Walking in an alleyway, a black cloaked figure muttered to himself.
"Still don't like crowds,"
A white bird chirped, as if in agreement.
The two had been wandering around Joost for a couple of hours, but with all the looks and being stopped by patrols multiple times, he just stuck to staying in alleys.
"Wait, what are you doing here?"
At this moment, Jeffrey had bumped into a rather peculiar Traveller.
Traveller shrugged, apparently, he just arrived at this city after hearing the Hero was in town. Nonetheless, showing his wares, Traveller was keen to do business as always.
Browsing the items for sale, he noticed a large variety of sticks for sale, and rather bendy ones at that, not to mention the quirky looking strips of string. Like there was a piece of string with fireflies around it, or inside it? That was a hell of a weird piece of string.
But this raised a mild question.
"Why are you just selling sticks and strings,"
Looking at Traveller, allegedly, Traveller just felt that he wanted those things. A merchant's eye as they say.
Looking at the items before it was obvious that Traveller was selling him materials to make a bow, but then again…
"I don't know how to make a bow,"
Traveller seemed to be in thought for a while, his creepy facade of a face not twitching in the slightest, before reassuring him that if he chose to buy some materials Traveller himself would introduce him to an expert fletcher. That was a pretty nice deal, it was extremely rare for a very normal individual such as himself to come into contact with artisans of any kind. Not to mention that this artisan was an expert in his craft.
Damn, Traveller really has those 'connections' that Karl talks about.
Looking at the assortment of sticks before him, Jeffrey felt as if he could see what kind of stick would make the bow he desired, the amount of flexibility needed, as well as the density, so it doesn't just become a noodle.
Appraising the materials before him, Traveller patiently waited by the side. After what could be considered another hour of looking through the sticks, Jeffrey found one which seemed to fully resonate with him.
As stated by Traveller it was a saddened stick. Why was the stick like that? Jeffrey wasn't going to ask, now he just needed to select a bowstring. He didn't know too much about strings so this might take a while.
It was near midnight that Jeffrey finally found a bowstring which he himself, felt extremely compatible to. The wronged rope. It was an extremely thin piece of rope, and Jeffrey just chose this because he felt a common ground that the item resonated with.
Okay, now that that was over Jeffrey had to think of a payment. Rummaging through his cloak pockets, he found some rather odd items from earlier in the day. When he was b̶e̶a̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ battling the hero, he p̶i̶c̶k̶p̶o̶c̶k̶e̶t̶e̶d̶ commandeered some rather strange looking items.
It seemed to be a small, round ball shaped item wrapped in crinkly thin paper. They came in two types, red and blue paper. Jeffrey didn't know what they were, but Traveller sure did.
"Candies? And rare candies?
"Could you perhaps elaborate?"
Traveller was enthusiastic about these, apparently, they were worth a lot to people such as himself but next to useless in the hands of others, and Traveller was willing to trade the two items for one blue candi and one red candi.
Taking his payment, Traveller straightened his back and asked Jeffrey if he was ready.
"Ready for wha-"
Suddenly, they were in what could be considered a pub. But not a pub from this realm, it looked more modern, more advanced. Jeffrey couldn't tell what happened, but he could that they weren't in the same realm anymore, it was more an instinctual feeling than anything.
"Oh, Traveller, I see you've brought a friend," looking in the direction of the voice, Jeffrey saw a white ANt behind the bar counter. But it wasn't like normal ants, no, this one was bipedal and wore a smart bartender's suit. He was professionally dressed and was wiping a mug in his hands.
"Hmm, mate, you should know that I'm not a damned fletcher,"
Traveller shrugged,
"No, guns and bows are not the same," the ANt looked mildly annoyed, "They are, in fact, very different, just because they are both ballistic weapons, doesn't mean they're the 'same jack,'"
It was creepy how Travelers face remained unchanged throughout the whole exchange, granted, the ANt's face was also kept the same expression throughout. It was a wonder that Jeffrey even understood them considering that they both didn't seem to have the capacity to speak.
"Tsk, fine, fine, I'll see what I can do, but don't expect too much," Waving his hand at Traveller, the ANt gave up.
"Anyway, people around here call me ANts Man, how about you?" he gestured toward Jeffrey.
"Jeffrey,"
"Wait, just Jeffrey?" ANts Man seemed to have expected something extra to his name.
"I'm not a noble,"
"Wasn't what I was talkin' about but okay,
"Moving on to business, I'll tell you straight up I'm not good at makin' bows so don't feel too let down when the time comes,"
"Doesn't matter, I'm sure you're better than me,"
"Hey, hey, no need to degrade yourself, we're all buddies here," Reaching over the counter, he patted Jeffrey on the shoulder. It was quite reminiscent of what his father used to do when he was feeling down.
"How about, we work on it together, and the result will be whatever,"
"Sure,"
With that, it was decided that the two will just try to make a bow together.
Moving into a white workshop behind the bar counter, the two immediately found their first hurdle.
"D'you know how to, like attach the string to the stick? I mean, I'm sure you don't just drill a hole, right?"
ANts Man wasn't kidding when he said he was bad at making bows.
"You sure don't just want a gun?"
"What's a gun?"
"Wait, you don't know what a gun is?"
ANts Man was in disbelief that Jeffrey didn't know what a gun was.
"Hey man, surely you know what it is, like look at this, I'm sure it's just that we call it different things, yeah, that must be the case," Reaching into his vest, ANts man pulled out a strange looking contraption, but inferring from the previous conversation, this must be a gun.
It was blocky, like two white rectangular bricks attached together at right angles.
What the hell does that thing even do?