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The following story is a work of fiction. It contains adult themes and situations and should not be read by anyone under the age of eighteen. The characters depected are copyright Radical Gopher. No character in this story is under the age of eighteen.

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PINS AND NEEDLES - Part VIII

Victor glanced at his watch for the tenth time since leaving their house. It had taken them an hour and ten minutes to drive into the city and another seventeen minutes to find the shop they wanted. Assuming they could conduct their business in less than thirty minutes and that traffic was light, they'd arrive home about four hours before moonrise. He looked up at the sign above the store. "The Enchanted Realm; Tarot Readings, Mystic Knickknacks and Tea Room". He looked at Gwen. "Are you sure this is the place?"

"Positive," replied the skunkette. "It was the only ad in the phone book that glowed when I used the mystic eye spell Sapphire showed me."

"Which means this place is a legitimate magic shop?"

"Yes... provided I cast the spell correctly. Only a true magic shop would be able to place a charm on their advertising visible only to mages and the like."

"Well," the todd said, "legitimate or not, I hope they have what Sapphire needs." He opened the door of the car and stepped out into the street. Moments later both he and Gwen were walking up the short flight of stairs and entering the store.

The first thing he noticed was the smell. The shop assailed his nostrils with heavy spice, incense, scented candles and perfume. No single aroma dominated. Instead they blended together into a popery of scents. Victor felt slightly relieved. With so many strong scents filling the room the chances of his dragon musk causing problems was minimal at best.

The shop walls were painted a deep purple trimmed with red and black. The large single room was divided into sections. One held several bookshelves, another had tables on which rested delicate, china cups and silver tea services. A third area was reserved for a variety of objects to include umbrellas, staves, swords, knives, mirrors, candles, candleholders, jewelry, and the like. A number of mystic-themed paintings and tapestries lined the wall. Gwen went over to a shelf full of miscellaneous pots and other accoutrements

"Can I help you?"

Victor almost jumped out of his fur. He looked around and spotted a short, heavily wrinkled Asian woman peeking at him from around the corner of a bookshelf. Her skin had the same, brownish-yellow pallor of ancient parchment. Her hair was gray with a few stubborn streaks of ebon running through it. She wore a black, ankle length dress topped with a burgundy shawl of indeterminate age and style. Her smile was as conservative as her garb.

"Why... err, yes! Yes you can help us," the todd stuttered. "We're looking for a few ingredients for a potion..."

"Potion...You? Not possible," she muttered. "You're a construct. Constructs aren't mages, their familiars. You look more like a college professor." She peered at him for a moment. "A very young one, yes, but a sage, definitely... not a mage."

"I never said I was a mage," Victor asserted. "I'm simply looking for some ingredients I need."

"You have a list?" Victor pulled a piece of paper from his jacket, which the woman promptly snatched from him.

"Hey..."

"Quiet now... Let me read." Muttering to herself the old woman worked her way through the list. Gwen came up behind the todd and handed him a small, though heavy iron cauldron and a crystal mortar and pistil. "Who..."

"The shopkeeper... I think," Victor replied. The elderly human looked up from the list.

"Black rose pollen? Do you know how rare... and expensive that is?"

"Actually... No." the Zorr answered.

"It's very rare," she informed him. "So much so I don't sell it to just anyone off the street."

"We're not just anyone," Gwen insisted. "And we do have a need for it."

"So you say," she observed. The old woman studied them for a moment, then walked behind the counter and opened her cash register. Victor noticed that like most things in the shop it was an antique made from burnished brass and edged in silver. The human pulled out a pair of Pince-nez glasses and clipped them to her nose. They made her eyes seem five times bigger than they were. She studied Gwen for several seconds then raised her eyebrows.

"Well I'll be! You're a mage, or at least an apprentice one. Never seen that in a construct before." She turned her attention to Victor. "At least I was right about you. You're her familiar. Interesting how the thread connecting you is so strong."

"What about the Black Rose pollen?" Gwen asked.

"Yes... Certainly. Just take a seat over there for a few minutes while I go fetch it." She turned and called out in a loud voice. "NIKKO! CUSTOMERS! BRING THE TEA!" The old woman disappeared behind a beaded curtain. Seconds later a young twelve year old girl came out carrying an English tea service with two cups. She quickly and efficiently set places for Victor and Gwen, poured the tea then left through the same curtain.

The skunkette looked down at the beverage. "You think it's safe to drink?"

Victor shrugged. "Why not. Unless you can think of a reason she'd want to poison her customers." He took a sip. She quickly followed suit.

They drank in silence for several minutes before Gwen spoke. "From the way Sapphire described magic, I would have thought it so rare a place like this couldn't exist."

The Zorr chuckled. "Never underestimate the capitalist spirit. There's always a nitch for almost anything, if it can turn a profit. Besides, she once told me magic was much more prevalent than one would think. It's just that few people recognize it when they see it. They prefer words like chance or fate."

"You've got that right," replied the old woman as she once more entered the shop. "Magic's everywhere. It's just its true practitioners who are few and far between." She smiled knowingly. "Makes for slow business."

"I thought being the only such shop within several hundred miles would give you a decent sized clientele," Victor observed.

The old woman humphed.. "I wish. Only one out of a hundred coming in here ask for anything from my 'special' stock; and only one out of a thousand of those are true mages. Most are just wanna-be witches or warlocks playing at something they don't understand."

"How do you keep this place going then?"

The old woman chuckled. "I serve tea, do tarot readings and sell rubes my shelf stock of bric-a-brac. It makes them happy and keeps me and my granddaughter fed. In this world you can't really ask for more." She placed a small wooden box on the table in front of Gwen. "Your Black Rose pollen, my dear. The other ingredients you can find on the shelves behind you."

"Thank you," the skunkette replied. "How much do I owe?"

"Four pounds, seven for the lot."

"You take English currency?" Victor asked.

"Everyone's a comedian," the old woman grunted. "That's four pounds, seven ounces of gold, you helot."

"Gold?" Victor did some quick calculations. That's over ninety-thousand dollars!" the Zorr gulped.

"I said it was rare, didn't I? And I don't want any of that synthetic stuff. Only real gold will do."

"I'm sorry," Gwen replied. "We don't happen to have any gold. Would you consider a trade?"

The old woman looked at her suspiciously. "What, pray tell would you deem valuable enough to trade for Black Rose pollen?"

"Dragon's musk."

The shopkeeper's eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open. "You can get Dragon's musk?" she whispered. She looked at the skunkette and frowned skeptically. "I don't believe you. Dragon's haven't existed on this world for a thousand years, and the few still alive refuse to cross over from Haven."

"Why's that?" asked Victor, "and what's Haven?"

The old woman simply shook her head in dismay. "It's sad to see what passes for a classical education these days. Haven's where they live and they don't come here because they're so fed up with mankind they've sworn to never return until we've wiped ourselves out, once and for all." She quickly turned back to Gwen. "How could you possibly get Dragon's musk?"

"In case you haven't noticed," Gwen said slyly, "We're not exactly human, are we?"

The old woman thought about it for a moment. "No... No you're not. Okay... I'll grant you there's something here that I don't understand, but if you can get me twenty ounces of Dragon's musk, it's a deal."

"On credit?" the skunkette smiled sweetly.

"What do you think I'm running here," the shopkeeper snapped, "a bank?" She stared at Gwen with her eyes squinted. "Prove to me right now that you have what you say and I'll give you the pollen and three days to get me the musk."

The dancer smiled and turned to Victor. "Why don't you offer the nice lady your hand?"

The Zorr dutifully held out his hand, which the old woman seized and examined. "I don't see anything unusual..." She stopped and gave out a long, trembling moan as his scent finally seeped through the other aromas that filled the room. She let go of his hand and stepped back, trying to clear her head. "Oh... Oh My! That's... That's really the good stuff. What the heck did you do... bath in it?"

"It's a long story," Victor replied.

"So... do we have a deal?" Gwen asked.

The storekeeper had picked up a Japanese fan from behind the counter and was desperately waving it in front of her face. She smiled and the todd could almost see the dollar signs in her eyes. "I don't have to hoard that just for mages. I can sell it anyone for as much as six thousand an ounce, and they'd willingly pay."

"You could," the skunkette said, "providing we have a deal and providing you don't tell them it's Dragon musk."

"Are you kidding? I'll sell it under my own label, Grandma Din-Din's Love Scent. How soon can you get my 21 ounces?"

"Within three days, as promised, but I thought we agreed on twenty?" observed Gwen.

"We did... but you wouldn't begrudge an old lady her own private reserve, would you?"

* * * *

Sapphire was already hard at work when Victor and Gwen returned home. The skunkette handed her the bag of ingredients and they both went into the kitchen. The todd followed, watching with curiosity as they ground, sliced and prepared the various items for use in their potion.

"I don't see why you can't just conjure up the potion you want, or at least the ingredients you needed," Victor commented.

The vixen gave him a small peck on the cheek as she whirled around the kitchen. "Silly fox. I don't have the power needed to create a potion whole cloth out of the ether. Not since becoming mortal." She picked up a small marker and drew a circle around one of the gas burners on the stove. This she surrounded with symbols and words in an ancient script.

"It's the same for the ingredients," Gwen continued, putting the iron cauldron she had purchased on the stove's burner. "Either one of us could spell up the ingredients but their essence would be tainted by the magic we used, and that would change the effect they had in the potion."

Victor chuckled. "There seems to be a lot more chemistry in magic than I thought."

"When it comes to applying basic principals, yes. Though a mage would tend to say there's a lot more alchemy to science." The skunkette reached into a cupboard and handed him a large mason jar. "Be a darling and go start filling this, would you?"

"With what?"

"Piss...so we can start distilling your dragon musk."

Victor looked with some dismay at the sixty-ounce jar. "You want me to fill this?"

"Just drink lots of liquids," Sapphire suggested. "Hot green tea would give you the best results."

"Naturally," the todd replied, returning her earlier kiss. "If anyone needed me I'll be in the bathroom."

The vixen chuckled, gently patting her slightly rounded abdomen. "Welcome to my world."

* * * *

The shadows of sunset had entwined themselves with the night by the time the three furs arrived at the back of the township's small jail. "I hope they're still all there, especially their leader," Sapphire muttered.

"They should be," Victor replied. "There are few judges that like holding court on Sunday so they still have to be arraigned before they're moved to the county jail."

Gwen delicately placed the fore and middle fingers of both hands against her temples. She took a deep breath and focused. The fingers glowed a soft green. "They're inside alright. I can feel them." She looked over at the todd who was busily undressing and folding his clothes. "How long until moonrise?"

"About fifteen minutes, I think. Maybe sooner, I'm starting to tingle slightly." He rolled his trousers up and slipped them into a backpack, which he handed to Gwen. He stood for a moment, stretching his arms above his head and standing on tiptoe. "Okay, then... Here we go!"

Victor took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Once more his form began shrinking, melting away into something else. Red fur was replaced by green and gold scale. His tail became stouter and proportionately longer, even as he shrank. A pair of bat-like wings sprouted from his back and he grimaced slightly. That part always did hurt. The dragon looked up at the skunkette and vixen. "Okay. I'm ready."

Gwen reached into the backpack and pulled out a small vial containing a thick, golden liquid dotted with black specks. She bent over to hand it to the pseudo dragon. She almost dropped it when she got a slight whiff of Victor's scent. Shuddering, she handed the vial off and quickly stood. "Oh Gods!" she whimpered. "Your musk is even stronger than it was last night."

Sapphire reached over to steady the skunkette, wrapping a protective arm around the girl. "That's because the moon is at its fullest tonight, so its influence will be that much stronger." She looked down at the dragon. "Remember... He'll be asleep, just flit over and pour it down his throat."

"What if his mouth's closed?"

"Well, then hold his nose until he opens it." The vixen turned back to Gwen. "Are you ready?"

"I think so, though to be honest I'd feel a lot better if you were casting the sleep spell. I've never tried anything this big."

"You'll do fine," Sapphire said reassuringly. "There's always a first time for everything. Just focus on your spell. Besides," she whispered conspiratorially, "I have to use what manna I can to protect my unborn kits. Magic and maternity are a difficult combination to balance."

"You still haven't told Victor about having more than one kit, have you?"

"I will... When the time's right," the vixen smiled.

"You are absolutely incorrigible," Gwen muttered, glancing over at the todd to see if he'd heard anything. Apparently he hadn't.

The skunkette took a deep breath and focused her mind inward, once again tapping into the manna stored there. She wove her hands together as the djin had earlier instructed her, then focused on the building. A soft, green luminance traced itself around the structure then faded as if seeping into the walls themselves. She pictured the light filtering its way through every room, and watched in her mind's eye as the occupants fell asleep one by one.

"Done!" sighed Gwen. She looked down at the pseudo-dragon. "You have about ten minutes, then they start waking up."

"Right!" said Victor, launching himself toward the jail, potion in hand. A few swift flaps and he found himself staring in through an open side window. Squeezing through the security bars, he quickly found himself in a small room filled with monitors, communications gear and system servers. A police officer lay with his head cradled in his arms at a nearby desk. He examined the control board for a moment, then switched off the building's surveillance system.

The door leading out into the hallway was closed, but with a little effort the dragon was able to push down on the handle and lever it open. He slipped quietly into the station's interior. He quickly found a bulletin board that showed the building's general layout. Fluttering down another corridor he passed two more cops, both sound asleep on the tile floor.

Victor reached a heavy, steel door. Next to it was an emergency lock box containing several cell door keys. Finding no alarm wires, he broke the emergency glass and pulled out the two keys within. The first, a large, flat key slid easily into the lock for the steel door. Bracing himself against the frame the dragon managed to turn the key and pull open the heavy door.

Looking in he saw two rows of cells, four on each side of the corridor. The first three were empty. The fourth contained an elderly drunk who snored noisily in spite of the spell effect. He quickly checked the next two cells, sliding between the bars, and found three of the thugs who had attacked Gwen. Unfortunately, the one he had bitten was not among them. A quick check of the rest of the cells showed them to be empty. Victor thought quickly. He was sure the other Human Leaguer couldn't have been arraigned, therefore he had to be somewhere in the station; but where?

Suddenly it occurred to him. Where else would a suspect be taken except the interrogation room? He glanced at the clock. Seven minutes had passed already and his body tingled like mad with the approach of moonrise. Victor flapped his way back to the building diagram and quickly found the interrogation room. Reaching the room he found it locked. He looked in through a window in the door. There seated alone in the room was the human he'd been looking for. His head rested against the table.

Victor pushed against the door handle and discovered it was locked. Looking across the room he spotted a large mirror. Undoubtedly it was used for observation. Below it sat a large slot through which objects could be passed between the rooms. The pseudo-dragon pushed against the handle of the adjoining room. It swung open easily and he found himself staring into the interrogation room and across the table at the human leaguer. As he watched the man sitting before him slowly stirred and lifted his head. He starred at his own image in the mirror for a moment or two then smiled wickedly. His eyes had become a solid, indigo.

Outside the building Gwen sat, focusing on the structure and trying to stretch her spell out as long as possible. Sapphire sat next to her, encouraging the apprentice mage. She looked up in the sky and watched as the moon slowly climbed above the horizon.

"I hope he delivered the potion in time," the skunkette muttered.

"Whether he has or hasn't, we'll know soon enough," the vixen replied. Almost as if on cue, one part of the building exploded outward. Debris rained down on the two women. Gwen was quick to throw a makeshift shield above them. They both looked upward. There, towering at least twenty feet into the night sky was a black-scaled dragon.

"Oh... Hell!" muttered Gwen.

To be continued...