57

I didn't feel uncomfortable in a human body, but I didn't like it either. I wanted to go back to being in my original body. Well my dragon body since my original body was technically human. This line of thoughts is so weird. I rubbed my head.

Messing up my already heavily spiked hair. I kept my hair cropped short so it was only a couple inches long so there wasn't much of it to mess up, but I still liked running my fingers through it to make it more presentable. I stood up, and pushed my hair back with both of my hands. Balock was still awake. The bruising, and swelling on his face already showed some sign of healing.

"You look like you feel better," I glanced over to Sekka.

"You healed my core," He stated bluntly, "I didn't know such a thing was possible. Can I ask you how you did it?"

"I used the poison element to draw the miasma out of your core," I produced a poison crystal, and tossed it to him, "I'd like to use these poison crystals to replicate the effect, but my runic knowledge is lacking. I simple don't know the correct sequence of runes to get the desired effect, and I lack the knowledge required to create new runes to make it work."

"Is this the project you mentioned that you want me to do?" Balock tossed the crystal back.

"Yes," I walked over, and shook Sekka a little.

"You can see the runic language carved into many of these elven artifacts can't you?" Balock raised an eyebrow.

"To a certain degree," I leaned up against the wall, "I have really keen eyesight so seeing the thin engraving lines that make up a runic inscription on the surface of weapons is rather easy. I can sense the hidden runes, but not nearly as clearly. I have some knowledge of runes, so I can get a rough idea of what runic strings do by looking at them, but that doesn't mean I can replicate them."

Sekka rolled off the bed. Awkwardly landing on his feet as he tried to force himself to wake up a little faster.

"How good are you at faking a near death state?" I changed the subject before Balock could think of another question to ask.

"I'm not one to fake death," Balock sighed heavily, "Does that mean your going to poison me again?"

"Don't worry," I moved over to him quietly, "This one is painless. I'd still like to find a dwarven corpse to pass of as you later. Just in case someone asks about you later on."

"If there is one then it's in the mass grave they use for slaves outside of the city," Balock looked down.

"Have you been there before?" I cocked my head.

"No," Sekka cut in, "He hasn't. A valuable dwarf like him would never be taken anywhere near a disease filled pit of death."

"So you've been to one of these death pits before," I looked over to Sekka.

"Halflings are a dime a dozen," Sekka rubbed his eyes tiredly, "They keep them a good distance from the city. Away from their water source so just go about a mile opposite of the river, and you'll find a hole that looks a lot like an abandoned well." Sekka started changing his clothes, "They did them about fifty feet deep, and seal them up when they can see the corpses from the top. That rarely happens though since the hole is a common feeding ground for the predators in the area. Best way to find it is just to wait until you see a pair of slaves pushing a cart with a dead body in it."

"That seems a bit slow," I shrugged, "I don't think it will get us a fresh corpse either. Fresh isn't exactly necessary, but we need the corpse to have meaty bits to make it more convincing."

"In other words you're not going to find the corpse you want even if you go to the pit," Sekka summed up what I was trying to say.

"Exactly," I grabbed Balock's neck.

He didn't try to fight me. He seemed to know that there was nothing he could do to stop what was going to happen next. I sharpened my nail, and plunged it into his neck. Injected a simple sleeping toxin into his body so that he would fall asleep, and be unable to wake for the next six hours or so.

"This toxin just makes you sleep," I explained to help ease the panic on his face, "It's harmless for the most part."

I withdrew my talon. Healing the small wound as I did.

"We'll leave once you're fully knocked out," I straightened slowly, "I'll finish the packing, and get the birds." pause, "Unfortunately we won't be able to get you any new clothes until we get you back to earth Balock."

"That's fine," Balock waved me off as he yawned, "I'm accustomed to living in filth."

I moved across the room. Folding up all the clothes we had in the room, and setting them on the bed so Sekka could move them to his spatial storage. I paused in the middle of the room to erase our presence from our time here. Cleaning the room, and making the bed was easy enough. Once I was done with the room I went down, and prepared the birds.

It didn't take long to prep both birds, and lead them out to the street. Tying them to the hitching post next to the road, and going back up to the room to bring down the passed out dwarf. Sekka followed behind me with his bag. It was rare for a master to follow behind their slave, but I pretended not to notice Sekka as I was carrying the heavy burden of Balock's body. Sekka didn't need to pretend that he was too tired to care.

I secured Balock to the saddle of the second bird along with Sekka's bag. I moved over to Sekka to give him a boost as soon as I was done before returning to the second bird to make sure Balock was well strapped down.

"Let's move on," Sekka cracked his neck before spurring his bird on in a slow walk.