It was a three and a half hour boat ride back to my house, because I needed to make sure the location was at least a little obscured in my passenger's minds. I wasn't going to bother trying to confuse my passengers, then remembered I didn't really want them to know where I lived. Only Mage Henrietta didn't react when I brought the boat to a stop in front of my place.

“Good lord! The descriptions didn't do it justice!” Sandra Rivers exclaimed as she gazed at the 60 foot wide stone bottom and the 60 foot high pitched wooden roof. “I knew it was the right decision to assign you to the maintenance department.” She said with satisfaction in her voice. “How in the world did you build it all by yourself?”

“One piece at a time.” I said and used my trick to boost the boat out of the water and onto the dry area.

“I'm amazed every time you do that.” Mage Henrietta said and waited for me to climb out to hold a hand out to me before she climbed out, too. “You're lopsided and you still do the gentlemanly thing.” She commented as she gave my arm a squeeze and then held on to keep me steady. “So gallant.”

Gillis stared at my house as I helped her out of the boat. “It's like from a story book!”

“That's where I got the idea.” I said and helped Sandra climb out. “You probably could have stayed in the boat. I shouldn't be too long with what I have to do here.”

“I'm here, so I'm coming inside and I want to see what you've set up for yourself with my own eyes.” Sandra said. “The descriptions alone aren't enough to cement it in my mind.”

“A lot of it's empty, since the army took all my crates and vials and I gave Diane all my backlog of animal parts.” I said and held a hand up to dispel the door lock spell. “I also lost my key inside the dragon.” I took out my knife and charged it, then sliced off the bolt into the door frame and also cut the number ten potion sealed parts that I had used to secure the door.

“It's huge inside, too.” Gillis said as we all went inside.

I pointed to each room that I had set aside for each task. Ingredients, crates, my work room, my storage space, the middle room that wasn't for any purpose, the kitchen, the smoke room, and the bedroom at the back.

“This is absolutely amazing.” Gillis said as she admired the huge kitchen I had.

“I still have a small amount of smoked meat left.” I said and went into the smoker. “I can't leave it here any longer.” I used two canvas bags and filled them with what was left and carried them into the kitchen. “I was going to make a separate space for potion brewing and decided that I didn't really need it separated, since I would be cooking both food and potions at the same time anyway.”

“Or that was your plan until the army conscripted you.” Mage Henrietta said. “Now all your hard work is just sitting here, unused.”

“There's not much he can do about that.” Gary said. “David, did I see the right equipment in your storage area?”

“The large wooden squares I use for molds are there and in the work room. I don't know if I can make more, because the more I have the more materials it needs to work.” I said. “There aren't a lot of springy trees in the Eastern Empire that I've seen.”

“Does it have to be springy trees?” Sandra asked.

“You could have Gary and the construction crews spend several hours trying to drill out the middle four inches of a five foot long tree trunk.”

Gary barked a laugh. “No thanks! Only you can drill holes quickly and even you can't keep a drill that straight for that distance.”

I nodded. “That's why making it from springy trees and number ten potion is the fastest way. It's easily bendable into a tube and then it can be attached and hardened with more potion.”

“I'll load them onto the boat.” Gary said. “We should stop and harvest springy trees, too.”

“The tools are in the work room.” I said as he left. I went to my bedroom and the others followed me. I took the story books out of my pack and put them on the shelf with the learning books I had.

“Can you give us a few minutes?” Mage Henrietta said to Sandra and Gillis.

Both women nodded and left to go look around on their own. The guards went with them.

“David, if you're going to hide that chest of gold, now would be the time.” Mage Henrietta whispered.

I knelt and used my knife to cut a large section out of the wooden base of the bed. I put some number ten potion down to secure the chest to the stone floor and then used the potion to reseal the bed frame.

“I really should bury it under the floor; but, I can't make a replacement blade if this one gets dull from cutting through the stone.”

“It can cut through stone?” Mage Henrietta asked, surprised.

“I haven't tried it. I didn't want to take the chance that it would be damaged.” I said and stood up.

My pack only had a few miscellaneous tools and my wood engraving kit left in it. Gary had a set at the maintenance department and there was a set brought when the new garrison was built, so I hadn't needed the one I had bought after leaving here. I had lost the split ones during the dragon fight, too. I put the two canvas bags of smoked meat into the now empty pack and slung it back onto my back.

“I wish we could stay here for a short time.” Mage Henrietta said and her hands took mine. “Now that you've accepted the deal, you are mine and I am yours.”

I didn't need her to explain what she meant. She had said before that she would have taken me to bed a long time ago if I had agreed to the deal, and she had even extended her deadline, which was the end of the mission to get the troops to the new garrison. She didn't complain when I hadn't given her an answer and she also didn't pressure me to hurry up and make my choice. I had made it now and she was only letting me know that she was ready.

I looked at her face, looked pointedly at the bed, then back at her face. She blushed a little and I leaned in and gave her a kiss as I used my magic to make her lips tingle. She gasped into my mouth because of that and probably because it was the first kiss that I had initiated with her. She put her arms around me and her lips and tongue did their best to touch and lick every part of my mouth, inside and out, and she made my mouth tingle in return.

Of course, I blocked off any attempt by her tongue to lick under mine, which could potentially activate the gland there, despite how strong I had made that muscle over the years. The last thing I would want would be to accidentally poison her by just kissing her. The best case scenario, she would black out and be immobilized like I had been when the Hag did it to me. The worst case scenario, she could die a slow and painful death.

“I've got the boat loaded with the equipment.” Gary's loud voice said, as if he was intentionally trying to interrupt us.

Mage Henrietta broke the kiss and her face was a deep red. I could tell that she wanted to say something and waited for her to speak, then she gave me a quick kiss and let me go.

“You need to get the last of your replacement potions.” Mage Henrietta said.

I knew that wasn't what she was going to say, so I gave her another kiss to surprise her and then walked around her to go to the kitchen. I checked to see if anyone was looking and opened up my secret potion stash. The inside was almost pathetically empty and I put the last few strength potions and fortifying potions into my bandoleer. I actually felt bad that I had run out of all of the others, when I had sworn to myself to always have spares here in case of emergencies.

I didn't have time to brew up replacements, let alone travel to gather the ingredients first and then come back to brew them. I sealed it and once again checked to see if anyone was looking, then opened my fungus powder stash and took three of the bottles, then took out the potion book I had. I didn't have time to memorize the ingredients for the one I desperately needed, so I tucked the book into my pack.

I sealed the stash up again and went out to the middle room where the others were waiting. “I'm ready.”

“Are you sure that's everything?” Gary asked. “We're not going to be allowed to come back if you forget anything.”

“If I could guarantee that my things wouldn't be stolen if I took them with me, I wouldn't have come back here at all.” I said and that surprised everyone.

“But... the equipment...” Gillis said.

“It was easier to come here than to try to make replacements.” I said as an explanation. “It's the ingredients that I'm going to really need, which we can pick up on the way back.”

“You mean the springy trees?” Gary asked and I nodded.

“It shouldn't take long to gather a lot of them, because we can use the smallest trees that are about this big.” I held up my hand and made a one inch round hole. “We also need to find a wildwood tree or we can't get the kracken tubes to work.”

“Then let's go.” Sandra said. “The Colonel won't be happy if we're late.”

“She's already sentenced me to a week in the stockade when I get back for not leaving right away.” I said as we left the house and I turned to seal it up and magically lock it. “Returning before what she expects is the time for me to return isn't going to make her any happier with me.”

“You need to stop antagonizing her.” Sandra said.

“That's what Gary said.” I responded.

“Doesn't that mean you should listen to your friends if they are telling you the same thing?” Gillis asked as she climbed into the boat.

“I do listen to them... to you.” I said and she smiled. “It's just too bad that the Colonel doesn't do the same thing.”

Gillis looked surprised for a second. “Are you saying that you were trying to be her friend?”

I nodded. “If she would only take off her hat, she would have noticed how much I've done to help her.” I said and they all looked surprised. “She's not listening to anything I say and she even hurt me by ensuring that Diane left me.”

“David, she couldn't have known...” Sandra started to say and Gillis touched her arm to interrupt her.

“She was there when the plans were revised. She knew exactly where Diane's son was stationed.” Gillis said. “I'm sorry, David. I really am.”

“Everyone's sorry.” I said and helped Mage Henrietta into the boat. No one spoke after that statement and I easily pushed the boat over to the water. I climbed in and turned the boat around, then took us over to the first cross waterway and went off in the direction of where some of the best and rarest ingredients were to be found.

Right next to the dragon's first nest.