Book 2 C 26 Community

I awake, my head hurts. Right, Rick hit me, guess I deserved it. I look around, Aerleras, Cindy, Julie and Ki'Diera are still here. The four of them have their chairs turned to one another and are talking. Julie is holding hands with Aerleras.

I sit up, my chest does not hurt as much anymore, I pull the bandages away and see a red mark in place.

“What are you doing Scott?” Julie says loudly and rushes over to me with concern on her face.

“It feels fine now” I simply say to her

“It took longer than usual to heal up you know.” Julie says with worry.

“What is usual about death? That, that can be healed is even incomprehensible” Cindy now speaks up getting up from her chair with the others as they all approach me.

“My loves, I am sorry about that, but I could not think of any other way to demonstrate to them...” I am saying.

“We understand Scott, let's leave it at that ok? Just promise not to do it again please?” Cindy asks, her eyes pleading to me.

I do not answer and let it go. “How long was I out?”, I ask.

“Almost half a day, about 10 hours” Says Julie.

I quickly look and see the upgrades can be rushed, and place the order. That will finish the 7's tomorrow and all walls and their modifications. Then we can start on stage 8 and get Aerleras her tree garden. I smile at the thought, it will make her happy.

“Scott? Rick said something strange was going on in the 5 km safe zone.”, Cindy says to me

“hmmm? What is it?”, I ask curious.

“The monsters do not seem to be re-spawning out there. In fact several areas are now completely devoid of monsters, like the inside the 5 km zone” Cindy says .

“That is strange, did someone claim the area?” I ask.

“I do not know, I did not ask that, I completely forgot we could do that.” Cindy says as she begins to pull up the Kingdom status, I do the same.

“What is this? Scott are you seeing this?” Cindy asks in surprise.

“How did this happen?” I ask as I look at the Status, it seems our safe zone is now 2827 km2, “any of you notice this?” I stare at the screen.

“That is what.....about a 30 km radius?” Cindy asks now staring at the screen too.

“I have not paid attention to that, since we were not claiming more territory till we could secure it, like Scott said”, Julie says slowly now looking at her screen.

“You know Scott, it coincides with the Keep upgrades, at 5 km per upgrade” Cindy says waving her finger in the air as if writing something invisible before her. "But why did we not get any Notices to that affect?"she says to herself quietly.

“Are you figuring this out in your head on the fly Cindy?” Julie asks.

“Mmmhhhmmm.” Cindy simply hums.

“So the dream, the 50 km safe zone radius and the level 10 Fortress, that makes sense now too.” I say in thought.

“But we proved the dream was wrong!” says Julie now slightly panic'ed.

“Yes but the dream also said, not all is at it seems, we can make it real or fake” says Ki'Diera, “The curse is broken, so that part should not come to pass”.

“But,....but Doc Snow and Rick?”, asks Julie.

“We will somehow stop it, kitten.” I say to her getting out of bed.

“What do you think you are doing?” Cindy now demands.

“I have to get Aerleras back to the village before nightfall, she still needs to sleep in the trees remember?” I say to her, then look to Aerleras who is engrossed, looking fascinated at screens before her. “Aerleras?”

“hmm? Oh sorry, was looking at everything, Cindy and Julie taught me so much about this stuff, while you were asleep,”, Aerleras say as she looks up at me.

“Did you allocate your unused stat points yet?” I ask.

“No, not yet, I am still trying to understand it all”, Aerleras says, “I find it hard to understand how I, putting a point in strength, makes me physically stronger, or in this dexterity to make me faster.”

“Yeah I understand, it took a while for us to understand that too, but it does for some reason and now that you have PC status, you too, have the same abilities as we do.” I say to her with a smile.

“It took me a while to understand as well, but it improved me greatly, once I used up my points.” Ki'Diera points out.

“So we are what they call PC's, and my people and the Ny'Har'en are all NPC and do not have these screens?” Aerleras asks not fully understanding.”Cindy and Julie explained to me the PC conversion when we took the oath, but I am still not fully understanding the difference”.

“It seems that NPC's have set stats and skill sets, where PC's get extra stat points per level and create their own skills, if they can execute it and understand it, also we can make our own professions”, I say to her, “that is about as far as we can differentiate between the NPC and PC, besides the NPC all have innate magic abilities, while the PC are all initiated to magic, from what we can tell so far.”

“Yes, both you and Ki'Diera had unused stat points after your conversions” Says Cindy.

“I see, hmmm” Aerleras goes into thought.

“We do not need to allocate the points now, there is time for that, we need to fully understand what it is your capable of, such as, can you explain that dark aura?”, I ask Aerleras.

“I ...I am sorry you had to see that”, says Aerleras, her head now bowed with shame.

“Yes, what was that?” Julie asks concerned as well.

“To me, it felt cold and deadly....” Ki'Diera says recalling the image.

“It is an innate ability of the Royal Blood” Aerleras begins to explain.”Those with the Royal Blood can drain the life of others when they pass judgment onto them, draining their life force away. It was my first time using it, it ...it felt horrible when I was using it, it made me sick.”

“Can you use it anytime you want?” Cindy asks.

Aerleras shakes her head, ”No, it only comes out when we of the Royal Blood deem someone guilty and deserving of death for their crimes, which has rarely happened, I only saw my uncle use it once.” she says.

“Who else is of the Royal Blood?”, I ask her.

“I am the last of the linage” she says sadly.

Looking thru her memories, I find, as she said, she was the last, everyone else has died, cousins, uncles aunts, she was indeed alone, like me. I feel my heart go out to her, as I know her pain of being alone, having to deal with everything yourself and not having anyone to talk to, or to vent or share things with, having to bottle it all up and put a cork on it, a cork that can pop off at anytime. I rush forward and take her into my arms, “Aerleras my little one, you are no longer alone, we are here with you, we are now your family” I say to her softly stroking her hair.

As if a flood gate opened, Aerleras cries out, her emotions flaring strongly, taking the breath away from Cindy, Julie and me, even Ki'Diera gasps at the onslaught.

Holding her chest, experiencing it for the first time, Ki'Diera is slightly panting, “So this is what you all feel at times? It is very stimulating” she says as her eyes fall on me, her lust is showing, a reflection of her days in heat. She falls on my back and hugs me tightly.

Julie and Cindy panting, fall to their knees next to Aerleras and grab a hold of her, hugging her too.

“We are here sister, you will never be alone again”, they each say to her soothingly.

The door opens and Doc Snow enters, stops, sees us all on the ground hugging, shakes his head and walks to the desk, “don't wanna know....”.

We break up and stand up quickly,” So Doc, is it ok for me to leave here?”, Aerleras is recovering and the lust is fading.

“And if I said no, would that change anything?”, He asks turning to look at me.

“Probably not”, I say to him laughing.

“Then see you in 2 days as agreed right?” He says simply then begins to run to his desk to give it his undivided attention.

“Umm, can I bother you for another dose, I need to stay with Aerleras tonight”, I ask him sheepishly.

“Me too!” all three girls ask quickly.

I look to them, and Julie quickly answers my look, “She is our sister and we are all in this together right?” She says with big innocent green eyes and a big grin on her face.

I sigh and nod, “for all of us please.”

Doc Snow looks at each of us and shakes his head, but gets up and prepares the dose, “tho you can use this to offset the effects and you are slowly adapting to her, know this does not prevent strong emotions” he says as he works. “Well you are all pregnant not like it matters really.”

“Oh speaking of pregnant, can you tell that Alchemist, umm,, George?” Cindy starts

“George Harland” Doc Snow says still working.

“Yes him, please tell him thank you, those potions really help with the morning sickness.” Cindy says.

“I will, he made them for the Mall Victims to lighten their symptoms, Doc Wilson was grateful when the women stopped vomiting all over themselves.”, Doc Snow says now finishing up a Jet Injector, then approaches us and injects each of us with it, “there, that should last till tomorrow about this time.”

“Thank Doc, you are the best!” Julie says grabbing a hold of Aerleras' arm and beings to lead her out of the infirmary.

“What are we going to do about sleeping arrangements”, I ask, as I remember the bed being tiny and will not fit us all in it.

“That is easily fixed Scott” Aerleras smiles to me.

I do not ask, and we all leave the Infirmary. “I have not eaten since this morning, mind if we grab a bite first?” I ask of them.

They all agree and we head for the Cafeteria, it is now 7:45 pm, so it should be fairly empty. As we get there I see a line, I was mistaken it was packed. “People still standing in line to get in?” I ask amazed.

“Everyone wants to adapt to the Elves as soon as possible,”, Julie says with excitement and smiling, holding Aerleras hand.

“I see, well I hope we can accommodate everyone”, I say to her and smile. As we enter I see the Kings table is already prepared and food is already waiting, Annabelle is standing by with two servants at the table.

“You finally showed up your Majesty, I was hoping you would make it in time so the food would not get cold and old”, she says with a curtsy.

“Thank you Annabelle, as always you amaze me,”, I smile to her thankful of her services.

We sit and are served right away, it looks like mashed potatoes with gravy, grilled pork roast, with corn and peas on the side. Biscuits and butter line a tray. Before each of us is a green leaf salad at which I look in amazement at, it has been a while since we have had a salad.

“The Elves brought them to us, it was wonderful to be able to prepare a salad again, everyone had a bowl”. Annabelle says with happiness.

“Everyone? That is a lot of salad”, I ask in amazement looking to Aerleras.

“Our people can accelerate growth of plants.” she says smiling and taking a bite from her salad.

Our people she said, it struck me, the Elves are now a part of us, and Aerleras was moving forward with that thinking. I smile at the thought. I watch my wives interact with Annabelle, and look around and see Ny'Har'en and Human alike in the cafeteria, some look like couples. I see Johnson with two Ny'Har'en females on either side of him, they look identical in every way, twins is my guess and he now has both of them as his Blood Bonded mates from the way they are interacting with one another.

I even see some female Humans with Ny'Har'en males. It seems the racial barrier is broken and everyone is mingling. A true melting pot of a community is forming. Are we starting a new race of beings here? Half Breeds will eventually be born from all these couples, what about 3 generations from now, when Elves, Human and Ny'Har'en blood all mixes? What will be the final result? These thoughts all come to mind, as I watch all the people here, eating laughing, joking and enjoying each others company.

“Scott? Is everything ok?” Julie asks me putting her hand on my right arm.

“Everything is better than ok kitten.” I say with a smile, feeling the warmth of the room hit me.

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