by Pirateaba
Erin tried to walk quickly down the street. That way she’d avoid offending anyone else. She didn’t have a good record at the moment.
“Kicked out of three shops. And two homes.”
To be fair, some of them looked like shops. Why no one put up any signs so people could tell the difference was beyond Erin.
“Well, there are signs. I just can’t read them.”
It was a funny thing. Erin could speak the exact same language as Relc and Klbkch, but for some reason she couldn’t read anything they wrote. It was probably because…of magic.
“Magic. Either that, or they’re all bilingual. Or trilingual. Or something.”
A Drake walking the opposite way down the street gave her an odd look. Erin shut up. Her habit of talking to herself was making her weirder than normal.
Still, that alone didn’t explain why it seemed like the entire city hated her. True, she kept walking into places and asking where she was, but that was…okay, that was really annoying. But she was just as unfavorably received on the street, it seemed.
“Move it, human.”
“Out of the way, smooth skin.”
“Watch it, fleshbag.”
Actually, no one had ever said that last one to her. Or the second one, either. Or the first in point of fact. They didn’t say anything at all, really. Almost all of the Drakes stared at her, while the Gnolls and other furry people walked as far away from her as possible. But they all watched her constantly.
Some glanced out of the corner of their eyes. Others were less discrete and openly stared at her. Erin saw a few small lizard-children pointing at her and felt out of place. In a sea of scales and fur, she was the only human. She felt so alone it hurt.
Erin turned right and found herself on another kind of street. This one was wider, had cobblestone paving, and a lot of wooden stalls. It was a market.
“Finally.”
Erin sighed with relief and walked forward. She’d finally reached her destination, and it had only taken her…an hour. Possibly two.
And better luck, Erin seemed to be in the section selling food. Tons of shopkeepers stood or sat in their shaded stalls displaying bins full of food. Here was a Drake selling weird blue-leaved plants that looked like oversized white carrots…or dead maggots. There was another Drake cutting meat for a waiting customer as flies buzzed around his stall. And there was—
A Gnoll.
Erin passed by a larger stall than most, tended to by a tall Gnoll, although they were all tall in her eyes. This one seemed to be selling a lot of stuff, and not just food. Erin was tempted to stop and browse, but the Gnoll shopkeeper complicated things. She was dithering when the Gnoll spotted her and roared out above the general hubbub.
“You, human! If you’re looking for a bargain, shop here!”
Erin’s heart jumped. Gnolls were, like Relc, loud. And her voice had put every eye back on Erin. She hesitated, and then walked over.
As she approached the Gnoll’s nose wrinkled and she waved a paw in front of her face. Erin’s heart sank, but the Gnoll made no comment.
“Well, what are you seeking?”
The Gnoll looked intently at Erin. She looked angry, or maybe Gnolls always sounded brisk and impatient.
“Oh um. I’m just looking.”
Erin edged back from the Gnoll’s shop. She really didn’t want to be chased out of the market yet.
“Hrmf. Suit yourself.”
The Gnoll looked away. He—it—was definitely annoyed now, even if he hadn’t been before. Erin backed away and looked towards the next stall.
This one looked equally promising. And better yet, it was tended to by a Drake. Which wasn’t that much better, true, but at least he wasn’t wrinkling his nose. Maybe because he wasn’t looking at her.
Erin approached the stall carefully and gazed at the many items on display. Let’s see. There were lots of bags piled up neatly, and in front of them there were little bins of their contents on display. That was good, since Erin couldn’t read any of the words on the store signs.
But there! She saw flour, salt, and even sugar on display along with other dried goods. The Drake was selling dried sausages that hung from hooks at the top of his little shop, dried onions and garlic in baskets, and a number of dried roots and spices in one corner of the shop.
“Hi. Is this a food shop?”
The Drake looked over at her.
“What does it look like, human?”
Erin winced internally at the tone of his voice. But he wasn’t wrinkling his nose still or glaring. He just looked annoyed.
“Oh, I’m looking for food. Lots of it.”
She heard a very loud and angry snort come from the Gnoll shopkeeper. She winced, externally this time.
“What you see is what I have.”
The Drake indicated his goods with a wave of one claw. That sounded like an invitation to Erin, so she stepped inside the stall and peered around. Flour was what she was most interested in. With that and a bit of oil, salt, etc. she could make bread, pasta, and other filling things. It was the best place to start. She bent down to examine the flour—
“No touching the food with your filthy hands unless you’re buying!”
The Drake’s voice made Erin jump away. She caught herself before she fell backwards. He was glaring at her.
“Don’t touch. You’ll stink it up with your human smell.”
“Sorry. Sorry.”
Erin backed away from the goods on display, hands raised. She guessed she really did smell.
The shopkeeper directed his full and unhappy attention towards her.
“What do you want? Name it and I’ll fetch it for you.”
“Oh, okay.”
Erin floundered.
“Um. I’m looking for a few things, actually. Uh, do you have any butter?”
“It’s right there on the sign.”
The Drake tapped the little piece of paper pinned to the stall. Erin looked at it desperately, but just saw squiggles and lines in all the wrong places.
“Uh. I can’t read that. Sorry.”
He hissed softly in annoyance. Erin winced again.
“But I’d like some. Butter, that is.”
He slowly and grudgingly turned and pulled out a small pot with a small cork for a lid.
“Oh. Great.”
Erin wasn’t sure if she should ask to see how much butter was inside. She wanted to hold the little pot too, but the shopkeeper’s expression also vetoed that idea.
“And uh, I’d like some oil too. Do you have another jar…?”
The Drake sighed loudly in annoyance.
“I don’t have all day to play fetch for you, human. Just tell me what you want to buy first.”
“Okay.”
He wasn’t throwing things or chasing her away, so that was as good as it was going to get, Erin guessed. She took a deep breath and rattled off whatever she could remember she needed.
“I’m looking for some flour, salt, butter, oil, and sugar. Oh! And yeast. I’ll need yeast too. If you have it.”
The Drake didn’t move.
“Anything else?”
Erin looked around quickly.
“Um. Those sausages. How much do they cost?”
Erin pointed to the sausages hanging from a hook. They looked mouthwateringly plump. She had the idea she could fry some up with the pasta. Just the thought was making her stomach rumble.
The Drake’s eyes flicked over to them.
“How many?”
Erin rummaged in her pocket and pulled out her precious coins. She saw the Drake’s eyes widen just a fraction as she showed him the mix of silver and bronze and three gold coins.
“Well, if I’ve got enough I’d like to buy a few of those. And some onions.”
There weren’t many vegetables here. Only some garlic and shriveled roots on one bin. But she could always go to the Gnoll and ask—well, maybe not the Gnoll. But there were probably other shops that sold produce.
&
nbsp; The Drake eyed the coins in her hand and flicked his eyes up to her. Erin felt like she was being assessed, and she didn’t enjoy the feeling. For all she was a paying customer he still looked like was angry at her for some reason.
At last the shopkeeper seemed to come to a decision. He flicked his tongue out of his mouth and glared at her.
“Three gold coins. Eight silver. That will buy you a bag of flour, oil, butter, four sausages, two onions, and bag of sugar, salt and yeast.”
Erin hesitated. She eyed the meaningless symbols on the little plaque again.
“Are—are you sure that’s the price? I mean, it sounds like a lot—”
“Are you calling me a liar?”
The Drake raised his voice angrily. Erin could see other customers and shopkeeper looking around.
“No, no! I was just saying that—”
“Typical humans. Walking in here, stinking up the market, and insulting any non-humans you find. You should be grateful the Guard doesn’t run you out of the city! First that damn Necromancer comes here, and now this smelly one that can’t even read.”
He seemed to be inflating with rage. Erin didn’t know what she’d done to set him off—besides the smell—but she tried to be diplomatic.
“Look, I was just asking about the price.”
“I just gave you my price. Take it or leave it.”
“But can we negotiate? I mean, how about two gold coins? What’s the price of the flour? If I pay you—”
The Drake shopkeeper let out a strangled hissing sound.
“Human, I have a business to run and a store to manage! Either pay me my price or be gone. You won’t find a better offer in this market.”
Looking around Erin guessed that was true. She was getting unfriendly looks from the other shopkeepers down the street, especially the Gnoll whose wares she’d walked by.
“Okay. I’ve buy it all.”
She placed the gold and silver coins on the counter since he wasn’t holding his hand out. He eyed the coins, sniffed once, and swept them away.
“Here. Your food. Take it.”
The shopkeeper began grabbing items and slamming them down on the counter. He shoved them all together in a huge untidy pile and threw a few dented copper coins down too. Some rolled onto the ground.
Erin hesitated but the shopkeeper’s scaly back was already expressively turned away. She heard what sounded like hissing laughter and muttered comments from behind her and turned red.
Slowly, Erin bent down and began picking up the fallen copper coins. She tried to avoid looking at anyone or anything.
When she finally stood up the shopkeeper was looking at her expressionlessly. He flicked one claw towards her.
“If you’re done grubbing in the dirt, I have more customers to serve.”
Erin knew her face was red. Her eyes were burning, but she was determined not to do anything else. She took a deep breath, and tried to steady her voice as much as possible. Still it wobbled a bit as she said one last thing.
“…Can I buy a bag?”
1.14
Erin had four silver coins left after buying a large cloth bag and the food. That was just enough for…well, she didn’t know. But it certainly wasn’t enough for a lantern, much less a sword. She doubted it was even enough for her clothes.
She sat in the shade of one of the buildings and stared silently at the four silver shapes in her hand. It wasn’t so bad. She still had some money, and she’d bought enough food for now. It was just…
She’d started out with two gold coins and a full handful of silver and copper ones. And in an instant they’d been spent. And that wasn’t bad either; she’d bought a lot of food. Stuff like sugar was expensive, right? Especially in a place that wasn’t modern like this. But she couldn’t help but feel it was a mistake.
She hadn’t seen any other shoppers trade gold coins for what they’d bought. Not one and especially not that much for some food. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. She thought—
No. She knew she’d been ripped off.
And it hurt. It really did. Erin wanted to go back there and punch the Drake shopkeeper in the face, but she had a pretty good idea of what would happen if she did. Plus, he could probably eat her face if she tried.
So. Erin sat and stared at her hand. Four silver coins.
She could still go shopping with that much money. She could find another market, find another, shop and…
And do what? She didn’t know how much money things cost and she didn’t know how to buy clothes for her.
Everyone in this city wore clothing, but the definition of that really varied. Some of the male Drakes only wore loincloths and maybe a light cloak around their body, while the female ones usually had more on. Still, even that was varied because they didn’t have breasts. There was no such thing as a bra, and so a lot of the female lizards were as naked as the males. Only the Gnolls seemed to adhere to human-style dress code.
It was one of the hidden truths of the world. Money was useless if you had no idea what to spend it on and everyone ripped you off.
Everything would be so much simpler if she could read. Was that too much to ask?
Erin put her head on her arm and closed her eyes for a moment. Her head jerked up and she nearly smacked it against the building behind her as she realized something.
She couldn’t read. But she knew people who could.
Relc. Or Klbkch. Either one of them would know all about clothing and money and stuff like that.
Erin stood up. She pocketed her silver coins and wished she’d thought of this before she’d lost all her money. But maybe four silver coins was a lot of money? She’d have to ask. And they’d help her, surely. Because that’s what guardsmen did, right? Just like how police officers were so willing to help anyone who came to them with a problem.
Erin pushed that thought out of her head. Guardsmen were police officers. They were allowed to kill people without due process, for one thing. And besides, Relc liked her pasta. Now all she had to do was find the guardhouse without being able to read the signs.
She started walking down the street, looking around for anything that screamed of jail cells or law and order. She tried very hard not to think about what she’d do if Relc or Klbkch were both off-duty.
—-
Relc was off-duty. So was Klbkch. But for the moment Relc was lounging around the mess hall of the guard’s barracks. He was playing a game where he tossed a wickedly sharp dagger up into the air and caught it as it fell back to the floor. Half the time he caught the dagger. The other half he missed or knocked the dagger flying. He sat in a widely vacated corner of the room.
Only a few other Drakes were sitting at the long wooden benches, chowing down on hard bread, cheese, and unidentifiable strips of meat. Well, unidentifiable to humans. It was more gray than red.
One of the guards was talking with his fellows. He stood up and approached Relc cautiously. Unlike Relc, his scales were a very pale blue, and he was smaller if not shorter than the other Drake. He cleared his throat while standing at a respectful distance from Relc’s game.
“Hey Relc. I hear there’s a human wandering around the city.”
Relc looked up and missed the dagger as it flipped down.
“Ow.”
The other guardsman sighed as Relc sucked at the point of red blood oozing from his scales.
“You’ve got no talent for that game. If you didn’t have [Thick Skin], you’d have cut your hand off years ago.”
Relc smiled smugly.
“I don’t just have [Thick Skin]. I’ve got [Iron Skin] too.”
The blue Drake rolled his eyes.
“That explains everything. What kind of level do you have to be to get that, anyways? No one else has it so it must be high level.”
“It is.”
Relc began trimming his claws with the dagger. Although in his case, he wasn’t making the nails shorter; just sharpening them.
“It was the las
t skill I got from my [Soldier] class. I think you get it in [Spearmaster] as well, but I don’t know. Either way, it’s a life-saver.”
“I’ll bet. No wonder you don’t worry about hurting yourself you smooth-scaled bastard.”
“Now, now. Don’t be jealous.”
Relc swept the nail clippings off the table with one hand.
“Too bad I never got any dagger skills. I can’t understand how this stupid flipping works.”
“Then stop flipping. It’s annoying and you keep nearly hitting people. Remember Lism? He’s still got scars.”
“No. If Klbkch can do it, so can I. Anything that damn bug can do I can do better. But hey, what’s this about a human? Is it that female one I was telling you about?”
“Not sure.”
This time another green Drake jumped into the conversation.
“Belsc – the guy on western gate duty – he didn’t say much other than that he thought it was a human female. What was the name of the one you met?”
Relc scratched his head and looked up at the ceiling.
“Um. Sol? Solace? It was something like that. Ervin Solace? Did he mention anything else about her?”
The green Drake bared his teeth.
“Yeah. He said she was really annoying. And she talked too much.”
“That’s her.”
Relc laughed. The other Drake shook his head.
“Humans. I don’t know why you’re interested in this one. It’s certainly not the smell, to hear Belc talk.”
“Yeah, you get used to that.”
Relc leaned back in his chair and played with the dagger.
“Still, she’s interesting. Erin, or whatever her name is. She makes a mean plate of pasta, let me tell you. And she’s tougher than she looks—I didn’t think any human could survive out in the floodplains that long. She’s funny too.”
He grinned as the other guards made disparaging noises.
“Hey, I’m telling the truth here. Little Miss Human isn’t that bad. You should meet her. But let me tell you, she can also be pretty annoying. Remember that Necromancer guy I told you me and Klbkch tracked down? She wouldn’t let us kill him even after he blasted us both with a few spells. Just kept saying that he wasn’t that bad.”
