The Four Queens
Copyright© 2026 by Uncle Jim
Chapter 1
The following characters appear in the first two chapters:
Morgan MacFarland
Protagonist, 5’-11’’ tall (1.80 meters), 165 pounds (75 kg), 22 years old, violet eyes, auburn hair, strong Talent, Dragon
Mike Mahoney
Detective, Magic user, 5’-10’’ tall (1.78 meters), 170 pounds (77 kg), 30 years old, black hair, gray eyes, medium Talent.
Madailein Kavanagh (Maddy)
Former Earth Witch, Dragon Queen of the West, Irish, 5’-6’’ tall (1.68 meters), 135 pounds (61 kg), 38DD-25-37, 67 years old, alabaster skin, long, lustrous black hair, violet eyes, some freckles, still beautiful, She is a Light Blue Dragon
Craig Sweeney
Male Dragon, Maddy and Ken’s son, 5’-11’’ tall (1.80 meters), 175 pounds (79 kg), 41 years old, brown hair, violet eyes, very handsome, he is a Red Dragon
Kinepikwa
Morgan’s Dragon name in Gaelic, he is a dark blue Dragon
Morgan has the Narrative
I was visiting one of the large malls in the northern part of Atlanta when this happened. There was another store that I wanted to visit, but it was in a distant part of this large mall. I was taking a short cut down a little used back corridor to reach it when I came upon the body of a young woman lying on the floor of the hallway. On approaching her, I could see that she was rather cute, or at least, she had been before someone had attacked her and beaten the daylights out of her.
On nearing her, I could see blood on the floor and on her as well as bruises, even in the less than bright light of the corridor. Her right arm was also at a strange angle, and I wondered what other injuries she might have. Being a conscientious young fellow, I stopped to see if I could help her.
On kneeling beside her, I sent my Magic senses out to determine her condition. I was shocked by what they revealed. On top of her visible injures, she had two cracked ribs and one broken rib. Fortunately, it hadn’t punctured her lung on that side yet, but she would require care in moving her to avoid that. She also had a ruptured spleen and a badly bruised kidney as well as a broken ankle. Someone had really beaten the crap out of her and then left her here in this little used hallway.
There hadn’t been time to do more than check on her symptoms, when my Magic senses, which I still had checking the area, detected the presence of someone else. A large someone who was now moving quickly in my direction. I only had time to begin to rise and change forms when that person was charging down on me. Whoever they were, they were in for a surprise.
I was on my feet and at the twelve-foot-tall level of my Dragon form as he, as it was apparent that it was a male, neared me. I had presumed that seeing that I was a Dragon, he would stop or at least slow down, and I was prepared to grab him to prevent him from doing anything else. To do this, I had my arms down and nearly parallel to the ground with my hands and claws extended to grab a hold of him to keep him there for the authorities.
With my Dragon quick reflexes, I could see that he was about 6’-5’’ or 6’-6’’ tall (about 2 meters) and appeared to weigh 240 to 250 pounds (about 110 kg). He was black and had his hair in long dreadlocks, which some of his race favored. On seeing me standing there, I thought that he would slow down. Instead, he seemed to increase his speed over the last five or six feet and crashed into me headlong.
I have no idea what he thought he was doing, but it didn’t work. At twelve-feet-tall (3.65 meters), my Dragon weighs over five hundred pounds (228 kg) plus my tail was rigid and propping me up. The culprit’s speed, as he crashed into me, drove the claws of both of my hands into his chest, shattering most of his ribs and penetrating his lungs, which were destroyed. He passed out in shock and pain before he could do anything further.
Picking him up with my claws still in his chest, I looked into his face and was shocked to see that he was only a teenager ... a 16 or 17 year old teen. It was easily apparent that he wasn’t going to make it to his next birthday. In fact, he wasn’t going to make it to the hospital. With his destroyed chest and lungs, he had already lost a lot of blood, was unable to breathe, and was dead. Breathing Dragon Fire on his corpse, I allowed him to be consumed by the fire for a time before throwing the smoking remains against the wall some distance down the corridor.
Returning to my Human form, I took out my cell phone and dialed 911.
“I want to report an assault,” I told the operator who answered. She had a number of questions. I gave her my name and location before assuring her that I would remain with the victim and would do what I could for her.
Returning to the young woman, I cast a ward around both of us for protection before checking on her condition more thoroughly. I quickly discovered that she had no Talent for doing Magic, and that she was not a Dragon. Still, she required my assistance, and I started several medical spells to heal her ribs, her spleen, and her kidney. Following that, I used other spells to mend her arm and her ankle. I was only about halfway through when several mall security guards arrived. They were shocked to discover the ward around the two of us and shouted at me to come out ... now. A quick Silence spell removed the distraction, as I was still busy.
Some time later, having finished my work on the young woman, I canceled part of the Silence spell. The police were here now as well as the security guards and so were an EMT team and an ambulance crew. They were all demanding that I surrender and move away from the victim. Smiling at them, I cast a partial Freeze spell on them before canceling the ward around the young woman and myself.
They were shocked when they tried to move forward and arrest me to discover that they couldn’t move. It required several minutes and a second Silence spell before they quieted down enough so I could speak to them.
“Now that I have your attention,” I started, “the young woman should be taken to a hospital and be seen by a doctor. I have healed her one broken rib and the two cracked ones as well as her broken arm and her ankle. She also had a ruptured spleen and a bruised kidney, which I have also repaired. She needs to be moved carefully as the spells are still at work,” I advised those from the EMT team and the ambulance crew, before canceling the Freeze spell on them. The members of the EMT team checked the young woman carefully before waving the ambulance crew forward to move her to a gurney. Instead, I used a spell to move her on to the gurney for them. They all quickly departed to take her to a hospital.
The police and the security guards were not happy with me, as I had ignored them while getting the young woman off to the hospital. There was little that they could do, however, as the Silence spell and the partial Freeze spell were still in effect on them. A detective from the Police Magic Squad had arrived with the EMT team, and he blanched when he checked the strength of my Talent when I released them.
The officer presently in charge of the scene was a large individual with three stripes on his sleeve. He was at least as large as the assailant had been, and he was heavier. He was also very vocal now that the Silence spell had been canceled.
“Release us and surrender immediately,” he demanded in a loud voice. I only smiled again.
“Just a moment, Sergeant,” the Detective from the Magic Squad told him. “This individual is a Wizard and a very powerful one. He is not one of the local Ley Line users, however. I need to find out where he is from, and what he was doing with the young woman who was removed,” the Detective told him, as several more detectives arrived. They, however, were from the Homicide Squad.
“He needs to surrender immediately and be taken into custody,” the lead Detective from Homicide said, interrupting the one from the Magic Squad.
“Let’s see you convince him of that,” the Detective from the Magic Squad told him with a smile, as I threw a Freeze spell at the newest arrivals. The Detective from the Magic Squad turned back to me then, as those from Homicide began to curse at not being able to move.
“Where are you from?” he asked to start.
“I’m from Minnesota and am only visiting here,” I informed him.
“What did you do for the woman?” he asked following that.
“I was healing her injuries. She will be mostly alright in an hour or two. The spells will have run out of Magic by then, but she will be healed, as the Magic is very strong here,” I told him.
“I see,” he said before changing approaches. “You really do need to surrender and remove the spells that you have cast on us. We will need to question you further at police headquarters,” he told me. He was very sure that my surrender needed to be voluntary, as his Talent wasn’t strong enough to even inconvenience me.
“Alright, but I’ll maintain a ward around myself to ensure my own safety. I’ll go with you quietly,” I told him much to the surprise of the other officers present, especially those from Homicide. So saying, I canceled the remaining spells. The large Sergeant immediately moved forward to try to handcuff me and was greatly surprised when he ran into the ward around me and couldn’t get within a foot of me.
“What the hell?” he demanded in his loud voice.
“I told all of you that he is a Wizard. He has cast a ward around himself. You can’t get through it, and neither can I. In fact, given the strength of his Talent, there probably aren’t any of the other local Wizards who could get through it either,” the Detective from the Magic Squad told him and the others present but who were not necessarily listening.
“I’ll take him downtown in my car. It won’t be a problem,” he added.
“What if he tries to escape?” the Sergeant asked in a cynical voice.
“If he wanted to escape, he would have been gone long before now, and there is nothing any of us could do to prevent it,” the Detective continued to disbelieving looks from the others.
“Come with me,” he added, and we both made our way past the others and out of the mall. Outside, there were a number of police cruisers and unmarked police cars parked in a random manner near the door that we had exited through. The Detective made his way toward one particular car.
“This is my car,” he said before adding, “I’m Detective Mahoney ... Mike Mahoney. We’ll be going to Police Headquarters. What’s your name by the way?” he carefully added, as we neared his vehicle. I smiled again.
Mahoney was about 5’-10’’ tall and maybe 170 pounds or so. He appeared to be about thirty years old with black hair and gray eyes. He had a medium Talent for doing regular Magic, not Ley Line Magic.
“I’m usually called Morgan MacFarland in my Human form,” I told him to a skeptical look from him, as he opened the car’s doors.
“You’ll need to ride in the back seat. It’s a rule,” he told me indicating the second or rear door. It was about what I had expected. The back seat was reasonably comfortable, but there wasn’t anything else in the rear compartment, and it was separated from the driver’s compartment by a rather solid looking thick Plexiglas partition with a number of small holes in it so one could hear the driver and other passenger if necessary.
“We’ll be going to Police Headquarters which is downtown,” he repeated after getting in and starting the car. He also reported in on the car’s radio and not on the personnel radio that he wore so we would be expected. As we started to move, I canceled the remaining spells on the other officers still in the hallway.
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