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The large wooden door swung open on its
heavy brass hinges, and a tall figure emerged from the dark interior of
the house. Stepping out into the bright sunshine, Ocher Pendragon
stretched his towering form, inhaling the fresh, fragrant spring air.
He turned about and latched the door behind him. He had taken no
more than a dozen steps from the front stoop when he heard his mother call
out from the upstairs den.
"Ocher! Don't forget to pick up a bag of flour and some of those
little chocolate candies. I'm supposed to make a cake for your
aunt's birthday, and I need those ingredients."
"Oh come on, mom! How old is Aunt Bessie, anyway? Isn't she a
little too old to still have birthday parties?"
"She's turning a hundred and fifty, and she's still got a lot of years
ahead of her. She's thirty years younger than me, Ocher, and I
still get birthday parties."
Ocher sighed loudly and waved his hand nonchalantly into the air.
"Whatever. I'll make sure to pick up the stuff you need. I
just gotta get the newest issue of the League of Impossibly Powerful
Superheroes. It's supposed to be out today!"
Kelly blew her son a kiss from the upstairs window.
"Okay. Just don't forget about the cake, alright?"
"Alright. Not a problem, mom. I'll see you in about an hour.
I might stop by Melody's to...um...see how they are." He forced a
sheepish grin.
He continued walking down the path until he reached the main road in
front of his house. Turning to the left, he proceeded to head to the
market, where the book shop was located. He'd pick up the newest
issue, check out a few other titles, grab the stuff his mom needed, and
then make a beeline to Melody's to see if he could get lucky.
Twenty minutes later,
he left the comic store with the newest issue of his favorite comic under
his arm, and began walking towards the grocery. He passed Violet on
the way in, and she was actually kind enough to acknowledge his presence.
Or maybe she was about to sneeze. He couldn't quite tell.
He quickly found the items his mom needed and stepped up to the register.
While the clerk was ringing up the items, he noticed that no one had won
the previous night's lottery. He mentioned this to the clerk, a
pretty chipmunk named Chantel.
"Oh yes, there weren't any winners from last night's drawing. I'm
gonna buy a ticket after work to see if I can win. You should, too!"
she said, a big smile on her face. Or perhaps her cheeks were puffed
out like that because she'd been in the middle of eating a candy bar when
Ocher had approached her station. In any case, Ocher pondered the
situation thoughtfully. Maybe he would try his hand at the
lottery. After all, the jackpot was estimated at nearly a million
bucks! There would be nothing he couldn't do if he had that
kind of money!
He quickly paid the cashier, who was trying desperately to swallow the big
chunk of candy bar which had just become lodged in her throat. Eyes
bugging out, the chipmunk grabbed her soda and poured the contents of the
bottle down her gullet. The entire time, Ocher held his hand out in
her direction, oblivious to what was going on, too enveloped in his
thoughts about the lottery.
Ocher grabbed the bag of groceries, and walked over towards the lottery
counter. He quickly read the lottery directions, grabbed a small
pencil from a rectangular receptacle, found a few empty lottery sheets,
and began to think about what numbers were going to help him win big.
He finally settled on a few different choices, marked the appropriate
number boxes, paid for the tickets, and then left the store to head over
to Melody's. Although he would normally be engrossed in thoughts of
carnal pleasures (which he would hope to experience at Melody's), his mind
instead turned to thoughts of becoming an overnight millionaire.
Yes, he mused, that would be the answer to all his problems. At
least the most expensive ones, anyway.
"Like, what do you want?" asked Ivory, leaning against the doorframe, a
glass of iced tea in her hand.
"Um, probably what most guys who come here want," replied Ocher, smiling
hopefully.
Ivory stopped for a moment while she thought about what he had just said.
Most people's brain cells communicated instantly; in Ivory's case, they
were so few and far between, they usually had to make long-distance calls
to one another, and sometimes the lines were down.
"Oh," she finally replied, life coming back into her facial features.
Ocher began to step into the front hallway, and Ivory held out her hand,
stopping him.
"You got, like, money?"
"Uh...not on me right now," he stuttered.
"Then you can't come in. This is, like, a business, Ocher.
You hafta pay to play."
"Since when do you take money for sex?"
"Since we're having, like, a competition. And Trixie is right
behind me. No way am I gonna, like, lose, y'know?"
Ocher sighed loudly. "If I come back with money, can I have you?"
"You can fuck me until I'm, like, unconscious. I don't care.
Just, like, bring your money, 'kay?"
"Money. You got it. What about Melody? Could I pick
her, too? Could I...could I maybe see the two of you go at it with
each other?"
"Like, anything you can think of, dragon boy. Just bring the
green."
Of course, the truth was, Ocher only had about fifteen bucks in the money
jar in his room. And Ivory wasn't cheap. Chances are, a
Melody-and-Ivory-and-Ocher threesome would set him back more money than
he'd ever had in his life.
Unless, of course, he could win that lottery.
He said goodbye to Ivory, walked back out to the main road, and started
his trek back home. If the fates would see fit to smile upon him, he
would wake up tomorrow a far wealthier dragon than he was today.
And, oh, the fun he would have...
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