18.1 : The Merchant

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From one of the dark turns of the forest path the shape of a cart emerged. Hoskgak glanced at it and quickly looked at Serenity and Destiny. There was something familiar about the pace and silhouette of that cart. More pies? One of those monsters the party left behind at the windmill?

They all prepared for battle, but as the figure came closer their muscles started to relax. Whoever was driving that cart wasn't as menacing as the hags selling child pies. Her hair was muddy, the cart was made of wood that was probably chopped centuries ago, yet it still managed to hold together. What strike the half-orc the most was her teeth. A kind of nasty green colour shapes inside of an unpleasant to looking mouth. Those teeth seemed made of algae from the swamps. Hoskgak looked to the side of the road, unable to hold that vision any longer. 
With suspicion, Serenity started a conversation about the weather and her items. Probably she could have started with the items, but for some reason people needed to make workarounds before doing business. Hoskgak was still struggling with the court rituals of bargaining in this part of the world. Back home things were simpler, without much chatter. Did Serenity really care about that ugly woman? Probably not.
With relieve for Hoskgak she said something about healing potions. He quickly moved in and ask to have a look at one. The half-orc moved the vial to the air, seeking a sun that will never appear to identify it's contents. It had a weird colour, but somewhat was kind of resembling a potion. Thinking twice and seeing Serenity struggling for gold, Hoskgak bough a second one for her without hesitation. Serenity thanked him and was happy with the new resource acquired. Hoskgak was kind of relieved to know there was a second vial, he rather let Serenity try that thing first. Quite likely she will need it first than him during battle, as she kept rushing to fight like a novice fighter. That will give him enough information to wether take it or trash it. Will Serenity really thank him if she knew what he was thinking? Probably not, but why he has to tell her, she was quite happy being able to afford one and he had a testing subject on her, so it was a win-win.
Immersed on all that plotting, for Hoskgak that was quite advance thinking, he missed something about a jumping ring. Looking at his pouch, he had almost no gold left to get it. It can be quite handy to keep pace with the cats. A big half-orc like him was less agile and the armour wasn't helping either. Destiny approached him and gave him what he need it to finally buy it from the ugly merchant.
As he started to test the jumping distance and the capabilities of that ring, he started wondering wether Destiny had different plans for him to have it. Will she expect for him to jump into battle sooner? Was she just nice to him? Well, whatever her plans, it was a win-win for him right now.

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