Chapter 249 Day Five with the Kids

Aella stepped back to examine the work she had done and suddenly realized it had gotten quiet. What were those kids up to now? They had stayed up pretty late, helping her redesign the cave, adding all sorts of elements that Aella really liked. Apparently, their mother had an impressive set of exercise equipment that she used to stay in top physical condition, and Aella was really looking forward to using it.

The area they had designed just for Precious had the lion cub gone for hours exploring all of the nooks and crannies the 'pet house' offered. Donovan had said it offered everything a normal cat would love, plus a few extras, and Precious was proving him right. Sarah had insisted on decorating it, but gave up when she couldn't fit into the back rooms of the house. Merle offered to shrink her, but Aella had stepped in and told them it would be fine if Precious didn't have every room decorated.

As she moved through her house, and was finding no signs of the kids, her worry grew. They had stayed up late last night, so she was hoping they would sleep in a bit this morning. The beds she had made for them were neatly made, and they were still not anywhere to be found. Reaching the tunnel to the outside, Aella's heart stopped as she heard a splashing noise.

Teleporting to the courtyard outside, Aella fell back against the wall when she came face to face with the giant turtle. It was looking down at her with one eye, through the spikes she had formed to prevent anyone from flying in. They were bent back, and she guessed that was how the kids got out. She teleported higher into the air, and saw the kids happily playing on the back of the turtle's shell.

A giant city had appeared on the turtle's back and the kids were waving at her from the roof of one of the buildings. She flew down towards them, wondering how in the world they had managed. Would the turtle try and kill them? She had to get them off of it before it decided to go back underwater!

"Aella! This place is so fun! You need to come see it all!" exclaimed Sarah, grabbing Aella's hand and dragging her towards the stairs going down.

"I don't think," began Aella, but Donovan interrupted her.

"The turtle said it was fine if we built the city on its back, as long as the city didn't slow it down when it was swimming."

"I made a spell so a bubble forms around the city when the turtle submerges," said Merle proudly.

"You spoke with the turtle?" she asked, too stunned to stop them from dragging her down the stairs. "How?"

"With magic," said Merle, rolling his eyes. "You could do it too, if you wanted."

"No, Merle, remember, she does magic like me and mom," said Sarah. "Not like you and dad."

"I'm sure that if she asked the realm, it would grant her those abilities," sighed Merle, rolling his eyes.

"I don't know, the realm is pretty stressed right now," said Donovan, shaking his head. "Dad can't even come here right now. I bet those realm eaters did a lot of damage when they came by."

"Aella, look! I even put in trolley's like they have on Earth!" said Sarah, dragging Aella to a balcony overlooking the street below.

"She doesn't know what Earth is, silly," said Merle.

"Oh, I forgot. Well, that is a trolley, and it's like a train but smaller. It runs on magic electricity. And that over there is a café where you can order drinks, and the robot bartender will make it for you. He's not as good as Bob, but I like him," said Sarah, pointing to a brightly colored awning.

"She doesn't know what trains are, either," said Donovan.

"Is it like a subway?" asked Aella, thinking about the gnome city.

"Yeah! Except, it's above ground instead of below," nodded Sarah happily.

"That's downtown, in the middle of the shell," said Donovan, pointing to Aella's right. "That's where the government is. There's a town hall, a court house, a jail, a post office and a school!"

"The playground was his idea," said Sarah.

"We all had to play on it for a while, because there aren't any other kids to," said Merle with a knowing nod.

Aella just looked around blankly. She didn't know what half of the things coming out of their mouths were. They were all three happily chatting about the city they had made on the back of this giant turtle who was apparently just fine with it.

"Look guys, I don't think anyone is going to want to live here. It would be far too difficult to get supplies and to get on and off," said Aella finally, holding up her hands.

"Oh, we thought of that!" said Merle with a grin. "It has a portal to the trade town in the center of town. That way people can travel back and forth through it whenever they want. Firion thought it was an amazing idea and let us set up the portal in the middle of the trade town so this place could be accessed by all of the races."

Aella hung her head. She was going to have to talk to Firion. Hopefully she wouldn't have to watch these kids again. There was enough damage she was going to have to deal with after this one. As the kids prattled on about each thing they had done, she realized they must not have slept very much at all in the night. All that time she thought they had been asleep, they must have actually been here, working on this city.

As she opened her mouth to tell them they needed to go back to her house, she got an idea. She could let them drag her all over the city, showing her everything they had done, and it would take up a good chunk of time. Could she drag it out over several days? It was only day five of having the kids. She wasn't sure she could stand to have them another two days.

"I'm getting hungry, let's go to the café, said Sarah, turning back to the stairs.

"I want to take the elevator instead of the stairs," said Donovan, frowning at the stairs Sarah was about to go down. "What's the point of having the elevator, if you don't use it?"

"What's an elevator?" asked Aella.

"Alright, we can use the elevator," sighed Sarah, heading over to a set of flat double doors without any knobs. She pushed a round button on the wall and Aella gasped as the doors opened to show a small room.

"Come on, it's perfectly safe. We used some of dad's equations," said Merle, pushing Aella into the small room.

She turned to see the doors shut and Sarah let Donovan push the button that had the rune G on it.

"That's for the ground floor," explained Merle, seeing her look of confusion. "It will take us to the bottom."

"Then why not a B?" she asked.

"Oh, that would be the basement, and the turtle didn't like us intruding into the shell," said Sarah.

Aella nodded. She couldn't believe the turtle had actually agreed to all of this anyway.

When they hit the ground floor, Aella marveled at the carpet on the floor as the kids dragged her through the glass revolving door and then across the street to the café.

The bartender looked up with a smile, and set down the glass he was holding. Aella wasn't sure what race robot was, but he looked human. He had bright red hair, with a light-colored complexion, and bright blue eyes. Freckles were scattered over his cheeks and the top of his nose.

"Good morning! What might I do for you?" he asked, setting his hands down on the counter lightly.

"I would like a chocolate milkshake and French toast!" exclaimed Donovan quickly, before anyone could tell him no.

"Be careful, Donovan," warned Sarah. "We don't have much in the way of money. Aella might not be willing to pay for treats like that."

"Can I get them?" asked Donovan, looking up at Aella hopefully.

"I want to try everything the kids order, as long as you accept gold coins?" asked Aella, holding out a coin for the bartender to examine.

"This is fantastic!" he said, taking the coin and examining it carefully. "Is this the currency in this world?"

"Yes, I also have these," said Aella, taking out one of each of the other coins.

"One moment while I calculate the cost adjustment," said the bartender, blinking rapidly for a moment. "One gold coin should pay for everything you order this morning."

"Great," said Aella, turning to look at Sarah and Merle.

"I want hot chocolate and a breakfast burrito with sausage!" said Sarah with a huge grin.

"Could I get eggs and bacon?" asked Merle.

"Of course, one minute while I whip all of that up," said the bartender, turning towards a large flat sheet of metal behind him.

"I'm surprised you were able to convince the turtle to let you build this place," said a voice from behind them.

They all turned to see Stella standing in her normal skin-tight black attire, looking around in admiration.