A Pair to End The War

Travelling Merchant

That night I had a strange dream. The world was dark, the sun mottled and riddled with infectious black spots, quickly growing larger and overtaking its surface, cloud of black smog suffocated the world of what little light was left, eventually the sun's light disappeared, leaving nothing but darkness behind. The only source of light was that of lightning striking the ground and freezing in place. A single voice rang out through the silence, as if it were searching specifically for me.

It started slow and quiet, but when it saw me, it quickly gained speed, getting louder and louder in a steady scream: "GET OUT!" It screamed in a long prolonged, furious cry.

I woke up with a jolt, laying on my back, the mid-morning sun shining down on my face, Hjan still asleep, he was curled on my chest, soaking in the sunlight.

I yawned and rubbed my eyes, shielding them from the sun: What did that dream mean? Why did it feel so real? Where did that voice come from and why did it's shout make my stomach drop in fear?

I wanted to continue pondering but the smell of sulfur tickled my nose. I sniffed another time, but didn't smell it coming from Hjan. I sniffed a little more and caught another smell in the mix of sulfur, magic charcoal. I knew it was magic charcoal because the difference in heat at which it burns from normal charcoal causes the smoke to smell like a very dark chocolate.

My eyes went widened when I realized what I had been smelling and I looked back. In the distance, near the shore of the lake I saw a smithery, the exterior of it wretched with wrought iron-wood, densely built to effectively keep in heat and keep out weather. The roof was built from the scales of dragons, most likely a form of payment from other traveler's they've met over the years. The ground around the shop was burned with magical etchings, ones that are only formed when teleporting; which is how these shops travel around the world. A single large chimney made from metal dispelled black smoke, that smelled of chocolate and sulfur. I could also see the small shape of another person, he was walking out into the water with something.

I shook Hjan awake gently, "Hjan, wake up, I need your help!"

Hjan lifted his head tiredly, "What?" he asked.

"Do you have any loose scales? Maybe some you've lost already?"

Hjan stretched into downward dog, "Why?" he asked.

I slid him off my chest and reached for the satchel I had made from the tethered tree leaves, "The travelling merchant is just in the distance, and I need some scales as currency,"

"Who's that?"

"He's a rare and magical smith who is well known for his item and magical weaponry, armor and items. He's very illusive, but well known for helping needy travelers. My troops and I have only met him once before, years ago when I was young and had just joined my troop, but we didn't have anything of use for him so we couldn't buy anything,"

"So why do you need scales?"

"He doesn't take gold as currency, he only takes magical items as currency, the more magical, the more valuable they are to him,"

Hjan, still not entirely awake and understanding of the situation, rubbed against the interior of the tethered tree, "Sure let me check,"

As I waited, I kept my eyes on the merchant's shop, hoping that they wouldn't disappear before we could get to them. After about 2 minutes Hjan touched my leg with his tail. I looked down and saw he was holding roughly 8 small scales he had scratched loose. I took them from him nicely and picked him up, he was a lot heavier than he was yesterday; he would topple me over if I put him in the satchel and had him hang in the front. I placed him upside down in the satchel and flipped the satchel onto my back, so he was facing right side up.