Chapter 11

That night they planned what to do the next day.

They decided that they needed to search for the books that Della believed were in the storeroom. Jax wanted to find a duplication spell for produce. The spell she had, worked fine on non-perishable items like the Fred. However, like Della’s replicator, it didn’t work on food items.

So, they went searching through the cavernous room. They all chuckled over the odd little finds they unearthed. They all turned when Bluey sang out. He had found two big chests of books.

They hurried over to look and were amazed to find them stacked with lots of thin, blue or brown covered books. There were a few red-covered ones mixed in. Jax picked out one of the red books and grinned as she showed the others that spells and potion recipes had been put into them.

The blue books were a mixture of diaries and storybooks, while the brown books were textbooks. The boys were fascinated with this find and agreed that the boxes needed to be transported to the sitting room.

Several shelves in the main room soon found rows of books on them. They kept one of the high shelves for Jax’s magical books. The textbooks went lower and the diaries under them. The storybooks went in the middle.

Tammy was excited to find a whole row of books designed for children. Some of the textbooks had a blue band across the middle. They were designed to teach elementary topics for school-aged children.

The boys all chuckled because most of them hadn’t finished High School, so these books were more to their liking. Blair and Jax held the highest levels of education, with David a close second to Blair.

They ended up having a quiet night as they had all found something of interest to read.

Tammy and the boys were not surprised to find that Jax had been busy while they slumbered.

While they all needed at least six hours, Jax thrived on four or less if she had a catnap of half an hour or so during the day. Blair and David mostly slept longer than Jax to recuperate after she wore them out. Not that they were complaining.

Next to their new medicine bags was the duffle bag they had used to carry the food for the locals the day before. Jax had put dimensional storage spells on all the bags, so they carried more. They all chuckled when Jax revealed the duffle bags carried her version of a one-day ratpack and lots of them.

Jax had learnt how to duplicate food.

She had replaced all of the packaging with the cellulose wrappers that Della made for her. This was because the new wrappings degraded into basic elements that were safe for the environment, unlike plastics.

The print on the new wrappings stated what was in it, in simple words. The printing didn’t represent the companies on Earth who made the original items. The ratpacks were neatly boxed in a cardboard material.

This made it easier for everyone to hand them out to a person who needed them along with the choccys. They were all rather surprised by how many boxes were in each duffle bag.

Jax suggested that they should transfer at least a weeks’ worth of rations to their own magical bags as they wouldn’t deteriorate over time while in them. Tammy and the boys did as she suggested, as having extra food in their stash was good planning.

Once they’d had breakfast, Jax called Della, and they were shifted to the bridge again.

Della hovered just outside the shield before landing.

“Jax, the shield is breaking down. I believe it doesn’t have enough crystals to power it.”

“Thanks, Della. I got that feeling too. Even so, I think it will be safer for us to walk in,” Jax replied as she got up from the pilot’s seat.

Tammy and the boys also got to their feet as the doors to the lift opened to receive them. They collected their bags and headed into the lift. Moments later, they were outside the ship, and Jax told Della to go invisible.

“That’s a neat trick,” Bluey commented as Della faded from view.

Jax grinned, “It is, isn’t it? Good thing we can locate her whenever we need to. I think we should check out the houses around the periphery and then work our way into town.”

The team agreed and headed down the faint trail that led into the forest clearing where Della now sat waiting for their return. They had no trouble walking through the shield, and the path started to broaden into a cart track that showed greater use.

They were all concerned when they came to the first log-built house and heard crying from within.

Jax knocked on the door.

A small girl pulled it open. “Are you the doctor?” asked the girl who squinted up at her and then looked her up and down.

“Yes,” Jax replied.

“Oh, good. My little brother is very sick, and I think Mummy is too,” the girl said as she pulled the door open wider to let Jax in.

Jax turned to the others, “I think we need to spread out. We will meet in the town square at midday.”

The team agreed and set off along the path at a fast trot.

Jax was surprised the boy was still alive.

He was wasted from malnutrition and covered from head to toe in chickenpox sores that had erupted. The mother also had the tell-tail rash on her chest and a fever. Jax gave the mother a choccy but performed the health spells on the boy directly.

She then got some water doctored with the limeade that contained vitamins and minerals to pass his lips to help him. He was soon sleeping comfortably, and Jax knew he would be ravenous when he did wake.

“Oh, thank you, thank you,” the mother cried softly when she realised Jax was using magic to heal her son.