The Merchant [3]

Exhausted, is the minimum of what Noah was feeling.

The main throngs of customers had dwindled with the initial few hours of activity. Most all the cherries had been bought bringing in a decent four thousand buckles. Whether that was a lot or not much he wasn't quite sure. He wasn't quite sure about many things nowadays. The largest group of customers had expectedly been women in the late teens up to early forties. The older ones often were lumbering around with a child on their hip or desperately trying to catch up with said child. Noah's tasters having acted more as a child magnet and a pit stop for the children that let their mothers catch up. If they made a purchase, well, who was going to complain about that?

Noah held his head and rested against the stall. He was half tempted to groan, the other half tempted him to just keeling over and dying right there. His arms ached, his back cracked, his neck felt like it was ground into sand from looking left then right then left yet again. With what energy he could bolster he looked to the tarp covered baskets,it had noticeably shrunk with only the faint shapes of the baskets themselves pushing up the fabric.

His stomach roared hungrily like a lion and he scanned the streets for Liora and Caina but found them not. He sighed mournfully and shimmied his way to the tarp to collect a fresh cherry. He's chosen not to refill the baskets just yet so he could have the barest bit of a break. Slicing it into quarters Noah began feasting in an attempt to quell the hungering beast that was his belly. All the while he was watching the passing market goers. Some would toss him looks, curious to what he was eating and to the empty nature of his stall.

He knew the only reason so many people had been buying from him was the novelty of the notion. Getting cheap cherries, something that was supposed to be a noble import was not something that just up and happened every day. Blend that in with the slight aphrodisial abilities for the elders and he'd somehow stumbled upon a windfall of a product. Though what he had was far from what was needed to pay off this ridiculous debt Liora was stumped with.

With one hand he lifted one of the quarters and with the other he flipped through his Almanac. It spoke for the largest part about the monsters, describing their appearances and general descriptions with small illustrations taking up most of one page. Inside this initial volume Noah had also found some general information about the world such as that description for what Ranchers and Breeders were.

As it said the known world was divided between four continents, up at the northern most part of the world was Zesune which the writer said reminded him faintly of asian influence, there people had a calmer connection to the monsters and were generally more accepting of them. To the east was Icorius, that was where the church of Artemia originated from and made its headquarters. The people there held much vitriol against monsters and slave trade was much, much more prevalent. In the south was Grealira, otherwise called the demon continent or the demi homelands. It was subdivided across various factions of monsters that called themselves the demon queens. Surprisingly they were more peaceful compared to what they generally were in stories back on earth prefering to just live on on their own instead of constantly seeking out destruction and all that. The Church held a vendetta against them, distasting the idea of a land being ruled by monsters. Lastly was the land in the west, Pregea. This is where Noah thought himself currently to be, specifically in the kingdom of Morea, one of the two largest kingdoms ruling the continent with the other being Kanyon just across the mountain close to the Ranch.

There were other kingdoms, many, many more than what could be described in this small books but from what was written most of them were allied to either Kanyon and Morea and were generally accepted as being part of said kingdoms. Laws though were still differentiated between the smaller kingdoms but generally followed some specific guidelines set forth by the ruling parties.

Moving to devour the last of the cherry slices, Noah's attention was drawn to approaching footsteps. They were closer than the footgoers going down the centre of the street and were approaching by the second. It didn't take long for him to see who it was, no one he knew before unless Caina grew a meter and Liora suddenly turned blond and got a bronze hued tan.

His brow rose curiously, slowly trailing from the womans wide hips, up her thin mid section and over her plump bosom onto her neckline and sharp chin. She stared soft eyed at him with little blue orbs and a nose contrarily thin for a woman her stature. Most surprisingly to him was to contradiction between her skin and her hair. He'd never seen a woman as bronze as her with hair as light as battered gold look so natural. Her clothing draped loosely around her resembling faintly a sari coloured in reds, dark browns, and golds. One piece slung over her shoulders hiding for a most part her breasts and ran down to her wrists. This same fabric slew down from her right shoulder and around her left hip exposing the entire right side of her hourglass hips. Has she not been wearing an ankle length dress he may very well have been able to offle her pristine and full body.

She stepped close, the ornat embroideries of golden flowers hemming the dress glistened in the light. She look down at him, more specifically at the half eaten quarter in his hand. "That wouldn't happen to be a cherry, would it?" she questioned, her voice as fine as freshly woven silk. It was translucent and hung over her breasts lowering from her right shoulder to her left hip leaving most of her right side open for Noah to ogle at. Beneath that was a cropped blouse ending just beneath her breasts. Lastsly was the wrap around her hips, it was just as loose and looked ready to fall with a simple tug of the wind. Had Noah one thing to compare her clothing to, it was like she was wearing a billowing curtain from top to bottom.

She stepped close, the ornat embroideries of golden flowers hemming the dress glistened in the light. She look down at him, more specifically at the half eaten quarter in his hand. "That wouldn't happen to be a cherry, would it?" she questioned, her voice as fine as freshly woven silk.

Noah looked down to the cherry slice then back to her anticipatorially waiting sapphires, "it is." He shortly answered and immediatly her eyes sparked with excitement.

"ReallY? Could you tell me where you got it?" she excitedly scanned the empty boxes then to the tarp behind him.

"Uhh." Noah blanked, the womans accent was faintly indian to him though blended slightly with a more african tonation. Wherever she was from, it was not here. Even just her skin and clothing choice was enough to realize that. The accent just solidified the thought. "I have a tree. These are the first fruits it bared." He answered.

The woman's expression lit up with fireworks rising in her eyes. "Truly?" she leaned forth, her right hand rose and crossed over her chest laying atop her heart. Her nails finely pedicured and painted with red nail polish as well as highly intricate henna tattoo's that wrapped around the better parts of her lower arms and top of her hands. Around the base of her middle finger the henna wrapped like a wring and connected with the rest of the tattoo forming an otherwise fingerless glove.

Noah was unsure how to respond. "Y-yeah. I mean. It's only one tree." He shrugged.

"One tree can turn into two, and from two to ten." She was quick to add. "Do you think I could perhaps see one of these cherries in full? Or have you already sold them all?" her lips were wettened only accentuating the dark burgundy paint she used on them.

Noah wilted a breath but gave a quick 'sure' and spun, plucking a pair from the bottom of the tarp and set it down on the table before the woman.

She leaned down even more and a passing old man bled at the nose. She leaned then left, then right, then looked to Noah and asked. "May I pick it up?" Noah told her she could and she did. She lifted it gently like a baby and scanned every small millimeter of the drupe, rolling it around in her hands and gulping with excitement. "This is an amazing thing you have here. I hope you do know that." She said bringing it close to her nose and sniffed. Her lips trembling as if wanting to take a bite out of it there and then. Somehow she held herself back and disappointedly lowered down her hands, her eyes now latching like daggers ploughed through flesh into Noah. There was determination somewhere in that look, and for some inexplicable reason it terrified him.

"I would like to buy every one you have."

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In case you're curious what I based her dress on.

strandofsilk.com/renee-label/product/womenswear/sarees/rose-red-butti-sari