Master Of None

The tea leaves were not necessarily medicinal herbs that could be used for healing. However, they were rare and unique tea leaves grown all over the continent. They were unique to certain areas and climates that made them tough to grow everywhere unless someone had the specific skills to pair with it. 

"Remey, they have lemon tipped tea leaves over on this end!" Su and Remey looked like two kids in a candy store. They were building their own containers of tea leaves while everyone else just watched. No one could understand why they were so picky and how this was such a complicated process. 

"I think I will check out the next table over." Walker inched his way to the table that started the next stall to find that it was assorted monster materials. 

"Come on up here and check out my spoils of travel. I have some tanned orc skin, not to be confused with merfolk; mermaid tails, harpy feather, and much much more." The old man and woman were calling out to people and had locked in on Walker who was already looking. 

"I have heard a decent bit about the merfolk but not too much about mermaids, what kind of monsters are they?" He had heard they were similar to sirens but a little more intelligent. However, he wasn't sure what put them aside from the merfolk. 

"Ohh, I like it when we have a curious mind. The mermaids are fallen merfolk. They like other races sometimes leave their people and regress in to monsters. The mermaids will grow larger tails and lose the ability to transform it in to legs. Their teeth become like needles and they gain poison glands. They can not speak and their scales gain an illusion effect when seen in the moonlight. They often lure sailors to a watery grave for food." The old man was very quick to give the description as if he was reading it from a book. 

The old woman started in next, "The materials can be used for a few things. The needle teeth can be used for ultra thin arrows or throwing needles. The scales from staffs of illusion or shields that resist illusion. Surprisingly, the gills are the most valuable part. Unlike the merfolk gills, the mermaid gills can be used to make a mask that gives the user the ability to breathe underwater, in fresh or salt waters." The old woman was very proud to recite the uses. She had not been able to show off her knowledge yet in the day. 

"How many mermaid gills do you have? I would need at least twelve." Walker wanted to have them to make sure the party could venture underwater one day. He also didn't want to be in a situation where one broke and they were deep underwater and could not reach the surface safely. 

"Well, I will sell you the twelve no problem young man." The old man and woman boxed them up and exchanged the box for an equal value of gold while chatting with Walker. 

"We always enjoy coming to this fair. Our town is on the shore so we gather a lot on our walks here. Believe it or not, I am the merchant and my wife is the one that gathers the materials. But, we may be settling down soon. You know how it goes when bones get old." It was understandable that years of taking a long journey like that and gathering monster material was taking its toll in old age. 

"Well, in my day I could gather triple the materials and this old man could carry all of it without issue. But that was then." The woman laughed while she leaned in to her husband. 

"Hmm, if you two are looking for a place to settle down I would recommend the new city of Genesis. It is being built on the borders of the other nations and will be a very large trade city. It would be nice knowing there was an experienced hunter and merchant pair that could do some teaching with the Garnet family. I can refer you, just stop by the Garnet family auction house and tell them the true hero Walker sent you. They should take you in easily. I heard they would be expanding to that city and needed some teachers." Walker was sure that an experienced pair like this would make a nice addition to the new branch of the auction house. 

"We may just have to do that before we leave tomorrow. Thank you for the recommendation." The pair seemed very interested and smiled warmly as Walker joined the group again. 

"Hey Gil, that table has some mermaid's teeth. They are poisonous and good for ultra thin arrows or throwing needles." Walker gave the heads up to see Gil rush over to check the arrow materials out. In the end, though, Gil had decided against them since he wouldn't have s much use for a light and weaker arrow even if it would have poison and lightness. 

"Why are you staring off in the distance?" Gil came back from the old couple's stall and found that Walker was just looking in the distance with furrowed eyebrows. His face seemed to be asking himself if he was crazy or not. 

"I swear, I have seen a girl with a blue dress following us three times now." Walker had a serious feeling that he had seen and felt something. But for some reason every single time that he focused he found nothing. 

"Or you are seeing the water spirits jumping in a puddle with the kids over there. Are you sure you got enough sleep? It's great to be a little excited but you need rest sometimes." Gil slapped Walker on the back just assuming that Walker had neem too tired and confused the blue water spirits with a person in a blue dress. 

"You might be right, I always look and see something else so I probably just need something to drink and to wake up more." Walker did exactly that and bought a cup of hot tea from the vendor that was selling the tea leaves while Remey and Su paid for four tins of tea. One of Remey and the master alchemist to experiment with. Two for the mansion and one for the orphanage as a gift to their house mother. "So, I hear someone made a small maze in front of the cathedral." This caught everyone's attention. It was a game for children after all. 

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