Chapter 9

It appeared that the world had turned upside down during our time in the mountain. A few quick looks outside revealed a number of things.

The light from the mid-afternoon sun, which was on the west side of the mountain, revealed at least 20 Dragons in the sky over and around this side of the mountain from my point of view. There were probably more that I couldn’t see. They were in a multitude of colors.

In the cove below, there were a large number of their followers, or as I realized now, their offspring. They were in and around the tops of the trees that had been removed so that Dragons could land on the platform when it appeared.

On the road and in the vegetation along it, there were cars of the park security police, county police, and state police. I saw, at least, one SWAT van in my quick peeks at what was going on. I had also seen David De Tocqueville and several other Ley Line Wizards arguing with the police. What I hadn’t seen were any helicopters, but I did see a number of reporters and their news vans or satellite trucks. I quickly moved back into the darker area inside the entrance.

“We definitely have a problem,” I told Ken and our Familiars.

“You think so?” Al asked in a smart-aleck voice.

“Here is what we are going to do. Ken, transfer our Familiars and the backpacks to the house. Then, transform into your Dragon. We are going to calm all of this down. It won’t take long at all,” I told them, as the solution had come to me as I saw what was going on.

Ken quickly transferred everything to our house, and then transformed into his Dragon. Already being in my Dragon form, I hadn’t done it, as my Dragon voice would have been too loud.

“What are we doing next?” he asked when finished.

“We are going to calm everything down as soon as I move the platform out. Keep your wards around you. There is no way to know what effect our appearance will have on any of those out there,” I told him, before moving the platform out and leaving instructions in the spell for closing the entrance after we had departed.

Stepping out onto the platform while Ken waited in the entrance, I immediately changed to 40-feet-tall, and after taking in a deep breath, I announced my presence.

“I am Tintaglia, the Dragon Queen,” I thought in Gaelic before opening my mouth for it to come out in the Dragon language.

“Kum Deud#?!sa, Paus#?e Hsan!?le,” roared out of my mouth and over the park and the mountain in my loud Dragon voice. The sound raised waves in the lake in front of the cove, and the Grist Mill also shook from the acoustic waves generated by my voice. Trees in the area and other vegetation shook and lost leaves and branches. It also affected the Dragons flying in the area near us. The ordinary Humans and the Ley Line Wizards were either knocked out, or groggy and on their knees. Spreading my wings then, I took to the sky. Ken came out behind me.

“Kum Qba*!heng,” he announced in his 40-foot-tall Dragon’s voice, but there were few left to hear him. He also spread his wings and took off. The platform withdrew and the entrance sealed itself behind him. We flew around the mountain together. The sun flashed off the Amethyst of the Emblem as we flew. None came near us or challenged us as we flew twice around the mountain before heading for home. There was a trail of Dragons behind us.

We landed before going through the Nesting ward, as it wouldn’t have allowed Ken through unless I was with him. I quickly checked all of the wards around my property on the way to the house to check on our Familiars. The property wards wouldn’t keep the Dragons out. They would, however, keep out any of the police or reporters who had followed us as well as any of the Ley Line Wizards.

After returning to our human forms, we found our Familiars hiding under the table in the kitchen.

“We’ll cast a reinforced silence spell around the table. There are a lot of Dragons that followed us home, and there are sure to be names and other words used when we go back out to talk to them,” I told our Familiars before giving them some food in their bowls and then casting the reinforced silence spell. We were ready then to go back outside and face the multitude of Dragons who were sure to have arrived by now.

I was right, for as soon as we were back outside, we could hear the roar of many Dragons. While inside, the sound had been muted some by the Nesting ward and further by the brick walls of the house.

“Time to return to our largest size,” I told Ken, and we returned to our 40-foot-tall Dragon forms. As we walked toward the ward keeping the other Dragons out, the Emblem informed me what to do about them. On nearing the Nesting ward, I took in a huge breath of air.

“AA#!sc,” I shouted in the Dragon language. It came out very loud. Loud enough for there to be reverberations in the air, and it caused trees and bushes in the area to quake, and to lose leaves and twigs. It was followed by an eerie silence, as all of the Dragons who had landed turned to look at the two of us. Those still in the air also all turned to watch us as they circled above the Nesting ward.

There was one, however, that was more aggressive than the others, and he launched a blast of strong Dragon Magic at us inside the ward. The ward responded by sending a shot of Dragon Magic back at him after absorbing his blast. The Purple Dragon tumbled from the sky to crash in the field past the end of my property and outside of the ward. He lay there for some time as others landed to check on his condition.

“I don’t think any of them will try that again,” I told Ken with a smile, or at least, as much of one as a 40-foot-tall Dragon can manage.

Most of the Dragons had landed by now, and they had needed to shrink to a smaller size to all be able to approach the Nesting ward close enough to watch and listen to me. The 25-foot-tall size seemed to be the most popular one. Ken and I were still at our largest size, and I could see that the road going past my house had been blocked in both directions by some of their offspring to stop traffic. I wasn’t sure if these were the same ones who had been at the park or not. Those offspring had been knocked out when I announced myself.

“Why are all of you here?” I demanded in Celtic before the others could say anything. Two of the Dragons stepped forward then. I could tell from their appearance and their colors that they were Barchanaus and Kildarcsh, the Light Blue and Red Dragons respectively.

“So, you have assumed the role of Dragon Queen,” the Light Blue Dragon said in a snide voice.

“Assumed ... NO! The ghost of LALHLIMPUIL, herself, bestowed the Emblem of the Queen on me. IT is what proclaimed me the new Queen,” I told them. They stared at me in shock for a short time.

“The ghost was still there!?” they both asked in shock. “The last of the Females came out to die in the sun and the open air. She told us of the Queen’s ghost, but that was 3,500 years ago. How could the ghost still be there?” they asked in confused voices.

“The ghost was still there but weak. She directed me to remove the Emblem from the Queen’s remains and to have my husband help me put it on. The ghost faded away shortly after that. Do you still doubt my right to wear it?” I demanded as the Amethyst of the Emblem glowed brightly in response to my words. Both Dragons hastily backed up on seeing this.

“Yes, she is the rightful Queen. The Emblem would not have reacted if she weren’t. She would also be dead long before now, if she wasn’t the heir,” the Red Dragon told the Light Blue one.

“There is that,” the Light Blue Dragon admitted. “But she is so very young and doesn’t have the wisdom of the previous Queens to rule wisely,” he complained.

“Remember that the Jewel in the Emblem knows what all of the previous Queens have done. Also, she has demonstrated that she is a stern individual and already set in her ways even at such a tender young age,” the Red Dragon reminded him.

“What is it that you wish us to do, my Queen?” the Light Blue Dragon asked in a submissive voice following that.

“All of you should return to your previous homes for now. I will have a hard enough time explaining what has occurred without all of you in the sky to remind people that there are still Dragons. By the way, is this all of you?” I asked, looking at the forty or so of them that were assembled here. They were numerous enough for their group to extend all of the way out into the roadway even at their smaller size.

“These are the ones who arrived here the quickest when the Emblem announced that there was a new Queen. There are many others who were too far away to arrive here quickly. These are those who are friendly to you and will support you. There are others who follow the Green Dragon, Kreuzfeur, who have not answered the summons. They are not friendly to you and will not support you, or obey you, as long as the Green Dragon lives,” the Light Blue Dragon told me.

The two of them then turned to the others and dismissed them, telling them to return to their Lairs for now. They all soon took off. Their offspring also vanished after canceling their wards blocking the road and opening it to the angry drivers and the police. I was sure that the reporters would be here shortly.

Earlier back at the park, David De Tocqueville was one of the first to recover from the effects of Maddy announcing herself in the Dragon language. He had kept the strongest filter spell around himself while there. He was sure that she would have returned to her house and property, and that the other Dragons had followed her there. Using his remote, he zoomed the lens of his camera back to take wide angle video, so it would record all of those who arrived there.

Finishing that, he helped some of the other Ley Line Wizards to recover. They were all up before the police and the news people began to stir. They also saw one of the Dragons land on the road near the cove and wake the followers who had also been knocked out by Maddy’s announcement.

“Good grief, David, what did she say and how strong is she? Look at all of the others. They are still knocked out,” one of the other Wizards asked.

“She is very strong. Possibly, now she is stronger than the other Dragons. Did you see how many of them there were?” David asked.

“Yes, several of us tried to count them, but they kept changing their flight paths and mixing their locations in them. However, we believe that there were something between 35 and 40 of them plus their followers on the ground. What are we going to do?” one of the other Wizards asked.

“WE are going to stay away from her for now. I have my camera recording what goes on at her house. I’ll go out there later and retrieve the video disk. If things are quiet, I may try to speak to her. The police and the reporters will be there for some time. All of this will be on the news tonight and probably for several days to come. You can be sure that the Atlanta City Council will be in a panic over this. Expect to receive calls from them and possibly from others as soon as this afternoon,” he told the others. They all vanished before the police and the reporters began to wake up.

Some police arrived at my property shortly after the Dragons and their offspring had departed, and the road was reopened. They were angry and had questions. However, on seeing the two of us still standing there in our Dragon forms at our largest size, their anger quickly cooled, as they approached the property wards.

“Are the others gone?” the senior one asked after stopping at the wards.

“Yes, they have all returned to their Lairs for now. They had all been summoned to attend to the new Queen. They have been dismissed for now, and shouldn’t be a problem again,” I told them as the Jewel in the Emblem flared once again. These were local county and city police, and they may not have been aware of what had occurred at the park. They soon departed, and traffic resumed its normal flow.

A half hour later, part of the police who had been at the park arrived. They were aware of what had occurred there and were also angry. We had returned to our Human forms by then. The news reporters were only a few minutes behind them. They all had questions. We dealt with the police first.

“Were you the Dragons that emerged from Stone Mountain?” was their first question.

“Yes, we were the Dragons who were inside of Stone Mountain. Long before there were Humans in this area, it was the major nesting site for Dragons on this side of the planet. I have been led to believe that there is another major nesting site on the other side of the planet,” I told them to a shocked look from them.

“Where are all of the other Dragons who were flying around the mountain?” was the second question that the police asked.

“They have all been dismissed and sent back to their Lairs for now,” I told them.