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Sand in all the wrong places. [Globster!]

Started by Rhindeer, September 18, 2014, 01:22:27 PM

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Rhindeer

Scarab flashed Drex a bright smile and a nod. "Indeed!" she confirmed.

And waited, lifting a smooth brow.
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DaGlobster

"Oh, nice!"

He turned towards the door and opened it, ducking down and stepping straight in and leaving the door open for Scarab.

"Oh, it smells great in here!" Drex said from within.

Rhindeer

...Huh.

Didn't he know he was supposed to open it for her?

Stunned as Drex just went inside and left her, Scarab frowned, straightened her shoulders, and walked in after him as the door began to swing shut. It must be a cultural difference. She would have to keep her patience and correct him later, that was all.

Stepping up beside him, she nodded. "It does, I suppose, if you enjoy ale. I prefer wine, myself. Unfortunately that means I'm not too familiar with the brews here, or the difference between them, but I'm certain the brewmaster can help you!"
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DaGlobster

"Well, I hope he's got a lot of whatever I'm smelling," Drex said, still oblivious to the faux pas he committed. He turned to Scarab, smiling brightly.

"I've never had human ale."

Rhindeer

"It's likely weaker than what you're used to," Scarab said. "But the men here claim it's delicious."

She wrinkled her nose. It always just tasted like piss to her.

Looking around the place, she waved as she caught sight of who she assumed was the brewmaster as he sealed up a keg. "Hello! What brew is that? The strong one smelling up this place?"

Yeah, she wasn't really sure how to go about asking for it.
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DaGlobster

"This brew? Oh, it's--"

The brewmaster cut off once he caught sight of Drex. He seemed almost intimidated, but then Drex spoke up.

"This ale smells magnificient! How much is it?" the young Ogre said. The brewmaster managed to shake off his incredulity and approached the two.

"This is our newest stuff," he said, motioning to a rack of barrels.

"It doesn't come cheap, it's Essyrni grown."

Drex looked a little disappointed as he reached for his coin purse.

"Oh. All I've got is ten of these," Drex said, and from that purse he pulled out a thick gold coin that was easily larger than a man's fist. The brewmaster's eyes turned to saucers, and he looked to Scarab for a few moments, as if wanting to double check that this was real.

"Ten of those'll get you five barrels," he said, eyes glued to the massive coin.

Rhindeer

The brewmaster wasn't the only one whose eyes bulged. Scarab's eyes rounded at the sight of those gold coins, and the flippant way Drex flashed them! And the nonchalant way he said they were all he had. As though that was some meager amount! But then again, his people seemed to have gems pouring out their ears, so maybe they just didn't value them the same way her people did?

The brewmaster turned his incredulous gaze on her, and Scarab snapped out of her shock and cleared her throat and rolled her shoulders back, straightening up imperiously.

"Well then? What are you waiting for? Prepare the barrels," she said, and waved her hand to indicate he should hop to it.
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DaGlobster

The man immediately got to preparing the barrels, and Drex shrugged.

"I'm guessing the coins are smaller here?" he said, and he shot her a knowing smirk. He'd seen human coins before, and the young ogre did like to play a good prank every once in a while.

"You should've seen the butcher when our caravan paid him a visit. Thought Hakeshna herself had blessed him with fortune."

Rhindeer

Oh, he knew exactly what he'd done. That smirk was telling.

"They are...much smaller, yes. I'm surprised the man didn't have a heart attack," she said, as the brewmaster soon returned with a small crew, rolling the barrels out to them.

"A peasant could live off a single one of those for a year. Probably." She pursed her lips thoughtfully. Actually, she had no idea what the value would be top a peasant. A great amount, surely, but she had no real concept of what such a life was like, and thus no point of reference to make a comparison.
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DaGlobster

Drex nodded along at her words. If she didn't know anything about life as a peasant in Essyrn, then Drex sure as hell didn't have a ghost of an idea either, so he just took her word for it.

He glanced around a bit, a bored expression settling on his face as he waited for the barrels to be unloaded before he gave her a gentle nudge (he didn't want to bowl her over!) and he started walking towards the aisles of barrels in the warehouse, taken by a bit of curiosity.

"I'm glad to have you come with us. It'd be nice to have a new face around, even if it's for a little bit."

Rhindeer

"You don't get many visitors?" Scarab asked as she followed a pace behind him, giving the workers space to load up.

"Not even during your festival thing?"

The workers motioned over at the two of them, signaling they were done, and Scarab tapped Drex's arm. "Looks like we're set to go."
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DaGlobster

"Not really," Drex said. It took him a few moments to register that Scarab was tapping his arm, and he glanced over towards the workers with a start.

"We live, er, pretty high up in the mountains. Our trails are harsh to the smaller folk as well. We only hear about the outside from the few visitors we do get."

As he spoke, he picked up three of the barrels by wrapping his arms around them, and lifted them up onto the ground as if it was just a moderate feat of strength for him to carry three barrels filled with ale.

"I got these. My beast's outside," he said to the workers, and he started to walk to the exit.

"Anyways, not a lot of folk got the stomach to hike up to one of the villages just to trade. It's a dangerous trip up if you're not prepared."

Rhindeer

Drex left the workers gaping, and even though Scarab had seen do similar feats of strength without breaking a sweat, she still let out a low whistle. She couldn't imagine how much each barrel weighed. They may as well have been small buckets of water, not full on kegs.

Scarab smiled and waved at the workers, then turned and trotted after Drex, taking many steps to be able to keep up with each of his one. "I see! Well, that makes sense. Which, er, I suppose that begs the question! I actually hadn't given much thought to the trip itself--how dangerous, exactly, is it?"

And then she laughed, waving a hand. "I imagine it's not very dangerous for you. You've all done it before! But only for us small folk, hm?"
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DaGlobster

"Dangerous? Not so much, I'd say. You're travelling with ogre mercenaries, after all!" Drex said. As they stepped back out into the sun, he squinted his eyes a bit and set the barrels down by his mount. He started loading them onto pack hooks.

"It's a tough hike, though. The winds are merciless and the Mountain Mother devours anything that loses its footing. The old clan trails are wide enough for the caravans, and the predators didn't bother us when I came down with The Maws."

He lugged the last barrel onto his rhinox, and the creature snorted dismissively. He looked to Scarab and gave her a sheepish smile.

"I've only ever taken the trip once. Borzclubb's done it a hundred times by now, though."

He offered her his hand so she could step up onto the rhinox.

Rhindeer

"Predators?"

Scarab took his hand distractedly, her mind now on another topic entirely as she let him boost her back onto the Rhinox. She settled down on its back, shifting until she got comfortable and adjusting her skirts, and shot Drex a concerned look. Mountain Maw. Predators. Devours.

Yikes...

"...What kind of predators?"
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DaGlobster

Drex leaned back a smidge in the saddle, mulling over his thoughts. The rhinox started moving and they started to make their way back to the city's gate, where they would meet up with the rest of the company.

"Well, there's the sabretusks. They never attack the convoys though. Usually they go for stragglers. Um..."

He paused for a moment, distracted by a street vendor selling assorted meats on a stick. He pulled up alongside it, and used his long reach to give the merchant a handful of human-sized golden coins from a pouch on the front buckle of his javelin belt. In return, he recieved four meat sticks. He offered one to Scarab as he started to eat, evidently pleased with the food.

"I hope we don't run into a dragon. Or any giants or trolls," he continued.

"I saw an Inirak on the way down too but nobody believes me..."

Rhindeer

...Those things existed?

He had to be pulling her leg.

But then again, she hadn't even realized ogres were real until she'd come across his band.

She took the kebab absently, her mind on the list of creatures he'd named--including one she didn't recognize. "What's an Inirak?"
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DaGlobster

Drex took a moment to enjoy his food before replying, relaxing in the saddle as his rhinox followed the road back through the city gate.

"Mountain spirits. Ogre legends say they guard the sacred peaks and hidden chasms. It's said that if you sacrifice flowers to them, you won't get caught in an avalanche during your travels."

He waved his hand dismissively.

"But not as bad as a dragons, though. Tribes're always having problems with them."

He looked down at her.

"What kind of beasties are down here in essyrn?"

Rhindeer

"...Should we bring flowers with us?" Scarab asked, suddenly less afraid of these strange beasties and more afraid of the snow when she remembered that avalanches existed. One of the characters from one of her favorite books had survived one, and for years she had thought they were just the stuff of fiction until a foreign slave informed her they were very real. "They'd be wilted by the time we got there,  but we could press and dry them! Would they accept dried flowers?"

Because an avalanche sure didn't sound like her idea of a good time. She only knew they were like a faster version of the shifting of sand dunes, able to bury an army beneath the snow in one fell swoop. A bad sand storm could do that, too, but those took time and you could see those coming and prepare; everything she'd heard about avalanches sounded fast, sudden, and violent. And apparently sound could trigger them!

She shivered at the thought.

"We don't have anything quite so exciting here, I don't think. Oh, there's sandworms of course, and those are nasty but uncommon. And there's djinn, and who knows what lives in Seraj Isa in all that glass. There's people who can change into hyenas and things like that. I've never seen any of those things, though. Just heard about them. Though I once thought I saw baby sandworm marks in the sand! But my friend told me it was probably just a snake."

She huffed. "It seemed awful big for a snake."
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DaGlobster

"Well, what if it was a snake? There's all kinds of big beasties out there, what's saying that there can't just be a huge, fat snake?" Drex said, "hmph"ing to himself as if to assure his point.

"Yeah, something that big's likely to just swallow you right there..."

He looked back at Scarab.

"But either way, you'll have me there for the whole trip, and I get put on mammoth duty a lot so the views will be good."

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