It was a fifteen minute drive to the first apothecary. Walking through a door charmed to look like an abandoned building, I entered the dusty store. With an anti-pregnancy charm for werewolves, I walked to check out. Under the pretense of making small talk I started to question the clerk.
"Do you carry Soul Shards?" I asked, "I have a friend who wants to revive a favorite cat." He gave me a funny look as he rung me up.
"Don't look at me like that she's the one who wants to do it not me." I pretended to be offended.
"Sorry, it's just the last person who asked about Soul Shards bought out the whole stock of them." I'm sure my eyes bugged out.
"That's a lot. When will you next be in stock?" I continued with the innocent voice.
"That's just it, he wants all of my stock for the next three months." He bagged the charm as we talked.
"Wow, that must cost a lot." He nodded.
"Well, thanks." I walked out of the store. Doing some mental calculations, I realized that with that many Soul Shards he could summon at least five-hundred undead.
Cursing under my breath, I proceeded to the next apothecary.
The news I heard there was not any better then the news I got at the first. As I drove back the the ranch, I called Peony.
"Hello?"
"Peony, I need you to get a blue marker and cross out my two apothecaries."
"Yes, ma'am," I heard her shuffling around for a bit, "got it."
"Good, did James and Richard check in yet?" I carefully turned a corner with one hand.
"Yes," she sounded worried, "they had me cross out three reagents."
"'Kay, I want you to cross out Soul Shards and Vials of Mana." I heard her moving around again.
"Ebony that's over half of the reagents."
"I know."
"This isn't good," I took a deep breath trying to calm my breathing, "what can I do?"
"List that he has enough to summon at least five-hundred." I heard her gulp.
"Done."
"I'm almost back, give me five minutes."
"Okay." I hung up.
Breathing out curses, I fought to keep my mood from effecting my driving. My Mustang does not deserve to die because I can't keep my emotions in check. Emotions were swirling in my head. The strongest of them being fear. I can't do this. I'm a freaking damphir! Well and a werewolf.
Oh fudge! Werewolf, tonight is the new moon. Rubbing my forehead, I realized that I was already at the ranch. After parking, I started to the house. Passing the barn, I saw and heard the animals reacting to my fear. With shrieks and cries following me, I picked up my pace. The last thing I need is the animals breaking stuff. Taking a deep breath, I walked into the house. I saw the looks I was getting at the fear coming off me. One of the rookies started to snicker. Almost instantly his senior team member smacked him on the back of his head. The senior members knew that if I was afraid they should be too. Ignoring the looks, I went into the bosses office right away. Heart pounding, I opened the doors. The boss turned to admonish me for interrupting his tele-conference with the counsel, when he smelled the fear.
"What can I do for you Ebony?" He asked.
"I checked the local apothecaries," I bit my lip trying to stay calm, "he has enough reagents to summon at least five-hundred common undead depending on what else he gets he could summon any number of unusual undead." His eyes grew wide and I heard one of the members of the counsel gasp.
"Thank you, Ebony," he said, "you may go."
"Thank you, sir." I walked out.
Feeling nauseous, I walked back to my desk. Peony jumped up when I walked past her. I held up my hand as she opened her mouth. Running my hand through my hair, I looked at the board. With a sigh of frustration, I tried to find a pattern. Who am I kidding, I can't triangulate the apothecaries, that wouldn't give me squat. The only thing I can do for now is make sure Peony doesn't kill herself trying to stay alive.
Peony chewed her lip as she watched me. I looked at the board one more time before turning back to her. Taking a deep breath, I walked to my desk and grabbed my sword. It had an auburn blade, and the hand guard was two knives that were disguised as dragon-heads. At the end of the handle there were two dragon fangs. The sword was a present from a mother dragon after I hunted down the poacher of one of her children. She forged it herself. Dragon forged blades are incredibly rare.
Pulling it out of it's sheath, I checked the sharpness of the blade. With a flick of my wrist, I spun it in my hand, testing it weight. It's been a few days since I'd brought it out.
"Follow me." My voice was sharp. Peony jumped up, following closely behind me. With long, powerful, strides, I made my way through the office to the back yard. Walking past the Harpy den, Kitty came bounding out to me. As he slowed becoming more aware of his surroundings, he sensed my emotions. I glanced down at him then continued toward the fighting shed. I opened the massive doors. The Fight Shed, as the senior warriors called it, was a barn-like building. With a large ring in the middle for sparring and a wall for nothing more then weapons, it was the only building I spent as much time in as the menagerie. Kicking open the doors, I marched to the weapon wall. Because of Peony's small size, a sword would not work. As I searched the wall for something appropriate, two knives caught my eye. They were silver, as were almost all the blades here, with black dragon scales on the handle. The blade was curved with teeth and a poison rune carved in the center of the blade. The hilt was made of dragon claws and judging from the slight cracks in the claw it was way postmortem. The workmanship was well enough, a human master by the looks of it. Not the skill of a dragon or a dwarf, but still a good blade. "Today I will teach you how to stay alive," I stated, "these are your new best friends." I tossed the blades at her feet, each one landing blade first in the dirt. She bent down to retrieve them, not watching me as she did so. I was on her in a flash. My sword, still in it's sheath, on her neck. She stilled.
"You are human," I said harshly, "you have no advantages. All you'll have is surprise. Don't waste it." She let out a grunt of frustration. Stepping back, I brought my blade up. With a yell, she ran at me. All but sighing at her incompetence, I grabbed her blade as she swung it at me. Gripping it hard, I brought it up, forcing her to lift her arms, exposing her torso. I brought my right leg up and extended it in a kick. I didn't hit her hard, just enough to force her to sit down. She growled under her breath and glared at me.
"Up," I shot, "you wasted your breath. Battle cries are foolish and a waste time. All they do is telegraph your moves even more." She looked at me fer face turning red. "Again, this time don't tell me when you're going to attack." I stood at the ready.
Peony slid into a ridiculous fighting stance. Like the kind you see in bad kung-fu movies. Not The Crane, but not anywhere ready. Drawing in a huge breath, I walked over to her.
"You want to stay balanced right?" I asked in a patronizing tone. She looked up at me and I saw fire in her eyes. Good she'll need that rage soon.
"Watch me, mimic what I do." I placed myself in a proper fighting stance.
