Chapter 11: Fire Drakes Nest

As soon as I awoke in the quiet darkness of early morning, with Azure still sleeping beside me, I felt restless since I had wanted to get started as soon as possible on forming the Drakes Nest. Unfortunately since it was still dark out, any attempt to go down to the cave right now might result in my quick demise since the Kraken like monster of the falls was awake at this time.

Instead I lay there making mental plans on what I wanted to design. There was so much potential in that cave complex that I wanted to build. I knew that such a creature as a Fire Drake would not be satisfied with a similar set up as what was in the low ceilinged and smallish front room. This was going to be a massive undertaking.

First off was the room size itself. It would need to be big enough to contain a nest that would be large enough for the drake to sleep in even fully grown. Also I intended to build a play area that would have to be at least triple or quadruple the size of the front room. I knew Drakes could get pretty big and hopefully I’d have a little time before I needed to create a secondary larger entrance for the drake to use for coming in and out. Oh and don’t forget that the ceiling had to be tall enough for the drake to stand to its full height once fully grown.

“Ugh” This was getting to be a huge headache. In all honesty I didn’t think that I’d be able to create that big of a cavern unless I had several months and lots of help. There had to be another alternative. Thinking back on the few things I knew about caves in my own world, I began to gain an idea. A smile lit my face as I thought that it just might work, but then again it might not. It all depended on what was within the Stone itself.

By now the sun had finally begun to rise and Azure herself was getting up to stretch with her claws extending and contracting. I did not want to be on the wrong side of those. Getting up for breakfast I made my way to the kitchen with the tiger walking close beside me.

After the many prepared bowls filled with meat and milk as well as the creation of her new more comfy hammock, Azure had finally warmed up to Victoria. This had cheered the apothecary to no end. She still wouldn’t let her hold her, but she’d accept a scratching behind the ears and a few other places as well as some teasing. For the most part though, she stuck by me.

During our breakfast conversation, Victoria told me that she and Monroe were planning a date for later in the afternoon and that she planned to close up the shop by noon. That meant we’d need to pack the usual lunch and maybe even plan our own dinner.

Soon enough, with all the preparations made, together Azure and I set out to the Falls.

*

Reaching our landing out of sight of those observing the falls, we turned to face the cave entrance. To my surprise two young men were waiting there, each with a small ore cart. I knew those two, they were Kade’s apprentices.

Crud I thought to myself, I had never really taken the time to remember their names. “Hey guys, what brings you here?” I called out with a smile in greeting. They were both dressed in brownish work pants, sturdy looking boots, and a leather vest over a simple long sleeved shirt. The taller of the two had light brown hair and while standing was leaning against the stone wall beside my meditation waterfall. His expression said that he was totally enjoying the mist and breeze that came off the falls. His companion on the other hand had reddish blonde hair with a slightly grumpy looking expression on his face. He was the one to answer me.

“Our master said that we were to take a break for a week from the smith and help you with your digging.” He seemed to say this in a huff. Then the other young man casually spoke up. “Thomas here is upset that our master feels we will be more help here working with you rather than refining our own blacksmithing skills at his forge.” With a soft laugh he continued. “Thomas has never seen what you can since he comes on the other days when you are gone, but I personally think there is much to be learned from you. So please let us be of help.”

I honestly had to admit that I immediately took a liking to this guy. Shaun, yes Shaun was his name. “I’ll be extremely grateful for your help. However, I don’t know how enlightening my work will be. Can either of you do magic?”

Both of them shook their heads in the negative. “Hmm, alright, I’ll gladly accept your help, but if you want to take greater advantage of possibly learning and understanding the things I do, then you’ll need to gain the ability to use earth magic.”

“Hell No!” Cried out Thomas. “I’ve seen the pain others go through to gain magic. I am not going to put myself through that as well!” Shaun on the other hand seemed to have a thoughtful expression on his face. After a moment of silence he too spoke up. “I don’t know, I think in this case it just might be worth it. I’ve seen some of what you can do. I know it involves more than earth manipulation, but even so, I want to learn what I can.”

Again Shaun was quiet for a moment while Thomas looked on at him like he was crazy. “I’ll do it tonight. I’ll eat a Magic Stone. . . I don’t know what I’ll do about an Earth Stone though. Those things are a bit more expensive than what I’ve got at the moment, till some of my weapons sell.”

I shook my head. “I can take care of getting you the Earth Stone, though the process is anything but fun, I’ll tell you that.” I stood there thinking a moment. “You know, we need to start the process today in order for you to get the most out of it. So that means you should go and get the magic stone right now and come back here to eat it.”

Surprise filled his face but with a nod as if realizing it was the best choice, Shaun took off up the trail to head back to the city.

Finally it was close to 9 am after all the talking was done. Motioning for Thomas to bring a cart with him, I set Azure down to let her wander around as I then pushed open the door to the cave.

A wave of heated air washed over me as I entered the passageway to the room I had created. Leaving the door open both for light and for a cooler breeze, we continued to the front room. There in the back right corner lay the bag of fire stones. That must be reason for the hot air. Ugh!

What pleasantly surprised me was that there was an array of 9 light producing stones assembled along the stone shelves I had hewn into the rock. It looked like Monroe had gotten those here in a hurry.

“Alright, Thomas, I’m going to be doing something that may look like nothing, but in reality will help me to find the best place and direction to start digging.” With that said, I went over to where the fire stones were to begin pressing my hands against the wall.

This time my intent was different from the searching for ore or looking for fissures to work with or shape. I was looking for cavities within the rock. Not small ones, but with luck a big one that could provide a foundation to work with while creating the various parts of the Drake Nest.

I pressed as far as my fine senses could go and then, after that seemed to give nothing away, I allowed myself to just let my awareness spread much more thinly. Expansive and solid stone spread out in every direction from where I was sensing at. After a few more minutes of searching in that area, I finally gave up and moved to where I didn’t want to go.

I had been wanting to create and save a passageway in a lateral direction of the falls for myself and Azure alone but maybe I’d have to adjust those plans a bit. Pressing my hands again upon the stone wall, I was now at the far back left corner of the room where my back was to entrance of the cave. If I were to turn about 120 degrees to my left then I would be facing the direction of the falls, though I’d be staring at solid stone.

Immersing my senses into the stone, I closed my eyes and focused hard on trying to discern anything that might give me an idea of where to dig. . . . Again there was nothing found with my fine senses and so I once again spread out my awareness in a thinner and less precise fashion.

“There!” I cried out in excitement. I couldn’t be certain because of the distance that it seemed to portray, but somewhere headed in a more or less 75 degree angle to the right of the falls was what felt like an open space in the rocks. I had no way to determine the size of it at the time, but I did have a general direction to begin digging. At once I began the now repetitive process of creating shaped fissures within the stolid stone only to chip them out of the wall with my pickaxe.

Soon, as large chunks of stone began coming out of the growing passageway, Thomas’s eyes began to grow larger at the speed at which I was working. Looking back at him to pointedly stare between his ore cart and the stone, I was about to open my mouth to say something, but he suddenly startled out of his surprise to begin picking up the stone and placing it in the cart.

With him doing the heavy lifting, it freed up much of my time to search for better angles and to build up the stability of the growing passageway. Every once in a while I’d stop for the specific purpose of trying to gain a better sense and direction of the cavern. The hewn pathway began to take a slightly winding direction that seemed to lead to what I guessed to be several dozen meters somewhat behind the falls. Already I had cut a passage about 10 meters out from the first room. By this point I had even begun to start hauling out stones to the front room since I was digging at a much faster rate than Thomas was able to keep up at.

Just as I was beginning to think of taking a break, Shaun had finally come back with the Magic Stone. I guess it had taken him a while to get it since I knew the path didn’t take more than 30 minutes to get to the city. Stepping out of the cave I looked up at the sky to see where the sun was at. Not quite noon day but it was close.

Turning to face the both of them, Thomas who was dusty and haggard looking now, sat on his full ore cart right outside the cave door and Shaun who was looking at his Magic stone with more than a little trepidation, I began to speak.

“Alright, while Thomas and I take a break from digging, you need to eat that stone to get it over with. I really think that it would be better if you did it in the cave with the door closed.” Shaun nodded his head at what I was saying and quickly went inside, closing the door firmly behind him.

Looking around for Azure, who had taken to wandering in and out of the cave while I worked, I found her beside her mother’s grave with a puddle of water around her body. Crouching down beside her I asked “Did you sit under the falls without me?” She didn’t say anything obviously, but she did jump up into my barely ready arms. I could feel her shivering with the cold.

*Sigh* “What am I going to do with you?” I muttered in concern. Since the two young men where here with me this entire week, I didn’t think I’d be getting any waterfall/water manipulation training done, but I had brought firewood again this time since I didn’t know they were going to be here. It looked like Azure wasn’t slacking off from the training even though I was.

As I began setting up the fire,I heard the start of a scream of pain. *Ahhhhhh!* * . . . .* *Argghhhhhhhhhhh!* *Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! . . .* * . . . . . . . . . . . * The terrible scream of agony seemed to be barely muted by the heavy metal door to the cave. I had to hope that he survived this and I would be lying if I didn’t admit to myself that the sudden silence wasn’t worrying me. “Damn, poor guy.” I muttered under my breath.

Thomas who had been chewing on a part of his lunch that he brought at the time, had gone entirely white in the face at the screaming that came from the cave. Casting fearful and apprehensive glances at the now silent entrance, he finally swallowed the chewed up food that had been hanging in his open mouth.

After quickly finishing the lighting of the fire so as to make sure that Azure was now safely warming up, I rushed over to the quiet doorway to render aid to Shaun. Before I even touched the door handle, it was pulled open. Looking far more haggard than Thomas had at the conclusion of the morning work, he stumbled out into the open air where he promptly fell onto his knees and bowed his head.

Taut muscles that had been terribly strained during the forceful awakening of his magic potential continued to shudder and spasm a little here and there. Slowly the red veins in his face and neck began to fade into normalcy as he seemed to pass out on the ground. Though he was breathing in and out steadily, I bent forward over his still frame. Placing two fingers against his carotid artery I paused to check for a pulse. It was strong and steady with no sign of fading. In relief I returned to sit by the fire and pull out both my and Azures lunch for us to enjoy.

Interestingly, Azure did not step into the fire this time, nor did she activate her blue flare for which I was grateful. Like so long ago it seemed when I had received that notice of my Mythical level skill, I remembered it said something about powerful beings retaining their place and power by keeping their abilities secret. I wanted to keep her ability secret. So quietly, I only used my invisible soul aura to draw heat over her body from the fire to warm her as I dried her off with the hem of my shirt.

Soon, lunch was over and Thomas looked like he still needed a bit of a break. Shaun on the other hand had woken up with excitement in his eyes. Apparently in his mind, gaining the ability to use magic more than offset the amount of pain he had gone through. Already he was asking about when he could eat the Earth Stone.

“Alright,” I said. “You can eat the Earth Stone, but I need to get some things to prepare for what you are going to go through. It shouldn’t be as bad as what happened to me since you will be eating only the amount that is recommended. So I’ll be heading out while the two of you enjoy an extended break.”

Looking back to call Azure over, I then looked down to see that she was already by my side. Pulling her up into her hammock that was strapped across my body, we set out to the city.

Arriving at the Apothecary shop I saw Victoria in the midst of excitedly gathering several things together. Oh yeah, she had said that she was going someplace with Monroe today. I had a Strong feeling that he was going to propose to her and I think she had the same feeling.

Her eyes lifted in mild surprise at my arrival but she waited for me to speak. “Victoria, first off, it is not for me.” I had to say that remembering what I had gone through last time. This caused her lips to quirk in curiosity. “I need that recipe that you used for when I had eaten way too much crushed Earth Stone because it is for one of Kade’s apprentices that wants to gain the Earth Manipulation ability and I promise that I’m only giving him a single normal sized stone.” I said that all in a hurry as I worried about her reaction.

“Oh,” was all she said. “Actually I can make it for you right now. He hasn’t taken the stone yet has he?” She asked. “Nope.” I replied. “Oh good, then this way I can make it better.”

Soon enough she had made the concoction that still gave me nightmares to this day. Oddly enough, as I smelled this version, it had a light minty and citrus flavor to it that was nothing like what I had taken before. An odd suspicion filled my mind at the thought that she might have added a little something special to the mixture I had been blessed (forced down my mouth) with. Having become rather familiar with the plants in the area, I still didn’t recall anything that smelled quite like what I had drunk that time. Oh well, let bygones be bygones since I survived that whole ordeal.

Finally back at the little alcove that held the cave, I watched as Thomas and Shaun were having fun trying to skip stones across the turbulent surface of the water beneath the falls. Stopping to once again let Azure down, I took that time to take a look inside the cave. “Phew.” Despite that heat, I was relieved to see that they had already taken out the accumulation of the stone rubble I had built up.

Stepping out into the sunlight again which had reached a little past midday by now, I called out to the two apprentices. “Shaun, Thomas, come on over.” Pulling out a decent sized poor quality Earth Stone that I had found along my path to finding what I hoped to be a cavern, I then used my portable Mortar and Pestle to grind it up before syphoning in into the potion that Victoria had made. Oddly enough, I didn’t get a message for making a new potion. Maybe it’s because I was just adding a single ingredient to something someone else had made. In any case I handed it over to Shaun.

“You need to drink all of this. It is the Earth Stone mixed in with a strong laxative. Trust me when I say you will need it.” I said this with some commiseration in my voice. With a grateful nod. Shaun just opened the bottle and downed the contents.

“Alright,” I said. “When I took it myself, it took almost all night to take effect. Considering you took the laxative at the same time, then I’d guess at a few hours before you start to feel any of the effects. So let’s get to work digging.” With that, I made my way into the cave with the two of them in tow. As I began again to tear away at the rock making my way towards the feeling of the cavern, I noticed that there was no longer much of a wait time between when I let the rocks fall behind me till they were gone being wheeled out of the cave. This made for much faster timing.

Finally, after many minor changes in the direction of our digging, combined with several reassessments of what it was we were approaching, I knew we were a mere half a meter away from what felt like a good sized cavern. After doing one last quick check and strengthening the walls all along the pathway, I called out to both Shaun and Thomas to come join me. As they both arrived, leaving their ore carts behind, I saw Azure rush in as well, dodging between their legs to be beside me. “Well Okay, you can come too.” I said while laughing.

Focusing on creating fissures, I made sure that the rock would fall out the other end when struck so as to protect anyone on our side. *Ting* *ting* *Crack!* With that, the space in front of us crumbled away as the stone tumbled outward. The entire passageway from that front room to here was a little over 30 meters, all in all a good days work if I might say so myself. The sides and height were the same as the front entrance and just as sturdy.

Armed with glowing stones we carefully stepped out into the pitch black cavern we had finally reached. It. . . . Was. . . Awesome! From what little we could see with our lights I’d have to guess it was a little over 2000 square meters or a little under half the size of a football field. Constant dripping of water could be heard both nearby and in the distance. A myriad of stalactites and stalagmites filled the majority of the expanse with small areas devoid of any dripping water. Looking up, I’d guess that the highest part of the ceiling was about 12 meters or almost 5 stories high.

There was a small stream that formed from all of the running water which seemed to disappear into a deeper hole in the direction of the falls. A growing sense of alarming fear began to fill me as I stared into the depths of that hole. Did we stumble upon the home of that nocturnal kraken like monster?!? Trying desperately to hide my fear, I turned back to the others that were behind me.

“I’m going to check something out but I want all of you, and you too Azure,” I said including her with the most importance, “to wait here as I go check it out. Don’t make a sound though okay?” With nods of curiosity tempered with a bit of fear, both Shaun and Thomas edged back into the tunnel as if to prepare running if it became warranted. Azure looked as if she wanted to follow, but with a pleading look from me, she just settled down and began grooming herself.

“Stealthily making my way over to the deep pool about 20 or so meters to the left of our entrance, the black water disappeared into the wall and floor in the direction of the falls. The pool itself looked to be about 3 meters or so in diameter at the widest part, I hoped that it was too small a space for the monster to fit through, but I had to be sure. Stepping close to the water’s edge, I placed both of my bare hands on the stone beside it. Closing my eyes, I pushed my awareness into its depths seeking to feel where the water went. Following both the stone and water just a couple meters in, I sighed with relief. Pushing my awareness further just to make sure, I gathered a fuller sense of what was there.

That pool of water actually did stop at a deceptively shallow depth. Beyond that was a mass of stone that only water could diffuse through as it made its way to join the water beneath the falls. It seemed that this small pool of water was a good 15-20 meters or so from the actual bottom of the falls. Other than some small wildlife within the pool itself that seemed to be a version of eyeless newts, I didn’t sense anything else within the confines of the cave.

“Phew . . .” My sigh of relief had to have been audible from where the others were at, because soon enough, Azure came racing towards me to take me down in a tackle that almost knocked me into the pool itself. Thomas and Shaun followed soon after, barely being able to contain their laughter. Awe filled their eyes as they took in the surroundings of the beautiful cave.

With them gazing about, I promptly gathered all of our glowing stones to mold them into place on top of the various stalagmites. Soon the entire cave had diffuse light that shone into the far reaches of its beautiful expanse. I would have been ecstatic to have found a place like this back in the real world. All the work that went into it was almost enough to make me forget that this was a game. Sadly that truth stood out and made what I had to do next a little bit easier.

For as much as I could, I intended to let things stay as they were, in pristine untouched condition, but I did need to make some partial adjustments to create both a nest for the Drake and a sort of play area where it could stretch it’s wings and maybe, if they got along, be a sparring partner for Azure.

In the relative silence of the cave, save for the constant dripping of water, a single noise erupted amidst it all. Though the noise bounced around a little we all looked towards Shaun. A look of mild alarm crossed his face while he pressed his hands to his stomach. ‘And so it begins,’ I thought to myself.

“Alright,” I called out “I think we’ve done enough for today. We should be heading back anyways so that Shaun can take care of his call to nature before it gets too bad.” With a grateful look at me the aforementioned Shaun hightailed it out of the cave. I honestly hoped he made it home before the fallout began. Granted, since it was constipation that he was going to be dealing with, it should be easy enough to hold till he reached a safe place. I certainly did not want him going in the river fed by the falls.

I honestly didn’t care about the actual stool going in there since it would soon enough float away. I was worried about the public viewing the falls that might get a rare sight of one of Kade’s apprentices and if worse comes to worse a pissed off kraken taking revenge upon the intruder if he happened to stay past dusk in the midst of his agony.

Following in the wake of Shaun’s desperate dash, the remainder of us continued up the path at a more leisurely pace. We had accomplished a lot today! More than I had thought possible. Soon enough we had all reached the city just as the last rays of light struck from the horizon.

Back at the apothecaries shop, I didn’t see Victoria, but soon after making a quick meal for both Azure and me, we settled down for the night and fell asleep.

* * * * *

The very next morning I still had not seen any sign of Victoria and so did all the preparations for the day, from making breakfast to packing lunches to cleaning up after myself. Heading out soon after with most everything I would need, I made a pit stop at Kade’s shop.

“Hey Jade,” he called out, beating me to saying hi. “How are my boys doing with helping you out?” He asked. “Oh, they are great! Especially Shaun. He’s got some great ambition.” I exclaimed.

“Hah! Well he’s the one that’s been watching all that you can do these past few times you’ve worked here.” Kade said this with a smug laugh. “I think you lit a fire under him in terms of inspiration.” He was silent for a moment as he seemed to be thinking of something. “By the way, what’s he done?” Kade Finally asked.

“Um, yesterday, in addition to being a great worker, he downed a Magic Stone and an Earth Stone.” I commented.

“He Did What!?” Exclaimed Kade. “Oh dear, his parents are going to kill me.” He said with a hand to his head. I shook mine in the negative. “Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll be fine. I gave him much less Earth Stone than what I took and gave him the same laxative treatment that I received that helped me to survive the calamity.”

“Oh. . . Okay then. . . Phew.” Kade replied with obvious relief. “I take it you’re going to teach him some of your skills?” He asked me. “I’ll teach him what I believe he can learn.” I replied. “In any case, I came by to see if I could borrow your climbing gear again for a few days.”

Soon enough I was armed and armored with the necessary gear and arrived at the falls again. Both Thomas and Shaun who had been lounging against the stone wall rose up to stand before me. Thomas smirked at Shaun who seemed to be getting up a bit more slowly while favoring his rear. ‘Poor guy’ I thought.

Without further ado we all headed into the cave, maneuvering through the passageways to its furthest depths. Both apprentices had brought their ore carts ready to take out anything that needed disposing of. I wasn’t sure yet what might need to be done, but I guess it was better to be prepared.

I had a mental checklist of the things that I would need. First a nest. Almost as if she read my mind, Azure dashed off to the right where she began sniffing around a slightly different colored section of stone flooring. There were no Stalactites or Stalagmites in that area of the cave, but when I ventured over to her, it seemed to exude a sense of warmth. “Huh.” I muttered to myself. I began to wonder if this was close to the hot spring that fed into the surface high above us. Pressing my hands against the warmish stone, I sought out the origin of this heat.

Sure enough, after a little delving, about 8 meters beyond the wall I could sense the swelling of superheated water as it made its way to the surface. As I felt the water and its flow, an idea came to mind that I really wanted to try out, but I filed it away to save for later. For now, the nest came first.

Gazing about me at the different colored stone, I measured a circular area of about 6 meters in diameter that should make a big enough bed for even a full grown Drake. I guess skimming through that book on Mythological and Legendary Creatures really helped out. The nest area itself was about 17 meters straight ahead from the entrance and just a tad to the right. As I finished my mental gauging, I was about to call out to Shaun to get him started in on his training when I remembered that Thomas would then be left with nothing to do.

There was one more thing I could get started while I worked with Shaun, and that was clearing the area that I planned to build a sort of playpen in of all stalagmites. I’d have to take care of the stalactites myself, but once I cordoned off the play area, then Thomas could get to work clearing the floor.

About 6 meters directly to the left of the nesting area would be the front right corner of the stone playpen. In total it would be about 18X24 meters as it reached further back into the depths of the cave. Reaching down to touch the ground I made an outline of sorts by causing the earth to rise about a foot. Later on I’d have to do a lot more with it to make sure it could accommodate what it would be used for. After giving quick instructions to Thomas and handing him my pickaxe he went to work on clearing the ground.

Now back at the Nest area I had Shaun with me to begin the training. “Alright Shaun, I’m going to make a guess that the method I’m going to be teaching you is not the normal way of learning magic. Everyone is different, so it may not work for you.” I paused in my instructions. “Some things that I plan to try may affect your energy flow to a degree which in turn may be painful. Let me know if it gets to be too much.”

“I understand, if I’ve learned anything from yesterday and last night, it is that most things that are worthwhile can hurt a hell of a lot.” He exclaimed. “Good thought.” I said with an ironic smile. “Now I want you to place your hands against the ground right here. I’m going to manipulate the stone to form a raised mound. As I do this, I’m going to be drawing that stone from the center area where I am wanting for there to be a depression to hold sand. Focus on being able to sense what I am doing.”

Once I said that, I placed my hands on the ground close to his, hopefully giving him a better chance at sensing what I was doing. Closing my eyes, I mentally shifted some of the stone I was standing on, causing it to flow outward almost like water as it then rose to form a solid mound, like part of a raised edge of a bowl. Continuing to do that I even shifted the very stone beneath his hands causing them to rise with the stone.

“Did you sense anything out of the ordinary?” I asked him. Shaking his head in the negative he spoke. “Other than feeling the stone itself move as it lifted my hands, I didn’t sense anything. That was totally amazing by the way!” *sigh* “Alright we will try something else, this part might hurt. Place your hands on the stone right over here.” I pointed to where I planned to raise the next bit of the edge into a mound. “Okay, now I’m going to put my hands on top of yours and try to draw a bit upon your magic power to make the stone move. Is that alright?” I asked him. He simply nodded his head.

“Alright,” I muttered under my breath. Placing my hands over his, I sent a tendril of my soul into his, searching for the source of his magic power. Near where I blindly guessed his heart to be, I felt a pool of extra ‘light’ is how I would say it, to be. As gently as I could, I drew upon that energy, pulling it down through his body, making sure that some of it remained in his pool in the case taking it all killed him or burned out his ability. Some part of me sensed him shifting his body around a bit in discomfort, but he wasn’t trying to pull away. Next as the power I had grasped reached his hands I began to slowly push it outward into the stone beneath his grip. Hoping that this helped, I spent more time trying to infuse that power with a sense of the stone itself than I did in trying to make it move at all. Finally I used what I thought was the barest part of his glowing power to shift a tiny bit of stone. Instantly all of the power that I had drawn from him was expended in that single movement. All that remained was a soft glow of the energy that I had left in his pool at the beginning. Suddenly I felt his body begin to sag and so I withdrew my hands from him and returned with all my senses to the physical world.

“Oh Crud!” I blurted as I saw him keeled over in pain and white faced as well. His breathing was erratic and more than that I didn’t have time to discern. Reaching into my soul, I pulled on all the healing strength that I could bring to bear. Sadly, all that came was the familiar trickle of energy that I had been able to use when healing Azure beneath the falls. Still, I remained there with him slowly feeding him that power, for as long as it would take to bring him back.

After a while, his breathing steadied and he was able, if barely, to sit up and lean against the nearby wall. “I . . . I did it.” He said in a worn out and cracking voice. “I moved some of the stone!” He said in tired excitement. “You did indeed.” I replied. “Though I think you should take a break for the rest of the day.” With a nod he promptly lay on his side on the hard stone floor and allowed himself to pass out.

All that time, Thomas had continued to hack away at the various stalagmites that littered the floor of the area I had set aside. By then I would have had then all down through the use of my fissure creating, but it worked well enough with keeping him busy.

While Thomas worked and Shaun slept, I worked on raising the mounds for the sides of the Drake Nest. Each side was about a half a meter in height, tightly compressed to the point of being nigh unbreakable should the Drake have a violent nightmare. The interior was about 1 ½ meters in depth of which almost a third was filled with sand that I had created from the granulized stone within it. Later I would have to granulize some fire stone to mix with in to make a great incubation nest.

With all of that done, I came over to check on Thomas who had grown rather weary of his work and had let his swings to become rather half-hearted. “Hey, you did a good job, why don’t you go take a break?” I said. Relieving him of the pickaxe, I took over the remainder of the job he was doing. Gathering up the glow stones from the stalagmites he had avoided, I set them aside and began to tear down the natural mounds with precise blows. I guessed it to take me a little under an hour to clear the remaining area of 16X24 meters. All throughout that time I had felt occasional drops from the stalactites above me. ‘Yep those definitely will need to go.’ I thought to myself.

Checking up on Shaun again to make sure he was alive still, I then left him in his comatose state to join Thomas outside. Right by the usual spot where I built the fire was Azure, who was once again shivering from the cold water. *Sigh* As I began to get the firewood I had the forethought to keep bringing, Thomas Spoke up. “I think there is something wrong with your tiger. It doesn’t do very smart things.”

I wanted to bite back with a crude remark on his thoughts, in defense of Azure, but then I figured, his ignorance may someday come back to bite him for me. So I just said, “I wouldn’t judge too quickly if I were you.” Leaving him to ponder that, I finally finished up with building the warming fire. “You know, I’m surprised you haven’t caught a cold yet.” I said to the miserable pile of white fur beside me. She just looked up at me with sad eyes reminiscent of her sodden body till I began warming her with my fire enhanced aura.

Worried that she might continue to keep doing this to the point of hurting herself I had a spark of insight. “You know what,” I told her. “I think I just thought of a solution to your problem. I could just leave the bag of Fire Stones right out here and you could lay by those each time after you finish under the falls.” She definitely perked up at the mention of Fire Stones. ‘Damn, how smart is she?’ I thought to myself.

Going back into the cave I brought out the bag of Fire Stones where I lay it next to the fire. Azure simply crawled into the bag with the stones. Then I started to hear a crunching noise. “Wait a second!” I called out. Peering into the bag I thought I knew exactly what was going on, and sure enough, she was chewing on one of the Fire Stones. Pulling her back out of the bag, I let her keep the current Stone she was chewing on and then I tied the end of the bag so that she could ‘hopefully’ not be able to open it. Then I picked her up to lay her on the now sealed bag. Happily chewing away at the dimly glowing Stone she seemed blissfully oblivious to the world around her.

*Sigh* I then pulled out my own lunch to satisfy my growing hunger.

Soon enough, we were done eating, during which Shaun still had yet to join us from the cave. I just shrugged and went back in to see what I had accomplished. . . . The nest was complete and the ground had been semi-cleared for the large play pen. I planned to use those broken Stalagmites and soon to be broken stalactites to form obstacles within that area. An open sandy pit would become boring too quickly otherwise. With almost half a day ahead of me and nothing else to do, I knew what I had to do next.

Geared up in the climbing harness, I began scaling the wall. It was a Hell of a scary climb. Instead of relying on foot and hand holds like I did when climbing to the hot spring, I had to create deep angled holes in the ceiling as I then implanted the many hooked spikes in there to hold my weight. The only real solace was knowing that first, Azure was perfectly safe and happy with just being in the same room as me and second, if I happened to fall and almost definitely die, I would only miss out on six days in game time which would be 48 hours in real life. Still, it was hella scary.

After adding in all the difficult factors of finding places to fit the spikes, hanging by only ropes and having to try to knock down stalactites without the use of a pickaxe, there was still more! Many times before I could even progress along the wall and ceiling I had to reinforce the structural integrity of the stone. Also I began finding countless minute flows of water that were coming from the ceiling to form into drops which then would fall from the stalactites I was breaking. Simply breaking them was not going to solve my problem. I had to reroute the water flow.

So amidst all of the work I had planned to do I had to shunt all the water flow away from the play area to flow to another area further to the left. After hours of tedious suspension and painstaking work a new miniature waterfall was formed from the accumulation of the converged drainage which I diverted to keep it dry. I spent more time than I would ever care to repeat hanging from that blasted ceiling knocking down stalactites, reinforcing the structural integrity, and redirecting the water flow. Eventually the water may break down the restraints I placed on it in diverting its flow, but it should last for a couple hundred years or so with the compact strength I placed into that stone.

Throughout that entire process, I discovered that the cavern was not directly beneath the river that fed into the falls, but rather Between and Far below the rushing flow of the Niagara River and the hot spring that added to its flow.

By the time I had finished with my dizzying and terrifying actions, I returned to the floor to see that Shaun and Thomas had been standing there practically on edge the whole time watching as I performed that crazy stupid stunt. They both had seemed to fall lifeless with relief as if they had set down a mountain of anxiety. *Sigh*

Making our way out of the mountain and into the dim light of day, I really hadn’t realized how much time had passed with me up there. Then turning back, I couldn’t believe how much time they had been able to spend just watching me climb. Shaking my head in dismay I just grabbed the bag of Fire Stone to store in the cave before setting back out to the city.

Arriving at the apothecary shop I was relieved to see that Victoria was back. “Jade!” She exclaimed as she rushed forward to take me in a rib crushing hug. Azure, hightailed it out of the hammock as soon as she saw Victoria’s arms reaching out. ‘Traitor’ I thought.

“He proposed to me!” She cried excitedly while I struggled to extract myself from her embrace in a discreet manner. I made the terrible decision to ask her how he did it. She began to squeal like a fan girl amidst the too detailed day that she spent with Monroe yesterday. I couldn’t keep track of a fraction of what she said, but suffice it to say, it involved a carriage ride, picnic amidst a field of flowers, watching the sunset, killing some monsters, and then well, thank goodness she ended the description there since I had a sense of where it was going since she didn’t return last night.

All in all it was a very long tale and Azure had long since taken to my bed while I had to suffer through the recounting of her adventure and subsequent proposal. *sigh* Finally she began busying herself about the kitchen preparing a mouth-watering meal with my help. By the time it was finished, Azure had prowled into the room to take advantage of the food offering. I could have sworn I saw a smile on that traitor of a face. Though I didn’t turn her away when she came to settle on my lap after she was done with her meal.

I did have to admit that she was a lot better than the regular house cats I saw in Real life. She seemed to really care and show affection rather than coming and going as she pleased while proclaiming that she was the master of the house. There was definitely much to differentiate her from the common house cat. Not to mention her definite ability to take on any normal house pet at her current age, even soaking wet.

Finally, after surviving the evening with Victoria I settled down to sleep. Darkness couldn’t seem to wait in taking me seeing as I didn’t even log out this time.

* * * * *

Back at the falls again, I had a great game plan that I had worked on as I made my way down the trail and uneven pathway to the cave. Again, both Thomas and Shaun were waiting for me when I arrived. ‘How early did they wake up?’ I thought to myself. In any case, today would be the last day that I needed them.

“Hey guys.” I called out as I approached them. Immediately they both stood up seemingly out of respect. I guess I had risen even in Thomas’s opinion for the work I did yesterday. I was glad to see that Shaun’s back side didn’t seem to be troubling him today.

“Alright, I only have one more task for you both to do, after which you can go back to working with Kade.” Thomas looked relieved at that while Shaun seemed a bit downcast. I continued on speaking. “I need you both to deposit all this stone at the close edge of the shore between the falls and our little plot of land. Try to pile the stone as evenly and reasonably high as you can. Even if you can only fill the shore about a meter out, then that will be plenty good since I plan to mold that stone, extending the ground space around the cave.” They both gave me quizzical glances at that but soon enough set to work.

Leaving them to it, I drew out the closed bag of Fire Stone so that Azure could use it any time she needed for warming herself back up with after her venturing beneath my meditation waterfall. I myself then went into the furthest cavern to begin the arduous process of creating the play pen.

It was designed much the same way as the nest except with thicker and slightly taller sides. I also formed several small and largish boulders from the broken stalactites and stalagmites that I spread throughout the now sandy field. I still had yet to add in granulized Fire Stone, but since I needed about three times as much as I had now to complete the job, I decided to save that for later. Finally by lunch time I had completed the play area and even created a better pathway for the newly flowing water to travel down to reach the dark pool at the far end of the cavern.

Back outside, it seemed that both apprentices had truly done a good job with spreading out the broken stone. I was glad that I had asked them to not throw it into the river with the intention of pulling out ore from them, but this use was so much better for now. As we each pulled out our lunches and as Azure rested on the bag of Fire Stones, I decided to let them know their job was done.

“I just wanted to thank you both for all the work you have done for me. I have to tell you though that everything else I have to do, can only be done by me, so you guys are done.” They looked at me with surprise. Maybe they thought more was going to happen. In all honesty I could have sent them back yesterday if I had them both worked on moving the rock into the shallow shore at that time, but Shaun had wanted to learn Earth Magic which I was happy to help him try.

“Oh, okay!” Thomas excitedly got up and began gathering his things to then head back to the city. He didn’t even finish eating his lunch. I don’t know if he was planning on going right back to Kade, but I didn’t really care. Only after he had gone did Shaun speak up, having finished his lunch. “Jade, I am very grateful for the earth manipulation that you taught me yesterday, and I don’t want to be a bother. . . .” He paused for a second. “But if it’s not too much trouble, could you help me with gaining control over fire?”

That surprised me, and even scared me a little. I hadn’t experienced the effects of eating Fire Stone and I honestly didn’t think looking to Azure who treated it like candy was a reliable source either. Not wanting to reveal that I had gained my affinity and manipulation through other means, I decided to think for a moment. What did I have around me that could assist with his assimilation? Looking at Azure as she lay on the bag of Fire Stones my mind back tracked a little.

The meditation waterfall, what if he were to consume a poor quality Fire Stone while sitting under the falls? Surely that would help to calm its effects. Also I did still have that large jar (which was nearing its end) of burn healing unguent in my pack. “This could actually work.” I muttered to myself.

“Alright, well do it.” I told him. Once again pulling out my Mortar and Pestle, I gently moved Azure from her perch upon the bag and opened it up. I honestly wasn’t a good judge of Fire Stones, but I chose what looked like the dimmest and most brittle of the bunch before again tying off the bag. It was still pretty hot, but it only lightly scorched my hand as I placed it in my mortar. Grinding it like I did the Earth Stone, I then asked for his water canteen. Syphoning the granules into his water I then told him what to do.

Soon a very much so yelping Shaun was sitting beneath the falls as a shaking hand carefully opened up his canteen. Downing the contents in a hurry like last time, the reaction was very much so different this time around. His eyes bulged and his face began to grow red. I believe it was through sheer will alone that kept him from spitting the water back out when it first entered his mouth. Then dropping his canteen from shuddering hands that too began to turn red, I rushed forwards to keep it from washing out to join the rest of the river. From my now closer proximity to him, I could see blisters begin to form on his skin as the fire stone burned him from within.

Almost as speedily as the effects had advanced, they seemed to recede just as quickly. All that remained behind were the first and second degree burns that laced every inch of his body. I quickly pulled opened up the burn heal unguent and set it aside as I gently but hastily pulled Shaun out of the falls. Boils burst open on contact and his feet bled as the ground tore at his tender soles, even though he walked but a single meter to sit outside of the falls.

As fast as I could, I began rubbing on the unguent on the accessible parts of his body. Obviously I let his hands heal first so he could deal with the more sensitive spots which I did not envy him the responsibility of. Recalling that there were no toxic plants in the mix, I encouraged him to eat some of the burn heal mixture. Soon enough with only his underpants on and every inch of him covered in the unguent did he seem to relax.

Leaving him to recuperate, I began to shape the stacked stones at the shoreline. Pressing, molding, and evening them out I sought to make them completely solid and mostly level with the adjacent land. By the end of it, the land area outside of the cave, not including the pathway down had been expanded to about 15000 square meters. Now there was space for what I wanted to do.

After helping a mostly recuperated Shaun to gather his belongings, he left up the trail to probably go sleep off the rest of the effects of the Fire Stone. Alone at last, except for of course Azure, I began the final aspect of the project. This was something that Azure would definitely appreciate once done.

At the water’s edge I created a half foot dip in the stone which was also about 2 feet wide. Since it was elevated a good foot above the water, none of the river water flowed back into the growing crevice. Then I began working backwards from the river to the side of the cliff that I had scaled to reach the hot spring. Once at that point, I began pressing deep down into the ground to form an empty tub of sorts just a mere 7 meters from the Mother White Tiger’s grave site. I would have preferred to not even do it that close to it, but I was a bit limited on usable space. The empty half sphere shaped tub came to be about 4 meters in diameter and 2 meters deep. With that done, I called it a day and retired back to the city for a good night’s sleep.

* * * * *

Today was the day, the day that I would finish it all. Heading right back to the caves, I promptly geared up in the climbing harness, but not to climb the ceiling. This time I was headed up to the hot spring. After dumping the partially filled bag of Fire Stones on top of the sand in the Drake Nest I took both empty heat resistant bags with me to the top. Along the way however, I stopped to place my right hand on the wall beside my hand and foot holds. I shifted the stone on the face of the wall, not on the surface but beneath it. Doing this every few feet as I ascended, soon enough both Azure and I made it to the top. This time I felt I was going to need her as a distraction and protection.

Sure enough, off in the distance the whole population of red slimes had returned. Just as I had spent time adjusting the stone on the way up, I continued to slowly work my way towards the hot spring. Azure was looking at me in a strange way as if as if to ask why I wasn’t going faster to get to the fun. Finally I reached to within a short stone’s throw of the meandering slimes where I nodded at Azure. “Go have fun.” I said. She didn’t need any further encouragement before she ran and jumped into the nearest slime to bite down on its center nucleus.

While she was keeping busy and having a great time, I lowered myself down into the hole I had created from last time. This time when I touched the stone in the direction of the hot spring, I sensed a lot more Fire Stones. It had to be an increase in my sensitivity. Just as I was able to sense deeper, so too could I reach further. My job was going to be so much easier now. Pulling Fire Stone after Fire Stone to me, after encasing them in a hard outer shell I would just hold out the bag as they fell into it. After about 2 hours of this I was about to fill both bags almost to the point of not being able to close.

Making my way out of the hole, I looked up to see a complete scarcity of the red slimes. Azure seemed to be laying there on her side with a look of great contentment on her face. Gathered about her were several un-eaten cores. I’m sure she had managed to eat plenty before she got full. I considered picking up the cores, but with my plan, in the likelihood that it worked then I would have much easier access to the cores from now on.

Going back to where I had stopped the advancement of my Earth Manipulation just short of the hot spring, I finally brought it to connect to the water flow bursting up through the ground. Mentally blocking off all the flow except to the areas I had worked with, I basically syphoned the spring water away from its original direction. Now it flowed through the underground pipeline that I had created, which then led down the cliff-side and into the tub which would then flow down the artificially built stream bed and flow into the river. It was a perfect set-up.

After securing the bloated form of Azure, I headed back down the cliff-side, making sure this time to smooth out the hand and feet holds since they would no longer be needed. Once at the bottom, I just sat in admiration of how well it had all turned out. The tub (now a hot tub for heat resistant creatures) was nicely filled and the steady overflow simply flowed down to the raging river.

Finally the last step was here. Making my way into the cave, I headed to the deeper cavern with the Fire Stones I had gathered. I first dumped one entire bag into the sandy nest and then dumped the other bag into the sandy play area. Without touching the stone itself, I used the connection I had with the stones through the surrounding sand to granulize them. Then I just told Azure to go play.

With excitement she tumbled into the pile of red glowing sand. While I watched her ‘play’ in which she was slowly spreading and mixing the two sand types together, I struck upon the idea to create 4 2 meter high pillars at each corner of the play area. It took about 45 minutes to complete that task at which I then placed a single glow stone on each pillar so that it lit the whole field. With a smile, I turned around to get to work on the Drake nest.

After granulizing the Fire Stones in the nest, I used my own manipulation to mix the sands together. Soon enough it was all complete . . . and I had nothing else to do. . . Except tell Monroe.

It was just after noon day when together Azure and I headed up the pathway to give the good news. Back in the city, I found that I had missed him at the counsel, but after getting directions from the excited guards I made my way to his house.

His home was a beautiful expanse of grey and black stone which alternated along the sides in a diamond pattern. Stained glass filled his windows while a beautiful garden wound its way mostly around his property. “Wow.” I spoke out at the grandeur of it all. “I guess being a retired adventurer pays well sometimes.” I said to myself. Without a bit of hesitation I approached his door.

*Knock Knock knock* After just a few seconds it was opened by a gentleman that had furry ears and a snout like nose. He wore what looked a bit like a medieval butler’s uniform, minus any wig you might find. “Um Hello?” I said. “Is Monroe around?” I asked.

“And may I ask who is asking for Sir Monroe?” he asked, not in a stuffy tone, but more of a refined and respectful manner. “Oh yes, my name is Jade, I just wanted to let him know that everything is done.” I said matter of factly.

The furry eared man’s eyes widened in surprise. “Truly?! The Man Cave as you call it and Drake Nest are all done?!” With a simple nod from me, he jumped up in excitement. “Oh thank the Gods!” Then in a voice that rang in my ears, he called out. “Everyone the Cave is done, let’s get to work!”

Needless to say, I had no idea what just happened. Suddenly there was a rush of bodies as various servants and/or guests began rushing about grabbing things off the walls and putting them in bags that others had scrounged from somewhere. I hadn’t really taken in the number of mementos strewn throughout the front room. Many of which were a claw here and there, a tooth, a unique weapon, etc. There were even some stuffed heads of extremely scary looking creatures that people began bringing out. Amidst it all was Monroe who came down the stairwell from the second floor with a carefully wrapped oblong object that took both his hands to keep secure.

Too soon I was pushed out the door as a wave of people began ‘following’ me back to the cave.

As we all made it down the pathway, some of them shuddered to a stop at the sight of three red slimes that had congregated around the hot tub. With a laugh to myself I set down the excited Azure who took all three out in a hurry. With that obstacle out of the way, everyone paraded into the cave.

Oohs and aahs could be heard as they came to the first room where they began laying out the various objects on the counters. I had great foresight, ‘thankfully’ to create stone hooks on the walls and additional stone shelves. Soon, almost all the wall space was completely filled at which point, everyone but Monroe stormed back out of the cave to go on their merry way.

In the overpowering silence, I simply asked Monroe, “Um, who were all those people?” “Hahaha, yeah it was it bit much wasn’t it? I was having my Bachelor party at the time you came.” My mouth dropped open at the realization. “Um so all of them know about Victoria’s penchant to rearranging and trying to throw out your mementos?” I enquired. “Oh yes, in fact when I told them about what you were doing for me, they begged me to enlist your services for them in creating additional Man Caves.”

“Hahahaha . . .!” I couldn’t help it, I just laughed at the incredulousness of it all. “Um, you know I won’t have time for all of that.” I said. “Oh, yeah. I know.” Monroe replied. “I told them that no one can bother you about creating any man caves till at least 2 months after the wedding. Because half that time you are going to be busy learning from me.” He said forestalling me before I could ask about the weird timing.

“Now,” he said as he carefully set down what I assumed to be the Drake egg on the ground next to him. “I have something of yours that you may need someday.” With that said, he pulled out another carefully rapped item from a small satchel across his back. As he unwrapped the thick red cloth from around it I saw a gleam of black shine out from it. Revealed within the cloth was the Reapers Claw.

“What . . . How . . . Why?” Was all I could say. I had been kind of regretting selling the claw to Kade, but I did have to admit that the benefits were quite nice. Had Monroe really bought back the Claw from him?

Monroe just smirked at the thoughts going through my head. “Before you say anything more, I think you forgot something. Reapers have two claws.” He simply said. At which my face had to have shown my extreme curiosity. “In order to answer your question, I need to tell you a bit about the history of Reapers.”

“Reapers come from a long history of violence. They are born killing and being killed and even their very own body seeks to kill itself.” He said. That certainly had me confused. But he continued. “First of all, Reaper females, when they mate, more often than not kill and eat their mating partner. Only the lucky few males are able to escape before the deed it done. At the time that she lays eggs, she will watch over them until they hatch. Once that happens, it is like an all you can eat buffet for her. She loves eating her young. Lastly, there is one additional thing about Reapers that you may not know. When a Reaper is killed, it can come back to life through regeneration. In the frequent cases where it is split into more than one part with enough tissue capable of regenerating, then those two or more aspects of itself are irrevocably drawn to each other in violent encounters where only one can remain left. They cannot stand the existence of more than one of them. Only fire and a few other methods can truly kill a Reaper for good.”

I stood there in stunned silence taking in all that he had to say ‘Reapers are Damn Scary’ I thought again to myself. Taking in my silence Monroe spoke again. “That’s how I got this Scythe. I was tasked with making sure there were no remains left in the river near our city from which a Reaper could regenerate. In the process I found and treated this so that it is well and truly dead.” He then carefully handed it to me. “It was your kill and so this is your trophy. Feel free to add it to the Man Cave in a section dedicated to you.”

I was elated! “Thank you so much Monroe!” I was about to hug him, but I figured I shouldn’t with a Scythe capable of cutting us both in half. Looking around me at the filled walls and shelves, I saw a single wall that was free of anything. Walking to the middle of the wall I pressed the scythe against it and willed the stone to form a hardened brace around it secure it in place and make it extremely hard for any would-be thieves from taking it.

“Okay enough about Reapers, can you show me what you’ve made for my Fire Drake?” Monroe almost whined. “Hahaha, yes, follow me.” I replied as I led him into the deeper passage.

As we arrived at the massive expanse of the natural cave, Monroe stopped in shock and awe at the entirety of it all. “Jade. . .” he said softly. I didn’t turn around, but I could swear he had tears coming down his eyes. “You are the best friend I could ever ask for.” *sniff* *sniff*

“Just come right this way.” I said as I led him to the Drake Nest. Gently lowering himself to the ground, he eased the egg out of its protective covering and lay it on the very warm sand. He seemed to be in a world of his own as he stared about the room.

Personally I felt I had better get out of here before it got dark since I didn’t want to mess with the Kraken. I knew Monroe would have No problem with dealings with that creature. So I left Monroe to stay with his Drake egg and I returned with Azure to the city.

* * * * *

Current time in game about 9:30 pm of the 13th of October. Day 43 in game time. 70% pain level. Real Life June 1st about 9:10 pm.

* * * * *

http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=12947

To any who are interested in putting forth pictures to illustrate what various creatures look like.

Any pictures/drawings used within the story are the strict property of the one who drew them. At a future date when I plan to publish this work, I will not include any pictures without the express permission of the artists. If at any time they wish to have their link removed from the story, please notify me and I will remove the hyperlink at my earliest convenience. Thank you.