The Caravan - Day 22 of Hegit, Year 3 of Syb

The next day, a merchant came from the citadel of Dugbann to buy Tears we harvested yesterday. As expected, the trade value for Tears was decreased quite bad. “Are you serious?”, my father said to the merchant, “ we fought hard to get these Tears, and you can only give us two hundreds Mesas for a package?”. The merchant then replied, “ There is nothing we merchants could do about it, with the recent monsters activities, the Tears supplies is almost overloading our warehouses.” With nothing both of us could do, and a slight discontent in his face, my father traded the Tears eventually and accepted the pay. It was actually not that bad, we got about two thousand Mesas in the trade. With that amount we can live normally without hunting monsters for about six days, and there will be enough Mesas left for us to repair our arms and buy healing items or small magical trinkets to aid us in our next hunt. I am thinking of buying the Elven’s Thimble, I hear it could hasten and empower archery attacks.

After trading with the whole village and stacked his caravan with goods – our village is quite popular for its pottery, Crimshaw The Historian told me it dated back a few tens of thousands years ago – the merchant came by our house and talked with my father. I heard him made some kind of proposal, “I know you are quite disappointed with our trade just now though I know it would cover your needs for the next few days. But if you are interested, I can shove some more coins for you.”. “Hmm..Please continue.”, my father said. The merchant then explained to us about wave of monsters attacking his caravan on his way to our village. “It is not that we could not handle the attacks, but we merchants never look for risks and want to ensure our safety. And that is by hiring your strength, what say you?”. After hearing this, I went outside and checked his caravan. The merchant was actually well-equipped for the trip to our village, the carts were made of Anthopijo woods, which is a sturdy wooden material, and were pulled by strong horses. The caravan guards, by the looks of the insignia in their shields and armors, were a detached division of Jar’Ad Pajan Kingdom Guards called The Blue Swan. From what I have heard, The Blue Swan is a division consists of war veterans who are injured so that they are not quite qualified for war-scale combats but still have the skills to be a great adversary, even for an Ogre Warrior. But I could see the weariness in their eyes, maybe that was also the reason the merchant asked for my father’s strength, after all my father was a member of Jar’Ad Pajan Kingdom Guards.

When I went back to our house, my father told me something unexpected, “Son, I cannot leave the village because of a certain reason. But I think we need some more Mesas, so how about you go with them?”. While still trying to digest his word, my father continues, “It will not be that hard for you, I know I have taught you well since you can wield weapons from bows and arrows to spears and shields. After all, you can use the opportunity to gain experience and knowledge in the citadel”. Well, it is not that I was against the idea of me assisting The Blue Swan in guarding the caravan, it is just I am still not sure whether I will be of help or burden to the pack. But I am curious about the world outside my village area, so in the end I decided to go with them. Knowing that I will go instead of my father, the merchant looked somewhat downhearted but do not say a word against it, he told me, “Your father insisted that you will a good asset for guarding my caravan, and since he is an old friend of mine I trust him with my heart. But not with my logic, so I guess you should prove yourself worthy on the road to the citadel if you want to get the same amount of Mesas as your father would get.”. If the merchant want me to back down with his words, he made a mistake, though I have my logic in rating my strength I will not be underestimated by the likes of him. And so I stocked up my arms, taking with me Composite Bow +1, Buckler +1, and Longhorn – my favorite weapon, a spear tipped with metal spearhead said to forged by adding the horn of two mythical creatures, Chimaera and Unicorn, to the melted steel –, I will load my arms tomorrow since the caravan planned to spend the night in the local inn, Merry Whispers. Might as well join them to know the caravan’s attitude better.