When I came to the Star-Whisperer headquarters, I had some people waiting for me. They were some elves, who were informed about me coming to see Aedim. My appearance was surprising to them, but they were told to show me to Aedim's room, because she was busy at the moment, but she would come soon.

When we got to the room, I could relax a bit. I reached my destination and hopefully I would be safe, with Aedim protecting me from other girls. Seeing that I was pretty filthy, I decided to have a bath. Filling it with hot water, I slip in with the four fur balls and turn into a human. I had to keep my skin harder, as the little ones often tried to gnaw on my fingers and toes, their teeth probably growing. I say little ones, but as before they were slightly larger than cats, now they were similar to a medium-sized dog. They grew quite a bit.

It is like that, myself naked with four cat-moles in the bath, that Aedim found us. She just looked at me bewildered by my current appearance. I had longer hair, which now I needed to cut, but I still looked handsome. She just turned away with a sigh and went to get undressed for a bath.

When she returned, she was nude and showing me her exquisite beauty. She has grown to be very good looking by the age of thirteen, her forms filling out nicely. She is lacking the maturity in her looks that girls in late teens have, she looks more cute in some ways than sexy. But regardless, it is too early for me to do anything, so I just look at her but don't touch. At least not naughty touch.

“Be careful, the little ones bite. Feel free to give'em a smack.”

“Little ones? Where did you find them? How old are they?”

“I found them when I came to after my drinking spree. Sadly their parent was dead at that point, half-eaten by a chimera.”

“Parent, huh. Was it a mother that you found?”

“What? Aedim, what are you implying? She was already dead when I found her, not when I regained my consciousness.”

“Really? It's just Val men that have become guardians are known to sometimes sire children with beasts, especially if they have gone through a powerful transformation, and yours is as powerful as they come.”

“Stop it, you know I would never do anything like that. They don't even look like me. I found them already moving about and eating meat, I couldn't have done anything in that short amount of time.”

“Uh-huh. Almost two months is a short amount of time.”

“I was in the eastern jungle. Look, this is my form I was in.”

As I say that I turn into my ultimate form, taking up almost all the space in the bathtub. It was very big, but so was I. Aedim is wide-eyed, but I don't know whether it is from my form or from the fact that I was so far away.

“See, they look nothing like me.”

She still looks at me amazed. I look weird, but must she be so surprised?

“You traveled to eastern jungle and back in less than two months?”

“Technically I traveled there in a week by air. I was picked up by a Hurricane Buzzard sometime after I ran. After that I killed it and landed somewhere in there. Found these guys and traveled back. I thought it wouldn't be a good idea to see any of the others or to visit Regios.”

“You were right, it's not a good idea right now. The other girls kinda freaked out when you ran away from them. I told them it was ok, but they though you didn't want to see them anymore. I spent four days listening to five girls crying constantly.”

“Ouch. Who is it that didn't stay behind? Was it Meriden?”

“You know it. She just grabbed a whisper-stone and hopped onto Flaer and they set off after you. They were surprised to see you disappear so fast. They were traveling all around when they heard some patrols speak of a massive beast running west towards the forest. The others also heard it, and now that the elves saw you, they are all traveling here. You have a couple of days of peace, but then the beasts will be unleashed.”

I just sit there in my furry glory, little ones gnawing at me and Aedim snuggling close. She seems to like whatever little fur I have on me. I decide to turn back into a human, to accommodate her size better. She sighs at the loss of fur, but comes closer and puts my arm around her.

We sit like that for a while, just enjoying each other's company.

“So, how much do you know?”

“Zern, I know everything. The girls had plenty of time to tell me what happened and what they thought about the situation.”

“What do you think? You are the smartest one of all of us.”

“Well, I haven't met Mercissa, but she sounds nice enough. She also loves you a lot apparently, despite her only seeing you briefly. You left a very good impression on her, charming her with your words. She adores how loyal you are and how you would lay down your life for us. I would say it was weird, if she talked about anybody else, but knowing you I am sure she is sincere.”

“But, Ae, she barely knows me and I her. We don't have anything in common and she is a dragon. I mean Regios is going to freak out.”

“Oh, he did. After you disappeared, he sent a message, requesting a duel ’once that coward mans up and shows his face’ for Mercissa's hand. He wants to beat you senseless. His tame response actually surprised the leaders of the other factions, and they have been conversing since.”

“Damn. Why can't it be a chess match or a tictactoe game? Can't I forfeit the duel and give Mercissa away?”

“You know as well as I do, that neither he nor the girls will allow it. Plus, you yourself wouldn't do that to that poor dragon girl.”

“Yeah, you are right. But how am I going to duel that dragon? He is more powerful even with me having four beasts within me.”

“I don't know, but I am sure we will work something out.”

We stayed silent after that, just clinging to one another. In all honesty, Aedim was the one girl with whom I spent least amount of time because of how far she was. I couldn't travel all the way to elven territory every weekend. Speaking of...

“Ae, how is your little project going?”

“Ah, it's finished.”

“Finished? Do you mean you achieved teleportation?”

That really surprised me. I didn't expect her to do it in... Four months?

“Yeah, turns out elves were trying to do something similar for a while. They have records of unsuccessful trials as well as magical circuits and spells all neatly filed away. I used them as well as the knowledge you gave me to replicate various kinds of teleportation.”

“Various kinds?”

“Yes. We have portals, personal port-stones and a large teleportation array. Although I failed to incorporate the phrase ’Beam me up, Scotty’ into the spell.”

“Ha-ha, that was a joke. It's from some fiction work about space travel. So, how are the results now?”

“Well, the portals are somewhat stable, although the range seems to be limited at the moment. We need more durable materials for the frame. I have my assistant, Chell, looking into it. She doesn't talk much but she is brilliant and tenacious.”

“Did you ask the dwarves about it?”

“Yes, we got in contact with them, now they and the gnomes are looking at the blueprints and trying to create some frames from titan alloys. But we actually have one use port-stones and the dwarves made some of those with blue adamthril for multiple use. They work flawlessly, but they all lead to here.”

Aedim was talking about an alloy of adamantite, mithril and blue orichalcum, used for their durability and increased magical conductivity.

“That is convenient. So are they making the frames from blue adamthril as well? That must cost a fortune.”

“It does... But the possibility of traveling long distances in seconds outweighs any costs. Dwarves actually have mining tunnels under the ground going about half-way through the Great Forest. And you know how far that is. Traveling that distance underground is hard, with our technology it would speed up the process of transportation and expansion.”

“You truly are my little genius.”

With that I kiss her on her forehead. She actually purrs a bit at that. It is very interesting how knowledgable she is. She even knows about metals as much as I do, even though she is not really interested in them.

“Zern. I noticed that you often have little to do outside of running around doing errands. I thought that you perhaps need a hobby, so I had Amaruelle talk with dwarves... You like metals and gems and dirt. Why don't you go and learn mining and blacksmithing?”

At that my eyes grow wide and it dawns on me. Why haven't I thought of it? I know my metals and I like forged blades and jewelry and dirt. Why would I not do this? This was a great idea!

“Aedim! You are a genius! How did you come up with such idea?”

“Well, you sometimes seem very bored, so I gathered you might need something to do. Plus I saw you appraise some swords you come across...”

I didn't let her finished, I just started kissing her and hugging her close to me. The fur balls got out of the bath a little while ago and were lying on the floor resting, so we had nobody to interrupt us. I took my time saying thanks to Aedim, making her very happy. We haven't kissed like that in a while.

We kissed for a solid half hour, which was a feat to be praised and then she sat in my lap, still naked. I had to cushion her bum with my tail for obvious reasons, but she didn't mind. We stayed like that until water became uncomfortably cool, at which point I opened up the drain and carried Aedim off to bed. We were relaxed so we just plopped down and covered ourselves. I didn't have my favorite stretchy pants, so when we spooned together, it kind of turned into light-medium petting. I didn't do anything more, but Aedim enjoyed it still. We fell asleep, my arms around her and my tail wrapped around us. We were very close.

For the next couple of days we just enjoyed our time together. I really missed Aedim, even though we had spent time together before, we rarely did in with just the two of us. We had time to talk and to show each other some ideas we had. Well, it was mostly Aedim who showed me things she was working on, but they were very impressive, even if I couldn't understand most of the magic related stuff.

It was a very pleasant time together. During the day she would show me fruits of her labor, showing off her teleports and how they worked. I was really surprised to see two open portals floating each between two pillars with runes and etchings. I didn't remember how portals looked in my previous lives, so this looked very cool. I spent some time just jumping between the two dimensional holes and throwing things in them. It was fun.

I also got to meet Aedim's assistant, who was a young elf, with brown hair, which is somewhat uncommon amongst elves, who wore her hair in a ponytail. She had long ears, which pointed to her high aptitude in magic. She stayed quiet most of the time, just observing me and Aedim. In the end she quietly whispered that she was “Glad'o see master's fiancé”. Very sweet girl.

In the evening we would do romantic things like going out to eat together. Elves mostly ate fruits and vegetables which didn't really fit my pallet, but seeing Aedim in some beautiful dresses made me forget any complaints. She looked amazing, with her brown and green hair, with elven dresses, mostly of the same colors. Elves loved nature.

Sometimes we walked around through tree bridges and climbed up towards the tree tops, looking at the night sky and seeing myriads of stars up above. There was a distinct lack of lighting around us, so sky was very clear and very visible. It was beautiful, almost as beautiful as Aedim. I made sure to tell her that.

A few times we spent at home, sitting with lit candles and feeding each other fruits. It seemed really girly, but hey, I didn't complain. I enjoyed just as much as my fiancée did.

At night we would snuggle together in bed, just whispering sweet nothings to one another and caressing each other. We would often fall asleep like that. It was amazing time to be alive.

Of course we didn't forget about the fur balls. We found some things for them to do, while we were busy. They had plenty of toys and space to run around. We still called them fur balls because we didn't know what they were.

We had eight days of peace and quiet, until first notice of a flying dragon reached us. I couldn't know for sure if it was Meriden with Flaer, or the other girls with Mercissa, but it wouldn't matter either way. Our little vacation was about to end. Those were some good times, which we both would treasure dearly. Like that our time together alone ended.