Although the middle age man's words had no hidden motive, he was a bit startle by this strange visitor, although maken village was a frontier village. They would have all sorts of travelers every now and then, But this young lad if you could call him that was beyond strange more like a beast in human shape.
Velex tried to look as clam and friendly as possible, yet his smile only manage to show of his sharp white teeth.
The middle age man didn't take long to respond
"yeah, this is maken village. I can see your not from around here, what is your business here ?"
Velex quickly responded "I came to trade, I'm just passing by besides that" pointing at the wolf pelt on his shoulder
The middle age man seem to relax a bit, yet looking at the "pelt" more clearly now he still tensed up again, although the grey wolf was a weak beast. it was still a beast that took a few hunters to take down, surely this lad didn't kill it by himself. Yet there was no one else with him.
The middle age man soon let these wild thoughts go as there was nothing he could do anyway.
"okay, you can pass. The trade center is a few blocks down to the right, you can't miss it. It's the largest area in our village"
With that said Velex nodded and headed inside. He saw a few villagers goin about their day, there were also sum humans wearing nice or tough clothing with big backpacks most likely travelers. everyone seem to take a curious glance in his direction.
It didn't take him long to make it to the market place. The "trade center" wasn't too big at all it had 4 shops and 10 or so small stands. everything from clothes, food, sum work tools and a few high end items or what a village of this size could count as high end were displayed here.
Velex soon spotted 1 stand slightly bigger then the others selling pelts, fur clothing and accessories, there was a chubby bald middle age man advertising his merchandise he seemed to be in a good mood. The merchant soon saw the shadow approaching him, he soon put on his usual merchant smile and began to speak as he turned around.
"Good day, how can i help youuu.... T..od..ay?" the Merchant paused for a moment, his thoughts ran wild. 'heavens, have my days of selling dead animals finally brought my misfortune, what kind of beast is this' the merchant thought as he stared at Young Velex Long wild silver hair, red eyes sharp white teeth and pointy sharp looking nails on his fingers.
Velex didn't delay "I'm here to sell this grey wolf pelt I acquired recently " he said bringing the grey wolf pelt in front of the merchant to see. A few seconds later the merchant finally seem to wake up from his stupor, yet velex didn't mind he knew he wasn't "human" at least not fully. These people reacting like this around him did not surprise him.
"oh this yes, why yes you can sell it here. my Jao stand gives the best prices around here, this i can assure you" the merchant said quickly not hesitating anymore taking the big grey wolf pelt from velex.
As he inspect the pelt he couldn't help but be highly surprised, he had seem many grey wolf pelts before. But never is such good condition, the hunters from this small village could barely kill 1 grey wolf between 10 of then and the fur would be damage in several place from the traps they used. Yet right in front of him was a grey wolf pelt in almost perfect condition, the only damage seem to be around the head it had 10 small holes.
'odd 10 small holds what kind of weapon could do this, so accurate and clean' the merchant thought taking another glance at the wild young lad , his eyes slowly scan him and saw the 10 pointy sharp looking nails at his hands. He took a big gulp in that moment, he decided not too think on it anymore , their was just no way.
finally the merchant spoke to velex although rather nervous "This pelt is in great condition, usually i would buy a grey wolf pelt for around 10 gold because of its quality, but for this young lad here i can happily give you 35 gold for it. how does that sound?" the merchant look at velex nervously as if hoping the young lad would not be dissatisfied by his offer.
Velex only stared at the merchant for a few seconds before accepting his offer, he took the gold and ask the merchant where he could get a map. not long velex left the stand heading for one of the shops in the corner.
At this point he had learned, that maybe smiling wasn't the best approach for him. he thought the chubby merchant would pissed him self if he had gotten even a bit closer to him. He walked into a small shop not much bigger then a 600sqft house with 1 level. they had some small book shelf's and at the counter was a young woman with long brown hair, she could be said to have decent looks. When she saw velex although at first she was a bit startle and scared, but when she saw his calm expression she soon calmed down. After a better look over the wild looking young man he was pretty handsome, even if he had the fierceness of a wild beat about him.
"how can i be of service to this gentleman" she spoke to velex in a happy and slightly flirtatious tone.
"I'm in need of a map, and information about the nearest village to this one"
The young woman wasn't surprised about the young man wanting a map, most travelers enter the shop for one, but how did he not now the places near maken village?
she quickly composed her self and said "Our best map is 2 silver they include the area around Carven town, their are 3 villages within Carven town lands including ours." before velex could respond as if unable to hold the thought in she quickly added "Are you perhaps from one of the mountain tribes?"
Velex was a bit surprised but he quickly nodded, being from a so called mountain tribe was a good excuse as any "i will take the map" he said as he handed her 1 gold coin, she soon grabbed his change. He ask her a few questions but the young woman didn't seem to know anything major, not surprising from info coming from a frontier village. Although she did say 1 thing of great interest. These land including Carven town and more where under the Raylen Family, she didn't know much beside that they were an old and strong mage family. He had try to ask more about these so called 'mage's' yet she didn't seem to know anything. She stated that regular folks had no dealing with people like 'mage's', only inside large city's could one possibly learn something about them.
As velex exited the small shop the word 'Mage' echoed is his mind. He had read some of the book in the shop, he read that mountain tribes didn't seem to have 'mage's' but they were know as strong fighters. besides stating that they would almost never leave the mountains and there strong warriors their wasn't much more info.
He went to a few more shops and bought a large backpack, and a few clothes. he soon walked towards the exit of the village looking at the map he could see that to the southeast was the Beast forest, He had to head northwest to go towards Carven town. The forest he hunted in was called river twine forest , it had 2 small rivers that came from higher inland leading down all the way towards the beast forest. He could follow the rivers up stream while hunting inside the forest on his way to Carven town.
he soon went back to his caved empty out anything useful and left heading upstream.....