Now we come to the end of the first volume of my time with the Walker family, my introduction to them was swift, my acceptance, faster than I had any right to expect, and the trial we endured was quite literally ‘otherworldly’, at least to me. I conclude this volume, and the first day of my recitation for my doctorate, with the aftermath.

I’ll never know just what my government said to the Earth government, that kind of thing is GC classified, which is to say ‘Generationally Classified’ it won’t be put out into the public sphere until after everyone involved has died. But whatever it was had far reaching consequences.

The legal teams responsible for harassing the Walker family underwent some fairly stringent reviews by the human’s board of ethics. Those who had ‘strongly implied’ various kinds of threats that did not directly involve the courts, faced serious censure. Two lost their licenses to practice law. Most however, walked away after being able to show that they were acting in the interests of their clients. Perhaps that was true, but I had come to like the human conscience, when it worked, and was somewhat disappointed that not all of them paid a price for their actions. Though it is somewhat of a consolation that they were at least unable to work for any government or government connected employee. My homeworld refused to do business with anyone who hired them. Was it petty? Yes. Satisfying? Also yes.

The ones Fauve termed ‘flying monkeys’ who on their own, without any payment that was ever found, engaged in all that horrific behavior toward a minor? They had various outcomes depending on just what they said. Some took confinement, some took prison, based on their threats of violence and the likelihood of carrying it out.

A few ended up in mental institutions, and a handful were fined significantly. She never bothered to look them up, their relevance to her life was gone. Oddly enough, a few of those responsible, actually reformed on their own. They reached out over the years, offering sincere apologies for their behavior and expressing regret for who they were.

Fauve rejected their apologies, and I suppose it was proof of their reform that those whose apologetic hands were slapped away, accepted her refusal and left her in peace.

I would be remiss if I neglected to point out that after she wrote about the experience years later, some humans criticized her unwillingness to forgive them, calling on her to be the bigger person. And Fauve’s response to that was, ‘classic Fauve’.

“No. It doesn’t make what they did any better. It doesn’t erase it from history. And it wouldn’t change how they made me feel when I was just a kid. All accepting their apology would do, is make them feel better about themselves and what they did. You don’t get to do that and then ever be ‘Okay with it’. You don’t get a pardon just because you feel bad. They did what they did and now they have to live with it for the rest of their lives. Whoever said you should always forgive anyone who feels bad, was an idiot.”

Like I said, Fauve would have made a fine dlamisa.

The one I called ‘Wolfbeard’ folded faster than a wet napkin when the pressure was really applied, and gave a full confession on the condition that he avoid ‘confinement’. Given the mounting evidence and number of victims, I can only imagine what kind of mental sentence he would have had to live through. He was sentenced to three twenty year terms and was still imprisoned as of this writing. I can’t help but think he probably believed his father’s money would end up getting him out of it. Whether he still plays his game of being a werewolf or not, I have no idea.

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But there was no more of that. Derrick Horn senior had the entirety of his fortune confiscated, his corporation was liquidated, sold, and the victims paid off from the proceeds. The waterpark was bought by a cooperation entity named ‘Twain Travels’, so in the end, that park wasn’t even lost. It was still around when I eventually left Earth.

As to the old man himself, he was sentenced to ‘confinement’ and walked out of the unpleasant room several hours later. He was witnessed by drones, and when I saw the clip of his departure, he was a shell of himself, his confidence and arrogance were wiped cleaner than his estate. His eyes were more barren than his reputation and legacy. What he lived through, I don’t know, but he would not be causing anyone anymore trouble after that.

He didn’t even have the will left to fight the sale of his property. Thanks to the verdict and the nature of his crimes, he was forbidden from ever owning or operating any for profit or nonprofit entity for the rest of his life, nor was he permitted to work in any position of authority over another human being again. I stopped checking up on him after a few years, once Fauve became an adult, but the last I learned of him until I read his obituary was that he was working in a hotel as a concierge.

I don’t know if he ever bothered to visit his son or not, but… maybe? I never met him, but as we would learn, he bailed his son out of trouble time and time again. Wolfbeard was sent to a multitude of therapists over the years, some of whom would testify to the sentencing committee, and he got all the best schools… which he was either kicked out of, dropped out of, or failed out of. His father even gave him the job at the park that let him encounter Fauve, and brushed aside all the complaints, paid off families and victims… all over the place.

Some of my colleagues from my class have said that it was to protect himself and his good name, not his son. But it so closely mirrors the Walkers, like some shadow, on the ground that is the outline of a good family, that I just don’t think it is that simple.

Perhaps he loved his son and raged against misfortune every night that Wolfbeard became the man he did. Perhaps he was a neglectful father, or a good one, or perhaps he spoiled the boy and turned him into a spoiled man. I never learned what happened to his mother, I never saw her on a video, perhaps she was gone long ago, died or left, or driven off? I was asked not to look into it, by the people who gave justice to Fauve, so I honored their request, albeit with some regrets.

I do sometimes think that trying to protect Wolfbeard from the consequences of his actions is what destroyed his son in the end.

I can’t say with certainty what the truth is about them. But they were a dark mirror reflection of the family I found myself becoming a part of.

William, Rebecca, and Fauve, came together to look after one another, and brought me into their fold with open arms. Through this experience I got to see parts of myself I didn’t even know existed. From trivial things like having my head out a car window going at high speeds, to comforting things like head scratches and pats, to bizarre things like chasing that blasted tennis ball, to the biggest things of all… the power of a bonded human unit.

In the back of my mind I still had the worry of being thrown offworld, but for the moment at least I didn’t have to worry about deportation. There was simply too much to do, and the man I call ‘Wolfbeard’ was still filing motions of appeal that would require me to testify. I don’t think he realized that he was doing me a favor and keeping me here and delaying that question just a little longer. I sure wasn’t going to tell him, that much was for sure.

As I wrote these final words to this first volume, I went back and began to read through my work, editing it as any author both academic or fanciful would, and it was only then that I realized something.

Long before this final word, without even noticing I’d done it… I started referring to the Walkers, Fauve in particular, as ‘mine’.

And they were. Somehow, without my own awareness despite all my note taking and observations at every step, my human hosts became my human family.

I’d come to love them.

And I couldn’t have been happier about it.