My cats take me to the next world book 3 by D.A. Sanford - HTML preview

Sorting it out

The news of the pair’s treason could not be held secret. The total disappearance of Joax and the mental breakdown of Trion was the source of rumors through out the dragon community. Adding insult to injury was the new arrangement of pairing a dragon with a goblin in the spying on the couriers and the king’s tower being manned by a combination of other species.

Dragons are a prideful lot. Arrogant to a fault. This treachery of the two hurt their pride and exposed their attitudes like a deep cut that has had salt rubbed into it numerous timed. They did not like it.

They were the heroes of the battle of Everetts demise. They were the ones to avenge those neglected orphans. They took control of the world. How dare someone feel that they need to be watched. The only problem was that their own king was the one that ordered this integration. But the king is different.

No one but the king and the Watcher knew what he had seen. No one but the two knew what a integral part that the originals play. All they know is that their nose is being rubbed in those two’s shit. For now they had to endure this insult. That did not stop them from grumbling.

It finally reached its peak when King Draco overheard two dragons berating a canid for just being smaller than them.

That was enough to get him extremely mad. He takes the two to the Watcher.

“I need you to enlighten these two as to why we need them to pair up with the other species. Can you take us to an area where Joax cannot see us but we can see him?”

In a blink of an eye, there are four people in that desolate world.

“This is the world the Watcher showed me when I thought of giving up the crown. If I had done that, this is the world six months from that date.”

The Watcher now tells them,

“This world is still here because of your arrogance. No one cooperated and the world wide war broke out. Everyone is gone, the whole world is dead. There is nothing left alive. Even the soil is dead. I will now tell you that you two must now make up for the two traitors. You two are going to be tasked to prevent this from happening but your names will be forgotten in time. You cannot do this for the glory of being in history. You must do it because it is the right thing to do. If you do not take up this burden, this will happen. I will not let that come about. I will choose two more.”

She points to a lunatic roaming around. They see that Joax has gouged out his own eyes as to not see what he brought about.

“He has gouged out his eyes several times now but they will grow back. He will never return to even a resemblance of sanity. This is his punishment for his betrayal. This will be your burden now. Know this and remember, I will not allow the Clan of Martin to perish. I have told the king exactly what I will do but he is forbidden to tell anyone”

With that, we were back and the Watcher was nowhere to be seen.

“You will not tell anyone what you have just been shown.” Draco tells them. “You will start the movement by going back to that canid and work with him. Showing others that we can change. We must change that future and forcefully shape it into the opposite.”

With a revised attitude, they go and find that canid.

“Back to knock me down again a few more pegs? Don’t bother. I’ll leave you to bask in your self-inflated glow.”

With that he starts to walk away.

“We beg you to hear us out. Would you please stay?”

The canid stops but he is suspicious.

“I’m willing to hear you out but the slightest hint of sarcasm, I leave.”

“First of all, we are sorry for our blatant display of stupid arrogance. Once we considered the bigger picture, it was obvious to us that we were just showing how ignorant we actually are. Can we start over? Can we change the world together?”

He is stunned. Never would he have ever thought that a dragon would swallow its pride and ask some other species to forgive them.

“I can tell that you mean it. Yes, I would like to work with you.”

With a relieved look on their faces, they offer their hands and shake.

The three start to do everything together. They soon start to include others. That was because they started to act like a club. It was an attraction that they did not even realize would have happened. The three started to trust each other. With the trust, friendship developed.

Friends can have their differences. Friends can have squabbles but true friends will stay.

The fascinating fact is that once the friendships develop, it seems that differences are exploited but in a good way. A goblin can get into areas that a dragon can’t. Felids can sneak up better than canids but canids can pick up scents better.

King Draco now has groups from other dragon clans rotated to his tower to see what benefits are the results of cooperation. He now starts each new one, that rotates in, with a fantasy story about being the key factor between a peaceful world or a dead planet with only one dragon left behind to forever regret his decision to not change. Each new one would believe that they were the one he was predicting to be the one on that burnt planet.

It was brought home when they would see some of the teams from the Clan of Martin.

They worked in perfect harmony. Each member is able to operate by themselves but when they join with a partner, they will become a single entity.

They would have it explained to them that because of their cooperation, regardless of species, the Clan of Martin teams have never lost a single member in combat. Only through marriage or retirement.

Once the dragons see the benefits of team work, they are given the speech that Beez gave five young boys so many years ago.

It is stupid to racially judge. It is humble to sincerely apologize. It is courage to ask someone for help. It is intelligence to say I am lacking teach me.

That always hits home for the dragons. They see that the goblin village is so advanced that they are always in demand to build, repair or any other task. They have advanced their species so much that they are no longer looked upon as inferiors, they are just people.

Most of the dragons on the tower realize that they have just sat back in arrogance and has stagnated as a species.

The whole manor and tower experience changes them. With that change, it is now being reported that everywhere, species are disappearing and people are replacing them. They still are dragons, felids, and other species but now they are equals.

Now each time the king sees the Watcher she just smiles.

Martha’s mission.

Sophia is the apple of her mom’s eyes. That does not diminish her love of her other two children, Justine and Tracy. Sophia was her first child. She was cast out by her father and left to die. The children found her but she captured Martha’s heart. She also put Martha’s foot on what would prove her true destined path.

Seeing the environment she never had with her birth parents, when she joined the children’s army, she was asked by king Draco what she wanted to be. A defender or a healer was the choice she was presented with. It was at that moment when she made a lifetime choice. She took the healer sash.

She has grown up learning justice from her brothers and sisters. But she learned that there are a quite a few races that do not have very much respect for life, other than their own, like her birth father

The manor is constantly receiving reports of the bodies of even infants that are being found. The orphanage is getting more but unfortunately not all. She is seeing her mother Martha deal happily with a somewhat of a stream of couples that are not capable, for biological reasons, of having children that come to the manor to beg for a child or children.

It is watching the smile on their faces when they hold their adopted child for the first time. For most, it does not even need to be an infant. Any child is a delight.. She also sees the disappointment when the Beall orphanage is empty.

Sophia knows that there are other locations that may have a child the needs that turned away couple.

Before the current disappointed couple is getting ready to leave, she has a brilliant idea.

“Mama, could you have a dragon runner go to the other manors and get a list of the children in their orphanages that are available? Have a list, from each, of the age and other physical descriptions written down then combine them together. That way you could have a book for these people to look at. You could approve them and have them go to that mansion and see that child.”

Martha and the couple are amazed. Something that is logical and right in your face is usually something that you overlook. They all hug Sophia.

“Can you come back in a few days?” Martha asks

They say yes and leave with hope rather than disappointment.

Martha takes her daughter’s hand and they go to the King’s tower. She explains what she wants from the other manors. The dragon in charge thinks it is a wonderful idea, especially since one of the Beall children that were adopted into the Clan of the Dragon is now his daughter.

By the next day, Martha had the individual lists and with the help of her goblin women volunteers, those lists are now in a formal book with two empty spaces for the prospective parents names.

Now each manor has copies of the same book. They update it to show new arrivals that are now well and ready to go home. This is now a weekly routine. The individual lists are condensed and each manor get a single list of both arrivals and adoptions. This is still called the Sophia system.

When Martha’s twin daughters, Justine and Tracy, came of age, it was an option that once the children get to the three to four old range, they can join the children’s army.

They don’t have to but it always is, to them a rite of passage, to wear the armor and sash. Justine and Tracy are healers.

Unlike a lot of the children that, when they reach the age of eight change to defender, the two girls stay like their older sister, healers. They see what their mother and sister are doing. They know the story of Sophia and feel that their great fortune of having Sophia as a loving sister should be shared, they eventually lose their interest in the army and join their mother and sister in the cause.

The Watcher and Martha are great friends. Both Rae and the Watcher help. It is not uncommon for the Watcher to pop out when a couple is delighted to find a child but are having feelings of trepidation that the child may be already taken.

Most of the times she will return with the good news for them. Sometime, it is good news but not what they want to hear, the child is adopted but she will point out a child that she feels that would be a better fit. Watchers intuition.

Again, it is the young girls that see the path that is needed to be taken.

Martha and Rae are looking at a three girl meeting off to the side. When they are done, they let Tracy be the one to voice their idea. The two mothers could see that they put a lot of thought into it by the way all three are fidgeting. Tracy starts.

“We need to figure a way to have those families that have too many children and are thinking of disposing of some to be paired with those couples that want them.”

Then Justine adds,

“We also need something that will stop them from having too many babies.”

Now Martha and Rae are thinking. They know that it cannot be a paid transaction for the birth parents. If it was, then they would produce more to get more money. It would have to be a penalty for disposing of children. There would also be a fee for the adoption.

Modest of course but a way of weeding out those who needed free workers rather than children.

Now they saw the Watcher come forward. The children always know. She talks with Martha and both are smiling. The Watcher comes over to each and gives them a gift.

The gift of compassion.

The gift of compassion is just that, compassion. The difference is that they now can think together and come up with complete working solutions to a problem where there is a need for compassion for both adults and especially children. Those poor helpless ones.

After the realization sinks in, they talk with each other then ask is mama Christine could come in here. The Watcher goes and in a few moments Christine comes in. She has been given a briefing by Martha on what they have been discussing and that the sisters have been given a Watcher gift.

Now she listens as Sophia explains the idea.

“We need your network’s help. We are trying to stop the discarding of children. We need to keep track of those women that continually are pregnant. They are the most likely to abandon those excess or unproductive children. Your healers see most of the pregnant women. Would it be possible for your network to keep track of the pregnancies in their area?”

Christine sees where this is going.

“Yes, it can be done but for what purpose? If it is for penalizing them, they will stop coming.”

“No, the only penalty would be the discarding of those babies. We would ask that there be education on the need of fruitless couples that want to adopt. Give them an option on giving them away rather than leaving them to die.”

Christine thinks about it as Tracy adds.

“It must be a terrible burden on the woman’s conscience to know that so many of her babies were left, most of the time, to die a horrible death. Our sister was just one that almost died.”

Sophia says,

“If the Watcher did not guide me here, I would not be alive now. Think about it. If you had no say in it, how would you feel knowing that a child that your carried, gave birth to and started to nurture, was taken by your husband and thrown away like so much garbage.”

“He wouldn’t wake up in the morning. He would have his throat slit.”

You could tell that it hit home. She was thinking about her twins, Harold and Marsha.

“I’ll send the word out. My system will track those who are pregnant but not coming to us. We need to educate them on methods of birth control. My two are perfecting a procedure on female animals. They are now removing the ovaries. They say that they now can do it in a day visit for humans. Only small cuts under their sleeping gas, a few stiches and some soreness the next day. The husband may not notice but it is a better alternative.”

With that the system was born. It took a while but most of the woman who were constantly pregnant opted for the operation. There were husbands that got off on making babies that found out about the operation and tried to divorce the wife. Our husband and the king made it a law, throughout the world, that a husband divorcing his wife after she stopped having his children, was granted that divorce but he left the marriage with only the clothes on his back. The wife got everything and the chief of that village was given the power to arrest a husband trying to take something from the estate.

The practice of disposing of children, over time, became viewed, as it should, a barbaric and heinous crime that was to be reported. Now it is no longer up to the husband.

Wives have banded together and will give up the extras. To know that they live, eases their guilt, somewhat.

Those three sisters go on to champion the rights of the downtrodden to have compassion shown. Those sisters put themselves out of business with their system.

They now started to turn their compassion toward the elderly.

Christine’s miracles

It happened just as she was told when it was announced that Hilda and Missy were pregnant. The Watcher told Christine that when they gave birth, she would become pregnant with twins. Sure enough, she followed the directions of the Watcher and when the two ladies were due, she stopped taking the potion. Almost to the day, they delivered and Christine started to feel the effects of morning sickness.

Without the need for the test, the Watcher came to her and told her that she had the two that would advance medicine beyond their understanding. Then she told her that these children will remember their past life on a different planet than the one that Justin came from. They would not have the personalities that the other world people had, they will just have the advanced medical memories that will, when needed, come to them.

The Watcher has told each that they have been given the gift of innovation. They have.

Christine has been ordered to keep that portion to herself and take it to the grave. Do not even let her children know. They will think it is their ideas. They will use the magic and technology from this world.

Know this, as Beez has shown, there are people out there that will lend their magical talents selflessly to help people.

The twins have been born the first is Harold Martin and the second is Marsha Martin.

Both beautiful. Justin has always looked at each new born as they are the most precious baby that he has seen. As with all the children that are born the Watcher and the Matriarch both bless each. In the early days it was Martha but now it is Gabor.

It was told that all the children would be important to the future but Christine is convinced that her babies are the best. She still values all the children as her own and that does not change. The other birth mothers show the same, their birth children are special. Outwardly they try not to show that favoritism but when alone with them, they are the center of that mother’s universe. Christine now knows exactly what that look is.

By the time her two reached the age of the late teens. They had perfected many new treatments. Their most acclaimed treatment is the cesarian for breach or mothers in trouble. Before the mortality rate was close to one hundred percent now that they had taught other healers to do it and the need for sterilization of their instruments, their operating field and themselves to kill the germs the rate is now reverse. Almost everyone survives.

There is other advances by them that have improved the medical field but with all their talent they will never conquer time. Famous or infamous, time was foretold as the killer of the Clan of Martin. Even the Watcher told them that her host’s body would succumb to time but the ethereal would pass to another clan member at the time of her host’s death.

They are starting to take care of the harem wives

Of late, she has found that time has grabbed hold of her. She has deliberately shut down the time element of her skills. Beez especially has asked them not to tell Justin.

After she told Harold and Marsha, she told her harem sisters that her body was failing.

They could see it.

The two prodigies did not let that stop them from trying to help her. They found a way to ease her joint pains, give her more days of normal energy. There was no way of bringing back her speed and grace.

The summer camp demonstration was canceled by her earlier. This was her first sign.

She approached the campers to shred their clothes. With her daggers out and ready, she stopped and dropped the daggers. Her sudden actions caused all the harem to come rushing over at the sight of the army of comforters gathering their mama into their hug.

The harem asked those campers to go back to the lodge area. Then a crying Beez told them, while being stroked by the children, she suddenly knew that if she did not stop, something very bad was going to happen.

That was the last time she received a message from her tomorrow self. That was the day that she shut down the time element and passed the dagger shredding to her daughter Zazu, oldest of the second pregnancy.

Zazu Martin had surpassed her mother in the dagger dance, so it was natural that she was the one. Her skills were amazing. She even has joined with her Amazon sister Hilda, the second daughter of Hilda the first. They both, to the amazement and some trepidation of their mothers, revived the high low twin terrors. If you did not know, you would swear that they were the originals. The five men can attest to that.

Christine, like Beez, is feeling time. Both of her children have heard of the way she finally took care of the sick religion and that she was called their saint. One day, their mother sat with them and told them that the saint was tired and was stepping down, retiring. The watcher had passed the area high heal to Marsha. It’s a female thing according to the Watcher.

Right now only the dragon kin Sorra and Martha are still in their prime due to their long lifespan. They told their sisters that it was natural for them. They would continue to guide what now is the third generation. Great grandchildren.

The aunts had passed. It must have been some attraction, some draw to them but Beez was now tending the daisy’s, Christine was the iris, Hilda was the violets and Rae the roses. The children’s army was doing what their previous generations had done. They took care and protected their g’ma’s with the same dedication that their parents did. It was not uncommon to have their g’ma’s reach out and grab as many as they could into hugs. Sometimes wandering off with an army trailing them to see something that their g’ma’s wanted to show them. The four walked a little slower and a little bent over, not to accommodate the children but bowing to the effects of their two mortal enemies, time and gravity.

Seeing what was going on Harold and Marsha were angry with themselves. They should be able to figure this out. They started to do almost desperate research. Angry with themselves that they could not come up with anything. It wasn’t until they were taken into a white room and shown what would happen if they broke through the barrier of death.

The Watcher showed them a world where people got old, their bodies wore out to the point that they were in mobile beds that responded to their thoughts. It was a world where the old were existing. Their minds were trapped in a body that no longer worked.

You could constantly see the beds speed towards a wall, a cliff and other things that should result in death but the built in controls stopped that.

The last thing that stopped them from trying anything more was the sight of eight beds trying to crash into each other. The desperate look on their faces and the anguish that was on the faces of a human man, a felid woman, a goblin woman, a human woman, a

Amazon woman, a dragon newt, a human woman and a dragon woman. They all were looking at the two mouthing, please let us die.

Seeing their parents like that made them realize that there needs to be an end to everything. An end of time’s choosing. It was then that they turned their elder research in the direction of comfort. They turned to their sisters Sophia, Justine and Tracy for their wisdom. With that, they were able to come up with ways to ease pain. Give a little more energy so they can still do somethings for themselves.

Life is meant to be lived and meant to end.