Karla was not having a good day. After spending a morning with her stomach in knots worrying about Rex getting hurt in his first “hunt”, she’d been hit with a corpse, leaving her with a black eye.

Then, the rather fastidious woman who’d been assigned the task of ensuring that Karla was presentable to attend the lecture Eric and Rex shared in Leonard’s office had taken one look at her battered face and dragged her off to Able instead of to the bath.

“Look at this,” the woman had exclaimed, “how am I to make this damaged slave look presentable?” she complained.

Able had not been amused by this interruption. He was a busy man, handling the vast amount of paperwork necessary to keep the duchy running. Although Able was actually a decent person who cared about the staff working for him and treated them well, one catgirl slave from the stables was a bit beneath his concern. He peered up from his cluttered desk, covered in paperwork in an unassuming office much smaller than Leonard’s and sighed.

“Well, then send someone else,” Able suggested, “I’m not even sure anyone is needed in the first place. Rex seems perfectly well behaved, I’m sure he’s not going to void his bowels in the middle of Leonard’s office.”

Karla was appalled, almost as appalled as the maid who’d dragged her here. “Please, master Able, Rex is a proper dragon, he would never…” She started to object.

Karla was drowned out by the high pitched screech of the maid, “Is that what this catgirl is being cleaned for? I’ve been tasked with cleaning the chambermaid of a dragon?!” the maid objected. “Why, I never!”

Able rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Just take her back then, Rex will have to survive without his slave girl for one lesson. I’ll ask the nurse to go take care of that black eye when she gets a chance…”

“Well, I hope that bruise goes away, no doubt this child was clumsy and fell flat on her face, or did something to deserve a beating. Whatever it was, if the duchess sees it, it will be a right mess! You know how the duchess is about things. We’ll never hear the end of it. No, best to hide this slave so no one sees her.” The maid said sternly.

Able just shrugged helplessly. “I already said I’d send the nurse. She can heal a simple black eye. Just let the poor catgirl go back to the stable.”

“I will,” the maid said, indignantly, “A clumsy slave like this one doesn’t even deserve to serve in the main house. She’s not a free woman like the rest of us maids are,” but she was already walking away, one hand on Karla’s slave collar as she dragged Karla back to the stables.

Sometime later, struggling not to cry, Karla was back in the spacious stable, alone. Rex and Eric had already left, as there was no need to feed Rex as he had already eaten the fox beast and it’s core.

Karla would never admit it, but being allowed to bathe and attend Leonard’s lectures with Rex and Eric in a clean maid’s outfit had been the best thing that had ever happened to her.

Now she was worried that this privilege would be taken away from her, since it was clear that she wasn’t really needed. She almost hoped that Rex did poop on the floor somewhere, just so she’d have a reason to continue going to the afternoon sessions.

It was at that moment that a small raven flew into the stable. Karla looked up in surprise and examined the bird closely. She noticed two things. One, was that it had curiously shiny black feathers of the exact same metallic hue as Rex. And two, that it was carrying a small cylindrical case.

“Oh,” Karla exclaimed, “A messenger bird?”

The raven tilted its head at her but did not answer. It had landed on a window still, and it carefully placed the case down next to it’s landing spot, but did not look inclined to fly away. It was as if it was waiting for something.

Karla had an incongruous thought, the sort of thought only the devoted stablegirl of a very unusual dragon could possibly have. “Is that for Rex?” She asked, timidly. No one else in the entire household would have thought to ask if a dragon might be receiving a message. But to Karla, the question seemed logical. Why else would the bird have come to this particular stable?

To Karla’s surprise, the bird nodded it’s tiny head. Idea Three was not nearly as advanced at it’s understanding of the local language as Idea Seven, but such a simple question that used the name “Rex”, it was able to understand.

Karla put a hand to her mouth to hide her shock. Even she had a tough time believing that Rex would be receiving a messenger bird. Add to that the idea that the bird had understood the question? Only because Karla knew full well how unusual Rex really was, did she take the logical next step. “You’re a smart bird, just like Rex is a smart dragon.” She told the raven.

Idea Three dutifully recorded this statement. It did not understand what the catgirl was saying now, but it would once Idea Seven fulfilled it’s end of the bargain. Idea Seven would have understood every word Karla had spoken so far. Karla had just made herself a person of interest to the Idea series drones and their creator. Karla was the only person in this world who knew that Idea Seven wasn’t the only one of it’s kind. For now, the raven just continued to stare at Karla for a while, then it flew away leaving the package behind.

With trembling hands, Karla picked up the small package, a strange metal case with a grip on the top perfect for a bird to pick up in its beak. The case was aluminium, and inside, protected by a simple clasp, were tiny metal balls. Many of the rare earth elements contained inside the package would simply be a powder in their pure form, or would react to being exposed to air or humidity. So, they were all coated in aluminium, giving them a uniform appearance, like a case full of BB’s.

Kayla’s curiosity was too great for her not to open the case, but she didn’t know what to make of the many metal balls inside. She’d never seen anything like them, and they looked unnaturally uniform, nothing like what a blacksmith could produce, so she assumed they must be magical in some way.

She did not dare touch the strange metal balls. Carefully, she closed the case and set it back down where the raven had left it. She would wait to see what Rex did with this strange delivery.