The moment of truth. None of us really had any idea what Bullba was going to do, and it was frustrating to know he could just as easily scope out the egg and then fly away without it. He might idly wonder why there was an egg out in the middle of the desert and not even go near it.
From my vantage point I could just barely see into the cave, and Bullba had definitely noticed the recently manufactured nest. He leaned over the egg presumably sniffing it, or maybe just making sure visually that it actually was an Aguiva egg. I don't know. Then very carefully, with painstaking slowness, he wedged his jaw under it and forced it to roll farther into his beak and then turned it lengthwise with his tongue. It now sat in between the rows of his teeth like a cradle and Bullba closed his mouth around it until the beak looked closed. It occurred to me that nature had taken care of how Aguiva parents were to move their babies from one location to another.
He made a very unusual sound as he turned back toward the cave entrance, and I would have bet money it was meant to sound menacing. To whom I am not sure. I wouldn't have thought he would have found it necessary to warn us in that way. Maybe it was just my imagination.
Aguiva dragons can't really walk so much as they waddle, but in this case Bullba very carefully made his way out to the dirt road, head swinging slowly from side to side as if he was looking for an invisible predator. Head down, and neck extended, he reminded me of a bow-legged cowboy on his way to a gun fight. When he was apparently satisfied that the area was safe, he crouched and sprung into the air with the speed of a fired bullet. He quickly gained altitude and began circling directly over us until he made up his mind which way to fly. We all held our breath waiting for the next round of total disaster but were gratified when he headed directly for the mountain. He rapidly gained more altitude, and from the number of wing beats per minute, he was in a hurry. No doubt, I'd be in a hurry too if I was carrying an egg in my mouth.
It's probably a good thing that our adventure worked out the way that it did. We hadn't gone twenty feet in the direction of home when the rear axle on the trailer decided it didn't like what we had done to it. The bloody thing snapped in half, and then sagged down completely into the dirt. It wasn't going anywhere until it could get towed. Queen Mother said they would bring back help, and then invited the two women to ride back with her. I guess I agree with them going back, especially Analise, since Bullba was her dragon. There was also the pre-assumption that Bullba would actually fly back to the mountain, and that nothing else would go wrong between now and then. Man, that's a whole lot of assumption.
So, Sean and I watched the back of the other Escalade as it drove off toward home. This was going to be a long day. I felt about as useful as tits on a boar hog. Queen Mother promised to let us know the minute Bullba made it back, and I glanced at my watch idly wondering how long that would be.
You would think that after the last few days that a respite such as this one could be looked at as a needed thing. Perhaps the level of carnage had seeped into my bones, or violence felt like the only way to prove my usefulness. Helping to save the world or, at the very least, thinking that what you're doing is accomplishing that end is a difficult mind drug to expel. I'm beginning to think I need a vacation away from me.
While I stood in the middle of a dirt road kicking at small rocks, it occurred to me that Sean was staring at me. The last thing I wanted right now was to babysit a broken trailer. I needed a shower, a cup of coffee, and an Emerald Dragon. Maybe not in that order, but you get the idea. I could feel a longing and it originated from Demi . . . so I kicked another rock. Sean walked over to where I was standing and dropped a handful of stones down by my feet.
"We got plenty of time. Knock yourself out. Trust me, I totally get it."
An hour and a half went by, and we saw a flatbed tow truck inching along toward us. Queen Mother had obviously given more thought to how we were to extricate the broken trailer and opted to use a company in Bettonwood. No more than a minute later, my radio went off and Queen Mother told us to follow the tow truck to her company. We placed the trailer back in the bay where we had found it originally, locked everything down, and made our way back home.
She also told us that Bullba had entered the mountain through the Northern Terrace and didn't slow down until he got to the Down Below. An interesting note here, Bullba had also apparently pre-selected a female to present the egg to and landed directly in front of the area where she nested. Her rider, Eldimar, calls her Dellashandamasaan, or Della for short. In his native language it means you only bite the ones you love. I don't think anyone was ready for this.
We made short order of the trailer, and although I'm not sure how the truck driver got paid, he never asked for any money, and I conveniently forgot to ask. Knowing Queen Mother as well as I do, there are still some things I have no clue as to how or why they happen the way they do.
I napped on the way back to the mountain and thankfully, I have no memory of anything. Thank God for small favors. Sean took pity on me and played instrumental music the entire trip. It was comfortable in the Escalade, and I was tired.
I don't like riding down the mountain’s ramp system in an RV, and having said that, I made my request for Sean to stop shortly after we got into the main corridor. It's a long way down, but I have my own means of transportation now that I'd made it back to the mountain. Today had it not been for Demi, I would have preferred walking, but it seems like days since I'd seen her. It had been less than a week since the acquisition of the first of the three Crystal Keys, but somehow when you bend and warp the very fabric of time and space, well, look at it like the worst case of jet lag ever.
Ever had one of those dreams where someone you know and love gets killed? After you wake up there's that need to go check to make sure that it didn't actually happen, even though you intellectually know it was just a dream.
I mean it was just - a - dream. Right?
My emotions must be freakin retarded, because even though I know it's not real, they have to be reassured. Now escalate that set of feelings and death to literally everyone I know. That happened to me just a couple of days ago and since then, I wake up in a cold sweat more than once a night now. And I mean sweating like a farm animal where you're drenched and confused. I'm better than this; I keep telling myself that anyway. It fades, or so I hear, but in my case . . . it wasn't exactly a dream. In this scenario it was an alternate timeline, so does that mean it's destined to happen just in a different spot with the timeline that I'm on now? I don't mean to harp on this, but having come back through time has changed me, and I have yet to figure out from what to what. I saw the other me and Demi fade to nonexistence. I know that two identical entities can't exist in the same place and time, but if that is the case, then why don't I remember the moment where Demi and I faded out or see the later us? It bothers me that I can't. It was all one continuous set of events that culminated here for both my dragon and me.
Even as I stood there contemplating quantum mechanics and the grandfather syndrome, the sound of wings overtook my attention. Only Demi sounds like that, identical to every other dragon and yet unique, totally just her.
Without one audible utterance, she leaned down, and I leapt to her shoulders. Sometimes words just aren't needed. Moments later, we were airborne and heading to the river. Maybe I could wash off all the feelings that were presently eating my lunch. I doubt it, but you can't blame a guy for trying.
The river wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be, and for some reason didn't seem as noisy either. It felt good to get clean, and my mood did improve as the dirt came off. That's when the hunger set in; I would have killed for a steak.
We made our stay a bit abbreviated, got dressed, and I ran a comb through my hair. Demi morphed to human form right down to the cute, green, summer dress and we caught a ride with one of the Drago stewards who was heading for Commons. I could already taste the beef and baked potato. Maybe a little broccoli on the side, oh, and smothered in butter.
Our driver swerved suddenly to one side and muttered something unintelligible before coming to a halt.
"You probably heard that too, but Queen Mother is calling for you guys to go to the Castle. I could get you there, but not anytime soon."
Demi was already climbing out of the cart and moving to the side. She morphed into dragon form and squatted down. I begrudgingly climbed out too and pressed the switch on my harness. Plates began sliding out with a chunk-chung noise, and seconds later I was moving toward my dragon, wearing the AES (Advanced Encounter Suit) version three aka, Magna Suit. My armor of choice.
Demi waited for me to stabilize on her back, in lieu of pushing my boots into the stirrup housings. No time to get a saddle. She rose up, poised for a moment, and then sprang into the air. Banking hard to the right, she began gaining altitude quickly on the approach to the Cone, a huge hole in the roof that led to the Castle at the top of the mountain.
There are alcoves on opposite sides of the opening and dragons could be seen in many of them. Like a partial honeycomb, they are stacked one on top of the other all the way to the top, with the last one visible from the Veranda which overlooks the cone itself.
At the top we exited to the left side and landed in our usual spot, which afforded Demi a ramp that would take her to the dragon holding area. Today, however, she morphed back into human form and walked over on the right side to the Veranda with me. She knew something was up and was not to be denied a presence at this meeting. Bullba was apparently there, although I hadn't seen him yet. Analise was already seated at the conference table there on the Veranda and looked a great deal more in control of her emotions. A big smile radiated from her entire face, and she was in progress of eating an enormous apple. Fruit was obviously the preferred snack for the meeting. Demi opted for grapes, and I sat down to wait for the sword of Damocles to drop. Just walking into the area gave me the weirdest feeling of impending . . . something. I don't know what, but if I sat here long enough it would find me. I read somewhere that any one in a million events would inevitably happen nine out of ten times, and in my life, it has happened often enough to have become a recurring mathematical formula one could count on.
The first hour of the meeting, yeah you heard right . . . the first hour, was a detailed dissertation of how the mating ritual works for the male Aguiva, and then consequently the response of the female. What had been theorized about the male stealing an egg and then presenting it to the female had been spot on. The response was a real surprise though in that the female makes such an ordeal getting the nest ready for her egg, and then once she receives it from the male, she summarily abandons it within the first hour. From that point on, the egg is basically on its own until the day it hatches. It has a built-in instinct to consume the shell as its first meal and an overwhelming urge to branch out to look for food. The mortality rate has got to be astronomically high if this happens in the wild. Fortunately, here in the mountain, they're catered to and taken care of to the nth degree.
The last and unknown factor is the Aguiva’s response when the eggs hatch . . . if any. This is a first for everyone, so only time will tell. I'm to understand that the Dragos are still returning things that the females stole, oh excuse me, creatively procured while they were nesting. For a day or so it began to look like we were developing a crime rate for odd thefts, i.e., blankets, shawls, rags, towels, and bits of lumber just to name a few.
Our unfortunate and deceased friend, Billy Owen, had taken a fair number of photos of Bullba during a particular part of his fly about. We, also by necessity, confiscated all of his camera gear, and thus also wound up with the film, or in this case memory cards of the dragon in question. I can only assume that the outcome of those shots being released would have been catastrophic.
The next part of the agenda concerned security, and some changes that had to be made if we wanted to keep events like this from happening again. The first being a different approach to the blast doors at both the South Entrance and the Northern Terrace. At Mt. Femmes the blast doors had just been installed about a week prior, so we felt that a major bullet had been dodged. I can't even imagine what would have happened if dozens had managed to escape, and bear in mind that Femmes is not on American soil, so any and all massaging at government levels would have to be performed by people who weren't even citizens of France.
That was the part of the meeting that produced Queen Mother's order for me to go to Mt. Femmes and make sure the blast doors were up to snuff. I am of the Wizard Clan and am generally known as a Machinist, but blast door technician is not on my resume, and further the men who built the doors live at Mt. Femmes. So why, you ask, was I being sent to France? Excellent question, and one that I too was going to ask, at least until I got promptly dismissed. Next thing I knew we, Demi, and I, were standing on the side ramp next to the Cone. I persuaded Demi to stay at the meeting and at least be a voice for the both of us in case Queen Mother decided to issue further orders in my absence.
Demi grinned, and we agreed to meet back later at our area in the Emerald Grotto. Within a minute, I was plummeting down the Cone and on my way to the Gate Area where the stable wormhole awaited.
I exited high above Commons and immediately banked toward the main corridor at the northeast side of the mountain. From my vantage point I could see a line of electric carts snaking across from the inventory areas on the east side, to presumably the Grottos, on their daily deliveries. All of the various grottos had entrances that overlooked Commons, and many of the riders were working with their dragons a short distance from where they called home. Training went on twenty-four seven and included everything from saddling the dragons to pulling sleds, as they simulated either battle or emergencies. On the far side toward the west, two Red Dragons were performing touch and goes, and the ground crews recorded their times. Demi and I have done each of these tasks and more during the last year.
Seconds later, I flew through the opening that constitutes the main corridor and continued on beyond the turn off to the Down Below. Another two miles, and I slowed to the speed of a brisk walk. I cut the rockets, landed, and continued taking the left fork of the corridor on foot. This is the path that leads to the gate between mountains. They call it magnetic coiling, but it sure looks like a planet restricted, stable worm hole to me. That's a hell of a lot of tech for people living in a cave.
The gate area has been set up to resemble a theater, although it's certainly the largest one I've ever seen, and makes movie houses in Phoenix look like overrated closets.
On the right side of the entrance, are rows and rows of seats that have been separated from the other side by a series of waist high, wooden fences. It also gave me the same feeling I get when at an airport waiting for a flight. On the left side, is a path wide enough for two fully grown dragons, which leads to the back wall. On that wall is the apparatus which opens the space between Mt. Drago and Mt. Femmes, in France. Needless to say, the machinery is considerably bigger than humans would need for transport.
At a glance, everyone can see the Tesla inspired coils and enormous banks of generators used in winding up the effect at the event horizon when activated. There were half a dozen technicians, three per side and they were obviously getting ready for an opening. One of them spotted me and waved for me to come over. Seconds later, the generator noise jumped up two-fold, and a lightning storm erupted between the two halves of the gate that are roughly twenty feet apart. Each side is shaped like half of a circle with a rather gigantic break in the middle. There again, large enough for a dragon to go through comfortably without touching the sides.
A huge peal of thunder sounded through the cavern as the area between the half circles became an opening in space that suddenly connected the two mountains. I could see through to the other side as clearly as looking out a window.
The Tech that waved me over thrust a clip board and a pen at me, which I knew was confirmation of my departure. He yelled the same abbreviated instructions at me that he always does.
"Keep a steady pace when going through, don't slow down, and DO NOT STOP until you get to the other side. Have a nice day and radio when you're ready to come home."
It used to be, just don't stop, and the advice is predicated on the knowledge that if you were to cease walking before actually getting to Mt. Femmes, your body will vibrate itself to pieces. Not a pretty mental image and it gives you the urge to run through just to get it over with. Hence the steady pace thing. On the way through it also makes you feel like you're in both places at once while creating a slight bit of vertigo. Needless to say, . . . not my favorite chunk of tech. All the symptoms go away about five minutes after arrival, so in the total scheme of things, it's really not all that bad. Oh, and there are no adverse affects wearing the suit while I go through, so I don't have to worry about one piece of tech interacting with another.
I had only gone a couple of feet when the crew at Mt. Femmes thrust a clip board at me to confirm my arrival. This whole Aguiva escaping thing had caused everyone to get jumpy and maybe a tad paranoid. Prior to these events, they always signed me in and just waved as I walked into their Commons. What was even odder though was that nobody seemed to know why I was there. Curious-er and curious-er. I know where the blast doors are so it's not much of an inconvenience, and I elected to walk the distance. I didn't think we were in a hurry, at least not critically yet, so this gave me the time to check out how different things were in this part of the world. The Chosen have gotten used to seeing me, and now actually smile and wave as I pass. They are uniquely different than other species, you know like humans, which I have traditionally had problems with. The Chosen don't hide their feelings, and if they don't like you, they don't mind letting you know. It's really refreshing, and if nothing else, you don't have the inconvenience of finding out the hard way that someone hates you. Now I'm not saying that everybody at Mt. Femmes likes me, but I don't have to wonder who's who.
Ordinarily there are a lot of people working or just milling around at all times of the day in this common area, but today it looked like a ghost town. It's too far to see the nursery from where I came in, and it won’t get any closer on my way to the East side of the mountain. I suspect that the bulk of the Chosen are down at the river because this is wash day for most of the Aguiva. It couldn't be the blast doors causing the lack of people, or someone would have said something on my arrival. I've got a weird feeling in the pit of my gut that is beginning to give me pause.
Originally these people had set up a series of pagodas in the Common area and it resembled a tent city or a bazaar from a distance. The Chosen are inventive, resourceful, and above all else they are resilient. Most of the area now has been cleared of the pagodas to give room for the Aguivas to fly and train. I miss the renaissance feel of the original configuration.
I picked up speed as a result of the anxiety growing in me. Off in the distance a small dragon seemed to be wandering around without the presence of a handler. Very irregular. My first inclination was to veer off to one side and make a wide berth around the little reptile. An inadvertent impression was not on my agenda of things to do today. I glanced around to find the missing dragon steward but was rewarded with exactly zip, nada, zero and virtually no one within earshot of the diminutive runaway. Surely, he was too small to be a threat to the East Entrance. I chuckled when the thought manifested itself.
This Aguiva was so young that flight wasn't in his or her immediate future. Even waddling was an effort for it as I watched the tiny reptile turning in a circle. . . Like spinning to catch its own tail. It was especially funny because Aguivas don't really have tails to speak of.
His rider must be getting frantic with this little dragon. I assumed it was impressed with someone due to the distance away from the nursery and I have been told it's almost impossible for the Aguivas to get loose at this age. They are notorious, however, for scurrying off when you're not looking and for their supposed awkwardness. When on the ground, they seem to be able to make distance a lot quicker than you would expect. Now that I was closer, I spotted the tell-tale signs designating this dragon as a male and very young. I could see the darkened ridgeline that ran up the entire length of his top spike, and that meant he was destined to be larger than the Aguivas without it. He was predominately grey with black inserts where the bone structure was close to the surface. It gave him a slight skeletal look, that once grown would create fear in his enemies. He was stunning even for a baby.
It was about that time that he spotted me and honked several times, intermittently banging his teeth together. A sure sign that he was either excited or irritated. I personally didn't want to find out in either case. Best to speed up and go around him. Maybe I could find his rider over at the blast doors. Perhaps that person was actively searching for him at this very moment.
I could see now that he was roughly three feet long and probably weighed in at about twenty pounds. He was in progress to try and cut me off and seemed extremely agitated about something. I didn't know what it was, and I didn't want to find out. It isn't possible to be out flanked or out run by a baby Aguiva, and having said that, I pulled ahead of him. A couple minutes, and he was very far behind me and had apparently given up. I made a mental note to tell the security team at the blast doors, and then the little dragon would be someone else's problem. As you have probably guessed, I don't do well with toddlers of any species. Demi was three when I impressed with her, and I thought she was a little young. Okay, I was wrong, so we'll go with a nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse. I have since changed my mind, but this dragon was a baby, and I needed a baby like I needed warts.
The security team at the doors looked around me when I told them about the wayward dragon, and one of them pulled out a two-way radio and my part of this saga was done. Finito. There's a plate on the inside of my helmet that reads illegitimi non carborundum, and for most of my life that has been my motto. Enough said there. I told you I was not always teamed up with the good guys, and even though I am now . . . well, I'm working on it.
The guys at the doors gave me the strangest look when I told them why I was sent to Mt. Femmes. There apparently was nothing wrong with the blast doors, and since the installation was complete, they hadn't had even as much as one glitch. I hasten to add, that it also includes opening as well as closing. They were expensive, expertly installed, and almost silent. They were strong enough to sustain . . . you ready for this? A blast! I agree with being ready for anything, but the enemy we know hasn't evolved to the creation of technology. As in they don't have any. Admittedly they make up for it in other ways, but the connecting dimension that both mountains occupy has always been sufficient to keep everything out. Far lesser doors would keep the dragons in, so I'm not sure the doors I was looking at were a frugal approach to security. Hey, it isn't my mountain and if Queen Mother wants to put up doors that would no doubt repel a nuclear warhead, then who am I to argue? But I was beginning to smell a rat.
I had the technicians open and close the blast doors several times to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the mechanisms were in good working order, and to prove to myself that I had been sent over with something else in mind besides machinery. Looking behind me because of one of those feelings, proved why I was having them. The little grey and black Aguiva was now just a squeak under five feet away and still moving toward me. Does that qualify as a grey and black rat? Glancing around still didn't produce his rider, a handler, or any other person that might be in charge, so I knelt down to pick him up. I made a mental note to attempt to keep him facing the opposite direction and definitely not speak to him. Impressions with Aguiva dragons are not listed as a science and you must be very careful what you say to them. Anything that you utter to them sounding like a term of endearment could, and sometimes does, act as the catalyst for a successful impression. So, you want to stay away from terms like thingamajig and anything to do with body parts. Catch my drift?
It was all going well when it occurred to me the similarity between this little dragon and the mechanical owl in the movie Clash of the Titans. Don't ask how I came to that conclusion . . . I just did. I assure you that I never once vocalized my thoughts or even sub-vocalized. But the tiny bugger swung his beak around until the side of his head was facing me. They can't see forward, as you know, and then loud enough for everyone to hear and enjoy he said, Bubo, and bit my arm. I knew I had just impressed with this Aguiva dragon. I don't know what I did to deserve this, but this tiny little reptile pushed his mind at me, and I saw, felt, and knew his needs even if I didn't know why. He was scared and lost, but he was also determined. Bubo is mine now, let there be no doubt, and God help the person who tries to harm him.
I heard bells and they came from Demi. She's happy about this, and I have to confess that I'm relieved. Whether by accident or design, Bubo wasn't able to bite through the gauntlet of my suit, so there was no real damage. Saves me from having go to the medical area for stitches, and that's a good thing too.
Bubo seemed okay staying in my arms and it's not like he weighed too much. I left for the nursery station while the blast door techs laughed at my antics. Let them laugh; I was the one with a dragon.
The head Steward in charge of newborns and toddlers took down my statement of how I managed to impress with an Aguiva, even though I wasn't on the rotation roster for incoming candidates. He seemed irritable, and it occurred to me that he works with the dragons every day and still hasn't managed to impress with one. I, on the other hand, had it happen to me by accident; he was somewhat disgruntled with the injustice of it all. Hey, it's not like I planned this, but the idea that this wasn't an accident began to fester in my mind. It didn't seem likely that The Ariella could set all this up and cause a dragon to impress on command. Doesn't work like that, right? So how did Bubo get so far away from where he was supposed to be? How come nobody knew why he was there out in the middle of a common area? Why was the area so depopulated in such a convenient way? I don't believe in coincidence, and that's what this looked like no matter how I sliced it. It's just that all of today's events felt planned; if they were, then why?
I forgot to radio ahead, so there was a wait for the next gate opening and Bubo fell asleep while we sat there. The Steward neglected to tell me when Bubo had eaten last or anything else pertinent to his well being. I obviously wasn't thinking, or maybe the questions would have been forthcoming. In my own defense, this wasn't something I did every day, and the anxiety plus the stress was beginning to take its toll on me. What I did know was that Demi would help me get caught up with my lack of experience on all things Aguiva and we would cope, somehow.
Bubo seemed okay with me holding him, and as tired as he apparently was, he wasn't going to be walking, at least until he woke up. Oh, and I really didn't want to put him down anyway.
The gate wound up about thirty minutes later, and during that time I was congratulated so many times I lost track. Bubo slept hard and snored like a working saw blade, up to and including our trip through to Mt. Drago.
It didn't go unnoticed that Queen Mother was waiting for us as we walked through, and the smile on her face told me she was more than just a little pleased.
She walked over and placed her hands under Bubo's beak and then did that female cooing thing. You know that eye sparkling, melting emotion, and heart-rending thing that women do around babies. You've seen it; tell me I'm right. I told myself that she wasn't going to say it. No, no not her.
"So, Tanis has a little baby boy!"
I couldn't believe she said it, but there it was. Tanis doesn't see himself in the father role, but suddenly I'm standing there as a daddy.
"I might give you visitation rights, if you're lucky."
Queen Mother put her hands on her hips, a typical alpha female posture and gave the superior “look down the nose to a peon” pose. One hand was vaguely waving at nothing in general as she pretended to consider having me executed at dawn.
"Perhaps you will do well; you know learning the ropes at MY Mountain in France, Dahling."
Damn, it was good to be home.
Queen Mother explained to me that Demi was at the Green Grotto getting Bubo's Stage Three area ready and was eager for us to meet her there.
I had to admit, I thought we would just take him to the Emerald Grotto and life would start for him there. There are, however, rules that no one is immune to, and Stage Three is one of those. In that stage the dragons are urged to go to Commons and are always supervised. Further, they are expected to interact with the nursery staff to help them learn to cope with a variety of species. Once accomplished, they will go and live with their rider in whatever grotto they have been assigned to. In Bubo's case it will obviously be the Emerald Grotto, just not today. The usual time for this is between a month and six weeks. I tried not to show my disappointment.
Funny isn't it, when I first got here to the mountain I was assigned to the Green Grotto, which is one of the nurseries. I eventually was reassigned to the Emerald Grotto, but not without first wanting out so bad I could taste it. Now that Bubo will have to spend as much as a month and a half there in the nursery, I will be hard pressed to want to leave it. Life has poetically odd twists and turns, doesn't it?
While I was over at Mt. Femmes, a message was sent here to Mt. Drago informing me of two new students being assigned to me from the Wizard Clan, or as they like to call themselves, the Thaumaturgists. The message said they were due in this evening; the arrival time is too soon for me to stop it from happening. I don't like the fact that I wasn't asked first. Walter, my onboard A.I. (Artificial Intelligence), tells me that the Wizards are not taking incoming calls. Something about them all taking a trip to another planet. I can't take out my hostilities on the two students and the Wizards know that, so it sounds like they're buying time until I warm to the idea. The two, according to the message, are Matthew Magonnell and Gregory Jones. I’ve never heard of them. The Wizards know I'm not big on teaching. Cramps my style and forces me to answer to the authorities. And that's probably why they sent them to me. Queen Mother was told that I knew, and so she signed off on them coming here. She could see on my face that this came as much of a surprise to me as it did to her. What a comedy of errors. Oh, and the likelihood of an entire clan leaving on holiday to another planet, well, let's just say that it isn't bloody likely. I call the three Wizard leaders Larry, Curly, and Moe. What a bunch of Stooges, and now you know why.
The staff in the Green Grotto was actually very good with Bubo, and the checking in process was pretty easy. Turns out that if you offer cherry candy to my Aguiva, he'll pretty much do anything you want and would probably follow you to the moon. He went through a fairly rigorous physical examination, and all it took for him to waddle everywhere they wanted was the promise of yet more candy. Poor little guy had to put up with a sugar rush and I'm talking about me; Bubo isn't affected by the extra sugar in his system, and he passed all the tests as well. I was so nervous that every time he was given candy, I ate some too and it made me shaky as hell.
There's a lot of things I already knew about Aguivas but having impressed with one and dealing with them up close and personal is a different thing altogether. I noticed immediately how the crew in the Green Grotto was all wearing these compact fire extinguishers on their utility belts. When a young Aguiva gets nervous or scared they have a nasty habit of throwing up burning semi-liquid plasma. Our first encounter with these Warbirds hasn't been that long ago, and the plasma they produced was very difficult to put out once it landed on something. It will burn through almost anything and is incredibly damaging to human skin. It didn't take Queen Mother's scientists long to devise a handheld unit that would put the fires out on contact. Pretty handy to know, and now even handier to have. They issued me one within the first ten minutes after our arrival, complete with a utility belt.
After the examination, the Steward in charge of Stage Three dragons ushered us over to the designated area and introduced Bubo to his pen mates. He banged his teeth together and honked, causing the others to react. The similarities to human children are amazing and the staff treats them accordingly. It was hard for me to watch him being put in with others, and knowing he was going to be here for awhile, even harder to walk away. Thankfully he was so busy playing with the other dragons that he didn't notice when I backed away to watch him from a distance. This action was requested of me to make sure Bubo would integrate smoothly. I needn't have worried.
Demi stayed by me the whole time and gave encouragement when I looked like too much of a newbie. This, between you and me, was like most of the time. Demi has a unique perspective which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, she's a dragon. Whether in human form or dragon, she automatically knows how he'll react to stimulus. It's me that misreads a lot of the signals that are normal, just not normal for me . . . yet.
The little ones eventually wore themselves out, and one by one began falling asleep. As Bubo's head started to nod forward, one of the staff placed a cone on the floor in front of him. His head slowly dropped down until it slipped into the device. Now his neck would be braced at the correct angle for him to sleep properly. Very slick. They waved for me to go, and Demi and I walked up the ramp that led to Commons. I planned to be back tomorrow morning before Bubo awakened. I'd call this a success.
I really hadn't thought about how the two new students were supposed to show up, but in a broken down, subcompact automobile wasn't what I'd had in mind, even if there had been something in mind. I was told it broke down about ten miles away from the South Entrance, and Sean had taken one of the Escalades to go retrieve them. How humiliating for them, not to mention the amount of planning that the Thaumaturgists had so obviously not done. Or maybe that was exactly what they had in mind. Feel sorry for them, which would then endear me and create a common enemy for all three of us. I might have over thought this, and now my head hurts. Perfect. Sean radioed from the South Entrance corridor that the new students would be down shortly.
Queen Mother had taken one of the electric carts up the ramp system and Matthew and Gregory would be shuttled back down with her. I think she was trying to warn them that I might not be in the best of moods when they got to the wheel. She, of course, was right.
I wondered briefly how the Drago Clan was going to handle the broken-down car, but quite frankly at that precise moment, I didn't really care.
Nor did it dawn on me at the time, but the two men weren't going to be at their best having to put up with the desert environment during their wait for Sean. The last leg of their journey, which they thought would be on foot, (no pun intended) would have made me tired. The desert outside has a nasty habit of draining you no matter how stout you are. I guess standing is at least better than walking.
Another thing occurred to me concerning these newcomers that is always a potential problem. This mountain has multiple species beyond the dragons. Depending on the age of the students will dictate their reaction to Mt. Drago. We take it for granted, but then we've been here for awhile. People that walk in off the street, so to speak, have to ingest it all in a matter of minutes. When you consider the size of this place, the number of species, and the fact that you can't see the outside world, it all becomes so overwhelming. Everyone here has even gotten to the point where it isn't important that you can't tell what time it is other than a number on a dial. Sunrise or sunset, and does it really make a difference? Eventually it can't because you don't see the passing of time. The only way to know it's getting late compared to when you got up is the level of fatigue you're feeling at the time. As a student of Wizardry there is also a level of technology that is prevalent in your life. You live a life of convenience, chrome, and glass where all of the amenities are within reach of your hands at all times. Full sized beds with climate-controlled rooms and microwave ovens, not to mention complete kitchens when you get the munchies. We here at Drago live in a cave. The amenities can be found, but they are not generally at your fingertips. The cave system is so large that the closest bathroom is at times more than a mile away. You learn to pace yourself and plan to be near the place of necessity when you know you're going to need it, rather than need it, and then start looking because the inevitable is upon you.
It is indeed possible for the Thaumaturgist Council to have placed these guys out of favor, and then is using Mt. Drago as a means of pulling the Black Queen; a sure sign that doesn't mean anything good.
I found myself hoping that all these exquisite little inconveniences would be enough to dissuade these guys from wanting to stay. Maybe I'd get lucky, and the mountain would cause them so much trauma that they would be unable to get past their first night. Okay, admittedly that's not a very charitable attitude, and the dragons would never feel that way, but they called for most of the people to be here. I didn't get that option. In the two men's defense, I don't think they've had any better time with the three stooges than I have, and that means I should probably tread easy on them, at least at first.
With any luck, they have already been issued their suits. If they haven't, then we'll have to go through that whole rig-a-ma-roll, which is time consuming and puts me in contact with technicians I'd rather not have anything to do with. Tons more on that later.
Demi had been in human form until she heard the imminent arrival of the Wizard Wannabees. She had gotten used to me being the only Machinist, and the thought of meeting a couple more made her nervous. She gave me that look, and I nodded my head in confirmation. A few steps back and the transformation was already happening. That's a sight I will never get used to no matter how many times she does it. Seconds later, voila, one gorgeous Emerald Dragon standing close to the Wheel. Okay, I admit to a healthy prejudice, but she's enough to put anyone into a state of awe.
I closed off my helmet and pressurized the system. Once it stabilized, Walter expelled nitrogen and reset the external plates. I didn't actually intend to meet the newbies with my suit self contained, but I also didn't want them to see me in a dirty suit either. The A.E.S. has to be sealed to execute that procedure, so I hurried before they arrived. Then it was just a matter of taking the helmet down. Demi and I adjusted our position so that it was dead center of the wheel, and we each performed our stupid little mental hi-jinks so we wouldn't say or do something stupid. Let's face facts, image is everything and we might live in a cave, but we didn't want to look like it.
I looked around, and even from this distance I could see several groups exercising, sparring, and performing maneuvers with and without the dragons. Most of them were only just barely visible, and I was glad for that. Less of a distraction for newcomers, and certainly less work for me as a result. I was probably making a mountain out of a mole hill, but the whole of today was about children and surprises, neither of which I have looked forward to, nor would I ever. The former has always started out with questions like . . . Oh, since you're here would you mind watching . . . and the latter ends up with . . . I'm sorry but I have incredibly bad news.
Glancing over, I could see Queen Mother's cart making the last turn on the ramps that leads to Commons and us. Only a couple minutes left, and we would find out what the Thaumaturgist Clan is doing to me and Walter this time.