Title: Ride the Lightning
Distribution ~ I really don't care as long as it gets read. Just ask first.
Rating ~ NC-17
Disclaimer ~ The characters are not mine and belong to their respective owners. I just play with them. The story, however, is mine.
Feedback ~ ALWAYS WELCOME
Thanks - To my wonderful Bestie and Beta - Astronsoul!
Notes ~ I'm back! Not giving up on this, I promise! Sorry it took so long. Not only was I dealing with health problems but I was away from home for the holidays! With that said, I hope you enjoy this chapter, a bit of explanation, mostly filler 
Thoughts and catspeak in italics*************************************
Chapter 12 - What's your tale...Sleeping, Pura complained to herself, as she walked around the castle,
all sleeping.
She shook her head as the errant thought of waking someone up crossed her mind. Being in a new place was unsettling to her, not knowing all the ways out and in.
Including the exits that don’t need thumbs, she grumbled to herself. At least Astron had thought to leave the bedroom door open, seeing as the room wasn’t large enough for her to pace. Again, she cursed herself for sleeping through dinner the previous night, feeling the emptiness of her stomach from not eating during her travels. The tiger paced the hallways for a moment before sitting right in front of the great doors, staring them down as if they might feel uneasy under her stare and open themselves. The knobs on the doors gleamed with a taunting light, making Pura let out a growl.
“They didn’t mean it,” came a laughter-filled voice from behind her. Pura stood quickly, turning to see Willow coming down the stairs. “What did the big, mean doors do?”
Funny. Make fun of the feline whose thumbs don’t move, Pura grumbled.
“I’m sorry,” Willow said, instantly contrite. “I woke up in a really good mood.”
Unlike me, Pura replied.
I apologize. I’m just very hungry. Is there anything worth hunting around?“There’s a stream ‘round back with fish. I can show you,” Willow said as she opened the doors.
They walked towards the side of the castle, Pura padding along silently beside Willow. Willow usually felt the need to fill silence with pointless babbling, but found that silence with the tiger was easy. It gave her time to study Pura. The tiger’s aura was constantly shifting, it seemed, with her movements. As if each step, her magic was used. For a magical creature she was.
If the talking didn’t give it away, Willow thought wryly.
As they rounded the side of the castle, the distant sound of running water could be heard.
If you have other business, I’m sure I can find it from here, Pura said.
“Oh, I’d like to come with you, if that’s okay. I have questions,” Willow answered with a self-depreciating smile.
Ah, a curious one.“Always.”
Feel free to ask. I cannot guarantee an answer, Pura said. Although, she did feel that she could trust the redhead. Usually, her kind could not tell anyone else about their tribe. As in, literally, they could not explain. Something within themselves stopped them, just like their transformation was stopped. However, something within Pura seemed to speak with the redhead around. A friend of the tribe, Pura suddenly realized. Years ago, in the old days, there were women who came to the tribe, shared their secrets and tried to help what they called “The Cursed Ones.” Maybe Willow was a descendant of one of those women. The tiger internally shrugged.
“What are you? I tried to think of a nicer way to phrase that, but I can’t seem to find one that gets my question asked with no confusion. I can see that your magic shifts, I know that you are no ordinary tiger.”
You’re right; I am not an ordinary tiger. I am a shape-shifter, of the Inucabi tribe.“Inucabi? That sounds familiar,” Willow said, more to herself than Pura.
Yes, it would sound familiar, I think. You seem to be what my people call a friend of the tribe, meaning I can actually tell you about myself. We were cursed, many many years ago, and because of that, I cannot tell of my tribe, or what we are.“So you can tell me, for some reason. Very strange. Does Astron know of this?”
She does not. I am unable to tell her.“This curse, what does it entail?”
My tribe can change back and forth from our human bodies to our spirit animal with nothing more than a blink of the eye, until we come into our teenage years. That’s when the curse sets in. Until we find our true mate, we are stuck in our animal form. When we find our true mate, they must learn to love our animal before they can see our true form. Once the love is exchanged, we can start our transformation.“Start it?” Willow’s voice was full of confusion, her face scrunched up with her thoughts. “Can you not go back into being able to change quickly?”
If only, Pura answered, wistfully.
Shape-shifters who stay in animal form for a long time have trouble shifting. It’s a very painful process.“Painful, yet worth it,” Willow stated, as they came to the edge of the stream.
Yes, if nothing else, I miss my thumbs.Willow laughed, but then immediately sobered. “Astron is your mate?”
If she’ll have me, Pura answered honestly.
My heart is hers.“We’ll have to see what we can do to make sure that happens,” Willow said, resolve setting into her features.
************************************
“What was training like?” River asked, as they walked their horses. They had been traveling for some time now, having already stopped at two other magical villages, acquiring two more Wiccans along the way. Sera and Calah seemed like adept, if quiet, magic users.
“The training?” Charna mused, bringing her memories of her training to the forefront of her mind. “It was very grueling. Wake early, go to bed late, and work hard in between. It’s very rare to get a moment of rest. I’m glad I went, though. Very worth it, I can call the winds easily, and I know many ways to use it, for defense or otherwise. It was your turn to go when I returned, correct?”
“Yes,” River replied. “I worked hard while you were gone. I learned that water is everywhere, and now I can call it whenever I like, from anything. Well, almost anything.”
“Excuse me,” Calah piped up, her high-pitched voice startling the horses.
Charna turned to look at the small, mousy woman. Looks could be deceiving. “Yes?”
“What do you both mean, by calling on the winds or water? I’m confused.”
“We are elementals,” River answered. “Each magic user from our village can call upon an element for magic. Other magicks do not come to us.”
“So you can’t do spells?” Sera asked. As she asked the question, the dark haired woman fumbled her pack, spilling scrolls across the hard-packed earth of the path. Sera seemed awfully clumsy for a spell caster, a magic user who could call magicks by reading from scrolls. She was constantly fidgeting, and tripping over her own small feet.
“No, we cannot,” Charna answered. “There are many types and variants of magic, and ways to call the magicks. Elementals are born with the ability to call upon an element, sometimes more than one, and we train all our lives to become masters. Calah is a variation of an elemental, being able to call upon the earth, and weather. I cannot even begin to describe the many ways that magicks can be called.”
“That’s a lot,” Sera said, her eyes wide and child-like. She fumbled again with her pack, before she caught her glasses, pushing them back up on her nose before they could slip from her face.
“There’s a lot for all of us to learn, no matter how much we know,” River answered sagely.
Charna nodded, then narrowed her eyes as she saw dust being kicked up further along the path, “Look sharp, ladies. Company coming.”
“Oh boy,” Sera squeaked, dropping her pack.
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“Can I ask you something?” Astron asked Tara, as they stood watching Pura and Willow splash in the creak from the library window.
“You j-just did,” Tara laughed. “Go a-ahead.”
Astron enjoyed the joke for a moment before asking, very seriously, “How do you tell someone you love them?”
Tara turned from the window, a small, gentle smile on her face as she looked into Astron’s aura. When Astron started to squirm under her stare, Tara’s smile only became brighter. “You just tell her,” Tara finally said, her voice almost a whisper as she turned back to the window.
“What if it’s unconventional? Maybe that person doesn’t love me back.”
“Pura loves you, Astron. Just tell her, and see what happens.”
Astron set her shoulders, “I’ll tell her tonight, when I get the chance to speak with her alone. Until then, we have things to do.”
“What things,” Tara asked curiously.
“Training,” Astron said, spinning Sais from her belt with a laugh.
Tara looked nervously at the shining metal instruments, “Knives and I… w-well we don’t go t-together. I’m n-not very g-good with t-the…” She started swinging her hands in front of her like a dog-paddle.
“Swimming?” Astron held back a laugh.
“Violence,” Tara said with a huff. They looked at each other, very serious for a moment before breaking into raucous laughter.
Astron calmed down; then gently set her hand down on Tara’s shoulder, “Hun, you need to learn to fight. If someone gets close enough, I don’t want you getting hurt. Or if Willow is backed into a corner and I’m-”
“Teach me,” Tara said grimly, with no hint of a stutter. “No one touches my girl.”
“That’s right,” Astron said. “Both of you will learn.”
***************************************************
“The time is coming,” William told Angelus.
“We’ll be ready,” Angelus answered with a sneer, rubbing his hands together, causing black sparks to jump from his palms.
“Yes, we will,” Drusilla said from the far side of the room. “Spike, be a doll and give me a puppet show. I want to play.”
With a wicked laugh, William turned in the dark room to look at his girl. He spoke a few words, and the ground started to crumble from beneath them, bodies climbing from the packed dirt. Three dead men stood in front of him, dumbly waiting for instructions.
“Dance,” Angelus said with a growl, and the bodies started jerking into an awkward jig as Drusilla clapped, getting up to dance also. Her child-like giggle filled the dark room as she grabbed the arm of one of the bodies, turning into a spin. She laughed louder when the arm she grabbed ripped off but the man kept dancing.
“I think it’s time we moved on,” Angelus said.
“Agreed,” William said, his smile growing. Together, the two men spoke, calling the dead. In the night, screams rent the air from the village, as zombies attacked the villagers. Drusilla’s laughter grew louder, William and Angelus joining in the revelry as the villagers screamed their last breaths, and the night sky was lit by the fires of burning homes.
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TBC!!Thanks to everyone who has been PMing me with well-wishes, it means a lot!
!! Passion, humor and the threat of peanut butter violence...I think i'm in cyber love 
) but I love the canon reference and the grim motivation which also references Tara’s great line when she goes axe-happy in S-5. 
) Anyways, I’m curious to see what they are really up to and if/when they end up taking over/combining “operations” with dear old Donald.