"Damn those two are still asleep? It's already past noon!" I walk inside after sparring with some of the Fae recruits and realize that they are still in their room.
*BANG BANG BANG*
"Hey Sleepyheads! Are you going to join us today or what?"
I hear some grumbling and then giggles before Cass yells out, "We're getting up now! Give us some time to get showered and ready!"
I smiles and roll my eyes, "Alright! I'll make some lunch."
As I was making lunch I wondered if they were sleeping in from being up all night in a good or a bad way. Then I remembered hearing Elena's giggles.
"It's a good reason." I mumble to myself as I make a stir fry for lunch.
John comes walking in wiping sweat off with a towel.
"Oh yeah, stir fry!" He exclaims as he notices what I am making.
"So has anybody made an appearance today? Should we send in a rescue team?" John asks joking.
"HA HA! Very funny John." Cass comes walking into the kitchen with Elena both looking exhausted but smiling.
"WHOA! You two look like it was a rough night but a fun one." John winks at Elena and I smack him with my cooking spoon.
"Hey!" He grabs his arm and gives me a look like I accosted him.
"Sit down already." I laugh as as I'm putting food into the bowls.
"So what did we miss last night? Anything exciting?" I ask as we begin to eat.
"Yeah you could say that." Cass smiles at Elena, who blushes back at him.
"Alright, so is Thietian still going to take us to the compound he was telling us about yesterday?" John asks as he finishes off his bowl.
Cass morphs into Thietian who smiles at Elena as well, deepening her red, rosy cheeks.
"Yes, I did plan on it." He tells us, as we stare at them stunned.
"Did we snap into a different dimension or something? This kind of freaks me out." John points between the two who are smiling and giving each other little looks.
Thietian goes back to Cass who smirks, "Well at least we know how to scare you, but no right dimension. We talked and got some things straightened out." He grabs Elena's hand and gives her a kiss on it before morphing back to Thietian.
He stands and picks up our bowls to rinse off before asking if Turk is in the back.
"If you could please, John, tell him we're going to my compound today and to start moving our people and things there. He knows where to go."
John leaves and Thietian turns to Elena, "Would you like to go with us today? There's a good possibility when the fighting starts, this place won't be safe anymore. The place I'm going to show you though will be."
She looks at him and I notice the sparkle in her eye and the trust that's emanating between them now.
"Yes. I will." She smiles.
"Okay... Seriously.... I'm with John on this I feel like I've entered the twilight zone dimension. Even I'm concerned." Joking I give them a confused glower before going on, "Not that it's a bad thing, just weird."
They both kind of laugh and Elena tells me, "You'll get used to it."
I laugh with them as John comes back in.
"Turk is moving people out already. So I guess whenever we're ready?"
"You're ready?" Thietian gives a quick glance at us all who give him a nod.
"Okay, let's go." He snaps his fingers and we go.
When we open our eyes, we are momentarily blinded by the bright sun but we catch scent of an ocean breeze. It's chilly but not uncomfortably so. As our eyes adjust I look around and notice the green steep hills all around us that go high up to form deep gorges, channeling glacier melt off and the ocean to meet.
I grab Johns hand and smile at him.
"We're in Norway." We echo each other and gaze meaningful into each others eyes. Norway... Where we honeymooned years ago. My heart races and I blush thinking of the when we made each others voices ring out over the fjords.
"Thinking of my diva moment?" John wiggles his brows at me with a wink and I can't help but give a snort of laughter.
"You know it." I tell him.
"I knew you'd both enjoy this place." Thietian beams at us as Elena looks around in wonder at our location.
He snaps a cardigan to his hands and places it around Elena's shoulders.
She starts and realizes quickly what it is and gives him a dazed look up into his face.
"I don't want you to get cold."
Thietian's adoration and the puppy dog eyes are too much for me. Turning to John I make a gag face quickly and he holds back a smile.
He mouths, 'Oh stop, you like it.' with a smile and wiggle of his eyebrows.
Elena and Thietian finally stopped their 'goo-goo' eyes at each other and he decided to take us to the top of this building. It was built like a castle fortress with turrets and towers rising up from the mountain side. There was a good portion that was built back into the mountain as well.
As we were walking, we could hear a loud sound and feel a draft from somewhere even though we were inside.
"Thietian, is that water I'm hearing?" John asks him.
"Yes, we built this around a natural glacial runoff for several purposes. One to easily water crops we have in green houses and the terraced living areas. Two, it helps us generate some electricity and helps power the grindstones at our mills farther down. Three.... Well you'll see in a few moments."
He smiled broadly and led us around a corner where the sound was louder. There was an open door up ahead that let in the sun light. We stepped out onto a large open terrace with a large football size lawn and garden area. The terrace edge had a bridge that curved outward and up like a C to the the other side where more buildings and the tallest tower was.
"Oh my..." I was rendered breathless at the sight before me.
The glacial cascade that flowed effortlessly between the building was a sight to behold. It was a like Trollstigen and the Seven sisters waterfalls merged to sit perfectly in this massive crevice between the two fortresses. Trees ran all along the sides and around the buildings and waterfall. Natural rock and stones helped bounce the water giving it definition and threw mist high up into the air. The bridge was far enough out though that it was still dry.
"This is like a fairytale.." Elena exclaimed staring wide eyed in awe.
"How is this even possible? What happens in spring?" I asked getting closer to the stone wall that rose about 4 feet along the edge of terrace. The stone wall had small holes for water to drain near the bottom and bigger holes with grates in them set in the center of the wall every ten feet or so.
Thietian chuckled, "Well this bridge here, can be used, but it becomes very wet. Along with the terraces you see from here down to the bottom. So far though in the last 25 or so years, there has not been a problem with erosion or anything. The caretakers check everything in the winter time and do any repairs if needed then. Any other time of the year though we have diversion tubes set up further up stream of here. If we need to we can divert the majority of the water to another river that feeds a natural lake. My engineers really went above and beyond everything I could have hoped for with this place."
He stood proudly looking at it all. Seeing our reactions to everything pleased him knowing that all the hard work and planning did pay off.
"Shall we continue?" He gestured to the bridge and let us go first across.
It was a very solid bridge, however, when I looked through one of the grates, it made me feel dizzy.
We got to the other side with me looking straight ahead after that and even Elena was a little weak in the knees.
"I need to sit down for a moment." She held her hand up as she to a seat on the grass and took a couple of breaths.
Thietian went to her side immediately, "Are you okay?"
She smiled and laughed, "I am afraid of heights. It scared me a little is all. I'm okay." She laid her head on his shoulder and he let her until she was ready to get up.
It only took a minute before we were back on our feet and looking at more of the crevasse. We noticed that there was several bridges spanning back and forth across the waters path. Not all were stone like the one we crossed but suspension bridges that looked like they could be raised and lowered if needed. All the stone bridges were built out away from the water like we had just been on.
"Are the bridges the only way to physically cross between the two sides?" I asked not seeing anything else to indicate a way.
"Yes they are on the outside except for ferry at the waters edge and then up higher we have a pulley system for moving heavy loads across. There are more tunnels in the mountain too that connect, but they don't have a view." Thietian takes us farther up into the tallest tower and takes us to the top terrace.
From here we can see the large green houses to the west of us and the smaller ones dotted here and there on some of the smaller terraces. There's fishing boats in the fjord hauling in their catches, goats on the eastern slopes grazing in their pastures alongside the cows, sheep, and horses. There were different kinds of orchards mixed in among the buildings that protruded out from the mountain sides.
"How many people can live here?" Elena asks seeing the buildings and how this represented a fortress.
"This place can comfortably house about ten thousand people and their families. It also has barrack style quarters that are hard to see from here closer to the water level. It can house an extra two thousand men there. This is the smallest of the compounds but it is one of the more serene settings, that I found to build at."
He continued on explaining to Elena about there was schools and a hospital, apartment like lodging for the majority of the population and then there were several stand alone homes for use as well. Everything was prepared for people to be able to live here safely, without help from outside influences if the fight that was to come against his father became futile. That each one of the compounds would be a haven for not just the ones fighting but for her, her family, and other humans too. Each site was magically protected so unless you knew it was there because certain people told you, you could not see it. The only ones who could tell you where any of them were, was Thietian, and those he had the blood oath with. Otherwise someone would have to physically snap you to the location, and even if that person could snap themselves, unless they had signed the blood oath, they would be unable to return to it.
"Which I have something for you and John to sign. It's just so you can find these places again." Thietian held out a different piece of Fae parchment then everyone else seemed to have signed.
He handed it to us to look at. This one had very little writing and only one spot of blood on it. It was simple and to the point and John and I made a pinprick to mark the paper. After wards Thietian took it and snapped it away.
We went down from the tower since it was making Elena experience vertigo being so high up and I wasn't exactly comfortable either but I could handle it much better than the glass bridge in china. Just the thought sent shivers down my spine.
This time instead of going across the bridges, he took us through the tunnels in the mountain and showed us around. Everything was built well, you could tell that there were some areas that they may have had trouble with because of the large amount of reinforcing pillars and concrete that were put in place but everything was lit well and air flowed through the halls, some were made of the natural stone, others of wood or concrete.
We were so enamored at looking around that we had made it to the other side of the waterfall without even realizing it. We stepped out into a huge hall area with a elevated area on one side almost circling the stage area like a theater for plays. It was huge and had natural light coming in through skylights dotted every where and a much larger one in the center on the stage.
"Wow" I exclaimed. When suddenly my phone goes off, then everyone else has their phone going off.