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True Divinity, by DragonMasterX.

Prologue

Fairly recent expeditions had led to the discovery of deeply buried ruins cradled at the center of a rainforest. A crescent of mountain ranges encroached upon acres of vast Central American woodland, hiding away the ancient structures of a long lost civilization.

Natives of Mayan heritage scorned these forsaken grounds. Their ancestors had condemned those in worship of their demonized deities, purging the heretics in bloody conflict. History better left forgotten, sealed away from foreigners and their naïve inquisitions. However, with rapid access to information in the modern world, it had only been a matter of time before the cursed realm of Sha'ak, "He who sways nature", had become known to the public worldwide.

To the natives, these ruins were nothing but trouble, holding frightening memories of eras long past. To historians worldwide, they were an opportunity to unveil and understand secrets lost to time.

In the later stages of his life, accomplished billionaire Marvin Langley had turned his attention to archeology. His burgeoning interest had begun with the acquisition of priceless artifacts from all over the planet. From the moment news about the Mayan-condemned civilization had reached his ears all the way to his lofty mansion on Miami beach, Mr. Langley knew it was his opportunity to become the very first owner of treasures never before seen.

The middle-aged tycoon's whim to be the first opossum to make history had become the driving force for securing a digging permit from the municipal government in charge of the area. Mr. Langley was no more than a hobbyist, but a hobbyist with one fat wallet and enough philanthropy credit to sway authorities.

And so, despite open protests by natives and cultural support groups, the opossum's project had been going on for two weeks now.

A bauble

"Up, ya lousy bums!" the foreman's coarse voice at four in the morning reminded Stormy how much she missed hitting the snooze button in her smartphone alarm. He was a lumbering brown-furred bear wearing work slacks and a muscle-shirt, alongside a red cap that, from Stormy's perspective, hid his eyes. All she could see was his scrunched up snout with an outlying canine fang prompting her to mimic his grumpy expression while covering her face with a forearm as if she was shielding her face from the sun. But there was no sunlight yet. It was 4am.

Back when Stormy had first signed up to be part of the team that would uncover the buried secrets of a mysterious civilization, Hollywood-influenced glamour had driven the young wolfess to sign her temporary employment contract. "Travel and work! Gain valuable experience! Fame and fortune within your grasp!" she remembered the job posting's ad, a seductive prospect for someone bored with their day-to-day job and in need of juicier pay.

Sitting up on her straw bed, Stormy paused with a hiss, rubbing at her aching back. "Ah..." she groaned, "Got up too fast." She gently twisted her waist, rolling her hips while applying light pressure to her afflicted area. This wasn't the first time she found herself spitefully shooting a glare at her lodgings. "Would it kill them to get us some mattresses...?"

Stormy's job description was 'archeological digger', but she had quickly come to understand she was little more than a lowly grunt bunched up with every other lowly grunt that had fallen for the same online ad. The diggers' living quarters was split over four small one-room cabin each housing three individuals.

"Someone fetch grandma her stroller." A deep voice rumbled from Stormy's left. It was one of her two roomies, a male leopard. For a wolf, she considered herself short at 5'4" tall, but the leopard made her feel like a dwarf with his lumbering 6'6" height, especially as he stood up and had to crouch to avoid hitting the low cabin ceiling. He was still chuckling at his own joke as he dragged his beefy thick body outside to get his stretching done.

Stormy huffed at the slight, following the muscular leopard out with her eyes. "Oaf," she murmured under breath, but she couldn't quit staring at him through the mosquito net at the entrance to their cabin. The brute was older than her, but it was true he was also the strongest digger in the team. None them could compare to his stamina and physical strength, especially not Stormy with her lean body that made getting taken seriously or noticed, even as a wolf, almost impossible at times.

To the right was the contrastingly quiet other cabin mate, a sullen-looking armadillo girl. Stormy had yet to learn her name or age, but she looked even younger than herself, hardly five-foot even if that. Just hearing the mumbled out "Mornin'," as she groggily got up was enough for Stormy to tell the armadillo was feeling 'social'.

Since day one Stormy had had trouble clicking with her fellow diggers. Day in and day out they worked to their bones, ate packed sandwiches or whatever gruel their bosses sent their way and turned in, exhausted. Jokingly, Stormy remembered the armadillo girl once mumbling out that being able to choose their daily breaks and the free Wi-Fi was about the only thing separating them from being prison inmates.

Getting into her slacks and shirt, Stormy joined her work mates outside. She hissed and grunted, shutting her eyes and cursing herself for forgetting to slip into her boots. With persistent humidity thanks to nigh-unpredictable forecast, the area outside the cabins had turned into a muddy, cold quagmire. It had been raining for the past two days, which had considerably slowed down progress at the dig site. Tropical weather had a habit of dumping precipitation almost sporadically.

"This is one thing I miss about the big city," Stormy thought, fondly remembering weeks ago when the pavement didn't sink under her soles and got her ankle deep in gunk. Work boots weren't just for the sake of keeping mud out from her toes, they added stability and were designed to avoid slipping. She quickly excused herself from the group as the foreman explained the day's activities to finish getting dressed.

By the time she had cleaned her foot paws, gotten into her boots and returned though, all eleven of her companions were marching back to the dig site. "Why am I not surprised?" Stormy huffed, starting to trot down the trail she had by then memorized. She sniffled and shivered a little, "Brr. It's so cold this early. It was unbearably humid and hot yesterday. Crazy equator temps..."

Since the first day when they had first arrived and they had to set up at their lowly accommodations, Stormy had already gotten sick over seeing the sponsor and his team of specialists coming from and going to the huge, fancy-looking cottage far removed from the dig site. She had heard that the state-of-the-art lodgings had been built months in advance while the sponsor secured his permit, with their modest cabins and chemical bathrooms having practically gotten air-dropped the day before their arrival.

Unlike the crew of grunts living closest to Sha'ak's Temple, the tycoon and his posh entourage of archeologists were a quarter of a mile away from the ruins, needing transportation to get around. Every survey day they would leave their enormous cottage in 4x4s parked under impermeable tents of better material than Stormy's little cabin was made of. That cold morning had been no different.

As Stormy was passed by one of those large jeeps, she had to jump off the trail to avoid getting run over. "Damnit!" she grunted, shaking the mud that had splashed onto her shirt and face. "Just because we're miles away from civilization you don't have to forget you got headlights, buddy!" she yelled furiously, stomping the muddy ground and making even more of a mess. "Ugh. It's like I'm invisible sometimes!"

Pouting and annoyed, Stormy shuffled back onto the trail. "Why were they in such a hurry anyway? They usually don't get up 'til 7..." she mumbled in deep thought, clicking her boots on the floor before she resumed her trotting. At least the exercise was going to help her stave off the cold. Soon enough, she had made it to the dig site at the ruins.

Whereas Stormy had certainly pictured herself deep in a trench troweling away in search of shiny treasure, she had never stopped to imagine the toil and exhaustion that came with the long work hours that started early in the morning. Trenches, as she had found out a couple of weeks ago, did not dig themselves.

Even with a team of a dozen able hands doing the dirty work, the foreman included, they had dug no less than four square holes in the perimeter. She had yet to see anything even remotely resembling metal or mineral. And with the unfavorable weather conditions of late, their work was often interrupted with heavy downpours forcing them to lay out and secure tarps over every trench to prevent flooding.

By the time Stormy had made it to the temple ruins, it was past 4:30. She joined the trench uncovering effort once the foreman caught sight of her being idle. Stormy didn't bother to offer an excuse for tardiness, since she didn't want to admit she'd stayed behind to clean her paws after forgetting her boots.

Both acts of deploying and removing tarps had their challenge, mostly in the strength department, but as Stormy had recently found out, the latter became even harder thanks to all the water logging atop tarps after heavy rainfall.

"Need help, runt?" Stormy's ears perked up. Her fangs were clenched and her nostrils flared. Her arms were about to give, but the looming presence of the beefy leopard's made her tense up. She started pulling on the unhooked tarp edge to fold it in a way it allowed the water to flow. Behind her workmate, she could see two uncovered trenches that he had no doubt pulled out by himself. Her cheeks were red.

"Youse taking a long time, Squeaky," the foreman came from behind the leopard. Stormy had hated that nickname since the bear had given it to her. "We gots the bigwigs pretty upset 'bout the rain 'n all. They wants us to get back diggin' already. Let us take over and go make youse-self useful with the science-peoples' equipment, 'ey? Bring it heres."

With a smirk, the leopard took the tarp edge off Stormy's hands, needing only one mitt to manipulate the hefty fabric. "Outta the way, lil' dude."

An exhausted Stormy landed on her butt as the leopard and their supervisor took over her work. She puffed out and began counting to five as she got off the ground, "Why did they even bother hiring 'lil' dudes'...?" the humiliated wolfess muttered under her breath as she started off towards the large on-site tent.

The tent wasn't livable quarters, but it warm and dry, sufficiently big for everybody to take shelter under in case of rainstorm, properly equipped with coolers and portable stoves to cook simple meals, and counted with a big enough shed where they could stash their digging tools and equipment. Two 4x4s were already stationed beside the tent. The tent was where the archeologists would meet to discuss, diagram and plan out the survey. And, as Stormy liked to think, continue making their lives more complicated.

With cheap hanging oil lamps illuminating the tent, Stormy walked under the tent to find two of the archeologists already there. Lingering spite made her sharpen her usually indifferent stare as she wondered which of these had been at the wheel earlier, nearly running her off the side of the trail. They were a lean hummingbird female and a stout lynx male, enjoying a cup of coffee and not even bothering to acknowledge the lowly grunt's presence.

Watching them, it occurred to Stormy that she wasn't hungry for breakfast yet but her recent Amish-like sleep schedule had made her thirsty for some of that steaming, energizing beverage. "I'll get a fresh cup on my way out," she planned as she made her way towards the equipment shed. She opened the double doors and walked half-way into the shed, snatching one of the empty bags hanging from inside the door on the right.

By now, Stormy remembered the archeologist's load-out: Trowels, dental picks, pen lights, brushes, measuring tapes, as well as numerous plastic bags to secure specimens. The young grunt couldn't help but chuckle to herself while looking at the smaller bags. "They haven't even used a single one of these since we started. Guess that's why they're so on edge lately..."

Stormy's thoughts were scattered when she felt a looming presence behind her. The wolfess turned around to meet eye-to-chest with the tall, lean hummingbird. She adjusted her sharp rimmed glasses down at Stormy with a most condescending stare and spoke in a highly nasal voice: "Ah, impeccable timing, digger. Our coffee machine's out of fresh grind," she said, side-stepping to clear the view for Stormy, who already knew where the coffee machine was. "Be a dear and fetch us two bags. They're in the trunk of our jeeps," she said, fished out her car keys and clicked on one of its buttons, car honking being her response. "Chop chop, girlie. Me, my associates, you and your partners, we all want a cup, and it's better to be stocked. It _is_going to be a long day, otherwise."

And there went her idea of getting a fresh cup on her way out. Looking between the now empty grinder at the coffee machine and the impatient looking avian, Stormy re-hoisted her full and hefty tool-bag over her right shoulder and offered a shaky smile. She didn't want to carry those three-kilo coffee bean bags by herself. "I'm a little busy right now, ma'am," Stormy re-hoisted a third time just in case the hummingbird was too busy staring at her own reflection in her almost empty cup. "But after I'm done, I can bring someone who..."

A scoff interrupted Stormy, with the archeologist insisting: "You're a grunt, so I'll let the back talk slide this time. I am having a particularly bad day today, dear. This?" she held out her cup, turned it around and spilled its contents on the ground next to Stormy's boots, "This humid leftover grind has ruined my coffee's flavor, and that ruins my mood. I want fresh."

Stormy slowly closed her eyes for a moment, getting some really bad flashbacks from unreasonably bad customers at a café she liked back home. She could hear the lynx archeologist giggling to himself, no doubt amused by the way the hummingbird was bitching about her coffee. "Go get it yourself." The wolf wanted to growl out at the bird, but Stormy was already having a bad morning and she didn't think Lady McBitchBeak was capable of empathy. Instead, Stormy quietly dropped her heavy bag and started heading around the tent without saying anything.

"Feh!" the hummingbird sighed, "Finally. The nerve of that one. Where does Langley get these riffraff, anyway?" she shrugged to the chuckling lynx, before raising her voice at the exiting Stormy: "And don't you be taking anything else!"

"Don't talk to her until she's had her 'fresh' grind, huh?" Stormy thought to herself as she dug into the unlocked trunk of the jeep. She hefted one of the bags over her shoulders, almost losing her balance in the process. Her irritation had given her a burst of strength, but little control of it. She had to calm down before crouching and lodging the second bag over her empty shoulder, loading up to make it back to the tent.

"There are better ways to ask someone to do stuff not in their contract," Stormy thought. But she couldn't remember these rich and famous types being nice to them one time. For members of the upper echelons of society, her employer and his team had little in the way of showing respect. Stormy was glad her contract only covered two months, and, rain or not, she was already halfway through the first. The option to renew her contract was still there, but she already knew how she felt about that one.

After lugging the coffee bags back into the tent, Stormy set them down and dragged them behind the counter with the coffee machine. At first she didn't see the hummingbird or the lynx, but she didn't even wait to be told to fill the bean grinder, leaving it set to make a fresh one. She thought to fix herself a cup, but then saw all three archeologists were coming in with Mr. Langley. "Screw this, I don't wanna be these guys' coffee girl," Stormy thought to herself, ducking away and swiftly taking the bag of tools from the floor, carrying it out with both hands.

Fortunately for the digging effort, the diggers had done an excellent job protecting their ditches from the elements. With the tarps removed, they all got back to work under the gradually dawning skies. The teams were divided among the four rectangular ditches. Six of the strongest diggers including the foreman were still working on finishing the last ditch which had fallen behind thanks to the weather, while the other three were being surveyed by an archeologist partnered with two diggers each. While archeologists measured and directed, diggers followed their instructions in troweling and dusting.

Stormy wasn't in particularly good terms with any of the three archeologists, but after her brief and unpleasant confrontation with the hummingbird earlier, she was glad to be under the supervision of Mr. Langley's right-hand man. Dr. James was another opossum, though he was leaner and taller than Mr. Langley. Stormy was used to his gentle voice, but he was no less of a hard-ass than the others.

"Wield your trowel with a looser grip where I tell you to, Ms. Digger," Dr. James coaxed, standing over Stormy while surrounded by the centuries-old architecture they had unearthed. "We don't want to damage anything of interest, after all." Stormy grunted. Even if his tone was gentler, the condescending attitude was there. He would criticize her down to her last motion.

"You'd think archeologists would get dusty themselves every so often," Stormy told herself, begrudgingly listening to her supervisor, using her trowel to gently carve one of the ditch corners. She knew a still and measured hand was necessary to handle antiquities but she had no idea the dirty, pre-treasure work could be so fussy and frustrating. They had yet to even _see_anything of interest.

Dr. James nodded to Stormy in acknowledgement of her correction and turned to go check up on her partner on the other side of the ditch. However, by the time the tall opossum reached the rope ladder leading back up into the ruins' surface, a man cast his worried expression from above. "Robert," Mr. Langley said with little patience left in his deep voice, "They're here. Will you kindly help me with these... people?"

Dr. James' produced an empathetic smile up to his employer. "I'll be right with you, Marvin." Halfway up the ladder, Dr. James turned to Stormy's partner: "Get rid of all the accumulated dirt, Keenan. We'll be expanding soon." The archeologist told the thin lemur who immediately dropped everything he was doing to grab a bucket and shovel. Turning to Stormy herself, the opossum tilted his hat and smiled, "You're doing great, darling. Control that wrist, won't you?"

Stormy turned to address the pompous archeologist, but was immediately blinded by the one ray of sunlight peering from the early morning skies. It was still mostly overcast, so Stormy didn't have long to suffer that flash. By the time she unshielded her eyes, she could already hear Dr. James and Mr. Langley chatting out there, but she could see him no longer.

"Must be those activists again," Stormy mumbled, raising her voice at the end now that she was left alone with her Keenan. "Langley must really be as rich as he says if he got the government to agree with this when most of the people around here don't, huh?"

"I 'unno," Keenan shrugged, his skinny arms struggling to bring a bucketful of dirt to the rope connected to the pulley outside. "Long as I get paid, I don't really care where the money comes from."

"Right," Stormy couldn't blame the lad's dry response. He was just as tired as she was; as they all were. She returned to her work, trowel in hand. Though the more she gently went at it as Dr. James had told her to, the less motivation to heed his advice she felt she had. The lack of proper sleep was starting to make Stormy regret having passed on that coffee earlier. Dusting her free hand, she fished her phone out, ignored the no-reception and no-data warnings that always popped this far away from camp and realized she had been working for two hours. Breakfast was likely going to happen soon. She only wished she could get all this work done now.

The hours of long, dull work had been wearing Stormy's patience down. "Mmmph. This part's sticking out..." the wolfess mumbled, her eyes starting to focus on a glint coming from the wall. She grabbed a brush to dust the shiny little spot, finding a hint of sparkling material. Her heart started racing and she looked back at the busy Keenan before looking up at the cloudy skies, not seeing Dr. James even close to the edge. She turned back to her finding and closed her gaping jaw shut.

With a burst of energy supplied by excitement and wonder, Stormy did her best to calm down and switched to her handpick tool, using it to loosen a small rectangle of some faded material she did not recognize. She picked left and right, then switched back to her trowel to smooth the dirt around before digging in further, exposing two even smaller rectangles besides the first one. In minutes, the task was done and she had loosened out the artifact.

"Is this a necklace...?" Stormy raised her eyebrow inquisitively as she held the curious-looking accessory. Other than the three, one-tenth of an inch-thick metal pieces hanging from it, the necklace seemed to be made of unremarkable thread going through a series of tiny stones. "Not even gold..." Stormy sighed in defeat, trying her hardest to remember that booklet on precious metals she had picked up at the airport. "Heck, this isn't even bronze. Probably a worthless bauble..." she huffed, standing up and turning towards the ladder when she heard vicious thunder roaring from above, startling her.

Water was soon pitter-pattering in the ditch. Stormy reached up to rub her temple in annoyance, "Again with the freaking tarps..." she lamented, looking down at the old necklace in her hand. At first she thought she should present her finding to Dr. James, but with the way she had excitedly dug it out, she started to notice nicks and scratches caused by her tools here and there; she didn't want to get chewed out. "Can't just leave it here..." she told herself, turning away when Keenan came back down to fetch her. She quickly put the necklace on, hiding it under her shirt. "Psh, it's not like they'll miss one lousy trinket. And even if they do, this is just me sticking it to the Opossum. That'll teach 'em to treat me nicer," she giggled to herself a little, becoming startled when she felt Keenan's hand on her shoulder.

"Gotta go, lady," the lemur said, "Unless you'd like to spend your night under the tarp."

"Right, let's go!" Stormy nodded, grabbed her tools and followed Keenan to the rope ladder. Keenan stopped, holding the ladder still for her. "Oh, thanks." She smiled, clutching the rope and climbing out.

Stormy and Keenan were soon back out, and they all scrambled to work under the growing rainfall. While securing tarps with her coworkers, Stormy couldn't help but overhear the constant yelling coming from the tent nearby.

"See this, Mr. Langley?! This hellish weather proves the Gods are displeased with the defilement of these cursed grounds!" It was one of the activists Stormy had come to become accustomed to seeing around the ruins. The strong-looking jaguar's English was accented, but Stormy could tell its roughness stemmed from the large feline's evident frustration. His name was Carlos, and he, alongside the villagers at the outskirts of the ruins continued to oppose the tycoon's dig.

Mr. Langley and Carlos' group had been at each other's throats since Stormy had first arrived to see them in the same place. Behind the jaguar usually stood members of his tribe with a shorter and significantly older jaguar hanging at the back. They were modernized tribesmen who respected customs and folklore over the law. With how insistent they had been so far, even under the rain, Stormy admired the fact they were still keeping their protest civil and verbal.

"I will say it again, and again, until I am blue in the face, Mr. De León," Mr. Langley looked as old as the elder at Carlos' back, beyond tired with these exchanges. "I have a permit, and you have no claim."

"Your pelt must be growing heavy with moisture, sir," Dr. James stepped forth from Mr. Langley's side. He was holding his hat under an arm, apparently unbothered by the weather despite his remark. Unlike his employer, Dr. Robert James was a pretty tall opossum, easily matching the young jaguar's steely gaze. "Perhaps we could resume this lovely chat over a warm cup of coffee when the skies clear?"

Carlos' nostrils flared, and even from far away Stormy could tell he was holding down a less-than-pleasant phrase at his throat. The wolfess became distracted when she took notice of the older, smaller jaguar behind Carlos staring straight at her for a moment. As if having been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, Stormy immediately looked away from the commotion and got back to work.

Stormy had to stop amusing herself from the live drama to pay attention to what she was doing. The rain was hardly letting up and thunder and lightning were becoming fiercer up above. They had to get those tarps back on. By the time the foreman called for everyone to go seek shelter under the tent, Stormy saw the natives and her employers had already gone. In what order that had happened, she did not know; but she was sure this wasn't the last she was going to see Mr. Langley's sour expression. Deep down she knew this hardly classified as a nuisance for a billionaire, yet secretly, perhaps in a cynical way, it brought her a little satisfaction to have witnessed it.

Rainy midday gave way to an even uglier afternoon. Stormy's group had their lunch under the tent, and were given the rest of the day off; not that there was a lot to do without going back to the cabins. There were many things she could complain about that work trip, but the impermeable ceilings, portable chargers and the surprisingly powerful Wi-Fi router's signal coming from Langley's jungle mansion allowing her to find entertainment online were simple pleasures she had grown fond of.

By the time the rain had started letting up, there wasn't much sunlight left. Back to the cabins the diggers marched, eager to catch up on rest.

In Stormy's group, the burly leopard usually was the first to conk out; sleeping as hard and loudly as he worked during the day. On the one hand she still had to get used to his snoring, but on the other it was better than hearing his patronizing words all the time. Thankfully, resuming rainfall at night masked most of that obnoxious noise.

Playing with the trinket under her shirt with one hand, Stormy idly flipped through social media on her phone. Dropping temperatures were distracting her from getting engaged with any content she passed by though. "Should've asked for more covers. It was just so hot the last few days..." she mumbled to herself. Looking over to where the leopard had bundled himself up, she shivered to think of asking if he'd spare any.

"Hey." A dry, tired voice snapped Stormy back away from her phone and her thoughts. Standing over her in the quiet flashes of lightning, the young armadillo girl Stormy shared the cabin with stood over her, holding a dark grey blanket. "You're shivering."

Stormy was taken aback by the sudden gesture. Since she had first been assigned her lodgings with her two cabin mates, the wolfess swore to herself she could count the number of words the taciturn shelled female had spoken to her, and that included the three days where she had been greeted on waking up. Stormy could almost foresee if she kept staring the blanket would get taken away so she reached out for it and hastily took it off the armadillo's hands with a smile. "Thank you very much, um..."

"Good night." The other girl intercepted, leaving Stormy wondering about her name again. But this, she felt, was progress.

"She's nicer than she seems, I guess..." Stormy thought to herself, throwing the blanket on while cozying up, feeling much better now. "That pompous bird could learn a thing or two about being helpful..." was one of her last thoughts as the day's exhaustion finally started to catch up. With that toasty warmth enveloping it didn't take long for Stormy's consciousness to drift away.

That night, Stormy and the bauble under her shirt would sleep soundly under the heavy rain.

Influence

The following morning wasn't much different, except Stormy made sure she didn't forget to put on her boots before going out this time. "Thanks for last night," she made sure to tell the armadillo, who was finishing to dress up for work. Their leopard cabin mate had already gone off ahead. "Sorry, all this time and I haven't learned your name yet."

"Sheila," the armadillo responded, getting off her hay bed and up to her feet. "You sleep okay?"

"Yuh-yeah..." Stormy still felt a bit intimidated by the short-spoken way Sheila conversed, but she couldn't deny the bit of concern she was offering. "Glad you had extra blankets. I never thought the weather could change this fast so suddenly."

"I'm used to the cold," Sheila said, hooked the straps of her coveralls and grabbed her gloves, ready to leave. Stormy followed her out and they joined the group. The foreman explained that they'd be picking up where they'd left yesterday, same teams.

The dark march towards the ruins was admittedly much better than jogging along the humid forest on her own. At the very least, hearing the others groan at how early it still was made her feel better about herself in some small way.

The dig site was still humid from all the overnight rain. "Not those damn things again..." Stormy grumbled at the sight of the covered ditches. Those hefty, smelly tarps had started haunting her thoughts. Worse still, by the time the dozen diggers had made it to the ruins, she could see two jeeps were already parked by the tent, which meant it wouldn't be long before she got to hear complaints.

"Squeaky," the foreman stood in front of Stormy before she could get to work on the tarp of her designated ditch. "Please go fetch the tools again. We'll take cares of the tarps this time."

The wolfess nodded and turned around, a bit confused by the gentler tone in the bear's voice. "At least he said please this time..." Stormy thought, though she was still not very amused by the nickname.

Inside the tent awaited a slightly different ensemble of archeologists. Mr. Langley and the stout lynx were missing this time. Dr. James was at one of the small desks, having covered it in paperwork. The hummingbird lady was behind the coffee machine, seemingly attempting to figure it out; Stormy thought. She also thought that she didn't want to interact with these better-than-you types any more than absolutely necessary, so she went straight for the toolshed to retrieve their equipment.

However, the hummingbird intercepted Stormy before she could leave, standing aside her with one cup of coffee at the end of each grabbing talon. "Excuse me, ma'am," the wolfess mumbled out to the taller avian. Stormy's eyes widened when one of the two cups was gently extended out towards herself.

"It's awfully early, isn't it?" the archeologist lady said, "I thought you could use a cup, Ms. Digger."

"For me?" Stormy asked with a quirked brow, full of suspicion all of a sudden. The hummingbird cocked her head sideways, equally confused.

"Ah. Dr. James can fix his own cup," the avian waved a wing dismissively, "Your diligence is more necessary. Please, I insist! It's not poisoned, dear," a smiling chuckle that Stormy didn't think was possible parted the bird's beak. The pleasantness was as sincere as it was unsettling. It was almost as if the bitch she had encountered on the previous morning had been replaced by somebody else.

Stormy made sure to sling the tool bag over her shoulder, fastening it to avoid dropping it, and shyly reached over for the offered cup. "Thanks," she said, taking an invigorating sip. These dark early mornings still didn't agree with her.

"I imagine you're busy, so I won't hold you any longer, dear," the hummingbird nodded, turned around and sauntered her way back to the coffee machine. She seemed to be brewing multiple cups, certainly for more than just four people. Stormy wondered if she was brewing for everybody in the dig site as she left for work.

After she had distributed every tool kit among the different dig teams, Stormy found herself fifteen feet deep into the same trench she had dug out the odd necklace from again. Trowel and brush in hand, she was already with her knees on the fairly humid dirt when she heard that gentle voice again. Dr. Robert James was looming behind the wolfess, his great stature a mockery of the natural order: "I see you're putting more effort today. Very good. Although you won't find anything in that corner, sadly," He said wistfully before turning to face the columns surrounding the aged structure they had dug up, "I'd love your assistance over here, Ms. Digger."

Stormy paused for a moment, turning to look at the archeologist with a curious stare. "He's being awfully nice today," she thought to herself, following Dr. James into the center of the trench to help him brush for dust as he took notes.

"Your name is Stormy, isn't it?" the archeologist asked without looking up from his notes. Stormy nodded and looked up, offering verbal confirmation when she realized he wasn't paying attention to her movements. "What do you think of this venture, Stormy?"

Stormy's arms slowly pulled away from the stony piece of furniture she had been cleaning for Dr. James, sitting her rump down on her haunches. The vague question had struck her as odd, as she needed to put some thought into it. Facing him, she answered: "You wanna be rich and famous, right?"

"Answering a question with another question leads to pointless circles," Dr. James smiled, still scribbling away. "You're far away from home. My dear friend has been running all of us ragged for quite some time. I imagine it must be remarkably harder for a disgruntled digger to renounce their contract, yes? Part of Marvin's success is owed to unsavory lawyer types, after all."

Stormy didn't have the money to pay for the early termination fee, but she didn't want to admit it. Instead, she turned around and got back to work. She wondered if she actually could get any real money for the ancient accessory around her neck; it just looked so ugly and plain. After a few moments though, she finally added: "Riches and fame would be cool."

"Indeed," Dr. James closed his notebook, moving closer and crouching beside the wolfess. "You did not ask, but treasure and recognition is not what I'm here for. I wish to make lasting discoveries that will bring us close to understanding."

"Understanding what?" Stormy quirked a brow, "Aren't these Mayan ruins? There's libraries chock full of info about 'em."

"Tell me, dear," Dr. James took the brush Stormy had stopped using and started stroking along the surface of the wall next to the stone furniture. Despite his larger size, his technique was measured unlike her own; it was almost like watching someone paint except the dust was coming off nicely. "Have you heard of the God Zeus?"

"Yeah, the Greek one right? Bangs everything that moves?"

The archeologist laughed, "Quite. And are you aware he goes by a different name, also?"

Stormy huffed, closing her eyes and trying to remember. It was one of the planets in the solar system. It came to her fast. "Joo-Jupiter, right?" she answered, unsure. "Yeah, Roman Jupiter?"

"A+," Dr. James chuckled. "Yes. Once Greece fell to the empire, many things, including the Greek Gods, were absorbed into Rome's culture." He paused, turning his head around to face Keenan, "Be gentler, boy. I can hear your chisel striking like an ore pick. We're here to study, not mine."

"Sorry, sir," came Keenan's voice from far away. The upset expression softened again when Dr. James started addressing Stormy again.

"And here the lot of us are. Mayan territory," the opossum gestured openly at the ruins, "Yet these structures predate everything libraries know about Mayan architecture. This didn't use to belong to the Mayans."

"What? But you said we're in their territory." Stormy raised both brows, suddenly invaded by curiosity.

"And Greek territory became Roman, did it not?" Dr. James's muzzle was split open by a grin, "This temple was taken. Its priests and followers murdered by Mayan invaders. The God known as Chaak used to be known as Sha'ak here. While similar in pronunciation, I can assure the difference is significant."

"How so?" asked a slightly off-put Stormy, who was now invested in History she had never heard of before.

"Evil," Dr. James simply said, making Stormy's ears fall flat in response to the sudden tingle crawling up her spine. "The natives are afraid of these grounds. The God who used to be worshipped here was an evil one. A fascinating angle, you see. Gods by their very nature are represented both as merciful and vengeful. But every little record I've found so far separates the typical Chaak from our vilified Sha'ak. He was worshipped as a bringer of calamity and fear." He paused, smiled again and looked at the gulping Stormy with amusement in his face. "Perhaps a disgruntled twin brother?"

Stormy scoffed. She couldn't let herself believe in that nonsense. "You have a way to put people on edge, doctor," the wolfess sighed, getting back to work. "Why tell me all this anyway? I'm just a grunt."

"You seemed lost in thought," Dr. James stood up, dusting himself off carefully, "And I thought perhaps discussing the nature of our work would add a little excitement to these dismal days we've had. Morale, and whatnot."

"I guess I appreciate it," Stormy shrugged. She had no idea why the archeologist had changed his tone this much. Until just yesterday he had been treating her like just any old grunt, but now she could feel sincerity in his words and the way he had confided in her.

"Lunch time!" the foreman's deep roar would've made Stormy jump out of her fur if she hadn't been used to it by now.

"Please go on ahead, Keenan and I will clean up after you," Dr. James offered, taking the tools off Stormy's hands as soon as she stood up. Stormy's heart was still beating fast from the gruesome history lesson, so she was wary about Dr. James' proposal. "Hopefully those nice cup noodles."

Cup noodles sounded good to Stormy. But something definitely felt off in the way people were treating her. It was like day and night; she had gone from being invisible to having her superiors getting chummy with her. Was this all gearing up to be some sort of elaborate high-school style prank? The thought was as inane as it was amusing to her. "Yeah right. It's not like I'm the most important person in this freaking temple..." she finally discarded the silly idea as she grabbed the ladder to climb out of the ditch.

The rest of the day continued without any major discoveries. Work felt more relaxed with Dr. James at her side, regaling her with interesting trivia. Keenan had brought in a second water bottle with him, which she appreciated when he offered it to her, and even the burly leopard had gotten off her back whenever they crossed paths. The worst part of doubting her co-workers was that Stormy couldn't tell what their intentions were because their generosity, concern and respect appeared to be sincere and genuine. It was an eerie sensation of doubt that accompanied her until well into dusk.

Back in her hay bed at the cabin, Stormy couldn't stop thinking about the sudden change in attitude. "Why's everybody suddenly being nice to me?" she wondered to herself as she googled the web for any group phenomena attributed to niceness. Psychological studies and blogs deployed before her eyes, but the terms mostly flew over her head. She found something about memory implantation, but that didn't convince her, either. "Maybe they feel guilty about mistreating others? No, why would they change that fast? Keenan, Sheila, the archeologist lady, the foreman, Dr. James..." Stormy counted in her head, tapping the necklace under her shirt. And then it hit her.

"They're being helpful... they're being nice..." Stormy sat up on her bed with an epiphany. It had started with Keenan, another disgruntled digger much like her, helping her out of the ditch at the start of the rainstorm on the previous day. She remembered it had started raining around the time she had found the necklace and put it on. She remembered how bad she had thought she wanted them all being nice to her. "Nuh-no way..." the connection she was making in her mind sent shivers alongside Stormy's spine.

Taking advantage of the dark and her cabin mates' exhaustion, Stormy pulled the necklace out to stare at it on her palms. "Did this thing...?" her eyes cautiously looked over the plain, metal-adorned necklace, quickly stuffing it under her shirt when she heard shuffling. Stormy fell to her back on the bed when she realized it was one of her cabin mates turning in their sleep. "No such thing. Couldn't be..." she denied the thoughts, yet couldn't keep her grip away from her chest.

"Just had another long day, that's all," Stormy argued with herself, feeling her eyelids growing heavier, "Quit thinking fantastic things and get to sleep. Just be happy they're being nicer people in general. That should be..." her thoughts were ruptured by a long yawn, and soon enough, her consciousness began to drift, "...enough."

Over the next few days, Stormy started noticing the behavior of her peers and superiors continuing to change. It was mostly notable on people like Sheila whose introverted layers seemed to peel off with every morning. By the second day after their introduction, the armadillo digger had walked up to Stormy to ask her name herself, speaking in a bashful manner and even made attempts at small talk. During showers with the other ladies, Sheila would offer to wash Stormy's back, which the latter declined. It was awkward to think about someone she hardly knew wanting to get that personal with her!

The avian archeologist on the tent would greet Stormy with a fresh cup of coffee every morning. By the third morning, she was also waiting with every tool-kit neatly packed into the bag Stormy usually took, and even offered to carry it for her. "You work so hard! Please let me help." The hummingbird would tell Stormy, who felt increasingly pressured to reject the, in her mind, excessive servility. And yet that new side of the once haughty bird lady felt so strangely right that Stormy found herself accepting the pampering.

Although with others, like Dr. James and the foreman, the change seemed subtler. They had certainly become politer to her, but said nothing she thought was out of the ordinary. Her ditch partner Keenan had started offering to take over her duties so that she could have more breaks, so the wolfess was soon spending more time touring the ruins with Dr. James or the hummingbird than she was actually doing work. In a way, Stormy had started feeling as important as their employer.

It was during another particularly long-winded history lesson by Dr. James inside the temple proper that Stormy found herself meeting face-to-face with a particularly miffed Mr. Langley. "Ah, Marvin, there you are," Dr. James greeted him, "Haven't seen you in a day. Detained by the Mr. De León again, I assume?"

"I'm tired of those protesters," the shorter opossum pressed two fingers against his furrowed brow with a sigh. "I've half a mind to buy the deed to their village and have them all kicked out."

Sighing, Dr. James could only offer a wry smile in retort. "If you had their way, they'd all be behind bars for obstructing your goal, old friend."

"An ideal solution, but I'm not in the mood for hypotheticals," Mr. Langley dragged his hands down his tired face, uncovering his eyes and directed a silent stare forth. He finally had noticed Stormy standing next to his top archeologist.

Stormy stared back without saying anything. That was Marvin Langley, the man who paid her salary, the cheapskate who had them sleeping on hay beds, sharing chemical bathrooms and portable showers away from his and the archeologists' comparable mansion. In the past, she didn't remember ever coming face to face with her employers at any of her old jobs. She wanted to call him out on all the things she thought she and the other diggers deserved, but Dr. James spoke up first.

"This is Ms. Stormy, Marvin," the taller opossum introduced her, "She's quite the listener. And has quite a bit in common with your lust for treasure!" Dr. James laughed. Stormy shrank a little, feeling exposed.

"Miss...?" Mr. Langley quirked a brow in doubt. He was used to being introduced to European high-born ladies and supermodels in the states. Stormy's androgynous appearance gave the old man pause before he shook his head and asked: "One of the diggers, isn't she?" he frowned at the wolfess' nod, "Why isn't she digging, then? This isn't a tour. Robert, we've been at it for nearly three weeks and we haven't found scrap. You promised me a fortune, but the only fortune I see is mine, pouring out of my pockets like a pool leak."

"God, what a jerk..." Stormy thought to herself, suddenly not wanting to be there. Dr. James seemed unbothered by Mr. Langley's tone of voice, evidently used to it. He merely smiled to their employer and turned to her.

"Perhaps you'd like to return to your post, Stormy," Dr. James offered her the out, "I'll be joining you shortly at the new ditch."

"Yes, do get back to work, digger." Mr. Langley agreed, straightening his collar. He seemed unbothered by Stormy all of a sudden. She had her out from that situation just as she had wished for, so she started making her exit, when something came to mind.

"Did they really want to let me go?" Stormy thought, stopping half-way out of the temple to stare back at Mr. Langley while he and the taller opossum discussed something she couldn't hear by now. "Langley was about to chew me out. I could see it in his eyes. He's furious with everybody..." she looked down at her hand reaching up to grab the necklace through her shirt in a firm grip. "Are they really listening to my thoughts, what I want...?" she mused, focusing her mind on those two. "Can I really influence them...?" her eyes narrowed as she stared until it hurt. She would've continued straining herself, but Dr. James raised his voice at her.

"Something wrong, Stormy?" he asked, making Stormy jump in place and laugh.

"Suh-sorry!" she quickly apologized, "I thought I'd misplaced something. Going back to work now!" Stormy thought herself stupid for believing in these silly coincidences. People weren't good or bad; they just had good or bad days.

The rest of Stormy's day was spent at the newest ditch which Dr. James had asked her to wait for him at. Sheila was the last to climb out of the fourth ditch, her expression of disdain brightening as the armadillo noticed her cabin mate. She approached Stormy with a hand in the pouch of her coveralls, taking out a granola bar. "Hungry?"

"No, thanks," Stormy dismissively waved her hand. It was still a bit surreal to see that usually demure girl switching personalities with such stark contrast with her nowadays, but that didn't stop Stormy from offering a smile to Sheila's kindness. "You finally done working this one? Rain was making it really tough on you guys for a while there."

"Yes, it was tough, but I'm used to it," Sheila rolled her arms and popped her joints with a small grunt. She was small and compact, but unlike Stormy, the armadillo had visible musculature over her limbs. Sheila was one of the few people in the expedition who Stormy towered over.

"I was surprised you were always shoveling and carrying equipment with the other guys," Stormy said, remembering that this was one of the few times outside the cabin, showers or the dig site tent she had spent talking with the fellow digger. "I guess you're not just strong, you've got experience."

"It's all I know," Sheila shrugged, "Never knew my mom, and I wish I never knew my dad. School didn't like me, and I didn't like it back," she tore a piece of the granola bar in her hand, munching quietly before swallowing and adding: "Had to start working early. Sorry, you don't care."

Stormy's nostrils flared a little in a sigh. She rubbed her arm, feeling uncomfortable all of a sudden. Telling Sheila that she cared or that she understood was going to be a pitiful lie, and she had no insight to offer her. Instead, she gave the short girl a smile. "It's good to have you around, Sheila."

The armadillo nodded without smiling back. Turning around to a familiar bellowing. "'ey, pipsqueak!" Both Stormy and Sheila looked up from the ditch at the towering leopard; their other cabin mate. As usual, he loomed his Herculean physique at them with a cocky grin. "What'cha doing standing on the edge like that? If you two lil' shrimps fall in and break your frail lil' butts, don't come cryin' to me to get you out later."

"I'll make a note of that..." Stormy patiently replied, keeping her eyes off the big bully.

"What's up?" Sheila folded her arms, glaring up at the much larger male as if there wasn't a foot and half difference in size. The leopard chuckled at the armadillo's boldness.

"Need us 'round the back. Fatass bumbled into some entrance behind the temple or somethin', needs us all to push," the leopard explained while thumbing over his shoulder. 'Fatass' was how he referred to the stout archeologist lynx. "Let's go." He said, immediately holding a hand up before Stormy. "Not you, pup. Foreman told me you can stick around here; wait for Langley's lapdog."

Sheila quietly nodded to Stormy and walked off with the burly leopard, with the two disappearing around the temple. The wolfess folded her arms with a huff. "Might as well wait," she glanced at her lean arms with disappointment, "Not like I'd be of any use like those two..."

"Are you one of the diggers?" a familiarly accented voice pulled Stormy back from her thoughts, prompting her to turn around. Again, Stormy found herself staring up at someone else; this time a jaguar she had come to recognize. It was Carlos de León, the leader of those village-based activists.

It was the first time Stormy had a chance to talk with the Central American. His rugged features contrasted his youthful and strong poise. As usual, he was being accompanied by two other villagers with the older, much shorter jaguar trailing behind them; she could barely see him past Carlos' muscular arms. "I work here, yeah," Stormy said, and offered her name before confirming Carlos': "Mr. De León, right? Did I pronounce that right?"

Carlos offered a nod, but his attention was on the ditch Stormy was standing close to, "Another defilement. I wonder if by the time you people leave there will be any dirt left in these grounds."

Stormy didn't know what to say. She was only a grunt. "I'm sorry. I just work here. Everyone else is at the back of the temple dealing with some passage or..." Stormy had to stop explaining when she saw the jaguar's amber eyes widen. He said something back to his posse in Spanish and completely ignored Stormy, dashing right off in the direction of the temple.

"Something tells me Mr. Langley won't be happy... again," Stormy winced at the thought of being chewed out for unintentional whistle-blow, but she certainly didn't want to be the target of the activists' ire either. "Hm?" just as she turned away from the temple she realized the smaller jaguar had been left behind.

The elder was staring up at Stormy as if attempting to read something off her face. His eyes were just the same shade of yellow as Carlos', yet tempered by decades of life-experience. His posture was slouched as was his tail. Unlike Carlos however he was dressed in grassy green robes, decorated in patterns Stormy didn't recognize. He was saying no words to her, yet she felt like she was getting picked apart like in the middle of a courtroom cross-examination.

The way he was staring at her let her follow his gaze to her chest. Stormy didn't have anything worth staring at; certainly nowhere near as endowed as the humming bird who kept rejecting the advances of every hot-blooded digger in the camp. She began to wonder if he knew about the necklace under her shirt. The thought made her shiver; she didn't want to get ratted out!

"Suh-sir...?" Stormy's awkward meter was full; she needed that old cat to say something. She waved a paw, half-hoping that she was dealing with the seeing-impaired. Fortunately for the weirded-out wolfess though, Dr. James soon approached the fourth ditch.

"Hmm, it's curious to see you here on your own, Chief De León," the tall opossum said, once more holding his safari hat off his head. "Did your grandson abandon you?"

"Ch-Chief...?" Stormy repeated in her mind. She also repeated the foreign last name, and completed the connection between Carlos and the Chief. Dr. James turned to Stormy.

"Thank you for waiting, my dear. Won't you excuse me for a few more minutes?" After explaining that he would escort the chief to his grandson around the temple, Dr. James left with the elder, finally giving Stormy some space again.

"Does he know...?" Stormy murmured to herself, gripping the necklace tightly in her shirt. "If he knows I took the necklace, he knows what it is. Does he know...?" she repeated over and over, through the rest of her afternoon. Dr. James never came back, with Stormy learning later that Carlos and Mr. Langley had once again began disputing at the back of the temple, with further threats of protests and threats involving the authorities, respectively.

In the end, Stormy found herself ruminating about the necklace while walking back to her cabin. All those days ago she had thought the artifact a valueless trinket she had just taken to spite Mr. Langley, but suddenly she felt a lot more interested in it. She was honestly curious about it having some sort of mysterious power. And all doubt was removed from her mind when she stepped inside of her lodgings, finding her hay bed gone.

In place of the poor bedding she had been hurting her back on for weeks, Stormy found an actual box with four legs and a mattress, with a set of covers and an undressed pillow on top. Her heart began to race. "Earlier when I was focusing..." Stormy's fingers began to twitch, commissures twisting up into a smile. She had no idea if it had been Dr. James talking to Mr. Langley or if it had been Mr. Langley herself, but somebody had just authorized a much needed upgraded just for her.

"Yes! Yes, a new bed!" she threw herself at the mattress, bouncing atop firmness she had come to miss. "Mmm! Those bastards, I bet they all sleep in one of these or better...!" Stormy hurried to think of the consequences of this turnabout. "I can really affect their thoughts, make them do what I want..." she told herself with a grin. "New bed..." she purred in delight while stretching. She sat up when she heard the first of her cabin mates to entering.

"Feh." The burly leopard let out an annoyed huff, "Been up to much with the opossums? Guessing that bird lady don't put out," he grunted, depositing his statuesque form down on his hay bed with a disgruntled sigh. Despite the fact she didn't much care for her rude cabin mate's attitude, Stormy suddenly felt like a rich girl waving her ice-cream before a street urchin's stale bread.

It felt especially bad when she saw Sheila making her quiet entrance, not even making a remark as she headed straight to her own bed. The girl was even smiling and waving to Stormy as if wordlessly congratulating her; not a hint of envy in her exhausted gaze.

Stormy assured herself in her mind that the workers' condition didn't need to be this bad anymore, all the while she rubbed the necklace under her shirt with a smirk. She was now convinced she had been given the power to suggest ideas to people by thinking about them. Her bed had been just the start. Things were going to change around here.

Wake-up Call

Another day dawned in the woodlands. As she marched towards the dig site, she finally felt renewed and refreshed after a good night's sleep. The difference had been like heaven and hell, and she very much appreciated a heavenly rest. Not even the leopard's snoring had bothered her thanks to comfortable and nice smelling new sheets were. But Stormy was convinced she was in heaven for an entirely different reason; and that reason was hanging from her neck.

"Squeaky, can youse go fetch the tools again?" the foreman asked as usual while the stronger diggers worked on the ditch tarps. Even if they'd had two days in a row without rain, they couldn't be too careful.

"If I'm going to go talk to Mr. Langley, I don't have time to waste doing that..." Stormy mused to herself, already looking straight at the bear. She hesitated at first, since even if he was politely addressing her, he was still a big guy and her hierarchical superior. "You can tell him." Stormy reaffirmed herself in her mind, shaking off her insecurity and focusing as hard as she could.

"What's yer deal...?" the foreman appeared confused for a moment, making the wolfess flinch. Soon enough however, he was shaking his head and focusing on his own work. "Ah, never mind," he said, allowing Stormy a breather. "Go fetch them myself laters. Youse can go get a coffee or somethin', Squeaky."

Stormy nodded, and fortunately she could already hear the engines of the 4x4s rolling in. Before she made her way to the tent however, she focused on the foreman one last time, this time narrowing her eyes and focusing her mind again. Once she was done with her thought, she raised her voice to make sure the foreman heard her amidst all the grunting: "Thanks, boss."

"No problems, Stormy." The huge bear had used her name for the first time. Stormy was giddy, giggling in secret as she skipped away towards the tent.

Stormy made her way around the back of the tent where the archeologists parked their cars. Fortunately, all four of them were there from the get go today. She was about to spring into action before she heard the lynx's voice, prompting her to press herself against the corner of the tent and out of view.

"Making coffee for all the grunts again, eh, Priscilla?"

The hummingbird grunted as she unloaded a 3kg. coffee bean bag off the truck she had climbed off. "Being helpful is no bother, Brandon. You could learn a thing or two about it."

"You have the cute barista look down. I wouldn't dream of taking that away from you," Brandon snickered. Stormy glared at him from the tent corner, bothered by his attitude. The feline archeologist then shrugged, "But I wouldn't want our diggers choking on your food, so I'll take care of breakfast starting today."

"Better," Stormy smiled to herself, watching the two servile archeologists leave the opossums for the tent. With half the high-society types gone, she confidently strutted towards Mr. Langley and Dr. James. "Good morning!" she greeted the two of them.

"Ah, Stormy. Good morning to you," Dr. James was the first to notice her, with their employer turned around to greet her with a nod. "Has the foreman sent you? Is something the matter?"

"No, everything seems to be going fine," Stormy said, resting her right hand on her hip. She figured that with her new clout, she didn't have to feel so tense even around her superiors anymore. "I just wanted to say thank you for the new bed. It was comfortable to finally sleep on an actual mattress."

"I imagined you would enjoy your new accommodations, yes," Mr. Langley didn't seem interested in meeting Stormy's gaze. He was patting himself down, an unlighted cigar hanging from his lips. He seemed to be looking for his lighter. "Robert simply wouldn't shut up about your needs, so I hope I'll hear less about them now. If that'll be all, get back to work. I don't pay you to mooch up to my archeologists."

Stormy's hand fell from her hips as she felt tension rise unexpectedly. Something felt off to her. "I..." she trailed off, shifting her stare from a mellow Dr. James back down to Mr. Langley who had now found his lighter and was lighting his smoke. Just when she was feeling like she could talk to anybody without feeling the class divide, she was reminded of how little she mattered to these people. Immediately, she tried focusing on Mr. Langley to get him to change his tone with her.

"You, what?" the rich opossum puffed, the air becoming contaminated with horrible cigar smoke. "Are you going to hold me here all morning?"

"Suh-sorry, almost lost my train of thought there," she explained while trying to reassert herself. Mr. Langley wasn't acting any different for some reason. But this was still a good chance to speak her mind, so she didn't waste it. "I really appreciate the new accommodations as you called them. It'd be great if the others could have new beds too. Just being able to rest down on a mattress after weeks felt amazing and it doesn't feel fair that only I..."

"You're right, it's not fair," Mr. Langley nodded, biting down on his cigar and speaking through his teeth, "I'll have your new bed removed, and then we can go back to fairness."

"Nuh-no!" Stormy quickly rebuked, waving her hands defensively. "Not what I meant. I- we, I mean, we should..." she was stammering, very quickly realizing that negotiations weren't her thing. She didn't want to give up though, and after a calming sigh she had soon found her eloquence again. "We get all tuckered out after work every day. The cabins are okay but sleeping on the ground is murder on our backs. Wouldn't it be better if we all could sleep in beds?"

Mr. Langley began to smile in a way that Stormy didn't like at all. "A wonderful idea, wolf. You see, however, the bed I spared for you is the only one I had left in my remaining guest room. I would have to put in the order for more if I wanted to supply every last digger in this expedition with a bed. I can't promise to have them by tomorrow; perhaps by the end of the week if I make the call today."

"Thu-that'd be great!" Stormy nodded quick. Mr. Langley took another puff of his cigar, blowing a grey cloud above their heads with a long sigh that somehow managed to make her heart sink.

"Although..." the short pause combined with Mr. Langley's still gaze to make the wolfess feel awkward enough to rub at her own arm, scratching an uneasy itch, "...are you quite sure you want to pay for eleven beds? That's quite the sum; delivery and all."

Confused, all Stormy could react with was her eyebrows separating the furthest they could go from her eyes. She was speechless.

"According to my accountant," Mr. Langley continued, "Your first month of work barely can pay for two. With the bed you got from me, however, that's quite the advance, wouldn't you say?"

"Wait, I have to pay for my bed?" Stormy was incredulous and appalled.

"Exactly. Your bed. It did not belong to you," Mr. Langley spoke in an irritating matter-of-factly way, "Now it does, for a fee. You are aware of how commerce operates, are you not?"

Swallowing was hard for Stormy right now. "But I thought..."

"You thought that I was a charity? Feh." Mr. Langley walked past Dr. James, standing under the tent overhang, "Your contract stipulates that as your employer I'm to provide shelter, food, water and basic accommodations. You have them. You want to more? You pay for it. You can't pay? Then earn your money so you can. And until then, quit wasting my precious time with your whining. I should be docking every minute you've been here instead of out there in the dig-site from your pay. You're all bleeding me as it is, and for all the good you're doing to this expedition. Don't worry though," the tycoon dropped and stepped on his expensive cigar, glancing back with an odious glare that made Stormy's eyes bulge: "I didn't charge you for delivery, this time."

Letting her arms hang in defeat, Stormy watched her cranky employer disappear into the tent with Dr. James following closely behind. "What's going on...?" she huffed, tugging at her ears until she was feeling pain, the only way to convince herself that all had just happened. "Things were going to change..." she held the necklace tightly through her shirt, turning her back to the tent so that she could fish out the accessory and stare at it. The metal slabs were as opaque and unremarkable as always. It wasn't broken or even damaged.

"I'm sure it worked on everybody else..." Stormy assured herself, reminding the way the foreman and the other two archeologists were behaving now. Everybody seemed to react to her mental influence in their own way, so she had convinced herself that her employer had been another subtle change. She had never imagined he was immune to her power. "Why not him...?" she grumbled, stomping the ground in frustration. "Of all the people here...!" she growled, stomping the muddy ground repeatedly.

And then she thought about Dr. James. "Why didn't he say anything?" she pondered, "Could he also be immune? No, he also changed overnight. It was a lot subtler but... Ugh, I guess he's still just another employee, even if he seems to be Langley's friend..."

Stormy decided that racking her brain for answers on the topic of a power she hardly understood to begin with wasn't going to get her anywhere, so she went back to the dig site. She waited for Dr. James to start their survey on the fourth ditch while half the work force continued to investigate the temple's hidden entrance. Even though the latter seemed the more exciting place to be to Stormy, she found Mr. Langley more interested in hovering over where she was working. She was sure she wasn't in his nice list any longer.

It was the afternoon when Stormy found herself alone in the ditch, troweling away in boredom with neither Langley or the archeologists around. The former had insisted that since Stormy had been 'slacking off' lately, she would have to continue her work during that day's tea time. Stormy's foul mood had made her skip lunch, so her grumbling stomach was taking it out on her right now.

Before she could think of sneaking off for a snack however, a sunlight blocking silhouette emerged from the edge of the ditch. A familiar, feminine voice: "Hey." Stormy stood up, shielding her eyes with her forearm as the person slid down on the ladder. It was Sheila and she was holding a bagged sandwich like a water-bearing messiah in a desert. "Thought you might be hungry."

"Sheila! Thanks," Stormy immediately took the sandwich off the armadillo's hands, unwrapping and eating it. It was simple deli ham and cheese with not even a slather of mayo to be found, and yet nothing in the world tasted better right now. After a few hasty bites and gulps, Stormy reached for her bottle of water and started chugging. She wiped the crumbs off her mouth and asked: "I guess you heard Langley's singling me out now."

"I also heard what got his knickers in a bunch," Sheila folded her arms, "You had a good thing going. Why go that far?"

With half a sandwich in her belly, she took the next bite with less enthusiasm. "I dunno. I guess I thought I could make a difference," she shrugged, "Far away from home, where I struggled to get anybody to pay attention to me. Figured I'd try something new. Kinda tired of feeling small and insignificant."

"You're stupid," Sheila made Stormy gag a little. "Nice, but stupid. Don't be nice. You don't owe it to anybody."

"Maybe you're right," Stormy beat her chest with a fist to get the piece of sandwich going, "But you're nice. Wouldn't that make you stupid?"

"Never said I wasn't stupid," Sheila shrugged, "I'm working here, same as you." Stormy chuckled for the two of them. "Anyway, I think that stunt you pulled was cool. Here," she said, reaching back into her pocket before holding her closed hand out to Stormy, who put the last of the sandwich in her mouth to free her hands in order to receive what Sheila was giving her.

While Stormy had been hoping for another granola bar or better yet, candy, she instead felt something solid and heftier hit her palms. Two small objects in fact. They were circular and perhaps half an inch thick, looking like wheels with a hole in the center. Stormy found herself intensely staring at the items: "What are these?"

"Dunno," Sheila shrugged, "Picked them up from a wall in the back of the temple earlier. They have these little designs around them; were hanging from a mural on one of the walls, on the ears of some tall dude. They fell off when I bumped into the wall earlier. Didn't really wanna give them to the archeologists. I'm still getting paid so as far as I care..." the armadillo paused, noticing the way Stormy's eyes seemed unfocused, almost frozen in place, "Hey. You okay?"

The second the tiny mural wheels had hit Stormy's palms, she had felt an electrifying tingle running from her chest down to her core, spreading out into her arms and fingertips. The harder she stared at the mysterious items, the farther away Sheila's voice seemed to be. The walls and the floor in the ditch seemed to blacken until they were dark as a clear night sky. All of a sudden it felt like she was alone inside of a void, deprived of all of her senses while ensuring she only perceived the little round objects.

Stormy then heard her own breathing again, followed by her heart beat, followed by a sound she had never heard before. It was like a deep, far-away ringing. At first, she thought it was coming from the items on her palms and brought them up closer to her ears. The closer those wheels were, the less distant that strange noise seemed. Stormy was reminded of holding seashells up to her ears to hear the ocean. Unlike with seashells however, as the stone-crafted items physically touched her ears, Stormy felt them burning.

"Ah!" the wolf hissed, splaying her fluffy ears and ducking as pain spread from the bottom part of her ears. Stone penetrated cartilage like superheated iron melting through plastic, fusing with flesh and stretching skin as it became lodged in. The process took a few painful seconds but in the end Stormy felt a strange wave of relief washing over her. The pain ebbed and something else came to replace the deep ringing in her ears. The moment she opened her eyes, a few different colored lights started appearing before her, making her gasp and take a few steps backwards. "What's all this? What's going on...? Nngh!"

"Stormy!" Sheila's voice shredded through the veil, the shock restoring the wolfess' senses. Stormy found herself with the smaller armadillo shaking her by the arms. "Hell is up with you, gal?" she demanded; this being the first time since they had met that Sheila had shown this amount of emotion.

Stormy silently looked away from Sheila's eyes, clenching her eyes closed for a moment before reopening them in hopes she had been hallucinating. But the lights were still there. She could see many golden and iridescent shimmers sparkling ahead of her, with the latter being farther away. Some of the golden shimmers appeared bigger, as if they were closer. Stormy's eyes found the closest one in a patch of soil on the wall behind Sheila. She began squinting, focusing on the glowing part of the ditch until she noticed the sparkles seemed to be following a pattern, a shape, an outline.

"Huh?" Sheila saw Stormy reaching out for the wall, following the way her fingers were pointed to. She saw no shimmer, no sparkles. The armadillo was concerned about how those two baubles she had found had fused to her fellow digger's ears like a pair of gauges. "What's up with the wall? We have to get the doc..."

"Dig it out!" Stormy suddenly said, shocking Sheila into action. The burlier female didn't seem as concerned with Stormy's well-being any longer, instead letting her go and reaching down to grab a pick a trowel, hammer and chisel. The armadillo turned to the wall and, as if she knew exactly where Stormy wanted her to start digging, she got to work.

Without Sheila holding her, Stormy struggled to remain on her feet, still feeling woozy from the pain she had felt earlier there. Stepping to the side, Stormy leaned against one of the dilapidated walls of the structure inside the ditch, patiently watching Sheila dig. The wolfess made her best effort to regulate her breathing, but that sparkling outline was a source of anxiety and the only reason she wasn't digging herself was because her body still felt weak and her thoughts scattered. All she knew right was that she wanted whatever was inside that dirt wall.

Halfway through Sheila's efforts, a male's voice came from above. "Hey! What is all that racket?" Stormy closed an eye and sighed; the noise had attracted attention. Looking up she recognized the lynx archeologist peering down at them. "This isn't a demolition job! Be gentler with..."

Crack. There was a hole in the wall now. Sheila was getting her tools in already by the time Brandon started making his way down the ladder. Others were starting to appear at the ditch, including Priscilla and a number of other diggers. Stormy could sense the golden sheen moving and shaking as Sheila chiseled and hammered away.

"Did you hear me, you brute?! Stop right this instant...!" Brandon insisted, but before his hand could touch the armadillo's shoulder, Stormy made him stop with a thought. "You need to be more careful or you'll damage the..." Brandon huffed, "This needs a more delicate touch, let me!"

Stormy understood that although she could influence others, she couldn't make them do things they weren't good at. Sheila stopped not because Brandon was telling her to do it, but because she could feel pressure coming from behind him. She turned back to look at Stormy, then at the lynx man. Tools changed hands and Sheila stepped back, staring at the wall with a demure expression. Brandon took over, practically slipping into the hole in the wall to continue the dig.

By the time Priscilla had made her way down into the ditch, Stormy felt strong enough to move about. Just in case, she quickly swiped one of the rags off a bucket and put it over her head to cover the new ear gauges she had inadvertently put on. If asked, she would just tell them she needed to cool off from the harsh sun.

The hummingbird was looking at Brandon with concern; since his stout build made it impossible to see what he was trying to get out of the hole. She turned to the other girls. "What's with all the yelling? Did you find something...?" she was about to question Stormy and Sheila, when she was startled by Brandon yelling at the top of his lungs.

"This is remarkable!" the lynx slid back down onto the ground. The four feet deep hole in the wall had been holding a prize after all. Brandon turned around and the eyes of everybody in and above the ditch nearly doubled in size. Their first real discovery, and although still covered in dirt, no less precious: It was a fine looking box whose gorgeous design was revealed as Brandon carefully brushed it clean. Pretty jade stones littered the lid of the box, circling the face of a feline with an ancient-looking hat. At a glance, it looked like an old jewelry box.

"Oh my God, it's gorgeous..." Priscilla stepped closer, helping the burdened Brandon by tracing the lines carved into the stone box. Her experienced touch let her find a way to make the box click and open. Her eyes sparkled as they reflected the beautiful metallic sheen of a collection of fancy hand-made accessories and ornate bronze coins. "This is a marvelous discovery, Brandon!"

It wasn't long before the remaining archeologist and their boss showed up. Upon hearing Priscilla's voice, Mr. Langley started shoving everybody in his way until he could slide himself down the ladder with Dr. James closely following behind. Stormy noted this was the first time her employer had climbed down into one of the dig-site's ditches. He pushed the treasure-distracted Priscilla out of the way, taking the box off Brandon's paws. "Finally..." one could not overstate the tycoon's pure joy and excitement as he stared directly into the fine jewelry, "Robert! Quick. How much is this worth?" he asked

Contrasting the rest of the concurrence's excitement, Dr. James quietly made his way towards Mr. Langley and peered into the box. He didn't seem as interested by the bling as he was by those designs covering the box itself. However, he didn't miss the impatience of his friend and employer and gave every item a cursory glance. He took out an appraising glass, "Genuine, pure silver, as well as bronze. Exquisite craftsmanship. I would have to get in conference with my friend in Rio, but from what I'm seeing I can say this is certainly worth a small fortune, Marvin."

"Oh! Hohohoho, yes!" Mr. Langley's excitement was palpable. In Stormy's eyes he was one step away from imitating a prospector who had struck their proverbial gold. "Is there more?" he demanded.

"Nothing else in that hole sir..." Brandon confirmed. Dr. James finally turned away from the box to look at the hole in question.

"That's outside our perimeter. Did you dig that hole yourself, Brandon?" The tall opossum inquired, but the lynx shook his head negative and used a nod to point down at the two diggers inside the ditch with them. "You just happened to dig an unplanned hole and found treasure within. That is what my colleagues and I are tempted to blame this on: A stroke of luck. I am, of course, wrong, am I not?"

Sheila turned to look at Stormy, who tightened the grip on her head rag. The wolfess couldn't order everybody to look the other way, not with Langley around. And she was certain that Dr. James wasn't going to believe she was bored and told Sheila to dig the ditch out. "Yuh-you're not wrong. We were just lucky..." she lied while avoiding Dr. James' analytical gaze.

Being honest with herself, Stormy wasn't even sure how she had been able to tell the box was there. "It was probably that shimmer," she said to herself. "I still can see some more around here, too. Do they all lead to more treasure...?" she wondered, hoping her mind would convince Dr. James' of what she wanted him to believe. She wasn't sure playing the fool was going to work here for much longer.

"Hmph," Mr. Langley scoffed, already walking away with his prize towards the ladder. "Never mind how they did it. We're expanding these ditches tomorrow. If there's treasure here, there must be more buried around them! Oh, how exciting. Everyone will know the name 'Marvin Langley, the real Indiana Jones', haha!"

Stormy couldn't help joining Sheila at cringing. The wolfess feeling cheated. "How useful are these powers if he is going to benefit from them at every turn...?" her blood was boiling. Watching Marvin Langley prance around with his prize was like looking at a kid removing the ball from court and parading the fact the game and its rules were his to dictate.

"You're all dismissed for the rest of the day," Mr. Langley suddenly said, stopping at the ladder with one of those smiles that Stormy hated. "You better rest. We're putting in overtime tomorrow, hohoho!" he said, and Stormy knew that by 'we' he meant everybody except himself. "You!" the tycoon hollered up at one of the diggers, "Yes, you. The muscle-head! Get your butt down and carry me outside. I can't climb without my hands and I will _not_let anyone else touch my treasure."

"Always the charmer..." Stormy huffed. But he was right about the treasure now. Even though she had been the one to find it, Mr. Langley was going to keep these riches, not her, not the other diggers; heck she doubted even Dr. James and the other archeologists were going to get to see a single bronze coin no matter how hard they worked. They would never get proper credit either; she just knew it. In the end, even with this second new ability she had manifested, as long as Mr. Langley was in control of the expedition they wouldn't ever know recognition in any way.

With a spiteful glare following Langley as he was carried out by the burly leopard, Stormy's mind began to formulate a plan.

The Change

Mr. Langley had decided to wake up late, tuckered out by the celebration he had held the previous night with his specialists. Finally, they had made headway into this slow dig job. Suddenly all of his worries, the daily annoyances, the protestors, even those uppity, dirty and lazy grunts seemed like far off problems.

The jade-encrusted jewelry box sat immaculately on a stand by his queen sized bed. "Ahhh... what wonderful sheen," he said as his cottage-bound maid opened the curtains to another bright morning. Mr. Langley always started every morning with a hearty breakfast: French toast, bacon and two poached eggs delivered by his maid who promptly excused herself until she was called again.

With toast in hand he used a stubby finger to scroll over his finances and investments on a tablet screen. "Mm. We will recoup these losses easily," the opossum murmured, reaching down for his coffee on his tray without looking. Mary always put his mug in the same corner on his tray, so he was surprised when he groped air. "Mary!" Mr. Langley hollered impatiently.

But no one came.

"Mary!" Mr. Langley insisted, furrowing his brow once he realized his maid wasn't going to come. Grumbling, he slid out of his bed, careful not to knock his tray off. After quickly getting dressed, he tossed a strip of bacon in his mouth and walked out of his bedroom, ensuring he locked the door behind him. He didn't trust his maid or the three armed guards to resist the temptation of taking his newly acquired valuables while he was gone. "Where are you, girl?" he called out, coming out into the cottage's living room with an expression that soured by the minute.

There, in front of one of the couches, the opossum found his maid, leaning in with the coffeepot and pouring a fresh cup down for someone. His coffee. Mr. Langley huffed and stomped around, making himself both audible and visible to his maid, and also Dr. James, who had already started sipping from a cup. "Morning, Robert," the rich opossum said, turning to the maid with a scowl, "Are you deaf, dear?"

The husky girl was dressed in a black apron over a white shirt and a plain, breezy skirt. Her ears folded back at Mr. Langley's tone of voice, holding the coffeepot meekly up to her chest, "Nuh-no, sir. Is there something wrong...?"

"I've been calling you for hours now!" Mr. Langley exaggerated, "Where is my coffee?"

"Buh-but sir..." the maid protested, "I thought you wouldn't have coffee this morning."

"Did I tell you that?" Mr. Langley groaned, failing to recollect any such order from being given. "Never mind. I'll take my coffee with Dr. James here. Get fetch my mug. And make it snappy!"

"Yes sir!" the husky set the pot down on the coffee table in front of the couch, rushing off to get another mug for her master.

With a sigh, Mr. Langley dropped his weight down on the couch next to Dr. James. "It's so hard getting good help these days. And I can't just fire her while we're in the middle of the gosh-darn jungle."

"You're being a bit too harsh on the poor girl, aren't you, Marvin?" Dr. James said after another quiet sip, "I would think you'd be in a chipper mood after last night. You drank two whole Chardonnays by yourself."

Mr. Langley spread his arms to relax, chuckling. "And not a sign of hangover. Feeling fresh like a lettuce... except for my coffee. Are Brandon and Priscilla...?"

"They're at the dig-site, yes. They seemed really eager to go there, even though they'd been partying as much as we did. Mm," Dr. James set his cup down, holding a hand to his forehead with a little puff of air, "I'm not cut out for heavy drinking any longer, old friend. I don't know how you do it."

"Strong mind, strong body," Mr. Langley smirked, finally showing a genuine smile to the husky maid once she came back with his coffee mug. He took a sip and said: "Thank you, dear. That'll be all."

Twenty lively minutes passed as the two opossums chatted over their coffee. They discussed the box, the future of the dig, and of course, the implications of their discovery. Dr. James was the only person in that sub-continent that Mr. Langley truly trusted. That's why he offered the key to his bedroom and urged the tall archeologist to get in contact with his friend.

"I want hard numbers on that box and its contents, Robert," Mr. Langley urged as he stood up, "Who knows. You might end up cottage-bound for the rest of this trip if we continue getting hits," he smiled, "I'll take care of the survey today. Can't trust those two with making sure those good-for-nothings get the job done."

With a gentle nod and a courteous smile, Dr. James bid his friend farewell and went to pick up his laptop. Key in hand, he left for Mr. Langley's room while the man himself walked outside to drive one of his jeeps back to the site.

Mr. Langley pulled in to the site, but didn't stop at the tent as usual. The onboard clock marked 11:30am, and by schedule he knew this meant he was looking forwards to seeing a lot of progress on his earlier command to expand the ditches. He parked by the four large holes at the foot of the temple, but what he saw put a frown on his face.

Only one of the ditches had been widened. The rest were as he remembered from the previous day. Worse, there was nobody manning equipment or working in the holes. And yet he could hear merriment not far away. Mr. Langley turned to the tent and started to growl. "What are those two idiots doing?" he was thinking about his other two specialists.

As Mr. Langley made his way over to the tent, he was reminded of the feisty tavern downtown back home he liked to frequent. Surprise and shock invaded him when he walked under the tent overhang, able to see entire workforce doing anything but working. The diggers had formed a circle with most of them jumping in place or doing curious dances Mr. Langley's eyes didn't appreciate. They all looking ridiculous but happy. Too happy, perhaps. One glance at the familiar-looking bottles in one of their dirty little paws tipped the opossum off that they were drunk. Drunk on expensive wine. His wine.

And to make matters worse, his two archeologists that were no cheaper than those bottles had mingled with the grunts. Brandon was one of the ridiculous dancers, swinging the rosé about like a party stick. Priscilla was making out with the foreman, hanging off his burly arms like she was about to melt down; clearly inebriated as well. And in the center of that loud party were a couple diggers lifting that wolf Robert had become so fond of. Mr. Langley couldn't remember her name. He was going to enjoy docking some pays.

"AHEM!" Langley's clearing of the throat came off much louder and coarser than he would have liked; but it got the job done. The merriment ended and a couple of drunks tripped over themselves, breaking up the circle. The cranky opossum wanted to begin chewing everybody out with a series of well-deserved insults, especially his foreman and two specialists, but with people standing out of the way he was able to see something at the feet of the diggers carrying the wolfess in the center.

Ritual masks. Ornamental blades. Accessories of various designs, shapes and sizes. More jewelry boxes. It was all piled up like a pirate's recently plundered booty and those drunks had been dancing around it! All that shine and sparkling made the little box back at his cottage look like rubbish by comparison. Now that Langley had the floor, he was having a hard time finding his words.

"Not bad for an honest day of work, huh?" an irritably cocky remark broke the silence for Mr. Langley. The two diggers holding up the wolfess wobbled a bit in their drunkenness but successfully set her down on the floor by the treasure pile she so casually took a seat on. The wolfess was wearing a breezy shawl with a hood on top of her usual work clothes.

There was something that Mr. Langley didn't like in the lupine's blue eyes. Self-assuredness was an admirable trait he often looked in the people he trusted with his affairs, but this wolf was coming off as self-important with her mannerisms. He needed only to take another gander at the circle surrounding her to know this party had been her idea, and then they had somehow gotten Brandon and Priscilla to steal into his reserves for the alcohol. The betrayal made him shake with rage, but beyond that, he felt insulted by this lowly grunt sprawling on his treasure like a hoarding dragon. But this wasn't the first time Marvin Langley had to whip some upstart into shape.

First, the opossum took a breath to calm down. Then, he clapped his hands once while approaching the fluffy little rebel. "I am disappointed in you," Mr. Langley said, shaking his head and clicking his tongue in disapproval.

The blue-eyed wolfess looked back at him with a little smirk; showing she was clearly enjoying this. "Is that what you say to your best performing employees?" she patted the mound of bronze and silver coins she was sitting on.

"My best performing employees don't steal from me and party on the clock. It's only common sense," Mr. Langley huffed, raising his hand to call for attention. "Foreman!"

Shuffling into the center of the circle, the looming bear tried to play it cool while Priscilla waggled her fingers at him with a little giggle. "Ahems... yessir."

"This all happened under your watch, did it not?" Mr. Langley glared up at the diggers' supervisors, who could only nod in response. "We will have a salary reevaluation later, you and I. Now get these dirty, drunken fools back to work." The opossum gestured in disdain at his employees while circling the mound of ancient treasure. He could barely contain his excitement, but was also aware appearances mattered when one was trying to be disciplinary. He had to be tough on this rabble and put them in their rightful place. Raising his voice, Mr. Langley shouted down at the sitting wolfess when he was coming behind her, "GET OFF OF MY RICHES, YOU LOW-LIFE WORM!"

The wolfess didn't flinch. The most Mr. Langley saw was her eyes closing and the hooded ear on his side splaying down. However quiet she was though, she did get back up to her feet. He would have to punish her insubordination later; one of his lawyers would probably be able to build a case around his stolen wine bottles. Next, he had to deal with his archeologists' corruption. But before Mr. Langley could take a step away from the treasure and the wolfess, his face became buried in firm softness that impeded all progress.

Without having budged from his spot, the foreman was like an impassable wall. Mr. Langley had to peel himself off the muscular bear's gut and readjusted his glasses in a flustered manner. "Are you deaf, man? Oh." He stopped to look up at the foreman's steely gaze. Mr. Langley didn't appreciate defiance in any form. "Do I have to be nicer about it?" he chuckled before raising his voice again, "Is it entirely convenient for you to get every last one of your wine-sucking leeches back to work?!"

"We already gots everything in them trenches done, sir," the foreman said in a matter of fact way that got Mr. Langley laughing.

"You only widened one of the four trenches. If you found that much treasure in one of them," the opossum thumbed back at the riches at the center of the tent, "Then there will be more in the others. Now, before I have you replaced by the first lousy minimum-wage brute I can get my hands on, Get. Back. To. Work."

"There isn't anything more of value by the trenches," the wolfess' voice came from behind the exasperated opossum, irritating him more. Mr. Langley turned to address her, but before he could say anything to her, another one of the diggers walked out.

"She's right," the short armadillo with the demure expression said. Of everyone in that tent, she seemed the least under the influence of alcohol. "We combed the whole site, all four trenches. Only had to expand one. Picked it all clean."

"Yuh-yesh sir..." Brandon was still holding his bottle, the lynx taking one last swig of white wine before disappointedly dropping it and hiccupping. "We was just - hic - a break before we move into the temple..."

Mr. Langley was starting to lose his patience. "I may not have majored in archeology, but unless you have some sort of magic dowsing rod..."

"That we do!" the foreman was smiling ear to ear all of a sudden, and to Mr. Langley's further annoyance he was pointing back at the irritating wolfess. "Ms. Stormy heres been a real big help! She knows where all the treasure is."

Steam appeared to be coming out of Mr. Langley's ears. He didn't have to turn around to know that mutt was grinning all pleased with herself behind his back. "Great," he spoke through clenched teeth, taking another moment to clear his head. He couldn't believe the idiocy coming from these people's mouths. Nobody could just 'know' where all the treasure of a long-lost civilization was just like that, and he certainly would not believe that Stormy had that ability. "You better sober up and stop with the fantasies. Party is over," he impatiently decreed, "Load all of my treasure in the jeeps. Every last wine bottle you took will be deducted from your salaries and... ah!"

Clink. A couple of bronze coins fell to the floor after hitting Mr. Langley on the nape. The opossum reached down to grab them and slowly turned around to face Stormy.

"That should cover all the wine. Sorry about that!" Stormy smiled.

"Very cute. Cheeky," Mr. Langley wanted to step up to smack the smile off that wolf's face, but he thought himself a gentleman.

Stormy shrugged, "I just thought everybody could use a reward. Got inspired by your party last night. Strange that we didn't get an invitation, considering it's we who found the first bit of treasure."

Mr. Langley threw the bronze coins back into the pile, "Very cute," he repeated, "Trying to pay me back with my own money."

"Oh. It's not yours," Stormy giggled, "It's mine." The last word came out so heavy and full of authority that Mr. Langley stepped back with a stare of disbelief. "The difference between you and I though," she continued, "Is that I plan on sharing it. I found it, but they all helped. They deserve a cut. Heck, you deserve a cut for bringing us all here in the first place."

"They?" Mr. Langley scoffed, looking around at the quiet circle of diggers surrounding him, "They work for me, not for you, dog. My bank accounts pay for their checks."

"Yeah. Not exactly the juiciest of checks..." Stormy sighed, "And the conditions. Terrible," she let out an annoyed huff.

"Terrible!" one of the diggers repeated after Stormy. Mr. Langley turned to glare at the complainer, but soon found himself assaulted by multiple voices at once.

"Back hurts."

"Food's terrible!"

"Why don't we get better showers?!"

It was a slew of complaints these lowly grunts had never thought to speak up when his foreman had been intimidating them into falling in line. Pay the biggest grunt better than all the others and you suddenly didn't have to worry about the others getting demanding. Mr. Langley was seeing the approach fail. The foreman wasn't listening to him anymore.

And it was all that wolf's fault. How dared she turn his own employees, his foreman, against him? And most importantly, how? She had been a meek little grunt only the previous day. On the verge on tears after he had shown her an important lesson about the way of the world. Now she was staring him down as if she was hundreds of feet tall, even though he was technically a couple of inches bigger than she was.

"You're upsetting everybody," Stormy said, waving a hand dismissively.

"What? Are you telling me to leave...?" Mr. Langley's cheeks wouldn't stop reddening. He was about to explode. "I'm your boss!"

"I'm telling them to take you away," Stormy grinned. Suddenly, two diggers had their hands on the opossum's arms.

"Unhand me! What do you think..." Mr. Langley struggled as he stared back incredulously at his captors, "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?! Release me this instant. I will sue! I will SUE you understand? Do you have any idea who...? I will sue all of you!" he turned to the diggers carrying him away, then he looked back at Stormy with pure venom in his bespectacled eyes. "I will destroy you!"

Stormy didn't seem intimidated in the slightest by the threats. She had found the necklace's powers couldn't affect everybody in the same way. Some like Langley outright did not respond to its effects. However, she had come to realize she didn't need to control him. She just needed everybody else to take that control away from him. Even if she couldn't manipulate every person in their group, most of them already hated their employer enough to follow her real promises of riches and fame. After all, she had shown them exactly where to dig for all that treasure; there was no better person to follow now. And the wolfess was going to play by her own rules now.

Emboldened by the power of influence she wielded, Stormy decided to let Mr. Langley know what she was going to do next as he was shoved out of the tent. "You were right about one thing though." Mr. Langley had no idea that Stormy was looking past him and far off into the distance, through the tent, at more golden and iridescent shimmers that nobody else could see, "Party's over, guys." She patted the foreman on the back. He side-stepped and bowed to Stormy, letting her pass. One after another the diggers dropped their bottles and glasses and picked their tools back up.

"Let's go get richer."

It was the first time Stormy had stepped into the back of the temple of Sha'ak. Before the expedition had found the hidden entrance, all the wolfess had seen was the main area of the temple which was comprised of a large empty hollow with an altar at the center surrounded by murals. Walking down the stone steps into the hidden underground chamber, every sparkling shimmer she had seen earlier was now glowing brighter than every fluorescent lamp could muster.

Other than a faint scent of diesel, the air was stale downstairs. Stormy covered the first ten paces into the temple basement and, doing her best to ignore the distracting treasure shimmers, looked around to get her bearings. Most of the other diggers had been there at least once already, so she was one of the few taken aback by the architecture.

Sturdy, expertly assembled stones made up the vast chamber. The floor was mostly flat with a number of raised stones arranged in a circle that, in Stormy's uninformed opinion, appeared to be seating of some sort. The walls were inlaid with patterned blocks making up paintings of ancient figures, some quadruped, others biped. They all shared the same style, with the bipeds dressed in outfits that screamed 'native' to the wolfess. Stormy noted that all the mural people were depicted wearing ear gauges much like the ones which had found a home in hers. While attempting to discern which of all the old pictures was the one Sheila had procured her wonderful gift, the foreman's raspy voice stole her attention.

"Where do we starts, miss?" the burly bear asked. Abandoning that patronizing nickname had been one thing, but Stormy had come to like the way her supervisor was now deferring to her. Although she wasn't used to such politeness even back home, she was starting to enjoy it.

Commanding the expedition had become a piece of cake after having gotten used to her two new powers. She had practiced the entire morning while Priscilla and Brandon had been sent out to procure the booze for their party. Half her commands were delivered via mental suggestions to those she knew she could influence, while the rest were given as gestures or verbal cues to assist their hunt.

The temple basement had proved to be quite the different place to dig. Outside, her power had shown her every valuable which had been buried under rubble or consumed by soil after centuries. Digging it out was only a matter of clearing the ground or digging holes at the right place. In here, there were golden shimmers of variable sizes. An abundance of small sparkles were behind stone bricks. Few larger ones seemed to be buried under the floor under whole patches, requiring careful disassembling. She pointed all of them out.

After the better part of an hour, riches started mounting at Stormy's feet again. She thought she would be satisfied by the way it all was proceeding so smoothly, but the golden shimmers were starting to lose their luster. Deep inside the temple's far wall was a towering wheel-shaped protrusion, at least 15ft. high. On the giant stone disc was the biggest depiction yet: Some large deity - Sha'ak she assumed - that she could see some more sparkles behind of. But this shimmer wasn't golden. It was of a far more beautiful iridescent radiance.

Stormy stepped over coins and other valuables as if they were dirt under her boots, seduced by those colors she could now easily make out among the gold. But of course, the wall with Sha'ak stopped her from advancing. The power of that iridescent glow worked like a magnet for Stormy, and now that she knew exactly where the object giving off that visual scent was, she could feel her anxiety growing for every second she didn't have her hands on it. "Must be some kind of secret passage..." Stormy murmured, ready to turn around and beg for the two archeologists' advice before she noted a trio of newcomers making their entrance into the temple's basement.

It was Carlos De León, and he was accompanied by two more males as usual. His heavy Latin-American accent colored his voice as it rang out: "What is the meaning of this?! You first defile, and now loot the fearsome Sha'ak himself...?"

Stormy gasped. In her burgeoning obsession, she had completely forgotten about the activists. She remembered him looking imposing when they had first met face to face not long ago, but now that he was approaching her with those intensely aggravated yellow eyes, she started to feel threatened.

If people like Langley and Dr. James had been unable to dissuade the village Chief's grandson from his ongoing protest she really felt outgunned now. Carlos and his men stopped at the mound of invaluable goods at the center of the basement, and she could see the jaguar's hands balling into fists. Stormy didn't know what to say to calm them down. She wished to be invisible at that moment.

"How can you all live with yourselves?" Carlos' shouting reverberated in the deep hollow as he turned to face the group of diggers, "Must your boundless material greed destroy all that is sacred?"

There was only silence in response.

"Now now," Brandon finally spoke, walking up to Carlos with Priscilla in tow. The stout, short lynx seemed to have sobered up considerably. "As Mr. Langley has told you before, you have no claim over these grounds, young chief. We're authorized by your government to survey, examine and extract whatever samples we see fit."

A menacing growl left Carlos's mouth as he turned his amber eyes down on Brandon. "My government is full of corruption, and a shame to our culture, sir. Your employer's bribes are temptations that will only lead divine punishment to us all."

Overwhelmed by the full foot of height and the almost feral rumbling of that young jaguar's throats, the feline archeologist saw fit to speak from behind Priscilla, who wasn't in any better condition to talk back. "Buh-be that is may..." Brandon stumbled over his words.

"If you value your own souls even a little, then you will all leave, now," Carlos continued with sudden calm that assured he was holding his own ire back. "Your employer shall face the consequences," the jaguar promised.

"I'm heres to the get rich," the foreman spoke aloud, followed by three other diggers, including the burly leopard, taking a step forwards. "Boss man weren't getting me any closer to that," the bear turned to Stormy, then back to Carlos, "But Ms. Stormy over theres is."

Stormy's eyes bulged out when she saw Carlos turn his head to stare daggers at her. Even with her hood on there was simply no way he couldn't recognize her now. Before Carlos could say anything to her though, the lumbering bear stepped in front of him. As he did, Carlos' men who were even bigger than the jaguar, stepped in to guard him. Carlos' bodyguards were an ocelot and a coyote, both uncharacteristically buff for their species.

"Look, pretty boy," the foreman continued, ignoring the silent beasts guarding Carlos. "We ain't heres to demolish youse's pretty house. We collects and then we're outs, capeesh?"

"You will collect nothing," Carlos adamantly said, "These are offerings to the great and fearsome Sha'ak. Not you, not me, nor anybody has claim to it. Nothing in this temple must leave it! Can't you understand?!"

"Or else what, brat?" the bear taunted, "Is youse's God gonna punish us?"

The big ocelot to the foreman's right began to growl, clearly done with disrespect. "You will not insult the Gods or Mr. De León again, bruto!"

A punch flew in the foreman's face, striking true. Clearly feeling the impact, the bear reeled back but his stance did not change. He rebounded instead of stumbling back, counter-attacking his aggressor with a heavy head butting that sent the ocelot shuffling back with both hands covering his forehead and grunting.

Peace had suddenly broken apart. Stormy could see chaos erupting inside of the temple basement. Brandon and Priscilla were the first to dart off in search of a hiding place, among the scared diggers who didn't want to take part in the brawl. Carlos and his guards were set upon by the foreman's followers, giving as much as they were taking.

"No..." Stormy clenched her fangs, still by the stone vault. "No time for this," she looked back at the iridescent glow. It was calling her and she knew she couldn't get to it on her own. And the people who could help her were caught in this stupid fight.

"Outsiders! You will leave or we will make you leave!"

They were right. Stormy and the whole expedition were nothing more than a bunch of outsiders. But even if she was somewhat sympathetic to their plight, the overpowering need to possess the special treasure inside of Sha'ak's vault was clouding her reason. She couldn't let them interfere. Not when she was this close.

Carlos defended himself with a well-placed punch aimed at the buff leopard's face, sending Stormy's cabin mate stumbling backwards. The leopard was still conscious after the fact, but with his head ringing. It took him a moment to face his foe properly again, but something was suddenly wrong and both he and that pretty jaguar knew it. They were the only ones facing each other any longer.

"Pablo, Ramiro!" Carlos had to swallow the blood from a cut lip swirling inside of his mouth. He didn't dare spit in the house of a God. "What are you doing?!" he demanded to know as he saw his guards not only disengage but making their way to Stormy.

Ramiro, the ocelot who had been fighting with the foreman, didn't seem interested in the latter any longer. Even the bear himself had inexplicably stood out of the way to let him and Pablo approach the blue-eyed wolfess.

"I need your help," Stormy regretted the fact Carlos and her male cabin-mate appeared immune to her power. She wanted the fight to end so that everybody could focus on the vault. "I have to get through this door!"

"How would you know that it's...?" Carlos gasped, interrupted by the leopard coming at him again. Before his fist made contact however, Sheila and some of the others influenced by Stormy caught the leopard to hold him down.

"What the heck are you all doing...?!" the leopard grunted, as despite all of his impressive strength he could certainly not fight back against so many at once. "Why'd you stop fighting?!"

"I'm sorry. I have no time for either of you. Either you help, or you leave!" Stormy shouted, then turned to Pablo and Ramiro, "You must know. How do I open this?" she demanded.

"No!" Carlos yelled, but the other diggers and the foreman were suddenly blocking his way again, "Don't show her! You know what the punishment is...!"

But Ramiro didn't seem concerned with punishments anymore. He placed his hands on the giant stone wheel and began pushing, "We must all..." he heaved, being joined by the coyote as they started putting all of their physical strength into the Herculean effort, "...push the door to the left, señorita!" the ocelot dutifully responded, making Carlos' heart sink.

"This can't be happening..." the young jaguar started stepping back, looking at the surreal sight before him. His own tribesmen suddenly changing allegiance made absolutely no sense to Carlos. "Grandfather..." he mouthed off quietly in realization before turning around and dashing towards the stone steps leading outside.

Satisfied with the result, Stormy had everybody that could fit get together behind the large stone disc. One by one, every pair of hands joined in the effort. Desperation made her jump into the pile as well, adding what little strength she had to offer in order to get the job done.

Soon, tiny little pebbles caked in dust started dislodging and falling off the giant stone door as it slowly rolled to the side like the wheel on a car. To the loud calls of the foreman and the tribesmen, everyone pushed as hard as they could, forcing the hidden vault to reveal itself to them.

As if possessed by a speed demon, Stormy stopped pushing the moment she perceived an opening wide enough to slip through. She didn't wait for the others to move, she jumped at the floor, desperately crawling between their legs and getting the hood of her shawl knocked off as she made her way inside the vault.

Suddenly, there it was. Among gradually dissipating gold shimmers belonging to a magnificent jade incrusted silver pedestal and surrounding beautiful treasure stood a lonesome box. The box had a design even more intricate than the one she had first found. On its various sides, it depicted arms and legs, each limb adorned with curious looking accessories. The iridescent pillar of light rising above the box made it a thousand times more attractive to Stormy than every last gold coin at the far end of the vault.

Remembering how they had opened the first box before, Stormy quickly put her hands around it and began sliding her fingers across the large container's surface until she could feel something clicking. Every muscle in her body started to tense up, her nostrils expanding as she deeply breathed in anticipation. With the lid of the box being pulled back, the multi-colored shimmer gradually started to disappear and Stormy finally made out that all-important treasure she simply could not resist.

Gorgeous jade that seemed to have been polished to a mirror-like sheen reflected Stormy's covetous gaze. She had seen a king's ransom in fortunes that day, yet nothing like the pairs of bracelets and anklets she now had in her hands could compare. Her heart was racing and she didn't even stop to admire the craftsmanship, deciding she had to put the accessories on.

"These are special. I know it," Stormy told herself as she secured the bracelets' silver clamps around her forearms. "They have to be. They shine like nothing else in this place!" the wolfess excitedly licked her lips as she crouched down in order to strap the anklets on as well. "They have to hold some mysterious power, something..." she trailed off expectantly, flexing her fingers and staring at her own hands in wonder.

As the circular door was finally completely rolled off, the vault was soon filled with Stormy's followers. Some of them seemed concerned, while others were bedazzled by the sheer volumes of riches contained within. Stormy turned to them, wondering if they were getting affected by her new accessories in any way.

"How can I tell if they're being affected, anyway...?" Stormy wondered to herself. They didn't seem at all different from how they had been a minute ago, eager to hear her mental suggestions. She could still see more shimmers in the distance now that she had claimed everything the temple had to offer. But she was way more concerned with what she had on her arms and ankles. "No new powers...?" she huffed, shaking her hands and trying to see if something happened. "They don't do anything? But... but I could sense something...!"

"Hey!" a voice hollered from outside the voice, interrupting Stormy's concentration. It belonged to one of the few who hadn't joined in the pushing effort, one of the few who couldn't be psychically compelled. The burly leopard approached and stared down Stormy, clearly annoyed with her, "What's the big idea, tiny? Setting all those guys on me earlier? Nngh...!" the leopard winced as the foreman seized him by the arm from behind, twist it against his back.

"More respect for the boss lady, ya bum."

"Get your hands off me! That weakling is no boss of mine," the leopard insisted, summoning his great strength to not only free his arm from the lock but also deliver a powerful elbow under the bear's neck, knocking the wind out of him. "And I don't understand why all of you are simping for her like that. Why does she get all the best treasure? Langley isn't digging. She's not digging. She's a glorified dowser-whatsit. _These_muscles have been doing all the work!" the mighty leopard flexed his arms, biceps rippling with power.

"Why youse lousy..." the foreman was still clearing his throat, coughing. The earlier brawl with the protestors seemed to have taken a toll.

The smirking leopard seemed proud of himself. He knew full well he was defending himself, and anyone was free to come at him if they wanted to. He was clearly tired of following orders. "Since we're such big fans of changing leadership at the drop of a hat, how about we go for the biggest and strongest guy here this time?" he guffawed, approached the immutable Stormy and towered his immense size over her. "Any objections, little lady...?"

Stormy's glare couldn't have been more silent or deadly. She had been tired of listening to that big oaf since she had first been paired up with him, and now she had half the mind to sic everybody in that temple basement on him. Everybody watching the scene tensed up when she let out a small grunt as the leopard gripped her by an arm.

"I asked you a question, Ms. Almighty Boss!" the leopard laughed, tightening the squeeze just enough to make her feel it, yet without any intention of causing harm. All he wanted to do was intimidate that wolfess after all. However, the leopard soon found himself needing to reaffirm his grip constantly, as Stormy continued to unexpectedly loosen up. "Mmnngh... Don't squirm so much. I'm not gonna hurt you, unless you give me a reason..." he trailed off, suddenly stumbling forwards before catching himself without crashing into Stormy. All of a sudden, the leopard was feeling tired.

Stormy felt strange. At first, she felt completely overpowered and useless when the leopard restrained her. "I'm not squirming..." she thought, as she had been trying to remain perfectly calm. Stormy was aware this guy was trying undermine her authority by scaring her, and he wasn't trying to actually hurt her. But his steadily flaccid grip was a mystery to her. The moment he had touched her, Stormy felt something other than the pressure on her limb. It was not an external sensation, instead coming from within. An odd tingling was spreading from her forearm to her hands and then the rest of her body. All of a sudden, the wolf was feeling energized.

"What the hell...?" the leopard puffed, reasserting his strength over and over only to feel his grip fail again and again. His eyes started to widen as his fingers curled into the wolfess' once soft arm, now flexing with hardened muscle. At first, he didn't want to believe the possibility that Stormy's arm was growing and pushing away his gripping hand, but he quickly had to come to terms with what his eyes were showing him. "What?!" the leopard cried out once he noted to his horror that the sleeve of his shirt was starting to loosen around his biceps.

Stormy, being the closest to the brute, was just as shocked. She was the first one to notice not just the male's dwindling arm, but the rest of his musculature. His hard-earned musculature seemed to be slowly wasting away and, in turn, his Herculean physique seemed to be feeding her. Stormy's once scrawny body was beginning to look much tauter; she could feel it in her suddenly tight clothes. She was becoming stronger.

Work pants stretched against Stormy's growing quads and hamstrings, the muscles of her thighs starting to show. As the leopard's once tree-trunk legs steadily lost their thickness, Stormy could feel her own swelling with power. Her abdomen warmed up considerably as excess fat began to burn away in favor of growing abdominal mounds she could feel pushing up against her clothes. Stormy's once breezy shirt was starting to feel tighter and tighter as the rest of her torso followed suit, most notably her chest growing with widening pectoral mass that threatened to surpass her barely existent breasts. In contrast, the six-packs and pecs that once marked the leopard's shirt to the envy of all men in the camp were starting to recede and loosen his own clothes.

For the first time in her life, Stormy could feel her sleeves brushing against the muscles in her arms. Her biceps and triceps were rising like dough in the oven and it felt so wonderful. She experimentally tensed up, feeling her furry skin tightening against powerful flexing cord. And the more she did it, the better it felt. She could hardly feel the leopard's grip on her arm anymore. "He grows weak as I grow strong..." Stormy hit the realization with a grin. The grin of a hungry, predatory wolf.

"Whu-what are you doing to me...?! Stop it!" The dwindling leopard wasn't merely feeling tired anymore. He felt fear, impotence and anxiety all rolled up in one. He saw something in the ravenous wolfess' blue eyes that made him want to tug away with every bit of remaining strength he had left. But the second he tried to put some distance between Stormy and himself, the released wolfess' arms lurched forwards to grab and hold him by the wrists.

"I can still take some more." Stormy informed out loud, her eyes and the jade armband on her left forearm starting to glow together. Her deltoid and trapezoid muscles widened her shoulders and back, making her upper body stick out more prominently. The energy, vitality and strength she was absorbing from the once mighty digger was curing all of Stormy's accumulated fatigue, making her feel like she was on something far better than caffeine. "Give me more!" she ordered.

It was an unbelievable sight to all those witnessing the turnabout. All of a sudden, Stormy was the one restraining the showoff, bragging leopard. And although he was no longer the Hercules he had once been and the wolfess was growing buffer as a result, everybody could see that Stormy's gains seemed less prominent than the ones she appeared to be taking. While the leopard steadily decreased in burliness and even started losing a few inches in height to compensate for the lost mass, Stormy didn't seem to get any taller and her build stopped at athletic, well-exercised proportions.

"No! Stop, please...! Please stop...! Yuh-you..." the desperate leopard wasn't looking huge anymore by now. His struggles were in vain. Even though he was still taller than Stormy and she was nowhere near as muscular as he had been, her strength surpassed him by a mile. "You...!" he stammered, feeling increasingly pathetic as his once deep voice lost its bass. His clothes were starting to look severely oversized, hanging loose from his beanpole-like, fragile look. "You're making me tiny...! I'm too weak. Your grip is too strong, it's hurting meeeee...!"

Stormy winced at the pathetic leopard's pleas. She had truly wanted to see just how much she could have taken, but she wasn't noticing any further physical changes. And the delicious feast of vital energy she had been partaking would surely be ruined if her new power killed someone. With a disappointed sigh, she let go of the fragile-looking leopard and her eyes and bracelet stopped glowing.

The depowered leopard gasped out loud, stumbling backwards and barely catching his pants before they dropped from his severely reduced waistline. The lithe feline panted fearfully, his legs shaking and trembling before Stormy.

Significantly more interested in her own development, Stormy decided to take off her shawl to get a better look at herself. Without an accurate measure of her own strength however, she literally tore the piece of cloth right off her body, splitting heavy fabric as if it had been wet tissue paper. The resounding gasp of everyone in the basement temple was pleasing to her ears. Smiling to the energy coursing through her veins, the wolfess flexed and watched her biceps swell against her sleeves again. "Mmm..." she let out a satisfied moan, and set her sharper blue eyes down on the leopard, setting a hand on her hip. "You don't seem to be the biggest and strongest guy around here."

Falling to his knees, the leopard crooked a wry smile. He was still breathing fast, yet his eyes didn't avert from Stormy's. There was no denying his impressive physique was gone, probably never to return. His growls would be soft mewls from now on. The leopard would in all likelihood be mistaken for a lanky cheetah for the rest of his days. And yet, somehow, he seemed alright with the idea of not being the biggest and strongest guy in the expedition anymore. Stuttering in a weak, higher-pitched voice than before, the leopard shakily responded: "Nuh-no, ma'am..."

Nodding to the suddenly subservient male, Stormy turned around to face the dead-silent crew at her back. Strong diggers all around. She was sure that with the leopard's strength she could take them all, even if she didn't need to. However, it was true that the physically strongest among them left was, without a doubt, the foreman. He was servile and useful to her, but she was also starved for more of what she had just experienced; that incomparable rush of sensing her own life force being nurtured beyond its natural limits.

They would have to leave the heavy lifting to her from now on.

Licking her chops, Stormy approached the foreman and gently put her hands on his wrists. The bear did not resist. With the wolf's eyes shining, the bracelet at her right arm lit up this time. The process began anew, although much faster this time. "Please takes all youse want, boss lady..." the muscle-gutted bear wasn't only not fighting it; he was being as giving as he could allow himself to be. And Stormy feasted upon his offering.

"Mmm...!" the wolfess' moans grew in volume, eyes closing as the bear, much like the leopard before him, started to dwindle and shrivel away. Although his mass decreased, Stormy's did not increase. Instead, she could feel the most amazing explosion of pure life energy occurring in her very core, endowing every muscle in her body with the strength of the two most powerful males in the expedition. Her strength compounded, breaching thresholds the normal person was barred by nature from achieving. This defilement of the natural order manifested as pure bliss.

As the bear grew tired and smaller, Stormy felt every last cell in her body cry out with joy. She felt like she could do anything. She could continue taking and taking until there was nothing more to give. But it wasn't in her interest to destroy the bear; she wasn't going to do that to the foreman when she hadn't done it to the leopard who had insulted her. Irreparably harming a good and obedient follower would be a waste, after all. And so eventually Stormy let go of the now skinny, loosely-clothed bear. "Tuh-takes s'more, buh-bawss..." the foreman, a shadow of his former self, seemed insistent even though it was all he could do to remain on his feet.

"No," Stormy firmly said out loud, "You and the other fine little morsel," she gestured with her head back at the leopard, "Go feed yourselves and keep yourselves as strong as you can. And..." she trailed with a little playful smile, "Clothe yourselves properly, as well. I imagine I will need a new wardrobe soon, myself."

"Ma'am!"

"Bawss!"

The two left without a single complaint. Stormy smiled, realizing her command really was law to them now; even to the leopard who until now had seemed a hundred percent resistant to the necklace's power of influence.

Looking down at her palms, Stormy took notice of the right bracelet losing its luster. The glow in her eyes disappeared as well. "Turns out I was right. These were more precious artifacts," she purred to herself, sauntering in silence towards the single-heaviest thing in the temple basement, eager to test her new muscles.

With the scent of diesel in the air guiding her, Stormy found herself in front of the huge generator the diggers were using to supply the lights, but also a power drill she could see in a corner. "Langley must've had a similar idea about this basement's secret..." Stormy giggled to herself in amusement before reaching down.

A collective gasp left the temple's concurrence as Stormy very casually put pressure under the generator and lifted it off the ground like it was an empty cardboard box, holding it above her head with barely any effort. She remembered when they had first wheeled down this huge portable generator the first time, needing the leopard with his original build and Sheila to push it together properly. "It has to be like 300... 400 pounds. Not as portable as you'd think," she smirked to herself, turning to the audience of diggers, archeologists and villagers to give them a good display.

Even the usually demure Sheila couldn't keep her jaw from dropping when Stormy switched to holding the gigantic piece of equipment up on a single palm, resting the other on her cocked hip.

"I'll be doing the heavy lifting from now on, if we need it," Stormy decreed to a series of nodding people. She set the generator back down and stepped on it like a football as she leaned in with her arms folded in front of her broad chest. "Any objections?"

There were no objections.

"Robert! What took you so long?" Mr. Langley was standing amidst the trenches outside the temple. He was on his third cigar.

Waving away the thick cloud of smoke, Dr. James stopped in front of the smaller opossum, huffing as he had been lugging about a gigantic stack of papers under his arms. "Surely you remember we have only one printer, Marvin."

"Yes, yes! Where are the litigation papers I asked from Huey?" the exasperated tycoon grumbled impatiently, "And a copy of all these lousy ingrates' contracts. I will have their furs, feathers and scales if it's the last thing I do..."

Dr. James sighed in disapproval, "I still find it exceedingly improbable that they all suddenly started obeying Ms. Stormy, Marvin."

"You had to be there, Robert!" Mr. Langley said, "Their eyes. Something wasn't right with them. They had these dumb smiles across their faces, most of them anyway! But whatever it is they're plotting, it's over. I have the best lawyers in the world, and even a sub-continent away I'll..."

The tall opossum interrupted the shorter one, "Is that your foreman...?" Dr. James was squinting his eyes. Mr. Langley had no choice but to follow his old friend's gaze to the two lanky individuals shuffling with their oversized clothes towards the main tent. "He's lost some weight."

Marvin Langley and Robert James were left speechless. They could not tear their eyes away from the sorry state that bear and leopard were in. They looked like the better part of all the meat in their bodies had been sucked out, leaving them a pair of underweight mammals.

A chill ran down Mr. Langley's spine as the two disappeared into the tent, mumbling something about eating their fill and finding better fitting clothes. His shocked eyes immediately looked at the temple as he heard an increasingly louder metallic rattle coming from around it.

Circling around from the left side, two enormous wooden crates appeared to be levitating five feet off the ground. Mr. Langley remembered those being the standard supply crates they had gotten their tools delivered in, but the familiar clinking and rustling coming from them indicated no supplies were filling them. The rich opossum's heart skipped a beat when he realized the crates were so chock full of treasure he could see jewelry and gold stacked to the point of overflowing. And once he was able to stop staring at the shiny loot, he realized the crates weren't floating under their own power after all.

Hundreds of pounds of riches were being lugged over the shoulders of not four, not two, but just one digger. It was a powerful worker no doubt, but Mr. Langley only had two problems with that picture: He didn't know he had more powerhouses on his payroll, and the two he did know were struggling to keep their shirts from waving in the wind inside of the tent.

Swallowing the saliva stuck in his throat, Mr. Langley was already dreading the identity of that strong person. However, the mystery didn't hang up in the air for very long. With the way the rest of his employees were trailing behind those treasure boxes carrying tools and what little the crate bearer could not stack, the short opossum could feel his tail flumping on the floor and his hands shaking.

Stormy didn't even deign her ex-boss with but a single glance, and led everybody into the tent.

Whatever fine speech he had prepared for the insubordinate group failed to come out of his mouth. Dr. James seemed just as stunned, if not in deep admiration of what he was seeing. Part of Mr. Langley wanted to grab Dr. James' tail and pull it until he told him this was just a dream. "Me, the renowned Marvin Langley..." the tycoon grunted as the parade of his employees headed on towards his tent, with his treasure, "...ignored by this common rabble?!"

But before the irate billionaire could act on his outrage, he saw Stormy stop of her own accord. Not because she was suddenly aware of him, but the fact his other most hated enemy was standing in her way.

Carlos de León was back. And this time his posse was much bigger. A group no smaller than ten strong was with him, not counting the Chief who stood unusually next to his grandson. For once, Stormy didn't feel intimidated by the tall and young, strong-looking jaguar.

"It's just as you said, grandfather..." Carlos was staring not only at the line of people following the wolfess, counting among their numbers two of their own, but at the lupine herself. "Her appearance even has changed..."

Stormy was surprised to hear the Chief himself speak. The raspy old voice said: "This one," and he pointed at Stormy's chest, her head, her forearms and her ankles. She knew he was referring to her necklace, her ear gauges, bracelets and anklets, respectively. "This one is adorned in Sha'ak."

Among the fellow villagers present, heavy murmuring began. Some of them spoke accented English, others Spanish. While she couldn't follow the latter, Stormy could more or less tell what they were going on about. They were both amazed and scared. A certain part of her appreciated the immediate effect her new appearance and physical ability had on people. Before, getting noticed would have taken a great deal of effort sans-shouting aloud. Another, more cautious part of her didn't appreciate the accusing finger that old jaguar was pointing at her.

Thud. Went the massive, fully loaded crates as they hit the ground. "I don't want any trouble," Stormy said.

"Trouble has already found you, I'm afraid," the Chief continued, firmly stabbing the ground with his walking cane. "Evil Sha'ak has taken ahold of you, child. And now, trouble and disaster is all you will bring if you continue on as you are."

"You must relinquish all you have stolen," Carlos added with a firm glare, standing beside his grandfather with a hand on his shoulder, "You must return all those cursed artifacts where they belong, Stormy. You don't understand the forces you're toying with! I can tell you're a decent person. You don't wish ill upon anybody, do you?"

At first, Stormy patiently listened to the jaguars, her tail swishing from one side to the other. She found herself tapping the floor with a foot, "What don't I understand?" she raised her voice, "What if I know exactly what I'm toying with? The one thing I can't understand is how somebody who's only traded words with me once can tell anything about me." She raised a hand, groping the air tightly and forming a fist, her expression hardening. "I was a nobody until I put this on," the wolfess ripped the collar of her shirt pulling her necklace out for all to see, "Now people respect me. I have real power."

"Power is all you will have if you continue to trod upon others as you are, foolish child!" the Chief exploded with unexpected anger, starling even Carlos. "Don't you see? The flames of perversion have already begun corrupting your soul!"

"There's still time," Carlos insisted, for once being the softer voice of reason in the argument. "You're right, I can't claim to know you but..."

"I know her, damnit!" an annoyed yell came from behind Stormy's lines, Mr. Langley waddling through all the people holding the fat stack of papers he had taken from Dr. James. "She's the goddamn fraud who has been brainwashing my fired work crew into joining her cult of thieving miscreants!"

For once, Carlos felt completely silenced by the North American's loud voice and sheer hypocrisy. He could see the opossum's teeth gnawing on his cigar as he focused his hateful glare at Stormy. Mr. Langley had managed to steal the muscular wolfess' attention from him.

Sparing only a second for the papers in Mr. Langley's arms, Stormy met the slightly taller opossum's eyes with both hands on her hips. "You're a part of all of this, too."

"No, you uppity bitch," Mr. Langley countered, anger getting the best of him. He was holding every contract and the fat lawsuit he had his lawyer expertly smith just for this occasion in an impressive stack, "You are officially fired, and so is everybody here; that is what you're a part of. You will all relinquish all you've taken from my dig site and stand trial for illegal appropriation. You will never leave prison with how much debt you'll owe me after my lawyers are through with you. We don't even have to wait to get back to the states. Remote trials make everything so convenient!" he laughed and laughed, glaring up at Stormy and puffing cigar smoke in her face, "I will own your mutt-ass, do you understand?"

There was only one thing Stormy had come to understand after hearing these two monologues back-to-back. She was sick of old people telling her what to do. The urge to visit violence on her ex-boss' face was strong, but she knew if at this point she hit somebody the result would not be pretty to see. Stormy wasn't sure she could go through with that. However, she was so angry with the situation she simply had to take it out on someone! Or something.

Mr. Langley's gloating was interrupted when the book-thick stack of papers was so graciously removed from his arms. Except they were now in Stormy's hands, and she didn't seem interested in reading. He began stuttering again, "Yuh-your papers are at the bottom of..." a hiccup interrupted him, "...of..." Mr. Langley couldn't finish his sentence on account of the large fissure appearing on the A4 sheet of paper he could see in front of him, as well as the other two hundred and eighty-seven pages.

Riiiiip. The horrible sound reverberated in the dig site as Stormy ripped the giant block of paper in twain like Mr. Langley remembered freakishly strong men doing to old phone books. Everyone saw the wolfess calmly and unceremoniously dropping the papers, moving on to dust her hands. Mr. Langley had absolutely no comeback. The ripping noise and that show of pure brute strength had startled him so much it had been enough to knock him down on his ass.

Contracts were meaningless to Stormy now. She had no reason to listen to these men and entertain their pointless drivel any further. For the first time in her life she was powerful, confident and everybody listened to her. Her responsibilities weren't holding her down any longer. And the way she had ripped every contract and lawsuit paper apart like it was nothing cemented it: She wasn't her old self any longer. And she didn't want to be. The old Stormy wouldn't have done that within a million years. She would've bowed her head, given everything back and taken whatever punishment was decided upon her. But now she didn't have to give back anything. Stormy felt different. She felt good about what she was doing. She felt liberated. Free. Light as a feather.

She was starting to float up into the air.

"Oh my God..."

"Por todos los dioses...!"

"The boss!"

"What is happening?!"

The gasps didn't take long. Even Stormy found herself taken aback when she realized the anklets at her legs were starting to glow with her eyes, growing in intensity as she levitated higher and higher above the rest. Separated five feet off the floor, she kicked her legs in an attempt to assure herself, but only managed spinning in mid-air as if she had been underwater.

At first, embarrassment gripped Stormy and she blushed at how everybody was pointing up at her. She was looking at the diggers, villagers, Mr. Langley and Dr. James from her position upside down in the freaking ether. "Why am I flying now?!" the wolfess thought, desperately seeking a way to control the new power she didn't know she had. "Wait," she paused, looking up at the glow at her legs. "The bracelets let me take strength, the anklets are letting me fly!" she reasoned, then closed her eyes in order to focus.

"If I learned to control all the others, this one should also be controllable...!" the wolfess told herself, trying to imagine herself in a swimming pool. To steady herself, she reopened her eyes and found her center by kicking her feet. She kicked so hard she propelled herself a couple hundred feet skyward. "Gah...!" she squeaked, leaving her audience completely flabbergasted.

Suddenly a lot closer to clouds than she was used to, Stormy found herself floating above the ruins. She could see for miles around her, and the crisp air made the otherwise humid weather finally more bearable. "I'm so high up! This is... this is awesome! I can fly now!" the athletic canine cried out with delight, spreading her arms and legs with absolute freedom.

And with that high vantage, Stormy's empowered eyes could suddenly see the farther away golden shimmers surrounding the ruins more clearly. "Pillars of light are easier to tell apart from this high up, go figure," the young digger grinned, shading her forehead with an open palm. "Oh. Sending everyone out for treasure is going to be a cinch like this! I can't wait to get even..." she paused for a moment, seeing a familiar shimmer not too far away from the ruins. Perhaps a quarter of a mile drive from the ruins and deep into the woodlands. A faint iridescent shimmer.

"...even richer?" Stormy murmured quietly to herself. "Riches? Treasure? Money...?" she repeated in her mind as she turned around, getting used to flying around. As she introspected, she quickly found that she didn't need to use her limbs for flying, but her legs helped give direction and her arms stability so she used them anyway. She stopped at the top of that iridescent pillar that would no doubt lead her to a new artifact.

"I don't need money anymore." Stormy finally decided, and suddenly dive-bombed the ground below her. The thing she was looking for was fifteen feet underground and her immense strength was going to get it out faster than anybody else could dig with professional tools. Another opportunity to do heavy duty work with the strength of two added to her own.

Soil and rock gave easily to her overpowering strength. What was first a crater in the ground as a result of her graceless landing quickly widened into a hole as Stormy started scooping. She reached out for the sturdiest rocks around her and used them with a steely grip to shovel the dirt out of her way.

Humid dirt, snapping roots and splintering rocks messily littered the area around her, covering Stormy in muck and grime the likes of which she hadn't felt for a week now. But she didn't mind. The shimmer was calling out to her, urging her to come get it like a forlorn lover wanting to be reunited with their other half. Stormy was all too eager to acquiesce. She only abandoned the makeshift tools when the iridescence came to be so intense she knew she was close to the next artifact.

Stone snapped in Stormy's eager grip. She clawed the soil away, practically drooling as she thought to herself what kind of power this new accessory would bring her. The shimmer began to disappear as she cupped a small chunk of dirt which, for a moment, glowed for her eyes.

"This is much smaller than anything else I've found," Stormy observed as the clump of dirt became smaller and smaller. She flew out of the hole and looked around for any source of water, heading for the first little stream she found in the depth of the woodlands. After cleaning the loot that she had found in that crudely dug ditch, Stormy finally saw what she had unearthed was not an accessory but a gorgeous blood-red ruby. The precious stone had been carved into an oval shape, almost translucent when held up to sunlight. If she squinted the right way she could see unfamiliar shapes carved into the stone in great detail.

The first thing that came to mind to Stormy was how she couldn't wear this peculiar ruby as it was. It wasn't making her feel more powerful yet, so at first she wondered if her treasure sense had failed her. Gold had been for treasure, iridescent for powerful yet unassuming artifacts. The ruby, despite its beauty and value as a gemstone, was unassuming as it could be. And why was it buried on its own this far away from the temple ruins? The question reminded her that she didn't have to think too hard on it.

There were experts back at camp that would surely be delighted to answer every last one of her questions.

Corruption

Stormy began her slow descent back into the ruins by the main tent of the dig site, but decided remain six feet off the ground above the others. It simply felt right to her to be hovering above Langley this way. To her surprise, not one of the members of the expedition nor the villagers had moved away. Both the leopard and the foreman had joined the others outside, having found spare clothes many sizes smaller than what they were used to wear.

Dr. James, who had been sitting by Langley with a hand on his back, stood up when Stormy became visible to them, and he was the first one to speak. "How utterly remarkable..." his gasp was that of genuine amazement and fascination. "Ms. Stormy," the tall opossum addressed her with a surprising amount of calm, "Or is it Sha'ak now?"

Stormy returned Dr. James' playful smile. But before she could deliver her quip, the floating wolfess saw a number of people falling to her knees.

"Sha'ak..."

"Almighty Gods, spare us..."

Prayer, begging. Stormy couldn't say she disliked the exacerbated deference. Two things, however, were off-putting. First, the name of that persecuted God was something she wasn't digging right now. Second, Carlos, his grandfather and many others were still glaring up at her warily, unlike the rest of their tribesmen.

"Still Stormy," the wolfess assured them, though she wasn't sure how long she could resist the pleasure of being acknowledged as a superior being. It was such a far cry of the dreams she once had of commanding just a little respect. And now that she had tasted it, something deep inside of her was hungry for more; to see just how far she could take it.

"You've been busy these ten minutes," Dr. James continued, noting the dirt and grime clinging to Stormy's work attire. He was one of the few she was sure now wasn't being affected by the power of her necklace the same as the others; yet he didn't seem at all invaded by fear or the need to suck up to her.

"I have," Stormy slowly descended, her boots touching the soil once again. Without pause she unfurled the fingers on her right hand and showed the bright ruby on her palm off. While Dr. James adjusted his glasses to get a good look at the precious stone, Stormy was infinitely more concerned with the way Carlos' grandfather was being contemplatively silent again. "Mr. De León!" she called out, and chuckled when the younger jaguar stepped in front of the Chief. "Whoever knows about this ruby will do."

"Humph," Carlos grunted, remaining quiet as he returned to trying to get his kneeling tribesmen back up. "You will get nothing out of me, or my grandpa," he suddenly said, "Now release my people from your bewitching guile!"

Amused, Stormy closed her grip around the ruby and rested her knuckles at her waist, exposing her sleeve-stretching biceps in an unintentional flex. "Why are you so worried, Carlos? Can't you see how happy they are?" she gestured towards one of the jaguar's villager friends, a shaky smile on his face.

"They are not themselves!" Carlos shouted angrily, "You are making them appear happy to confuse us into thinking..."

Without patience, Stormy interrupted, "I am not making them feel anything. What they do is what I want, but what they feel?" she shrugged, looked to her right and gently stroked under Sheila's chin, making her smile calmly. "Will you fault these men and women for being happy in finding their purpose in life?"

"Serving you without choice?!" Carlos' amber eyes were staring daggers at the muscular wolfess.

"Sha'ak's Ruby, my lady..." Carlos gasped as one of his kneeling villagers slowly started dragging himself closer to Stormy. Stormy removed her hand from her waist and pinched the ruby between her thumb and two fingers to make it stand out for the villager to see. "By itself, it won't work. It will need... urk!"

Before the villager could finish his explanation, a swift punch from Carlos had brought the talker down. "You can't betray us like this!" was all the fearful jaguar could say, regretting every second after having struck his fellow.

"Restrain him." Stormy ordered, and soon Carlos was down on his knees, pushed by two diggers and two villagers. "I don't want you harming those in my service, Carlos. That..." she narrowed her eyes, sauntering closer until her blue eyes were looming over the jaguar, "...is your last warning." She huffed, looking down at the unconscious villager who had been about to disclose important information to her. Quickly she focused on those that had knelt without needing mental influence, and she told them to assist her.

"Fight against it, Gustavo," the Chief tried telling the next villager approaching Stormy. He could only sigh when the words started spilling out of the poor man's lips.

"What he was saying was true, señora..." the villager told Stormy, gesturing towards the unconscious one, "As it is, the gemstone of Sha'ak is only a component. And the artifact it belongs with is..."

"Don't tell her!" Carlos cried out, but a couple of hands grabbed his snout shut. All he could do was growl and struggle in vain. Stormy was told the artifact was being held in their village, guarded by the De León family in one of their shrines.

With a smile, Stormy looked off into the distance. She looked past countless golden shimmers disseminated across the woodlands, some more densely agglomerated than others. The faintest of iridescent glows was swallowed up in dense gold; no wonder she hadn't been able to see it by herself until she had been pointed in its general direction.

"You will bring me to it," Stormy commanded, and every last one of her influenced seemed to tense up at once, followed by those that were aligned with her out of fear or their own interest. They were ready to do as she said.

"Never..." Carlos's muffled words were easy to interpret.

"Something that important must not be easy to get," Stormy replied, "It must be well hidden in your shrine. When I get to your village, I'll be able to tell exactly where it is even if I can't easily get to it," she calmly explained, looking at Carlos, "I can and will tear everything up there until I find what I want." Her expression hardened for a moment, "I will fly into your town, tear off whatever ceiling I have to, get inside and if I really can't easily get to what I want..." she paused, suddenly stomping the ground so hard the soil fissured all around her in a small radius. Carlos and a few others close to Stormy had to catch themselves from the violent vibrations, "...then I will get really, really upset." Approaching the jaguar, she leaned down and gave him a kind and soft smile, "But I won't, if you'll give it to me willingly."

There was only a grunt in response. Carlos' yellow arms were full of determination. He wouldn't be broken easily.

Stormy frowned. Negotiations had never been her forte. "Don't make this so hard on yourself, Carlos. Don't you see how lucky you are that I'm asking?" she took a small pause to consider what she was doing but the anxiety to possess the new artifact transformed her expression into a cold glare that telegraphed Stormy's impatience. "...do you want me to stop asking?"

Tension was so high the air could have been cut with a knife.

In the end, it was Dr. James' voice that broke the ice, the tall opossum's hands joined like the universal sign of cooperation. "Chief De León," he addressed not the super-powered being Stormy had become, nor the protest leader. "I imagine this must be difficult for you all. I am sure what Ms. Stormy is saying right now is that she doesn't wish to exacerbate any sort of conflict. We have seen plenty of what she's capable of."

A harrumph told Dr. James that he had the chief's attention. Stormy turned her gaze from Carlos to Dr. James. Ever the eloquent.

Smiling that courteous smile of his, the archeologist nodded and continued, "Forgive my presumption, but neither you nor I wish your ancient village suffering any inconveniences."

"Are you delivering this child's threats now, sir?" the chief asked, making Dr. James chuckle. The child remark made Stormy start losing her empathy for the old jaguar.

"I've come to known you a little over these past few weeks through our conversations, our esteemed host. And I've devised that you are indeed a man of faith, but also reason. And right now, the reasonable thing would be to minimize any chance of disaster. For yourselves, for your peers."

"Disaster is what we are trying to prevent, foreigner. Not just for us..." the old jaguar argued, staring Stormy with such suddenness she felt every muscle in her body tense up at once, "You are not yourself any longer. You must cease."

"I will not." Stormy assured, loud and clearly.

A dismal sigh left Dr. James' lips. "I had hoped we could reach an agreement..." he shrugged, standing by Stormy with his arms now crossed behind his back. "But, in light of your intentions, Ms. Stormy, I will be the one to extract the artifact from the shrine."

The wolfess' eyes popped open. The chief glared at Dr. James.

"You don't wish to destroy their shrine, belongings or even harm the villagers, do you?" the archeologist shrugged, "I only visited once. But I'm aware of the mechanism they use to hold the artifact. If I get it for you, you don't have to get violent, and they won't have to give it to you. A perfect resolution for all, wouldn't you say, Ms. Stormy?"

"Betrayal." The chief hissed. Stormy was still trying to figure out Dr. James' intentions. But this was the best plan she had heard so far, so she didn't disagree.

The bulk of Stormy's work force remained behind with the destitute Mr. Langley and the few villagers who she had failed to mentally influence. Although she could have flown to the village by herself, Stormy was curious to have a talk with her archeologist supporter, so she accepted Dr. James' offer to drive her. She and Dr. James took one vehicle with the chief and Carlos being escorted by three of Stormy's loyal followers in another.

"He trusted you," Stormy said aloud from the passenger seat. She found her more muscular body fitting nicely on the jeep's leather seat. "How did a foreigner get so much information? They hate Langley."

Without taking his eyes off the road, Dr. James merely smiled. "You're right. They hate Marvin. He's never been good about _asking_for anything."

"Why are you doing all of this?" Stormy asked. Even now, she was aware she was unable to influence the tall opossum's thoughts. She didn't like not knowing Dr. James' mind.

"Why are you?"

"Answering a question with another question leads to pointless circles, doctor."

"You pay attention, good!" Dr. James beamed. "I pay attention, as well. I look at what people are looking at. What they are interested in. What they take." The last word made Stormy feel like her neck was on fire for a moment. "And so does Chief De León. I saw the way he was looking at you the day you found Sha'ak's Necklace. I saw fear in his eyes for the first time that rainy day, but also doubt. It looks like he didn't want to believe it at first, himself. But I knew you were going to be special. And I was right."

"I can't control your mind," Stormy said, confessing the first of her powers for the first time. "So why are you helping me?"

"I believe we've had this conversation before," Dr. James took a swerve, the engine groaning as he harshly changed gears. "Forgive me. I am not so good with manual transmission yet. Anyway," he settled on his seat and tightened his grip on the steering wheel, "I seek understanding. Why was Sha'ak vilified? Why was He sealed away? Was His evil so great it warranted the extermination and obfuscation of an entire civilization? Will we see Him once we reunite all artifacts? Will you become Him...?"

As Stormy listened in silence she looked at her palms. Still covered in dirt from the earlier manual digging. "Becoming a God, huh...?" was the lingering thought in her head as they came up into the village.

It was the first time Stormy had visited the village, with aging although modern architecture greeting her eyes. Four columns of houses were spaced out just enough to create streets for pedestrians but not for large vehicles like theirs. These were small neighborhoods enclosed into a pocket of woodland. The iridescent pillar only Stormy could see awaited deep within.

The De Leóns were brought in with them to avoid any panics in the village. Stormy had decided their escorts to be influenced villagers to help them blend in. Carlos had been sternly warned about outbursts. Passionate as the young jaguar was, his will still unbroken, he could not allow his emotions to bring harm upon defenseless tribesmen. Although reluctant, he walked with his grandfather and Dr. James as the latter led Stormy to the far end of the village where three great stone shrines awaited them. The opossum walked into the larger middle one.

Stormy looked around as she waited. The village was quiet, but she could sense uneasy eyes looking down at her from small cracks in doors and windows. Most of the villagers' minds were open to her. By now she could tell exactly who would accept her mental suggestions and who would not. She didn't want to bring misfortune or disaster to them. But she didn't want their dissidence either. "Their support should not be divided," the wolfess thought, cursing the limitations of her current abilities. "If only I was more powerful..."

"You must stop, Robert James." Stormy's attention was torn from her thoughts as the chief spoke at the opossum exiting the middle shrine. The opossum was descending the five short steps leading up to the shrines with a heavy looking, jade-cut headdress held out on his hands. The crown was two heads tall, beautifully gold-trimmed, with thick cheek guards extending down to chin level. At its top, four colorful flourishes resembling feathers included red, green, white and blue.

"That is Sha'ak's crown," Carlos explained, closing his fists in quiet rage. "The De León family has kept the evil God's symbol of power hidden away for generations as its protectors. You cannot do this."

Ignoring Carlos' pleas, Stormy approached the crown, holding the ruby tightly in her grip. The iridescent glow which had been trailing from within the middle shrine had begun to dissipate, allowing Stormy a good look at the fabulous headdress. Its exquisite features didn't interest her as much as the three ovoid indentations at the center of the crown did. With her great physical strength, taking the artifact that required both of Dr. James' arms' strength in just her one free hand didn't pose any trouble.

Sha'ak's Crown didn't feel any different from all the other treasures she had found in the past two days. For all intents and purposes it felt just as inert as the ruby in her other hand. However, the power of her treasure-finding ear gauges had brought her here, to retrieve another component of her inevitable ascension. Guided by intuition, Stormy firmly held the crown and brought the ruby up to the left slot, inserting it without delay. When she did, an invisible wave of energy surged from the crown, threatening to engulf her. She stood her ground, mouth agape, her breathing accelerated. All of a sudden the combined treasures felt incredibly more valuable to her; invitingly delicious even.

"It is perhaps the greatest sin of all..." the chief spoke tiredly, "...for anyone other than He who sways Nature to adorn their head with the Crown. The Gods shall surely punish you to the full extent of their laws if you continue this folly."

Already holding the crown above her head, Stormy thought about what new power the artifact would bring. She thought about how strange it had felt when people started being nice to her out of nowhere, how useful she had found the new treasure sense to be, how powerful she felt with the strength and vitality of two others enhancing her own, and how utterly liberated she was now that her feet could leave the ground indefinitely if she so chose it.

"Power feels good," the wolfess thought to herself, fighting not to drool over her fangs. Her smile couldn't have been wider as she responded to the chief: "The Gods can try." And she lowered the crown until it was comfortably resting on her scalp.

The chief's eyes shut closed and he winced in failure. Stormy's followers, Carlos and Dr. James all shook as a streak of lightning bolted through the skies, following by explosive thunder.

Breathing in deeply, Stormy closed her eyes and felt a rush of energy descend from the top of her head all the way down to the tip of her toes, caressing every last bit of her being in the process. She could feel her dirty work clothes tightening against her. Furry skin pressed against the sleeves of her damaged shirt and pants without Stormy needing to flex. Her body creaked as she swelled, muscles developing to greater size as otherworldly power filled them.

Even the old jaguar couldn't keep his composure at the spectacular sight. He and everyone present saw Stormy's body change. From the tip of her sharper claws shredding through the front of her boots to her bulkier quads marking and tenting the lap of her pants. Her biceps and triceps tightened and inflated as Stormy balled her hands into fists, but remained a whole size larger even when she relaxed again. The risen mounds were now large enough to be easily notable and were making her ill-fitting sleeves tear.

"Suh-so much power... Even I can feel it from here...!" Carlos exclaimed in fear as he watched the crowned wolf gain a few inches of height, putting her at a more reasonable height for a member of her species.

"Marvelous. Impressive. What spectacle...!" Dr. James would have been jotting down details of this fascinating transformation had he not forgotten his notebook in his excitement. With the wolf's new size her clothes began to ride up and soon enough everybody could see her exposing abdomen and the chiseled six-pack beneath. Pectorals that had grown large enough to make her chest widen to accommodate them now pushed the damaged collar of her sullied shirt, making it difficult to tell if mammaries were present or not.

"This feels so good... so incredible!" Stormy vociferated in pure euphoria The sensation far exceeded the pleasure she had felt during the leopard and foreman's strength transfer; no, it was more accurate to say it was a heightened version of the same. She was reliving the experience multiplied by a factor of ten. If before she had the strength of two powerful males, she now felt like she could lift for twenty.

When the swelling had stopped, she was left a buff, four inches' taller version of herself. She was no different from an average male wolf who seriously worked out. In fact, the more one looked at the empowered lupine, the harder it was to place their gender at a glance.

"Power. True power!" consumed by the exhilaration, Stormy began to laugh. Their voice had dropped a few octaves, retaining little femininity in favor of an intimidating bass. But they were soon interrupted. "Nnngh!" they suddenly grunted, bringing a hand up to their forehead as sharp pain dug into their brain. Stormy could feel their mind being tugged in multiple directions at the same time.

First, they could see farther away with their treasure sense, showing even more gold shimmers than they once could. Crisp images of iridescent light awaited miles away. The minds of those around the crowned wolf also became easier to access, and soon able to detect as well. It wasn't long before Stormy could sense all those hidden villagers from earlier exiting their homes, eager to join in Stormy's ascension.

Even though Stormy had not ordered them to yet, and despite Carlos and the chief's protests, they dropped to their knees to worship the godly canine alongside the rest of her present followers. Even though the new followers' unaffected families and friends rushed out to their inexplicably serenated loved ones, they could not stop them from praying and worshipping the tall, muscular wolf. And when those Stormy could not influence were struck by the visage of strength and power itself, the wolf felt many once closed minds unlock for the empowered one. Just like Stormy's old ex-burly cabin mate had, before them.

Once the headache had subsided, Stormy couldn't help but grin. They began to levitate once more, looming over the dominated villagers. Although unaffected, Dr. James had dropped to his knees like a loyal knight in waiting.

Their eyes focused on the ancient structures behind the dutiful archeologist. Something didn't sit right with the middle shrine all of a sudden. The crown which had bestowed upon Stormy power overwhelming had been hidden away there. What the shrine represented to the wolf now was defiance, the notion that power was meant to remain sealed away and inaccessible. That notion infuriated her. "Haaaaah...! The wolf gasped aloud, so overcome by their need to burn their accumulated energy that they dove down to the nearest tree and uprooted it, swinging it like a pillar and demolishing the middle shrine into a bunch of rubble.

"You did as you pleased anyway," Carlos growled angrily, but was too awestruck to even think about attempting physical altercation with that buff, flying canine.

Regularizing her breathing, Stormy stared down at the complaining jaguar. He seemed so little and insignificant right now. Like an ant begging a giant not to trample them. "I'll build you all a new one later," they said.

"For two thousand years that shrine has survived the test of time..." the chief lamented as he watched fearfully at the flying destroyer. "You are a creature of chaos, no longer a person, but a mortal driven crazy with lust for power!"

"Relax!" the deep voiced Stormy said, dropping the huge tree like it was no more than a stick atop the shrine rubble, "All that shrine did was represent your fear. Fear of power. My power. I've rid you of your reason to fear, old man. Don't you see?" their arms spread out to gesture at the dozens going prone behind the chief and his grandson. "They're overjoyed by my presence!"

"They are terrified!" Carlos cried out, pointing out the villagers trying to get many worshippers to stop by shouting and tugging at their arms and legs.

Stormy couldn't disagree, but they also understood that a closed mind needn't remain so forever. "They simply don't understand the joy of serving me." Stormy said, already in love with the idea of a growing flock of people absolutely smitten with them. It would take some doing, but they weren't going to stop until every last person was showering them with the devotion they now craved.

The god-like wolf flexed their arms, making their biceps inflate until they finally burst their shirt sleeves. Stormy was looking out into the distance, ignoring every last gold shimmer in favor of the remaining iridescent ones. If one gemstone had given them this much power, they wanted them all. As a show of power, Stormy would make their loyal followers find and bring the remaining artifacts to them.

"Not yet, they don't," Stormy continued to address Carlos without looking at him. But I will make them understand," the wolf grinned, raising ever higher until they were hovering above the rustling treetops. "I will make everybody understand. I am power! Hahahaha...!" Stormy was so happy at the realization, so absolutely thrilled that they could not stop laughing.

"HAHAHAHA!" the wolf's booming voice echoed in the protector village. Stormy flew away in the direction of the camp, soon followed by followers old and new.

When Carlos' legs had stopped shaking, he finally fell down on his rump. From his position on the ground he could see Stormy interrupting their trajectory only to dip down and fly back out lifting both jeeps they had driven into the village. The empowered wolf was carrying as many people as they could in the vehicles that looked weightless above their head. Even though Carlos had been raised with tales and warnings from ages long past, witnessing the real power of the Gods at work through a mortal vessel was as impressive as it was frightful.

In contrast, his grandfather remained on his feet. Hunched over, old and frail, yet firmly rooted. The old jaguar's tired amber eyes seemed to be losing their luster. "Is all is lost...?" he whispered into the air, and loud thunder struck.

Power was flowing through Stormy's veins. They were feeling the rush of their life. "I can do anything!" they thought as they flew above the rainforest with the fully loaded 4x4s above their head. They could lift anything they wanted. They could fly faster than a helicopter, covering miles in a matter of minutes. They could hear the passengers above them and celebrating their ascension. But most importantly, they could detect the next iridescent shimmers in the distance.

The crown which had amplified their existing abilities had three slots, one of them filled by the ruby Stormy had dug out. They knew the remaining pillars of light were more gemstones that would no doubt further elevate their power. They could have been satisfied with the current state of affairs; not one person could stop Stormy if they tried. But it wasn't enough. And yet for all of their burgeoning anxiety to possess more, their heart was aflutter with all the devotion they were receiving. They were equally eager for both and they had an idea of how to cater to their new appetite.

A round of cheerful applause greeted the descending wolf as they made their return to the main tent of the temple dig site. After putting down the jeeps, the buff wolf rounded their followers to deliver a message. They told every last person listening to their deep voiced words about the mission Stormy wished them to carry out on their behalf.

With their sharpened treasure sense, all Stormy needed was a map of the area. Dr. James offered the one he had been putting together along with his assistance in pin pointing the areas where the final iridescent shimmers were. With his help, Stormy had the two targets down to the exact latitude and longitude.

Floating over their heads, Stormy put an arm out in the direction of those attractive, sparkling shimmers that so powerfully whet her hunger for power. "Go," the accessorized canine ordered, "Serve me and I will make you all as rich as you want!" they proclaimed. And as two groups comprised of both natives and foreigners grabbed equipment and vehicles to set out in their venture, Stormy retraced the exact words they had used in their edict. "They all serve me." Stormy assured themself, incipient doubt hardening into conviction. This was as things should be.

Over half of those at the temple ruins left. Stormy turned to the rest with a smile, focusing their eyes on the villagers who had joined the flock. "I got a bit carried away back at your village. Grab what you need, use some of my valuables if you need to buy materials for the repair job. Bring Carlos and his grandpa here, too. Treat them well and let them know I'm keeping my word. Rebuild the shrine I wrecked. But make it to my name this time. Power isn't meant to be feared," Stormy said, landing next to Dr. James and Mr. Langley, who was on his knees much like the rest.

Stormy could tell that their ex-employer's mind was still resisting their influence. "Do I make you afraid, Marvin?"

Few people called him by his name nowadays. That lowly grunt who had stolen all of his riches, all of his authority, and who was only growing in power by the hour was the most terrifying thing he had seen in his whole life. Mr. Langley felt a wave of cold air wash over him when Stormy singled him out. He dreaded even setting his gaze on that muscular wolf. Desperate thoughts tore his mind in many directions, each wishing to pull him away from the insanity of this moment.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Stormy said, putting a hand atop the opossum's head. "If I wanted to hurt you," their grip tightened on Mr. Langley's head ever so slightly, "All I would need to do is snap my thumb and index fingers together against your skull, but that'd be messy." She paused to the sound of a pathetic whimper coming from the rich old man. "Your head feels so frail. Everything does."

Stormy released the pressure and simply patted the now shorter opossum on his scalp. "And it's because of that frailty that I need to hold back now. Keep myself from destroying you and everybody else by breathing too hard." The wolf chuckled and the ground vibrated a little. "I understand now how it must've felt for you before, wielding so much power and influence. Everybody fawning, wishing to serve. It's intoxicating. I don't think I'll ever want anything less. And I know I'll get more, Marvin. I'll get more than you and everybody else combined." They grinned, looming over the kneeling, shaking marsupial. "The question is... where do you want to stand in the coming world? Do you still want power, recognition, fame...?"

With his tail uneasily sweeping dust and his hands joined in a begging gesture, Mr. Langley began to stutter, "Nuh-no..." and he paused. He thought of how the pebbles danced on the floor with the potent voice of that chiseled wolf lording their slightly taller height standing upright. Mr. Langley was out of recourses. All of his money and influence meant nothing. And without those things, he was nothing. But as he looked up at the regal lupine staring him down like the pathetic insect he was, Mr. Langley finally started seeing the intimidating wolf in a wholly different, magnificent light. "Oh-Of course not. Only..." he began to smile, "...only you are worthy of that all, my great lady."

Stormy felt an electrifying sensation climb up their spine. Something felt decidedly wrong with the last part of Langley's speech, but with his will broken and his mind made susceptible, the wolf felt satisfaction. "They'll need help buying materials. You're good with money. Help with whatever they need." They ordered, and started floating again. "I'm off."

Dr. James directed a curious gaze at their levitating leader. "Where are you off to, Ms. Stormy?"

Again, something in the way they were being referred to struck out to them. But Stormy wasn't interested in dialogue for long. "My gems will be a while. There are more villages around here I haven't seen yet," they shot a smile down to Dr. James, "I figured I'd go and introduce myself to them." And with that, Stormy left once more.

What they had not divulged was just how good domination felt to them. Taking people and having them worship their superiority was one thing, but breaking strong wills like Langley's and having him join the rest was a pleasure Stormy wished to indulge in more. And she did.

Over the course of the following two days, the wolf made their presence known to the others in the woodlands. Stormy visited villages and small cities alike. None of them had been expecting them to descend from the sky and start gathering those with weaker wills to join their faithful.

Their supernatural abilities and promise of joy and riches was enough to turn most of the populace. Stormy sent those ready to join the ones at the temple ruins on their way and took their time making the others submit. They were equipped with the means to make a show of how useless resistance was, and being given excuses to flex those almighty muscles was just what they wanted.

With every new follower, the flock continued to grow in size and so did Stormy's ego. The latter had learned not only to feast on people's attention but relish on the idea of absolutely commanding it. The only reason Stormy put a pin on spreading her influence was that they had noticed the first of the shimmers moving back to the camp with their prize. The wolf had become proficient at flying at greater speed so it took them only five minutes to cover several dozen miles in order to get back to receive the first offering from their faithful.

By the time Stormy's bare feet touched the ground at the temple ruins again, the first gem team was only a short distance away from returning. The team would be greeted by an overwhelming number of people surrounding their expectant leader. Stormy made sure to take the time to allow themself to be pampered.

A fancy, tall red chair with deliciously soft cushioning had been prepared for the wolf. And even though they could fly for the most efficient kind of movement, Stormy allowed those eager to dote on their greatness to carry them around. Stormy's followers brought them snacks and refreshments procured from Langley's cottage, always giving the wolf several choices over what to feast on. No less than two hundred now worshipped Stormy, and the wolf had plans to raise those numbers. They were starting to feel like the monarch of a small, birthing nation.

"We have found it, my queen!" announced an overjoyed Priscilla, music to the wolf's ears. Part of the team whose target was the closest to the dig site, she skipped over to Stormy with overflowing exuberance. Stormy could see the shimmer of a new gemstone in the hummingbird's feathery hands, its glow becoming fainter the closer the archeologist got. Priscilla went down to her knees once she reached her leader and bowed her head while holding out the coveted prize: An ovoid sapphire.

Stormy had to keep themselves from drooling. With the shimmer gone they could see the same intricate lines carving the surface of that blue gem. Sha'ak's crown suddenly felt a lot lighter without the sapphire in its proper slot. "Finally..." they sighed happily, leaning over and swiping the sapphire off Priscilla's hands, "Allowing myself to wait for this is making it so much better. Yes. You've all done very well," the deep-voiced wolf extended their gratitude to the now simping crowd. "I am pleased by your offering. And now," Stormy paused, pinching the sapphire between two fingers as they brought it up to one of the slots, leaving only the middle one empty. Almost as if torn off Stormy's fingertips by a magnetic force, the sapphire was sucked into the indentation for a perfect fit, "Witness me ascend again...!"

Both the ruby and sapphire began to glow brightly at the center of Sha'ak's crown. Stormy could feel power flowing into them again, although this time her physical appearance did not change in the slightest. That didn't stop their muscles from tightening and tensing up, becoming even more densely packed and straining the fancy chair they were using with the additional weight.

Physical ability rivaling dozens of mighty warriors infused into Stormy, causing the wolf to moan out in absolute bliss. Their voice grew deeper still, causing the floor directly beneath them to quake and shiver from the pressure. Priscilla and many of those closest to Stormy stumbled back from the impressive vibrations, many of them falling as they witnessed the crown bearer's second empowerment.

Mentally, Stormy was assaulted by sensorial upgrades which they had not been expecting. The first thing they felt made their glowing blue eyes shut closed. They growled, hearing one then two then dozens and hundreds of voices ringing in their head one after the other, and then all at once.

"She's magnificent!"

"So scary!"

"This is our Goddess!"

"My queen, my beautiful muscle-queen!"

"She's so powerful. So powerful!"

"Too powerful! What will she do to us?!"

The words weren't being spoken. Their followers' thoughts were permeating Stormy's mind like a stream of voices trying to speak one over the other. Their love and fear had been fuel for their esteem during each village visit, but now that Stormy was privy to what was inside of the people's hearts, they realized that psychically manipulating them was no longer necessary.

The influx of thoughts was overwhelming at first, making the wolf feel like their head was going to burst. It took all of their concentration to regain focus, tuning out and allowing those words to echo in the back of their head.

When Stormy dared open their eyes again, their gaze was met with a multitude of new shimmers. Treasure sense had upgraded again and now Stormy could see with startling clarity just how much precious treasure was left in the entire province, even beyond the mountain range that encroached the temple. The remaining iridescent shimmers dozens of miles away were slowly but surely making their way back to Stormy; the second gem recover team had been successful. But now there was also a third type of shimmer. And every last person in the temple had one.

The new, person-bound shimmer was of a translucent, crystal-blue color. While it sparkled brightly for some, it offered a duller sheen for the others. "What kind of treasure are they all holding now...?" Stormy thought to themself, wondering if that was treasure at all. Their curiosity made Stormy focus on Priscilla, who was still the closest to them. All of a sudden, the archeologist began to float off the ground.

"Ah!" exclaimed the bewildered hummingbird. It had been ages since their kind had been able to take flight under their own power, but here she was, levitating much like their mighty goddess could. "Muh-my Goddess...!" Priscilla was shaking, barely able to hold her skirt down as she slowly spun in mid-air.

Stormy came to be surprised by their own new ability. They quickly realized they had not bestowed Priscilla with the ability to fly, instead moving her with the power of their mind. The wolf willed the blue-shimmering hummingbird closer and her body floated up to the chair as if carried by a ghost. "Hmm..." Stormy narrowed their eyes, examining the blushing bird.

To the embarrassed Priscilla it looked like Stormy was staring straight at her cleavage, but nothing was further from the truth. The wolf soon noticed the blue shimmer to be embedded in Priscilla. It was glowing extremely bright now that the hummingbird was this close to Stormy. After inspecting it so closely, Stormy determined that whatever that sparkle was, it was as part of her as the blood and flesh allowing her life.

"Uh-uhm..." Priscilla stuttered, smiling nervously, "I-is there something wrong, my Goddess...?"

Stormy quietly sat back on their chair and used their telekinesis to gently put the bird woman back down. "Yes, there is." The wolf stood up. They were still slightly shorter than Priscilla, yet to the submissive bird they looked immense. "You have all been working tirelessly for me. It's time to celebrate your devotion with a feast!" they declared, raising their arms to a cheerful uproar of happy followers.

"A powerful being like me has no need for material riches any longer. So I order you to use it," they looked straight at Marvin Langley whose dull blue shimmer suddenly lit up as he began to rapidly nod. Stormy smiled and turned to the rest, "Buy the best food. The best drinks. Treat yourselves in my name!" And then they looked through the multitude until they could see those that were uneasy, disgruntled, and that Stormy could still not permeate with their psychic powers. "Everybody is welcome, Carlos."

The jaguar's sullen amber eyes were as uncompromising as his scowl. Stormy could see his blue shimmer glowing beautifully despite the fact he clearly was not influenced. Words and shows of power had been ineffectual at changing his or his grandfather's mind about them. Being a Goddess could be so tiring.

"Goddess...?" Stormy thought to themself, repeating what the words in the back of her head continued to call them, the voices of their followers celebrating them as they got ready for that night's feast.

"My Goddess!"

"The Goddess is beautiful!"

"We will throw the best party in the world in the name of the Goddess!"

Goddess. Goddess. Goddess. It didn't sound wrong, but it wasn't completely right. Stormy didn't feel like a Goddess. They didn't feel like a God, either. They felt and looked incredibly powerful, unstoppable, beyond what these people could fully comprehend. It was only natural that their minds would continue to hang on to their conception of what Stormy used to be. Something they had shed throughout this ascension. Something that they were not any longer. That Stormy was no more.

"In the name of our Goddess...!" Brandon the lynx cried out as he exited the main tent with six bottles of chardonnay hugged to his chest.

"Not a Goddess," Stormy spoke the loudest yet. The entire dig site shuddered, and the merriment's raucousness suddenly ended. "I'll be known as Deity from now on. And you will celebrate it!" the wolf elevated themself above the masses, muscular arms outstretched as they embraced their new identity.

Uneasy silence was broken by Sheila pumping her fist up, followed by the growing cheer of Stormy's flock joining in the celebration.

That night, the long-lost temple of Sha'ak was taken by a storm of joy and pleasure. Trucks and drones delivered Langley's online orders, all of it purchased with his American Express Black; he had insisted. Be they natives or interlopers, all joined to sing praises and worship Stormy. Hundreds danced, ate and drank to their heart's content, celebrating the birth of their new Deity.

For the first time in their life, Stormy had everything they had ever wanted. People that loved them, power to take care of those people and to reward them for their devotion. These people's thoughts were unified and Stormy could feel it, especially now that they could read into their hearts. All those blue shimmers were glowing as intensely as the great bonfires burning around the dig site.

But not everybody was on board with serving them, that much was clear to Stormy. Hundreds of those subservient to them meant nothing if there was dissidence. It was the wee hours of the morning and the celebration was still loud and cheerful when Stormy noticed they couldn't see Carlos or the protector village Chief. "So I'm not the best host, am I...?" the Deity thought to themself, looking out for blue shimmers moving away from the densely packed ones.

Stormy quickly came to realize many people had disseminated across the camp. With the party running its course, not everybody was dancing or eating at all times. Some diggers were flirting with the natives and vice-versa, others were speaking in smaller groups. Even the tent was chock full of those wishing to look upon the Deity's treasure hoard. Stormy realized the blue shimmers weakened and became invisible to them, even if the person did not, at a certain distance. Whether they had been conscious of Stormy's ability or not, Carlos and the others had managed to slip out undetected.

Standing up from their posh seat the Deity suddenly vanished from sight, surprising the servants that until then had been catering specifically for Stormy.

Ascension

"Come, grandfather, we have to hurry," Carlos spoke in Spanish, helping the disdained Chief across the humid ground they were so used to trekking through. Once wide-eyed, the older jaguar seemed devoid of his usual energy. Carlos blamed Stormy for it, and although he was enraged by how easily his fellow tribesmen had fallen in with the Deity's numbers, he knew they were not at fault. The crowned wolf had control of each and every one of their hearts.

"Where are we going, sir?" asked one of the villagers following the De Leóns, "I heard the Deity visited many villages. Most of them are back at the temple now."

Carlos grunted, "Do not call that thing a Deity. It will only open your mind to its vile manipulations. We're the only ones unaffected by that devil in disguise." The young jaguar took his time helping the elder out of the woodland and into the road. He regretted not having had the chance to steal a vehicle. "The main city is only an hour away on foot. We will warn the government, the people. They must all know about this cult before it's too late," Carlos winced to the idea of unnecessary violence but after witnessing what he had, he saw no other option. "If we arm ourselves properly then we might just... Ah!"

Carlos and the rest had to shield their eyes from a bright light. Some Spanish insults were hurled from shock as the ground violently shook from a sudden shockwave caused by something coming at them at great speeds. The young jaguar pushed his elder around his back when he saw the one that had caused that lightning-bolt-like phenomenon had been none other than the devil they had been trying to flee from.

"Party not to your liking?" Stormy asked rather casually while standing in front of Carlos, the rest of the villagers screaming and falling to their knees to either beg and plead or blame the young jaguar for turning them against their Deity. Stormy ignored everything except Carlos' defiant gaze.

"How...?" Carlos' frown expressed his disdain, but the truth was that he was terrified. "I was so careful too." The rebellious feline had to take a moment when he saw the wolf disappear from sight, only to reappear on his left side, arms folded. "You can teleport now?!"

"To you, it might look like exactly that. I've gotten fast. So fast you can't keep track of my movements," Stormy said, their hand suddenly at Carlos' scruff. There was little the jaguar could do to prevent the wolf from pulling him in and holding him up with just one arm.

"Grrk...!" Carlos used both of his arms. He was into sparring and he had honed his body with strength training for as long as he had been allowed. Yet his expert grip could not fight back against Stormy's.

"Is serving me such a bad thing?" Stormy posited, but Carlos responded with more struggling. "Your grandfather promised me divine punishment. I only continue to grow more powerful. If your Gods were around at one point, they are here no longer, Carlos. But I am. I am a true, living Deity."

"You're a monster!" Carlos growled, "Robbing people of their will, forcing them to do your bidding like some mind-controlling despot. You can't do this!"

A deep sigh that made the air itself vibrate left Stormy's lips. "I will be a monster in some people's eyes; I've given it some thought. But now, my followers need me. They're my responsibility. They will do my bidding and be rewarded for their loyalty. And if anybody tries to harm me, or them, I won't hold back."

"I'm not going to follow you!" Carlos declared, still hanging uselessly from Stormy's grip. "You can't break me like you did with the others. And I won't remain here. I will go out there, and I will find others like me. Do you think I'm the only one who wants to live a free person?!"

Stormy could see the crystalline blue shimmer in Carlos glowing the brightest they had seen yet. It was almost blinding. Glowing blue eyes and yellow faced off. The wolf respected the jaguar's argument, but they couldn't accept it. Anything but absolute devotion had become undesirable to the Deity. "I'm aware my powers aren't enough for strong-willed people like you. But I've still got room for growth..." the wolf trailed off, using their free finger to point at the last gem slot in Sha'ak's crown, "...and I don't intend on giving up on you or anybody else. It might be soon, it might be late... but you will all, in the end, submit."

"Never!" Carlos shouted, spitting at the ground beside Stormy. "You can hold me against my will. You can intimidate me all you want. But I've decided you're a like a plague in this world. You will never be satisfied until everything and everybody bows down to you, bereft of choice! You must be stopped. I will find a way to stop you!"

The standoff was getting nowhere, yet tension continued to elevate. The villagers surrounding Stormy, even the ones who refused to speak up against them, had begun to look up at Carlos and the Deity. Their eyes were infused with hatred for the autocrat, and sympathy for their leader. Stormy knew that as long as Carlos was there to inspire them, they would all be unbreakable.

Another rumbling sigh. Stormy frowned. "Oh, Carlos..." They spoke with clear disappointment in their voice. There was nothing left to do. The Deity wished to remove this obstacle in the most painless way possible, and their wish made the wolf's ear gauges glow alongside their eyes. That sparkling blue shimmer with the most beautiful glow at Carlos' chest made the other villagers' look dull and unimpressive. To Stormy, this was treasure unlike any they had seen. They realized it then: It was their burning souls. And no soul was burning brighter than the Deity's unbreakable opponent's.

Carlos struggled even harder, kicking and clawing at Stormy's muscular arm. His eyes began to shine as his personal shimmer started traveling up to along his sternum, soon making his neck glow. "Release me... devil...!" he demanded, but found his voice cracking and his strength fading half-way.

Stormy's mouth opened. As soon as they started inhaling, light gathered at Carlos' eyes and mouth. Many villagers screamed in terror as they could see crystal blue streams pouring out of their leader, coalescing into a wispy beam of light traveling towards the wolf's awaiting maw.

Once there was no more blue to consume, the Deity's maw snapped down. Carlos had finally ceased with his struggle. His eyes had been left empty and white and he was only hanging limp from Stormy's grip. Carlos' motionless form was dropped as Stormy began to elevate above the fearful villagers. The wolf's eyes were no longer merely glowing at the irises, energy was overflowing and filling their eye sockets with an opaque blueish aura.

Witnessing that otherworldly sight, even the strongest willed among the villagers who had elected to follow Carlos in his quest could no longer bear it. One by one, Stormy witnessed their burning souls fizzle and adopt a calm, warm glow, like the rest of the flock. The hungry wolf licked their lips, fixating their gaze upon the village Chief. He was the only one whose will had remained unbroken. But all Stormy did was exchange gazes with him. He was the one to speak.

"As horrifying as that was, you have done my grandson a mercy," the Chief spoke slowly, "You have my gratitude, demonic one. He would have stopped at nothing to see you burn. If I wasn't old, frail and useless, I would be no different. I would see you punished, by mortal or immortal hand. Your greed knows no bounds."

"I know," Stormy smiled, their eyes stopping to burn for a moment. "But it's too late to stop me now." They declared. "Money, fame, recognition... I wanted those once. It was the way of the world. Those pursuits made me unhappy. But I will change it. Pull the old out, root and stem," they explained, levitating towards the old jaguar. "People are unhappy without me, Chief De León. They fight and they fear because they have no guarantees in life, they have no one, nothing to look up to," the wolf gestured towards the four new worshippers they had secured. "I will become that which they need. They wish for someone to take care of them. They wish for purpose. And there is no greater purpose than something who unifies them."

"They had a purpose before you came along and robbed them of it," the Chief argued, firmly gripping the handle of his walking stick. "Now they are mere hollows..."

"Hollows that I can, and will, fill with joy and love. They will live their lives for me, and never know anxiety or doubt ever again."

"And what about people like me and my late grandson...?" the chief asked.

"It's a simple choice," Stormy shrugged their shoulders. "Either you submit or else..." they paused. Stormy could sense a number of fast-approaching presences, as well as a familiar iridescent shimmer. Noisy jeep engines soon followed.

"Ms. Stormy!" Dr. James vociferated as he climbed out of the 4x4, rushing towards the levitating Deity. "We have found them... the last of the gems!"

"Gems? Plural?" Stormy was surprised to hear there was more than the third. They gently floated down to meet Dr. James, who was holding out the sources of iridescence. Once the shimmers faded in close proximity to the Deity, Stormy's eyes fixated on each of the two gemstones divided on the opossum's palms. The ovoid gemstones were made of emerald and diamond this time. They shared the same intricate designs of the ruby and sapphires before them, but something bothered Stormy. They already had checked the crown thoroughly and they had found no secret indentation. There was only one slot left.

"Stormy, Deity, however you wish to be called... Mark my words," the Chief suddenly said, "Sha'ak's crown was never meant to be worn by a mortal, much less so with its full arrangement of mystic gems. No mortal can contain the true power of a God."

It then hit Stormy. Their eyes widened as they took the gemstones from Dr. James. "Then it is clear what I must do, is it not?" the eager Deity said, taking a deep breath and holding the gemstones above the crown. Each gem had given them extraordinary powers to compound their own, but with only one remaining slot and two gems, Stormy would need to get creative. The sun dawning over the mountains was suddenly engulfed by a mass of black thunderclouds covering the sky. "I will shed my mortality," they continued, set on their path. "I will become all-powerful. I will be endless!"

And with that, the wolf unceremoniously jammed not one, but both gems in the remaining slot at once. Stormy growled, feeling an electrical surge shock their arms. But they tried again. And again. Applying more and more force each time.

"No... stop!" the Chief dropped his stick, needing to be caught by Dr. James to avoid falling over, "That is more power than the crown itself can handle! Foolish child...! Don't you see? At this rate you will destroy yourself and everybody else!"

"I am not a child anymore!" Stormy roared, and so did the heavens. They slammed both gems into the socket, each time bending rock just a little more. They got shocked over and over again, spreading pain and burning their sinew. But Stormy didn't relent. They fought through the searing pain. "I AM A DIVINITY!" they shouted, making the very ground under their feet tremble. In the end, the ovoid socket was widened enough for green and white to mix together into the same slot.

Much like with the previous two stones, energy started pouring out from the crown and into Stormy. However, this time they could feel energy coming not only from the newly incrusted jewels but also from the existing ones. Every last one of Sha'ak's accessories on the wolf's person had begun to shine with an iridescent light. Dr. James, the chief and the other villagers were witnessing every glowing detail.

"Ms. Stormy, are you alright...?!" Dr. James asked out loud, noting the strange way in which the Deity's body was beginning to shudder, almost like a palpitating organ.

"Haaah... haaahh..." Stormy's panting breath could be seen taking a foggy white form outside of their mouth. They were hunched over, glowing ever brighter by the second. Features of their accessories were obfuscated by the sheer incandescence of that multi-colored light wrapping them up. "Power... power!" they gasped out hungrily, muscles flexing and appearing larger than before. "More power! More!" they cried out, suddenly arching back and letting out a mighty howl.

Dr. James who until then had been consciously witnessing every moment of that fascinating lupine subject's ascension was beginning to tremble with anticipation. Vibrations extending from Stormy's form made the very ground beneath all of their feet tremble and fissure. "It's too much... too much power!"

The vibrantly glowing wolf was overflowing with energy. They heated up so much that what remained of their clothes caught fire, becoming incinerated within seconds. The air grew so hot around the naked Stormy that their followers had to take a number of cautionary step back, with Dr. James pulling the little mobile village Chief back with him. Soon, it became clear the temperature had climbed to the point those iridescent accessories could not resist any longer.

The necklace, gauges, bracelet, anklets and crown were all melting down into iridescent goop, absorbed into Stormy in but moments. And still their muscles shuddered, bulging and flexing without effort. Their completely bare body had become unable to contain all the power being liberated by all the accessories and it was about to spill. Shutting their brightly shining eyes, clenching their sharp fangs, balling their fists and digging their curling toe claws into the ruptured ground was all Stormy could do. They felt like they were getting pulled apart at the pores under their fur, their mortal shell unable to withstand the sheer volumes of divine energy invading it.

"Nnnghh...!" the wolf writhed and wailed in place, grabbing their head as they thrashed about, stomping and cracking the ground, "So much...! So much!" they roared and growled.

"What's happening to them?" Dr. James was both bewildered and full of concern, "They look like they're in pain!"

"It is no wonder," the chief said, "The fool is attempting to wrest control from Sha'ak Himself. It has been millennia since the other Gods sealed Him for His destructive ways. He would not accept this wolf as His master."

"Sha'ak is tearing them apart?!" Dr. James gasped, turning to look at Stormy. The air was too hot to even think about getting close and lightning bolts were beginning to strike all around them.

Stormy was caught in painful tumult. No matter how much they stomped or punched the ground, the pain would not subside. It was taking all of their psychic energy to prevent their body from disintegrating. "I can't let go...!" they grunted, smacking their tail down so hard the ground fissured into a deep earthen maw. "I won't let go! I want it. I want it all! Give it to me!"

The Deity began yelling, "They depend on me! They worship me!" and opened their mind to the thoughts of their worshippers. With their swelling power, Stormy's telepathy linked them to the hundreds ready to devote their whole lives to them. They received the multitude's candor, their unbridled joy and their servile devotion. "I won't stop. I will ASCEND!"

"Dioses...!" the chief's eyes opened wider than they had in decades. Against all odds, the wolf's writhing stopped in favor of blissful moaning. And not only that, they looked taller. Taller than even his late grandson. Stormy was growing taller!

"If my body's too small for all this power..." the naked Deity rumbled, standing up straight while rapidly enlarging, passing six and a half feet tall in only a few moments, "...then I'll get bigger." They then swelled to seven feet tall, putting them above even the tallest of diggers back in the camp, "And bigger." They continued with the sound of skin stretching and bones popping, adding several inches per spurt, "AND BIGGER!"

Indeed, Stormy was growing so large so fast that every time the sky flashed, their shadow crept ever closer to Dr. James and the others, soon shading them completely. Eight feet tall, nine feet tall, ten... "More!" the wolf moaned, reaching up towards the storming heavens as if demanding their rightful place among the Gods.

For fear of getting trampled or burned alive by the ever increasing heat aura, Dr. James and the rest had to rush away from the expanding giant. He carried the chief with him and everybody jumped into the jeep to drive away to safety. And yet they couldn't stop looking back. Stormy was already taller than a tree yet they wouldn't stop swelling.

Forest surrounding the road Stormy was crushing and burning started looking smaller with each passing moment. "Mmm... getting so huge!" they flexed and growled pleasurably, never before having experienced this orgasmic momentum. Their muscles weren't growing any larger than they had been before putting on the last few gems, yet with every additional foot of height they felt capable of three more times the effort and force. This was what power truly meant to Stormy. This was what they had been looking forwards to with all of their heart. Ascension. Self-betterment. Becoming an unstoppable force of nature; as respected and feared as they were loved.

And they grew, soon coming higher than the midpoint for the tallest trees in the woodlands at a staggering 20ft. tall. All the pain had completely disappeared by that point and all Stormy could think about getting bigger. Their body obliged, stretching in every direction and seizing more and more space in the middle of the road until their hips were getting tickled by the canopies on both sides and their swishing tail was making the greenery rustle with wind.

As 20ft. became 30, Stormy managed to become lucid enough to take notice of the parked jeep a small distance away from their giant paws. They looked down with a playful smirk, their eyes glowing so brightly it was impossible to see their quirked brow. "Witness me, mortals! I am no longer one of you!" their increasing size had already turned their voice into such a bass baritone the entire forest trembled from Stormy's voice on its own. "Go!" they commanded with more roaring thunder above them, "Let the others know. Soon, I will become a _true_Divinity, the Deity to rule them all! And your new all-powerful Deity wishes for more worship!"

Laughter rumbled out from the power hungry wolf. As they swelled past 40ft. tall, Stormy stomped their way down towards the temple after the pathetically tiny looking jeep fleeing from them. In the ten seconds it took to close the distance between the main road and the temple ruins, Stormy reached their maximum size at 50ft., sticking out from the thick forest which barely reached waist level with the average tree trunk. With power properly flowing inside their ascended form, Stormy's body had finished its expansion for the time being.

Being greeted by rows upon rows of faithful prostrating themselves before them, Stormy was invaded by true euphoria. There was no fear in their hearts, only love for their Deity. Their new size was welcomed with fluttering emotions, all of them positive. Stormy was superior to them in every way, and now there was literally no mortal that could contest their godhood.

In fact, Stormy's ascension had yet again amplified all of their existing powers. Whereas their mental influence had been able to cover a radius of half a mile before, the area of effect now blanketed the entirety of the country. Whole provinces, millions of inhabitants had opened their hearts and souls to their new ruler and were already starting to make their pilgrimage to meet Stormy themself. And the giant was only getting started; they had plans to get the entire sub-continent under their fold, and soon, the rest of the world.

With electricity crackling in their eyes, the all-powerful wolf turned towards the mountains encroaching upon the woodlands temple and pulled their right arm back. The Deity's followers watched as they punched the air in front of them. It looked like a short and quick jab, but as they soon realized, Stormy's physical strength had grown to such unthinkable levels the sheer impact of the blow was powerful enough to blow the top of the mountain apart to smithereens.

The mountain range now looked like a colossal wrecking ball had punched through, effectively splitting it in two and allowing sunlight through. With their other hand, Stormy dismissed the thunderclouds, exposing a gorgeous, clear, sunny sky, bathing their followers in its light. No longer a cursed realm, now the hallowed ground which was the birthplace of the world's new Divinity.

Cries of joy from everywhere in the country reached Stormy's mind. The giant, beautiful and strong wolf would come to be known as "They who swayed nature", another aspect of Chaak.

Only this time, they would come to be worshipped by every living person in the planet, for the rest of time.

The End.