Epsilon Twilight
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18. Dweller
🕑 Added 2023-07-19 13:09:36 +0000 UTC“Seeds, missus? Ya’ fancin’ a farm?” The farmer turned vendor inquired.
“Not quite, more gardening than farming. Though I intend to grow my food.”
“Hmm, ya’ have ya’ own lands or are we talkin’ about a fancy garden?”
“An in-between?” Aloe shrugged. “I do have a ‘fancy garden’ but also some rather expansive lands. Not crop field-sized, but certainly enough to feed a single person.”
“I see.” The old man scratched his beard. “Winter is coming, so I would recommend some ‘tatoes if it’s just ya’. Any other crop requires far too much involvement.”
“And medicinal plants? Do you have any?”
“I don’t even remember if I have seeds, missus. And if I still have some, they are all crops, can’t afford to dedicate medicines.”
“I see.” Whilst it was a shame she couldn’t buy more seeds, she wouldn’t deny the conversation hadn’t been useful. “Thanks for your help,” Aloe added with a bow.
“No problem.” The old man smiled. But as Aloe turned to leave, he stopped her. “Hey, missus. A little advice. When ya’ plant the ‘tatoes, break them in little pieces, they will have a better time growing.”
Without talking, Aloe thanked him once more with a bow and departed to the bazaar.
Hmm, everyone is saying potatoes... Aloe pondered as the stores passed through the corners of her eyes. But I can’t just survive on potatoes... Well, maybe I can, but it’s better if I have diversity. The oasis has a lot of palms, but they are all coconut and dates, maybe I could get a banana one? But how long do trees take to grow? Probably a lot. Aloe sighed.
With her occupied thoughts, she had failed to notice she had wandered into the sunlight, so she quickly shifted back to the palm tree’s shadows. Not before long she arrived at the walls of Sadina.
The stalls on the walls contained rather different merchandise from that in the main bazaar. Namely, animals.
Taking a slight detour to the right, Aloe arrived at the stables. Basically all the pack animals of the city were stored here. The stables were one of the few sections of Sadina with actual patches of grass, and besides, no one wanted to smell manure when they woke up.
The place was littered with all different kinds of mounts: camels, dromedaries, dwellers, and...
“Are those horses?” Aloe exclaimed in surprise at a couple of white and dark brown four-legged animals.
Horses were incredibly rare in the desert as they had difficulties surviving. The problem wasn’t the food, but the water. Those animals weren’t used to the heat and couldn’t contain water as easily as camels or dwellers. And besides, no desert inhabitants would have such striking colors. One horse was pure white, the other so dark that the brown looked black.
“Sure they are.” Someone responded behind her.
Aloe turned to look at the person who talked. It was a man leading a couple of dromedaries with a lead into the stables.
“How’s it?” Aloe asked, unfazed by the impromptu jumpscare. “I haven’t seen many of them here.”
“And for a reason!” The man chuckled. “They are from a couple of merchants, or travelers, I be damned if I knew. They come from Loyata, but they are here just passing through.”
“The Northern Plains?” She added as she observed the rather majestic animals.
“Aye.” The man tied the dromedaries to a pole. “Those fellas run everywhere in the plains. I have heard that in Loyata they have a horse for every ten soldiers.”
“That’s a lot of horses,” Aloe commented remotely interested.
“Well, then.” The man positioned himself before her. “What brings such a fine-standing girl to this place?”
“I was thinking of buying a mount, or rather, a pack animal.”
“A customer I see.” The man cleaned his hand with a rag and offered it to Aloe. “The name’s Jamal.”
“Aloe.” She accepted the hand without hesitating. Her father had told her that showing hesitation when intending to strike a deal only difficulted transactions. Though in his case it was rather loans than purchases.
“Alright, lad. Why do you need the animal for? Not wanna prey on your life, just trying to see what suits you best.”
“Hmm, I intend to make several travels into the desert. Some carrying load, but most travels just myself.” Aloe explained.
“Well, you are quite small...” Jamal whispered and Aloe frowned. “Sorry, I didn’t intend to offend.” He raised his hands in apology. “I just meant that if you just wanna travel with a mount, you are not going to need anything strong considering your stature and weight.” He added the last part diplomatically, sweetening the weight of a lady.
“I see,” Aloe said in understanding, though her voice carried visible annoyance.
“Ehm, well, what about housing?” Jamal shifted the conversation.
“Housing?”
“Yes, housing.” He nodded. “It doesn't seem like much, but most animals are rather fussy with their beds, so housing is a very important subject when buying one, especially these ones here.” Jamal patted at the wooden pole behind him. “Do you have a place to store the animals?”
Aloe thought for a moment before responding. “I do not. Not here, and not in the desert. Though outside there’s an oasis next to my residence, and I owe all the surrounding lands.”
“That’s a bit of a problem, but not much. Follow me.” Jamal gestured and started walking. “You can just pay to have us treat with any fella here so that’s not the question. It’s nice that you have a lot of land even if you don’t have any empty shed to house them. Are there palm trees in the oasis by any chance?”
“Yes, a lot of them.” Aloe nodded. “Also a considerable green patch of grass.”
“Are there any monster sightings or sandstorms near your residence?”
“None that I am aware of.”
“What’s your budget?” All the previous questions she had answered instantly, but with this one Aloe stopped to think, prompting a slight frown from Jamal as he turned to look at her.
“Not... great,” Aloe responded. “But there’s a margin.”
“I see.” Props to him, Jamal didn’t instantly make Aloe out but pondered his options for a second. “I do have a girl that may fill your criteria and budget, please follow me.” Though Aloe didn’t like the sudden inclusion of formal language and that ‘please’.
The well-standing and clean stables gradually shifted to a more shambled state as Jamal guided her. They weren’t slums as such, but it was obvious the animals here didn’t receive the same love as those at the entrance.
“Here we have her, Fikali.” Jamal pointed into a rather gloomy pen.
Inside lay a tired-looking desert dweller. Normally desert dwellers would have a dark brown color and relatively low bodies as they latched and borrowed into the ground, but this one looked a bit too pale, and her body lay lower than the ones Aloe had seen. The dweller still possessed the menacing claws common to her species, and she wasn’t exactly small either. It could probably weigh three or four times more than Aloe, easily.
“She seems a bit old,” Aloe stated.
“Well, Fikali is our oldest dweller in the stables.” Jamal countered. “If you want something cheap, this is your one.”
“I see,” The monster didn’t look sick, just old. That was more than enough for Aloe. “How expensive is she?”
“How much money do you have?”
“That’s not how trades work.” Aloe frowned at the stable master’s words. “If you are asking me for a price it’s because you don’t have one. And that means one of two things. It’s not for sale, or...”
“Alright, alright. You got me.” Jamal sighed. “Fikali here is rather useless to us, so I want to get rid of her, or at least, get some coin out of her remaining time.”
“And how long is that remaining time?”
“Hmm,” The man peered over his shoulder at the thick-skinned creature. “Around two years, give or take half.”
“That’s not a lot of time for a pack animal. It’s going to cost me to recover the investment.”
Jamal shrugged. “Not asking for much, how about two drupnarun?”
That’s two hundred drupnars!
Aloe almost choked at the price but held her stone expression. That would be a sign of weakness. No, negotiations should be played on equal terms, and if that wasn’t the case, those should be faked. In truth, the price of two electrum coins wasn’t much, but why waste money?
“A bit excessive, don’t you think?” Aloe said smugly, as she approached the pen. “Fikali here is old, two years means that I’ll have to at the very minimum gain ten drupnars per month to break even. I told you that I don’t intend to use her much, so the chance of breaking even is outright null. And besides what guarantees me she won’t fall ill?”
“It seems I won’t be able to rip you off.” Jamal chuckled, admitting to his crimes with a smile. “One drupnarun and a fajati, won’t go lower.”
When people say “I won’t go lower” they either mean that you will make them go lower easily, or that they won’t change their mind and a counteroffer will end in a broken deal. To Aloe, it was obvious she was dealing with the latter case here.
“One hundred and fifty drupnars, huh.” She pondered for a second. With the money she made in the apothecary from her grandfather’s seeds, she would still have some remaining money even after buying rations for the future. “Deal.”
The banker’s apprentice extended her hand and the stable master accepted.
“I don’t have the money here, but I don’t intend to pick Fikali just yet,” Aloe added once they undid their handshake. “I’ll go out of the city in a few days, can I pay and pick her up then?”
“Sure, no problem,” Jamal replied. “It isn’t like could you take her out right now. We would have to saddle her and ready the contracts. By the way, I don’t know if I mentioned but Fikali is too old to carry a load and a passenger at the same time, even with your build.”
“You did not mention that.” Aloe scowled. “And that’s a very important factor.
“Oh, shame. Deal’s already sealed, no take-backsies.” It was very much not sealed, but it was obvious that she had been played. And Jamal wouldn’t lower the price now. “If it helps you, a light load mounted could be doable at a lesser pace thanks to your low weight.”
“It helps, but not a lot.”
Aloe walked away from the stables before she decided to kick the man in the balls.
