78. Buying livestock

The market in Yemen is in a large compound in the north of the town. We walked north along the stone wall for a long time, smelling the stench and foul odour of feces and urine from inside the wall, and turned through a huge stone gate to see a huge square lined with wooden enclosures.

As soon as we walked through the gate, we saw a mountain of thunder rhinos tethered to wooden stakes on either side, and a three-metre tall minotaur warrior sitting lazily in the sun on the back of one. I looked up at the huge creatures and wondered how much it would cost to buy one of these majestic thunder rhinos.

As I walked inside, I actually saw dozens of giant wolves inside the wooden fence, these giant wolves were grey, black and grey-white in colour, they were over two metres long and looked taller than ordinary bison. I couldn't take a step for fear of angering them. How could a wooden fence, only the thickness of a small arm, possibly stop such ferocious beasts.

"These are the Zebra Wolves, they are very docile." Sister Gogo saw my fear and took my hand and told me. "These are the domesticated mounts of the wolves, and they are very docile in nature, although they usually eat meat as well. The bursts of sprint are good for speed but have far less stamina than the gubbolai horses, the beasts have many wolf cavalry equipped with these mounts, and the seat wolf cavalry is very capable in the field."

There was a werewolf sitting on a lounge chair at the entrance to the fence, he just looked up at Kurtz and nodded as a greeting, surprisingly he didn't even shrug us off, I asked Kurtz a little curiously, "Why don't we see him soliciting business?"

"These wolves are specially supplied to the Yemeni fortress, these mounts are considered military supplies, you can't even buy them if you want to!" Sister Gogo continued to drag me inside the market.

Inside the market was much more normal, and there was actually an orc with a guborai horse who tried to tug on my sleeve and explain to me how honest and obedient his horse was, running as smoothly as if he was sitting on a chair. One of the more popular mounts for sale in the market was a type of mount called a pan goat, and I asked Kurtz, a little curiously, "Do you orcs usually like to ride goats? Wouldn't it be better to ride a horse?"

Kuzi said a little unnaturally, "Actually, the warriors of our werewolf tribe would prefer to buy a wolf for themselves, and these goats, well, only the dwarves like to ride them, they are short and only climb on the back of the goats without much effort. The reason there are so many pan goat mounts in the market is that they were probably seized from a band of grey dwarf bandits and that's why they are thrown on the market for sale!"

I pointed to a sabre-toothed tiger-like beast in a steel cage not far away and asked Kurtz, "What's that again?"

"A night-blade leopard, it's not a species from our Pai plateau, I think it comes from over in the Forest of Eternal Night!" Kurtz said with some uncertainty, "This big guy is better suited inside the jungle, the gravel of the wasteland does a lot of damage to its meaty paws, they only get transported here for some big orc chieftains who have a particular fondness for collecting mounts. There shouldn't be anyone willing to ride this one through the wilderness on a hunt."

We crossed the passage through a row of wooden fences, hiding our mouths and noses from the fetid smell. But the livestock market, which was much bigger than a football field, was a bit too big for us outsiders. We were like headless flies wandering around, not knowing exactly where to go.

"Ja, look over there, it's actually a seated dragon!" Kiger said to me as she tugged on my shirt excitedly behind me.

I had always thought of the word "dragon" as a super creature that was huge and could fly, but when I gathered myself and turned my head to follow the direction of Kiger's white, onion-like finger, I found that the Zorosaurus Kiger was talking about was a strange-looking dinosaur with long, powerful legs, a broad back strapped with a It had long, powerful legs, a leather saddle on its broad back, a huge head sticking out in front, and a pair of fleshy wings on its back, so short that I thought it would be impossible for it to fly. I asked Kurtz beside me, "Is this thing called a seadragon?"

Kurtz nodded and said, "It likes eggs and fresh meat, it's hard to keep, and food is too expensive!"

"Runs fast?" I asked again.

"Nah, very blocky. And it can climb over not too steep beams and even dares to jump off high cliffs, and although its carnivorous wings can't fly, those of an adult seadragon can make short glides, and such a three-year-old seadragon will definitely get you back for less than ten gold if you'll hire me and I'll haggle for you!" At this point a young werewolf stood beside us and said to Sister Gogo, who he felt was more of an alpha to our party.

Kuz stood up at this point and said coldly with a frown, "We are only going to buy a young subjugated beast, there is no profit to be made, you go find someone else!"

Later, according to Kurtz, the young werewolf was a bargain hunter in the market, and would lead foreign traders to goods not normally found in the market, but don't expect to get a bargain from them, they were counting on the difference in price to make money. An adult subjugator was around two gold, cheaper if it was a young subjugator, and perhaps because he saw another young orc in the group, probably thinking Kurtz was his counterpart, the young orc looked a little disappointed.

The young werewolf obviously lost interest when Kurtz told him we were buying a beast, but still pointed modestly and politely to the fence a short distance to his right and said, "The beasts are gathered over there!"

As soon as he had finished speaking, seeing that he could not gain any advantage from us, he dived into the fence and disappeared in a flash.

Finally we followed the path the young orc had pointed out and found the place where the beasts were being sold.

The subjugated beast was more like a large shaggy bison, but bigger, measuring six or seven metres in length but less than two metres in height, its long hair covering its true body so tightly that its hooves could not even be seen. A pair of curved horns on a head the size of a bucket and eyes much bigger than my fist gazed at us meekly, mouths still eating dried clover scattered on the ground. I thought this was a very large bison! But as my eyes scanned the back of the beast, I realised I was wrong.

The Beast of Asian Return is one of the most common livestock on the plateau, and it is also very large, but compared to the giant Thunder Rhino, which is seven or eight metres tall and more than ten metres long, it is much smaller. If the thunder rhinoceros is compared to a large lorry carrying containers, then the Yagui beast is a small van. Unlike the thunder rhinoceros, which can endure hunger for a whole month, the subguineas need to eat grass and drink water every day.

There was enough room for all four of us to ride together on the back of this one, and plenty of luggage to strap on the tail.

In the end, Kurtz was able to buy a strong beast with a fully equipped leather saddle for three gold, and returned to the caravan camp satisfied.

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