The mare looked around with more confident interest than Cerise felt as they rejoined the caravan. Miss Sanyel stopped by to inspect Cerise's pick and pronounced Daisy a "good beast, good stock," and listened with interest as Cerise chattered about meeting the centaurs and showing them how she could manage all the tack and the care of the mare herself.

Her mother had gone out with the Quartermaster to resupply their fresh vegetables and get an introduction to the feed sellers. She had not purchased grains for the draft beast they hoped Cerise would buy as much because they hadn't known what kind of beast Cerise would find as not knowing how much the beast would cost.

Ten small coppers made one large copper, and ten large coppers made up a grand copper. The smalls were just called coppers, with large and grand used for the other denominations. A silver was a silver leaf, the equal of 10 grands. Five silver made a branch (also a kind of silver coin), and five branches were the equal of a golden tree, usually just called a gold. Traveling with the caravan, Cerise heard of coins beyond that, but her mind simply boggled at the value.

The coins were found in dungeons, and the ones used for currency had rune marks showing the dungeon they came from. Once the coin was tampered with, the rune broke. It could still be sold for the metal, but the [Assayer] would take a cut for valuing the material, and the metal had to be smelted into refined ore to be useful for any crafter that wanted to make gear a person could use their active skills with.

Miss Sanyel said they expected to lose the runes on one in every thousand coins just from traveling, and that had prompted her mother to wrap the coins they gained individually, just to be safe. For the caravan, it wasn't worth the bother for the copper denominations, but they did keep silvers and branches in a special chest.

Cerise handed the coins she had not had to spend to her mother and relayed Tamrin's and the centaur's recommendations for the mare's travel kit needs.

Her father had already made combs and brush bodies for the caravan to replace gear that got damaged along the way. Some of the plants Cerise gathered were good bristle material for very stiff brushes, the kind not to be used against short fur or skin. The [Wagoneers] told Cerise that ox ear hairs could be trimmed for a good face cleaning brush, but it took the trim from about twenty oxen to make a palm sized round brush. Horsehair, Tamrin told her on the way back, made decent bristles for a horse brush. Use the trim from neatening up Daisy's mane for her face brush and from her tail for her body brush, he suggested. A good soft gauze or felted glove would help shine her coat, too, he promised.

They would need glue and a glue pot to secure the bristles, but her father needed that anyway for his carpentry kit.

The wooden hoof picks he made her wore out quickly and he was already planning to find a [Smith] about some of the metal parts he needed for the tools he wanted for himself. Cerise would use the hoof pick in her patrol of the oxen, anyhow, so it made sense for him to just get that seen to.

In all honesty, Cerise worried that getting a draft beast now was an extravagance, but her parents agreed that they none of them could work and carry the things they needed to acquire at the same time. The weight was less of a problem than the bulk.

Mykhal almost danced in glee when he got to see Daisy. He happily sliced up the apple he had gotten for a snack to share with the mare, and that was about all that Daisy needed to think quite highly of him.

"Did she come with a name?" He asked.

"No, and I'm calling her Daisy," Cerise said.

"What? No! She's a Thunder Hoof for sure! Maybe a Wind Chaser!" he squawked in protest.

"She's a Daisy, beautiful and hardy," Cerise countered. "She is not some clod-stomping Thunder Hoof, and if she chooses to run, she won't be chasing the wind!"

They bickered good-naturedly, but in the end Mykhal was more interested in teasing Cerise than in getting his way, and they both knew it. Her mother returned, carrying a cloth bundle and hauling a pannier of grain over both shoulders. They looked to be of a common size, cylindrical baskets one arm tall and two hands wide.

"I got two types of cloth, some thread, and a better needle, along with an awl and wax for the thread. Setting up proper pack pads will be good practice for your needlework, and if Mykhal can shoot us a few more rabbits, I can cure them as hides this time, and we can use them for extra cushioning."

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Mykhal laughed, his chest pushing up. "Aye, Mama!" He said, making Cerise's mother smile broadly.

"Scamp!" She called them.

----------------------------------------

They were a week on the road to the next town, and Cerise managed to complete a new pack blanket for Daisy. Her mother had some divisions in the Beginner rank of Animal Handling, too, and took over leading their mare while Cerise made her rounds. Her father finished up the grooming brushes before they departed Alsthir Cyrseat, and had enough left over from Daisy's trimmings to make two more brush sets, as well as some brushes for his own use.

Even as he whittled out useful things from the wood he found along the roadside, he kept a weather eye out for good forage, and often enough brought back interesting additions for the guards' cook pot.

Mykhal took the hunting challenge her mother had set him to heart, and they had at least one rabbit to add to the pot each night. He also found an entire pack of dire foxes during one of his evening hunts, though "only" two of the six he culled had crysts.

And he found spawn eggs. Elar prevented him from saying where.

Cerise's Triage Aura announced his find first, informing her that they needed to be warmed immediately to stay viable.

"Are monster eggs better for eating or hatching?" She asked, cutting off Mykhal as he sputtered at his superior. Her serious tone captured their attention.

Gohren said, "Viable, but not hatched is best. [Tamers] buy the eggs because they have skills to bind them right away. Hatched is next best. The [Tamers] pay less, and at worst we can harvest reagents from juveniles."

"Then they need to be warmed now, before the dire fox kits die in the egg. And, what's an alarune?"

Mykhal hurried over to the cook fire, fumbling his string of dead dire foxes. Her father picked them up and brought them over to what had become the customary place for processing the carcasses of his kills.

Cerise stopped Mykhal from just setting them next to the fire pit. "Wash up and get my blanket for my tent. Wait!" She used Greater Cleanse, not trusting her excited friend to wash properly in his haste.

While he was off on his errand, she used Stabilize on all the eggs and moved them back a bow's length from the stones ringing the fire. She sat on the ground and examined them.

There were four eggs in total, all about the size of an infant's head. Each had different patterns, but colors were harder to make out in the fading light. Three of the eggs belonged to dire fox kits, and with her casting of Stabilize, and the relocation to a warmer spot, they seemed to be doing better now. The alarune egg, however, seem to need something more.

Cerise used her diagnose skill.

Nutrient Deficient: monstrous plants require mana enriched soil to properly grow. If they are unable to acquire mana from their soil, they will seek ways to acquire mana more directly, usually by seeking the readily available mana found in blood.

Treatment: plant in mana rich soil. If not available, enrich soil with blood. Start with blood from non-monstrous beasts to avoid inducing monstrous frenzy. Gradually increase potency until nutritional needs are met.

That disturbed Cerise, a lot.

Gohren squatted beside her. "Is that the alarune?"

She nodded.

"Something wrong with it?" He asked.

She licked her lips. "Yeah. It's in need of mana rich soil, and the treatment part of my skill suggests a ... disturbing way to enrich soil."

"Well, if you can keep it viable for another day, we will be at one of the towns with a Free Lancers Guild outpost. They will happily buy up the eggs, and it won't be your problem. And don't worry about the disturbing solution your skill is telling you about. I'm guessing it's to add blood to the soil?"

Cerise nodded.

Gohren grimaced quickly before resuming his neutral expression. "That's an emergency measure. Alchemists learn better ways while in their Novice rank. After all, at least half their ingredients need the same thing."

Cerise relaxed. "Maybe I should learn some Alchemy."

Mykhal returned, thrusting the blanket at Cerise. She arranged the eggs in her lap before laying the blanket over top of them.

"How are they?" He asked.

"Stable. I'll keep them with me tomorrow and make sure they stay that way, if you don't mind. They are your gather, after all," Cerise said.

"No, that's fine! Sergeant, how much do you think they'll sell for?"

Gohren chuckled. "I don't know, but I doubt you'll see less than two grand per egg. If the alarune can be hatched, it's worth silver, I'd guess. Maybe even a branch. Miss Sanyel will have a better idea."

"I'll have a better idea of what?" The caravan master asked.

She was brought up to speed on Mykhal's find and then shown the eggs themselves. She took a moment to consider the bounty before speaking. "If you will consent to let me take a broker's fee on the caravan's behalf, I think I can get you at least a golden tree for all four eggs, if Miss Cerise can keep the alarune viable. And if your skills can tell you how to hatch it, that will only increase the value. Now, Mykhal, have you told anyone yet where you found the eggs?"

"No, Miss Sanyel, but it was--"

"Stop! Don't tell anyone! Draw a map if you need the memory aid, but there are rewards for finding spawn points. We'll reach Hosthelholm tomorrow afternoon. Will you let me act as your broker?"

"Yes, Miss!" Mykhal said, grinning.

She smacked his shoulder. "Stupid boy! You ask what my fee is first!"

He laughed, but asked, "Well, what is your fee?"

"One-tenth the sale price for the eggs and the spawn point location."

"I would be most honored--"

She smacked Mykhal's shoulder again. "Stupid boy! Negotiate!"