric falling into a pile surrounding her feet. Some of them gasped as Dimyri gave a little twirl, wearing a similar elven dress while wagging her fingers and brushing her light brown hair aside to show off her ears.

"If you don't mind a bit of skin, Alma would you do the honors?"

Alma stood up, awkwardly stepping by her friend and tugging at the lace behind Dimyri's dress. She didnt remove it entirely, loosening it enough to pull it down just enough to show the cast marking near her deltoid.

"As you can see, the spell my father placed on me to turn me human remains." Dimyri explained as Alma traced her fingers around the center where a scar had healed in its place.

"The spell was not removed in its appropriate manner." Alma explained to them. "When she was stabbed and **** into the ritual, it disrupted the spell but it did not remove it entirely."

"Meaning now I can turn human, sort of." Dimyri had Alma tied up the lace, adjusting the top of her dress before spinning around. "I've been disappearing for some time now and then, and so far I think the effect lasts every few days. I can turn into a cat, a Nekomata, and a human, but I don't have control over it."

"What do you mean?" Emyri asked.

"Mom, I just said what it means. I can't control which form I take, it just happens."

"Well, join the club!" Reta chimed in.

"Can't we remove the thing the right way?" Kuli asked everyone.

Alma shrugged. "It can be fixed, we can try to figure out what the hunter used to place this spell and go from there. Or we can take a more barbaric approach and cut the skin around the mark to remove it entirely."

"You're sure about this?" Felix asked.

"No. I haven't dealt with situations like these, she would need to see someone who is perfect for the task."

"Well!" Emyri crossed her arms with an exasperated expression. "Seems both my girls are keen on keeping secrets from their mother. Do you have any secrets I should know as well, Kuli dear?"

Kuli blinked. "I'm pregnant?"

Her mother smacked her lips, normally she would find her daughter's response amusing but she was not in a mood for playful banter. She turned around to scold at her other daughters.

"Why did you two keep this a secret from me?" Emyri turned to her elvish friend. "And you! Why didn't you tell their mother about this sooner?"

"They made me swear to secrecy." Alma answered with a casual shrug.

"Mother, it was her idea to set this up after all." Dimyri chimed in. "And we are telling you now, I was teaching Syri about how to handle taking over the clutter. I'll be leaving with Alma that way you won't have to worry. Right now, I've been giving her lessons on decision making, looking after the little ones, and-"

"What do you mean, being Head Mother is your role to take! Since when have you had second thoughts?"

"Never until now, Mom! After all we've went through, we should be celebrating but instead we still hide from the public sight and hiding in grassy plains, the difference now is that we don't have a lunatic coming after us. Nothing has changed, we're still monsters to them."

"Where are you going with this?"

"I want to change the way people see us, Mom. I can look like them, maybe that's a good start into changing how they think, showing them that we aren't monsters."

"That... may be harder then you think." Felix rubbed his hand, his voice quivering slightly as his words gathered everyone's attention. "I think different now but a year ago, I would be terrified of Monster Girls. I spent most of life as a **** to one, and I never wanted to lay eyes on another Monster Girl ever again."

"You took a chance on her." Na'Vi stated with an annoyed look and crossed arms.

"Because she had trouble with her memory, and she didn't attack me. Certainly woke me up with a fright though." Felix laughed softly at the memory of her on top of him in bed that night in the storm. "Like I said, it's different now after what we've been through. But not every Monster Girl is as welcoming and friendly as you guys."

"Not to mention the scary looking ones, like Spider Girls." Spi'Reto added, "And then there are the Dragons who were known for setting entire kingdoms ablaze."

"Werewolves as well, most werewolves are more feral and viscous in nature." Reta mentioned, "I didn't have any control when I was cursed, that happened later thanks to a friend. But when I did come to, well... there was nothing left to go back to."

She had paused, her voice drifting away.

"I understand, it's not an easy task." Dimyri breathed in, pausing to clear her head and compose her thoughts into words. "It's complicated, not all Monster Girls are friendly in personality and appearance. Isn't that how all races are? Humans? Dwarves, elves? Saurions?"

"Dimi, you need to think this through. Is this because you don't want to be Head Mother?" Emyri asked. The way her eyebrows slanted and came together, the caring tone in her voice, it seemed like she was puzzled, upset, and concerned all at once.

"Mom, it's fine." Syri jumped up. "Dimyri has been teaching me and now you can teach me too!"

Emyri held her head with both paws, shaking from side to side. She closed her eyes, her face scrunched together as if she were staring far off into the distance to make out what she was seeing. Na'Vi leaned back on her stool, her tails coiled around her waist. Syri sat awkwardly shifting her legs and squeezing her paws together while glancing at Janette, who nodded and gave her a weak smile. Nyitzcha breathed out, her feet swinging above the ground like two pendulums in sync.

"I need more time to think this well, this is a bit too much for me... for all of us to learn." Emyri sighed, leaning forward and keeping her eyes fixated to the floor.

Dimyri nodded. "I understand. I'm sorry, we should have told you sooner."

"We were waiting for a good time to tell you, but it never felt like the right time because we were always so busy." Syri whined. "And then we were trying to figure out Janette's mark too and well-"

"I'm your mother. You come to me and tell me next time. Take me away in private and tell me, but please," She emphasized that word, "Please, know that you can trust me with anything. You will always be my little girls."

She turned around to lock eyes with Kuli. "All of you will always be my little girls. I could never be angry with any one of you forever."

Syri stepped off the stool and approached her mother, wrapping her arms around her. Dimyri joined too from the other side, embracing them both. Felix nudged Kuli who quickly jumped up and hurried to join in, hugging them from the front.

"Someone is gaining weight." Dimyri giggled as her sister gave her a soft kick.

Emyri then raised her head and looked past her daughters to the Nekomata still sitting in her stool. "Na'Vi, you're a part of our family too. Don't forget it, because we won't."

Na'Vi lifted her head and stood up, walking over and gently being engulfed by a flurry of warmth and family love. Felix snickered, he couldn't think of a time when he's ever seen her smile before. That's something he wasn't sure he would see, a thought which lingered in his mind.

Janette fumbled with her dress, brushing her lap with her palms and adjusting her seat. Regardless of the touching moment, it did not change their current predicament. Once the cat girls fixed themselves and returned to their seats, it was Reta who took the initiative catching them by surprise.

"I never explained where I came from before I bumped into Felix." She began.

"Pounced is more like it." Kuli corrected her, receiving a playful nudge from her master to behave.

"Well, it's no secret I tried to fuck him and make him mine." Reta smirked back when her explanation was met by a chorus of gasps, wide eyes and a chuckle from the dwarf.

"That is a very big secret, wow!" Syri cupped her mouth.

"My my, that is quite the reveal. I thought you two shared some history when we saw you two share the bed before." Emyri licked her lips, her curious eyes darting between the blushing human and the blue-haired woman who stood in the center of their group.

"Did ye succeed? I couldn't. Lad has a thin' for cats and dogs, ay?" Nyitzcha snorted as Spi'Reto covered his own mouth to hide his laughter.

Kuli shot a look of venom toward Reta, who matched her eyes with the most frustrating smirk she had ever witnessed. Her paws felt tense as her thighs pressed together and her face felt flustered with an embarrassed red tone. Oh yes, she thought to herself, that wolf is going to get hers one day. Count on it!

Reta turned her back on her, raising her voice. "Oops, secrets out. I suppose it's not a secret anymore. I never explained where I'm from, and don't expect that I am on a mood for sharing now. One secret is enough fun for tonight. I did want to say that I may know of someone who can help. A woman, sort of. She's not like your normal person."

"Is she a monster girl like us?" Syri asked in a cheerful tone. Reta shook her head, causing the ecstatic cat girl's ears to drop in disappointment.

"She's an elf, right? Has to be an elf." Spi'Reto stated with confidence when Nyitzcha huffed and crossed her little legs.

"Elves ain't de only ones who can work magic, lad." She said in a mocking tone.

Spi'Reto turned to face her. "Elves carry a natural talent for weilding most magic, with exceptional skill!"

"And yet, I dun see no magic on you or yer Ma." She sneered.

Now it was Alma's turn to scoot her stool back and stand. "We don't need to show off in some egotistical manner for others, that's not the kind of magic we're versed in. What's your one trick, a weak potion that explodes and nothing else?"

"Seem t'do fine in breaking a few ribs of yer fragile body." She hissed back, both women glaring at one another with a worried elf boy caught in the crossfire.

"Easy now Alma, stand down." Emyri kindly reached out, placing a paw on her friends shoulder.

"Nyitzcha, you said you would behave." Felix whispered to her, having walked up behind her with an arm snaked around her waist to hold her back.

Reta tapped her foot repeatedly as both woman grumbled and sat back down. "She's not like any of us, she's not alive in her words. I don't mean metaphorically or symbolically speaking. She has no organs, no heart, she is, in a literal way, some sort of living doll."

The group exchanged puzzled faces as Reta sighed and rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. "She's been around for a very long time, much longer than all of us. She knows a lot about magic. If we need someone who knows magic, she would be my choice."

"Where do we find her?" Dimyri asked.

"That's the thing, I don't know. She travels and moves around like that hunter, she has no home. She was trying to figure out where she came from when we found her in my village. A lot happened and now that village is gone along with her. It's a long story, but the point is we can try and look for her. But it will be hard, she has no scent to follow."

"I appreciate you telling us that, but I don't know if I want to fix this. I quite like looking this way." Dimyri smiled, wiggling her fingers. "I can hold things now, I can open doors and climb ladders, it's great!"

"But you can't control your form." Reta reminded her. "We don't know what other side effects your spell may have, or whatever is happening for her."

Janette rubbed her dress where her mark hides underneath, raising her head to ask, "Then what will we do?"

Alma sighed. "For Dimyri, she chooses to keep this form and I respect her choice. We can monitor her condition, see if any changes arise that may be concerning. As for Janette, she does not feel pain. It's just a mark, something like a tattoo with no ink. What I can do is make a sketch of what you have now and take it with me. Once your house is finished and ready, I and my group will depart and I can ask anyone we come across to see what they know. As soon as we find out, I can return and inform you, perhaps there may be a cure for this."

"Or perhaps it's just a mark, it could mean nothing." Felix added, ever the optimist.

"I, I guess." Janette's voice fell off, her eyes lowering in disappointment. She was hoping for a different outcome, but without Vardare, it was up to them to find the answers the hard way. She raised her head as an idea came in mind. "I can make frequent trips to the library, it's not too far past Kershin Market. Maybe I can find something there."

"That's a fair start, I don't see why not." Emyri leaned back, her head turning around to face Syri. "You're sure about doing this, dear? Becoming a Head Mother, it's something we've been teaching your sister for a very long time."

Syri lowered her gaze before softly speaking up. "I could use your help too, if that's okay Mom?"

"Of course it is, but... are you really sure about doing this?" She turned to look at Dimyri when she asked her next question.

"I can Mom, I have a gift and I want to use it. I can take care of myself, don't worry."

"It's not you I worry about, it's the people you may encounter that worry me. The world is a very firghtening place young lady, even your Aunt Alma knows this." She turned to her friend. "I'll be entrusting you to look after her, understood?"

"Of course, you have my word. I'll keep her safe." Alma reassured her.

Emyri sighed, her expression didn't change but she nodded in approval regardless. Everyone sat around waiting patiently for someone else to speak. No one did.

"That concludes our meeting then." Alma stood up, her hands in front of her as she bowed her head. "Thank you all for attending. Now let's all go home."