A faraway place on the border

The horsemen my mother sent returned at the head of a great caravan, it took about two hours to get from the city to the rest point in the big carts of the Merchants Guild, they were sturdy 4-wheel wagons, much like the old west settler wagons seen in those old cowboy movies but they were wider, pulled by 4 large pack horses, in total 14 large carts were sent, it barely took a little over 2 hours for the Merchants Guild to gather enough personnel and equipment to form the convoy, it was undoubtedly a sample of his great summoning power, in addition about 40 adventurers were gathered for the escort.

The prairie monkeys and the alpha monkey were loaded directly onto 11 Guild wagons, the salvaged cargo from our destroyed wagons was loaded onto the rest of the remaining wagons, the work was quick and we immediately left once the load was finished, apparently, my father and mother were well known as several adventurers came to greet them cordially.

About 3 hours after leaving the hill we reached the city gates, the guards ran frantically as they took note of all the movement, the Cerretas of the Merchants Guild entered after a glance, the adventurers showed their dog tags, a person from the Merchants Guild paid a guarantee for our stay, after all, it seems that the Gray Wolf tribe was well known for being a great supplier of exotic materials to the Merchants Guild.

The person sent by the Merchants Guild accompanied us to do all the paperwork regarding our entry and that of the other adults of the tribe, we would only stay 2 days in the city, the man was very cheerful and patiently answered the barrage of questions thrown at him, the guarantee paid by the Merchants Guild would be returned upon our departure and it was like insurance in case we caused disturbances in the city, although I doubted that any of the adults who accompanied us would do anything out of place.

From the questions, I asked the representative of the Merchants Guild about the city of Ciliana he told me that, the city was considered a 《satellite city》 of the great commercial city of Dumai although this city was almost a month's journey by wagon to the north, located directly at the exit of the mountain pass that divided the great central mountain range, it had abundant farmland to the north, productive mines in the mountains to the south, as well as receiving a steady stream of exotic goods stockpiled in Ciliana, for this reason, Dumai was the Mecca of the merchants of the great continent and the starting point of the most important commercial routes.

The city of Dumai was the pearl of the Castial Kingdom, trade, mining, and abundant harvests allowed the kingdom to be the greatest economic power of the great continent and to possess a vast territory, spanning from the central mountain range, passing through great plains, to the coast of a great inland sea, known as the 《Castial Sea》 due to the dominion of its waters exercised by the kingdom, which in turn aroused the greed of its neighbors, who constantly threatened the peace of their borders.

Although the greatest enemy of the kingdom was not outside its borders, despite being ruled by a King, true power was distributed among a large number of nobles who ruled over the many territories of the kingdom, the constant political intrigues to which the kingdom was subjected in recent years had greatly weakened its structure, awakening the wishes of its neighbors, so the echoes of a possible war filled the air, of course, all of this was very distant and irrelevant to forest dwellers like us.

After arriving at the Merchants Guild headquarters, my mother Ivina closed the negotiations and entrusted the rest of the adults to supervise the delivery of the products, my father Erik promised that he would show me the city as soon as my mother finished checking that everything was going well, they both looked very happy, it's probably due to the excited face I must be making right now, we walk as a family doing tourism, my father took us to all the highlights of the city, the market in the central square, the military district and finally the commercial district when we were about to return to the place where the group's camp was set up, a small tent caught my eye.

I paid attention to the whole tour and nowhere did they sell books, which to tell the truth did not surprise me so much, since possibly due to the existence of magic, things like printing must not have been invented, so without a doubt, the books are very expensive, I caught the attention of my father who gave me a funny look, I have probably foreseen this outcome since my 《me》 child shows great curiosity, I ran in the direction of the little store and could hear my mother giggling happily, she was probably having a lot of fun with my reactions.

The books are expensive, the equivalent of the salary of several months of work of an ordinary person, but my father Erik just paid for it all with a cheery smile, it was a surprise but my father had a lot of money by the standards of this world when he took out a small purse where he kept his gold coins even the owner of the store was surprised, as among the tribes of the great black forest no money is used, my father never spent all the money he brought with him and every time he came to trade in the city he asked that a part of the profits be given to him in money and not in goods, so over the years he got a considerable amount, besides, my mother always said that knowledge is important and like all the books I chose were to increase my knowledge, I don't blame the expense either.

I ended up buying a book on the basics of magic, one on alchemy, also what appeared to be a treatise on northern natural medicine, how my mother's knowledge was limited to the native medicinal plants of the south, I thought it would help me for my plans; when we finished shopping we returned to the place where our camp would be set up, every time the tribe came to trade they set up a small camp in a side yard that was owned by the Merchants Guild since no one seemed interested in staying at an inn.

Accustomed to the harsh life in the great black forest and always maintaining a semi-nomadic lifestyle, the southern tribes did not feel comfortable among many comforts, although I did want to know an inn, I couldn't get away from my parents just to satisfy my curiosity, an open-air banquet was prepared at the initiative of the Merchants Guild, apparently, it was a way of thanking the Gray Wolves tribe for always delivering exotic products that would be sold at high prices in the northern markets; rare minerals that appeared in the beds of streams that ran down from the mountains, fine hides for expensive garments, tough leather from dangerous beasts, their bones and tendons that would be used to make armor, weapons and other equipment, spices that were considered exotic among the nobility of the northern nations even though in the village we consumed them every day.

A small part of the profits would be given in gold coins, that my father Erik kept as savings for emergencies or occasional purchases, the rest would be delivered in goods, mainly salt, which was a rare commodity in the south, materials for blacksmithing, farming and labor tools, weapons and information, although it did not appear so, the tribe had a detailed record of all commercial transactions and fluctuations in the prices of raw materials, we also received 2 large 4 wheel carts to replace the carts that were destroyed.

Tomorrow would be the last day in the city, the supplies would be finished, during the day, some gifts would be bought for the rest of the tribe in the afternoon, things like kitchen utensils, glasses, bowls and some extra details for women like hair clips, buckles, which were craft items that were beyond my father's blacksmith skills, who also wanted to take me to a special place, did not know exactly what he meant but seemed to talk about it with my mother, after the banquet and a small meeting around the fire where Ivina communicated the plans to the rest, after a proper rest, he would depart back to the village the morning after a load of provisions was completed.