Of Gods and Commerce

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It is a little after the middle ages, as peace has begun to loom between countries and regions after several years of war. In hopes of cementing their hopes of peace, they have opened trade with one another. There has been legends of gods and goddesses who had helped them with the wars, farming, treasure, and everyday life. There are rumors that, now that many people have stopped worshipping them, they have turned violent against the people who no longer worship them.
I welcome you to Uodouna, a region located in the South, deep South. It a place where there is plenty of wildlife, an abundance of white, lush snow, and a great amount of trees. It is a place of warm houses, grand feasts and festivals, and where the kindness of the people is the warmess of all.

In the East, there is the region of Ocsanous, which is plentiful in gold, ore, and metals. The entire area is engulfed in mountains. They gladly opened trade for the shipments of food. The people there are gruff, powerful, headstrong, with an unshakeable will to keep going with what they believe is honest and true.

To the West is Zoulae, where it borders the shore, and the rest of the region is made of large islands. People there a fishermen. The people there are calm, collective, and do not trust others easily. The area there is sunny and warm, abundant with sea life. It mkes for a delightful vacationing spot.

In the North is the region of Kair. Overall, it is a small region, with 3 warm months, 1 rainy month, and the other being cold and always snowing. Even with the region with such weather, the farmland is harvested 3 times a year, even in snow. They have stopped believing in gods entirely.

In between them all is the Capitol, a large area which, single handedly, was able to keep at bay all of the 4 other regions during the war. The people are dark, seriou, and to the point. They make magnificient tools.

We are starting in Uodouna. Wherea group of merchants, celebrating in a small secluded party will come to find something they will not believe.











It is the second month of the year, and the fresh fallen snow was just starting to set. It was night. A lone horse-drawn wagon was plowing through the light snow.
A merchant named Lantos had just entered the region of Uodouna 5 hours earlier. He was transporting animal furs and some wheat, hoping to get a better payout in the South instead of in Kair to the North. As he aproached a village, which was named Halka, he could hear the sounds of a festival coming from it. It was a mess of clangor, clamor, and happy shouts. However as he got closer, he noticed the gate to the town was locked. It had closed for the night to limit the number of drunkards which exited the village to be able to hurt themselves in the forest and snow.
Lantos noticed that other merchants had gathered at the gate as well, as it seemed they wished to enter as well.
"Excuse me, but what is going on? Why are the gates closed?" He asked the merchant in front of him.

[ninjastorm45]

The merchant in front of Lantos was laying down in his cart. He looked up at Lantos while still laying down. This meant he was looking at Lantos upside down. "These guys say that it's too chaotic for us to move in." He sat up and turned to Lantos. "Though they did say that we could go inside in about thirty minutes..."

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"And for our luck, probably all the housing in the village itself will be taken. Hopefully there might be some housing available nearby the farmland if we're lucky." Lantos stated. He knew how the festival got sometimes thanks to him being there in the past.
"I'm Lantos by the way," he stated. He waved his hand for a quick moment just as a friendly gesture.

[ninjastorm45]

The man returned the same wave."Joshua. Nice to meet you." He yawned and laid back oh one of the crates on his cart. "That festival in there seems interesting. I've never seen anything like it." He paused for a moment and smiled. "So what are you selling?"

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"I'm not selling much," Lantos stated as he uncovered the corner of the cloth overlapping the wagon. "I've brought animal fur skins and two bundels of wheat..."
He covered the wagon again. "From the smell of things, I'd say you're from the west selling fish."

[ninjastorm45]

Joshua grinned and uncovered a crate behind him. It had a few dead fish inside. "I'm from Zoulae. These are some rare fish that live around my village." He covered the crate after he was done. "I caught most of them myself."

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"That's impressive," Lantos said. The gates to the city opened, allowing the view of the festival easily.
The pathways to the center of the festival were crowded by people who were partying, drinking, celebrating, and just plainly having a good time. In the center of town, there was a newly made wooden statue of some animals. Lantos, from legends and images he's seen from books, recognized it as the god of the full moon.
Lantos was a little disheartened to see that most of the inn's were already fully booked.
"...looks like I'll need to find some sort of farmer in the farmland area to allow me to sleep in his barn..." Lantos thought to himself.
As he made it around the wall of the city, he eventually made it to the farmland area. Fortunately, there was a kind farmer about 3 minutes from town who happily allowed him to sleep in the barn.
He entered the barn to find that it was empty. Apparently, the farmer hadn't raised livestock in a long amount of time, and the barn itself was organized, neat, with piles of hay laying around that would substitute well for a bed.

[ninjastorm45]

Joshua waved goodbye to Lantos as he left. Making his way into the town, he stopped his cart near a small strip of road. Figuring that all the inns were filled, he decided to spend the night in his cart. After Joshua was done locking his crates and covering them, he laid back in his cart and fell asleep almost instantly.

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Lantos looked outside. Rainclouds were gathering. That meant that the temperature was about to drop by 20 degrees before the rain.
Lantos exited the barn and went over to his wagon. He had already brought his horse into the barn, but if it was going to get colder, he would need to move the animal furs inside so that they remained at a high quality and thus give a better amount to sell at.
He uncovered the wagon and brought some of the furs inside. He exited with a little beef jerky he had bought on the way to Halka, chewing it lightly since he was more focused on keeping the equipment at its highest value instead of eating.
It already started to rain lightly. It was only obvious that it was raining by looking at the pond nearby, showing the ripples of some unseen objects falling into it.

[ninjastorm45]

Joshua felt a small drop of rain hit his forehead. He sat up and held his hand out to test if it was truly raining. As soon as he felt a few more drops hit his hand, he quickly rushed his horse to get micing to a covered area. "Why does it have to rain..." He found an archway and parked his cart under it. He wrung his short out to get the water out. He laid back down and fell asleep once more.

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Now that it had started raining, and really raining harder, Lantos moved the wagon (as well as the horse) over to the overcover of the Barnside. Lantos, still eating his beef jerky slowly, noticed that the cover of the wagon was pulled on top. He had left it open after he took the first pile inside the barn.
Carefully, ready to run if it was a wild animal, Lantos pulled the side of the cover over. He didn't see an animal, but rather a person. From the appearance, it was a girl, although the age was hard to tell since she covered herself with the aniamls furs, allowing only her arm and face to be seen. She was asleep.
"hey....wake up. What are you doing in my wagon?" Lantos asked.


((and so the story begins))

From the animal skins on the wagon rose the young woman, who looked no older than 18. She was slowly waking, having her blood red eyes slowly open in the process. It was obvious that it was not a human girl. She had a thick grey tail, long grey hair which reached past her waist, and animal like ears on the top of her head. She was also completely naked. She stared at the moon for a few seconds before opening her mouth, revealing that she had large, animal-like fangs as well. She let out a long, loud wolf-like howl which lasted for 20 seconds. She then spoke. "what a beautiful moon..." she stated before turning towards the man who had woken her up.
"You there...do you perchance have any alcohol?" She inquired.

[ninjastorm45]

Joshua quickly woke up at the sound of a howl. "What the heck was that?" He jumped off his cart and looked around. "That sounded like it came from the outside of town..." Deciding to shake it off like it was nothing, he climbed back on his cart and laid back. "And now I can't sleep..."

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"Who are you and what were you doing in my wagon?" Lantos asked again.
The girl did not seem to care what he was saying.
"Do you then have any food?" She responded. She noticed the jerky Lantos dropped when he realized someone was in his wagon. "Oh no...that's such a waste..." She stated while she reached over the side of the wagon without getting out of it. When she did grab it, she went ahead and put it in her mouth, leaving it hang slightly off it. She then sat quickly up, taunting Lantos' perception slightly by whipping the jerky in her mouth while she sat up.

Lantos drew his short sword that he always carried in his rear pocket and pointed it at the girl. "Are you possessed by the devil, demon?" He demanded.

"...blasted creature..." The girl stated, "How DARE you wield your weapon at me!" She replied harshly, but then suddenly calmed down. "Oh...some oversight? Perchance you are not from the village and thus not know of legends. Wield away then." She stated as she finished eating the food.
She suddenly sneezed, and covered herself with the animal furs as she laid down again. "This form becomes handy, but I hate how weak it is against the weather..." She stated softly. "...This is the first time I've seen the Kair have such a wet cold..."

"This is the South." Lantos replied. "I have no idea how you thought you could have been in the No-" He was cut off.

"The SOUTH?!" She sat up, astonished. "Well then I have no business to be here then..." She said loudly, a little annoyed as she jumped out of the wagon ((let's not forget she's still naked)) and walked away into the forest.

"What was all that about?" Lantos wondered to himself, also wondering if he should alert the guards.


Meanwhile, the girl was walking through the forest.
"Now then, I'm in the South....I have a long way to go North then...and I don't even know where to go..." Suddenly she stopped walking and sniffed the air. She smelled more food, specifically fish. She followed it until she came across another wagon.
She opened one of the unlatched crates, letting the lid to fall of to the ground loudly. She went ahead and was face down looking at fish. She pleasantly took one and started eating it happily. She was eating it raw.

[ninjastorm45]

Joshua heard a loud noise from the back of his wagon, almost like something had fallen off. He turned to see what had happened, only to be shocked at the girl eating one of his fish, Raw. "Umm... Can I help you?" He didn't realize what the girl was doing because she was hidden behind another crate.

[Deleted]

Her ears twitched a little in annoyance. She stood up a little straighter and took the fish out of her mouth. The head of the raw fish was already eaton through, revealing the bone.

Her head was the only thing visible from behind the crate, although it did still allow the person to see her ears.
"oh...another one..." She sighed slightly. "well, go ahead, call me demon, devil, and point a weapon at me or whatever." She stated sarcastically and then started eating the fish again. She had her arms crossed.