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Snow coated every surface imaginable, varying from a perfect untouched white to a soggy and sad dirt grey. It’s a month into being in Kalzasi, and Merilgo had yet to make any profit. Their wallet was feeling much lighter than they were comfortable with, and it seemed their indulgent tendencies were going to get them in trouble. Black eyes shifted down from the winding city streets to the fresh sizzling fried potato on a stick they had just picked up from a vendor. They took another bite, savoring the flavor. It had been coated with a sticky savory-sweet honey sauce and doused with onions. Fragrant, filling, and delicious.
Their mother always had clients through the kingdoms and the free cities, and all these clients wanted rare, expensive, and hard-to-find things. Not impossible or dangerous to find, but difficult enough to hire their caravan. Merilgo’s mother could waltz into a Bazaar with the most expensive wine a commoner would be willing to purchase and sell out by sunset. Once their brother and sister were on the scene, there was hardly someone who didn’t want to chat with the adventuring tree-people while they selected from foreign spices and dried goods, expensive spirits, and unique magical trinkets. The grey-horned thing was hardly noticed taking bank notes and balancing the books. Merilgo knew that if they were to start their own business, they could not manage the same promise as their family caravan. It was a huge undertaking made possible by the large family and eclectic and migratory ways of their people. The still-skinned-city-dwellers hardly had the same resources as a Fae’ethalan. And now… neither did Merilgo.
Frowning and furrowing their brow as they tossed the stick they were eating off of, Merilgo intended to spend the day exploring again, further procrastinating their need to find financial stability. They were not yet inclined to chum up to a wealthy noble who might want their wares, since the Kalzasi people were anything but what they had expected. Perhaps it was because of the half-Fae’s obviously Lysanrin face, or perhaps the Kalzasi people were simply rude all around, but Merilgo was offended regardless. They found themselves navigating toward the edges of the city today. The streets began to flatten from the mountains here, leading into gently sloped farmlands bordered by the indomitable forest beside them. There was a smattering of houses with lumpy white covered gardens on the edge of the city here, interrupted by small clearings of unclaimed lands with scattered trees, not quite thick enough to be forest yet. It was the most privacy one can get while still remaining within the protection of the city. These cottages likely cost a fortune.
What exactly they wished to find out here, they were unsure. Fewer people, Ideally. They had a borrowed scroll of Mythrasi songs they could practice translating, but it was awfully cold to come outside just to sing a song or two. It wasn’t as if Kalzasi had any birds that would appreciate the off-tune merchant, they had all flown south by now.
It was a foolish hope that Merilgo might spot a bird at all, truly. But that didn’t mean the lands around Kalzasi were not stunning in their own way. Merilgo had begun walking very slowly, enjoying the soft crunch of frozen snow beneath their heeled boots, a soft hum on their lips as they admired the rainbows cast into the snow by interesting shaped icicles. Black eyes were glued to the tree branches, looking for any sign of life, curious about what winter creatures would stay in such a place. It wasn’t until they heard a sharp THWACK that they froze. Instinctively holding their breath to prevent the cloud of heat from escaping their lungs. Not that their dark attire in the bright winter snow would be missed.
Black eyes shot toward where they thought the sound had been, completely unsure what it was. Perhaps just a poorly timed dead branch giving to the weight of the snow. Perhaps something worse.
Merilgo’s heart sunk as the possibilities raced through their mind, freezing them in place for a tick too long. But it was not long before they felt eyes on them and their sharp corvid vision could find the source of the sound. By the time Merilgo’s eyes landed on the fellow crow, they were worried he had seen them too. This was most definitely not a normal crow. A sheepish grin flitted across their face in reaction, and Merilgo raised a hand to a small wave, stealth was hardly an option anyhow.
“Hello stranger,” Merilgo called out, assuming they had been spotted by now. Surely this was a fellow Animus mage… but what an interesting body part to choose to take on. The eyes, they understood, but the beak and ears that made everything sound shrill and too close? Did this mage not wish to retain the ability to speak? Merilgo held their tongue, watching for a reaction to their greeting, squinting through the scattering of trees and carefully stepping forward to be seen better. The bashfulness had left their face by now, fully replaced with bright-eyed curiosity and the hopeful stance of the eternally curious. As they neared, another wave of fear hit the half-Fae as they realized this crow-man was holding a weapon… or perhaps his arm was the weapon? It was difficult to tell from far away.
“Whatever the offense, I am sure the tree is sorry by now.” Merilgo spoke at a normal volume now that they could see the person better. Merilgo gave a pointed look to the weapon, offering a simple line in common with a mellow tone that seemed to blend a variety of southern accents, not calling any one city to prominence. The traveler had met so many different types of people, but not one who looked like this before. Short of a threat to their life, the half-Fae would be foolish to not find a way to converse with this man or creature. Still keenly aware of the weapon and not confident enough in their own rapier to think of drawing it in defense, Merilgo let their hands rest at their sides, as unthreatening as possible. They paused a few meters from the crow-person, clearly intent on conversation, a thousand questions pulling at their tongue as their obsidian eyes took the scene in.
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