Selling

Alex quickly grabbed his sweater and high tailed it out of the house to see what was going on. He found everyone running towards the trail that supposedly led to the city. The little kids had a big smile on their faces as they skipped in the same direction.

He released a big sigh of relief, 'Unless those children seriously hated life and their parents then it looks like we aren't being attacked.'

He walked to where the crowd formed and found that there were 4 carriages in the village clearing. They were guarded by 5 bronze plate adventures.

A man wearing decent clothes stepped out of a fancy looking carriage, he smiled and shook the village chief's hand. Then he waved his hand and the cloth from the three carriages came down showing a variety of goods. The coachmen got down from the carriage and began attending the crowd that gathered around while the adventures stood to the side and observed that all the unpaid goods stayed in the carriage.

If it wasn't for the fact that Alex could simply make more webs he would make sure that he didn't give the village chief and the merchant any breathing room.

After the Merchant had greeted some of the villagers he and the chief stepped away from the crowd and headed to the village chief's house.

Alex quickly returned to his house and put the sweater away and used the small blanket he had gotten from the old lady to wrap the spider webs and he ran after the Village Chief.

When they arrived Clara served three bowls of soup and invited him to eat next to her and her husband.

"Clara, your food is as good as always. Matthew sure got lucky haha. So chief how have things been here since I left?"

The village chief shook his head and sighed, "It's been a little worse than the last few years but it can be expected after that cold winter. Several of the villagers have gone off to try their luck in the city and I haven't had many people who want to migrate here."

The merchant nodded and took a sip of water, "It'll get better, I'm sure. Hey, if you don't mind me asking who is this young man?."

Matthew smiled and gestured at Alex, "This young lad lost his memory and came to us after wandering in the forest for two days. Now he wants to move into the city."

The middle-aged merchant dipped his head slightly as a greeting, "Well young man I'm sorry to hear that you have to face a problem such as that. I've met several people that lose part of the memory due to an injury, many of them end up recovering most of them so you have my prayer."

Trey thanked him and waited till the Village Chief finished his conversation. Based on how and what they conversed about he got a good impression from the merchant.

When he saw that the middle-aged man was about to stand up he put his wrapped blanket on the table.

"Sir there's something I want you to see."

The Merchant looked at the blanket and sat down, "Alright, let's see it then."

Alex began to unwrap it once the golden webs were exposed the man seemed to be unaffected as if he was just looking at something he saw every day.

"May I?"

He nodded and the merchant began testing out the golden silk, after playing around for what seemed to be a few minutes he put it down. "Where did you get them?"

Alex shrugged, "I don't know, I found them on the first day that I was stuck on the forest on the treetops."

"I see, was there any more?"

He shook his head and extended the webs out, "No there was only these 7 webs."

"Why are they all roughly the same size?"

"That's because that's about how long they were when I found them. So have you ever seen anything like them before?"

The merchant was unresponsive for a minute before he shook his head, "Well I personally haven't seen something like this but I've heard about it."

Alex wasn't sure if the Merchant was just fucking with him or if he was being honest. "Oh and how exactly were they made?"

"It's a web from a giant spider, I didn't think there were any in this forest, every now and then there's a mutation and their silk ends up being a goldish color. It ain't anything special."

'Every now and then my ass. This dude is trying to get one over on me. Even if I can make these easily that doesn't mean that I'm willing to let others take advantage without me getting anything in return. I didn't care if the Village Chief tried anything because if he didn't I could show him that I trust him but this bitch is going to leave and I won't get any benefits.'

He sighed and wrapped the webs once more, "I see that completely destroys my hypothesis then."

"Oh, and what was your hypothesis."

Trey shook, "Well you see when I was on my way here I saw what seemed to be a giant golden furred animal. It was being eaten by a pair of ogres so I couldn't really get a good look at it but I'm sure it wasn't a spider. I guess it was just a coincidence. So are the giant spiders that you talked about dangerous?"

The merchant shook his head, "No any newbie adventure could put one down. Anyway, I have to go and help the others get their things sorted out. Kid how about selling me the webs for 20 silver? Since I like you I gave you a bit of a bonus so how bout it?"

'To sell or not to sell? If I don't what is this bitch going to try to do? Then there's also the possibility that I'm overthinking all of this and he actually really thinks that he's giving me a fair price? I seriously doubt it but I don't want any trouble either. Just how can I get this to work?'

"Well… I appreciate the offer but I'll keep them. It might sound stupid but these webs were one of the first things I owned since my memory was erased. Honestly, the only reason I was willing to sell them was because I thought they might be worth enough money to buy myself a place to start over."

The merchant nodded and stroked his beard for a few minutes, "Is that so, tell me kid how much would you need?"

Trey put his head down and sighed, "400 silver"

"Oh, well hmm, chief how about I pay you half of that and the other half the kid earns from hunting or doing some other things. You did say that you were in need of meat after all didn't you? Now you might not be getting all the money that you wanted but it's better to get yourself something out of the houses while they are still usable. Otherwise, they are getting old and serving no purpose."

The chief thought about it and in the end, he nodded and shook both the merchant's and Alex's hands.

Alex gave the merchant the webs and faked a smile, 'Well I can't say that it was the conclusion that I wanted but overall it's not the worst ending. I didn't make any problems for myself or the village and I got to stay in the house. I'll just have to wait till I'm stringer to be able to sell more webs in the city and see if I can get a real price.'

He looked at his property and smiled, "Well though I haven't paid it all yet, it feels good to have my own place."