Prepping up

Ophelia: §How is that going to work?§

"That is a good question… Let's try something, imagine your rider, if he is a male, imagine his mother, sister, or daughter. Picture her completely in your mind, focus only on her, and pump some magic into it. I will try and guide the change. Ophelia first."

Ophelia was the more talkative of the three, and the most intelligent one. I covered her with my magic, feeling for some change. After a half-hour, I sensed her magic coming out. Slowly I guided her to change into an elf female, with silver blond hair and pale blue eyes. Stark-naked, but I am not complaining at all.

Daphne: "Feel your body with your magic, get to know it, imprint it on your magic so it will be easier to call it back." Next was Miramar, encouraged by Ophelia's success, who did it in less than a half-hour, a human female with brown hair and eyes. The girls conjured summer dresses to cover them up. Totally unnecessary in my opinion, they were looking fine without them.

Lenora was a stunning elf with black hair and green eyes. She looked at her body, then at me, and jumped me, covering me with kisses.

Lenora: "Thank you all for this experience, I was losing my mind, and this helped a lot." she left me and embraced Luna, kissing her too.

Lenora: "Especially you dear miss Luna, willing to share your husband with me is beyond words, thank you."

"We are benefiting from this experience to miss Lenora. We learned that our dragon shape is exactly the same as yours and that the change into a humanoid shape is possible for Eldunari. Miramar, can you try for an elf female? Humans only live for about sixty to a hundred years, while elves have a dragon-like lifespan. Now focus on your dragon shape and change back. Once you are a dragon, you can try to go back into an elf. Practice the change, over and over."

Miramar was a dark-haired elf with brown eyes after a few tries. The three were getting better and better, the only difference with us was their clothes didn't change with them and got ripped apart. The girls stopped putting dresses on them after a while, granting me some eye candy. The dragons, after hours of practice, could change in less than a minute, from girl to dragon in ten seconds. I called for a break.

While the three dragons were practicing, we were developing a ritual, but still, we were missing some parts. As in how many days there are in a year, or the lunar cycle if there was a moon.

We explained how we collect the knowledge into a compartment of my mindscape, I combined it into one, each filling some gaps from the others, so we have the best possible knowledge of the topic.

Belladonna: "It works best if you have your own mindscape, Harry can help you create one when we get out of here."

Fleur: "I think the Elf language and the common language can be learned without them having a mindscape. Try it Mon amour."

I started with Ophelia, telling her to concentrate on the elf language, so I could collect. The inflow was big, Ophelia was the oldest of the three, almost four hundred years, while Lenora was the youngest at two-fifty. Miramar was three hundred fifteen. Ophelia and Lenora were best at the elf language, Miramar with common, I had to filter a lot of dragon habits, but saved the elves' customs. I combined and gave my wives the package.

Fauna: "We better leave, so Harry can help with their mindscape. We can always come back." one by one we left our mindscape, the dragons too, reluctantly. Ophelia hugged me, gave me a kiss, and left.

Daphne: "Best that you start with the mindscape love."

"Alright, Ophelia, I will do the opposite than before, I cover you with my magic, try to feel me, and guide me inside your mind. Don't be afraid, we shared our minds already, you know me to the core, as I know you." It took a while for Ophelia to drop her barriers, but I got in.

§Good, Ophelia, imagine you are in your favorite place, in summer, daytime. No? We start slow then. Imagine it is light, so we can see each other. I will help… Now, this is better. Next is someplace to stand on, try a field of grass or sand. Every day you have to meditate on this field, each time adding some details. Now it is a desert, ad some bushes, a small oasis, some trees for shade, and so on. We both are in dragon shape, so we are going to fly a bit, keeping the field in our focus.§ We flew for a few minutes and landed back on the field. I changed into my human shape.

"Ophelia, now we try your elf shape, concentrate, it should be almost the same feeling as in my mindscape. Good, I almost did nothing to help the change. Like before, change back and forth, until it feels natural. Stay in your mindscape for a couple of hours, try moving in elf shape, ad details to your mindscape, and fly a bit. I leave to help the others." After another hug and kiss, I left. The same procedure was done for Miramar. Lenora? She was acting like a cat in heat, only stopping after I gave her some magic happy endings in her elf shape. She got it in the end. We left them to their practice.

/\

Dobby and Winky, who both insisted to come along, had lunch ready. We went over what we gained and learned from it.

Pansy: "The elf language is complicated, to learn it more, we would have to get the old ones in your mindscape Harry, but I think that would be bad."

"I agree, the minds of the dragons are completely different from ours. We should be glad our animagus is a dragon, our minds would not be able to process it all."

Tracey: "Our mating flight was not much different than theirs. Lenora was a horny one, we should show them how we make love wizard style."

Milli: "Miramar had a human rider, do you think she would share memories from the lands she visited? That would be better than maps. Ophelia and Lenora could do the maps of Du Weldenvarden."

Fleur: "That is a good idea, the villages could be changed, but the lands stay the same. Although the books said the younger ones were more sheltered, the older ones took the far-away missions. Knowledge of how to get to the dwarves is needed too."

"Umaroth? Can you tell us what season it is in Carvahall? And please do not contact Ophelia, Miramar, and Lenora, they are meditating on our magic techniques. How many days in a year? Is there a moon orbiting this planet? How big is this planet?"

Umaroth: "It is springtime in Carvahall. A year counts three hundred eighty-four days. The elves can tell you the circumference of the world. Dragons were never much interested in those matters, also our measuring standards are probably different from yours. There is only one moon orbiting this planet. It moved in cycles of thirty-two days, twelve cycles in a year."

Katie: "Great, now we only have to time how long a day is, visit the elves for the circumference, and we can calculate the ritual. Umaroth, is there a spring equinox? Or is it already passed?"

Umaroth: "It is in a fortnight, I must say the travel time to Du Weldenvarden is longer than a fortnight."

"How fast can dragons fly? The speed of sound? We have mechanic devices with us that approach that speed."

Umaroth: "Without a rider, we can reach a quarter of that speed, maybe a bit more, with a rider it will be one-fifth of the speed of sound. You have a device that can go that fast?"

Katie: "With the modifications we made to it, it will be close to that."

"We have to learn to fly the bloody thing, Katie."

Padma: "That is easy love, study it, and create a copy in your mindscape. You are a natural aviator, so you only need to learn the controls."

Parvati: "That is a good idea, I want to try that spitfire thingy too. It got at least a decent seat and you sit inside instead of messing your hairdo up in the wind. Those bloody brooms and carpets are sucking big time."

Flora: "We spend a lot of time enchanting it, and warding the whole thing. It will be a fast, silent killing machine, with unlimited ammo and fuel. According to Hermione, nineteen are the newest models, only one was used in the war for five years."

Fauna: "We searched long for the right runes, but all noisy things on the spitfire are silenced and cooled, the engine, propeller, and guns. We also added notice me not spells to the plane. The cockpit is heated, when you go over ten thousand feet extra air is provided with a modified bubblehead charm. According to Hermione, the thing needs air to work too, along with fuel, so she made sure the engine gets a steady inflow of both.

She even made it so that when it is going to crash, the seat ejects from it. At first, I was horrified by the thought of shooting out into the air, but then, we can change and survive."

"Alright, I am going to study the airplanes, you girls can create some scenario's that we can go over, to do this as fast as we can. We need to have this done before the babies arrive."

/\

I went to the hangar where the planes are and selected one. Curious if I could analyze it with my magic, I enveloped the plane with magic, the engine was complicated, so was the steering system. In the cockpit, I tried to absorb as many details as I could. Three hours later I decided to a tryout in my mindscape. The outer shape was easy, the mechanical parts of the wings and tail were ok after a few tries.

The engine was a bitch to copy. I got it right at dinner time. At the table, I told the girls I was ready for a test flight.

"Is there something as a flight manual in here? Or was grandfather planning to teach me himself?"

Padma: "No, I searched for one, there are only some books describing the parts of the engine and weapons."

"Anyway, once I am in the air in my mindscape, I remove the ground, so there is no chance for crashing."

Pansy: "We have some scenarios we could discuss, but we better wait after you are done flying around in that metal box of yours."

Daphne: "First, my love, how certain are you that Eragon is destined for this egg? He carried that egg around for weeks before it hatched, I doubt other children got that chance when they were tested."

"Can you answer that Umaroth? How long do the children have time with the egg before they are rejected?"

Umaroth: "Each child has two minutes with the egg, the person guarding the egg will notice the magic connection between the two. When the connection is made, it will take a few weeks before it hatches. The child has to be present and alone when the dragon comes out of the egg. If the egg is taken by someone else during those weeks, it will refuse to hatch and die."

Tracey: "If the egg is with us, where is Aria? In the story we got, she was the guardian of the egg."

Umaroth: "She is the ambassador for the elves at the dwarves' kingdom."

Ginny: "There are big differences between the story and reality, how far can we trust the information?"

"The fact that the egg was in my vault changed a lot, we know there is a shade controlling the Urgals, the Ra'zac are in the Helgrind and have some eggs stashed away in the church of Dras Leonas.

Morzan's son, Murtagh, can come to our side. The twins at the dwarves are traitors, I think the Urgals will start to move in early spring next year. If we can create portkeys to different places, it will reduce travel time. Talk it over, we start planning when we go to sleep."

/\

I made myself comfortable on a couch and entered my mindscape for my flying lesson. The ability to adapt the mindscape at will is a major cheat. In front of me was a big stretch of runway, with a single spitfire on it, ready to go. I checked it for the last time before boarding it, unbreakable runes on the hull, lightweight and silencing runes all over the plane, meh, fuck it, we just get in and see how hard it is to fly that thing.

Strapped in my seat, I started the engine, with the lightweight I did not even have to go full throttle to take off. I released the brakes and went up, once in the air I removed the earth below, I left just an artificial horizon to focus on. The first hour was madness, I tolled around like I was in a washing machine. I was spinning, hanging upside down, I was even for a moment flying sideways.

Slowly I got the hang of it, maneuvering, flying straight, then stunt flying, without something to crash on, I could go all out, doing the craziest moves. After four hours in my mindscape, I tried landing.

I projected the landing strip back, put the plane down… and crashed. I bloody forgot to release my landing gear and did a belly flop. The next hour was spent taking off, and landing down, after a half-hour, the wheels stayed whole. When we get back to earth, Hermione will get a big thank you for the inertial dampers in the cockpit.

/\

At night, in my mindscape, we started discussing several options. After hours we agreed on a plan.

Parvati: "Now we have that settled, show us how to fly that thingy husband." After a half-hour of explanations, a demonstration, and Parvati took off, while we were in dragon form at a safe distance. Once in the air, I vanished to the ground, so she had the room to go crazy. Parvati had a good time, there were only minor crashes when she practiced landing. Ginny and Katie wanted to try it too, to compare it with a broom. Soon both were doing stunts in the air, having a blast.

Daphne: "We better call it a day, we leave tomorrow and we need our sleep."

Luna: "Don't forget our needs hubby. It is our last night in a safe spot." Well… the needs were good and well sated. Dragon mating can be fun, but the human way is ten times better.

/\

In the morning we explained our plan.

Fleur: "We fly to Carvahall, create a base in the mountains close by, to have a safe haven to portkey to.

We create a room that has a parseltongue password to enter and exit. Someone porting in without us is locked in, the room will send a warning to us."

Milli: "We get Eragon and Brom, and fly to Ellesmera. From there we split up, half will go to the dwarves, Harry and the other half will fly to Theirm and help Jeod guard his ships while he packs up and retreats to Surda. Angela and the werecat need a visit too."

"It all depends on the response of the elves and Brom. We take Ophelia, Miramar, and Lenora with us in our manor trunk if they are willing. If we get on time in Ellesmera for the ritual, we can try it out."

Daphne: "Everyone has an emergency trunk, with food for a year, two brooms, tents, and camping gear for a dozen people, and some weapons from the manor. I must say those weapons are extremely deadly, now that they are enchanted and covered with runes."

Padma: "First we have some tests to do. Dobby, can you and Winky come into the dragon cave with us please?"

Dobby: "Yes, mistress Paddy." Snickering all the way into the cave, we got to the eggs.

Fauna: "Umaroth, we are going to try and steal the big black egg on the top shelf without you noticing, can you focus on the egg, and try to detect us taking the egg?" Padma and Parvati already explained to Winky and Dobby what they have to try. Dobby and Winky turned invisible and entered the cave, unnoticed by the Eldunari. A few pops later they came back into the manor with the black egg.

With the egg in our arms, we went back into the cave where the Eldunari were still staring at a copy of the egg.

Flora: "Umaroth, did you detect it?" Flashes between the Eldunari proved the surprise that we could take it away without detection.

Umaroth: "Impossible! All of us were monitoring the egg… You are going to steal the two other eggs?"

Pansy: "Eventually yes, it will make him mad though."

Umaroth: "Go with our blessings, young ones Lenora, Miramar, and Ophelia agreed to go with you. Once you leave this place, the knowledge of this place will be locked out in your minds."

The last thing they taught us was a spell to shield against radiation.

/\

We walked outside the cave, took a look at the scenery, searching for a strip to launch our spitfire. After clearing a path we took a plane out, while the girls placed monitoring spells on the cockpit, to allow them to view the flight inside the manor. With a two-way mirror to talk to each other, so the trip won't be so boring, and we were ready. Everyone entered the manor trunk, I shrunk it and hung it on my neck.

To avoid detection, I started the engine and took off at full throttle, as steep as possible. At twenty thousand feet I leveled the plane. The modified bubblehead charm, along with the heated cabin made the trip comfortable. I set course to Carvahall, four hours later at top speed I reached the shore. I studied the tops of the mountains, looking for familiar points. The memories of the three dragons came in handy, they used to do the trip on a regular basis.

Soon I found the right course to the mountain closest to Carvahall. While avoiding being seen by the village, I searched for a landing spot. The girls pointed me to a meadow close by, where I landed the plane.

We put the spitfire back in the hangar, amazed that it was after a six-hour flight still in top condition.

Fleur: "We have to fly halfway up on the mountain, on the border of the tree line, maybe there is already a cave we can expand."

Daphne: "Harry will fly, he has natural camouflage colors, we have to draw a straw to see who can ride him."

Luna: "Or… Daphne flies, There is a blue egg missing, not a green one. So if she is spotted, is better than an additional green dragon, that appears from thin air. Harry, do you want to ride Daphne?" I swallowed.

"I want to ride on everyone, strange, we didn't practice that, do we have a blanket or some leather? It seems the scales can chafe the skin of the body, and I like my skin down there." Daphne changed to her blue dragon, Winky brought a strap of leather, with some ropes and in a minute made a saddle. A sticking charm kept me in the saddle, ready to start, I put the manor back on my neck. A warming charm kept the worse cold away when Daphne flew just above the treetops to the mountain, searching for some caves.

We explored several caves before we found a good one. It was almost in sight of the town, with a small entrance, getting wider inside. I ate a late lunch when the girls started to ward the cave, started to clean and modify the place. A tunnel led to the side of the town, we dug the tunnel further to the outside and created a spy window with a good view of the town.

/\

Belladonna: "Who will go to town? We can't all go, it will be hard to explain, thirteen girls with one man visiting a town in the middle of nowhere."

Milli: "Three or four is a maximum, our age is too close to posing as sisters. Two sisters and a niece with a fiancee? What do we have for transport? We should have brought some horses, unicorns will stand out too much."

Flora: "We are on a journey to search for uncle Brom, to introduce our fiancee, does this world have consorts and concubines?"

Fauna: "Unofficial ones. Maybe a coven? We can up the numbers to seven, a magic number."

"That can be our cover for Brom and Eragon, for the town we have to be unnoticed. We can split, claiming to be the family of Eragon's father, three can go to his home, four of us will search for Brom. The rest can enchant some jewelry that hides our presence and magic. Do we have bracelets that we can turn into a permanent portkey to a room in here?" We left the manor trunk in the cave, Tracey, with Pansy, and Katie could pose as a family to search for Eragon. I went with Daphne, Flora, and Fauna to look for Brom. All prepared we took our brooms and flew down the mountain, already spotted the secluded farm, flying low, we came to the road to town. We dressed in mid-class clothes, we made according to Miramar's memories, with backpacks we could fool the natives. Still, it was an hour's walk to town.

/\

In town, we asked for directions to Brom's house, or where we could find Brom himself. A few knocks on the door triggered some alarms, so we waited patiently for him to arrive. A grumpy old man showed up, estimating our treat to him.

Brom: "Four youngsters, a bit overdressed for this town, looking for me. Who are you?"

Daphne: "Better invite us inside master Brom, this tale needs no extra ears, it is about a son and an egg." Brom paled at the comment, looked around, and opened the door.

Brom: "Come inside then, you better not try anything inside, it would not end well for you." Inside we sat around a table, Brom made some tea, while Flora took some snacks from her backpack. I motioned to Daphne to take the lead. Old men tend to listen better to pretty girls, than to boys.

Daphne: "First to start, the Varden needs you back. There are traitors in high places, your friend in Theirm is feeling the consequences already. His ships and the ships from everyone who supplies the Varden are targeted. The traitors are magic users. So the location of the dwarves is known to the mad king." Brom was surprised at that statement. Dropping that info without sugarcoating it was harsh.

Daphne: "The mad king stole three eggs from the dragon riders, a green, red, and a blue one. The blue egg, a female, got lost along the way as you know. That egg is in our possession now, we came to collect you and her rider, to bring you both to Ellesmera."

Brom: "She has already a rider? Is she hatched?"

Flora: "Not yet, my sister-wives are collecting him as we speak. Although I doubt he will come along."

Brom: "Who is going to be the rider? You seem to know a lot about the Varden and Ellesmera."

Daphne: "I doubt you will believe us, we save that explanation when we arrive in Ellesmera. The rider is one you know well, it is your son." If it was me telling that, I would have a sword at my neck already, Daphne can get away with everything.

Brom: "Now, be careful with your next answer, who are you? And how do you know all this?" Daphne looked at me to take over.

"Brom, rider of the dragon Saphira. Father of Eragon, founder of the Varden. We are tasked to aid in your cause. We will depart for Ellesmera tomorrow morning with or without you, we will take Eragon with us, so he can be the next rider. We mean you no harm. After Ellesmera half of our group will depart to the Beor mountains, the other half to Theirm aiding Jeod. We will explain at Ellesmera."

Fauna: "Trust us, Rider Brom, we mean you no harm. You know by staying here you endanger this town. The traitors are bound to find out where you are. We have to be in Ellesmera before the spring equinox for a ritual." Suspiciously Brom looked us over, something didn't add up.

Brom: "Even if you have dragons, you can't make it on time. You have to come up with a better explanation."

Daphne: "We have our ways, please trust us. Once there, we let Oromis and Glaedr be our judge. And yes, we know about them. If you want, you can see the egg for yourself."

Brom: "You have the egg here? Show me!"

"We have the egg in a secure place, we can bring you there. If you don't trust us, you can arm yourself." Brom raised his eyebrows with that offer, he made his mind up, went to a corner of the room, strapped a sword and a couple of daggers on his belt. He put his coat back on and went to the door.

Brom: "Let's go then." I stopped him at the door, laid my hand on his arm, and activated my portkey. A portkey ride is always fun for the first time.

/\

We arrived in the port room, I guided him out, telling him that the others will arrive too. Luna was already waiting at the door with Fleur.

Fleur: "Merde, this is the last time I make a bet with you Luna. Harry, let us go to the mansion, I bet… no, I am sure master Brom has a lot of questions." Brom was getting his wits back online.

Brom: "What in dragons name was that? Where are we? That feeling was awful. How did we get here?"

Fleur: "Magic, master Brom. Follow us and we can explain some." At the manor trunk, Brom was slack-jawed. Looking inside to an enormous place, while on the outside it looked like a big box with doors.

Fleur: "As I said, Magic. Follow us please." We went inside the manor to the room with the egg and Eldunari.

"I don't know if you remember them, but can I introduce to you Ophelia, Miramar, and Lenora. Girls, do you remember Brom?" Brom, getting one shock after another sat down on a chair.

Brom: "Three Eldunari out of that madman's reach? Sane?"

Ophelia: "Brom, I remember Saphira well, we often talked among us young ones. Trust these girls and boy. They are our only hope for the future. As you can see, they have the egg, it is destined to hatch for your son."

Lenora: "Brom, Saphira, and I were the same age, I remember you well. Trust in us and them. Go home, pack your things, and say your goodbyes. Tell them you take Eragon on a trip to apprentice him to someone, as a favor you owed to his mother."

Miramar: "That is the story the girls are telling to his uncle and nephew, they leave some gifts for them to get by. Tomorrow you will go to his house to get him, then we will leave."

"Brom, take this bracelet, it will take you back to your house. The girls and I will stay in the tavern."

Back at Brom, Daphne, Flora, and Fauna were drinking tea and having a chat when we arrived.

Daphne: "Welcome back master Brom, can you take us to the tavern, and give us some local currency, our gold, and silver coins are too different. You can tell them we are your great-nieces to bring you back to Theirm, and you take Eragon with you. You can rent this place out as a cover." The tavern had four rooms for guests, to keep appearances up we rented three rooms for the seven of us. At dinner Tracey, Pansy and Katie walked in. They saw us sitting at a table and joined us. The innkeeper, warned by us they would be joining brought dinner.

Tracey: "Eragon is packing his stuff, we gave that specialized hammer to Roran, and the knife set with the axes for Garrow." I smiled at her and nodded.

Pansy: "So we sleep here tonight? Indoor plumbing?" Smiling I pointed out that the outhouse is at the back of the inn. She groaned, mumbling that she should have changed places with Parvati. Some curious children from the town came closer to meet the strangers. Even when the girls were dressed down, they still stood out. Six very beautiful girls and a moderately handsome boy attracted attention. A small girl of seven or eight years began to ask questions, soon the girls were telling fantasy stories. The tavern was slowly filling up, not every day strangers came and visited Carvahall. Listening to us telling stories to the kids, they were told by Morn the innkeeper, that we were relatives of Brom. Having grand uncle Brom as a storyteller was a good cover. Most of my stories were about smart girls coming to rescue their fiancee from their angry brothers, who saw me stealing a kiss.

Or the girls saved the town from Urgals with their bows and arrows

A girl was listening to that fitted the look of Katrina.

At night, the girls all came into my bed. Pansy grumbling about a stupid outhouse, told us she conjured a chamber pot and toilet paper and vanished all when she finished. Some silencing charms later, we had some happy times. Tomorrow we leave for Ellesmera.