Elevation of Mana Chapter 33 Trader

Weeks had passed since my introduction of the dovetail, and I had to admit that things were going mostly well.  A lot of men had been interested in the technique, and many more had stepped forward when I'd pointed out that with a few changes you could probably make things like basic beds, chairs, and storage chests.  It had launched a large push for wooden things, until mother had gotten involved.

Many of the trees around the village had been cut down, leaving large swathes nearby, something that my mother both hated the look of, and the effect on the local wildlife of.  She made a loud, impassioned speech about how it was wrong at one of the village dinners.

That of course didn't stop everyone, and the next day several had gone out to take down a few more trees.  She didn't move directly against them, she didn't have to.  What she did do was make arguments, promises, and a few outright threats of retribution to their female kin, wives, sisters, mothers, daughters, all, and let them bring the offenders to heel.

She wouldn't hurt them of course, she would just refuse all aid to them.  As would father, because she would make it so.  That meant no healing, no new houses, no extra crop growing if you found a really good spot one day.  It also meant that all of her products, and all of fathers, and, all of mine, would be denied to you.

I'd known that she'd had strong feelings about protecting nature, but it seemed I too had underestimated her druid-like drive.  While I got a firm talking to about killing a lot of trees, I quite plainly told her that the reason I'd done that was to plant more plants, the truth, and that I hadn't meant for anyone to start at trying to remove the forest.  My age also got her to forgive a lot, I was still a cute kid, and I wasn't the one doing the damage; at least after I promised to not dry wood for anyone unless it had fallen naturally.

Since winter had finally left I now had to deal with another growing change.  Ninden was leaving us to join the adult men in the hunting.  It was sad, but he was over the moon as he prepared for the day.

Every culture like ours had some kind of coming of age ceremony.  Some action that proclaimed that someone was no longer a child, but now an adult, and due all the respect therein.  For the men of our tribe it was a multi-day hunt where the new man would be taken out and ceremonially go after game with his male relatives.

There was preparation of course, as he needed new clothes, a new spear, plenty of body paint, and a big party.  He would remain with his kin in the woods until he managed to take some worthy game, the bigger, the better, and then return to regale us with the story of it.

The women of the tribe had a ritual as well for when a girl started puberty, but those were secret.  All I really knew was that the girl in question would be taken away for a time, and when she came back would be accepted as an adult.  There were a few changes in the way her clothing, little as we wore, was cut to emphasize the change, but that was about it from the outside.

It wasn't until two days after he left that we got our biggest surprise of a time.  When the women of the village returned for the evening we found those that'd spent the day in it gathered, and rather irate looking, around an unknown elven man.

His hair was a light brown and he smiled as he saw us.  He sat atop a massive wicker backpack, and had clearly been rebuffing those around him for some time.  Before him was a large skin of some kind, reptilian in appearance.

“Ah, there everyone is!  And if my eyes do not deceive me your elder is along with them too.  Please permit me to introduce myself Elder Elaya, I am the merchant Orran, and I seek to trade in your village.”  He rose and gave her a deep bow of respect.

“Have you made an attempt to trade before greeting me?”  Elaya asked, looking down at the man.

“Of course not Elder.” The way he said it made it clear that this was a title to him, and a formal one at that.

Elaya's eyes flicked up to one of the men who'd been standing near him, a younger one who I recognized as living in the same hut as her.

“He refused to even show his wares, or discuss what he'd brought in detail,” the man confirmed.

Orran seemed to have suspected that something like this might happen and I could see the smile creeping up his lips ever so slightly.

“Very well, let's see what you've brought,” Elaya said to the merchant's obvious relief.

He began to lay things out on the skin and I realized a few things quickly.  Most of what he had was small and either decorative or something that was extremely rare in these parts.  Elaya started the efforts by looking over his goods and trading him a bit of the fresh fruit for some salt.  My guess was that this was simply a confirmation from her that things were truly open, and a gesture of it.  After that however she fell back and let others go over his goods, asking about this item and that.

He was flooded with work.  He had shells from species we'd never seen here, Bones and tusks of various colors and grades, and many herbs which it sounded went well with food, but but irritatingly hard to find in our area.  The latter of which were cleaned out by Ninden's family, since they planned to have a party for him anyway, and those would be a huge boon.

I hung back for a bit.  I'd see what he had, but I didn't do a lot of cooking, or need anything decorative at the moment.  It would be easy enough to see what people bought afterwards, and listening let me learn more about what he had.

Auntie had run back to the hut to grab some of her better pieces of pottery, and when she returned joined mother and I as we stepped  forward to look over the goods.  I could see Orran's eyes light up as we came closer, flicking both over my aunt's goods, then over her and mother, and finally onto me as well, though at my head, not my face.

“Please come forward, has something caught your eye?”  He asked as we stepped up.

“Yes, those shells, would you be willing to part for some cups?”  Auntie Atie held forward one of her works and the man took it with care, looking over it with a keen eye.

“I've never seen one like this before, something new?'  He asked.

“Found it myself,” Atie proudly proclaimed, the truth so far as she knew.

“Easy to make?”

“As if I'd part with how to make them,” she scoffed at his question.

“Fair, but new is good, and... it can hold water I assume, looks like a stone bowl, but not quite the same.  Mind if I try it?”  He asked.

“You may,” she agreed.

He poured some water into the little cup and felt the edges.  Then downed his drink and tapped it a few times, checking the sound it made with a smile.

“Those shells?”  He asked, pointing.

“Mmm,” she nodded.

“Agreed, but if I might ask another question of you two.”  Now it seemed he was looking to bring mother into the equation.  “Those, you seem to have the most, and I've seen a few already.  They're new too aren't they?”

His indication was for the purple beads, and I could see him doing calculations in his head.

“They are new, and made by us, but only rarely.  It takes a lot of effort and the use of light to make them,” mother said, not totally lying.  It did take a day or two, and using magic to get the flames right was the standard for me.

“I see, I see.  Do you have anything you desire in my wares?  I would like to get a few of those if I could at the right price.”

“I want that,” I finally said, looking up from where I'd been going over his wares to join the conversation and pointing to a particular rock.

“A good eye!  I just got that recently, came from up in the mountains...” he began.

“My husband both works stone and was a merchant, if you take advantage of my son I will be most displeased,” mother said from behind, cutting him off.

“Not too rare though, pretty, but not too rare.  Probably not worth one of the purple beads, but worth more than the wooden ones you've got separating them I'm afraid.  Perhaps you see something else you like?”  He changed his tune almost mid-sentence when he heard her, impressive.

“How many of those would you add?”  I asked, pointing to a small pile of what looked like cowrie shells.

“Those too are fairly common young one, but why don't you look at these instead?”  He pulled over a small bag of similar shells, but rather than the darker speckles of the ones I'd pointed at these instead had a slight opalescent coloration.  “I could give you five of these, and the rock you like for one of your purple beads.”  I could see his eyes flicking up to my mother for confirmation as he offered, trying not to offend what was clearly one of the more influential women in the village, and one who had something he wanted.

“Ten,” I countered.  I didn't actually care about the shells, but going back and forth was a tradition I wanted to uphold; if only for appearances.

“Si... seven?”  He tried.

“Seven is fine, I'll trade for that.”  I undid the little tie I used to keep my money out of my face and pulled one of the few purple beads I had left off.

He breathed out as we made the trade, and I picked up the shells, along with what I actually wanted.  My new little rock was a mixture of colors.  It was bright green and worn down to expose the veins of native copper inside.  Nobody had bothered to get the material out, or knew how to, but with magic I had a good sense that I could finally get some metal.  I was all smiles, I'd gotten a better trade than I could have hoped for, even learning the area it came from.