FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

His New Hoard

Chapter 9: Gold and Magic

Sponsored by Taiko

By Draconicon

Draconicon spent several days in the suspicious little village. The inhabitants were regularly at his door, trying to listen in, but the new allies that he had gained in the Four were surprisingly good at keeping them away. He had to talk with them about the injuries, of course - there was a certain level of goodwill that he was trying to keep - but they were willing to keep it nonlethal. Mostly.

As the days passed, he worked on experimenting with the residual magic inside of the amulet. The more that he tested it, the more that he realized that there was going to be an issue with shifting that power to something else. While he had managed to convert the magics of the Winged Serpent into something more useful, less painful and poisonous than the amulet itself had been, that particular transfer had been luck as much as it had been reasoned power shifting. The magic would have been less than useless in the coins if he hadn't been as powerful as he was, if he hadn't had the focus that he did. The magic wanted to do something else, and it was only the fact that it was sealed in a coin, something that was symbolically linked to what he wanted to use it for, that it still worked.

In short, magic couldn't be repurposed as easily as he thought. If he didn't do it perfectly, then the magic from the origin object would fight to keep to the same purpose as it originally had. That would mean that the new enchantment would eventually fade, and the item would become less useful, and possibly incredibly dangerous.

In short, it wasn't like putting energy from one battery into another. It was like putting fire into a fireplace, or water into a cup. You had to know where it was going, what it was going to do when it got there, and how to make sure that it followed the right channels for the right purpose. Otherwise, you'd be putting fire into water, or water into fire, and the best you could hope for was the magic just dying in its new vessel.

Not exactly the most encouraging thing to discover over the course of a few days, but better to discover that before starting the process of his new business.

Knock, knock, knock.

Draconicon groaned, rubbing his eyes as he looked up from the amulet, the desk, and the knife in front of him. The room at the inn reasserted itself, giving him a moment of vertigo as the wooden walls swelled out, then pulled in, then pushed back to their proper place. He rubbed his eyes, shaking his head.

"Come in."

The door opened, and in stepped the German Shepherd. She shook her head at him, doubtlessly amused at his bleary-eyed state.

"Experimenting all night again?"

"Making sure that I have it right," he muttered, looking back at the dagger. "I think I've gotten the process perfected, though."

"Good. Because the first client's coming today."

"...Goodie."

"He'll be here at noon. You'll have time to sleep if you need to."

"Thanks awfully." The dragon sighed, leaning forward and rubbing the sides of his face. "Are you sure that this is going to work out?"

"No. But V- ..." The Shepherd hissed, her eyes closing for a moment. "But the kangaroo is."

"Am I going to get your names? Ever?"

"Maybe."

An arm popped out of the Shepherd's shoulder, and it swung around to give her a flick to the side of the ear. The leather-armored canine yelped, grabbing the side of her head and cursing a blue streak.

Draconicon chuckled. It seemed that there was still some disagreement between the Four, though he had assumed that would be the case. Now that they had their independence back, he imagined that they would be more like siblings in a lot of ways rather than just a bunch of mercenaries working together.

He glanced back at the bed. Jaceb was still fast asleep, the necromancer snoozing off a long night of nightmares. The mole had been up, down, up, down, including once when his scream had ripped through the night. It had been so loud, so piercing, that he had sworn that the dead of the village were about to rise and come rushing to the necromancer's assistance.

Then the mole had just collapsed again, shaking through the night. He wished that he could have done something. At most, he'd been able to sit with the shaking soul, gently rubbing his back until he went still again.

As the German Shepherd composed herself once more, the dragon turned his attention back to her.

"Is there anything about this client that I should know?"

"Mmph. One second." She held one hand over her ear, swatting the other kangaroo arm that started to appear out of her other shoulder. "Stop it."

"Heh."

"You shut up," she muttered.

"I'm just finding it amusing."

"You're the reason she's doing this."

"I'm pretty sure I just gave her the capability. She's the one that wants to do it. And you're the one giving her the reason."

"..."

"Anyway. Whenever you're ready."

He turned away from the desk properly, putting it behind him and folding his hands over his lap. The small room continued to lurch forward and back in that strange way that everyplace did when there was sufficient magic around. As the force that tended to bend physics and the laws of reality anyway, every magical 'lab' tended to start feeling strange compared to the rest of the world. He was just used to ones that were warded against the worst of the effects. This place...wasn't.

Might want to consider that if I can bleed out more energy later, he thought. Just to keep this room from growing and breaking off from the inn proper.

The German Shepherd finally pushed the kangaroo back down. She held up a finger, then nodded.

"Your first client. He goes by the name Hesoon, and he's a gecko from the swamps further south."

"A gecko. I'm going to guess that there's a purification item that he needs, then?"

"Correct. He is bringing an old item that was used by an enemy of his tribe. He was planning on exchanging it for fresh supplies, but I told him that it would be of better use to bring it here."

"And you want me to change it."

"Yes."

"...Will this actually help us?"

"It will not hurt us, and Hesoon is a friend. I am...relatively sure that he will bring greater business this way."

"...I'll hope that you're right, then."

They needed this. More to the point, he needed this. The money that he'd created from the rocks outside the village would not last forever, and there was only so much magic that he could bleed off the gods and the temples in the area. If he didn't find more artifacts to leech from, then he would be stuck here. Forever.

And the minute that I run out of magic to challenge the gods with, they'll come running to steal mine in their perpetual arms race.

"Noon, you said?" he asked.

"That was the agreed time."

"Then let me sleep until 11. I'm going to need some rest."

"Then sleep. I will watch."

"Just you?"

"The others will patrol. They...are a little antsy."

And probably eager to keep reminding themselves that they actually had the freedom to move around as they saw fit. He had watched them from the windows. Every so often, he'd see whoever was 'front' looking around before giving a subtle nod. The others would leap out, fully or partially, and they would have a moment of the purest joy that he had ever seen, just enjoying the feeling of being free from their single body restraints.

He got up from his desk, taking the side of the bed that Jaceb wasn't using. He pulled his wings in close, then closed his eyes. It took all of three breaths for him to fall asleep.

The dragon was up and ready, feeling more himself, when Hesoon arrived. The gecko was a green-yellow color, someone that looked like he had come out of a sunny solarium rather than a swamp, and was quite the slight figure. Barely coming up to the dragon's chest, the first word that came to mind when looking at him was 'squishy', just from how soft and oiled he looked.

The loincloth-wearing gecko bowed his head slightly to the dragon as he entered the room. His eyes were big enough that it was easy to track how they flicked from place to place, and how quickly they rested on the desk with the amulet. Hesoon's eyes widened.

"Is that -"

"That's not the reason you're here, so it's not particularly important." Draconicon shook his head. "Now, if you don't mind. What do you want?"

Hesoon paused, but Draconicon didn't repeat the question. Instead, he leaned back with his arms folded, making sure to keep a semi-imposing posture. He'd learned how to sit like this with students, and with other teachers. It was a pose that held one's ground, that made it clear that you weren't the one asking for things, and put the burden on the other person to actually speak up for themselves. At the same time, he kept a slight smile on his face, letting a little welcome show through to mix with the intimidation in his expression. There was something about white fangs in a black-scaled face that were particularly frightening for most people, he'd found.

The silence stretched on for a minute or so before Hesoon nodded. The gecko reached back along his belt, rooting through a pack that hung over the base of his tail.

"My people are...in some danger at the moment," he said. "There is a tribe of salamanders that have been poisoning our part of the swamp for the last month. Their shaman was the greatest source, but even after we killed him..."

"The poison lingers?"

"Yes. It has turned the swamp purple in many places."

"Not entirely surprising. Stagnant water tends to hold onto magic," he admitted. "I'm told that you brought the item with you?"

"I did. Here."

The gecko pulled it out from behind his back, and Draconicon was thankful that he'd spent the last few days practicing with the amulet. While the gourd that Hesoon had brought didn't have the same raw power, it was perhaps even more virulently dangerous. There was an aura of poison coming off the corked top, and he shuddered to think just how powerful that spell must have been.

He took it cautiously, laying it down on his desk. With a flick of his fingers, he quarantined it inside of his black flames. The gecko leaped back, half-reaching for a dagger at his waist before the German Shepherd stopped him with a shake of her head.

Draconicon barely paid attention to that, focusing his power and his mind on the gourd itself. Like everything else in this world, it was empowered by some deity from somewhere. However, this one felt smarter than the Winged Serpent that he had bamboozled. It was focused, given a single purpose so that the limited magical energy inside was spent more efficiently. Running his fingers along the outside, he traced the lines of power that only he could see, muttering under his breath as he did.

"What's he doing?" the gecko whispered.

"Whatever he needs to do."

"I thought you said he could fix this."

"He can."

"He's not doing anything."

"Shut up. Let him work."

Glad someone has faith in me...

While the magic was applied a little more intelligently, it was more obvious, as well. The gourd had been carved out of an exceptionally poisonous fruit, something that would have killed someone merely from taking a lick of the inner flesh. Now that it had been enchanted, however, the magic ensured that the poison was never diluted. As a matter of fact, he could see that the application of water, stagnant or not, merely strengthened the power of the poison within the fruit, enhancing it to the point where contact alone could kill.

No wonder the geckos needed this to be removed. Even a single gourd-full of the enchanted poison could easily spread through water pockets in a swamp, eventually killing off everything. The idea that a shaman had started this at all was horrifying. Even if they had a way to reverse it...

He shook his head. Even if the shaman had had a way to reverse it - and that was unlikely, considering the sheer power of this gourd and the focus that it had - then that job had been passed to him with the shaman's death.

"Alright. I think...there is a way to deal with this. Do your people have an antidote for this fruit?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"That's a no." Draconicon sighed. "That would have been the easy way forward, but we don't do easy, apparently."

"Can you fix this or not, dragon?"

"Oh, I can fix it. But not with this."

He rubbed his forehead, trying to think of what would fit. The gourd itself had been used to enhance the natural properties of the poison within it. If there had been a natural antidote in the swamp to its poison, then he could have made something of equal power, transferring the magic inside to enhance the properties of the 'good' fruit. Lacking that, he was going to have to get creative.

"What happens when someone gets poisoned? What are the symptoms?" he asked.

"They die."

"Before that."

"Does it matter?"

"Hesoon, if you want my help, you need to answer my questions. Is he always this..."

"Abrupt?" the Shepherd asked. "Obtuse? Oblivious?"

"Any and all."

"Yes."

"I came here because you told me that he could help," the gecko said, all but hissing and spitting in frustration. "If you can't, then I will -"

"Symptoms, and then I can fix this."

He was half-sure that Hesoon would have walked out right then and there, and if it wasn't for the fact that he knew that the gourd would have killed an entire landscape with the way that it had been handled, he would have been fine with that. However, he needed to be firm. Grief, worry, fear? All those could wait for later. He needed information.

Eventually, the gecko sighed, nodding. As he listed the symptoms - difficulty breathing, fluid in the lungs, gradual paralysis, followed by death - Draconicon noted them down. There were different ways to deal with all of those, but the biggest one that he needed to halt was the paralysis. If he could stop it before it got there, then there was every chance to keep the geckos alive, and without mutating them.

Though I might keep that gill-slash idea for another time...

That said, he understood the type of poison, and that meant that he could take steps. No fruit, then. They needed something that they could carry with them, since the poison could be anywhere in the water. Something that allowed them to move freely until they had a way to take the poison out of the water properly.

Freedom, safety, life, movement. What embodied all of that? It came to him a few seconds later, and he smiled.

"Get me a bird."

Hesoon left with bandoliers of feathers and more weighing him down, but with a smile on his face. The gourd remained with the dragon, drained of about half its magic, and the dragon himself groaned as he slipped back into his chair, rubbing his head.

"I am...surprised," the Shepherd said.

"About?"

"Your stupidity," the Doberman said, poking his head out from the side of her neck. "You drank the poison to prove the efficacy of the treatment. That was foolish."

"One. We have a necromancer in bed just behind us, so not as stupid as you think," he muttered. "Two. It was either I poison myself, or one of you four, or Hesoon. I'm not going to do the other two, so it seemed like I was a little limited in my choices."

The Four didn't seem to like that, and quite honestly, neither did he. However, there was only so much that he could do to test what he was working on without actually putting someone in danger. If he was going to say that the feathers worked, then he needed to know that they did. Either he put the client in danger, or he did it to himself.

And he had been very sure that the feathers worked, but he needed to be completely sure. And so did Hesoon.

That said, channeling magic from a poisoning artifact to something that would enhance qualities of life to the point of resisting the poison, and even casting it out, had been exhausting. He'd managed it, but it had taken a lot of the magic in the gourd, and a lot of his energy for the day.

It had, however, gotten them what they needed.

"Half that's yours," he muttered, nodding at the gold. "Call it a finder's fee for getting him here in the first place."

"...Keep it."

"No. I want you to have your resources, not just mine. Take it. Spend it on what you want."

"Well, if ya insist, dear," the kangaroo said, her arm snapping out and grabbing her pile before the others could stop her. She dropped it into a pouch that looked very strange on a German Shepherd, and then it disappeared before the other canines could snap it back.

They squabbled over that, and Draconicon couldn't help but smile to himself. They were definitely getting to be like intensely close siblings, now. He wondered if that bond would continue to change, now that they were able to be as close or as far from each other as they really wanted.

He leaned his head back. At the very least, he'd found out that he could actually do this. There were going to be others, now. He'd seen the way that Hesoon had lit up. That was not a man that kept a tactical advantage to himself; that was someone that would brag about the resource that he'd found.

We're going to see more of these people...a lot more...

A month went by, and in that month, Draconicon ended up learning more about the world than he ever wanted to know. Mostly through the way that different people wanted to pay for their magic.

He was offered everything from meat to personal bodyguards to a house in a city far from the village. He was given the chance to sleep with several rather pretty females - and one rather amorous male - as well as the option of taking on captured slaves as a responsibility of his own. The offers kept coming, and he kept turning them down...

Mostly. There were a few sexual offers that he took, but even then, that only got the clients a discount, not a completely free item.

What he needed was money, and he made sure that they paid. If they decided to try to run off without doing so, or worse, tried to leave with one of his converted artifacts, then they were stopped in their tracks by the Four, and by those that the Four had started training.

That had been a surprise, too, and one that was still surprising him every time that he looked up from his desk. He glanced out the window at the village, trying not to make comparisons to how it had looked on the first day compared to now, but it was impossible to avoid it with how much everything had changed.

Who would have thought that they'd start training people...

There was a dug-out part of the village that nobody was using where the grass had been cleared away and the whole place fenced off. The Four were there, constantly teaching villagers and other visitors how to fight, and all of them were marked with a rough black-dragon-head on the shirts they wore. He didn't understand what that was about, but he knew that they were going through it on his behalf for some reason. Maybe it was something that they would eventually explain, but he hadn't had the time to ask them. Or the energy.

In addition to the training yard - which even then was filled with people shouting and slamming into one another - there were other additions to the village. Two more inns had popped up with all the visitors making their way here, and several more statues of gods had been carved. Badly carved, admittedly, but still carved and overseeing the village proper.

Draconicon looked at them. In addition to the statue of the Winged Serpent, there was the statue of the Lizard Who Cuts and the Cat Who Climbs, both of which were more muscular than the original statue but slightly shorter, almost like the carver wanted to make it clear that he wasn't trying to supplant the original. They all seemed to stare at him, however, and he wasn't altogether convinced that the gods weren't staring through the eyes of their statue at the man that was slowly stealing their power.

Because he was.

His desk had expanded over the course of the month, now holding multiple drawers beneath it filled with the different items that he had taken and the semi-artifacts that he was experimenting with. Each one was sealed with the use of a ring that he kept on him at all times, making it so that the various items couldn't be taken out of the room and put to use somewhere else without his permission.

All together, he imagined that the various items represented a significant investment of energy from no less than six different deities. If they were handing out power like this, then he imagined that the deities themselves were probably less and less effective outside their temples, and his harvesting of their power was slowly taking a controlling interest in the magical energy available in the area. Eventually, someone was going to take steps, and they were going to have to take big ones to equalize things again. Draconicon was no longer sure that he'd have time to gather all the energy he needed to leave this world before someone moved against him.

Draconicon pushed away from his desk, rubbing his forehead as he finally pulled his attention away from his latest personal project. While he had made enchanted weapons for the Four, and made a bed for Jaceb that focused the mole's healing abilities to a greater extent, he had been spending more of his time working on items for himself. The stone-paste armor that he had entered the village with had protected him quite well, but he needed something better than that. He'd made a ring of protection that would work on most bladed weapons, as well as rings of flame and ice - just in case he needed to do a quick burst to get himself some room - and he'd been working on a ring of magic dispersal, as well.

That last ring was going to be the key to staying alive if the gods sent someone after him, or came themselves, but he hadn't quite perfected it. The difficulty was that it dispersed his magic as well as whatever was coming at him, and while that was a nice equalizer in some cases, he doubted that he would be able to stand up to the raw strength of some deities, or the more physical assault of some of their followers.

Need to find the right way to use that. Maybe with a shield instead of a ring...

Of course, that came with its own difficulty. The more 'fitting' an item was with the energy that was put into it, the better it worked, and while he had a number of different magical energies to experiment with, they didn't always work together very well. It was a mix of alchemy and enchantment, and sometimes, the 'reagents' didn't want to mix together without exploding out of control.

"Mmmph...well, that can rest for now..."

Draconicon put the dispersal ring in the drawers with the others, getting to his feet and making his way to the room door. The inn was quiet, he realized, quieter than usual. He imagined that was due to the training going on and the populace watching them, and made his way down to the common room.

As soon as he entered, Draconicon found himself face to face with a black-furred jaguar. The feline sat at a table, the rest of the room more or less abandoned. The usual bartender was nowhere to be seen, and the green-eyed feline fixed him with a smile that stretched all the way to a smirk.

"So, you're the one that sells magical services, hmm?"

"...I've been doing that, yes."

"You've been getting a lot of gods very angry at you."

"That was unavoidable, once I figured out how things worked."

"Oh, I'm not blaming you. I'm complimenting you." The feline chuckled, putting his mug down and standing up. He was dressed richer than the average traveler, wearing something that almost looked like silk rather than the leather and hide that the dragon was used to seeing. "And I want to have that service at my beck and call."

"Thanks, but no thanks."

"You didn't even hear my offer."

"I don't think you can offer me anything that I need."

"You underestimate me, then."

The panther chuckled, shaking his head as he left the table behind. The dragon noted the sword at the panther's hip, worn low, probably something that was used half-regularly in the practice yard. The feline moved more like someone that was used to bullying others than actually putting force to use to get what he wanted, so he didn't feel too worried. He crossed his arms, his robes pulling a bit tighter in the process.

"I said, I'm not interested. You can buy my services, but I'm not looking for a patron."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm not looking to stay."

"Well, now, that's a shame. You see, I've been hearing all kinds of things from the temples back home."

"And home is..."

"Oh, about a week's journey north. A city that's better suited to your talents than this...place."

The dragon didn't rise to the bait. The disdain was probably something put on to see how he felt about being in a village so small. While he would have preferred a city, he wasn't giving this man any information that he didn't already have.

However, the information on temples was...useful. He'd thought that there was more time left before the gods would start taking steps. Apparently, he was wrong. And being out in the middle of nowhere was a lot more problematic when he had to take greater steps towards personal defense.

"Everyone has to pick a side, dragon. Why not pick mine? I'm sure that you'll find yourself...well taken care of, on my estate."

There it was. The dragon knew that there would be something coming that was meant to appeal to him on some level. Perhaps the feline thought that he had low standards, or perhaps he thought that there were other rampant needs due to some of the payments that he had taken over the last month. Either way, the panther was bound to be disappointed.

Just as he started to shake his head, however, the panther lifted a hand. Other black-furred felines, hidden in the shadows, leaped forward.

"Of course, you'll be coming with me. I know it's an overwhelming offer, but -"

"Oi, wanker! He's staying roight here!"

The thundering bounces of a kangaroo was all that he heard before she leaped from the corner of his eye. The rest of the Four followed, the two canines engaging the other panthers, while white light shimmered from the front door as a little possum cast her own magic. It wasn't even a fight; it was over and done with in seconds, and the Four loomed over the fallen, bound, and rather humiliated felines.

Draconicon shook his head.

"I could have handled that."

"You shouldn't have to," the Shepherd said, standing with one paw on a panther's throat, the other on the floor. "You have people for that, now. And if magic isn't involved, you shouldn't risk anything you don't have to."

There was a similarity in words, but a dissonance in voice from what the canine said to what the feline had. The panther had tried to frame it as the dragon being better, too good to waste himself with common pursuits. The tone that the Shepherd took, however, had an entirely different feeling behind it. It felt like someone that was scared, someone that worried that something would be taken from them.

If they're that scared about the coins...

He shook his head. That was for later. Looking down at the panther that the 'roo was sitting on, he cocked his head to the side.

"So, that offer of yours. Pretty sure that it's no good now."

"Mmmph...you will pay...for this insolence."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're more likely to pay, considering that this was the next thing to a kidnapping."

"I can take what I want."

"I think that's more what the winners can do. Shall I try and take your head?"

The panther's eyes went wide, and the Doberman actually went so far as to offer his sword for the task. Draconicon shook his head.

"You understand the point. But congratulations, whoever you are. You've helped stir things up enough that I'll have to do something now." He glanced at the 'roo. "Kick him out of town. Literally, if you like. But then come back and start packing. We're moving after today."

No questions were asked. Instead, three of the Four gathered up the felines like so much garbage, all but carrying them out of the inn. The last of them, the little possum that had been casting magic from the front door, hurried over to him and hopped up to his hand. He held her up, letting her rest on his shoulder.

"It's going to be okay," he muttered to her even as she shivered a little bit. "You did pretty good there, by the way. Very quick."

"...Thank...you..."

"Don't worry. It's not going to be a bad change."

Just a faster change than I expected, he thought, shaking his head as he looked back out the door. I guess it's time to see what the city is like...

The End

Summary: Draconicon continues his magical experiments and starts making a name for himself. Unfortunately, that name attracts attention.

Tags: Off-Screen Sex, No Sex, Dragon, Doberman, German Shepherd, Kangaroo, Possum, Magic, Series, Panther, Feline, Fantasy,