Finishing Unfinished Business...

It then grows wide as the male dragon looks into the female dragon's eyes.....

Fears fall away. Confusion falls away. Objections engendered by cultural upbringing melt away and vanish between the two dragons. Two sleeper's hearts awaken to each other...and join together. Names (real and pet) are spoken with love....

Neither knew or cared before now about "Eye meets Eye". All they know is the other, and the other is the only person and item they care about. The rest of the world does not matter to them.

They'd been in the process of falling for each other before, but now after being asleep for centuries their dragon nature (for that was what they were....despite the oddity of the circumstances) had kicked into overdrive to make up for lost time!

What they whisper and giggle to each other is enough to make the others pause long enough to not attack them. After a bit, the adventurers can't believe what they are hearing, but as the two large draconian lovebirds are wrapped up in each other, Jarlath and Andrea are able to magically confirm that these dragons are the "original" Fred and Thessamar ix'latl. Soon, they are able to piece together (through guess and spell) what has happened (as in what is revealed in episode 17293) and even able to....after a bit of effort....getting the love drunk dragons' attention.

Annafrid notes that besides looking a bit annoyed at the distraction, there is no panic in their eyes over finding themselves in the forms of dragons. Calm acceptance, even.

Probably has something to do with this "Eye meets Eye", she thinks to herself, Lord knows that with it dragons can survive even the destruction of their Hoard, as my husband told me....

Remembering that scream the dragonness had given off before, she may have soon cracked under the strain without "Eye meets Eye". The original Fred hadn't panicked upon awakening and finding himself a dragon....but that was he'd only found out after "Eye meets Eye."

Introductions are made and stories told. The original Fred and Thessamar ix'latl are aghast at what all has happened and how much time must have passed, but their concerns are more for their descendants. They can see that those who were named after them are still very much out of sorts and still distressed. The dragons feel that it would be small of them to not do what they can to aid their distant kin in their time of need!

Still talking, the conversation soon drifts to other subjects....

"Not to sound ungrateful....but I have to wonder about Minestus since....he still seems like he's still present, somehow," the elder Fred says, "I did wonder if effectively pulling the same trick with Minestus as with Moreau (at least, that's what it looks like so far) might seem a bit too good to be true, though."

Andrea had detected the lingering traces of poison in the dragonness's body and brain (where it had done damage) and had told them about it.

"Well, it's not quiet the same trick, really." Andrea explained, "Minestus is actually still around in there, just that the areas of the brain that Jarlath accidently lobotimized effectively made him a prisoner in his own body."

"He's now helpless and can not even watch through Fred's eyes as Fred controls his body," Jarlath says, "Can't even contact the outside worlds due to the damage done to him. He's awake....but powerless."

"Kind of thought it a fitting reversal of fortune...." Fred the dragon rumbles. "I and the other Fred were his prisoner in one form or another, and now he's our prisoner."

Fred the dragon was not thrilled at all of the crimes Minestus had committed with this body at all and was looking forward to seeing this Synizn fellow to get rid of this unwelcome passanger. He thanked the gods that the thing that his new family had spoke of that had almost happened with Trilling Blackfeather hadn't happened with him!

The blood curse that had transformed him and his love had worked in such a way (whatever way that was) in sparing him the experience of having to fight Minestus for his very own body (and a real chance of permanent insanity).

Almost as if he'd spoken aloud, Joan gasps when a dark possibility occurs to her.

"I just had a terrible thought," she says softly, "When....er..... Given that analogues on different Terras tend to have had similar pasts, could those evil Minestuses and Moreaus that our family and friends have killed on many Terras have once been noble Freds and Thessamars?"

That one makes all worry and wonder about that for a second or three until Astra laughs in relief and points out that the other dragons in other worlds didn't have a blood curse upon them like here (i.e. this is the first time this particular curse had been discovered....with Malachi 3's blood curse being only similar....not the same).

With them all relieved, they then shift to one last point of business. How to get their new friends to Nantucket Earth. It would seem simple enough with the Key getting them back to Terra Prime and then back to Nantucket Earth by Dr. Vincent's teleporter device, but there are weight limitations that prevents two full grown wyrms in dragon form from making the trip.

"A couple of other things which I was wondering about," Jarlath murmurs, looking up at the dragons, "First, would Fred the Dragon (already have a brother called Dragon Fred) and Dragon Thessamar (for want of better names) be able to shift into human form, or would that ability ironically have been tied to the Minestus and Moreau personalities and so not be available? Or would they be able to do it but perhaps have to learn the skill anew? If so, would the human forms be the same as those Minestus and Moreau used (and hence presumably more or less identical to their original human forms)?"

Blinking, the dragons try to will themselves into dragon form, with mixed results. Fred the Dragon's efforts are uneffective due to the one area of damage to the brain controls that ability. While Minestus was now neutralized, neither he nor the body's original owner could return to human form for the moment. However, he's able to make his body shrink down to a managable size so that worked out well enough. Dragon Thessamar, however, finds that she is able to adopt a human form that....does not look to be her original form. Moreau had contemplated adopting a human form that would have been Thessamer ix'latl's form, but opted for a more sultry, buxomy form. That of a tall, blond woman of lyrical beauty.....lovely but deadly. Not thrilled with this new look, Dragon Thessamer muttered at least it wasn't as heavy as her dragon form.

After returning to Nantucket Earth and giving back the phasors to the still somewhat out of sorts Star Trekkers, they all make contact with Synizn and fix the problems that the Fred the Dragon and Dragon Thessamer. Having accepted being dragons, they wished to remain dragons. Bowing to those wishes, Synizn suggested shifting their dragon forms somewhat to something that wasn't that of despised enemies.

"Tiamat's blood," he adds, swearing, "Just takes one mistake in identity by visiting folk from Terra Prime and we'd have a fine mess! Who needs a fight and bloodshed due to mistaken identity!"

He then gave Minsestus the boot with the Crystallic (i.e. removed Minestus' spirit from Fred the Dragon's body before starting on the next part.

Having decided that they'd been away from things for too long to be able to even begin to pick up where they'd left off, the other dragons agreed. Synizn did them one further favor and youthened them a bit to that of dragons of the physical age of early twenties. Doing so made the demand for a Hoard much less than what they'd have as wyrms. The new dragons then made arrangements on setting up in the new Dragon Nation of Nantucket Earth, figuring on making a new life for themselves here.

As for Fred and Thessamer (the humans), after talking to Velus they learned that indeed the Great Kingdom was still a going concern and only something in the order of 50 years had passed since their abduction. Minestus had fed them youth potions to keep them in their prime (i.e. humans in their seventies weren't useful to him). Still would be a great task at adjusting, but not hopeless.

They all travelled to the capital city of the Great Kingdom, and caused quiet the ruckus with their claims. The King and Queen, upon learning of the return of old relatives (and getting it verified by their court mages), welcomed them back home with open arms.

Jarlath and friends slipped out of the picture while the partying commenced, happy with the results...which were as good as could be given the circumstances.

Back on Nantucket Earth....

Jarlath's group and the remaining members of the group rescued from the Red Pyramid are having a meal together, discussing who gets helped next.

The next one who'd be helped was Belinda, who'd been speaking with Joan 2 while the others had been about.

She had told her story which mirrors that found in episodes:12144, 12177, 12390, and 12479. She, a daughter of a minor noble Allarian house rumored to have been descended from an obscure group of warrior women, had been riding Silver hear the latest news about the still missing Dragon Slayer (a business that she'd only heard of in passing after recently returning with her uncle on a diplomatic mission and wanted to learn more).

After speaking with Joan 2 she'd learned that this very Dragonslayer was none other than Joan! They'd found their respective tales within books from the Red Pyramid and the coordinates of the world that Belinda was from and the one that Joan were from were the same.

So in addition to getting Belinda back home (watching out for those silver eyed men who were servants of the now defunct Book of the Red Pyramid), there still was that Dragon...and Belboz....

Telling this to the others, Joan smiles a slow....broad smile....

And the neat thing was that when the Rules brought my sister and the others Champions duplicated by the Book had garnered one boon in compensation for coming back into the Championhood status. Joan thought to herself, Nice that my sister had given it to me for this one visit back home.....

1. "Nothing like unfinished business....." she says, remembering.

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