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A Whole New Party

Part 13

For Engy

By Draconicon

By the time that the doors shut behind him on the fourth chamber, Olfel knew that the whole passage was a delaying tactic. There was no other explanation for the types of obstacles that he had encountered on the way, each and every one of them designed to slow him down and piss him off.

Golems that couldn't be persuaded? Check.

Deaf monsters that could not be challenged by song? Check.

Massive stairs requiring rope to vault over? Check, check, fucking check.

The last room had been the worst, though. Any sound he made had been picked up and amplified by a bunch of jellyfish. Not even the water type of jellyfish, but the sort that roamed around. That sound, in turn, was not just amplified and made deafening, but it also produced various images of his past, somehow conjuring them into view by the sound that he was making. None of them were ones he was proud of, either.

"Okay, dragon...you are obviously interested in pissing me off today..."

Olfel knew that there was no going back. Without all four members of the party showing up at the end of the passages, their bargain had no chance of succeeding. Even if Viola and Kyo'Thar got through on their own, that meant merely that they had a dragon hireling for the rest of their lives, and that was if both of them got through and did the smart thing of not waiting for him. If they didn't, then they would end up wasting more and more time, and the dragon would have more tricks to play to persuade them to give in.

That said, he wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to win.

Olfel double-checked that the door wasn't going to slide open with a jellyfish tentacle, then leaned against it as he tapped his hand against his chin. Obviously, the dragon had power. A great deal of power, if he had managed to switch this dungeon up like this in just five days. That power, handled properly, might just give him an advantage, even if he wasn't technically the one calling the shots.

Considering the number of hoofs to the face that he had taken when he had planned to take over the group in the past, he didn't immediately push forward. He had learned that painful lesson enough times, and the dragon would do more than kick him in the stomach if he did this wrong. He had to examine this; he had the time to do that much, at least, without causing problems for the rest of the group.

What do I get if I become Claimed?

The clear answer was that he had a dragon watching over him. That was the big one, and the one that would give him a chance to grow his influence, power, and wealth over the course of however long he lived. Played right, he might even get the chance to call in favors with his new 'master', directing the dragon to take care of problems he himself could not handle. After all, platinum dragons were among the goodest goodies in the known universe; this one probably wouldn't be able to help himself.

What do I give up?

That would be his immediate sense of freedom, and his chance of taking on contracts that were purely lucrative rather than doing things to help someone. Best he could figure, this dragon probably was stupid enough to believe that he was doing the group a favor. The way that he didn't realize that the Claiming was just slavery by another name was pretty indicative of that. That said, the dragon had made it clear that he wanted people that would obey him, and that meant that he had things that he needed to accomplish. Olfel's immediate freedom would be sacrificed to that.

And that wouldn't necessarily be the only thing that he would lose, either. Dragons, historically, were known for all kinds of transformation experiments, and had the power to turn people as they wished. He might not be a dwarf at the end of this, which, all things considered, didn't have to be a deal-breaker, if he could get something decent.

And something that can walk up some fucking stairs without a rope...

The dwarf rubbed his forehead again, taking another deep breath, then another. He had to consider this carefully. He had to -

"Hello!"

He had his crossbow up in the space it took to blink, and it was zeroed in on the kobold on the far side of the room before he had a chance to take a breath. If the kobold's arms hadn't gone up in that same split second in surrender, he might have pulled the bolt release without even thinking about it. As it was, he shook his head.

"Obviously, you're not here to fight."

"Why obvious?"

"One, you're not that strong. Two, I can talk to you."

"...And?"

"And the dragon knows I can persuade anything I talk to."

"Oooooh, that why he say no fight. Gotcha. Gotcha."

"...He told you not to fight?"

"Yep. Wait. Nope? Yep? Nope?"

"...What else did he tell you?"

"Oh, right. He give paper."

Paper. The dragon was sending him messages via the kobolds now. And why was that, when he had the power to reach through the world with magic? He didn't know, but it was probably significant. Olfel held out his hand, and the kobold crossed the watery, swampy room to hand it over.

As soon as he took it, the kobold turned and hopped into a puddle. No sooner had the reptile touched the water than he had disappeared, going wherever the puddle led. He tried not to think about what that might have done to him, shaking his head as he looked down at the parchment.

You're staying away so that I can't talk to you and persuade you of something? he wondered, weighing the paper in hand. Or are you doing this so that you can hit me with a spell at random?

If it was the latter, he expected trapped text the minute that he opened the folded parchment. If it was the former, then he had reason to read it. A conundrum.

The answer came quickly as he reached into a pocket, pulling out a miniature mirror. He flicked the parchment over - ensuring that he couldn't read it normally - and then held the mirror to it. Most spells didn't work if you read them backwards, and he was almost entirely sure that there was something waiting at the bottom. He scrolled down, down, down -

And yes, there it was. A sepia snake sigil, or at least, a modified one. Most of them had a fang that curled around the last of the punctuation points on a page, but this one was different. Probably meant to be painless stasis, from the looks of things. Not the worst thing in the world, but would have been terribly problematic if it had caught him. He shook his head, licking a finger and smudging it out of existence.

"Think you can pull one over on me, hmm?"

He flipped the parchment over, and then groaned as he read the first line.

"Or not."

_Olfel Darkbeard,

Sorry about the Sepia Snake Sigil, but on the off-chance that you're not paying attention, I wanted to safeguard myself with as many different tricks and traps as I could._

"Ass." He kept reading.

_I'm sorry that we haven't had the chance to talk properly, but I think we both know that it's a danger to the both of us. You would try and enchant and charm me with your voice, and I would do the same with my eyes. Neither of us would really enjoy that, and I'm not entirely sure who would win, so it's best that we don't cheat either way.

I'm sure that, by now, you've started weighing your options. You know that there's a great deal that can be gained under a dragon, and I'm willing to negotiate on a number of points. I want you to enjoy working for me as a Claimed person, and towards that end, I am happy to allow a number of concessions.

If you're interested in that, please leave your gear in this room and step into the next._

"Face you unarmed? What kind of idiot do you think I - oh, fuuuuuck you, smarmy bastard."

_I don't consider you an idiot of any sort, so as a concession, I give you this to use while you're unarmed. There is a ring of paper folded to the bottom of the letter, and it will offer you a one-time teleportation spell to any location that you've been before. If you feel yourself in danger, use it at your discretion.

I hope we can make a deal._

And that was it. He turned the parchment over just in case reading the letter had caused more text to appear, but such was not the case. Shaking his head, he fumbled with the bottom of the parchment, feeling around until he got the ring. It was a bit flimsy, but it was definitely there. He carefully removed it, holding it aloft.

What I wouldn't give for Kyo'Thar to be here right now...

And considering how much he hated that wizard, that was saying something. He'd love it if he had a way to tell just what the ring was, and whether he could trust the dragon, but at the moment, all he had was the reputation that platinum dragons had for telling the truth and being good. This dragon was probably telling the truth about meeting properly, but...was he really? Or was this just something meant to trap him further? There were a lot of variables in play, including his own feelings on the matter.

A good dwarf would stay loyal to his people. He wasn't a good dwarf; after all, he had been banished after overplaying his hand with his lord and trying to blackmail him to get at the rather lovely dwarf lady that the lord had under his thumb, and that had only been the start of his various misadventures. They had continued, growing worse and worse until he had a reputation as dark as the beard on his face.

He was known as a secret-keeper, as a delver into the pasts and presents of others. And the monocle that he'd been given...

He fondled the glass disk that hung from his collar. He'd used that on all his party members, from Viola to Red-Arms, and he had seen their secrets. They had all had secrets, all had things that they weren't talking about. Just knowing that had given him perhaps enough to take charge if he really wanted to...

And I do want to...but they're all separate now.

If he'd made his move while they were waiting for the fifth day, or while they were still outside, then perhaps he might have made a difference. However, he had been as interested in gaining the dragon's services as the rest of them, and that had led him to be patient for the first time in his life. It had bitten him in the ass, too.

The things I could have done, too. Kyo'Thar's new lusts...

Seeing the orc's secrets had been like looking at a sex show. He had seen the various hungers and desires, needs that even the wizard probably didn't know he had just yet. He had been awash with them, swimming in the desperate need to be rutted, used, fucked, held tight in a close embrace.

Then there'd been Red-Arms. The monk had been swimming in blood, but his secrets, his life, his need for peace had been more visible than ever before. He had seen - gods, he had felt the monk's endless rage just beneath the service, and more than that, the urge to find someone that would hold his leash. He'd seen the way that the human had been all but bound to the need to serve something, someone, and knew that it would have been easy to take that if he had been better at acting quickly.

And Viola? Gods, if he'd seen the things that the monocle had shown him before this mission, she would have been his bitch. He gritted his teeth as he imagined the things he could have held over her head, and then realized something else.

He was getting aroused.

Olfel looked down between his legs at the bulge slowly rising up, and he realized that he'd been getting stiffer and stiffer the more that he thought about what he'd want to do to the people in his party. Just knowing what they were like, knowing what they really wanted, having that ability to see into their private lives and gaze at their fantasies and needs -

He slapped his own cheek, shaking his head.

"Okay, dragon...okay...Let's take this on a little faith here."

Divesting himself of the crossbow and doing his best not to think about the way that his erection had yet to go down from his own peculiar thoughts, Olfel made his way across the room. Throwing knives, razor wire, potions and more hit the floor, leaving him as unarmed as unarmed could be as he reached the far side of the room. He hesitated at the door, then stepped through.

Just as promised, the platinum dragon was waiting for him at a rather incongruously placed table. The light-scaled dragon waited with his hands folded together on the table and two kobolds 'working' him rather hard under the table. Olfel looked down, looked up, and looked down again.

"Bit of a change, isn't it?" he asked.

"Well, a little."

"You weren't anything like that when we first met."

"Um...self-exploration."

"...Guess you had to occupy the last five days somehow."

He shut the door behind him, shaking his head. The dragon looked him over, and then smiled.

"You accepted the offer."

"I'm curious about the offer. Wouldn't you be?"

"...Let's not play that game."

So, trying to lure the dragon to listen to one of his probably wouldn't work. Ah, well. It had been worth testing.

He sat down at the table across from the dragon, folding his arms over his chest as he got comfortable. The dragon smiled slightly, nodding.

"I'm glad that you're at least willing to listen to my offer."

"I'm interested in getting ahead in life. The least I can do is listen to someone with the strength to give me that."

"I've noticed that you're...ambitious."

"That's a nice way of putting it."

"And willing to stab someone in the back to get what you want."

"Heh, that's exactly what you're asking me to do, isn't it, dragon?"

"..."

"You're asking me to stab Viola in the back and join your side. Change teams. Betray someone for your betterment."

"...I'd prefer to call it coming to your senses and understanding the difference between right and wrong."

"Tomato, tomahto."

Olfel felt more confident now. He was no longer out of his element, forcibly kept backwards by his height and the lack of force and power compared to the rest of the party. This was what he did. Talking, negotiating, that was his bread and butter, and he could do this all day long. It might not keep the dragon off-balance, but he could tell that the platinum beast was not entirely happy with his redefinition of the terms.

And now, to go in for the kill.

"Of course, it comes out the same. I'm willing to do either one, for the right incentives. So...what are your plans for me, when it comes down to it?"

"Well..."

"Come on, I know you have plans. You wouldn't come here without something in mind. You know what you want. So, let me hear it."

Otherwise, he couldn't say what he wanted. And that was key in a negotiation. Not knowing what you wanted meant that the other person had all the power. It was a game of give and take, and he planned to be doing a lot more taking than giving, if he could get away with it. He was playing with fire trying this with a dragon, but Olfel Darkbeard was good at his job, very, very good at his job. He was going to get what he wanted, one way or another.

And so the dwarf sat, and so he waited. The dragon shifted in his seat again and again, occasionally opening his mouth, and then shutting it again. The clear signs of pleasure danced back and forth across his face, showing that the kobolds were staying busy on the other side of the table. Olfel hid his smile at that, sitting there as patiently as only a dwarf could do as the seconds ticked by.

Eventually, the dragon cleared his throat. The kobolds pulled away, one with a white-stained face, and the beast looked him in the eye.

"Alright. If we're going to talk about what we want, then let's do that. I want you, as Claimed, and no longer dwarven."

"I see. And anything besides that?"

"Guaranteed obedience."

"Hmm, not sure that's a good fit for me."

"I think that you'll have to take that one. We both know how ambitious you are, and how much you're going to push for more as the years go by. For my own safety, I want something that will keep you under control."

"You want a leash, then."

"Something like that."

Not ideal, considering that he liked to have some flexibility with his contracts, but if he fought the leash, then it would only get that much stronger. Better to jump in and have some voice on it. He slowly nodded.

"Depending on the kind of leash, I can see myself accepting that. But I would want something in return."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Stronger songs, and power like your eyes."

"You want to control people that badly?"

"It's the only sure way to power."

"..."

"It seems fair enough. If I can't control you, then I should be able to control others."

The songs would be enough to be satisfied with, honestly, but if he was going to accept the other things - particularly with any sort of grace - he wanted the dragon to realize what a favor that was. He wanted this beast in his debt. Either he got more power directly, or he'd be owed a favor further down the line with other negotiations. Either way, he got something that he wanted out of it.

Olfel leaned back, crossing one leg over the other. He twisted his fingers through his beard, watching as the dragon considered. He imagined that he knew what was being thought of. Would it be worth it? Could he keep control, or would he have to worry about Olfel pulling some hare-brained stunt further down the line to get free of it? What would happen if the dwarf started using that power to control others to stage an uprising?

And he knew that the dragon was weighing that against his own chances of success in getting through the dungeon, and Viola's, as well. If the beast spent too long here, then Viola would get to the end, and there'd be no chance to make her a similar offer. Not that Olfel imagined it going well - at least, without him - but he knew that the dragon would try. And that was his leverage.

He whistled to himself, knowing that time was on his side. The dragon groaned, rubbing his forehead.

"Fine. You can have the power -"

"Splendid."

"On two conditions."

"Oh, I think I'm already doing you a favor here."

"No, we're doing each other favors. Let's not get that twisted."

"Hmm, let me hear the conditions, then."

"One, you cannot use that power on your fellow Claimed or their followers without my explicit permission."

That was fair enough. It was a simple precaution to keep him from displacing his other party members, so that was more or less expected. He nodded his acceptance.

"Two, you can use the new eye abilities to gain power, but you cannot use it to order bad things."

"...Define bad."

"You know what I mean."

"Are we just talking the 'illegal' kind of bad, or bad in general?"

"...We'll hash out the details, but the baseline is illegal."

Damn. That was a set-back, but not too bad. He could still work his way around that if he had the time. He could negotiate for something bigger and better, and then -

"Is that enough for you?"

"I think that I can live with those restrictions, if we can settle a few other details. Like the size of my new body, for example."

"I'm not making you bigger than an orc."

"Oh, I'm not thinking of just size. But that would have been nice. No, no, I'm thinking...features."

"..."

"You have the time to talk, of course?"

"...You really are a clever one."

Of course he was. Red-Arms had been the crazy one, Viola the leader, and Kyo'Thar the brains, but when it came down to cleverness, for knowing just what to say, he had long ago cornered the market. He smiled as the dragon nodded.

"Fine, but quickly."

"Of course, of course."

He wasn't sure how long he was able to delay the dragon through their various negotiations, but he knew that he had made it take far longer than the beast would have wanted. Olfel kept his arms folded and his pose relaxed through it all, even when he was at his most tense, but it seemed to work. The dragon was always the one that was getting finicky, getting a little off his game, and that meant that he had the advantage at all times.

Finally, they reached the end of their debates. The dragon shook his head.

"That's enough. Do you take it or leave it, dwarf?"

"Hmmm...I become your Claimed, which means that I lose being a dwarf, become a stocky sort of lizard that has extra abilities - transformable claws, 'brute' form, ocular hypnotic abilities, and twice a day size shifting up to ogre size. In return, I serve you, I do what you say, and I am not allowed to say no to any command from you that benefits you, the other Claimed, or the goals of that group. Is that about right?"

"For now, yes."

"With options to renegotiate after six months?"

"Yes, yes, fine, yes. Whatever."

"Hmmmm..."

Was he able to wait for more? Would he be able to push? Probably, but the dragon was also getting antsy. He didn't want his new boss to start retracting all these offers. After all, one of the tricks to negotiations was to know when you'd won enough and to not push the other person away from the bargaining table. It was time to close.

"Deal."

"Finally."

"Afraid of losing your other prize?" Olfel asked.

"Not worried of losing her. I'm more concerned about breaking her."

"...I can see that," he admitted, shaking his head. "She's right on the cusp."

"She was. She's gone further, since."

"Then why are you waiting around here?"

"Because you slowed me down."

"...Right."

"I'm going to leave you with the spell. Enjoy your transformation, Olfel, Claimed of Audron."

Audron. Well, at least he finally had a -

"NNNGH!"

The dwarf fell forward as his body was hit with the magic, feeling everything start shaking as he coughed and shuddered for breath. His entire body felt...off, wrong, feeling like it was slowly swelling up from the inside, his skin feeling strained and tight.

The dragon was gone when he looked up, and as he moved his face, hair started falling. His beard, first, the long braids falling off his chin and cheeks, dragged out of his neck and his jawline. He groaned at the loss of it, as any dwarf would have done, but he told himself that he had bargained for the best in exchange. He wouldn't be losing everything, just part of it. Just part of it.

He stared down at the ground, curling his fingers as he watched his arms go bald, the hairs falling out of them, his knuckles doing the same. As soon as he was left with nothing but skin, more of the transformation began to kick in, leaving him with less and less to call dwarven and more...

More to call himself a reptile.

Blue-green started spreading across his knuckles, going towards his wrists and heading towards his arms. His nails turned white, growing longer, claw-like, stiff and pointed like daggers. He'd bargained for the ability to grow them at will and shrink them too, knowing that it was important to be armed at all times, but this...this made the transformation real. He could see what was happening to him, what would be his future shape, what he would live like for the rest of his life.

It wasn't that bad, really. Not compared to what it could have been.

As he made himself breathe more evenly, he felt the cracking sensation of bones shifting inside of him. He wasn't getting much bigger, but he was getting thicker, heavier across the shoulders and down the spine. Not surprising. With the other things that he'd asked for, from the ability to grow and have limited transformation, his body needed plenty of mass to support itself and a strong base to keep from falling over or collapsing in. Still, the feeling of the tight muscles running across his shoulder and back were...different. Nice, but different.

He fumbled with the buttons of his shirt, pulling it off with a bit of a grunt and a shiver. The clothes might not survive the transformation, or even fit afterward, but he could sell them if needed. Olfel managed to get his shirt off just before -

"NNNGH!"

Spikes were slowly pushing out from his spine, getting longer, thicker, heavier. They didn't get longer than six inches for the biggest ones, but each one pushed out with a great deal of force from his back. He reached over his shoulders, touching them, and felt the sheer sharpness at the tip. It would be difficult for someone to attack him from behind without getting impaled, he realized.

The dragon was looking out for him, it seemed, because he hadn't asked for that transformation. He'd have to thank Audron later.

As he felt the spasming shift to his lower parts, he wiggled out of his pants. A little harder with his hips already growing, but with the claws, he managed to sever the worst of the buttons without cutting through the rest of his clothes. He pushed them away, getting to his feet almost in the nude, barely managing to scavenge his loincloth. He stood up as his tail started growing under it, pushing the back flap up.

Okay...weight gain...bigger ass, larger hips...dragon likes them big, doesn't he?

Didn't explain the kobolds, but then again, he imagined that was a dragon-kobold thing. They just seemed to mesh together.

As he shifted from foot to foot, he could feel that same thickening going through his lower limbs. Even as the muscles had grown in his shoulders and back, he could feel his thighs and calves getting thicker, too, giving him some sturdiness to keep him upright even in the most extreme conditions. He panted softly, huffing under his breath, and he rolled his head around on his shoulders as he tried not to get overwhelmed by the feeling.

"Mmmph...gonna be...very strong from this..."

Olfel forced himself to be happy about it, to enjoy what was going on. This was giving up a lot, but he was getting power from it. This would be to his long-term advantage, and that was good, right?

He hoped it would be. He needed it to be.

As his feet spread, becoming broad, thick things with sharp claws just as his fingers had, he flipped his loincloth out of the way. As a dwarf, he had never been particularly blessed down there, something that had been noticed at some of the camp wash-ups that he'd needed to partake in. This time, however -

"The one change I'm not that bothered by..."

He fondled his dick a few times as it started pushing forward, slowly growing into something that was more worthwhile of belonging to him, and to a dragon. He chuckled, shaking his head as it reached eight inches, still growing as he dropped it down again.

Tail, arms, back, dick, ass...legs...that just leaves -

"NNNGH!"

Face. That was it. The face was slowly coming in. He held his hands to his cheeks, huffing and puffing as his lips and nose started push-pulling forward, gradually getting dragged out of his face and into existence. As he stared out over his forming snout, he did his best not to get too upset about the lack of beard.

Think of the power. Think of the power.

That sustained him, and he managed to calm down again. Soon, the snout was in, and all that was left were the little bits and pieces that were being fixed up and down his body, the muscle coming in, the new ways of moving, and of course, the new powers. He could feel that bubbling down in his core, the new abilities that he bargained for, and he imagined what he could do with that.

A lot, he imagined. A lot more than he could before.

Good luck with Viola, dragon...or not...

Whoever won, he was better off than he was. If Viola won, then he had all this power and the dragon henchman for ten years, besides. If the dragon won, then she didn't know that he'd stabbed her in the back.

Either way, he won.

The End

Summary: Olfel reaches his conclusion about what the dragon wants, and decides to try for a different approach.

Tags: M/solo, nudity, M/M, dragon, kobold, dwarf, transformation, lizardman, scales, oral, under the table sex, diplomacy, bargaining, dungeon, series, fantasy, cock growth,