IDWTBTHQ Chapter 91 - Hardcore Pawn

Marcus watched the Wyvern drone approaching from the sky north-west.

Despite the fact that he knew pretty much exactly when the drone would arrive —it was his own consciousness that was driving it, after all— he had been waiting for it for the past hour, sitting on a bench under a tree and enjoying the breeze and the sun. After all he didn’t have anything urgent to do, and the day was lovely, so he didn’t see the trouble in just chilling outside for a while. Hoggs and Felix were also somewhere else, probably busy meditating and doing sorcery training, while Klara was reading some books about law inside of the inn, since apparently she intended to sue someone and wanted to be prepared for it.

As for Marcus, he just wanted to enjoy this moment of peace.

The Wyvern drone landed a minute later at the center of the village, and Marcus then got up from the bench and walked towards it. As he approached he saw a scrawny figure clumsily climbing down from the drone.

That person was Golam, the taxidermist that Marcus had befriended in Brettholz. The pale man had helped the Vex Queen find a lot of samples of different creatures to absorb the DNA from, but sadly they hadn't been able to see each other for a while since Marcus had stopped visiting the town due to his aura bothering the inhabitants. However the taxidermist still kept a small menagerie of Vex drones as pets in his workshop, so the Vex Queen had remained in contact with him thanks to his telepathic link with his creatures.

Golam often talked to those drones, mostly treating them as pets despite knowing perfectly well that they were little more than Marcus’s puppets, and the Vex Queen had actually played along, making the drones behave affectionately and in quirky ways. This charade amused both of them, and they usually  went with it without acknowledging each other’s role in that play.  However, a few days before the taxidermist had actually addressed Marcus directly, telling him that he had found some extremely valuable samples, and that he wanted to bring them to him in person. A small trip had then been organized, and Marcus had sent his personal Wyvern drone to ferry Golam to his lands.

And now, as he watched the pale man stumble towards him while feverishly looking around like a kid in a toy shop, the Vex Queen couldn't help but smile.

“Hi Golam!” He greeted his guest. “How was the flight?”

“Greetings, sir Marcus!” The young man said cheerfully, despite being even paler than usual and looking rather unstable on his feet. “The flight was amazing! I have never flown before, and it's incredible! It's... gulp!” He paused, as he seemed to swallow something. “I beg your pardon! Just give me a minute... my stomach feels a little queasy for some reason.”

“Well, you're probably a little sick from the flight.” Marcus said. “Want to lay down for a bit? We have a few free beds in my house.”

“Do not worry, I'll be fine in a minute.” The taxidermist replied. “I also feel a tad sick anytime I have to travel on a boat but I usually get better in a matter of minutes once I’m back on solid ground.” He smiled. “And I have to say, at least the experience of flying on a Wyvern is much more exciting than trying to fish from a boat! Totally worth a little sickness!”

“If you say so.” Marcus shrugged. “Do you at least want one of the drones to carry your baggage?”

He gestured towards one of the Workers nearby, who approached the man in response.

“Sure.” The man said. “But first, there is something I ought to show you, if you can spare a moment!”

"Sure. Go ahead."

The taxidermist started rummaging in his backpack and took two things from it.

“Here!” He cried. “What do you say about these?”

Marcus looked at those objects, raising an eyebrow in an expression of puzzlement. One was a glass jar filled with greenish liquid with what looked like a severed tentacle floating inside, while the other looked like a patch of scaly skin framed in glass and wood.

“I don't know... Are those the samples you came here to give me?” He asked.

“Yes!” The taxidermist confirmed in an excited voice, raising the jar. “This is the tentacle of a Zaru berserker! They were incredibly strong and dangerous creatures and they possessed all sorts of skills, from unparalleled regenerative capabilities to their ability to feed off the pain of other creatures! And this...” He raised the frame. “This is the skin of an Oxisaurus, one of the biggest and most dangerous predators from the Red Continent! In fact, they are so strong that some people even argue that they might be a dragon subspecies! If you manage to get the characteristics of the Zaru and the Oxisaurus from these samples, then you could make some incredible hybrids!”

“That's nice!” Marcus said cheerfully, but inside he was feeling a bit skeptical. After all, more often than not he wasn't able to absorb the best traits of the creatures he ate, as they seemed to be hidden in some unreadable part of their DNA. Then, as he was thinking, he suddenly remembered something from one of the history books he had read with Klara.

“Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the Zaru the same race that attacked the Empire... something like five hundred years ago?” He asked. “The ones that laid waste to the kingdom of Rodenheim and were stopped at the siege of Corania?”

“That's correct.” Golam replied.

“Weren't they extinct? I mean, the book I read said that they were all killed and none survived.”

“Well... correct once again. To my knowledge, they were completely exterminated after the war.”

“Then where did you get that tentacle?” Marcus asked. “You mean to tell me that it has been in that jar for the last five hundreds years?”

“Well... yes. Most likely.” The taxidermist said, starting to sound a bit uneasy. “But it should still be fine! From what I know, the liquid inside the jar is not formalin or anything toxic, but rather a specially made magical stuff that just preserves flesh indefinitely.  I first saw it when I was a kid, in the private collection of a nobleman my father was working for at the time. And I must admit, that was really an amazing collection!” The pale man suddenly became excited as he reminisced of his past. “They had so many interesting things! I still remember the skeleton of a fire dragon hanging from the ceiling... it wasn't really that big, so it was probably a juvenile dragon, but still it was incredible to see! And they had all sorts of interesting stuffed animals on display...”

“Wait a second!” Marcus interrupted him before he could completely go off the rails with his ramblings. “You said that you saw the tentacle in the nobleman's collection, right? Then how is it that you have it now?”

“I bought it!” Golam said proudly. “From that nobleman's son! I also got the Oxisaurus skin from him. Actually, if it had been up to me I’d have taken most of his collection with me, but sadly these two were the only items he was willing to sell.” He paused a second and then added: “Or at least, that he was willing to sell at a price I could afford.”

“Uh... and how much did you spend?” The Vex Queen asked.

“Uh... well...” The taxidermist mumbled uneasily. “They were quite pricy, I must admit. I had to sell a couple of my grandfather's heirlooms in order to afford them... but it was a very good deal!” He bounced straight back to being enthusiastic. “With these, you can make an amazing hybrid! Think about it! A huge, bipedal, regenerating... ouch!”

The pale man cried in pain as the Vex Queen poked him in the ribs with his armored finger. Truth be told, Marcus would have rather slapped him behind the ears, but due to his diminutive size he wasn't able to comfortably reach that high, so he settled for the finger poke.

“You absolute moron!” Marcus scolded him. “You shouldn’t waste your money like that! Especially now that your business is not doing so well!”

“Uh... how is it that you know about my business, if I may ask?” Golam asked.

“You keep Vex Drones in your house and I can see everything they see, remember? I've heard you complaining about your finances!”

“Oh, right!” Golam said. “Sometimes I forget about that. I mean... I know that you can see through their eyes, but usually I just think of them as my pets. I even gave them names...”

“Yeah, I know. Sandra, Rebecca, Joselyn, Rose and Sugar!” Marcus replied dryly. “But that's beside the point. What's important is that you should take better care of your finances!”

“But... I just wanted to be of help.” The taxidermist said timidly. 

“And I'm grateful for that.” The Vex Queen replied with an exasperated sigh. “But I don't want you to ruin yourself in the process. So try to think about your circumstances before spending money, ok? For starters, no more buying me samples with your own money. If you do that, I won’t accept them. Are we clear?”

“But if I do that, I won't be able to send you any more samples.” Golam protested, as a mortified expression appeared on his face.

“Why not?” Marcus asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well ,that's because I've already handed you all of the samples that I had lying  in my workshop.” The pale man admitted. “And due to the conflict with the goblins there haven't been many hunting expeditions lately so it's unlikely that I'll be able to get any new specimens in the near future. Unless I buy them from someone else of course.”

“Well, I see no problem with waiting for a while.” The Vex Queen shrugged. “It's not as if I'm in a hurry. I can wait for when you’ll be able to get some samples for free.”

“But I don't know when that will be!” Golam objected. “It could be months, or even years before I can get a decent new sample by chance! And I don't know if I'll be able to wait. So please, let me keep helping you!” He looked at the Vex Queen with pleading eyes. “I still know many people who may have good samples for you! I'll try to do a better job haggling with them, and I’ll take care of my business, so please let me keep helping you!”

Marcus didn't answer immediately. Instead, he silently stared at the begging young man for a few seconds.

“Man... he really is obsessed with making new drones, is he?” He thought.. “Can't say that's healthy. But I don't think that suddenly going cold turkey would help either... if anything, it would probably make his obsession worse.”

He paused, as a possible solution suddenly appeared in his mind.

“Maybe there is a way.” He said as a small smile appeared on his face. “A way to... uhm...” He paused, as he didn't know how to say kill two birds with one stone. “Quick question: do you have a saying about achieving two different objectives with one action?”

“Yes.” Golam nodded. “It's killing two dragons with one spear.”

“Well, that certainly sounds much cooler than killing birds with stones!” Marcus thought, and then he said: “Thank you. Well, there is a way to do just that. Solving your money problems and allowing you to keep helping me at the same time.”

“That'd be fantastic!” The taxidermist said. “But how do we do that?”

“For starters, follow me to my home.” Marcus replied. “And feel free to leave your baggage to the drone.”

He then started walking away, immediately followed by the taxidermist, who now had a puzzled expression on his face. When they reached the inn and entered, they found that Klara was sitting on one of the couches, entirely focused on reading a huge and old-looking book. However, as soon as she heard the door open, she lifted her head.

“Hi Klara!” The Vex Queen said cheerfully, and then turned towards Golam to introduce him. “This is Golam, the taxidermist I've been talking to you about. Golam, this is Klara, my friend and technically my head maid.”

“Except that I'm going to clobber you in the head if you ever call me head maid directly.” The girl replied sarcastically, putting her book aside. “Anyway, nice to meet you, Mr Golam. Marcus often spoke about you.”

“Uhm... ehr...” The taxidermist stuttered, as his pale complexion suddenly turned red. “I... uhm... I am... nice to meet you, ma'am.”

Both Marcus and Klara looked at the man with a puzzled expression, something which made him blush even more, and the Vex Queen had to stifle a smirk as he felt waves of embarrassment and awkwardness coming from the taxidermist’s mind.

“Well, it seems like Golam is the shy type around girls.”  He thought with amusement, but chose not to tease the taxidermist about it... at least for now.

“Well, I wanted to ask you something, Golam.” He said. “And I need Klara to be present, because I'm still not good with money. So, how much did you pay for the tentacle and the skin?”

Golam hesitated for a moment, suddenly looking more uneasy than embarrassed. But then, as Marcus kept staring inquisitively at him, he finally caved in.

“I... bought them for thirty two royals.” He confessed. “But that's actually a very good price! Lord Gelmore sold me the Zaru tentacle for just twenty five royals, which is half of its worth for collectors, and the Oxisaurus skin was given to me for just seven, which is basically nothing!”

“Mmmh.” Marcus nodded and turned to Klara, who had raised an eyebrow when hearing about the price. “What do you say Klara? Is thirty two royals a lot?”

“Well, it depends on what you're buying.” The girl replied. “But thirty two royals is a lot of money. Back when I was a trapper I made barely six or seven royals per month when I was really lucky, and I usually wasn't.”

Marcus tried to whistle in a display of surprise, but sadly his slightly jagged lips weren't suited for that task and the sound that came out wasn't even remotely what he had intended it to be, being more similar to a snort than a whistle. So he just sighed and turned back to Golam.

“Ok. Now wait here for a minute. I'll go get something and I'll be back.”

And with these words, he left Golam and Klara in the hall and ran upstairs, towards his room. Once there, he quickly opened a chest and took out a purse which made a metallic jingle as he lifted it. He then went back downstairs and opened the purse on the bar counter, causing a shower of golden coins to flow out.

“Klara, these golden coins here are the royals, right?” He asked.

“Well, yes.” Klara, as both she and Golam stared at the coins almost as if hypnotized.

“Thank you.” The Vex Queen counted fifty coins, dropping them back into the bag, and when he was done he walked towards the taxidermist and handed them to him.

“Here.” He said. “Take this. This should be fifty royals.”

“Uh?” Golam muttered, utterly confused. “Why are you giving this to me?”

“I'm paying you for the samples you got me.” Marcus replied with a smile. “Thirty two royals for the cost of the skin and the tentacle and eighteen as a bonus for your hard work.”

“But... I can't accept this!” The taxidermist protested, trying to give the purse back to Marcus. “I just want to help you! I don't want to be paid for it!”

“I know, and I'm grateful to you for that.” The Vex Queen replied, lifting his hand to stop the pale man. “But I don't want you to pay for my stuff either. And let's be honest here: if your business keeps stagnating, you wouldn't be able to take care of your drones, nor would you be able to get me more samples. So, in order to solve both problems, I want to offer you a job as my personal agent.”

“Your... personal agent?” Golam asked.

“Yes.” Marcus confirmed. “That way, you'll get the money you need to find me even more samples, as well as paying for your living expenses and feeding your drones.”

The taxidermist thought about it for a few moments, apparently fascinated with this idea. When he spoke however he still sounded somewhat conflicted.

“I don't know...” He said. “I mean, it doesn't feel right to accept money in exchange for something I do as a hobby...”

“If it helps, you can think of it as a side job." Marcus replied. "And you can still give me any sample you manage to get for free as a gift. However, if you have to pay for it, I'll cover the expenses, plus a little extra fee for your time.” He smiled. “This way, you will be able to profit from helping me create new drones.”

“That doesn't sound so bad.” Golam conceded. “But what about you? Are you sure that you can afford it?”

“I'm pretty sure I can.” The Vex Queen replied with a confident smile. “I've still got most of the money I got for saving Brettholz, and since my hive is more or less self-sufficient and I don’t even have to pay taxes for now, I’d say that I can afford to buy some things. Besides, the marquis told me that there are a lot of nobles who are eager to pay a hefty sum for one of my wyvern drones, so once the Wyvern Broodmother will reach maturity and start making eggs I'll probably have a nice source of income.”

“Well... if it's like that, then I accept.” The taxidermist said with a timid smile while putting the purse in his pocket. “Thank you for that, sir Marcus.”

“As I said, it's not a problem.” Marcus replied. “And drop the honorific, please. We’re friends here, and we don’t need to... REEEEEEEE!”

The Vex Queen screeched and collapsed on the floor as a sudden pain filled her head. It wasn't really that intense as it was more like the echo of a feeling rather than the real thing, but it was filled with such an instinctive dread that she felt herself being rocked down to her very core. For a brief, agonizing moment, all she wanted to do was hide in a deep hole underground as blurred but still terrifying images flashed in her mind.

But then he heard a familiar voice calling out for him and somehow managing to shake him off from that panic attack.

He turned his head, and saw that Klara had knelt beside him and was looking at him with an alarmed expression.

“Marcus!” She cried. “What is happening? Are you alright?”

“Yes...” He answered weakly, still trying to get a hold of himself. “It's just... I think one of my Broodmothers has been killed.”

“What!?!” The girl raised an eyebrow, and looked out of the window. “You mean… here?”

“No, I don’t think so!” Marcus replied. “I think it was in... Aaaargh!”

He growled again, as another wave of phantom pain hit him. However, this time he was a bit more prepared for it, and managed to not completely lose himself.

“Another Broodmother just died.” He mumbled while holding his head between his hands. “I felt it. But it wasn't near... it was far. I think it's from my old hive in the forest.”

“Your Broodmothers in the Caligare Forest have been killed?” Klara asked.

“Yes.” The Vex Queen replied. “But now shut up. I need to concentrate to find out what is happening!”

He closed his eyes and focused entirely on his telepathic link with the last surviving Broodmother. Even with his increased telepathic powers it wasn't easy, as the distance made the link feeble and unstable, but with an herculean effort he finally managed to get some feedback.

Through the eyes of the Broodmother, he saw the darkness of the mold-wax covered cellars of his old hive. The corpses of the other two Broodmothers were on the ground, broken and battered, and three figures were approaching towards the final Vex drone. Those creatures were humanoid, in the sense that they walked upright and had two arms, but apart from that they were clearly not human. They were huge and round, with scaly skin and a skin tone that varied from green to yellow. Their heads were small compared to the rest of their bodies and with a nearly non-existent neck, but their mouths were huge and filled with sharp teeth. Finally, they had two small horns protruding from above their eyes, where the eyebrows should have been.

As Marcus watched, one of these creatures lifted a huge, crude hammer made of stone and wood, and dropped it on the Broodmother's head. As soon as that happened, the Vex Queen lost the mental link and another wave of pain flashed through his body, though this time he was ready for it and managed to shrug it off almost immediately.

Still, the experience had been incredibly upsetting, and he remained on the floor for a while longer, breathing frantically and trying to take control of his instincts. Then, after a few seconds, he got up with a grim expression on his face. Klara and Golam, meanwhile, just stared at him in absolute silence.

“Klara.” The Vex Queen asked. “Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't orcs big, vaguely humanoid creatures with round bodies, scaly skins and huge mouths?”

“Yes.” The girl replied. “Or at least this is what I've heard. I've never seen an orc with my own eyes before.”

“I did, once.” Golam chimed in. “I mean, it wasn't alive, but it was an orc nonetheless. I even worked on stuffing it together with my pa. And it matched your description.”

“Ok.” Marcus said with the utmost seriousness. “Then we'd better find Hoggs as soon as possible and make him call Marquis Eisen.” He grimaced. “I need to tell him that the orcs have attacked the outpost.” He paused, and then added: “And as far as I can tell, there are no survivors.”