The Vender

The vendor, a man of surprising girth and an almost spherical build, looked up as Adrain approached. His face was round, framed by long, droopy ears adorned with tufts of hair, and a truly magnificent, braided beard that seemed to defy gravity. He wore robes of a deep, earthy green, and from his mouth emerged a steady stream of fragrant smoke from a pipe that looked straight out of an Earth fantasy movie, complete with an elaborate bowl and a long stem. A faint, sweet aroma of burning herbs hung around him. He blinked at Adrain with small, intelligent eyes, a faint smile playing on his lips. "Well now, don't often see new faces like yours in these parts," he rumbled, his voice surprisingly mellow. "Something catch your eye, young 'un?"

He heard that the vendor was speaking to him. Adrain reached for his satchel, intending to place it on the empty spot on the table, a habitual gesture from his previous life. He thought to himself that when the being had spoken of his new body being "attuned to this realm," it must include an inherent understanding of languages he'd never heard before. He could tell, by the resonant rumble of the vendor's voice, that the words were indeed directed at him, and he understood them perfectly.

"Excuse me," Adrain said, pulling out the two long tusks from his satchel and placing them gently on the vendor's table. As they thumped softly onto the wood, he recalled stuffing them into the bag earlier, along with the boar's pelt and a considerable amount of meat. He'd been surprised then, as he was now, by the satchel's seemingly endless capacity and the way items never seemed to jostle or touch inside it. He remembered thinking that he'd packed at least twice his own weight into it, yet it felt only slightly heavier than empty.

The vendor's small eyes, however, weren't on the tusks. They were fixed on the satchel itself, a flicker of genuine astonishment in their depths. His pipe almost slipped from his lips. "That satchel…" he murmured, his voice losing its customary mellow quality, a hint of reverence entering it. "Where did you come by such a thing, young 'un?"

Adrain, still a little self-conscious about his new reality, quickly interjected, "It was a gift from my mother before I left home." He figured a simple lie was better than trying to explain angelic beings and magical rebirths. He extended a hand, his new form feeling a little awkward in the gesture. "I'm Adrain, by the way."

The vendor's expression softened, a hint of his earlier geniality returning as he took Adrain's hand in a surprisingly firm grip. "Cobobles, nice to meet you," he rumbled, his eyes still holding a lingering spark of curiosity about the satchel, but his tone indicated he wouldn't press the matter further. He released Adrain's hand, looking like he knew he may have overstepped. He then finally cast his gaze upon the tusks Adrain had placed on his table. His eyebrows, bushy and gray, rose slightly. "Well now, these are fine specimens. Grim-Hide, by the looks of it. Fresh kill, too, I reckon." He picked one up, examining it closely, running a calloused thumb along its curve. "What's your interest in selling these, Adrain?"

"I've come to Klen for the Calling Ceremony," Adrain explained, pulling his sleeve back slightly to reveal the still-healing gash on his arm. "This brute attacked me on the path here. Figured since it tried to kill me, I might as well get something out of it. And well, I need currency. I have nothing, and I don't know how to live here."

Cobobles gained another curious look on his face. "I'll take the tusks, and the hide if you have it," he rumbled, his gaze lingering on the satchel for a moment longer. "For the tusks and the hide, I'll give you… hmmm… One gold and fifty silver in total. It's more than I'd usually offer but given the immense size of the beast."

"What's the currency system here?" Adrain asked, a knot forming in his stomach. He wasn't sure if his assumption of 100 silver to one gold was correct, and the thought of an even lower denomination, something below silver, made him nervous. He needed to understand how to navigate this new economic landscape. Cobobles chuckled, a low, rumbling sound. "Simple enough, young 'un. One gold piece is indeed worth one hundred silver. And below silver, we have copper. One hundred copper coins make one silver. Platinum is above gold following the same rule. Understand?" Adrain nodded, the information settling in his mind. Platinum, gold, silver, copper. A standard four-tiered system. It was a small comfort in a world utterly beyond his comprehension.

"As for the Calling Ceremony, as it happens, I'm closing shop now and heading that way myself," Cobobles rumbled, taking an abnormally large toke from his pipe. He exhaled a prodigious cloud of fragrant smoke that billowed outwards, momentarily enveloping the entire stall. As the smoke cleared, Adrain watched in stunned silence as the stall, with all its wares, shimmered and vanished, seemingly whisked away into a small, intricately embroidered pouch at Cobobles' side.

Cobobles chuckled, his round face crinkling at the corners. "Shall we, young 'un?" he rumbled, a twinkle in his small eyes as Adrain, still blinking in astonishment, simply nodded.