Traveller of Berlin

Chapter 1 - The City of Berlin

He just came to this city, yet he liked this city more than any other city he's been to. His most recent ones were Bordeaux, Reims, Luxembourg, Siegen, Kassel, Cottbus, various small villages and finally Berlin. This city was no different to any other city, yet... it was. The first main difference was a grand castle in the far border of this city, the people were quite nice and didn't judge as much as some of the other cities. Siegen was terrible, everyone judged his dirty and shabby clothes, he held quite treasures to that city, which led him to be the talk of the town for a few days. Apparently, they never heard of him yet. Rumors spread quite fast and as a result, a lot of crooks tried to steal some goods. They underestimated him though. He quickly snapped back from his thoughts and found himself staring at the castle in the distance again. He wandered around, looking for the farmer's market, which he heard is one of the best inland markets of the continent of Europe. This city was quite special no doubt, and he hasn't explored much anyways. His friend was ahead, pushing parts of the crowd away for him. He looked around and looked at his friend, "They DO have maple syrup here, right?" quite questioningly and serious. "Yes, how about you marry maple syrup while you're at it?" He replied, with a face, not that faltering, though no one could see much in the first place. This man in question was a traveller, known as the Traveller and nothing much else is known about him. His biggest secret is either his true name for some, or what his full face was, no one knew what it looked like except for his steel gray eyes, sometimes quite warm, other times not, but no matter what type of meaning they give out, they were always quite handsome. It was many a fine lady's dream to marry him. But as for his appearance, that was also quite concealed, which also lured even MORE ladies to him, perhaps it was the mysteriousness, the unknowing of the gifted man, or was it his talent and his goods, no matter for what reason or reasons, one thing for sure, he was definitely handsome under all that hiding, for what reason at this, no one knows as well. All he was seen in was wearing a light tan long sleeved shirt with leather string or straps strung around his forearms. On his neck, there was a gray scarf that covered the lower half of his face. On the scarf, where his mouth was covered, was a little smile, most guessed it was done by his friend, which was true. He had these gray colored pants, as if he was some type of professional horse rider. What made him not look like a horse rider, was his belt. There was a small arming sword at his right hip, all shiny and reflective, he had two daggers on the other side, also looking quite dangerous if in the right hands. The last loophole in his belt carried a flask of water. He had tall leather boots that were a little bit lower than knee height. All of these features made him well known and noticeable throughout all of Europe, or most of Europe, after what happened in Siegen. What was his signature however, was his forest green cape, it was always covering his head and the some upper part of his forehead, one major detail is that he never took it off, no one has seen him with his cape off, except his friend of course, but that was it. The cape was also a little ripped at the bottom, with little bits of mud, but that just made him more mysterious and interesting, not poor looking. Some of his hair was poking out slightly under his hood. His hair was a light dirty blonde, according to the tips of the hair that poked out occasionally. His friend however, wasn't that well known, at least a third of the people who know who the Traveller was, knows about his friend. His friend was also seen in only one outfit. What he wore however, was quite a bit different than the Traveller's. He wore a gray leather jacket with black clasps buttoning up the hacket. Underneath he wore a white long sleeved shirt that hid under his jacket. He always wore long black pants and the same leather boots as the traveller's boots, he had black ones however. His eyes were emerald green and his hair was messy yet it improved his look, not ruin it. Another mystery of the many mysteries was where he found all his goods, he didn't exactly have... local goods is one way to put it. He had these wonderful foods and fruits from other places that he didn't mention. He was selling them at a slightly higher price by a (current USD 5 dollar) amount higher than most goods. Quite high price to most people, but no one cared. For these rare items, it was quite a cheap price, with a very good offer. He had an assortment of items that were exotic, not just one. Another unique mystery about him was that he didn't ride or bring a big caravan with this glorious sign or anything, unlike most international or merchants from other places. Instead, he traveled quite simplistically, each person had a horse, (which was two), and each always carried a large leather satchel on their back. That contained their merchandise. As for their money, it was carried in a little pouch on the Traveller's left leg. "We're here 'Traveller" he said mockingly at his friend's "name", "Good" the Traveller simply replied, ignoring the tone that his friend used on his name. "You know, good sir, it wouldn't hurt to tell anyone something else?" He raised his eyebrows at his companion. "You could, I dunno? Show your whole face for a start?" He went and slightly tugged on his gray scarf that was covering the lower half of his face. He didn't apply much force, the only thing that was revealed was a slight bit of his nose, for which some were slightly disappointed as they saw the whole ordeal. "Stop" Traveller said disapprovingly at his friend. More girls batted eyes at him, trying to catch his attention, though it did not catch his attention, it caught his friend's instead. "Sooooo, also mind leaving a few ladies for me? It seems like you have plenty" His only response was an eye roll at his lonely friend. "If you're going to have that attitude with me young lady, you're not going to survive once I actually try to pull down your scarf you know that right?" his friend responded. "You're not going to live through the embarrassment if I told everyone you're little nickname, SapNap" He said with a slight hint of amusement. SapNap looked at him quite offended and angry. "Oh I'm gonna make sure that my threat will come true right now" He started going at his friend, scrambling to pull his scarf down. The Traveller, he knew, wasn't that strong, he was nimble, that couldn't be denied, but he couldn't fight off SapNap's one arm pinning his arms down on his chest so that he could use his other arm to pull the scarf down. The Traveller shook his head in protest, and being the loyal friend he was. He only pulled it down far enough so his nose was visible to everyone. A small part of the mystery was slowly revealed, though not solved yet girls still were gasping in half delight at the nose reveal. The Traveller of course, unhappy and very annoyed about his nose being revealed decided the one thing that would destroy SapNap. "I won't let you buy ma-" "DON'T. YOU. DARE. FINISH. THAT. SENTENCE." "I won't let you buy maple-" he started again "I WILL pull your WHOLE SCARF DOWN" the Traveller, being quite statistic, knew that he had more to lose than his friend, as he wanted to keep his identity secret and while knowing that he could never outrun or fight off him, stopped his sentence. They found a small empty corner between a stall selling leather satchels and another marketing his fresh made pork sausage. The Traveller took the satchel off from his back and was going through a large side pocket on his steed. He sighed. "Where's the cloth?" "What cloth?" his friend suddenly looked slightly guilty. "The one we usually use for display?" He looked sheepish and pulled out a muddy piece of cloth with some horse hoof marks on it. "Maple mayyyyyy have trampled over it on accident" pointing at his horse. "Butttttttt..." his friend added, now looking sly rather than guilty, "I don't have a coat and we don't own any other piece of cloth.... Except you might" he pointed guiltily at his cape, the Traveller sighed, shaking his head went to the stall on the opposite side, two stalls to the left to buy two rough empty sacks that once housed potatoes. He placed them on the dirt floor and started to place his items down, ignoring his friend's disappointed face from the failure of his plan of some reveal. Immediately, people started swarming, mostly women though, they usually were half the crowd, and all just to see his face, though there wasn't much to see in the first place. The few who were purely interested in his goods bargained with him while the ladies in the corner were swooning over him. They were all talking about how handsome the Traveller was. "His voice is so soothing" cried one with a fancy golden yellow dress "Oh but look! He pulled his scarf down a bit more!" said another, quite excited with small squeals of delight with a pink frilly dress. "He's so talented! He's so good at bargaining!" swooned a brunette. "Lemme pass ladies" said an unfamiliar high mocking voice, it had an accent to it, a British accent. The voice was sweet yet annoyed, a perfect tone for sarcasm. The crowd of rich girls soon had a small gap in it, the crowd parter was a young lady. She had her long thick brunette hair partially down and the rest were tangled up in braids, crowning the side of her hair. Her dress wasn't that fancy as the others, all she wore was a periwinkle simple dress. Her corset was light blue and was laced with leather string. Cradled in her left arm, were three books. On the top most books had a piece of paper. "Do you have some silk cloth sir?" she said right after looking down at her piece of paper, her voice wasn't so high and singy, but was still sweet. The list seemed like a list of items to buy from the farmer's market. "I have some light blue and green left" the Traveller said, quite interested in this girl, but still kept his quiet and not-so-talkative personality, even though he wanted to ask her quite a few questions. The crowd was silent however, no girl was heard to come to the Traveller to purely just buy anything. The crowd of girls were horrified. First that the Traveller would sell something to a simple town girl from Britain (at least that's what it seemed she came from). The second that the Traveller seemed to be slightly more interested in her than them. "60 a piece" "40" countered the lady in blue and purple. "55" the Traveller responded "45" "Deal" the Traveller shook her hand. She grabbed a small satchel on top of her book, opened it and took out 4 gold coins and a smaller silver one. She took her list and showed it to him. On the bottom of the piece of paper, there was another section labeled :