ETTING   OME   O   LFANDRA

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Hespa's Story part 20 - Preparations

"I suggest we do the fold while in flight.  There's less chance of colliding with something, and we won't damage the University that way.  The fold I create brings two spaces together and crosses them over, so if we weren't careful and did the fold here, we would probably bring a bit of the Library with us.  Someone would bound to be upset by that."  He winks.

"Not to mention messing up Emma's room on the other end...the open air it is then."

"Er..." Emma sticks up a hand.  "...We'll still be ending up in my room, right?  Otherwise, I may have some explaining to do in the morning..."

**on the other hand, i doubt the dragons will fit in the bedroom....i've got the coordinates for the back garden, so if you wait until i've removed the fly-screen on your window, you'll be able to get in easily enough from there**

"Mmph, OK then."

"I think we ought to bring that book too."

"Got it right here!"

"Well everyone?  Shall we?"

Emma grins.  "Let's do!"

Cira leads them back out a different way so they can see more of the University.  We leave through large windowed double doors at the far end of Libraries central wing.  The light from the Library's windows quickly dwindles in the smaller corridor and we head towards the mountain's core.  The University has few entrances and, so far as I know, none of the windows open.  Cira learned this when he tried to enter through one of them during a storm.  Fortunately, Aphrael was there and used magic so he could get in.

This corridor winds a bit but it wouldn't be difficult for someone with a sense of direction to repeat the trip.  At last we come to another large round room.  The central shaft shaft dominates the room leaving little but a cat walk of the floor and round the room's perimeter.  There is no rail or other guard.  Eerily beautiful, the rising vapors and red orange light dance in the column.  Below us, one level down, we can see the main hall, and far below the glowing magma which is the source of the heat and light.

Emma looks around in awe and delight as they travel.

"Follow me!  Don't be afraid, this is fun" he says with a grin.  Spreading his wings he jumps off the edge into the column where he hangs there for a moment.  The light shining on him suddenly washes the room with reflected energy in a very beautiful way.  His shadow is cast upward into the column of air.  The rising air increases in its flow lifting him upward on his out stretched wings.  His mane and tail feathers blow upward.

Pyros goes next, extending his wings.  Air currents being nothing new to a dragon, he is prepared to fly up normally when he is pleasantly surprised that the rising air simply takes him up without effort.

Emma follows, at first quite alarmed by the sensation of rising without doing any of the work, but slowly getting the hang of it.

All who follow can feel that there is some kind of invisible protective barrier around the shaft.  You can feel it gently resisting as you push through.  Perhaps it is merely the warm column of gasses?  But it feels like the floor is 'higher' around the edge, just as the volcano its self is higher than the land around it.

The three dragons ride the column up past many levels.  At the open top Cira waits for the others to arrive on the observatory's door step.  From here one can see all the way down the coast to the Crystal Mountain, Brood's home.  The University and Crystal Mountain both stand at the coast, one at either end of the Dominance, like sentinels.  The sides of the University mountain are steep and bare as if newly formed in an eruption.

It is early afternoon, and the sun beats down warmly.  "Hespa?  Did you find your Latitude and Longitude?  Will we be high enough if we come out a hundred feet above sea level?  I think we're almost ready.  I don't know how communication will go once we get into the RW.  Hopefully we'll come up with something if need be.  If all goes well we should come out right above your home, or where ever you give us the coordinates for."

"Well, if I have this worked out right, as soon as we enter RL Hespa should immediately return to Alfandra.  That means we won't be able to contact her once we're in RL, at least until Emma gets to her computer.  As for where in RL to go, I think it would be a risk for three dragons to just pop into existence over any populated area, even in the middle of the night.  Is there a field, or a forest, or some equally abandoned area nearby?  We could go there, land, polymorph to human form, and walk the rest of the way...assuming we have enough time.  Hespa, how are we doing in that regard?"

**i think it will be ok....emma's house is in the outer suburbs, and it's still pretty early morning for anyone else to be up....once emma's safely home, you should be able to go straight back to afd, right cira?**

"I certainly hope so.  That's the plan."