At The Foot of The Lonely Mountain

Heaven, that was where Mary must be at this moment. There wasn’t another possibility in her mind. She had died and gone to heaven. There was a soothing thump-thump, thump-thump that she heard coming from her soft, squishy pillow. She was wrapped up in the softest blanket she had ever felt. Mary felt strong arms around her, with hands resting on her hip and head. They held her tenderly. The hand on her started gently stroking right behind her ear.

“Mary, it’s time to get up.” A soft, gentle voice told her.

What? No. If this is a dream, I want to stay asleep. Mary nuzzled her pillow and wrapped her arms tightly around something; she wasn’t sure exactly what.

Mary heard a light chuckle, and the hand on her head disappeared. A moment later, someone was gently poking her nose with a finger. Mary’s eyes fluttered open. Wait… it isn’t a dream? Even better. Mary waved away the finger and looked up to see Laura smiling down at her. Mary smiled back up, then closed her eyes and snuggled up against Laura’s chest, trying to go back to sleep.

Laura spoke in a slightly chastising tone, elongating her name, “Maaarrry, It’s time to get up.”

“Five more hours,” Mary replied, not opening her eyes.

“Don’t you mean minutes?” Laura retorted with a smile.

“I said what I said; now shush.”

Laura sighed and gave Mary five more minutes. Seeing Mary was intent on staying asleep, Laura retracted her wings, which were acting as a blanket, and unceremoniously pushed Mary off her and onto the bed.

Mary was displeased. “What was that for?!”

“I told you it was time to get up. I even gave you five more minutes. Sometimes drastic measures are needed.”

Mary pulled up the covers around her. “I’m cold…” Mary scooted closer to Laura, who was incredibly warm, and pressed up against her.

Laura sighed and put an arm around Mary and started rubbing her shoulder. “So clingy. I really did need you to get up, though. We’re getting an early start today and attacking the other team’s base. You are needed for that.”

“Fine…” Mary began to get out of bed, but Laura stopped her.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“No?” Mary replied.

“Weren’t you going to make the offer to Ellen this morning? If so, you’ve got something to do I’m quite looking forward to.”

“Ah, that. I’m not doing it.”

Laura tilted her head to the side. “Why not?”

“You don’t want me to.”

“But the others do want you to. I was the only one actively against it.”

Mary pulled her hair back into a ponytail and started getting out of bed again. “This isn’t a democracy; not everyone’s opinion matters equally for everything. This is your transformation, your girlfriend, and your sister. Your opinion matters a lot more.

Laura pulled Mary back towards her, and seductively asked, “What if I’d still like some morning quality time?”

“Then maybe don’t push your girlfriend into the freezing cold beyond the covers.”

“You aren’t really going to tell me no because of that, are you?”

“No. I’m telling you no, because you said we were in a hurry, and I can hear people outside our door.”

Laura listened to what Mary was talking about and heard people talking right outside the chamber doors. Laura sighed, “Okay, fine. I suppose that’s fair. Then again, we could just have an orgy…” Laura grinned down at Mary.

Mary got up and dressed, while Laura went to the door. Laura was surprised to see Freya sitting in a chair with her back to the door, with a sword in her lap. Past her were Sadie, Sam, and Talia. Laura asked, “What’s going on out here?”

Freya stood and bowed, “My apologies, Laura. I was guarding the door to prevent unwarranted interruptions of your morning with Mary. I’m sorry I was not successful.”

Sadie said, “We had planned for an early morning. We were just coming to get them as we had agreed upon. Besides, Mary and Sam need to get busy this morning, as we could use a second dragon.”

Laura smiled, “Great idea.” Laura stepped forward, grabbed Sam’s wrist, pulled her inside, and shut the door on everyone. “Mary! Sam’s here for a threesome, so you can become a dragon goddess!”

Sam was confused, as she had gone from being dragged by the wrist to being carried in Laura’s arms like a princess, or a sacrificial offering; she wasn’t sure which at the moment, and wasn’t sure she really cared. Sam hesitantly said, “I wasn’t exactly thinking a threesome…”

Laura sat down on the end of the bed, keeping Sam in her arms and lap. Sam seemed to enjoy being held like that and didn’t make an effort to move.

Mary said, “I suppose I really should copy the dragon transformation for the assault… Okay.” Mary reached back and undid the laces holding up her dress, letting it fall to the floor, then climbed into Sam’s lap. Mary wrapped her arms around Sam’s neck and pulled her into a kiss. When she broke it, she asked, “Sam, are you good with a threesome? I ask because you turned down Laura last night, and I can either take care of Laura then you or the reverse, depending on what you would both prefer.”

Laura asked, “You’re taking care of me either way now? What changed?”

Mary rolled her eyes. “It’s your morning with me, Laura. It would be completely unreasonable for me to eat out Sam and not you. That would both be rude to you and Sam, as that would essentially be me saying that this was effectively a chore that I needed to do but didn’t want to do. And neither of you is a chore to me.”

Sam awkwardly said, “I… I don’t know. It’s different to me now that Laura and I are dating… I also don’t know if I’m up for orgasms that Laura considers mind-blowing. I had actually been sort of hoping for… well, essentially a quickie, so we aren’t keeping the others waiting.”

Mary nodded. “That’s simple enough, but if it were a quickie, would you be okay with Laura being included or not?”

Sam bit her lip and saw Laura’s hopeful expression, which is what ultimately pushed her over the edge. “Yes, as long as there’s no mind-blowing.”

Mary looked up at Laura. “That work for you? Something quick?”

Laura nodded, and her clothes vanished, leaving Sam the only one with anything on. Laura lifted the two of them easily and floated backwards so she could lie down on the bed. “Mary, you should be on the bottom and can start with me; I’ll take care of Sam, and then we can reverse for a quick round two.”

Mary shook her head. “No, I’m starting with Sam, as I don’t want to continue after I’ve picked up your Sex Goddess transformation. Sam explicitly asked for no mind-blowing.”

Laura considered Mary’s words and nodded, remembering the last time the two of them had gone at it as gods, and mind-blowing was an apt description of the experience.

Sam asked, “Would it be alright if Laura pumped up our arousal?”

Laura asked, “You really want it to be that quick?”

Sam gestured to the fact that she was in her full gear. “Literally everyone else is waiting for us in the courtyard.”

Laura sighed, “Okay, I guess we shouldn’t keep them waiting. Why were Talia and Sadie with you, though?”

Sam said, “Sadie came just to make sure you two were up and to make sure Mary returned to being a dragon. Talia came to make sure Mary would become a goddess to send the offer to Ellen.”

Mary and Laura gave each other a look, knowing that wasn’t happening, at least the message part. Laura started helping Sam out of her armor and pushed her onto her back. Laura then picked Mary up by the waist and flipped her upside down.

“Whoa! Head rush!” Mary exclaimed as her vision turned fuzzy for several seconds. Mary then looked at the considerable distance between her head and Sam’s waiting pussy. “Laura… I don’t know that this is going to work.”

Laura showed off her ability as an Amazonian Sex Goddess. She positioned her crotch just above Sam’s mouth and leaned forward slightly. When that didn’t get Mary close enough, Laura shrank herself down, keeping her proportions but knocking several inches off her size, putting Mary’s face right between Sam’s legs. “See, there we are.”

Mary braced herself on both arms and turned to look back at Laura. “Did you get smaller?”

Laura nodded. “Yeah, courtesy of my raiment. It has a mana cost to maintain, though, so this really will have to be a quickie.” Laura then cast Induced Arousal on all three of them a few times, getting all of them worked up.

None of them wasted any time as they began licking one another’s pussies. Things were extremely quick for Mary, as between her body actively adapting for the situation and her partner being a Sex Goddess, she didn’t stand a chance and came in less than a minute. Luckily, Laura had planned for that too and had made sure to cast Love Endures on all three of them as well. Sam didn’t last much longer as Mary’s tongue went deep inside her, as she was ecstatic to be smushed between parts of her hoard. Laura hadn’t mentioned it, but she had cast Delayed Gratification on herself, as she really didn’t think she would be satisfied with a couple of quickie orgasms. When she felt herself pull back from the brink thanks to the spell, Laura released her shrinking spell, growing back to her full height. She put Mary down and saw her grow a set of black horns and a black scaled tail. She saw Mary stare at her with pupils in predatory vertical slits, and felt the hunger in those eyes ready to devour prey.

Laura was going to need to teach these dragons that she wasn’t prey eventually, but decided against doing that right now. Instead, she decided to make things a bit easier on the two of them. Laura lay back and slowly grew in size. First a foot, then two, until she was a bit shorter than Mary and Sam put together. Laura pulled Sam on top of her. “I figure this way the two of you could just lie on top of me.”

Mary nor Sam objected, both quite happy to be on top of their hoard. Mary did find Laura’s new size intimidating, as Laura’s height wasn’t the only thing that had grown, so had her pussy. Mary had the strange thought that she could likely stick her head inside if she really tried, not that she really wanted to do that. The trio went at each other again, with very similar results. Laura did have to fight off Sam’s tail, which seemed to almost have a mind of its own as it wanted to wrap around Laura, whether it was her arm, shoulders, or even her throat. I’m going to need to talk with Sam about this. Especially considering Talia’s kinks. Not like I’ve never indulged in breath play, but this doesn’t seem intentional, which is a problem.

This time Sam was the first to climax, followed by Mary and finally Laura several times as she released her spell.

Mary and Sam both transformed into their dragon forms, shrank down to the size of cats, and curled up on Laura’s chest, each taking one boob as their personal mountain to rest atop.

Laura noticed both seemingly fall asleep on top of her as she shrank back down. “Hey, you two, don’t fall asleep.” That resulted in the ends of both Mary’s and Sam’s tails lightly pressing against Laura’s lips as if to shush her. Laura grabbed both tails and picked up both of the house-cat-sized dragons by them. The two dangled in the air above Laura’s head, grumpily. “Don’t you two even start giving me dirty looks. You were the ones to say we were in a hurry.” Laura dropped them both to her side on the bed. “Get dressed and let's get moving.”

Laura got up before they could try something again.

Both dragons growled their displeasure but reverted to their human forms and got dressed.

As they were walking out of the suite, Laura asked, “Sam, what’s the plan for breakfast? Tell me there will at least be coffee.”

Sam smirked in response, not answering the question, leaving her girlfriends hanging.

---

Despite Sam not answering Laura and then Mary’s repeated attempts to ensure there would, in fact, be coffee before they set off, they didn’t have to wait long to get an answer. Entering the courtyard, there was a large table and a feast laid out. A bunch of NPCs were milling about and toasting the assured victory of the Heroes of Cassandra. The team was congregated towards one end and given enough space that they could actually speak to one another without shouting. Allie, Brooke, and Talia came over to the trio, each with a plate of food and a steaming hot mug of coffee, just the way they liked it.

Brooke said, “That didn’t take long.” Brooke then looked Mary up and down. “You know, I sort of figured you’d look different as a Sex Goddess.”

Mary nearly coughed out her food and realized she hadn’t picked a transformation yet, and mentally picked one in a hurry. Her hair became silkier and shinier, and her eyes glowed for a moment.

Everyone was staring at her. Everyone was now wondering if maybe there was just a bit of time for all of them to go back to Mary’s room and have an orgy, if it meant having a chance to be with such an enchanting creature. Then it passed as Mary reined in her aura, which had spilled out as it gained new qualities as the dragon and goddess transformations interacted.

Sadie realized her hand was between her legs and came back slick, as she hurriedly took a cloth napkin and wiped her hand clean, hoping that no one had noticed what she was doing.

Unfortunately for her, she was the only one without supernatural senses, as even Talia had spent some of her built-up time basking in Mary’s aura, which also allowed her to notice Sadie’s mishap. No one mentioned Sadie’s actions, as while they hadn’t started masturbating on the spot, several of them had definitely been tempted to, and all of them wanted to take Mary back to her room for a good time. Sadie was extremely grateful for that and moved on. “So… Mary, did Sam tell you about the aura around the mountain?”

“Vaguely, I’ll have to feel this aura for myself. I don’t think it will be that big of a deal either way; it isn’t like we can’t use our breath weapons in human form.”

Sam nodded as she refilled Mary’s, Laura’s, and her mug of coffee. “It shouldn’t be too bad at camp, but it won’t be manageable further in. That also means we need to be on the lookout for Ellen as Talia. We can’t get big enough to stop the time bubbles from being useful.”

Laura said, “You can’t…”

Her comment got her several confused looks from people. Sam and Mary realized that Laura probably could become a giant and make the bubbles ineffective. Talia’s eyes were sparkling in adoration, and she was drooling as she quickly put together the pieces and then the implications of what Laura could do to her in the bedroom later.

Talia then said, “Mary, I have the offer for you to give Ellen.” Talia held out her hand across the table to give a folded piece of paper with the offer. “We have a consensus on this, and the resources.”

Mary took the paper but didn’t look at it. Instead, she slid the paper away back towards Talia. “Not doing it.”

Several people frowned. Allie said, “Yesterday you said you would. What changed?”

“Laura asked me not to,” Mary said plainly. She also held up a hand to stop Allie from going after Laura. “Trying to pressure her isn’t going to get me to change my mind about this either.”

Allie frowned. “So Laura gets a veto on this? Why?”

“Because Ellen is her girlfriend, and Lucia is her sister.”

Brooke said, “She’s my sister too; doesn’t that make my opinion hold weight?”

Mary asked, “Do you care about her even half as much as you care about Sam?” Brooke didn’t answer, so Mary said, “How about a tenth?”

Brooke thought about it. “Umm… probably about a tenth… I mean, that’s a really high bar.”

“Then no, it doesn’t,” Mary replied.

Talia pushed the offer back across the table to Mary. “You should make the offer. Refusing to do so disadvantages her as much as us.”

Mary looked back at Talia and was about to respond when Laura said, “Mary, just do it. I don’t want to do it myself either, but I will if you refuse, because I’m being a team player here.”

Mary picked up the paper, sighing. She tried to reach out and found Ellen sound asleep. “She’s asleep. I’ll try again in a bit. I’m not waking her for this.” Mary opened the piece of paper and then looked around the group. “Did you all really agree to this?” Mary handed the paper to Laura. Mary saw everyone but Laura nodding their heads.

Laura frowned, “I don’t like it, but it’s fine.” Laura handed the paper back to Mary.

Mary sighed, “Okay… I’ll try again in a bit.”

The group quickly finished their breakfast and headed towards the battlefront on Sam and Mary’s backs. It hadn’t moved closer from the previous evening. The empire was afraid to press forward when they were this close without the heroes. Sam and Mary passed into the range of Smug’s aura. Sam continued a bit further, not minding the pressure all that much, so she could land near the front of the empire forces instead of the back.

Mary, on the other hand, recoiled the second she crossed the boundary of the aura and pulled away from it. Sam noticed and stopped asking Mary, “What’s wrong? Is the aura a problem for some reason?”

Mary bobbed her head. “Yes, holy crap, yes. I'm setting down right here.” Mary didn’t wait to discuss the matter and simply flew straight towards the ground, and as soon as those on her back dismounted, she shifted to her human form. Sam followed suit and stood just inside the aura line.

Sam asked, “It’s really that bad for you? It’s sort of just a light pressure for me.”

Mary shivered. “It felt actively hostile towards me. Like a large pair of eyes were honing in on me, and whatever was watching me was preparing to devour me.”

Laura walked over to Mary and gave her a hug. Then said, “That makes sense to me.” Everyone but Talia gave her a strange look. Laura explained. “For a while now, Smug has left hints that she is less than pleased with you, Mary. She called you a thief and selfish. It also sounds like a part of her hoard has been taken, and she holds you partially responsible for that happening. Sam, on the other hand, has a standing invitation from Smug to join her in bed.”

Mary frowned as she didn’t have the memories of why Smug was upset with her, but reasoned Laura was likely right. She took a deep breath and said, “I guess we’re walking from here.”

Sadie snorted, “Absolutely not.” Sadie pulled out Bertha, and Isa let out Sif. The two weren’t quite capable of supporting everyone at once, but Sam didn’t mind flying along with them even if she was in her human form.

Mary still let out a yelp when she entered the aura around the mountain, causing everyone to stop again and Sadie to pull Bertha back outside the aura. Sadie looked behind her at Mary and asked, “What’s wrong? Don’t tell me the aura is still a problem.”

“It isn’t the same, thank god. It does feel like someone is watching me, though. Watching and glaring at me. It’s a little unnerving. I’ll be fine; it was just a surprise.”

With that, the group rode toward the opposite edge of the encampment until they found the command tent. The team noticed Mary seemed a little twitchy and that she kept looking over her shoulder for something that wasn’t there. Inside the tent, they found almost all the palace elites, several copies of Freya and Slevia as knight captains, and Arnelle. Sadie asked about the notable absence: “Where is Princess Ethel?”

One of the Freyas said, “She’s asleep; she spent most of the night along with several skilled priestesses cleansing the idol at your request. She is exhausted and needs rest. She’ll make her way here when she can.”

Sadie turned things over to Talia, and the next forty-five minutes became a long, drawn-out discussion about tactics most of the party didn’t care about. The important pieces of info Laura managed to glean from the conversation were that the Empire’s forces outnumbered the other team by at least three to one and as many as five to one. The unfortunate news is that the orcs were stronger on average than the Empire’s forces were. The fact that this was a siege also meant they were at a disadvantage tactically. At least they would be normally, Talia told the group, but Laura missed why they weren’t.

A long, boring conversation out of the way, Laura stood and prepared for her part in all of this. She, Sam, and Mary were going to be the primary door busters while hopefully eliminating a sizeable chunk of the orc forces to boot.

---

Merida woke up and found it nearly impossible to move. It wasn’t that she couldn’t move; it was just that moving would disturb Mark, and she really wanted to make him comfortable right now. He had wrapped his legs around one of hers fairly tightly, as well as both his arms, keeping her back right up against his chest.

After lying there awake for more than twenty minutes, Mira had had enough and materialized behind Mark. “Oi! Wake up, you mother fucking lazy piece of shit!” Mira started shaking Mark by the shoulder.

Mark sat up and pushed Mira down onto the bed. “Hey, keep it down. Seriously, I was trying to sleep.”

Mira rolled her eyes. “Yes, you dick for brains; I could see that. I was trying to get you to fucking let go of Merida because she’s been lying there for twenty minutes or more, just waiting for you to let go of her so she could get up.”

Mark blinked the sleep from his eyes and turned to Merida. “Sorry, but why didn’t you say anything?”

Merida bit her lip, not really wanting to explain, so Mira ratted her out. “Because she wants to be your gods damn pillow. Doing that would be disturbing your sleep, which she doesn’t want to do anymore. You turned her into your perfect little cuddle slut with that latest transformation you fucking bought for her.”

Mira disappeared in a puff of flames and smoke as Merida forcibly returned Mira to being one of her tails. Merida said, “Sorry aboot that, Mark. She wis juist gettin' a bit antsy and worried aboot the ither team launchin' an early mornin' attack while we're aw fast asleep.”

Mark looked at Merida skeptically. “Not if they were including Mary in the plan. No way. Plus, I could tell Mary had swapped out the dragon transformation yesterday. Today, however, she has it. So they spent at least some time this morning taking care of that.”

Merida asked, “Whit transformations dae ye hae richt noo?”

“Kitty’s, Hilde’s, and Chloe’s boons right now. Why?”

“In that case, ye sud probably gang fin' Aubrey and eat her oot tae copy her pink boon or her hair.”

“Assuming she’s up for it, okay,” Mark said. The two got up out of bed and got dressed. Just as they were leaving Mark’s room, the mountain shook.

---

Sam had tested her class-based breath weapon on the way to retrieving the idol the day before. Talia had certainly been correct that it was awesome and wasn’t as simple as her other two breath weapons. Calling it a fire breath didn’t do it justice. It bore a large cylindrical hole in the ground where she had aimed it. Talia and Laura had both immediately started cracking jokes, like: Samados used Hyperbeam; it was super effective. Luckily, she was able to swiftly end such jokes simply by turning her head around and letting her mouth crackle with electricity as if she were preparing a breath weapon to aim at her passengers.

They had decided to combine her breath weapon with Sadie’s ultimate ability, which, Sam thought, was kind of an oddball, of an ability. As long as Sadie was within several feet of specific targets and focusing on them, she could allow them to combine multiple abilities together. Unlike most of the level seventeen abilities, Sadie’s had no cooldown or limited uses, but it also didn’t do anything by itself. It also had no limit to the number of abilities they could combine, beyond it taking time and effort the more abilities any one person contributed to an attack or spell. They had considered including Laura’s meteor swarm as part of their door buster, but decided to save it for immediately after they blew a hole in the side of the mountain. The mice were already forming into circles to repeat their performance from the previous day.

They found a high outcrop to launch the attack from. Everyone but Brooke was going to be contributing to the attack in some way. Sam was the focal point, using all three of her breath weapons at once. Mary was going to add her breath weapon. Laura was dumping a bunch of mana into the attack to use the enchantments on her staff to increase the attack’s range and damage. Allie was adding her rage, hoping it would synergize with Sam’s dragon instincts. Talia was adding time bubbles to the attack, so it was more condensed. Isa was begrudgingly going to activate her shadow clone ability. It took a lot of convincing to get her to use it, as she wasn’t thrilled that she’d be fairly helpless for a while after using it, but she ultimately relented.

The team stood behind Sam, putting their hands on her shoulders or back as she lined up her shot. As the attack channeled into her, there was a slight, though positive, miscalculation on Talia’s part as her Anime Physics activated, making their combo attack far more effective than predicted. Shadow clones of Sam appeared, some in her human form and some in wolf-sized dragon forms. All of them launched the same attack as she did. Sam’s breath weapon had become a sticky, napalm-like substance from the combination of breath weapons fusing. They were nearly two thousand feet away, but the attack landed just about where they wanted it to.

Even at that distance, the ground shook from the explosive impact as rock and debris went flying from the dozen beams landing simultaneously.

The group was exhausted, which was where they found the true cost of Sadie’s ability, but after the dust cleared, they were certain it had been worth it. Despite blowing so many abilities all at once, they had all gained a massive amount of experience, indicating they had been very effective. There were also now a dozen different points of entry instead of the two that the Empire had discovered so far. The main one, with a large metal gate, no longer had a gate either.

Laura knew Talia had said this was important, but couldn’t be bothered with the why now. She just stood in awe at the utter destruction they had caused. They had reshaped a significant portion of the mountainside with that attack. The area that sustained damage was more focused than the lake Mary had dropped the bomb in, or the fort Laura had turned into a crater, but where there was damage, it was far more severe.

They checked their CP totals and were only slightly disappointed to find that they hadn’t gotten any of the other team. Laura was panting and said, “I… I’m going to need a bit before I can launch my meteor swarm… That took a lot out of me.”

Everyone was leaning on one another or just sat down on their asses. Several of the Empire’s forces circled up around them to help protect them from immediate retaliation while they recovered.

Mary went over to Laura and gestured for her to lift her up. Laura obliged, scooping Mary up in her arms. Mary kissed Laura, then pulled out a sorbet in a small bowl and started feeding it to Laura. After a few bites, Mary asked, “So which one tastes sweeter, the dessert or me?” Mary winked at Laura. While the sorbet had been refilling her resources, the pun Mary made completed the effect, and Laura suddenly felt much better. Mary gave Laura another kiss, and hopped out of her arms and over to the next person.

Laura was about to step into the center of the circle of mice when Talia said, “Laura, hold off. I expected a more explosive and less penetrative result. This is likely better, but it means we can save your meteor swarm. Besides, the debuff from it lasts a long time. If we don’t need you to use that spell, better that we don’t.”

Laura nodded and sat down next to her girlfriend, who had effectively become the strategist of the team. Sam had immediately sent the shadow copies of herself to cause as much damage as they could but wasn’t hopeful, and joined Laura on the ground. Sam said, “We should probably pull back and let the troops move in and then slip in during the confusion.”

Talia nodded, just trying to rest.

When the shadow clone ability expired and went on cooldown. Isa went down on all fours and started hounding Mary for attention. It was practically impossible to get anything meaningful done, so she sat down and pet her. What they hadn’t expected was for Sam to transform, growing rather large in size, and grab Brooke and Allie in her claws, bringing them next to Laura and then curling up on top of all three of them, while coiling her body around her hoard.

Allie said, “SAM! What are you doing? Get off of us!” Allie then looked to Mary and Sadie. “Would either of you please help us?”

Sadie said, “Hell no. Allie, this seems like Isa’s debuff. Sam is acting like a dragon. You’re all in her hoard, right?”

Brooke said, “Yeah.” Her response was partially muffled by Sam. “But so is Mary.”

Mary said, “Oh, I’m not in the pile because I’m her mate. Trust me, none of you would be happy if I were in the pile with you.”

Allie asked, “Why is that?”

“Sam would try to have sex with me if I were to join that pile. Don’t worry, she’ll be back to normal in a bit more than twenty-five minutes now.” Mary started brushing Isa’s hair.

Sadie decided to sit down next to Mary and wait, while Talia tried to decide if she wanted to intervene or try to join the others coiled in the dragon.

Mary figured she might as well try to contact Ellen again. She should be awake now.