Down The Waterfall

Once we were back to the clearing we'd landed in, I swung back down off of Mal. Cass dismounted as well and Merida copied us, though she looked confused. As I started removing the silver-chased black leather gear from the dragon pretending to be a warhorse, I looked over at the redhead. "You might want to keep a firm hand on Angus."

Merida still looked confused as Maleficent trotted out to the center of the clearing on her own, but she did take a firm grip on Angus's reins. I guess the horse really wasn't all that shocked, having been warned by her scent, probably, as he didn't try to bolt when the black mare was engulfed in green fire. Our newest companion didn't bolt either, but looked like she wanted to. "Mother o' mercy!" Cried the redhead as she ducked behind her horse.

"It's nothing to be worried about." Cass told her, holding Ruby's riding gear. Merida looked her way to be shocked again, seeing a naked woman behind her instead of a great wolf. The hunter, for her part, looked completely unconcerned by her nudity as she searched through her saddle bags for her clothes.

Turning back to me as if to ask a question, Merida was instead struck by the sight of Maleficent's draconic form. "Is that a dragon? Ye were riding a bloody dragon this whole taem?!"

I nodded. She was actually taking things pretty well. "Indeed, and Ruby is a werewolf."

"And I'm a cheshire!" Kat proudly proclaimed as she popped into visibility at my side, giving me a crushing hug.

"Me too!" Anna was on my other side then. At least they were both clothed. Merida was taking this well too though. Which might have been due to Normalcy, come to think of it.

I freed a limb to gesture back at the dragon. "She is, of course, our transportation, at least until the river." I turned to address Mal. "You won't have any problem with the extra weight that far?" I got a gigantic snort from the draconic woman as answer. "She's going to have to carry Angus, he won't fit on her back. Do you think he can handle that?"

"He's be'en right calm around her, I'm a bit shooked, but I guess the horses have had her scent all night which wud be why they shy'ed away from her." Seemed like the big horse had been keeping his distance from her to me, but then he hadn't run away.

Hilde Elsa and Rapunzel had moved up while we were talking, and the Queen tried to shoo the cat girls away, who ignored her and clung to me tighter... "It's not that far to the source actually, by air, but the drop would take considerably longer on foot."

Merida looked suddenly excited, well, more excited. "Are we going down tha falls?! Tha drop there is hooge!"

"You know the falls then?" Made sense, as they weren't terribly far from her home. I swatted both cat girls on their butts, and they jumped. "Go on, I'll see you both at the bottom."

The redhead nodded as the pouting cheshires faded from view. They could teleport down on their own. "Aye, e'ery summer the lads go swim'en and dare each other ta see which idiot will get tha closest to tha edge. Da won't even let me brothers go cause he knows the little blighters would swim clear over, ha'ven no caution between them."

That sounded about right from what I remembered. I led Merida over to her horse while the others climbed aboard Maleficent. "Okay, calm Angus as much as you can before we climb aboard. She'll have to carry him down, but he'll be perfectly fine." If I had the room in my storage, I'd have just stuffed the horse in there, but Hilde had nearly filled it with a huge wooden box for the trip for some reason.

She petted the horse and whispered into his ear for a bit before giving me a grin and a thumbs up. Angus looked the same to me, but then he hadn't seemed much bothered in the first place. He was a Disney animal companion after all, Rapunzel's chameleon seemed far smarter than a normal lizard should be too. Though you hardly noticed the little guy hiding in her hair as he did.

With that taken care of, I helped her climb up with Hilde and Elsa. I was briefly tempted to fly down on my own in dragon form but I hadn't practiced much and this was a much more dangerous drop. Also, it was probably too soon to reveal more of my own nature to Merida, though she had taken Mal's extremely well.

There was a lurch as the dragon, I assumed, moved over to pick up Angus, and then she leaped skyward with a mighty downbeat of her great wings. Looking back, I could make out the castle behind us, and pointed it out to Merida. The redhead seemed enchanted with the view. It didn't take long at all before we could make out a lake ahead with a number of large rocky spikes coming up through the water. The jagged growths became more common and larger, towards the far side, almost looking like the maw of a gigantic beast. Water could be seen racing between and cascading out over the edge of what was apparently a large spring, as there was no visible source of water feeding the pool.

As Maleficent began a spiraling descent, we could make out the majestic falls themselves now, as water roared down the cliffside in a torrent of white water to another large lake-sized pool below. The source of the river we would be traveling down.

From here, we could also make out the beginnings of the vast desert that spread out beyond the green and the blue ribbon of water that cut through it.

All told, it was quite the sight though the trip was very short. Instead of landing at the base of the falls, Mal followed the river for some time before landing. Merida near leaped off in her haste to check on her horse. I jumped clear myself, carrying Elsa and Hilde down again. Ruby stumbled over, looking green and being supported by her girlfriend as Rapunzel followed them. Once everyone was clear The dragon burst into flames again, this time to her more human form.

"I did not enjoy spending my night in the stables." She told me in no uncertain terms as she stalked up to me while Merida gaped. The redhead was petting her horse again, who looked no worse for his journey.

I hugged the tall woman to me, careful of her wings. "I will make it up to you. Besides, you get to go stay in a nice, comfortable castle while we are stuck in a boat." That seemed to calm her down, though I thought she had seemed more irritated than actually mad. "Now about that boat?" I turned to Hilde at that.

She nodded and gestured over at the river as if trying to show me a boat that was not there. "Of course Master. If you would retrieve the crate from storage and place it in the water."

That was our boat? Well this I had to see. I pulled the large hardwood box out of my extra-dimensional space. It was about the size and shape of a very large wardrobe and really quite heavy even for its size, but I was able to carry it thanks to my new strength, and walked down to the riverbank with it balanced over one shoulder. Merida seemed impressed.

"Any particular side up?" I huffed, having no idea how this was supposed to work. Hilde shook her head, so I just dumped the seamless box into the water. It floated in place with no problem.

"If I could have my staff, my lord?" I pulled that out and handed it to her with a flourish. This should be interesting. I backed up with the others as she began to wave her implement about and started a chant directed at the floating box.

"She called ye both master and lord, isn't tha supposed to be tha Queen o' Germonia?" Merida whispered to me.

I nodded, time to pull back some of the curtain, I supposed. Normalcy should blunt the worst of it. "Yes, the Queen serves me. As does everyone else here."

"Oh... Well, that explains it then." Remarkably calm, but she seemed excited to see the next marvel. I couldn't wait to see how the boat went myself, to be honest.

It didn't take very long before what was apparently no simple crate began to somehow fold out of itself, growing larger and more complicated until a good-sized sailing vessel with a single sail floated in the river before us. "A folding ship? Well, that's handy." I walked up and gave Hilde a one-armed hug of congratulations. Plenty of room for all of us, even with Merida's horse.

Hilde beamed at me, overjoyed to show the fruits she'd labored over while I was off in Arendelle. "The magic will only last about a month, I'm afraid. After that, it will no longer collapse. Then it will also eventually fall apart as the magic fades further, but that should be quite a while longer."

Better than I could have hoped. I'd half expected we'd be going downriver on a raft made from lashed logs or something uncomfortable like that. I swept the Queen into my arms and kissed her rather soundly as the others watched. Merida cheered along with them as Hilde clung to me breathlessly after I let up. "Does she have a name?" Couldn't sail a ship without a name, it was bad luck.

"The White Rose?"

"An excellent name."