Xopil strolled casually through the ancient abandoned town and its derelict buildings. Shop signs left in disrepair for so long the writing on them had all but faded into the memory of time itself.

"My meddling with history in effort to correct what I feel is a terrible fate only seems to be taking me down a more tragic path." Xopil commented to himself as he looked over the town that he had witnessed thriving previously.

"What?"

Xopil turned abruptly toward the person who spoke to him, only to find he had five people who had been silently following him from the shadows. Xopil shrugged helplessly, "Tell me about the history of this town."

"Very well... the six of us arrived here just over one thousand years ago. At the time, this was a thriving town of slavers, murderers, rapists... you name it, it could be found here. A hidden den of the darker side of civilization in the middle of nowhere. When we came to understand the true nature of this town, well... this is the end result." Felicyta motioned at the town in its current state, "The six of us destroyed this town... by ending the lives of roughly 95% of the inhabitants... this is a conservative estimate, we believe some had to escape, but even so, most of that was your doing, and we've been living here ever since."

"That's quite a bit different than I was expecting." Xopil shook his head, and relayed what he knew of this town, starting off with, "You may have guessed this already, but I'm not the 'Xopil' you know."

The five women listened in silence as they learned of a parallel world where the town they inhabited was not the den of horror they knew, but instead a safe haven of a surviving people decimated, defamed, and humiliated nearly to extinction before they found sanctuary here.

"And on top of all that, they were more animal than you... without the ability to change forms as you can... I myself never had the ability to change into a skunk, or a bear for that matter, until I arrived here."

"It is a bit hard to accept, but when taken into account with what you should know that you don't... I guess it makes it slightly more believable."

"I've been living it and I have a hard time believing it."

"Still, it sounds a lot more convenient not having to change into an animal form to take advantage of its qualities."

"So if given the option, you'd choose not to get back to your original self?" Xopil asked, making the girls pause and seriously consider that possibility.

"We have gotten used to living as we are now, and there are clear advantages while we've almost completely adapted to the disadvantages..." the women averted their eyes sheepishly.

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"For example, hunting and food gathering is nearly the same as walking through a park."

"And your cravings for attention would be the disadvantage you spoke of?" Xopil asked.

"I guess you could say that... You've helped us a lot with that though. There's just the... other thing. And we should probably go over that as well."

"...So tell me how I previously handled it when... it was each of your turns to go into heat?"

"Turn? We all go into heat at the same time... and historically speaking that's going to happen any day now. It wasn't a problem, we were all well attended to."

"You don't expect me to..."

"Is that a problem? You seemed so attentive to our other needs, we just assumed..."

"Yes. That will be a problem."

"It's just nature..." the women argued, "it's not as if we have feelings for you, nor are we looking forward to... with a skunk."

Indeed... a nature I implemented I bet. I hate you karma. Xopil looked at each of them in turn, it's not that they weren't attractive, in fact their animalistic features only added to their beauty. Then there were two things that popped into Xopil's mind that caused him to swallow hard, Xiara and her endless stamina. He started sweating profusely and he quickly stated, "This is a matter concerning my own survival."

Xopil stopped to think for a minute, "Wait... I find it hard to believe I'm that different from the 'Xopil' of this world."

"Yeah, you're right... in some regards you're both identical enough you could be the same person." Felicyta admitted, "That bit about him, or you I guess, taking care of us during our heat was a lie. He would usually lock himself away when he sensed it coming. We couldn't figure out why though."

"...I know why, and we'll leave it at that." Xopil stated then added, "I need to do some research... does this town have a library?"

"There is... We're standing right in front of it." Calypso stated, "Hard to imagine this town having a library... but the slavers, muggers, thieves and murderers who lived here saw value in the books carried by their victims.

"...Thanks," Xopil went into the building without another word. Several months passed as he read every single book this library had to offer, though some of the texts had faded over time, much of the history of this world had been preserved. He did come across one special tome though, a magical tome carrying instruction of spacial magic. The practical instruction section of the book, and everything beyond the basic introduction of the magic itself was faded to history.

"I hate you." Xopil said to the air, "but I guess this makes sense... It was cliche enough for me to find this book. If it was actually useful because it had some kind of protection magic to prevent wear and tear, that would clinch the cliche all the way."

"Quite right." Calypso had perched herself on a nearby railing, and she nodded profoundly at Xopil's revelation then added, "It may still prove useful to gaining a foundation in understanding though..."

"Breakfast time?" Xopil turned to the cat.

"...You really don't have a concept of time, it's dinner time, on the twentieth day of the fourth month since you came in here and haven't set a foot outside." Calypso leaped off the railing and landed gracefully on the table Xopil was reading at. In a matter of seconds after that, she had curled up on his lap.

"Sorry for being so long..." Xopil subconsciously scratched her ears as he flipped open the tome. She purred lightly in response and closed her eyes. Little did she care, but there were four pairs of eyes glaring daggers at her not far away.

"As soon as I'm done with this you'll all get some alright?" Xopil asked without looking up from the book, and that was the last he said as he delved into the origins of spacial magic as described in the book.