Granddadcouldn’t help but grin. ‘Sounds like a plan.’ he said.
‘Have you a better idea, Miranlla?’ asked Glammer.
‘No. I guess it might work.’ she replied meekly. ‘His motherLithgala will carry on a treat and we’ve already upset hertoday.’
‘That’s good.’ said Aquitain. ‘We want to make it known thatyou just can’t come in here and do whatever you want.’
‘If she really puts on a turn we’ll offer to sell him back toher for a good ransom.’
‘You’re talking about a god Aquitain. It’s not good to provokegods.’ said Granddad.
‘This is my house and they have to live by my rules,Granddad.’
‘Now I have an idea of how to immobilize him so that I can getinto his mouth. You need to shoot in and get Alpha up his rear endwhen I give the signal. Glammer can you come with me, I want you tohelp me prepare.’
Rori looked upand said ‘How can I be helping Spirit Lord.’
‘It’s okay Rori. I think that we’ve got it covered.’ repliedAquitain.
Aquitain andGlammer left and Miranlla raged.
‘The bitch thinks that she’s so smart. I couldexplode!’
‘Calm down Miranlla! You need quick judgement and a steadyhand for your part. Team work is essential if we are to succeed.’said Granddad trying to keep a straight face.
She glared atGranddad and said. ‘I guess you’re right and started singing thecalming mantra.’
Aquitain tookGlammer down to Gateway 5 and explained what he wanted her todo.
‘We’re going to go down and tap the magic pool. It will causemy spirit and body to bloat. I want you to sing the growing song togrow me about three times the size of that dragon. I want the bodymass heavy enough to hold it down long enough to get my spirit intoin through its mouth and I want enough volume of spirit to ensurethat I can push its spirit out without fully leaving mybody.’
They went downto place where the dragons dumped the magic. He passed through theprotective shield and went over the magic essence pool and drank inas much as he dared then returned and let her sing him bigger. Hedid this several times being careful when he felt full. Soon he wasenormous and began attracting attention from the Earthelementals.
The brightesteventually turned up and asked what he was doing. He said that hewas, ‘trying to increase my bulk so that I can fight a dragon.’ TheBrightest wondered about the tactic but said nothing. So they justfloated around and watched. When he had finished he created a mindlink and literally pumped most of his excess magic back into thepool slowly decreasing in size back to the normal.
‘Thank you for your patience, Brightest. I shall leavenow.’
‘You are welcome.’ replied the Brightest.
‘I thought we were going to be in trouble there.’ saidGlammer.
‘Yes. I wasn’t sure how the Brightest would react. I made adeal with him a few days ago and he’s probably not prepared to doanything unless I was openly breaking it which I wasn’t. I’m hopingthat I have expanded my spirit volume enough that I can grow muchlarger. Let’s go and try it.’ He replied.
They both leftpathway 5 and teleported to the area where all their troops werepracticing walking and moving around.
‘They look like they’re getting a bit better.’
‘Yes but it’s much slower than I expected.’ shereplied.
Aquitainremoved the attachment of his spirit to his body and it melded backinto the rock. Moments later an enormous ooze flowed out of theground. It formed large flexible tentacles as thick as tree trunksand moved them around criss-crossing them like a net. He thenflowed them all back to form a ball and turned into a humungousbear, strolled around flexing his muscles and then turned into amassive snake with a body thicker than the height of a new man withone head at either end then changed into a giant Newman as tall asthe ceiling.
He then shrunkback to his normal size Newman body.
‘Which one do you think would work the best? Using mindspeak.
She walked overto him and kissed him.
‘You are amazing! I think I would go for bear first. It’llremind him of K’wala. I’ll get him worked up. You appear as thebear. Taunt him, then fade into the ground. I’ll taunt him and movehim over to where you disappeared. You grab him with your tentaclesand pull him down. I’ll jump on to make extra weight. You shoot atentacle into his mouth and move in and push his spirit out. How’sthat sound? ’
‘A lot easier than it will turn out I bet. But we’ll give it atry.’ and they returned to the control room.
Miranlla hadcalmed down and wanted to know more details about the plan. ‘Itsounds too easy. I’ve been thinking about my part. I can changeinto several animal forms but none will be very good at holding orplacing Alpha with any precision. I’ll have to do it in my Newmanbody form. Granddad has kindly offered to make us invisible but thedragon may see us using aura sight. How mobile are our troops?’
’Not fit enough to fight.’ replied Glammer.
‘What if they were all melded in the floor and just popped upand went down if the dragon went near them. That way they wouldn’tget hurt and it would be terribly confusing to the dragon havingspirit auras appearing and disappearing.‘
‘Now that is a good idea Miranlla. What do you think Tain?asked Glammer.
Aquitain lookedat Granddad and saw him nod.
‘Yes it is a good idea, Mandy. Let’s do it!’
Aquitain andGlammer returned to the troops and explained what they wanted thento do. Then they practiced popping up and down out of the ground.Most could do it but several had difficulty. Aquitain and Glammereach took a trooper and guided them to a location under the floorand gave them instruction when to pop up. After that they wouldhave to decide when to duck down themselves.
Aquitain andGlammer finally returned to the control room and told Miranlla andGranddad that all was ready.
Rori insistedon going along so Granddad made Rori, Miranlla and himselfinvisible. Aquitain mind linked everybody and advised them not totalk unless absolutely necessary and snuck them out of the controlroom
