TITLE: 'The Nature of the Beast' Part 3/10 AUTHOR: Cherry RATING: PG-13 PAIRING: B/F SUMMARY: Anya has a good day. ARCHIVE: http://www.thekeep.org/~cherry/ SPOILERS: S6 'Wrecked' FEEDBACK: Yes, please. PREVIOUSLY: Buffy and Faith have gone on patrol while Wesley and Spike seek a way to reverse the spell. ** From Part Two ** Wesley paused to polish his glasses, delaying out of a hope that something would occur to him that could make it all alright. He replaced them on his face, and sighed. "Since the new forms were chosen by them, they will each have to chose to return to being human." Spike frowned. "I don't see how that's bad." "Perhaps Buffy chose to go out because she has no desire to return to being human." ** End Part Two ** "And the black panther?" Wesley gave him a slightly superior look. "A misnomer. The so-called black panther is most commonly either a black jaguar, or a black leopard, although other species of large cats can possess melanistic coloration. The jaguar and leopard are a part of the Panthera family of great cats, a family which includes the more well known lion and tiger, which may explain the source of the name. Incidentally, why do you bring them up?" Spike narrowed his eyes. "Because one of the animals I found in her house was a black panther. She and Buffy are missing. Weren't you paying attention when I asked if they'd arrived here? And that I'd been looking for them?" "Ah. Now that you mention it... no, I don't recall that at all. In any event, I'll need to use the back room to prepare a circle for the de-transformation ritual." Wesley scooped up the book, continuing in a lighter tone, "Oh, there is one more minor detail. The ritual can only be performed at dawn, and takes about five minutes. Also, they'll have to be done individually, one at a time." He made it to the door of the workout room before Spike realized what he meant. "Bloody hell! You mean we can only do one per day!" Wesley mumbled a response that could have been 'Quite so,' as he closed the door behind himself. ***** Buffy roused slowly, feeling warmer and happier than she had since she'd first gotten back. She nuzzled her chin into the warm body next to her, and stretched out her arms and legs, flexing her fingers and toes and extending her claws... Her eyes popped open as she remembered the night before. Faith was the warm body, and she was nudging Buffy to wake her up. Buffy nudged back, adding a good morning lick as she got up. Waking up next to a warm slayer was so much better than waking up next to a corpse. Buffy looked around, marveling again at the night vision that cats were blessed with. It almost seemed as bright as... Oh, wait. That bright spot must be the sun. It was fun while it lasted, but they've probably got the counter-spell figured out by now. After all, Willow was able to undo Amy's first rat spell, and it only took her three years. Of course, Willow wouldn't exactly be available to undo this one. It might take even longer than three years. Faith was never big on sharing her feelings, but it was so obvious that Buffy was in a good mood, she couldn't help but echo it. She waited until Buffy had decided which way to go, then nipped her ear and dashed ahead. Taking the forest route to the magic shop wasn't a long walk normally, but with two cats playing a feline version of tag the whole way, it was well into morning by the time they arrived. ***** Wesley blushed again. "I'm very sorry Anya, I completely forgot about clothing." He sat on the corner of the bed in what Anya said was Willow's room as she picked out yet another set of clothing. Anya didn't seem to be listening very closely as she dug through the closet. "I wonder if she'd let me borrow this..." She placed the article back, and added a plain outfit to the stack on the bed. "That's all of them. Now let's go back to the shop and open it so I can start selling things and making money." Wesley picked up the clothing, following Anya back downstairs. He yawned widely, reminding himself to call Cordelia to let her know it might be a few more days before he could return. Also, he needed to get a hotel room so he could sleep. Anya was rather wearying, and he needed to be up before dawn to reverse the spell on the next ad interim animal. ***** "How am I supposed to explain that my fiancé is a monkey? And he has to be able to go to work, or how can he earn money, contribute to society, and buy me pretty things?" "It's only for one extra day, Anya. I'm sure Dawn has homework she needs to do..." He eyed the ferret playing with the vixen and the rat. She wasn't paying attention, or else chose to ignore what he saying. "Xander will be back to normal Monday morning. I believe a more important concern is food. It will be quite some time-" Wesley cut off as there was a loud yell from the back, sounding like someone in agony. He rushed into the back room, scooping up a wicked looking axe along the way. Laying stretched out on the floor was Spike, with two large cats pacing around and over him, circling and growling. One was a buff colored lioness, quite petite for a lioness, actually. The other was a black jaguar, with the large head common to the species. She was fully the size of the lioness, making her a giant of her kind. Wesley tried to control his panic. If Buffy still had her Slayer related strength, and had succumbed to her animal instincts... Spike groaned, and rolled over, sitting up. Both cats stopped circling and sat down, one on either side of his legs. Wesley dropped the axe when Spike started laughing, almost taking off a few toes. "Had a fun night then, Slayer, and couldn't wait to jump my bones?" Both cats nodded, glanced at each other, then the black one ducked her head as if embarrassed. Spike's confusion was evident. "What is it now? You know, as much fun as it is to not have to listen to you insulting me, I feel like I'm missing out on half the conversation anymore." "Faith." All heads turned towards Wesley, one of the furry ones looking guilty. He lifted a hand gesturing vaguely at her. "That's Faith." Spike slowly turned to stare at her, feeling and looking vaguely alarmed. "Nice kitty." ***** Wesley made a list and checked it twice. Large quantities of raw meat, some fresh produce, gallons of spring water, and a number of large bowls. "It's somewhat convenient that so many of you are carnivores, at least the shopping list is easy. Expensive, though." He handed the list over to Anya, congratulating himself on his cleverness. As soon as she'd seen the wisdom in feeding the large animals before they starting looking for alternate sources of food, the tight purse strings had opened. Then he'd casually mentioned that he wasn't so good at bargain shopping, and Anya had decided she'd take care of the shopping if he kept the store open. Anya simply tucked the list away, and scooped Xander off the table. "Come along honey, you can help too." She carried the weakly protesting monkey out the door, the bell chiming softly. Wesley decided that was as good a time as any to call Cordelia and update her. He dialed, and waited through the ringing and one of Cordelia's always inventive greeting. "Yes, it's me. The good news is I've figured out how to fix the current Sunnydale dilemma." //"So there's bad news, then. Don't keep me in suspense, Mr. Cheerful."// "I'm afraid it will take another week to completely resolve. Due to the particular spell used, it will have to be undone one person at a time, and the ritual can only be performed at daybreak." //"No problem, I'll let the others know. Not that I care, but why can't you fix one of the witches and let them do it?"// "None of them speak Aquitanian." He spotted Faith curled up next to Buffy, the two cats napping on the floor and was reminded of her presence. "Cordelia, you said you saw seven animals in the vision. We seem to have an extra one, Faith was here as well." //"Oh, duh. I should have figured it out when Spike mentioned the panther."// "Jaguar." //"Whatever. As long as she's not psycho-girl anymore."// Wesley tried to suppress his memories of being tortured by Faith. He found it substantially easier than expected, mostly because of her current form, and thus subconsciously placed the two Slayers at the end of the mental schedule he'd been arranging. "Quite. I'll call again if I run into any problems." //"You're the boss. Enjoy the vacation."// ***** After lunch, which for the most part consisted of the carnivores gorging themselves on fresh meat, Wesley headed off to find a hotel, while the animals curled up to sleep and digest. Anya didn't pay much attention to this, beyond noticing how cute it was when the gold and black tails wrapped around each other in sleep. The fact that Buffy and Faith had chosen to lay down in the store area was not noticed. The little blonde haired girl holding her mother's hand couldn't have been more than five. To her, the big fluffy cats looked like the stuffed toys she saw in the toy store that mommy wouldn't buy. So naturally, she started tugging on her mother's hand. "Mommy, look. Look, mommy... kitties. Can I pet them? Please mommy?" Anya, who tended to treat children as short people rather than talking down to them, simply said, "They're sleeping now, so you have to be very gentle." Her mother, thinking Anya was making a joke, told her to go ahead. Faith's ear twitched when she felt the first tentative touch on her head. Thinking it was Buffy being affectionate, she relaxed into the touch, rumbling quietly in contentment. A moment later she heard a giggle, followed by a child's voice, "She's purring!" She lazily opened one eye to see a cute little girl in a pink dress squatting next to her, petting her. She could feel Buffy stirring beside her, and glanced that way to see a look of amusement as the girl suddenly decided that since they were awake now, it was perfectly alright to start hugging Faith. A few minutes later, the mother had made her purchases, and came over to retrieve her daughter, who was squealing with laughter as she hugged the big black cat, while the yellow one licked her face. ***** By mid-afternoon, the shop was a zoo. A petting zoo, actually. It was noisy enough to rouse Tara in the back room, who lumbered out into the main shop, surprising the small army of children climbing on the two cats. "Oh, Tara! I'm so glad you're awake." Anya pointed to the woman next to her. "This customer is looking for books on protection rituals. Could you help her?" Tara yawned and padded over to a shelf, thumping down as she sat on the floor. She heard a comment over her shoulder, "Tara's a wonderful witch, she'll know the right one to help you." She scanned the shelf, and pointed out a particular book she liked to use, twisting her head to gaze at the gape-jawed woman following her. It then occurred to Tara that she was still naked. Her nap induced fuzzy thinking cleared up a moment later, and she realized it wasn't that she was bare, it was that she was a bear. The customer had recovered enough to pull out the book and glance through it. Looking at Tara again, she hesitantly asked, "I don't suppose you know where to find the ingredients too?" Tara grinned, and rolled onto her paws. If Sunnydale could ignore vampires and demons, why not a wiccan bear? ***** Buffy and Faith slipped away when the sun set. The parents had left already, some kind of instinctive trait that urged them to get small children home before dark. Anya was much too busy celebrating her best sales day since Halloween to care, but she did elicit a vague promise from both of them to help in the shop to make up for the food. The two slipped out silently into the forest, headed for a large nest they had scented last night. Part of the way there, Faith spotted a doe drinking from a stream. A moment's glance to agree on a plan, and Buffy hunkered down to wait for Faith to circle around and chase the deer to her. The deer never had a chance against the two cats, who feasted, cleaned each other, and headed to the next hunt. -- End Part Three NOTE1: I like to be precise. In the process of writing this, I recalled that the panther wasn't a true species. So I spent some time on the web and looked it up, from which Wesley's little rant originated. However, after that I decided to go ahead and specify the exact species for everyone. Buffy North African lion (Panthera leo leo) Faith Amazon Rain Forest 'Black' Jaguar (Panthera onca onca) Dawn Black-footed Ferret (Mustela nigripes) Willow Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) Tara Grizzly Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) Xander Black-capped Capuchin (Cebidae cebus apella) Anya White-tailed Jack Rabbit (Lepus californicus) Amy Black Rat (Rattus rattus) NOTE2: Aquitanian is a real language. The Romans found a people in the southwestern portion of Gaul, and called them Aquitani. Aquitanian became the language now known as Basque. What's curious about Basque is that it appears to be unrelated to any other spoken language to any extent beyond coincidence. I chose it because this would have made it ideal for hiding spells from the Inquisition. Wesley called it Aquitanian because he's showing off. $Revision: 1.10 $ $Date: 2002/03/03 22:32:33 $