16 A Caravan (1)
They spent the rest of the night chatting. With the dawn, the company moved out of the city. As soon as the gates were open, the plaza outside the city gates was filled with people. The earliest in the morning was the busiest time for the merchants.
A caravan was preparing to head out.
As Gold Association didn't announce the caravan in advance, only four other merchants joined it. As a result, there were five draft horses on the plaza, three of which belonged to The Gold Association.
It wasn't that The Gold Association couldn't afford to use spatial purses, but that it was really not cost-efficient.
For example, Feather's pouch only had about two cubic meters of space. That was more than enough for a single traveler. But when you needed to transport cargo in large quantities that amount of space could not be considered as much.
There were heavy limitations to how much inbuilt space artifacts could have. Outstanding artifacts could have a lot of inbuilt space, but firstly, to use them you'd have to be a mage, and not only that, you'd have to be a considerably powerful mage. And what mage would want to be a courier for commoners? Nonsense.
As such, merchants mostly traveled in big caravans transporting cargos by horses. It was much more convenient. One draft horse could carry up to several tons of cargo.
At the same time, while traveling together with fellow merchants, one could save money on guards. Big caravans required lots of guards, but small caravans needed guards too. As the bandits along the way were mostly the same, amount of guards you needed didn't depend too much on your caravan size. That way going with a larger caravan was way more economical.
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The draft horses were way bigger than common riding horses. Generally, everything that could be ridden on was called horses in the Cheeseworld. There were many species of horses. Common riding horses were about a human height tall, had powerful hind legs and short forelegs. The sturdy legs made them excellent runners. Long tails balanced them out, and long necks allowed them to reach tree crowns to eat yummy leaves. Their heads were small, so they weren't particularly clever, but were very obedient and easy to manage. With their claws and sharp teeth, they looked scary but were actually meek.
Draft horses, on the other hand, were moody and challenging to use. They regarded humans as pests, as they were way bigger than any man. The smallest draft horses had at the very least the height of a man and as they grew, reaching three to four human heights was normal. To tame a draft horse a man needed to be very strong, as they weren't too sensitive and directing them was a hard work. Teamsters at all times wore sticks with a sharp point at the end coated in a special substance. This substance had a numbing effect, so if the horse went wild, it could be stopped.
Draft horses weren't too fast; they had several pairs of limbs depending on their age. When reaching maturity, all of them had three pairs of legs and would grow more with time. Still, those with more than five pairs were also uncommon as they were generally too old. With age draft horses would become even moodier and could no longer be used in public places.
Feather looked at five big horses. The smallest of them was more than two her heights and has six legs. The biggest one was three times higher than her and had ten legs. The last three had eight legs each and were somewhere in the middle.
All the horses were lazily lying on their stomachs while the workers were busying themselves around the horses fastening the cargo to them.
Feather was awed by how swift and professional they were. The big boxes and sacks were loaded in a matter of minutes.
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As Feather was watching the workers, Lance came up to her.
"Impressive, ain't they?" he said looking at the last preparations.
Right now he was wearing an additional knee-long robe and a hat trimmed with fur. The hat fully covered his hair. With an addition of a curved knife and a shamshir under the belt, he looked exactly like those southern brigands. Nothing one would imagine a merchant should look like. He even had a big steel needle piercing his ear. Feather knew that those southern tribes used piercings as a mark of social status. She didn't know what this particular way of piercing meant, but the only ones in the tribes without the piercings were slaves and foreigners. That showed that Lance had some standing in those tribes. Not an easy feat for an outsider.
The only thing denoting his being a merchant was a heap of golden rings on his fingers. Well, at least, that showed he was wealthy. Still, he looked savage even despite smiling and being cheerful all the time. He looked like a beast which would strike at any moment. Feather wondered if the bandits on the way would all run away just looking at him.
The other merchants joining the caravan looked a bit less menacing, but still, they were armed and stern. No hired hands would protect your property before their own lives, so if a merchant couldn't fight, he'd better out of the profession.
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All in all, over forty people joined the caravan. Thirty of them were merchants and their guards, and the rest were teamsters and travelers tagging along.
As they needed to travel fast, there were riding horses for everyone, and those who didn't have their own horses paid to ride atop the draft horses.
After everything was checked and rechecked, Lance finally issued an order for the caravan to set off.
Teamsters prodded the horses. The big draft horses loudly huffed, gathered their legs, pushed their massive bodies up from the floor, and slowly moved onto the road.
