Chapter 11

The eagles arrived a few minutes later, appearing quite entirely as proud and haughty as Lydia had described them. They circled us for about a minute, just to see if any of us would freeze to death first, thus we’d be no longer their responsibility to deal with. With clear disappointment, they saw that we were still quite cold, but not quite corpsicles yet! Mother had given their leader rather pointed and direct instructions, which most definitely did not include tearing us to shreds to feed to their fledglings back at their nests. That was most disappointing for each of them, and their flight leader was still having a bit of a queer moment, having just spoken with Mother. It hadn’t been a blissful experience.

‘Climb on, hang on and shut up’, seemed to be the simple terse rules of the great birds and we didn’t even bother to make small talk. We were small, naked and merely inferior human females and in clear distress, being quite half-frozen enough that we couldn’t feel our feet, fingers or tits anymore. Ordinarily, had we begged for their help, I think things could have gotten a bit ugly, but right now the only thing on any of the bird’s minds was to get rid of us as fast as possible and keep Mother happy ... undoubtedly so she wouldn’t turn them in to small green hopping things.

Linda was nearly helpless, still weary and ill from her ordeal and hadn’t the strength to be able to hold on to the neck of her mount. As this was one of the largest birds, save for their leader, I hoped that he could handle two of us. I grabbed on to Linda with one hand and held on to the neck of the great bird the best I could with the other. I prayed that the trip wouldn’t last long as I feared I didn’t have the strength to hold on to her in anything other than simple level flight. No one else was particularly happy about this sortie, except for Gerta, who was smiling like the cat who had found a pigeon coup door unlocked. From the first blast of cold air in her face as her mount dove down from the summit and began to fly, she had a smile that even the freezing cold thin mountain air couldn’t impair. She actually liked flying!

The birds could fly like rockets, even with a passenger each on their backs, at great speeds but as we flew away from the mountain summit, the vast range of ice covered mountains seen from high above appeared to be endless. Then the air in front of us shimmered and the entire flock of birds disappeared right into thin air ... and with a loud ‘pop’ a few seconds later, we were many hundreds of miles away, perhaps thousands. The land here was green with trees, tropical forests and jungles everywhere and without a hint of any civilized races anywhere. Below us now up just ahead we could see the shimmering blue waters of some vast sea or ocean. I hadn’t the slightest idea where we were! Mother’s world was even larger than I had dreamed!

The Snow Eagles didn’t enjoy the blazing heat of the tropical sun much and couldn’t wait to park us off as quickly as possible on the warm white sands of the nearest beach. We gave them all a brief nod of token respect and they all sort of, minimally, responded in kind.

“Our duty, the Geas upon us, has been promptly discharged. We shall bear you no ill for our obligation is to Mother, whose voice I fear has become much too rare to our ears, even since my sire’s sire was but an egg. Still, we are pleased that we shall incur no further... inconveniences, on your behalf. May it remain so.” Haughty didn’t begin to describe their attitude. The overly proud birds were definitely in need of a stern Fairy Godmother of their own!

It wasn’t quite a fuck you, but it was clearly a ‘don’t call us – we’ll call you’ sort of send-off. They flew off, and quite fast ... channeling their innate magic to teleport themselves across vast distances and they were at once gone. One lone giant eagle feather floated down towards us and Gerta was quick to claim it as her own. The wing feather was at least two feet long and her fingers clutched at it tightly as she cooed over it, caressing it and holding it then tightly to her chest. She’d caught that flying bug hard and now her thoughts were only on the skies, not the earth at our feet where nasty icky things might yet be lurking.

I could have used a right proper week long vacation at the beach, really any beach, but this one was pure and virginal and suited my maladjusted humors delightfully. The LA beaches are crowded shit, barely worth the effort to fight for parking or even just quietly enjoy oneself once you were there. Definitely no fucking on those beaches either, at least not during the day anyway. Sex in the sand is actually overrated anyway. It’s itchy and it’s not fun to feel wet sand in tender places when fucking. It just gets everywhere, especially there in all of the cracks and crevasses. And there are said to be those weird little fish that like to swim up your urethra ... or are those only in South America? I saw something about them on TV once and swore I’d never piss in a river or ocean ever again!

We took a bit of a splash in the tropical waters, mostly just to warm up entirely again after having been half frozen up on that mountain. The warmth helped a lot and we almost started to get cheerful again, but really couldn’t manage it. Linda was still a crippled wreck and regardless of the final outcome, none of us were very happy about the ordeal of the Quest. I let Linda sit and rest and I mopped about, kicking sand and gentle sea waves along the shoreline with varying degrees of indifference. I was too angry to be bored.

I found a few small sea shells to offer to Linda and between us, we childishly attempted the construction of the most structurally unsound sand castle ever built upon on these far distant virginal shores. It was quite happy to collapse all on its own without the help of the incoming tide and after a while Dottie tired of her own swim and cuddled up to be near us and to bask in the tropical sun.

Being out in the sun usually goes straight to my clit and makes me horny, every time. Today, I just wasn’t in the mood. Not even a tingle. We snuggled and talked about old times back in LA mostly; mundania. No magic, but it had at least as much insanity and we had been content, mostly, to call it home. We shared the odd kiss, but not deeply or provocatively and our fingers kept to ourselves, mostly. None of us were in the mood to make love, here and now, and so we waited for our next ride. The virgin tropical wilderness here was uninhabited, apparently, so even if I had my cell phone, it didn’t seem to be a promising place to get an Uber, either.

I could feel time moving here, so time was no longer on our side. Still something felt faintly odd about the when and where of our present circumstances and I was oddly reluctant to panic about us placidly sunning on the beach when Amelia was once again in peril. Not to mention our men probably fretting and worrying about us. So, I let Linda’s cuddle up on my shoulder and we started to snooze, the pains of our trials and the terrible chill of the mountaintop soothed away by the warm sunshine and gentle crashing waves upon the pure white sanded beach. At least for now.

After about an hour of sunning ourselves, a very large pod of a couple of dozen of what I thought were dolphins or porpoises came swimming up close to water’s shallows, well within our wading distance and they stopped and just treaded water and closely examined us.

“We have come!” A bright tinny sounded voiced sounded between my ears. “There is a compact between us, the Sea Kings and the Fae, a sharing since the times when the ocean was yet young. You must visit our Mother, and with haste, but our need is great too, as ever. May thusly our needs be fulfilled together?” This was no human voice or one that used spoken speech. Their leader had spoken directly into our minds and was able to clearly communicate with us in that manner. An interesting talent, and these creatures had many others as well.

“By the compact of old, renewed once again and made fresh, we shall join and travel with thee!” Linda said in reply to them, apparently knowing at least something about the serious issues involved here. That seemed to be the correct appropriate response and the pod of Sea Kings splashed the surface of the shallows with their flippers and tails in happy approval that we would travel with them. But to where, and why was our help needed? Like the reformed centaurs back at the Magic Kingdom, this odd race of large sea mammals seemed to have gotten their shit organized.

“Potion time again, girls. This one’s easier and far less costly to our souls as well. It’s called the Breath of the Sea, and it’s just that. A single drop and you’ll breathe water like a fish, for hours. We’ll even be able to talk to each other underwater, too! This shouldn’t take longer than a day, so let’s call it five drops each, just to be safe. This might be a rough ride, though ... it always is. I think this this will be my third such ‘mutual assistance’ trip with them, but the first one in a very long time. It’s usually mid-level Fae duty to do ready to this sort of help as needed, and last time there were over fifty of us, helping, so maybe more are on the way and will join us. It’s important, and we have a very old pact between the Fae and their people that needs regular attention.”

“What are these creatures,” Dottie asked, dusting the sand off of her legs and butt, “they look ... rather different? Is this going to be safe?”

“Safe?” Linda laughed, “They’ll fight to the death, every one, to protect us, but we’ll need to lend them a very important and rather special sort of help for them do properly do so. You’ll see. These guys are more or less Mother’s policemen of the sea, as good as the good guys get, but the deep waters are full of many bigger and badder things. Our friends here have got some significant magical advantages, but one or two limitations as well. That’s where they will need us! I’ll explain after we get into the water and are situated safely in the pod. Show them nothing but respect and can any lingering anger and annoyance you might be feeling about the trip so far, and let me do most of the talking. Think of it as yet another Quest challenge, but of a far more loving and nurturing sort of very minor ordeal, if all goes well.”

We all took our five drops of the dark blue colored potion and nearly at once the air around me started to feel different, weaker and less sustaining. I could still breath the air above, but once my head first submerged under the waves, I then felt as if I were taking good clear deep breaths of air once more. For the next day, I’d be breathing water just like a fish!

Not surprisingly, the twins had shown the least reluctance to trust in the potion to breath underwater. They dove right it and with loud happy splashes and underwater giggling, they quite had swum right over to the safety of the pod before the rest of us had finally submerged.

“Those girls were always at least half fish!” Dottie laughed to me as she swam over to join me. Together we hugged briefly and then swam over together to join the pod. Linda was already there in consultation with one of the leaders. They were in quick agreement and Linda swam off to join us and escort us

“Ladies, we’ll be off in just a few minutes, so let me explain things real fast. We’re inside the center of the protected region of the pod, where the pregnant mothers and the young calves are. The females are the bigger ones like look almost like killer whales. The older they are the larger they get. Pound for pound the matrons are the nastiest creature in the sea ... unless they’re bearing or nursing a calf. They’re not really mammals, like in Mundania, and they have some marsupial style care issues for their new-born calves that complicate their abilities ... especially their magical attacks and defenses. That is where they need our help. Three matrons are ready to calf right now and those little pups are going to need a safe warm vaginal homes and a pair of milk-filled breasts, if the mother is to be able to travel and protect the pod. The pups are not large and you’ll feel no discomfort, so, any problems or concerns?”

We all looked around at each other and shrugged. A few days ago such a bizarre inter-species familiarity would have been quite shocking, but after the events of our quest, this didn’t even begin to freak anyone out, and we murmured our agreement.

“What about the males,” I wondered, “What do they do?”

“The males, young ones anyway, generally are half the female’s size and they outnumber the females significantly. They’re also usually the first ones to die in the event of trouble. Think of them as the naval destroyers of the pod, the greyhounds of the sea. Lithe and fast, more teeth than magic, but they can take on creatures twice their size. They’ll be out in front, below and behind, and both flanks as the first line of defense for the pod. It’s a rare male that lives beyond the age of ten. Some of the older females can live to be over one hundred.”

I could now get a good look at a few of the mid-sized males and they appeared to be more normal bottlenose dolphin-size, except for the starfish-like web of tentacles on their noses. They could be used like hands, as I’d discover in just a few minutes, or they could severely sting or latch on to an enemy; weird, but quite wonderful.

“Alright then, one of the matrons is ready to calf now, she’s the leader of this pod in fact. A few others have started labor as well now we’re all ready. Amanda, would you like to be the first? Just swim over next to her and look happy, talk to her and pet her sides a bit. Then when you feel ready, drink from one of her two milk glands, as much as you can stomach really. Then in a few minutes, your breasts will start to give off milk too. You’ll probably even quickly grow a full cup size! Soothe and comfort her if you can, she’s a tad grumpy with the stress of the delivery. Then, just let one of the nearby attendant males do all of the work ... and just relax.”

I was surprisingly calm and this wasn’t really nearly half as bizarre as what I’d already endured recently, and it was all over surprisingly quickly. I swam up to her and she mentally sort of grunted a greeting at me. Her milk was a bit thicker and richer than cow’s milk and I rather liked the taste of it. I alternated teats and gulped down quite a healthy stomach full. I’d been getting extremely hungry anyway and this was actually a very nice treat. The matron then delivered in fast succession two calves, and a mature male hovering nearby grasped the tiny hand-sized calves with its tentacles and brought them over to my breasts, letting the pups each latch on my teats, which in just a few moments actually began to produce milk.

After about a half-hour, everyone except for Linda was now nursing a pair of dolphin calves, freeing up their mothers to return to the defense of the pod, to be able to freely use their magical powers and exert their might as the battleships of the ocean.