Derp and seek

"Any idea?" asked the green clad woman.

John looked around, searching in the busy mall and large ensemble of shops and stands for what could have lured Dargon and this small gorgon. Trying to think like him, something caught his eye.

"There! Look at that!" he replied.

"Oh definitely, let's check it, " she acquiesced.

Some sort of magical street artist was doing a performance in the distance creating swirls of colored and luminous smoke and bubbles flying in the air in a hypnotic ballet. Once they reached it they started asking around to check if someone had seen the two derpy critters. An old woman remembered them. They had snuck under her legs to get closer to the show, and when she scolded them for it, Mimi had stuck her tongue out at her, imitated by each of her snakes. The old lady pointed them in the direction where they had gone after having looked at the show for a few minutes.

"So, you and those girls, hm? Starting out a little group of your own? I see the way they look at you..." asked Miranda looking at John, apparently not bothered to do so in front of Anna who was standing there, tucked under his arm.

Seeing John struggling to find a correct answer, Anna decided to be upfront. Her short time with John and the love he showed her had totally cracked her shell of shyness and self-pity. She was there in a place where she knew no one and no one knew her, wearing a scandalously revealing sweater dress lent to her by a gorgeous goddess looking woman that she could do things with at any time...

"Ohh, you don't even know half of it. He has started a very nice little collection," she replied for him.

"Did he, now? And you're alright with that?" the mature huntress winked.

"Well, I'm his Queen," replied Anna, showing her ring matching John's. "And he's really good, no problem keeping us all happy. Plus, I get to have fun with all of them too, so I really don't see a downside."

John was keeping quiet, flabbergasted by the conversation taking place in front of him.

"Well then, you are one lucky girl then. My own man used to be able to do that too, keeping me and half our camp happy, sadly his age is starting to catch up to him a little. What do you say, want to trade mine for yours for a night?" The mirthful smile on her lips showed she was only half serious.

"Oh, I'm sure he wouldn't mind part of it... But don't take it badly... Yours is virile and classy as well, but I'm not really into older men, I mean, he could be my dad..." said Anna, keeping a thoughtful look on her face as if to convince herself more than the others of what she was saying.

"Oh sure, don't worry, age has not taken its toll on him yet, only brought him years of experience. But let's not talk of it any longer, we have some creatures to hunt," said the huntress, focusing on the hunt.

The trail led them to a glittering fountain, the window of a pet store full of fluffy animals and finally to a gathering of food stands filling the place with mouth watering smells. They were trying to find them there when an irate man pointed what looked like a stone hand at them and screamed.

"It's them, someone stop them!"

A few minutes earlier

"Are you sure it's ok?" asked Dargon.

"Yeah, trust me. Grown-ups always tell you to stay there and wait, but they always talk for hours. We'll just take a peek outside, we won't be far..." said Mimi as she grabbed his hand and slipped out of the front door.

"So what now?" he asked.

"Look at all this cool stuff. Ohh, look, what is that guy doing there?" she said, pointing at some colored smoke, bubbles and magic lights in the air not far from them.

"It looks cool. Besides, we'll just watch it a few minutes and come back. It's not like we were going on an adventure," conceded Dargon.

They tried to watch the street artist, but the closer they got, the more the crowd he had gathered was blocking their view. They ended up crawling around and between the feet of one old lady that berated them for being under her dress, only to have Mimi stick out four snarky tongues at her.

The young gorgon was laughing at the spectacle, ignoring the recriminations of the old woman, until something else grabbed her attention and she dragged Dargon away in another direction.

One shiny fountain and a few flashy store windows later, they ended up in front of the Eldorado of this mall. A huge stand had been set up on the walkway where a man was selling exotic candy. Most of them looked like normal candy, but the difference between these and the regular ones bought in stores was that their creations involved either some magical process or fruits and flavors that didn't exist on Earth (or at least no part of it most people would know about).

Mimi had her eyes stuck on something, a large bag of gummy bears. The golden label on the clear plastic bag advertised 6 pounds of candy in 27 exclusive flavors and colors. Through the bags she could see some of them glow, sparkle, shimmer or shift colors, some of them were even wiggling.

Her piercing gaze full of determination she pointed out at it and spoke to the vendor.

"I want THIS!" she said, like it was a matter of life and ****.

"Here you go, little girl, it will be a 80 dollars," said the man, obviously used to weird customers, as he handed the heavy bag of candy to Mimi.

She held it against her chest, and it was big enough to hide her whole torso. As soon as she got it, she simply turned around and started to leave. The vendor rushed and tried to grab her shoulder to stop her. She looked at his hand, and after a weird flash, the man recoiled. He was a bit in shock and was rubbing his hand, wondering why he couldn't move it.

"Mimi, you can't do that!" said Dargon.

"What? He grabbed me! He can't do that. Miranda told me."

"He just wants you to pay for the candy."

"What's paying?" she asked incredulous.

"When people give you stuff, you give them some shiny things in exchange and then they make big piles of it in a vault. It's called money," explained Dargon, clearly the expert on the subject.

"Do you have some of this money? What is it like?"

"No, I can't take any from the vault, it would be wrong. They are tiny bits of shiny metal."

"Ohh, I got that."

Trying to balance the heavy bag with one hand, she dug into the pockets of her dress with the other. She retrieved its content (six caps from some beer bottles, an arrow head, a silver brooch with an arrow on it, three acorns, a pine cone with a pair of googly eyes stuck on it and a few strands of green yarn) and slammed it on the counter before leaving, while the vendor was busy watching his right hand turn into grey stone up to his wrist.

The Great Undertaking, stable barrier bellow New York City

"Slag brained ancient husk! The closest stable transfer point, sure... Decrepit old fool, a short walk to the exit point in the sewers..." raged Dramar as he cleaved into the sea of mole people trying to capture him.

The darkness of the cave was only disturbed by the searing light of his flaming scimitar. Hundreds of small, fat creatures with enormous squinting eyes and ridiculous teeth were rushing over the elevated stone bridge to attack the scaled hunter armed only with crude spears made with rebar and blades of discarded pieces of metal. Each of his strikes was sending a few of them flying off, often cut in half, falling to their doom. The ones dying from his blows were the lucky ones, the other, once they hit the water, had to contend with dozens enormous crocodiles, monsters over 15 meters in length, with razor-sharp teeth and jaws big enough to rip off his arm in one bite (which one of them almost did on his arrival; this was only prevented by the hunter's exceptional reflexes).

"Begone, you muddy curs! I am Dramar, hound of Tarkos, and in his name all shall burn, for my quest is sacred. Only ashes shall stand in my way until the bride is brought back!" he screamed, cutting his left palm with an obsidian amulet.

After a few seconds his eyes started glowing with blinding light and in a roar he breathed fire, incinerating everything in his path as the amulet in his hand turned to dust. The stone bridge was now only covered with ashes and coal like blackened corpses. Dozens of creatures had jumped away to avoid the brazier, and the waters were turning red as the frenzy took the monsters lurking in them.

But the hunter didn't care for any of this, all that mattered was that his path was free of obstacles and that he had a quarry to recover.

"... it's not the issue. Listen, I don't really understand how you found out who I am, but I'm kind of busy right now," explained John for the third time.

A small creature with grey fur, horns and a long tail had stopped John in his search for Mimi and Dargon. He only introduced himself as Liam and was somehow certain that John was the producer of the dryad elixir that recently hit the Abyss Auction. He had seemed untouched by any excuse John had tried to come up with, and once he finally admitted that he was indeed producing it, the self proclaimed recreational product distributor offered his services. He had apparently been impressed by the ingredients used, but considered that the recipe could be improved and thought that, judging by the small amounts on the market, John could use help to mass produce it.

"Trust me, kiddo. No one better than old Liam to help you with this. With the Folphoria Aeftlanis alone, you are sitting on a goldmine, you could make a mint just selling it raw if you can grow it. I get it, you're in a hurry. Here, take my business card and this contact crystal, give me a call. I can hook you up with clients, big ones. Trust me, we're going to make a fortune together..." Liam said, forcefully putting a piece of paper and an oval, blue crystal with a single rune on it in the palm of John's hand before disappearing in the crowd.

"What a weird guy... I think he's either really excited about that or he's an awesome actor out to scam you, love," said Anna, as John carefully put the items in his inventory, which should stop them from recording or tracking him if they were supposed to.

"Well, I think I heard about him," said Miranda. "I was at a... party were someone was talking about their supplier. If it's really him, he doesn't mess around and has really good stuff. It's impressive that he's interested in your little tonic."

John shrugged and continued on their path only to stop not long after, pointing in the distance.

"Do you see that?" he asked the two women.

They both looked at the terrace of a Cafe where they could see something unusual. Around a table were gathered a bunch of creatures, a falcon, a wombat, a sloth, an owl, a pigeon, a monkey, a weird creature with a trump and something looking like an octopus, all wearing top hats, playing some weird game involving some cards, dice and pawns moving on a board. They all had a glass of a weird, fizzy, orange colored drink in front of them.

"No, not that... That!" corrected John, pointing two tables over to the right. Mimi and Dargon were sitting at a table with a very large yet almost empty bag of candy. Apparently the same one John and Miranda had to pay for after she restored the hand of a vendor by pouring a few drops from a vial of gorgon saliva on it. It made too much sense to John that she had one on her...

"...Egg is the best, Dargon. You would love it, it's so cool, but the grown ups didn't let me bring it, they say it was too dangerous and I would break it... That's stupid, I would never break Egg, it's my best friend and I'm sure it would have loved to see all of this. Oh, hi Mommy Miranda. We were waiting for you, do you want some candy?" said Mimi with a big smile.

A lot of screaming (and apology candies being shared) later, everyone seemed reassured of having found their derpy, mischievous ward. All in all, it hadn’t turned to absolute disaster.

John called Tricia. She would go fetch the medical components needed for the lab, and after John went back for his repaired crossbow, they would regroup for some shopping before going back to the store where his armor was being remade.

His armor had been one of the first things he had made and despite a few upgrades…