East River Dragon.

The next morning, I woke up as usual, with Yue sprawled over me like a blanket, drooling on my chest.

"Wake up, sleepyhead." I caressed her face, and she moaned happily.

"Uhn~" She nuzzled into my chest, hugging me tighter.

It was nice, having someone like this, someone that loved you unconditionally, like a puppy, even if Yue got overbearing sometimes.

Unlike my previous relationships, which moved fast and had a lot more sex, with Yue it moved at a comfortable pace. No grand gestures, no declarations of love, nothing. I hadn't even kissed her yet. Not properly.

And I couldn't quite say when, but I had come to feel some affection for her.

She was an adequate assistant. She was tight lipped and capable.

When I got caught in the Scarlatti Web, she took my body to the Dean immediately without revealing that I had other bodies or a portal gun. She chose her words carefully too.

And she didn't try to take advantage of my weakness to steal from me.

When I got hurt and she got angry for me, it near melted my heart.

Even though she was a bit obsessive and yandere-ish, quite like Paige in that regard, Yue never once asked me to change. She just went along with it. Even helped me extract more tears from the baby Chthulu which she found to be very cute.

It was like her personality was made to appeal to me.

And appeal it did.

Something I didn't realize until yesterday.

When I saw her lying there, half her face blown off.....I could only feel the burning, blinding rage within me.

It made me realise what I felt for her.

Well, at least that I felt something for her. I didn't know what.

I couldn't see her like a woman, not sexually.

But I knew one thing.

She was mine.

My Yue.

And no one else would get her.

I squeezed her into a hug kissed her head, waking her up.

"Good morning." I greeted her and she smiled bright, her sleepy eyes fixated on mine in a loving gaze.

"Good morning Jay."

.

After we got ready, I went over the plans for the day.

Since Henry was still working on the timeline part, it was in my best interest to get my ducks in a row too.

I had a whole list of things to do, but the first on them was one thing.

Getting more power.

A godly amount.

There was one easy way to do so.

And that meant dealing with a dragon.

In the show, the four fake gods, former librarians, Bachhus, Heka, Iris, and Aengus used a secret ritual to break apart the Nameless God's sister into four parts, sealing each part of her divinity in a stone organ the size of an ostrich egg, to turn themselves into gods.

But over the course of the few thousand years they had been alive now, Heka had died.

His stone organ however was still intact, complete with the divinity still in it.

An easy way for me to become a god.

And now, it was in the possession of the East River dragon.

In the show, a dragon obsessed lunatic, Poppy Kline had stolen his sperm and used it to fertilize an egg so she could make her own baby dragon.

And after returning the egg to the East River dragon, the protagonists traded it for the stone organ to save themselves from the wrath of the Nameless God.

I had wanted to wait a while to trade for it. Or more accurately, act like I want to trade and then steal it.

Why?

Because the trade was never cheap.

Sure, I could steal it now. Or more likely, I could lose a body trying to steal it.

I'm no match for a dragon as it stands and I didn't know half as much about dragons as Poppy did.

Which is why, originally I was going to save Poppy from the Abyss in Fillory first, then use her help to steal it.

But now?

Daniel had pushed my plans up.

And so, here we are.

At the East River.

Waiting in line.

First stop on our instant ramen journey of godhood in three simple steps.

"Come on, just one scale! It doesn't even have to a reverse one." The guy in front of us begged the dragon's secretary.

Yes. The dragon had a secretary.

Being creatures as old as time itself, they couldn't be fucked to deal with mortal affairs.

So most earth dragons, especially the more social ones, had secretaries.

No, not the sexy, mini-skirt wearing babes.

It was a middle aged guy in an Alfred Pennyworth meets Don Draper type of suit.

He sat on a simple wooden desk by the docks, with catching phone calls and writing memos.

"No-n Not that one. The daVinci. Yes. And get that to vault eight. And-"

"My daughter's life depends on it! Please!" The guy in front of us whined again.

He was an apothecary of some sort.

Apparently, he was trying to make some sort of false dragon heart for his daughter who had a weak one.

Of course, the secretary wasn't moved by the story, which by the way was obviously faked.

I checked his facebook. He had no daughters.

"Don't you understand? No, means no." The secretary said sternly before disappearing the man away with a flick of his wrist.

"Next!" He called out and we walked up.

"Did you know he didn't even have a daughter?" I chuckled as I stepped forward.

"We get all kinds here. I wouldn't be surprised. What are ypu here for?"

"A trade." I put down a glass jar on the table. Inside the jar was a bloodied finger.

The secretary raised an eyebrow, looking me up and down.

"For a finger?"

"Not just any finger. The finger of a master magician and sole ruler of a magical nation in the world of Fillory.

That's king's blood right there. Rich with Wellspring magic and magical nutrients. And, and before you say anything, I'd like to point out that his kingdom has many, many magical artifacts. Even a couple of divine art pieces. Nymphs even, if his gieryness leans that way. All can be bargained with this. You know as well as anyone exactly how vulnerable someone can be to curses when their essence is in the wrong hands. It'd be a shame if such an opportunity were to go to waste!" I winked.

Cringe, yes. But I was playing the part.

"And what's to say this isn't just the finger of some random hobo of the street soaked in magical solution?" He asked.

"Ah! Of course. I have proof." I pulled out my phone and showed him the vidoe of me shooting the finger off of his hand.

I zoomed in on the finger and let him compare.

"That still doesn't prove that this moth creature is the king of this magical world you claim exists."

"That, you will have to take on faith. But would I really lie about it? After providing this proof?"

"Yes." The man replied in a condescending tone.

"Tch. Fine." I took out a vial from my coat, "I have truth serum. I'll take it and-"

The man snatched it from my hands and dabbed a bit onto his finger, licking it up.

"It's truth serum, don't worry." I assured him.

"Ask me something." He ordered.

"What underwear are you wearing right now?" I asked as a joke.

"It's pink lace. It goes well with my chastity bel-"

"Stop!" I cried out, putting my hand over his mouth and Yue made a disgusted face as if she had eaten maggot infested meat.

He tapped my hand and I let him go.

"So it works." He cleared his throat, trying to change the awkward atmosphere and continued.

"Very well. I'll believe you. No need to use the truth serum." He said, "It still leaves the burden of negotiation on us. Whatever you want can't be given away that easily. But if you include the gun you used to kill-"

"Oh. So that's it. You want the weapon?" I smirked, cutting him off, "Nah. I don't think so."

"You should be honored his fieryness is allowing you to donate your weapon to his trove."

"Is that so? Well tough tiddies. The weapon blew up. It was a prototype. And I have yet to make a second one. So I can't give you the weapon even if I wanted to."

"Then I'm afraid, there is no trade."

"Oho! Shame." I said, sliding the glass jar off the desk and into my pocket.

"Nice meeting you, chastity boy." I mocked and turned around to walk away when the waters below the dock began to roil, shaking the pier.

Immediately the secretary put up a ward around the pier to stop any peeping toms.

No sooner had he finished that the water of the east river burst like a geyser and a snake's head big enough to swallow a man whole appeared from the river's depths, covered in iridiscent scales that seemed to glow with ethereal colors, it's eyes, burning embers, staring daggers through me as it snorted out smoke.

Like fire wrought flesh.

"Halt, godling!" It growled in a voice that seemed to echo across the docks, reverberating through me with a chill.

I stopped immediately, and just looked up at the towering beast of myth above me.

It was .....majestic. That was the only word I could use to describe it.

I can understand why Poppy loved dragons so much. They look fucking cool!

"A dragon! A real dragon! So....beautiful!" Yue praised and the dragon looked upon her and nodded favorably.

"What does an elder creature such as yourself want with me?" It asked.

Elder creature?

Was it....was it mistaking me for an old god? Or something like it? Because of my code?

I was partially a being of thought so it wasn't farfetched for it to assume that I had some relation to the old gods.

I was just one or two evolutionary rungs below them as it stood.

But, I played it innocent.

"What do you mean godling? Elder creature? I'm just a traveler."

"Nothing can be hidden from me child! I am ancient! You may have fooled lesser creatures but I was there when the world was written into existence. I know your true form. I see it!" It hissed.

Tch!

I clicked my tongue.

"Alright. No use hiding it then. Yes. I'm an elder creature. And I want something from your horde. A stone organ. Looks like this? Like an ostrich egg. Or a giant pear?"

The dragon narrowed it's eyes and dove down back into the rover before emerging with the stone organ.

"Is this the one you seek?" It asked, annoyed.

"What? Not going to offer me a gold organ and a silver organ before revealing the actual one?" I joked, trying to lower the tension in the air.

"Do not take me for some lake fairy, godling! I do not judge virtue or punish evil. I just ...." It huffed out a long smoky stream of flame, "...exist."

"Hn?" I raised an eyebrow, curious.

The dragon obliged.

"We dragons are a byproduct of creation. Seams and strings, ways and paths. We are what was left of the great tapestry of creation. From beginning to end. It is a hopeless, pointless existence, quite like humanity, just far, far longer." It explained with a tinge of sadness to it's voice, "And far, far lonelier."

Hmm....I suppose being the longest lived beings aside from gods means everything and everyone you love eventually dies or breaks, wasting away to the ravages of time.

I wonder if I will be the same when I'm as old?

It was one of the things I feared.

What comes after.....

I shook my head.

No, focus.

I need to get that stone organ!

I looked up at the dragon and saw it smiling faintly before it continued.

"Thus, we collect. We horde. Each precious gift, each stone and painting and carving. Each piece of silver and gold. Each a memory of a time long gone. A time lost but still cherished." He spoke with nostalgia.

"Keepsakes." I said, realising what he meant.

"Yes. Keepsakes. That's what humans call them." He sighed, like a boomer hearing another new millenial slang term on tiktok.

"Your languages change so fast, it has become difficult to keep up with them."

"It has huh?" I thought about it.

"How about I make you a translator?" I gestured to Yue who pulled out her own, and handed it to me.

She had already learnt english so she didn't need it anymore.

I begn to fiddle with it, updating it's code as I explained it's functions to the dragon.

"It translates anything you say into the language of your choosing. Just say, 'Translate language one to language two. The collar will do the rest. Just hild it close to your mouth." I told the dragon, "It will update automatically so long as it has access to wifi and help you learn new terms and words. Works for every language too! Well, almost every language. But with a new and unfamiliar language, you will need to privide it some samples so it can learn before it does the job. Give me a minute, I'll make it for you."

"You can?" It asked.

"I will." I replied.

"What do you want for it?"

"Nothing. Consider it a gift." I waved his concerns off.

It was barely an effort.

Besides, if I really wanted something from it, I'd just kill the dragon and take it's treasure whole.

It's what I was planning on doing right before big and scaly here showed up.

"Thank you. That would be very kind of you." It said, awkwardly, "Are you sure you don't want something for it?"

"Well I wanted to trade the stone organ for this finger, but for the translator, no, not at-"

"I want to touch you!" Yue requested, cutting in, "Please?"

The dragon smiled and came closer, extending it's head to a squealing Yue as she gingerly extended her hand and ran it over it's scales.

"Ehehehehehehehehe!"

Yue was enjoying herself.

"So pretty!"

"Want a scale?" He asked.

"Can I?!" She asked, excitedly.

"Certainly." He replied and threw one to her along with the stone organ, Yue caught the both of them and cradled the stone organ carefully, bowing respectfully to the dragon.

"Thanks." I bowed too, handing the bottle and the collar to it's secretary.

"No. It is I who should be thanking you." He smiled happily, checking out the translator, "Consider me a friend, godling. Should you ever need help, ask and you shall recieve." He added.

"Oh, um... thanks?" I replied, looking over the stone organ.

"Ah, one more thing. If you seek to use the stone egg, godling...uh...."

"Jay. Jay Walker."

"Yes. Jay. If you seek to use the stone egg, it would be wise to seek The Binder as well. I will put out the word.

You need only seek it. It will come to you." He said.

The binder. A thick tome trapping an old and tired librarian. It was he who was the real Binder.

And it was he who devised the spell that turned Bacchus and the rest into false gods.

The spell to make and unmake gods.

But they betrayed him once the deed was done, turning him into a book and threw him away in a corner of the world so remote no one would find him ever again.

All so no one could unmake their godhood.

Huh.....maybe doing good things does pay sometimes.

Or having friends in high places at least.

Either way, if I hadn't befriended the dragon, I doubt I would have an easy route to the Binder. Not like this at least.

"That's very kind of you too." I smiled cheekily.

"I'm no ingrate Jay. And I treat my friends well."

"What a coincidence. So do I." I replied.

It gave a throaty giggle before swallowing the translator and dove back into the river, disappearing into it's depths.

I let put a breath I didn't know I was holding and turned to Yue.

"That was ....productive." I muttered.

"Befriending the dragon race!" Yue's eyes glittered as she looked down at the river wistfully.

"As expected of Jay!" She pumped her fist in the air with excitement.

"You really love dragons huh?" I said, looking at her all hyped up.

"Uhun!" She nodded, her eyes fixated on the dragon scale in her hand, "They are the coolest, most awesome creatures in the world. So beautiful! And dignified!" She cooed.

"Is that so? Maybe I'll take you to see another dragon someday."

"Really?!" Yue asked.

"Yup. Once the final exams are over. And we have dealt with that future Daniel."

Yue nodded enthusiastically.

"Let's go find the bastard as soon as possible. Let's do it today!" She insisted.

"Alright, alright. Take it easy. No need to hurry. Let's get the Binder first, then the finals and after that, we can see about setting things straight with him."

"So slow...." She muttered.

"We can always come and meet him." I pointed at the river before us.

"Ah!" Yue realised.

"Just remember to bring a gift for his fieryness." The secretary added.

"Of course." I said, "Of course."

____________________

The extra chapter for 400 powerstones as promised.

A whopping 3000 words too!

MC befriends a dragon.

And gets a fake god seed.

Next time, the binder.

And then, final exams.

Till then, see ya!