7

"Did you really wake me up just to tell me about this kid you like?" Jax grumbled tiredly.

"I like him a lot more then I liked you when you took a piece of my mind from me," I responded sarcastically, "Do you have any idea how much of a headache you gave me?"

"Yeah," Jax slapped me on the shoulder, "I had the same headache."

I allowed the slap to move me so he wouldn't hurt his hand. The kids eyebrows went up when he saw that. It wasn't a conscious reaction. I'd done it without thinking. I left the three of them alone to chat if they wanted.

Jax was a bit grumpy about being woken up, but he understood what I wanted and why. I wasn't too worried about it. That kid's anger, and rage aligned with my own short temper. I was more than certain that this kid, and I would get along if I took him as one of my bonded. The last time I'd been so sure that a bond would work was with Ethan.

I didn't even know what a bond was until after I was already bonded with him. Ethan was different then this elf kid though. Ethan's anger was so far suppressed that it pretty much disappeared whenever he wasn't using it. I don't think he'll be able to suppress his rage that way anymore. Dragons weren't the type to hide their rage, and Ethan had part of my soul now.

The core of my being throbbed painfully at the thought. Compared to what it was this was just a minor annoyance. I returned to the bare stone, and laid down upon it in the shadow of the sheer cliff face. I didn't like the way this cliff shadowed me from the moon. I jumped up on the cliff with a single bound.

Two hundred feet crossed in a single strong bound placed me at the top of the cliff with ease. Jumping over six times my own height was easy. I could probably jump even higher if I wanted to. I spread out my divine energy across the entire region. My aura disturbed every creature in the region.

They all froze in place as my spatial awareness was enhanced by the divine energy. I was completely aware of everything within my range. Down to the last rock. I even knew the density of each, and every stone. It was time for me to change this place into a proper base of operations.

The earth shook as I began altering the ground beneath me. The cliff, and most of the earth around it raised with me still standing on it. My wings flared outward to aid in the control of such a massive amount of mana. A large stronghold formed out of the large amount of stone that used to make up the cliff face. I even unearthed a massive amount of stone from beneath the ground level of the valley.

A network of tunnels was formed beneath the ground with lodgings for a few hundred people. It wasn't anything extensive. Just small rooms with shelves against the back wall, and a bed on each side. I left the doorways open so that lighter material than stone could be used for the doors. A massive spiral staircase formed at the center of the structure while smaller staircases that led to the human habitations.

More rooms formed near the staircases. These rooms connected to larger caverns that were meant for dragons double my current size. Each room was individual, and meant for those bonded to dragons in the long run. A flat plateau formed at the top. The stone was thicker at the top so that it could be altered at will.

Stone pillars formed rushed upward, and formed a ring in the sky above me. Stone supports spread out from the circular structure at the top. It was stretching my mana thin, but I managed to form a glass dome at the top of the pillars. I stopped short of dipping into my divine energy. When all was said, and done I had built a ten story building with floors high enough for a dragon double my current size to walk freely.

Four massive dens rested just beneath me each with sixty foot vaulted ceilings, twelve rooms for their bonded connected to these massive dens, and stone thick enough to support the weight made up the tenth floor. I stacked the rooms for the human bonded on top of each other so there were three rows of four rooms with a thin railed staircase that would allow human bonded to descend to the floor of the den without harm. The ninth floor has six massive dragon dens with a similar setup. The eight floor had eight dens similar to the two floor above it. The seventh floor had twelve dens.

The sixth floor had sixteen. The fifth floor had twenty whole dens. The fourth floor had twenty-five dens. The third floor had thirty dens. The second floor had thirty-six dens.

All of them forming in a circular pattern. Similar to the floors above. A dozen rooms attached to each, and every den in a near identical setup. I didn't know if I should count the domed roof as a floor or not so I just considered it the roof, and left it out as a floor. The first floor was filled with large open halls, and support pillars.

There were large circular landings surrounding the stairs on each floor shrinking as they reached the top on the structure. The only thing that adorned these large landings were the support pillars that prevented the entire structure from collapsing. Obviously more work would be needed to make the structure livable. Cold stone wasn't exactly the best living conditions, but I imagined that a lot could be solved with a mix of rune magic, and technology. The structure ended up being a little over seven hundred feet in height.