Dungeon Runner
The Tiger Writes
sciencefiction
sciencefiction
31K5
Tibs survived by picking pockets; until he's caught.
Instead of losing a hand, he's sent away and told he must now survive a dungeon.
How is a kid who knew nothing more than his ...Bottom Rung, Chapter 33
Tibs ran to another shop, exclaiming at something red hanging from the window. He did not know what it was; he didn't care. Maintaining the excitement was becoming difficult, but there had to be a point where his friends would grow tired of this and he'd be able to get on with Bardik's task.
Unfortunately, Jackal seemed to have borrowed Kroseph's enthusiasm. Every shop they entered, he looked through everything there. He'd already spent coins on a small stone carving of a bull, and one of what he claimed was a jackal. Carina looked doubtful, but it was the first Tibs heard of it being an animal, so he took his friend at his word. Jackal was in the shop before Tibs, exclaiming something that was muffled by the closing door.
Carina followed Tibs in. She had little enthusiasm for it left. The little she'd had, had been spent in the shop that turned out of sell books. She'd gazed at them wistfully, gently running a hand over the leather covers. The colors varied, but all were rich. Browns, reds, even greens, and yellows. Some were plain, some had details etched into the leather. One was engraved with what looked like gold to Tibs, but Carina told him it was only a pigment that colored it like that. She still looked at that book like it would make her life better.
While the shopkeeper didn't speak a language any of them understood, he knew the word for gold in every language and conveyed that the book she'd looked at was twelve gold. The shopkeeper then offered one that was clearly old, with the cover scuffed and cracked. The blank pages were yellowed at the edges. That book was still one gold.
Tibs hadn't understood why it was so expensive. It was light, no larger than Jackal's outstretched hand. Carina explained that the process to make each page was arduous. Then came the binding, the leatherwork. Jackal had asked why they didn't use magic to make them, and she'd laughed. Hiring sorcerers was even more expensive.
Tibs figured she'd be the one to decide she was done, but she stuck with them.
"Tibs! Look at this." Jackal had a blue fabric draped over his arm. "It's silk! You should have a shirt make out of it!"
"Why?"
"Because silk can't be cut."
"That's a myth," Carina said. "It's just more difficult to pierce it. It's also very expensive."
"So my armor's better?" Tibs asked.
"Of course it's better," Jackal said, "but you can wear this underneath. Have an undershirt made of it."
"Is it better than my ice armor?"
The fighter looked at him. "Tibs, you don't have ice armor, yet. And more armor is always better."
"Buy?" the shopkeeper said as she joined them?
"How much?" Jackal asked and got a confused look.
"She doesn't understand you, Jackal," Carina said.
"Coins? Money?" the fighter asked and only received more confusion.
"How much is it?" Tibs asked.
"Cheap," the woman answered.
"Copper? Silver? electrum?"
"Electrum," she lifted both hands and Tibs counted the fingers.
"It's eight electrum pieces."
Jackal hurried to roll the fabric and put it back among the others. "A shirt isn't worth that."
Carina chuckled as she followed them outside. "You do understand that she sells entire rolls, right? She expected you to make shirts or anything else out of it and sell that."
"Then what we need is a tailor," Jackal said, looking around eagerly.
"I'm not buying another shirt," Tibs protested.