Once we arrived back at the cave Dyani was quick to start to organize the people in the village, setting them to work to prepare for their departure from their lifelong prison. It was slow going at first as people were slow to move due to the shock of their rapidly changing circumstances. Not only had they just found out that their tormentor was dead, had strangers in their village for the first time in memory, but now they were leaving for the now near-mythical surface world! It was safe to say that the adults were feeling a tad off-kilter. The kids, not so much. They were running to and fro with a kind of energy only found in the very young, to them this was something magical. They watched me and Takoda with wide yellow eyes and would scatter in a cloud of excited giggles whenever one of us would look at them.
It was tooth-rotting cute.
I seriously think I might be developing diabetes.
Takoda took the attention in stride, and would even transform into various animal forms to entertain them every now and again, getting them out from underfoot and letting their harried parents go about their business. Bear-Back rides were very popular and they had gaped in awe when he had transformed into a Pronghorn, a form I'd not seen him use until then. I'd been further surprised by the children transforming into their own deer-like forms in response. That, I had not seen coming. A quick inquiry directed at Dyani had revealed that they were able to take three distinct forms, the hybrid form they habitually wore, a fully human looking one, save for their eyes still being strange, and an animal one.
I'd noted that Takoda had looked very interested in that piece of information and he had asked Dyani if she was willing to part with a few strands of hair. The deer woman had looked mildly surprised but had agreed easily enough, and had allowed Takoda to remove a lock of her hair. I made another note to keep a close eye on the big Indian in the days to come. I really wanted to know what he was planning to do with those hairs.
My task was to create a series of portkey's that lead to the entrance cave. I'd decided to gather everyone there before moving them to the surface. The cave was near a non-magical quarry, after all, the less time we spent wandering around the surface the less time anyone had of getting into trouble. That took me all of five minutes to accomplish. I'd just created five chain circles of stone big enough for five of them to hold comfortably. Once they were ready they would just have to group up and take hold and say the trigger word, which was "Exodus", because it was appropriate.
The second task was arranging for transport. That was a bit more time-consuming. I had to go to the surface for that and find a boulder the right size and then transport it to the cave. That had taken a good hour, and it was only after I was done that I realized that I could just as easily have taken several smaller boulders and fuse them to achieve the same result. I sent a silent thank you to any deity who might be listening that I'd been alone. That was so embarrassing! I quickly resolved to pretend it hadn't happened and set about creating my transport.
I did so by first using a bit of transfiguration, well, a lot of transfiguration really, to shape the rock into a vague tube shape with an angled front and rear. I then started to cut out deep and wide angular groves in a specific pattern across the body of the tube. The next part was to hollow the whole thing out which was more time consuming then I'd initially expected. I couldn't just vanish stuff, because that would vanish the whole thing since it was a solid block of stone, so I had to cut things out the old fashion way, with magic. The interior was sectioned off into two parts, the smaller part that would become the cockpit and a large one that would be for transporting the village. The hold was left plain and empty, they wouldn't be in here for that long anyway, the cockpit though, that got a more thorough treatment. A pair of nice leather chairs, which would fit both me and Takoda, since he was to be my guide. Lastly, I punched out the front to make a window.
I left it open for the moment, as I turned and sealed the doorway to the hold before floating out the open window and moving around to the back. Once there I summoned several of the discarded pieces of stone that were leftover from hollowing out my new ship and fused them to form a door before sealing myself inside the hold. A snap of my fingers filled the space with my starlight spell, giving me some light and then I pulled out my wand. My skill at wandless casting was still not good enough for large castings like this so I had to use a wand.
I raised my wand in front of me and concentrated before starting to chant "Esse Maior! Esse Maior! Esse Maior! Esse Maior! Esse Maior! Esse Maior!"
At every intonation, a burst of light would exit my wand and fly into one of the walls and then into the floor and the ceiling and once done I flicked my wand once and commanded, "Capitulum Quintum!"
I never got tired of the next part, there was something to seeing the walls and ceiling suddenly just fly away from you. It's unreal, fantastical and utterly mind-bending. I loved it. This was magic, true magic. There was nothing in science that could even compare. Unless you were a Time Lord, of course. I stopped for a moment. Holy Crap! I hadn't checked if Doctor Who was a thing in this universe. It should have started production not too long ago. Oh my God, I could see all those lost episodes, I could save them!
I laughed softly to myself and looked around the now much bigger space, big enough to easily hold the whole village with room to spare. I was standing inside a rudimentary TARDIS. This was just so... I just had to laugh at myself a bit before I moved towards the hangar door and exiting it. I moved around and into the cockpit again and made a simple slide-door leading into the hold before creating a windshield completing the ship.
I exited the ship and admired my work. It was a labor of nerd. My own little Puddle Jumper.
I smiled, feeling pleased with myself before getting to work again. I still needed to get this thing airborne. Fortunately, I had just the thing.
---
Things were still not ready once I returned to the deer woman prison cave, so I decided to explore around and take some samples of the glowing flora and whatever else I might come across. It was kinda impressive, for all that they had been trapped down here they had managed to eke out a living down here. They had converted adjourning caves into farming areas for growing crops in the form of mushrooms and some kind of root fruit that was red but tasted a bit like carrots. The kept snakes, large snakes, for meat, and they got fish from the lake.
It was... impressive. I don't know what kind of strength it would take to persevere in the face of what they must have suffered through, and they still created this. I think under the circumstances like what they had suffered through most would just have laid down and died. And I wouldn't have blamed them.
Well, it was over now. And I'd do what I could to make sure that they got a good start in this new reality. I just hope Takoda will come through in his end. If not, I'm not sure what I could do. I did have money now, but not enough to settle over fifty people in any form of comfort. I looked down at the frantic activity below, as everyone scrambled to get their things together. More and more of them were gathering by the central structure now, with their arms full of things, waiting for transport to the surface. I figured that was my cue and popped over and let out a loud whistle to get their attention.
"Alright, those of you that are ready to head on up, group up, ten to each group and then take one of these chains!" I called out while holding up one of the chains in question. "These chains will allow anyone that holds them to travel to the entrance to this cave. Once you are there you need only to wait for the rest of your people to get done, and then me and Takoda will help you out of the cave and to a transport that I have prepared!" As I called that out the gathered group tried to rush me all at once forcing me to take to the air. "Hey! None of that, I have enough chains for everyone, group up!"
There were some disgruntled mutterings and some milling about but as they organized themselves into the configuration that I had ordained. Once that was done I floated over and deposited one chain per group, of which there were two at the moment. "Now, everyone grabs hold of the chain with one hand, yes, like that. Now you there." I said and pointed to a random deer woman. "Say "Exodus", would you kindly."
"Exodus." The deer woman said hesitantly and the group disappeared with a soft pop of displaced air. The others, now seeing how it was done, mimicked it and disappeared as well.
It ended up taking another hour or so for the rest to get themselves together and transported up to the entrance cave but finally, it was just me, Takoda and Dyani left in the now-empty cave. Dyani was standing a bit apart from us, looking around herself slowly, as if committing this place to memory.
"My prison forever, I had thought." She said at length before turning towards us. "Only pain, death for me."
"You are free now, the beast is dead!" Takoda proclaimed loudly.
Dyani smiled softly, "Is thankful. Only wish she had killed it herself."
"As is proper."
"You ready to go?" I asked.
Dyani bobbed her head, "Yes."
"Alright, you two, grab hold of my shoulders and we are off."
Moments later we were standing in the entrance gave alongside the rest of the village, well, me and Takoda were standing, Dyani was getting reacquainted with her breakfast.
"Is evil..." She croaked hoarsely.
I chuckled quietly, which was still loud enough to get me glared at by an irate Dyani. I gave her an irreverent smile, "You are not the first to have made that determination."
She grunted but didn't say anything, choosing instead to join our fellows. After that we set about getting them out of the cave, which was a fairly simple affair, I simply reduced their weight into the inverse, which caused them to float off the floor, after that they just had to navigate up to the entrance where Takoda waited to dispell the effect before they floated off into the wide blue yonder. After that, we just herded them into my newly created transport.
"A strange-looking thing, I do not see how this thing can carry us hence," Takoda stated.
"Your lack of imagination is hardly my fault." I shot back before walking off towards the cockpit with Takoda following. "I hope you know the way to this place of yours."
"Of course," Takoda said, affronted.
"Mmm, good." I took my seat in the pilot's chair and gestured Takoda to sit down beside me, which he did somewhat cautiously. I laid my hands on the non-functional controllers and suppressed a smile as I heard Takoda gasp as the Jumper lifted off smoothly straight up in the air. "Now, which direction.
"Ah." Takoda looked at me, befuddled, for a moment before he shook himself. "Northwest, our destination is Montana."
"Montana..." I searched my memory of the American states. "That's along the border to Canada, right?"
"Yes."
"Alright, let's go."
And we were off.