by Eric Vall
The man nodded. “Yes, sir.”
After passing by dozens of metal mother fuckers, I was chuckling merrily to myself when I got to the station, and I found forty train cars linked together behind the engine. The last five were being filled with crates of provisions while mages led the troops’ horses over from the stables, and Defenders were helping ready the horses for the trip.
“Mason!” Kurna boomed as he came down the platform to meet me.
“How’s it going?” I asked.
“Perfect,” he assured me. “Just finished the last of the promotions, Urn’s finalizing the roster for the posts right now, the last of the provisions are being loaded up, and once the horses are on board, we’re ready to go.”
“Hell yeah,” I chuckled. “Will you let Urn know I don’t want Pindor or Mina sent out, though? They’ve been advancing quickly with their magery, and I want them in Falmount so they’ll be on hand when we make our move against the Master’s headquarters.”
Kurna nodded. “Consider it done.”
“Did you guys try out the 1911s last night?”
“We did,” the mage said with a deadly grin. “That is one hell of a weapon. I feel like a god firing shots like that!”
“Good,” I snorted. “How did the mages do with them?”
“They’re pretty scared,” Kurna laughed. “They’ll get used to it, though. Trouble is, you only sent us a hundred pistols, and we’ve got around two hundred Defenders moving out with us.”
“Don’t worry about that,” I replied. “Dragir and I finished the rest of the pistols last night, with enough ammunition to get us started. I’ll send over what we’ve got. Dragir’s gonna finish the last few thousand magazines and ship them out to the posts as they’re completed.”
“That’s a relief,” Kurna sighed. “Sounds like we’ll be set to leave within the hour, then. When will Aurora be addressing the Defenders?”
“We might have to handle that once we’re on our way, but if we … wait a minute.” I furrowed my brow as I eyed the train. “Are these all boxcars?”
Kurna shrugged. “Of course. Isn’t that the only kind of car that works on a track?”
“No, not at all,” I chuckled. “That’s what we started with because it’s best for shipping goods, but we’re not loading our troops into boxcars like cattle. We’re doing this right. I’ll make a few adjustments.”
“Whatever you say, boss,” Kurna sighed. “I can still use the boxcars for the horses, though, right?”
“Yeah, you’re doing fine,” I assured him. “I’m gonna play around with these first thirty or so cars.”
Kurna nodded as he headed down the tracks to start coordinating the mages with their horses, and I rubbed my hands together as I eyed my next project.
First thing I did was build three dining cars equally spaced throughout the train, and I made sure to divide the cooking area from the serving area before I formed as many booth seating sections as I could fit. Then I added grills in the cooking areas along with counters and storage cabinets, and I altered the ceilings so the cooks would have enough ventilation.
I was moving on to the passenger cars when I heard Bobbie roaring her way back to the mansion with Shoshanne, and I nodded to myself while I added a few wide cut outs for windows on both sides of the first car. I left the layout in these cars simple with benched seating and a few tables here and there, but the sleeping cars were trickier.
I didn’t have mattresses for all the steel bunk beds I’d filled them with, but I quickly realized I could alter the metal’s makeup and use my malleable steel invention instead.
Then I added storage compartments under the beds and a bathroom to each sleeping car, and I instructed five Flumen Defenders to get them in working order within the hour before I headed for the last empty car between the passenger section and the horses.
This one was obviously private quarters for my women and me, and since I knew they’d have more than a few things to say about the layout, I only altered the car with the bare minimum adjustments for now.
First off, I made a bed at one end that spanned the entire width of the car with notches for chain play along the wall, and then I added a bathroom big enough so we could have an orgy in it if we wanted to. Our tub was twice as large as the other sleeping cars’, but that seemed fair considering Aurora and I were the heads of the Order now. Plus, five people in one bath just required extra space.
There were only a few small windows in our car, so I could easily seal them off when we needed privacy, but I made sure to keep them at a height where my women could sit and enjoy the scenery along the way. Then I formed some shelving for my women’s things and a seating area for us to eat at, and I added compartments under the seats for spare metal so I could still get some work done in transit.
Once this was finished, I summoned a load of steel and copper from the mine and packed the compartments, and then I sent a mage to the market with a satchel of coins.
I instructed her not to come back with anything but the finest linens and plenty of pillows while I eyed Kurna down the tracks, and the Ignis Mage was hopping in and out of each car to see what I’d done with the place.
When he found me building doorways so the troops could easily pass between the cars while they were in motion, the brawny mage threw up his arms and slapped the side of the train.
“Your mind is a brilliant thing,” Kurna laughed. “How do you come up with these wild ideas? You’re a genius! Look at this train. This is class right here.”
I smirked and shrugged, but I’d have been lying if I said I wasn’t impressed with myself right now. In thirty minutes, our bare-bones freight train was completely overhauled into a fully-fledged passenger train, and in all my time on Earth, I’d never seen bathrooms in a sleeping car as decent as the ones my troops would be using.
The Defenders were just as floored by the designs as they began carting their things onto the train, and I grinned while I listened to them all sprint down the platform in their haste to claim a bunk.
I took an extra minute to make sure the door leading to my own sleeping quarters had a decent lock on it, but then I headed back along the platform to double check my work.
Everything was really shaping up for my army now, and I was in the middle of shaking Urn’s hand as he admired the train when my women’s screams sliced through the air.
“Maaasonnn!” they all screeched.
I felt my soul leave my body as I saw them sprinting down the lane, and then they lunged onto the platform to slam into my arms.
“He’s gone!” Shoshanne screamed.
Chapter 8
My women’s hearts were beating so fast I thought they’d drop dead at any second, and they were all shaking from head to toe as they wrenched at my vest.
Even the stoic princess.
“Who’s gone?” I demanded. “What happened?”
“The dragon’s gone!” Aurora cried. “Mason, he’s gone!”
“I know,” I said in confusion. “I sent him to Mors Pass.”
There was a brief moment of silence as my women stepped away from me and clung to one another instead, but then Deya burst into tears.
Not just a few tears, either. All of the tears her body was capable of producing.
“Woah,” I muttered with wide eyes. “What’s--”
“We love him!” the beautiful elf wailed.
“I know you do,” I chuckled.
“No, we really, really love him!” Deya clarified.
I furrowed my brow, and my women looked devastated as they nodded in agreement.
“He’s the sweetest dragon we’ve ever known,” Aurora whimpered.
“But you can sense how brave he is, too,” Shoshanne sniffed. “He would do anything to protect us.”
“He’s the bravest, sweetest, and most loyal dragon in the world,” Cayla agreed, and she dabbed at the corner of her eye. “He--He loves us, but now he’s gone.”
Then Aurora began crying, and Sh
oshanne teared up, and within seconds, my women were all distraught messes.
“I can’t live without him!” Aurora bawled. “I-I can’t do this, it hurts too much!”
“Bring him back, Mason!” Deya demanded.
“We need him,” Cayla croaked. “We don’t want to live a day without him, we can’t!”
“Please?” Shoshanne whimpered, and my ribs cracked open as they all clung to me and looked up with tear streaked faces.
“I … I don’t really get what’s happening right now,” I managed uneasily. “He’s just another one of my machi--”
“He’s not just anything!” Cayla sniffed furiously. “He’s the very best of everything, and he’s ours!”
“We love him,” Deya cried.
“I can’t breathe,” Shoshanne gasped, and Aurora began fanning the healer as the two of them wailed through their tears.
“Okay, maybe we should sit down and try to work this out,” I suggested as I attempted to herd my women off the platform, but they all just dropped into a heap while the Defenders all stared.
Then I sent the onlookers a warning glance, and they cleared out as I rifled my hair.
My women always loved my inventions, but not like this, and I couldn’t imagine why sending the metal dragon away was genuinely tearing them apart right now. I’d had some trouble parting from him, too, but this was just--
I blinked as I recalled the way I’d felt when I said goodbye to the metal dragon, and as I looked down at my heartbroken women once more, a dawning realization washed over me.
Now, I understood exactly what was going on.
“Ooookay,” I mumbled as I knelt in front of my sniveling women. “The thing is, you all love me. A lot. And now--”
“Don’t make this about you!” Aurora bawled. “It’s about our dragon, and you sent him away!”
“He didn’t even say goodbye,” Shoshanne whimpered.
I cringed. “I know, but, uh … okay. So, before you guys got home and met the dragon, he tried to kill me.”
“He would never do that to us!” Cayla wailed. “He loves us too much to ever hurt you!”
“True,” I agreed, and I tried not to grin at the notion. “That dragon would never want to hurt me now, because I would never want to hurt me, and that dragon is me.”
My women scowled in confusion, and their red eyes and noses almost shattered my heart into pieces.
“Just hear me out,” I continued. “The dragon woke up, I was a little enthralled, and I didn’t program his gem in time. So, he tried to kill me, and I panicked. I tried channeling my intentions into his gem, but in the heat of the moment, I might have sort of … let’s just say I didn’t hold back. So, that dragon is basically me right now. He knows it all.”
“He’s you?” Deya croaked.
“Yeah, my entire fucking essence is in that dragon,” I assured her. “Which makes sense! Because you’re behaving a lot like … well … like I just left you all here without saying goodbye.”
The second the words left my mouth, the women gasped, and I knew they’d burst into tears all over again before they even got there.
I patted their backs, though, and nodded in understanding as the thought wrecked them for another minute or so, but they eventually calmed down enough to really consider what I’d said.
“So … we love the dragon because he’s you?” Cayla murmured.
“And he loves us so well because he’s you?” Shoshanne added.
“Exactly.”
Aurora sniffed. “That makes a lot of sense.”
“It does,” I agreed.
“You’re such a wonderful dragon!” Deya cried, and another deluge of tears cascaded down her face.
I nodded. “Thank you. So, can we all get up off the platform and try to move forward? The dragon isn’t really gone, right? And I’m definitely not gone. Real Mason isn’t going anywhere, and the dragon will come back as soon as we’re done destroying the Master. Okay?”
It took a minute, but Cayla managed a nod for the group, and I helped them all get to their feet while they mopped their eyes and clung to my arms.
“Alright,” I muttered. “Let’s get you guys home.”
“Everything okay?” Kurna asked as we slowly passed, and he eyed my teary women with deep concern.
“Yeah, we’re good,” I assured him. “Uh … we’ll be ready to leave in about a half hour, but why don’t you two make sure everything is all finalized in the meantime?”
“Sure, Mason,” Urn said with a nervous nod. “You sure they’re alright?”
“Yeah, they’re okay,” I mumbled. “Just a little upset is all.”
Deya let out a pathetic squeak as she tightened her hold on my waist, and I did my best to somehow coddle all of them at once while we gradually made our way to the mansion.
Most of the walk was spent with them sniffing and listing their favorite things about the dragon, and my ego was severely inflated once I realized all of the stuff on their list was just me.
It was me they were describing.
I didn’t point this out, though, since I could tell they needed some time to process, but Alfred was more than willing to help out when we got back.
The butler led them all to the dining hall with Cayla shakily propped up on his arm, and he served them slices of cake while they let their last few tears drip into their frosting.
Then the women headed upstairs to finish gathering their things, and I dropped onto the edge of my fountain with my head in my hands while Dragir chuckled at me.
“So, what did you do?” the elf asked. “Must have been dastardly.”
“It’s complicated,” I sighed, “but I think I sorted it out. We’re leaving soon. Are you set up here?”
“Yes.” Dragir smirked. “I will enjoy this mansion immensely.”
“Don’t go in my jungle,” I mumbled to the floor.
“You have a jungle?”
“Yeah,” I snorted as I looked up. “I use it for sex. Lots and lots of sex. Usually with your sister. Don’t go in it.”
Dragir cringed as an involuntary shiver rocked his shoulders, and he cursed me in Elvish while he clutched his silver hair.
“Just saying,” I chuckled. “You don’t want to go in there.”
“No, I do not want to go in there,” the elf snapped. “I do not want to go within ten yards of that filthy place.”
“Good,” I replied. “You’ll get the magazines engraved right away, though, right?”
“Yes, if I can sterilize my brain first,” the elf muttered. “Fifteen-hundred of the lightning rune, twenty-five-hundred of the fireball rune.”
“And take it easy on the Rosh,” I ordered.
Dragir rolled his eyes. “Be nice to the Raynor man, do not throw the mages over the tables, no killing my enemies with your machines, yes, I understand.”
“And you fight for the people in this town like they’re your own House, agreed?” I added.
“On my honor,” Dragir said with a nod. “I will look in these woods for the unknown element, as well, but I will require a means of destroying it.”
I caught the hopeful look in his serpentine eyes, and then I sighed as I got to my feet and headed to the stack of new pistols.
“Here,” I chuckled. “Use it well.”
Dragir clutched his 1911 against his heart as he grinned toward the sky, and he kissed the barrel for good measure.
“I will cherish this weapon for all of my days,” he decided.
“Alright, but let me show you how it works first, or you’ll be cherishing it from six feet under.”
I explained how the safeties worked to the elf while Alfred got the pistols and the magazines loaded into crates, and as mages began arriving to cart them off to the train and the training fields, I filled him in on how the magazines worked and how many rounds he should expect to get out of each. Then I made sure he understood what cocked and locked meant, and I gave him a spare holster Cayla’s leather guy had made for me.<
br />
The elf was smiling like a little boy while he listened carefully to my instructions, but then his countenance suddenly shifted to crazy.
“Do you hear it?” Dragir gasped. “The sound! It is back. It is following me again!”
I barely contained my laughter as I noticed Stan and Solana, and they zoomed behind the elf’s head while he turned in circles with wild eyes and bared teeth.
Dragir was too fast for the metal dragon, though.
“You!” the elf growled when he finally caught sight of Stan. “You little sneak! Get over here! How dare you toy with me!”
Solana booked it out of the atrium while Stan desperately slapped her haunches, but Dragir was only inches behind as he threatened to melt both of them down and forge hilts out of them.
“Fly, Stan!” I belted out as I tore after the three of them. “Fly, damn it, and don’t look back!”
“I will end you for making me lose my mind, you tiny cretin!” Dragir roared.
The elf’s voice echoed through the mansion along with our boots pounding on the floors, and I was panting from trying to keep up with the swift elf as he scaled the steps like it was nothing. Solana beat her little wings with all her might while Stan clung to her back, and Dragir had his dagger drawn even though I couldn’t imagine what he’d do with it in this case.
Then I bolted around the next corner to follow the furious elf down another hall, but I ended up slamming into his broad back instead.
It took me half a second to realize I was looking down the barrel of Cayla’s 1911, and the princess’s icy gaze was locked onto Dragir as she held her finger taut on the trigger.
“Can I help you?” Cayla asked in a lethal tone.
Stan and Solana were perched in her jet-black hair, and I snorted as the little metal man crossed his arms. He looked exactly like the princess when she was pissed.
“Fine,” Dragir growled. “Hide behind your scary woman for now, but I will get you for this. Mark my words. No one makes a fool of Dragir.”
With that, the elf stormed back down the hall, and I raised my eyebrows while I watched him go. Then I cleared my throat as I sent the princess an awkward grin.