Chapter 102: Coddywack?

"Bud...JEEBUZ, MAN! Let me know when you're right behind me!"

"Sorry, but I can't let you go alone."

Buddy had snuck up on us, well, maybe snuck up wasn't the right word. He had silently walked up behind me, and unfortunately for me, that was when I turned my head to call him. I thought I could feel his presence before, but maybe he was getting better at masking himself to everyone. This was good for blending into crowds and espionage, but it still made me jump, I guess that's a good thing?

"Hey, Alex, I haven't asked, How do you buy things here? Do you have money? Do we have money?"

Wow, as if this little tidbit had never crossed my mind, even when I was in the village I didn't see anyone use money. I wonder how they would circulate the money fairly? All my questions were answered simply. Trade.

"Money? We trade things, like goods, products, vehicles, valuables, protection, and anything that someone would want to trade for."

"Ok, what do we have to trade? Hard to take you ladies out on the town with nothing in my pockets!"

"OhGreatMasterHyde, Ihavejustthethingforyoutotrade! LookatthesethingmeandMr.Spinmade!

Honestly, it was like three long words said with difficulty, but I somehow figured out what Grif was trying to tell me. Ha! I bet Kadence is enjoying a break from both Alex and Grif. I chuckle to myself as Buddy grabbed a bag full of the items Grif was trying to tell me about.

"Okay old man, I need you to take some deep breaths and tell me what these are for."

Grif did as I asked, too well, I thought he might pass out until I told him to let it go. I was half tempted to let him pass out for being so stupid, but that wasn't a good way to make friends. Grif was now breathing fine and he took another deep breath.

"Okay, these things will replace special charge cells made by the city mages. These cells power the lights at night to give them more light and allowing them to grow faster, but the capital charges a lot for the cells asking for huge portions of their crops and then they have to give the capital taxes as well."

"Thank you for speaking at a normal pace, Grif, I know that must have been hard."

"Oh, youhadbetterbelieveit!"

"Well now we have this for money, are we good to go now?"

"Yes, I think we will be fine now. everyone, get everything ready while we are gone, and…"

I was already pushing Alex out the door with a smiling Nuwari on my arm and Buddy trailing behind us. Once outside, my eyes were assaulted by the golden yellow fields, they were almost too bright in the sun, like only seeing snow on a sunny day. I could see the village in the distance, so, not thinking, I took a step, intending to go to the village...but then we were right outside the village, floating about a meter in the air.

*BLAAARGH!*

Oh, that was nasty, I let go of Trem's damn magic and dropped a foot holding onto Alex and Nuwari, then pulled them away from Buddy, who was now straightening back up and wiping his face. I looked at him with an apologetic smile, but he just waved me off. More important was the small group of children that had gathered around us.

"Mr. Green Man are you alright? What are you so green? Where did you come for? Are you from here? Is he green because he is sick? Is that your big hat? Is he sick because he is green?"

WE were assaulted by a wave of children and we were slowly drawing a crowd of adults now. I was about to ask the group of kids if they could point me in the direction of the mayor, but instead, we were dragged through town. The kids felt that because we were new, we needed to be shown around, and I couldn't argue, I could see both Alex and Nuwari light up around the children as they herded us like a flock of sheep around the town.

The place was nothing impressive, a large group of residential buildings and a couple of nice small friendly looking stores, and a patchwork of smaller houses. The kids took us to what appeared to be the town center with a pond in the middle of it. There were very small ducks in the pond that I thought at first were baby ducklings, but there turned out to be even smaller ones that swam from under the larger micro-duck. 

"Ladies! Look at these ducks!"

"What's a duck Mr?"

"Hmm? What do you call them?

"That's a Coddywack, they keep the ponds clean."

"Hmmm? Can I get some for my bedroom?"

I joked with the kids and they all laughed at me, as Alex gave me one of those looks that said you never clean anyways, what do you need ducks for. I smiled and slid an arm around her waist, giving Alex a small kiss on the cheek, which seemed to mollify her for the moment. I looked around and asked the kids if there was anywhere to get a bite to eat, and I was immediately dragged by the going of excited children.

I was dragged to a large and open market area, that wasn't overly busy, but there were all sorts of different types of dry foods like grain and even rice that I was surprised to see down here in a place that grew things like wheat and barley. I turned back to Alex and noticed we had drawn a large group of adults, but no one approached us or asked us questions.

"Hey, let's go buy some stuff! Maybe if we buy some stuff they will get a bit more friendly, right?"

"They are just confused by us, not many humans would travel openly with someone like me."

I turned on Buddy.

"What do you mean like you? You really don't look a lot different from me or anyone else?"

"Except that I am green."

"Okay! Let's have a talk just to make sure everyone in this little turd hole of a town who I am and what we are all about!"