Securing assets
#11 of Business Venture in Seeds
"So let me get this right Zoe, you want us each to take a swig of one of your brews and see what happens?" I asked, incredulously.
She nodded happily, a line of drinks on the bench beside her.
"She's your girl Crest, you are on your own." Rentil said, turning and shaking her head.
Most of the others followed, except for Krix.
I looked at her, raising an eyebrow.
"You two... You say that in another week we will be free. You gave back something to me and my daughter I never thought I would have again." She sighed and before either of us could react, she grabbed a glass and swallowed the contents. Looking a bit worried she blinked a few times, "Hey that's not bad." she said, smiling.
"How does it make you feel?" Zoe was all over her, checking the fox's temperature, bringing a digit up to check her pulse. She almost looked put out, "It would work by now or not at all, looks like that temperature burns all the drug out of the drink. Ok next one!"
"Wait wait wait." Krix said, "For each one of these, thirty gold, when we are freed."
I grinned and tried not to laugh.
Zoe came back fast as you please, "Sure, so" handing her a drink, "this will be thirty."
As Krix took it I cut in, "No babe, its sixty, count the first one, she is braver than I am."
The fox raised the glass to me and downed it, "Ahh, again, good taste and..." She almost fell down, "Wow, inshtant drunk!" She slurred. I caught her by the shoulder.
"Damn it that should have been at least a little narcotic." Zoe cursed.
I piped in, "Hun, alcohol, even if it had a ridiculous amount, wouldn't have affected her that fast."
She looked thoughtful for a moment, then just smiled and nodded.
It took nearly a sixty-fourth for the fox to regain her composure, during that time Merrin had wandered up, "You said thirty a glass?"
At Zoe's happy grin she reached out blindly taking a glass and downing it.
"Ohhh, yeah, that's nice, holy goddess!" She fell to the ground bucking her hips, moaning and crying about how good it felt.
"Now that's more like it. I think I just found something we can sell." Zoe crowed.
It was then the recovered Krix came back, watching the writhing and whimpering dog-girl. "What happened to her?" She asked.
"She got thirty gold." I replied with a grin. "Hey Zoe, what was in that one you gave Merrin?"
"Uh," she flicked through her notes, "it was just juice that was left in the open for a week to ferment, had to water it down to be palatable, about nine tenths water."
"I would pay thirty gold to just feel that." the fox muttered under her breath.
I handed her a glass of 'juice', "I think when we get back to town, glasses of that will be selling for a lot more than thirty gold each."
Krix looked down into the glass, "Double it, I want sixty per glass."
"Whatever." my mate called from her pile of notes, "That one will put you at a hundred and twenty. Oh and its properly fermented juice that is then distilled."
The fox just shrugged and lifted it to her lips, taking a long drink but not neglecting to taste it. "That's a bit more fiery going down, it... hrmm." She started waving her paw in front of her face and sat down on her rear giggling.
"There's your concentrated narcotic babe." I told Zoe.
She made some further notes and said, "Well, one left" I looked at the glass, it held about a shot of black sludge, "it is fermented and triple distilled, once to remove the alcohol, once to remove the narcotic and a last time to remove any water." She was looking at me hopefully.
I looked to Krix, still just smiling happily, occasionally waving a paw in front of her face, then over to the still panting Merrin, she still hadn't touched herself but apparently couldn't stop orgasming.
"You really expect me to drink that?" I asked, She nodded, "You, girl, are damn lucky I love you." I raised the drink and shotted it down.
The after taste was nothing spectacular, not exactly nice either, but tolerable. Things started to sharpen, I noticed Zoe writing in her book and the more she wrote the slower she got, I spun around to see the girls not involved in our little taste test party, writhing happily in the bushes, and I realised I could see every detail, every hair on them, the seeds travelled extremely slowly. This was interesting.
I took a step away from the table and realised I was moving just as slowly as everything else. I tried to say something, it came out sounding almost normal, but Zoe very slowly just looked at me strange. In what felt like a quarter of a day the world slowly sped back up. As I realised I could focus at normal speed again I explained to Zoe what had happened.
"Don't think that's going to sell too well, but I have a few bottles of it, I am sure someone will want to be able to think that quickly." She said, taking notes.
As we sat eating dinner, it dawned on me that today was supposed to be their day off, and yet three of the girls had chosen to go back to the bushes anyway.
We spent the last week packing our stuff away, loading the wagons and harvesting and processing as much of the juice as we could.
We had what juice products we could pack loaded in one wagon, atop half the bliss and loaded all the girls in the other on top of the other half.
We had left four big buckets of kernel grindings in the weatherproofed shed so we would have a head-start when we got back at best, and at worst a few buckets of water.
I looked at Zoe as we neared the clearing that would lead up to the city, this would be interesting. Signalling to Krix that we were going to halt, Zoe eased the team to the side and tied the reigns up, "Your the people person Crest, you judge them."
She handed me two things, a little snuff box holding some of the purified bliss and a knife.
"Yeah." I took both, I really didn't want to have to do this, but this is our business, "If any of them look to want to talk I will do it. Just... don't hate me later if I have to." I didn't look back into her face, couldn't, more like it.
Lifting a handkerchief around my muzzle and securing it, I tucked the knife under the belt in the trousers I wore, at the small of my back.
"What's the hold up Crester?" Krix asked, "What... What's wrong?"
I sighed, "Ok, listen, you all know about this right, how this is most certainly not just illegal but if anyone outside us seven know we are sunk, right?" There were nods all around, so far so good.
"Line up, I need to ask you each a few questions." I told them and they followed my order.
Jen fell in first and I put my paw on her chest, "Not you sweets, go up and see Zoe please."
She looked up at me and turned to walk off, Kren was next in line, fuck.
"Kren, now, when we buy your freedom, your not going to sell us out are you?" I asked her and her eyes flicked to where Jen had walked, I let out a breath, she had too much to live for here.
I stepped along to Krix, who was eyeing me but kept slipping her eyes to either side, to her daughter and... what? "She is safe, no matter what now right?" the fox asked me.
I nodded, "So far as we are all safe, you have my word your daughter and her mate will be." she looked satisfied. So was I.
"Merrin," I began, "why would you stay with us?"
She just laughed.
I tensed, ready to flick the powder at her but all of a sudden she read my posture and turned serious, "Crest, babe, I am here because you said you would free me, don't get me wrong, the money is nice, but you take this collar off my neck and I will be your girl in a way you will not be able to buy."
I smiled at that.
Rentil laughed, "I am here for that, but mainly the money, you pay me what you promise and I am your girl."
I saw it, her eyes flickered at mention of money. "No other reason Rentil?" I asked, turning slightly to the side as Zoe came walking toward us, using the action to hide me drawing the knife with my off hand.
"N-" she started to say, I tensed.
"STOP, she's here for me, alright." Krix exclaimed all at once, I looked back to the former man's features, "I... felt embarrassed about it. A guy shouldn't want to have these sort of things done, but..."
Truth.
She turned and reached out and hugged Rentil. I saw now, the lie was to protect her lover.
I turned completely back to Zoe, hiding the knife as I turned and passed it back to her, smiling.
"Company is coming, a particular big panther is at the front of it." Zoe said.
We waited for Luke to get there, "Just where have you lot been? We have been waiting out here for over a week. You got slaves?" He asked.
In short order we swapped wagons, swapping the juice to our wagon and attaching a chain to the slave collars, "Sorry girls," I said, "but you know the laws in here.".
Grumbles and nods acknowledged the action.
"Just how are you going to get all that inside?" I asked Luke.
The bastard just grinned and tapped the side of his short muzzle.
We followed the wagons down and as we watched, every guardsman turned around and looked the other way as they rumbled through the gates but immediately spun around when we tried to go through.
"Need to inspect the wa... I know you don't I miss? Still have the wolf?" The big bull asked.
Just then Brix poked her head out and I showed him the papers.
He nodded, "Yeah that's fine miss, but I need to ask, what are you carrying?".
"Our worker slaves as well as some fruit juice sir" Zoe replied, I handed over some paperwork for the slaves while she lifted one of the jugs forward. I could see the marking, it was one of the benign 'just tastes nice' ones. "Its fresh, would you boys like a drink?"
Cups and mugs appeared out of nowhere and laughing she filled each and every one of them.
"Well miss, from what my list says, if its a non-alcoholic beveridge, there is no tax on it, please have a nice day!" The bull said, waving us in.
We drove through town pulling up in the stables at Trish's bar.
"Why are we stopping here?" Kren asked.
It was Jen who smiled and said, "This is my mum's bar, I used to work here!"
I led them all around the back way, each carrying a large can of 'juice'.
"Who the hell are you..." Mal began when she saw us coming in the back way, "Zoe! Crest!" Her eyes scanned around before they widened on her much more sombrely dressed charge "Jen!" She wrapped the girl in a hug.
I had the girls put down their loads and once their reunion was over Mal exclaimed, "What is all this!"
Zoe strode around the big milk cans, pointing to each in sequence, "Uh, ok, hallucinogenic, causes constant orgasms, causes instant intoxication..." She walked around and pointed out all of them.
I pulled out the three bottles I had been carrying, "And this stuff, it makes you really fucked up."
"Whats that one?" Mal asked, inquisitively, pointing at the half empty jug in Zoe's arms.
We looked at each other, "Its juice mum." Jen said grinning at her foster mother.
"Whatever whatever." The squirrel said, "Come on in and just, uh, chain your slaves up out..." she trailed off as she saw the expression on her daughters face. "Uh, what's wrong?"
"Mal, the main thing we need is some coin, need to get some administrative stuff done with slave registrations." as I said it the barkeep looked at me, reached into her pocket and pulled out a single blank money counters bond.
"Take this." She said, handing it to me.
We left the drinks in her knowledgeable paws and started walking to the administration building for the city.
"Next please!" The clerk said.
I stepped up, paperwork for each slave in my hands. "Hi, I want to pay off and discharge all of these please." I said, laying them down in front of the rodentine man.
"But, this ones an orange, there's an extra fee..." He trailed off at the pleasant look on my muzzle.
"Just do as I ask, I can pay all the fees." I told him.
Within minutes I had their paperwork and was told to head around to the side for their collar removal.
"Oh, and about the fees, they come to eight hundred gold pieces in total." the man told me.
"How much of that was the orange?" I asked.
"Seven hundred and ninety." He told me succinctly. "He... he assaulted a noble's son."
I signed the bond, wrote the amount on it and handed it over.
I left the place to find a very nervous looking Krix among the others.
"Ok, its all paid for, we can go around the side and get these collars off you." I said and a few of them cheered, "But first, Krix, why did you beat up a noble's son?"
At that Kren immediately stepped in front of her father, "He was trying to rape me." She said, tears in her eyes.
I looked back to Krix, "Money well spent then, come on."
I am indeed good at reading people, and what I saw, in each of their eyes when the collars were removed, made me trust these women, not just with my life, but even with my money.
Scary stuff, I thought.
Yes, now I am thirsty for juice, damn it.