Green Canyon Magic - Ch.19 - Getting Serious (Patreon)

Our second meeting with the government actually went pretty well, after the president put her foot down. Neither Stef or I were terribly surprised to see Minister Pierer back down when Schulz told him off. Apparently he was more interested in keeping his job than continuing whatever little power trip he was on.

Meanwhile Theo and Hannes seemed to make some actual progress with their negotiations. Susanne even got involved in the talks a few times, making suggestions or pointing out potential problems when they arose.

The talks finally wrapped up late in the afternoon, but before the government folks packed up and left on horseback Ms. Schulz made a point of introducing those last two humans our wildcat friend said he liked.

Rene Theyer was the guide who'd led all three expeditions into our territory. He was a little wary of my friends and I, but seemed like a decent enough person the way he looked after the horses. And we already knew he was brave, after watching him risk his life to save one of the scientists during that first visit.

The other guy who'd spent all his time with the animals was Private Gernot Meinl. And unlike most of the other humans, he didn't act nervous around my friends and I. In fact he came across as shy but curious, and kept stealing glances at Stef's and my ears and tails. Or maybe it wasn't curiosity so much as envy. I had a feeling if Gernot got a good drink of that changed water it wouldn't be long before he was sprouting his own furry appendages.

The three of us had one final surprise just before the government people headed back to Retz. Before getting on her horse, President Schulz approached us one last time.

"This is my personal contact information," Susanne said as she held out a fancy-looking business card. "My direct phone line and email address. I doubt I'll have the opportunity to participate in future talks, but if things get bogged down again I'd like to hear about it."

My eyebrows shot up while my tails all twitched as I found myself wondering how many people actually got that sort of access to the president herself.

Meanwhile Stef's ears and tail were all standing up tall as she accepted the card, "Thank you ma'am. It was a pleasure to meet you today."

I briefly thought about mentioning that we didn't actually have any way to call or email her, but decided it was probably best to keep that to ourselves. Even if she was trustworthy some of the others weren't, and I was positive they'd find some way to use it to their advantage if they knew we were cut off from civilization out here.

So instead of revealing any secrets I just told her, "I hope you have a good trip back to Vienna, Madam President."

Ms. Schulz smiled, "I'm sure I will. It was interesting meeting with the three of you as well. Goodbye Stef, Stella, and Theo."

With that she returned to the others and mounted her horse, then the lot of them set off back the way they came. Like last time we watched until they were well out of sight, then continued monitoring them as we returned to our comfy cave home.

"I can't believe we got a direct line to the president," Stef commented during our walk home.

I smiled, "Considering we were both minimum wage nobodies not that long ago, I'd say we've done pretty well for ourselves."

My enbyfriend smiled, "We sure have my little star."

After all that excitement we spent the rest of the day relaxing, then after dinner we sat outside and watched the sun set. Eventually the stars came out, and the lake was calm enough we could see them reflected in its surface. Along with the strange colourful lights surrounding our impossible mountain.

Stef and I joked a bit about whether we'd finally get to Hardegg tomorrow, or if something else would come up to distract us. Behind the humour though we were both thinking about our other friends again, and how we missed talking with them.

And as we finally turned in for the night Stef and I talked a bit more about that idea we had, of perhaps inviting some of those friends to come and live with us out here on our land, surrounded by nature.

Those thoughts were still on my mind when I woke up the following morning, but it turned out none of us were in the mood to deal with more humans again right away. So once more we postponed our plans for a hike back to civilization, and decided to have a nice lazy relaxing day instead.

That decision was especially easy when we figured out it was Saturday. So not only had we all worked hard the day before, but now it was in fact the weekend and we deserved to take a break.

We had a late lazy breakfast, then enjoyed a brisk swim in our quiet little lagoon. The water was still a pleasant temperature, but the air was getting cooler as it seemed like autumn had finally arrived. Which meant we probably wouldn't be enjoying regular dips in the lake for too much longer, unfortunately.

After the swim we did find enough energy for a little hike around our territory, then followed that up with a quiet lazy afternoon. At one point Stef and I talked a bit more about reaching out to our friends online, and maybe checking our email or phone messages. And we both agreed that tomorrow we would absolutely positively make the trip out to Hardegg, so we could find some public wifi and get caught up on everything. Or if not tomorrow then Monday for sure. Probably. Assuming nothing else came up in the meantime.

Eventually the sun made its way down towards the horizon and our thoughts turned towards food, so the three of us headed back inside our comfy cave home to see about making dinner. Stef and I started getting things ready while Theo used his magic to get a little fire going in our oven, but just as we were about to begin cooking our meal we were startled by an overly-cheerful voice in our living-room.

"Knock knock!" our boss announced as she let herself in. "Sorry to drop in unexpected, but I've come bearing gifts!"

"Hello Gaia," Stef responded as they led Theo and I out of the kitchen and into our living-room.

We found Mother Earth standing just inside our door, and sure enough there was a large unfamiliar object on the floor next to her.

The sanded and polished hardwood frame was about seventy-five centimeters long, half a meter wide, and half a meter high. Positioned within that frame was what appeared to be a large vaguely egg-shaped opaque white crystal. Its surface seemed to be etched with a fine lattice of copper-like metal, which converged to a pair of terminals at either end. Those terminals were connected to thick cotton-wrapped wires, which disappeared inside a small ceramic enclosure at one side of the contraption. And on the front of that were four standard power outlets, the kind you'd find on the wall of any home in Vienna.

My eyebrows shot up and my tails started wagging as I asked, "Is that some sort of generator?!"

I was already coming up with ideas for how we could use it, the first of which involved getting our hands on a pump. Then I could form an underground channel to the lake, so water naturally flowed into a small reservoir under our home. There it would be pumped up a vertical channel, to fill the larger reservoir I made further up the mountain. Then we'd finally have a consistent supply of fresh running water.

"Some sort, yes!" Gaia nodded enthusiastically. Then she dug into the green canvas bag at her hip and pulled out three identical smartphones.

"I'm sure you can guess what these are too," she smiled as she handed one to Stef and another to me. She placed Theo's on our little stone coffee table for now.

"Wow thanks!" Stef smiled as she accepted the gift. "How do they work?"

"Do we need to charge them up first? And um, how do we turn them on?" I added as I carefully inspected mine.

Externally it looked exactly like any modern top of the line smartphone, except there was no trace of any plastic at all visible in its construction. The screen looked and felt like glass, while the rest of it felt like some kind of smooth black ceramic. The most notable detail was the complete lack of buttons and ports.

"According to my R&D team the phones should function like you're used to," Gaia replied. "In fact you should be able to transfer everything from your old phones to the new ones? Just touch them together while you activate the new one, and it'll do the rest. And both the phones and the generator run on magic. You just need to charge them up."

"How does that work?" Stef asked.

I added, "And wait, you have an R&D team?"

The planet's avatar nodded, "Of course! They're a badger, a beaver, and a bee. They're all very smart."

"Bettany the badger knows all about geology, although her speciality is crystals," she continued. "And Berthold the beaver is a genius when it comes to industrial fabrication and assembly techniques. Then there's Beatrice the bee, who's a whiz when it comes to advanced technology. Both hardware and software."

Gaia frowned slightly as she added, "I believe the team also consulted with a number of birds. They said something about bringing in experts on electromagnetic fields and transmission."

My enbyfriend and I exchanged a quiet look, and it seemed like they were thinking the same thing as me. Neither of us could tell if our boss was serious, or if she was just having a bit of fun talking about her 'research team'.

Meanwhile Theo didn't seem the least bit interested in his phone, but he did move closer to the generator so he could inspect it. He wandered around it while carefully sniffing at the wood and ceramics, then the big egg-shaped crystal inside.

"Anyways you're probably wondering how to charge this stuff up?" Gaia asked with a smile. "The answer is simple. Just use your magic. Focus on your phones, and you'll know what I mean."

I frowned at the dark glass and ceramic rectangle in my hand, but a moment later I realized my stone sense seemed to work just fine on it. And in the very middle of the device I could sense something that felt even more rocky or stoney than anything else. Somehow I knew that's where my magic should go.

"Oh wow!" Stef gasped. Their eyes looked wide and their ears were standing up tall while their tail swished, "It's like there's a tiny bubble of air inside! I can feel it, like that's where I should direct my magic."

"So Stef's phone reacts to air magic, mine responds to earth magic, and I guess Theo's will respond to fire magic?" I asked. "What about the big generator, who's magic does it react to?"

Mother Earth smiled and shook her head, "It feels like it's responding to your specific form of magic magic, but in truth they all run on exactly the same type of crystal, which responds to any form of magic."

My enbyfriend nodded slowly as they thought that through. Then they asked, "How does it work exactly? And does it have a name?"

"My team calls the crystal a Modestone," Gaia replied. "I believe that's meant to be a contraction of 'magical lodestone'."

She grimaced slightly as she added, "There was actually quite the heated debate about what to name it. Berthold wanted to call it a 'Shipstone' because it vaguely resembles something from a sci-fi novel he once read? But Beatrice and Bettany both argued against that. And eventually the three settled on Modestone, so that's what we're calling it."

"As for how it works," she frowned, "Bettany claims it's very simple, and maybe it is when you're as knowledgable on the subject as her? The short answer is it's a practical application of the thaumo-electric effect, used to directly convert magic into electricity."

Stef and I exchanged another glance then they clarified, "Actually I wasn't asking how the technology worked. I meant in practical terms, like how do we use it? Does it only function when we're putting magic into it?"

"Ah," our boss smiled again. "No, just pour some magic in and you'll sense when it's full. The crystal acts as a reservoir, while the conversion to electricity will only happen as required. The team say you should be able to go a day or two between top-ups, for normal use."

Then she admitted, "Although that may be speculation, since these are among the first batch to be produced. Ultimately I'll be providing all my staff around the world with these things, but for now I'm giving priority to groups like you, who don't have access to anything else."

I asked, "So to activate the phone we just put magic in it? But you said we should touch them to our old phones first, so they transfer the data over?"

"Yes and yes," Gaia nodded. "If you want to do that right now I'll..."

Her voice suddenly trailed off as if she was distracted. Then a second later her expression shifted. In fact her entire demeanour changed, and it almost felt like the temperature in our home just dropped a few degrees.

From her expression it seemed like she was angry, but trying to hold it back. In fact her anger was so obvious that my ears folded back while my tails ended up between my legs. Stef and Theo obviously noticed it too, their tails both puffed up in alarm.

"I'm sorry Theo, Stella, Stef," our boss stated in an ice cold tone. "Something's just come up and I have to go right now."

With that she vanished, leaving the three of us to speculate on what just happened.

Then Stef smiled as they looked at their new phone, "Actually we don't have to guess! Let's get these things set up, then maybe we can get online? We'll finally be able to check the news, and see what's happening in the world!"

"And talk to our friends too!" I grinned.

Theo didn't really understand our enthusiasm, but then he hadn't grown up with the internet and smartphones and tablets. So he just quietly made himself comfortable on Stef's lap after the two of us sat down together on the sofa with our old and new phones.

Everything worked exactly like Gaia said. Just holding the phones together and pushing magic into the new one was enough to wake it up. The data transfer happened instantly, and in less than a minute we were both online.

"Look at that," I pointed to the top corner of my screen. "Five bars, a hundred percent signal, even though we're underground."

Stef nodded, "Not surprising considering our new carrier. Do you suppose she called it EarthNet because it transmits through the ground?"

That left me frowning as I focused on my stone sense for a few moments. Then I shrugged, "If it does, I can't feel it. Maybe it uses all the elements? Or maybe it's just magic?"

"Maybe," they nodded.

We were both quiet for the next few minutes as we focused on our screens, any thought of dinner temporarily forgotten. After being offline for so long there was a lot to catch up on, especially considering how many world-changing events had happened over the last couple weeks. It didn't take us long to find out about the most recent such event, which also explained Gaia's sudden anger and why she had to leave in a hurry.

"Holy shit," Stef mumbled.

"Yeah," I half-whispered as I stared at the news. "This just got really serious."

According to breaking news alerts, the US Army attacked the impossible mountains in Kentucky and Arizona with a bunch of really big guns. And Mother Earth retaliated by dropping four new magic mountains on the USA. Only this time her mountains didn't appear in remote wilderness areas.

Instead our boss targeted four American cities, including Washington DC.

** This chapter is brought to you courtesy of Lucy who commissioned it! **