Chapter 2

The following characters appear in this chapter and later in the story:

Carl Michael O’Connell,

Were – Siberian Tiger, Margie K’s Father, 6’-3’’ tall, 230 pounds 42 years old, broad shoulders, auburn hair, green eyes

Seamus O’Connell,

Margie K’s Great Uncle, an Ordained Minister, 5’-10’’ tall, 170 pounds, very old, white hair and a short beard, gray eyes

We appeared in the Clan Hall just before 5:45 that afternoon. It had been set up with tables and a serving line. A number of the Clan women had been working in the kitchen there for many hours preparing the food for the meal. Both Robert and Frank were surprised by the size of the Hall and by how it had been set up.

“This started out as a used basketball gym that our ancestors bought and moved here. It’s been enlarged and redecorated several times. The kitchen was added many years after they bought it. Initially the food was prepared in each families’ kitchen and transferred here for the meals. It’s mainly used for holidays and celebrations. It’s also used when someone from the Clan has been requested to give a report after completing an assignment for the Eternal Flame,” I told them.

We were greeted by a number of my Relatives on arriving, but we soon headed for the table where my Parents were already seated. My Father rose as we approached, giving me a kiss on the cheek when we were close enough and smiling at Celeste.

“Please introduce your young men, both of you,” he requested with a smile.

“This is Frank Mahony. He’s my friend and is coaching me in my studies, Father O’Connell,” Celeste told him introducing Frank who shook hands with Dad.

“This is my Husband to be, Mankato Two Wolves. Though his name means Blue Earth in Lakota, he is usually called Robert, and he is a Major Dragon, Father,” I informed him. Daddy frowned on hearing the Dragon part, but reached out and took Robert’s hand to shake it. He too was surprised by the level of Talent that he discovered there.

“A real Dragon, not some imaginary creature like those that you see in some of the children’s books or in cartoons?” he still demanded.

“A very real Dragon,” I told my Father, “with a wingspan of over 120 feet at his largest size.”

“I take it from what you just said that he can appear in other smaller sizes?” he asked.

“Yes, some of them quite small,” I told him with a smile.

“Please have seats, all of you. The dinner is about to begin, but it would be best to wait until the press at the serving line has diminished some before going there,” Dad said with a knowing smile, just before my Great Uncle Seamus stood to give the blessing before the meal. Our men were quite surprised later when we went to the serving line for our meals and later also while we ate.

“This food is really excellent, surely as good as the food that I was occasionally able to afford in some of the better restaurants where I lived in Philadelphia,” Frank told us in surprise.

“You lived in Philadelphia, that is very interesting,” Dad said before turning to Robert. “Where did you live?” he asked.

“I spent most of my life on a ranch in what you would know as South Dakota. We raised buffalo, the American Bison,” Robert told him. “But I met Margie in Philadelphia,” he added.

“All of our ladies learn to cook at an early age, and they are all good cooks. It goes back to the Founders of our Clan, Margie and Katie O’Connell,” Mother told Frank and Robert.

“They married an O’Connell then?” Robert asked.

“No, Margie and Katie were born O’Connells. Their Husband was Mark Kent, and he later changed his name to Mark Kent O’Connell. They were the ones who started Magic Ink Press, the book store, and the herbal store. We still print books and sell herbs, but not to the extent that we once did,” Mother told him.

“We will be looking at doing the same thing in this Reality,” Dad told them, giving me an idea of what some of their planning had been about.

Dinner was soon over, and the dishes and utensils had been returned to the serving line to be taken care of later. People had begun moving to the other end of the hall and the chairs that had been set up there. I could see that over a hundred and fifty chairs had been set up, and hoped that they wouldn’t all be filled. Shortly after that, I saw a number of our Relatives from the Third Reality, and three from the Reality of Continuous Magic taking seats. It would appear that Uncle Aengus had alerted more than just the local members of the Clan.

Once everyone was seated, Uncle Aengus called for attention and then turned the proceedings over to me. The first thing that I did was to introduce Celeste and our men, making it very clear that they were already taken. I then started things by explaining the mission that the Eternal Flame had given me. This was followed by a description of my encounters with the various groups in power, and included the assault on my house and the destruction of the command center; the meeting with the political leaders, and then the one with the Military leaders.

Celeste then covered her encounter with Kurt and her capture by the Wizard’s Council. I recounted my capture by the same Wizards, my escape, and the meeting with Frank, who then explained why he had been in the tunnels under the Council’s complex. We took turns then explaining our various encounters in the tunnels, and the creatures that we encountered there. Finally, I came to my meeting Robert, and our adventures both in the tunnels, and in and around Independence Hall. Robert covered the Wizard’s attack and our response. I followed with the return to the Tennessee house, and my need to make a decision, before finishing with a description of how I had isolated the Solar System and then canceled the use of Magic in what is now the Reality of No Magic.

There was silence for many minutes when I finished, as the audience was in shock at the final outcome. This was much different than they had been during our explanations where there had been questions about nearly everything. There hadn’t been any questions about the sex that we had enjoyed thankfully.

After many minutes of silence, several people independently said, “I’m glad that I wasn’t the one to have to make that decision.” My relatives were very subdued for several more minutes following that, but eventually there were more questions.

“When can we see this Dragon?” a number of my male relatives wanted to know. I looked over at Robert, and he didn’t say anything, but I could feel how uncomfortable he was, as he isn’t a showoff.

“This building isn’t large enough with all of you in here,” I told them to try to forestall things.

“You both told us that he can appear in several sizes,” my Father reminded me, drawing a glare from me. I looked over at Robert again, and he had a resigned look on his face.

“I’ll need a screen for him to change behind,” I told Uncle Aengus.

“A screen?”

“Yes, he must remove his clothes before transforming, or they’ll be ruined.”

“Okay, I’ll get one,” he told me, and a screen appeared on the stage several seconds later. Robert and I set it up, and he went behind it to remove the suit and his other clothing.

“What’s wrong?” several people asked on seeing Robert disappear behind the screen, and I started to explain about his clothes, but didn’t get far before there was a tremendous flash of light, and the screen collapsed and was blown across the stage to skid off of it. In the dimly lighted Hall, Robert’s transformation spell was like a star going nova with its strong light output.

When my relatives could see again, Robert was standing near the edge of the stage as Crendenor in his eight foot tall size, and swishing his tail back and forth in agitation. There were several exclamations of shock when they saw him standing there, and me standing next to him in my Were-form as Macha K. We were both about the same height, but Crendenor was larger overall.

“Does he breathe fire?” one of my female Cousins called from near the front of the audience.

“Yes, but it’s Magic Fire, and you don’t want him to demonstrate that here. I’m not sure that any of our wards would stand up against it. From well over 200 feet away, he barbecued ten Master Wizards behind their wards who were preparing to cast a spell against us at Independence Hall. There was nothing left but some ash floating on the breeze in less than a minute,” I told her and the others.

“When can we see him at his full size?” several of my male relatives wanted to know, and I looked over at Robert.

“Tomorrow after it warms up,” Crendenor told them with a hiss and another swish of his long scaled tail.

“At the Eternal Flame’s Glen,” I added, as he returned to the back of the stage, while I retrieved the screen with Frank’s help, and we erected it in front of him, so he could change back again. My relatives had started leaving the Hall by then.

Robert was not in a good mood when we returned to my house. The others sensed it, and soon went up to their room.

“They just want a spectacle!” Robert said in disgust, after they left.

“I think it’s only partly that. They’ve never seen a real full size Dragon before or seen it fly,” I told him, hoping it was the truth.

“It’s already late with the explanations and the questions we spent something like six hours up there on that stage. Let’s go to bed and forget all of this,” I suggested.

“Yes, let’s go to bed, I need to fly tomorrow,” he said in disgust.

“But you love to fly. I felt how much you love it every time that you went up,” I told him, somewhat surprised that he would be so upset about doing something that he loved.

“But, this time I have to perform like a trained dog or a monkey!” he said, dejectedly.

“Why? Yes, you are going to fly, and a lot of people will be watching you, but you can still enjoy yourself. Go up, change sizes, and ride whatever thermals there are for a while. When you get tired, come down in your full size, and buzz the crowd a couple of times ... scare the hell out of them. Then go back up and glide for a while until they get tired of watching you and go home,” I told him with a smile.

“You really are a devil! I would have never thought of that. Maybe I’m too literal,” he said and the smile broadened even more as he continued to think about what I had said.

In the morning, we were quite late rising, and had a very leisurely breakfast. Before 2:00 o’clock, we ate again to fuel up before I transferred us to the Eternal Flame’s Glen. We only wore our Wizards Robes this afternoon.

Arriving there, we were greeted by quite a crowd who were waiting to see Robert fly. He walked around the Glen a bit checking the direction of the wind, which was out of the west, before turning his back on the crowd, and throwing off his robe just as he finished casting the change spell. Out there in the sunlight, the flash from the change spell was less blinding. Again he appeared in his eight fool tall size, spread his wings, and took off into the wind, with a couple of flaps of his wings. He remained the same size as he gained altitude, just as he had done previously.

One of my male Cousins, who is a jerk, made his dissatisfaction with this very plain.

“Ah ... he’s no bigger now than when he took off. What a joke,” he complained and wandered over to the east side of the Glen in disgust to stand by himself. Yes, even the O’Connells can occasionally raise a jerk.

While Crendenor has very good hearing, I’m not sure if he heard the comment, or if he sensed it through me, but suddenly he changed directions, and came diving down toward us out of the west and the sun there. I thought that he was going to buzz the crowd, as I had suggested, but it turned out that he had more in mind than that.

Those, who had been paying attention to what he was doing, were the first to notice the change in direction, but they had no idea what was about to happen. Crendenor folded his wings and plummeted toward the ground, like a dive bomber, and grew dramatically larger in mere seconds until he spread his wings again to break out of the dive and swooped in through the break in the trees on the west side of the Glen at about ten feet above the ground in near level flight.