“Since you don't seem to have a weapon the smith and I will let you borrow one, but first we first have to make it, we will get it finished by tomorrow, since we can't make you a bow we´ll go with a spear, the basic hunting weapon”

“Well...I don't want to be rude, I'm grateful you're helping me, you're my savior right now, but I would like to opt for something light and small, so I can move more freely and I don't have to worry about my weapon hitting a branch”

“I understand what you're saying, but the spear is the basic weapon by excellency, it is long enough so you can have that extra reaching advantage against your enemy, and even if you're not a weapon expert, everyone can trust using a spear, rather than slicing and parrying using a sword”

“It is true, not everyone can use a sword, and I find using one to hunt as a bad idea, I was thinking in using something more focused in hunting like a knife, besides, we are not used to using spears since our main hunting weapon is the bow, in case of needing to fight in close distance a knife is something you can unsheathe rather quickly and gives maneuverability. - Using fancy words eh? that's fine by me, fist of all I turn no the smith so he doesn´t get anxious waiting for us

“I'm having a little trouble in the arrangement smith, but dont worry, its all good”

“You see my elf friend, a knife is no used as a main hunting weapon, it is used as a secondary weapon, since you need to be dangerously close to the target in order to use that said knife, in case of something easy to carry I would recommend a hand axe which can do a lot of damage and a shield to block the incoming damage”

“An axe requires strength to deliver a fatal blow, if you dont land the hit correctly you're not just vulnerable, there is a chance the axe would get stuck, not to mention the shield doesn't work if you don't know where the hit is coming from, if you're fighting a group of beasts it can only protect you from one or two at a time, it may only slow me down in that scenario.

“And you think a knife would be better in that scenario? I want to see you fight three wolves at the same time with such a small thing, and the shield was just an example, I suggested the spear in the first place because of that, since making a weapon AND a shield would take more time and resources”

“I never used a spear, that would put me in disadvantage, a knife´s strength comes from speed, not strength, if outnumbered I can use it while retreating without a problem”

“Fine! we´ll make you a short sword and a knife, you can use the sword as your weapon and the knife as backup, but you'll pay for both of them”

“I DON'T NEED A SWORD”

“DO YOU WANNA DIE WOMAN?!”

……

“Thanks for waiting, we decided that rather than a spear a knife would be a better option, I hope theres no problem with that change”

“Not at all...but you guys started yelling at each other in the second half, is everything alright?”

“Yeah, just a little friction”

Very well, now that everything is on its place I just need to do a brief explanation about what we'll be doing tomorrow and see if they both agree to help me with that, but man, I haven't even started and I feel tired already, nothing to do about it, let's start.

“Alright listen, this will be a pretty hasty thing, but the situation requires it to be like this, first of all, as I said before the weapon will go to the elf girl, she will use it to hunt down wolves and bears in the forest, once she brings them to the town it would be our turn to process the resources, cook, I need you to use the salt you have to dry the meat, this meat will last long so it is possible to transport and sell, the smith and I will do the tanning of the leather so it can be used as material or be also sold”

They are both silent, there is no more to that, being honest, after all I just improvised this, not to mention there is a lot of ways this plan might not work out, nonetheless, if it does work out it would bring extra income to the town, I say it is worth the shot but that's just my point of view, the question is how much are they willing to risk, to my surprise the cook is the first one to talk.

“You're telling me to use the salt to make dry meat, that process would take the whole day, if not a couple days, and I can't just stop making bread to dry meat that won't immediately sell, that's bad for the business, I'll start making dry meat only after I give the bread to the mayor in two days to sell”

“I understand, just try to save some salt for the later process please, and use as much as you can without affecting the business, of course, the salt will be used to make both bread and meat and the meat will definitely be sold at a higher price so keep that in mind and do your best to distribute the amount you have”

I can see the eyes of the cook shining in the thought of money, looks like I managed to put her on my side, but it gets complicated with the smith, still hasn't said a word, understandable, the bigger risk goes for him, to star the plan we first need the knife, if something goes wrong thar knife will become a loss, not just the materials but the working hours that are supposed to be used to make swords, he roll his eyes and lets out a sigh.

“This is a bad idea, but at least is an idea, I guess I can take this chance to leave aside the junk and go for a real weapon, the process will be somewhat different and we´ll do extra steps to make sure it works properly, if this doesn't work i'll definitely make you assume the responsibility” - That's fair, as long as he accepts, though this was more luck than negotiation, if one of them would've said no our elf friend would become unemployed, though I ended up so involved that I feel uncomfortable, I this doesn't go well I'll lose my head, I would like to accompany her to the forest tomorrow to make sure she doesn't die trying, but I might die trying to accompanying her.

“There's still some daylight left young man, how about we forget about the sword and start making the knife”

“That's perfect for me, cook, Im counting on you, and elf girl...hey do you have a name?”

“I don't, my mom gave me one, but it was taken from me when I left.” - Your name can be taken? what for? well, there's still a lot of things I don't understand, not important right now, but if in the almost zero chance another alf girl comes to town I will have trouble telling them apart, I should check on the names matter later.

“Ok, leaving names aside, cook, can you give her something to eat? she's the central piece of the plan so she better stays in a decent condition, even if she doesn't have money right now, you can put it in my tab if you want”

“Tab?”

“You don't know what it is? well...a tab is an amount of money Im going to pay in the future, even if I don't have the money at the moment, if it is sure that Im going yo have the money then we can make a deal right now having in account a future payment that I'm going to receive as a base, it works pretty well to make constant trades.”

“That is a weird thing, but I guess you know about this stuff, so I give her the food and you pay me later, but you better pay”

“I will definitely pay, after all a tab is not something you should use if you can't pay, that would just bring trouble”

“Alright elf girl, the cook will give you the food you need, dont worry about paying right now, focus on succeeding tomorrow and if everything goes well you won't have to worry about food for at least a couple days” - I've been changing between human and elf language a couple times now and I can notice that different sounds come out of my mouth when I do even if Im saying the same things, though, it is hard for me to notice the difference, but it will be good to know this in the future, knowing extinct or almost extinct languages might have a negative effect later, I need to notice when I'm talking in a different way.