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[stolenmilkcrate.livejournal.com]

From "Magical Pets and Mystical Pests" by Ephrem Bendlecutt, Wizard

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It is fairly common knowledge that wizards of all sorts delight in taming dangerous creatures, whether it be for companionship (for very few regular people will tolerate the eccentricities of wizards), or just to say they'd done it.

For this reason, the dragon - famed deadly beast of all lore - presented itself early on as a particularly intriguing challenge.

Somewhere along the line, a wizard got hold of what must have been a young or frail dragon, and, through spells or possibly brute force, did his best to tame the creature. It is unclear exactly when this phenomenon occurred, but to reach the state we are in today, it must have been at least several hundred years ago, if we are to take the normal breeding rate of dragons into consideration.

This poor specimen of dragonliness was more than likely bred to another poor (read: docile) specimen of dragon, and the resulting offspring was bred back to its parent to continue these traits. This inbreeding continued for a very long time. It is not known whether the calm nature is actually passed down in the creature's blood, or if the poor health of the specimen would create a more pliable nature, or being bred into captivity causes its calm nature around humans; early notes are difficult to unearth.

The current state of dragon breeding has deteriorated so far as to produce an entity which can no longer be called a true dragon. True adult dragons have long, slender necks and tails and bulky, house-sized-or-larger builds, with wings that spread three times as wide as the length of the body. The inbred wizards' pets are approximately toad-sized, with no neck to speak of, and a tail that is best described as laughable. The wings have receded so far through inbreeding that they can no longer even slow the creature in descent. This is not much of a problem, as they seem to have lost the willingness to jump off of high objects, but cruel children may be seen playing stickball with the occasional stray and one can only lament that the lack of flight prevents the creatures from escaping.

These creatures are so far removed from their original stock that they are now sold in markets to commoners as Puggons. They are quite friendly in nature, or at least too stupid to have many emotions other than "thick happiness." They are content to sit in one place for... well, until they are moved, as their tiny limbs do not well support the body for long. They serve well as refuse-disposing paperweights, for they will consume almost anything in small quantities. This makes them enjoyable to children who do not enjoy consuming vegetables, for the Puggon can fit into a pocket.

The Puggon market is actually creating gainful employment for those with great patience; the creatures are so inbred that they can no longer mate with each other without the aid of diagrams, fluffers, and usually something to stand on.

Puggon: Classified as Pet



While some hapless wizards worked desperately to learn the secret of transforming lead and other metals into gold, other, possibly wiser wizards put their brains to work and learned the secret of turning luck into something you could sell.

A little bit of flame (created by burning only four-leafed clovers) under a pan made of melted-down and re-formed horseshoes in which was dropped a mixture of comet dust, rabbit's foot fur, rain collected only on days on which a rainbow had appeared, and a few other choice luck-elements - and you've got tiny luck pearls. Bottle it up, add a lucky charm, and you have a tiny bottle of luck. Potent stuff!