"This place big," said Jogug, looking around at the cave Aella had made. "How did you find?""I was looking for a place that was far from everyone else, so that no one would be able to bother me or my things," said Aella, skipping over the fact she had made the cave.
"And you will make place that is only mine?" he asked, glancing at the hydras as they played with a bone Aella had brought them. "I no mind being with hydra baby, but I need break."
"I was thinking of a place up high, that you could climb up to?" offered Aella, flying over to the area she had been thinking of making his.
"That work," he nodded.
With directions from him, based on what he wanted, Aella made his living quarters. Ruth, Louie and Frank pouted that they couldn"t reach the room, but Aella made a new playground for them, and they quickly forgot all about the unfairness of him having a place they couldn"t reach.
"Aella, I need place to bathe, relieve myself, and how to get food?" asked Jogug looking around. "Just place to sleep not enough."
"I thought of that already," nodded Aella, showing him to a tunnel that lead outside. The area was protected from anyone seeing it by tall strong spikes, and a pool off to the side allowed for him to fish. "You can bathe there, relieve yourself over there, and here you can fish for food. I know that you will get sick of fish eventually, but it"s the best I can do at the moment."
He looked around, impressed at her thoughtfulness, and Aella led him back inside. Stepping into one of the chests, she quickly returned holding a spoon and bowl.
"I will make you a quick little kitchen to prep your food, and this bowl and spoon will help. Place your food in the bowl, then dip the spoon into it, and it will add a filler to go with it. It might be rice, mashed potatoes, or something else, I don"t know. Each time should be completely random, but the filler will be full of all of the nutrients you need to stay healthy."
He watched her as she made the kitchen outside, just inside the tunnel so if the weather was bad, he would still be protected. Placing a magical flame inside, so it would never burn out, she turned to him to let him inspect it. The slate where he could cook the fish met his approval, and he inspected each of the tools she had made, until they were both satisfied he would be able to successfully use them.
"Place the guts from cleaning the fish back into the fishing pool and more fish should appear to eat them. That way you will have plenty of fish to catch."
"Just like hunting," he nodded. "You don"t want Jogug as mate?"
Aella shook her head. "I have too much going on right now to even think about getting a mate. Not that you don"t look good, and I am sure you would make a fantastic mate, I have to focus on other things right now."
Jogug scratched his neck thoughtfully, looking over the area she had prepared for him. "You go do what you need to do. I wait here for you to come back."
She looked at him for a moment, feeling awkward. He would make a good mate, but she refused to even think about it at the moment. With her being the King of the Realm, she had no idea if she could even have kids. Would they have the same abilities she did? What would she do with them once they were born? Carry them around while she dealt with all of the things she was already doing? There was no way!
Teleporting away, she gazed down at her island from high in the sky, and watched as Jogug picked up the fishing pole she had left him and headed over to the fishing pool. Even if he didn"t catch anything, he could still use the spoon and bowl to have something to eat. Turning towards the elven forest, she wanted to see what the elves were doing, before she headed out into the ocean to find the perfect place for her island.
As she approached the elven forest, she had to remind herself that it had been a year since she was there last. Granted some of that time had been during the storm, but a lot could happen in that time.
Her first thought was it was so green. All of the toppled trees had been chopped down and tree seedlings had sprouted everywhere! Some of them looked like they had been planted, but as she flew over the new forest, she saw where the oldest trees, that the elves had actually been living in, had survived. Their tops had snapped off, possibly encouraged to do so by well placed cuts, and the bases were held in place by the intertwined root systems.
Aella was impressed. The elves still had living s.p.a.ces to live in while their forest recovered. She could see elves out and about, busy still working on helping the forest recover faster. She wanted to use magic to bring it back faster, so they could return to their normal lives, but then stopped at that thought. What if working to bring their homes back brought them a sense of accomplishment, they wouldn"t get from just using magic? Shaking her head, she decided it didn"t matter. She didn"t have the magic right now, and her time was limited by the approach of the full moon.
Turning away from the elven lands, Aella headed out into the ocean. From her vantage point high in the sky, Aella was hoping to notice any underwater islands that hadn"t fully emerged, but as she flew around, skimming along the edges of all of the continents, there wasn"t one anywhere. Pausing as the edges of the moon rose into the darkening sky, she knew the dizziness and lightheaded effects she had felt before might crop up, so she settled onto the edge of the coast of the demon continent, furthest from where her city was.
"What are you doing now?" asked Precious as she stood there watching the moon rise.
"I"m waiting for the dizzy spell to pa.s.s," said Aella.
"What dizzy spell?" he asked confused, sitting up on her shoulder and c.o.c.king his head to the side.
"The last time my heat started, I got dizzy and pa.s.sed out, along with a whole bunch of other things," she grumbled, remembering how Frederik and Jogug had fought.
"But, Aella," he sighed, licking a paw before continuing. "The full moon has risen and you"re just standing here. Why do you think you"re going to pa.s.s out again? Are you sure you don"t possibly have more control over your body this time around?"
Aella blinked at that. Precious was right. She had just spent an entire year learning about herself. Glancing down at her body, she could feel the urge to find a mate, but it wasn"t overwhelming like it had been before.
"So, where"s this island at that you"re looking for?" asked Precious, yawning and settling back down to resume his nap.
"I think I"m going to have to make one," said Aella with a frown.
"I better not get wet," he growled.
"Fine," she sighed, creating a bubble around them as she stepped into the ocean.
She needed to find an ocean vent underwater, so she could encourage the formation of an island. The problem was, there weren"t a lot of active volcanoes on her realm, and if she wasn"t careful, she could create some.
"It"s so dark, how are you seeing anything at all?" asked Precious as they traveled deeper and deeper underwater.
"I"m not looking so much as feeling for a magma vein underground," said Aella, turning her head to watch a dark shape drift past them.
An eye as big as her entire body paused next to her, watching her in the ocean depths.
"Think he"s friendly?" asked Precious, every hair on his body standing erect.
Aella ignored him, continuing to walk forward. She thought she could feel a magma chamber ahead of her, ready to start leaking up into the ocean depths. Without her help, it would probably be another hundred years before it managed to actually break through, but she was wanting to speed things up a bit, and this seemed to be prefect for what she was wanting.
"Aella, he"s following us!" hissed Precious, breathing hard.
"It"s fine," she said, studying the ground underneath them as she came to right above the chamber. "We"re going down!"
Precious dug his claws into her shoulder and hissed again as the giant form moved towards them, but Aella sunk down into the ground, leaving the floor of the ocean bare. The figure floated there for a moment, then moved off as the pheromones in the area faded.