Letting go of the hand-cart, Nick sighed and then moved over to the side of his cabin.

“That was way more work than I thought it would be,” he complained, putting his back to the log wall. Then he slowly sank down to his bottom in the shade, his feet flat to the ground and his knees bent upward.

It’d take him an extra six hours to get back here due simply to the effort it took to push the hand-cart.

“Well, it’s done. And we never have to move it back to town,” Lucian said, reminding him again of that fact. “We can go around on a mount from here or buy a small two-wheeled wagon we can put to the horse. This was a one time problem.”

“One time was one time too many, Gramps,” said Nick, letting his head hang forward as he draped his arms over his knees.

“Gramps,” said Lucian in a cold tone. It was the first real time he’d ever responded to the nickname or acknowledged it.

“I mean, calling you grandpa sounds lame. And you’ve got too many greats in there for it to have much meaning,” Nick said, closing his eyes. He was enjoying the breeze that was coming across the open ground and cooling him. “So… Gramps.”

Lucian said nothing to that.

Nick must’ve dozed off or just tuned out the world. A loud squeal followed by the alien like howl of Fucker startled Nick up from his daze. Causing him to get straight up to his feet and start blinking rapidly.

“Wha-”

There was the roar of what sounded a lot like an angry bear from the other side of the cabin.

Grabbing his poleaxe Nick dashed around the side of the cabin. Turning the corner he found more or less exactly what he had suspected.

Fucker and a bear staring at one another from not far away. The bear was a large species of it’s type. Large, brown, and quite ferocious looking.

Nick really didn’t want much to do with it, but if it was willing to come this far out to attack Fucker, it would do the same to him. Better to go after it now two against one.

“Ah, you fuckin’ furry piece of shit!” yelled Nick heading right for the bear. “Hey bear!”

Turning it’s head toward him the large mamal decided that was a good time to get up on both back legs. Stretching itself upward to what felt like at least eight feet in height.

“Nice guts!” Nick said and ran straight at it, lunged forward with his poleaxe.

As if realizing that this thing coming toward it was an issue, the bear dropped down to all fours and scooted to one side. Nick’s poleaxe moving into the area the bear had just been.

Only tip of his axe-head caught the bear at all and it looked to have given it a trim, rather than caused any harm.

Roaring at him the bear made to charge him now that it was closer and mostly in range. It got within several feet within only a second.

Fucker lunged in at that moment to latch onto the bears throat and then savagely whip it’s head back and forth. Roaring and shuffling backward the bear tried to dislodge and get away from Fucker.

Slapping wildly at it with a paw the bear connected and sent Fucker flying, tumbling through the grass.

“You bastard,” hissed Nick who took the opportunity to lunge forward again. His goal was simple.

He wanted to ram the spike of his poleaxe into the eye-socket of the bear. With any luck it’d puncture right through it and enter into the creatures brain.

Still distracted with the wound Fucker had given it, the bear didn’t even seem to notice Nick or his poleaxe. Didn’t even see it until the spike was going through it’s left eye.

It let out a brief loud shriek of a roar and jerked its head away. Shaking off Nick’s poleaxe like it was not much more than a stick.

A big paw came around and slammed the wooden haft of the poleaxe to the ground. Then shattered it right at the midpoint, the head of the weapon falling to the ground.

Nick had not much more than a broken piece of wood with a splintered tip in his hands.

Apparently that was enough for the bear though.

Taking off at high speed it was sprinting away as if the fires of hell were behind it. Leaving no chance at all for Nick to even think bad thoughts at it before it vanished out of sight.

“Well fuck you, too!” Nick shouted at the fleeing bear. Cocking his arm back he aimed the shaft of the poleaxe like a javeling and flung it. “And take that shit with you, you rotten bastard!”

The wooden shaft smacked into the ground far too short from the bear and then fell into the grass. It’d been a truly pathetic throw.

Snorting, Nick went to where the top half of the broken poleaxe was and retrieved it.

He wasn’t actually too concerned about the weapon. The haft was merely just that, a wooden pole that the head of the poleaxe attached to.

The whole thing came apart for maintenance, repair, and refastening it to another shaft. He’d even seen his father do it. Often on his birthday he’d pull the head apart, clean it, make sure it was in good order, and put it back together.

Turning his head, Nick found Fucker.

He was curled up in a ball against the wall of the cabin. Shivering from head to toe as if he were in a frozen wasteland.

“He is likely quite wounded, Sire,” said Lucian. “While he isn’t our familiar, he has been somewhat of a companion.”

Feeling a grimace on his face, Nick walked over to where Fucker laid. Flicking his hand to one side he tossed the head of his poleaxe toward the front of the cabin. Then he got down next to the large weasel like creature.

“Hey, Fucker. He got you good, didn’t he?” asked Nick, wondering if he should reach out or keep his hands to himself. “Mind if I take a look? See what I can do for you? I do have Minor Heal, ya know. Even fixes broken bones if I use it enough.”

Lifting it’s furred head out of it’s abdomen Fucker gave him a flat stare.

One of it’s eyes had been pulped and it looked like it’s jaw was broken.

Holy shit! The bear fucked him in one hit?

“Or it happened before we got there,” offered Lucian. “Our friend the fisher seems quite… aggressive. Unwilling to back down in the face of anything. Some of our kin could have learned from him once upon a time. When there was more of us.”

“S’okay, Gramps,” muttered Nick as he lifted his hands above Fucker’s head. He wasn’t quite sure how Minor Heal would work on an animal. It was better than watching him shiver himself to death or waste away, however. “I’m not exactly in a rush to have a kid but it’s on the list of shit to do.

“There’ll be more of us in time. Just need to keep building our base and expanding. One thing at a time, right?”

Nick flexed his fingers and cast Minor Heal. Then did it again.

And again.

There were no perceivable changes in Fucker’s wounds.

“I’m sorry, Sire, but I can discern no change,” murmured Lucian.

“God damnit. I’m sorry, Fucker,” said Nick with a shake of his head and actually feeling bad. “Maybe it’s because you’re an animal, or because I’m a screw-up, but it doesn’t do shit. I’m sorry.”

Fucker peeled his lips back and gave Nick what looked like a snarl.

Or a grin.

A blue rectangle appeared in front of Nick in the next moment.

Do you wish to make this animal your familiar as a Caster?

“Uh, yes,” Nick said without even thinking about it.

Please name your familiar.

“Fuc… Ker. His name is Ker,” Nick said. He didn’t want to call him Fucker around others, but he didn’t want to change his name either. He was Fucker and always would be. “Formally, Fu-cker. Informally, Ker. So… Ker, works.”

The animal has been named Ker.

Familiar bond accepted by both parties.

Ker seemed to grin wider at that statement, then slumped down into itself. It’s shivering continuing unabated.

“I would sugg-”

Before Lucian could finish speaking, Nick began casting Minor Heal again.

By the third cast, Nick could see that the shivering of Ker was growing less.

Settling in for another round of “Emptying the mana bar” as he’d done after his bandit fight, Nick began to endlessly cast the spell on his new familiar.

“Exactly, Sire,” Lucian finished, sounding more at ease.

***

A few feet away Ker was sleeping after having gorged himself.

Nick had given him all the fish heads and guts he had. He knew Ker liked those quite a bit and didn’t hesitate to give him them all.

It’d taken an entire mana bar and half of another to till Ker seemed almost normal. Or at least to the point that Ker stopped shivering, there were no external injuries, and he woke up.

“So… he good?” Nick asked Lucian.

“I would assume so, Sire. He doesn’t seem to be having any more troubles,” said Lucian. “We’ll just have to wait and see. When he wakes back up you can likely ask him directly. He should be able to reply… in a fashion… through the familiar bond.”

Nick nodded his head and then looked down to the head of the poleaxe. It was sitting between his feet and was his next project.

There was no way he wasn’t going to get it put back to rights. There was no telling if that bear would be coming back and Nick wanted his weapon for that.

Picking it up he put his fingers to one of the bolts that held it all together at the middle point of the head. Testing it he gripped it tightly and gave it a twist.

There was no give in it.

“Your fore-bearers always had to oil it up first,” suggested Lucian. “The joints where it fits together are all a very tight fit. It was originally crafted by a grand-master blacksmith so there is very little in the way of gaps.”

Sighing, Nick looked at the head.

“Remind me… bolts come out, they hold the spike on, which holds the blade and the hammer head in place,” Nick said, pointing to each piece as he spoke.

“Exactly so,” Lucian confirmed.

“Great!” Nick said and dropped the poleaxe head to the grass. He’d mess with it later now that he confirmed what to do. “Let’s see what kind of shaft we can buy for it in that book of ours. Cause I’m pretty sure that was just normal every day wood.

“Maybe something a bit magic-y would be nice, yeah? Something stronger and maybe contributes in some way? I guess.”

“That’s a very good idea, Sire,” agreed Lucian. “We could easily find something that would work. Not to mention since it’s just an intermediate product it shouldn’t even be that expensive.”

“Goodie,” Nick said and picked up his dimensional pack and dragged it over. Reaching into it he pulled out the ledger, set it on his knees and flicked it open. “So, what do we write? Do I have to be literal, or does this have like… an ability to hunt for what I want. Or search… or something.”

“Literally, I’m afraid, but there’s another feature of the ledger,” advised Lucian. “We can easily put in a request to purchase a specific type of item and let others propose suggestions.

“After-all, the ledger is more of a buyer’s market than a sellers market. People go there to make a purchase. Items can sit in the limbo of the ledger for many years.

“Well, with that said, let’s go to the right section. Go straight to the back of the ledger. Last page, even.”

“The first page and the last page are the important ones, huh? Kinda funny,” Nick said, flipping to the last page.

“The next to last page is where you can browse the purchase requests though only after you use the page before it. Which is where you can input the term you’re looking for to search through said requests.”

“Rather overly-convenient,” Nick mumbled. He wasn’t really keen on how useful this thing seemed to be.

“It’s meant to be overly-convenient. To be something that once you start using, you have a hard time putting up. To be fair, the two hour delivery window is pretty amazing considering that they’re transporting whatever the item is across what is likely multiple worlds.

“The owner wants customers, after all. Sellers and buyers both. The more they have, the more they make, the more they can purchase for themselves,” corrected Lucian. “Trust me, I’ve used this item with many of your ancest— with many of our family in the past. It is very reliable because they don’t care about anything or then the item being what it really is. Whatever price you put, is the price. The end.

“So long as it’s authentic, that’s all that matters. Nothing else does to them. So that all purchases are always guaranteed which means there’s no hesitation to use it.”

“Right, okay,” relented Nick. Then he flipped it open to the page indicated and wrote in very simply his request.

“Looking to buy magically enhanced wooden shaft seven feet in length. Will be modified to fit a pole-arm,” said Lucian. “Good. Now… let’s talk mounts. As well as a shield, then new armor. Because we’ll need all those things.”

“Even a shield?” Nick asked a second before his mind went back to the bear who had just broken his weapon. He could have used his one-handed axe but his other hand would be empty. “Right. Something we can hang onto our backpack but doesn’t weigh much. Something simple like a buckler, right?”

“Indeed, that would do you quite well. Mount first, though, Sire,” Lucian reminded him. “Beasts must be cared for so we’ll need to get the mount, then all it’s needs. I would advise against going for anything that would require more effort than say… Fucker. He eats anything. Including bones.”

“In other words… omnivore preferred, no dragons allowed. But… what about something that doesn’t eat?” Nick asked almost to himself. “Could I get like… a horse… golem… thing?”

“I don’t see why not. Put in ‘golem’ and ‘mount’ into the box and let’s see what happens,” Lucian advised. “And I doubt very much there’d be a dragon for sale, Sire. Speaking from my own experience, it took a great deal for me to be as I am now.”

Nick planned on checking into that later, but for now, he did as instructed. No sooner than he wrote in golem and mount then the page flipped over.

Landing on several listings Nick found that a golem mount wasn’t actually impossible. The problem was they apparently weren’t horses.

The first two were literally written as “humanoid earth golem” which meant it would stand out a bit too much. Looking to the third entry he found it was something more plausible but the price was double what the other two were.

“Clockwork horse,” Nick said and pointed at the listing. “Think we could get an permanent illusion enchantment and stick it inside the damn thing? That’d work, wouldn’t it?”

“Right up until it got hurt and didn’t bleed,” answered Lucian and then sighed. “Let’s just go with a normal mount. A horse.

“Then we can get a simple buckler, some enhanced chain mail with protection on it, a few other pieces, and just call it done. This is becoming far more work than it’s worth and not even something we could show off. We’d just be inviting people to come and try to take it from us.”

A click of his tongue was the only response from Nick as he went back to the first page. He quickly wrote in “war-horse”. Lucian was right of course. It wasn’t worth it.

I’ll come back for it later.

I want a clock-work horse. Sounds fucking rad.

I bet it even tells the time. That’d be really awesome. Though… I wonder if it ticks like a clock. That could suck if it was loud.

“There, that one. Andalusian courser,” Lucian said with a little excitement. “We’re no knight yet and we’re not in heavy enough gear to warrant anything else. This one will be swift, trained, and more than willing to go into battle with us.”

Charcoal stick in hand, Nick selected the first one in the list that matched what Lucian had said.

“Yes, that one. Just drop the needed coins onto the page. It’ll get exchanged with the appropriate coinage on the other side,” said Lucian.

Checking the price tag Nick couldn’t help but wince for a second. Twenty gold coins even was the going rate for the horse. While he certainly had some wealth, he didn’t for a second want to spend something like that amount on a horse.

“Great, next is the buckler, armor, and well… everything else. Including a saddle,” Lucian said, sounding rather eager. His interest was clearly going up.

“You sound eager,” muttered Nick, pulling out his coinpurse from his backpack.

“Of course, we’re going off to war!” Lucian said, his tone now bubbling with eagerness. “Our family has always excelled at war. Always!

“After all, the blood of a dragon flows in your veins. It courses through you. You’ve felt the bloodlust. Now imagine being able to let it run loose. Surrounded by fools who would wish to do you harm and having no reason to give them any quarter at all. We will be in our element.”

Nick didn’t really quite agree with that, but he couldn’t deny he did feel a strange rush and need whenever he really got into a fight.

Saying nothing, he started putting the gold coins atop the page of the book that described the horse he was buying.