Once the opening was done, and the lights were up I was glad to be relieved of all the extra weight. I would start working on the hidden escape tunnel tomorrow. All I had to do was make a tunnel or two that led to a location a good distance away. Creating a few stone rooms would be a requirement as well. Even if we didn't plan to live here we still needed it to look lived in.
Especially if we were going to be spending most of our time on earth. Once Bryce finds out how far I can cast a spatial portal he'd be amazed. I paced the cave for a while as I got used to the weight being gone. My wings twitched as I thought about what I would be doing for the next few weeks. Maybe I could create a permanent portal here.
Like that portal that led to the egg cave. I helped Bryce light his forge. He'd been very particular about how it was set up. He just wanted to test if there were any cracks in the hard black stone. I was a little irritated that he questioned how gentle I'd been with the forge, but I was pretty sure at least two of my bonded would do the same if I'd carried around their important gear.
I allowed my body to relax. The cavern we'd found was about half the size of the warehouse. I'd have to expand the space. A few rooms for the humans, and a few other large caverns for more dragons should the need for me to return here with more dragons come. I paced around the rim of the space.
Pushing my senses into the stone to find weak points, and determine how this small fortress was going to be set up. If the guild was a temporary base of operations then this place was going to be our last stand. Our hidden fortress. It wouldn't stay hidden for long. The plan was to tell the guild about this place, and word would spread among the lizardmen since they probably already knew we were here.
I relaxed, and laid down along the back wall. I started doing the elemental exercise with darkness. It was easier to manipulate darkness in an environment with a large number of shadows. Torches cast long shadows. I snorted as I thought about how I was going to expand this place.
It was going to take a good amount of mana. Mana I was willing to spend. I could already picture the grand pillars that would support the roof, and the little openings that would be where the human rooms would be. The larger openings I'd put on the other side for the young dragons. Even if they couldn't live here for long this would make a good training base.
Young dragons would need to learn not to absorb the mana of the poisoned worlds. Here I was fantasizing way too far into the future. I still had to force the humans of earth to accept our existence, and allow us to live on earth. I was beginning to think that I was going to have to force humans to let us return to our own home planet. That dark feeling about the evolution that was coming made my spines stand on end.
I just couldn't shake the feeling that this evolution to dragon king was going to be more then a little troublesome. My wings shuddered. The sudden noise drew the attention of the others.
"Is something bothering him?" Bryce whispered.
"You suck at whispering," I looked at him with a cold blue eye, "Do you want to tell him now or should we wait?"
Bryce suddenly looked very concerned.
"Why would you announce that aloud when you could speak to us silently?" Jax complained.
Now Bryce looked confused.
"I want him to become a bonded," I flicked my tail, "Allow him to join our inner circle."
"You're the one that snarled at him when he asked about the bond a few days ago," Jax complained, "Why didn't you tell him then if you were just going to tell him?"
"He needed to know us better," I tapped my talons, "He should have some understanding of how close we are from observing us this last week. He should know by now if he wants that kind of relationship."
"What is a bonded?" Bryce stood up looking at us all with bewilderment.
"We're bonded," Savannah answered, "More specifically," she stood gesturing toward me, "We're his bonded."
"You still haven't told me what a bonded is," he looked around at us like we were some sort of cult of crazy people.
"A bonded is a friend," Ethan spoke up, "But more then a normal friend. We're the human that balances out a dragons rage. We get to borrow his strength in exchange, and he's fiercely protective of us."
"I think that's the most I've heard you talk to another person in months," I chuckled as Ethan rounded on me to throw a rock at me.
It was a playful irritation. The rock bounced off my scales harmlessly. I didn't even flinch. It was my turn to be playful. My lips parted as my belly came off the ground.
Ethan looked concerned. I lunged forward grabbing him, and trapping him in my grip as I drew him away from the others. My weight, and mass stopped him from escaping as he complained about being pinned under my arms. The lazy way he complained was comical. I had to stop myself from laughing.
Bryce still clearly didn't know what was going on. He watched Ethan try to push himself out from under my arms weakly. It was obvious that he was perfectly fine, and just playing along with my mock punishment for throwing the rock. Bryce stared at us as we played around. Ethan would telekinetically push me up, and off.
I would catch him again as he tried to escape. It was hard to dink around like this under the eyes of the entire guild. All of them thought I was up to no good. Doing something like this would just invite trouble. All those people would think that I was attacking Ethan.