The Merchant [6]

Noah groaned, of all the things he was expecting the people of this world to be surprised about, a talking tree was not one of them. "Yeah. She did."

Meira leaned into her seat and rolled her finger over her knee, "then it's a hamadryad then?" she asked, a sparkled of anticipation to her voice.

"I mean, yeah?" Noah responded dumbly, "she was talking to me before she became a hamadryad."

Meira whistled, "Interesting. Must be an old one then. I was expecting it to be younger, may a single generation or so. But for a dryad to start speaking that's a decent two, maybe three hundred years minimum." She muttered to herself, "you said she became a hamadryad yes? That must have needed quite a lot of ethos considering it was in hibernation. How many times did you have to… feed, it to make it grow?"

Noah hesitated, his cheeks reddening in embarassment. "Once," he lowered his head avoiding Meira's gaze. "No, well, twice. The first was more of a… how do I say this coincidence?"

"You had sex with a dryad by coincidence?" she sounded astonished, "and a serrule, one of the most passive dryads out there? That was all a coincidence to you?"

Noah mulled the thought. Ignoring the fact that a goddess quite literally dropped me there, yeah, a coincidence. He said nothing of the sort but strained his expression.

That was more than enough for Meira as she helplessly sighed and sunk into the plush of the couch. "You know, I know nearly a dozen ranchers who would die to 'coincidentally' have sex with a dryad not just have a dryad on their ranches, but actually have sex with one." She scoffed, "hell, I've even thought about what that would feel like. Would it grow manly bits or tentacles?"

Of all the things he wanted to think about, this chocolate beauty enraptured in vines as they squirmed like snakes around her body, massaging every nook and cranny drawing licentious moans and her own sap from her invariably beautiful crotch, was not one of them. 'Least, not right now.' He thought filing that thought somewhere deep into the crevaces of his brain matter.

Meira's body seemingly melted as she sipped from her glass. Beneath her nigh translucent veil Noah could only ogle her bosom and the faint rounded musculature of her belly. He'd always known women could arouse him, he just didn't expect the little dimple of her belly button to do that as well.

"But only twice," she muttered as if considering something, "you must have quite the ethos in those jewels of yours." Noah jolted, uncomfortable at the mentioning of his jewels. "Last I heard dryads needed the ethos of ten men to even get to the point of becoming a hama. Makes me wonder just how virile you are in bed."

Noah hadn't an idea of how to respond. He looked to the side, took his glass, then sipped slowly in a feeble attempt not to let her luscious tone addle his loins.

"I wouldn't know," he scratched his cheek. "Not like I have any way of measuring it." An odd laugh escaped him that rapidly dwindled and died out allowing silence to over come the two.

"Don't you masturbate?" Meira blurted and Noah sputtered. "Do you fill a glass? A barrel? Or less?"

He gaped, entirely uncomfortable with this line of questioning. "That… is not something I tend to measure."

"You should. Quite useful when you need to feed a large group of monsters. Just fill up a barrel and pour it out into a trough for the monsters to eat. Not as potent as doing them and letting it out inside but it's much safer"

'There is no way I will ever do that.' Noah staunchly thought to himself. "Maybe another time." He strained, "how about we just move onto why we're here."

Meira huffed with a look of disappointment taking her. It quickly filtered away to her previous peppy attitude that thoroughly rose Noah's hackles. It was almost predatory in nature. Something Noah was realizing was much too frequent a thing in this world than ever should be. That or he simply kept running into women like this.

"Fine then." Meira leaned forth, swishing her glass, "as I mentioned earlier, I would like to offer you a contract to sell your cherries and any other things you may produce in the future. I would act as a sort of intermediary between you and any potential clients that may come around. I would also be acting as your patron just as well."

"And what does that mean exactly? What would that involve?" he locked his fingers together, clenching and unclenching every few moments.

"Just that. I would be a intermediary conveying to buyers and the like making offers on your produce and forming connections in your place so that you can remain focused on raising and producing more and higher quality products. In essence my job would be to be the face, voice, and body of your ranch while you would be to the likeness of the organs providing all the necessary components to keep things going." She paused for breath.

"In addition I would also act as the main line of conversation between you and prospective clients in search of specific types of resource."

"You mean like request?"

"Correct. For example a nobleman may be seeking the a certain type of thread from an arachnae type monster. They would come to me, explain what it is they wish for and I would then come to you to discuss the possibility of you taking on the request to go about producing said product."

He understood it but shook his head lowly nonetheless. "Problem with that being, I'm not a rancher. I don't have monsters. I don't have the money to afford monsters." He stressed. "Heck, I don't even own the land that Serris is atop. I'm just a nobody, a freeloader on Liora's land. Even then, I'm in no position to make such choices. Especially not ones that would fall through soon into the future."

A strained smile rose to Meira's lips, "whether it falls through or not is of no worry to me. Be it in five days or five months, I still believe making a contract with you would be the most profitable thing to us both."

"No, you're better off waiting for Liora to get here. It's her land, what happens on it is her choice."

"With all respect, Noah. I am not seeking a contract with this Liora. I'm seeking it with you." She pointed lackadaisically his way

"You seem staunch in that. Why." He frowned, an ominous and unsettling feeling filling him.

Meira eyed the surroundings, falling on the rippling pearlescent in the window before calming. "Because, Noah. An otherworlder rancher, is likely one of the most profitable contracts a merchant like I can ever make."

He shuddered, his skin drew pale and his eyes darted to the door. His entire body tense.

"Calm, calm." Meira urgently held out her hands, "I have no interest in divulging it to anyone. Least of all the church." Her voice softened, "the relationship between us merchants and the church is tense. Especially ones like I and my father who specialize in monster based products."

Noah was still tense, uncomfortable. "How… how do you know."

She smirked, the tips of her lips inclining just a bit, "a few things. For one, you look completely out of place. Your like if a lich cut off a black mans arm and stitched it to the whitest man around. You act out of place. Even how you look at me," she lifted her hands to the underside of her breasts and bounced them sending a cascading ripple through their plumpness.

Noah diverted his gaze. "Just that, you turn away. You try not to ogle and linger. Few kingdoms teach such a morality to their children, often they will encourage the ogling but urge them self control. You on the other hand, you I can tell were raised with the thoughts that leering is something of a crime. That lingering on a womans breasts and buttocks is crude and distasteful behaviour. Which is idiotic, but I am in no position to be judging the culture of another world I cannot even fathom." She released her breasts and they quickly fell to rest allowing Noah to turn back, though noticably redder in the face.

"Another option is that you were raised with the morality of Ascleminia's church. They have always been the more prudish and defensive of their bodies. Always hiding behind their thoughts of chastity and domination of sex and sexuality." Meira went quite, catching her breath and watching Noah's expression contort and solidify over the moments. "Then of course… there's the fact I can sense you have Typhania's blessing on you as well as another's, but I cannot tell which."

There was nothing he could say to refute her, she'd only refute him back. He groaned, held his head and said, "you can sense that?" defeated.

"Mmm," she hummed and nodded, "perk of being a descendant of a monster species. I am more acute to feeling the flow of Ethos. Especially the unique one of you other worlders."

"It's different?" Noah gave up, he leaned back into the seat opposite hers and simply let whatever happened next, happen.

"Sort of." Meira uneasily put, "it's similar in that I know it is Ethos but at the same time it isn't ethos. Not the one of our world at least. It's softer, more neutral like it is lacking in substance. But its just that lacking that makes it so attractive like if I were to get my hands on it, I would be satisfied for many months to come."

Noah gaped thinking back just moments ago, "you're a monster?" she'd spoken it so casually it was only now he was realizing that.

"Partially. The ancestor of my species was one of the titans. Over the years our blood has been diluted with that of other monsters and humans. Nowadays all we retain of our ancestor is our skin, hair, and form. Very few of us can control Ethos like they did but most of us can sense it to a degree. Useful in times like this."

He huffed, of course it's useful. It lets her see through him like he was a window. "You know," he groaned massaging his brow, "I'm starting to realize that this whole 'hide my nature' thing is proving to be completely useless. And I haven't even started trying."

"You can't exactly hide something you can't control. Not when its leaking from you like a cracked tankard." Meira chuckled, "I don't mean to rush you Noah. But let's return to our previous conversation. So long as you trust me at least."

Can I? Can I really? Noah truly hoped he could but there was no certainty to his inner voice. But, then again, I don't have a choice. He rubbed down his face, grunting and groaning into his hands.

"Yeah. Lets."

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Sorry, I keep fucking repeating the fucking chapter because fuck