Alice  leaned back against the desk, eyes fixed on Shakra. The white tiger stood up,

            “Before I tell you, there’s something I need to do.”

            Alice blinked, for a moment it seemed like her vision had gone blurry. Shakra’s white coat began to ripple, and she could see shots of light run over the length of her body, red and blue, like electricity pulsing over the fur. The tiger’s body twisted and stretched unnaturally, and Alice’s stomach lurched. The way Shakra was moving made it look like bones were being broken and reforming. Her fur disappeared, replaced by smooth skin. Paws stretched into fingers, claws melted away and she shrank rapidly, muscular limbs turning into slim arms and legs.  Eventually the tiger was completely gone, and in her place lay a woman.

            Alice stared in astonishment. The woman was slim, brown skinned, and dressed in a thin white robe. The dark brows and complexion, along with the long black lashes that lay against her cheeks, spoke of Indian descent.  Her hair, long and black, was spread in a halo around her head. She was beautiful.  The woman groaned, and her eyes fluttered open,

            “I forgot how bad the change was.” Hearing her voice out loud was surreal. It was light and musical, with only the faintest hint of an accent.

            “Shakra?”  Azura bent down and offered the woman her hand.

            “Thank you,” The woman put a slender brown hand into Azura’s and allowed herself to be helped up. “I’m still Shakra. This is my true form. It’s been so long…” She moved to sit in the chair behind the desk, stumbling a little. Azura gripped her arm, eyes wide.

            Shakra laughed, “I’m too used to four legs. I will have to get used to walking upright again.” She sat down in the leather chair and rolled her shoulders back with a sigh, “feels so strange.”

            Gabriel shut his mouth with a click, “So, why now? Why did you choose to turn human now?”

            Shakra fiddled with a dark strand of hair, worry creasing her brows, “Because my wayward apprentice has finally found me. It’s time to stop running. I didn’t want to confront him, or his new mistress, but they’ve obviously tracked me to you. Somehow they’ve guessed I’m with you.”

            “That man…Ekil- whatever,” Alice said, “that was him? Your apprentice?”

            Shakra nodded, and the corner of her mouth turned up in a wry smile, “foolish boy was searching for spiders still.”

            “I don’t understand,” Alice frowned, “what does he want with you? And what’s up with the spider thing?”

            “I’ll have to tell you the entire story.” Shakra sat back in the chair with a smile, “Azura, dear. Put on some tea, will you? This may take some time.”

            Azura moved to do as she’d asked, and behind them Alice heard the clinking of tea cups as she pulled them out of the cupboard. Shakra cleared her throat,

            “I was…I am, a Sorceress, and Ekile was my apprentice.” Shakra looked down at her hands, “I was prideful and vain, I boasted about my skill at weaving patterns in the threads. I told everyone that I was the greatest weaver of all time. That I could best anyone.” She shook her head, “foolishness, utter idiocy. One day, Ekile brought a woman to me. He said the woman claimed she could best me, that she was the better weaver. I, in my foolish pride, simply laughed. The woman challenged me. She said we should have a contest, to see who is more skilled at weaving the threads. Whoever created the most powerful spell, would be declared the greatest weaver. I agreed.” Shakra steepled her fingers, her face grim, “We were halfway through the contest, weaving like mad, and she stopped. I believe she saw that my spell was becoming too powerful. She cast off her cloak and revealed herself to me,” Shakra shut her eyes, as if the memory pained her, “She was Athena. I had been battling with the goddess of wisdom and warfare. For all her wisdom, I will not hesitate to say she was like a petulant child. She cast her spell on me in a fit of rage, and I changed.” Her voice cracked, and it was obvious that Shakra was controlling her anger as she remembered what had happened to her, “not into the form you saw me in. No, she condemned me to crawl the earth on eight legs for the rest of my life.”

            “As a spider,” Alice gasped, “that’s why he was looking for them in the shop?”

            Shakra nodded, “But I still had my power. I changed the spell as she cast it, to act later, to change me into something different. Something more powerful. She didn’t see the change. She cursed me and then she vanished, taking my apprentice with her.” Shakra grimaced, “I should have realize that she had convinced him to come work for her. Why else would he bring her to me? He was sworn to me, but that oath broke as soon as I was changed.”

            “So, she knows you’re with Alice,” Altair was leaning against the doorframe between the shop and the back room. He crossed his arms over his chest, looking unhappy “Alice is in danger because of you?”

            Shakra looked down at the desk, her cheeks coloring slightly, “you are right. I should leave you…”

            “No,” Alice said sharply. She shot Altair a stern look and then turned back to Shakra, “you’re not going anywhere. You saved my butt like a million times…” she faltered, “besides, you’re kind of like family now.”

            Shakra looked up, a tentative smile spreading over her face, “thank you, Alice. I feel the same way.”

            “Well are we all going to have a group hug, or are we going to figure out what the plan is?” Altair said crossly.

            Maya spoke for the first time, “Well, she can’t know we’re in Jasper, right?”

            “Not yet,” Shakra smoothed one slim finger over her jaw line, “hmm, she’ll figure it out eventually, she has people everywhere, but for now we should be safe. I don’t imagine she has many people in Jasper,” she looked amused, “it’s way too small to draw her attention. That works in our favor.”

            “We should lie low for a while, business as usual.” Azura said. She handed Alice a steaming mug of tea, which she accepted gratefully.

            “I don’t get it,” Alice said, inhaling the scent of strong black tea, “she already cast a horrible spell on you and you’ve been a tiger for ages. Why is she still after you?”

            Shakra shrugged, “goddess’ have long memories and lots of time one their hands. She holds a grudge. I also suspect it has something to do with Ekile. He was always a greedy, envious little man. He resented me the entire time he was training under me. He would probably love nothing more than to see me wiped off the face of the earth.”

            Maya wrinkled her nose, “he sounds lovely.”

            “Here’s the plan,” Gabriel put his tea cup down on the saucer with a firm “clank” “we lay low, sell stuff in Jasper. If Shakra goes out, she wears a disguise. We hope Athena gets distracted by someone else.”

            “Who put you in charge, Elf boy?” Altair smirked at him.

            Gabriel scowled, and Alice interrupted hastily, “that sounds like a good plan. What else can we do? We can’t really go after a goddess and fight her. I don’t think Altair has got anymore jar of Pandora type things. So we can’t really try to fight a goddess.”

            Altair grinned, “fresh out of magical jam jars, sorry.”

            Shakra sighed, “I’m sorry to put you through this. I was hoping he would forget about me, but it appears he’s been searching all this time. I don’t know how he knew I was here…”

            “It will be fine,” Alice said firmly, “we’ll be safe here.”

            “If he comes, I will confront him,” Shakra said, and she held up a finger when Alice was about to protest, “No, no. This is my battle. It’s what I get for being arrogant so long ago. If he shows up here, do not try to engage him.”

            She nodded silently, running her finger over her necklace. Azura was leading Shakra up the stairs now, insisting she lie down in her apartment. Shakra didn’t protest. She looked pale and exhausted from the change.

        Alice gave her a wave as she went up the stairs, her mind racing. Ekile was one thing, but what if Athena showed up? And why on earth did she keep running into pissed off deities?

            Jasper was snow covered and quaint. The village was tiny, but it was set against a backdrop of huge, snow covered mountains. From far away they almost looked blue. Alice imagined them as giants sleeping under their blankets of snow. Ready to wake and make the ground rumble beneath their stony feet if you shouted too loudly into the crisp air.

            Across the street from Threads were a number of colorful shops. The red awning over one proclaimed it to be “The Enchanted Inkpot”. There were a number of leather bound books in the window.  Peering out the window of her shop, Alice could also read the sign on the front of a tall, green trimmed building. It said, “Bewitched!” and appeared to be a clothing store that carried everything from lacy underwear to wizard robes. Wedged between Bewitched and the Inkpot was a skinny shop with a red and blue striped awning, which read, “The Mystics Gallery”. The window held a number of framed paintings, and Alice squinted, sure she saw movement. Could the entire shop be devoted to magical paintings?

            “Lots to explore!” Maya came to stand beside her, “I think I like it here.”

            They both went quiet for a minute, watching cars drive by outside, listening to the wet shushing of wheels on icy roads. Tourists on the sidewalk walked past chattering happily to one another, breath rising in silver clouds above their heads.

            “Even if it is a little cold,” Alice added.

            Azura’s voice came from behind them, “ready to open shop, ladies? I'm just going to run up and see how Shakra is doing. She's still pretty exhasted.”

            “Yup,” Alice reached up and flipped the sign on the door over. “let’s see how we do in Jasper.”

            Gabriel poked his head into the shop from the backroom, “Maya, I’m unpacking some extra candles. Want to help?”

            Maya vanished into the backroom and Alice retreated to the desk, snickering a little. Just how much unpacking verses kissing would be going on? Altair’s voice floated in from the backroom,

            “Oh, gross, get a room you two.”

            “We did,” Gabriel shot back, “but for some reason you’re in it.”

            She grinned at Altair as he stomped in, “What’s the matter?”

            “You’re paying them to lock lips, you know” he grumbled. “it’s gross.”

Alice was about to tease him further when the bell jangled. She looked up as a group of tourists entered, and it instantly became noisy. Feet stomped loudly at the door, and the floor was quickly becoming wet and slippery with slush.

            “I think we’ll need those clean-it-sponges,” Alice said.

            “I’ll grab some,” Altair turned and headed for the back room, shouting before he entered, “I’m coming in. Quit swapping spit!”

            Alice kept a careful eye on the tourists, making sure nobody managed to tip over love potions or get themselves bitten by a miniature great white shark.

            “Excuse me,” A tall woman with light brown curls approached the desk. She was holding a pair of purple hand- warming gloves, “This matches my sweater perfectly. I was just wondering, is the spell woven into the fabric or on….”

            The woman trailed off, grey eyes going wide. Alice turned around, puzzled, to find Altair standing just behind her. He looked puzzled, “What?”

            Alice shrugged and turned back to the woman, who was suddenly blushing furiously. She stammered, “I…just wondering if it’s woven in.”

            “Yes,” Alice frowned, puzzled by her strange behavior, “it’s right in the glove.”

            “Excellent,” she seemed to recover herself, actually giving Altair a coy smile, “I’m Sara, by the way.”

            Alice frowned. The woman wasn’t even acknowledging her presence anymore!

            “Um, hi,” Altair said, he scratched his head and looked at Alice, “here are the sponges.” He stuck the plastic covered squares on the counter, “I gotta, um…go check on Maya and Gabriel.” He slid sideways along the wall until he was out from behind the desk and then beat a hasty retreat to the back room.

            Sara actually tilted her head sideways as she watched him walk away, and Alice could feel her face heating up and her chest constricting with anger. This woman was very obviously interested in him. And displaying it openly right in front of her! She took a deep breath and tried to remain professional while she rang the woman’s gloves through the till.

            “Have a nice day,” she said as cheerfully as she could manage, “come again.”

            Sara gave her a wicked grin and leaned past her, trying to see into the back room, “Oh, I’ll be coming back, don’t you worry.”