The Hunter's Guide to Monsters

Still day 12 (in-game)

Karukorm Town, The Southwestern Lowlands

Status: cheerfully exploring and no longer lost

*

With the meat and materials from the redcrest pheasants and vinebears, the group of formers slaves had some resources with which to start their lives over, not to mention Talan had personally taken on the role of making certain everyone had sufficiently recovered and was on their way to a better life, even the vargvir.

Seeing that, Krow left them to it.

Karukorm was quite different from Nyurajke. The main difference, really, was that Karukorm had more structures that weren't towers.

The town had six towers which, from what he knew, was low for a draculkar town.

Nyurajke had twenty-six towers. He'd counted. But then, it had been a major trade town.

From Karukorm's traffic, it had fewer visitors. But it was still a town on one of the major roads in the large draculkar nation, and should've had no fewer than ten towers.

As one of the riders in the caravan described it, there were 'two hands' afforded to every town leader – one seen, one unseen, and two that only showed their ten fingers.

From the groans it had elicited, it was an old saying.

Krow entered the apothecary shop, to the jingling sound of an ordinary bell.

"Welcome!" A female draculkar stuck her head out from between two shelves behind the counter. "I'll be with you in a moment!"

The head disappeared, and a cracking, twisting noise sounded, followed by a low curse.

Krow's eyebrows raised at the continuing sounds.

The apothecary popped out from beneath the counter, leaned her elbows on the wood as if nothing happened. "Right. What would be your pleasure?"

"Fool's Antidote, if you have it."

Fool's Antidote was called that because, in addition to its inherent curative effects, it used a portion of the drinker's HP to defeat the poison – the danger was such that if they weren't careful, they'd die from drinking too much.

On the other hand, it was the best Antidote against mysterious poisons because of that attribute.

"Three drax, four serpens a vial."

Krow considered. "A lower price, and I'll buy ten hundred-item crates of it."

"Oh, uh…three thousand one hundred for everything."

Krow nodded.

She smiled, pleased. "You'll have to pick them up from the back storage. We have a surplus, since two orders from the southern villages had been canceled recently. Have you transportation ready?"

Aha, it looked like Krow was now back to ignoring quest prompts.

How nostalgic.

The last time felt so long ago.

Exiting the apothecary, he ran into Liwi, her friends Kadran and Mellea, and two older teens that obviously been sent to keep an eye on them – a siren and a draculkar respectively.

"Krow!" Liwi waved enthusiastically. "We're gathering supplies!"

He greeted them. "You're not staying then?"

He hadn't really expected them to stay. The vargvir race had contentious relationships with draculkar at best, and sirens preferred warmer and wetter climes than these mountains.

Sure enough, the teenaged siren laughed at the notion. "Too much air in these high places. A wonder you don't all get blown off the peaks."

"The stories say we offended the lords of cloud and sky, who cursed us to crawl on land," the draculkar said with an air of absent-mindedness. He examined Krow openly, not hiding his curiosity. "And no matter how the wind howls to return our wings, the curse binds us to the earth, so there won't be any blowing off."

"That explains all the towers," the siren shuddered. "Never again."

"You wanted to see the world like a bird," the draculkar pointed out. "How was I to know you were afraid of heights?"

"You could've warned me there was such a thing!" the siren complained. "There are no 'heights' where I come from."

Liwi tugged on Krow's coat. "Where can we find um, oilcloth cloaks? And waterbags."

"We've been walking for ages," huffed her friend Kadran.

Mellea, the tallest of the three children, sent a dubious look at the bickering teens. "They maybe might have offended the Guard, so we couldn't ask questions."

Krow was amused. Who again was keeping an eye on who?

"I'm heading for a travel shop myself. Better get there before it closes."

It was nearly evening, after all.

The assistance provided by the town was modest, but it was enough to buy waterproof cloaks and waterbags for a hundred people.

Unless, the proprietor was being particularly unhelpful.

Krow came back empty-handed from searching for a map to the Guinsant Alliance territory, only to see the teens sporting blank gazes, having placed themselves between the proprietor and the younger ones.

"I'm telling you, this is what all the travelers buy here." The draculkar at the counter had the gall to look exasperated. "They may look like this, but these are the durable kind. The best kind, they grow more comfortable with use."

Krow walked over. They eyed the stiff cloaks and old waterbags.

No one believed him.

"You're saying this is the best that this town can produce?" Krow pretended to inspect the items seriously. "The most popular travel products in the kingdom?"

"Of course!"

Krow brought out his Travelkit.

The draculkar stiffened.

Krow took out the waterbag from the kit, inspected it side by side with the waterbag that the proprietor offered them.

"I've been deceived!" Krow cried quite sincerely, shocking everyone. "And I thought this was working well for me."

He sighed despondently, the very picture of innocence betrayed.

"I must thank you for ridding me of my ignorance, my friend. I now know, this Travelkit is trash! Shopkeeper," he turned pleading eyes on the stunned but relieved draculkar behind the counter. "Forgive the children for their mistake. At this moment, we cannot pay for the best that the kingdom can offer. But this, something like this trash is good enough for us. Will you sell us this kind of waterbags instead?"

The shopkeep froze.

He looked at the Travelkit and saw it was an authentic extended kit.

He looked into Krow's eyes and saw nothing but sincerity.

"I will tell everyone of your generosity, of course," Krow continued. "I wish to be an honorable traveler after all, that's when I came across my young friends and became their traveling companion."

He waved at the kids with him, who'd hilariously decided to play along and now sported their best crestfallen and apologetic looks.

They were as woebegone as kittens in the rain.

"I will buy a set of these cloaks and bags, so we will know what quality looks like. Something to show off to everyone I come across," Krow lifted the old wretched waterbag as if it were made of gold. "And tell them it is the best that Karukorm can offer!"

The shopkeep's face paled.

"So shopkeep," Krow leaned across the counter, smiling, almost unable to keep the sharklike grin from his face. He lifted the Travelkit's waterbag. "Will you sell us instead, this type of cheap cloaks and waterbags? We will gather our money to acquire just the one set of your best items, and show them off at every village and town! I promise, your good name, the name of the Karukorm travel shop, will sound from here to the plains!"

If the shopkeep was pale before, he was bloodless now.

Krow could see his eyes moving from side to side, frantic, racing to get himself out of this predicament.

"I…" the shopkeeper raised a sleeve to wipe his brow. "I'm afraid we don't keep this type of…trash."

"Ah?" Krow deflated dramatically.

He heard sounds from the group behind him, almost like weeping. He tried very hard not to twitch and glare at them. Tears would be overselling it, you brats!

"Should we go to another travelshop?" He asked, to keep the shopkeeper's attention on him. "Do you think we could bring your wares there, just to compare?"

The shopkeep stared at him like he was staring at an oncoming tsunami.

Krow met the blank gaze with his most innocently confused look, while he cursed internally.

Shkav, did he go too far?

"I have…" the shopkeep shook his head, then forced a wide smile. "I don't have items so cheap as yours, but I have something a bit better. I will sell them to you for a discounted price, as long as we never speak of it again…"

The tone of the last sentence sounded truly pained.

Krow brightened. "You really are a person to know, shopkeeper! Meeting you is the blessing of the gods!"

Mellea, with great timing, pushed between the teenagers to hand the list to the shopkeep with a trembling smile. "Th-thank you!"

The eyes, bright, expectant, and wide as a star-chaser looking at an idol, then the great blow, the tremulous stutter.

Krow mentally gave her a big thumbs up.

Children were so precocious these days.

The shopkeeper twitched, nodded. "I'll get a crate."

He turned and left.

The transaction went smoothly, with Krow cheerfully chatting while ignoring the sullen demeanor of the shopkeeper.

He threw the shopkeeper one last bright smile as he herded the kids outside and around the nearest corner.

"Pfft!"

Krow then realized that the others hadn't been weeping. They'd been stifling amusement.

He mock-glared at them. "Are you not grateful, to have met such a kind and understanding shopkeeper?"

The older three roared gleeful laughter.

Krow laughed with them.

Kadran and Liwi, who were the youngest, looked at each other, mystified.

Kadran tilted his head, ears flopping. "I don't understand."

Mellea leaned on her furry friend, still giggling. "Just know that Krow was awesome."

Liwi bounded over to Krow. "Mellea said you were awesome!"

The other girl flushed. "Liwi!"