Marcel The Travelling Merchant

Chapter 11- Marcel The Travelling Merchant.

"You seemed to be happy over something, my dear? Would you mind if you could share those pieces of tasty morsels with me? Hahaha." Jack begged as she approached his wife, Kayla when he had completed preparing their dinners.

It was made up of fish stew and some edible plants that had been carefully sliced into it. The smell emanating from the earthen pot never felt so good especially the one who was preparing it was his very own wife.

Back at Darlington, they would seldom have fish or meat since all they had around them were herbs and vegetables. So it was like a kind of staple food for them every day, ending up having pottage nearly all the time.

"Ah... You old coot. It looks like our young master had finally stepped out from his shroud of sorrow and grief. I did mention to him on rekindling his feelings with Heather earlier when I went to pick those fruits with him."

"I see... Sorry, my dear, it had been so long since this candle of mine had been nearly burned down to its wick. It seems you are able to persuade the young master to approach Heather since both of them had known each other since their childhood days."

"Aye... It seems the young master had not been exposed much to the social circle much and I think he is adjusting himself along with the commoners. He even dressed up as one of us too. I wonder where his royal clothes are since he had donned a normal tunic instead."

Actually, I had gotten my spare clothes inside my leather knapsack when I first emerged out from the manor. Moreover, wearing the same clothes day in and out would not be good hygiene practise at all.

"Nevertheless, I am happy deep in my heart to find the last heir to be alive. At least there's hope for him to bring out the potential to be a ruler one day. Maybe not as grand as what the old King had done for us, but at least it would be a start."

"Aye... When I was picking the plants, it seemed his mind and views are as wide as the horizons. He is young but he is not I matured either. He has the knowledge and if he would be exposed to other issues of governance and leadership I am sure he would make a fine ruler."

A few moments later, the elders were joined with Ben and Crystal and they were discussing the matters that were being mentioned earlier.

"Luckily I did not clobber him on the head on the first day we changed in him. If not he would definitely be a goner or worse... A harecop that barely fits in our society. Heh... Lucky me he did not bear any grudges against me." Ben added while he held out his bowl and was filled by Kayla who was serving the meal.

The rest of the children had already taken their portion and were sitting together and were discussing to go fishing later on in the evening. They would love to roast those fishes which had been freshly caught right next to the riverbank.

"The young master do seem quite alright by me. By the way, would you join me to look at the traps that Gwen had prepared? We hope we would be able to snare a few of those red jungle fowls and rear them for their meat and eggs."

"Its sure is a change in our everyday diet though." Crystal illustrated to her husband and since they had not many tasks in the afternoon, they could definitely allow their legs to do a bit of stretching.

A little while later, to much Crystal's and Ben's delight, they discovered that the traps that were set by Gwen had managed to successfully snare some red jungle fowls. There were 4 captives and there was a rooster amongst them.

"Heh... I believe the guardian angels do seems to look over our shoulders. We would be enjoying some pretty eggs in our meals pretty soon. Do you think we would have problems domesticating these fowls?" Ben inquired as he carefully undid the snares that had caught up the fowls' legs like a lasso.

He then removed a piece of twine from his pocket and immediately rounded up the fowls together in a bunch and carried them back to the tiny settlement. The 3 fowls were placed together inside the chicken coop while the rooster was separated into its own solitary coop.

When the children saw that their parents had brought back some chickens, they ran over excitedly, each clutching fat grubby earthworms in one hand and while the other holding the strung up fishes.

Knowing that these chicken would love to eat those earthworms, they fed them by dropping it through the opening on top of the coop.

Those fowls immediately pecked at the delicacies that the children had dropped through. Crystal prepared a tethering line of about an arm's length and lassoed the other end to one of the fowl's leg.

This would give the fowl some limited freedom to roam around and were placed some distance away to prevent the twined from being entangled with one another.

The rooster was initially separated from the hens and it crowed to show its dissatisfaction especially selected from its wives.

The children saw what had happened and teased the rooster while it just ran around in circles unable to escape from the twine that been tethered on the ground, feeling frustrated for being separated from the hens.

=*=

After trekking for another day, Frank and Gwen had reached their destination and Sir Blackie can't help containing its joy as it bounded around the feet and was dashing forward and ran back excitedly.

They had been travelling for nearly 3 days when they finally able to see another settlement that seemed to be bursting with lively activity.

"Hello there, is there someone whom we can meet to buy supplies from and trade some rabbit and wolf pelts?" implored Frank as he approached a group of 20 or more peasants that were hoeing the fields at the outskirts of the settlement to prepare for the initial plantations.

"Ah yes, my friend. Just go in right ahead towards our local marketplace. Don't mind me at all, we had just started to prepare ourselves the planting fields. It's early spring so I would be better to have a head start." one of the peasants answered back and pointed at the general direction of the settlement.

Frank thanked him and walked further past the fields and went through a gate with high walls that were being guarded with 4 stocky men armed with longsword and pikes.

The guards inquired of who they were and allowed entry when they discovered nothing unusual about the duo travelling with a dog.

"Good day, kind merchant. I was wondering if there's anyone who would be interested to purchase these cured rabbit pelts and the newly acquired wolf pelts?"

"We happen to chance upon a wolf during before our arrival and had managed to capture three of them." Gwen proclaimed to the merchant and hearing about the pelts, he immediately offered 8 Coppers for the rabbit pelts each and 25 Coppers for the wolf pelts each.

After the exchange, they inquired about the items that they were looking for and was pleasantly ushered by one of the merchant's assistant to guide them along with the marketplace.

Even though there weren't many stalls in the marketplace but it serves as a small trading hub for commuting travellers and other merchants. There were two districts. One was an uptrend market place for the Nobles while the other common marketplace where the nobles would not dream of stepping into.

The floors were constantly wet and dirty but it's also a place where one could attain the best bargain.

"Is there any rebels activities happening around here lately?" Ben inquired to the merchant's assistance and the reply he got was negative.

Rebels would not be bothered to waste energy over such a settlement that consists of slightly more than 500 settlers. Hearing the reply from the merchant's assistant brought a sense of relief to them.

Soon the merchant's assistant left the duo and heads back to the stall. Frank decided to leave the purchased goods right at where they had bought the flour, grain and other seeds from and heads over to the group of travelling merchants that happens to make a pit stop before continuing with their journey.

They decided to settle for 25 pounds of grains and flour each and made use of the rest of the coins to purchase some tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, onions, carrots and so on since these would be able to be planted back.

They even asked the fruits and vegetable stall owners if they had some rotten fruits and vegetables to bring back and gave the reason that it would be replanted to supply the settlers since its almost a week trip to and fro their own settlement to the present one.

The duo walked about the stalls and made some enquiries about any Blacksmithing projects but since this settlement was a small one, there wasn't a single Blacksmith and they somehow got their tools and weapons through trading itself.

"Good day, gentlemen. We are a small encampment about 3 days on foot from here. Our leader wished to contract some of you to get there to send the necessities once a month that would include grains, flour, sugar and salt plus other merchandise for cooking and general purposes."

"We also lacked some basic farming tools and would like to have an assortment of seeds that we could find at this moment for short, medium and long term germination and harvesting."

"We had bought what we think we require at the moment and if possible, we would like to invite any interested party over to our place so our leader would be able to brief you in detail."

Having spoken that, the group of travelling merchants that had gathered voiced out their opinions. Since no one would pass up another location where they could perform their business trade, one of them offered to take up the offer.

"3 days on foot which means about a day on a wagon. Where do you hail from initially? A settlement doesn't pop out from nowhere." inquired the interested merchant as he introduced himself as Marcel.

"The walls have ears and the hedges have eyes. We could discuss if you would be able to extend your services and send us back to our tiny settlement. I am sure you would be rewarded handsomely for your services and through the general trading of course."

Gwen urged Marcel indicating that they both were in a foreign environment and would be best to secure the trusts first.

"Alright then, let me finish up the rest of the business at hand and I would be able to send you back. At least I would get the right bearings for my forthcoming visits." Marcel showed the duo and the dog where the wagon was and waved his hand off as he attended to other matters.

Frank and Gwen sat down in front of the Tavern that had some outdoor seating area and ordered some ale and some stuffed bread and paid up once their refreshments came.

"Remember not to reveal to others that we have a banished and fallen prince. Some people could not be trusted and would only be manipulated for sole purposes only, is that clear?" Gwen advised to her husband so that he had a heads up and not to blindly blurt out that they were from Darlington at all.

Gwen then dug into her knapsack and produced several pieces of roasted wolf meat and handed it over to Sir Blackie. It wagged its tail with full expectations and slowly gnawed the roasted meat.

When the duo saw Marcel waving at them to beckon over, they left the Tavern area and carried the sacks of flour and grains along with them with Sir Blackie in tow.

"That's a rather obedient dog you have there. Does it have a name?" Marcel asked the duo and Gwen answered, "It's Blackie... Due to the colour of its fur coat." Marcel informed the duo to load their goods up and the dog may travel inside the wagon as well. When asked if Marcel had brought enough supplies, he simply laughed it off and informed that he had almost everything that the stalls carry all within his wagon even for the grain and flour that the duo had bought earlier.

"Not to worry Marcel, our leader would be able to purchase even more than what was carrying earlier." Frank finally said as both he and his wife settled comfortably at the front of the wagon.

Soon, they headed out of the gates and followed the trail before they made a detour heading towards where the duo and the dog had arrived earlier.

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