The Quantum Wanderer

It is finally Saturday. I wake up a little excited about the barbecue. We all go down for breakfast. As always, there is a lot of food on the table. As always, even after we the humans finish eating, the dragonesses as well as Huginn and Muninn are still having their fill.

Rudolph approaches the table.

“Lord, Roberta was thinking of doing preparations in the party venue. She asked me if you could open a portal?”

I stop to think for a little bit. The few times we had other people there were always accompanied by either the girls or me.

“Opal, do you think it could be dangerous for them to go there alone? Should one of us go there as well?”

She tilts her head a little. She turns to Rudolph.

“Can you ask them to come here?”

Rudolph goes inside the kitchen and comes back with Roberta accompanied by two other maids. Opal swallows the piece of steak she was chewing on. She gets closer to Roberta, and does a deep sniff.

“There is less of your smell than desirable, my lord. Why don’t you mark them?”

Roberta has a poker face on her, but the other two maids are a little worried.

“What do you mean?” I ask Opal.

Cecilia is paying attention to the conversation. Opal sighs, as if this was a completely normal task.

“You place some of your smell on them. There are several ways, really. They could use some clothing of yours with them. Underwear is the best. A very sweat shirt will work as well. You could just rub your crotch, or a little pee would make wonders.”

Cecilia burst out laughing. The two maids that were scared apparently relax a little. Still, we are not doing any of that.

I might just ask Troggar’s help. Nothing a chunk of kraken wouldn’t solve.

I stand up, the girls stop eating. I turn to them.

“You can keep eating, I am going to be back shortly.” I turn to Roberta. “Just a minute, I am going to call Troggar, he is going to stay with  you to make sure you are safe there.”

“Thank you, lord.” Roberta says, bowing.

“No worries.”

I go the living room. I open a portal to the mouth of Troggar’s cave.

“TROGGAR!”

I shout to him.

The huge pair of eyes appear inside the cave shadows. Then those eyes come closer, and Troggar becomes visible.

He does the salute that the dragons always do, bowing his head and inverting their wings.

“How can I be of help, my lord?”

“Good morning. I intend on having a party on the beach. I need some help.”

“It is an honor, lord. What can I do?”

“The people that are going there at first are not able to fight. I need someone to make sure they are safe.”

“Of course, lord.”

“Another question… Are there monsters in the sea, close to the coast?”

“Mostly fish, my lord. Nothing of concern.”

“Thank you. Please go to the beach of my wedding, I will meet you there in a little bit.”

“Of course, lord.”

With this, Troggar takes flight. I open a portal back home, to the dining room. I jump out and close it. Roberta and Rudolph are still around my chair. I turn to them.

“Do you want me to open the portal in the kitchen?”

“That works, lord.”

We go into the kitchen, to a corner. I open a portal there, big enough for three people to pass through, shoulder to shoulder. The smell of salt enters the ambient. I go through it. A moment later, Roberta comes after me.

Troggar is already arriving there. He lands on the sand, and bows again. I gesture him to just relax his posture.

He lays on the sand. I turn to Roberta.

“Roberta, I think you might remember Troggar from my wedding. He is going to make sure you and the girls are safe. If you need anything, you can ask him.”

Troggar lowers his imense head, looking at Roberta. He sniffs once.

“It is as my lord says, human. If anything can be done to satisfy my lord, let me know.”

Roberta bows to him.

“Thank you, sir.”

Troggar turns to me.

“The smells that are coming from your magic bubble are fantastic, my lord. But don’t worry, I will guard your servants.”

“Thank you. Now, if you don’t mind, the girls and I are also going to get ready for the party.”

Troggar bows his head, I jump through the portal. Of course, there is some sand on my feet. I go to the back door, and I clean my feet there.

I go back to the dinning room, and I sit on my chair. The girls are about to finish eating.

“There, “ I say, “Roberta is safe now in the beach.”

“Which was it, father? Piss or crotch?” Muninn asks.

“Troggar.” I reply.

“That would make for really weird job ad if we ever needed to hire more people. ‘Maid needed. Has to be peed on every other week.’” Muninn answers.

I just shrug. It’s not like one can always spit out a funny joke. Shandon finishes eating, and she has a really happy face to her. She is looking at me intently. I look at the other girls. Ruby and Aquamarine also have a smile on them. Opal has her chest puffed out.

I look at them, trying to understand.

“What happened?” I ask them.

“You are such a romantic, my lord!” Shandon says.

“What do you mean?”

Ruby stands up, comes to me, and places herself between me and the table, hugging me. She moves her crotch against my leg.

“We are happy that you only marked us. And sister Cecilia, of course.”

She kisses me. Cecilia and Muninn are laughing. I hug Ruby back.

“Of course, my loves.” I say.

Note to self: beware of where my smell ends up. But then again, I was free to play with the vestals and I am not interested on other women, so that changes nothing.Ruby is satisfied after a little while, we go upstairs to get ready. It doesn’t take long. We dress up in our beach clothing. I also grab my bag of holding. It contains our volleyball set, the poles, the special net and the steel ball for the girls to play.

I open the portal, and we all go to the beach in Drakonia. The girls, the brâns, and the in-laws. Troggar is there, laying around, while the maids are preparing some shade umbrellas and carrying some crates with condiments.

I plant the poles in the sand, and prepare the net. I put on some ribbons that I had got with the elves, I pin them to the sand, creating an improvised court.

There are still a little time to start opening the portal for the guests. I decide extend my mana towards the sea to check if there are any hostile beings.

I sense a fish, a big one. It is around 50 feet long. I get close to Cecilia.

“Cecs, you are the one that knows about monsters… There is something in the water. Reasonably big.”

“How big?”

“Around 50 feet.”

She lets out a whistle. I continue.

“I wanted us to be able to swim in the sea. Do you think that thing would attack?”

“How far is it?”

“Around a half a mile off.”

Aquamarine was listening to us, she looks towards the sea. She goes in the water, up to her shoulders. She stays a minute, and then comes back.

I extend my mana senses again, and the fish is swimming away. Aquamarine comes back to the beach, smiling at us. I tilt my head.

“Do you know what it was?”

“Oh, nothing much, just a megalodon. Sometimes they get close to the coast. A couple of miles to the south there is a place where some sea elephants go to as a nursery.”

“Did you release some pheromones in the water?”

“Why would I do that?”

“To scare it away…?”

She smiles.

“No, my lord. I just peed. They run away when they smell dragon in the water.”

I massage my temples for a couple of seconds. I think about complaining to Troggar that he didn’t tell us about the shark in the water. But then I look at Aquamarine, and I realize that I asked him if there was anything dangerous in the water.

I massage my temples a little more. I take a look around, and everything is set.

Huginn contacts Andrew with a bird and opens a portal for him. He comes through the portal. He looks at Troggar, laying down on the sand close by and repeats his joke.

“Your friend is well fed, right?”

I extend my hand out, he shakes it.

“Father, father! Is that breakfast?”

Muninn, in his large size, asks from behind Andrew. Andrew keeps his face cool. He does squeezes my hand a little more, though.

I tilt my head towards Muninn. Huginn, also in her large shape, hits him on the side of the head.

“They are all well fed. I think.” I giggle a couple of times. “Now let me bring in the other guests.”

I reach in the bag of holding, and I pull out the Comm Gems I am going to use. The first one is Dávrin’s.

“Good morning, friend!” He answers.

“Good morning. Are you all ready?”

“We were born with hammer and anvil, friend!”

I open a portal, and out comes the group. Dávrin, Dyrgja, Dalvina, Brokkr and Ildra. Cecilia and Andrew are by my side, they exchange pleasantries with the dwarves, while I proceed with the next Comm Gem.

I open the portal for the demons. Out comes Rajesh, Aisha and Rutra. After them Sidhu, Lakshimi and Viraj. They step aside, the and vestals start pouring out. There are some carrying stuff that I recognize as  stands for music sheets, instruments, among other things.

Once they pass through the portal, they kowtow in front of me and the girls.

“You can stand.” I tell them. They stand up, and only then take a look around. Their eyes are first drawn to the dragon lazing around, only a quarter of a mile off. Then they see the glass construction that is the palace and church where our wedding happened.

Andrew approaches me.

“Lad, what are those? Why are they dressed like that? Is that a new thing among the demons?”

“Oh, those are my vestals. I am not even sure how this happened, but Sidhu created a church around the Great Adventurer among the demons. The best description I have for those girls is vestals…?”

“What do you mean?”

“Kind of like nuns for the Great Adventurer.”

“Do you mean… You?”

I shrug. I am a little embarrassed. He laughs.

Sidhu claps his hands.

“ATTEN…TION!”

The girls stand up and get in formation. They form a square of six by six, with increasing height. They are all facing Sidhu.

“REMEMBER WHAT YOU CAME HERE FOR! SHOW HIS GODDLINESS THAT YOU ARE WORTHY! SHOW HIM THAT I DID NOT PICK WRONG!”

“SIR YES SIR!” The girls answer, in a single voice.

“DISMISSED! Go do your jobs!”

The group split apart. Some girls go over to talk to Roberta, while other girls choose a place, and start assembling something that would look like a stage. I walk there and I use some earth magic to create a foot tall platform of compact sand, so that the girls can perform their music.

I get the next Comm Gem, this one I use to get in touch with Autumnstart.

“Good morning, friend!”

“Good afternoon, Autumnstart. Are you guys ready?”

“Afternoon?”

“Don’t worry, you will see. Are you guys ready?”

“Yes, friend!”

I open a portal, and Autumnstart comes through, with his wife. He walks slowly, cautiously. His wife is behind him. They stand frozen for several moments. They look at the glass construction, and then their eyes fall on Troggar.

I decide to give them time to sort out how they are. I leave their portal open, and I turn to Huginn.

“Huginn, can you please open the portal for Edward and his people?”

Huginn simply nods. Autumnstart looks at Huginn. I thought he had seen her in this shape already, but I could be mistaken.

Huginn closes her eyes for a little while. After a couple of moments, she opens a portal in front of her.

From the portal the little girl wearing a golden armor comes out running, arms stretched behind her, laughing.

“Your highness!” Sophia greets Huginn, bowing.

Addrianna comes right after her, running as well. Edward comes walking, with Cesar, Caius and Anthon.

Sophia stands erect. She looks around. Then she starts looking for something. She slowly gets sad. She looks at me with puppy eyes, but then notices her mother close, and gives up. I walk over to Huginn, and signal her to lower her head a little bit.

“Say, do you know what is going on?”

“The hatchling was expecting to meet Piotr, papa.”

“Oh!”

I have completely forgotten about Piotr. Truth is, he did help me in the past, he always seemed upstanding to me. I make a mental note. I take a look at the groups. There is a group with the guys and another one formed by women. The group by the women were talking about nail painting right now, the group of men were talking about commerce numbers and taxes.

The next Comm Gem is the one to Leopold.

“Hi Marcelo.”

“Hi Leopold. Are you guys ready?”

“Yes.”

I open the portal, and both of them come through, holding hands.

They do a light bow to me. I extend my index finger up, indicating that I still need a minute to have everyone brought in. The next group is Akiko, Hikari and the baby. I take a look around, the maids have already set several areas with sunshades, there are a lot of juices and drinks.

I wave at Huginn. When she looks at me, I mouth the word ‘Akiko’. She nods. She goes through the same process, and shortly after, Akiko and Hikari, with the baby in her arms, come through the portal.

I open a portal to Piotr’s cave entrance. The big eyes in the dark open, he approaches me. He assumes the position of lowered head, his wings inverted, neck displayed.

“Good morning, my lord. How can I serve you?”

“Good morning, Piotr. You can stand. There is nothing I really need. I am having a small party in Drakonia, as in right now. Do you want to come?”

His tail hits the ground a couple of times.

“If my lord would have me, of course!”

I open a portal, big enough for him to pass through, and we both go through it. Once we land on the beach, Sophia again comes running our way.

“Mister Piotr Dragon!” After some steps, she concludes. “Uncle, you didn’t forget him!”

Piotr lays his head on the sand, the little girl hugs the tip of the nose. Piotr lets out a low well humored laughter.

“Nice to see you again as well, hatchling.”

I take a look at the people around. They are staring at Sophia with different reactions. Addrianna is massaging her temples. Brokkr and Dávrin are laughing. Ildra and Dyrgja are looking at Addrianna, with what looks like a pitying look.

Anthon and Edward are just laughing at the situation.

Addrianna approaches. Aquamarine comes after her.

“Well, you met your dragon friend, now let’s get back to the people.”

“No! Please, mama, let me stay with mister Piotr.”

Addrianna has one arm around her, while the other hand holds the bridge of her nose. She looks at me, I shrug. Aquamarine jumps in the discussion.

“If I may, Piotr’s normal post is taking care of hatchlings…”

I look at Piotr.

“Do you want to keep an eye on her? This is not an order.”

“Yes, my lord. The hatchling is… entertaining.”

I turn to Addrianna and I shrug. Sophia makes these puppy eyes that surpasses anything I have ever seen. And I have had dogs begging for food. I start to consider if she is mastering some sort of skill in it.

“Fuck it! Fine! But behave! Don’t do anything stupid!”

“I promise, mama!”

Addrianna and I go back to the human groups. There is a single group now, that is around Hikari. She has taken some of Toshiro’s clothes off, the tail is showing. He is sitting on her lap, she is holding him there.

“I have seen my fair share of sentient beings, but I don’t really recognize his race. His mana flow feels… Different. Is his father human?”

“His father was completely human, I am the one that is not.” Hikari says.

Autumnstart receives a bump from his wife, she whispers something in his ear.

“I apologize, I should not be prying.”

“Don’t worry. To tell you the truth, there is already so much secrecy around this child that being around people that I can talk to is a breath of fresh air.”

Autumnstart inspects Hikari.

”I am sorry to intrude again, but your child has a different mana… Tune  than you.”

”We had that removed when she was born… It is a rather long and story…”

Curiosity is clear in Autumnstart’s face, but he gives up on inquiring any further.

”He grew up a lot!” Lucille exclaims, ”It is not common this level of development in that age.”

”What do you mean?” Akiko asks. ”It is pretty much the same development Hikari went through.”

”Based on what he looks like now, I would guess he is six months old, not two. Human children in that age still needs support for the neck. Let along sitting down.” Lucille says.

Addrianna nods. I wasn’t aware of this. I look at the guys, they don’t look knowledgeable at all.

The girls excuse themselves and go in the glass construction to change into their swim wear. I do the same. I change into a pair of swimming trunks. My girls change into bikinis. They end up mirroring their personalities.

Cecilia wears a comfortable one. Ruby is wearing a dental floss. Opal’s bikini is an elaborate one, with some frills and golden and purple details on top, to a white bottom. Aquamarine is wearing a blue one, while Shandon is wearing a white.

Caius is staring at the vestals. He approaches Sidhu cautiously, and talks something to him. He hears some longer explanation, then he turns to me, with eyes wide open. He coughs a couple of times, and goes back to the group of kids.

I turn to the girls.

”Girls, do you want to play volleyball?”

”Yes, my lord!” Ruby answers.

I reach for my bag of holding, it is our stretch chairs. I pull out the solid steel ball, and pass it to Ruby.

”Already, sister?” Shandon asks.

”Perhaps later would be better? Let’s have a dip first.” Aquamarine says.

”Fine.”

Ruby throws the ball, that sucks into the sand with a solid ’thud’.

Lucille and Charles guide the other guests inside the glass construction, in the bedrooms, to change into more appropriate clothing. Brokkr stays behind a little bit, he crouches close to the ball that is half buried in the sand and pokes it.

He smiles, stands up and goes in the structure to change as well.

I leave my bag of holding on one of the portable chaises and go in the sea for a dip. I go past the girls, until the water is up to my chest. The girls approach. Ruby turns her back to me and then let me hug her. The other girls are encircling me.

Even Huggin decided to come over, she assumed her smaller size and she is floating on a kind of ice boat.

I feel myself floating on the water, it is really relaxing. I have always had this connection to the sea, I have always enjoyed entering the water whenever I went to a beach in Rio. The lack of weight, the waves going through before they are completely formed, just a bump bringing one up and down.

Everyone comes down, they join us in the water. Hikari and Akiko stay a little bit with the baby in the really shallow part, just allowing the baby to touch the wet sand.

“Are you sure this is safe, lord Marcelo?”

Dávrin asks. I created a small plateau of sand close to us, it is a little shallower than where we are standing.

“The only danger is the lack of swimming abilities. We could, for next time, prepare some closed leather pillows, filled with air. Those are also very enjoyable. Even a donut shaped one, sitting in it, just floating by is really relaxing.”

“What about monsters?”

“Aquamarine already fixed it.”

I look at Hikari and Akiko, and Toshiro is playing between them, with a little wooden shovel. They came prepared to play at the beach.

I kiss Ruby at the neck.

“Just a second, dear.”

I go over to Akiko and Hikari. Sidhu follows me.

“Excuse me, Akiko… Do you guys happen to have floaters? Arm floaters?”

“What is an arm floater?”

I go to the sand, and I draw a triangle, where two sides are formed by a slight oval shape, and the base is just a line.

“The best way to describe a floater is a closed leather pillow with air inside. That the air cannot get out. You can have several different shapes. Donut shaped ones, big enough for an adult to lay on, were popular in the place I come from.

“There are ones where you make a triangle, two floaters connected at the base. Kids or adults that don’t swim can pass their arms through them, and then they will just float, no risk of drowning.”

“I have never seen this.” Hikari answers.

I take a look at Akiko, she is just staring at nothing. I can almost see dollar signs in her eyes. I turn around to get back to the group, And I face Sidhu, that was staring at the drawing. I walk past him, back to the group.

He stares a little more at the drawing, and then comes back to the group when a bigger erases the drawing.