In the morning, the note came. Valerie, who had decided that this was the day they would open negotiations, woke Anthony up. She slapped him in the face with the single sheet of paper.
He woke up with a start. She left the letter on his head, the envelope lovingly ripped to shreds. Anthony wordlessly inspected the mail.
“Are you ready for this, kid?” he said, shirtless and leaning over his side of his bed.
“I guess I’m as ready I as can be,” Valerie said. “Is Sonya… okay? She looks like she’s buried under blankets.”
“I’m fine!” The muffled voice said. “Just naked!”
Valerie turned bright red and got up to leave.
“Stop saying things like that to her, dear,” Anthony said. “Get Finley.”
He kissed her hand and got up to put on his best robe. Their gambeson had proven to be too warm for everyday wear. He wanted something that evoked the image of the goddess Yil. It felt incredibly luxurious to wake up clean and put on a fluffy robe.
Anthony found Finley outside with Valerie's deeper discussion about their campaign strategy. He had the image of a renaissance painting gone completely fantastical as a Dwarven Princess held court with an elvish trader on board a flying ship.
“You represent the country. You have so much to give. We can give them preferential treatment if they decide they want to help us with our internal matter,” he said.
“But I don’t feel like I represent the country.”
The dwarf girl had gone through so much. Standing next to the tall elf, she really looked small at that moment. She was so much more than she had been.
In front of her was a woman who had gone through the trauma of seeing both her parents turn into zombies, and then a fight to stay alive. She had even fought the internal demons of wishing she were dead repeatedly.
He wanted to tell her all that, but he knew she wouldn’t take it how he meant it. But what he could say was the thing that he felt in his heart.
“Valerie. You’re amazing. You can do this.”
Both the elf and the dwarf looked at him as if he was coming out of left field. He was clearly in the bleachers, watching both try to catch the same ball. Their familiarity shredded his image of a fantastical painting. They were a family now.
“I know that,” she said, clearly telegraphing that she wanted him to continue.
“No. You don’t understand. There is no one better suited to do this negotiation than the two of you. We are talking with living enlightened beings. They want what we want,” he said, knowing that this was going to hit her who right in the sweet spot.
He let the silence hang there for a second. She was accustomed to his mentoring and his exhortations that she was good at what she was doing, despite all of her terminal imposter syndrome. It wasn’t something that he was pretending was true just so she could feel better. They had been together for a long time now.
Most importantly, he didn’t want to do it. He wanted her to do it. He might talk a good game to Sonya, easily able to build a rapport with another healthcare worker, but that wasn’t always going to translate.
“All right. Thank you. Do you want to pretend to be the chief?”
“With pleasure,” he said.
Letting her attempt to woo him and his pretend tribe had been the thing that Finley had suggested. That and bringing enough cake for everybody. It had been his selling point.
She gave her pitch several times to him. By now, she had practiced her pitch, and knew all the points she wanted to emphasize.
She was a diplomatic envoy from Noveria. She represented the Irumian Kingdom. Because of the calamity, a much smaller nation needed friends and allies to come to its aid. She was there on behalf of the beleaguered nation to reclaim it.
She also represented the Green Fang tribe as much as they remained. What she was looking for was military aged fighters able to go on a long campaign or even a short one to join them. If yellowtail could not supply these, she would pay exorbitantly to outfit what little people she had.
By the third time, Finley was ready to leave, and Valerie was just doing her final assessment of what things she could offer to the queen.
She gave him a curious stare.
“If she asks, can I offer your hand in marriage?” Valerie said to Anthony.
Sonya, passing by with her morning tea, did a spit take. Then, without saying anything, she just stared at Anthony with her head cocked to his side.
“I think that might not work so well? Given that I’m in a relationship with the chosen of Kara.”
“I’m sure that she’ll be okay with it if we do that,” Valerie said.
“Make sure that they know that they’re going to be getting into a situation where their future husband has a mistress,” Sonya said.
“I guess that’s-“
“Marry a lizard woman, Anthony, see how that works for you!” Sonya said before slamming the door. The door immediately rocked back out, so she was still visible as she walked into the cabin.
“Thanks for that Valerie.”
“Anytime.”
---
“...and so, we propose a formal outreach program between our two nations to heal the calamity that has befallen the continent of Noveria.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Valerie impressed Finley. She had introduced herself and given the entire presentation as if she was a pro. She didn’t even need to change her dress because she was sweating so much. He would have had a change of dress, but he wore the silent meditation robes that he had gotten so far to the north now.
What he hadn’t expected it was the sheer of the chief. She was easily a head taller than any of the other lizard folk that they had met before. She also had feathers adorning her back. At that moment, he had realized that every single citizen that he had met up to that point had been male. The amount of female lizards in the tribe had filled in the gaps that day as they realized that every single one had been on that hunt with the chief.
The Chief’s tail thudded on the ground in the center of them. She had asked to meet them at Center City where a large open space let people be social and interact with each other.
“I have heard your request. I thank you for your time. This matter is most grave and upsetting. We understand that you have some ability to transport yourself back and forth to the northern continent. I would like to see this myself,” she said.
Finley felt a rush. This had not been part of what they had tried to get through to Valerie. They had tried to think about every single situation in which she might have to respond.
The chief asking for proof had not been one of those situations.
Valerie smiled.
Finley was worried that she was about to offer the lizard folk a deal that might destroy a lot of what they offered. A line of several female warrior hunters stayed on the side of their negotiations. Each one rippled with muscles and had copious feathers on their backs.
“That is something that we can arrange for you, should you choose.”
“I choose it,” she said. “If you want to deal with us, I need to see.”
Finley coughed.
“We are going to need a few days to set up a gate here. But we can consider that a part of these negotiations,” Finley said.
“Having a gate here will open trade and potentially we can link the thirteen tribes together,” Valerie said. “We will need many enlightened to kill these zombies.”
“Call upon me when you have a gate ready. In my absence, I had much to attend to.”
The chief stood up, causing every sitting lizard folk to do the same.
Clearly done, she nodded to them. Valerie got off and moved out of the way. Finley trailed after her, with Brianna and Anthony bringing up the rear.
---
“You thought you would buy them out with cake,” Bob said.
“The cake was great. If they had decided that they wanted to eat the cake, then we would have been in. But they said that they would take it for later.”
“You always got to let them sample the products first,” Bob said. “The first one is free and all that. Have you heard of that? Get them in. Get them hooked.”
Bob was the last person who finally thought was going to give him some advice on how to barter and negotiate. But with his background as an independent business executive selling cakes? He had come into his own as an unlikely Ally. Bob was the entire force behind his baked goods arm. His new pop-up shop was selling cakes and cookies.
Thanks to Bob’s efforts, he had stock. Bob was also helping him sell.
“Pardon me, gentle elf?” The lizard of him in front of him said. “How much for this uncommon card?”
He held up a base fire bending card.
---
Uncommon Skill Card: Fire Bending L1
The wielder of this card can bend flames and create fire with their will. Flames are created through martial ability.
This cards grants fire affinity.
---
“Five commons, or three uncommon shards. Though if they are common cards, I want to see them first.”
“Where did you find this, by the way? I have never seen a beast drop this,” the lizard said, pulling out five common cards.
---
Common Skill Card:
Survival Level 1
Survive harsh conditions instinctively. Improves field craft and related abilities. As this card advances, the wielder will become more hearty.
---
Common Skill Card:
Chomp Level 1
Empowers your jaw for a superior bite attack.
---
Common Skill Card:
Forage Level 1
The wielder is able to find good nourishing Fauna easier.
---
“One survival, two chomps and one forage?” Finley said. “I’ll take that deal.”
Bob took the cards on his behalf and the happy lizard folk continued shopping.
“I have never seen chomp before,” Bob said.
“It’s something that would help a creature without arms, I think,” Finley said. “Hey, do you know what dropped this card, perchance?”
“One of the raptors dropped it,” the lizard folk said. “It’s somewhat common.”
They took a second to examine the card again.
“Lizard about chest height? Long fangs?” Bob said. “Clever girls?”
“Yep! But don’t go out there hunting them. They are a bit difficult to take down and they work in packs so I would take a team of at least twelve,” the lizard said. “How much for some cake?”
Finley started to say something, but Bob held up a hand.
“The first piece is free if you got some more information for us like that,” Bob said.
The lizard folk smiled. Finley wasn’t mad about losing the sale. He was distracted that it hadn’t been him to offer a free sample. One didn’t give free samples of cards or card pieces. But if they could bake cakes?
“The game has changed,” he whispered.
Bob cut a slice of cake for the lizard.
The lizard devoured the cake, finishing the whole slice in two big bites.
“What do you need to know about?”
“It would be great if we knew a bit more about the city. Tell me something that an outsider wouldn’t know at first glance.”
“Let me see. What can I say? You know about the merchants, but the main thing that the hunters bring in is terrible lizard meat. There’s a huge trade in large chunks of that meat. There’s not much agriculture to speak of, otherwise we mostly eat fish. How much for a whole cake?” He asked.
“Three common or one uncommon card pieces,” Finley said. “Thanks.”
“That’s an interesting conversion rate,” the lizard folk said.
“What’s the rate in town?” Finley leaned in.
“One uncommon is worth four common right now.”
Finley was going to have to speak to the merchant’s guild. If he was going to undercut them, then they might do something retaliatory. So far, all they had done was set up a temporary booth outside of town and began to prepare a space for a gate.
“That’s our current rate, but only for new customers. We’re also looking for language cards if you find any. Tell your friends that we have cake and a lot of common cards,” he said.
“I will!” The lizard folk said before darting back towards the gates.
They were close enough that the guard on duty would drop by when he got bored. Finley insisted that he try the cake.
“I really shouldn’t. I’m on duty and though Captain Tasha said that he likes you guys personally, that’s a whole different...is that chocolate cake?” He said.
“You’ll love it. There is some coco leaf here that we didn’t know about until this morning. Bob had been working nonstop in our galley,” Finley said, indicating the ship that was on the docks due north of them.
“One slice won’t hurt, I guess,” he said, his yellow tail switching back and forth.
“We’ll watch the gate for you,” Bob said. “I need someone to tell me if my ganache tastes good.”
Stella had already given it an unconditional thumbs up. This meant that she was sad when he made some not intended for her use. The other women made a fuss, something that felt odd to Finley. Humans were odd. He didn’t know why it was the female of the species that was so up in arms about this cake.
There was also some mention of an animal called a beaver and its glands that got muddled in the discussion. It ended up that Bob was going to have to apologize too many people about his looking for the wrong type of beaver for the wrong reason.
Finley honestly didn’t know the right reason to look for the wrong kind of beaver, and he was afraid to ask Bob what he had meant by that when the two of them had stormed off the deck. Bob had to explain that he was looking for a particular type of river dwelling rodent to kill some and harvest some of their meat and glands.
He couldn’t make some of the spices that he wanted to make without them, and he only knew that because of his extensive work as a chef on earth.
But the good news was that the ganache tasted good, and the guard was now looking at them with unfavorable terms rather than immediately dismissing them outright for just being who they were. Finley was happy to start negotiations off at the lowest level, if he really had to. If he could buy the populace with Bob’s cakes? He would do so.
It was just weird how Bob kept calling his cakes thick with an emphasis on the ‘c’.
Humans.
Of course, they would be weird about the strangest things.