I finally got the ball rolling.

Quite literally. It might not seem much, but the orcs were excited. I pitched a few game ideas yesterday, and they eagerly tried them all out. This was my first contribution to life in another world, but we got a serious bottleneck. We needed more leather and fast since tanning it would take too long.

The hunters worked overtime and brought back a large haul of prey with quality hides. They planned to trade them with the neighboring village, and I escorted them.

The village had no carts. This gave me hope, but sadly, I couldn't reinvent the wheel for them. They simply didn't have a use for it.

"The roads fell into disrepair. Orcs are strong enough to carry this much around, so it's not worth having carts here." Charlotte explained as we set out. "They'd create more issues than solve. Would be difficult to drag them along this trail, and being hard to approach is our best defense."

"Each of the Lesser Races has some advantages over humans," Hana noted with three boars on their shoulders. "Orcs have amazing strength."

"Besides, this is a perfect opportunity for the younger ones to leave the village." Charlotte motioned behind us. A good twenty orcs followed, half of them were children. They begged us to let them come. "The area is too dangerous for them to wander around otherwise."

They sure didn't seem to be burdened. I carried the same weight as they did, and it made me wonder, what set the beastfolk apart from humans. I felt stronger than in my past life but I wasn't exactly a gym rat. I did go on hikes occasionally though.

They said the next village was close, but our little caravan had a three-hour walk ahead. Distances worked differently in a primitive society, no cars or public transportation were available, but everyone got used to it and enjoyed it too.

I can’t say I was bored either.

Thankfully we avoided the old capital and walked on narrow trails, running through hills with good views. Even while I carried a lot of stuff it felt like the hikes we used to go with my family. I didn't have much time to think about them lately and missed them, although we no longer lived in the same household for some time anyway. I had no idea how they handled my death and somehow felt guilty every time I remembered.

We reached the beastfolk's village just after noon. They seemed wary of us since this many orcs arriving at once must have looked scary for an outsider, but we carried tradeable goods not weapons, so their leader came to greet us. She was quite the sight.

She wore more sophisticated clothing than the orcs that resembled a kimono, intricately decorated, nice, and clean. Charlotte went ahead to negotiate, and we started quite the picnic in front of their village in the meantime. We entered with a full belly, once they reached an agreement.

It was quite different from the orc's place.

Their houses were much nicer, built of wood and bricks and densely packed alongside well-maintained streets. Compared to that, the orc shacks were just randomly thrown together around a courtyard. The beastfolk had at least three to four times more people living here too, and those people surprised me the most.

My people.

They came in all shapes and sizes but were considered the same race. Sometimes it was hard to tell what kind, but they had animal ears and tails, from cats and dogs and even rabbit and bear types walking around. Mixes were common but all had human-like faces and bodies.

For example, the leader of the village was a fox-girl.

"Her father was a gray wolf-man, and her mother a cat-woman like yourself, but with red hair," Hana explained quietly, once the negotiations started. "So is this your first time, seeing your people?"

"This is my first time seeing anything else than orcs and myself." I nodded, curiously looking around until my neck hurt. "And whatever the Goddess possessed... If it was even alive."

They led us to the village center where we finally unloaded our goods. About two tons of freshly hunted animals, unprocessed hides, fruits, and a few simple tools the blacksmith sent with us.

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"We want to buy all the leather you have." The leader of the hunters firmly declared. "And plan to buy as much you can produce in the future."

"What are we supposed to do with this much meat? It will spoil before we can eat it all." The beautiful fox girl claimed. She reminded me of those legendary kitsunes from Japanese folklore, especially their cutesy version portrayed in modern animes. She had short, orange hair and a majestic fluffy red tail. Everyone in this settlement seemed too young, especially to be a village leader. I haven't seen anyone looking a minute older than me. "We can't trade for the full value."

"I was told you have a magician living here now. Let them cast some ice magic, and the meat will not spoil." Charlotte responded. She was just as smart about negotiating as a fox too. "In case they can't do that, I'll let you borrow our shaman free of charge."

This reminded me, that even after an entire week, I was yet to meet that man. But I kept hearing about him. He was involved in many things around the tribe, yet seemed elusive, which inherently made me look around and notice all the eyes fixed on me as usual. I was sticking out like a sore thumb between all the orcs here.

"I can offer you half tons of leather, so we still have some left for the winter." The fox girl said, then she looked straight at me. "We take your entire stock in return, and you relinquish the Black Cat."

"The Black Cat? Me?" I whispered to Hana, surprised.

"I bet they think we hold you hostage." They nodded giggling, then added. "Wait until they recognize your face."

"Nati, come here for a moment," Charlotte asked, and now I was a little reluctant to go. Sure enough, I heard gasps from every direction, walking up to the negotiating parties. These cat ears were too sharp for my good. "This is Nati, a member of our tribe, not who you think she is, and not held in our village against her will either. But let her tell it to you herself. Nati, this is Fenna, leader of the beastfolk village."

"Nice to meet you." I offered my hand, but the fox girl would not take it. Instead, she fell to her knees, with a shocked expression and most villagers followed her example. I heard some orcs laughing behind me, and it wasn't even the kids who were the loudest. I glared at Hana to shut them up but had to say something. "I can assure you, that I'm not Alexandra. As Charlotte said, I'm a member of their tribe, not a hostage. Please accept their trading offer, without including me."

"Of course, Goddess, please forgive me," Fenna asked theatrically. Charlotte handled the rest while I kicked Hana's ankle, once I walked back. They probably didn't even notice it.

The beastmen agreed to our terms and we secured almost all of their leather, with extra promises to increase their production too and sell them back to us in the future. They didn't want to mess with the Goddess of Luck, no matter how hard we tried to convince them I was not her.

This prevented them from coming closer too.

I couldn't make any beastfolk friends until I pulled the ace from my sleeve. I brought one of the best-made balls and had the kids demonstrate a few games for the audience to celebrate the successful exchange. The village center was soon bustling with activity, the beastfolk had one more thing in common with the animals they resembled: they loved balls. They simply couldn't look away now that they saw one for the first time.

"We buy it from you, name the price." Fenna was now much more eager to shake my hand. Charlotte casually told her that I was the inventor, but shook her head, not to sell it. It caused me quite a heartache, but she must have had her reasons. I tried to compromise.

"Visit us in the orc village one day, and I'm sure we’ll agree." I offered, and this answer seemed to satisfy her.

After all the formalities, we headed back too. Compared to how long it took to walk here, we stepped out quite a bit on our way back. Well, we carried much less after all and were in high spirits.

"So how did a girl this young become the village leader?" I asked Hana curiously. "She didn't seem older than me at all."

"What do you think, how old are you?" Hana asked with a grin.

"I don't know, I'm eighteen, but if you ask this body, probably the same too." I answered, though thinking about it a bit, the numbers didn't add up. The Collapse was caused by Alexandra roughly ten years ago when she was already an adult.

"Fenna is half your age, but you aren't eighteen. Not your body at the very least." They teased me, before finally explaining. "The reason why the humans kept beastfolk around was their ageless beauty. They were the perfect domestic slave material."

"Don't forget their excellent craftsmanship either." Charlotte joined in.

"What do you mean, ageless beauty? How could that fox girl be half my age, when we both look so young?" I asked confused.

"Let's just say, according to the historical records I found, Alexandra was a little over a hundred years old when she became the Goddess." She said, hardly suppressing a grin. "Fenna celebrated her sixtieth birthday two months ago... That's what they mean by ageless beauty."

"No way I'm over a hundred." I inspected my hands and arms in complete shock. Being a catgirl was something else.

"So if you gave them the ball, they would have reverse-engineered it in no time, and ruined our monopoly," Charlotte explained, but I wasn't paying attention. "They are older than they look and have decades of experience with all kinds of craftsmanship. It's better if we sell it ourselves to the neighboring tribes first, and make a fortune from it... If you don't mind of course. Are you listening?"

"I still can't believe I'm over a hundred years old..."

"Hah, wait until you hear how old is the Pope's main advisor."