Jim's noble head smiled to Abby, as did his romantic head. With Sandra defeated and back in her human form, things would become peaceful again in the area where the two of them had come on their hike for. The only difference was that the two of them were now massive dragon/hydra hybrids. Jim's scientific head looked to the mouth of what had been Sandra's cave, and noted that the opening, which was about twenty feet tall only came up to his and Abby's shoulders. Their heads and necks stretched even higher.
"We will need a place to stay though," Abby spoke, "as we're a bit big to go back to that hotel we booked."
"Just a smidgen," said Jim's carefree head with a laugh.
"What about Sandra's cave?" came a soft voice which surprised them for a moment before Amethyst appeared again in front of Jim's noble head. He blinked surprise and reared back.
"Sorry," Amethyst spoke.
"I thought you and Mara left?" Abby's angry head questioned, sounding a bit irritated, but then that was her angry head.
"We did... but I came back," Amethyst spoke, "to say thank you. Sandra... she really had things in a mess around here. And she had every right to be upset and frustrated at first.
"That doesn't excuse her grabbing me and holding me prisoner to make me a sex slave," said Jim's furious head with narrow eyes, "nor does it excuse her attacking Abby after she quite generously gave her an option for a new family and a new start... to get better."
Amethyst nodded with rather sad eyes, "Of course. Nothing can really justify what she did with the vials... becoming a dragon, wanting to hunt Junn and Bechana... deciding to abuse the powers she gained. She really did eat people while she was a dragon."
"I gathered that," Jim's scientific head commented while Abby's intelligent head nodded, "all her talk of seeing things as beneath her. It betrayed a great deal of frustration and anger... and I don't know about Abby's... but when I changed... I felt a great rush of power. It felt good to grow and grow more powerful. She had to have let those feelings go to her head."
"I felt the same rush, too," Abby's ambitious head spoke, "and becoming this powerful creature was a great rush."
"But Jim and I won't do what Sandra did," Abby's central head spoke, "we'll be together and we'll do what we can to protect you and the griffons, if you need our help."
"As Sandra created quite the reputation in the nearby town," Jim's noble head commented, "it'll take time for us to change get the humans there not to fear us thanks to what Sandra did as "the dragon in the mountain" as they called her."
"Why not use her cave?" Amethyst asked, "If you stay here with the griffons and Mara and me as neighbors, you'll need a place to stay and be sheltered."
"We're a bit big for Sandra's cave, in case you didn't notice," spoke Abby's surly head, showing disinterest in the fairy.
Amethyst nodded, vanished in a flash of light, Jim's feral head blinking at another flash coming from inside the cave before Amethyst returned holding one of the size vials, particularly one to shrink them.
"If if you two decide to remain as dragons," Amethyst began.
"We're actually hybrids of a dragon and hydra," Abby's intelligent head corrected, "thanks to all we had to do to either make sure Sandra honored her deal... and then obviously to defeat her when it became painfully obvious that she wouldn't."
Amethyst nodded, "Even if you remain as you are... I can give you a bit of the shrink vial. You'll shrink down until you fit in the cave and you can make it your home."
"Shrink?!" Abby's ambitious head gasped, "but we'd lose the power we've gained!"
"Yeah," Abby's angry head growled, "I don't want to be weak... or a doormat."
"You won't be," Amethyst assured the slate gray dragon/hydra, "you'll be smaller than you are now, but you'll still be the biggest beasts in the area."
"We may need to, anyway," Abby's intelligent head commented calmly, "Sandra made mention that she had conflicts with the military and that they tried to kill her her."
"She won those," Abby's angry head argued.
"Yes," Jim's scientific head spoke up, "but it was only the cannon rounds that actually hit her. She burned their missiles to keep them from hitting her. It'd stand to reason that the explosive power of an air to air missile might be enough to do us real harm, and at our present sizes, we could be a very conspicuous target."
"Ah... let their jets come," Jim's cocky head countered, "we won't go after them, but if they pick a fight, we can take 'em!"
"If your conscious, but what about when you sleep?" Amethyst asked, "even Sandra slept."
"I wouldn't want to get carpet bombed by a B1 while we sleep," Abby's central head spoke to her other heads.
Amethyst floated quietly on her own wings while the dragon/hydras debated among themselves. She liked Jim's determined love to be their for Abby and the love that he had for her, and in a way his blue scales were pretty. However, she did find the multi-headed and perhaps multi-personalities the dragon/hydras to be a bit confusing. It made her glad that she and Mara only had ONE head. Eventually they did reach an agreement.
"Okay," Jim said to her once they worked things through, "We'll take some of the size vial... just enough so that we fit inside the cave, but letting us stay big enough to deal with anything that might threaten the area."
"Okay," Amethyst smiled and used her magic to remove the cork on the vial and gave some to Jim and then fluttered over to Abby to give some to her.
The affects were quick, and both Jim and Abby soon felt themselves shrinking down in size. There was some feeling of a loss of power, but their draconic and hydra features didn't diminished. Abby kept her wings, tail, and seven heads. Jim kept his wings, tail, and eight heads. They both watched as the ceiling of the opening to Sandra's cave went from around their shoulder's height, to just below their heads, and then finally to just above their heads. When the shrinking stopped, Jim was still nineteen feet three inches tall while Abby was nineteen feet two inches tall. They would still tower over most everything, but would be able to move into what would be THEIR cave.
"Now to make this cave our home," Abby smiled to Jim.
"Or get to the fun stuff," said Abby's lustful head as she eyed Jim.
"Wouldn't you prefer a kind gesture?" Jim's romantic head asked.
"You actually did that when you came to help," Abby told him, "when you made it clear that I was the one you loved."
Abby then reached out with one of her wings to actually hug Jim with it. It was an odd sensation, in the sense of hugging him with a limb that wasn't an arm, but she was getting used to it and simply being close to Jim felt good. She didn't care if she stayed a "monster" for the rest of her life, so long as Jim was with her. As they began to move into the cave, they found Amethyst sitting on the box inside the cave.
"Thank you," Abby said to Amethyst, "we couldn't have operated the vials without you..." She paused to look down at her massive forelegs and the clawed "hands" that she had. They were more paw-like than hand-like. "We probably still couldn't..."
"It's okay," Amethyst giggled, "anyway... as I said before, I must thank you for helping deal with Sandra. She was angry and frustrated, and part of me feels guilty for it..."
"You didn't cast a spell to make her angry?" Jim's understanding head asked, "did you?"
"No," Amethyst said firmly, "her anger is at the loss of her son... or rather the perceived loss of her son."
Jim and Abby both watched as Amethyst sighed.
"She used to own a farm and had a son named John," Amethyst spoke. Technically Sandra had also had a daughter named Amy, but when Amy's fairy magic finally completed her transformation after taking the fairy vial, brought on by her use of magic, Amy became Amethyst and figured that she had always been a fairy. "He was a nice boy... and made friends with Mara and me."
"What happened to him?" Jim asked.
"Prior to Sandra's transformation into a dragon, John owned the box of vials," Amethyst explained, "and in the course of playing with Mara and me he met Bechana... the griffon. They made friends, really close friends, and soon Bechana had fallen in love with him and did everything together. In time, John came to love Bechana too. One day, while playing with Mara and me... we asked Bechana what she wanted. She wished that she and John could be together forever... it was off hand, and she wasn't necessarily wanting to transform him, but the wish was made and activated my magic..."
"Junn..." Jim spoke, "John is Junn... the male griffon."
"And he does enjoy being a griffon, and he loves Bechana," Amethyst nodded, "I tried to tell Sandra that her son was fine and happy and would speak to her... but she could never hear me, because she was a grownup..."
"And after all that Sandra did as a dragon," Jim's understanding head said slowly, "trying to kill and eat the griffons..."
Abby shed a tear at that. The whole battle had been, for Junn a fight between mother and son. For her and Jim, Sandra was just some stranger who couldn't keep her own promises. For Junn, Sandra was family. It was why Bechana was the only one who spoke to Sandra. Junn didn't.
"She burned every bridge between them," Amethyst gave a heavy sigh, "Literally."
"I don't think she knew... Sandra, I mean," Jim's understanding head, "what she did as a dragon is inexcusable, but she was rather lonely. She did talk of lost children. On wanting company... and that's understandable. I mean... I don't know what I'd do without Abby."
Abby and Amethyst both looked down.
"Do you think there might be a way to let her know that John is okay?" Jim's understanding head asked, "Sandra's reputation might make it difficult for Abby and I... but could you maybe write a message to let her know that John is alive and well?"
"Write?" Amethyst asked, "As in on pen and paper?"
"Yes," Jim's understanding head, "just write a message on someone's stationary and leave the note where Sandra will be sure to find it..."
"You aren't seriously wanting to help her, after all that she did?!" Abby's angry head growled.
"Letting her know that her son is not only alive but okay and happy might prevent her from raising an army of hunters to come after us or the griffons," Jim's understanding head argued.
"The more we have to fight," Jim's romantic head commented, "the less we can spend together."
"I'm for it!" Abby's lust filled head commented.
"Where do you think she'll go?" Abby's central head asked.
"Once she was human and Bechana blocked her from getting to the vials... she fled," Jim spoke, "Hopefully she'd head back to the town. They might hold her for public nudity... but then if she claims she was a victim of the dragon..."
"Which may happen," Jim's furious head grumbled.
"She's no threat to us now," Jim's cocky head, "We have the vials and can keep them from her."
"All the more reason to be merciful," Jim's noble head commented, "She may have been an enemy, but since we didn't have to kill her to beat her... there is no reason to go further... none that wouldn't leave us open to the same corruption that Sandra fell victim to."
Abby and Jim's other heads eventually nodded.
"I'll try... and I'll talk Mara into helping," Amethyst promised, "but it may take a while to find where she goes to..."
With that, Amethyst vanished in a flash of light leaving Jim and Abby alone in their cave.
"And now... house... err... cave cleaning," Abby sighed looking at the mess that Sandra had left behind.