M1 - Merchants - Sassafrass (1)

Well, everything seemed to be going just dandy.

As the cart trundled along the bumpy ride towards Sanctuary, Felicity leaned out the back of the caravan to watch the stragglers lagging behind. One paw lay upon the bench seat, a claw tapping a steady rhythm as if she was bored, while the other gripped the wood to keep herself steady and awake.  

There was no need to sleep now, especially after everything that had just happened. Everything still smelt like smoke, but at least there was a large number of caravans left since both the her guild and the Adventurers had kept most of them safe by fending off both wild mons from Fungal Forest, plus those darned Raiders who kept trying to steal all their materials.  

Letting out a wide yawn, those tired eyes she fought to keep open traveled over the others riding in the cart with her. Most of them either fought sleep like she was, or had succumbed to it and were leaning either against the wall or bench. Some even lay on the floor, their bodies rocking gently along with the motions of the caravan.

No one had really stood out to her in this mission, at least; even the ones who had helped her out had left seemingly in a hurry after everything was all said and done.  

Bah, who cared about them. She was here for her own reasons and even though it was to make friends for the most part..well, it was better to act cheery to everyone she met and whatever happened, happened.  

The caravan suddenly stopped with a clunking noise, startling most out of their slumber and prompting Felicity to tilt, almost tumbling out of the cart in her haste to get onto solid ground. With her paws hitting packed dirt she felt instantly more awake as the cool feeling tickled her somewhat dulled senses.  

Wearily scratching behind one of her ears as her green eyes adjusted to the darkness, she was able to make out the town close by. Sanctuary looked quite interesting at night, with all the streets lit up and the stars overhead twinkling brightly.  

Guessing the time to be quite late, the water type decided to go back to her cart and rest for the time being. She didn’t want to bother the sisters and Tilly at this time, even though her stomach was gurgling despite the tasty berries they had snacked on that were shared around near the end of the journey, though most mons were too tired to eat and simply passed them off to others.

Not paying attention to others climbing out of the carts, Felicity made her way into town, moving as silently as possible. There were no need for words at this point; everyone was too tired and more than likely worn out from all that battling, or even protecting the caravans. It had been somewhat rough but she supposed that being in a guild, it would be somewhat tough to live her day to day life and still do missions as they came. Even though it was still early in her membership, the water type couldn’t help but wonder if they got breaks now again..she wouldn’t mind traveling around.

Seems like time management was going to come into play here if she wanted to keep up her wandering and have the guild leaders come to trust her or something like that..

How annoying.

The journey back to her abode was simpler than she thought, even though she for the most part, had never made her way back to Sanctuary from the outside before. It had mainly been inside the town..though she wasn’t sure if she was sober or not when those trips happened.  

Continuing on her merry way, Felicity passed by many places that were both familiar and unfamiliar to her; were there new shops in town while they were gone? Hm..they hadn’t been gone that long, but Sanctuary was a new place and it seemed that in this case no matter how long she would be gone, whenever she returned new stores would be there. Even if this town was small right now, in time it would grow large. How could anyone expect anything different when so many new mons appearing at once, with more along the way?

Hm, maybe these new places would want to trade with her after a while, or maybe even now. It was always good to have new connections, especially in a strange town where she wasn’t known through word of mouth or simply passing by.  

Soon, the ground became rougher underneath the Slowpoke as she made her way forwards, claws scratching furrows in the dirt. Spotting the familiar edges of her cart in the soft darkness surrounding the area, the water type sniffed as she made her way around the rough wood she had shaped carefully with her own two claws. Every piece was a memory of her past, a past she could barely remember at times and for others, it was astounding clarity.  

Making her way around the back of her cart, the Slowpoke’s eyes razed sharply over ever single board, checking for damage, wear, tear or simply anything amiss. She’d be damned if any more damage was done to her abode, especially since the last time she had lost most of her stock and replenishing it had been tough as nails. In an unconscious motion her claws felt along the edges until they reached the hidden compartment at the back and with a gentle tug it opened smoothly.

The smell of worn fabric and the faintest hint of spice greeted Felicity as she edged her way into her home nose first, wiggling her way amongst the comfy fabric until she had pushed her body entirely into the cart. With the tip of her tail she gently closed the door until only the barest touches of light peeked through, though from her position she wouldn’t see it until the sun rose high into the sky.  

Curling into the smallest ball possible with the tip of her tail touching her snout, the Slowpoke sniffled before nestling down into a more comfortable position. All these pillows, blankets, scarves..they were mainly trade items, or objects she had found along her journey through many towns.  

It smelt like home..whatever that was. She remembered her mom, her dad, her grandparents..

There was something else too..but what?  

Just thinking about it made her feel uncomfortable so she simply pushed those thoughts aside and settled down again, letting out an enormous yawn as she tried to get to finally get to sleep. Tomorrow would be another busy day and she needed all the rest she could get.

Yes..tomorrow was another day..

*               *                   *  

The sun was already high in the sky when Felicity woke with a groan, her body aching, head pounding and a thirst racketing her throat. While a dry tongue rasped her lips, that ever moving tail slithered back to hook itself on the small slit left behind hours before and dragged it back inch by inch until light flooded her small sleeping area.

Squinting at the light caught her eyes, the water type let out a yawn to paw at her face, wishing she could have slept more. Something urgent must have come up to awaken her, or maybe it was just her body saying “Hey dummy, you’ve slept enough and the sun is high, so it’s time to get up!”

If that was the case, then why did she feel like a large Pokemon had sat on her for a large majority of time. It hurt to move, but at least, not to think.  

Painfully slow, she slid out backwards inch by inch until her tail touched the ground. It was slightly cold, but bearable so she let her paws touch as well almost instantly without any thought. Slightly scraping the dirt with her back claws she dug them in until she could straighten up entirely, though it was exhausting to do so.  

Stretching up into her tip paws, the Slowpoke raised her paws to the sky and let out a groan as her stiff muscles protested, just as they did every morning. This time it seemed to be more prominent, because while she was used to walking, yesterday had been quite a distance without really resting or stretching..or even napping.

Man, she did love to sleep.

Making sure the rest of her body was in shape via more stretching, especially the kinks out of her tail, Felicity started to wander away from her cart but not before making sure it was all closed up so no passerby would think it was a free meal. There were many important documents and items inside that in the wrong hands..well, whatever came after wouldn’t be pretty.  

With the sun high in the sky, the town was busy as per usual. Mons wandered every which way, some chatting amongst themselves while others yelled their wares at stalls set up amongst the streets. Felicity wove her way through somewhat familiar streets, her tail flicking steady and calm patterns behind her. Her eyes floated from one place to another, gauging their wares and picking apart what would work for her in means of trade. Nothing seemed like it would work for her for now, but there was still time for others to expand.

Everything could be traded in time; one just had to be patient and wait.  

Ignoring the majority of guild members who were heading into the direction of where it seemed the leaders were gathered, the Slowpoke turned down a side street that looked mangy to say the least, but to a keen eye it was where the best trade was. No one bothered to look amongst the cracks where things were..different, to say the least.  

One place stood out to her in particular, having been there many times as of late. It was a run down place called Café Risk, though no one really knew what that meant except for the owners and they weren’t willing to tell. With small wooden tables complete with chairs sitting outside that were bolted down to make sure no one stole them, brick walls inside and not only a dark blue paint job outside but calming blues on the inside walls, it looked like a peaceful place.

..Granted, whoever had stayed there as much as she had, knew that definitely wasn’t true.  

With gentle paw steps she made her way towards the door, slipping her way inside. The bell sitting over top of the door jangled softly but no one turned to look as she sat herself down at one of the tables. It seemed busy inside, everyone chatting amongst themselves as they enjoyed their food.

Tapping her claws along the edges of the table, the water type allowed her eyes to wander to see who was here. Hopefully no one wanted to cause trouble right now; she had her own business to take care of today and was simply too tired to help out with any ruffians that decided to wander in of their own accord.

In time, there was a shuffling noise from the back and a seemingly timid Riolu wearing a very frilly apron came out from behind the counter, carrying some menus. Wordlessly they approached the Slowpoke, who simply gave a wide grin before patting the blue furred mon on the shoulder with a gentle paw while speaking to them.  

The first time she had been herself the water type had almost scared the markings off this poor thing so with a reminder to be more careful and not make too many sudden movements, they had gotten along just fine.

Although they seemed the agreeable type and that was just fine with her. The more contacts she made in this place, the better.  

“G’morning Tilly; what’s fer lunch?”

Silently, the fighting type handed her a menu before turning and approaching another customer, who was signaling in somewhat lofty motions. After a hushed conversation Tilly wrote down their order on a piece of paper and checking to make sure no one else wanted to order anything else went into the back to get the diners food.

Felicity waited a bit before making her order. There wasn’t any need to rush right now and even though she might be late to the party or whatever was going on with the guild leaders right now, she doubted they wanted to see her after the mess she had made with Salvador. Though she felt no worse for wear after that “battle” they probably didn’t appreciate the fact that she had almost damaged one of their carts by throwing the Breloom into it.

She felt a bit down she hadn’t managed to get any samples off of him; he might have had something good she could have crafted into an item to sell. Oh well, there was always next time..the peppery Pokemon had a somewhat nagging feeling that Fungal Forest would be visited once again by all the guilds at one point in time, or at least specifically the her own guild.  

Tilly came through the back quite a few times during her stay at Café Risk but only really came towards Felicity once, and that was to give the water type her order. It was quiet as the Slowpoke ate her meal steadily, wanting to savour it. Not everything exciting could happen while she was here but her curiousity did arise at the thought that when the shop was closed, nefarious deeds went on in the back or something along those lines.  

Man, she would give a pretty poke to get in on that kinda action.  

The sun hadn’t moved much when the thrill seeker left the café, patting her now rounded stomach. That had been a good meal so she had tipped well, though at that café not tipping meant a hasty trip out the door by force and no one who ate there really wanted that.  

Moving lazily, she continued on her way. It was probably better to go to where all the excitement was at this point and figure out what was going on with the guild leaders right now. It was pretty late and she didn’t want to miss out on what was happening. Maybe it would even lead to more excitement, like having to take from the rich and give to the poor.

Wait, was that what their guild was about or was that the Raiders? Eh, whatever; time to start walking!  

Though she didn’t go back the same way coming to the café, it was lucky the Slowpoke hadn’t gotten lost as she appeared in the upper parts of Sanctuary not a half hour later. Huh, that was strange..she hadn’t remembered going up a hill at all.  

This part of the Santuary was busier than usual it seemed. Almost all the guilds and quite a few “civilians” were wandering about (she still had the sneaking suspicion that her rock headed friend still wasn’t telling her everything, but she’d get it out of him one way or another), talking to the guild leaders about this and that. Maybe they were asking for help or taking on a mission, like she was going to do. Not that she really wanted to, but it was for a good cause and she needed to make herself known more amongst them if her trade was going to go up.

Not that she would have any problem making it rise by herself, but it would be slow going in a small town like this.

Definitely a far cry from the big city she had been in just a year ago, a wet behind the ears greenhorn who had been thrust in faster than she could say..well, ‘Sassafrass’.

Her Leaders weren’t particularly hard to spot; the different shades of green they were all wearing were easily spotted amongst the crowds. Weaving her way through the throngs of mons was simple for her. It was much easier than being bowled over by carrying a heavy cart and having to struggle uphill both ways but being by herself, it was almost too easy.  

The Squirtle spotted her first and gave her a small wave, prompting her to wave back in a very pleased fashion, almost hitting another mon in her supposed glee.  

A slow grin was beginning to make its way onto her face as she approached, and Mani had a somewhat sinking feeling in his gut at what she was going to say next. Not all Merchants were like her and she made him lose his cool. Even after she had promised not to do anything reckless again there was the fact that Felicity might tweak the mission to suit her more..and with her way of thinking she would have no problem making others dance to her tune, or become enamored in her own temp that she seemed to have going on.  

That’s what worried him the most.  

“Ah ain’t here t’ bug ya, turtly,” she reassured him, her tongue poking out a bit in a teasing manner “Ah’m ‘ere for th’ mission..or whatever it is you’re all ‘ere fer.”

“Ah,” said the smaller mon, trying not to meet the over eager mons eye as she stared at him as if in challenge..or maybe she was just trying to figure out who she was. Her stares could be unconsciously keen if she made them, but it wasn’t her fault..right? “Sorry about that Miss Felicity..it’s really only small things this time. We don’t want to burden our members with too much, ahaha..especially since even though the mission was a success, there are a lot that need rest.”

“Wull that’s fine,” she replied, stroking her tail in a casual manner, as if to not betray her disappointment. “What’ve we got on t’ table then?”

“W-Well uh..” Mani trailed off, prompting Quinn to take over. He flashed the Slowpoke something that seemed halfway between a beaming smile and something that looked like he wanted to bite her so she backed off just an inch..only just though.

“It depends on what you’d like to do; we’ve got three tasks if you’re up to it.”

“Three?” came the somewhat curious response, as if she was somewhat aghast by what they were saying. “Ah thought ya said ya wanted members t’ rest.”

“You don’t have to do all of them; just one is fine.” the dragon type replied, fluffing up his chest fur with one of his paws before continuing on “You just have to be more..careful this time around, all right?”

A grimace; oh dear..seems like all of them had heard from Mani what had gone on. Seems like she would indeed have to be more careful and be a bit more..what was that word..

“Anyways, these three tasks shouldn’t be a problem for anyone to handle right now. They’re simple enough as is..”

Rustling around, the scarf wearer pulled out a piece of paper and seemed to begin reading it..wait, wasn’t he blind? Was he mocking them in some way..?

“The first task is to accompany our Lady Eva back into Fungal Forest and help deal with the damage that was caused by not only cleaning up the debris that’s been left behind, but also using uh..something called “Mr Hadars burn healing ointment” to make sure that whoever got burned during the attack is all nice and healed up while she deals with Salvador. Working in small groups is preferred for this task but you should also watch out for any Raiders who are wandering about the forest..if they’re still there that is.”

He looked up to see if Felicity was paying attention or had any questions so far. Since she didn’t seem to, he continued onwards with..’reading’.  

“Second is to take some of our wares that we had in the caravans and try to bargin for a good deal from the owner of the Lazy Lombre, Scheat. Now, even th-..”

“Scheat?” Felicity interrupted; what kind of a dumb name was that? Sounded more like ch-..

The look that Quinn gave her closed her mouth for only a moment, as if he knew what she was going to say. Then he continued on, as if nothing had been said to break the ramble he was on at the moment.

“This is one of the more challenging missions so far, because Scheat’s said to be one tough customer. He’s also part of our Fair Trade act, so we have to deal with him to get first option on more valuable items that are in the works right now.”

“Be careful about Raiders or any suspicious behavior on your way there or back though; we don’t need anymore trouble in Sanctuary right now.”

That felt more like a jab to her, and as if insulted, Felicity drew herself up to her full height and before Quin could go on, said in a somewhat huffy tone “Ah’ll take that one.” He didn’t seemed too surprised and simply guided her to a cart that was filled with..well, it looked like drinks.

Felicity face showed that she was less than displeased, but since the look was wasted on the blind dragon type, she took to sticking out her tongue instead and muttering:  

“Ah’m sellin’ this stuff?”

“He is a bartender, after all.” was his only reply before looking back at Mani, who was talking with some other guild members who had just appeared. “Good luck Felicity; we’ll be checking in on you later after you’ll all finished, all right?”

With that, he left her to her own devices while she stood still for a moment, debating if she had made the right choice. While selling stuff was her forte..hm, maybe she should have listened to the last option out of the three tasks..

Well..it couldn’t be too hard, could it?  

Now to look at what the Guild had given her to trade..

Ew, her cargo looked like complete garbage. No wonder a mon might have a hard time selling or bartering; this stuff was so trashed that even she wouldn’t touch the stuff. She wasn’t too keen on objects in the drinks department but it was only when she was first starting out that all her stuff had been dinged, shaken and broken like this.

Placing her paws to feel exactly what the damage was, Felicity’s normally cheerful face went from sour expression to just plain apathetic. Yeesh, this was a job for kids, not an experienced trader like herself! Despite these negative thoughts a small sprig of hopefulness wormed it way through the foggy thoughts of despair. It wasn’t the most dangerous job she had gotten in her time trading..in fact it was quite the opposite.

How hard could this Scheat guy be to trade with, anyways?

Her claws wove their way through with the soft touch of someone who had experience with handling fragile objects, gently clinking against damaged glass and scored packages with their labels torn and almost hanging on by a thread. She was by no means a tailor, so this would have to do for the time being..

There was no rule saying that she wasn’t able to sweeten the deal in her own manner, though~  

Crouching underneath the bar that allowed the cart to be pulled Felicity simply gave a tug to test the weight of the materials in the cart. Hm, not too shabby; it was lighter than she expected but would probably cause someone who wasn’t used to a little hard work some trouble. Granted, this was probably because of the shaken around contents inside..at least none of them had spilled though.  

Using her tail as a lever, the Slowpoke began to pull the cart in the direction of where the Lazy Lombre was..which direction was it in again? She had never been there before and was a bit too proud to ask her Leaders where a place was that she could find easily in a small town such as this.

For all she knew, it was probably right in front of her face. Though she entered Santuary from every which way and last time it had been dark, so it wasn’t like she had been paying that much attention to where everything way. That was for another time, when she actually had to find her way around if someone asked her for directions.  

Hitching up the cart front, the water type trotted forwards in what seemed  the right direction. She hadn’t seen any other Merchants Teams she had recognized though from what she had heard floating around, a lot of others had seemed to want to join the more exciting guilds, like the Raiders or Adventurers.

What a pity; she got more than enough fun being a Merchant, especially if this Lombre was such a tough customer like the Leaders had described him.

She was almost rubbing her paws in anticipation at such an “adventure”, but first to find the place..maybe it was over here?  

It was time to go and make herself known to this.. ‘Scheat’.