With a sigh, Darin opened his quest log again.
Quest: Get ready to travel.
Blood Claw would like you to go see Greed. He will be able to trade with you and help you prepare for travel.
Completion condition: Speak with Greed.
Reward: Learn more, get prepared for travel, learn new locations.
Failure condition: Fail to complete the quest within 1 week.
Penalty: Blood Claw will be disappointed with you and will force you to go through the tutorial again. There will be a quiz afterwords.
“Wait a minute.” He grumbled. “It doesn’t say I have to trade with you, just that I need to speak with you.”
“Really?” Greed asked, taking a moment open a window himself. “How odd, she must have been in an strange mood. The normal quest involves trade or errands. Well technically, I could complete your quest now.”
“But you wont, because of…?” Darin asked. Despite his strange sense of humor, the black dragon had always been fair and friendly.
“If you complete the quest on the bare minimum of goals, I can only reward you accordingly. But if you live up to the spirit of things, we can start you out right.” Greed explained. There was no mischief or mirth in his voice this time, unlike his theatrics with the coins.
“That makes sense. So where shall we begin?” He asked. His friend was far more used to this after all. To Darin’s surprise, Greed paused and thought for a moment.
“You already have a Backpack, which puts you ahead of most young dragons. As well, you told me earlier that you have things to trade.” He stated. When Darin nodded to him, the merchant continued his speech. “For now, I’ll trust they have enough value. If not, I’ll send you to gather things like the others. So lets start with provisions. Normally I advise to carry at least twenty five stones worth of preserved meat when you start out. That should keep you fed for a day or two, in an emergency.” Greed explained as he went down his mental checklist. A moment later, he realized Swift Blaze was giving him an odd look.
“Shall I assume that advice scales up, or down, with ones size?” Darin asked, trying hard not to laugh. “Or do all dragons carry more than half their body weight in food…for emergencies?”
“Um, yes. You may be able to get away with…slightly less.” Greed acknowledged, trying to contain his embarrassment. “Given your ‘grand stature’, I’d say two or three stones worth should be fine. So I can figure out a scale for your consumption, how much water do you normally drink each day?” He asked.
“Well so far, since I’ve hatched, I haven’t actually needed any water.” Darin admitted. Of course his answer only led to more questions.
“No thirst?” Greed asked, pausing just long enough to see Darin shake his head ‘no’. “No dryness of the mouth?” Another shake of the head. Greed paused for a moment before asking his next barrage of questions. “Hunger even after eating? No? You sure? Sore throat? Um, dryness of scales? Guess not. Sudden mood swings? Fever? Redness, swelling or unexplained rashes? Stiffness of joint? Any-”
“Seriously?” Darin asked, interrupting him. The elder black dragon paused for a moment, blinked and then cringed.
“Ahem.” Greed paused and gave a fake cough to clear his throat. “Wrong symptom- Er, questionnaire list.” He stated, before looking away and suddenly finding one of his shelves quite interesting. “Perfectly normal mistake.” He added a few seconds later, not yet willing to turn back to Darin.
“Right…” He replied, managing to drawl the word out for several seconds.
“So, you drank nothing at all in the last few days?” Greed finally asked. As he spoke he turned back to face the system window, rather than looking him in the eye. This time it was Darin’s turn to cringe.
“Well, I did drink some blood from-”
“Yuck. You know that’s gross right? And it can lead to some nasty changes in the future.” Greed interrupted him to ask. Even going so far as to scrunch his nostrils in disgust. Darin could only sigh.
“So how is it you’re perfectly fine with some dragons needing to ‘age’ their meal for a week before they eat it. Or others that like their meal so fresh it’s still trying to run away. But you turn your snout up, at blood?” He asked, still trying to wrap his head around the intricacies of draconic culture. To his surprise, Greed mumbled out a reply he couldn’t hear. “What was that?”
“I mean, um- After the Fall of the Stars, our ancestors learned to survive in a harsh and devastated world. They evolved all types of survival mechanisms, even…” he paused to sigh, “scavenging. When food or rather fresh meat was not available, there was always the chance that something larger left part of it’s prey behind. Most dragons can only stomach food that is less than a day or two old, unless it’s been kept well. The rest would simply spoil and go to waste. When the different tribes of dragons heard the Mother’s call and returned home, the diversity of…’eating habits’ helped us to coexist. During some of the leaner times, it helped prevent famine. So yes, we tend ignore what one another eats.” He stated, then amended his words. “Provided they eat it at a different table, preferably across the room, of course.”
“And you still get grossed out by blood?” Darin asked. It earned him another sigh.
“The age of your food, doesn’t affect your future growth. Blood can have some rather adverse effects, even if it’s not well documented. So most of us avoid it, unless it comes with a fresh meal.” He explained.
“The blood dragon evolutionary path?” Darin asked. He continued after Greed gave him a nod. “Yea I saw that option when I drank from my prey. It did sound a bit disgusting, so I chose not to use it as an evolutionary material.”
“You chose? You get to choose?” Greed asked, unable to hide the excitement in his voice.
“Yea, if I don’t like the evolutionary path it offers I don’t eat it-”
“Wait is that all?” Greed interrupted, sounding a bit disappointed.
“I don’t eat it. Or I simply direct it to my normal stomach instead of my evolutionary one.” Darin explained. “Thus I get all the tasty, nourishing goodness, and none of those unwanted random mutations.”
“Lucky bastard.” Greed mumbled, as he gave the smaller dragon a dirty look. Darin could only raise the ridge over his eyebrow in surprise. After a moment the black dragon restored his composure and returned to the business at hand. “Well you are rather lucky to have that choice. Every so often a glutton ends up evolving in a less that favorable direction. More often than not, it’s something they ate weeks ago. It makes it much harder to track what leads to a given evolution.”
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“Wait. You mean the knowledge of evolutionary materials is actually rare?” He asked. When the merchant nodded, Darin grew excited. “So you mean to say, that knowledge is valuable?”
“Of course it- Wait. …shit.” Was all Greed managed to say. Darin could almost watch the gears turn in Greed’s head as he processed the implications of the statement. The worst thing a merchant could do, was admit how much they needed something you had to offer. Gotcha!
“Oh, how lovely. How much would such information be worth?” He asked, in his best near-innocent voice. Greed blinked a moment and sighed.
“Not a lot actually. Most dragons avoid blood, as I stated before. Normally I’d offer about 8 copper for it, but given your ‘friends with the merchant’ discount…how about 5 copper?” Greed asked, with a hint of a grin. Darin opened his beak to protest, only to stop himself before he spoke. Damn, never play dirty with a merchant.
“Well I wouldn’t be one to refuse a discount amongst friends.” He began, giving the words a moment to sink in. “I’ll accept 5 copper for the information about the Blood Dragon path, it’s not very popular after all.” This earned him a happy nod from Greed, and perhaps a trace of a smug grin. Now that I’ve baited the trap. “So how much for knowledge on the Bone Dragon path? I’m sure it’s far more popular…” It was rare to see someone so excited one moment, then look quite pained the next. Darin savored his reaction, without a hint of shame.
“Ahem. Swift Blaze my friend. I would be happy to pay you 10 copper for that tidbit.” Greed began, using his best merchant’s voice. “I could probably pay a bit more, but I’d need some of the materials to go with it. If you had both, I could sell them as a package deal. But with only the information, I might have a hard time reselling it to others.” He explained, doing his best to sound sad about the lack of merchandise. To be fair, once the knowledge was spread around, he might never sell it again.
“Well if having the product to go with the knowledge is so important…” Darin began, earning him a solemn nod from Greed. “Then it’s a good thing I have a few in my pack.” He explained, doing his best to copy Greed’s selling voice. The black dragon looked at him for a few seconds and then face palmed.
“I walked into that one, didn’t I?” Greed asked.
“Indeed my friend, indeed.”
“Well played Swift Blaze, well played.” He stated, shrugging off his defeat.
“It’s not like I am going to fleece you Greed. But if you tell me what it’s worth, we can move on to establishing a value for the items next.” Darin stated, opting to be kind to his friend.
“You couldn’t show me first, for simplicity?” Greed asked. Darin laughed and shook his head. His response actually surprised the merchant.
“Well if you were being really impish, once I showed you. You could simply opt not to buy the information.” He stated, and watched Greed’s jaw drop. “Not that you would. But I need to be ready for dealing with less reputable merchants in the future. Especially when I travel.” He explained, taking care not to hurt his friend’s feelings.
“Too true. Not every merchant is as fair, or as honest.” Greed agreed, with a slight shake of his head. Or as inexperienced. “I’ll give you 15 copper for the knowledge and then we can price items based on their worth.” He offered. Darin pondered a moment before replying.
“How about an iron coin for what I know about Bone Dragons, in addition to the 5 for the Blood Dragon tidbit.” Darin suggested, with a trace of amusement in his voice. “I need to practice my haggling skills too.” He added, in his own defense.
“Oh, fine. Thats still within reason.” Greed agreed, eager to get to the good part. “Now, with that taken care of, show me what you brought. I’ll need to get ready to sell them to whelps and ‘would-bes’ next week.” He added, not bothering to hide his mirth.
“I got these off of a Guardian Buck.” Darin explained as he stood on his hind legs and reached behind his back. He pulled the antlers from his backpack, only to be interrupted by Greed’s deep and rumbling laughter. In surprise he froze, which only made the laughter worse. “What?”
“New mutation- Hard to sell. Ow. My sides…” Greed whimpered, as he tried to regain his composure. He glanced at Darin, who was still frozen in place, and lost it again.
“What’s so funny?” He asked, still confused by his friend’s reaction. It couldn’t be the first time he’d seen someone take an item from their pack.
“You reached behind you-” Greed had to pause, in order to catch his breath. “Into your tiny, little backpack. And then, you pull out that…”
“And? …I don’t get the joke this time.” Darin admitted, growing confused. Trying hard not to laugh, Greed point up with a single claw. Taking the hint, Darin tipped his head back to have a look. The pair of antlers were interlocked, towering a few feet above his head with tines pointed everywhere. It looked strange to say the least. And then it clicked. Oh gods. I must look like I’ve sprouted a tree.
“So…” Darin stated, pausing to point up with a free claw. “How much will you pay for the tree?”
“I’ll give you an iron for both-” Greed offered, struggling to keep a straight face. The fact that Darin hadn’t moved them yet did not help at all.
“Make it two and you can share the screenshot with Blood Claw. Just so long as you send me a copy too.” She’d hear about it anyway, he had no doubt of that.
“Deal!” Greed exclaimed, squinting his right eye for a moment. “Oh, she is going to love this…”
Ah well, Darin pondered. There are far worse ways to fleece a friend.
- - - - -
Author’s note: Hard to follow up after Greed’s mischief last chapter. But at least this one turned light hearted. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, sorry it took so long to get it done. *coughs* I’ll see if I can get back to something more like weekly posts, not this monthly shenanigans. As ever, if I slipped up somewhere let me know. I’d like to thank my readers for keeping with me, giving feed back and sometimes even leaving or rating reviews. Another thank you goes to everyone who’s been patient during my *ahem* slower months. And an extra thank you, to all the people who’ve been encouraging me. Some of those bright and wonderful comments have really made my day.