Book One: Onnu and Pannu

Traders

Luckily for him, he found something he thought was quite fancy indeed. It came from the most unexpected source, too.
   When they were foraging in Rover Grove, they heard Onnu bugle for their return. The gathering crew rushed to her, clutching their finds to their bodies as they ran, fully expecting to leap aboard and be aloft.
   Instead, they saw a vaguely familiar face, with three other kin, and what almost looked like a sled. The sled was loaded with odd bits and bobs, most of it made of some sort of metal.
   The kin who sort of looked familiar bowed to Onnu, then the kin with their baskets. "I have come to trade."
   "Marla went to get Weaver, and some of her goods. Until then, I thought we could show them the tools we have with us."
   "But we're using those tools," Bess Baskets objected. She tried not to show her tusks, but she didn't know these people. Now they wanted their tools? The ones they'd made with their own hands and paws?
   "At this stage of negotiations, we are simply showing what we can make. Bjorn brought a sampling of their goods that we might place an order for. We have on us a fair sample of what our craftskin can make, that he may request for trade. I would like Weaver to help ascertain what an equal trade would be."
   In an aside to Bjorn, she said "Weaver is quite astute in matters of trade. She is a dragoness, arrived after your lot left to settle in the mountains. Shouldn't take her long to fly here."
   When he heard that Weaver was a dragon, he snapped to attention. That their tradesmaster was a dragon only reinforced his beliefs, and those of his friends when they heard.
   While they waited, the gatherers showed Bjorn their tools, and he showed off the simple beads and baubles they'd wrested from the mountains. Firmen thought he could trade one of his clay bowls for a skein of undyed per-yarn, and string some of the beads on it to make a collar for his friend.
   The bowls were of particular interest, as they could be melted and re-formed much more easily than the soft metals they'd been using. He could make a second bowl, and get the stones to make her little collar.
   "But how are you heating the metals?" Bess asked. "It took us ages to figure out how to keep dragonfire going!" She was hesitant to mention their fire strikers, as rare as the materials were.
   Bjorn smirked. "As it turns out, not all dragons fly. Some burrow."
   The smirk was what finally got his face to register in the minds of the kin who'd traveled with Onnu or Pannu.
   "What happened to Sim and Jim?" Flint Weaver asked. The gargoyle hadn't had the most fond memories of the trio, but he also hadn't had problems with them either. They'd sort of kept to the edges of the group, which made him wary.
   Bjorn laughed. "They're back home, working the forge. I can't get them away from it for long."
   "They haven't had the food we have now," Tan chuckled. "That gets me to put down my tools every time!"
   Bjorn's eyes took on a hard edge. "If that is true, we may trade for foods the most often. The caves are rich in fungi and small game, but they grow tiresome."
   "Well now, we don't have ways to preserve foodstuffs yet, so I don't know how viable that'll be. Maybe trade days can be feast days for you in the mountains, but I'm not sure how long the food will stay fresh," Onnu cautioned.
   He snapped back to his more charismatic self. "Of course, of course. I simply meant that we would appreciate any flavors you have to share."
   "I bet Clay wouldn't mind having some mushrooms for the gravy," Bess mused, drooling a little. "He might even part with some of that new flatbread he's got."
   "Have ye no yeast, then?" Bjorn asked.
   "Nay, we've not found its like," Onnu sighed.
   He clapped his hands together and rubbed them. "That's because you haven't gone down in the depths!"
   Every eye swung his way. "You've got yeast?" many asked.
   "Something that behaves quite similarly, yes. I don't quite know what it is, but it got in the stew by accident, and boy was it thick! I swear it was more savory, too."
   Several gatherers moaned in appreciation.
   "Well, it would seem that we have many things to trade, both edible and useful," Onnu said, breaking into the daydreams of her kin. "And here is Weaver to help us decide what is fair to trade, just in time."
   "Say, I don't suppose you got an influx of kin a few months ago? Traveling with a dragon almost as big as Onnu?" Firmen asked.
   "We didn't, no. They settled down a ways. Ran into them in the tunnels a few times, but they mostly keep to themselves. We, ah... might've had a bit of a disagreement."
   "What about?"
   Bjorn hesitated. "Well, it seems they've not had as pleasant an experience with dragons as we have. They do not revere our gracious hosts as we do. The one I met was most rude!" If he'd been a feathered kin, they would have ruffled at the memory.
   "Yes, we heard that there was some... discord among their group. Those who traveled with their dragon did make it to us, and rest assured, they have been quite reasonable," Onnu said. She sent a silent message out of the side of her eye that she hoped her kin understood.
   "And the dragon?" he asked, when she didn't continue.
   "Bravely gave his life, that his little kin could reach safety," she said with the appropriate amount of gravity.
   "Whisked to said safety by yourself, I imagine?" he said.
   She'd walked right into that, and there was no getting out of it. "It is my duty," she said humbly. She'd only just remembered that Bjorn, Sim, and Jim had been some of the more outspokenly reverent ones. They were among the kin that made her hold her secrets so tightly, that they not afford her any more than respect.
   "And here is Weaver. Weaver, this is Bjorn, of the Mountain Kin. They have some goods to trade." She made the transition as smooth as she could, to distract him from any heretical tendencies he might have.