"I think that's just about everything," I said with a shrug. "And to be clear, none of this is a hundred percent certain, we don't have any way to test or verify it. It's just based on some vague feelings, subjective experiences, or suspicious coincidences."

Soneya added, "One thing that wasn't subjective is we know for a fact there was more water than there should have been. Every creek and stream and river we saw in the park was flowing faster and deeper than it was in the days prior to the mountain's appearance. Same with all the ponds, even ones without any clear origin or water flowing into them? They'd all overflowed and flooded out into the surroundings."

"Unfortunately we don't have any way to prove that," she continued with a frown. "Or even quantify how much more water there was. Same with the temperature? All the water in the park seemed warmer than it should have, but we didn't have any way to measure it. So like Tori said, it's all subjective or anecdotal."

Both my parents were listening with thoughtful frowns on their faces. We'd spent the last fifteen or twenty minutes telling them what we noticed about the water, what Lia said about it being changed or different, and how it seemed to be spreading beyond the immediate area of the park.

There were still a few things we'd held back, but I was starting to wonder if we'd end up telling them everything else too. We hadn't mentioned the thing with our senses improving, and Soneya's fire magic was still secret. And I hadn't gone into my theories of someone or something being behind all this, or that we had reason to suspect it might be Gaia.

My dad finally responded, "So you believe this 'changed water' is what transformed you girls and gave you magic, but you think it's also why some people are getting sick?"

"If there's something in the water I'm sure scientists will identify it fairly quickly," mom stated. "They're probably already studying it right now, to try and identify what's making people sick."

I grimaced, "I don't know if they'll find anything mom. If it's really some kind of magic then I doubt there's a test for that. I don't even know if filtering and processing will fix it."

She frowned and glanced at my dad as she suggested, "Maybe we should stick to bottled water?"

"That might be safer for a while," I sighed. "But it depends where it's bottled. If this thing keeps spreading the way we're thinking, sooner or later it's going to be everywhere. It was even in the rain back at the park? Eventually it's going to find its way underground, into ground water and aquifers."

My voice was quiet and kind of subdued as I continued, "I don't know how long it'll take, but if it keeps spreading then sooner or later all the water on Earth will be affected. All the rivers, all the lakes, all the springs, and maybe even all the rain? All the fresh water on the planet. And the news said some of those earthquakes last week happened under the oceans right? So it could be slowly changing the seawater too."

That left both my parents looking uneasy. Meanwhile Soneya still had her phone out, she looked down at it and started searching for something. It took her a half minute or so to find what she was looking for, and the worried look on her face told me it was more bad news.

"There's an awful lot of people talking about getting sick over the last few days," she stated in a quiet, worried tone. "Specifically people living around Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley, the two lakes on either side of the Land Between the Lakes. Folks are talking about their wells being contaminated, or the town water being bad."

That wasn't good news, and I dug out my phone to start checking for anything like that out east. It didn't take long to come up with something similar, "It looks like the government has quietly issued 'boil water' advisories for a bunch of communities in that part of Quebec. Like maybe everything south of the St. Lawrence and east of Amqui?"

"Will that help?" my mom asked. "Does boiling fix whatever's wrong with the water?"

Neither Soneya or I had an answer to that, but Lia quietly shook her head. Once again our small sister didn't know how she knew this, but she seemed confident that boiling wouldn't reverse whatever was changed about it.

The wolfgirl looked back at her phone and started searching for something else, while my parents just looked more troubled by the whole conversation.

After another few seconds my dad asked, "You think the same thing is happening at all the other sites? There was another one out west, near Banff. It's pretty remote though, apart from small communities and some fancy hotels and tourist destinations. For that matter the Gaspésie is sort of similar?"

"I know," I nodded. "I noticed that when I was getting caught up on the news. All those strange earthquakes and impossible mountains happened well away from cities or densely populated areas."

Before either of my parents could respond to that Soneya spoke up, as she looked up from her phone again. "It took some digging but I found some numbers. The water level in Kentucky Lake has been rising over the last few days. It's an anomaly, but so far it's not enough to worry anyone."

"The dams on those two lakes generate power but they're also for flood control," the wolfgirl added. "So they monitor and regulate the water level all the time. Rising water levels at this time of year is unusual, and I'll bet it's because of the mountain there. It's probably happening everywhere else too."

Dad sighed, "So those mountains are doing something to the water, and they're somehow adding more water? That has to come from somewhere though right? Underground maybe, deep aquifers or something? Maybe that's what's different about the water? It's something from deep below the surface, something we've never encountered before?"

"I really don't know dad," I shook my head. "All I know is what we've seen and experienced, and what we've heard about on the news."

At that point something in the kitchen started beeping so mom excused herself to go take care of dinner. Lia got up and followed her, I figured she was curious. Or maybe she was hungry again. Either way I was sure my mom could handle any of her questions, so I stayed with Soneya and my dad.

After mom and Lia were out of earshot my dad commented quietly, "If this 'changed water' is really making some people sick, and if it's going to keep spreading, it won't be long before this becomes a national public health disaster. Or a global one, if it really is happening everywhere."

Soneya nodded slowly, "We know. And it might already be starting."

"So our mountain out east is going to impact the St. Lawrence river and gradually work its way back up into the Great Lakes basin," she continued as she checked the map app on her phone. "That covers the eastern half of Canada and parts of a few north-eastern states. The one in Kentucky is going to hit the Mississippi and all its tributaries, that covers the midwest and most of the south-eastern states. I think the one near Sedona is close enough that it's going to hit the Colorado River, that's like the lifeblood of the entire south-west..."

"That just leaves the one near Banff," I frowned. "I know that's on this side of the Rockies, but I don't know where water goes from there."

It didn't take long to find out. After looking it up on my phone I added, "So it looks like that one's probably going to flow into the Bow River, which goes through Calgary. That connects to the Saskatchewan River, which empties into Lake Winnipeg. From there it flows into the Nelson River then Hudson's Bay. When you look at all the tributaries though, that covers all the major cities in Canada between the Rockies and the Great Lakes, along with a few places in North Dakota and Minnesota."

"In fact the impossible mountain north-west of Banff is almost on the border with BC," I frowned as I zoomed in on my phone. "If the changed water can get over a mountain pass it might get into the Columbia River. It's not far from the upper Fraser either."

"The Columbia covers a chunk of the north-west," Soneya frowned.

My dad added, "And the Fraser flows through the BC interior before it reaches Vancouver."

"So those four mountains could potentially impact up to ninety percent of the population of Canada and the USA," the wolfgirl stated with a grim look on her face.

"All right folks," mom announced as she returned to stand in the doorway, "Dinner's ready, so let's put the doom and gloom on hold for now, ok? Tori, Soneya, Trevor, let's have a nice friendly happy family meal."

I smiled, "Ok mom. Thank you."

She had the dining room table all set and ready to go which was nice. Normally we'd just eat at the kitchen table, but it looked like mom wanted to make this a little more special. There was a big covered casserole dish in the middle of the table, along with a basket of warm toasted garlic bread. And Lia was already seated at the table, waiting impatiently for the rest of us.

Dad took his usual seat at the head of the table while mom sat on the side to his right, next to Lia. And Soneya ended up seated to my dad's left across from mom, while I sat next to the wolfgirl and across from our small sister.

As soon as we were all seated mom used an oven mitt to take the lid off the casserole dish, then she served up a couple big heaping spoonfuls for each of us. And the basket was passed around so we could all help ourselves to some garlic bread. Finally there were glasses of water for me and Lia and Soneya, while dad had another beer in front of him and mom had more wine.

Soon enough we were all enjoying the nice home cooked meal, while another conversation started up around the dinner table. We avoided the depressing stuff like mom asked, or at least we tried to anyways. Mom started things off by asking Soneya a little more about herself, like where she was from.

The wolfgirl told us about growing up near Nashville, and how she didn't really have many friends at that age. Then when she was in high school her family moved to Williamsport after her dad got a job at a factory that made aircraft engines. That's where she met her friends Michael Shane and Luna.

Soneya told us how they all finished high school together then she went to college with Shane and Michael while Luna went on to university at MIT. She also explained how she and her friends were avid hikers and the three of them wanted to walk the entire Appalachian Trail from end to end, and that she and Shane and Michael were supposed to be celebrating their graduation by hiking the international section of the trail together.

Then she finally got to the part she'd already told me and Lia back in Amqui. She explained how her friends hooked up at the start of the trip and decided to spend the rest of their vacation alone, to celebrate their newfound relationship in private. Which is how she came to be hiking by herself at the Gaspésie national park.

"Have you spoken with your friends since then?" mom asked. "Are they all right?"

The wolfgirl nodded, "Yes ma'am, we actually ran into them at the hotel in Amqui."

"That led to a few awkward moments," she added as her cheeks coloured, "But it worked out in the end. They know I'm me, and how I've changed and everything. And the three of us are still friends."

That put a smile on my mom's face, "I'm so glad to hear that Soneya."

"Tori have you spoken with Curtis or Derek yet?" she added as she looked to me. "I'm sure they've both been worried about you."

I sighed, "Mom you know they both ditched me, right? They let me pay all the non-refundable camping fees and book the hotels and stuff on my credit card, then they both cancelled at the last minute as if they never had any intention of going. I'm not even sure they're still my friends? I'm almost positive they're both transmisic."

My expression shifted to a frown as I continued, "I can't help thinking they're too weirded out by me being trans to want to spend two weeks sharing a tent with me. And either they were too cowardly to just come out and say that up front, or maybe they thought it would be funny to watch me pay all the fees and book time off work while they never had any intention of going in the first place!"

By the time I was done my tone had become more than a little heated, and when I realized how angry I'd become I apologized for bringing the mood down.

My mom gave me a sympathetic look as she responded, "I'm sorry Tori. I admit your father and I have noticed a few things that had us wondering, but you were still spending time with them so we didn't want to say anything. Having said that, I know at least Derek has been thinking about you? He's contacted us twice over the past few days to see if we'd heard from you."

"Yeah Derek texted me a couple times too," I admitted with a sigh. "And I did text both him and Curtis earlier today, to let them know I'm home and I'm fine. I don't know if I'm ready to see either of them yet though? Or if I do, maybe it'll just be Derek."

After that we managed to get through the rest of dinner without running into any more awkward or upsetting topics. Then I helped mom with the dishes while Soneya and Lia went back to the family room with my dad.

The five of us talked a little more after that, but we continued to avoid the difficult topics. It was only around eight o'clock when it felt like it was about time to head home. Except before we left my dad asked to get a closer look at my ears, so he'd have a better idea what to do in terms of building me a new headset.

That was weird to say the least, having him inspecting the top of my head like that. He even poked my ears once or twice. He claimed that was for science, but I had a feeling he just wanted to feel the soft warm fur up there. I almost wondered if my parents wanted to try and pet my tail or something too, but I kept quiet about that in case they actually took me up on the offer.

And when we were finally ready to head out my mom gave us all the left-over casserole. There was easily enough for the three of us to get another full meal out of it, which was convenient. In fact I was pretty sure she was giving us free food to help our budget last longer, but I wasn't going to complain about that.

I gave my parents both hugs and thanked them for everything, then Lia surprised them by giving them hugs as well. After that Soneya couldn't escape without mom hugging her too, but dad let her off with a friendly handshake. Then the three of us got back in the wolfgirl's Jeep for the drive back to my apartment.

As we pulled out of my parents' driveway I commented, "That went pretty well I think?"

"Yeah," Soneya agreed. "Your parents are good people. You're really lucky Tori."

I smiled, "Yeah, they are. And yeah, I am."

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