Warehouse

As I was once again lost in my thoughts we reach the shop. A simple building, nothing special about it, except for the wooden signboard which read as 'tailor' in the ugliest font I have ever seen.

As we are about to enter I signal my guards. ''Watch out for an elven woman, she can use magic and may try to attack me.'' They just nod and as I am about to push open the door Vun stops me.

''Allow me sir Caspian''. This guy is great.

''Go ahead Vun, the elven woman has an affinity for air''. Let's hope I'm just being overly cautious, I just don't like her at all.

As if rehearsed before Vun gets in front of me and Ubam behind me, then Vun slowly pushes the door open. And nothing happens, it is just a normal shop after all.

I enter and look around the room, nothing changed from since I last visited. It is still an open space with some shelves full of clothes.

Time to call the tailor, I clear my throat and say. ''Alvan come out, I'm here to get what I ordered'' As expected there is the sound of scurrying in the back, the tailor is hurrying over.

''Caspian, my friend, I was waiting for you''. With a smile I reply. ''Good day Alvan, I trust that you prepared what I asked for''.

''Of course, I placed them in the backroom, come over and try it on, I am quite proud of the result'' I have great hopes for you.

''Let us go then, I trust that my guards can follow me inside''. I'm not going anywhere without them, especially here.

Alvan seems to have just noticed his other guests and with a nervous smile he says. ''There should be no problem, just try not to touch anything''

We follow the tailor in the same formation we entered, Vun in the front, me in the middle, and Ubam in the back, just in case.

''There it is, do try in on Caspian, it should fit you perfectly''. I probably risked my life for it so it better fit.

He then passes me over a long, heavy piece of material. It is burgundy-colored, and the texture is very soft and fine, similar to silk for some reason, I am pretty sure that this is leather.

''Alvan this is made of leather isn't it?'' He just nods and answers. ''It is indeed made of leather, a very special kind of leather that is known for its ability to mitigate the elements, it has a soft texture and the most important part is its resistance to dirt. This is why the pelts where so expensive''

Makes sense, let's try it on shall we. I throw the cloak over my shoulders only to hear Alvan let out a yelp. What happened now?

The answer is Ubam happened, Alvan tried to get close to me and help with putting on the cloak, Ubam just lightly pushed him back, which for most humans, or elves, in this case, is a hard shove.

''I am sorry about this Alvan, the guards are just doing their job, please do not take offense to their actions''. The tailor just staggers back to his feet before looking at me then at my guards.

''It is also my fault, I tried to approach you to suddenly, you are not wearing the cloak properly so I wanted to help you, now, may I come and help you wear it?''.

''Of course, go ahead'' And so Alvan comes to a stop next to me and takes off my cloak then he fiddles with it for a bit before putting it back on me, only this time it feels completely different.

''You see Caspian, this type of cloak has both a shoulder and neck protector, when you threw it backwards they moved out of position so I just wanted to fix it''. I see.

I didn't notice before but it has an upper and lower part, the upper part goes around my neck and shoulders, somewhat like modern clothes, while the lower part is free-flowing material.

After finishing, Alvan pushes me towards a mirror, a full-body mirror, where did he get this, I need to know. More on this later.

I can see my reflection and I must say that I understand why these are so expensive. While I keep my hands to my side in a normal resting position, my whole body, from the neck down, is covered by the cloak, you can't even see my feet properly.

When I moved my hand upwards and stuck it out of the cloak, the slit in the material did the most mysterious thing, it let my hand through yet it closed behind it as if the sides had magnets on them.

Seeing my surprised reaction Alvan says proudly. ''This is a special feature, it allows the cloak to be forever closed, never to be opened from the outside, it has been created as an anti-theft measure. As long and you carry the coin purse on the inside of the cloak and the cloak is closed, the wandering hands of those street rats can never access it!''

Magic is so cool, so as long as I wear this, I don't have to worry about being pickpocketed, fancy.

''Thank you, Alvan, did you also prepare the other items?'' This is for the giants.

''Yes, I placed them on the table, go ahead and take them'' As the tailor said there were two brown curtains on the table, well, they were not curtains but cloaks made of inferior material.

Just normal leather, lots of it. I point at them and say. ''These are for you, go ahead and wear them''

The guards do as I say and put on the curtains. It fits them quite well, it covers their shoulders and down to the knees or so. the leather is tough and heavy but that shouldn't be a problem.

''Do you like them?'' I ask. ''We do Boss, but what are these for?'' Ubam asks back. ''These cloaks are made from tough leather so they should protect you from normal arrows, at least to an extent. You can consider it as a gift from me, I wouldn't want anything to happen to my faithful guards now, would I?

Vun nods in understanding, surely as a soldier he knows that arrows are especially dangerous to giants. ''Thank you sir Caspian, we will accept these gifts''.

''Good, then we are finished here''. I face the tailor and say. ''Alvan, it has been a pleasure, may we meet again at a later date''

I happily decided to leave, the happiness comes from both buying such a great item and not running into that she-devil.

We go out the shop back into the freezing weather, it feels much better now, actually, it feels warmer than before the snow even, a worthy investment.

The first thing I do is ask my guards.''I want to purchase a large empty building, the cheaper the better, any ideas where I can get one?''

Ubam is the first one to speak. ''Boss there are warehouses down at the port district, most of them are empty and owned by the portmaster, he rents them out to merchants for them to temporarily store their goods.''

''Great idea, let us get going then''

----------

It was an easy purchase, the portmaster was agreeable enough, he sold me one of the bigger warehouses for 300 coins, it is not that expensive if you take into account that a bad horse is about 150 coins.

Then again this place is cheap for a reason. As I stand by the door with the two cloaked guards behind me I can't help but sigh and quite literally facepalm.

I swear to never buy anything without looking at it first. Problem is that this is not an empty warehouse, it is actually full of what seems to be rotten wood, piles and piles of rotten wood.

Due to it being close to the water the humidity is high so the wood is moist, to say the least. The building itself is in awful shape, it is extremely wide and tall when compared to others, but the roof is made of wood, and guess what, it is not in perfect condition.

The insides have beams going from the floor to the roof probably to keep it up. Thankfully the beams seem to be made of something different than wood, not quite sure what it is, but they don't seem damaged at least.

I turn to my guards and say. ''Do you know anything that we could use this wood for?'' I hope they can give me a good suggestion.

One of them moves, namely Vun, he walks past me and grabs a log that is the thickness of my neck. He then closes his fist and the log just breaks in two.

In his normal slow speech, he says ''Dry and burn''

Well, It's something at least.