If one could ascribe emotions to the inflexible golden scaled features of His head, then The Gold Dragon Lord was viewing the human female on the other side of the Viewing Portal with frigid disdain.
"And to what do I owe the displeasure of your presence Maleficent ?" hissed The Dragon Lord. He had been able to decide his responses in advance, otherwise he might have been more wary.
"I would like you to answer a simple question for The Blue Fairy" snapped Maleficent in her most petulant manner. Yes, thought the Dragon Lord, and that's how you put everyone's back up, including Me when you broke our bargain. You annoyed The Evil Queen even before She demanded The Dread Curse back. The fact that he had been far-spying on their amusingly poisonous conversation was something to keep for another time.
"I already know the question" hissed The Dragon Lord not wishing to explain how He knew in advance. Remote far-spying was a perk of either the metapsychicly gifted or those with advanced meta technology. He had access to both and wanted to create as much unease as possible since only the likes of The Sibylline Witches were supposed to be able to know such things. "The answer is far from simple".
"Then will you tell us how to get the child safely to the World Without Magic?" asked Maleficent, now feeling rather uneasy.
"And what do I get out of it?" he hissed using the double voice only his bird like syrinx could produce. He was feeling a bit throaty and really needed another bath in the hot pool. The last one had not been hot enough as His new junior valet, a squire He had recently captured along with its previous master, a Knight Errant currently chained up in the dungeon, was nicely collared and obediently docile, but not yet fully house trained.
The Blue Fairy seemed to swell with indignation.
"Throughout my life I have had to deal with those who want something of value and can pay for it, yet expect to get it for nothing. Generally Noble trash and Wizards". Maleficent was both, well, minor nobility and an accomplished Witch.
The Blue Fairy accepted the point and un-swelled, asking "What do you want?"
"From you, nothing. I will give you an answer and help in any way that I can to break the curse. As you know, the Imp actually wants the curse to be broken so that He can get to His son. But there are dangers that even He does not appreciate. There are powers even greater than magic to contend with in this matter, and the World Without Magic is neither as bereft of magic as it seems, nor as primitive as He and You would assume. There are other ways besides magic to get things done". Like building the Medieval Decor Dragon Towers where He now lived with His son's Alex and Liam and their grown up broods, in one of the deep fertile ravines on an otherwise airless world. The Dragon Lord continued :
"From, Maleficent, I want what I wanted long ago, male children". Maleficent had made a bargain with him but run off after learning the Dragon form morphing spell he had devised for her. Continuing :
"There is time for the children to be born before The Dread Curse is unleashed. I shall care for them, all of them". The "all of them" would please Maleficent, who had few maternal feelings.
However, his real reason was to ensure their safety. As He had looked into the Time Vortex in metaconcert with His sons and The Daemon Lord also known as The Source, He knew something of what The Evil Queen was planning. He might have learned more, but the constant disruption of The Vortex by the passage of sentient organic Lymlak ships, sentient organo-metallic Simbari city ships, the Vorlon Fleet of worlds, The Shadow's Crystal Planet, and the odd Tardis on Time Lord business, was too much of a distraction.
Maleficent nodded in reluctant acquiescence. Empathetically, He sensed that this was feigned; she was actually planing to get something out of this too, girl children. Well she was in for a shock. He had "seen" in The Vortex something of what The Evil Queen had planned for Maleficent while The Dread Curse held sway. He then instructed them :
"You need a magical vessel to affect the transfer, to act as a Portal in itself. Because such an enchantment is too difficult to achieve by any means in your realm, you must use the last enchanted tree remaining in your realm. Make it into a suitable vessel and I will program it so that it will send the child to safety"
"What about the parents" asked The Blue Fairy, clearly uncertain about the nature of the answer that I was giving, and as The Dragon Lord knew, she didn't have a clue what "program" meant.
"It can only contain enough enchantment to transport two people, one at a time. So use it before the child is born. That is all. First locate the tree, then I must advise you further concerning its preparation"
The Blue Fairy left to locate the tree.
I transformed the viewing portal into a gateway, morphed into my human form and stepped through, naked except for my moving meta-active, full body dragon bio-glyph "tattoos". Maleficent snickered and lead me to The Perverted Boudoir. She must think I'm stupid. I refused to enter, business before her version of pleasure was vital now, so I became "insistent" and we went to her normal bedchamber.
This business was going to require many years away from the tower. Which meant getting help to ensure that His prized dungeon collection of chained Errant Knights were fed, watered, and mucked out. Alex and Liam would have to check up each week on the His Gremlins, the Dragon Realm's "reptile" version of the Evil Mogwi, equivalent to the Winged Monkeys used by The Great (and Powerful) Oz, otherwise He might be forced to release His collection back into the wild, with lots of gold to keep them happy as a conservation measure. Alex and Liam would be happy to look after His domesticated slaves, as good help is always hard to capture. Then there was also the problem of the auto-vermin, needed to maintain the correct dungeon ambience in the lower tower and the dungeons. Left to themselves, the dwarven spider bots always ended up hiding the skeletons and doors under a thick coating of webbing. Really, having a quality dungeon decor is quite expensive.
What He had not yet told the Blue Fairy is that He had been forced to lie, otherwise The Evil Queen might learn too much. Only one life form could be transported, and The Time Vortex had revealed that for some reason it had to be the baby. However, there was one other who could be transported because of his unusual enchanted origin - the wood carvers son, Pinnochio.
