The surprising smell of rotten fruit was the first thing to hit Claire’s nose upon opening the old shop door. It’s stench, putrid and sweet, seemed to mask whatever other smell would have taken its place in the narrow, dimly lit room now in her view. It’s items, spewed about everywhere and stacked to the ceiling in places, lacked even a modicum of strategy in how it’d been organized. Books with various parchments intertwined in their stacks, small chests, and satchels littered the shelves and countertops that she could make out by the candle light.

“Was this the right place?” she whispered. Surely it was old and hard to find. It’d been nestled into the alleyway of a long forgotten part of the city and taken her weeks to track down. Yet the fruit smell seemed to indicate someone had been here somewhat recently, despite other appearances. As more details came into focus, she questioned whether this was actually the home of the powerful witch she sought and not some other type of hoarder. Even Claire knew better than to store blood vials close to a summoning circle. Either way, she’d made it this far, perhaps this place had the Leviathan scales she needed, with or without the witch.

A loud “caw” came from the back of the room, catching Claire off guard. Perched on yet another stack of books sat a large black bird with a single eye prominently displayed in the center of it’s head. She took a step towards it’s direction when it let out another “caw,” and puffed up its chest as if to tell her “that’s far enough.”

“Now now, Rook, that’s no way to treat a customer.” A cobweb-haired woman appeared from behind another stack of books and items, her disheveled appearance matched the store. “You are a customer right? It’s been a while since I’ve had a soul step foot here.”

“That depends,” Claire responded, “you got any Leviathan scales?”

The woman chucked. “Oh my. Why would someone like you be looking for those?”

“I’ve got my reasons. You got any or not.”

“Oh I do.” The woman pointed towards a large chest behind her. “And as the name would suggest, their price matches their size.”

“I’ll pay whatever gold-”

“Oh dear,” the woman interrupted, “you misunderstand. I have no need for gold. No one in these parts does. If you want them, you will have to give me something of equal value in return.”

“And what would that be? It looks like you might have everything you need here already.” Claire raised her arm and gestured around the shop.

“Like I said, the price matches their size. I need something large. Gigantic actually. I could part with them for, say, the fang of a dragon.”

Claire’s eyes widened, “Look lady, we both know there hasn’t been a dragon seen near The River, let alone all Necropolis for a millenia.”

The woman shrugged. “Then if I were you, I’d get looking.”