Chapter 18

The following characters return from the previous stories:

Madailein Kavanagh (Maddy)

Former Earth Witch, Dragon Queen, Irish, 5’-6’’ tall, 135 pounds, 38DD-25-37, 47 years old, alabaster skin, long, lustrous black hair, violet eyes, some freckles, beautiful, Magic user

Kennith Sweeney

Ley Line Wizard, male Dragon, Maddy’s husband, 6’-0’’ tall, 175 pounds, 50 years old, brown hair with a little gray and dark eyes, very handsome

Al

Maddy’s Familiar, a large Manx cat, 16 inches long, white with large black spots, stumpy one inch tail, weighs about 16 pounds

Alva

Kennith’s Familiar, a large female cat, gray with black and white stripes, has a long tail

Mandara

Maddy’s Sword, called the Spirit Eater, enchanted and able to cancel Magic spells, can change sizes with its mistress, speaks in her mind, but doesn’t always obey her

Dallas Kavanagh

Maddy and Ken’s first daughter, Doreen’s twin, 5’-7’’ tall, 22 years of age, 130 pounds, 36D-24-36, alabaster skin, long, lustrous black hair, violet eyes, some freckles, beautiful, Magic user, Dragon

Doreen Kavanagh

Maddy and Ken’s second daughter, Dallas’s twin, 5’-7’’ tall, 22 years of age, 130 pounds, 36D-24-36, alabaster skin, long, lustrous black hair, violet eyes, some freckles, beautiful, Magic user, Dragon

Bee

Dallas’s Familiar, a large female cat, part Manx, gray with white stripes, has a medium length tail

Bess

Doreen’s Familiar, a large female cat, part Manx, gray with black stripes, has a long tail

Bill

Craig’s Familiar, a very large Manx cat, black with several white spots, a stumpy one inch long tail

Keith

Doreen’s husband, 5’-11’’ tall, 170 pounds, 26 years old, light brown hair, Blue eyes, rather handsome, Dragon

Steve

Dallas’s husband, Ben’s son, 5’-11’’ tall, 165 pounds, 25 years old, black hair, dark eyes, broad shoulders, very good looking, Dragon

Fred

Steve’s Familiar, a large yellow male Manx cat with orange stripes and a short stubby tail

Chuck

Keith’s Familiar, a large gray male cat with black stripes and a long tail

Carry and Casey

Doreen’s daughters, black hair and violet eyes, two years old, very cute

Eileen and Evelyn

Dallas’s daughters, black hair and violet eyes, two years old, very cute

Tintaglia - Madailein the Dragon Queen’s name in Gaelic

Khawlhring – Kennith Sweeney’s Dragon name in Gaelic

Adalinda – Dallas’s Dragon name in Gaelic

Amekinda – Doreen’s Dragon name in Gaelic

Bheithir – Steve’s Dragon name in Gaelic

Thevetat – Keith’s Dragon name in Gaelic

Stepping out of the portal a second later, I was a bit woozy but instantly recognized where I was. The portal came out behind the throne of the Dragon Queen in the Stone Mountain Nest. I recognized it because I had been here many times before. I had wondered where it would come out and had initially thought that it might come out somewhere down on the worker’s level. Since the Queens had said that only Dragons could use it, that pretty much eliminated the worker’s level.

There was another shock when I looked down and found my entire family gathered there in front of the throne area. How could they know to be here now, I wondered? I needed to say something to them and to return to get Jorani. It would be better to say something to them first I realized.

“Hi!” I said in greeting. “How come all of you are here?” followed that, but I didn’t give them time to answer before continuing. “I’ll be right back. Jorani is waiting for me to return,” I told them in as quiet a Dragon voice as I could before returning through the portal.

Stepping out of the portal in the Tibetan Nest, I was even more woozy and needed to stop for a short time to clear my head.

“Are you all right?” Jorani asked on seeing my condition.

“Just a little dizzy. That isn’t a trip you would want to make all of the time,” I told her, pulling myself together, if a twelve-foot-tall Dragon can be said to need to pull himself together.

“Hold on to me as best you can. You’ll probably be a little dizzy when we come out of the portal,” I told her before remembering there was a reception committee. “Oh yes, my entire family is there waiting for us,” I told her.

“Oh dear! All of them?”

“Yes, every one of them, even the children,” I said with a crooked smile, remembering their startled faces on seeing me.

“I’ll go first again and be ready to assist you if needed,” I told her. We wouldn’t be able to hold hands as our tails would be in the way, and the portal is a bit narrow. I went through again and was even more dizzy, but Jorani waited a short time before following me, and I had sufficient time to recover to help her as she came through. She appeared to only be a little dizzy, and I had to wonder if the portal was mainly for Female Dragons.

“WELCOME HOME,” everyone shouted when they saw the two of us standing there. Mother, however, appeared shocked on seeing Jorani in her Dragon form and instantly changed into her own Dragon form.

“Welcome Queens of the East,” she said in the Dragon language.

“It is good to have you here again,” the Queens in the Jewel added.

“It has been a long separation,” the Queens of the East returned also in the Dragon language. Everyone was startled by this conversation.

“We should all return to our Human form, so we can greet each other without our tails getting in the way,” Mother suggested, and we three returned to our Human forms.

“How did you know to be here now?” I asked when we had all changed forms.

“The Spirit of Ley Line Magic appeared the other day to inform us that you would be here now,” Mom told me, looking at us.

This brought on another round of surprise and excitement when my relatives saw how large Jorani had become. Instantly, my Mother and both of my Sisters appeared around Jorani, crowding me out.

“Are you all right?” Mom asked in a concerned voice.

“Yes, it’s just a bit hard to walk,” Jorani replied.

“When are you due?” Doreen asked.

“In June sometime.”

“And you’re that large already?” a shocked Dallas asked.

“We’re having triplets,” I told her.

“You mean your wife is having triplets ... certainly you aren’t,” Dallas told me in a snide voice, and that was when I noticed that all three senior Kavanagh women were ... pregnant!

“You’re all pregnant!” I blurted out in surprise.

“Yes, we are all pregnant,” Mom answered. “I’m having another daughter, and your Sisters are each having a son,” she continued.

“We’re having as many children as the rest of the family!?” I asked in surprise.

“Yes, I guess you are!” Doreen said in answer on realizing this.

“You don’t need to walk all of the way to the entrance in your condition,” Mom told Jorani, and a wheelchair suddenly appeared next to her. I helped Jorani into it, and then we all transferred to the floor of the hall from the Queen’s dais.

“You push and we’ll pull on the ramps, if necessary,” Dallas told me as we prepared to move, but Jorani had a question.

“Who are all of these people? Are they all your relatives?” she asked, a bit overwhelmed.

“Yes,” I answered and started introducing everyone. My parents, my sisters and their husbands. Also, their daughters who were two years old now and very cute little girls. Even all of the family’s Familiars were there, and Bill came up to me and stropped up against me, glad to see me back. Even my nieces now had Familiars.

“This is Bill, my Familiar,” I told Jorani. She looked around at all of the others with their Familiars.

“I’m the only one without one,” she said in a dejected voice.

“We’ll get you one soon. You have to select a cat though,” I told her.

“I can pick a cat?” she asked.

“You can pick the type of cat at least. Mother will be the one to turn her into a Familiar,” I told her, as I pushed her across the hall behind the rest of the family. Talk about herding cats, I thought, watching all of the Familiars. That was when one of the problems hit me. We hadn’t been married yet. Not in Chiang Rai, Nepal, or Tibet. My Mother would be upset about that, I was sure.

“We are going to need to be married,” I told Jorani in a quiet voice, so the others wouldn’t hear me.

“Yes, when?”

“Soon,” I assured her before we came to the ramps. It was a long way up to the entrance level, but we made it with no trouble.

The entrance level was familiar to me but not to Jorani. Still, it had a look that she recognized.

“You have tribute rooms!” she said.

“Yes, we do. I take it that you also have them. Have you had a chance to go over what is in them?” Mom asked.

“Only some of them. There are many things that are very old and no longer good. We haven’t spent much time on them. I have started restoring some of the paintings. I see that you have worked on many of them here,” Jorani told her.

“Yes, it is a time-consuming job but well worth the effort,” Mom told her.

As we approached the entrance, I had a question, since I had remembered that I no longer had a house. I had given it to my Sister when she had her daughters.

“Just which house are we going to?” I asked, as we neared the entrance.

“Why, we’re going to my house, or at least as close as all of you males can get without help,” Mom told us with a smile.

“So, just to the driveway,” I said remembering that the Nesting spell surrounded not only her property, but also both of my Sisters’ properties.

The main entrance of the Nest opened as we approached it, and the platform rolled out. Each part of the family moved out onto it and vanished, starting with my Parents, then Dallas’s family, and then Doreen’s family. This left Jorani, Bill, and me standing some forty feet above the ground of Stone Mountain Park. She looked all around at the lake, the roads, and the park area visible from the entrance in amazement.

“This is so nice, and so different from our Nest,” she said.

“The Nest is located in Stone Mountain, as I have said. It is surrounded by a large park that many people visit throughout the year,” I told her.

“Are you ready?” I asked following that.

“Yes,” she answered, and I transferred us to my Mother’s historic family home. We appeared just off the road on the driveway entrance. The others had already passed through the property wards and the Nesting ward that had activated on the appearance of male Dragons.

“Your Mother lives here? It’s beautiful,” Jorani said as soon as we had passed through the property wards and the Nesting ward.

“Yes, she does, and yes, it is. My Sisters live in the two houses just across the road,” I told her, as we followed the rest of the Family up to the house.

“Where will we be living?” she asked, as we approached the house. Mom was waiting for us and heard her.

“You will be living here for now, dear. Your new house won’t be finished for some time yet,” she told us.

“New house?” I asked somewhat surprised.

“We bought ten acres of land behind your sisters’ houses from the owner of the pasture. Your new house will be built there. It will be similar to my house, and will be a house fit for a Dragon Queen,” Mother told us. I was seriously surprised on hearing this.

Jorani was impressed with Mother’s house, even though it was just a bit crowded with everyone in the family there at the same time. It wasn’t until we had entered the large parlor, and I saw the clock there that I realized what time it was here.

“It’s only ten o’clock?” I asked.

“Certainly,” my Sisters answered.

“It may be ten o’clock in the morning for all of you, but to us it’s more like ten o’clock at night. Tibet is halfway around the world,” I reminded them.

“Oh, so you’re ready to go to sleep,” Dallas said.

“Pretty close. We could stay up for a few hours yet, but Jorani needs her sleep. She is working for four after all,” I reminded them.

“You can have the hall bath and any of the bedrooms,” Mom told us, having heard me. “Would you like something to eat before going up to bed?” she asked.

“Perhaps a snack. These three are hungry,” Jorani told her patting her swollen belly.