The next settlement they reached was beautiful, reminding Vanessa of her hometown. Tents were strategically placed, and it was a place full of life. People came in and out of the settlement almost freely, and there were tents with their entrances wide open, items such as food or decorative pieces being sold by the tent's inhabitants.
Kisa seemed to share the same sentiment Vanessa did, their eyes both full of longing to adventure through the marketplace and explore the remaining tents to see what each one was for.
Unlike in the Yuni village, the tents in this settlement were not quite color coded in the same sense of brown, black, and yellow. Instead, they had more vibrant colors. One such pattern Shayne noted was how the majority of market tents were painted with greens for decoration, blues for clothing and other necessities, and purple for food items or pharmaceutical items. He was not quite sure what the other colors represented, but he figured he'd find out eventually.
"Welcome to Jakuer!" a cheerful voice called, a teenager popping his head up beside them. He had short brown hair and wore clothes that were decorated with what resembled the markings on the market tents, except they were a teal color. His eyes were the squinting type, where it was unclear whether his eyes were open or closed, though it seemed at this moment he had them open. "I'm a tour guide here, would you like me to escort you through Jakuer? It only costs you one copper per hour!"
Shayne looked helplessly at the rest of the group. Clearly, he didn't know how to convert the money from the currency he was used to, which was often paper currency called gallies or coin currency called taalas.
The boy, quickly taking up the input of the group's silence, cut through it. "Converting to gallies and taalas, it takes five taalas per copper! One silver is fifty taalas or one gallie, and one gold is five hundred taalas or ten gallies!"
Shayne sheepishly paid for the group with twenty gallies for the entire group and for all the trouble. The boy seemed very pleased, lighting up with pure joy from the excessive payment.
The young tour guide pointed out all the sights and explained the color-coding for the tents. All of Shayne's initial observations were confirmed, and those he was unable to observe earlier were clarified.
The teal clothing was for tourism. It was considered a luxury to have a traveler pay for a tour guide, thus the coloring. Yellow tents here signified hotel spaces for weary travelers. Orange was for permanent residents (the young boy pointed to one such tent, claiming it to be his own that he shared with his younger sister).
Finally, there was one large red tent. It was their hospital. It seemed, the closer to green the coloring was, the more tourism-centric it was. On the other hand, the closer to red the tent's coloring was, the more essential its services.
They finally made a stop at a purple tent with amazing smells coming from inside. Their tour guide, whose name was Filli, ran up to the owner of the tent and discussed something with her, and she then provided seating mats for the weary travelers.
Soon enough, fresh smells of spices and fried vegetables and meats filled the air, and soon enough the owner, along with her husband and daughter, came out of the tent with bowls of steaming food.
The dish had a similar smell to curry*, but was more liquid and seemed to have been cooked separately from the vegetables and meats. Said food items were piled upon a bed of steamed white rice.
The entirety of the dish was highly aromatic, with a bitter aftertaste that was addicting rather than off-putting. Filli explained that the liquid was a traditional tea consumed in the area, and adding it as a savory sauce to the dish was one of his favorite ways to enjoy rice dishes.
The entire group, though not wording it out loud, could almost see Filli's eyes sparkle as he ate, despite his eyes being completely out of sight.
When everyone was finished with their delicious meal, Shayne paid handsomely for it, and the owner was extremely grateful for the extra money.
They ended the day with Filli taking them to several empty yellow tents, and bid the travelers farewell until the next day.
On his way back to his tent, Filli toyed with the money given to him by the group. Though some seemed much more used to generous spending, there were others still that did not seem to have the same spending habits. They were obviously people of different groups that happened to band together on a similar journey for a similar goal. Filli didn't know what this goal was, but he smelled adventure, and he was excited to see where this adventure would take these people next.
Author's Note:
Sorry for the long wait everyone. It's been a little less than a year. Sorry to make you all wait. I didn't know what else to put here besides this.
*I really wanted to show off this dish I had in Singapore! Though it is not the same as I had described here exactly, I took inspiration from Japanese curry and that dish I mentioned! This dish is based on tea rice. You stir fry different types of vegetables and either tofu or some other type of protein and you can get however much you want off separate plates and put them over the rice in your bowl, and then pour a savory tea over it. Though the tea is not as flavorful as Japanese curry is, it is delicious and as I mentioned, has a bitter aftertaste that's addicting rather than off-putting (in my opinion). You could even add chili pepper to the vegetables or on the side for some extra spice if you wanted! I wanted to make a scene where we can get an idea of what sort of interesting food combinations I could come up with for this world's cuisine XD
Again, sorry for the late update, I have no excuse besides writer's block. I hope to write more for you all since I see that people are still enjoying this story. Thank you for your support, and I hope you all have a great end of the year! I will do my best to work out the next part of the story, but for now this chapter was, rather than filler, world-building that I never really did much of before ^^' Thanks again for reading!
-Vanguard12😋
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The King's Men
AdventureA useless king is replaced by his older brother and is sent away to find some use in himself, along with his most loyal servant and his most loyal soldier. Wanting to prove his brother right, that he CAN be useful if he tried, he faces many hardship...
