It took more than three days of flying through what was now known as Slate's Tunnel before the warship Raptor 556 finally made it to the edge of dragon space.
Now that Slate's Tunnel was a safe zone, more and more ships began traversing it, back and forth, which meant it got safer and safer as more traffic began to build up.
That also meant a couple of traffic jams out there in space.
Once they reached the edge of dragon space, it didn't take long for the Princes to get in contact with Duke Erden's forces.
They met up with one of Duke Erden's Draken Claw warships which led them to the Raptor 650 that Erden and Mother Gwen were currently on.
Mother Gwen was standing within the hangar waiting for them when the three Princes debarked.
"Mother Gwen!" The three Princes called out as they saw her beautiful familiar face.
"Gentlemen! What brings you to this far-flung place, as if I didn't know." She laughed and hugged each of her boys.
"We're here to see our wife. How is she?"
"You can ask her yourself. She is currently with the Twins on Avalia, seeing the sights and living it up."
"Ahhh, the lucky twins." Lucas sighed with envy.
"Why don't you join them? I'm sure they would be happy to see you." She suggested.
Byron grinned. "She would be happy. I'm not so sure about Jason and Jared."
Mother Gwen laughed. "I won't pretend to know how the seven of you deal with Candace because my mind still cannot wrap itself around how seven men can claim one wife."
Her eyes grew tragic. "I saw how badly it can end up when there is one man for five women, but Candace is not the Emperor. Perhaps the eight of you will have a better time of it all."
"So far so good." Lucas grinned, nudging Leo, who gave a brave smile.
She nodded. "If you all can make it work, I'm more than happy to see you succeed. Candace is an amazing woman, although I don't even need to tell you that."
"She's our whole world." Byron murmured, almost to himself.
==========
The woman who was Byron's 'whole world' was currently jouncing and bouncing around the Avalian semi-arid desert on a lompii, what looked to her Earthly human eyes to be a cross between a camel and an ostrich.
All around them were soft golden dunes of fine particle sand with a few scrub brushes that stuck out like pariahs in the stark monotone greige desert landscape.
"Ahhh. I need a softer cushion than this!" She moaned as she slowed the lompii down. "She bounces far too much!"
Jason and Jared both laughed.
"Lompiis only have two legs, so they bounce a bit when they run around, but out here, it's the best way to get to see the native lands."
"Yes. Tell me again, what exactly are we out here to see?"
Jared twisted his mouth into a funny shape.
"I wanted to see the color combinations of the greyish-green trees in conjunction with the silvery golden sands."
"Don't forget the little red road-runner looking birds." Candace laughed.
"Yes! We can add to the greige colors, deep cherry streaks of red. Those birds ran by us so fast I barely even caught sight of what it looked like!" Jared mused.
"I'm particularly interested in this sand." Jason pointed to the dunes around them.
"What's so special about sand dunes? They're just dunes." Candace looked around at the unending landscape.
Above them was a deep azure blue sky and around them were swell after swell of the sandy hills with surfaces that shifted and meandered with each gust of desert wind.
Jason hopped off his lompii and reached out with his finger.
"Take a look, but don't look directly at the hot spot." He shot a beam of energy from his index finger into the sand.
Candace winced and looked away as the spot where he pointed at turned into molten glass.
For a moment, nothing happened other than the glass pooling into a small flat disc. As it cooled, however, it began to solidify into a radiant silvery gold object.
Jason levitated it into the air and began spinning it around.
"Take a look. This is beautiful metal glass that is normally used for starship windows and other such structures that require unbreakable glass."
Candace pursed her lips. "So what's the difference between this glass and what we see on all the transport pods and starships?"
"The difference is color." He stopped the spin and brought it closer to Candace. "Don't worry. I rapidly cooled it so it's touchable. See the colors?"
Candace nodded. It looked like the jagged spirals of a molten sun.
"That is beautiful." Her eyes glowed with appreciation. "Are you going to make jewelry out of that?"
He nodded. "The world of Avalia is one of a handful of places that I've seen with the crust combination of silica and metals that make this sort of natural coloration."
"We can add them of course, during the normal process of making metal glass for shipbuilding, but it doesn't quite have the randomness of the colors of Avalian metal glass."
"Wow." Candace whistled. "It's like…dragon glass."
"Dragon Glass." Jason's eyes sparkled. "You're a genius! That's what we're going to call this! It will be a big hit and we'll be able to establish a small Dragon Glass plant here!"
"Oooh. Does that means we stay here for part of the year?"
"Only if we want to. Otherwise, we set it up and let someone else manage it."
Candace blinked and nodded with confused agreement. "Yay for Dragon Glass!" She laughed along with the twins.
The sun was starting to dip lower into the horizon when a transport pod slowly made its way towards the trio waddling along on three lompiis.
With a soft swish, the pod landed a few yards away from them and an opening appeared.
"Well look who tracked us down." Jared laughed and waved at the occupants who were climbing down from the pod.
"Oh my gosh!" Candace grinned and whooped. "I can't believe you three are here! Did you miss me?"
"As soon as you left, I missed you." Lucas pulled a comedic sad face towards her which made Candace laugh.
"It will be my turn with you in two days," Byron grinned. "I was okay waiting, but…"
Byron jabbed a thumb at Leonardo's direction.
"Someone missed you so badly, he insisted on coming to see you."
Candace turned tender eyes towards the blond man in his white physician robe.
He stood with a hesitant stance that was very unlike the usual confidant, happy, determined Leo that she knew so well. It was so slight of a difference that had Candace not been observant, she would have missed it completely.
For them to travel all this way just to see her, especially knowing that she would return in a few days, indicated that there was something more to it than just a few guys who were missing her.
She clambered off her lompii and walked over to the three of them.
Reaching out, she gave each of them a hug that told them she missed them just as much as they missed her. Lucas and Byron had fat grins on their faces.
Leo's aqua blue eyes misted. His mouth set in a determined line. He was not going to cry in front of his brothers and his woman.
"Let's get back to the city." She rambled cheerfully, leading the way back to the lompii and pretending not to notice that Leonardo was in tears.
"We haven't had dinner yet, and there is this place that roasts a whole pig on a spit for an entire day. You guys will love it!"
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