Chapter 3

Alex sighed "your mother, Natalie and Bitsy are upstairs snickering again, why don't you get the dragons together, we'll go show them the lair then the new area, I think it might be safer out of the house. God only knows what they're up too." Connor nodded "I'll go see if they're ready, Falk scared the one small dragon so badly earlier I don't know if we can get her out of the back room." It took some work but they finally convinced Ailysh it was safe to come out, Raimi told them she would meet the group by the forest at the foot of the mountain. After they had left Raimi quietly padded up the stairs looking for Laurel, she found the three women in one of the bedrooms, lightly tapping on the door, Natalie with a smile opened the door inviting her in. Raimi had not asked a favor of someone in untold years and found it very difficult to do so now, after a few minutes of chatter from the women Raimi took a breath and looked at Laurel "do you perhaps have some old clothes that might fit my human form?" Laurel smiled kindly "why don't you change form and I can measure you and see what I have." Raimi frowned slightly "is that necessary?" Bitsy chuckled "Laurel is rather large in the chest area, her blouses might hang down to your knees she is also rather tall, her skirts might be too long and you could trip over the hem." Raimi glanced at Natalie "the clothes you wore yesterday riding, something like that would be good." Natalie smiled "I can fix you up with something similar but as you noticed they were rather form fitting so I would have to see your size." Raimi nodded with an abrupt motion of her head, Natalie saw her paws fisted at her sides and the flash of fear in her eyes and decided she was going to have a talk with the old dragon Morpaw and his wife and see what she could find out about Raimi.

Raimi told herself she was being ridiculous, she was a warrior, she had fought and survived over and over again, what did she have to fear from these females, with a deep breath she changed to her human form. Laurel, Bitsy and Natalie stared for a moment at the strikingly lovely woman standing before them dressed in some sort of fur clothing that barely covered her body, she wore leggings of the same fur with leather thongs that tied up around the fur holding the leggings on. Over her back was a quiver of arrows and a long bow, strapped to her side an old but very sharp looking sword, on her thigh a dagger in a sheath, on her forearm another dagger. Raimi had short curly tawny colored hair, her eyes a deep dark gray, her body was muscular but not to the point of being unattractive. Laurel almost chuckled, Bitsy thought she was tall, Raimi stood a good four inches taller, her legs long with bare muscled thighs, her waist narrow and tapered, her fur covered breasts were not overly large but certainly adequate, more then enough to draw a man's attention. Raimi stood stiff, her hands fisted at her sides, her legs spread slightly apart, her head held high a glitter that seemed almost contempt in her eyes, her lip curled up at one end in a sneer. Natalie chuckled "the first thing we need to do is get rid of all the weaponry, then we can fix you all up" Raimi almost gasped to see her weapons suddenly sitting on a chair, she almost lunged for them but held still, if she wanted some clothes she must endure these women, she had endured much worse she told herself. "Careful my sweet ones, this ohh sooo defensive one has been in bondage, she sees herself once again on an auction block being judged for sale with your assessing looks, you must gently give her the dignity she deserves and the clothes she has ohhhh sooo fearfully requested, it took much for her to ask this of you, yes this Nedra knows" Nedra purred silently to the three.

Natalie smiled at Raimi "I think we can make you an outfit that will suit you well, you certainly are not the frilly lacy sort, but then none of us are." Suddenly Raimi found herself dressed in a loose sleeved shirt that laced up the front, a black vest of soft leather, breeches of a heavy chamois material, on her feet boots the likes of which she had never seen before that came up to mid thigh but were not stiff, but supple and smooth with a high riding heel. Raimi stared at herself in the long mirror off to one side, yes, this was what she wanted, these were her type of clothes, she wanted to laugh with happiness to see herself once again as she should be. "I thank you for these clothes" she told Natalie. Bitsy smiled "it won't take but a second to make you several other outfits, a girl has to have more then just one, some pretty undies and a few other things." Raimi frowned "I don't have any idea what undies are, but this will do, you have already done to much." Natalie watched Raimi put her weaponry back on "it's our pleasure we enjoy dressing people and lending a hand, I'll send some things over to the cottage." Just before she padded out the door once again a dragoness Raimi glanced at Natalie "your little winged person said something about looking at horses, I must meet my friends shortly at the edge of the forest, how shall I find your home later?" Natalie chuckled, hearing Keebler called her little winged person, "just ask Connor to send you to Bitsy's." Raimi looked at Bitsy "the animals are yours?" Bitsy hmmmmmm'ed "I guess you could say that but don't tell Brax and Keebler, they're sure all the horses at SheringCross belong to them." Raimi with an abrupt nod padded out of the room.

After Raimi had left the three women looked at each other "my goodness she is a very strikingly lovely woman" commented Laurel, she hadn't really gotten a good look that one night in the pool room, when Raimi had tried so hard not to be seen. Natalie and Bitsy looked at Laurel who was the most beautiful woman they thought they would ever see in their whole lives and started to giggle. Kalilah smiled as she flew in "you wanted to talk to me Laurel?" Laurel smiled widely at Kalilah "yes I did, Bitsy and Natalie wanted to show you something." Kalilah looked at Natalie and Bitsy "ohhhhh?" Bitsy winked at Natalie, Laurel sat down to watch the show. A human sized Bitsy smiled at Kalilah "we thought it might be fun to show you size morphing." Kalilah frowned "I've always known you could change your size, I've seen you human size often when you visit Laurel." A tiny Natalie grinned "that's true but I can change my size also, so can Laurel." Not quite understanding what was going on Kalilah sat on the table next to Bitsy "I can see that but you all have strong magic." Bitsy grinned at Kalilah "we can teach you to change size also, if you want, it's lots of fun and can have very interesting results." The three watched the looks that crossed Kalilah's face as the implications started to sink in. Kalilah started to grin, then giggle, it wasn't long before the sound of female snickering could be heard. Marti'en sitting in the parlor watching Zara play on her rocking horse grinned.

Mar walked through Miranda's lair with Shelaw and Morpaw "as you can see, we can provide you with a very comfortable lair, we all enjoy the bathing pools so those can be added if you want them." Morpaw watched his gentle Shelaw pad out of the lair, excusing himself he followed her outside "you do not care for what you see? My gentle Shelaw, we can go else where." Shelaw turned tear filled eyes to Morpaw, with a frown he wrapped his wing around her "it has been so long since we had a lair, a real home filled with all the things that made it a home, for a moment I remembered ours of long ago, filled with so much love and laughter, hatchlings flying in and out with the sounds of giggles and shrieks." Morpaw touched her cheek lovingly "we can have such again my gentle Shelaw, perhaps the young ones are not of our making but look to Mar and Marti'en, both have no hatchlings of their own and yet their lives are filled with the young ones and the tiny one, in time our lives can be filled in such a way, the little ones of our old age." Shelaw smiled "forgive me my sweet Morpaw, it was but a moments longing for times past that can never be again, it will be enjoyable to once again actually cook real food and sit at our own table." Morpaw and Shelaw returned to once again look about the lair.

Revanche watched Bartolow carefully touching his paw to the books in the study, "we all enjoy reading, I can setup a library in your lair if you want." Bartolow glanced over his shoulder "you can do such?" Revanche smiled with a nod "I don't know if you read english or latin but I can do my best where a language is concerned." Renlock chuckled from the doorway "Bartolow can read any words, the language doesn't matter, before we lost the books you were up to thirty some odd different ones weren't you?" Bartolow simply nodded. Connor saw his father and Virlane off to one side talking with a grin he joined them "what are you too whispering about?" Virlane raised an eyeridge "woman whisper together, males discuss things." Connor laughed seeing the twinkle in his eyes "ok, what are you two discussing?" Alex grinned "we want to go take a better look at that beach down below, it looked interesting." Connor frowned "you want to go through the mirror again?" Virlane chuckled "there is no mirror any longer, go take a look."

Connor walked into the bedchamber, where the mirror was, there was now only a doorway with wide stairs leading down to a large empty chamber, "we thought it best to move your mothers hoard to a different location." Alex said as he walked up next to Connor, with a grin Virlane flew down to the second door way, Alex and Connor soon joining him, they all looked through the door way at the beach, the palm trees, the crystal clear water. Virlane walked through the opening, with a wide grin he wiggled his talons in the warm sand, he felt the topical breeze on his scales and grinned even more, dipping his paw in the water he sighed with pleasure. Mar going to look for Connor, Alex and Virlane, found the three laughing as they played in the water, splashing each other, jumping off rocks with big belly splashes, diving under the water coming up spitting water spouts. The three seeing Mar all gave him silly boyish "we've been caught" grins. Virlane winked at Alex "I really need to show this to Kat" Alex pouted "I was going to show it to Laurel first" Connor laughed at the two "flip a coin" they all went up above laughing at each other.

Raimi flew into the clearing, half expecting the cottage to be gone, she sat for a long time just looking at it, changing into her human form, touching the clothes she now wore with loving hands, she took a deep breath and walked through the door. With a sigh of relief it was as she had remembered it from looking through the door and window, Raimi wandered through the cottage running her hands over everything, looking in drawers and closets. She stood just staring at the kitchen, filled with pots and pans and all sorts of cooking utensils, a big stove sat by one wall, a sink with a pump for water under the window that looked to the front of the cottage, going into the bedroom, she almost gave a feminine giggle, the bed was covered with a lacy coverlet, matching curtains hung at the windows. Carefully she sat on the bed then lay back on it making sure her boots didn't touch anything, with a sigh of pleasure she felt her body sink into the down mattress, wiggling around she could almost feel the mattress wrap itself around her. Hearing noises Raimi jumped up and ran to the door quickly changing to her dragoness form as she went through the doorway.

Strut his hands on his hips snapped "well it's about time, we thought you had gotten lost" as she walked out of the trees. Raimi frowned at Strut "you should be so lucky" turning to Renlock she asked if had been happy with what he had seen so far. Renlock nodded "with our friends help I think we shall be very comfortable here, more so then I had imagined." For just a moment Raimi blocked Renlock's way into the forest, he gave her an inquiring look, Raimi stepped aside saying nothing, it wasn't her forest after all she told herself. Renlock padded through the forest, he said simply when he saw the cottage in the clearing "I am pleased to see you have chosen for yourself all ready." Strut snorted "well looky there, got herself a nice cozy human house, think you're going to get away with being a human female here? Isn't one brand enough for you or maybe that's what you really want huh." For just a moment Raimi felt her head drop, hanging with a sense of shame, her head snapping up with a snarl she took a step towards Strut. Renlock stepped in front of her, almost panting her eyes flew to his. "Toledoes and Ailysh would be upset to see him go flying past shredded to pieces" Renlock told her quietly. With a slashing motion of her paw Raimi snarled "no more!" turning she stalked out of the forest. Raimi strode over to Connor "I was told to ask you to guide my way to Keebler the stablemaster." Connor nodded not sure what was going on, all he knew was that anger and hostility were radiating off Raimi in waves. Telling his father he was going to take Raimi to the stables at SheringCross, Connor took Raimi to find Keebler. With a look of deep sadness on his face Bartolow looked down at Strut "you have cost us Raimi today." Revanche standing next to Bartolow watched the small dragon fly off into the trees, about to ask Bartolow what he had meant Revanche didn't get the chance as Renlock padded out of the woods "we shall now seek out our lairs in the mountains" he told the others a deeply troubled look on his face.