Summoning Ocellus

Even once she’d started forcing lucidity, her summoning dreams had never really focused on the other little dragons in the lair. It wasn’t really overcrowded, by any rational standard – nowhere near as crowded as the School of Friendship, for example, let alone her barely-remembered time in the old hive, before the disastrous invasion. There were dozens of little dragons, but the complex of carved chambers they used as a lair was extensive. Still, walking through a room with three of them turning to look at her was a bit frightening, even if she knew they were friends and allies and weren’t about to attack.

Maybe it would help if she knew their names? She approached the three, who seemed to be playing a game of some sort. “Hi, I’m –”

“Shouldn’t you be with your wizard?” one of them asked.

Ocellus froze, then hurried out of the room into a twisty corridor, ducking under one of the tripwires the little dragons had set up in all their hallways. It was set a bit higher than head-height for a little dragon, but in her slightly larger dragon shape her horns would have snagged on it. It would have just made a bunch of metal scraps jangle loudly, but she was embarrassed enough without setting off traps. She pressed herself against a wall as another dragon scurried past, carrying a sack, and turned left at the next intersection, following some familiar voices.

She found herself in a sort of armory – a room full of rough-looking weapons and armor, mostly spears and boiled leather breastplates, but there were some better-maintained crossbows and other clockwork mechanisms that probably went into the dragons ubiquitous traps. Ijj and Rezzo were there, fussing over a crossbow.

“It doesn’t take any strength, you just put in the bolt and turn the crank.”

Ijj looked dubious. “And it’ll hit harder than a firebolt?”

“Most of the time,” Rezzo said. “All the dragon-casters carry them.”

“Hello?” Ocellus said quietly, as she approached.

Rezzo’s hand went to a sheathed knife in his belt, but Ijj just looked confused. “Ocellus?” he asked, and Rezzo relaxed. “Where’s Tixi hiding?”

“I don’t know. She told me to clean up the magic circle and then vanished.”

“And you’re still here?” Ijj asked.

“She gated me in and bound me to her somehow?” Ocellus explained. “I think I’m stuck here for a while.”

“Do you have to look like that?” Rezzo asked. “It’s a little disturbing.”

“It is? It was the closest shape I had to one of you,” Ocellus said.

“It is,” Ijj said.

Ocellus returned to her base form, light blue chitin with spotted red wing-casings. “Sorry.”

“So this is what she was making us wait for, eh?” Rezzo said, poking at her. Ocellus took a step back, but he still managed to connect. Rezzo shrugged. “I hope you fight better in person than you did as a summon.”

“Apparently it’s still okay if I die,” Ocellus said. “But I should probably work harder on avoiding that.”

Suddenly, she was hugged from behind. “There you are!” Tixi exclaimed. “You weren’t in the ritual chamber, so I was running all over!”

“Um…” Ocellus said, squirming a bit, overwhelmed by Tixi’s broadcast affection. She knew intellectually that it was just the fidelity of the bond, but it was hard not to respond in kind, which was probably inappropriate for the situation. Or was it? Tixi certainly wasn’t letting go…

Rezzo bonked Tixi over the head with a crossbow, dislodging her, then held it out for her to take.

“Take it,” he said. “Wizards need them too.”

Tixi waved it off. “Acid splash is better.”

Rezzo bonked her again. “No, it isn’t. Take it.”

Tixi took it, and sighed, “Fine, whatever. I’m not going to use it though.” She took a harness off the wall – it didn’t cover much more than her usual belt of pouches, but it had a quiver for bolts and a hook to hang the crossbow on, out of the way. Ijj was already wearing something similar.

Rezzo looked Ocellus over. “I don’t think we have any armor that’ll fit you.”

“I can take care of that,” Tixi said. “I have a spell –”

“It’s a good spell, but it’s still a waste of magic,” Ijj said.

“it’s a spell that you should be casting every day!” Tixi said. “I shouldn’t be the one preparing them.”

“I could turn into a dragon?” Ocellus offered, but didn’t shift.

Rezzo bonked her. He’d given away the crossbow, so he just used his fist, although there was no force behind it. “No, your dragon is creepy and the proportions are wrong.”

“Come on, let’s go!” Tixi said, excitement rolling off her so strongly Ocellus was surprised it wasn’t visible.

“We would have gone yesterday if it wasn’t for you!” Ijj said, laughing, and the three of them headed out, Ocellus scrambling to follow.

Ocellus had visited the little dragons’ lair every night for months, but popping in in random rooms for a minute or two at a time hadn’t given her any sense of the layout. The armory was apparently pretty far from the entrance, because they passed a bunch of bustling chambers, full of strange scents and sounds and little dragons, before they finally got to the big common room where most of the warriors hung out, where she’d fought the terrifying adventurer. One of the warriors was waiting by the exit, chatting with some friends, although they fell silent and moved away as the group approached.

“Ah, our new heroes finally awake!” he said. “Are you ready for your patrol?”

“We’re *so* ready!” Rezzo said. “Are we doing the market route?”

“That’s the one,” the warrior replied. “Don’t get lost. Speak Common do you?” The last sentence was strangely halting, and if Ocellus concentrated she could tell it was in a different language, more melodic and liquid, and a lot closer to Ponish although it didn’t use any of the same words.

“I speak,” Tixi replied, while the other two looked clueless.

“Good,” the warrior said. “Talk to adventurers if you run into any. It makes them less aggressive. Now I’ll lead you past the traps so you can get on your way. Be careful, and step where I step.”

Ocellus was very, very careful. She was reasonably certain the traps on the entrance weren’t meant for training.

At the end of the gauntlet of traps, their guide threw his weight against a brick wall, and it swung open, blinding light streaming from beyond, brighter and brighter as it opened… and then her eyes adjusted, and she could see that it led to a large circular chamber in what looked like a buried sewer. Possibly more of a storm drain – it smelled terrible, but not as bad as she imagined a sewer might. The light came through a series of gratings far overhead, and as they stepped out into the open there was the clip clop and rattle of a pair of ponies trotting past, pulling a cart.

The little dragons’ eyes seemed to be having a harder time adjusting to the light, and their guide put on a set of smoky goggles, then fit one on each of Tixi and her friends. She shook her head as he came to offer her one, and looked over to where he’d gotten them from.

“A shop?” she asked, seeing a little dragon sitting behind the counter of a wooden stand that wouldn’t have stood out in Ponyville’s market, but was terribly out of place in a storm drain.

“Sometimes it reminds the adventurers that we’re not here to fight them,” the shopkeeper said. “Sometimes they try to kill us anyway. It’s easier than going up to the surface to trade, though.”

Ocellus glanced up at the gratings. “It doesn’t look like it’s that much of a climb.”

Tixi shivered. “It’s not the climb, it’s the people. So many people!”

“You’ll have to go up there sooner or later,” their guide said.

“I don’t want to think about it,” Tixi said. “I want to explore the underground, though. Isn’t it exciting?”

Ocellus nodded. She could tell that Tixi was certainly excited… and had been excited about visiting the surface, as well. There was no need to call her out on it, though. Her training as an infiltrator and her schoolwork on friendship agreed on that much.

“Now, rats aren’t that dangerous, but…” she cast her force armor spell on herself, Ocellus, and Ijj. Rezzo seemed content with his physical armor. “Try to flank with Rezzo, Ocellus. If you attack from different angles they’ll have a harder time defending. Do you have anything really tough and scary looking?”

“I can use a little magic if I stay in this form,” Ocellus offered. “Otherwise… I never learned the really big shapes.”

“How little is a little?” Ijj asked.

“Mostly just horn zaps,” Ocellus admitted. “I could probably manage light, but I don’t think any of us need it.” She demonstrated a zap against the wall, the green beam leaving a tiny scorch mark. Ijj seemed relieved at that.

“Can we go now?” Rezzo asked. “The rats won’t kill themselves.”

===

The little dragons were all extremely sneaky. Ocellus thought she was fairly sneaky – she’d had lessons on physically sneaking, just in case disguises didn’t work -- but she couldn’t hold a candle to the others without changing into a cat for extra sneakiness. Most of the rats they ran across died without ever knowing they were in danger – Tixi managed to splatter acid right in one’s ear, and Ijj sank a crossbow bolt into another’s throat. When it was Rezzo’s turn, he crept up on it, and got close enough to lunge and sink a pair of daggers into its back before it could react. Each time they’d cut off the tail as proof of the kill, then gut the rat and skin it, keeping the meat and hide for the tribe’s use.

“Do you want the next turn?” Tixi asked Ocellus.

She gave it a shot, sneaking up as a housecat even though the rat was the size of a small dog, leaping and latching on to the back of its neck, then shifting back to her true form to sink her fangs…

Her true form didn’t have fangs anymore, and its teeth weren’t meant for hunting. The rat almost squirmed free, but she was still sitting on top of it and managed to shift into her old shape to confirm the kill. It squealed and struggled and just wouldn’t die until she’d gnawed on its neck for what seemed like an eternity, but was probably more like ten seconds, leaving her covered in blood and feeling very stupid.

“You really need practice,” Rezzo said, walking up to her to start cleaning the kill.

“I probably should have just turned into a badger,” Ocellus admitted, shifting back into a cat and licking herself clean. “That’s the only shape I have any experience with.”

“Or a bigger cat,” Ijj suggested.

Their route took them gradually upwards, until they were only a few feet beneath the surface. The gratings were common, and every fifty feet or so a ladder led up to a covered exit that could have taken them to the world above. The noise was constant, surfacers walking and trading and chatting and yelling and filling the storm drain with the echoing sound of the common language – so much of it that it was difficult to make anything out. Occasionally, they’d run across a group of surfacers camping out underground – ratty looking, filthy surfacers, generally without armor or weapons beyond a rusty knife. They weren’t their target, so they crept past without engaging them.

“Why doesn’t anyone help them?” Ocellus asked.

“Wouldn’t be very pragmatic,” Tixi said. “If we took them in and fed them, they’d probably just steal from us and go get drunk.”

“The city offered us a bounty if we’d keep them out of the underground,” Rezzo added. “It’s too dangerous, though – they’re stronger than they look, and they’ve got horrible diseases.”

The rats were also more numerous near the marketplace – bits of food and garbage regularly fell down through the gates, and there were doorways here and there that led into the basements of nearby buildings, most of which were used for storage. After taking down a group of five rats – which was enough that they couldn’t take them all out by surprise, and had to fight the last couple properly – they stopped to rest by a broken wooden door that seemed to open into some sort of pantry, although entry was blocked off by a shelf loaded with sacks of potatoes and onions.

“We’re not allowed in there, but places like that are where most of the rats breed,” Rezzo said.

Ocellus pushed the door as closed as it would get, then spent a while spitting sticky changeling slime to seal the cracks and keep it closed, basking in Tixi’s sense of wonder at the sight of her doing something that changelings considered routine and most ponies found disgusting.

===

They were just leaving the market behind when they ran into the adventurers. They hid in an alcove while the four tall surfacers in heavy clothing or armor descended a ladder from one of the ceiling hatches, the first down looking around with his massive sword drawn, waving around the hunk of metal larger than any of the little dragons like it weighed nothing.

The last down looked a little stranger than the rest – she was dressed the same, but unlike the others she had a tail, stripey fur, and normal, mobile ears on top of her head instead of the strange circles or triangles on the sides that the others possessed. Her eyes glowed in the dim light, and she looked straight at where Ocellus and Tixi were peering around the corner. They pulled back behind cover, but it was too late.

“We’ve got company,” she said, and there was the sound of a bow being pulled taut.

“Peace!” said Tixi, loudly, not coming out where they could see her.

“Uh huh,” the furry archer said. “That’s why you’re lurking in wait.”

“We wait for you to go,” Tixi said in her broken common. “We patrol for city, hunt rats.”

“The kobolds are supposed to be friendly,” said another, deeper voice. “Lower your bow, Flicker.”

Tixi poked Ocellus, who shifted into her normal form and stumbled out into view. Sure enough, Flicker was no longer pointing her bow at them, although she kept in it hand, with an arrow still knocked. “They’re not immediately aggressive, but I can’t say for sure if it’s safe,” she reported, then waved at the adventurers and smiled. “Hello! Welcome to our storm drain.”

“What in all the hells is that?” Flicker said, the bow twitching upwards for a second before she lowered it again.

“Familiar,” Tixi said, coming out from behind the wall, hands raised – not that that meant anything, since her attacks were magical. “I summon.”

Rezzo snatched at her tail, but she flicked it out of the way before he could drag her back behind the wall.

“I’m a –” Ocellus started, only to realize that there wasn’t a word for ‘changeling’ in common, or at least not one that she could snatch from whatever reservoir of language she was using to speak it. “Bug… pony… shapeshifter?”

“Doppelganger?” suggested a lightly armored woman leaning on a spear. “Were-pony? Succubus?”

“Not a were-pony,” Ocellus said. “I don’t recognize those others.”

“Well, a doppelganger mostly just changes shape, that’s its only real power,” she explained. “A succubus is a demon that can charm people with magic and suck out their life force.”

“Ah,” Ocellus said. “Well, I don’t do that anymore.”

“Not demon,” Tixi insisted. “She good. Too good, make me good to summon.”

“Are you sure good is the word you’re looking for?” Ocellus asked Tixi in her own language.

“It’s the common word for ‘sentimental’, isn’t it?” Tixi replied.

“It’s the common word for ‘good’.”

“Typical,” Rezzo said, stepping out to join them, since hostilities didn’t seem likely to break out immediately. “Surfacers like to judge everything.”

Tixi frowned. “Then what does evil mean? Or lawful?”

“Sorry, just chatting about terminology,” Ocellus said to the adventurers, in case they were getting antsy over the little dragons talking among themselves. “What are you doing down here? Just exploring?”

“Training!” said the giant sword-wielder, gesturing with his giant sword. “We’ve been practicing against dummies for long enough, it’s time to actually kill something.”

“Do you volunteer?” asked the archer.

Tixi gave a little yip of surprise. “Our first mission too! But why here? Only rats, city says we kill rats.”

“Maybe they could go into the surfacer basements?” Ocellus suggested to her companions.

“I think we’re just supposed to let them do whatever they want,” Rezzo said.

“Are you going to fight us over it?” the archer asked, frowning at the words she didn’t understand.

“Oh come on, don’t be so hostile,” the spear-wielder said. “They’re too cute to be a threat. Don’t you want to just pick them up and cuddle them?”

“Even the bug?” asked the swordsman.

“Especially the bug,” she replied with a grin. “Do you know how much respect I’d get back at the inn if I bagged a reformed succubus?”

“No,” Tixi said, grabbing Ocellus from behind and hugging her to her chest. “Mine.”

“No one wants to fight,” Ocellus said, shifting back into a cat and squirming out of Tixi’s grip, perching on her head. “Or… whatever you’re suggesting,” she added, to the spear-wieldier.

“I’m talking about you and me going back up that ladder, renting out a hotel room, getting all naked, taking a nice bath to wash off the sewer smell, and then getting really, really dirty.” She grinned laviciously, then her face suddenly reverted to a serious expression. “I’ll pay. Five gold to borrow it for an hour.”

Ocellus was about to repeat her refusal, but felt Tixi’s possessiveness warring with a sudden spike of greed. “Seriously?” she asked.

“It’s a lot of money,” Tixi said. “It sounds like she just wants to mate with you? You’re both female, and not even the same species, so it would be safe, right?”

“I’d be all alone among strangers who’d purchased the right to do whatever they wanted to me,” Ocellus said.

“Oh, I promise you’ll have a good time,” the spear-wielder said, apparently able to understand them. “And I trust you haven’t forgotten how to make me scream?”

“I remember my lessons,” Ocellus said, flatly. This would have been an excellent opportunity to cocoon and replace a victim, securing a higher place in society and hooks on a group of close friends that she could drain. But she didn’t do that anymore, so it would probably just be sex.

She glanced at the prospective victim, then back at Tixi. “Are you sure you want this?” She knew that the answer was no.

“I know it’s the pragmatic choice,” Tixi replied. “I can summon you back if they try anything.”

The spear-wielder counted out some coins and tossed a pouch to Tixi. “Have her meet me at the Haunted Box this evening. Probably easier if she comes in a humanoid shape.”

“Oh thank god,” Flicker said. “I thought you were going to go at it right here in the sewer.”

“Storm drain,” Ocellus corrected her.

The adventurers laughed and wandered off, leaving the little dragons to continue their patrol.

They completed the circuit with a few more rats killed, but without any more excitement, and turned in the tails at the shop outside the entrance. The shopkeeper tallied them up, and did some math. “Okay, that pays for the goggles, and the bolts you weren’t able to recover. You’ve got sixteen copper worth of credit left if you want to requisition something else.”

“A gold is a hundred copper,” Tixi noted happily. “And she gave us *twenty*! I think she wants you for the whole night.”