Book 2 C 31 Trial and Error

We all awake panting, looking to one another.

“What was that?”, Julie says panic'ed, then bends forward while sitting in bed, “gahh my head....”.

“Cindy your nose is bleeding”, Ki'Diera remarks looking at Cindy intently.

“So is yours Ki'Diera, ugh my head hurts”, Cindy say in return, grabbing her head with her hands.

“All of us are bleeding, look at our pillows.” Aerleras comments looking at our pillows and we all see the pools of blood gathered around us.

“We finally met those who are doing this, my head hurts too,” I say to them, looking to each of the girls to see blood on their faces. I use the back of my hand and pull it across my nose and it comes away bloody. All if us have a headache.

We access each others minds as it is faster this way to see what we saw and learned. We found the three beings as we each saw them in each others minds. The discussion, the dreams of the two realities, the game, and they wanting us to kill them within 18 years. Then we find a hidden message, remember not all is as it seems, not all is real or fake, only you can decide, beware the bald man.

We come to the conclusion that all, none, or some can be real, or a combination of each. That left us no where to be honest. We had till 1 year after the birth of the children or we had up till then to prepare for whatever is going to attack the Fortress. So 1 year and seven months or so till those events come to pass of what we saw in our dream. Beware the bald man, surely means that five star general from the dream.

I check my watch , it is 6:30 am. We decide to get up and agree, that to worry too, much right now would do us no good, and work on a plan of action. Julie heals us to stop the bleeding. In the good dream we had Griffins, hovercraft, new weapons and armored Golems. In the second dream, it seems we took no action and became complacent and got overrun. So setting up a goal to make dream one happen was our priority now.

I get up and head downstairs. I see Ariannona and Welissa sitting on chairs and looking up, staring at me with mixed expression, Welissa is staring intently but blushing hard, a deep deep red, but her eyes never leave me, while Ariannona is smiling a mischievous grin.

“(Good Morning your Majesty it is good to see you are up and healthy this morning)”, she says looking not at my face, but further down, sporting that grin, her eyes seem to have a hunger in them.

I look down and see I am nude and my manhood is at full attention, “oh Shit! Equip preset 1!”, I cry out turning my back to them, grabbing my crotch area.

“(I ..I am sorry, I sleep like that to get a good nights rest)”, I say to her honestly, turn back around fully clothed in my armor, visor up.

“(I am sure our Queens appreciate it as well,)” she says amused.”(that you get a good nights sleep that is)”, she adds.

“(That...that, was a man's.....,)”,Welissa says in a dream like state.

“(Little one you are not old enough to be thinking such thoughts.)” Arionnona says to Welissa

“(I'l have you know I will be 127 soon,)”, Welissa defends herself.

“(Tsk, young ones these days, seem to think they know it all with no life experience under them.)” Ariannona shakes her head, then looks back at me,” (we will prepare breakfast right away, your Majesty, will the Queens be joining you?)” she asks.

“(Yes they will be right down.)” I say and Aerleras is coming down the stairs, nude as well. She walks in thought, her long golden hair all around her, radiant this morning, her 5'8” frame, slender and fit, her big breasts bounce with a vigor with each step. Her violet eyes looking down at her bare slender feet, as she steps down the stairs.

“(Ah to be young again,)” Ariannona sighs seeing her beloved Princess.

Aerleras freezes in place, sees the two of them and blushes, turns and runs back up the stairs, her tiny butt barely visible thru her golden hair. Welissa simply stares on in deep thought, her cheeks still flushed.

“(Let's go Welissa and get the breakfast ready. Your Majesty we took the liberty to clean up in here, I trust you will find it acceptable)”, Ariannona says bows and they leave the room.

I continue down the stairs and head for the door and go outside, their air is crisp, but warmer, summer is approaching now. The air is clean and fresh, and a slight breeze is felt. Various greetings come from all directions, bidding me good morning, I wave back to each and nod. Aerleras, now dress in her white Huntress Robes, joins me outside as does Cindy dressed in her Fire Mage Robes, both grab onto my arms and lean in on me placing their heads against me while holding onto me. I am holding the banister while looking out towards the sunrise.

“A new day begins” I sigh, thinking out loud.

“It is unbelievable is it not, to think all this is happening because another race wants to experience death.” Cindy says quietly.

“I am not even sure where to begin to be honest, I feel as if the entire world is on my shoulders now.” I say to them both, at that time Julie dressed in her Healer outfit carrying her white staff with the blue gem, and Ki'Diera is dressed in her warrior brown leathers, Sword and dagger visible at her sides, joins us as well.

“We do what we can my warrior, not more, not less.” Ki'Dira says with a sigh looking to the sunrise as well.

“I feel, that may not be enough my princess.” I confess to her.

“Then look to us for strength my Husband, as we too, shared the dream, so you are not alone.” Says Aerleras, standing on her tip toes and kisses me lightly on the cheek.

“We said this before, but now more than ever Scott, all of us have to be as one on this, you can not do it alone.” ,Cindy says to me softly grabbing my hand into hers.

“You know, I have been thinking, as one we share each others abilities and skills, what if we can learn them as our own too while being one, the skills that is” Julie says in thought.

We all turn as one and look to Julie, who looks back with a, do I have something on my face, look.

“You know what, you are right Julie, you are absolutely right. What was it Lisa Roberts said? Given time as an apprentice we can learn others people skills?” I ask of the girls.

Each nods, Aerleras too, who shared our memories of that conversation.

“But that was to learn the profession itself.” Cindy interjects.

“Ah, but we do not have to accept the profession and simply learn the skills associated to them can we not?” I ask her.

“It does seem plausible, but to what purpose? As one, we are more powerful and already have access to the skills....” Cindy starts to say then stops.”No way......” she gasps.

I nod and smile.

The others, at first are lost at the exchange, then Julie accessing the subconscious laughs, “Reality Manipulation!”

“Bingo!” I shout and point to her smiling.

“As one we do not use it except when we use your Rifle, the application itself seems more to support and outfit than offensive in nature.” Cindy says in thought,” but that does not limit it to such, since we still have yet to explore it's true potential and with five of us exploring in different directions, we may find more to it than we know now.” she continues.

“And as we discover things we can join as one and teach the others by directly doing so as one.” I say to her finishing her thought.

“But how do we gain it?” Asks Ki'Diera uncertain

“We will have to merge as one and learn the skills as we do them. As one we can see exactly what the others are doing and how they do it as they do it. Imagine if we each had Aerleras teleport ability individually? Or Ki'Diera's body enhancements. Cindy's fire aura or Julie's healing ability and of course Reality Manipulation.” I ask and say to them. “I also do not believe we must apprentice to learn skills, but simply be able to execute and understand the skill to learn it the first time. It is how I got unarmed combat and my other skills, I had no profession at the time.”

“So which do we learn first?” Julie asks.

“I do not think there is a first as each will learn a skill at their own pace, we just have to go with the intention of learning the skill we desire while as one and watch and learn it. Then when we are split up try to execute the skill from what we have learned.” I say to them.

“Oh this is getting exciting now, we could teleport all over at will. I could get so much more work done.” Julie smiles

We all agree with that sentiment. At that time Ariannona and Welissa return with trays of food and a pitcher of fresh juice. Then a familiar smell hits me, one that has not been around for some time now, I see some fried ham on the tray. “where did you get that?” I ask almost not believing my eyes.

“Our Hunters found a dwelling with some pinkish creatures around it, lots of them it seems wandering the fields there, your Majesty.” Ariannona answers.

“You found pigs?” I ask in wonder.

“Yes and some large black docile creatures as well, tho we have yet to do anything with them yet, but they seemed to not mind us at all. The black ones are all over an entire expanse, very spread out, your Majesty” Ariannona replies smiling.

“We must quickly gather up those animals and get them to the livestock handler.” I say to her excitedly,” please send every available Elf for this task, then contact Alexander when they are inside the outer walls, we will get them penned up right away. “

“Yes your Majesty, had we known how valuable they were to you, we would have let you have known sooner.”, Ariannona says and bows.

“Please, understand just finding them is a blessing in itself.”, I say, hoping she understand the value of the information she gave me.

We quickly eat and enjoy our meals, the ham was delicious, savoring each bite of it. Then we teleport to find Alexander and inform him of the situations. Next we find the livestock handler, Konrad Rathowski, a polish immigrant second generation, who moved here long ago as a small child with his parents at the age of 4 from Poland, he is an only child, now married of 42 years, but they never had any kids as she was unable to conceive much to their regret.

He is 5'11” tall, now 18 looking from his former 62 years of age, his blonde hair is kept neat and short, his eyes are brown and lively, excited with the prospect of starting over. His build is lean, no fat, but not muscular either as he wears blue jeans overalls with a blue and white striped flannel shirt, sleeves rolled up. He has handsome features for a male and sports a mustache kept neat as well.

“Ja, you give us ze pigs and cows and ve vill takes good cares of zem.”, he says with a thick polish accent, his parents taught him only Polish and some Russian, as they barely spoke English, he never broke the habit when he went to school, never graduating, going to work for his sick Dad on their livestock farm at the age of 15, later taking over the family business at his Dad's passing when he was 23.

He met the neighbor's daughter Emily, they grew up together and later married. They led a happy, but lonesome life of no children. Emily, is 5”6' tall, short brown hair, hazel eyes, fair looking for a woman, C cup breasts, wearing a blue spring dress she made herself, she was our seamstress and loved to sew and make things out of cloth and other items. Fancy looking pillow cases, curtains, dresses, and various other items, she has a talent for it. She married Konrad at 17, and never left his side since.

One could say true love, as 42 years later they still hold hands and hug each other, giving each other a kiss in public, not caring if seen by those around them, who watch the two love birds. What made them even happier, is the fact, for the first time Emily is now pregnant, confirmed by Doc Snow. She is entering into her second month, and she is absolutely beaming in happiness these days. Not everything was bad with these events, some miracles took place too. She was no longer barren and I foresee lots of kids from them in the future, to make up for a lifetime of none.

We enlist the aid of our builders to get a livestock farm, pens and kennels set up. This is given priority one, as word travels like wildfire that pigs and cows have been found. Later on the day the first trickle in, pigs, 6 of them oinking and squealing, being herded by the Elves to the North outer gate, then taken over by guards and humans who lead them to the awaiting pig pens prepared by Konrad and the Builders.

The sight is an emotional one for many, to see animals once again, alive and full of life. Hope for the future is symbolized here.

We head into the courtyard of the Keep area and see the Griffins, all six laying around, Ki'Diera goes to greet hers, then we see Miller laying among them his back up against one not moving.

“What is he doing?” I ask one of the Elites on guard there.

“He said something about becoming one with them, so far they do not seem to mind him.”, the guard shrugs.

After greeting and petting the Griffin, we head for the Council Room. Our map had been zoomed in on the 5 km safe zone as that was our focus. I zoom the map out and see our whole area now. We now border with Farmington. With this next upgrade, we will encroach into it and beyond with later upgrades. We will need to clear it out and salvage what we can from there.

Julie went to work right away and is looking over potential people for more Super Soldier recruits. Cindy wants a few more Fire Mage apprentices as well to assign to some of her current Fire Mages. Aerleras is looking over the map too, looking over the east side where the Elves are exploring and searching. Ki'Dira stayed with her Griffin to spend some time with it.

Montgomery arrives and we go over future plans of Farmington. Clearing the west to there is a priority, clearing the road of vehicles and creatures. I look to my watch and it is almost time for the rush job to be activated for finishing upgrade 8. I need to talk to the Builders to explain the plans of the fifth floor and the garden area.

I am heading out to find a Builder, Julie and Cindy stay behind looking over the candidates, Aerleras joins me, when a group of 5 intercept us, it is the other pilots from Miller's group.

“Chief, if you have a minute” one asks.

“Sure what is it?” I ask them.

“We would like to become Griffin Riders too” he says to me.”We know we can not get Griffins yet, but we will work hard to level up and gain their trust to become one as soon as possible”. He says eagerly to me, the others are nodding their approval of his words.

“Well I am not sure how this is going to play out, but I have no objections, if that is what you want to do.” I say to them. “all of you are in agreement on this?”

They all smile and nod to me.

“Then kneel and take the oath and swear loyalty to me.” I say to them.

As one they all kneel, heads bowed. I clear my throat, “do you swear loyalty to me, the King, to protect the people and these lands from this day forth?” I ask of them.

“Aye, I swear” they say as one.

“Then as King, I bestow upon you the profession, Royal Griffin Rider, protectors of our sky's” I say to them.”Rise Royal Griffin Riders!”

“Royal Griffin Rider?” says one quickly as white light envelops them all briefly and fades.

“Erm? Did I mess the title up?” I ask.

“Not sure Chief, Miller is just a Griffin Rider, he said nothing of Royal”, says the man who is speaking for the group.

“Check your profession and stats” I say quickly wondering if I goofed.

They all begin to check and begin to laugh.”Miller is going to be so Jealous!”

“Yeah, he has been throwing it on our faces all night and morning with that smug look of his. I can not wait to see his face when he sees this!” says another amused.

“Is there something different?”, I ask not understanding.

On by one they begin to put on their armors, and equip a large black lance each, a mini mana enhanced Gatling gun is there as well, same as before, but their armor was gold in color, outlined in a dark red, with red shoulder pads.

“The lance does not have the same stat bonus as millers, but the rest sure makes up for it hahaha.” cries one. They look like true Royal guards, red plumes come from their helmets,” get this, we get a 33% bonus to tame Griffins.” say another.

“Thank you Chief!” they all beam in delight, then head out to confront Miller.

Aerleras, “ Interesting Scott, by adding Royal you upgraded their profession....”.

“I was thinking Royal for some reason and it just came out that way, I had been envisioning a flight of Royal Griffin Riders fighting those dragons, their lances penetrating those thick hides of theirs.” I say shaking my head, “well good thing it worked out” I say smiling as we head to find a Builder.

It did not take long to find one. He then escorts us to the roof where the fifth floor will be built. We go over the details of the garden and he smiles assuring us it will be done as we ask. I then order the rush job, I almost choke at the number and with a shaky voice say yes. 76 million to do the job, almost half our treasury.

Composing myself, ”ok let go see Terry and his guys.", I say to Aerleras. She nods and I close my eyes and teleport to his location.

I look around to find Terry at the Motor-pool. Aerleras appears next to me, her face is shocked and stunned.

“Scott!” she cries out to me.

“Aerleras is everything ok?” I ask worried seeing her face.

“You teleported!” She says, her expression is now one of wonder.

“I uhh.....we always teleport when together...I...” I begin, not understanding right away, then the Notice appears.

NOTICE! Skill Awarded Teleportation MasteryCongratulations!! For successfully performing Teleportation Mastery,

you have acquired the skill Teleportation Mastery.

Level 1 +50% success

Must see target or know target area

If target area can not be seen -1% per 50 meters

If Target area is not known -1% per km

Can teleport others (Skill level /25) (available at skill level 25)

Benefits: +10 Int +5% mana pool

Skill level 1

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