4.8 p͏a͏t͏r͏e͏o͏n͏.c͏o͏m͏/S͏t͏r͏a͏t͏o͏t͏h͏r͏a͏x͏A͏f͏t͏e͏r͏D͏a͏r͏k͏

Fey groaned and put her head in her hands. She sometimes wondered if the gnome had been created out of the aether by some mischievous god solely for the purpose of fucking and gambling and making snarky remarks.

"Hey it worked out, didn't it? I said I'd get more coin and I did!"

"That, that is true. Don't you think those lupine are going to start questioning what happened once they start to come down from their heat? You made a one in a million roll, I know I would be suspicious."

"Pah, those lupine were so horny they won't be able to do anything but fuck and masturbate for a few days. Their boyfriends are about to have a boning of a lifetime! See? Everybody wins!"

"Urgh. This is dangerous, I shouldn't have this much of an effect with people in heat."

"Hah, you're kidding right? You're just very attractive to them, just like a smoking hot alpha lupine would be, being attractive is a good thing! Look, forget that shit, it's not important, you know what we're doing?"

"What are we doing Flora?"

The gnome tilted her head to the side and smiled with her eyes closed. "Shopping!"

A force grabbed Fey's wrist and she was dragged along behind the gnome who went careening down the street. They passed a few blocks until they came to the shopping district. Shops whizzed past until they came to stop outside a potion maker. The shop smelt horrendous as only a potion makers could but Flora still dragged Fey inside.

The centaur found herself standing awkwardly between aisles of glass bottles trying hard not to move too much in case her large horse half accidentally knocked any bottles over. It wasn't just for fear of being made to pay for them, the bottles were filled with dangerous looking colourful liquids, flowing liquids, invisible liquids, liquids with glowing particles suspended in them, even a bottle that seemed to contain a fish, and even one that seemed to have a miniature tree growing in it.

Flora was floating overhead happily using her power to lift dozens of bottles into the air to inspect. A horrified alchemist was running about underneath her as dangerous looking bottles went whizzing past, his eyes round behind his beer bottle bottom glasses, his frazzled sticky up hair waggling with each twitch of his head.

"Miss customer! These are very dangerous! Oh gosh, please put that explosive potion down, no no not that one! That's bone eating acid!"

Flora smirked and waggled the acid potion over the alchemists head. He flinched away.

"You got any water breathing potions buddy?"

"Y-yes! J-just stop throwing my merchandise around and I'll get it!"

Flora tapped a finger to her lip and thought about it.

"Alright."

All the floating potions suddenly rushed toward the alchemist who let out a shriek of fear before the collection of glass formed up and neatly plopped down on a table beside him. The alchemist wiped a shaky hand across his brow.

"Adventurers..." he muttered under his breath. He gathered himself and found the requested potion which Flora happily grabbed.

Fey watched as the gnome had the alchemist fetch more and more potions of varying type and effect. She had no clue what she would even use most of them for and it seemed an extraordinary waste of money yet she continued to stuff more and more potions into a duffel bag she had gotten the alchemist to give her. The centaur could only stand uncomfortably, her hips occasionally shifting due to the pressure in her balls.

At last the gnome was done and she showered coins over the alchemist's head before zooming out the door. To Fey's outrage an invisible force grabbed her tail and she had to awkwardly shuffle backwards out of the shop.

"Flora get off! Don't you know how rude it is to grab a centaur's tail without permission? A true plains centaur would demand blood recompense for that, it's a really serious matter."

The gnome paused. "Er right, sorry, just shopping! I've missed it. I'm a little excited."

"So I've noticed."

"Well come on, there's only one place else I want to go and then we can go find the inn."

"Promise?"

"One hundred percent!"

Fey relented and followed after the gnome who was currently sitting side-saddle on the potion filled duffel bag as it floated through the air.

The shop they stopped in front of was not what Fey had expected, not in the slightest. A rubber merchant, a purveyor of all things made of rubber and the like. They stepped inside and Fey looked with curiosity at the shop. Lots and lots of things for fermenting, pipes, valves, rubber footballs, even a few new fangled uses such as the soles of sandals and shoes. A small rubber tree sat in the middle of the shop a dozen spigots jammed into its bark that occasionally dripped liquid rubber.

"This new rubber stuff is fascinating Flora but… why?"

She tapped her nose. "It's the big secret, isn't it? The one people don't talk about."

"...What big secret?"

"Why the secret room in every single rubber merchants."

The clerk sat behind them made a strangled noise at that and tried to play it off with a cough.

Flora turned to him. "You're not one for a poker face huh? Well, let's see it!"

"I- I don't know what you're talking about!"

Flora drifted closer to him. "Hmm? What's that? I thought I heard you say a lie?"

The clerk suddenly started to lift into the air and he let out a squawk of fear.

"Fine fine! It's real! It's real! I-I'll show you it!"

He dropped back down to the ground with a thump where he stumbled on his feet. The clerk retrieved a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed his brow.

"This is usually just for our more adroit and… connected customers, but I'll m-make an exception for one so… perceptive and forceful as yourself."

"Of course."

The clerk stepped behind the counter and pushed against the floor to ceiling shelf. With a click it swung inward revealing a thin dark hall. Flora swooped inside and a suddenly worried clerk rushed in after her. Fey eyed the hall. It was far too small for herself, hell she wasn't even sure she could fit behind the counter. With a sigh, she settled in to wait. Ten minutes later Flora reappeared this time with another duffel bag. A shiny purple-coloured rubber ball slipped from the top of the bag and went bouncing across the floor. Fey raised an eyebrow at it.

"What's that for?"

"It's for stuff and revenge and things."

"Revenge?"

"Did I say revenge? I meant rubber. Very similar words."

The clerk emerged from behind her. He looked mildly terrified as though he had been through a strenuous ordeal. When Flora looked at him he flinched away. The gnome grinned evilly and dumped coin on the counter. The clerk snatched it up.

"Done, all done, now, please, oh god please, get out of my establishment!"

Flora narrowed her eyes at the clerk.

"Come on Flora it's starting to get late."

The gnome gave the clerk one last savage glare causing the clerk to let out a little involuntary scream before she turned and drifted after Fey as she left the shop.

They wandered back through town as the sun was setting across the rooftops and found themselves outside the inn Elaria had supposedly booked a room at. A sign outside read 'The Slime's Bane Inn'. An Appropriate for an inn that liked to market itself to adventurers.

They pushed inside, a welcoming room greeting them warmed by a large open fireplace. A number of adventurey looking types were lazing around the room on various couches. At the main desk Ellaria stood talking with the innkeeper.

Fey waved at her as she caught her attention and tried very hard to ignore the man to her side who had just spat his beer all over his friend when his eyes had found Fey's cock.

"Heya, did everything go okay?"

"Hrmm. Yes. No. Inn's fine, we have a good room. But the town guards refused to listen to me, or rather they didn't give a damn. This backwoods town is not exactly filled with the most professional of people."

"Ah really? That's a shame. Maybe things aren't as bad as we think, that anti-mage possibly permanently losing his magic could have put a damper on their whole operation."

"Mm. Perhaps." The elf stepped away from the front desk and toward the main stairs. Flora floated up ahead of them.

"I've been meaning to ask Ella, why didn't you tell the Guild clerk about what happened at the bottom of the dungeon?"

Ellaria shot a glance back at her then to the room where a few adventurers were scattered about some looking in their direction. They looked away abruptly seeing Ellaria's gaze.

The elf pursed her lips and gestured up the stairs. Fey clopped up it following in her wake. At the top she led them to their rooms, the door opened into a group common room, a large open room with a fireplace and sofas, Vivi was lazing on one of them, her paws dangling off the side. Doors let off from the common room to bedrooms and a shared bathroom. This setup being why the inn billed itself as catering to adventuring bands. Flora was busy looking through her collection of weird potions, a mischievous expression on her face.

Ellaria closed the door as she stepped inside.

"My reasons weren't that special, I was looking out for our fellow adventurers really, like with the thieves. I tried to make the dungeon sound as uninteresting as possible without explicitly lying, I just don't want any of the local amateur adventurers going down there and getting themselves killed, whether that's by the magical armour or by whatever that giant machine thing was at the bottom."

Fey tilted her head to the side. "But I don't think anyone overheard you Ella, you were speaking pretty quietly to the clerk."

"Of course, but that's not the issue. It's the clerk herself. This isn't a big city guild, I doubt that clerk has more than a passing care for adventurers, well we saw that with her reaction to the thieves. The problem comes when one of those curious adventurers in there bribe her to hear what I said."

"She wouldn't!"

"You would be surprised, a quick coin for a little info is nothing if you don't care, and any adventurer hearing of what we saw will almost certainly have their curiosity peaked, and as they say, curiosity kills the cats. Unfortunately, I think the only reason she accepted my suggestion to get the guild to send an investigator is that it will take a long time to work through the bureaucracy and in the meantime she can run a grift."

"Hmm, you really care for our peers."

"Adventuring is my thing and adventurers are my people." Ellaria gave Fey a quick small smile.

"Didn't you get in trouble for that?" said Vivi, nonchalantly lazing on the couch.

Ellaria pursed her lips. "Yes… My family is… of high birth, they look down on adventurers."

"Ooh! posh girl wanted to rough it and daddy didn't like it!" mocked Flora from the table, various potions orbiting her.

"Crudely and nastily put but basically true."

"Well I'm glad you chose too," said Vivi, "You would not believe how awful most band captains are."

"I've seen that's the case, I worked at an adventuring school as a lecturer for a time. We had many teaching examples to show the students."

"Weirdly enough I'm completely unsurprised that you used to be a lecturer," said Vivi swinging her legs down and sitting up. "I think it's time."

"Time?"

The fox girl grinned. "Time to empty myself!"

Ellaria rolled her eyes. "Oh great, maybe people can stop assuming you are pregnant now."

"Hey, it's kinda fun, all that satisfying filling weight, people not knowing it's really centaur cum."

She stretched her arms and cracked her paws.

"See you in a tick."