The October day had turned out uncharacteristically warm, but John Winston didn't mind. As long as it wasn't rain he was more than willing to stand and wait for the auctioneer to get to the few boxes of odds and ends he had decided to try to purchase. He enjoyed his hobby, perusing through old boxes of junk and odds and ends at auctions and estate sales. He periodically found the odd treasure and hawked it on e-bay for enough to fund his unusual hobby. Today didn't look like it was going to have too many treasures in it, a few antique toys. He was always amazed at how much people would spend to get some old beat up toy that looked just like one they had thirty or more years ago as a kid.
It was only a few more hours before he had collected his boxes and headed home. At a dollar a box, he was easily in the black. There were a few old toys that would easily bring enough to cover the cost of the day. He carried the three boxes one by one into the den to dig through them. As he passed the kitchen the last time, he paused to see his wife Sue, emptying the dishwasher. She was wearing her usual floppy sweat pants and oversized t-shirt. It was a shame really, she had a very nice looking body, in fact, over the last twenty some years, it hadn't changed all that much. She was still thin and firm in all the right places, although even in her own estimation, a little light in the boob area. As John made his way to the den he thought back to how it had been so many years ago. They had a vibrant sex life, often playing around and experimenting. He had always loved the way she would walk around the house half dressed, just to tease him, until he finally had to take her wherever she may have been at the time.
"Oh well." He sighed, shaking his head as he set the last box down. He wondered where that all went, and supposed that was the price of growing old. As the years passed, she had gotten much more prudish, now hardly even undressing in front of him in the bedroom. Gone were the days of casual sex outside or in some random room, as were sleeping naked or anything else that tended to turn him on.
He tried to push the thoughts from his mind as he sat down and began working through the first of the boxes. Much of what he pulled out of the box was going to head into the trash, but the pile of items for closer inspection was slowly growing. Down in the bottom of the box was an unusual ring. At first it didn't seem like much, but John was surprised at how heavy it felt. He had seen lots of antiques and was very familiar with how old silver looked, and this looked like very old silver with an extremely heavy coating of tarnish.
John set the ring aside and went back to the box, but was inexplicably quickly drawn back to it again. Picking the ring up, he rubbed on the stone set in the center of the garish piece of jerlery. The whole ring was almost an inch square, set as a large diamond shape on top of a wide band. Clearly it was intended for a large hand, possibly a man, but John didn't know of any man that would ever wear a piece like that. He looked at the stone and swore that he saw the dark green swirl, but dismissed it as an illusion as he once again set it aside.
It only took a few minutes to sort through the remains of that box and the other two smaller boxes, leaving him with a nice sized pile of items to examine closer. Almost without thought he selected the ring once again, turning it over and over in his hands. The workmanship seemed exquisite, much more detailed and crafted than he had remembered seeing before. It only took a few quick dips in the tarnex to make it gleam again as if new. Under the magnifier bolted to the table he examined the strange piece of jewelry. He looked into the stone and again swore it was moving, the dark and light green swirling almost hypnotically. He shook his head, breaking eye contact with the unusual gem and examined the rest of the ring. It was carved with intricate detail, adorned in each corner of the diamond shape with a dragon. He noticed strange symbols inside the band as well as letters. It took several tries to make out the wording, not because it was unreadable, far from it, the lettering, as well as all the markings, were as crisp and clean as the day it was made. No, the reason was the strange combination of letters. Slowly he sounded it out," Zan-thris? No Zanthis! Zanthis? What an unusual word. Zanthis? A name maybe?" He was still turning it over in his fingers as his wife stepped behind him and placed her hand on his shoulder so as not to startle him too much.
Sue walked by the den on the way to the laundry room, noticing that her husband had returned from another of his junk collecting trips. She wondered what he saw in all that junk, spending much more time cleaning and inspecting other people's old junk instead of spending time with her. It was a frustration she just didn't know how to deal with. She shook her head in frustration as she moved the wet clothes from the washer into the dryer. "Doesn't he even see me anymore?" She asked herself aloud as she worked. It was a frustration, but the less attention he paid to her, the less she worked at trying to entice him. Now it seemed that the sex life they once had was all but dried up. She wondered why he stopped looking at her and trying to undress her. Sure, it had been difficult to find time to be amorous when the kids were little, and he always seemed to want to screw where the kids might accidently walk in on them. For years he complained that she never tried to tease him, but then it wasn't always a good idea to run around half naked as the kids were growing up. How embarrassing it would have been to have one of the kids, or worse, one of their friends walk in on them. But now they were gone and he still wasn't trying to seduce her. Maybe the antiques were more interesting to him than she was? She walked into the den, putting her hand on his shoulder and leaned over to see what held his interest so tightly.
"More junk?" she asked. "I wish you'd stop bringing everyone else's old junk home!" She said more sharply than she had intended.
"And I wish you'd run around half naked like you used to!" He replied just as sharply. He wondered why he goaded her that way, dismissing it as a reaction to his previous thoughts.
She withdrew her hand from his shoulder and walked away, anger welling up inside her at the unfair jab. She still had a good looking body, even if he didn't want to look at it. Her breasts were never large, only a b cup, but then the rest of her was still thin. She had avoided getting the late life fat rolls and sags, and in many ways thought her body looked as good as the day they got married. If he didn't think so, "then piss on him!" She snapped sharply to herself. She walked to the kitchen to start cleaning the floor, her hand unconsciously sliding up under her t-shirt and stroking her smooth flat belly. "Hell, I'm still pretty hot!" She said to herself as she put the bucket in the sink and started it filling with hot water. She let her hand slide down inside her sweat pants and inside her cotton panties. "I'm still very fuckable too." She said quietly to herself as she allowed her fingers to gently stroke her pussy while she watched the bucket fill with water.
Curiosity finally got the better of him and he rolled his chair over to the computer. It took a number of tries before he got any hits at all.
"Patterned after the mythical ring of the same name, the Zantis ring empowers the bearer with great sexual prowess, and the ability to entice any player of the opposite sex to perform any sexual deed. Once a sexual deed is demanded, the player will permanently have a desire for this deed. The ring also gives the owner the ability to transform any physical trait. The ring draws its power from the owner and reduces the owners life force with each use. The amount of life force is based on the deed requested. The greater the deed, the more life force is expended. The owner must be in contact at the time of the request. Obtaining the staff of Xaxis will terminate any requests put forth by the ring owner and prevent future requests from affecting the player."
At first John couldn't believe what he was reading. But with all things, reality has a way of revealing itself. The site was for some adult roll playing game, and in frustration John tossed the ring into the junk box. Last thing he needed was some stupid ring for an internet game. He went back to the rest of the goodies he had collected, upset that he had wasted so much time with a useless trinket.
John was hard at work cleaning an old toy truck when he heard his wife call him for dinner. Setting aside the small toy, he pushed away from the bench and turned the magnifier light off. One consolation to his long marriage was that Sue was a good cook. John had to work hard to not put on weight with the food she served. As he walked toward the kitchen he decided that he should apologize for snapping at her earlier. She really hadn't deserved it.
"Dinner's ready." Sue said from where she sat at the table waiting for him.
"Sorry. By the way, I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier." He said as he sat down across from her at the table.
"It's ok." She said as she dished some of the casserole she had prepared onto his plate. "Damn. Forgot the salt." She said, pushing her chair back after setting his plate down. She walked the few steps over to the stove and turned to come back, stopping when she saw John's face. "What's wrong?" she asked him curiously.
"Nothing, nothing. Just that you're not wearing any pants." He replied, clearly shocked at this unusual situatun.
"Oh, they got wet when I was doing the floor. I was hot anyway so I just took them off. That's ok, isn't it?"
"Sure!" He replied quickly. "Take anything you want off any time. You'll never hear me complain."
"I bet." She said with a smirk as she sat back down. "You used to always say that exact same thing."
