Another three days had passed. Fire and Unchosen had spent the first one finishing up the potions they would need for the fight. Next to their energy absorption potion they had to come up with a variant of resistance potion that would protect them against the vacuum, which had been straight forward. Other than that they prepared several potions that would enhance them during the fight.

The remaining two days Fire used to come up with a strategy for the fight as well as to spar with Ambigious and Unchosen. Restlessness was really setting in, especially with Ambigious, who tried his best to keep himself busy with improvements and customizations to his set of armor. Fire knew that they'd have to depart soon, not just because of the rising stress but also because he didn't want to push his luck with his own time.

After obtaining the dragon egg they would somehow be told what the rest of the artefacts were, as well as how they should go about combining them to make Ban Hammer.

On the morning of the fourth day, Fire sat down for breakfast with the others. Everyone was there, even TehLulz, though he still didn't have enough strength to eat by himself and had to be fed by one of Shadow's demons.

Fire asked: "So, how are you doing freeZe?"

freeZe replied: "It still hurts when I breathe but I can cast at full strength again."

Shadow nodded. "We did a few quick tests yesterday to see if her magic had recovered. Besides, we won't need to breathe in the End anyways."

Fire said: "That also means that we will not be able to communicate outside of hand signs."

Unchosen asked: "Can't Shadow establish some kind of telepathy?"

Shadow explained: "I could but I think it isn't a good idea. According to what I've been able to gather about the End, the protection the dragon receives from its crystals is increased by several orders of magnitude and the crystals are protected themselves, both from arrows and from spells. In short, I'll have to focus on disabling the crystals before we can harm the dragon, for that I might have to cheat a bit using Void magic."

Unchosen nodded his head in understanding. "I see why telepathy is a bad idea then."

Fire said: "Since we won't be able to harm the dragon until Shadow has destroyed the crystals we'll need to focus on protecting her. Casting that Void magic through her restrictions will require her full concentration so we have to make sure nothing gets through to her."

Ambigious asked: "Isn't that kind of hard, just the four of us against all the endermen? Because I think it's safe to assume that they'll come after us."

Fire answered: "My plan for that was that Shadow summons a large number of demons before we go through the portal, they will support us in the fight. Because of the higher energy density of the End the demons will have a harder time staying manifested in our world so we can't rely on them completely."

Ambigious said: "Yeah, that sounds like a plan."

They finished breakfast and then went their own ways, Fire told them to meet an hour later since he still had to do some things beforehand.

Fire and Shadow accompanied TehLulz as he was levitated back to his room, there was something they needed to ask him.

TehLulz preempted them by slowly saying: "So, I probably can't come along like this."

Fire said: "Yes, that's what we wanted to talk to you about. We still haven't found a way to cure the aftereffects of the potion except by giving it more time."

TehLulz said: "I've gotten a bit better but not enough."

Shadow assured him: "You've already done a lot for our mission. While we're out there I'll leave you here in the care of some of my demons. They know what they are doing."

TehLulz slowly nodded. "I can live with that. Maybe I'll be able to walk on my own once you're back."

Fire said: "It's decided then. I'll tell the others once we meet up again. Have a good rest."

Fire and Shadow left TehLulz' room, Shadow went to her own, Fire turned in the direction of the library.

When they gathered again they met in the central hub of the base. Everyone except for TehLulz was there, he was resting in his bed since any excess movement caused him discomfort.

"So, what do you want to show us?" freeZe asked.

Fire said: "So far you have seen the upper part of my base, back when we gave you the tour we only showed you that part because it was immediately important to your training. The lower part contains a lot of the infrastructure of the base, it is for example where all of the farms and gardens are located. What's important now though is that the pasture is also in the lower part."

Ambigious said: "Yeah, you did mention something about horses, so that's where you keep them?"

Fire nodded. "Just follow me."

They went down a corridor that was labelled with a staircase symbol. Fire went down the stairs first, the others followed. They passed by several exits on different levels, each labelled with what it lead to. They passed by the conventional crop farms, then the nether crops, then the alchemy gardens. At the bottom of the staircase was a wooden door. Fire pushed it open.

On the other side of the door a blue sky opened up in front of them, rich green hills extended a long distance out. To the right was a barn, to their left a large pond.

Ambigious said: "Huh, I did not expect something like this."

Shadow explained: "The sky is magical but otherwise the pasture is natural. We set this up by hand, it was quite an early project of ours."

Meanwhile Fire had taken a small, flute-like instrument out of one of his pockets and a series of pleasant tones could be heard across the pasture. Within seconds five shapes appeared from behind various hills, evidently horses. The horses then lined up in front of the group, it was quite evident that one of them was a lot bigger than the others.

freeZe said: "Fire, you really weren't kidding when you said that your horse looked like that. It even has red eyes. How'd you manage that?"

Fire walked up to the massive horse and pat its head. "You see, there is a procedure to turn a human into a Mencur-Besh, it's what I underwent to become one as well. The first phase of this procedure induces most of the changes that aren't radical. It makes you grow, strengthens your bones and muscles and changes your metabolism a bit. It doesn't give you scales, claws or additional hearts, the second phase is what fully transforms you. It turns out that while the second phase only works on humans, the first phase can be applied to any mammal. It's mostly used to create horses like this one that can carry a Mencur-Besh."

Shadow said: "Enough of that, let me introduce them."

She pointed at the enormous horse. "That's Nightmare, as you might remember. She's Fire's mount." The next horse had a pure white color. "This is Daydream, he's mine." Shadow then pointed to the remaining three horses, which were reddish-brown, dark brown and grey respectively. "This is Flower, Rust and Breakfast. They will be your mounts, which one you take is up to you."

Ambigious spoke first: "Don't know, but Breakfast sounds like the one for me."

Shadow laughed. "I expected that."

freeZe said: "I'll take Rust if that's okay with you Unchosen."

Unchosen nodded. "I'm sure they're all more than up for the task. Flower it is then."

Fire played another series of tones on his instrument and the horses slowly went their own ways again.

He said: "Do any of you have any experience with riding?"

Ambigious and freeZe shook their heads. Unchosen said: "Not much, but I went to a ranch a couple of times with my daughters."

Fire again reached into a pocket and pulled out what looked to be three small books. "There are some spots to sit down near the barn, these memory books should get you started on the basics. Once you are done reading, there are saddles in the barn, when you actually start practicing it should come to you quite quickly. In the meantime I'll prepare for our departure, which will be in two days. Shadow will be here if you have any questions."

Unchosen turned towards the barn and started walking. "Alright, see you later then."

Fire watched as his friends went over to the barn to sit down. He then exited the pasture and went back up the stairs. It was now time to prepare their rations for the journey, the ride would take approximately a week if nothing delayed them. The terrain on the way wasn't very challenging, it was mostly flat and after the first day they would have already reached a road that they could follow. In difficulty this was much like the journey to Rockhaven, hopefully without a ghoul incident this time.

What Fire was the most uncertain about was the fight with the dragon and getting the egg back to the base safely. He had no experience or hard data he could use to make any good guesses so he refrained from doing so entirely, it was better to focus on things he could control. One of those things was creating preserved rations, which mostly boiled down to a tried and true, if culinarily controversial, recipe: dried and salted meat.