None of us had come to terms yet with all the latest news and shocks of the day. Rather than try and deal with that in the woods near our meeting location both Stef and I agreed we should head home first, and worry about everything else later. Especially since we had our new ponygirl friend to take care of.

We followed our usual route south-west through the woods away from the impossible mountain, then once we'd passed a southern bend in the lake we turned north-west towards our cliff-side home. The four of us remained quiet for the rest of the kilometer and a half trip, it seemed like we were all lost in our own thoughts as we quietly trudged through the forest.

I tried not to dwell on the big international news we'd just read on our phones, and I let the national issues from our meeting go for now as well. Instead I focused on the personal stuff, about what happened to my parents. I thought about sending my dad an email, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to say. I was upset about him and mom getting thrown in jail for a few days, along with Stef's parents. But I was also angry, since it sounded like that only happened because my mom went and told the cops that Stef and I were involved with Gaia.

In the end I decided to leave it for a day or two. I needed more time to process everything, before I'd be able to figure out what I wanted to say to them. So I let that go for now too, and only a minute or so later my mood bounced back up again when the front of our home came into view through the trees ahead of us.

My ears perked up and my tails started to wag, then when the four of us emerged from the woods I told our new friend, "Here we are!"

Silvia's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open slightly as she slowed to a stop. Then she just stared for a second or two before exclaiming, "This is incredible! Where did it all come from? Did Gaia make this for you?"

Stef wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into a side-hug and announced proudly, "My little star did it all herself!"

I couldn't help blushing at the praise, but I was smiling too as I pointed out, "I didn't do it all at once, the place has gone through several iterations. But it's cosy, and it's home."

"I can build something like this for you too if you want?" I added. "I've already offered to make a similar home for Charlotte and Flora."

My enbyfriend frowned at that point, "Speaking of, I wonder where they're hiding? Probably swimming again."

The ponygirl tilted her head slightly as she asked, "Swimming? You mean in the lake next to the mountain? Isn't that dangerous?"

"We mostly stick to a smaller inlet," Stef explained. "It's part of the lake, but a sort of protected cove rather than the main body of the lake. It's just a few dozen meters west of here, so it's not that close to the mountain or the dam."

I was about to suggest giving Silvia a proper tour of the place when we heard our other friends approaching. Four pairs of ears angled towards the trail that led to our swimming-hole, and sure enough Charlotte and Flora came into view a second or two later. And from the looks on their faces, not to mention the way their ears and tails were drooping, it was easy to guess they'd received those same messages on their phones as we had.

The little mink girl opened her mouth to say something, when both she and Flora suddenly froze as they noticed the latest addition to our group.

"So I guess it's time for some introductions," Stef spoke up. They gestured, "This is Silvia, she joined us somewhat unexpectedly this afternoon."

The catkin continued with another gesture, "The athletic deer girl there is our friend Flora, and the cuddly mink girl next to her is our friend Charlotte."

All three of them sort of stared at each other for another second or so, before Flora broke the silence. "Hello Silvia, it's nice to meet you. Sorry if this is rude but I'm curious, how did you get here? Did you sneak in past the patrols or something?"

Silvia grimaced slightly and shook her head, "I uh, came in with the group that was here to meet with Stella and Stef and Theo. I'm a, or I mean I was a private with the Bundesheer? They had me looking after all the horses, when I suddenly changed."

"Oh!" Charlotte smiled. "Neat!"

The little mink girl's smile faded a moment later as she added, "As long as you're ok with this? I didn't mean to make assumptions..."

"I'm very ok with this," Silvia replied happily. "Honestly, it's everything I could have wished for, and more!"

Then Flora held up her phone as she commented, "I don't mean to bring the mood down but I assume you've all seen what's going on?"

"Yeah," I sighed while all four of my tails hung down low. "We got the alerts after the meeting ended, while we were on our way back here."

Stef's ears and tail drooped too as they added, "We haven't really had a chance to deal with that yet. Or the other troubling news we got during our meeting."

"Uh-oh," Charlotte frowned. "What else happened?"

While the rest of us were talking Theo moved over to the fire pit, where he hopped up onto one of the curved benches then curled up and relaxed. That seemed like a good idea so we all followed his example and joined him. We even decided to get a little fire going, to make it more cosy. Then once we were all comfortable Stef and I started filling our friends in on the results of our meeting with the government representatives.

We told them about our parents being arrested, before being released again a couple days later. And I mentioned how the arrests were because my mom went and told the cops about my and Stef's involvement with Gaia. Then we broke the news to Flora and Charlotte about how the government already knew they were here, and that they'd probably be arrested if they tried to leave.

Theo was mostly quiet, but he did chime in now and then. Usually whenever our story involved Hannes. Silvia joined in the conversation as well, once we got to her unexpected transformation. And finally we talked briefly about what that lieutenant guy was planning to do with her.

At that point Charlotte spoke up, but not to comment on everything we'd just shared. Instead she suggested, "Sorry to interrupt but you might want to check your phones again? That new chat app's been blowing up ever since it appeared, it seems like all Gaia's other teams around the world are on there right now."

Stef and I exchanged a glance, then we both pulled out our phones as well. Silvia was curious too, so I held mine at an angle where we could both read it. Then Theo offered to let the ponygirl borrow his phone, since he was the only one of us who didn't seem interested. After that the five of us spent the next hour or two swiping and tapping, while our wildcat friend closed his eyes and snoozed.

Sure enough there were a bunch of new channels in there, including several that focused on the various types of magic. I also spotted one specifically for requisitioning supplies or gear, and immediately posted a request for a new phone and clothing for Silvia. Then I had a look at the earth-magic channel, to see if there was anything interesting going on. I'd only just started browsing the threads though when one of my friends spoke up.

"Oh wow!" our mink girl exclaimed. "That dogkin we saw on the news, the one who diverted the Thames? Their name is Wes! They're in the water-mage channel right now, talking about some really cool stuff! They're in a big discussion with a capybara in Brazil and a foxgirl in Canada and a kingfisher in Japan, all trying to figure out how to create their own magic-water springs!"

Stef frowned and cocked their head to one side, "Why would they need to make that? Gaia's new mountains are already generating loads of magic water."

After exchanging a message or two with some of the other water-magic users Charlotte answered, "Oh! It's because most of them aren't anywhere near their mountains anymore. The Canadian foxgirl said she lives over a thousand kilometers away from her mountain! And the dogkin said their source is about nine hundred kilometers north of where their group has settled!"

My enbyfriend and I exchanged a look, then I shrugged. "I guess at least a few of Gaia's representatives decided not to stick around their mountains?"

"I'm sure some of them would have wanted to return to their homes and families," Stef agreed.

Curiosity got the best of me so I decided to try and find out, and since I was in the earth-mage channel I posted my question there. "Anyone else use their magic to make a new home out of stone? I've created a nice cliff-side place for my friends and I. It's overlooking a lake, in the shadow of our local impossible mountain."

In under a minute I had a dozen responses, including several requests for pictures and several more asking to know how I did it. Then the next half dozen or so were all variations of the same question, "Wait you're all living next to your magic mountain?"

"Ok," I grimaced as I looked over at Stef after another minute or so, "I'm getting the feeling we might be one of the only groups who decided to just settle down next to one of Gaia's new mountains."

The catkin frowned for a moment then shrugged, "I guess that explains what Charlotte was saying, about other groups needing a new supply of magic water."

I nodded, but my attention was back on my phone again as another reply to my question appeared. This one was from a Kakapo in New Zealand, who was more focused on the stone construction part of my post. He said he hadn't really built anything so complicated from scratch, but he'd used his magic to make extensive changes to a concrete structure his team were holed up in for a while.

Then a wolfgirl in the UK chimed in. Apparently the land Gaia gave her group included a ruined fourteenth century castle, and she'd been using her magic to fix the place up so they could all move in.

Both her post and the kakapo's inspired another flood of questions from other folks in the chat. Meanwhile I realized the wolfgirl had to be the one we'd seen all over social media earlier, alongside that little dogkin Charlotte was talking to.

So I tapped out a reply to her, "I saw your handiwork on the news this morning. That was some precision stuff, tearing the front off that building and turning the rubble into a functional staircase all in one go. Excellent work!"

I hadn't actually meant to divert all the attention to her, but sure enough the other earth-mages started bugging her for tips and hints rather than me. And asking her to share pictures of the work she'd done on her castle. She was still dealing with the extra attention while I decided to have a look at some of the other channels, and ended up spending a few minutes scrolling through various posts and threads.

Eventually I settled on one of the general chat channels, where a growing number of people were discussing Gaia's goalpost message. Mother Earth hadn't posted anything else since those two emoji, and without any clarification it seemed like everyone was speculating on what was going to happen.

Overall though the general consensus matched what Stef and I said earlier. Everyone agreed that it was probably going to make our jobs a lot more difficult. Both the 'negotiating with humans' side of things, and the 'encouraging others to join us' assignment. Not that we thought it would turn our friends or families against Gaia, it was more that we all suspected that travelling was going to become a whole lot harder.

"Have you seen this?" I asked quietly as I showed the thread to Stef.

My enbyfriend nodded, "I have my little star. And I think they're right."

"If oil production is halted then gasoline will very quickly become scarce," they elaborated. "Governments will probably ration it, or keep whatever reserves they have for official use only. Even things like electric cars or rail systems could be limited or restricted, if nations really start to panic."

Silvia obviously heard what we were talking about as the ponygirl chimed in just as softly, "Back before the industrial revolution most of the population never strayed more than a dozen or so kilometers from where they were born. It wasn't until the advent of the steam train that the average person could safely travel any great distance."

"What about horses?" I asked. "And sailing ships? There's plenty of pre-industrial ways to get around."

Our new friend nodded, "Of course. I'm not saying there was no way to travel, just that it wasn't common. It was either expensive, or dangerous, or both. Very few people had the time or money to spare, or a good enough reason to risk it."

Stef looked thoughtful for a few moments, then shook their head. "I don't think that's the kind of world Gaia has in mind for us. She's not trying to return us to some pastoral pre-historic state, and I don't think she has anything against civilization in general. It's the capitalist oil-fuelled planet-killing path humanity's chosen that she has a problem with."

"Right," Flora agreed, and that's when I realized both she and Charlotte had been paying attention to our little conversation as well.

The athletic brunette continued, "Gaia's already given you that magic-powered generator, and from what I've read she's upgraded quite a few of her people's cars to run on magic the same way. She might still end human civilization, especially if the humans keep trying to fight her, but I think her real goal is to replace their civilization with something a lot better."

The little mink girl chimed in with an excited grin, "Yeah! Something that's cleaner than fossil-fuel and kinder than capitalism. Queer furry magic for the win!"

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