Another quieter chapter: Dawn

Chapter 66 – Consolidation

Stone realized that he didn’t need a yellow brick road to get to see the wizard. His magic maintained a trail; a long line that connected him to the wizard in the tower, which Wrk said was located in the center of the continent on a large mountain.

When it became clear that the link was not weakening, Stone decided not to follow it immediately, but to help the Kithrens get established. The ship arrived a day or two later, and the crew were surprised to find that they had avoided being in a battle. They also learned that the fairies did not want them on that side of the river, so the dock had to be moved. There was already a small village developing on the mouth of the river, on the east side. One man had built a raft to carry people and goods across the river, and he had good business for the next few days, carrying components of the dock across so it could be rebuilt on the east.

The entire was crew working on the dock, except a small skeleton crew on the ship, so it only took a few days to build the dock. Several Kithrens were adept carpenters and also worked on rebuilding the dock. Others were simple laborers and these men earned money from Stone’s purse in unloading the fish. Stone was happy to pay the Kithrens, since he had seen in Greenstone how important coin was for the community as it grew. Luckily, he had a healthy supply of small coins on the ship, and he was able to pay people with pennies, ha’pennies and forthings rather than silvers and golds. This helped the money spread out as those he paid bought from other.

The fairies knew of a herd of wild mules on the east side and had joined in with a search party that was able to capture 20 Jennies and two Jacks. The beasts were quickly trained, and several wagons were built. The owners of these animals gathered up loads of the dried fish and started out in all direction to sell to the outlying groups of people. The remote people traded fruits and vegetables from their magically-enhanced gardens for the fish and soon a trading network developed.

Houses were built in the little village, and some men built boats. As well as the deep-sea fish coming in from the ship every week or two, they were able to bring in fresh shore-fish every morning. Stone had his houses moved over from the fairie side of the river and set up at the edge of the village, ending the human contact with that side.

But before that happened, Wrk, whose wing had completely healed, came back to Rayla and told her that the ‘pretty ones’ wanted to see her again. She was led back to a different grove from the last time, and met with an older unicorn, with a horn nearly as tall as her body.

“She says she is the queen of the unicorns, and is nearing the end of her life,” Wrk translated. “She wants you to have her horn as payment for saving them in the battle.”

“Can she live without the horn?” Rayla asked.

“No, she can’t,” Wrk said. “She will die when it is harvested. You would have to cut it free with a knife or sword. She doesn’t mind dying: she says her time is near anyway.”

Rayla was repulsed. “I could never do that. With a knife? Yecch. Tell her thanks are enough of a reward to me.”

Wrk relayed the message, and the unicorn looked confused. “She has never met anyone who would refuse a unicorn horn. They are so valuable. If you won’t take hers, she asks that you take one of the ancients.”

The queen whinnied and soon three younger looking animals appeared. They led Rayla a long way into the forest, and then stopped, arguing amongst themselves for a few minutes. Wrk relayed the problem.

“No one other than pretty ones have ever seen this site, and they question the queen for suggesting that we can see it. But she is the queen and rules absolutely,” the fairie said.

With that two of the beasts used their horns to push aside vines, revealing a cave. All five walked in, and when the vines fell back over the door, the sun was blocked out. But the cave was not dark. Lying on the cave floor were nearly 100 horns, glowing and gently emitting light that lit the room as well as whale lamps could.

“These are the horns of the ancestors,” Wrk translated. “The pretty ones use this spot to come and pray to, and talk with, their forebearers. You are to choose one to take. They only ask that you take one from the middle of the pile. The ones at the far end are those of the original pretty ones, and the ones at the near end are recent deaths, within the last 1000 years, and many in the herd still remember them, and would not like to lose those memories.”

“If I take a horn, then they will forget that unicorn?” Rayla asked.

“Not immediately, but after a few years the memories would fade. Only the magic of the horns keeps the memories alive. And of course they would no longer be able to talk to the ancients.”

“That is almost as bad as slicing the horn off the queen,” Rayla said. “I don’t need a unicorn horn and won’t take one if it means the loss of a departed member of the tribe.”

The three young unicorns argued again when Wrk translated Rayla’s wishes to them. Finally, they all walked back to the queen, where it took some time for the young ones to explain to the queen.

“You must have a boon,” the queen said. “If not one of the treasured horns, then something using the power of the horns.” She whinnied again as Wrk translated, and soon five more animals came out of the woods, more mature than the first three, but nowhere as old as the queen, who whinnied instructions to them.

“She wants you to stand very still,” Wrk said as the eight pretty ones formed a semicircle around them. Soon Rayla felt magic power radiating from the horns. She had felt Stone’s magic in the past. This was both the same, and different. More feminine. After a few minutes their horns dipped and they moved closer, touching her skin between her blouse and her pants. Then they lowered her pants with the horn, and she was amazed to feel that at least three of the horns were in her vagina, and she could feel a tingling within her. Finally, they all backed away, whinnied to the queen, and departed into the forest.

Rayla gasped. The sensations were better than an orgasm. She could still feel the tingling inside of her. She looked down at Wrk.

“It is a boon with mixed blessings,” the fairie said. “The queen read your mind and was quite certain you would take the good parts in spite of the bad.”

“What are the good parts?” Rayla asked.

“You are now a human woman,” the fairie explained. “Look at your stomach.”

Rayla did and saw that she now had a belly button. A rather cute one, she thought, although it looked odd sitting on what had for so long been a blank area. She smiled at it.

“What is the bad?” she asked.

“Several things. You will have the normal human reactions once a month. You will also start to age, but you are still 18, just as you have been for the last 10 years. And you can give birth, if you are not careful. Finally, your breasts are not as large as they were. Without magic to support them they would grow painful.”

“The last of those counts as a good thing,” Rayla said. “And to give Stone another child … or several …”

“You might not feel that way when giving birth,” Wrk said. “I understand that the human birthing is not a comfortable affair.”

“Tell the queen that I graciously accept her boon and thank her for it.”

The girl and the fairie made their way back to the river. Rayla felt different somehow. She came across Emily and Sissy at the camp, which was being dismantled. When they found out that she had gone to see the unicorns without them, they were upset. After Rayla told what happened, they were ecstatic.

Rayla decided not to tell her busy husband until the evening. When she did, he found that making love to his wife was not all that much different than before. Yes, she had smaller breasts, but they were still larger than almost all women on this world. Her clothes had changed when the transformation took place, and Sissy had already started to alter the spare clothes to fit.

The next morning Stone woke refreshed and said that the family would head off to the wizard in one week. That gave everyone time to pack and get ready, and for the Kithrens to be able to work without them. Kalosun was seen as the leader of the people and decided that he would remain in the new village as leader. Stone gave him an ample supply of money, with instructions to be liberal in spending it. Kalo had built a small hut on a nearby hill and preached from it daily. Many people came to listen to him daily, but everyone seemed to show up once a week. The people were still traumatized by what the wizard had put them through in the transformations, and many people needed Kalosun’s gentle preaching to find ease.

In a week they were ready. Stone rode Doug, of course, and Jason rode Pinky. Rayla, Emily and Sissy walked since they were travelling at a slow speed. Wrk had gotten permission from the fairie princess to accompany them and spent most of the time nestled into Rayla’s now smaller cleavage. There was one pack wagon with the baggage and food. It was this that controlled the pace of the trip: the mules did not like moving too fast. There was a bench on the rear of the wagon and from one to three of the women could ride on it if they tired of walking.

Arthur did not make the trip, although he kept them in range for the first few days. Stone wanted him to stay behind to protect the dried fish from gulls, and also so they would have contact with the ship. Stone had left the captain with a series of detailed instruction in code so that he could use the raptor as a way of communicating with the ship, at sea or in port. Rayla was not in favor of this idea, since she had been in contact with Arthur every day for 10 years, even longer than she had known Stone. But she agreed to the need, and let the bird stay in town. If nothing else, it allowed the travelers to know what was happening in the village. Wrk could fly easily now, and was 10 times the speed of the bird. So she became the advance warning system.

On the evening of third day of the trip Wrk appeared in front of Stone, clearly agitated. “There are centaurs out there. Only 100 or so, making camps in early afternoon and travelling at night and early mornings.”

“Only 100? They had nearly 1000 when they fled from the battle. Why would they only use 100?” Jason asked from Pinky’s back.

“I have been thinking about this for some time,” Stone replied thoughtfully. “Some of the magic I retained helps me understand. The wizard apparently draws his power from his creations. When we defeated him, he lost a great deal of magic. He might rue letting so many of the centaurs re-manifest into Kithrens. It would have been a massive loss of power. But now I think he needs to keep 900 at his tower to provide magic for the 100 trailing us.”

“But we can kill 100 easily,” Jason said. “You could do it yourself, let alone with Mom and I.”

“Yes, in a daylight raid while we are prepared,” Stone said. “But I think they want to surprise us with a night attack. Catch us when we are sleeping, so to speak.”

“But now we know where they are, so we can be ready,” Jason said with a smile.

“Yes. And remember, attack only the horse parts. These are transformed people. Save as many of them as we can.”