Vella yelled, "GET DOWN!" Inside of the Casino, it caused a panic in the guests. They would have been spooked in a different way had she not taken the initiative and warned everyone.
The Stoners had smelled their first bit of food and locked on it.
The Edibles that were being served to the guests.
As they devoured them and anything in their vicinity that smelled like food, they also ate a number of cups filled with concentrates.
About ten minutes later nine of them were already asleep on the floor and the others were a drooling mess. Vella apologized to the guests and comp'ed all of their food or drink. "Mike, this is a lot more than I imagined, they broke out of the charm instantly."
"That's why its better to be honest with how you handle people, when it comes to instincts and feral beings, don't test your luck." Mike wanted to laugh but really the Stoners had scared the group of Merchants. Their bodies were as tough as Vella when she had first 'hatched.' That made them, at least in the Lonestar City, unmatched by the populous in terms of strength. Whats more is that all of them possessed wings.
Mike was grateful that none of them had chosen to exercise or create a pecking order. He spent the rest of the evening thinking of ways to help train them. Since they had fallen asleep after eating the Edibles, it was safe for Mike to assume that he could calm them down in the same manner with a more controlled delivery.
Prince Troeg had spoken about a healing pill made from Cannabis, Mike didn't need the recipe, he had his own. Since there was an abundance of material at hand, he went to work and made tinctures. It wasn't a pill but it would have the same effect, if not stronger because it was being ingested.
Turning all of the Stoners into farmers sounded good on paper but in reality it was difficult for them to grasp what the group was doing. Vella did her best to keep them from destroying anything important but it was a constant effort.
The Stoners mishandled anything they saw and they were equally curious.
Mike wondered if they were really absorbing the information quickly, unable to respond due to a communication problem but when he remembered the night before, Don and James had spoken clearly. The Stoners walked around the freshly plowed field and when they saw Mike spreading seeds it gave them pause and all of them seemed interested in what he was doing.
The seeds were small like beans to a fruit tree of some kind. A merchant had used them as collateral in the Casino and lost, naturally they ended up in Vella's seed collection and then made their way to Mike.
For the first day, Mike just had them paying attention. Vella did all she could to keep them focused but it wasn't her specialty to handle 17 individuals.
Mike once again felt a familiar situation, his growers also experienced the same problem. Helpers would show up, then just drone around mindlessly. Usually those types of employees were on a constant turnover, they would either flake out on duty or just stop coming to work altogether.
The Stoners seemed happy, but there really wasn't a lot of space for them to work. Since they were curious, Mike gave Vella the day off and she took them to the north to see the Nyankin. There were many more pastures up there that hadn't been developed. If they messed anything up, it wouldn't be a loss to the City or the Village.
When Vella finally got the Stoners to the Village, they spread themselves out like puppies that wanted to explore. 'Their curiosity is unstoppable...'
The Chief noticed Vella's arrival and came out to see her. Beside him was the Baby Dragoon. It scurried over to Vella like it had seen a distant cousin, cheerful.
"Looks like you've raised the little one well so far. He's growing quickly." Vella picked him up and pet his back. "My Master has sent me here to bring the Stoners to the Village Chief. They are like children with no memory, teach them well. They are a labor force you cannot ignore, be kind to them."
She pulled out a tray of edibles and fanned the smell out.
All seventeen of them caught wind of the smell and rushed to her side. The stood there attentively looking at the tray half awake. 'Ahht, ahh, ahh.' She decided to take her own advice and treat them like children, she looked at Jose and Jim. Both of them were drooling while they kept their eyes locked on the tray.
"They seem very interested in your food." The Chief laughed and brought out a fish from the tent. It smelled horrendously, having been heated in the sun. He took a bite and spit it out. "Perhaps not this fish." He threw it away and found a nicer one.
When the fish was tossed in front of the Stoners, devouring it would be a nice way to describe exactly 'how' they ate it. Pieces flew away, scales were scattered and bones were eaten, swallowed along with the meat.
There was an obvious increase in their energy, Vella tried to pass the tray of edibles out but the Stoners were grabby. In the end, she had to hand them out one by one or risk losing all of them. "Was I this frightening just a few years ago?" She mumbled and watched the Stoners take a nap.
"The land you're cultivating has to expand, there are 45 pastures nearby, put them in 1 pasture a day and rotate them. Make them work and overfeed them. If there are any troubles let me know, I'll be checking on them daily." Vella wasn't sure she could leave them in the Nyankin's care but she trusted Mike's judgement. After she felt as safe as she could feel, Vella left back to Lonestar City.
"Mike, I've delivered the Stoners to the Nyankin but I don't think its a great idea leaving them there at this stage." Vella's arrival was unexpected.
Mike stared at her with looks of disbelief. "Did you really leave them there?"
"Of course, as you ordered." Vella sat back in her chair, ready to wind down for the day.
"VELLA! Those are my subordinates and a part of our team. They are like babies with Godzilla strength.. we can't leave them there!" Mike rushed out the back of the Casino and spread his wings, he flew very fast back to the Nyankin village.
When he stopped overhead, he saw the damage to the fields. It was like they were learning what things were by touching, feeling, pushing and pulling on anything that they came across.
'Dammit' Mike cursed inside then whistled.
The Stoners saw Mike in the air, flapping his wings.
Like an instinct, they looked at their own wings in a moment of introspection. When they noticed the wings on each other, some of them even started to bounce. The bouncing movement made the wings move more.
Soon, all of them were hopping around trying to imitate Mike. It wasn't until Indigo spread his wings out and pushed down heavily that things got complicated.
Indigo pushed off the ground in a jump assisted with his wings, he flew dozens of meters in the air and landed like a downed dove, hard. It wasn't enough to harm him and he stood right back up to try again.
Mike could feel a headache developing.
He took a dab mid-flight and then another one for good measure. 'Even their training ground has to expand.' A Howl came from the air, the three Alpha Dragoons came when Mike called, the females had remained with the young ones. Mike was unaware but while he was away in the City, more than a dozen foals had been born.
"This Ranch will have to expand too.." Mike sighed, he had the Dragoons round up the stragglers, they were still naked and running around. Catching them felt very awkward to watch, the Chief took the Baby Dragoon back into his hut and closed the doorway.
Another minute passed and suddenly, all of the remaining Stoners began to fall asleep.
Mike rolled his eyes and tied them together at the waist. He flew back to the City and put them in the Castle. Its large rock walls would, at the very least, slow their curious nature a bit.
Again, Mike was wrong.
Halfway through the night while he and the Girls were having some of their own naked fun time, alarms in the Castle began to ring.
It was like a sign, Mike considered locking them in a pen rather then rooms.
The destruction of the Castle's interior was comical if it didn't happen to Vella's Castle. Her rage began to seep out, she had worked hard on decorating it. They were a curious bunch and tore apart everything at least once.
It was hard for Mike to discipline them, not because he couldn't but because he knew they wouldn't understand the first day. Like a Dog you find on the side of the road that pissed in your house, how was it suppose to know the difference between indoor and outdoor if it never went inside.
Taking a step forward, he stepped in something.
Mike's energy burst out and roots blocked the exits. "Okay kids, funtime is fuckin over! I'm so OVER THIS right now, I was trying to sleep!" He sent his vines down every hallway he passed, blocking the path behind him every ten feet. He felt like he was being led in circles, everytime he would get close they would jump or break down a wall.
Mike was losing his mercy with each action that felt like a taunt.
He was ready to spank their asses till they were blue, instead of purple. The Castle was encapsulated by Mike's roots after the first hour. All seventeen of the Stoners were madly running around the Castle.
'My sister's kids did this before, how did I deal with it?' Mike thought about the times he had babysat, the number could fit on one hand. "Dammit, now I remember. I fed them until they passed out." Something in the back of Mike's mind was telling him that giving them more energy was the way to go. It went against everything he knew about kids but he had tried to calm them down, they only became more restless.
"You're trapped in here? Okay then. Its hotbox time." Mike pulled out a cup of dabs and a large metal shield.
Focusing the hot end of his finger on the shield, it quickly rose to a red hot temperature.
"This is gonna choke us all but it can't be helped." Mike threw the fist size blob onto the cupped shield's interior, it bubbled, cracked and popped. For just a moment, Mike even wondered if it would just catch fire. It didn't, but the smoke that came off of it sure looked like it had. Billlows of yellow-brownish smoke filled the small room Mike was standing in. Mike blew it around the Castle, the smoke was so thick he could hardly see anything.
He felt around the wall and found a body.
They were passed out, It was Tulip. He carried her body down the stairs and into a cell in the dungeon. One by one, he carried them all downstairs. The smoke was making him gag, the walls near the Shield were sticky now.
Mike left them in the dungeon the rest of the night, if he was lucky, they would sleep until he could figure it all out. That wasn't the case, in fact things only got more interesting in the morning.
Mike and Vella woke up to a terrified Pilor.
She had to climb down the Castle walls, it was shrouded almost entirely in Mike's Vines. "What happened at the Castle last night?" Pilor asked Mike but he rolled over, having not enough sleep he was unwilling to cooperate easily.
He groaned. "I woke up 17 more Vellas, I didn't think it would be this hard.." He planted his face in the pillow, annoyed.
It was the same when he met the girls for the first time, they were eager but it didn't make up for the sufferings that happened in those moments. He took a deep breath, blinked hard and sat up.
Pilor was leaning over the bed looking at the new girls in the pile. "You seem to be happy lately. I'm glad. When you wake up, please come fix the Castle. I can't work like this."
Mike wondered about different things a lot of the time. Immortality, at least the concept of living forever, constantly weighed on him. The thought of having to keep track of the legion was indescribably unwelcome. Mike tried his best to put them out of his mind for another fifteen minutes.
It didn't work.
"Did you just say 17 Vellas?" Pilor hissed, "Master, that is excellent news, you'll have an army in no time."
"I don't need an Army." Mike got out of bed, he was still naked. "Hand me that robe would you." Reaching his hand out, he pulled Pilor down to the bed, waking the others up.