19 {Northern Market}
In the cold blue waters of the Atlantic four men were sailing in a small ship unaware of a beast that was circling overhead.
Said beast was a white dragon that camouflaged with the cloudy sky. It slowly began to descend revealing its existence to the sailors.
The men hurried towards their weapons and prepared to fight a beast that they had never seen before. However, none of them could have expected that a young man would be mounted on the ice-covered dragon.
"Easy we don't mean you any harm! I'm just going to get off okay, I'm freezing my ass here."
The young red-haired man slowly climbed down and the dragon froze a portion of the water's surface creating a platform it could land on.
Neil raised his hands as he looked around the ship, "From above I could see that you had lots of goods which made me assume you guys are merchants."
The older man among the bunch nodded and lowered his shield while still keeping an eye on the Woolly Howl.
"We are, and you? Who are you and how are you controlling that beast?"
As if feeling offended the Woolly Howl began snarling which made the merchants uneasy.
"Easy, he does that from time to time. My name is Nacho and all I want is to buy some goods from you. So why don't we put our weapons down okay? Trust me if we attack each other none of us will win. This guy here will turn you and me into ice statues before your friend there has a chance to reach for another arrow."
The men seemed to doubt what he said but they had just seen how the dragon had frozen the water's surface. Even if they did shoot there was a probability that it wouldn't penetrate the icy scales or worse the arrow would be deflected. As for the boy they could take him hostage but would the dragon really care for the brat more than its life?
Seeing that there was not much they could do the men lowered their weapons. The man who talked before put his to the side and walked over to a pile of goods that were somewhat covered.
"So what exactly were you looking for?"
Neil looked around and found that the men carried food along with some weapons and clothes. Most of the clothes were for winter which had passed roughly 5 months ago.
After some searching, he picked up a new dagger, bow, 6 arrows, a pack of 15 slices of dried meat, two leather bags, a blanket made out of Yak hide, and the smallest size of clothing he could find that wasn't for winter.
"That'll be 9 large gold coins and 8 small silver."
Neil nodded and and garbed his pouch of coins, it and his daggers had been two of the few things that he had secured to him when he was forced to abandon his boat. The rest of his amassed wealth now rested either in the bottom of the ocean or the stomach of the Scauldron.
25 large gold, 10 small gold, and 20 large silver were all that remained of his work throughout the years.
I should have jammed in as much gold as I could have instead of trying to keep it looking light.
Once the transaction had been made he put the bow on his back and placed his goods on the bags. He then tied the bag straps together and slung it on top of the blanket which was now on the Woolly Howl's back.
As he got on he turned to look at the men, "Again sorry for the sudden swoop, I am glad that we had a fair trade and I look forward to trading again if we happen to meet. I do have one question that I was wondering if you could answer. Do you happen to know of a place called Berk?"
Now that they had traded the men were at ease as they rubbed their beards trying to remember the name.
"Can't say I've heard of it."
"I have before but I was too drunk to remember haha."
"Oh, I've heard their products being sold at the Northern Market when we were last there three seasons ago. Your best bet would be to go there and see for yourself."
Neil was happy that he was getting closer, "Could you point the way?"
The men nodded and pointed to the direction their boat was going, "Actually that's where we are going now hehe. It's North East from here, but just some advice if you plan to go take very close care of your goods. It's full of thieves and hunters so it isn't a good idea to bring your icy friend with you."
He nodded at the merchants and flew off as he said his thanks.
After flying for several hours he spotted an Island and on a clearing near the beach, there were several small buildings. From their size, he guessed that they had to be stalls, but from so high up he wasn't sure. They flew and landed at a rocky area far from the market.
Thankfully they had spotted the Merchant Ship early in the morning so even after the long flight time the day was still young.
He changed into his new clothes and grabbed his new dagger along with one of the leather bags that Cora had turned into her new home. Neil didn't want to bring her at first but she simply didn't listen. He was tempted to tie her in the Zippleback sack like he had done earlier but he didn't want to traumatize her.
"We'll be back so wait here okay?"
The Woolly Howl seemed to understand what he was trying to say since it wasn't the first time he had asked it to wait.
After a short walk, he finally reached the market which was busy and full of all kinds of rough-looking people.
After several minutes of looking around, he found a lead. In a small stall that was made out of 4 wooden posts and fabric, there were many barrels of what seemed to be chicken feed.
On one of the barrels the words Berk's Blend was written in bright orange paint. As he walked closer and began to inspect the purple feed a man with a unkept beard quickly stood up from his chair and gestured at all the barrels.
"Welcome my young friend, as you can see you have come to the right place if you seek chicken feed. While I see that you have an interest in Berk's Blend might I interest you in Archipelago Gold? A man such as yourself must know that you are what you eat, and this is the best of the best."
'Right, and also the most expensive. Besides what the hell am I going to do with chicken feed?'
He shook his head and took a handful of the chicken feed and let it go through his fingers, "Sorry but maybe another day for now I'll just take a handful of this one."
The man nodded and quickly took out a sack and began pouring some in until the bag was half full.
"You have a good eye young one, while it isn't as high quality as Archipelago Gold it's still very good. I assure you that you're chickens will love it."
Neil smiled and nodded, "Thank you, I'm sure they will. But this Berk? Is it the same one from the rumors I've been hearing about lately? The ones who have tamed dragons?"
The man laughed and patted his arm, "Young one you are too naive, do you really think something like that is possible haha, but yeah this feed comes from there. Anyway, that will be 4 small silver coins."
"Here you go. Hey, so how far away is Berk? Isn't it too much work to get feed from them and all the other places so that you can sell them here?"
The man sighed and nodded, "Aye it is but it's what I love to do. Being able to go all over the world Archipelago and see all the different kinds of feed and chickens. There is no greater thing I would rather do."
'Right, feed and chickens. This guy is crazy."
"Could I ask you for something?"
"Sure what is it?" asked the man as he rubbed both his hands.
"Would you happen to know where I could get a map? I lost mine recently you see hehe."
The man seemed disappointed and nodded and pointed in the direction of a nearby stand.
"And you can assure me that the maps they have are real?"
"Oh yes, you have my word."
He nodded and went over to buy a map which cost him 5 large silver. Once he had the map put away he went back to the chicken feed shop.
"Sir, do you mind comparing this map to your own? I just want to make sure that this is right?"
The man hesitated for a bit but then nodded and went over to his bag and pulled open his map. One look and one could obviously tell that his map was more detailed and of a larger area. There were some tiny differences but overall everything seemed to be drawn as correctly as possible.
"Thanks, sir, here is a large silver for your trouble."
The man didn't hesitate to take the coin from Neil's hand.
"Not at all my boy just come to me if you ever need anything hehe."
Neil smiled and asked for an ink pen which he used to write his name on the map along with the location of Berk which was missing from the map he had bought.
'Damn bastards, 10 large gold for a map just because it has the name of the villages. That's a robbery!'
