MERCHANT ADVENTURER

Preparations For Oxburg

Oxburg is situated next to the Great River. Lots of fish products are sold here for a cheap price. I figured I could buy the dried fish products and resell it in Mileston.

After the reconciliation of Ailee and Leonard, we decided to purchase items the Oxburg residents might like or need. Having decided, I told the others we should remain a day or two in Oxburg, to "purchase" goods.

In the meanwhile, I also waned to visit the great garden in Alesburg. Leonard took some time off from his guard duty to escort us through the garden. While walking through the garden, the fragrance assaulted my nose, causing me to sneeze.

The others looked at me with concern. "It's nothing," I said, "The air here is a bit overwhelming."

Bacchanal chuckled heartily. "You better get used to this scent. Someday when you start wooing the lasses, they'll all smell like this."

Then he nudged Garlan with his elbow. "Isn't that so?" Bacchanal said, seeking agreement from the half giant.

Garlan didn't say much. He just shook his head, while he mumbled under his breath, "It's not good to frequently tease the young ones."

We left the garden and parted ways with Leonard. We took an empty route back to the inn.

Advancing down the path, a large group of people blocked our way. My first impulse was to pull Raine to hide behind me.

Garlan and Bacchanal's facial expression remained unperturbed. However, their hands speedily moved to grip their weapons. They drew their weapons, and stared at the group in front.

Seeing their action, I was reminded of my short sword. I drew my short sword and held it in front of me.

The leader of the group spoke up first. "Boy, where is our gold?"

"What gold?" I pretended not to know. But I knew there would be a fight today.

"Don't play around," the leader said. "We found this gold coin you gave to the merchants. It has a nick right on the side. That's our mark on our gold."

After hearing the leader's explanation, I knew I was caught.

"That gold didn't belong to you. It was stolen goods," I shouted back, refusing to back down.

The leader laughed. "Will you be stupid like those people who died? Give us back our gold lad and we will spare all your lives. Otherwise, don't blame us for being ruthless."

"It doesn't matter where that gold came from," Garlan said. "It belongs to us now."

The group of bandits charged towards us. Garlan held back two people, kicking one until he flew and landed backwards a distance away, and then engaging in combat with the other bandit. He stabbed the bandit and the bandit fell down dead. Then Garlan continued to fight.

An archer in the back shot out an arrow. Bacchanal quickly grabbed a corpse off the ground and shielded himself from the oncoming arrows. When the archer ran out of arrows, Bacchanal discarded the corpse by catapulting overhead. The corpse landed on top of the archer, making the archer fall backwards.