Lukas counted the objects in his satchel. There were ten sea dragon scales from different species and all of them from previous shedding sessions, so he didn\u2019t need to deal with angry sea dragons. He returned to Calliope\u2019s lair and found Faye, a jellyfish man that dressed in maid dresses and worked as Calliope\u2019s housekeeper. \u201cMonsieur Faye,\u201d called Lukas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHm? Oh! Bonjour, Monsieur Lukas,\u201d greeted Faye. \u201cWere you victorious?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI sure was! Where\u2019s Mistress Calliope? I want her to inspect my work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOh, she\u2019s at her cauldron again, taking on a support call. A sea witch needs to give magic support at times, non?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ll just head there, then,\u201d said Lukas. \u201cMerci!\u201d He swam to the center of the pit where Calliope was talking to someone\u2019s image in her cauldron. \u2026Or rather, RANTING at the person\u2019s image<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYOU LITTLE-!\u201d she snapped. \u201cI get my hands on you and-! \u2026Bazzy? \u2026Bazzy, you there?\u201d Calliope sighed and ran her hand down her face. She then used one of her tentacles to grab a calling potion and added a drop into her cauldron. \u201cMaster Talza, you\u2019d better pick up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMaster Talza, Mistress?\u201d asked Lukas. \u201cThe martial arts master? What does he have to do with it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe taught Bazzy the Blister how to use his signature energy attack,\u201d replied Calliope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHE WHAT?!\u201d yelped Lukas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOh yeah, it\u2019s as bad as you think it is,\u201d confirmed Calliope. \u201cLet me just make sure you can add your two bits to this conversation.\u201d She added a drop of liquid into her cauldron and the image of a sagely-looking elderly merman appeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMadame Calliope?\u201d asked the merman, Master Talza. \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?! What\u2019s wrong?!\u201d asked Calliope. \u201cI understand teaching Helen that technique, but\u2026the little pink demon from the Seventh Hell?! Do you know what you did?!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u2026Oh! The pink mergirl in fur!\u201d laughed Talza. \u201cHow could I not? She\u2019s got four arms! She can fire two Tsunami Crashers! It\u2019d be impressive if it weren\u2019t so terrifying!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTerrifying?\u201d asked Lukas. \u201cMaster Talza, I\u2019m one of Calliope\u2019s new customers and I can tell you, you underestimated how dangerous Bazzy the Blister is! She\u2019s a government experiment that went wrong! With that information, do you realize what\u2019s gonna happen?!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u2026Oh\u2026Oh my,\u201d gulped Talza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYeah!\u201d confirmed Calliope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u2026Welp, doesn\u2019t sound like it\u2019s my problem! So long, Calliope!\u201d Calliope\u2019s jaw dropped at that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u2026Talza?! Talza?!\u201d she said. \u201c\u2026I\u2019M NOT CLEANING UP THIS MESS!!!\u201d She gripped her cauldron to steady herself as she breathed deeply. \u201c\u2026Lukas, how fares your hunt?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSee for yourself, Mistress,\u201d replied Lukas as he showed her the bag. She used magic to inspect the scales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOoh! As we agreed upon! Good! I see you went with already shedded scales.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI figured it would be safer for me, Mistress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSafer and smarter. With that, you\u2019re a third of the way there. Good work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThank you, Mistress.\u201d Lukas turned to swim back to his room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEr, Lukas, just a second,\u201d called Calliope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes, Mistress?\u201d asked Lukas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat would be your ideal waist clothing if and when you get your wish granted? Tail stocking? Skirt?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u2026Well, a skirt, yeah,\u201d replied Lukas. \u201cA skirt, ideally, made out of the sea-sheep wool like your sleeves with a huge amount of petticoats, forcing the outer skirt to be horizontal forever, but still able to have the powerful lady I serve grab my butt whenever she wished. Why do you ask?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo reason,\u201d answered Calliope. \u201cEnjoy your day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lukas counted the objects in his satchel. There were ten sea dragon scales from different species and all of them from previous shedding sessions, so he didn\u2019t need to deal with angry sea dragons. He returned to Calliope\u2019s lair and found Faye, a jellyfish man that dressed in maid dresses and worked as Calliope\u2019s housekeeper. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1022,1023],"tags":[1029,1027,936],"class_list":["post-7222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-calliopes-lair","category-the-labors-of-calliope","tag-cauldron-magic","tag-labor","tag-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7222"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7223,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7222\/revisions\/7223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}