Daphne was standing by the door. The Wizard Jim was beside her. His grey face bore dark circles under his eyes and was leaning against the wall. Theresa wondered if he had worked all night to help them.
There were two bags next to the door and Daphne leaned down to pick one up.
Jim moved next to Theresa and kneeled down. From his pocket he withdrew a roughly formed wooden pendant on a string.
"This is the solution to the wizard being able to sense your presence, Lady Theresa. If you wear this, you will remain untraceable until you reach Lord Wildwood's estate. I put a strong spell on it to mask your transformation's signature."
He slipped the tied string over her head and ears carefully and stood up.
Jim rubbed his back absently and hoisted the second bag onto his shoulder. Theresa wondered if he was coming with them.
He then handed to Daphne something that Theresa could not see. "This will help you make your way to Lord Wildwood's estate. If you are moving closer to it, it will grow warmer but will cool if your distance increases."
"Thank you, Wizard Jim," Daphne said gratefully.
Theresa nodded her agreement. It seemed almost too good to be true that they had found such a resourceful ally. She felt guilty for her earlier assessment of his usefulness.
"We must all be on our ways now, ladies. You have a wizard to seek and I have a false trail to lay before attending to other matters."
At his words, Daphne swung her new travel pack onto her back.
Theresa hoped he would be prepared when their horrible aunt finally made her way here. Theresa had a begrudging fondness growing for him and would not like to see her aunt harm him after he had done so much to assist them.
They walked outside and Theresa watched Jim as he quickly cast some spells on his house. She could see no discernible difference, but she imagined the wizard knew what he was doing.
Tethered outside were two grey horses that appeared ready for a journey. The wizard led Daphne to the darker gray of the two and helped her mount, before lifting Theresa up to join her sister.
"Be sure to leave Mahogany in the care of Wildwood's stables. She'll be well taken care of there and I will travel there to pick her up when I am able."
Jim walked towards the lighter horse with white socks and quickly mounted.
Daphne smiled. "Of course. Have a safe journey, Wizard Jim."
"The same to you as well, Lady Daphne, Lady Theresa," he said with a click of his tongue, and trotted off.
Daphne clicked her tongue and they began to move.
Riding a horse as a cat was a new and rather unsettling experience for Theresa.
In her memories, horseback riding was nothing but pleasant. The sway of a horse was like a rocking cradle and the exhilarating speed of a full out gallop was possibly one of the greatest feelings that she had ever known.
Now, however, her mind was only half human. The other half was fully that of an uneasy cat.
The cat part felt they were mad for climbing up and riding on a large animal and the swaying made her distinctly uneasy. Her cat instincts were prepped and ready for when something went wrong and something surely would go wrong with such a foolish endeavor.
Every now and then she would accidentally dig her claws in to her sister's clothing and would have to force herself to retract her claws. A couple of times Daphne flinched but Theresa was appreciative that Daphne was taking it so well.
Or rather, Theresa was appreciative until Daphne commented, "It's funny that you are so uneasy now. You used to be so excellent with horses. Far better than I."
Funny. Theresa shot a nasty glower at her sister.
Daphne was looking ahead and did not see; Theresa was displeased to note. She had wanted her sister to acknowledge the dirty look. Being ignored was the worst. She meowed her displeasure.
After a while Theresa's cat mind finally began to relax, maybe or give in enough that Theresa could stop worrying about her cat side's reaction to the horse and start worrying about all the problems that they might encounter along the way.
She wondered if the next wizard, this Lord Wildwood, would be able to help her or if he would even believe their story.
She really needed her human body so that she could petition the king to remove Francine from power over her. She doubted Daphne could manage to speak for them if, rather when the time came.
Secretly, she wondered if even the king would be able to stop their aunt.
Somewhere in fuzzy memories, she finally had her first recollection of the face of a man in fine robes. Had she once met the sovereign? She wished she could remember more.
Nothing that she had ever heard had been particularly hopeful. He was either a ruthless tyrant or a clueless buffoon who would lead their country into despair, or worse, perhaps both.
It was not a comforting picture.
Of course, Theresa had seen nothing in her nineteen years to convince her that anything ever was.
Theresa pushed aside her misgivings. Even if the king was the worst of the rumors he was still ruler of their land so if she could convince him to use his power in her favor everything would be fine.
Daphne's voice cut through Theresa's contemplations.
"Jim said that it was only a few hours by horse," Daphne commented. "I think that we must have been riding for about two hours. Of course, I don't know. This thing is still warm, so we are definitely going the right way, I think."
Theresa nodded her head slightly, barely listening. She was tired of Daphne's worried monologues. She had her own worried monologues in her own head and that was already quite enough to deal with, not even counting all the cat related problems she now had to endure.
If she looked bored enough maybe Daphne would take the hint, but it was hardly likely, Theresa thought cynically.
Daphne was hardly astute when it came to reading her now feline sister. If Theresa had known what Francine's spell was going to do, she would have let Daphne take the hit. If Theresa had been in charge, maybe Daphne would be human again already.
Then, Theresa felt bad for her nasty thoughts. She did not regret protecting Daphne, she just regretted not getting out of the way in time as well.
Because she felt guilty, she forced her attention to Daphne's words.
"We've had a lot of adventures so far but I think that we are doing pretty well," Daphne said in an obnoxiously cheerful voice.
Theresa scowled again. Her guilt was melting by the second.
Sure, Daphne had been there for some of their adventures, but it was she who had borne the brunt of the worst of the journey, Theresa thought sullenly. She sourly listed her ills in her head.
Firstly, she had been rendered nearly useless by the transformation on her because she had wanted to protect her little sister.
Secondly, it was she who had been chased up a tree and cornered and almost eaten by that horrific dog-beast.
Thirdly, it was Theresa who had been up a tree keeping watch, as opposed to Daphne who had been sitting all tight and cozy in the comfort of the wizard's house the entire day yesterday.
Theresa glared at her unwitting sister, wishing that her heated gaze could bore her thoughts into her sister's mind.
Fourthly, she was completely reliant on her timid sister.
Of course, Daphne did not seem quite so timid as she had been while under their aunt's powers. She seemed to finding some bravery inside her. She seemed to be learning how to be more decisive.
Hopefully Daphne's budding assertiveness would hold true when they finally met this Lord Wildwood.
He would undoubtedly be another strange person with his mysterious name and his shadowy wizardly profession. She hoped he would turn out to be more like the Wizard Jim than her wizardress aunt.
Daphne spoke again. Theresa assumed that Daphne was somehow comforted by making one sided conversation.
Theresa wished that listening had the same effect on her. "This is almost like a game, isn't it, Theresa? It's like when we were little and we had to say hot and cold when someone went closer and farther from something that we had hidden."
Theresa let out a heavy breath that sounded remarkably like a human sigh and failed to roll her eyes. Just when she was starting to think that there was hope for Daphne.
How she missed being completely human with completely human vocal cords. Daphne's daydreams would be a lot easier to take if she could simply let her sister dream and do what needed to be done herself.
She could only hope Lord Wildwood would be willing and able to help them.