by Paul Cude
"No, no, no child. We can do much better than that."
Peter followed Gee Tee into the workshop and took a seat in the chair he was guided to. Pulling out a small stool, the old shopkeeper moved it in front of a very tall bookcase that contained many varieties of parchment and ink. The master mantra maker climbed awkwardly onto the stool and started hunting around on top of the bookcase. After much rummaging around, he finally retrieved what he was looking for.
"Ah, here it is. Just right for special occasions and times of need," said the shopkeeper, stifling a laugh. "And right now I feel the need."
As Gee Tee turned around to step down from the stool, Peter finally caught a glimpse of what he had been searching for: a tall metallic flask, covered in dust, through which Peter could just make out some writing that said "12th Century Peruvian Ink (only to be used with 12th century Peruvian parchment)".
Peter wondered what on earth was going on.
Gee Tee held the flask up to examine it, a playful glint in his eye. Blowing some of the dust off it, the old shopkeeper twisted off the cap, as Peter sat, intrigued. Holding the flask up to his nostrils, the old dragon inhaled deeply, clearly liking what he smelt. Just as Peter thought it couldn't get any weirder, Gee Tee did the last thing that he would have expected. He took a swig from the flask. Peter sat gobsmacked in the oversized chair, watching as Gee Tee swilled some of the flask's contents around in his mouth. Suddenly the old shopkeeper turned sharply and blew out an almighty stream of searing blue flame across the room, hitting the wall on the other side, leaving the mother of all scorch marks.
"Your friend will have a hissy fit when he comes back into work on Monday and sees that on the wall," joked the old dragon, licking his lips.
"What on Earth is that stuff?" asked Peter, warily.
Gee Tee gave a huge guffaw and held out the flask.
"Well... it's not Peruvian ink, that's for sure."
Both dragons spontaneously burst into laughter, which lasted for what seemed like an age. When Gee Tee finally finished laughing, he held out the flask and offered it to Peter. Unsure of what to do, the young dragon reluctantly took it from the shopkeeper, holding it up in the air as if it were a ticking time bomb.
"That, my young friend, is the finest, most potent and most enjoyable drink you will ever try."
"Why does it say Peruvian ink on the side?" asked Peter, more than a little confused.
Gee Tee chuckled and smiled at the young dragon.
"If your best friend found out what it really is, you can bet that would be the last I would see of it. Much as I appreciate his constant fussing over the state of my health, I do like a little treat every now and then. And it says 'to be used only with Peruvian parchment' simply because there's no such thing, reducing the chances of anyone opening it by mistake."
"Sneaky," declared Peter, proudly.
"I sometimes feel that's what I should have been named," bragged the old dragon, smiling.
Shaking his head, Peter held the flask under his nose.
"Smells like petrol."
"Petrol?" enquired the old dragon, confused.
It suddenly dawned on Peter that Gee Tee, having never been on the surface, would have absolutely no idea what that was.
"Ah... it's the fuel that the humans use to power their vehicles."
"Oh... I see. Well, anyway, this is, as I was saying, simply... magnificent. It was a gift to me from the king," stated the old shopkeeper proudly.
"The king!" exclaimed Peter.
"Oh, not the current king, child, although I'm pretty sure he owes me more than a favour or two. If he ever remembers, that is."
"If it's not from the current king, how old is this stuff?" queried the young dragon nervously.
Gee Tee casually shrugged his giant scaly shoulders.
"Nearly three hundred years if memory serves me correctly. Go ahead child... try it!"
"I... I... I couldn't," refused Peter, offering the flask back to the master mantra maker.
"I wouldn't offer it if I didn't want you to have any, child. You really should give it a go. That might be the only one of its kind left on the planet. My understanding is that it was a gift to the king of the time, from the nagas in the frozen north. A peace offering I believe. When else would you get an opportunity like this?"
"Sounds important," ventured Peter. "Why did the king give it to you, if you don't mind me asking."
Gee Tee turned and gave the young dragon a knowing look.
"You wouldn't be the first dragon that I've helped. Not by a long way. And some of the things I've been privileged to be involved in, well let's just say that not only have I experienced a great deal of history, being as old as I am, but I've helped shape a fair bit of it as well."
Peter looked at the old shopkeeper, jaw wide open, in a completely new light.
"Now stop gawping and start drinking," ordered the old dragon, indicating the flask. "Just a small mouthful, savour the taste. You'll know when it's time for the flame."
Holding the silver flask up to his mouth, he swigged as much as he dared. Rolling effortlessly over his huge tongue, the thick gooey liquid left a gorgeous sweet, fizzy, tangy aftertaste as it slid slowly down his throat. The flavour seemed to penetrate not only his nose, but his throat and the top of his stomach as well. It was bliss as he stood in the middle of the workshop, all thoughts of everything else forgotten, the sensation of the drink all encompassing. Never before had he experienced such wonder, not even the first time he'd taken to the air. Through the haze and the ecstasy, he began to wonder why he'd never heard of such a drink and why it was not available to dragons everywhere. At the exact same moment of these thoughts, a fuzzy, tingling feeling erupted in his mouth. Opening his eyes for the first time in what felt like a year, Gee Tee stood directly in front of him, grinning from ear to ear. In the split second it had taken him to open his eyes, the tingling had turned to... BURNING! But not just any burning: ice cold burning that made every one of his sharp teeth feel as though they were being hit individually with a hammer. Briefly this masked the uproar in the back of his throat and stomach that was starting to come to the fore. It felt as though flesh was being stripped. Panic started to consume him. Looking back at the shopkeeper, he was surprised to see tears of laughter racing down the old dragon's face, sizzling as they came into contact with the heat from his nostrils. Fear and anger threatened momentarily to consume Peter, when all of a sudden he felt his stomach make a giant... bubble.
'Oh my God,' he thought, 'I'm going to explode.'
Spinning around in blind panic, the bubble that had started in his stomach had gathered momentum and was now making a mad dash for freedom up his throat. Clenching his jaw, Peter was determined not to let it out, but that was not quite what the bubble had in mind. Nothing was going to get in its way. Abruptly Peter's jaws shot open as wide as they possibly could. A resounding 'BUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRPPPPPPPPP' emanated from his mouth, followed closely by a huge blue fireball that crossed the room in blaze of light, hitting a grey metal filing cabinet, instantly reducing it to a steaming mass of burning slag. Spent, he slumped down into the oversized chair, relieved that the bubble no longer resided within him. Wiping away the tears of laughter, Gee Tee wandered over to the blackened remains of the filing cabinet.
"I'm not nearly so concerned about the scorch mark on the wall now," he professed, teeming with sarcasm. "You're supposed to produce a concentrated stream of fire, not deliver a ball of absolute devastation."
"Sorry," Peter burped, feeling a little light headed.
The old shopkeeper shook his head.
"It's not your fault child. I should have explained a bit more. Anyway, what do you think? Awesome eh?"
Letting out a long breath, Peter could still taste the after effects of the drink inside him.
"Oh yeah... awesome."
"That's the spirit," stressed Gee Tee, slapping Peter firmly on the back, causing him to splutter uncontrollably for a few seconds.
&nb
sp; Peter surveyed the mess they'd made of the workshop.
"How are you going to explain all of this to Tank?"
The master mantra maker pondered the question a few seconds before replying.
"I'll just tell him I was rooting about and found an unfamiliar mantra which I couldn't resist trying. If he asks where I found it, I'll just point to that," Gee Tee laughed, pointing directly at the steaming mass of molten mess that only a few moments ago had been a filing cabinet. "Like I said before... sneaky."
Peter chuckled under his breath and thought,
'What a way to spend a Saturday night.' It was only then that he realised he didn't mean it sarcastically, and in actual fact had been having a really great time just talking and mucking about with the old shopkeeper.
"Anyhow, I haven't asked you what you're doing here tonight. Much as I enjoy your company, it's an odd time for a social call."
Recalling the events of today that had led him here, Peter once more felt the weight of the world on his shoulders. He began to tell Gee Tee about his trip to the council chambers, but only got as far as mentioning Hitch Rosebloom's name, before the master mantra maker interrupted.
"Bloody Hitch Rosebloom, the bane of my life," fumed the old dragon, clearly annoyed. "Let me guess. You started telling him about the events at Cropptech and then unwittingly dropped my name into the conversation after which he probably went off on one. Would that be about right?"
"Pretty much," confirmed Peter, surprised.
"That dragon should be frozen in ice and left there to rot for a thousand years," proposed Gee Tee, venom lacing his raised voice. "I'm sorry child," he added, noticing the worried look on Peter's face. "It's just, as you might have already guessed, we have a little bit of... history."
Peter nodded, waiting to see if the old shopkeeper would expand on what he'd just said.
Pacing up and down the workshop, visibly upset and agitated, wings swishing, totally oblivious to the still smoking molten scrap heap behind him, Gee Tee began.
"Of all the councillors that could have responsibility for Cropptech, it would have to be him, wouldn't it," he said shaking his gigantic prehistoric head from side to side, looking for something to kick. Abruptly, there was a change of direction, with the old dragon deciding to sit down in the chair opposite Peter.
"I'm sorry if you've got it in the scales from him, but I'm glad you came and sought me out, particularly after the, no doubt, bad things that he's filled your mind with about me," added the smiling shopkeeper.
Smiling back, Peter was pretty sure his gut feeling about Gee Tee was right, despite what that crazy councillor had tried to peddle.
"It all started a very long time ago. Long before you were hatched. Although it doesn't look like it now, this shop used to be incredibly busy and successful. At our peak, nobody else in the world could match us for mantras, whether it was new or everyday mantras. We were renowned for creating and selling the best. Our healing mantras on average were between fifteen and twenty percent more effective than anyone else's, purely because of the quality material we used to craft them. Dragons everywhere knew that if they came to Gee Tee's Mantra Emporium, they were getting top quality merchandise. We even had the King's Council's Seal Of Approval.
All in all, business was booming. The shop itself already had a staff of ten, not including the five dragons employed in the workshop, tasked with repairs, research and development, which incidentally is where I spent a great deal of my time. Even with that level of staffing, things were spiralling out of control and I decided that I really needed someone else to help on the research and development side of things, almost a right hand dragon, you could say. So I advertised for one in the Daily Telepath. Combined with the prestige of the company and the fact that the position would have been working right alongside me, well let's just say things went berserk. If memory serves me correctly, we had nearly five thousand applicants."
"Five thousand!" exclaimed Peter.
"That's right. And just like you, I was gobsmacked. It never occurred to me that it would be such a sought after post, but that's indeed what it was. I spent weeks whittling down the candidates, which of course meant the shop was getting busier, and I was even more behind with my work. After a month or so of working day and night, I managed to get it down to a manageable twenty dragons, which was no mean feat, I assure you."
Peter nodded, riveted by the thought of the deserted old shop that he was sitting in, having been so successful and busy.
"Anyway, I proceeded to interview each of the applicants and finally cull it down to four outstanding dragons, all of whom were nearly straight out of their respective nursery rings. One of the four was a particularly arrogant young dragon called... yes, you've guessed it, Hitch Rosebloom."
Peter was starting to see what the old shopkeeper meant when he said that he and Rosebloom had history.
"Well, I agonized long and hard about the four prospective candidates. It was, to this day, one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make. Needless to say, the very pleasant Hitch Rosebloom wasn't the applicant that I chose. At the time I didn't think very much of it. The job went to an outstanding, clever and shy young dragon called... CAT! Ahh... Cat. She was wonderful in every sense. Oh in case you're wondering, Cat was short for Catfish, as that was what the prominent marking sprayed across the back of her neck resembled."
Peter's mind drifted far into the past at the mere mention of that. Although eidetic, his memory was sometimes slow, and a little hazy. Somewhere inside there, he recalled a visit from a dragon who certainly fitted that description. Could it be the same one?
"Anyhow, she came to work for me and I let all the other dragons that I'd interviewed know that they hadn't been successful, and thought nothing more of it. Apparently the boy Rosebloom and his family were more than a little offended that he hadn't got the job. Not only that, but his family were ever so well connected, if you know what I mean. I had one or two visits from associates of his family, trying to persuade me to relent and give Rosebloom the job. In the meantime, however, Cat had excelled in the few weeks that she'd been with me. Never having given in to bullies before, I wasn't about to now and so I told those associates in biologically specific terms exactly what they could go and do."
At the mere mention of bullies, Peter's stomach clenched and all he could think of was Fisher, Casey and Theobald. A shudder ran the entire length of his body at the thought of the three of them. Concentrating hard, he turned his attention back to Gee Tee, who momentarily looked lost in thought.
"At the time it seemed like the right thing to do and with hindsight, it probably still was. But what I didn't realise was the extent of the power Rosebloom's family actually had, and quite how vindictive they would be. To cut a long story short, through manipulation and their contacts, they managed to get the King's Council's Seal Of Approval revoked from the shop for some trumped up reason and things went rapidly downhill from there. The family's influence persuaded important customers to go elsewhere and so I ended up laying off most of my staff, including the delightful Cat I'm afraid to say. My fortunes went from bad to worse, unlike those of that weasel Rosebloom, who through his family connections managed not only to get voted in as a councillor, but the youngest one in dragon history. Unbelievable!"
Gee Tee got up and paced about a bit more, shaking his head, looking thoroughly angry. Peter was amazed to think that any one dragon could be so vindictive and petty as to totally destroy something just because he didn't get selected for a job.
"If anyone tells you that dragons are not like humans at all child, or that dragons are somehow better than humans, think again. This story, along with others just like it, should always remind you how much we have in common with our so-called 'barbaric' charges on the surface.
Where was I? Oh yes, the delightful Rosebloom. You might have thought that ruining my business and becoming the youngest councillor ever would be enough for the delightful young dragon because I clearly did. But not
so.
About a year after he became a councillor, I had a visit from a troop of the King's Guard, supposedly looking for illegal mantras and stolen artefacts. When I questioned the commander, he stated that the search had arisen from a tip-off received from a highly placed source. Of course they didn't find anything, but they did manage to trash the place in the process. To this day, I still get a visit from the King's Guard every six months or so, looking for the same thing. Luckily for me, I've helped their new commander out on a number of occasions, so whenever the order comes down from above, he brings a few trusted troops and I feed them hot charcoal and regale them with tales from the past. Once done, they report that a thorough search of the premises was carried out. A win for everyone, except that deceitful councillor.
Peter felt numb at the thought of one dragon doing all that to another.
'Surely all of that resentment would fade over time?' he thought to himself.
"So there you have it child, the reason why the beloved councillor and I don't quite see eye to eye.”
"That's something of an understatement isn't it?"
"Now," announced Gee Tee much more calmly, "why don't you tell me about that interesting trinket around your neck, child?"
"It was left to me by Mark Hiscock, in his will," replied Peter, twirling the trident around on the end of its chain.
"Really," said the old shopkeeper, poking his large spectacles as far up his nose as they would go. "Do you know what you have there, child?"
He smiled and looked up from the trident.
"A cool piece of bling, as they would say on the surface." (Although trying to inject a little humour, whilst being a little bit hip at the same time, Peter failed spectacularly. It was much like a parent talking up the music their teenage son or daughter liked to listen to. Off the scale uncool!)
The old shopkeeper looked completely confused at Peter's description.
"Never mind," ventured the young dragon. "I don't really know what it means either, and I'm supposed to be young and trendy. By the interest you're showing in it though, I'm assuming it's more than just a stunning piece of jewellery."
