Chapter 12

The trip to the caverns the next morning was at a slower speed but the trip was relatively quick.

The new wives were fearful at first but they soon settled down. Gazza deliberately didn’t go very fast so they could get used to being in the Auto. He had a feeling the fact that the kids were happily playing in the back, also helped the girls feel safer.

Once at the caverns, Bette formed a new shield over the Auto. The family then gathered up the first load of supplies and she and Gazza started blinking back and forth to the cavern where Bette had found Gazza. They had bedding, food, cleaning supplies and cooking gear that they planned to leave here permanently.

In the four months since Gazza had arrived on Tera, the crystals had grown considerably and now covered the top of the cavern. The cavern was comfortably warm and well lit. Gazza was surprised that the sulphur smell wasn’t very strong, most of the time. He guessed the height of the cavern drew the smells up and away from them.

They spent a bit of time clearing an area for their camp and levelling the floor. Gazza had found that even though he didn’t have an Earth gem, he could get the metal to flow and reform using his Physics’ skills. Bette was better and even Basil was developing his skills nicely when working with smaller quantities.

If Basil sat on Gazza’s shoulder, then Gazza found that his control was much better and they made a good team as they reformed the scrap metal of Gazza’s smashed up helicopter. Gazza had no intention of trying to fix it since too much of it was missing.

He did keep most of the electrical components and any other items from it that he thought could be useful. He created a small side room with Bette’s help and they put the items in it for safe keeping. He even got her to shape out a couple of workbenches for him.

Bette also wanted a bedroom, so they created a second deeper alcove and put their bedding in it after Gazza made Bette a nice bed from the local vegetation. He used some more for shelves, after Bette formed cupboard spaces in one wall of their bedroom, for their clothes. Gazza even made a full-length mirror for Bette out of some of his precious metal.

They used some of the metal and volcanic rock to build a nice big wood-burning stove for cooking and a smaller one for heating in their bedroom. Using the local wood, the magicians made a dining table and stools of different heights to go around it. Beside the stove, they moulded a kitchen bench with cupboards underneath and some overhead cabinets for storing the cooking utensils, pots and crockery.

They used the same techniques to form storage cupboards in the main cavern to store their other gear in. The walk-in pantry and the cold-room both got lockable wooden doors. They added the ‘Preservation’ spells and the ‘Anti-vermin’ spell to all of the cupboards storage areas and rooms.

While Gazza altered the two pilot’s seats for him and Bette to use as lounge chairs in front of the fire, Bette made some white paint to protect the furniture and to brighten the living area up. Gazza stored the leftover metals in his workshop and added a small shield over it since the fumes coming from the pit had been happily eating the metals. That room was also off-limits to the kids.

Bette joked that the metals probably helped make the crystals so big. Gazza didn’t think her suggestion was so farfetched. The crystals were a lot bigger than he expected them to be, from what he had read. The ones he knocked down and inspected had good clarity and he suspected they would hold more energy than the older dirtier looking crystals from the other cavern.

Gazza didn’t object to Bette putting a shield over the side of the cavern they had turned into a living area to keep the fumes out. They had picked an area near the entrance to the other cavern so they could access it easily. They also directed the smoke from their stoves up through cracks near the crevasse so that the soot from them didn’t affect the crystals.

When they went to the other cavern to the pool, they found that the fumes from the pit had escaped that way and the crystals were bigger in here too. Bette’s other shield had not been designed to stop the fumes from going out that way. They even found crystals growing along the top of the crevice, so the walkway between the caverns was nicely lit. Bette smoothed out the floor of their hallway and she widened the crevice in places to make the passage easier to use.

They found they had to collect a lot of the pieces of crystal from the floor using gloves, as they had been absorbing energy and some of them gave them a nasty jolt if they touched them with bare hands. The kids soon worked out that the brighter crystals shards ‘bit’ and left them alone after the first couple of times they got zapped.

The kids loved the pool. Basil assured Bette that they wouldn’t drown, as flickers were excellent swimmers and the pool was easy to get out of. The kids soon displayed their lack of fear of the water and they were happily jumping in and out of the pool, on each other and anyone else in it.

When the kids investigated the entrance to the cave, they did decide that it was a long way down and stayed away from the edge. They were more than old enough to understand the danger. Bette’s shield still held and they couldn’t pass through it anyway. The kids decided the caverns were just a different type of house and happily went to explore and play.

Bette did create a small path to the side of the entrance and out onto the slope of the hill so that the flickers could explore the area outside. The kids could only leave the caverns if they were with an adult. This suited the adult flickers just fine.

There was plenty of food in the immediate area according to the new wives. The new wives did help keep a close eye on the kids. Acorn and Hazel automatically assumed babysitting duties when Basil didn’t have some other little job for them to do.

Petal chuckled and wondered how long it would take before he was able to keep his cock sheathed. Acorn and Hazel certainly didn’t seem to have any qualms about helping him with his problem. They also deferred to Petal and were just as happy to spend time with her.

The mages had built a sleeping alcove near the stove for the flickers. It was close to two metres off the floor and had easy access even for the kids. The girls were more than happy to help Petal set up the alcove. They had plenty of room for more babies. They even had a separate sleeping ledge for the kids. Basil was happy to screw all of his wives in his new bedroom that night.

The family’s hard work had made the place a nice home away from home and a good hidey-hole should they ever need it.

The next morning Gazza informed the flickers that he wanted to go on a hike around the area.

Petal told him that if he and Bette wanted to disappear for a week or so, they would be fine in the cavern. Basil and the kids had plenty to keep them occupied. She would give the girls a break and take them to do a little scavenging. There were plenty of roots and berries to harvest at this time of year and they could be stored as extra supplies for many years in his magical cabinets. The kids needed to learn about the forest and this would keep Basil busy.

Gazza had to chuckle, as he knew Basil was quite besotted with his new wives. Not that he neglected his children or Petal but two females coming into season had a decided effect on a randy young Prime who was also a Magi.

So Gazza and Bette packed up their magical satchels with food and blinked out to the Auto. They collected the magical backpack with the tent and other rough camping gear they had in it from the magical boot and headed south-east.

Gazza had always loved being in the bush. While Bette’s people lived in a civilised manner with houses and everything in their trees, the Faerie folk were still very involved in managing the forests. For the young couple, wandering around in the bush was an excellent way to refresh and revive after a gruelling three months of study.

It was also the first time they had spent any real time away from the flickers or alone together for that matter. They both chuckled after a couple of hours when they realised they were conscious of the fact that Basil and Petal were not with them. They both decided it was pointless worrying about them. Basil and Petal weren’t clueless and having the new wives who knew the general area was also a bonus.

They did discuss if they should take the flicker wives back to the city with them or not. While they did have Basil and Petal house trained, the new wives were not and they were worried about them being able to settle in. The fact that they would also be having babies in nine weeks would also mean more work and more mouths to feed. Not that feeding them was a problem because the couple were rather flush with cash.

Gazza had been using glamours and pretending to be from Oron, to sell small packets of crystals to people who needed them. It wasn’t so much for the cash but as a means to distribute them, since a lot of electrical systems and Auto’s needed them to operate. Since rumours that crystals were available again from some of the other islands had become an established fact, Gazza selling them was not questioned. Crystals had appeared from Oron over the years as well, so his cover was safe.

He had been happy to sell them to the Mages Guild. Mage Winter, who also taught at the University, had a lot of projects that could now go ahead now that she had access to crystals again. She only had a small team of helpers, as many of the magical people only played lip service to the Guild.

Gazza and Bette had both volunteered to assist whenever she had asked them too. They did have to be careful but it also let them distribute crystals on the quiet, to those who were suffering because they couldn’t get things fixed. When the rich were happy to pay more than the going rate to get what they wanted, they took precedence.

One other consideration they debated was that they weren’t sure if Linda would like her home over-run by flickers. Many new tribes of flickers started out like Basil’s and could grow quite numerous in a surprisingly short time. Another two flickers now and more babies soon could put a strain on their friendship.

“We could build them a tree home in the backyard,” Bette suggested as they walked hand in hand under the huge trees.

“We could but I don’t want them to feel they aren’t wanted. As far as they are concerned we are the same tribe,” Gazza replied.

“Well, we may just have to buy a home for our growing tribe,” Bette surmised.

Gazza looked at her sideways, “Are you growing too?”

Bette chuckled, “No, dear. I too have to come into season for that to happen.”

“What?” blurted Gazza, so stunned that he stopped walking to look at her. He then shook his head, “Bloody hell! I’m a moron!” It had only just dawned on him that Bette had never mentioned having a moon cycle and he’d just never asked. Considering they’d had sex every day since they had met, he should have thought of it ages ago.

He also realised that he had not been that worried about her getting pregnant because he thought she knew about protection. She had never mentioned a worry about getting pregnant to him. He also wondered if his desire to not lose Bette had also prompted him to not take any precautions. If she did become pregnant, they would deal with it even if it wasn’t convenient at present.

It was a low act to deliberately get a girl knocked up, as far as he was concerned, yet here he was contemplating it, even if on a subconscious level. He felt like a real heel. “How often do you come into season?” he had to ask.

Bette shrugged and kept walking, making Gazza catch up to her to hear what she would say. Finally, she said, “Well, Faerie women are considered sexually mature at my age but they don’t normally have their first season until around twenty-five years of age. That is when we are considered adults.”

“From what I know, Shifters are sexually mature at around sixteen but don’t come into their first season until around twenty-one years of age if they are capable of having children. Since I’m half of each, it may happen tomorrow or it may take a couple more years before it happens, else it may not happen at all. I just don’t know.”

“I’ve heard that people who wear magical items can control their fertility cycle to some degree. As a Shifter, the more often I use my male form can also stretch out the time between seasons. They will also get further apart as I get older. I believe three to five years is common when young and it can be ten or more years once I’ve hit the first hundred years.”

“Gazza, when it does happen we will have a problem,” Bette told him with downcast eyes. She had kinda been dreading this conversation. She had wondered why he hadn’t broached it before. Then she dismissed her worry since they had been so busy, even she had pushed it from her mind.

“What sort of problem?” he had to ask, engrossed in the conversation.

“Well, when my people come into season we tend to give off some rather potent pheromones. I think that’s how my father ended up with my mother since Faeries don’t normally mate with other races. If we have a mate, their scent being on us is often enough to stop other males, but we will still affect them.”

“Well that doesn’t seem a big problem since you have me,” Gazza replied relieved.

“Well it is and it isn’t. We also tend to get rather amorous, really amorous for the two to three days we are fertile and even more so if we are magical. Also, the longer we go without having had a child, the closer our seasons become and the more potent.”

“If that happens Gazza, we will let just about anyone have us to get relief if our mate isn’t around or we don’t have one. My mother must have been magical and since she had not birthed before, then my father wouldn’t have been able to say no if she’d already had a season or two that weren’t productive. Do you understand?”

“So basically, when you do come into season, I have to get you pregnant, preferably sooner rather than later. What happens after the first child is conceived?” he had to ask. The prospect of getting Bette pregnant in the future was not unpleasant to him. He had discovered that he loved babies.