I awoke with Haladoria in my arms. I stared off into space as I thought about what we had started. Funny, it seemed as both a dream and a nightmare. A brief flicker of thought brought up my basic status. I found it disturbing.

Michael Arienach

LEVEL - ????????????

EXPERIENCE - N/A

RACE - Planar Dragon God

BREED - Silver

AFFINITY - Fire, Earth, Air, Water, Magic, Creation

CLASS - Ancient

ALIGNMENT - Good

  So… I was a god now. I chuckled to myself when the words to an old song by Van Halen came to my head. “What do you mean I am tardy, I don’t feel tardy?” It still came back to the game… and the ship… and the people… and the dragons. Should I add the gods in there? I sighed in frustration. What do you mean I am a god, I don’t feel like a god?

  For better or worse we were in this. All of us. While I could open up the exploration of the galaxy, I didn’t know exactly what each planet would hold. I didn’t want to see my people hurt. I really didn’t want to hurt any other beings that we might encounter, either.

“You will drive yourself insane if you keep this up, Michael.”

“I know.”

  What else could I do? I had to prepare the people for this. And learn what I was capable of. There didn’t seem to be a manual that came with godhood.

Haladoria stirred in my arms. “Michael?”

“Yes love?”

“Did you say something?”

“I was thinking out loud. Talking to myself, I guess.”

“I was talking to the original owner of this body, I am new here.” I rolled my eyes as I bit back a laugh. Damn dragon comedian.

“You worry too much. We have all the time in eternity now.”

  That was a good point, but somehow, I didn’t think it was right. Not with the gods being afraid. I just wish I knew of what.

“Let me get up and I will fix breakfast.”

  I was a little happier watching her dress. It was almost as much fun as watching her undress.

  She was with me as I went to the portal building. She was watching as I made one portal link with all the other portals on the planet. I set up an arrangement of crystals and it would key to the main crystal and connect. It took a matter of minutes. I started programming the other portals for the different planet clusters I had in mind. All we would need to do is put up a portal on each world now. It would be a very simple system.

  The next stop was a meeting. I hate meetings. The dwarves would start to build the portal arches and the rest would start to organize into parties to do the basic surveying of each planet we found. With the portals in place, we could set up base camps and supply through the portal as needed. In a worse case scenario, I could be there in a heart beat. There were talks of moving planes and such, which I thought would be a good idea once we knew the basic area was safe. That started me thinking about a massive portal that was open ended.

  The nobles were going to send me a small percentage of their people. The elves were to organize them into groups. From combat to building, each group would be selected to their specialty by their strengths. There was talk of a new scout plane and using the old warships as well. The first planet would be opened in six months. Some of the buildings around my lair was re-purposed for housing to support the groups.

  Once given a direction, they went at it with a will. Strangely, the thought of Haladoria coming back didn’t seem to bother anyone. It made my skin itch.

“What is bothering you now, Michael?”

“I really don’t know. I think what is bothering me is the fact that there is nothing bothering me.”

“Tell me this isn’t contagious. What the hell do you mean by that?”

“Don’t you find it strange that there is no one who is protesting this? That everyone is cooperating? That there is no one who even questions what I am doing?”

“Why would they?”

“I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem right. It is almost like everyone has a program with a personality laid over the top of it.”

“Viennarinia didn’t.”

“Point I guess. Maybe I am being paranoid.”

  A year later we had two new planets and so far everything worked flawlessly. I had experimented and found that I could make one massive portal, which would be one way, that would let aircraft and vehicles through. I made the stone matrix of it so that it was more of a keyboard than individual crystals. Two of them were built. One on land, the other on the sea. We could now put a plane or ship where ever we wished. The next strange thing that I noticed was that the colonist who stayed on each world were breeding like rabbits. The game, I wondered? The ones who rotated through the worlds didn’t seem to as much, but on a whole, even on Dragonhaven, our population was growing quickly. Including the dragons. The dwarves were hard at work expanding the lairs for the juveniles on the ring.

  The next year netted us three new ones. Only one had caused problems and that was something that looked like a humming bird. We took to calling them flying daggers. I made a crystal bracelet that combined a shield with a lightning spell. Then taught the enchantment to the artificers. The elves had encouraged catching them once they were stunned and had plans to domesticate them. Or at least to breed the psychotic nature out of them.

  I was kept busy finding new worlds and making sure that everything ran as smoothly as possible. Evenings were spend dancing and relaxing at the dragon head. I tended to spend the entire weekend in my caldera. Which was where I first noticed the change. The mana flow was increasing. I shifted my sight and saw thin beams of mana leaving the vent. With my sight, I could see where they were connecting to each planet we had colonized. I thought on this for a while. They did gain something from the connection, but what?

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  The next planet was the big surprise. We had been there for a few months before one of the aircraft called for support. I ported in and found it being chased by a group of wyvern. They weren’t using fire, they were just chasing it. The pilot was making a run for home and they were dead on his tail. They didn’t seem to be attacking so much as just chasing it. I flew over them and when they looked up, they scattered. I escorted the plane home, then returned to about where I had spotted them and landed. I lay down and waited. Nothing happened that day, or the next. I didn’t move, I just waited. It was the forth day when one landed in front of me.

“Greetings, I am Michael.”

“Greetings great one.”

“Do you not have a name?”

“What would I need with a name?”

I didn’t have an answer for that.

“Have we offended you, great one?”

“No, I just wish to meet you and your people.”

“Why?”

“To learn about you and to see if we can live together peacefully.”

“Why?”

“I have been tasked by the gods to make homes for my people.”

“We have myths about the gods. They abandoned us so the legends say.”

That caught my interest. “Does the legend say why?”

“No, just that we were suddenly cut off from the gods. We feel them now though.”

“Will you live in peace with our people?”

“The ones who gather together by the portal?”

“You know of the portal?”

“We felt it when it came here. Strong magic, just like yours.”

I thought about it for a moment. Something clicked. “The gods are waking up now.”

“If we leave your people alone, will you let us scout again?”

My eyes widened. “I would be honored for you to scout for us.”

“I will tell the others.”

  Then it flew off. I was a bit stunned by what it had said. I filed it away for later and flew back to the portal to wait. Haladoria was waiting for me there, so I shifted and we went to the local pub. I told her of what I found.

They returned the next day. There were thirty two of them. One came forward.

“We wish to report. We require a recorder.”

“A recorder?” I asked.

“To take the report and generate the maps.”

“Just a moment.”

I looked to Haladoria. “I think we need an artist. One of the best we can get if my hunch is right.”

“Do you think they will follow us back to Dragonhaven?”

I turned back. “Will you go to our planet to report?”

“We will do so.”

“Haladoria, meet us back at the portal building.”

She smiled and kissed me, then ran for the portal.

“I will fly and open a portal, follow me through it.”

“We will do so, great one.”

  When we came out over the inner band, they circled around till I landed. By the time I had shifted, Haladoria had joined me. Along with a few other dragons. The wyvern came in and landed, I assume the same one approached us, looking at the other dragons nervously.

“Great one, you bring us to the gods!”

“I bring you to my people.”

“The other dragons do not attack?”

“They are the people as well in this land.”

“Where is your recorder then?”

I looked at Haladoria and she nodded. “They are on their way here.”

“We will wait.”

Imar came up looking a bit awe-struck. “You found wyvern?”

“Yeah, they are strange beast.”

“They have not been seen since the time of the great destruction.”

This rather put me on the spot since I was suppose to be older than they were. I sighed. “They offer to scout for us again.”

“We never really got along with them.”

“I know.” Judging from the reaction that the wyvern just had. “We will just have to do better this time.”

“We don’t exactly look at things the same way now.”

  As we talked, more dragons landed. One had the artist and she hopped off and came to me.

“Lord Dragon, what might I do for you this day?”

“Michael milady. I need you to draw what these wyvern tell you.”

She looked over at the wyvern with a slight gasp. “I… I will try.”

The wyvern came up and looked at her. “She is not trained.”

“Can you work with her?”

“I will try, great one.”

  She set up her pad and took her brushes. The wyvern walked up behind her and touched her head with the claw pads on his wings. She stiffened, then her hands started flying over the canvas. I walked up to see what was going on and noticed that her eyes weren’t focused. I tapped my life affinity and probed her. Her mind was on overload. I sent a trace of mana through the life link and she relaxed somewhat. I kept feeding her mana until she had finished about an hour later.

  She had drawn almost perfect topographical maps of the planet we had just left, along with several other varieties I didn’t recognize. They were labeled in a strange script. I stared hard at it for a few moments and the words became clear to me. One was an ocean map with notes on the concentration of marine life and classification. One was the major weather patterns. One was the mana concentrations and showed a keystone location. There were a few others that showed everything from life groups to mineral deposits. I stared at the wyvern puzzled. How did they not only figure all this out, but record and transfer it?

“How do you feel?” I asked the artist.

“I am exhausted. It felt like he was pouring images into my mind.”

I sighed. “Do you know of anyone who would be better suited to this?”

“No. But you might take a younger artist and train them for it.”

“I would appreciate it if you would find me volunteers. I am thinking about thirty two, in fact.”

“As you wish, lord dragon.”

I sighed. “Michael.”

She giggled.