Chapter 92

An Uncertain Gut-feeling In Her Eyes

Thrush

The road from Greditch to Jewelweed was fairly busy with both bandits and humans. The bandits helped me reach a composition of 56% human and I’ve only had to go through forced sleep twice—thankfully.

I didn’t like sleeping for days on end when I was on a quest, but at least eating many bandits helped me to blend in. I was much taller now and my cloak no longer dragged behind me. My hands were very human-like, though a bit boney and spindly. If anyone saw my chin poke out from beneath my hood, they’d have no question that I was human. But if they saw my eyes, and maybe my smile, like I had seen in a pool of water, their blood would curdle in fear. My eyes filled most of my forehead. My mouth was still a wide gash of fangs. So I kept my cloak tight around me as I traveled.

Humans were taking advantage of the good weather. “Traveling season” they called it. Wagons were full of goods and wares, and merchants often set up shop along the way.

I adopted their strategy. Whenever I saw people in the distance, I threw down my backpack and watched it draw from my mana to unpack itself until it was a staked tent, and a cushion slid out to sweep me off my feet.

I waited patiently for people to pass and some to stop by. Those who traveled with urgency passed me by without a glance. Those who traveled light were more prone to stop, just like the man veering toward me with sweat dripping from his brow.

“My good man!” the human said. “I’m so glad you’re here!”

“Good day,” I said, then swept a hand before me. “Take a look around.”

The human sat before me in the shade of my tent. I kept my cloak over my face, bowed my head to hide my features, and pulled my cloak around my limbs. I restricted most of the items in my inventory from being for sale, because people were often thrown off by the impossible amount of things I stored.

I kept my eyes down while the human “hmm’d” as he perused my inventory. I didn’t need to see him. I could smell his body language.

“You don’t have any water do you?” The human said. “Just water?”

“I have snow,” I said.

“Snow? As in cold snow? Flurries snow? As in—it snows in winter, snow?”

“That’s the snow.”

“Ice cold water! I’ll take it, but I don’t see it.”

“Just a moment,” I said, and unlocked a portion of my collection of snow.

I then used a trick I picked up from another merchant. I reorganized some items so that the snow was beside a number of waterskins. Beside that, some fruit. Beside that, some fish. I then made my inventory available to the human once more.

“Oh wow! Yes! Thank god. I’m so thirsty,” he said. “It’s my first time heading to Greditch and I didn’t really pack much.”

“Learning curve,” I said.

“Haha! Yea—learning curve. So, how much is the snow?”

“One copper per ball.”

“Ok, makes sense. I’ll take a few snowballs then.”

We traded 4 copper for 4 snowballs. The copper clinked into my inventory. The snowballs appeared in the human’s hands. They started to melt immediately. He panicked and began chomping down as fast as he could. Water dripped from the backs of his hands and down his arms.

“You’ve eaten one,” I observed, “but what about the other three? They’re going to melt before you get to them.”

“I-hashhash know-hashash,” he said, chewing with an open mouth as though the ice were too hot.

I followed my merchant options and navigated through the options as best as I could to best fit with the personality of the human.

“This is your chance to learn from packing too light,” I said. “A fresh start! I can fill a few waterskins with snow for you. You can munch on some juicy fresh fruit and get some meat in you. The rest of your trip will require energy.”

The human took but two seconds to see reason and nodded with zeal. Since he had four snowballs, I sold him just as many filled waterskins, and three extra to fill with the remaining, melting snowballs. He took some fruit, and a bit of smoked fish for a brief snack.

“Wow, thank you so much sir,” the human said with a chuckle. “I can’t believe I just bought seven waterskins!”

“You’re now more prepared for the road ahead of you,” I said.

The human thanked me and left, happy to have quenched his thirst so easily. Others had been waiting and approached me.

“Need anything?” I said.

Because it was a hot day, I was selling a lot of snowballs. To make conversation, I asked if anyone knew where I could find cowbell roots. “Not an alchemist” was most often the answer.

On my fifth stop of the day to set up shop, I asked a woman the same question and the ingredient seemed familiar to her.

“I’m a courier,” she said. “I deliver to the Wild Indigo all the time. It’s one of the alchemist shops in Jewelweed. The owner’s really nice. She acquires things from all over the world. In fact, I’m fetching a parcel of spreading-dogbane for her from Fitmi, east of Greditch. Anyways, give her shop a visit. I’ll bet you she has what you’re looking for.”

“That’s quite helpful,” I said. “Thank you so much.”

“Not a problem, and… …I’m sorry to say but I’m not finding anything I need from your inventory. Thank you though.”

“Pick something,” I said. “I’ll give it to you for a high-five. Anything you like.”

She gawked at me for a moment. Then burst into laughter. I got caught up in the laughter as well, except my laughter was not human. My laughter killed the mirth and frightened the blood from her face.

“Anything you’d like,” I said. “As a thank you. No one’s been able to help me find any cowbell roots so far. And trading for a high-five gives me more experience than not trading at all.”

“You’re serious,” she said.

“Anything,” I said.

“I’ll have the ruby?”

“The big one? I acquired that one from a blue bestie.”

“A what? No, nevermind, don’t answer that. I’ve-uh-really got to go, actually.”

She looked down a long empty road past a caravan of late travelers. Dusk was half an hour away. She chose the ruby, and a prompt came up for us to high-five. After a slap, she received the ruby with disbelief and bolted off, glancing back with an uncertain gut-feeling in her eyes.

The woman joined the late day travelers, whispered to them, and a few turned to look at me with concern. I waved, collapsed my merchant tent, and hit the road to Jewelweed.