PLANE
Chapter 3
She didn't have anything to sleep in, so she was sleeping naked. Her panties and bra were hanging in the bathroom to dry. She had tried to wash them as best she could.
Now she just needed to figure out what to do. If they were telling her the truth, she was trapped here for three long weeks. And this room was tiny. The bed had been comfortable enough and if she was being truthful, it was better than her bed back home. But there wasn't anything to do in this room. She didn't see any TV and there were no books. The desk had a chair, but otherwise this room was unremarkable. BORING came to mind.
She heard a DING which had her looking around. It was now that she realized there wasn't even an alarm clock or any other kind of a clock. She had no idea what time it was. She didn't even have a window to see if the sun was up.
Then it did it again, only this time she had an idea what it was. It was just she was naked. At first she thought about putting her clothes back on, but instead she took the comforter off the bed, wrapped it around herself, and grasped it to hold it closed. Then she walked over to the door and pressed the panel to open it.
It was Castle and instead of black and red, he was wearing clothes, like average clothes. Well, average for around here. "Good morning. I brought you something. Thought you might need these." Rick held out what he was holding for her to take them from him.
Kate saw what looked like a bundle of clothes and a pair of boots. Kate even tried to take them but for a second she lost control over her comforter. She had to grasp it again to keep it from falling off and leave her standing there naked.
"Allow me." Rick slipped past her into the room and placed his bundle on the unmade bed since she hadn't tried to make it yet. "I see my daughter gave you the best room in the tower. I may have to have a talk with her about that." He knew for a fact that there were empty apartments or even houses in the city that she could have selected. It left him wondering just what Alexis was thinking.
Rick turned to look at her since she had barely moved. "I thought you might like something different to wear for our ride this morning. After that, we'll have to see about getting you some clothes. I'm pretty sure you don't want to be wearing the same thing day after day for the next three weeks.
"I trust these will fit you," Rick offered. "I did my best. I'm not used to shopping for women's clothes and had to get a little help."
"I'm sure they're fine." There was that word again. Rick heard it and still hated it. Fine was not a good word to be using. "We're really going riding? On a fire-breathing dragon?" Kate wasn't so sure about this idea of his.
"Oh, yes. Setheldath will be most cross with me if we don't show up after I got her to agree to this. Don't worry, nothing will go wrong. I'll even make sure you get the very best saddle we have. Can't have you falling off. It's a long way down to the ground. You might break something," Rick joked with her.
"Yeah, like my neck." Kate was still working on how to talk herself out of this upcoming disaster. Fall to her death, get eaten alive, or burnt to a crisp.
"You'll be fine," Rick reassured her. "Look what you've done now. You've got me using the word FINE." He hated that word and now he was using it. At least he did finally get to see her smile just a touch. "Well, I'll let you change. I believe breakfast before flying might not be such a good idea for you." He could easily imagine the disaster if she threw up on a dragon.
"Probably not." He had her there. Then Kate watched as he came up to her, took both shoulders in his hands, leaned down, and gave her a quick kiss.
"Remember, no one will hurt you here. Not if it can be helped, anyway." Rick let go of her and left her to get changed. Kate stood there wrapped up in a comforter because she was naked underneath, still in a slight state of shock. Between possibly riding a real fire-breathing dragon and having him kiss her again, she didn't know what to think.
.x{O}x.
Kate had found a new bra, new panties, socks, very stretchable white pants, narrow black belt, a white top, what she thought was a black coat, and some serious-looking boots. Most of it fit pretty well. The bra was maybe a touch smaller than she usually wore but wasn't uncomfortable, so she was wearing it. The shirt had a high collar that was part choker. The coat was both vest and coat. It even had a tail. There were six buttons on the vest, three on the sleeves, and the black boots came up to her knees.
If clothes made the person, these clothes made her feel like someone else. Then there was that DING again which told her someone was at her door; she was betting Castle came to get her.
Rick unabashedly looked her over from head to foot. "WOW! I'm going to have to thank my helper again for choosing that for you. You look amazing."
"Thanks." Kate knew she was beginning to blush and fought it down. She never got that many compliments from men. Not in her line of work, and her work clothes didn't look anything like this. "You're sure this is a good idea?" Riding a real dragon sounded like a terrible idea to her.
"It's an excellent idea. Come on, they should both be here soon." Rick held out his hand and Kate found herself taking it, walking with him hand in hand.
Unlike previously, she wasn't asked if she was ready. Castle just opened the door, selected where he wanted to go, and instantly they were somewhere else.
Once outside, Kate found herself somewhere she was pretty sure she hadn't even seen from that balcony. But it was lovely. The building, when she looked, was small and domed with that door in the very center. Out here was a round blue tile area. Past that was all plants.
She could see the red suspension bridge between here and the tower. In fact, she could make out all three red suspension bridges. "Where are we?" She had never seen that before.
"The city has sections which are interchangeable with areas or divisions. The primary tower in the middle sits on the central section; Under that it's all forest, woodlands, and parks. From the tower are three bridges. Each bridge connects to a relatively small open space like this one. Each serves a different purpose.
"Then there's the city itself. It, in turn, is divided up into three sections. Look left for me. Do you see the round area that's connected to the central section? From there, each division gets a little higher, and each is a half-moon with open sky between them.
"First up is another park with a lake. Next is part of the city in that division and it's smaller than the outer section. Starting from the central section at the base of the primary tower, each area, whether round or half-moon, gets just a little higher each time.
"Everything is done in threes. Three bridges, three concentric half-moons past the round area. There are three different sections that make up the city outside of the primary tower. Each part of the city holds roughly 1.5 million people of various races.
Rick started to list them all since there were a lot of them. "Humans, Genasi much like your friend in the cafeteria, Gnomes, Halflings, Elves, Half-elves, Half-orcs, Tieflings though not that many of those. A Tiefling is a cross between a Demon and another race, typically human."
"Half-demon? And you have elves?" Kate gaped at him openly.
"Oh yes, you can have half nearly anything. Half-dragon for instance. Speaking of which, here comes our ride." Rick spotted them flying this way. He could feel Kate stiffen since he was right behind her, pointing things out to her. "Relax, they're not going to eat you."
"Says you!" Kate retorted. The closer those two got, the worse this idea got.
Rick and Kate watched as they both landed. They folded their wings and walked toward them.
"My brother was free and agreed," Setheldath told them.
"I am honored, Jaerkath." Rick gave him a slight bow. "Allow me to introduce Kate Beckett of the 12th Precinct. Kate, Setheldath you have met, and this is her younger brother, Jaerkath."
Kate suddenly knew fear as his head came down close to her and she heard and felt him sniff her, but he didn't show his teeth. "Prime Material Plane. We do not see many of your kind here. This just might be fun, sister." Now he showed everyone his enormous mouth full of incredibly sharp teeth.
"Told you that you would like this. Saddles, Commander? We would not want her falling off. It is a long ways down." Setheldath grinned mostly at Kate, showing off her even larger mouth and equally sharp teeth.
"Enough, you two. You've have had your fun. I'll get the saddles. Be right back." Rick kissed Kate's cheek and retreated from her.
"You're leaving?" Leaving her here with these two? She wasn't even a snack and there were TWO of them and one of her! Half of her wasn't even a morsel.
"Oh, this is going to be so much fun, sister! Tell me, how do you feel about Wingovers?" Jaerkath questioned the human since she was going to riding him for this ride.
"W…Wingovers?" Kate didn't know that term. OH GOD! Death by falling, death by being eaten. Suddenly the case she'd been on that had gotten her here had taken on a whole new meaning. "I'm so dead," Kate whispered.
"Relax, human. We are not going to eat you. Besides, we both ate last week. That will last us both weeks still. And humans taste sort of sickly sweet. YUK!" Jaerkath stuck out his wickedly long tongue to reinforce his point. "Now a nice tasty Bugbear, perhaps. OH, I KNOW! An Owlbear. Stupid Dire Bears have too many spines and not an ounce of fat on them."
Kate wasn't sure if that helped or not. And what the hell was a bug whatever he said?
.x{O}x.
Kate had watched Castle put saddles on both of them. And now he was offering to help her climb up to get in the saddle. "This is bad idea. A really, bad idea." Yeah, she got they weren't going to eat her but she was still going to fall thousands of feet to her death.
Kate grabbed the reins and stuck her feet in the stirrups. Rick checked everything on the saddle then looked up at Kate. "Just hang on and let Jaerkath do the flying."
"Like I have a choice?" Kate watched as Rick mounted the other dragon.
"Once around the mountains, perhaps? Lots of nice updrafts over there," Rick mentioned.
Then she watched as Rick's dragon jumped off and disappeared straight down. "Oh, shit!"
"OHHH SHITTT!"Kate screamed as her dragon jumped off and went straight down into the clouds. Neither of them could see a damn thing. Kate was using her legs to squeeze as hard as she could, and her fingers and knuckles were turning white from holding the reins so tightly.
Suddenly they were out of the clouds and Kate could see the ground for a change. Everything looked green and lush; she could see forests, fields, and lakes all over the place from way up here. Then she spotted the other dragon out in front of them.
"Hang on," Jaerkath told her. All at once they were both going up toward the clouds again, at which point Kate was sure they weren't going to make it. Then he turned and nosedived straight down. He finally leveled out a lot closer to the ground and was flying the opposite direction.
"OOOHHHH SSHHIITTTT!"Kate screamed yet again.
Kate could feel the wind racing at her and was glad for the glasses Castle had given her. If not for them, she wouldn't be able to see a thing. Though maybe if she closed her eyes, that might help.
Kate could feel him picking up speed and saw his massive wings flapping to gain that speed. Now they were chasing after the other two. "OH-MY-GOD!" They might be chasing them but Castle and what's-her-name were doing spins. They were still flying perfectly straight but they were doing spins. Kate thought it was called a rollover. They were on number three and still spinning.
"Hang on tight," he warned her. Kate could feel them turning and keep turning. Now she was upside down and looking down. Or was it up? Then back to normal. Kate was screaming. Screw saying anything. He just kept doing them till he finally stopped and flapped his wings to catch up to the other two.
.x{O}x.
Kate was watching as Jaerkath came in for a landing right back where they had started. She wasn't sure since she'd forgotten to look at her dad's watch to check the time but it felt like they had flown for at least an hour.
Kate saw Setheldath and Castle come in for a landing. She felt Jaerkath lean way down so she could jump off and did so. "Thank you!" Kate had tears running down her cheeks and reached up to pet him.
"It was an honor," Jaerkath said and truly meant it. "I do not believe I have ever heard anyone scream as much as you."
"Yeah, well, once I worked out that it was a lot like a roller coaster, it wasn't so scary," Kate admitted to him.
"I do not know what this Roller Coaster of which you speak is, but if screaming means you had fun, then I am honored to have forced you to scream. You Prime Material Plane humans are different. And I still do not want to eat you. I am betting you taste just as yucky as all the other humans."
"Lucky me." Kate smiled at him and watched him rise back up.
"So, how was your ride? I heard an awful lot of screaming." Though Rick had finally worked out that she wasn't screaming from total abject fear, but for something else.
Kate jumped at him and kissed him soundly. "It was great! Once I finally figured out it was like a roller coaster, it was great!" She kissed him again and felt him kiss her back.
"At least I got a GREAT out of you instead of another FINE." Rick lowered his voice at fine to show his displeasure at the word. That had Kate smiling and she kissed him again.
.x{O}x.
Rick had removed the saddles while Kate was watching those two jump off and disappear straight down only to fly back up and slowly vanish from sight. Then she helped him put the saddles away.
"So, flying a Dragon isn't so bad now, is it?" Rick asked.
"Nope!" Kate went back to smiling wide. She took hold of his left arm with both of hers and walked next to him at his pace. She was used to walking a lot faster with longer strides but he had a bad leg.
"It ate your leg?" Kate was trying to understand how that was even possible.
"More like it bit it off which was incredibly painful, let me tell you. And then it ate it. It was still happy with my leg when one of my team showed up, killed it, and rescued me. Then Colter brought me back here and I spent weeks in the hospital. My little girl slept next to me, all cuddled up, and I had to listen to her cry. If anything that hurt worse than having my leg bitten off. God, the pain of listening to her sniffle and cry over my lost leg. It does something to your very soul. I think that was where she decided to be me. She needed to replace me and do what I was doing. Fortunately for me she's damn good at it. Probably better than I ever was.
"Gave me this thing and I kept it. There is better, but this thing reminds me of just how stupid I had gotten. I should never have been surprised like that, but I was. Now I have a desk job and have to deal with all kinds of things trying to keep everyone happy." Rick shook his head.
"Commander, where I'm from… Listen to me…where I'm from." Kate unexpectedly felt like she was beginning to adapt to being here. "Anyway, commander is a military person in charge. Though I believe admiral or general is higher ranked," she commented as she walked with him, still holding onto his arm.
"We don't have a military if I think what you're talking about is accurate, and commander is as high a rank as it gets around here. If, for example, a Lower Plane found a way to reach us, literally everyone would be involved, so a true military isn't needed. We just need people like what Alexis is doing. Much like what your friend is training to become," Rick pointed out.
"Come on, we need to find you some clothes to wear for the next three weeks and then perhaps find you some better quarters. Something with some space. Room to move around in. And I need to talk to my daughter about where she put you." Rick walked to a door and pressed a panel. Once again Kate found herself somewhere else entirely.
It was funny because she didn't see, hear, or feel a thing. She was one place and in the space of a heartbeat later she was somewhere else.
.x{O}x.
Kate walked out of a store with bags filled with clothes, shoes, and even a few other things. "Don't you have work to do? I don't want to keep you from anything."
"Not today. Even a commander gets a day off once in a while. So, I'm all yours all day long. Now let's gather up your other things and find you some place better to stay," Rick said, and in an instant, Kate found herself somewhere else yet again.
She walked in with him carrying everything she presently owned, which wasn't much, but more than she'd had. "Wow." Now this place was an apartment.
"Like it? It could use a woman's touch. It might be a bit spartan for you. You can have this room." Rick took her to a door and into a bedroom. "Bathroom is that way," he pointed. "Closet," Rick indicated. "I'll let you get changed into something less formal than your riding outfit and meet you out front." He turned to leave.
"Room? Where exactly am I?" She was expecting an apartment or something, at least a bigger bedroom. But this felt different somehow.
"These are my quarters. I just so happen to have a second bedroom that doesn't get used anymore since Alexis moved out. It's the largest apartment I know of." Rick left her and went to his room to get out of his riding clothes and into something far more comfortable.
"His quarters!? He's moving me in with him?" Kate looked around and needed to decide what to do about this new development. As if all she'd experienced so far, going riding a real honest-to-god Dragon hadn't been enough. Now she was moving in with him?
