Chapter 42

Colors in My Claws and Fangs

Bailey was adamant that I not help put things away. I wasn’t to touch any of the figurines, dice, maps, or tokens. While he, Boggo, and Ella cleaned up, he asked me the usual questions: What was I? Where did I come from? How old was I? What was my kind called? What magics did I have? Between swallowing dreambons, I told him as much as I knew, as much as I told anyone. After some chit-chat about their next game campaign and everything was all cleaned up, we said goodbye, and Bailey let us out.

“Now that you’re here,” Boggo said, “we can sell warm-warm beer to the red besties. They’ve been waiting! Did you ever make that contract with Hawkin?”

“The contract will be between me and the red besties,” I said. “I’ll take whatever they can trade with. I’ll use my Appraise skill if it isn’t coin.”

“When can we sell beer?”

“Now.”

Ella tugged Boggo’s elbow. “Remember that chamber where we played Roley-Holey with the tall ceiling?” Boggo nodded, and she said, “Follow me!”

Ella sped off. Boggo and I followed. After half an hour of turning down many streets, Ella stopped suddenly between a bakery and a textile shop. Monstrously thick trees lined the street. Ella pointed at the cobbles at her feet.

“It’s right down here, Thrush. You can do your magic thing and meet us below.”

She grabbed Boggo by the arm and hauled him to one of the thick trees.

“Are you sure?” Boggo said. He stumbled behind her.

“C'mon!”

Boggo followed Ella up the bark of a tree. Ella jumped into a knothole and disappeared.

Boggo paused and said, “Won’t the red bestie council get mad?”

Ella appeared back at the knothole. She grabbed Boggo’s hands and said, “They’re always mad at me anyways. I’m not scared of them!” She yanked him in.

My gaze fell to the street beneath me. I cut through the street, through the earth, and through dozens of red bestie tunnels until I arrived at a chamber large enough to fit in. It was empty aside for a few pouches. The ground was covered in red fur, like a layer of pine needles. It was quiet for a moment, and then I heard approaching footsteps. Ella and Boggo flew into the chamber.

But then Ella said, “I’ll be right back!” She left.

Boggo and I had enough time to catch up on things, shoot dice, and barter back and forth for dreambons. Ella later returned. An elder red bestie accompanied her.

“Boggo, Thrush, this is Yuta Tuta Luta Tuya.”

Yuta was taller than Boggo. The fur around his snout was silver. He took a long look at me.

“So this is Thrush,” he said. He looked at the tunnels around us, and then at me. “How did you get in?”

“I use a different tunnel.”

Yuta approached. “Don’t be damaging our tunnels! Now what’s this business with warm-warm beer? The reds have been waiting. I am not happy with any of this, but let us get things going.”

[You have entered negotiations.]

[Merchant Options:]

[Offer sample of warm-warm beer.]

[Discuss quantity.]

[Discuss price.]

[more…]

I withdrew an ethereal waterskin from my inventory and placed it beside the elder. Yuta seemed puzzled by the colors of the label. He looked on in awe. Then he popped the cork and took a sip. He smacked his lips.

“I have to hand it to you, Boggo. This is quite something. Never in all my years have I had warm-warm roots like this. Now you listen here—all of you. I would not normally condone such business between foreign tunnelers and the red. But since warm-warm roots have kept us alive since the beginning and through ice ages, and it’s a lot of trouble growing warm-warm roots under the city, I am willing to trade with you.”

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I browsed my Merchant Options and followed the quantity vein.

“How much would you like?” I said.

“There’s a lot of us. One of these could be enough for a family for a month. The summer is almost over…We will first have to discuss which tunnel you will deliver to.”

“I can come here and deliver all the beer.”

“I have not told you yet how much we need. You will not be able to carry five hundred thousand of these.”

“But I can. There’s no end to what I can carry.”

“Is that so, young beast? How did you get here again?”

“I travel through a different sort of tunnel. I appear wherever I want.”

“We have an empty aquifer that we use for storage. If I showed you, could you deliver this warm-warm beer straight there?”

“Yes.”

“The only condition is that you do not damage our tunnels.”

“I have my own conditions.” I browsed the price prompts in my Merchant Options. “I’m selling each of these waterskins for seventy-five copper.”

Yuta sputtered. “Seventy-five copper what? Ores that vary in size and weight? That won’t do. Besides, metals are not common in our earth here. We will have to trade with gems: emerald, topaz, ruby, tourmaline, and red diamond.”

Boggo, who until then had been patiently watching and listening, whispered to Ella. “I’ve never seen a red diamond!”

Yuta turned to him and said, “Of course not! You have only seen a blue one.”

“How’d you know?”

“What do you think gave besties their colors long ago? I do not know what the blue have taught you, but they must have missed some things.”

“Gems will work,” I said.

“Let us go down to the empty aquifer,” Yuta said. “How will you go there, Thrush?

“If Boggo goes, I can sniff him out.”

It was decided. The besties took a tunnel. I began to take big sniffs. Boggo’s scent was the most familiar. I latched onto it as it got more distant. Other scents came to the fore. I smelled roots, rocks, rust, all the red besties, aquifer water, and layers of earth. At some point, Boggo’s scent no longer changed distance. I cut through the world, through hundreds of tunnels down into the earth. I cut through an aquifer and kept going until I found Boggo and the others in an aquifer that was empty of water. There were piles and piles of roots, piles and piles of nuts, piles and piles of gems, and piles and piles of raw minerals. A handful of red besties guarded the trove. A slab of rock served as a table. One red bestie with bearded cheeks stood behind that table as Yuta spoke with him. When I appeared, all the new red besties went stiff.

Yuta said, “Deefa here will manage the transaction with you.” Then the elder made himself a red poof beside Boggo and Ella. Boggo began whittling a figurine while he and Ella decided on features to add. Boggo said, “Great idea!” to every idea the yellow bestie had.

Deefa looked me up and down, and then swallowed. “Never have I ever seen something so ugly as you.”

“I’m Thrush.”

“Well, Thrush, let’s get on with it. You’re here to sell some warm-warm beer?”

“Yes.”

“And how much?”

“One season’s provision of warm-warm root beer for the colony.”

“Give me a moment. What is the individual quantity?”

“Waterskin,” I said.

“Let me take a look.”

I placed a waterskin on the stone slab. Deefa had several red besties assist him in lining up several cups beside the waterskin. He emptied the beer into as many cups as he could. As he poured, the foam on the previous pours hushed away.

“Why is it disappearing?” Deefa said. “Is this a trick?”

“The foam? It’s not a trick. It’s beer. If you pour it again the foam will come back. When I drink a barrel of beer and walk around, it perpetually foams in my belly.”

Deefa poured one cup into another. The beer foamed, and the foam hushed away after a few moments. “I see…Let me calculate.”

An assistant brought him a quill, a vial of ink, and a journal. Deefa flipped the journal open and put quill and ink to paper. He executed mathematics and murmured to himself. At last he looked up.

“Six hundred thousand should get us through the winter.”

600,000. I began emptying my inventory of warm-warm beer.

“Hold up!” Deefa said. “Let’s talk price.” He fetched an emerald gem and placed it on the stone slab. “For one hundred waterskins.”

I snatched up the emerald.

“Hey!” Deefa said.

“Let me calculate,” I said and ate the emerald.

Green color coursed through my veins and brought a vibrant emerald color to the sponges of my eyes. My claws hardened and took on a greenish tint.

“What’s the meaning of this!” Deefa said.

I inspected my Composition stat for the gem.

[1 carat emerald from the red bestie mines beneath Lavenfauvish.]

[Merchant Options:]

[Appraise item: 1 carat emerald.]

[Y/N.]

Yes.

[Appraise item level 1122.]

[1 carat emerald.]

[Appraise skill is too low to determine origin.]

[Value estimate: 90 silver coin.]

What was going on? My Composition knew the origin, but my Merchant quest path Appraisal skill didn’t! How strange! I marveled over the situation. At last I turned to Deefa.

“One carat emerald for one hundred waterskins?” I said.

“Now you owe me one hundred waterskins!” Deefa said.

“One carat emerald for ninety waterskins. And I owe you ninety extra.”

Deefa looked surprised. He was quick to say, “Deal. Let’s move on to tourmaline.”

I ate and appraised a 1 carat gem of tourmaline, then topaz, then ruby. Wild colors bled into my claws, my eyes, and my nose. My eyes pulsed and throbbed out of sync. The red besties all took a step back each time. I could feel my fangs take on those precious colors too.

One after another Deefa struggled with the fact that I was eating the gems, but Yuta calmed him down.

“It’s better if we diversify our payment,” Deefa said after I appraised a 1 carat gem of ruby. “Thank you for understanding. Last one. Red diamond.”

He looked resigned as I threw the red diamond to the back of my mouth.

As soon as the red diamond hit my belly, my eyes went wide. All my fur stood on end.