Koradonda: Chapter 9, The Crown is Claimed: Part 1

Things go wrong and Jones has his hand forced again.

Seeing the change in attitude in his Pets came as a surprise to the creature called Jones. Both were in season. Yet the loser of the coin toss, not the winner, was hospitality, while the other stayed with Ann.

Focusing his attention elsewhere, he put that very unusual behavior out of mind, and turned his focus inward to see the pattern and strings, and froze. A situation that cannot happen, happened yet again. He could perceive nothing of the pattern. It was like is didn’t exist. Nor could he see anything he could do about that. Confusion, rare in his kind, threatened him and he fought desperately for control. Nothing he knew of could block him from perceiving the pattern. Yet something was. When he had that confusion under control, he set part of his mind to analyzing every bit he knew of this.

Standing up, the rest of his multi-compartmental mind focused on doing other things and left the building. First, to smooth things with the one the humans called Rocky, in the tennis court.

Rocky Pets, currently in wolf form, cowering in the corner of the Tennis court Rocky had locked them into and Jones approached it.

Rocky stood and faced him. “Is there a way that I may clear this insult to you?”

Not bothering to turn, Jones said, “Yes, allow me to touch the minds of your Pets, then watch and learn, for you are quite capable of doing this to the Pets of lesser Beast Lords.”

“Proceed,” the stone man replied.

Jones brought his power crashing into the wolves.

Both yelped, then a long piteous cry emanated from them as his power took hold. Images of all the other Pets currently on his estate in either form took shape in their minds, and with those images was their scent. And with them, Jones put fear so deep within each of the wolves would never be able to remove it.

“This is all that you require of me?”

Finally turning to look at the stone man, Jones asked, “Did you learn?”

“Yes.”

Turning away from him, Jones went on, “Then it is all that I require of you. Though I have only had one Pet that I have had to install fear to keep her out of trouble, you have let yours roam, without restraint. It is likely that you will need to do so with other things before you have them fully back under control. They are marvelous Pets; they have just been let roam free for too long, so time and power is all that is needed before they are what they should be. I would see to it before you come across another greater than you. Three times now, they have done things, that if circumstances had been different, I would have simply destroyed them as I did the one belonging to the one that sits on my patio, trying to unmake that which I have made.”

Just then, Sara came around the one corner as a deer while Lisa came from the opposite direction as a nude young girl. At the same moment Lisa rose to stand as a woman, Sara went to all fours, becoming a cougar before her forepaws touched the ground.

“Great one, I cannot understand how that is done. You did not decide to change them. They changed on their own desire,” The stone man said.

Jones voice rumbled again, “It is a trick that took many thousands of years to learn, and can only be done if they are near and my mind is not occupied.”

“Can this trick be taught?”

“No, it has very little to do with power or skill, but a lot to do with how you think. If you can do it, you will figure out how with enough effort.”

Turning to the one called Andrew, who watched from the woods, Jones said, “I had hoped you would have put more effort into taking on more human traits before today.”

All that Andrew has achieved to this point was the look of a movie werewolf, that is, if it was a Saint Bernard instead of a wolf, while Rocky had put far more effort into it, looked very much like a man made of sandstone now. Jones went back inside to focus once more on the mystery of the pattern he could no longer see for the remainder of that day.

**

Wearing a designer dress priced at three times her monthly salary that Jones had delivered to the estate that morning for her, Ann joined Andrew, Zala, Sara, and Lisa in the reception with the ambassadors. It didn’t take her long at all to figure out that though the afternoon appeared as a social gathering, all five of the government’s team were working their tails off and trying not to show just how hard they were working the crowd. Throughout the evening, Ann found herself surprised at the questions she was able to answer from them. Understanding the legal status she now held, she had consulted with Mr. Jones on what replies, if any, she could give to questions. His answer to use her own judgment surprised her.

Hour by hour, time passed, and one or the other of the diplomats would drift up to her with questions. The land line phone rang when she happened to be standing near it with no one questioning her. On the seventh ring, Ann realized that usually either one of Dolly’s slaves, or Mr. Jones himself would have answered it. As Dolly had her slaves back in her room with her and Mr. Jones was engaged with the Ambassadors, she answered it. “Jones estate, Ann Donaldson speaking.”

“This is Secretary of State, Korring. It is imperative I speak to Ambassador Jones at once.”

**

The creature called Jones went to the phone, knowing something was wrong. The man would not have called now unless he had to. “Ambassador Jones.”

“What in the hell have you started, Jones? What have you gotten us into? I will quote you a translation of the town newspaper in an eastern Russian town. They report it to be an interview with one of your kind.”

“I, the master of nature and future king of the animal people, demand that the United States cease all talks with the so-called Ambassador and withdraw recognition of him. To show the reach of my power, any human that approaches a cow from sun up to sun down in that land shall be attacked by that cow.”

“He’s only a child.” Taking a deep breath, Jones went on, his decision now forced, “He didn’t get hardly anything translated right into a human language. I thank you for informing me before anything came of it. I will take action so it does not happen again.” He hung up the phone.

In the center of the room, he raised his voice so it filled the entire building as if there were loudspeakers everywhere. “Gentlemen, this was a very unplanned-for event and calls for emergency actions on my part. Because of the steps I must now take, starting tomorrow, a great number of my people will begin showing up here. It is about to become a very dangerous situation anywhere near here. Please evacuate everyone within five miles. My people will be in and agitated state. If there is someone in their way impeding them in any way, there is a likelihood of them killing them. Please move as fast as possible on this.”

Ann asked, “What is going on?”

“A brat decided to piss in my pond.”

Andrew and Rocky did not get the reference, only the tone. Rocky had picked up enough English to get the gist of the phone call as both could hear it beside Jones. Andrew said, “Surely you are not going to do something to insult even a young Nature Lord.”

“He’ll probably look at it that way, but he will be unable to take action on it.”

He turned to Ann, “I am going to need your services desperately here, shortly, but the danger factor will go up tremendously. Unless I ask you to accompany me, do not set foot outside of the building after tonight until this is settled.”

Entering the room, Rocky stated in his own tongue, “You are ancient and crafty, but to insult a Nature Lord is beyond foolishness.”