Daisy’s Adventures: 05 Sand

Daisy's Adventures: 05 Sand

What are little girls made of?

Thanks to my editor kenjisato. Also, to LanguageTool. Combined, they put me right. Any problems left all belong to me.

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I had just returned from a space visit. When I exited the secure area, and went to collect my luggage, I was surprised to see a large person with a sign in Sanskrit with my name. I wasn't expecting to be met, but I looked at the guy carrying the sign. I recognized him as Lenard Conrad, who I knew worked for Lord Ganesha, a major god of India.

I walked over, and said, "Hello, Lenard. What brings you here?"

"You have a good memory, Ms. Smith. After several years of discussion, my Lord has agreed to installing some of your portals."

"I am honored. I have some luggage to collect. Why not join me, and we can discuss this while we wait."

A few minutes later, I had my stuff, and he offered me a lift. We continued our discussion as his driver drove me home. Once there, I offered them a meal. As we ate, the driver was silent, but Lenard finally made his offer. He would take me to his Lord's realm, where I would be tasked with creating several portals, with some of his servants assisting.

After I accepted, he said, "I suggest you pack for an extended stay. Without your portals, travel between the locations will not be quick."

It took only a few minutes to unpack from space, and pack for the Hindu realm. I updated Alec and the resident priestess about my new itinerary, and indicated I was ready. We drove into the country, away from everything. I was surprised when we stopped at a tiny Hindu temple. We got out, and the car left. Lenard started speaking Sanskrit under his breath, and I saw the temple doors seemed to glow. He walked to the doors, and I followed.

When the doors opened by themselves, I saw a haze rather than the inside of the temple. Lenard gestured me to go first, and followed. I felt a shift to the astral, and saw a path open up ahead. Following this path, I felt as though I was traveling a great distance. Soon, there was another hazy area across the path. When I passed through it, I emerged beside a field of grain. In the distance was a mountain, one that seemed to reach the heavens. Mount Everest would be less than a foothill to it.

"Welcome to Manuṣyaloka. That is Mount Sumeru, the center of this heavenly egg; surrounding this great land is an ocean. Within that are four continents, each extremely far apart. There are two other earthly realms: Tiryagyoni-loka and Pretaloka. We want these seven places connected by portals, but ones that require special tokens to use."

"I will need to visit the other realms, so that I can get a feel for them."

"I know of your work for Odin, and of connecting his realms. These earthly realms are not like those. These are merely a vast distance apart. Like your portals on the planets."

"That simplifies the enchantment. What of the tokens?"

"They are golden disks, adorned with jewels, and blessed by a higher realm. I will teach you the needed spell. Now, let us head into town where you will meet your initial assistants."

As we arrived just outside the town, we walked in and soon met them at a local inn's common room. I was given a room, and after dropping off my stuff, I went back to discuss with them about the job. We all spoke in Sanskrit, which made me glad I learned it when I had the chance. It seemed the first portal would be built just outside of town, near the road we came in on.

Lenard said, "I shall return tomorrow morning, with a token, and I will teach you the needed spell. For now, why don't you get acquainted with your assistants."

I nodded, and thanked him for the lift. Soon, I got into a discussion with the others, learning their abilities, and their ideas. I also spoke of the needed magic for the portal.

In the morning, Lenard arrived, and gave me two tokens. He taught me the spell to detect the cakraratna token, which was the golden disk he mentioned. The other was a pendant of dharmachakra, a wheel with eight spokes, with the center holding three jewels. He told me the pendant was blessed by Lord Ganesha, and would allow me to access the divine magic I received from other gods, while I was in this heavenly egg. It would also guide me to the locations where I would be placing each portal.

I found that being the holder of a blessed pendant generated a lot of interest in me. Many expressed a desire to experience my blessed existence. I soon found out that that often meant sex. Unlike most places, no one cared if the person attracted to me was male or female. And after each sexual encounter, there was no shame about it. Unless I was occupied, I usually had someone in my bed overnight.

Learning about the people of the various places, I realized I needed to handle huge people, up to fifty feet tall. This also meant that each portal had to be very wide to handle several people at once, along with some carts. I worked with my team to design a building that would fit in with the local town's style, yet have an open room large enough for the portal, and also with a path to the outside that could be just as wide. That exterior door would be a double door, and one of the doors would have a smaller door for people my size.

Once we settled on the plans, my assistants started talking about gathering the materials needed to build it. I told them not to worry, as I would provide the materials, but would need their help in creating the detailed art to decorate it. First, I had them clear the site down to bare earth, and to draw a circle corresponding to the interior of the portal hall. This took two days, as they weren't ready so fast.

On the third day, I asked everyone to be away from the site while I summoned the needed material. They moved off the site reluctantly, and murmured questions about what I could possibly do.

First, I sought Isis' power to hover over the site. Then I used Everest's power to convert the dirt to the local stone, so that its foundation would be the local bedrock. When that finished, from my view above the center of the inscribed circle, I caused shaped blocks of stone to create the walls of the main chamber. I left openings for the doors and halls, but when the blocks were tall enough, I made arched blocks to connect the sides.

As I went above the level of the rest of the building, I made openings for light, and inserted metal grids that held clear glass to keep out the weather. I made several layers of windows, each with an exterior sill, so that craftsmen could maintain them. Then came the dome. There, I made shaped blocks that connected with the top a smaller circle than the bottom. Each layer worked the circle smaller and smaller, until there was no more circle, only a solid roof.

Then I went outside and created the rest of the building. This had hallways and rooms for many offices, storage, and other things. When I finished with the blocks, I added an additional layer, but one designed to hold the artworks, and to allow people to access them for maintenance. I then created one block, sized for placing in the art recess, for each location, so that the locals could decorate it as desired.

I went back inside, and swept through all the inner rooms, creating wood doors where needed. Each was set in a wooden frame bolted to the stone. As they were sized for the locals, the doors didn't need reinforcement. But when I got to the main double doors, they were so large, they would need reinforcement. It took a combination of Everest's and Aja's powers to create them. Creating a smaller door within the larger one took a little extra effort, but I managed it.

By the time I finished, it was night. Most everyone had departed, and I told the rest I was heading back to my room for a meal and some sleep. In the morning, I explained about the art blocks, and how they would be able to get them into position. We even practiced installing and removing a sample artwork. That took the rest of the day.

The fifth day, I replaced the dirt floor with stone, leaving a circular depression for the portal ring. I then created the portal, the same as I did for the planets, but much larger, and using Sanskrit to hold the name of the portal. That was done by lunch, so I took a break to eat. Afterwards, I did the enchantment, bit by bit, showing my assistants how it was done. It took nearly a week to complete the enchantment.

Finally, the portal was done. Then, I needed to get to the next location, with all of my assistants. I asked, "Is there a lake nearby?"

One of them replied, "Yes, why?"

"We need to go to the other continents, as a group, with enough cargo to support us while creating the portals. That is best done by flight, but it is easier to fly a single ship rather than a bunch of people and cargo. Also, a ship can serve as living space, both for the journey, and for the construction."

"Oh. That makes sense. How big will it need to be?"

"I don't know, but it will need to carry all of us, our stuff, and food - enough to last the journey. Figure three months travel, and another month for the construction and time to handle the locals."

"Okay, we'll start to gather the supplies and get them to the lake."

"Good. I'll see about getting some information about a suitable ship. It might take me a while."

"No problem. I figure it will take nearly a month to get everything ready."

After returning to the inn, and later to my room, I used the Atlantean method of communication across realms. I focused on my house, and when I had it in view, I moved my viewpoint inside, and I sought out Alec. When I found him, I caused a small opening between us, so he could see and hear me.

"Hello, Alec."

After turning to my voice, he said, "That's a new trick."

"Yeah, and it needs a lot of power, so I can't keep it open long."

"So why the call?"

"I need plans. I need to build a very fast sailing ship. Old school, no engine. Can you find me something, and print out the blueprints? And maybe a manual on how to operate such?"

"Sure. Might take a few hours."

"Yeah, I figured. I'll call back. Also find a way to hand the material over in a compact form that can fit through this sized portal."

"No problem. I'll get everything you need."

"Thanks. I'll call tomorrow."

After closing the portal, I sighed, and went to bed to rest and recover from the energy I had spent. The next day, I hung out, letting my assistants do all the logistical work. I paid a lot of attention to the food, as I wanted to be able to reproduce it, as well as have the needed items for cooking it. I reminded them to include spices and dishes to eat with.

That night, in my room, I again opened a portal to my house. Having seen an accounting box, I assumed the information was in it. So I opened the portal near it.

"Hello, Alec."

"Hello. I managed to get all you asked for, and a little more. Everything is in the box here."

"Great. Pass it through."

Alec picked up the shelf it was on, from the far end. It was only about six feet long. He then aimed the box into the portal, and walked it in, being careful to hold it steady. Once it was all the way in, I used my telekinesis to retrieve the box, and place it beside me.

"Thanks. Why the long shelf?"

"I didn't want to risk the portal closing, or cutting something off."

"Good thought. See you when I get back."

"Bye."

I closed the portal after he took the shelf back out. I would look at the box in the morning.

After breakfast, I returned to my room and opened the box. The first thing that caught my eye was a model ship, mounted in a bottle. I pulled it out, and examined it. The placard indicated it was the "Flying Cloud", and it looked like an old-style, three-masted sailing ship. There was also a small chest. Opening it, I found labeled sample bottles, with samples of all the materials needed to build the ship. How had Alec collected all that so quickly?

Next, I pulled out the top notebook. Opening it, I found it was a scrapbook about clipper ships, and the Flying Cloud, in particular. Apparently, it held the New York-to-San Francisco record for well over a century. I guessed that made it quite fast. I would read it all later. The next notebook held the blueprints. While each page was over a square yard in size, they were folded up to fit in a regular notebook. The paper was treated in something, and I suspected it was meant to preserve it over time.

The third notebook was the requested manual. Not just in sailing the ship, but also in maintaining it. Before diving into that, I looked at another notebook. Picking it up, I saw it was the last notebook. What could it be? Opening it, I found it was another copy of the manual, but in Sanskrit. I knew the automatic translation of language was pretty good, but where did he find it for a mostly dead language? At least dead back home. Well, I guessed that would be given to whoever wound up keeping the ship.

The last thing in the box were a pair of tape measures, and a level. One only went twenty-five feet, while the other went three-hundred feet. I wondered about that, but left them in the box. I spent the morning examining the samples, and then creating more of each. I wanted to do it before anything changed by aging or exposure. At lunch, I brought the model to show the others.

When asked, I replied, "This is a model of a ship from my country's past. It is moved by wind, and was one of the fastest of its kind. I have the building instructions in my room, as well as manuals on how to operate it. While we won't need to fully operate it while I control its flight, later, when I leave, I intend to give it to you. We will need a captain, and crew, so I can train them on the way. Given how far the ocean is, can you send a messenger to hire a captain and crew? I will have the numbers in the morning. The ocean port will be our first stop, so we can practice pulling into port."

I read the manual quickly in the common room, and many came in to examine the model. By the evening meal, I had read it. Having gotten an idea of how things worked, I was ready to tackle the blueprints. Reading through them over the next few days, I came to understand why I needed such a long tape measure. The ship was 235 feet at its greatest length. After my review of the blueprints, I re-read the manual. With an image of how the ship actually looked, things became much clearer.

In the morning, I told everyone I would be relocating to the lake, so I could start building the ship. I also unrolled the long tape to show how big the ship would be. They measured it, and it came out to be about forty by seven by four dhanu. This would be some of the information sent by messenger to hire the crew. I arrived at the lake mid-afternoon, so I created a small pavilion as a command center. In the back, I put a cot and a curtain for privacy.

In the morning, I created work tables so I could lay out the blueprints. Then I went outside, and set up the work area, by making and walling off an area of the lake and draining it. I remade the bottom into stone to support the weight. I then measured out the outline, and chalked it out. I created supports, and began creating and placing planks. Early on, I made a copy of the blueprint I was using as carved wood. I didn't copy the fiddly little details, as I was working on the large parts first.

Oddly enough, even though we were outside of town, we got a number of gawkers. Some even stayed a bit after my work stopped, and they usually came to me to ask to spend the night with me. Again, it was clear they wanted to experience my blessing by having sex with me. Before going to bed, that first time, I upgraded to a bed better suited to sex. Another curiosity was that no one ever questioned this, or got jealous. The one who slept with me would return to town in the morning.

While I bypassed a lot of the work of doing this by hand, there was still a lot of detail checking and assembly. While the main part of the build was done in two weeks, I spent another week going all over the ship applying all the details. This included sealing the ship with tar, smoothing the rough spots, and putting all the lines in place. The next week was the creation of the sails, mounting them, and creating spare sailcloth and line. The last items to be made were the anchors. It had two, in case one was lost.

With all that done, I collected everyone for the ceremony of first launch. At noon, I slowly removed the wall, letting in the lake. By the time it filled, the ship lifted a few inches off its cradle. Next, I created a dock so the ship could be loaded. I left it about ten feet away, so I could tie the ship to it and put a portable bridge between the dock and ship. I lowered the anchor, then tied the ship to the dock, pulling it close, so it would pull away with a little tension. Then I moved the bridge to connect them.

The ship was ready. I signaled it was time to load the ship. Since we had sent ahead to hire a crew, they took over at this point. I walked the captain through the ship, detailing all the spaces. He then directed his crew in loading the cargo. Once it was loaded, I asked the captain to practice hoisting the sails and controlling the rigging. As he had already read the Sanskrit manual, he was able to translate its instructions to his own for the crew. I helped by creating winds suitable for what we were practicing.

Each night, after pulling back to the dock and tying up, instead of bedding someone, I went to the base of the main mast, and applied some enchantment to the ship. I added sturdiness, repair, and strength to it. After a week, the captain felt the crew was ready, but asked how we would get the ship to the ocean. I just smiled, and said we would fly, so they should be prepared. I then called for the passengers to embark, as we would leave soon after dawn.

The captain and crew were ready to sail at dawn. I was there also.

"Captain, the time has come. Pull out into the lake." I provided a suitable breeze to slowly leave the dock.

"Yes, ma'am." He then added commands to his crew to hoist some sail, and raise the anchor.

A few minutes later, I stilled the wind, and said, "Prepare for maximum speed, with full sail. It is time to fly."

Several crew seemed to get nervous, but the captain just gave the orders. He reminded them of the magic I had with the wind.

I climbed to the crow's nest, and activated Isis' magic to raise the ship into the air. Then I added An's magic to generate a wind to fill the sails. I started gentle, but soon made it stronger. Without water producing drag, the ship accelerated to a much higher speed. I angled the wind as needed to change our course, as well as used smaller side breezes to steady the ship.

I monitored the stress on the ship, and raised the speed until we neared a level of stress I felt we could sustain. Then I kept the speed there. I used my token to sense the direction of a location for a portal. I knew we were going fast, as I could sense the change in direction of all the other locations. When it was time to eat, one of the crew brought my meal, and took the remains from the last one. As I wanted to fly in one go, I knew I would need to be awake for a very long time. So, rather than be fully awake, watching and listening to everything, I meditated so I could rest my mind.

It took nearly a week to come within sight of the land. Because I could feel the nearness through my token, I knew when to slow down. Given our height, I looked around for a suitable place to park in. As expected, we were only a few miles from the land. I then caused the wind to bring closer to a nearby town, then lowered us. When I felt us in the water, I removed my lifting. I then provided a light shore-ward breeze, and yelled for the captain to take us in. I then climbed down and headed into my cabin to sleep.