“So you saw a lot of the Yellow Tails. You met with some merchants and you think you have a lead on the Irumian foreign legion? Anything else?”
“The captain of the guard is very interested in how we got onto the shore without, as he said, using boats. So that might be a potential issue. Also, I can’t tell the difference between the males and the females,” Finley said.
“I didn’t see any females,” Valerie said.
The room that the council was meeting in was pretty warm, and it just got hotter the longer they talked. With just a small taste of their adventures, Anthony was already talking about the next steps.
“Did we secure a spot to sell goods out of? I thought we could use some dwarves to sell stuff. As they’re not chosen, this would be perfect for them,” Bob said.
“Yeah, how about that?” Valerie said. “No goats.”
“No goats?” Anthony and Bob said.
“No goats.”
Gigi bleated.
“At least six lizard folk attempted to buy Gigi off of us. And we’re pretty sure that they wanted to cart her up and butcher her so they could have her for lunch. So yeah, let’s not do that to them.”
Anthony flinched back instinctively. Bob got a sour look on his face.
“We also have Borgan and Song,” Bob said. “I’m going to have to talk to them about that.”
“We don’t need to man a booth. We just need to establish a foothold and then we can take shifts there,” Finley said. “There’s not a lot of grass, either, so we will not do any grazing.”
“I’ll tell Sonya. Well, that’s unfortunate. I guess we can keep... hmmm,” Anthony said.
Anthony took a second to wipe everything off the table dramatically. He had been waiting to do that for quite some time. To be fair, it was only a few charcoal nubs and a piece of paper with a drawing on it, but still. He placed a piece of paper down on the desk and wrote what needed to happen.
“All right, so here’s what we got. We have three teams. Our first aim here for the Sunderland team is to establish contact with legion like we’ve been trying to and to get some support. What that means is we need to find lizard folk that will sign up for this either as a mercenary contract or hero for hire or something. Someone who can negotiate and bargain for access to what they need access to would serve this team.”
He nodded at Finley.
“The second team is going to be whoever is here in the airship. As this is our only safe location where we’re not subject to zombie attacks or potentially teenage lizard folk who want to make a name for themselves dealing with the humans. This place also has the advantage of having an anchor point. As of right now, we don’t really have an anchor point for moving things en masse to Yellow tails. So that should be the next thing. I already nominated Stella to be the head of security and I think she would do good being in charge of this.”
Bob nodded.
On the piece of paper, Anthony had drawn a small sketch of the city with the name yellowtail over it and a pirate ship.
“So either Zan or Sonya are going to have to be with the pirate ship if this is the way station. I suppose that we’re going to need to figure out a way to transport. Lots of troops quickly if we get the support that we’re looking for. That is where the promontory team comes in. There are enough small towns nearby the Port City that we can begin our efforts to reclaim the kingdom there. And since it’s next to a source of freshwater, that should be the first stop.”
“What about the sea monsters?” Bob said.
“They can come play too.”
“And this is, of course, after we do the thing where we have some vacation time? Right?” Valerie said.
“Right. Some of us have a bit of work to do, but I believe that it’s far easier to talk to the tribes than it is to fight zombies. For one, they’re on our side.”
Anthony thought that was a significant point that he made. The intoxicating idea of being able to talk to somebody about something instead of just fighting them felt great.
Not that he didn’t enjoy talking to the rest of the Caravan, but there was only so much. In time, you had to lie down your head to rest, and you had to trust the guy next to you was going to protect you.
Anthony trusted everyone here, but he wanted to build up a community where perhaps he could take a day or two off himself. Aside from their trips to places, they’ve had to build up defenses to even exist in a place. To stick around here? That would be ideal.
Another thing that came up in the discussion was that most of lizard folk did not speak common. They had five translation cards that they could spread out. Obviously, Finley was going to get one of those. And then the priority would go to whoever else was with Finley.
“All right, so it looks like we’re at an agreement. I’m going to say that except for specific things like feeding the horses and goat crew, we are going to wait for our audience with the chief. It’s going to take them a few days to get the notice to the other tribes and then who knows what else is going to happen? And you have to go back in tomorrow to speak to the merchants and captain again?” Anthony said.
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They nodded.
“All right, then. I’m going to say we’ll have another meeting in 2 days and I want to attend the next audience with either the chief or the Captain of the Guard. I want to be clear that we can all head to the city if we want to. But I want everyone to stay in groups of three or four. This includes our dwarves contingent, who should remain and dwarf form the entire time. I will take the watch tonight.”
He knew that by volunteering for the watch tonight all night that he was going to get help from Sonya. Or she could do whatever she wanted.
“You going to be on watch yourself there, huh?” Sonya said from the side.
“You are welcome to join me, dear. I understand if you have more important things to do as a person who’s able to pick people up from the mainland.”
She smiled at him. But there was no way that she was going to let him be alone all night. He barely got to be alone during the day. It was the smile that made him feel good on the inside.
---
The next day, Finley brought Anthony and Valerie back to speak with Captain Tasha. They had a lively debate about how best to figure out which street foods to buy first.
No one could recognize any of the meats. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem except that for this adventure, Gigi was present and in dwarf form. This put a time limit on their adventure. She can now hold her wild shape form for four hours, which was a vast improvement. It had begun over fifteen minutes before.
“Why don’t we ask one local what the meats are?” Anthony said. “Or one of these merchants that you guys have made friends with?”
“That’s besides the point. You’re supposed to pick it out without knowing. You should be able to tell just based on the scent, but since everyone here uses their nose to see, it’s just so much more difficult,” Finley said.
Now knowing about how all the lizard folk used their sense of smell, finally had become a quick study. He hadn’t needed to smell anything deeply and perhaps it was a Sierra that had caused him to be less responsive to the additional notes that he was now smelling daily.
It comforted that they could all find that way if they just knew what everything was supposed to smell like. This didn’t help the humans who had problems distinguishing between multiple smells layered on top of each other.
The poor humans even had the combination of the loud smells of the street food vendors to compete with the more subtle sense produced by lizard folk glands.
“You have Bob’s shopping list, right?” Valerie asked him for what had to be the fifth time.
Bob had promised to make the best cake that any of them had ever eaten if they got what he wanted. Valerie was going to ensure that he got the ingredients he needed. Brianna was lock step with her and the two had formed an iron clad voting block. Finley didn’t disagree, which was how he had gotten to pass all the street food vendors.
“This is all great, but someone has to get a salad for Bob,” Brianna said. “Though I think they don’t do meals to go here.”
“That could be a problem,” Anthony said. “Maybe we’ll need to make some food containers or something.”
“I’ll tell Andrew when we get back. Also, what do you mean when you say food container? Like a bag?” Valerie said.
“That would work,” Brianna said. “But I don’t think that they have paper products here except for the scrolls?”
Finley shrugged.
They had seen a few scrolls at the markets, but most of the bags looked like they were made of the hide of a different reptilian species. That felt a bit off to him, but there was no arguing with lizard folk sensibilities. They were worse than humans in that regard. At least humans didn’t sport bags made of dwarf skin, so far as he knew.
He made a mental note to ask one human if they had ever done something like that. He briefly considered asking Anthony right now, but it didn’t seem like the time.
“Eggs, huh?” Anthony said. “Do you think that they have chickens here?”
“I saw some yesterday,” Brianna said. “The thing I’m trying to figure out is who would sell flour. Half these street stands have some sort of breading.”
They passed by a lizard folk hawking some kind of iguana on a stick. Finley raised his eyebrow at the price. Three for one common card piece or two silver was an interesting price. He didn’t have any of the local currency and he wondered how they would look at the hundreds of gold coins that he had squirreled away in his wagon. They now had a purpose again.
He had thought for sure that there would be no respite, but once again he found himself surrounded by enlightened and in a market of all places. Though he had gone to one the day prior, it still gave him that same giddy feeling he always got.
“It feels good to be shopping,” he said. “I missed this.”
He parsed through several blank scrolls before selecting a few that could carry the notes that he needed, as well as enough for Anthony and his constant need to clear off a table to lie out a map. He briefly considered buying a map, but thought better of it.
The entire idea of going down the markets felt meditative to him. He breathed in the smells of commerce and it felt like home. A home that longed ago left, and it was only now just returning to. So many ways, he was so pleased that he could begin the thick of it. Once again. Again. He had almost forgotten about Anthony requesting him to settle the booth somewhere so they could unload some of their less desirable cards.
Then the other elf merchant saw him and waved him over.
“Finley, good to see you, brother,” he said.
“Good to see you as well.”
“I’ve inquired on your behalf about setting up a booth here. The department of commerce said that you could set up nearby me if you wanted. I was also thinking that perhaps we could set up a deal where I sell some of your goods. I understand that you’re trying to get a lot of fresh food and basically I’ll fit in the army in time, correct?”
“Something like that. If we can get things going? I’m going to need a lot of food. Also, do you know where I can get flour?”
“I’ve got some right here for you. This one is in the house.”
The package that it was in felt sturdy. If Bob was going to use the package, then eventually the sack that held his flower could be used for something else. It would for sure make a better bag than anything that these lizard folk had made. Considering the purse that he’s seen so far. It just felt distasteful to where the skins of your enemy were on a purse.
“I don’t suppose you have sugar as well? And by the way, we have a primary cake maker in our ranks. None of the people you see here are our baker. Tonight I’ll be making cake for us if you want to come on board our ship.”
Finley held onto the hope that he might work out a good deal. And now that now that he had the elf interested in a potential trade deal, he could get a footing here at yellowtail. And despite the market being very much focused on local goods and sustenance, he knew there was something there. Especially if you could solve some problems? He might make things so much better for so many people here.
And then he still has something that he has to leave had to have. He heard the street food that he desired calling out to him from across the way. It’s a bit of cautious that he stalked his prey, leaving around books and friends. To the vendor and unconsciously his hand went to his side to see if she is supposed to be selling at all.
“How’s it going to be okay? I can’t want to try your hot sticky buns,” he said.
Brianna came over to him and they both kind of looked at the street vendor for a little. He dressed it to her, and she returned the gesture. They walked over and bought some sticky buns. That first bite? It tasted like freedom.