"Yorna, you have to make it fully air tight." Some of the seals on her pod weren't quite up to snuff. Flux tested it again by dunking the whole thing in soapy water and breathing out, gently, into it. Bubbles formed at every spot she hadn't sealed it well enough, which was all over the thing.

  "I'm still not sure I even need to bother with all this Flux, old friend. I've flown up real high a few times, and sure, it is cold and the air is thin, but I can take a ball of thick, warm air with me from lower just fine. I don’t need this metal pod. And what about you?"

  "I was designed for space travel by the makers, little mother. Breathing is optional for me, at least for several weeks at a time, not so for you. Now, do you think you could hold that warm air while you sleep?" He knew she could not. "Or clean the carbon dioxide from it so you can breathe more oxygen? Hmm? And would it protect you from stellar radiation? Doubtful."

  "Hmm... I don't know what half those words after sleep mean, Flux. Show me." She pointed at her head, asking for an ideablast.

  The dragon struggled to form a clear picture of the chemistry. His mind wasn't what it once was. Poor old Flux's prime had long since passed, yet he persisted. Deep within he knew he had one last, important task to finish. Some ancient command from his creators that he must fulfill before he could pass... If only he could remember what it was.

  "Plants do it,” he said, proud to share his vast scientific knowledge, “they take what you breathe out and make what you breathe in. You could learn the trick from them."

  "That's okay Flux, old friend. Maybe I'll just bring some plants with me when we leave." She had known for years that the Dragon's memories weren't all there anymore. She'd already lived far too long for a human and seen the other, normal humans grow old and have the same symptoms.

  "In the meantime, let's try to seal this all up." She worked her way around the pod she'd made. It was mostly a ball, with a nice teeny tiny window on one side, and otherwise no view to the outside. She'd taken the plate armor from the latest round of imperial soldiers and bent and molded them into the shapes she needed.

  Her patchwork platemail hamster ball was closer to air tight, but still not there. Flux blew out another breath of air into the pod, and more bubbles formed on the outside. Yorna walked around placing her palm on the ball and melting the metal again where the bubbles grew.

  "Okay, give it another dunk in the bath."

  A few more tries and when Flux gently breathed into the ball, no more bubbles came out, and he puffed up his massive cheeks instead.

  "Okay, now we fit the hatch." Flux picked up and held the hatch in place while Yorna molded the metal to attach it with her magic. A simple mechanical hinge fixed the hatch to the pod, but a special seal would make the hatch complete. She could have just welded herself in there, but Flux insisted on a proper hatch, and a proper hatch he would have.

  Yorna watched with her magical vision on, and her mind in note-taking mode as her oldest friend drew in materials from the stone in thin streams and mixed them together. He passed wire thin molten stone into the bubble bath they'd been using, and drew out a squishy smooshible sort of material unlike anything Yorna had seen before.

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  "This is a kind of silicone. I remember making a lot of it for my makers back when I was young. We made hundreds of thousands of ships in those days, you know. I made a whole lot of silicone to seal the doors." He applied the seal with a deft, and well practiced hand. Muscle memories from over a thousand years ago still flow strong through his magical veins.

  "Well, it has been a while, so I fear we must test my handiwork before I trust it." Flux flared his nostrils at his work taking in the smell of freshly completed chemical processes. “Smells like childhood in the shipyard.”

  "So how do we test it then, old friend?" She already knew how, but letting him explain it made her feel good.

  "You will go inside, bring some extra air with you. Pull the hatch closed and seal it, then let the extra air go, and see if it can push its way out. Meanwhile, I'll dunk you in the bath, and if there's bubbles..."

  "We find the leak and fix it," She finished. "Good plan."

  Yorna climbed inside the pod, pulled her hatch closed, and sealed it shut by spinning the wheel. Flux had designed its mechanism, and she was fascinated to see it now in action.

  The whole pod was dunked in the dragon’s bath.

  There were bubbles. Lots of them. Water seeped inside from above.

  Flux pulled her out and set the whole pod on dry… well, dryish ground again.

  "Well shit. Not quite ready to trek the stars yet." Yorna opened the hatch and used her flight spell to mimic the effect of Flux's gravity bladder. She hovered near the patchwork hatch.

  Flux illuminated the spots where the bubbles were escaping with a pinpoint light spell, "Here, here, and there. We need more material. The hatch is still too thin. The rest of the ball is thicker, enough to protect you from interstellar radiation, but this hatch… it still needs to be thicker."

  "Very well, Flux, old friend, I'll go get some more metal. You stay here and keep working on getting it air tight, then we’ll thicken up the armor."

  Yorna flew outside and looked down the mountainside. She sent a ping of detection magic. There was a garrison of troops in her home village now. It was night, and most of the men there weren't armored up at the moment. There was a small nightwatch, however.

  "I could just go down there and steal their breastplates, no need to kill anyone." She convinced herself it would be that simple before she teleported into the armory.

  She already knew there was no one that could see here there, so with a flick of her will she ignited all the strings and cords and whatnot that held the armor in place on the stands. She made sure it burned evenly so that all the armor would drop at the same time. Knowing she couldn't teleport with all that metal, she had a different plan to escape with it.

  The nine breastplates dropped to the ground, and simultaneously, Yorna pulled a gale force wind to her, and shot it up. The sudden violent wind blew the whole roof off the armory in which she stood.

  "Good, now no one will hear the breastplates hitting the ground."

  Wood and stone flew in all directions, radiating out from where the armory used to be. The shouts of men and cries of babes split the silence that grew from the echoes of her blast. Then the sound of wood and stone falling like hail.

  Yorna wrapped one hand in a spell to draw all the breastplates to her. She didn't know the term magnetism, but she had magnetized them - temporarily - to draw them to her hand. Then with her other hand she wrapped herself in an orb of wind that would deflect any arrows fired her way as she flew off with all their unworn armor.

  "Here! She's in the armory!" A man who had been blown over by the blast but not killed called her out. “The Mountain WITCH!”

  It would be a lie to say she didn't consider smushing him with the nearby chunk of broken wall. It would only take a minuscule amount of power to push it over on him. She thought better of it and simply jumped into the sky with her flight spell, and her bounty of useful metal.

  "Fluuuux, I'm back."

  "INTRUDER!" The ancient dragon roared. Rushing toward Yorna, all furious claws and snarling, snapping jaws.

  She dropped her other spells, and ideablasted her oldest, and only friend. Flooding him with all the memories they had made together. “Old friend” A well practiced spell, reinforced multiple times a day.

  "Yorna." He stopped. "There was an intruder in my lair."

  "That's okay Flux, old friend. I dealt with them already. Look, I brought that extra metal, we can get the hatch all sealed up now."