Leda re-opens the bond as she decides to stay to ‘bravely’ protect her ‘gentleman’. I try to figure out how to call some of the big lizards over, but the problem solves itself when a female a bit bigger than Leda and with some seriously fierce scars and even a patch of missing scales behind her left eye lands with surprising grace a stone’s throw away.

It’s even more surprising when she start moving towards us with a sort of limp. I consider moving to meet her, but decide to wait, and she stops about ten meters from us.

“Greetings.” I say, not exactly expecting her to understand english.

She tilts her head, moving her gaze between me, Leda, and the other Leda. Her sight lingers on the Ledas with narrowed eyes, before snapping back to me.

“Yeah, I’m the boss, not the female.” Not that I know if they’re matriarchal, though it certainly seems like it.

I reach out a tendril of mana, stopping halfway between us, and she uses her own mana -in a sensory cloud- to sense it before reaching out and touching it with her own. I make sure I have the link to Leda, then convert the tendril to a mana link.

A moment later, she converts her side, and flinch when I start pulling a small string of her mana to myself, quickly recovering and even moving it on her own accord. I keep her mana away from my core and head, even as she funnels more mana in, and cast a few minor spells to show off that effect.

She seems intrigued, and I take that chance to reach into her and get my first proper feel for a wyvern that is not Leda.

“Wow…” I mutter, with Leda soon making her own connection to the matron.

Yeah, they are definitely not the same species, or at least not the same race. Though with magic and all it wouldn’t be surprising if they could interbreed. The Wyvern aspect seems different in several ways, most notably the way it seems to be tightly linked to Ice, in addition to the tenuous link to Air that Leda and Lucas also have.

I should document this, but then I’ll have two wyvern species I need to name. I wonder how many I can find? Let’s make that a long term sorta-goal: Find and document a bunch of wyverns. And other draconid species for that matter.

It’s curious to see how her mana flows worse -or in one case, not at all- around her wounds and scars, and I suppose now is a good time to try my once-tried, semi-successful ‘wyvern taming technique’ of healing them.

I slowly walk up to her, stopping underneath her scary visage. “I’m gonna need to touch your wounds to heal them, miss.”

I lift myself into the air, causing her to back away. Aw, c’mon, I need to-

Agh, not the face! Oh, she’s just sniffing, that’s fine. Well, that puts me in range of that scale-free patch, so it bring my hand up to touch it.

Oh. There’s Decay. It matches that of a small, infected wound one of the wolves had, if a bit more…. Subdued? I guess her immune system is stronger. Or perhaps it’s the mana. Either way, I carefully introduce the healing magic, using aspect magic to suppress the Decay. I haven’t directly practiced it, but ‘overriding’ it with other aspects I can do.

There, should be healed now. The decay is gone, at least. If I then shapeshift the scale-less spot… and the scales are back. I take a step back. Great!

“Now, will you let me heal the other injuries?”

She’s still on her guard, but lets me walk around and poke and prod her as I work my magic, and after a couple more minor injuries she starts to pick up the magic, and I guide her mana to use [Regeneration], as it’s easier to use than [Healing Touch] in this case.

When I get to her tail, which is missing a large portion of the little wings, and in fact half a meter of, well, tail, she’s even picked up aspect magic, and between her, me, and Leda (who got bored and wanted to join in), the rest is done in no time. Well, we can’t fully heal the worst injuries that quickly, but if she learns as well and fast as Leda, she’ll take care of the rest over time.

｢Are you ready?｣

She returns an affirmative, and then, together, we reach out most of a mind bond, only requiring her to connect to it.

She does not. She studies it. Closely. And the one between the two of us. Then she starts to dispel the one we’ve reached out, only to -before we have time to react- connect to it and tie it together, stronger but with more control on her side.

…how do I keep forgetting that these wyverns are all frickin’ prodigies in magic?

Her mind and thoughts, unsurprisingly, are in concepts, emotions, and memories, rather than words, but by now I’m used to that, so my brain handily ‘translates’ it to thoughts that are both in word and concept form. I know that’s how I transmit things, too, as long as it does not become too complex or abstract.

I’m about to start questioning her when Leda does a rather forceful mental poke reminding me about the lost kids. Oh, oops. Well, that’s a good place to start. I share my mental image of them, one by one, and asking if she recognizes any of them.

She does not. And in fact, she doesn't seem to have seen any humans before me. Oh well. If they were eaten it might have been on the spot, and any of the wyverns could’ve done it. I don’t know if I should go around teaching them all mind magic. Well, I’ve taught it to the matron, and she’d probably teach some others and so forth. Still, no.

That doesn’t mean I’m not going to run around and study as many of them as I can, though. Get some footage for a vlog, too. Maybe get some samples, a couple scales, bunch’a pictures, the like.

“Err,” ｢{Slightly worried, excited}Leda, what are you doing?｣

｢{Excited, happy, a bit guilty}I’m helping her make a puppet, like mine!｣

｢{Worried}Uh, but- well, if she goes through puberty she probably won’t attach to me, at least.｣

｢{Excited, worried, insincere}Oh no, I didn’t think of that!｣

｢{Worried, unamused}Well-｣ I start, but just shake my head and grow wings. “Not my problem.”

And with that, I take off to meet more wyverns. Starting by checking out why the hell the gazebo is so interesting.

The caves here aren’t that big, individually, but most of them can fit one to five wyverns of varying sizes, and there’s a ton of them in the cliff sides here. They seem to have increased mana density, though not quite as dense as around the gazebo. I didn’t realize my little setup was that effective, but it’s useful to know they’re drawn to mana-dense areas.

I leave the cave and head down to where Leda and the matron, getting shivers as the gathered ring of wyverns study me when I come in for a landing.

I’m greeted with a “Eeh-loh.”

“Hello, Lars!”

“Eellolash.” The matron’s puppet repeats.

“Hi Matron, hi Leda. Leda, care to tell me what the heck you’re doing?”

“I’m a teacher now!”

“Huh?”

“I got the ability!”

“Oh, cool. And you got it from teaching… all of them?”

“Matron helped!”

“Mmmay-thruhn?”

“And I’m teaching her to speak!”

“Spiik!”

“Uh, great,” “grei-ht” “but what exactly did you teach them?”

“Wah essatly tchu teech’tem?”

“Uh, [Mana Manipulation] the mana link, [Mind Magic], [Force Magic], a bunch of air magic, and how to make puppets.”

The matron’s puppet cheers. Then the other… fifteen or so puppets also cheers.

“Okay, so you’re forming the idol group ‘Magi-ryu Dance Dance’, but… did you think about what effect it will have to have a bunch of these wyverns able to use fairly advanced magic?”

“They can learn to speak with humans, and then they can come to our side and live in the mountains!”

“Uh, that’s not going to happen. For one, they live here, so if you want to live with them, you will have to move here -seems like Lucas wants to, and it’d be good for him-, the icelanders won’t allow a hundred plus wyverns to come through and also, that would seriously fuck over the local ecology. Besides, they like areas with dense mana, and this side is much better for that.”

“Aww, but can I at least come and visit them?”

“That’d be up to the icelanders. If you make sure the wyverns are friendly, and not in the meaning of accidentally killing someone in a hug, then who knows.”

She ponders for a moment, before turning with a glint in her eyes. I sense her empowering the link with the matron, and then their combined mana spread out, knocking me to the ground as my hovering spell disintegrates under the pressure. At least it’s not all targeted at me this time, but I can still feel cold sweat forming where my skin isn’t too changed.

“Leda.” I say sternly, pulling out a mana crystal and the Lens. Her feelings through the bond seem to wobble, and I can’t quite identify the emotions remaining afterwards.

The magic connects to each of the assembled wyverns and any other in range as well, some of which escape while others turn this way.

“Leda!” I say a lot louder and with magic infused in my voice, as I armor up my entire body and strengthen my muscles and skeleton. The companion bond is buzzing, vibrating under her magic, and just to be sure I start clamping down on my side.

It’s startling to see her mana actually dropping, and the matron’s is as well. I mutter a curse as I wonder what she’s doing, only to sense mind magic forming a mesh between them.

“Leda!” I shout at the top of my lungs, my voice warping as my intent affects the increasing etheric mana. The buzz clears up somewhat, becomes less noise, more legible, and I realize it’s the buzz of more than two dozen connected minds.

Oh, fuck it, I seriously hope this spell will work.

The buzz disappears completely as I shut down my side, the same way she did hers earlier. I take a couple steps back, then kick off the ground into a short run, doing a leaping punch about forty centimeters behind Leda’s eye, from the side.

She rears up and roars in pain, and I feel sick as the ether trembles, though I’m not sure if it’s from the roar or her grip on it shaking.

I blink the lights out of my eyes and stumble to my feet. Ow, that stung. What was that even? Thankfully I didn’t lose concentration on the spell, not than the equivalent to clenching your hand is that hard to maintain. For a while, anyway. I’ve gathered enough mana to attempt it, so I reach up forming an invisible line from some point above me, to the Lens, to my right hand, and finally to my left hand with the increasingly light and porous crystal.

And then, I radially blast the mana outwards. One wave. Two waves. Not enough for a full third wave. Need to be more precise.

The wyverns that were not stunning or disconnected turn to me, and I turn the Lens towards Leda. This one is not a wave, but a directional blast, a ‘15ft cone with 60ft range’ to put it in DnD terms.

Leda looks at me, clearly dazed from the ‘impact’, but while it stopped whatever she was doing, the matron maintains the magic, while also forming a new spell.

Ten meters away, I’m surrounded, should assume I’ve pissed them all off, and my ‘Dame’ is dazed and possibly not entirely friendly. The crystal is out of juice, meaning that the pressure suddenly targeting me makes me completely unable to use external magic.

Is this how I die? I feel oddly… peaceful. I think I read about that once, people usually come to peace with death as they lie in their deathbed, in objectively measurable ways.

Ah-

/*Perspective: Leda*/

Lars explains that they won’t be allowed to come to us, and also that they might not want to. But…

“Aww, but can I at least come and visit them?”

“That’d be up to the icelanders.” he says with a shrug. “If you make sure the wyverns are friendly-”

He does that thing when he becomes really serious and looks me in the eyes, “-and not in the meaning of accidentally killing someone in a hug, then who knows.”

Oh, so I just have to make sure they know what a human is and that humans are friends. Mmm, yes, I must teach them all to have a puppet and speak! The icelanders don’t speak norwegian any more, so it has to be english, but I’m not very good at that yet, even though I learned so much from Lars.

Oh! I know! If I connect to allll of them at the same time, then I can teach all of them at the same time! Not all of them are here, but it will use a lot of magic, so we can take those later.

Hm, yes, we! I need to make Matron help me, so I tell her to via the mind bond and strengthen the mana link and let me can control it. It’s not so important with Lars because he doesn’t have much mana, but I’ve seen him make the link bigger when using my mana, so it’s probably important when you’re using more mana than you usually do.

Lars says something. Oh he’s taking out the Lens! I think he wants to help, but I don’t want him to get manaburnt...

The matron is a bit confused, but she’s not so good with mind magic so I just make her do it anyway. First, I need to spread out the mana so that I can connect to all of them, like so. And all of those that are far away, come closer! Connect to those near you! Good. now we are all connected.

It works, it really works! There are so many of us, but the mesh network thing that Lars said might work really worked! He’ll be so excited to know that! Ah, he shouted for Leda.

Why? We- I- We must continue, we’re not done. Oh, we’re using mana really fast. Everyone, give me your mana. No, spread the spell out! Yes! Big group spell, and it’s all because of mesh network!

It’s a bit unpleasant to use so much mana, but it feels good to breathe. Lars calls it ether, but it’s just mana in the air, it’s the same as other mana, just not as clean. But this one is, because it comes from us.

Something hit us. Ow, that hurt. The human attacked. Lars, I didn’t do anything wrong! It’s charging magic, kill- no, don’t hurt him! It is still casting magic. It’s fine, he’s probably just trying to help. We will do it.

The links and bond shake and some break when a lot of mana goes like fwoosh from the Lens. That was cool! And another one! But, oh, why am I not connected any more? Huh? Oh. Oh no! They’re angry at Lars, they’re gonna-

Ow, why did he hit me? I was only- why was I casting that magic? Is he out of mana? Oh, they’re using their pressure so he can’t get any mana out! Oh, he’s calmed down, he has a plan! What is it? Since he can’t use magic, and he’s standing there, frozen.

Frozen. Freeze. Fight or flight. Fight, flight, or freeze.

He’s afraid?!

I look at Matron’s spell, it’s a prepared projectile type, so I need to interrupt in on the way, so if I put the counterspell here, and stopping it is bad, too much power, dodge, deflect, parry, block. Lars can’t dodge, but I can deflect the spell up, nothing there. Maybe. Sorry if I hit anyone!

It worked! What, no, it didn’t work! But the spell went up, why did it hit him!

“Lars!”

I run my puppet over to his body, and turn to Matron. She hurt him! She tried to kill him! I just wanted to teach them that humans are friends, and you. Do. NOT. Hurt.

“Friends!” I yell, but it’s actually a big roar because I use the wrong body.

Is he dead? He smells like blood, he moved!

Matron! Let me in! I will stop you! Roaaaaar!

DON’T FIGHT ME!

You will do as I say!

She’s doing magic again! NO! Lars said not to but if he’s dead then he can’t be angry at but I would rather he’s angry than dead and roaaar!

Stop! I slam a fireball into Matron’s side.

It! Spikes of rock shoot up from underneath her.

I can’t stop it unless they let me into the mind bond…

Sorry, Lars!

I make what Lars calls a ‘drill’ of mana into her head and everything seems to become a bit more grey when I do what he calls ‘mind rape’ and grab the mind bond and steal control.

I’m sorry!

Everyone down!

Lie down!

Now!

Break the mana links. No more mesh network it was stupid anyway it made them be angry and hurt Lars, I don’t think he will say it’s okay because no harm done.

Break the mind bonds, and then stay down! If you move I will attack you!

I roar again, and this time I use the magic that Lars uses and make a magic roar even though with so much mana in the air it just magics anyway.

I’m healing Lars, but one of them try to run away so I make lightning zap it and then make a pit so that it falls in and then I close the top so that it’s trapped.

“Leda…”

Lars! I hold another wyvern down with force magic as he flips over.

“What…”

What what?

“What the hell were you doing?”

“I’m sorry!”

“What. Did. You. Do?”

“Yousaidineededtoteachthemtonotbehostiletohumansandifigureditwouldbefastertoteachallofthematthesametimeandalsotheyneedpuppetsandimadeameshnetworkbuttheywantedtokillyouandimsorryididntwanttobutihadtoortheywouldkillyou!”

He looks at me, then his hand hits my head, but he’s really weak. Is he dying? I don’t know if I healed all the blood! What if he’s bleeding inside? How do you fix that?

“Calm down. Leda, Leda. Calm. Down.”

I take a few breaths. Why do I feel so weird all the time lately?

“Puberty.”

“What?”

“That’s puberty. Some lovely cocktail of hormones and whatnot, can make your emotions worse than a rollercoaster.”

“You don’t like rollercoasters?” But aren’t they fun?

He blinks and, after a pause, laughs weakly. “Don’t focus on that you dummy. Can you please tell me what you were doing and why? And- a bit slower this time.”

Before I can speak he rolls around and gets up on his knees, then make a bad sound and old food comes out of his stomach. Bleh, it stinks!

“Also -huuuegh- share some mana, I’m out and ni -huuegh!- need to heal.”

He opens the bond a bit and I feel his pain, he’s hurt on the inside! But I make a mana link, if he asks then he knows how to heal it.

“I’m waiting.” He says, spitting out a gloop of globby food goo.

“Oh.” He wants to know what happened. I hope he doesn’t become so angry that he leaves me. “You said that-”