Downtown Druid

Dantes sat and ate with one hand while he rocked a sleeping Jacque in the other. He speared a piece of fish and carefully brought it to his mouth. It was just them in the booth. There were plenty of people who could’ve sat with them of course. The kitchen and bar had only Dantes, his men, and Vera and her girls to serve. The girls themselves had no clients. The Vixen was basically empty. The only reason most people even showed up was out of a sense of loyalty, or because they knew Dantes could help them to manage the sickness for either themselves or their loved ones. It amounted to the same result.

The entirety of Rendhold was isolating themselves. Trying to stop the spread of a disease that resisted all efforts to eradicate it. All the walls and gates had been sealed in the hopes that it would slow the sickness. Those outside the outer gate were still suffering the worst effects it, with the Father’s priests no longer even bringing their carts as they would fill before they’d gone a quarter mile, and then they’d just have to turn around.

Dantes had managed to find places for the majority of his own new kobold gangsters from outside the walls to stay, but most had elected to stay with their families and those they knew. Their ties to one another were strong.

Midtown was holding strong. Even though he himself had not been able to directly keep everyone healed, the planting of food and herbs meant that most people were still fed and able to get at least some relief for themselves. He made sure that they knew where that came from.

Uptown was doing about as well as midtown, which is to say that it was limping along, but still surviving thanks to their patronage to the temple whose attention had become focused entirely on Uptown and a few parts of the Guild District that they needed to keep running.

He had to start considering drastic measures. Burning down the buildings in the docks one by one until he found Serpica. He’d lose so much of his work, but there was no point in ruling over a dead city.

Jacque cooed on his shoulder and Dantes started to rock him again, giving him a small kiss on the top of his head as he did so to soothe him.

Just as Jacque was falling back asleep, the cry of an eagle came from nowhere, as loud as thunder in a typhoon.

Jacque started to fuss, and Dantes stood up. He recognized that cry.

Dantes walked to the front door of the club, pushing it open with one hand as he rocked Jacque with the other. Just outside, standing in the middle of the street, stood a menagerie of animals. Two wolves, four falcons, an eagle, a boar being ridden by a large ape and loaded down with bags, a distinctly uncomfortable looking swamp dragon with a small bird cleaning it’s scales, two raccoons, and a gnome with a strange creature that seemed to be looking in two directions at once that blended into the same color as his shoulder.

The Eagle, a beautiful and massive all-white creature, shifted into a massive albino elf stark naked. He took to steps toward Dantes and wrapped both him and Jacque into a massive bear hug.

“I am grateful that you still live brother.”

Dantes patted his sinewy back with his free hand.

“It’s good to see you too Traizen. It is a very welcome surprise.”

The other druids shifted into themselves as well, and soon there were far more naked people on the outside of the brothel than there were on the inside at that moment.

“We received your message, and have all been making our way to you since then.”

“I thought most of you were across the continent? How did you make it so quickly?”

“We tree jumped. We were able to make it to Murk’s forest during the last full moon and have been traveling since then.” He sniffed the air. “You have done well brother, the life you have been growing here is so much stronger than when I first came here to gather you.”

“The rot here is thick though, I can smell it like death in the air,” said Lorna with a scowl on her face.

Coal placed a dirty hand on the cobblestone. “I can feel it deep in the earth too. And something else, a large amount of life beneath the surface as well.”

Dantes nodded. “The city was built on top of another. There are a number of underground chambers and places just below the surface.”

“It is Serpica,” said Traizen with a darkening expression. “She has attacked our brother as she swore to do.

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He looked around. The streets were empty so he hadn’t ushered them straight inside, but at a certain point it started to feel ridiculous to talk to a group of nude people outside like that.

“Everyone, come inside my club. I’ll have you all fed, bathed if you’d like, and we’ll talk further.”

Dantes held the door open as they all made their way inside. Zilly looked at them with a raised eyebrow, as did all of the other employees, and Vera moved toward Dantes.

“I hope these aren’t prospective employees for me,” she said, using humor to mask her surprise at the situation. “The tall white one could easily find work at the Stallion, and the dark woman is an easy choice, as are the twins gods know they could attract clients, but uh…” she looked Coal up and down. “He’d probably have an easier time near the small dwarves' enclave deeper in the city.”

Dantes smiled at her joke. “These are my fellow druids, auntie.” He began to point at them one at a time. “That’s Traizen, Murk, Coal, Lorna, Fizz, Fern, Ivy, and Mor-Gan-May. They’re who I meet with every full moon and they’re here to help me with the disease in the city.”

She nodded. “In that case, Zilly get them some food started, Sera find them all clothes and start running baths for those that want them…” she paused for a moment and leaned close to Dantes. “Do they have gold?” she asked.

“Maybe. If they do, it would be in a different currency than what we’re used to.”

“If any of you would like a whore, talk to me and I’ll see what we can do.”

Fizz looked up from the pint of ale he’d somehow procured, with Thing curled up around his arm in the shape of a snake.. “I would definitely like a whore.”

Vera moved toward him and started moving him toward some of the girls. “That’s excellent, you're even already dressed for one.”

The Vixen came alive a bit as everyone started to move to feed, dress, bathe, and otherwise entice their sudden and unexpected influx of guests.

Lorna stood protectively over Beast, her massive crocodile companion, not that it was needed, as everyone was giving him a wide berth.

“Is he uncomfortable?” asked Dantes.

She nodded. “This place is very unlike what he is used to. Very unlike what I am used to as well. “

Dantes looked at Beast. “Can he climb stairs?”

After some cooperative work, Beast, Lorna, the twins, Murk, and his Sister were all in Dantes’s inner garden audience chamber and were finally able to settle.

Dantes calmed the hounds as he walked in. “It’s okay. They’re not dangerous.”

“That’s not true. We are very dangerous,” said Lorna.

Dantes nodded. “That’s true. They are dangerous but they will not harm you.”

The dogs let their tongues hang out of their mouths in agreement and he gave them scratches behind the ears. They then went to bother Murk and his sister, who pointedly tried to ignore them.

Murk stood and approached him, sniffing at Jacques.

“You have a baby. Congratulations,” he said with a series of low barks and growls.

Dantes held him out so that he and his sister could sniff him more thoroughly. Their snouts made him giggle a bit which made Dantes smile.

Alessa entered the audience chamber at that moment to see Dantes holding their infant son out to two massive wolves. Her eyes widened as she saw the twins, their falcons, Lorna, Beast, Murk and his sister.

Dantes pulled Jacque back to himself and walked over to her.

“Everything’s okay. These are friends of mine that are here to help with the disease in the city. They can become animals and talk to them as I can.”

She nodded and took a deep breath, adjusting ably to the situation and held out her hands for Jacque.

Dantes gave him a final small kiss and handed him to her. “He laughed for the first time. Or giggled, I should say when the wolves were sniffing at him.”

She smiled a bit. “Well, I suppose it would be strange for him not to have a bit of his father in him. That said, I hope you won’t think it rude if I stay in my chambers for a bit. This is…” she gestured to the small zoo the audience chamber had become, “not the kind of audience I’m used to.”

“I understand. Have a good evening.”

She nodded and cooed a bit at the baby as she walked away with him.

“Skinny orc, don’t see that often,” said Lorna as she leaned against Beast’s back to look through the glass ceiling. “I would’ve expected you to pick a mate with more meat on her.”

“My tastes are varied, what can I say?” said Dantes. He thought that moment of Sevryn and what she might be up to. She’d said she had to take care of something in the city. He’d tried to give her a bodyguard, but she was gone before he’d gathered him. She’d be fine though. She always had been before.

When all of the druids had eaten, drank, and in some cases fucked, they all gathered with their companions in the garden.

He gave all of them a rundown of what had happened since he’d sent his message. The taint that Serpica had been spreading. Her control over whatever she infected with her diseases. His encounter with her. All of them listened solemnly as he talked, absorbing the information. Jacopo relayed what he could to everyone as well, though his conversation was more focused on her ability to control his cousins.

Traizen shook his head. “She has fallen so far. I warned her of what the consequences would be if she chose this path. She truly thinks her own judgment is greater than that of the mother.” He held his hand to his chest, where a bear print filled with gold sat and closed his eyes breathing deeply. “We’ll need to kill her. Rid this place of the corruption that has infested it.”

Dantes shook his head. “I would appreciate all the help you can offer, but I haven’t even been able to find her. For every site of corruption I destroy, she creates two more. I also don’t want any of you to get sick. This illness has already killed a lot of people.”

“Druids-”

“-cannot-”

“-get sick.” said the twins in their odd alternating speech.

Fizz nodded. “The only reason that you show signs of illness is because your locus itself is sickened by Serpica’s machinations.

Dantes suppressed a cough. “That’s…comforting. Still, I’m not certain how we’ll find her.”

Traizen smiled a bit. “You don’t have to worry about that. With all of us together, she can’t hide for long.”