A Lifes Journey

“Pardon?”I tried keeping it cool while formulating an escape plan.

“Haha, loosen up kid, only jokin’ with ya. So, you’re looking for a ride into Silvermoon aye?” He was most definitely not joking. Fucking annoying… But I’m interested in seeing where this goes.

“Yes sir, I’m trying to get Home.”

“Home, you say? Mind if I ask where you live boy?” He pulled back the wooden chair, signaling me to sit down to his right.

“Well, at Home? I guess that’s too vague, hmm, the slums…?” I tried to explain as I sat down innocently.

Gotta endure this stupid interrogation in order to get Home…

“Is that a question? If you live in the slums, it means you need the southern entrance which is the closest. By the way, are you one of Kiyoko’s kids?” Before he could even react I held an arrow to his throat, fully prepared to kill. He looked at me with a playful smile that made his brown eyes squint, almost close in a weird manner.

“Excuse me?” Tch, this person really throws me off… I backed off and sat back down.

“We’ll take ya boy, me and your mommy go way back. Though after she found out she can’t have kids she became twisted… Well that’s a story for another day.” Children? Mommy? Twisted? I don’t understand what he’s saying.

“You probably think I look more like a sell sword or a bounty hunter but me actually an adventurer, a merchant and a bounty hunter, ‘איש אשכולות’ as they say in Yirmish haha, pretty great aye?.”

“Ish Eshkolot?” I raised a brow.

“It means a man of many talents, spent a long time in the Hadohian lands, even had a wife and kid there.” He said while raising his cup for another sip of beer.

“Should you really be telling me that mister? We never even introduced ourselves…”

*Cough* he choked on some of his beer before answering “True enough, guess you really remind me of my wife, especially those purple eyes of yours, Na’amah was her name.” he smiled, trying to hide the agony in his voice.

“Was? I’m sorry for your loss, I guess.” Can’t really bring myself to hate this guy for some reason… Also, why is he speaking in such an inconsistent manner?

“Hey don’t worry about it kiddo, there’s this famous quote in the theater – ‘things without all remedy should be without regard, what’s done cannot be undone’, tend to follow this philosophy.” He cracked another faint smile.

Actually I’m starting to like this guy, maybe traveling with him will be fun.

“Anyway kid, the name’s Jake Laytear, what about you, got one?” more than one actually.

“Lifes, just Lifes, I’m an orphan.” His eyes widened as he heard my name for some reason, does he know me? Shit maybe the wanted poster had a name and I didn’t notice?

“L-Lifes you say, that’s quite the coincidence… Well, I have 2 more party members that will join us, care to meet 'em?” No elaboration on the coincidence?

“Well, I’m not very good with people, when do we leave for Silvermoon?” The waitress arrived at our table with 2 bowls of what I assumed to be mushroom soup, does this city have no tomatoes?

“That might take a while, we need to go visit a dungeon in the area first, rumor has it that it was just excavated a few months ago so nobody has gone any deeper than floor 3.”

“So you don’t plan on leaving any time soon?” I’m not really in a hurry but I’d rather not stay here for too long…

“Not really, judging by the bow you’re carrying, I’m assuming you can fight? Care to join?” Oh god, I’m carrying a guard’s bow out in the open, thankfully those bows are incredibly common, I completely forgot about it.

“Sort of… But I have to sell some stuff before I can join you.” Fuck. I hate speaking politely.

“May I also add, aren’t you awfully trusting? I’m just a 20 years old guy that needs to get home, or am I? How could you just trust me like that?” I said as I took a spoonful of the creamy soup.

“Listen, have my reasons. If you don’ trust me, can just help you find another ride.” He smirked at me.

“I’ve seen enough of your interactions with the people in this tavern and spoke to you enough to trust you, for now… I believe myself to be a fairly good judge of character.” I sent him a smile that didn’t quite reach my eyes.

“You Slayers are all same aye? Whatever.” He seemed disappointed, sad almost.

“Aight then, meet us here in like, 3 hours, will that be enough to sell yar stuffs?” He asked.

“Should be, see you later.” I got up and left the tavern.

Walking through the streets of Silka I saw a lot of shops that sold all sorts of things. I really need a trader for the teeth but all of those shops just sell clothes.

I walked into a building in the shape of a square with rounded corners that was made out of a yellowish smooth-stone - just like almost every single building around the port area - I’ll start by selling the wolf’s fur.

“Hey hey, how is your day?” The shopkeeper asked in a cheery, somewhat high-pitched voice.

“I-it’s fine, can I sell this here?” The surprise on his face told me all I needed to know.

“Haha, cheap as wood, nothing about it is good!” Retard…

Without even answering him I just turned around and left, not gonna bother with idiots like him, especially not ones that lie.

Instead of checking each and every store on the street, I decided to head deeper into the port after hearing some people talk about the large auction house near the ‘Red Market’.

A market for the wolf’s teeth and if I had to guess, an auction house is the best for the wolf’s fur, based on the retarded shopkeeper’s reaction to it.

I was sweating like crazy while walking through the streets though the air was somewhat cold. It’s so humid here, is it because of the sea?

Thankfully I soon arrived at the market.

The air here felt so refreshing, the salty smell of sea water was also quite unique.

Underneath the red cloth used as roofs for the stalls, at least 50 mosquitos were buzzing around trying to make me lose my mind from all of the activity.

“Smorkin meat, fresh from the sea, new batch, only today! Only today!” some fat fish seller screamed.

This atmosphere is so mentally draining, too hectic, too lively…

“Buyin’ everathin’! sell me all ya’ve got!” the way too skinny, brown person announced loudly in a funny voice, he kinda reminds me of this combat instructor, Dickel? Jakel? Something like that.

“How much for this one?” I put a tooth the size of my pinky finger on his green table that was filled with all types of foreign goods.

“Hmmm, interisting, these colossal water wolves are a lot more common now because of this new dingoen so price is going down.” He mumbled as if to himself.

“1 piece of silver for this one.”

“2, it was incredibly hard to hunt it, I almost died.” I lied.

“Your struggles are not matter for this deal, 1 silver and 20 coppers, for courtesy.” So he’s willing to go up.

“1.5, If you take 22 of them for this much, I’ll give you the rest for 1.3.”

He raised a brow at this “Rest? How many?”

Pouring the rest of the teeth from my little, almost-green cloth pouch I said “42 in total.”

“Bery strong customers, I like! Teeth are very goot cleaned, goot quality. I will take." I have my blue friends to thank for cleaning and maintaining the quality for me.

After shaking hands he handed me my money. Truth be told, I don’t even care about the money this much, I just like winning bargains and this just now is a win in my book…

The merchant also told me he’s from Marketplace - the autonomous zone - and invited me to visit if I liked trading. He also gave me a letter of recommendation to help sell my wolf’s fur.

There are still not-so-shitty humans in the world, I guess… Now where's this main auction house place?