"Ok mom," Soneya said into her phone. "Tell dad I said hi. You two take care of yourselves. Talk with you again soon."

As usual I was trying not to listen in, but my tall directional ears made it hard not to. I wasn't even in the same room, our wolfgirl went into the bedroom for her phone call while I was in the kitchen trying to find homes for all the supplies we bought. And Lia was in the living-room watching cartoons again, but even that wasn't enough to keep me from hearing the wolfgirl's voice.

I had so many tin cans arranged along the back of the counter it looked like we were planning on opening our own store. Or maybe it looked like we'd opened our own canning business. It was all relatively cheap, store brand or discount brand stuff, and we made sure the use-by dates were a good long time in the future. My little pantry was already stuffed with sacks of rice and dried beans and other stuff with a long shelf life.

Maybe the most expensive investment was a dozen more tubs of dehydrated food, like the stuff we had for camping. That had the longest shelf life though, and between my and Soneya's magic it was food we could prepare with literally nothing but a pot and a spoon. I could draw water out of the air and she could heat it up, which was all we needed.

Or almost all we needed. I also made sure we got a couple bags of salt, a big container of pepper, and a few other bulk condiments. I figured there was no point preparing for the apocalypse if we couldn't at least make it taste good.

All that was above and beyond the bags of clothes still waiting to be put away. We'd spent the whole morning visiting thrift shops and discount stores, then part of the afternoon stocking up on long-term food supplies at the grocery store. And our last stop was at a camping goods place where we got the dehydrated food and a few other related supplies and gear.

Soneya and I both pretty much drained our savings, but we were confident we had enough on hand now to get us through the winter. With or without civilization remaining intact.

"How's it going in here?" the wolfgirl asked as she came into the kitchen to see how I was doing.

I gestured, "It's not pretty but I found homes for everything. Mostly."

"I just hope we don't have to turn around and pack it all back up again in a hurry," I added with a frown.

Soneya sighed, "Something to think about. Hopefully we don't actually need to worry about any of this stuff, but..."

I nodded, "The way things are looking, we're better safe than sorry."

While we didn't run into any trouble stocking up on the canned food and the shelf-stable supplies, we did see the store was already completely sold out of bottled water. It wasn't hard to imagine other supplies becoming scarce if the situation continued to get worse.

"How'd the call go with your mom?" I asked, to try and change the subject away from the depressing stuff.

"It was pretty good," the wolfgirl replied. "Dad was at work, but mom actually sounded happy to hear from me. They've been watching the news and worrying about me up here. Mom wants me to try and get home somehow, she thinks I'll be safer back in Williamsport."

She sighed, "I didn't want to get into an argument with her so I didn't bother reminding her that being trans and looking visibly not-quite-human would probably put me at risk even without the growing water crisis. And speaking of that, I suggested her and dad should maybe try and stock up on water. Bottles, jugs, whatever. I didn't tell her we know it's going to spread, but I sort of suggested that it looks like it's spreading."

"Good idea," I grimaced. "I still have to talk to my parents too. I should go do that now."

Soneya agreed, "Yeah, you should."

"I'll go get comfortable in the bedroom and do my calls in there," I said. "Dad'll be at work but I can try him there. I'll call mom at home first though."

"Good luck," she smiled. "I'll keep Lia company while you're busy."

We both started to leave the tiny kitchen, we only got about two steps before someone knocked at our door. I wasn't expecting any guests, but then I hadn't been expecting to see Derek yesterday either. For a moment I worried Curtis had decided to drop in for a surprise visit, but something told me if he was transmisic he wouldn't be coming to see me.

I moved to the door while the wolfgirl stayed a couple paces behind me like she was watching my back, ready incase of trouble as I unlocked the door. Then I opened it up and found myself looking at a teenage girl.

She seemed familiar but I couldn't remember where I'd seen her before. She looked about the same age as Lia, around eighteen or nineteen.

The girl was average height, about ten or twelve centimetres taller than myself. Her skin was light-brown, a sort of tawny colour, and looked absolutely flawless. She almost looked like a model in fact. Her eyes seemed dark, almost black, except when she moved her head slightly her eyes seemed to be more of a golden colour. Her hair was like that too, she had it in numerous small tight braids that all hung down to her shoulders, and they seemed to be either black or gold depending how you looked at them.

In contrast to her beautiful face, her clothes seemed like she'd been shopping at the same thrift stores we'd spent our morning in. She was dressed in some faded blue denim capris that had a few patches and holes in them, and an old well-worn white tank-top with a cracked and wrinkled old 'Save the Dugongs' silkscreen across the front. Overtop of that she was wearing an old faded military surplus style jacket that was hanging open. Instead of any kind of military insignia she had an anarchist patch at her left shoulder and an anti-oil patch on the right.

The look was completed with a pair of birkenstock sandals on her feet, and she had a khaki canvas purse hanging from her shoulder. The purse was covered in countless buttons, pins, and iron-on patches depicting everything from the peace sign and a 'Save the Whales' badge to just about every kind of pride flag I'd seen, along with a smattering of hearts and flowers.

She was looking me up and down at the same time I was doing the same to her, but my outfit was a lot less eclectic than hers. I was just in jeans, sneakers, and a t-shirt.

"Tori," the strange teen greeted me with a wide smile that revealed a lot of perfect pristine white teeth. She spoke with a faint accent that I couldn't quite place as she added, "You're looking great girl. Sorry for dropping by unannounced but I really need to come in and speak with you Soneya and Lia."

I frowned, "Thanks. Sorry do I know you? Are you Mrs. Thomson's daughter?"

Mrs. Thomson was one of the neighbours and I vaguely remembered her saying her eldest daughter was big into drama and theatre. And maybe it was an unfair generalization but something about this teen's beautiful face and weird outfit just screamed 'high school drama major' to me.

"Yeah no," the girl replied as she squeezed and twisted past me somehow and into our apartment.

"Hey!" I frowned as I turned to follow her. And mentally added gymnast and dancer to the possible careers this girl was working on, because she definitely moved like one or the other.

Meanwhile she slipped by Soneya while greeting the tall attractive wolfgirl, "You look fantastic Alpine, the lupine adaptations really work for you girl!"

I didn't know what else to do so I closed the door then followed after our strange guest. She was already in the living-room, and greeted Lia almost the same way.

"And there she is!" the teen stated happily. "Lia my darling you look amazing! And you figured that out all on your own, I'm so proud of you!"

She turned to face Soneya and I as we came into the living-room behind her and added, "In fact I'm proud of all three of you. You girls have travelled the furthest out of anyone. You've also had the most contact with humans, and you've already got a support network in place! Quite impressive."

"Your magic's coming along nicely too," she added. "Although Lia has the two of you beat there. I suppose you were focused more on getting yourselves back here to Tori's home than practicing your new talents, which is understandable."

At some point in all that my heart began racing slightly. I was almost positive who this girl actually was. Or at least, I strongly suspected. Soneya seemed to figure it out at the same time. She and I exchanged a glance, then I nervously addressed the teen.

"Are you Gaia?" I asked quietly. "Is that how you know so much about the three of us?"

The teen grinned, "Bingo! And I hate to say it but I don't have a lot of time to chat, so we need to press on. There's a few points I have to cover before I have to get moving again."

"Why us?" Soneya suddenly demanded. "Why did you pick us? Why did you transform us? And why give us magic?"

Gaia, although I had a hard time thinking of the attractive teen girl in front of me as some sort of goddess or Earth mother, looked back at the wolfgirl and shrugged. "I picked you and Tori because you both respect nature. Because I saw something in your hearts that told me you were suitable. Why did I transform you? That was as much your doing as mine, girl. I supplied the furry ears and the tail, the rest was all you. I just gave you the potential."

I frowned, "You picked us because we're trans?"

Our strange guest shook her head, "Being trans is not a prerequisite, but there is a high correlation. Neither of you were terribly attached to your human bodies, both of you were open and willing to accept new forms. That just happens to be more prevalent among trans people, but there are cis who would accept a new body just as readily."

"Why though?" our pack leader asked. Her voice was hard and she was frowning as she continued, "Why did you make us non-human? It makes us stand out, makes us an easy target. And why give us magic? That's just another reason for people to hate us, when they find out about it."

"Short answer is, why not you?" the teen replied with a shrug. "We'll have more time to go over the details later Soneya. Right now there's more important matters to discuss. So how about you and Tori sit down there with Lia and listen up?"

I could tell the wolfgirl wasn't happy, but I didn't want to risk getting into an argument with some kind of goddess. And fortunately my friend seemed to come to that conclusion as well. So when I moved to join Lia on the sofa Soneya followed. And with all three of us sitting there Gaia stood before us and began to speak.

"So first off I'm here to make the three of you an offer," she explained. "I'd like for you to work for me."

"You don't need to decide right now," she added. "It's better if you give it a day or two, sleep on it, talk it over with each other. The magic and the transformations are a part of it, but you can keep all that even if you turn down the rest of the deal. I want to make that clear, you aren't going to be forced into anything and I'm not going to try and blackmail you by threatening to take back the gifts you've already received."

She continued, "Second off, if you do accept my offer know that I'll be looking out for you. I already know you're worried about money. And I know ID was another issue, even though Lia managed to come up with some temporary solutions there. You won't need to concern yourselves with any of that if you're working for me."

"That's not to say you won't have any concerns at all," she added. "I'm offering you jobs, not an all-expenses paid vacation. I'm just saying that things like money and documentation and other human matters will all be taken care of."

The girl wasn't giving us any opportunities to question her as she kept going, "Third thing, when you've made a decision just give me a call and I'll come back for another visit. Hopefully next time I won't be as harried as I am right now. Unfortunately I have a lot of people to meet with today and not much time to do it, so I can only spend so much time with each group."

She paused briefly there as she seemed to ask herself, "Was that it? Or was there something else."

"Oh right," she nodded a moment later. "Tori, you have two containers of what you're calling 'changed water' in your fridge. I'm not going to tell you what to do with it, either now or if you take me up on the job offer. But I will tell you a few pieces of random trivia, and you can decide what to do with this information yourself."

"The changed water changes any water it comes in contact with," Gaia stated. "It propagates faster than the water itself flows, which is how the change can move upstream as well as downstream."

She continued, "So if you poured that down the drain in your sink it'll make its way into the local water processing facilities, which are tightly regulated and controlled. About a week later it will finally reach the lake, where it will take about a day to completely change all the water in Lake Ontario. That's several weeks sooner than would happen if we wait for the change to creep up the Saint Lawrence. However if you were to take a container down to the lakefront and pour it directly in the lake, that would bump things up by a full month."

"Then again," she added, "If the three of you hopped in Alpine's car and took a day-trip north to visit Collingwood or Wasaga Beach and poured one of those containers the bay, that'll cover Lake Huron in a day. It'll reach Lake Erie the day after, and Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Ontario the day after that. You'll have helped cover the entire Great Lakes basin months ahead of schedule."

I opened my mouth to respond but she cut me off, "Again I'm not telling you to actually go and do that. I'm just mentioning some random trivia about how it would play out if you happened to do that for whatever reason."

This time Soneya spoke up and she didn't let anyone talk over her, "What exactly is your plan? This stuff is making people sick right? If we dump those containers in the lake we'd be guilty of poisoning millions of people."

"It's not poison," Gaia stated in a flat level voice. "It's water. Dihydrogen monoxide. Any scientific analysis will find it so. It's cleaner and purer than anything you'll find outside of lab-grade distilled water."

The wolfgirl responded in the same flat tone, "And yet it's making people sick. Some of those people are dying."

Before either of them could start arguing I asked, "Excuse me Gaia? You still haven't actually told us what this job is? How can we make a decision whether or not to work for you when we don't know what you want us to do?"

"Sorry Tori," the teen responded as she gave me an apologetic look. "For that information all I can say is stay tuned. Actually I strongly suggest the three of you stay home this evening? Just hang out here, relax, and stay tuned. I'll be making an announcement soon, which is why I'm on a tight deadline right now. I have plenty more people to see and time's running out."

"And with that I really must be on my way," she said as she addressed all three of us. "Lia, Tori, Soneya, it's been wonderful to finally meet the three of you. I'll be in touch, until then you all stay safe and look after each other ok? And think about my offer, think about what we've talked about. See you soon!"

Soneya opened her mouth to respond but Gaia was already gone. There was no flash, no swirl of magic, just one moment she was there and the next moment she was gone.

"Well that was a whole lot of no information whatsoever," the wolfgirl grumped. "So we learned that Gaia's real, she's a teenage kid with ADHD who talks a lot and likes mysteries. Not exactly reassuring knowing she's the intelligence behind all this."

I sighed, "Yeah. Although she did say she was in a hurry. Maybe next time we see her we can actually get her to sit down and explain things."

Our small sister hadn't said a word through the whole encounter, but she finally spoke up at that point. Her voice was quiet though as she pointed out, "Gaia said she was going to announce something soon. She said time's running out."

"Right," Soneya frowned. "That's not worrying in any way."

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