Re: Hunting Through Keliac - 119 4A

[Kara Winters]

"Well...." Holly replied softly, "More or less, I'm actually wanting to see their styles and dying patterns and the like. Never hurts to get more ideas after all."

Even though she already had a lot, but she wanted wanted more.

"And it wouldn't surprise me if there isn't a currency exchange. Unless there is another Light Elven nation close by, there wouldn't be a need to. There is an impression given that the amount of... dislike of others that are different is enough to make our old home look positively pleasant."

Which was saying something as it was all the girls had known previously.

[Nara-pyon]

"I don't know," Rose murmured doubtfully. "I really don't think the group would have been welcome to stay longer than they did ... and really, I don't think everyone is like that woman and her people that they got rid of. I mean ..."

She looked around to make sure no one else was listening in on them. It would be an awkward conversation to have others overhear, after all.

"I don't think that most of the country would be in agreement with what was going on in Eaulir, or Eausin, I can never keep them straight. It was pretty extreme, after all."

[Kara Winters]

"Maybe not.... but at least in this town..." Holly lowered her voice, "Precautions had to be taken first...."

And the group didn't have to do that when they first met Holly and Rose.

"At any rate, that talk is depressing, let's go check out the market. Miyuki does trade right? But she does so she can introduce new goods and ideas, but I think you got a better eye for what she could grab and what she could trade for."

[Nara-pyon]

Rose smiled. It was true, she did seem to have a knack for money matters.

"Right," she agreed. "And it looks like we're pretty much here already ..."

They were very close to the nearest stall, which had various garden vegetables. It was a bit hard to see through the crowds, but it seemed that most of the stalls in this area were either garden vegetables or jungle fruits of a wide variety. Further up the street there were stalls with sacks of flour and such things. There were only two meat vendors in sight, but they didn't seem to be much competition for each other as one seemed to have fish and fowl and the other the meat of land animals.

"I wonder what kind of things the people here would value," she mused, looking more at the people than the goods.

[Kara Winters]

"It really depends if you're talking about raw goods or made goods," Holly shrugged.

Because Holly was a student of textiles, she handled most of the process of clothing from thread to cloth to clothing, which was unusual because it took a lot of time. Most people would only do... weaving, or do dying, rather than what Holly could (and did often do because no one could do lolita the way she could). So she was familiar how different stages in a material's life could cost.

"Raw goods are a bit more tricky, unless the plan is to trade them for other raw goods. If they're too different from the location they come from, then no one will know how incorporate it into what they do. Like spices for cooking. Or... worse... they may not see the value in an exotic raw good, because as far as they're concerned they have a perfectly good counterpart already."

She paused and then considered the people before her.

"Made goods would be a bit easier, but they're very dependent on the economy. Where we were from, with all the resources, most of us, even the poorest had a little bit leftover to indulge. This is how," she lightly tugged on Rose's close, "I could sell my fancy clothes, or introduce novel things. If people are more conservative in their spending... something more... practical. That either is as good or better than what they can find here."

Which in the end made it sound like both types would be a hard sell unless where they were did have extra coin to spend.

"I suddenly now, as I say this understand why Miyuki trades so heavily in food and likes to learn to cook, besides the cultural part... everyone loves food."

[Nara-pyon]

"That and food is something everyone always needs more of," Rose added, a twinkle in her illusory blue eyes. "But I know what you mean."

She looked around a bit more. "It seems different from Alph's town, though. I mean, we couldn't see an awful lot in the mirrors, I know, but ... these people seem better off. Like they might have more to spend."

Which would work in their favour, she was certain.

"I do wonder, though," she murmured thoughtfully, looking at the women, "if textiles might be something they would trade for ... their clothes are more brightly coloured than in Alph's town. Far more than our town, at least before you joined us."

Holly had made changes when she'd arrived in Rose's hometown, even if it had taken a while for the people to accept her.

[Kara Winters]

"It might be, I wonder if maybe they have common plants unique to here that create those vivid colours, or if it's just something they prefer," Holly commented.

It was something that she had discovered, and delighted in, when she first began learning from the town that she and Rose use to live in. In this world, there were plants that could create very vivid colours normally very difficult to mimic back in Gaia until later in Gaia's history. While colours like red, purple and blue were still relatively expensive, it wasn't going to cost you an arm and a leg (maybe still an arm). Meanwhile, bright green could be created without overlaying blue and yellow (which wasn't as bright), and without any fear of any harmful toxins (which was the case in centuries old Gaian dyes).

"I do have some bolts I could part with, as they're not going to get used at the moment," Holly added, "At least I would be willing to part with them more than the lace."

Because lace took forever to make which made the stuff ridiculously time consuming and expensive.

[Nara-pyon]

"Of course you would first have to make sure that they don't already have something similar," Rose smiled.

They had to duck to one side to avoid a young man herding some sheep down the street, and then they were able to go on again safely.

Rose laughed. "I think this is the first town I've heard of with their animals in the streets. We'll have to be careful where we step."

Though the streets seemed quite clean, considering how many animals they'd seen.

"Oh, here!" Rose beamed, taking Holly by the arm and tugging her forward carefully. "Look!" They were past the food vendors by now, and what had caught Rose's eye was a stall of drawing supplies, complete with various colours of pencils and inks. "You could make colour designs with stuff like this!"

[Kara Winters]

Holly wondered if they had someone cleaning up the streets, because animals in the streets generally wasn't a good thing...

"Hmm...I could," Holly agreed, she liked working with inks more, but some new pencils would not go amiss if she could somehow trade for them, "That would be nice. Especially when I start up my Master's project again."

She had put that on the wayside in order to get all the winter stuff done.

[Nara-pyon]

"I wonder if Cael would want to see this," Rose mused. "I have no idea what kinds of supplies he has or uses ..."

Her eyes flickered to the prices so that she could compare it to other things they would see later and see what their worth was in the grand scheme of things.

When she looked forward, she saw other craftsmen's stalls: a jeweler, a ceramics stall, wood crafts, and more.

[Kara Winters]

"I wonder...." Holly murmured to Rose, "If it costs anything to set up a stall here. I know Andarien and Sliverbirch has gathered a lot of things that they made over these past months. Maybe they could sell here and buy more material."

While she knew the group got more metal where they could, besides that huge Lithium deposit, they hadn't gathered any metals for a long while.

[Nara-pyon]

"We'd have to ask Makaela's mother about who to speak to about that," Rose mused. "Of course, we'd have to ask her - oh! That would have made things much simpler, if we'd just asked her about the economy rather than trying to figure out on our own just how much everything is worth and what's most valuable for trade." She laughed at the absurdity of how long it had taken her to think of the idea.


"I wonder," she mused, looking around, "if there's a town hall like back home where we'd find a mayor or someone to talk to."

[Kara Winters]

"We would have to ask that too..." Holly admitted with a chuckle.

It would mean a lot of questions, but in the end it would be worth it.

[Nara-pyon]

They browsed for a while among the vendors, and then continued on past them. The next street up was where the shops themselves were, at least some of them; and one of them was a tailor's shop, its window display showing a few bolts of brightly dyed cloth, some with designs on them as well, as well as a few complete designs. One of the materials was a shimmering gold which looked very different in texture from any of the other materials on display.

"I've never seen anything quite like that one," Rose commented thoughtfully, her eyes on the golden material. "Do you know what it is?"

[Kara Winters]

"Hmm....." Holly leaned forward to study it.

She had seen golden material before... back in Gaia. It was artificial though, and more silky, this she had never seen before in this world and the texture was different than she was use to.

"I have no clue, I've never seen anything that was actually gold, it's not normally something you can dye, and you can sew gold thread... but to weave..."

[Nara-pyon]

"Whatever it is, I bet it costs a fortune," Rose murmured softly. "It's rather a small piece of material ... I should imagine that that one piece would be worth more than the rest of the display altogether."

Of course, she could be wrong.

"Shall we look into it?" she asked Holly, looking over at her friend.

[Kara Winters]

Holly nodded, "Let's, I'm curious now."

Especially how it felt, and how much it weighed, if it could be embroidered. Cloth like that would look tacky if used only in small amounts, a whole garment would need to be made, but bright threads would jump out on a piece like that.

She led the way in, taking a look around the shop as she did so.

[Nara-pyon]

The shop looked rather busy - not that it was full of customers, but in the fact that there were three people working in it, and all three of them were occupied. One, a young woman, was working on sewing a hem on a rather nice-looking dress that was set up on a mannequin; a slightly older looking man was at a table, pinning a pattern onto a bolt of material; and a young boy, maybe between ten and twelve years old, was sweeping up the floor, gathering bits and scraps into a pile for proper disposal.

"Good afternoon," the young woman greeted them with a warm smile, looking up briefly from her sewing. "Is there anything we can help you with?"

[Kara Winters]

"Actually," Holly replied as she automatically switched languages, "We were wondering about that gold cloth that is in the display window. Neither of us have seen anything like it, and would like to know more."

She wondered if the shop was family run, it wouldn't be unusual. A part of her also wanted to study the dress.

[Nara-pyon]

The woman smiled ruefully. "Unfortunately, that is the last of the spider silk cloth," she murmured regretfully. "Usually we have much more in stock, but we just sold out a few minutes ago."

"Spider silk?" Rose repeated in surprise. "So that's what it looks like ..."

She was confused. She was told that Earendil and Daeron had spider silk clothes, but neither of them had anything golden - at least, not that shimmered like the cloth they'd seen.

"Would you like to handle it?" the woman asked warmly. "We keep that sample for people to see and feel it so that when they place orders, we can use fresh, untouched material ..."

[Kara Winters]

"I would like that," Holly admitted, "Though I must ask, how did the cloth become a golden colour like that?"

That was really what her first question, when she saw the material. She wondered if she could ordered undyed cloth, but then again, she wasn't sure... did spider silk have a unique dying process?

[Nara-pyon]

"Why ... it's the natural colour of the silk, of course," the woman replied, surprised by the question.

"Marenne," the man reprimanded her gently without looking up from his work, "believe it or not, not everyone is familiar with the golden spiders. When you are older, if you continue your studies, you will realize just how rare they truly are."

The woman blushed lightly. "I apologize," she murmured demurely. "Please forgive me." She bowed her head meekly to Rose and Holly.

[Kara Winters]

Holly felt her business senses tingle, did the Four Lands (as she learned from Miyuki) have these 'golden spiders'? Or were they creatures unique to here?

"That is perfectly alright," Holly assured the young woman, "It is for moments like this that I travel for. I have heard of spider silk, but... the land where I come from doesn't have this material, so it's my first time seeing it."

If this was something unique to here, then she was going to have to get Miyuki in on the business. Holly would even be willing trade a bolt of one of her complex laces for it. Yes, a bolt of complex lace was a year's worth of work, but she could make new lace (even if it took hundreds of hours), getting high quality material she never worked with before was something else.

[Nara-pyon]

"Ah, I see," Marenne smiled at Holly. "Well, feel free to handle the scrap in the window. If you're very interested, you'll have to let us know how much you want before we can tell you when it will be ready. In all fairness, however, I feel I must warn you that it does take quite a long time to get enough to be useful, and so it could be months before we have enough again to make even a single article of clothing."

"What is the value of such a material?" Rose asked, interested, as usual, in the financial side of things.

Marenne coughed softly. "Um ... well, admittedly, it is incredibly expensive," she murmured. "A hundred lari per yard."

"Lari?" Rose hesitated. "Forgive me, we're from the east, we're unfamiliar with your currency. Could you perhaps ... expand on that?"

Marenne nodded. "Of course. To put it in perspective, a lar is an average half-week's wages. Most people get paid in yer, as it's more usable, obviously. Thirty yeri in a lar."

[Kara Winters]

That put a bit over a year's worth of work for just one yard for the average person. She would need to have a conversation with the only other people who knew a bit about spider silk (even if it was just to wear it).

Holly nodded slowly, "And that's just the material, it doesn't even include the work going into making an article of clothing, any decorations or dying involved... though it would be a shame to dye that cloth that is naturally that colour..."

She would love to make an article of clothing out of it... maybe a small cape, with red lining. It would be embroidered with bright green leaves, red flowers and tanned birds... maybe robins? Holly was itching to draw, and the material needed for a cape was far more do-able than say a dress.

And then Holly blinked, in a very cat-like fashion, because she would rarely ever get a chance to wear such a thing, and she no longer needed to advertise her wears by wearing them herself.

Though she could sell it afterwards, capes tended to fit easier on more people. If she made it to reach her tail, on an elf it would be shorter, and look very cute.

Did she even have the materials needed to trade for at least three (probably four) yards of the stuff?

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