Chapter Text
"Fifteen coins, Lin."
"I know, I know. It's awful.
"D'you even know what I went through to get that scepter!?"
"Dart traps, hidden door, hellhound, skeleton king. You already told me three times."
The kobold slumped down, burying her head in her arms with a muffled groan. Here, at the Sly Sage Inn & Alehouse, the bar stools were high enough to allow her short stature to actually reach the bar without looking like a lost kid—even if her feet dangled without touching the ground—hence why it was her preferred drinking establishment in the city. Besides, the staff were all professional, strictly-business sorts. When Lin waved down a bartender, pointed at his dejected kobold buddy, and asked for "Another ale on my tab, please," they obliged without hesitation.
"Could be worse, I guess. You're still alive!" Lin smiled halfheartedly, but he couldn't manage it for long, nor could she even see. So he dropped the charade, rested his own mug of beer on the bar, and placed a supportive hand on her shoulder. "Listen. Amethyst. Look at me. You're one of the best dungeon runners I know. Not just one of the best kobold dungeon runners, 'cause I don't even know any other kobolds who have the guts for our line of work. One of the best in general. You're not bad at what you do—you're just bad at telling people to pay you for what you do."
Amethyst groaned again, because it's all absolutely true. Somehow, despite the years of training that let her breeze through dungeons and monsters like they were nothing, despite the confident bravado that she constantly exuded whenever she wasn't drowning her worries in the Sly Sage's alcohol, she had a very particular anxiety when it came to asking people to pay her fairly. It started with a thrill that they were paying her at all, followed by an immediate eagerness to please. Then, in the rare instance that she still asked for more money (or to be paid at all), they'd push back, and she'd immediately acquiesce out of shyness.
"I'm still a pushover after three years of this. Ugh…" She picks up her mug of ale and begins drinking, spilling some down the side of her face, but she doesn't care. "Shouldn't I be able to afford a mansion with a training ground and, I don't know, legions of hirelings by now?"
Lin let out a hiss of air from his cheeks, followed closely by a humorless chuckle. "Hell. I don't know. Maybe if you knew how to make people pay you and you started twenty years ago. When- Heh. When you were a little kobold kiddo."
She rolled her eyes. "The economy's that bad these days?"
"No, no. It's just that we're so deep into King Avedach's territory, pickings are slim. Between the Royal Guard, local shire monster hunters, and every other adventurer, there's not much left for us, no matter how skilled we are."
There was a long pause as they both sipped ale. Lin was human, so the alcohol was naturally affecting him a lot less. Amethyst, on the other hand, being so much tinier, was having all that beer go straight to her head. It was giving the light-green scales of her cheeks a reddish tint.
She was the first to break the silence, though quietly. "Maybe I should move, then… Out to the North Coast, or maybe down to the Hinterlands in the south." It was halfway an empty statement, made just to see how Lin would react to the idea of her venturing towards those hostile, unexplored, barely-settled lands.
And to her surprise, he didn't shoot her down immediately. He turned towards her, looking her over with those handsome forest-green eyes of his, and cracked a crooked smile. "Honestly, Ammy? If I had to bet on anyone I know makin' it through the Shattered Pass and livin' to talk about it afterwards, I'd bet on you."
"Oh, come on… I'm good, but I'm not stupid enough to think that I could make it down there alive…"
"I'm serious!" His smile had become a full-fledged grin. "You don't have to fight every monster. Hell, those merchants—the Silver Sisters—they make round trips through the Pass. I'll put down a twenty-coin bet that they've heard of you, and they'd take you on for free just on reputation alone."
"Lin, I—" Faced with evidence for why her outlandish suggestion was actually quite reasonable, she balked. And the fact that Lin, straight-shooter as he was, was sitting here saying that he really believed she'd be able to do it… "A- A journey like that has to be expensive. Plus I have to set up in whatever new place I find. How do I get the money?"
"You still have the rest of your haul from that crypt, right? You mentioned it wasn't just the scepter."
"Yeah… Probably a hundred, a hundred fifty coins. Which means I'd get seventy for it."
Lin shook his head. "Nah. 'Cause here's what you're gonna do." He clasped a hand on Amethyst's shoulder, looking genuinely excited on her behalf. "You're gonna walk into a shop, and before you even make eye contact with anyone, you're going to tell yourself that you're walking out with a hundred and eighty, or you're not selling anything at all."
Her breath caught in her throat. A hundred and eighty was more than she'd ask for in her wildest dreams considering the treasure she had. "What? No way. How- How do I convince them it's worth that much?"
"You have to be firm on your price, and you have to be prepared to say whatever you need to say in order to get them to meet you at that price." Lin squeezed Amethyst's small shoulder to emphasize the inspirational quality of his advice. "The important thing is that you can't let yourself budge!"
When Amethyst is excited, her big, round, dusky blue eyes light up and shine like gemstones. The more Lin said, the more her eyes shone, until she was looking at him with a full-fledged (and somewhat drunken) grin. Maybe this could be the start of a new era for her. An era where she wasn't afraid to tell people anything than what they wanted to hear. Where she was able to actually throw her weight as a damned fine adventurer around for once!
"Hey, Lin, I need you to pay your tab before I get you more drinks." The deadpan voice of a middle-aged woman broke both adventurers from their starry-eyed reverie. The stern visage of the owner of the Sly Sage was squinting at the pair, her arms folded. "They told me what happened last time."
"Oh, shit…" Lin muttered, immediately drawing back from Amethyst and searching in his coinpurse for the correct change. "Ammy, you're good with just the two pints, right? I'm kinda, you know—"
"No, Lin, it's alright." She could be referring to the fact that she was already slurring her words a tad, but instead, her mind was on the future. "Next time we meet for drinks, I'll be paying. And then I'll be going to the Hinterlands."
She hopped up, wobbling slightly, and gave her friend (who was, in all honestly, slightly bewildered that his pep talk had worked so well and so quickly) a hug, burying her snout into his stomach due to the height difference. Then, with a quick thank-you for the drinks, she set out into the cool night air, just one sleep away from a whole new Amethyst.
… Though more accurately, she was one sleep and a hangover away.
Kobolds get hangovers just like anyone else. But their symptoms are a tad different; in addition to the usual sluggishness and brain fog, instead of headaches and an aversion to light, they become rather horny. It's nothing they can't suppress, but whenever Amethyst has the good fortune to have company in her bed after a night of drinking, it usually leads to a languid round of morning sex.
Sadly, this was not one of those times, so she just had to live with it until the hangover faded. Ugh.
She dragged herself out of her bed, narrowly avoiding bumping into the little table placed right beside it. Her present living arrangement was at a sort of adventurer's flophouse, renting a small bedroom with three others, all of whom led a high-risk-high-reward lifestyle. Even though it was cramped, the people were nice; she'd miss them along her dangerous trek to the Hinterlands.
But she was getting ahead of herself. She gathered some fresh clothes and made her way to the flophouse's bathroom (magically-supplied running warm water being one of the amenities she was happy to be able to afford) to freshen up.
Amethyst's name wasn't picked arbitrarily. Thanks to a bit of genetic happenstance, her pale green scales are interrupted by a streak of bright purple ones that run along her neck, slightly off-center from her throat, that stretch between her jawbone and her collarbone. She thought they looked very cute, like a natural necklace, and she made sure that they were looking as shiny and healthy as possible that morning. After all, looking cute and peppy was surely a key part of haggling, right?
With a spring in her step and a backpack laden with treasure slung over her shoulder, she stepped out of the flophouse and quickly made her way to a purveyor's shop. Any adventurer worth their salt knew at least a few purveyors off the top of their head; they buy up valuables in one go and later find wealthier and more specialized individuals like art historians, jewelers, and guild masters to buy from them. It all functioned like a well-oiled machine here in the innermost regions of the kingdom.
The particular purveyor's shop that Amethyst found was located in a part of the city with extremely low foot traffic, but it seemed nice enough: brownstone walls, a few windows cluttered with displays, and a small worn sign out front that marked it as a purveyor's shop. She paused before the threshold, taking a few deep breaths and repeating that magic number in her head. One hundred and eighty. One hundred and eighty. One hundred and eighty…
Amethyst pushed the door open. The only person in the shop was evidently its proprietor, a bored-looking man with brown skin, a head of black hair, and a very handsome beard. It took him a few moments of searching before looking down to realize that Amethyst had come in. "Ah. Hello, welcome. How can I help?" He asked rotely.
"H- Hi!" Amethyst squeaked, already removing her rucksack. "I have a few things I'd like to sell, please."
The merchant nodded, putting a bookmark in a ledger of some sorts and sliding it aside to clear a space on the counter before him. Amethyst had to reach up to set her backpack atop it and splay its contents for him to see: a silver chalice, a few shiny topaz stones, a chipped ceremonial dagger, and some kind of old clay tablet.
"This all came from a tomb some miners unearthed near Lorelei," Amethyst started. "The gems were set into the walls, but that chalice… well, I realized that there was a secret door in one of the chambers when—"
The merchant held up a hand to silence her, clearing his throat to cut her off. "I think that, all told, this could be worth a hundred coins."
She fought back every urge in her little body that told her to say yes to that offer. A hundred coins was a lot, but she wasn't about to let Lin down like that. "Um, I- I'm sorry, but I think it'd be more worth my time to s- sell everything separately if all you can offer is a hundred." She paused and took a steadying breath. "How about a hundred and ninety five?" Setting an initial price higher than what she really wanted was a tactic she had come up with on the way here.
But the merchant shook his head. "I don't think I'd make my money back if I paid that much. I can meet you at one hundred and ten."
Amethyst crossed her arms. "If th- that's the case…" Don't say yes, you fool! A hundred and eighty or nothing! "Then I can go down to one hundred eighty-five."
"One hundred and twenty-five."
"One hundred and eighty."
"One hundred and thirty."
"O- One hundred and eighty!"
"You aren't likely to get a better offer than one hundred and thirty, I'm sorry to say."
A blush started to rise along the purple scales of Amethyst's throat and into her cheeks. "I- I'm not selling unless you give me a hundred and eighty coins for it all."
He met her eyes with the steely look of a veteran salesman. "Then I'm afraid I'll have to let you walk out empty-handed. And the offer for one hundred and thirty won't last if you decide that you can't find a better price elsewhere, so—"
"Oh, come on…" Amethyst's voice now had a hint of frustration to it, and more than a hint of desperation. Her heart was racing by now; if haggling was this stressful, then it wasn't worth it at all. "What can I say to convince you it's worth a hundred and eighty, huh?"
"I'm sorry, but I don't—"
"I'll do anything!" She sighed in frustration, wondering if she could muster up a good enough tale to make it seem worthwhile. Maybe if she figured out a way to help the merchant contextualize the tablet or the dagger with a historical story, it'd be worth more?
But the purveyor seemed to have other ideas in mind when she said that. He raised his eyebrow, repeating her word quietly. "Anything?"
Amethyst looked up, momentarily confused by the sudden change in tone. "Y- Yes. Anything."
There was a pause. Then, rather boldly, the merchant leaned forward, the look in his eye becoming decidedly more flirtatious. "Well, I'm rather bored here today, and you're rather pretty. I could be convinced to let you make up the difference through… let's say, a minor chore."
Amethyst's blush deepened, now arising not only from the attempted haggling. Was he propositioning her? And more importantly—was he offering to give her the price that she was asking for if she accepted? "Wh- What kind of chore?"
He rested his chin on his hand and stroked his beard, looking at Amethyst with a smirk. "If you wanted to, there's enough space behind the counter here for you to come and… help me with something that's been bothering me for a while."
The kobold wasn't stupid; she had already guessed that he wanted sex of some sort after the initial surprise faded. She weighed up her options, but it didn't take that long—in fact, she had to pretend to agonize over the decision a bit so that he wouldn't rescind the deal immediately. After all, the lust from her hangover was still bothering her a bit, and what better way to cure it than by also fulfilling the promise she had made to herself?
Wordlessly, Amethyst nodded, watching the merchant's face light up in a grin. He motioned to her with a cocked finger, followed by a point down beside him. She obeyed without hesitation, circling around the counter and kneeling before him. It's not like she needed to get lower to the ground; in fact, in order to stay head-level with his crotch, she had to keep her back straight.
"That's a good girl," the merchant said. He probably intended for it to come out derisively, but the words hit Amethyst's ears beautifully, and she felt herself blush. "Pull them down."
He was clearly getting off on the power trip, but that was alright by Amethyst. She brought her hands to the waistband of his trousers, fumbling with his belt slightly. It wasn't that she was bad at taking off belts, it was that she saw a bulge start to tent his pants, and she was trying very hard not to lean forward and press her snout against it, taking a deep shuddery breath of his scent to prime her for what was to come…
…Okay, maybe she leaned forward a little bit.
But nonetheless, she soon pulled down his trousers, recoiling a little bit as his cock sprung out and nearly hit her in the face. Okay. Wow. She had gotten both lucky and unlucky; it was larger than she expected, which meant that she was in for a treat, but it also meant that there was no way she could finish this quickly. Amethyst felt herself begin to drool.
"I'm waiting." The merchant's commanding voice almost drew a little whimper from the adventurer, and she didn't need telling twice. She adjusted herself on the ground and inched forward, pressing a kiss to the head of his cock. A thin trail of salty precum (already!?) connected her lips to it.
She flicked her eyes up to meet the merchant's. To him it probably looked like she was begging for that hundred and eighty-coin price, but in truth, Amethyst had mostly forgotten about it. It certainly wasn't on her mind as she opened her mouth, letting a little rivulet of drool drop off her tongue and onto the shop floor, and went back in to take the merchant's dick in earnest.
Amethyst's teeth are a bit sharper than a humans', but she's easily able to keep them away or cover them up with her lips whenever she finds any sensitive organs in her mouth. Her tongue, meanwhile, is much broader than a human's, and it has a slight snakelike fork at the very tip. Unlike the teeth, that tongue serves her very well in her current endeavor as she runs it along the underside of the merchant's length, feeling him sigh contentedly and grip onto his counter for support.
His precum was too delicious to pass up, and Amethyst withdrew slightly for a moment, planning to suck as much as possible from him. But she was surprised by a firm hand on one of her keratinous horns, and her eyes went wide as the merchant pulled her roughly against him, practically forcing his cock down her throat. She made a vocalization of surprise, but it was muffled, only coming out as a deep vibration that elicited a moan from him.
"Ahh… Fuck… You use that mouth of yours w- well." He could barely speak, which in Amethyst's book was effectively praise. She loved being praised! A win-win. She responded by keeping his cock deep in her mouth, letting herself drool around it as the merchant kept control of her horns, but bringing up a hand to fondle his balls.
Her face was contorted into a dreamy expression, and as she looked up at the merchant again, her eyes were half-lidded. Mixed drool and precum were now flowing freely out of the corners of her mouth, staining her coat where they dripped onto her torso. It had the effect of making the fabric a little sheer—nothing that the merchant would appreciate from where he was standing, but just enough for Amethyst to feel some excitement on the walk back home.
"Gods… Keep going…" He increased the pace, using her like a fucktoy, pulling her roughly against him by the horns. Amethyst took care to keep kneading his balls as gently as she could despite the aggressiveness of all the other motions. "How bad do you want it, kobold? Mmm… How bad?"
Extremely! At least, that's what Amethyst was thinking. Her mouth, and for that matter her throat, were too busy to summon anything but a low growl. But her expression—an excited, yet watery-eyed look of happiness—seemed to be enough for the merchant, and he grinned devilishly. Maybe he was about to embark on some tirade about her eagerness or sluttiness, but with a final push of her broad tongue against the underside of his cock, his willpower gave out.
She felt it first, a great tensing of the ordinarily somewhat pliable tissue of his cock. His loud grunt of pleasure was next, and third was the first rush of cum. As he was essentially ejaculating down her throat, the kobold got to experience the pleasure of truly warm cum in her mouth for a moment before it flowed into her stomach.
Amethyst pulled away while the merchant was mid-orgasm, allowing the second and third spurts of seed to fill her mouth so that she could taste him in earnest. (And for the record, he tasted amazing—rich and salty and slightly bitter in all the right ways.) The fourth and fifth rushes went onto her face, and thanks to her ball fondling, she had to flinch to avoid getting part of his load into he eyes. There wasn't enough energy left in the rest of his orgasm to shoot any more cum onto her face, sadly, so she quickly put her tongue underneath the head of his dick to catch whatever she could as it dribbled out weakly.
Oh, right, breathing. Amethyst had been so caught up in the taste of this merchant's seed that she had forgotten to breathe, and only remembered when the corners of her vision started to get a little fuzzy. She finally pulled away and took her first gasp of air that wasn't dominated by the scent of sex.
The merchant himself wasn't in much of a better shape. He wasn't speaking; Amethyst looked up quizzically to check in on him to see that he was biting his lip hard, gripping the counter even harder, and tensing just about every muscle in his leg. Watching all the stress relax as he came down from his orgasm was like watching a balloon deflate.
He came on my face… Amethyst thought to herself with a hazy happiness.
Her train of imagination was interrupted by movement from the merchant. He was… pulling his pants back up? And then he spoke, and it all made sense again. "W- Well. You helped with my- my problem… Admirably."
Oh. Right. This was a quickie, and one with a purpose at that. She was supposed to be getting a better deal about this! She blushed red as she remembered; she was about to give him full-on sex with no other strings attached! But ever the smooth operator under pressure, Amethyst stood up to her full four-foot-eight-inch height and grinned cockily, still wearing the spatter of semen on her face like a badge of honor. "So. About that price…"
The purveyor swallowed hard and wordlessly reached for a stack of promissory notes on the other end of his counter. He grabbed an inkpen and, with a shaky hand, scribbled on one before handing Amethyst the original copy, keeping the other for himself.
The note was for two hundred and twenty coins. Huh? Had there been a mistake? She was only asking for one hundred and eighty! She was about to open her mouth to question it, but the merchant spoke up instead. "And there's… there's more where that came from if you return."
Stifling her excitement, Amethyst merely nodded, then she figured that a wink was in order. She cleaned her face with part of her coat, adding cum to the other stains she'd accrued from him, and stood to walk out.
The poor guy. He had no idea that Amethyst was about to use that money to skip town and make a name for herself in the southern Hinterlands. She hadn't been a hundred percent sure that she would do that until she saw the promissory note, but that just confirmed something deep in her mind: if she could stand firm enough to get a good deal, any other challenge in the world would be a piece of cake.