Chapter 248 Day Four with the Kids

It was almost mid-morning before Aella was done building the walls around the baby gargoyles to her satisfaction. The gargoyles and demonesses had been watching from their perch above, as the last of the roots emerged and she made the last final tweaks to the wall.

"This looks great," said Hunter, flying down once she was done. "I wasn't sure how the others would react when I explained it to them, but they are all super excited at the thought of other gargoyles for them to interact with. Being so isolated has really been hard on all of us."

"I understand," nodded Aella to him, preparing to leave. She hated that it was so late. She was worried how the kids were doing with the lions.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we will take very good care of all of them," he grinned, looking around at the tiny forms as they moved in their sleep.

Aella nodded in relief and teleported to Amra's cave. He was lounging at the entrance, watching something down below.

"Where are the kids?" asked Aella, walking out of the cave to join him on the ledge.

"They've been having a great time with the lizard people," Amra said, glancing at her before returning his gaze to down below.

Aella looked down to see the kids riding around on a giant snake in the lake. Her heart stopped when she saw they looked like they were covered in blood. Teleporting down next to them, as the snake swam past, she saw that they were all indeed covered in blood. It just wasn't theirs.

"Hi, Aella!" cried Sarah happily, as they zipped by. She no longer had wings, but that was just a passing observation as Aella looked around to see what had lost so much blood.

On the shore, the lizard people had gathered to butcher another snake, the same size as the one the kids were riding. She quickly flew over to see what was going on, since the kids seemed to be alright for the moment.

"Why are the kids covered in blood?" asked Aella before the leader of the lizards could speak a fancy greeting.

The leader grinned and said, "They are excellent hunters! We were going to take them hunting for little things for breakfast, as we would take our children. But birds and squirrels would not sate their hunger. They insisted they needed more, so we went in search of fish. These snakes have bothered us for a while, but with the lion's help, we have managed to keep them away from here. With the kids help, we killed this one, and they are keeping that one occupied until we can get to it."

Aella looked at how the head of the snake seemed to have exploded outwards, and wondered what exactly the kids had done to kill it. Remembering the dinosaur that had tried to eat Donovan, she was afraid to ask.

A loud splash from the lake drew her attention, and she saw the snake was barreling down towards them. The lizards shouted in alarm and scattered, but the moment it hit the ground, Merle cast a spell. The kids landed with laughs on the shore, while the snake, landed in a neatly butchered pile, its skin was folded neatly, and the meat was cut in easy to manage chunks.

"Such magic!" exclaimed the leader in excitement, as the other lizards rushed over to start moving the meat and the hide.

"I left the bones and organs over there, in case you wanted to use them for anything," grinned Merle happily.

"Aella! Did you see the giant snake we were riding?" asked Donovan, rushing over to her, still covered in blood. It had dried in places and was starting to flake off, but he seemed oblivious.

"Donovan!" cried Sarah, standing up and brushing the sand off of her pants. "We need to get cleaned up before we can eat!"

"Oh, Aella won't mind a little blood," complained Donovan, turning towards Sarah. "Mom said she's killed lots of people."

"That doesn't mean she wants snake blood all over her," argued Merle heading over to the water with Sarah.

"She's got magic to remove blood, I'm sure of it," pouted Donovan, moving back towards the water.

Aella just stood there without saying a word. She couldn't decide if she had been complimented or not.

The smell of smoke, and the crackle of a fire drew her attention away from the kids as they used magic to clean the blood from their bodies and clothes. The lizards were cooking the huge chunks of snake meat over the fire and chatting amiably with each other about what a blessing this was.

"Our young are about to hatch, so this will provide a good amount of meat for them to eat!" grinned the leader of the lizards.

"Are you not going to share some of it with the lions?" asked Sarah, walking up to join them.

"No, the lions don't like to eat snakes or lizards," said the leader, shaking her head. "We don't question their tastes, because we appreciate the help they give us when we fish."

"That's alright," said Donovan, sitting down on a log with a smug look. "The lions didn't help us catch the snakes, so we don't have to share with them, anyway."

"Donovan, you know that if those snakes had managed to bite one of the lions we may not have been able to save them. That venom was pretty powerful," said Merle, sitting next to him.

"Wait, what?" asked Aella, glancing back at the carcasses. She could see where the venom sacks had been, now that she was looking for them.

"Yeah, but that wasn't the scary part," said Sarah, sitting down too. "The scary part was when the second snake snuck up on us. I didn't see it until it was too late!"

"I'm just glad it swallowed us whole," said Merle. I had plenty of time to blow up its head before it could swallow, but if it had bitten us before it swallowed, I would have had to take the time to heal before I could cast the spell, and that's exhausting."

Aella could feel her eye twitching as she listened to them recount their adventure that morning. It was clear none of the lizards could understand them, as they calmly continued cooking.

"I'm glad we don't have to eat squirrel," said Sarah. "They were awfully cute!"

"Big, too," added Donovan. "We don't have squirrels that big in our home realm."

"It's probably because there are so many good things for them to eat here. I bet if we did eat one, the meat would be really good tasting," said Merle.

"Should we catch one for a pet?" asked Sarah, glancing over at the stand of trees near the water.

Aella glanced towards the trees, hoping not to see a squirrel the size of one of the lions, after the turtle and the otters in the ocean by her trade town, but she didn't see anything.

"No, they're really wild. The lizards use them to teach their kids how to hunt. They would probably be annoying to catch without hurting. Unless we use magic?" said Donovan, glancing over at Merle.

"No, if I can't catch one without magic, I don't want to catch one at all. They are super cute, but mom probably won't let us have another pet," sighed Sarah.

"I bet I could catch one without magic,��� said Donovan thoughtfully, glancing back at the trees.

"Mom may not let us have one, but I know Dad won't. He's a stickler for things from certain realms having to stay there. Unless we can get Joe to agree?" said Merle rubbing his chin.

"No! We are not going to bother him! The last time we did that, a war almost broke out, remember?" asked Sarah. "Besides, he can't come to this realm. It's not stable enough just yet to handle the power of Dad or Joe."

"You're right," sighed Donovan, turning away from the trees.

Aella gave a slow sigh of relief and started to think. She didn't have anything left that was pressing, so she could focus on watching the kids herself, but what to do with them? She didn't dare take them anywhere near the other towns or cities. With the trouble and adventures they had already had, there was no way she was going to take them anywhere near a civilized area to get into more trouble, but where was left?

The lizards handed out the meat to everyone, as it finished cooking, and for a short while, there was no more talk of what all they had been doing just that morning as they ate.

"Thank you for watching the children for me, while I was busy," said Aella, as the kids finished eating. "I must go for now. Good luck with your hatching."

"Thank you," grinned the lizard nearest her. She didn't see the leader, as she gathered the kids together, then waved at Amra, who still watched from above, and teleported them away.

"Where are we?" asked Sarah, looking around.

"In my house," said Aella, looking around. She could redecorate with the kids, until their mother came to get them tomorrow. If she survived that long.