About time I got something posted here. And surprise, it's another big Azar! Though that's becoming more and more common in this place. I think I need to balance out the big Azar with more normal sized picture sof him. XD
But there's something extra this time: a story! And not just any story, one that I wrote myself! With prodding and encouragement from (who is also guest starring in this story) I have come up with this rather long story. And given the picture above, you can tell what it's going to be about. Hope you enjoy the strangeness that is my writing, and a big, plush, picture of Azar.
Art done by
Story Guest Star
Awesomest of awesome white dragons

A Distrust of Magic
For such a large beast, Azarosna was being unusually quiet and still inside his workshop. Those who didn’t know him may have assumed something was wrong, or he was sleeping sitting up. However, if anyone were to walk around to the front of the dragon, they would see clearly that he was moving very slowly and carefully. A small mechanical device was held in his large claws, and he was trying to put the last few pieces into place. This was no easy task, of course, as dragons’ claws are not meant for such delicate work. Which made it all the more impressive that Azar had become quite successful as a mechanical inventor. His work filled his workshop, piles of the devices both useful and not filled the workshop.

Suddenly, there was a small snapping heard and the dragon roared out in annoyance. “Four hours of putting that together!” he roared, though managing to keep his temper under control enough to gently put the device down. Whatever it was going to be, it was broken in half now. One would think Azar would have gotten used to such accidents, since they happened quite often. Yet, every breaking object set him back on his ideas. The white dragon turned and padded over to a large drawing board, grabbing a piece of chalk and writing down adjustments to the measurements. He would most likely have to build another one, just at a bigger size.

As he was sketching up some changes to the design of the small device, there was a knocking at the double doors. “Come in!” Azar called out. Typically the only ones to visit him at his workshop were friends or people there on business. The doors opened and a newer friend of his entered. An interesting combination, the creature looked mostly like a brown dragon. However, the key difference between Azar and the one visiting him was that the other had feathers along his body, and several features looked quite avian. The owlgon named Krown was someone that Azar had only recently met. Though the two shared some interests and the white dragon had invited the owlgon to come visit him anytime. “Krown, I wondered when you would show up. What brings you out here today?” he asked, turning back towards his friend.

“Oh, just traveling from place to place. Heard there was good mulch out here for my bacon trees. And I thought it was time I finally saw this workshop you keep going on about.” He said, stepping gingerly around the no doubt hundreds of metal inventions and pieces. “Heard a bit of roaring from outside. Better be careful or you might scare the townspeople.” He joked as he sat down, fiddling with something that looked like a combination of a toaster and a lamp.

Azar chuckled as he turned back to his workbench. “Oh, the townspeople know me too well to be afraid. They know I’m here to help them and simply get annoyed with things breaking from time to time.” he said as he started gathering parts for his rebuilding of the last creation he was working on.

“Oh yeah! There was another reason I came by too!” Krown said, snapping his claws as he remembered the other bit of news he had for Azar. “While I was exploring the town a bit, I met this nice wizard who offered to teach me a few new tricks for a good price. I wanted to show them to you.” He said, wings fluttering eagerly.

“Krown, you know how I feel about magic.” Azar said with a slight shudder.

“Oh come on, it’s only two spells. And they’re both just utility spells anyways, nothing explosive or dangerous. Besides, I need the practice if I’m going to put them to use later.” Krown told him.

“Even so, I still don’t trust it. Magic can lead to very…unnatural ends.”

“So you don’t trust me?” Krown said, putting on the saddest face that he could. Azar looked back at the owlgon and sighed. As much as he distrusted, even feared, magic, he just couldn’t keep saying no. If he kept denying Krown the practice, what kind of friend did that make Azar? “Alright…but you have to immediately if there’s something I don’t like.” He quickly followed up.

Krown nodded. “They’re utility spells, like I said. You don’t need to worry so much. They’re mainly to help out with daily things. Such as this first one. It requires some concentration though, so don’t interrupt me.” Krown said as he positioned himself in front of Azar. The owlgon raised a paw, closing his yellow eyes and getting a very stern look on his face as he mumbled something to himself. Clearly the owlgon had been waiting for this moment and didn’t want to mess it up.

Azar waited and waited, and soon enough his patience was rewarded. Krown’s paw began to glow blue and the white dragon could feel a slight tingling around his body. But aside from that, he didn’t feel much else. “What does the spell do, exactly?” he asked.

“It’s a spell that gives your body direct nutrients and calories to keep it sustained in the absence of food. It’s a survival spell, for those who go out adventuring and have bad luck finding food. This spell can be used to make sure they survive until they find real food somewhere else. The wizard said it’s pretty handy for adventurers.” The owlgon said, quite pleased with his success. Azar had to admit that when he thought about the spell, now that he knew what it did, he did indeed feel a bit fuller, if only marginally so, despite having not eaten lately.

“This spell will be handy for those long adventuring trips to the areas you’ve been telling me about. Just in case I have some bad luck finding food.” Krown said as he sat back against one of the larger piles of junk metal. “Well I’m very happy you were able to get something useful from that wizard.” Azar said, sighing in relief that the spell was relatively simple and harmless.

The large white dragon then turned to his workbench to get back to work on the device from before. “So what was the other spell you learned?” he asked as he began to pick up pieces he would need for the project. “Is it another survival spell like- erp!”

Azar stopped mid-sentence and shuddered as he felt another tingling sensation go through him just like before. He quickly whipped his head back around and glared at Krown, thinking the owlgon was playfully casting the same spell on him again. “What was that for?!”

Krown, who was fiddling with some of the junk in his claws, looked over to Azar a bit confused. “What do you mean?”

“I felt that tingling from the spell again. Why would you cast it on me again?”

“I didn’t cast it again. I’m just checking out some of this junk over here. Speaking of junk, why don’t you ever clean this place up?”

“I’m serious. I felt the same thing again. And it’s not junk! I’m going to use it all…sometime. I just have to find the right project or device to use it on. No sense letting it go to waste.” Azar said, always finding he had to defend his reasoning for having so much metal pices and machinery lying about. Just then, Azar felt the tingling again. And this time, the full feeling he was getting was starting to become stronger. “Ugh…what’s happening? Why do I keep feeling like the spell is going off again?” he asked his friend.
Krown, now looking suspicious himself about the anomaly, got up and padded over to Azar. The owlgon walked around him a couple of times, acting like some sort of doctor examining his patient. Azar let out another groan as the tingling and fullness hit him a third time. Krown reached out a claw and poked Azar in the side of his stomach experimentally, causing the white dragon to flinch a bit. “Uh oh…” the owlgon finally said, eyes widening.

“Uh oh?! Why is there an ‘uh oh’?! There shouldn’t be an ‘uh oh’!” Azar exclaimed, sounding a bit more frantic now. “What’s going on?!”

“I don’t know if you’re going to like the answer.” Krown said, taking several steps away from the white dragon.

“Explain!”

“Well…it looks like the spell is designed that it keeps going until the caster casts the counter spell. Maybe that’s why I was able to buy the wizard’s knowledge of it so cheap. He didn’t give me the other half to stop the spell once it’s started.”

“Which means?” Azar asked, eyes narrowing at Krown before shuddering as the spell activated again.

“You’re just going to keep gaining calories and nutrients until I can figure out the counter spell. Unfortunately, the buildup of the two things is going to lead to some…unintended results.” Krown stated, stepping back several more steps before he said what he knew Azar wasn’t going to want to hear. “You’re going to be gaining quite a bit of weight, I’m afraid.”

As if on queue to what Krown said, Azar looked down and gasped at what he saw. The normally thin, fit white dragon was now noticeably rounder. His belly and sides had bulged out several inches, and there was a soft layer of pudge on it when he poked it with a claw. Now he knew what Krown had felt when he poked the white dragon before.

“Well hurry up with that counter spell!” he cried out as he stood up on all fours. The spell hit again and Azar groaned as he felt his belly grow out more and even felt some of the pudge begin building up on his arms and legs.

“I’m working on it. But it’s going to take some time. Especially when I’m working from scratch.” Krown said, sounding quite calm as he sat down and started thinking about what wording he would need to stop the spell. The owlgon would have to be calm if he wanted to think clearly. Azar tried to keep his mouth shut in the meantime, knowing that his panicking would only slow Krown’s work on a proper counter spell.

In the meantime, Azar was stuck constantly looking around at himself to see how much bigger he was getting, and in what ways. Every time the spell struck, it seemed to keep most focus on his middle, making his belly grow bigger and rounder, quickly passing his knees. His arms and legs began to put on weight as well, getting thicker to help hold up his newfound girth. As he kept turning his head from side to side to look back at his fattening body, Azar soon found that he was starting to pinch new neck fat. His strong, prehensile tail wasn’t spared either, getting thicker as the dragon bloated up and soon looking like a big white sausage attached to Azar’s growing behind.

Azar soon felt his growing belly start pushing against his workbench and shelves, full of projects he couldn’t afford to get crushed if he kept growing too big. The growing dragon tried to walk over to a clearer area of his workshop, which was really just an area where the junk metal piles were less important. Of course, walking now was quite difficult, and the dragon’s center of balance was thrown off by the new weight in his middle. He panted and tried to move one paw after another, but was forced to simply waddle from side to side. This, of course, made his belly sway along with his stride, bouncing against the inside of his legs and nearly making him fall. Finally, through a combination of heavy waddling and flapping his wings to keep himself balanced, the dragon collapsed in the most open and safe spot he could find, panting heavily. Who knew moving so much weight was so hard?

After another three or four hits from the survival spell, Azar groaned as he realized his feet could no longer reach the floor. He wiggled his fat appendages to try, but it was useless. His belly had gotten too big for him and was keeping him rooted in place. Azar could do nothing more now than lay on top of his new makeshift bed, feeling his girth push the piles of metal aside or crush them underneath, until Krown figured out the right counter spell.

The whole ordeal lasted only about an hour, but it felt much longer than that to the new overweight dragon. Krown finally stepped forward and mumbled something, his paw glowing red as the spell was cast. “So, I have good news and I have bad news. Which do you want first?” he asked Azar, looking up to his friend’s chubbier face that was now laying down on the titanic belly.

“I could really use some good news.” Azar said with another groan.

“Well the good news is I got the spell to stop. Unfortunately, the bad news is that I can’t get rid of this fat. At least, not with any of the spells I know anyways. And trying to create one that does could lead to reactivating the original spell, or something completely different.” He said, stepping closer to his fattened friend and placing a claw up onto his soft belly to feel what it was like.

“So what options does that give us?” Azar asked, looking a bit mortified that he might be stuck with the weight.

“Option one is that we let this weight work of naturally. I know you have such a wonderful metabolism, so you could lose this weight normally over a month or so.” He said. Azar blushed deeply and shook his head. “What?! I can’t be stuck like this for that long! I have work to finish, and…and being like this is humiliating!” he said.

“Well it is a lot of fat. It’s going to take your body some time to get rid of it all.” Krown gave a chuckle and nodded as he continued to paw at that soft belly. He had to admit, seeing Azar like this was a rather amusing. What a strange contrast to feel what was normally an armored, strong dragon reduced to a pillow-like ball of scales. “The other option is I take you to the wizard. He should know how to reverse the effects.” He said.

“Why can’t you go out and bring the wizard here? I can’t go outside and let everyone see me like this either!” Azar said with snort of smoke from his nostrils.

“I can’t bring him here because I have no idea where he’ll be. I could search this entire city and never find him. I met him by chance while out by the marketplace, and he stated that he’s always on the move. The only sure way to find him is to bring you with me outside and take you to him. Word will eventually spread to him of a big ol’ dragon about and he’ll probably put two and two together. Then he’ll come to us and we can have him fix you!” Krown said rather proud of the idea.

“Those are our only options?” Azar asked.

“Yep. But I can give you some time to think it over. In the meantime…” Krown said, getting a rather devious grin on his face. The owlgon walked around to Azar’s side, rearing back before pouncing onto the dragon’s belly. Azar was big enough that the owlgon was easily able to lay back onto his belly. “Wow…you’re like a big pillow. Though there could be a bit more room here.” He teased, making Azar shake his head in fear again. This spell could be used for more fun than just survival. I’ll have to remember it for future use. Krown thought to himself as he relaxed some.

“You see why I don’t trust magic? These are exactly the kinds of things that happen.” Azar scolded Krown.

“Oh shush, it’s not like either of us knew this was a possibility. A simple mistake, and there is a fix for it at least. You just have decided which path to take to get to that fix.” He said. Azar had to imagine that the only reason Krown was so calm and amused by this was because it wasn’t happening to him. “On the plus side, you’re very soft.” Krown added.

Azar grumbled to himself and spent some time to both get over the shock of having been bloated up to a ridiculous mockery of dragon, and how he was going to get back to normal. Finally, he gave Krown an answer. “Take me to the wizard.” He said with a sigh.

Krown leapt off of Azar’s belly and nodded. “Good thing the other spell I have will help out. This one I do know how to stop, and it creates various ways of carrying things. Plus it’s much easier to do. For example.” He said, holding out his paw and letting it glow green. Suddenly Azar felt himself get lifted up from underneath. “There are about a dozen metal wagons underneath you now. It’s the only thing that will hold your big behind and not get crushed. Time to get you moving.” He said as he padded over to the large doors in the workshop, normally used for moving in large pieces of machinery. It was just large enough to fit Azar through once it was open.

Azar shut his eyes and tried to cover his face with his wings as the doors were being opened. Talk of a massive, fat dragon being wheeled through city was going to last for at least the rest of the week. And being the only white dragon in in the city, it wasn’t going to be hard for people to figure out who it was. He was going to have to make something truly amazing now to make them forget about this.

Krown grunted as he began to push Azar’s big behind out the door. While it was certainly comfortable to lay on his friend’s new girth, trying to move it was much less enjoyable. Soon the wagons’ wheels began to squeak and groan as they moved their cargo out past the large metal doors and into the streets. Thankfully, Azar noticed that he was still small enough that the houses on each of the streets covered him pretty well. Still, that left the people in the street he was currently being wheeled through gawking in awe and confusion. Some of them were able to quickly figure out who it was on the wagons, and Azar sighed as he heard some of the confused whispers, and even a few snickers. However, his spirits were slightly uplifted when he heard some people sounding concerned. “Awww, they’re worried about you.” Krown said, giving Azar’s big side a pat.

As they continued through street after street, Krown would occasionally ask if they had seen a wizard around, describing that the wizard was wearing some silk purple robes, matching pointy hat, and carried a wand instead of a staff.

Most everyone asked had no clue, but a couple seemed to have a vague idea. Of course, this led to Azar being paraded around the city from place to place where they hoped the wizard would be.

“Wow, this guy’s a lot harder to find than I thought. We may not even be able to find him today.” Krown said, momentarily stopping Azar’s cart and leaning against the fat dragon with a few pants.

“We have to keep trying. I’ve already suffered the indignity of going out like this. I won’t have it be for nothing.” Azar said with a huff. While Azar was a very friendly and kind dragon, he did have quite a bit of draconic pride. Pride that was currently going down in flames the longer he was out here. His mind kept retreating back to trying to think of an invention he could create that would make everyone forget about this.

“Oh, cheer up. Like I said, most people seem concerned for you. Do you really think the people in this city would believe you would do this to yourself on purpose? Clearly it’s an accident.” Krown said, trying to cheer up his rather mopey friend.

“I guess you have a point.”

“Even the laughs weren’t that bad.” Krown added, nudging his friend’s belly once more. That seemed to relax the big dragon some more.

“Having trouble with your dragon friend?” an wheezy but slightly amused voice said from behind Krown. The owlgon quickly whipped around to see the classic-looking wizard standing behind him, dressed in purple robes and holding onto a black wand.

“Ah! It’s you! We’ve been looking all over the city for you!” Krown exclaimed, tail wagging a bit in excitement at finally finding the wizard. Azar turned his head to see over himself at the wizard below him. “Is that him?” Azar asked.

“Yep! Sure is!” Krown said, smilling back to his friend. “I knew you’d find us eventually.”

“How could I not find you two? Your parading a blimp of a dragon through the streets. Word spreads and I know the handiwork of one of my spells when I see it. I knew that you would be needing me again for the counter spell, and a spell to fix damage done.” The old man said with a laugh.

“How come you didn’t give it to me before?” Krown asked.

“Business of course! I’ll bet you or your friend are willing to pay quite a bit for a fix to this predicament you’ve put him through.” The old wizard said with a sly grin. Krown grumbled a bit at that, knowing the old man was right. “All right then, what’s your price?” the owlgon asked.

“Well, I happen to know that owlgons are pretty rare creatures, even more so than dragons. And that owlgons tend to a special kind of crop. One that’s worth quite a bit of money considering the rarity of the trees and the difficulty in growing them.” The wizard began. Krown didn’t like where this was going. “I would like enough bacon tree seeds in order to start my own crop. Let’s say…ten pounds of seeds.”

“Ten pounds?! Are you insane?!” Krown said, growling at the old man.
“There’s no way I would give you that much. Are you trying to destroy my bacon tree harvest for the next year?” he demanded, baring his teeth at the wizard.

“Krown, please. I know the bacon trees are important, but I have to get back to normal size.” Azar called from above.

Krown snorted and turned away from the old wizard. “I’m sorry Azar, but I can’t do that. Those bacon trees and their seeds are too important to give up that much to him. Besides, you’ll get back to normal in a month or so. We’ll just have to take you back to the workshop and-gah!” Krown shivered as he felt a strong tingling sensation go through his body. He turned back to the wizard, who was now holding out his wand. A familiar blue glow surrounded the magical implement, and Krown’s eyes went wide when he realized what was about to happen.

“Shame you don’t like my offer. It was quite generous. Hope you like being the biggest owlgon ever known.” The wizard said with a laugh. Krown reared back and lunged for the man, but the wizard swung his wand and Krown felt himself get hit by an invisible force that sent the large owlgon flying into his fat dragon friend. He bounced off Azar’s belly and fell to the ground. “Hey! Leave him alone!” Azar called out, getting ready to breath fire onto the wizard.

“And you shouldn’t try to attack someone while their back is turned.” He said, the blue glow starting on his wand again as it pointed at Azar. The white dragon’s face look mortified as he realized what was about to happen, and even more so when he felt the unwanted tingling going through his body.

Soon enough, both dragon and owlgon began to fatten up. The metal wagons under Azar groaned as his weight increased. Krown, in the meantime, was a bit too dazed to realize what was going on at first. As he stood back up and shook the stars from his eyes, he became vaguly aware of something pushing his legs out to the side. Looking down, he gave a groan as he saw his belly was swelling out quickly, pushing into his thickening limbs.

“What are you doing? Stop!” Azar called out. There was a loud bang as the dragon’s weight finally defeated the wagons, and they were crushed underneath him, creating a small crater where he landed. Krown tried to waddle over to the wizard to take him down while he was distracted with Azar, but being stealthy with so much added weight wasn’t exactly easy. The heavy footfalls of the owlgon gave him away immediately, and the wizard just sidestepped the swipe at him. He then planted his foot against Krown’s side and pushed him over. The owlgon flailed his limbs as he was rolled over to Azar’s side, both friends now stuck at immobile sizes.

“Krown, just give him what he wants!” Azar pleaded.

“Never! Those bacon trees are too valuable!”

“How are you going to tend your bacon trees when you’re going to be stuck in these streets for a month or more?!” Azar said, trying to put some sense into the owlgon. At that, Krown realized that he couldn’t afford to be away from the harvest for that long. They required tender owlgon care, and unless he had planned for someone to take care of them while he was away for said month, they would surely die without him. “Alright, alright. Fine.” He said with a huff. “You can have your pounds of seeds.”

With that, both of them felt the magical effects stop. The wizard stepped forward and was smilling wide. “I knew you’d come to your senses sooner or later. Good thing your tubby friend has a good head on his shoulders. Enough to talk you into seeing things clearly.” He said, giving Krown’s oversized belly a poke with his wand.

“Yeah, yeah. Just turn us back to normal. Then I don’t want to see you around here again.”

“Turn you both back to normal? What do you mean?” the wizard asked.

“I mean, the deal was that I give you ten pounds of bacon tree seed, and you turn us back to normal!” the owlgon said, sounding more annoyed once more.

The wizard shook his head and waved a finger at Krown. “Oh nononono. That wasn’t the deal my friend. The deal was: ten pounds of bacon tree seeds to turn your inventor friend back to his normal size. There was nothing in the deal about turning you both back to your fit selves.” He said, the wide grin returning to his face. “I’m going to need more payment reverse the spell on both of you.”

“Why you-“ Krown began before Azar interrupted.

“What do you want then?” he quickly asked before Krown caused another incident. Azar was already about the size of a house, with a roundness to match. And Krown was the size Azar had been before the wizard cast the spell a second time.

“Aside from the seeds, I could use some money to help begin production. Maybe hire an owlgon or two to tend the crops for me. And I happen to know you’re a successful inventor Azarosna Astrogaze. How about… three thousand gold?” the old man asked, walking up to the overstuffed white dragon and leaning against his stomach.

“Fine, done. You can have it.” Azar said sourly. Three thousand gold wasn’t an easy thing to give up, but anything felt like it would be worth it to get back to normal size, and stop the constant pointing and shocked looks he kept getting from the people who could see him above the houses.

“Good! Then we’re in agreement. I’ll come by your place later to pick up the gold, as I’m sure you won’t go back on our deal. The same will be done for you, sir Owlgon.” The wizard mocked. Finally, the old man whispered a few words of enchantment, and soon both Azar and Krown felt a sort of warmness spread through their body. Bit by bit they began to shrink back down in weight, Azar letting out a sigh of relief. “Finally…” he said, smiling.

“Maybe it’s time I start disliking dirty, double crossing, greedy, no good wizards.” Krown mumbled to himself. Unfortunately for him, the old man still had great hearing. Most likely due to the fact that his physical self had been weakened by age, his sense and wisdom had increased. Thus, the insult did not go unheard. Abrubtly, Krown’s change back to normal weight stopped, while Azar continued to thin down. “I’m sorry? What was that?” the man said with a bit of a scowl. Azar looked confused, looking between the wizard and Krown.

“What was what?” Krown asked, trying to play innocent, though taking a heavy step or two back from the old man.

The wizard wasn’t buying the bluff. Not one second of it. “I’ll teach you to insult a great wizard like me!” he shouted before summoning a bright, pinkish orb in his hand and throwing it with alarming speed right at Krown. The owlgon couldn’t dodge it even if he were fit and quick, and the orb splashed against Krown and spread over his body. “Wh-what are you doing?!” the owlgon asked.

“Showing you the ‘sweeter’ side of us magic users. Hehehe.” The wizard chuckled as he watched yet another change begin. Krown’s feathers started to become stiff and ridged, and at the same time began losing some of their depth as they flattened against his body and almost seemed to stick to hit. In fact, Krown felt that his whole body was becoming more rigid and harder to move smoothly. He yelped in shock as he looked down and saw his arm starting to turn into a soft, slightly porous material. “You said you’d change us back to normal! Not another change.” He said, growling at the wizard.

“I said I’d change you back to normal, meaning without all that extra pudginess. I never said I wouldn’t do anything if you insulted me. Have you been listening at all?” the wizard mocked, grinning from ear to ear as he watched the owlgon’s body transform again. Meanwhile, Azar had finally been returned to his thin, healthy self, and had padded over to Krown to see what was happening. He didn’t dare get between what was happening after what happened before when he tried, and had a feeling that the wizard wouldn’t do anything harmful, considering he had the perfect opportunity when both dragon and owlgon were bloated to immobility and instead just took payment.

The porous-like material that Krown’s body was turning into spread up his arms and then split, going up towards his head and going back down along the rest of his body. Krown poked at his arm, yelping in shock as he felt it squish in. As he pulled his claw out, some of his feathers came with it. Only they came up as a gooey, sweet substance. The owlgon sniffed at his arm and then licked the sweet substance from his claw, which was also now getting soft and easily breakable. “F-frosting? You turned my feathers into frosting? But that means…” Krown began, pausing as realization came upon him. “You’re turning me into cake!” he cried out, jumping up and quickly looking all over his body at the changes. His feathers now looked like frosting detailed on him, as did all his external feathers. His horns became chocolate, and his body was now cooked chocolate cake.

“Living cake to be exact. Internally and externally. A pretty common spell for cooks to learn, typically used to turn inanimate objects into pure cake. Saves time on baking such elaborate designs and shaping the cake itself. I’ve managed to make a few adjustments to the spell so it can turn living beings into living cakes.” He said, laughing as the owlgon now looked exactly like a cake version of himself. Teeth were white chocolate, his tongue red velvet cake, pupils were candy surrounded by his yellow frosting eyes. Added to his humiliation was that he hadn’t fully lost all the weight from the previous spell, making Krown a very round, very delicious looking cake.

“Please, change him back. He didn’t mean anything by what he said.” Azar asked the wizard, feeling bad for his friend. Though he winced a little as the wizard turned to him, afraid that he too was going to be turned into a living cake. “Hmph, well now he owes me another payment.” The old man demanded, crossing his arms.

“What if I give a payment for him?” the white dragon asked.

“Nope. I need a payment from the offender. I only fix spells on those who have paid me for the service.” The man stubbornly said.

Krown mentally cursed and raged at the old man, but all it really boiled down to was him glaring at the wizard. “What do you want now?” he asked.
“First, I want an apology from you. Sincere and real. If you try and put any of your snarkiness into it, I’ll cast a spell that makes your friend here ravenously hungry.” The man said, his thumb gestured towards Azar.

“Secondly, I want you to come tend the growth of my bacon trees for the first three months, make sure they start to grow well. You can come by in the morning and leave whenever you’re finished for each day.”

Krown bit his bottom jaw to keep it shut, trying his best to not rage at the wizard again for now not only taking a significant portion of his own crop, but now demanding that Krown use his own time to take care of someone else’s bacon tree crop, instead of his own. This was going to make the next harvest very, very difficult. If not impossible. “Fine…” he said with a hiss.

“Well, let’s hear it!” the wizard said in an almost sing-songy voice, leaning forward towards Krown with his ear.

“I’m…sorry for insulting you. I didn’t mean any of it. Wizards are truly the best.” The owlgon said, each word sounding forced.

“Better than dragons?”

“Of course no-!” Krown started to shout, but then saw Azar shaking his head violently in warning. What was with this wizard and wanting to injure both his and Azar’s pride so much? “Yes…far better than dragons.” He said, though of course could never really mean it. Just so long as he wasn’t cake any more.

“That’s good to hear. Alright, I’ll change you back to your old, rude owlgon self. Flesh and thin, just as before. But, after one thing.” He said, walking over to the delicious treat of an owlgon and breaking off a piece of cake from his belly. To both Krown and Azar’s surprise, the hole where the wizard had taken a piece of Krown quickly regenerated. And thankfully for Krown, it didn’t hurt at all. “Mmm, this is delicious. I may turn you into a cake later just to have some more of this.” The wizard cackled. He then waved his hand dismissively and Krown felt himself quickly reform into a proper owlgon and the weight diminish down to his normal size. Azar quickly padded over as the wizard began to walk down the street. They could both hear the wizard chuckling to himself about what had transpired today. “You okay?” Azar asked.

“Yeah, mostly just a wounded pride.”

“We should probably head back to the workshop. He’s probably going to meet us there for his payment, and I think it might be best if we hide for a few days after what’s happened today.”

Krown nodded in agreement and the two quickly began heading back to Azar’s workshop.

“Are we really going to have to pay him?” Krown asked with a disappointed sigh.

“Well, it would be the right thing to do. And after what we’ve seen him do, he could do it again. But…” Azar said, thinking for a moment. Krown looked over at him. “But…what?” he asked.

“Well, I might just have an idea for a little payback. I’ve got an invention or two that just might be on par with his magic. With your own magical skills and my creations, we might just get our own little revenge on him when he comes by.” Azar said with a smile and a wink. Krown grinned as well, now eager to see what the dragon had planned. The two friends ran back to the workshop as fast as they could, and began preparing their own tricks for the crafty wizard.