Condor sighed.
Was this really what she wanted with her life?
Probably not. But then, what had she expected? Whatever it was when she was three, it was not this.
What a drag. She was sneezing all the time because of the amount of dust this jerk wad Mudwing had piled up around the shop. How did it even get this bad? It's not like no one ever cleaned the place. She knew for a fact that it had been cleaned in the past month. By her. Specifically. Condor of the Skywings, that's me.
I'm currently in the incredibly crappy Town of Possibility, which, now that I hear that out loud, is incredibly ironic. At the moment, I'm working as a corporate wage slave in this dump owned by the lowest scum in history. He basically sells stuff he buys at other shops for elevated prices, and gets shockingly good business out of it.
One time, when that one Skywing accused him of retailing his roasted birds, his response was surprisingly good. His exact words were,
"We're all hunting the same skies, you know! You down own the meat industry!" And then stomped off, doing his best to look angry, although I knew when I heard it he was patting himself on the back. That's the kind of dragon he was. Although, he had certainly made a nice life for himself. He may be a prick, but he wasn't stupid.
"Hey! Condor! You done with those shelves yet?" he yelled from the counter, clearly displeased that he hadn't been getting any business.
"Yeah," I lied. It was better for the both of us if he didn't rip into me about being slow, like he did before I learned to deceive him.
"Good! Now, listen, I'm going to need to give you a temporary pay reduction because of the decrease in profits as of late," he yelled.
That motherless flat-snouted dung beetle! I knew very well he could afford to pay me. The answer to why he was doing this was quite simple. He didn't want to. As if he wasn't rich enough already. What kind of a dragon wakes up in the morning and says,
"What if I stop paying my hardworking employee who practically carries this company since I've gotten incredibly lazy so that I can add a little weight to my pockets?" Him apparently. You know, one of these days, I'll have my own empire, with my own corporate wage slaves.
I tripped on a small sack with something heavy in it that some idiot had left in the middle of the path. I forgot to mention this. The Mudwing Doesn't just have me to do his cleaning. No no, he has me do his shopping as well! I'm not talking about his groceries, either. I'm talking about the actual products that he stocks his shelves with. If I left for a week, this entire business would fall apart. So, if I do a crappy job, I get a pay cut. If I do a good job, I get a pay raise. Just kidding. That never happens. And it never will.
"Care for some pruned prunes?" someone yelled at the passerby in the city. I rolled my eyes. The name was so dumb, and the product was frankly disgusting, but people bought that crap up. That gave me an idea.
"I'll take ten," I said, dropping a couple gold coins on the rug he sat on. When he saw me, his face turned sour.
"Oh, no. I don't think so. I won't have Mallard profiting off my work today! No ma'am! I am very sorry, but I suggest you take your business elsewhere!" he exclaimed. I made a disappointed face.
"These aren't for the shop. They're groceries. I need to eat, you know. Please. I promise I won't let him have them," I said, trying my best to sound desperate. He sat there with a calculating look on his face.
"Okay, but just this once," He said, clearly agitated.
"Thank you so much," I said smiling. I walked away, grinning at myself. I should have felt bad, but I didn't. He had worked hard this morning, getting his stuff ready to sell, but I wasn't kidding that I had to eat. I couldn't afford another pay cut, or I might go hungry. After making a couple more stops at different shops that sold a variety of things, I decided to call it a day.
When I got to the marketplace and then got yelled at profusely for not being able to stock the shelves with this amount of goods, an idea struck me. It was not exactly a brand-new idea, as it had been in my head for quite a while, but I had never thought to actually make it happen. Remember when I said that if I left for one day, the entire business would collapse? My thought was, what if I left for more than a day? What if I left forever? Sure, I would have to find new work, but it would be worth it to see this loser's life collapse.
The next day, I pretended to have caught a horrible (and horribly contagious, I might add) illness. When I had done so before, he saw right through me, but then I hit him with this:
"I would stay, but I might infect the products." His face was priceless.
"You know what? Take a day. I'll be fine without you," Mallard enthused.
"Okay, then. I'm so sorry. I'll return as soon as possible," I lied. In all honesty, I would never be returning. My only regret was that he might hire a different worker who might put up with less than I did, which would be a problem for all three of us.
In the next week, I could already see some dramatic declines in the quality of the products, cleanness of the place, customer satisfaction, etcetera. In the first month, the huge tent he had set up became a stall, and then a rug, and as he gradually sold all of his things around the shop to try to maintain his lifestyle, I realized how horrible he was at managing his money. He didn't have a budget other than the size of his wallet. If he had led a maintainable lifestyle, none of this would have happened, but he was clearly spending more than he had.
One evening, during my daily check-up, I noticed he looked considerably more tired and scruffy than he ever had. All his composure had gone out the window, and he actually looked kind of sad. I decided to walk up to him and buy something, just to see his reaction.
"Hello, good sir. I would like your finest poultry, please," I said in a fancy accent.
"We don't carry that anymore," he said, not even looking up.
"Yeah, I guess it must be hard to stock the shelves when you aren't paying someone pocket lint to do your work for you," I said furiously. He looked up, shocked, and stared into my eyes.
"You!" he yelled. The fury in his eyes was unlike anything I had seen before, and trust me, I had seen him very angry before.
"You did this to me!" he roared, leaping to his feet. I met his glare with one of my own.
"You did this to yourself," I snarled.
"Maybe if you actually worked for a living, like all the other good dragons in this town, none of this would have happened."
He looked shocked. It was one of two things causing this expression, but it was very likely option number 2. One, he had an epiphany and magically decided to become a good dragon, (not likely) or two, he was simply not used to me taking this tone to him.
"Instead, you made me work for your living, and look how that paid off for you!" I said, gesturing to the run-down conditions he was in. He started to say something, but I cut it off.
"You deserve exactly what has come to you. You are a horrible dragon, and I hope I never have to see you again," I said, walking away. I waved, crouched low, and sprang into the air. I knew what I wanted. I was going to do what he did. Build a business, become wealthy, but do it better than him. I would do it for real. There was more than one reason I wanted to see the collapse of his business. I also wanted to see what kind of mistakes he made that I didn't even notice. Now I knew. I knew how to do this. I could do this. I once said that one day I would have my own empire.
And I would be better than anyone.