Gryff Boxset

by Sloss, Marcus

  “We hired Dibnark, goes by Dib. Dib is our cook and happens to be a bearfrii. I see you tilting your head. They are not native to Prox but are present there. They are little bears with pawed hands with thumbs and have big dragon type wings with feathers for flying. He added three bags of books when I said he could bring as much as he wanted. We paid him in advance for two months and we booked a ship voyage and should get there tomorrow.

  “Which leads into finances. We are nearly broke, and… Cyrene sold like everything she has been hoarding. I think she is a reinvesting kind of dryad. As in most of her coins go into orbs so there was not that much. Then again she did buy you nice armor. When we were selling stuff Desmond bumped into us and we met Ossa. She is very pretty and small for an ogre. Ossa was super polite and friendly. She also happens to have a crush on Desmond. I think he is scared to commit…”

  I chuckled as Nicole snuggled into me.

  “I am glad they are nice and get along well. I do not need their love life described. Awesome we got a cook, and I will thank Cyrene later. I am happy you like both the new recruits already. Will they be ready to go?”

  “They already are probably at the party finder place,” Mysti said while handing me my pants. “Hurts to walk. In. All. The. Best. Ways! Thanks for last night, Gryff.”

  She left the room with Zoey to pee. I realized it was just Nicole and I. She sat in her chair reviewing a report and I snatched her up. A good night’s rest was followed by a morning workout - with Nicole on her back and me seeing if I could get her tits to smack her face while I rode her rough from on top. Five minutes went by and I think the other girls had this planned. When we were finished the ladies came back in while we dressed. There were grins all around.

  “At least it will be a fun trip up north with Awesome Kickass Annihilators to warm my bed,” Zoey said and we had a chuckle. Zoey was not done, she made silly finger guns and said. “Awesome Bodacious Annihilators.”

  “Awesome Gorgeous Annihilators,” Mysti replied as she tightened her brown robe.

  “Alright, we got a whole month to come up with some good ones. I do wonder what he chose. Time will tell,” I said as we continued the smiling joyful mood. “Breakfast and then we hit the road. Can we spawn the wagon in Remi?”

  “Yes but not ride it out. There is only spawn, load, despawn, and make room for next loading crew. So no, we will meet with Desmond, Dib, and Ossa at the Adventuring Quarters. Then we walk outside the city. Once near the road we wait in a summoning que until we can summon our wagons for the northern road,” Cyrene said while making sure she had our attention with a snap. “That place can get hectic and people holler. Let them piss and moan about waiting. We cannot fight or even duel here. So yelling may hurt your feelings but you cannot fight or you end up in the brig or dead. Looking at you big guy.”

  “Best behavior for me I promise. Same with feisty Zoey. Right…” I said while swatting her butt playfully. “My red eyed trouble maker.”

  “If you spank me later I will certainly behave.”

  “Deal, and Gryff gets to watch,” Mysti said with a grin and I laughed.

  “Breakfast to go. I am excited to hurry up and wait.”

  ∞∞∞

  I was standing in a line tapping my foot impatiently. We had eaten our breakfast while walking to meet up with Desmond, Ossa, and Dib. Ossa was barely over ten feet tall. She wore a light blue dress that a grandmother would put a granddaughter in. An ogre in a dress had me stunned. She was indeed pretty with glassy blue eyes and her skin was a light brown complexion. Large bust came down to a thin waist and wide hips. She was well maintained with clean dual braided hair and sparkling short nails. I almost forgot she was our butcher. I saw Desmond watching me inspect her. Yeah he had a thing for her, good for them.

  I gave a good look at Dib our cook. The little bear had white fur and wore a vest armor with no sleeves. He had a thick belt wrapped around his waist that held a few knives and a spoon. A strap ran across his front that connected to a cast iron frying pan that hung over his back. He wore a plaid kilt and growled to assert he was not a little play thing when the girls got googly eyes. When it was time to leave he spread angelic wings of golden feathers. He gave gentle flaps to carry himself in the air while we walked.

  The morning stroll was exactly that. A leisurely walk that I was now wishing had been a run. We had gotten slammed into the northbound port line traffic. The snide guard we paid to use the road said if we had arrived five minutes earlier it would have saved an hour of time waiting. I grumbled, paid the fee, and most importantly, learned my lesson.

  Real carriages with real animals got priority from the Remi stables. That was another lesson that the nobility had learned. If you pay a fee to store your wagon and animals you got to skip the line. The other thing I got to see was the road had three lanes. Wagons, single mounts and then walking. I wondered for the first few minutes if we could walk, hop over and find an opening in the flow north. Nope. The city was as efficient as it was old. There were no shortcuts besides needlessly walking and then summoning our wagon after morning traffic. I killed the time by asking Nicole about some of her storied past and the rest on our supplies. I tried to learn about Dib but he did not want to talk to me. For whatever reason, the little bear with wings said a few words and then stuck to Ossa. Every time I looked back while we waited in the line they talked happily.

  “Next,” a pimply face human teenager said and I literally jumped for joy.

  There was no hesitation from Mysti. She spawned the Queen’s Bitch in a microsecond and we all raced to it. The forty-foot wagon was massive and more than a few people scoffed at our excessive spending. I ran for the six dinosaurs that were going to pull the wagon and none of them even glanced my way. I don’t think their eyes moved. I ran a hand by them while the attendant was telling me to hurry up. I hopped on the driver’s bench with Mysti while the rest of the team minus the ogres and Dib entered the wagon. There was a double thud from inside the wagon and Mysti snapped the reins.

  The raptoria ran all of a few hundred feet and we were stuck in the next line. Most of the nobility was gone from the stable que so at least there was more progress. There were some squealing girls inside the wagon and I heard the pop of a champagne bottle. Apparently it was a mimosa morning and once we got on the road I would get invited. Behind us, Desmond and Ossa spawned a butcher wagon that Dib flew into a perch above the bench seat. There was no top to the wagon bed. Just posts with hooks and no cover for the driver's seat. My ass was on soft duck feathers or maybe feathers from those giant swans in the park. Regardless I was comfy to the max.

  “Woah that one is real,” Mysti said and a stegosaurus dinosaur pulled a ten foot long lavish wagon. “Okay, I am jealous.”

  “They are stuck here and have high stable fees. While awesome, I am not jealous. I can say that the Queen’s Bitch sure makes me want to go fast. I never got to get a tank pet or a personal mount. Besides the self-heal, I am still short an orb. I need to get my water orb out at some point, maybe shoot water and level it as we go. I think about real mounts and they seem the best option all around, the problem is moving them. I should have…” I paused my ranting and hit the cabin wood. “Hey Shala, write this down.”

  “Ready,” her voice carried through the wall.

  “Ask portal people if there is a time limit on the portal or if it is volume. I need to know about moving real animal mounts through portals.”

  “Hold on,” the muffled cry replied.

  We were next in line when Shala exited the top of the wagon. She rushed to sit between us as we jolted forward. Five seconds later and our magical dinosaurs were sniffing a wagon’s backside.

  “That was close,” Mysti said to Shala.

  “So yeah, this ride is deluxe. We were able to see the line and I knew I had to hurry. The windows are pleasurable to view from,” Shala said with a longing sigh. She straightened her back and tapped her foot in moderately annoying thumps.
“So I can help with portal information. Held a job there for a while. Let me know when you are ready to take notes.”

  “Stop tapping your foot. Thank you. I get that there is a desire to go back to drinking bubbly while talking to your new beau. I won’t eat up too much of your time. Start at the beginning with portals here in the master verse.”

  “There are only a few hundred monsters that drop them in the universe. Now before you think that is a lot. Realize there are trillions of habitable planets. I actually think the portal drop rate is tied to the planets terraforming cycles. As do many others. Anyway, portals are divine orbs and have unique timers. The higher the level of the orb the more that can go through and downtime is reduced. A portal opens from A to B for exactly five minutes. Boom, done, and final. The difference is what you can get through. No one moves mounts. You will crash the portal and stand on the gate with wasted money. Hence why combat orb pets are so focused and leveled. There are some expectations. The top gods with high portal levels. For example, Justicar or Inquisitor council members have insanely high leveled portals. They can move mounts no problem but probably never do.”

  “They did on Yariw,” Barq said from inside the cabin. My fist thudded the wall where his ear was probably pressed against. “Right. Deserved that. Coming out.”

  A minute later and both gnomes squished between Mysti and I. “I am confused then, how do planets trade large scale?” I asked and Barq raised a hand to answer. “Go Barq.”

  “Let me start by saying that they don’t. So they do trade and there are links. They just are not massive floodgates of trade. Not sure why it is designed that way but my guess was always to make invasions more focused and gradual…” Barq was scanning the skyline when he spotted a white blimp with sails and a cargo container under it. “See that blimp. That is the only kind of aircraft that can portal with the atmosphere orbs. Basically they get their own orbs for air freight. Gnomes like me dream of those. I had a dwarf who was an aircrew on one who would tell me about them if I bought him ale. Stereotypes, gnomes and fancy machines, and dwarves with ale. Anyway, the basic blimps have a cargo hold no bigger than what this wagon would hold hollowed out. Forty by fifteen tall by fifteen wide. Alright? The atmosphere orbs is how they transition. There still has to be a blimp summoned. That blimp at least goes into your core as it is a familiar. If you were wondering, yup it is an insanely expensive familiar too. Imagine the cost, you need two exceedingly rare drops to make this work. So you have summoned your familiar and filled it full with cargo; then you get high in the air and summon your portal to another world. The actual captain never told the dwarf how it was done. But if we watch that blimp at some point today it will blink away.”

  “I guess I could move mounts that way.”

  “I heard third hand they have once a month cooldowns between jumps. So… there is that. But yes, if you make an epic amount of money and you start leveling up orbs sure. We’re talking nothing on this planet can earn you enough. Raid boss dragons or deep-sea leviathans that are found on warring planets. Or grind coin and buy one like I did the cabin. Or… Get a high hit point legendary orb mount.”

  I sighed. “I know… The problem I have is real mounts fight to the death. While sure an enemy arrow may kill them in one shot they take way more damage than an orb mount. Most importantly I free up the orb slot.”

  Barq twisted his head and gave me a crazy look. He looked around and saw that we were outside of earshot of anyone hearing us. He pulled out his new mount from his blue new robes.

  “Gryff I got this mount. Going to swap my water out. Bear goes in. He is a blue level one.” Barq ejected the water to materialize in his other hand and then ingested the mount. His body generated the mount orb back into his open palm and he looked at the time. “Twenty four hours. Okay. Yeah, when we get into mythic and beyond I see your point. You could level a half dozen or so. Probably what the champions do. What happened when you asked your newest wife?”

  “Mysti go join them, I got this. Go bond. Good for them to get some time together.” I said and Mysti climbed up to get on top of the wagon. “Seventeen days to get there. I am almost wondering if it was better to just go to a random jungle close by.”

  “I have known Cyrene for a few months. Everyone who talked about her joining the bank guard crew was thrilled. They all said she would be an asset. I think the long voyage will help everyone get some time to know each other. I am certain by the time we defeat the troll lord and slay his minions we will be happy to get some rest and recovery. Tell me of how you and Barq met please,” Shala said while aggressively wrapping an arm around a blushing Barq.

  A few hours into the ride and I realized the interior of the wagon had gone quiet. I excused myself from the lovely conversation and climbed up to the wagon top. I found a mini set of stairs that led down into the cabin. I had to drop a few feet but the road was smooth and mostly jostle free. I hopped down to hear snoring, some groaning, and was assaulted by the smell of fruity vomit.

  Before I went anywhere I absorbed the view. The most immediate thing about the interior was the finely detailed wood with animals carved into it. Then it was how big it felt inside with the huge windows and tall ceilings. The right side of the cabin had the only doorway in and out. The right side wall was a line of counters with drawers under them. There were lockdown hatches on every single container or decorative item for bumpy rides. The ceiling consisted of numerous drop down and slid in trays. Facing forward there was a corner box that said Potti on it. I guess that worked. There was a foot sticking out of the door and the sound of dry heaving. To the right of that was a shower. Wait did the shower upgrade also…

  I walked over to find Zoey vomiting inside the toilet room and missing the toilet. Fucking lightweight. Ugh. They got day drunk on champagne and some funky smelly pulp juice. Some major hungover ass smackings were incoming. A second look at her and I realized it might not be the champagne and instead a reaction to the juice. I snatched Zoey up who weighed at most one thirty and she groaned in complaint. I stuck her vomit-covered ass in the shower and turned it on with her clothes still on. When she started bitching I slammed the door shut. The other side of the common area was a small eating area and then a massive big couch on the left side with a chair and a table in the middle. I bypassed this and found Mysti groaning. I saw she was about to hurl and into the shower she went. Zoey cursed at me and then at Mysti when she was vomited on.

  I went to Nicole. I was now firmly sold that the juice was not good for elvath. Nicole had made it to a sink in the mini kitchen preparation area. If I had to guess there was a fire pit on the roof for actual cooking. I could check after dealing with this nonsense.

  “Ugh, what happened Gryff?” Nicole managed to moan out, “I feel so horrid.”

  “Heal yourself damnit,” I said between clenched teeth. Okay, maybe this was the wrong thing to say. She regained all her color and force vomited into the sink for the next five minutes. I held her hair for her as she ejected her stomach. She groaned, “That was the absolute worst.”

  “Yup now go heal the other two. I think Cyrene is fine. I hear her snoring in my bed. We are only an hour from the port,” I said and Nicole nodded to fix the other girls.

  There was some moaning and groaning as I heard the vomit from in the shower. I wondered if they had backup robes. At least we're not in the snow. I entered the bedroom and was shocked. There were great big windows that let in ample light. The top was all storage. There was a massive bed that could fit ten. A few comfy recliners that called to me filled the rest of the space with locked down end tables. I saw a whole shelf of books with horizontal bars with latches that secured the books from falling. I glanced around and found there were even three closets. What would this upgrade into? There would probably be a hallway to get to more rooms because the roads did not get much wider. It could go higher and then add stairs and make it a double-decker wagon. That would be pretty fantastic.

  A hand tugged me
out of my thoughts and I saw Cyrene eyeing my crotch with lust. When her hands reached for my belt I smacked them away.

  “You are ordered to vomit and get sober. When that is complete you will grovel at my feet in forgiveness. Your sister wives are sick because of that juice. This does not count as your one mistake, but it almost does. Learn from the lesson.”

  “Come get naked Red Gryfffff…”

  I rolled my eyes. “Nicole!” I hollered and she tapped my shoulder behind me. I left for the front of the wagon and climbed out of the brown cabin. I gave an audible sigh when I breathed fresh air again. I looked back and saw Ossa, Desmond, and Dib were still the wagon right behind ours. We exchanged friendly waves and I returned to sit with Barq.

  “Ugh, by the creator Gryff did you roll in vomit?” Barq asked covering his nose and I realized I was indeed covered in vomit. Shit. Mysti must have got me with a minor spew.

  “One time only Barq, spray me with water.”

  “What! Yes. Awe, it is on…” Barq said and dodged as Shala drenched me in water. I spun around on the cabin seat while I was hosed off with magical water. I felt she got enough and sat down. “Well, that looked fun. How pissed are you?”

  “Mildly. I mean we are not near combat and we literally have a reason to celebrate. Have you seen the fine detail of the wood and how soft the cushions are? There is even a kitchen and a shower.”

  “Yeah, I filled the huge water tank up last night. Yes, I noticed all the detailed animal carvings, you can get lost for hours looking at them. I now wish I had saved for the nicer cabin interior. The mythic cabin was way too expensive but the interior reminds me of the same type of quality work and soft brown cushions. I wish there was more color in there but I guess you could always buy colored blankets and pillows,” Barq said and Shala rubbed his arm softly. She whispered in his ear and he smiled. “This is the way to go about getting more coins. Far easier to tag along with a good company for wealth than working small trade routes or day jobs.”