"That's work," Robyn sighed as she checked the most recent email on her phone. "My manager's not happy, he wants me to check in with HR tomorrow. And they'll want more information."

She and I were still sitting together on the love-seat, while Soneya and Lia were on the sofa. Just as I started to respond her phone pinged with another email message.

The bunnygirl looked down at her phone again to check the most recent message, then cringed as her long ears drooped down either side of her head. She sighed, "And that's my mom. It looks like she's freaking out, she wants me to call as soon as I can so we can 'talk this over'."

"I think she thinks she can talk me out of being trans," my friend added with a deep sigh.

"I'm sorry Robyn," I said as I gave her a compassionate look. "I know things seem rough right now, but it's going to get better soon. I promise."

Soneya agreed, "Things were rough at first with my folks, but it's getting better. And at least your mom wants to talk it over with you, right? She didn't jump straight to ultimatums or threats to disown you."

The small bun nodded slowly, "Yeah good point. I'm sure you're both right, I'm probably just over-reacting."

"Except what do I tell my mom?" she added a moment later. "She won't recognize my voice if I call, how do I explain all this?"

I suggested, "Email her back and say you're not ready to talk just yet? Tell her you're still working things out, still dealing with stuff, and you need some time."

Robyn nodded, "Yeah. Good point. That's not even a lie, all this is super new."

She started tapping out a reply on her phone as she asked, "Is it ok if I tell her I'm at your place? So she doesn't get any bright ideas of dropping in on me at home?"

"Of course," I agreed. "You're welcome to crash here tonight if you like."

The bunnygirl looked up at me, but before she could respond there was yet another interruption from the direction of the front door.

"Knock knock!" a familiar voice called out. "I'm back!"

A moment later Gaia joined the rest of us in the living-room. She didn't seem the least bit surprised to find a brand-new bunnygirl sitting with the rest of us. Instead she handed our wolfgirl a small stack of paper as she said, "Here you go Soneya, one contract as requested."

"And one for you Tori. And you too Lia," she added as she gave me a similar collection of papers then handed a third one to Lia. Then she surprised us all as she handed a fourth contract to Robyn, "And that one's for you."

"So you knew this was going to happen?" Soneya demanded as she gestured towards the bunnygirl. "You knew what your water would do to her? Why didn't you say something earlier?"

Gaia sighed as she looked from the bun to the wolf, "Would it have made any difference? She'd already started drinking the water by the time I visited earlier, the process had already begun. If I'd said anything it would have just caused her undue stress and fear, perhaps even led her to panic."

"What if she'd called emergency services?" the enigmatic teen added, before Soneya could protest. "What if she'd rushed to the nearest hospital? It wouldn't have stopped the inevitable, but those actions might have brought the authorities to your door."

The wolfgirl shook her head, "You still should have said something. You could have at least warned us that the water might do that to people, back when you were telling us what would happen if it got into the local water supply."

"I didn't know this would happen," Gaia replied with another sigh. "Yes it's another function of the water, but the odds are incredibly low. And I didn't expect her to get access to the water this early, I didn't know she'd help herself to one of the jugs you brought back with you."

She looked to my old friend again as she apologized, "Robyn I'm sorry you got dragged into this business today. If it's any consolation you were always destined to become one of my chosen people, I just didn't anticipate it happening this soon. That's why I'm offering you a similar contract to the ones I've prepared for Lia Tori and Soneya. I'll look after you just as I've promised to take care of them."

"I don't expect any of you to sign or make a decision right now," Gaia added as she looked around at all four of us. "Take your time and read it thoroughly. Sleep on it, take a day or two, even talk with your families about it if you wish. Now I have to run again, so -"

"Just hang on a second," Soneya interrupted her. "Give me a couple minutes to read through this at least once before you go running off again, because I know I'm going to have questions."

I added, "Or can you give us some easy way to get in touch with you? I get that you're busy, you've got a whole planet to run, but it's been kind of frustrating just sitting around waiting for days on end not knowing when you're going to drop by next."

Gaia looked back and forth between me and the wolfgirl before deciding, "All right Soneya, Tori. I'm going to leave now while you read through your contracts, but I'll be back shortly to answer whatever questions you come up with."

A moment later she was gone again, and the wolfgirl let out a frustrated sigh before focusing on her contract.

Robyn, who'd been silent for Gaia's whole visit, finally demanded "What the hell just happened?! Why did public enemy number one give me an employment contract?"

I sighed, "You heard what she said, she wasn't expecting you to change. Or at least, she wasn't expecting you to change today. Gaia already offered the three of us jobs, so like she said she's offering you one as well."

My bunny friend frowned as she finally looked down at her contract, and I started to look through mine as well. Lia on the other hand wasn't the least bit interested in the stack of paper she'd been given. She left hers on the coffee table as her attention returned to the TV and her cartoons.

For the next few minutes we were all quiet, until Soneya spoke up again.

"Woah," the wolfgirl commented. "Five thousand dollars a week as a starting salary?"

A moment later she gasped again, "And thirteen hundred acres of land?!"

I quickly found the part she was looking at. Sure enough my contract said the same thing. I would personally receive compensation in the form of five thousand dollars per week, to be paid weekly in advance and in the currency of my choice for as long as that currency was valid. And after that, payment would be made in whatever new method of trade replaced our current monetary system.

The next section was about our accommodations, and that described a plot of land that was approximately two kilometres by a little over two and a half kilometres. It worked out to almost five hundred and forty hectares, which was about one thousand three hundred and thirty acres.

Needless to say it wasn't here in the city, the location was a good thirty-five kilometres north-east of us. There were some buildings already on the property, including a couple farm houses, barns, and other structures. About thirty percent of the property was cleared and some of that was farmland, the rest was woodland and natural water features.

There was even a comment that the property could be expanded in the future if necessary. There were two more chunks Gaia could add if we wanted, one on each side, and each of those was roughly another five hundred hectares. So potentially we could be looking at as much as fifteen hundred hectares, or nearly four thousand acres.

Finally, despite all that land being out in the country it was still only a little more than a kilometre away from a commuter rail station, with direct service straight into downtown Toronto. And that segued into the next section on transportation.

In addition to rail access, Gaia was offering to upgrade both Soneya's and Robyn's cars so they'd run on some new clean magical power source. She even offered to replace the car I had to abandon in the Gaspésie with something comparable that would run clean.

Same thing for the utilities at the property, Gaia would provide clean sources of electricity and heat and water. She also guaranteed full internet and mobile phone access, so we wouldn't have any troubles with communications or connectivity.

In terms of security, Gaia would take care of that too. Her magic would guarantee our personal safety, and she'd also ensure the entire property was a safe private secure location.

In return for all that, we'd have to set up one of the buildings as her embassy. We could pick which one that was though, and which ones we wanted to live in. And the four of us would be the embassy staff.

Lia would be Gaia's direct representative, our small sister would speak to and for the planet. Soneya and I would be her ambassadors, potentially the two of us would have to handle communications between Lia and the Prime Minister or other important government staff. And Robyn's job would be embassy assistant, which sort of sounded like she'd be our secretary or something.

Except all four of us were being offered the same pay, it didn't seem like there was any kind of hierarchy or anything like that.

"Wow," I said as I finally got to the end of the contract. "This all sounds pretty generous to me. What do you think?"

Our wolfgirl shrugged, "A quarter million a year each sounds nice, but I don't know anything about being an ambassador. All my education and experience is in STEM, not diplomacy."

Robyn stated, "I don't know what an embassy assistant does either, but for a quarter million I'm more than willing to figure it out. Not to mention a place to live free of charge, including utilities? And a car that doesn't need gas?"

"What do you think Lia?" I asked as I looked over at her. "I know you haven't looked at your contract, but Gaia's promising us lots of money and a new bigger home. Lots of land too, with trees and fields and big open spaces."

That got her attention, and her tail started wagging. She grinned, "Room to run and play and chase small bunnies?"

"Eep!" Robyn squeaked as she pulled my tail in front of herself so she could hide behind it.

Soneya smiled at our small sister, "It sounds like there'll be lots of room to do all those things."

"Then let's go!" Lia exclaimed happily. "Can we go right now? I want to see it, I want to run around in the woods again!"

Our wolfgirl sighed, "Not just yet Lia, sorry. I still have some questions, and Gaia said she'd be back soon to answer them."

I asked, "What sort of questions? The contracts seem pretty comprehensive to me. And the money's pretty generous too, considering we won't have to worry about rent or utilities or transportation."

"I think we should find out more about the location before we all agree to live there," Soneya pointed out. "It sounds great on paper, but we have no idea what it's really like. Is it easy for us to get to? Are the buildings in good shape? Is there somewhere nearby where we can get groceries? Can we get food delivered there?"

"Food! Food's important!" our small sister insisted while her tail wagged happily again.

Meanwhile the wolfgirl's tone got a little darker as she continued, "I'd also like to know how Gaia got her hands on this land in the first place? Are those buildings currently occupied? Is she running other people out of their homes to make room for us?"

"I hadn't thought of that," I replied with a sigh.

Robyn suggested, "We can figure out some of that stuff right now, like about groceries and other amenities. Just look the place up online, right? Get a feel for the location and what sort of stuff's nearby."

The bunnygirl already had her phone in hand, she opened up the map app and got started. A moment later the wolfgirl picked up her phone to have a look as well. So I did the same, and soon enough all three of us were looking at the area on maps or satellite-view.

"It looks like it's a conservation area?" Robyn added after a few moments. "There's a big pond or something, lots of woods, some fields..."

The wolfgirl interrupted, "Most of it's a conservation area, but there's a few farms and other properties along the western boundary. Those are probably the buildings she's offering us, except it looks like they might already have people living in them."

There were a few seconds of silence as both Robyn and I had a closer look at those areas on our phones.

The bunnygirl finally asked, "If they're occupied, what then? Does that mean you won't accept the offer? Or will it depend on how she plans on making those places available to us?"

"Gaia's already public enemy number one," Robyn added quietly. "I know this is bordering on supervillain territory, but she talked about killing a quarter of the population. And it's hard to accuse her of 'stealing land' when the land is literally her. She's the whole planet, right?"

Soneya frowned, then looked thoughtful. She finally responded, "I'm not comfortable benefiting from other people's misfortune. If that land belongs to someone else then I'd want to know they were fairly compensated for it, before I was comfortable accepting it."

"Fair enough," the bunnygirl agreed. "We can ask Gaia about that when she returns."

We were all quiet again for a few moments before I spoke up. I gestured at the map on my phone as I commented, "There's a town only about two kilometres south-west of the site, so groceries and stuff like that shouldn't be an issue. Lots of restaurants and shops and everything else right there."

Robyn suggested, "Assuming things go well with Gaia tonight then tomorrow we should all go have a look at the land. It's not that far away, I figure about a forty-five minute drive? Then we can check it out, get a good look at the location and the buildings and everything. We should have a look at the town too, and the train station. Basically get a feel for the whole area."

"Sounds good," I replied. "You and I can go shopping first thing tomorrow morning, then in the afternoon all four of us can go have a look at the land and buildings and the surrounding area together. How's that sound?"

Both Soneya and Robyn agreed, while Lia was just eager to have woods she could run around in again.

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