1. Bed and breakfast Guss

-Are you satisfied?-

-Very much. How about you little buddy? What do you think about big Guss bed magic?-

-Well... you need to improve on kissing part.-

-Since when boy that is not old enough to be drafted, is qualified to teach old Magnificent Guss about the art of love?-

-Spend two years on prostitute market, and you will learn a trick or two...-

-Ha! I think I'll pass on your offer.- Guss chuckled and hugged me close to his body. - I will happily talk with you about some kissing improvement tomorrow, for now I need a solid nap. I must admit ginger friend, you can make man lose all his steam in just few minutes.-

-First of all don't call me ginger, my hairs are red not bright orange. And we were fucking for more than three hours, not "just few minutes".-

-You know what they say... Time flies when you're having fun. Breakfast as usual?-

-Yeah, that will do.-

Guss's famous scrambled eggs. All prostitutes liked spending the night with Guss. Peoples on the streets called him "Bed and breakfast Guss". He always lets his "friends" stay for night and make breakfast for them at the morning. His menu was modest: sunny side up eggs, plain toast, lunch leftovers and his famous scrambled eggs. He always makes them with a lot of delicious spiced smoked bacon. That's why everyone liked those eggs. Bacon was not cheap, especially in war time. Since begging of war getting any piece of meat was extremely difficult, especially for the lowest class of citizens. For pass few months in my neighbourhood most of the whores was able to taste meat only when Guss was in mood for some fun with them. Fortunately enough Guss was a perfect customer. As sturdy and bulky orc Guss spread aura of authority and savage strength. Especially with all those Enchanter's guild rune tattoos all over his body. But after spending hour or two with him, every single of his guest was convinced that Guss is a gentle giant. In comparison, with others orcs he never screamed nor he beat anybody. He like biting, but was always gentle with it.

I liked spending time at his place for one more reason. Guss was a heavy sleeper. During the night I was always able to sneak out his bedroom and prowl around. As enchanter Guss had a lot of freaky artefacts and magical knick-knacks scattered around his house and workshop. I loved to walk around those dim light corridors and explore one after another rooms with even more bizarre treasures. Monkey paw, glowing crystal made out off snake blood, sword with 30 ancient ghosts trapped in blade, crystal ball with cyclops eye inside, book that was reciting lewd jokes when open, living beating heart of unknown origin in the jar. All sorted and catalogued, with small paper note attached. Guss rarely keep any of those items for himself. He was enchanter so to earn a living he usually bought some magic stuff in local auctions house. After that he identified the properties and examines possible outcome of using said item. If artefact was safe to use Guss put it in local enchanter guild catalogue with price tag and small description of effect. Thanks to that every time I visited Guss there was always new and fascinating items on display that i could enjoy.

Today my favourite exhibit was machine that produces sweet fruit flavoured ice cubes when activates. I ate handful of them during my exploration. I bet Guss would not mind at all. Second artefact that I liked was pair of scholar glasses. With those on head user can temporally change colour of his eyes. I liked my green pupils but i always wondered haw I would look like with eye colour that match my hairs. Unsurprisingly bright red haired kid with brightly red eyes looked like creepy little demon.

After hour of prowl around house and workshop I came to the conclusion that is time to go back to the bed. But something did not give me rest. I felt I had to look into one more room. The door was opposite to Guss's bedroom. It was a modest and unfurnished room, there were no windows in it either. Fortunately, my eyes quickly adapted to darkness. In the middle of this inconspicuous room was a small and richly decorated gold box. Apparently, Guss did not have time to check this exhibit because there was no card attached to it with the name. My innate curiosity did not allow me to resist the temptation for too long and I decided to open the box. Unfortunately, after a few attempts, I understood that without a proper key, I will not be able to open it. In such situations, the experience of street life helps a lot. A few months ago, an elf taught me how to open simple locks with two thin pieces of wire. In return, I only had to spend the night with him, without additional fees. I agreed to his proposals and he fulfilled his part of the contract, and additionally he gave me wires on which I learned his "profession". Thanks to this exchange, simple locks in a tavern door or a box in a port warehouse have become less than effective against my stealing attempts. Since then I have rarely been walking around hungry, and the wires I received from the elf have always been woven in my tail hair.

The lock in the box did not look complicated, so I pulled out my "tool" and got to work. Despite the fact that the box made the impression of expensive, the lock itself was very simple and I managed to break it in less than a minute. Most of the crates in the port made much more trouble. Despite the fact that it seemed to me a little suspicious, curiosity took over the common sense. When I opened the box, I understood why the lock was not complicated. It simply did not have to be. Whatever was inside this box was protected by a magic trap. When I overturned the lid, the room filled with a thunderous roar and very bright light. In addition, a very loud and unnatural scream came out of the box that made me shiver. I knew it was not easy to wake Guss, but if I do not do something, he will find up that something is wrong and I will be in big trouble. The problem is that the bright explosion almost blinded my accustomed to the darkness eyes. So I had to find and secure the box blindfolded. I was hoping that closing it will deactivate the screaming mechanism and I will be able to go back to bed unnoticeably and pretend that I have no idea what happened. Moving around blindly was not an easy matter, especially with the adrenaline raging inside my little body. My heart was knocking like a bell, and the sound of blood sounded like a stormy river flowing between my ears. I was unable to concentrate, and standing on straightened legs was almost impossible for me, so I decided to find the box on all fours. Eyesight still did not come back so I decided to use my touch in this situation. Nearly lying on the ground, I waved my limbs in the hope that I would finally be able to find something. Fortunately, after a few seconds my tail came across a light object with a cubic shape. The box! The noise of this intensity combined with my sensitive ears made me feel like my head was going to be crushed in a blacksmith's vise but i forced myself to crawl towards epicenter of shouting. I was very close to losing consciousness, but I had to clean up this mess or Guss would turn me inside out with the help of magic. I saw once he did once to one thief who had the audacity to steal something from his priceless collection and tried to sell it on the market. Guss was short tempered, so when he saw how an ordinary złodziej tried to sell his priceless Axe of Ice at auction, something blow up inside him. The axe Guss prepared especially on the baron's request.

The whole situation took place a few years ago before I landed on the street. I was just helping my mother in shopping on the market when I heard the sound of snapping bones and skin torn apart. Apart from me, hundreds of people who were unlucky to be on the market that day were watching the whole situation. Each bone pierced his skin under the pressure of magic. Next bones wrapped around what was once the limbs of this poor man. In the meantime, the skin turned to the other side and was replaced by muscles into which the bones of the unfortunate thief were still stuck. Everything is accompanied by the sound of broken bones, cracking skin and scream. A frightening and chilling scream that I will not forget for the rest of my life. The cry of a man whose body has been torn apart and turned into a monstrous caricature of a living being. When Guss finished, the thief lived in this monstrous and difficult to describe form for about 5 seconds, after which he fell dead on the ground. Then Guss spoke with his powerful voice: "Whoever comes to the conclusion that he can enrich himself by stealing my belongings let remember this scene as a warning." My stomach could not stand this horrible show of strength. I puked out my whole breakfast to a basket with clean bedding which my mother gave me to carry home. Usually, after something like this, I would be severely punished but she did the same. We both had nightmares for many weeks after that day.

When I landed on the street and Guss decided for to have some "fun" with me for the first time I was scared to death. Fortunately, it turned out that the Guss calmed down with age and he never used his power in such a cruel and abhorrent way. I was sure, however, that if a Guss finds me in this room today with this strange box open, i surely will not escape severe punishment. Unfortunately, the fucking lid did not want to close. As if some magical power pushed the lid as much as it could. I had to use all my strength and that was not enough. Only when I literally lay down on the chest, the lid slowly began to fall. With the belly glued to the lid with all my strength I tried to close this cursing howling box. When I finally managed to do it, I felt like thin streams of blood slowly running down my ears.The headache was a nightmare, like a group of blacksmiths hitting my head with their hammers. One by one at a quiet pace.

Bang...bang...bang...bang...bang...

Each subsequent blow caused more pain to me than the previous ones. In addition, there was a chest pain. After using so much adrenaline, my tiny heart increased its size three times.

I was in a state where the beating of my own heart made me feel nightmarish piercing pain. And there was noise that I heard all the time, a souvenir after an annoying shouting box. Fortunately after some time, noice gave in. There was silence. I heard only the noise in my aching ears, my tired breathing and heart beating in my chest which slowly began to calm down. And those weird clicks. One after the other.

Click...click...click...

- I wonder...-

I did not have the opportunity to finish this sentence. The box on which I lay exploded with a huge bang. The force of the explosion throws me against the wall, and my body has been decorated with several dozen small pieces of wood and steel stabbed into my skin. When I tried to get up, I felt pain incomparable to anything I had experienced in my whole short life. Then I felt that my body is heavy and the air is thick and moist like fog. A few seconds later, consciousness left me and my limp body lay unconscious on the blood-stained floor.