Danny sighed, *They will love it.*
*Are you sure I can’t talk you into letting me add back in the giant relief of me on the side? I think it would really tie the whole piece together,* Cranny asked excitedly.
Danny smiled and ignored his remark, *Everyone is safely out of the way, so you can start whenever you want.*
Mana began to flow in and then out of Danny. His part of this was to act as the flow regulator. Keep the mana going from the existing trees to the new ones without killing the existing elven homes. Nothing ruins a wedding like draining the very life out of the wedding guests’ homes. Danny figured he would at least be obligated to return any wedding gifts.
There were seven seeds planted in a circle around the center of the clearing. As the mana flowed into them, they shot forth from the ground and began to rise in a spiral pattern. None of the trees touched each other as they climbed higher and higher, twisting like a tornado. As the trees grew higher, each tree grew in diameter. Soon, the trees merged, and only the spiral indentation where they touched showed proof of their multiplicity. The tallest tree in the forest, the palace, stood a couple dozen stories high, and Danny’s mega sacred tree easily dwarfed it.
From the sides of the tree in seemingly random directions and heights, balconies grew outward. Their appearance was made to look like shelf fungus growing out the side of a tree. Each of these was shaped on the inside like a half-bowl. The balconies would be filled with soil, which could be used to grow gardens. Danny regretted that he couldn’t add the soil or garden plants on the go. Cavities in the side of the tree turned into doorways for the balconies and windows for the rooms and hallways. The canopy of the new mega sacred tree expanded outward to reach the edges of the cleared area.
The last portion of the tree to develop was at the base of the tree. The gathered elves soon found the clearing ringed in a wall of crisscrossing limbs that grew a thick layer of multicolored sacred tree leaves. A stone pathway rose up out of the ground and wound its way up to a newly emerging double door entrance. The entryway was currently doorless, but those could be added later. A magnificent staircase reached down from the entrance to the stone pathway.
The gathered elves stood dumbstruck at the sheer magnitude of this new sacred tree. Then someone cried out as water began to fall from the top of the tree. The water seemed to fall naturally from one balcony to the next. The water would fall from some balconies like a large waterfall, while others would divert the water into multiple smaller falls. The air soon filled with the mist generated from the multitudinous falls.
Danny, now back to his old self, emerged from the doorless entryway and headed down to the waiting Elder Breeze and Princess Willow. The two elves were almost too busy staring transfixed at the tree to notice Danny’s approach. Willow recovered first, only to give Danny a similar look that she had given the new tree.
The elven crowd began to talk all at once, and the ever increasing noise seemed to shake Elder Breeze out of the trance he had fallen into. Raising his hands in the air, silence descended on those gathered, and Elder Breeze began, “Here beneath the greatest of our sacred trees, I call upon Gaea to share her blessings in the union of these two souls. Princess Willow of the elven people and Ascendant Danny Creek of Diadem. We all now bear witness to not only the union of these two individuals but to the union of our two races.”
Before Elder Breeze could finish the homily, something floated down, striking him in the face. The elder flinched and plucked the object off to see what it was. In his hand was a petal from the flower of a sacred tree. All those gathered glanced upward to see the sky filled with falling sacred tree petals.
The elves could only stare up in wonder at something never seen before. The flowers only lost their petals when a fruit was created. Elven children started running around, laughing, as they tried to catch as many petals as they could.
Elder Breeze looked over at Danny, to confirm that this was his doing.
Danny just smiled and shrugged, not sure if the elder was impressed or not. Looking back at Willow with a big smile, Danny said, “Happy birthday, Willow.” Danny was taken aback to find her just staring at him with smoldering eyes.
Clearing his throat, Elder Breeze gave up trying to control the merriment of the crowd and took out a long flat piece of wood made from a sacred tree. It was only three centimeters in width, and the elder had Danny and Willow press their arms together so that their left wrists touched.
Laying the long piece of wood across them, the Elder continued, “Through the blessing of the Goddess, I hereby join these two together as one.”
With this, the elder cast a spell, and the long stretch of wood wrapped itself around their two wrists. An intricate pattern appeared inlaid into the wood, and then, the wood brightened visibly before dividing in two.
As the crowd cheered, Danny lifted up his arm to look at the new accessory. The pattern on the band stopped at a flat portion where it had been connected with Willow’s.
Danny wondered if this was one of the most literally metaphorical ways to shackle two people together in marriage. Fortunately, it appeared that the bracelet could be easily removed.
*Danny, incoming!*
Danny barely looked up in time to catch Willow as she leaped into his arms and kissed him.
The crowd roared in approval, and music started playing.
Everything else seemed to fade into the background, as Danny kissed his new wife.
*Cranny, I got married!*
*And to a princess! One down, many many more to go.*
Danny could hear Cranny’s evil laugh echoing in his head.
Willow pulled away from him and led him over to their waiting families.
“Congratulations,” the queen managed to get out before subtly wiping an eye and trying her best to hold back a sob. Willow ran over to hug her mother.
Barrow moved over to get out of the two women’s way and to shake Danny’s hand, “Congratulations, Danny, and good job on the tree. Though, did you have to make it larger than the palace?” The general said the last with a laugh.
“Well, I actually designed it for you to use as a new palace. I don’t know how often we will be here, so I figured it best to build something practical. Plus, if you are going to be growing the capital out. That old palace just won’t do,” Danny admitted.
The queen suddenly grabbed Danny in a hug, and over his shoulder he heard her ask, “You mean that, Danny?”
Danny hugged her back as he said, “Of course, Your Majesty.”
The queen pulled away to look in his eyes, “Danny, you jokingly called me it before, but I would really prefer you call me ‘Mom’…well in private settings.” The queen smiled as she hugged him again.
Before he could get away, the general leaned in and whispered, as he gave Danny the smile only a father’s bride can give, “Don’t go disappearing again, Danny.”
Danny smiled awkwardly and just nodded before Willow pulled him away. Willow dragged him over to where Ivy, Brooke, and Jade were waiting. The three human girls made sure to hug the princess first. Ivy gave Danny a quick hug, while Brooke made sure to ruffle his hair, and Jade kissed him on the cheek.
***
After hearing congratulations from what must have been every elf living on the planet, tables with a feast waiting to be eaten, and chairs seemed to suddenly appear all around the new palace. The rest of the evening was filled with dancing, songs, and general merriment. People filed in and out of the new tree, marveling at its impressive size and complexity.
The queen ended the evening by thanking Danny for helping their people to grow the new palace and for leading her people in the destruction of the goblin threat. Then, wishing him and Willow a happy marriage, she sent the two into the newly grown palace, followed by the sound of the cheering crowd.
Servants led them to one of the larger bedrooms near the ground floor. Danny noted that guards were already posted at set intervals.
While Danny had learned h
ow the lights and heating bulbs were created, unfortunately he couldn’t recreate the same effect in his own nature form…yet.
What Danny hadn’t grown was a large four-post bed and other furnishings for this room. The elves must have snuck these in during the reception.
The bedroom door closed, and he and Willow were all alone in the room. The princess looked around, taking it all in, before turning to Danny.
Willow’s smile stretched from one ear to the other. She said, “Husband...I was wondering how long I was going to wait before getting to say that.”
Danny smiled at how happy the beautiful young elven woman looked, replying, “My apologies, my wife, I really didn’t mean to rush off and leave you behind. You now have my complete and undivided attention.”
Willow placed a slender finger to her lip, looking contemplative, and turned away from him, saying, “I do don’t I...the question is, how can I keep it that way?”
Before Danny could reply, the princess reached behind her back and the gown she was wearing slid slowly to the floor. As the material flowed off of her, Danny realized that she was not wearing anything underneath. A few more tugs and flowers spilled onto the floor as her long dark hair cascaded down to pool around her posterior.
Looking over her shoulder, Princess Willow smiled at Danny’s slack-jawed expression, “I’m suddenly very tired, but I really need a shower first. Would you mind giving me a hand?”
Danny’s eyes were glued to her royal backside, and he looked up as if just registering her words, “I...uh sure.”
Willow sauntered into the room’s adjoining bathroom as Danny could only stand there transfixed.
*Danny, get in there now and stop acting like this is the first princess you have seen naked!*
*But this is the first princess I hav...!*
*Just shut up already and go!*
Danny jolted out of his stupor and rushed through the bathroom door.
EPILOGUE
Dark mahogany panelling covered the walls and ceiling. The lighter wood flooring was only broken up by the numerous shelves that filled the room. Each shelf was crammed full of books, tomes, and various papers. The wood panelling on the walls had an interesting inlaid crystal design near the bottom that circled the room. The room had a soft lighting, except where there were places set aside to read.
In one far corner on a rug sat two wingback chairs. In one sat a studious looking teenager reading a rough looking little book filled with a neat handwritten scrawl. In the other chair sat a young man appearing to be in his late twenties. The young man seemed unable to take his eyes off the holoscreen floating between, and a little more than a meter away from, the two chairs.
The screen held the view from Danny’s physical body’s half-lidded eyes. The inhumanly beautiful face of Princess Willow, along with a bare shoulder and slender arm filled most of the screen. The rest of her body was hidden under the covers of the bed they lay in.
Wiping the drool from the side of his mouth, Cranny finally tore his eyes away from the screen to scowl at Danny, exclaiming, “How on…whatever this damn planet is called, can you be reading with a view like this in front of you?”
Danny put a finger down on the page to mark his spot, before replying, “I need a bit more information before we get back to Diadem, and I am not going to be able to do that staring at my wife.” Danny then returned to his reading.
Watching the holoscreen again, and without taking his eyes away, Cranny asked, “We going to take over the country?”
Danny’s eyes kept moving across the page as he replied, “Nope.”
Cranny glanced to the side, “We going to get back at Diadem for threatening us?”
“We are not that petty, Cranny,” Danny replied magnanimously, while continuing to read.
Cranny frowned, “Seriously then, we are not going to be doing anything there other than getting married?”
In a huff, Danny lowered the book he had been reading. The page he was on showed the Archdruid Wisteria’s notes on mana transference runes. Specifically, it showed those dealing with using obstinite. While the archdruid had not specifically said how she extracted mana out of the obstinite, Danny knew that there had to be a clue in her notes.
Danny studied the screen in front of them as he replied, “We are going to kill two birds with one stone. Nothing has really changed between the different races since the great cataclysm. In fact, it has only gotten worse. Then, there is how Diadem’s leaders have manipulated me for far too long. So, it’s time we do the manipulating. I have no doubt any attempt at subtlety will be out-maneuvered. So, instead of changing things with a scalpel, I propose we use a tactical nuke,” Danny explained with a small chuckle and a self-assured grin on his face.
Cranny jerked as he seemingly just realized Danny had been talking to him. Turning from where he had been enraptured in watching the holoscreen, Cranny asked, “Huh, what? Could you repeat that again? I was a little distract…”
The archdruid’s journal bounced off Cranny’s forehead with such force that he fell sideways, over the arm of his chair and onto the floor.
Arcane Transmogrification Page 33
