Cautiously and carefully, Sophia returned to the house and laid the child on the table. Ophellia rolled on her side and looked at the kitchen in discomfort. "You're the witches!" She sprang from the table and tried to run for the door, but Sophia blocked her.

"What're you going to do with that?" Lilliana asked in distaste. "You're not going to keep her are you?"
"I am"
"Why on earth for? It's stupid!"
"For one thing, this girls mother most likely abandoned her here from what she told the boys. For two, it'll get to them and bring them back here. And for three, little girls don't stay little girls forever. We could have another set of hands." She turned to the little girl and smiled. "You'd like that wouldn't you dear?"

"No!" Ophellia protested and tried to kick Sophia in the knee, but Sophia was much taller and picked her up around the waist and held her with her legs dangling in the air.

"That's quite enough out of you." She looked the girl straight in the eyes, hers filled with stern force, which made Ophellia feel more and more like a child. "Do you know what happens to naughty children in this house?"
"How would you know, we never had any." Lilliana chimed in, stirring her pot on the stove.
Ignoring her sister, Sophia continued. "Naughty children don't last long here. They're cooked and they're eaten. Is that something you'd like happening to you?"

"No..." Ophellia began sobbing, prompting Lilliana to snicker and turn her back to the child to hide her expression.

_________________

Athren had sneaked back through the fields and found himself in front of the cottage once again.

He really didn't want to be there...especially not for some human child, but it was partially his fault for not waking up when she'd been taken...if she'd been taken?

He shook his fluffy head and flattened his frills back as he snuck inside.

The small blue fox ducked behind some furniture, waiting to see what they were going to do with the girl first, not wanting to act if there was no danger for her...

The child tried to struggle away from the woman, which resulted in a harsh slap to the face. "If you don't want to stay and learn our ways, that's fine. Killing you would be easy enough. But I don't want to have to do that."

" Oh Sophie," Lilliana sighed. "Why did you pick now to have a crisis? Just get rid of her! She'll only weigh us down." The young woman picked up the de-boning knife from where she'd taken the bones from the meat she'd been preparing. "Here." She huffed kurtly and handed it to her older sister. The child's eyes filled with fear as she saw the dim light of the day glisten off the blade.

_________________

**** me...

Athren was there in a flash, his hand grasped the younger girl's that held the weapon. His eyes stared down at her coldly, teeth bared in anger.
"I believe we have some unsettled business, dear?" His hissed angrily as his hand squeezed hers, forcing the knife to drop harmlessly to the floor.

As soon as the weapon was removed he pushed the older girl back harshly, catching the smaller one with his other hand and pushing her towards the exit.
"Run brat."

He was picking up the knife as soon as the girl started moving, brandishing it like the murderer he was.

"Now then...wanna play?"

(I'm so sorry, I haven't had the internet for a while)

Lilliana growled and stood herself back up while Sophia used her transformational skills to become her snake once again. She slithered under the stove and curled in the back, waiting for the time to strike. Lilliana stepped back toward the corner of the room looking about for something to use in her defense. She picked a long piece of fire wood. Originally the wood was too long to use in the fire, but now that she was being threatened, it became quite useful.

_________________

(no prob lol)

Athren noted the snake..no wonder Jolta's pet had been bothered by something earlier.

His eyebrows rose as the female that still remained human brandished a large piece of firewood at him.
"You seriously gonna challenge me with that??" He scoffed, baring fangs and spinning the dagger around his fingers masterfully.

"How about you just put that down and save yourself the struggle? I'll make it quick?"

Lilliana brandished the wood, warning the man to stay back. Sophia realized her sister couldn't hold him off alone and lunged from beneath the stove to strike at his ankles and lower legs. The little girl trembled outside the building she watched the scene progress through the open door.

_________________

Athren barely glanced down at the snake, not even giving a crap that she was biting him.
Instead, he lunged forward, grabbing the long piece of wood and throwing it aside, snatching up the smaller girl and holding her up off her feet by the scruff of her dress.

"You little brat. No one rapes me!" Athren snarled, his eyes burning red with the power that she'd sealed.

"How about this..I won't kill you...in exchange, give me and my brother our powers back..."

He stepped forward a few times, slamming her in to the wall.
"Better speak quickly before I decide I like being human!"

The snake slithered up the man's leg, growing closer and closer to the torso. Lilliana gasped for breath and scowled at him from the wall, catching her breath.

"No," She spat defiently and swung her leg up to try and kick him away.

_________________

"Such insistent little rats!" Athren snarled, slamming her against the wall again, much harder than the first time.

The young man didn't even realize the snake was shifting up his body. Having had Jolta's serpent claim him as a sleeping post had made the movements lost to his fear.

"Change. Me. Back!"

"No!" Lilliana shouted, struggling against him and making sure her eyes met his while her sister slitheres around his waist. The serpent gripped the man's sensitive area in it's teeth and began to writhe and twist, rolling about in an attempt to render it from his trunk. She wrapped herself around the upper part of his waist and squeezed, all the while holding her prize in her jaws.

_________________

Athren's eyes widened as he felt fangs sinking in to the item between his legs. Definitely NOT a place for fangs!

He dropped, instantly, his hand releasing the younger girl as it moved to grip the head of the snake that was biting him.
"Get the hell off darnit!"

Freaking snake had jaws like a rat trap!

Lilliana took this opportunity to grap the long piece of wood and swung it at the man writhing on the floor. She was careful. to aim for the head, avoiding her sister on the man's groin.

_________________

A loud gasp came from Athren as the weapon came down on his head.
He was out like a light, the pain between his legs forgotten as all the lights went out in his head.

Normally such an easy hit wouldn't have done anything to him, but SOMEONE turned him in to a mortal...which definitely meant he was out cold for awhile.

When he was unconscious, Sophia resumed her human form. Her right ear was twisted and broken from her head being grasped so tightly while in her serpentine form. She rubbed it, hoping to straighten it out, but nothing helped. She sat at the kitchen table and put her head down on the table.

"Sophia... Sophia what do we do now?" Lilliana questioned, still clutching the piece of wood.

"Kill him!" Sophia cried in pain. "Just kill him, bash his head in with that wood, or slit his throat, I don't care how you do it, just kill him."
The little girl began to tremble and cry, hoping that the man would not be killed.
"Kill her too!" Sophia shouted, gesturing without looking toward the door. "I'm tired of being nice. I'm tired of everyone. Just kill them both."
The little girl took this opertunity to run very quickly back in the direction that she remembered comming, toward the sound of the river.
"Should I go and try to find her?" Lilliana asked meekly.
"I don't care, the wolves will probably find her before you do. You might as well just let her be devoured, or starve. Whichever comes first."

_________________

Jolta had felt his brother losing consciousness, had managed to stagger to his feet as a fox.
It wasn't an easy task to get back to his feet, especially with the throbbing pain in his hind leg, but Jolta managed to run towards the girls house, even though he was dragging his back leg, damaging it more, he needed to get to his brother before something bad happened...

The young god found the young girl as she was running from the area, his ears perking up as she approached.

"You're brother is going to be killed!" She shouted, her eyes blurry with tears. "The witches hit him on the head and now they will kill him for sure!" Ophellia was panting from having been running as fast as she could over the hilly and uneven terrain. "I was comming to get you..."

_________________

Jolta set off bolting towards the cottage before the young girl even finished speaking.
His back left leg was numb by the time he skidded in to the cottage, snarling and baring fangs...but still a tiny fox, his fur bristling to spikes as his only pathetic defense.

"This vermin again?" Sophia inquired. "Just hill it and then kill the other man."
"why must I kill both? You're legs are not broken, you kill the fox."
"Fine!" Sophia stood, withdrawing the bone knife from earlier and raising it to strike the fox. Meanwhile, Lilliana raised the wood and began to beat the unconcious figure about.

_________________

Jolta dodged the first swing of the knife, barely. Some of his fur bristled off his body, caught by the blade.
He ran over to Athren, leaping up and snapping at the younger girl's hand, latching on as tightly as he could manage, then just hanging on.

He would go down first, his brother was much more important then he was to himself.