Hagrid's hut was a shabby looking place but very large in truth. It was a mostly wooden building with a wood and stone tile roof that was slightly pointed to get rain to roll off it's sides. The door was nearly seven feet tall yet Hagrid had to duck slightly to enter. The insides of the place made me think of the depictions of an old western hunting cabin. The floor had fur rugs and the walls hung heavy with various shelves that had materials, furs or food on them.-
"Woof!" a great big dark brown boarhound barked at me loudly when I came in but I just chuckled.
"That's Fang, he's a ruddy coward but good company." Hagrid said over his shoulder as he moved to a rough table at the far end of the hut to set the eggs on a pelt that looked to be from a badger.
I moved over to the haphazardly piled up materials scattered about the place while ignoring the curious sniffing the dog was giving me. I raised an eyebrow at some of these things that Hagrid had just sitting here as I was not even aware those species were in the forest. For example there was Manticore barbs, Bicorn horn and even Demiguise hair. -
"I'm curious how Bicorns and Unicorns manage to cohabitate in the same place. Any idea how that works?" I asked the half giant curiously.
If Unicorns were the magical animal filled with purity and innocence then Bicorns were the exact opposite. They were carnivorous horses with dark ugly skin and two ram-like horns on their heads that feasted on purity and innocence. They were incredibly dangerous beasts since they were well known to attack and devour anyone of a righteous or good disposition without any care at all for consequences.-
"Never really paid it much mind till now but I suppose they just stay away from each other. A bit odd now that you got me thinking on it." Hagrid said offhandedly.
I did take one of the broken off horns, some Unicorn hair and an entire vial of Runespoor venom as my part of this deal. I also produced a copy of the list of creatures I could get from Rockwell to give him as well. I could have sworn the man looked on the verge of crushing me in an excited hug with how eager he got the more he read the list.-
I did get three of his famous(read infamous) gridle cakes before I left his hut in the end. One of them I flat out gave to Fang that happily gnawed on it like it was a bone. The others I kept to prank Terry and Mike with. Still I hurried back to the common room with my prizes to send them into my suitcase. I had already started to pad out the contents of the thing with a few of my less important items such as the sword and seeds I had. -
Honestly the only thing I refused to put into the suitcase was the yami yami no mi. That would sit in my inventory until I found an appropriate customer for it in a different world. I only had a few more hours before dinner time so I dropped off my loot and headed for the ROR. Like usual it was a mess when I got in there and I began another frenzied cycle of identifying and selling or pocketing. Interestingly thanks to having two though streams and haki I was able to double my speed by appraising stuff through my haki as well as my eyes.-
I got a few good things thanks to this that I could sell and even one I chose to keep for myself that wasn't just a book. The single item I chose to keep was a mithril pendant in the shape of an Egyptian ankh. What it did was quite simple really, it repelled curses. I don't mean the point and shoot sort from a wand either but the kind you sent from far away. I wasn't too afraid of these to begin with but better safe than sorry so now I had at least something to stop that from happening.
When dinner time rolled around to my surprise I got an incoming contact. When the large white screen appeared and then showed the image of Rockwell I got a bit excited.
"I assume you must have gotten the bird?" I asked eagerly.
"Yes, same day in fact. I have spent this time studying it and I must say it's biology is ridiculous. Feathers adapted to high heat and hollow to secrete a type of oil that is highly flammable. It's sulfur based as well which explains why it must consume more to prolong it's existence. As for it's remarkable ability to be reborn from it's own ashes when presented with a high enough temperature I was sadly unable to make heads or tails of that." he said calmly.
"Anything else worth mentioning?" I asked curiously.
"Hmm, well it's gender fluid, swapping from one gender to another seemingly at random per rebirth. Additionally it's quite docile unless threatened in some way. I used the first rebirth to test this and it merely kept trying to escape the cage I had constructed rather than attack." he said casually as he went to polish his glasses.
"Perfect! An unruly pet would be rather annoying to deal with but if it's calm things will go much easier." I said thrilled at the news.
"A warning but after each rebirth the creature should be treated as a wholly new individual as it's memories seem to vanish in the process." he said seriously.
I frowned at that "That will make long term control difficult but I suppose not impossible." I said with a sigh.