Zhizhi wandered nearby while Ruger stopped to gather some mushroom cultures. After packing them away and sending them into the Bedroom Space, he set off again.
Since Zhizhi liked eating these things, and their liquid looked rather promising too, they were naturally worth experimenting with.
Serious Mouse, Aisijin, and the others could handle that. If things went smoothly, the Little Inn might even have a few new kinds of liquor before long. Zhizhi would surely enjoy mushroom liquor with this flavor. A dragon who loved drinking was quite nice, at least better than one who asked her master for magic stones.
This was not fraud, of course. Zhizhi was his familiar, and a bonded familiar at that. Though their bond was not as close as those of ages past, she was no hired dragon either. She was a truly intimate companion. Across several eras, such creatures had once been the beings Wizards trusted most, constantly at their sides.
How could a companion who faced life and death alongside you ask for magic stones? Could such a bond be measured in magic stones?
A transaction involving magic stones would instead be a kind of desecration.
At least, that was what Ruger thought. Of course, her suggestion that sleeping on a pile of magic stones would help her grow a little was indeed a good one. He had read stories in a book about people in that bygone age stumbling into dragon nests while searching for magic stone veins. Those dragons slept in crystalline mineral veins rich in all sorts of energy. So he decided to adopt her suggestion and spread the stones in the hollow in the Bedroom Space where Zhizhi used to sleep, then let her enjoy a good, long nap.
Of course, judging by how lively the Little One