“Oh! Sorry ‘bout that. New surroundings and whatnot.” She stepped forward and put a hand onto her warthog’s side and bowed a little. “Name’s Manly Warbottom, trader and procurement specialist of wild and exotic animals. My journeys led me out this way in search of another set of animals to trade to the highest bidder. I appreciate your hospitality, and I’ll be keeping this place a secret in exchange. I hope we can have a good working relationship.”
“Well, that depends, but it sounds like whatever you told Zeke was enough to gain you entry to the village.” Yohsuke eyed me, and I gave him the barest of nods to let him know that he was correct.
She swore an oath to me, and as a knight, it worked. So let’s keep that in mind when we’re talking to people, unless we want them to know what we are. The others took that information and nodded back.
“Any of you in the market for a pet?” She raised her eyebrows hopefully, and I had to admit, I was curious to see what she had.
“I am.” Jaken stepped forward. I blinked at him, and he ignored me. “Let’s clear out of here and go somewhere a little more business-friendly so that we can discuss?”
“Sounds fair to me, sir knight!” She grinned and turned to get up onto the cart as Jaken and the rest of us stiffened.
“How…how did you know that, Manly?” James stuttered for a second.
“Know what?” She looked from James to Jaken. “Oh! That he’s a knight? Well, all that fancy armor sure makes him look like one, but if mister Zeke here is a knight, I figured y’all might be the same as him as his friends. Sure, look pretty strong as well, so that helps too.”
She’s not wrong. We do look strong as shit. Muu preened to the rest of us.
We eyed him steadily, but he wasn’t taking it back.
What do you need a pet for, Jaken? Bokaj asked as we walked up the street toward the town square where things were bought and sold.
I don’t—it’s for our moping druid. He shot me a side-eye that anyone would have noticed a mile away.
I’m not moping, you ass. I’m sad that I lost a friend! There’s a difference.
Yohsuke snorted audibly. One that you knew would eventually be taken from you to return home in exchange for a huge sum of experience and favor from a being akin to an elemental god. Dude, it’s cool to be sad for a bit, but it was a job. A quest. We have a job to do, and not only are you keeping yourself from relaxing and partially the rest of us, but you’re operating at less than full power.
The others, James, Muu, Bokaj, and Balmur, had taken the chance to get behind the cart to watch it and also get away from the three of us left in front.
We understand that you feel that loss heavier because he was almost literally a part of you—and don’t get me wrong, we liked him too—but he was always destined for something other than the life that we have at this moment. He was promised elsewhere. Yohsuke sighed and looked to Jaken.
You know he wouldn’t want you to be this sad over him going home. You know for damned sure that if you spend valuable time, you could be training another familiar while mourning his loss. He would be sadder knowing you could have been able to defend yourself, and his other friends, better with another familiar, so that you could call on him once more someday. We all need to be at full strength, or on our way there. Jaken walked into the square. So, if you won’t get off your ass and procure something strong for yourself, I will, and you’ll like it and love it and name it something cool as fuck—just like me.
“What an ass,” I murmured out loud and walked toward the central area.
The normal selling and hawking of wares came to a grinding halt when we broke through into the square. Children and families watched, excited at first to see us, but then truly curious at the sight of Humphrey and the cart he pulled.
As I gazed around to see that everyone was okay, when movement in my peripheral vision made me turn my head fully.
The shadows in one corner of the square coalesced, growing deeper and deeper until Maebe stepped out with Vrawn in tow. The orcish woman looked a little timid at first, stepping through shadows was a hard thing for someone with no training. Likely she had been terrified, but rather than let Maebe come here alone, she had sucked it up and joined her. Kudos.
Once she had seen the cart, though, Vrawn’s features were purely business. This was the second in command of the guard, a former sergeant in her mother’s army, and I dared to say, an incredibly strong woman. She would protect these people or die trying.
“My subjects, I felt the oath given to one of you, who took it?” Maebe looked at the others before I stepped forward and took a knee.
“I did, Your Majesty.” I bowed my head, and her hand touched my shoulder.
“Lift your head, Sir Zekiel. You acted well as a Knight as the situation would have dictated.” She eyed the newcomer with a frosty glare. “We can discuss this more later—we will discuss this more later. Rise.”
I stood and took my place on her left side between her and Vrawn.
“You come to sell?” Maebe asked. Manly hopped onto the ground and walked over to stand before Maebe.
“I take it that you’re who these people owe fealty to? Nice folks here, ma’am. And yes, I’ve come to obtain and sell a few rare creatures if I could, but then I stumbled on this place and mister knight over there. Had to come on in and say hello!” Manly’s smile was well in place, and it seemed genuine to me.
“Is it normally okay for someone of no station to address a queen in that manner?” Vrawn growled as she stepped toward the other woman.
Manly blinked. “We don’t really deal much with royalty where I’m from, but judging from her skin and features, I’d say she’s a Fae Queen. Bit far from your throne, Majesty?”
The halfling woman put her hands on her hips and leaned forward to observe Maebe’s features closer with a perfectly friendly expression on her face.
“Vrawn, stand down.” I was having a hard time holding the woman back, but Maebe’s command helped immensely. The veins in Vrawn’s neck were popping out against her skin, and she looked ready to blow a gasket. Maebe turned her attention back to Manly. “I am a Fae Queen. And your intelligence is correct; I am indeed far from my throne. But I also care for these people as if they were my own. So, if something were to happen to them, any of them, I would be very distraught.”
She leaned down so that her face was directly in front of Manly’s, mere inches away. “I don’t know what I might do to someone who harmed my subjects.”
“Is that a threat, your Majesty?” The halflings tone, formerly sweet, took on a menacing edge.
“It is,” Maebe’s voice took on a similar tone. “But that is for everyone and anyone who thinks this place, or these people are to be taken advantage of.”
The two of them stared at each other for a moment longer, then blinked and stood erect.
“Glad to know where everyone stands.” Manly held her hand out to shake, and Maebe didn’t so much as glance at it. She took her hand back, and that was that.
“Come one, come all, and venture through my stall!” Manly called as she expertly pulled straps and buckles.
Portions of the cart fell to the ground on poles that made it look like a stall. There were eggs in nests, small cages, and bins with different creatures inside. Some were cute. Others grotesque and elaborately colored. But all of them seemed to be well taken care of.
People gathered around. The smaller items for animal care and capture that she had time to make on the road, Manly sold for a premium, but people seemed to eat them up no matter the cost. Though some grumbled about highway robbery. The prices seemed fair for the amount of labor involved, and though no one could afford the animals or eggs, there was nothing we could do. Though Jaken did peruse the items that she had available.
“What are these eggs right here?” Jaken’s voice carried and I wandered over to see what he had found.
Manly, busy with someone else, glanced over and explained in an even, practiced sales ton
e, “I crossed the ocean a couple months back, returning from an expedition on Isla dar Ragmarrath. It’s a large island just off the coast of the creature continent, where some of the more monstrous species of creatures are said to live. While I was there, I found several of these eggs. You’ll notice that each of them has a different coloration that seems to match a different elemental type. I’m not sure why, or what they could be—but they were hard to come by and pretty expensive.”
She finished the sale with the villager and turned to us. “What do you think? Care to purchase one?”
“How much is it?” Jaken picked one of them up, a green one, and held it close to his eyes to observe it closer.
“Hmm. I’d say I’d be willing to part with it for thirty-five thousand gold?” Her voice sounded hopeful, and Bokaj hopped in on it from there.
“I don’t think so.” The ranger sighed, exasperatedly. “If it were hatched, half-grown, and trained, I could see that hefty price tag. But for the egg itself that we can’t guarantee will hatch anytime soon, that’s way too much, and it sounds like you know it.”
“If you think so.” Manly looked contemplative for a moment. “I’d be willing to trade one for that bird that Zeke has in his possession.”
I snorted. “Never going to happen.” I eyed Jaken a second. “Those eggs are interesting for sure, but nothing and no one will ever be worth trading Kayda. Later man.”
Fed up with the crap there, I walked off. Vrawn stayed to oversee the newcomer, but Maebe stepped away with me. The others stayed behind and looked at the wares, clearly knowing they could do as they pleased.
“Are you okay?” Maebe took my arm and pulled me close to look me in the eyes.
“Yes and no, more annoyed that she would even suggest trading Kayda for something else.” I spat, my anger almost boiling over and red clouding my vision. “All she sees on my shoulder is gold. Not the creature that she is. Not our relationship, just money.”
“I can understand how that would be upsetting,” Maebe said. “But you do need to realize that rare it is for a stranger to see a relationship and understand it completely. Her perception is that you have a rare animal that would fetch a handsome fee at auction.”
“I do, but I had already told her no. The fact that she doesn’t respect boundaries enough to know that when I said no the first time, I meant it. Period. And something tells me that she’s going to keep trying.”
“She may, but you made it so that she wouldn’t hurt anyone who doesn’t try to hurt her first.” She eyed down the streets and behind us. “That was good thinking getting her to swear, though you could have led her with the appropriate wording that you had desired. With the oath she gave, she can take anything from a threat to someone stumbling into her to mean that they were attacking her, then she would be able to attack them with impunity.”
My heart fell. Fuck. I’d managed to fuck that up, too.
“Is there a way to fix it?” I eyed the streets as well; no one was around, surprisingly. Likely trying to look at all the odd creatures.
“No, but what you can do is get on her good side and get her out of here.” Maebe reached between us and clasped my hand in her own. “You have worked hard for this place—all of you have—and her being here could threaten that.”
“How would you suggest we do that?”
“She collects rare and valuable creatures? Offer to take her on an expedition to the Great Below with you, to protect her until she gets something, then part ways amicably,” Maebe raised my hand in hers then began to squeeze it. “Then, who knows what may happen to her down there,”—she raised her eyes to mine— “but that will no longer be our problem.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Was it slightly nervous? Sure. Was I a little afraid of her? Yup. But you could truly tell that playing the game was something bred into Maebe. You had to appreciate that.
“So. Why don’t you go back to her to win her over, and I will go oversee the children. Tonight, as the others drink and party, we will make merry with this Manly and have her believe that we will assist her in gaining a valuable asset.” Maebe pulled me down so that I was inches from her so she could whisper, “then we leave her high and dry in the shadows to fend for herself.”
“I don’t know about leaving her to die,” I replied sourly, more so than I meant to.
“Her death is not guaranteed, my love, only that she will have to depend on herself to survive,” Maebe explained patiently. “If we were to become separated, then we could hardly be held liable for her safety, could we?”
I growled as I considered her words, the equivalent to all the plotting that had been done against her as she had been on the throne. Plotting that her people had been involved in likely longer than any of my ancestors had even been alive. “I will do what I can.”
I reached out and pulled her close to me, my body now human so that I could kiss her deeply before shifting back. “Be safe.”
As I turned to move away and go back to the others and my duty, Maebe stopped me. Her eyes, so dark green as shadows crossed her face from the trees above that they could have been emeralds. Her face was somber, but somehow not.
“You have come far, Zeke. I acknowledge your strength and that of our friends.” She clasped my hand once more and held it to her chest. I could feel her heartbeat beneath her night-sky skin. “Would that I could reward you with more for that.”
That made me stop. “What are you trying to say?”
She blinked. “Nothing, for now, my heart. There is still much to do and more time to think upon things.” Her gaze grew fiercer as she whispered, “I love you.”
“And I, you.” I bowed my head slightly as she went. I watched her saunter into the shadows of the wall next to us and disappear. “Weird.”
I shook myself out and headed back into the square where a large crowd had gathered to watch Manly take a small creature no bigger than a fat chihuahua, that looked like a dog but had scales in place of fur and spines like a porcupine along its back, through a series of hoops and commands.
“Good girl!” She drawled at the little creature who looked happy enough, but it had eyes only for her as it moved about, dancing and leaping.
As soon as they were finished, the crowd clapped, and several young adults rushed forward with small pieces of meat and coins to offer for the show.
I had neglected to cast Nature’s Voice earlier, but I did so now while she was distracted and moved to her cart to speak with the other animals.
“Hello everyone,” I spoke softly.
There was a pause before someone inside answered, “Who’s there? You speak to us?”
I saw a large head poke over the side of the cart, one that reminded me of some kind of iguana with black and white feathers on the side of its head that looked kind of like a mane.
“You speak to us?” The wizened voice rasped curiously. “How? Why?”
“I’m a druid, and I can speak many languages,” I stated, leaning against the cart casually. “How are all of you treated? Do you eat well?”
“As well as can be expected of someone who takes you from your home,” the reptile grumbled. “I am the eldest of all of her creatures, and no one wants to purchase me for that reason. The young know no better. And the ones she’s captured lately have been by request it seems, because they don’t stay with us long.”
“I see.” I took to looking him over. “She treats you well?”
“She doesn’t beat us if that’s what you’re asking.” An exotic-looking bird with a small beak and weirdly sized gray feathers hopped forward and tapped my metal finger curiously. “She’s very patient with animals, and with a sale. But for other things, her patience wanes swiftly.”
“Is she violent?”
“She is a great hunter,” the reptile grunted, his forked tongue venturing forward to taste the air between us. “There aren’t many things that she cannot catch when she puts her mind to it. She is learned and cunning. Many seek her skills, many test her.
Few win. I have been with her many cycles, and I know this is truth. Better than I know my tail.”
“Thank you, friends. Tell me, what are your names?” I pulled a small bit of jerky from my inventory and offered it to the reptile.
“I am Jarlenill.” he flicked his tongue in the bird’s direction. “She is Rilly.”
“A pleasure to meet you both.” I thought about taking the birds form but with the way it looked, and how small it was, I’d be better off with a hawk, falcon, or even an eagle.
It seemed the show was over by now, Manly with her small show animal in tow, made her way toward the stand.
“You’re back swift,” she stated observantly. “Rethinkin’ a purchase?”
I blinked. You know what? Yeah. I thought to myself. Why not?
“How much for the reptile?”
“Higgins?” Manly’s nose crinkled for a second before she regained her composure. “He’s pretty rare…hmm…I s’pose I could part with him for a thousand gold.”
I smiled. “So rare that he’s been with you for many cycles? I think his words were, ‘the younglings have known no other life,’ because he’s the oldest creature you have? How about I take him off your hands for a quarter of that and free up some space for you?”
Manly shot the reptile a dirty look, so I thought it appropriate to soften the blow. “He says that you’re an excellent hunter. And had nothing but nice things to say. Animals are typically like that, you know? Honest. I tend to believe them when I can.”
She frowned, pulling a buckle on the side of the cart so that steps popped out, and she could climb up. The skepticism in her features while looking between us, narrowed eyes lingering on me as if she was clearly uncertain if she should believe me or not, almost made me chuckle.
“Ask him.” I shrugged. “Ask all of them.”
She turned to the animals, eyeing them critically, then grinned. “No. I got a better test. If he really spoke to you, then touch him.”
Into the Darkness: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Axe Druid Book 4) Page 7