Market Day Part Two

Iris was very curious about what sort of goods would be available at today's market. Caspian's only requirement was that she allow him to carry her around. Thus, as soon as Iris finished putting their new animal skins and crystals away, he scooped her up.

Since they were already right next to the temporary shops, it only made sense to view them first. As Iris had sold all of the clothing that Caspian and her sewed throughout the cold season, Iris was sure to snap up any of the nicer furs she found.

As most merchants did not have much selection, Iris used the medicinal herbs she received to trade with those who had a smaller selection. Iris preferred to eat her herbs in seasonings and was not familiar enough with medicinal herbs to know how to use them anyhow.

Yes, she had read her book on "Ancient Flora & Fauna" but that would not help her when it came to using the herbs. She would only know what the herbs were used for and if they were edible or not as well as what steps were needed to prepare them for consumption. The problem being that Iris would not know how to apply inedible herbs or how much medicinal herbs to take for a set illness.

There appeared to be many more trinkets at today's market than the last one Iris attended and they were selling quite well. Even single beastmen were buying them for some reason. When Iris questioned it, Caspian just smiled and said she'd find out soon enough.

After Iris ran out of medicinal herbs to trade for animal skins, she decided to wait until she went to the clothes specialty shop to buy more. They would have a larger selection which meant that her uncolored crystals would be able to get their full value in trade.

Since Iris had very little need for pottery, the temporary shops no longer held any interest for her. Iris did take note once again that she needed to look into collecting clay to make pottery with, though, as she saw another clay pot.

"Why don't we go to the Golden Tradesmen's shop next? You might be able to find some specialty goods there for yourself."

Iris nodded eagerly to Caspian's suggestion. Caspian was happy to see his little mate enjoying herself. The crowd was very thick today and it took a few minutes to get to the Tradesmen's shop. When they showed up there was also a line they had to wait in.

"They look really busy today, business must be pretty good for them."

Iris muttered aloud. Caspian felt bad for making his mate wait too long, but knew this was common after the snow melted. The market would continue to be busy for the first month or so of the rainy season, especially during the beauty pageant. Today was especially bad since everyone was eager to enjoy the first market of the season.

When they finally made their way to the front they were greeted by the shop attendant.

"Welcome, what can I help you find today?"

Caspian looked to Iris for an answer since it was entirely up to her as far as he was concerned.

"I'd like to see any edible herbs, spices, or edible foods you might have first. Besides that, if you have any unique trinkets not found at the other shops, that'd be good to see too."

The beastman attending the shop was stunned by the charming voice of the female in front of him. Surely this female was a real beauty, but, with her face covered, he could only speculate. Regaining his composure, the beastman went to fetch the requested items.

Generally speaking, most trinkets you'd find across the beast continent would be the same. However, occasionally something new and unique would pop up and it would be the Golden Tradesmen's job to obtain such items and capitalize on the business opportunity.

This meant that most of their selection today was everyday goods and items that would appeal to females. They had a large selection of dried and fresh flowers, jewelry, and soft beast furs. However, mixed in among this chaos, Iris could see a few unique items. One of these items, Iris quickly pointed to

"I want this comb. You can take the rest of the trinkets away."

The comb was crudely fashioned from a bone. The bristles were shallow and sparse while the handle had small flowers and vines carved into it. Despite not being as nice as a modern comb, this was a true miracle for Iris. Her hair was starting to become matted as combing her fingers through her hair was no longer working good enough. Of course, it did not help that she could not take a proper bath or shower all cold season long.

So far as herbs and spices, most were dried but abundant since witch doctors would often buy herbs that could not be found locally. However, most of these herbs were not edible. As for spices, the shop attendant had not heard this word before. Foods were not really considered worth the Golden Tradesmen's time.

The beast world did have strictly herbivorous tribes who ate a diet of nothing but plants. There was even the rare tribe who practiced farming, but the quality was not great and there was not much unique to find. That wasn't even to mention that it was the early rainy season, there had been too little time for crops to be grown yet. The only available options would be locally foraged foods.

"All I have are these edible herbs and some salt. Let me know if you see anything you like among the bunch or if you'd like to see something else."

Iris sighed as she looked down at the selection of herbs. There was maybe ten choices here. Most were things she had seen before at witch doctor's homes in limited quantities. There was however, two spices among the bunch that stood out. One was rolled strips of reddish bark and the other was a bunch of reddish looking flowers.

"Caspian, I want to take a closer look at those two. I need to confirm what they are."

The shop keeper shot a weary glance at Caspian as he picked one of each up off the counter and gave them to Iris. Caspian didn't care, though, as he ignored the shop attendant to focus on Iris.

Iris carefully sniffed the reddish rolled bark and was reminded of Christmas time. The familiar aroma definitely confirmed that this was in fact cinnamon. Looking to the red flower, bringing one of the small buds to her nose, she inhaled the scent. Iris was reminded of her families Christmas ham that was always studded with whole cloves. These were both useful spices and Iris was overjoyed to have found them.

"I want all they have of this cinnamon and cloves. We should probably buy all their chili and peppercorns as well. We did use quite a lot of seasonings this cold season."

Caspian nodded before discussing the matter with the shop keeper. Iris handed Caspian four uncolored crystals for the lot. Apparently the cinnamon and cloves were from quite far away and they could only get a small bag of each due to a small availability. Comparatively, there was a good amount of chili peppers and peppercorns and they were cheaper.

The comb was rare and required careful craftsmanship resulting in costing a whole two crystals to purchase. While Iris would normally hesitate, she was desperate to get her hair in a more manageable state so she could feel more comfortable. Thus she just went ahead with the purchase.

After putting away the new items, they headed to the tailors shop. Iris wanted to buy a lot more sinew for sewing as well as buying cheaper animal skins in bulk. Since Caspian wouldn't allow her to use the softer fox and rabbit furs for anyone but herself, the animal skins were naturally much cheaper. Iris would just have to check their quality to ensure they were not ratty around their edges and were of sufficient quality for making clothes out of.

Since Caspian already knew what Iris wanted to buy, he started negotiating while Iris chose fifty of the nicer furs and ten spools of sinew. Caspian could technically just bring home some furs and sinew when he hunted but it would take too long to build up a decent collection. Therefore, this method was much easier for them both.

Furs were relatively common and were sold at a rate of ten per crystal while the sinew was only two spools per crystal. This brought the total to a staggering total of ten uncolored crystals for the lot. However, animal furs were large enough to make a whole outfit from each and sinew could be used across several dozen outfits per spool.

Iris could still make a tidy profit once she sold her outfits and was unbothered by the cost of materials. What Iris didn't know at the time was that her innovative fashion would end up driving up the value of her clothing the next time she went to market.

Many females who purchased outfits would end up loving the unique styles and showing the outfits off to others in their tribes who ended up wanting such an outfit for themselves. However, this was a story for another time.

Caspian brought Iris to the food Stalls next, but, after a quick look through, they quickly left. There was next to no plants available for purchase as it was too early in the rainy season. Even if beastmen found forageables they were unlikely to sell them as they had just been starving from the cold season. There was only a limited supply of meat available, which Iris had no interest in.

"Alright, well, that covers just about everything right?"

Iris was about to nod but then she remembered there was one more place she wanted to visit!