Delayed Transfer

Hamil the caravan leader told Mark that there were no spare caravan carts at the moment and if he wanted one, he would have to commission their dwarven blacksmith together with the halflings to make him one and since it would probably take more days that they were willing to stay in the village, it would cost him a pretty penny.

Mark said that he was willing to pay since before he left his country, he liquidated all of his assets and was carrying his wealth with him. Hamil, the caravan leader noticed that Mark wasn’t wary of telling him that he was carrying his wealth with him, which announced the fact that he was confident in himself in keeping that wealth.

Hamil led Mark back to the dwarven blacksmiths for him to talk to them about his commission. The caravan leader then said that he hadn’t met all of the caravan people, and he should be able to meet all of them in the following days.

“You’ve just been here and now you’re back again!”  One of the dwarven blacksmiths named Nilfur Forgehammer shouted at Hamil while holding a mug of ale.

“Nilfur, Mark here has some business with you.”  Hamil pointed at Mark and made a point of staying.

 “Hello again Nilfur. Since you know that I will be joining your caravan, I would like to have a caravan of my own and Hamil here said that there was no extra empty one, but you would be willing to make me one with the right price.”  The dwarf questioningly looked at the caravan leader who nodded back.

“For a caravan as big as ours, it would probably take five days with the help of all of the halflings. It would cost you all in all around 20 gold coins.”

Hamil interrupted and said he would need to add three gold coins for the extra days the caravan would need to stay in the village.

Mark gave the dwarf three pouches with one pouch filled with 10 gold coins.

“Will that be enough?”  Mark smiled.

The dwarf and Hamil the caravan leader checked the gold coins. Mark knew that his coins were a bit larger than the local ones as mentioned by Edmond the innkeeper. When they saw Mark’s gold coins, Nilfur and Hamil’s jaw dropped. They saw that Mark’s gold coins were twice as big as regular gold coins. Mark then asked Hamil a favor and gave the caravan leader two leather pouches. One was filled with 10 gold coins, and one was filled with 10 silver coins. He told the leader to convert the coins to regular ones and give them back to him. He mentioned that he was expecting exactly 10 gold and 10 silver coins and any extra the caravan leader would earn, he may keep.

Hamil smiled and mentioned that Mark was truly wealthy and generous. The dwarves got busy, and Mark went to the theater the caravan people constructed to watch the scheduled play. He saw Ned and his friends purchasing tickets by the door.

Mark greeted Ned and his friends and asked if he could join them. The young people agreed and all of them found a seat to watch the play. Before the play started, Ned told Mark that his father allowed him to go to the village to watch the circus. Mark mentioned to Ned that he joined the caravan. Ned and his friends looked at him enviously and he just laughed. In any world, young people dreamed of joining the circus.

As advertised by Lorendo the magician, the play was about a pair of young lovers separated forcefully by a cruel noble. It was full of drama, suspense, and romance. Almost all of the audience cried when it came to the mushy parts and Mark could see the young people’s blood boiling when it came to the action parts. All in all, it was a nice play but since Mark had been bombarded by the internet, T.V., and movie shows, from cheesy shows to interpretations of the great playwrights' works like Shakespeare and Bronte, he considered the play the caravan people presented as average.

Nevertheless, Mark was impressed by the actor’s prowess. They really knew how to act. The fight scenes were entertaining without the cringe-overacting that he expected from amateurs. The romantic scenes were dramatic without being overly mushy. All in all, he would give the play a score of 6 out of 10. If the story had been better, he would have given them a higher score.

After the play, Lorendo announced that there was another show at night, but it would only be shown to adults. Mark wondered if there would be racy scenes, that’s why it’s for adults only but he was still looking forward to it. Ned then mentioned that he would stay at the inn and would return home the next day.

Mark went out to circulate among the caravan people, introducing himself. He saw a group of beast men in one caravan consisting of three cat girls and two cat boys. One caravan had a family of beast men consisting of one dog man for the husband and his wife was a rabbit girl. He then learned that the beast men could mate with each other regardless of what species they were.

Mark tactfully asked the older dog man named Ronnie what the children would be if two different species were to be husband and wife and was informed that the boy would follow the man and the girl would follow the woman. He wondered how it all worked but remembered that this was a different world governed by a different set of systems.

Mark then talked to the humans who were the actors in the most recent play that he had seen. They mentioned that they had been doing the entertainment work for almost 6 years and that was why they were good at what they did.   Mark thought of the movies he had and knew that someday, if they became close to him, he would probably show some of his movies and T.V. shows to them.

Mark then went to a group of caravans who were taking care of the exotic animals. They arranged their caravan and the cages like a zoo and people can purchase tickets at the entrance for them to view the animals. Surprisingly, the beast-man at the door didn’t ask for payment from Mark, recognizing him as part of the caravan already.

Inside the zoo-like arrangement of the caravan people, Mark saw a couple of miniature manticores, a three-headed large snake, a beautiful unicorn who looked exactly like the one that appeared whenever he cast his Forest Sanctuary spell, a monstrous-looking vulture, a couple of large snakes with wings, a couple of black jaguars that kept on disappearing and appearing inside their cage, a peacock who had golden feathers and when it spread its tail, it was magnificent, and a flock of hummingbirds that looked like flying jewels inside a glass enclosure.  He was impressed by the abilities of the people who were able to take care of these exotic animals.