*CLATTER*

“Oi, careful with the mana crystals! I’ve been working my ass off to earn those…!” Jake warned Livia as she stumbled because of her long maid skirt.

“S-Sorry. Oh, by the way. You haven’t fed your pet dra—“

“Don’t mention him, please… he can die somewhere for all I care. Tch! That wench!” Jake clenched his fist, remembering something very unpleasant. His face twitched and turned on every thought… still he forced a grin on his messed up face.

“Don’t worry Livia, I’ll take care of him…” he said, emitting an aura which was obviously unfriendly.

“Eeeeekk!!!” she flinched, trembling a little. “O-Okay! Whatever you want… haha.” That laugh at the last wasn’t out of joy, it was out of terror…

“Nah, that’s fine… I’ll probably have to feed him anyways.” He brushed her off with a whiff of his hand. Her terrific face slowly turned to a calm and relaxed gaze with her cheeks brightening. Jake threw her a light smirk back… and opened the birch door and stepped outside.

He took out a small lizard-like looking thing which happened to be his dragon—‘Fernandis’. It squealed in its timid voice. He flicked its back to a distant spot. The little dragon landed with a ‘tut’ on the ground. Suddenly, a flash of smoke filled the place, leaving Jake coughing, and his hand near his mouth.

There appeared an enormous figure in front of him. Majestic and proud, a pillar-height tall beast stood steps away from crushing Jake like a leaf. Its eyes glittered with fury, smoke in its breath, wings stretching high up into the sky, blocking the sun’s path to reach the ground. The low growling sent birds flying away from the trees, leaving the ground trembling as if in an earthquake. Its feet had claws that buried themselves deep into the ground. Jake didn’t show the slightest change in his expression. It was as lifeless as always. But!

[“Sup master? It would be bold of me to speak this but damn your pocket smells! Wash it will you?!”] He suddenly changed his posture of standing from a majestic to a lazed geezer.

“Haah?! Look who’s talking!” Jake whined in anger and frustration, about why he had to bring up this pain-in-the-ass, good-for-nothing, lump of troubles with him. He clenched his teeth.

“Take this…” he said, handing over a bag of clanging, shining stones.

[“Hm? Nah, not interested! You give me the same damn thing every time…”]

“O-Oh?” Jake’s face twitched, “I see. Then, I’ll be taking these back then.” He withdrew his hand and turned around.

[“Aagh! I was just kidding. Please don’t!”]

The dragon begged, thumping himself on the ground. The only thing odd was that he seemed to be ‘kneeling’ on the ground.

This little…! Prostrating himself before me but shit-talking about me behind my back! How the hell does Satan deal with him?! Jake violently thought while giving him the stones.

[“*Sniff*, giving me the same mana crystals over and over again… this is not right. Are you broke?!”] The dragon wiped his eye and snapped at Jake.

“Huh?! I’m not—oh, never mind…”

Jake was taken aback… of how he dealt with the debt-collectors, how he got his face smacked and beaten black and blue by their hands. He grabbed his cheek lightly, feeling the pain he received during work hours.

The dragon gulped down the last of the mana stones and disappeared in a whiff of a strong wind, swirling high up into the air and then entering Jake’s inner jacket pocket with a small whoosh. Jake sighed in a defeated way, exhausted, putting his hands on his hip. The wind lifted his jacket up, calming him down.

“It’s been a while…” Jake muttered to himself. There was a sudden creak of the door just past the garden, beside the enormous field. A dark figure came in, wobbling at his feet. Jake pretty sure knew who he was…

“Oy, throw the bottle away will you?” he said as he walked towards the trembling figure. “Hey, I said throw away the bot—“

“Jaaakkkiiiieeeee! I was rejected! May I ask for your sympathy—ow! “

“NO.” Jake cross-replied.

“Aww man!” Satan sulked. And wriggled along the smooth stone path by the garden and through the mansion door.

“Drunkard…” Jake muttered to himself, as if complaining about daily duties to manage the two junkies in the mansion.

[“Ho? I sense something there… wait, rejected?! Hah! Must have been a lot for him, since he had his hundredth kick today! What’s more? On the face…!”] Jake’s pocket rumbled lightly, the sound coming from the deepest parts—an uncontrolled laugh, particularly about Satan’s face being messed up.

“Shut up, you! Go to sleep!” Jake snapped. There was not a sound more, except for a light snoring. “Jeez, what am I gonna do with this eyesore of a dragon?”

[“I heard that you know…”]

“So you weren’t sleeping?!”

*****

There was a *chack* sound as Jake opened the front door of his store. The joints of the wooden door shackled as it hit the small doorbell above. The minute thudding of footsteps echoed through the medium sized room as Jake walked in, closing the door behind him. He put on his ragged apron and tucked in some important papers in his pocket and ran to the service table as if he would jump over it. He rumbled through the scattered papers on the table, arranging them in order.

He sighed deeply and exhausted on his relaxing chair behind the desk. He glanced around the room, looking through items and artifacts along the following shelves on the walls. Everything seemed to be fine—wooden floors were firm, bricks met neatly, windows shut sensibly opened themselves and walls continued upright. Jake watched from the dark corner of the room as silence lay steadily against every stone and wood of the store. He did not move a muscle, but when he did, only to pick up his iron mug of chilled beer. Taking a sip, he laid back on his chair.

“Another day full of debtors, huh? Gimme a break man…” He spoke to himself. “Oh my, the lights…” he spoke as he stood up, putting down his mug and walked to a nearby pillar with a lamp hung on. He lifted the cover to reveal a lamp filled with glowing night insects. The room lit up in every corner as he swirled around, uncovering every lamp he could find. If you compare the darkness of the room to a night sky, and the light from the insects to stars, then it would form a beautiful picture in your mind, or so Jake thought.

“This takes me back to our time… right Wanda?” he stared into an empty wall, as if he entered a void of emptiness. Picking up some, he lit incense sticks and some candles on the stand-up table beside his chair. This made him recall his old memories. And it helped to read the documents too. He gave a bitter smile as he retired to his chair, sipping some beer again.

[“Man, you’re one gloomy guy, master… seriously. A Shut-in type?!”]

Jake chocked on his drink, spilling some on his worn out apron, breathing raggedly.

“Wha… what are you doing here?!! And where are you?!” he spat, throwing frustrated glances around but couldn’t see anyone. It was most probably Fernandis.

[“Haa? When did you become such an idiot? I remain unseen until summoned remember?”]

“I-I see. But wait, I remember clearly that I put my jacket away when I left home…! So how did you…” Jake trailed off.

[“Well, you see… I was kinda asleep in the pocket and your best buddy, I would say piece of shit, soaked the entire jacket with some drink. It soon began to reek of booze.”]

“Wha…?!”

[“And so I got in a fight with him… of course I was in still in smoke form, but still I gave the drunkard one hell of a huddle and flew him to the bath tub, then he dozed off.”]

“Wait… huh?!”

[“But you see, I could possibly go and sleep in that smelling rack anymore,”]

“Wait, ‘smelling rack’?”

[“So I fused myself with the smell of your sweat and tagged along… so that’s the story~] he ended in a singingly voice.

“Argh… fine, you win.” He put his palm on his forehead, wiping his hair up and brushing off the sweat.

[“Hehe… oh, by the way, if I may be so bold, did your hair grow whitish silver because you’re from a legendary race that went extinct years ago? Or is it that you are a millennium year old grandpa? Which is the reason?”]

“Oi, aren’t you a bit more harsh than before?” Jake debated.

[“Well whatever happens, happens right? Don’t sweat it. By the way, I wouldn’t have come if Sister Livia would be home right now. But due to the ruckus, she had to take your coat to the Floating Rock laundry.”]

Right… I might buy Livia a present on the way home. And a thorny cane for my ‘dear friend’. Just you wait… Jake clenched his fists, grinding his teeth. But soon calmed down, probably due to years of experience with this.

“Come, puddles!” Jake waved his two fingers in the air and there was a light ‘boom’, followed by a screen of smoke, leaving him coughing and covering his mouth. The smoke cleared in a few moments.

[“Phew, sure took you a while,”] the dragon sighed, but suddenly flinching, [“Hey, quit it with that name, will you?!”]

“Huh? What’s wrong with that?” Jake put on an innocent smile on his face. But both knew that was only for show. Under the skin, he was laughing the hell out with that nickname.

[“Cut it out…”] the dragon teared up, wiping his eyes. Then spitting out a small fire ball at Jake’s face, burning it to a black complexion.

The door rattled open and a lady walked in, “Excuse me, are the—aaaaaahh!! Wh-Who are you?!” she flinched back, then turning he back, rushed out of the store, holding her face, unable to speak. As if she saw a ghost.

Jake stood his ground, shaking through.

[“Wow, she was pretty hasty… couldn’t even ask us our name? How impolite…”] the dragon trailed off.

“You little…! That was the first customer in a long time!!! And she had to see my pitiful of a face… boohoo…” Jake grabbed the dragon by his tail and threw out the door, after turning him into a green smoke.

[“Hm? Did I do something wrong?”] The dragon in smoke whizzed in the air, not knowing the reason. It was a type of thing that only a business involved person would know.

By the way, on returning inside, Jake found a broken piece of a magic wand…

“Whaaaa…?!!”