Here be Dragons!
Chapter 15
It is now one year later
Kate still had a little of her baby weight but was working on getting rid of what was left. Right now she was just finishing putting a fresh diaper on her little girl who was wide awake and about 3 months old now and growing like a weed. What she didn't understand is where the hair color had come from. Until Rick had explained that his mother had red hair.
"There all done." Kate leaned down to blow raspberries on her little girl's belly trying to get her to be happy. It worked and she picked her up and held her close. "Let's go find Daddy." She had a good idea just where he was, too. Kate walked out of their bedroom that had a nice enough bed for now though their two sleeping bags were on it to sleep in. Clothes were in a dresser and all of his armor was mounted on poles to keep it off the floor. Most of her combat stuff had been put away as well.
Out in the living room they had a wood burning fireplace, a seating area big enough to seat three, and a small dining room table tucked into a corner. They'd spent days cleaning the place to make it as spotless as they could. They even had a pair of paintings on the wall done by a local artist.
Stepping outside and closing the door behind her she found her husband right where she expected to find him. He was standing next to their finished and now magnificent Shrine to Bahamut. He was even talking to someone who started to walk away just as she closed the door.
The same person that had done their paintings inside had painted the head of Bahamut on a canvas that was now hanging on the stone wall that surrounded the city. In front of that was a pedestal that held these miniature dragons that were platinum in color. They were made out of paper then coated with a mix of flour and water and painted when dry. Then a toothpick was stuck up its ass and stuck into the pedestal.
To either side were poles that had been painted to simulate fire. The city had shot down letting them have burning torches since they didn't want them falling and setting something on fire. So the fire was fake. What wasn't fake were the four floor mounted candelabra with two on either side.
They had paid a local really low power magic-user to read the scroll they'd bought before coming here. It was called Programmed Illusion. He had to hold it and adjust it until Rick said that was good enough and that he needed to finish. It was a permanent illusion so whenever someone placed a real coin, copper, silver, gold, or platinum into a bowl at the base of the pedestal then removed a miniature platinum dragon at the top of the pedestal, Bahamut himself would rise up out of the wall and tower over them, spreading his wings wide and showing everyone his mouth full of sharp teeth for a moment before retreating back into the wall.
While they didn't know of anyone that had converted to worship Bahamut as yet, their shrine was really, really popular with all the kids. The illusion was permanent so all they had to do was keep bringing coins and take a miniature to make it work.
Just as she was walking up to Rick she saw a little girl who was maybe 11 years old come running up. She dropped a coin in the bowl, plucked out a miniature, and stared in awe as Bahamut rose up and rose above her, showing her his mouth full of teeth, then retreating.
Kate watched her squeal in delight and run for her friend who had probably talked her into doing it. Kate walked over to her husband. "I see we're still popular." The new Shrine was head and shoulders above that thing that had been here before.
Rick had a change in mind. "For kids who want to see Bahamut, yes. Now we just need to get the adults to see the benefit of Bahamut. But we're getting there. Next year I'm thinking of adding a Dragon's roar to it. Just not sure what the city will think of that."
They had another more powerful scroll a magic user could use to augment this one. Kate grinned. She could see it but she could also see the city telling them to stop it. The kids would have it roaring at them almost constantly.
"I like it. Just be ready for the city to tell you to take that part away. Maybe if you muted it and made it more of a whisper instead of a loud roar," Kate suggested instead.
He shrugged. "Yeah, probably. Go grab the baby bag and lock the door. We need to meet Emery for a trip over to the house then catch a ride back home again."
"Yes!" Kate was dying to see what they had accomplished so far. They'd been warned he was a little behind schedule. Mostly because of weather. When it rained too hard they couldn't get much work done.
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Kate was back. They were down next to the military docks and walking to the ship Barton had bought using their money to build their house with. Rick greeted him. "Barton."
"Right on time. Climb aboard. We have a hold full of material to deliver today." Barton's men would untie them from the dock and they could get started.
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Even before they got there Rick and Kate could see the house already.
It was sitting on six feet wide hexagons sunk deep down into the ground. From that point there were beams reaching out to the edge of the deck all the way around.
There were actually two pods with a square house connecting them. The house walls were up and the roof beams and purlins were also installed. The beams, posts, and joists for the deck were also in place. The subfloor for the house was also in place.
Each pod was going to have a domed ceiling with exposed beams up to an open air cupola that would allow the hot air to escape out the top of the house once they were installed.
Interior wall studs were in place and today was going to be all roof, using the material down in the hold.
The ship docked at the dock that had been built first. Everything in the hold was lifted out using a temporary or maybe permanent crane that neither Rick nor Kate had decided if they wanted it gone or if it should stay for future use.
The boardwalk to the house was also installed. They had yet to start on the stairs on the other side except for installing the posts for the stairs and the bridge across the water.
Once the roof was installed the windows would be installed followed by the wood shakes on the outside walls once the deck floor was laid.
The core hexagon at the bottom of the house was sunk deep into the ground had been accomplished use their two rings of wishes. It had taken one wish for each hexagon core. Another wish for each to sink them deep into the ground till they hit something solid enough to support the house. Then another wish per pod to install the floor and the support beams out to the beams of the deck.
The contractor had to install the square portion between the two hexagon shaped pods. He had no idea how they had done it but he had found that they were extremely stable. He was betting nothing would make this house fall over.
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It was a bit of a walk from the deep water dock but since the boardwalk was in place it was an easy walk and elevated above the sand. A lot of the trees were still there including the two large ones.
Kate was smiling as she walked though the large openings and into the area between the two pods. They actually had very few outside walls since all of the walls were filled with glass that wasn't there yet and was still being blown and framed.
The outside walls were basically glass, door, glass, door all the way around until you reached the greenhouse on one end that was going to take up the depth of the deck.
She saw the walls for the two bedrooms and their bathroom. The kitchen was on one side in the middle then their bedroom and bathroom. Furniture was going to be used to hold clothes in each bedroom.
Looking up all she saw was wood beams that worked a lot like the ones under the floor. The contractor had used them for inspiration for the roof beams. The purlins connected all the beams as was going to give the contractor something to attache the roof to and make it water tight.
"Almost, babe, almost." Now she and Rick needed to work on what the interior was going to look like. The walls inside were going to be plaster over lap siding. They just needed to decide on colors. The colors for the finished wood floor and wood ceiling had been decided long ago. They just needed to arrive.
All of the furniture and everything in the kitchen was going to be handmade. As a result they were pumping a lot of gold into the city and the people making all that.
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Kate and Rick were outside while Kate had her top down and was breastfeeding Alexis and looking out onto the shallow water, the posts in the ground, and the sandy peninsula on the far side.
They had already decided on asking the contractor to build them a small stable over on the sandy peninsula since they'd ordered horses to be delivered. It meant more work for him and more profit. It did meant a hassle for them.
They needed to have hay shipped it to feed them. They would need someone who knew how to care for horses to move there. But that was all in the future. About a year from now.
"Happy enough?" Rick was still a little worried that she couldn't adjust to living in a small city. For himself living out here away from the city was roughing it enough for him.
"Very!" She had a husband that she loved. She had a daughter that she loved more than anything. No one should ask her who she loved more, her husband or her daughter because she couldn't choose.
She had a lot of belongings. More than she had ever had back in her city. This city was tiny and she knew almost everyone in it now with maybe only a few exceptions. It had what she needed.
It was true there was still only the one Temple though there were maybe a handful of Shrines to other gods. She was convinced theirs was the best. The lone inn was small. The shops were small and had limited amount of inventory. That Jewelry Market, however, was a wonder and she loved to stroll through it and see what had been added lately.
She hadn't had a reason to attend the games in the Grand Coliseum yet. She had seen a number of dinosaur races, though. Most dinosaurs she had noticed, had four legs but a few only had two and the dinosaurs were anything but fully trained.
It had been hilarious to watch the riders trying to get their respective dinosaurs to go where they wanted them to. More than one had fallen off over the races she had watched. No one had been killed since she had lived there though she had heard stories about previous races.
Once the dinosaur got to be too old and big for the races it was either released into the wild or it was killed and butchered for the meat.
Kate looked up from Alexis who was suckling at her breast when Dog could be heard barking. He had clearly found a fish in the shallow part of the water and was blinking all over in his attempt at catching it. Eventually he did and brought it to the edge, ripping it apart and eating it.
"Looks like Dog has already eaten his dinner," Kate smiled.
"That won't stop him from accepting a piece of dino jerky," Rick commented since they had found he loved dinosaur meat.
There was just one thing Kate still had to do since she had been pregnant at the time they had decided to wait. She had yet to go meet their local Dragon Turtle. She was looking forward to meeting her.
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"Rick, what color is our roof? All of the houses in the city have colored roofs and even a lot of their walls have color." Kate suddenly couldn't remember what had been decided.
"Orange on one pod, Red on the other and blue in the middle, while the deck floor is green and the railing is basically raw wood color. Now if you mean the stairs out here as well as the bridge, the steps are white while the railing is natural wood color. And the bridge is natural wood floor and red railings." Rick rolled his eyes.
He wondered if she'd truly forgotten or was just rubbing it in. They stood out like a sore thumb here. Finding them by anyone was going to be stupidly simple.
"I let you pick the inside," Kate suddenly told him as if she was reading his thoughts. "No one is trying to kill us. That green stuff is gone and I don't know about you but I feel more powerful now than I did when I started."
"I did sort of notice that my Ranger abilities got better and as for no one not trying to kill us. You're forgetting one Black Dragon shifter pirate who hates me," Rick reminded her.
"But we killed him," Kate argued. She noticed Alexis was done so she grabbed an extra diaper, flipped it over her shoulder, and burped her.
"No, we watched him fall into the sea and sink. That doesn't mean he's dead," Rick said patiently.
"And that was way back thousands of miles from here in whatever-it-was-called Sea," Kate said.
"And that magic-user knew we were coming," Rick countered, thinking all that Black Dragon shifter needed was a little help.
"We can tone down the colors," Kate sighed.
"Are you crazy? If we did that my wife would kill me! Besides by the time that idiot recovers and finds us Alexis will be a teenager and it'll be three against one." Rick slammed his fist into his palm. "He won't know what hit him, except 3 Gold Dragons."
"More like 4 against one. By then Alexis will have a boy friend." Kate was all smiles since she was winning again.
"Over my dead body," Rick stated flatly.
Kate smiled at his reaction. "We'll talk."
"Time to go home," someone from the house yelled at them.
"Dog!" Kate called as she got up, tucking Alexis in her sling and carrying the baby bag, then made her way to the ship so they could go home.
"Talk about a boyfriend my daughter isn't going to have. Right." Rick wasn't interested in that talk. However, he was happy that his daughter had a mommy and a daddy. He out of the two of them knew what teenage boys had on their minds. The only thing on their little minds.
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It is now 3 months later
Rick and Kate had been told 2 more months to completion. Not including the gazebo that Rick ordered for out next to the dock on the deep water side. He had explained the need for it to Kate as maybe getting a view of the Dragon Turtle when or if she ever came to the surface. Kate was all for that.
Then the contractor had to start work on the stable meant to hold as many as 6 horses. They settled on it being a barn-like structure with wide doors on each end and 3 horse stalls on each side though one of those stalls was going to be a tack room. It would have beige walls and another brightly colored roof.
They had only just ordered 4 horses to be delivered. That alone was going to take up to 6 months. They'd asked for the best horse breeds that Rick could think of. They didn't have to be race horses. Rick was just hoping that what showed up was still in good shape and alive or the captain of that ship just bought 4 horses.
Right now Rick and Kate with Alexis in her arms had found a spot so Alexis could watch her very first dinosaur race. Kate and even Rick had come to really like these monthly races. It was so much fun watching these idiots trying to get wild baby dinosaurs to go where they wanted them to.
Each time the dinosaurs got painted some of the wildest paint schemes they had ever seen. It was almost as if who had the best paint scheme was just as much who was the best as to who actually won the race.
Alexis was only 6 months old and wasn't going to remember this race. That would have to wait until she was older. Hell, for all she knew her daughter would be one of these idiots riding a baby dinosaur through the city streets.
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The race was over and while Rick went shopping for food for dinner while Kate took Alexis shopping at in the Jewelry Market. There really wasn't anything for a 6-month-old baby but that didn't stop Kate from looking for something.
Back home she found Rick already there and was working on dinner. She was the better cook but he was capable. Kate gave him a quick kiss while still holding Alexis.
"I saw a new store over next to the middle gate," Rick informed her.
"Finally! That space has been empty for almost 2 months. What replaced them?" Kate might be interested since it was new.
"He sells handmade shoes and does shoe repair." The next thing he knew Alexis was being pressed into his arms. "He's new, I don't remember seeing him before."
That was one thing about living in a small town that Kate especially had to get used to. You knew almost literally everyone in town and everyone knew you. Which also meant everyone knew who was building the huge house out on the island at the inlet to the large bay.
"I'll be back in time." She meant in time to nurse Alexis since Alexis needed her. "Keep my dinner warm for me." Then Kate was gone.