Green Canyon Magic - Ch.10 - Team Gaia (Patreon)

"End the fossil fuel industry," Gaia glared angrily. 

She continued, "The sooner you stop digging up carbon that was buried a hundred million years ago and adding it directly to the atmosphere, the better. You folks claim to be smart, I'm sure you'll figure out clean replacements now that you don't have any other choice."

Stef and I were sitting up in bed together, holding our phones. And Theo had squeezed in between us so we could all watch the big announcement. 

At first it was kind of amazing, when we realized that little earthquake had been her. She literally gave the whole world a shake, to get everyone's attention. Happily it only lasted a few seconds, and near as I could tell didn't do any damage. Or at least, there was no damage as far as I could sense with my earth magic. I assumed it was like that everywhere else, she just wanted to wake folks up so nobody would miss her speech.

On the other hand there was one notable change heralded by the little quake. That pain in my lower back vanished at the same time the earth stopped shaking, and sure enough I had a third floofy fox tail back there. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to get excited about that, as both my and Stef's phones suddenly came to life almost as soon as the quake ended. The screens lit up our little cave, while Gaia's voice sounded loud and clear from the small speakers.

From that point on the three of us just watched and listened, with a growing sense of awe as she delivered her ultimatum to all humanity. Now it felt like her speech was coming to an end, her anger was giving way to weariness and sadness, maybe with a little disgust or disappointment mixed in.

Mother Nature shook her head as she stated, "The sooner you clean up your act the sooner those of you who are sick will start getting better. The longer it takes, the more of you will be at risk and the higher the death toll. Try to fight me or my representatives or ambassadors, and things will escalate even faster. This is a battle you cannot win folks. I've existed just fine without you for more than four billion years, and I'll do just fine without you for four billion more."

"That's all I have to say for now," she added, and a moment later our phones went dead again.

The three of us sat there quietly in the dark as Gaia's message slowly sank in. It was probably two or three minutes before anyone spoke. In the end it was Stef who finally broke the silence.

"So I guess that's the work Gaia's offering us," they commented. "She mentioned representatives and ambassadors, right? She said there were eighty of one and forty of the other. I think that pretty much confirms that there's plenty of others out there who've changed like the three of us."

Theo added softly, "She also said that some of them already got killed by humans."

"Yeah," I sighed. "When she visited us earlier she warned us that if we wanted to go to Hardegg we should have done it right away. Now we know why. After her big announcement people are going to be panicking. It's probably not going to be safe for us to go into town anymore."

Stef shook their head, "Folks might be panicking, but I can't believe anyone around here would start shooting at us."

"Some humans are violent and dangerous. It's hard to guess what they'll do sometimes," Theo pointed out.

I had to agree with the wildcat, but I elaborated on what it was that scared me. "I'm not worried about shop-keepers and farmers, I'm thinking about police or military. Gaia's basically just declared war on humanity, and impossible mountains like ours are going to be ground zero. The government probably has patrols around the park perimeter, or at the edge of the no-electricity zone."

"Or if they haven't been patrolling it yet I'm sure they're going to start now that Gaia's done her big speech," I added.

My enbyfriend was quiet for a few seconds before they shrugged, "I'm not worried. She said she'd look after us. It just means whatever happens, we don't need to worry about hiking out for groceries any more."

"She said she'd look after us if we accepted her job offer," I reminded them. "After that speech I have a feeling a lot of people are going to be calling her a terrorist, or worse. She just threatened to kill a quarter of the entire human race cutie, anyone who's working for her is probably going to end up on some serious most-wanted lists. Are you sure we want to do that?"

Stef responded immediately and emphatically, "Absolutely!"

"Anyways Gaia specifically said she doesn't want to wipe out the human race," they continued. "She just wants the humans to clean up their act. You heard what she said, about pollution and climate change. And wiping out species. We've been talking about that sort of thing forever. There's been protests and stuff since before either of us were born, but nothing ever changes. Until now."

I nodded slowly, "People are still going to try and fight this. The Americans for sure won't stand for some teenage girl telling them what to do. And the oil companies? They're huge, and rich, and they probably have whole governments on their payroll."

My enbyfriend actually smiled, "Yeah but they're not going up against some foreign teenager this time. This isn't just some global protests and peaceful demonstrations. This is Mother Earth herself, and she's pissed off. What are the Americans going to do, shoot their guns at the ground?"

"We were just talking the other day about turning our backs on capitalism right?" Stef continued as their smile got bigger. "We were talking about quitting our jobs and living out here in nature. Mother Earth practically said the same thing. Fuck capitalism! Hell she basically just told the whole world to eat the rich! Even if she didn't use those exact words. And she said to hold our 'corporate overlords' accountable, and that people should demand change come from the top down."

They were on a bit of a roll at that point. They continued smiling as they added, "She literally just told the world to pull the plug on Big Oil! That's huge! And she said that was only the beginning! Mother Nature is going to change the world, and I just know it's going to be a better place when all this is over. I want to be part of that, my little star. You and me, and Theo too. All three of us on Team Gaia."

It was hard not to get caught up in the cat-kin's enthusiasm, and despite my lingering concerns and some unanswered questions I started smiling as well.

Then our wildcat friend commented quietly, "Gaia won't really want us to eat the rich will she? I think billionaires would probably taste really bitter."

"No Theo," I responded as I stifled a laugh, "Eat the rich is a saying, it's not meant to be taken literally."

Stef grinned too, but after a few seconds their expression became more serious. They looked at both me and Theo and asked, "So what do you two think? I'm all for this, I want to help Gaia fix the world."

"I trust her," the wildcat replied. "If she wants me to be her representative then I'll do it."

That just left me, and both of my companions gave me an expectant look as they waited for my decision.

After a deep breath I told them, "I still have some questions, but I'm in. The world's messed up, I want to help fix it."

My enbyfriend pulled me into a hug as they smiled, "I knew you would!"

I hugged them back, while Theo lay across the cat-kin's lap. Then after a few moments I asked, "So what next? How do we let Gaia know we'll take the job?"

"I have a feeling she's going to be pretty busy right now," Stef responded. "Why don't we all try and get some more sleep? Maybe she'll visit us again in the morning. Or if not, we can figure out how to contact her once we're properly rested."

Theo agreed, but there was something else I needed to point out first. 

With a serious expression on my face and an equally-serious tone in my voice I told the cat-kin, "Before we go back to bed there's a very important de-tail that we've all overlooked. Something that I feel was unfairly overshadowed by Gaia and her speech."

Stef frowned, "What is that, my little star? What have we overlooked?"

"This!" I grinned as I turned and swished all three of my tails at them. "It grew in when the earthquake happened! Then our phones came on and Gaia did her thing and I didn't get a chance to show you."

They suppressed a laugh as they reached out and caught my newest tail, "Ah yes. A very important de-tail indeed! How rude of Gaia to distract us from appreciating your newest floof with her silly nonsense about saving the world from climate change and environmental catastrophe."

"Yes!" I grinned. "That's exactly what I'm trying to say!"

The two of us giggled quietly as they gave my new floof some strokes, while my other two tails wagged happily back and forth. Eventually though we both finally lay down, and cuddled up close together inside our combined sleeping bags. Theo climbed up on top and got comfy laying across our legs, as we all tried to get some more sleep.

It didn't come easily though, for any of us. There was so much to process after Gaia's big announcement to the world, that it took an hour or more before I finally drifted off. It was probably the same for my companions too, as all three of us slept in well past sunrise the following morning.

In fact it was around mid-morning before we were finally ready to get out of bed. Then as we got started preparing breakfast the realities of our situation started to sink in once more.

"We really need to get in touch with Gaia soon," Stef sighed as they opened the plastic container of freeze-dried egg. "Or we're going to have to do a grocery run after all. There's barely enough for breakfast today. Tomorrow will just be crumbs."

Theo reminded us, "I can hunt. And you two need to learn as well."

I smiled, "Thank you Theo. We'll try and sort things out with Gaia first, but we appreciate you looking out for us and offering to teach us."

"So how do we contact her? Even if our phones worked it's not like we have her number or anything," the cat-kin asked as they stirred up our reconstituted eggs.

I frowned as I thought for a few moments, then shrugged. "She's Mother Earth right? So she's everywhere, all around us, all the time. Maybe she already knows we want to talk to her?"

"Or maybe I can get her attention with my earth magic?" I added as I looked down at the stone floor of our cave cottage.

"Right now?" Stef asked. "Or after breakfast?"

I smiled, "No time like the present, right? I'll try and contact her now. After all, she's probably really busy. She might not be able to respond right away, but better we let her know now and get in the queue."

My enbyfriend giggled, "What kind of queue? Wait, do you mean like a tech support phone queue?"

"Sure," I grinned. "She's got a few dozen other trios like us all waiting to be hired, we don't want to end up at the back of that list. Maybe we'll get signing-bonuses if we're in early?"

"In that case we should have tried to contact her last night after all!" Stef laughed as they served up breakfast for the three of us.

I thanked them for the little bowl of scrambled egg, but I didn't start eating just yet. Instead I focused my attention downwards, through my bare feet and into the rock of our cave cottage. Yet again I had no clear idea what I was doing, but I sort of tried to use that magical connection to send a message out into the Earth around us.

"Hello Gaia," I 'said' through my earth magic. "This is Stella, here with Stef and Theo. We are ready to accept your offer, and would like to sort out the details at your earliest convenience. Thank you!"

With that out of the way I told my companions, "All right, message sent. With any luck Gaia will get back to us shortly."

"Hopefully before we run completely out of food," Stef added.

"Speaking of which, thank you for breakfast cutie!" I smiled at them.

They smiled back as we all started eating together. It was ok, but we were all pretty tired of dehydrated scrambled eggs by that point. On the one hand I was glad we wouldn't be eating it again for breakfast tomorrow, but on the other hand I hoped we'd have a better alternative than 'nothing'. Or whatever Theo managed to catch and bring home with him.

Stef spoke up after a minute or two of silence as all three of us focused on our meal, "So what are we doing today?"

"There's always more swimming," I replied with a grin as I swished all three of my tails around behind me. "After last night we know it's possible, right? The other day wasn't a one-off. More tails for sure, and maybe more magic too?"

The cat-kin rolled their eyes, "Just how many tails are you hoping for?"

"Nine," I replied in a matter-of-fact tone. I tried to sound and act posh as I added, "That's the correct number for a kitsune as beautiful and important as me. After all, I'm in the direct employ of Mother Earth herself."

They rolled their eyes again and made a face as they responded, "Uh-huh. If you had nine of those sticking out you wouldn't be able to stand up straight. All that floof would topple you over backwards."

"Yeah but think about how warm and fluffy they'd be!" I grinned. "I could keep all three of us warm through the winter, cuddled up inside my extensive floof!"

Stef tried to hold back a laugh at that visual, but in the end both of us had a good giggle together. And by the time we'd recovered from that we were all finished eating. 

"Let's go down to the lake and rinse out the dishes," the cat-kin suggested. "And maybe we can come up with some other ideas for what to do with our day."

We were all just about ready to head out together when we all heard the familiar voice just outside the door, "Knock knock! I'm back!"

*** This chapter is brought to you courtesy of Lucy who commissioned it! ***