The trader from the sea

[Fitz Wendel]

DATE & TIME : Sept 9th, late morning
WEATHER CONDITIONS : mildly sunny
CHARACTERS INVOLVED : Fitz Wendel, Ulrika, Venny and Camo
PREVIOUS THREADS : N/A

On any other day Fitz would have woken up in his bed, changed into his everyday clothes, gone over to the mirror on his wall tidied his hair up, scratched the back of his head, gone to the cargo hold gotten breakfast, and walked up to the deck to sail his ship on the open seas. On any other day this would have been his routine which he followed zealously.

Today however Fitz woke up... On the floor. When he went to get changed he found he was still in his everyday clothes, and messy ones at that. He found his mirror on the floor, broken. When he scratched the back of his head he felt a rather prominent lump. When he walked into the cargo hold of his ship he found his cargo scattered across the floor and a great deal of it missing. And instead of walking calmly up to the deck to sail his ship on the open seas, he hastily clambered his way up the stairs looked over the edge of his ship and found that his ship was beached. Several memories of last night's storm returned to him "This... This is a problem"

Fitz paced back through his ship, down the stairs which had several steps missing, back into his room which had several pieces of furniture scattered about. Back into his cargo hold which now had a prominent hole in its side, making a new entryway into his ship from the beach. Stepping out onto the shore the reality of the situation dawned on him. "This... THIS IS A VERY BIG PROBLEM!"

[Ulrika]

OOC: You need to stick a timestamp up top, preferably after september 1st or before 16th August so ulrika can play properly lol (because in between she's not on berk XD)

Ulrika was walking home, with a fawn she had managed to catch this morning. It had been a good trip, though the prize wasn't her best, the calm fresh atmosphere from the night's storm had made the experience worthwhile. The forest just had so many different attitudes that Ulrika never got bored of, and the girl thus had a strong attachment to it.

But it was cold in the shade and damp, so she decided to take a route that would lead her on to the beach, where in the sunlight, she could warm up. As she broke through into the sun's rays, she grinned as she felt the warmth on her arms. Shifting the weight on her shoulders slightly, she plodded down to walk by the water's edge.

Ulrika stopped in her tracks as she started coming upon washed up trinkets. She bent down awkwardly to pick up one of the treasures, without dislodging her current cargo. It was a small ornate wooden box. She opened it, but it was empty. But it was pretty, so she pocketed it and carried on. The beach often washed up strange things.

As she went along, there were more and more stuff scattered along the beach, and she didn't have a basket with her, so she felt sad to leave it behind, but she was definitely sure that she'd come back with a basket and grab all the stuff before someone else did. She grinned at that. Her parents would definietly be pleased with such an interesting haul.

But then she saw a boat further ahead. Curious, she continued on, wondering where this boat was from, as it was obviously not from Berk. She had stuffed a couple of jewelled necklaces in her quiver, and had a fancy cup in one hand. As she got closer, she noticed the man shouting at something, looking at his boat. She didn't recognise the man, so he was obviously an outsider. He looking slightly Viking-like in wear, but there was something odd and not-Viking at the same time. She arrived by the undamaged side of the boat, thus she couldn't see the contents.

She tilted her head to the side slightly and shifted the weight of the fawn on her shoulders. "That's a silly place to land your boat. Why can't you go to the harbour like a normal person?" She piped up, making herself known.

[Venny and Camo]

It was another day of practicing stunts for Camo and Venny. It was a usual routine by now. The Viking in training gave a yawn as the Changewing flew slowly and gentle. It was around the time where they took a break from the whole swirling and looping thing. She was almost falling asleep due to the warmth of the sweater she wore, maybe some sort of less warm attire would had been helpful on staying awake or something. Camo had whacked his rider with one of his antennas to wake her up. "Nnngh, right," she grumbled.

Looking down at the sea, she shivered at the sight. Having hydrophobia on an island full of flying dragons wasn't a good idea. But Venny trusted Camo enough that he wouldn't had let her fall. A variety of goods floated in the ocean, she would had guessed someone had littered, but those goods were quite valuable. Anyone who thrown them away must had been not bright.

Venny followed the path of littered good toward a shipwrecked boat. There was some guy shouting something, and there appeared to be Ulrika who was already taking some stuff. Obvious of her. Camo had glanced at the sight and began to hover down, not too close nor far. The duo had decided to see what would happen. Hearing Ulrika's question on not parking in the harbor, Venny had to snicker.

[Fitz Wendel]

"That's a silly place to land your boat. Why can't you go to the harbor like a normal person?" the remark caught Fitz's attention, it seems a local had found him in his predicament. He wanted nothing more than to berate her for mocking someone who was obviously in a very stressful situation, but a merchant had to be respectful to potential customers."it wasn't really parking it was more like an emergency pit-stop" He sighed tried his best to put a smile on his face and wheeled around " but merchants are a little different from normal peop-" he froze when he saw several pieces of merchandise in someone else's hands, his smile bent a little. He spent a moment figuring out how to word this next bit "this may be a little insensitive but those are mine, and I do hope you intend to return those?"

(...)

"Could you wait here a moment?" Fitz retreated back into his ship regardless of my merchandise i have to get this place looking more presentable grabbing a roll of thick cloth, some nails, and a hammer off the floor of his ship he nailed the corners of the cloth above the gaping hole in his ship "hopefully that will keep out the wind, now then where is that manifest?" some memory emerged from the back of his mind

the thick book flew out of Fitz's hands in the howling winds of the storm "no no no NO NO NO GRAB IT!" it flew into Alabaster's face before he shook it loose sending it overboard "ARRGH YOU DUMB LIZARD!!!"

oh right, that's what happened he took a few looks around and mumbled to himself "where is that dumb lizard anyway?" he's never around when you need him. "bah I've got more pressing things to worry about". Gazing over the sorry state of his cargo hold "without the manifest it looks like I'm going to have to do this by memory" he began sorting the remnants of the ship's cargo into roughly three piles.

Halfway through he pulled open his makeshift doorway "done, you can come in now" he took a deep breath and composed himself "my name if Fitz and i am a humble traveling merchant, but as you can see I'm in a bit of a predicament right now so if you buy something it would really help" "that stuff in that pile is standard goods, in that pile over there is the more expensive stuff, and that pile over there-" he pointed to a large pile at the back of the ship "and anything that's still on the floor you DON'T touch until I've checked it"

[Ulrika]

The man turned around to smile at Ulrika. Ulrika smiled back. She listened to him speak but he cut himself off, before trying to kindly let Ulrika know that the cup in her hand that she had just found belonged to him.

Ulrika tilted her head, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. "Yours?" She replied, looking at the cup in her hand, still covered a little in sand from being washed up. "How's it yours, when I found it?. I'm not giving it to you, finders keepers!"

~

He asked her to wait a moment and hurried into his ship. Ulrika despised waiting. She stood where she was for merely a minute, not noticing Venny and Camo in the distance. She walked around to where the man has mysteriously entered the ship to find a large curtain draping over the whole in the wall. Ulrika froze in her tracks. She had never seen anything like it. Was that the entrance to the ship?

"That is so cool. If i get a boat, I think I'll have a door on the side too. It must be useful." She said out loud. She heard rummaging and she wondered what he was doing. 'I wonder if he's a little mad,' she thought. She could hear him grumbling over something. She was unaware that her presence had made him very pressed to get things in order.

The stranger finally invited her into the ship and introduced himself as Fitz. Ulrika's eyes lit up as he revealed himself to be a merchant. A Merchant! Those were few on Berk, and when a trader came to town it was always an excitement. She walked around the shop, forgetting she had a baby deer on her back.

She turned her head and her eyes fell on the most beautiful pelt she had ever laid eyes on. She let out a huge gasp, dropping the cup and the meat, which fell to the floor with a crash. She rushed up to the fur that was on the floor, not in any pile and picked it up, carresed it. It was a pretty fur, she had never seen anything like it. It must be some magnificent beast from faraway lands.

"What kind of animal is this? Ulrika asked." Ulrika may not know much in life, but if it touched the realm of hunting, she was in her element.

Merchants were always awesome.

[Venny and Camo]

The duo had watched the stubborn looking viking in training, and the stranger communicate. It seemed that they were talking about a interesting conversation about... cups? Venny didn't really care as she propped her elbows to keep her head up. Camo had whacked the rider with one of his antennas to shock her back into a more focus position. She groaned in annoyance as she leaned over to looking underneath them. The water still had a bundle of valuables, and that was way more interesting than Ulrika and that other guy.

Tapping her boot against Camo's side, he understood the order and swooped down just above the water for Venny to swipe something. Once they were back in the air, the ViT began to examine what she had picked up. It was some sort of circlet, something fancy. No doubt that this was useless to her, but the fact that it wasn't her's made up for it.

"Well, we got a fancy thingy, should I keep it?" Venny asked her Changewing. Camo rolled his eyes, stating that he could care less about what she kept to herself. The viking gave a shrug as she pointed to the shore for Camo to land, the water full of blunt objects that could whack her out cold was a bit nerve wracking.

[Fitz Wendel]

Fitz sorted through the several piles of fabrics on the floor sorting them out into piles of roughly similar colors before turning his attention to the several steel reinforced crates lying on the floor, he gathered them up into a stack and paused for a second what was in those again? That rough landing seems to have caused a little bit of memory loss. a call from his customer snapped him out of his thoughts "what kind of animal is this?" Fitz turned around, taking the pelt in his hands, he vaguely recalled that it was a mountain cat hide, normally it wouldn't get much... But mountain cats weren't all that common around these parts... if i play this right Fitz smiled to himself this could be profitable

Grinning profusely "why miss what you see here is a genuine Sabre cat pelt, Sabre cats are fearsome creatures with fangs large enough to run a man straight through, they're vicious and can easily take on a bear, and what's worse is that when they hunt something they don't end their chase until either their prey lies bloodied at their feet or they die themselves" Fitz forced down the laughter building up inside his chest by clearing his throat "and such was the case with this cat here, hahaa he put up quite a fight when he was alive"

alive? alive, alive, alive that word niggled something in the back of Fitz's mind what was alive... it suddenly came to him "oh bugger" Fitz shot a glance over to the pile of steel reinforced crates in the corner "can you just give me a second?" retrieving a ring of keys from his belt he rushed over to the pile of crates he fumbled trying to find the right key, when one finally slid into the solid padlock he froze in place, slowly turned the key and slid the bolt open, a few seconds passed and nothing happened are they dead? he slowly lifted the lid of the crate something from within tried to burst out. Fitz slammed the lid shut and slid the bolt closed "oh so they aren't dead... That's good" he remarked before reattaching the lock turning back to his somewhat shocked customer "sorry about that" he took one last glance towards the crates "it's best if you don't ask about those heh..."

"so where were we, ah right mount- erm sabre-cat pelt soo lets see..." I have options now we could go high or go even... tough call but... out of the corner of his eye Fitz saw the cup that was currently the possession of his customer getting my merchandise back is the top priority right now "well if i were to trade this off then it would have to be for something very special, but seeing as you're my first customer here then I'll let you have a discount" Fitz put his hand to his chin and feigned deep thought "I know why don't you trade that cup and anything else you found on the beach for this pelt? How's that sound?"

[Ulrika]

Ulrika looked from the trader to the pelt in her hands, listening to his story of the so-called 'Sabre cat'. She caressed the pelt; it was a fine and complete pelt, with very little damage to it. She didn't need to be told it would be worth a lot.

But one thing irked her - she had heard of Sabre Cats before... She ignored the man as he went to deal with some strange metal boxes as she racked her mind where she had heard them before. Then it clicked! It was from the stories of Skalds, telling of times when the ice sheets of the north covered the Northern Oceans for miles on end, thousands of years ago.

"I thought Sabre Cats don't exist anymore." Ulrika said as he turned around. She clutched the pelt though. She still wanted it, and she didn't want to upset the merchant either, in case she wanted to get more stuff later.

"But this pelt is so... awesome... I wanna make something with it." To be honest, Ulrika didn't really want or need any of the stuff she found, though she did find that box she first found pretty... She reached to grab the stuff dangling from her quiver and other visible items in the cup and passed it to the merchant. "Here."

"If you want I can show you where the village is. Maybe you can park your boat better." Ulrika suggested, hoping that, if what she had given wasn't enough, she could at least show the man the right direction.

[Venny and Camo]

Venny had whistled about as she scooped up the more interesting items off the shore, she tossed them in a neat pile as she went about. Camo simply curled up, burying himself deeper into the sand and merging his scale to the color of the sandy shores. His antennas acted like washed up sticks from the ocean, which was a clever hiding place. However the keen eyed ViT could easily see where her Changewing was hiding. With a chuckle, the pile of goodies that she would like to take home was about the size of Camo, which was kinda an inch taller than her.

Having a smirk of pride for gathering all this stuff, Venny tossed the final thing that she managed to find on the shores. However once she had tossed it onto the pile, some of the merchandise had fell over with loud clanking noises. "Whoops," the viking in training backed off. Whistling, she hoped no one heard the loud crash and walked slowly to hide behind the remaining pile of valuables. Camo's antennas perked up, however he caught his partner's drift of hiding, so he lowered his antennas back down to the movement of sticks.

[Fitz Wendel]

Fitz had a wide grin on his face while he took in hand the pile of valuables making a good deal always feels good. Most of the pieces were in good condition, not much salt water had gotten to them save for the one or two cheaper trinkets which had received a slight greenish patina which was not of much concern It makes them look more..."cultured" if I'm lucky someone might be suckered into paying more

"If you want I can show you where the village is. Maybe you can park your boat better." the remark intrigued Fitz ,village? There's probably adequate materials for a decent repair, as well as various tradesmen who could be "persuaded" to help. it was a good opportunity but. "its a nice offer but unfortunately I can't just leave my ship here, someone might come along and take something" and then there's the rest of the merchandise still on the shore, finding alabaster as well, getting a meal ready, finding new goods... "I have so much to do..." Fitz resisted the urge to bang his head against the wood hull of his ship. Eventually his attention returned to the girl "i suppose if you wanted to do me a favor you could start by telling everyone I'm here, it's not like my boat is going anywhere anytime soon, and i could use the company"

A loud clang sounded out in the distance Fitz glanced around trying to find the origin of the sound taking to the upper deck Fitz was rather surprised when the merchandise that was previously strewn across the shoreline was gathered into a neat pile some distance away it saves me the trouble of gathering them up however it was indeed suspicious, Fitz grabbed a small casting net and checked that his dagger was still attached to his belt. Fitz was quite cautious when approaching the pile keeping an eye out for any movement near the shoreline. Eventually he let his guard down he picked up a small metal plate that had fallen off the pile and brushed it off a little "what did dad always say... Ah that's right, a good merchant is always efficient" he remarked before casting the net over the pile.

[Ulrika]

"Uhm, Sure." Ulrika replied to his proposal. "I'm sure some people could get their dragons and bring your boat to the port."

Ulrika also heard the clang outside, turning her head to the make-shift door. She inquisitively followed the Merchant outside with her pelt, and also her faun. She was reminded she needed to get this back to the village soonish, before it gets spoiled. She wished Timber would come by, but she was still grouchy at her for all the incident caused between them over at Hysteria.

She followed Fitz's gaze and gasped at the pile of stuff that wasn't there before. "Whoa..." Ulrika muttered. "Look at all that free stuff!" She said out loud, not realising this was also part of Fitz's goods. It didn't occur to her still that his possessions got swept into the ocean.

But then the merchant threw a net over the pile in hopes of collecting it. Ulrika looked at him and tilted her head. "You can't just claim it all for your own, I saw the pile too!"

She made a huffing sound and shifted her weight. With the addition of the pelt it was getting troublesome to carry both items. "Whatever. I don't need that junk anyway, I guess..."

[Venny and Camo]

Footsteps crunching the sand were heard, was the loud crash really that loud? Yeah it probably was. Venny stood as still as possible, or at least quiet as she could. The guy who Venny guessed was the merchant had tossed a plate onto the pile she had built. How they didn't think that this pile wasn't caused by the ocean was beyond her. Venny flinched as a net was thrown over the pile, and also since she hid near the pile, the net caught her as well. She was sure that the Changewing across from her was snickering from the sight.

Soon, Ulrika's voice was heard. "Hey!" Venny shouted in a offended tone. "Do I look like junk to you? I'll have you know I'm very valuable," she added as she crossed her arms. Venny fiddled with the net, trying to free herself. "And besides, I made the pile. So clearly you can't claim it for yourself if someone else did the work," Venny explained with a smug smirk.

Camo shifted in the sand, making himself more noticeable and comfortable. He appeared to have grumbled something under his breath, then again, he didn't care about what was happening at the moment. All that mattered was the amusing show of fighting over for the pile of goodies.

[Fitz Wendel]

(OOC: sorry I haven't posted in a while I had a whole bunch of end of term things to study for)

Fits stood and contemplated his situation all of these unexpected events were really stressing him out one thing at a time he lifted up the edge of the net "sorry about that, I didn't see you there" now he had two kids to deal with can't I just meet a respectable adult?

(...)

now... What to do with this pile?, I don't think that kid is going to give it up easily and the other one wants some as well... If alabaster were here I could probably have him steal the stuff but... Fitz gave a quick glance around he's not here so...it seems we have a three way stand off Fitz paced around for a bit "Aha! Got it"

Fitz began his explanation "we seem to have quite the predicament on our hands, you want the pile, and you want the pile, and I want the pile... And all of us have a legitimate claim to it" but it is my stuff "ehm anyway so we could divide it in three but that would be no... fun. So heres what I propose I have a game we could play back at the ship that will help us sort this out... What do you say? Fitz flashed a sharp grin.

[Ulrika]

Ulrika laughed as Venny emerged from behind the pile, caught in the nets. It looked rather comical as the webbing was caught on the curved ram horns of her helm.

But her argument was valid to Ulrika when she had also found stuff. "Yeah! I was totally right! You can't just take stuff that other people found first!" She revelled slightly in the fact she was right for once.

Fitz then tried to bargain for the stuff by playing a game. A game? Ulrika looked to the trader. She particularly didn't want the treasure, a lot of it was junk she didn't even need. But some of it was pretty though.

Unfortunately Ulrika wasn't aware of merchants and their 'ways' so she thought it was a good way to solve the matter. "Okay, I like games!" Ulrika said blindly. "What kind of game?" Ulrika didn't exactly have a mind for the more thought-provoking games like Hnefatafl, but preferred more physical games that was a test of strength or dexterity. Ulrika had a fondness for races after all.

---

Sorry its too short >_< i'm having a writing low right now

[Venny and Camo]

Finally managing to slither out of the net, she adjusted her helmet back into place. These horns were getting on her nerves by now. Well she would just have to avoid nets in the future then. "Laugh all ya want there, 'Reaka, I'm sure you'll do something embarrassing soon too," Venny snickered.

"Mhm, she has a fair point there. Can't take stuff other people found first, Mister!" Venny laughed. She already knew that this was the merchant's stuff. But what fun was it to just give it up here and now? Ha! Not on her invisible imaginary time keeper. Then the merchant guy had proposed a game of some sorts. Well that was better than giving it up.

The ViT had crossed her arms in front of her chest in a pondering pose. "A game... Are you trying to trick us into something?" She asked in a sly tone. "Cause I can join!" Venny added in a chirp. Games were exciting, especially if tricks were involved. And Venny was a pro at tricking everyone. Usually, she didn't get the chance lately so it might be a little rusty for the little prankster.