In the middle of the night, a bandit, who had seen Kevin use his bow, slipped drugs into everyone's drinks then absconded with Kevin to try to force him to be their servant, even if it meant breaking him to do it. But, when you've friends like Kevin does, you learn quick that such a thing is a really bad idea.
@internutter/challenge-03313-i025-cold-stone-inn -- Anon Guest
Yautto had been watching the hotbloods for some time, trying to find a moment of true weakness. There was the knife-ear hotblood, two round-ear hotbloods, a trash dragon, and a horned one. The last of that list was not Yautto's favourite. They always tasted of sulphur and smoke.
The smaller round-ear had a very interesting weapon. It made an entire dwelling, and there was the scent of food and magic inside.
A magic bow that could create anything its wielder wanted. Yautto had to have it. And if it was made for the round-ear, then they would take the round-ear too. Yautto waited for the sun to set, but not for long after that. They didn't want to become sluggish in the cold of night. Not for this. They needed to be quick.
Silence was no problem for Yautto. The hotbloods always listened for footfalls. The advantage there being that Yautto had no feet. They could slide inside without a bother. Though it was some difficulty to ignore the food within. There was something more important than feasting themself into a torpor.
Though very little was more important than feasting.
All the way up the stairs, though it made Yautto's belly and tail ache with the sharp edges. Following the scent trail to the space where the round-ear hotbloods made their sleeping noises.
Quickly!
Grab the smaller one and the bow!
Turn tail!
Race away back to the safety of their cavern!
Well. That was the plan. Yautto forgot one important thing.
The knife-ear hotbloods don't sleep.
The magical net knotted them up in a bundle, sleeping hotblood and all. Another flare of magic had vines adding to the entanglement.
Ah. So the horned one was a Druid.
"A snake in the house of stone's draw," said the knife-ear. "Rather rude. You are of the Haassisha, are you not?"
"Not," allowed Yautto. "Exssile. Yautto iss meant to die."
Kevin woke up next to, essentially, a giant snake with a humanoid torso and immediately panicked. "DON'T BITE ME!"
In their shared room, Ma Oxbrydl snorted into wakefulness and charged out with knitting needle in hand and only clad in her nightie. "Where's my baby?"
Venin slumbered on. Which may have been a good thing.
"Yautto not bite. Hotblood too pressciouss to bite." This was not as reassuring as it could have been. "Yautto knowss Yautto iss going to die now."
"Not so certain about that?" said the knife-ear. Oh no. Dappled skin. Wizarding hat. There were legends about this one. The Wraith Binder who felled empires.
"Yautto accsseptss their fate, great wizard." They let the round-ear loose from their grip. It was all over.
"One question," said the horned one. "Why aren't you a... Haassisha? Any more?"
"Yautto curssed. Magic. Tainted. Yautto sshould be great warrior. Much fury. Alsso much magic. It iss. Bad."
"Strange and unpredictable things happen when you get angry?" asked Wraithvine.
"That iss the cursse. Yautto casst out. Yautto doomed to sstarve. Needss magic hotblood. Needss magic bow."
Wraithvine grumbled a little bit at a scroll, and came around to where Yautto could see. "If you agree to travel with us and help us, and not eat us, you will not starve to death. This I can promise."
A promise from an immortal was worth more than all the slow and weak prey in the world. "Yautto no eat hotbloodss. Yautto no eat... ssmallesst dragon." It was not diplomacy to call a new ally 'trash'. If Yautto wanted to live, they needed diplomacy greater than having a bigger weapon or sharper teeth. "Yautto help hotbloodss and ssmallesst dragon. You no kill Yautto."
Wraithvine made a gesture and an entire roasted pig floated up from below. Still steaming. Another gesture and both net and vines vanished. "Eat, and rest for tonight," said the immortal Wizard. "Tomorrow, we are going to have a very interesting discussion."
The young round-ear, safe in his mother's arms again, boggled. "We're going to need that later on?"
"Them," corrected Wraithvine. "And yes. As long as we keep Yautto fed, there's no true danger to us."
Tempted though they were to swallow the pig whole, Yautto remembered the hotblood manners and ate the thing piece by piece. They would learn later about smaller pieces after the second time they swallowed an entire hogshead.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / nakonechnyy]
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