Lost in Transition

CH 1 Pet Store Horrors

The Lower Market of Negav stands as a sort of shady reflection of the bustling Grand Market District above. It is set in a long wide tunnel, the edges crammed with stalls selling whatever wares are possible and lit by many blue and purple magic lights. The walls are pierced by countless shops and back caves selling varied, and often illegal, goods.

Some of those illegal shops and stores also include a poorly hidden and somewhat infamous pet shop call "Danny's Pet's and Supplies" a store built into a hole in the wall and run by an elderly man named Danny. A human well into his years even by judging by the looks on his face. With a round gut and arms that were wide enough, he could break a man in half if he tried. His face and arms covered in scars and stitches. With many of those stitches looking as if, they had been there long past their time of removal. With a beard on him that gave him the look of a child’s, holiday character if it were not for the scars and the look in his eyes that would stop a man in their tracks if they looked into them. Danny stood in his shop behind his counter holding up one of his many specimens giving it a look over making sure it was not injured or sick as neither would do if he were to convince a customer to buy it.

"Well it looks like ya seem fine enough to me. I just might be able to sell ya to someone for a little bit o silver just yet" Danny said in a deep gruff voice as he stood up and walked to an empty cage and put the creature inside of it right as the door jingled to a bell as someone entered the store

"Eh? Ah a customer! Oh, it's only you Ferris wha can I do ya for this time?" Danny said turning around and to see a lean looking elf in middle class clothes and looking very out of place in the store his black hair slicked back into a ponytail and sharp green eyes that looked to pierce through a wall. Stood standing in the door way as the door closed behind him

"I have come to collect my shipment I received the message you sent telling me you had it last night." Ferris said walking into the store his lip curling up in a sneer at the amount of filth in the store as well as the smell

"Ah, I was wonderin when you'd come get that!" Danny said walking to the back of the store "Well come on! Is back ere it is." Danny said waving Ferris over with one hand while holding a door open to a darkened room.

"You have got to be joking... you expect me to enter that dark and dingy place?" Ferris scoffed looking at Danny as if he was mad

"Well ya kinda have ta. I'm already under enough pressure as is wha with how ever one ates these things an there giant cousins. So if ya wan it ya have to come back here and collect it Ferris, besides gettin a little dirty is nothin compared what it took to get it and the mother..." Danny said opening the door leading the way inside as Ferris followed after him making sure none of his clothes or any part of his body touched anything in the store that was not under his feet

"So you got both of them then? How fortuitous for the both of us then that you were able to acquire two specimens." Ferris commented as the door closed behind them and a light came on leading down a short hallway to another room in the back

"Remember Ferris tha the mothers are very protective of their young so be careful of her" Danny warned as they stopped outside the other door

"Very well I only need the adult alive long enough to harvest some of her organs which are useful for me only when fresh after that she is of no use to me." Ferris said with a sense of brutal finality "Now open the door." Ferris said squinting his eyes as if he were staring down a foe

"As you wish..." Danny said hesitatingly and opened the door slowly as a loud hiss came out from within the room

"Keep away from me and my child you fiends!" hissed a female's voice within the poorly lighted room

"Seriously Madame you are in no position to threaten anyone," Ferris said walking into the room his hand removing a liquid covered dagger from his belt

"You will not take my child from me! I will die first!" hissed a female that was revealed to be a female naga who had her tail that was covered in green scales and several patches of white down it every few feet or so her hair a tree bark brown with blue eye's filled with fear and determination while her human body was covered in bruises and several cuts.

"Madame if you do not give me your egg willingly then I will take it from you by force. Trust me I have no qualms ending your blight upon this world here and now Madame." Ferris said approaching the naga his dagger visible to the her

"Now give it to me." Ferris demanded staring down the female naga who only hissed at him bearing her four fangs at him and giving him a look that would kill if possible

"Stupid beast, give me the egg!" Ferris shouted stepping forward readying his dagger should she try anything

"Never, you foul, demented thing you! How can you just separate a mother from her unborn child!" the female naga shouted covering her egg with her body readying her tail to protect both her egg and herself but first and foremost her egg.

"This is your last chance! Give me the egg or I will kill you now!" Ferris ordered tightening his grip on the dagger hilt his knuckles white

"Not if I kill you first!" the female naga shouted shooting her tail at Ferris like a rapier. Ferris saw this coming and leapt to the side letting the tail shoot by him as he brought the dagger down onto her tail and with strength unheard of for an elf pulled hard with his dagger pulling the naga towards him and away from her egg.

"Bastard!" the naga shouted as Ferris withdrew his knife covered in her red blood while she tried to bring herself around her egg. However as much as she tried she was unable to move her tail for some reason. "What the hell have you done to me!" she shouted staring at her tail and then at the slowly approaching elf.

"A simple poison to immobilize you completely it is rather fast acting and will soon reach your human half soon beast." Ferris said stopping a safe distance from her "At which point I will proceed to kill you and take your egg and every valuable organ within your body. For if, there is anything useful to be gained from you freaks it is your few organs within you, that when harvested fresh they some of the best potion ingredients ever conceived. Now be a good little freak and let the poison take its hold of you and I may yet let you live." Ferris said watching her reaction

"If only to see how long you live without them," Ferris said with a smile so cruel even a professional interrogator of the Isolon Fist would have a shiver sent down his spine.

"You are not an elf... you’re a monster within an elf's body!" she spat lurching forward one more time with her whole upper body fist drawn back to punch Ferris directly in the face.

"Tsk. Typical animal behavior this will not be long." Ferris said and with that dodged each and every one of her swings with a speed and grace belonging only to that of an elf. While Ferris seemed to dance around each of her punches the female naga seemed too slow down as their fight slowly progressed and the poison began to affect her upper body yet none of her resolve to keep the elf away from her unborn child. And for her that was all she needed to keep going to keep pressing herself forward to keep trying despite the massively stacked odds against her.

"Your movements are slowing beast it will not be much longer until the poison has taken a full effect of your body." Ferris said with a sort of morbid fascination standing back from the naga as her breathing came out more haggard and labored then before

"I... still have enough... left will within me to... keep you away from my child monster..." the naga gasped for breath the poison's effect clearly visible upon her as she tried to breath and keep standing

"We shall see about that beast" Ferris said coldly and lunged at her with his knife intending to cut her neck open with it. But luckily for her she managed to avoid being killed as she leaned backwards and away from the dagger yet it still managed to kick her throat barely. But in that one moment of being at extremely close range she took her chance. Opening her mouth as wide as she could she lurched forward and bite down hard into the side of his neck.

"Fucking bitch!" Ferris yelled unable to get free from the naga's bite. Using her arms she held his to his side while letting the venom she did have to poison Ferris. While Ferris struggled to break free of her hold he could begin to feel parts of his body begin to go numb and soon unresponsive her poison being just as lethal as the one he had used on her.

"Tha will be enough from you. Can’t go avin my critters killin my customers is bad for business." Danny said walking into the room wrapping his fingers around her neck choking her while using the other to pull her off Ferris. Though she was determined to put every last single drop of her poison inside of the elf the larger human who had her in his grasp was slowly causing her to black out as he held her tightly in his hand while prying her arms off Ferris.

Feeling the naga slowly slipping into unconsciousness Ferris took the chance offered by this to stab his dagger into its side causing her to let go of him and stop her biting his neck. Then kicking her pushed her off of himself, as Danny removed the female naga from Ferris.

"Filthy beast!" Ferris shouted touching the bite mark on his neck as he feel to a knee a scowl set upon his face the poison taking affect very handily. Yet Ferris was not one to be taken down so easily, had brought anti-venom with him in just such a case, and used it now.

"Don't let her pass out now Danny I want her conscious for this." Ferris said with a sneer reaching to his belt again to pull out another blade. Ferris extracted a scalpel looking knife that looked as if it could pierce just about anything’s skin.

"Hold her still I know the poison hasn't taken full effect yet not if she had but up that much of a fight to now." Ferris ordered approaching the naga much like a coroner would a body for an autopsy

The naga struggled to break free yet she could feel her strength slowly ebbing away as the poison ran its course and weakened her more and more. She looked for anything that would help her escape the situation she was in and found nothing but the elf the human and her unborn child still in its egg. As Ferris drew, closer to her she tried to get further away from him yet her body was unresponsive and the human held her tighter. A tear escaped her eyes as she glanced at her egg and then felt the initial stabbing pain into her chest as she screamed out in pain as Ferris went about his task.

"Ferris do you really think it was necessary to do that while she was still aware? Don get me wrong I know I've done things that could compare to... that." Danny said with a pause. "Yet it jus doesn sit right with me it does." Danny said a hint of remorse escaping his throat escorting Ferris out of the back room, while Ferris carried several jars and the naga's egg his clothes stained with blood from the naga and a bandage on his neck

"You know as well as I do Danny that compared to what her kind does to ours in the jungle that was nothing. Besides, you helped in ensuring my task was completed so we both share in this however do not let the idea of what we have done to one concern you. Not when the rewards for what get from having turned what we have gained this night into a profit large enough to ensure the both of us live rather well for the rest of our lives." Ferris dismissing the larger man’s discomfort as that of another weak willed human

"Now I will return tomorrow to collect the rest and if it still lives by then I will be sure to end its stain upon Negav." Ferris said departing the pet store with the egg and jar's while Danny was left in the pet store starring at the slowly retreating form of the elf.

Returning to the inside of his store Danny made sure to put the closed sign up as he didn't feel particularly well after witnessing what he just had. Cleaning up the front of the store Danny paused as he looked back at the door that lead to the small hall way and the room in the back. And as he tried to forget about what happened in there he could not get the image of the naga brutally mutilated her abdomen rent open and poorly stitched together with her blood in a puddle on the floor. And for the most brutal part of it all, she had been awake through it all and was now laying within the pool of her own blood clutching her abdomen. Crying loudly not for the pain of her body and the pain and humiliation put upon her by Ferris. Instead she cried for her child which she knew she would never live to see her tear streaked face was all that needed to be seen to understand the pain she felt at losing her child.

As the next day came Ferris returned to the same pet store and nodded to Danny who merely walked to the door and opened it for him his insides wouldn't let him be there to be a part of what Ferris was about to do next to the naga. If he was... then Danny was sure he would end up dead as well for trying to betray a friend to protect one of those... things. Sure, he and Ferris did not always see eye to eye but they had both shared in their fair share of adventures in the jungle and survived them with barely as much as the skin on their neck at points. Yet with each successful return Ferris always seemed far more distant. Yet Danny could not bring himself to do that which his insides were screaming at him to do.

Yet when Ferris returned from his task in the back Danny barely gave him a second look and buried himself in to his work of carrying for the rest of the creatures he had to sell.

"And I will be back to give you your share of the proceeds Danny once I have successfully completed the potion that requires these ingredients." Ferris said with a smirk the closest that Danny had seen him to a smile in years

"Ferris it was a pleasure working with you for all of those years and you've been a great customer... yet I must ask you to never return here again and you can keep the extra money. Just give me the pay for bringing in an exotic creature and we end our dealings at that," Danny said staring at the elf the conflict within him evident even to Ferris

"Very well then here is your pay." Ferris said without a bit of remorse or regret and left some money for Danny on his counter then turned and left the store. Danny sat there at the counter and stared at the retreating figure of Ferris his once longtime friend and now... one time customer who had requested a creature that had probably cost him a piece of his own soul. Taking the money slowly Danny left the store and headed to the temple of Oth to pray for forgiveness even if he knew he would receive none.