"Give me a moment"
Jordie took back the bottle of milk from Marianne's hand and the smaller bottle in Minos'.
In one fluid motion, Jordie refilled Minos' baby bottle with more khalkotauroi milk and then placed the bottle back into Marianne's hand. Minos' began to suckle on his newly refilled bottle.
"Continue."
"Okay..." Marianne said with an odd look on her face, "As I was saying, how much would you be willing to trade for a bottle of khalkotauroi milk? That is to say, is it possible for you to get more of this stuff?"
"Oh, uh..."
Jordie paused at the inquiry, unsure of how to approach the situation. He never had to barter until now and he had no idea the value of some of the goods he had. Luckily he had the System piggybacking in his brain.
"System, how much does khalkotauroi milk sell for?"
[Khalkotauroi Milk usually sells for about 3 gold pieces a bottle.]
"Uhh..."
[The people in Echidnara work with a coin-based currency, with denominations in crystal, gold, silver, copper and lead. 1 crystal coin=$100, 1 gold = $10, 1 silver= $1, 1 copper= 10¢, 1 lead =1¢ roughly]
"People use lead coins here?"
[Yup.]
"Neat."
This entire conversation took place in a matter of seconds, so Jordie was able to get back to the conversation after looking like he was only pausing to think.
"Well?," Marianne repeated with an expectant twinkle in her eyes. Jordie didn't know why, but he found it kinda cute.
"Christ I'm lonely," he thought to himself.
Faking a sigh, Jordie bobbed his head a bit before answering. "Okay, I do have a source of the stuff and I am willing to trade away a barrel of it."
A look of triumph appeared on Marianne's face at Jordie's answer.
"Ye-!"
"But!," Jordie said, interrupting Marianne's victory pose, "You're gonna have to talk to Bessie about it."
"Ah, okay" Marianne agreed, looking a bit deflated. "Who's Bessie?"
"My khalkotauroi."
"Your khalkotaur- Hold up. You contracted a khalkotauroi?," asked in disbelief.
"Yes I did, hence why I have the milk and why I am feeding it to my baby minotaur here."
"Your baby minotaur?"
"Yup"
"Brap!"
Jordie patted the baby's back.
"Good Minos."
"Huh..."
Marianne began to look Jordie up and down in an appraising fashion. She had initially wrote Jordie off as being a bit of a lucky vagabond or a caretaker to some noble's monsters due to how he...looked. However, now that she knew he had somehow contracted a khalkotauroi and a baby minotaur, her opinion on him improved.
Khalkotauroi are notoriously vicious and minotaurs, especially baby ones, are usually only found contracted to high ranking military types and nobles. Either this guy was freakishly lucky, freakishly strong or a noble, or all three. She'd be a fool not to try and make nice with this guy.
An amicable smile formed on Marianne's face.
"Alright then, I'll talk to your Bessie about acquiring some more milk. Where's your habitat disk?"
An awkward grimace formed in Jordie's face as Marianne asked that question.
"What's the matter?," Marianne asked with concern as she noticed the awkward face Jordie was making.
"Well...I don't have a disk right now due to it being destroyed in an unforeseen accident," Jordie lied through his teeth, "so Bessie is currently at the stables. I was actually here in order to find a good replacement."
[But you didn't have a disk in the first place.]
"Shut up," Jordie mentally retorted.
Marianne was about to chide Jordie about his lack of a disk, until a thought came to mind.
"Hmmm," Marianne loudly hummed, "Out of curiosity, how much would you have charged me for a barrel of khalkotauroi milk."
"About...7 gold coins," Jordie said, making up the number on the spot.
Marianne noticed Jordie's behavior and confirmed a suspicion she had, and a way to benefit from this situation.
"You do realize a new disk, at least one that can accommodate a fully-grown khalkotauroi comfortably, is at least gonna run you a crystal coin, right? And I only have enough in my budget for exactly one barrel."
"Oh..." In retrospect, it made a lot of sense to Jordie that something as magical and useful as a portable terrarium for monsters was probably costly. Especially if size was gonna be a factor.
"But, I do happen to know a disk maker in Jade Spire City," Marianne continued, "why don't we make a deal?"
"A deal?," Jordie repeated with suspicion.
"You and I travel to Jade Spire City together and I introduce you to my friend, I put in a good word for you and we can get you a new disk," Marianne explained breezily.
"Okay...what's the catch?"
"I get access to Bessies' milk until it's enough to fill...three barrels," Marianne punctuated while holding up three fingers, "What do you think?"
Jordie paused as he weight the pros and cons of this deal. As far as he could tell, it was basically net gain for him, but he didn't know how Bessie would feel about being milked by unfamiliar hands. He did need that disk though and he was planning on moving along anyways...
"Alright," Jordie agreed, "When do we leave?"
Marianne smiled at Jordie's agreement. "We'll leave first thing tomorrow morning."
_________________________________________________
In a corner of the Bamboo Bazaar, sat a strange looking conestoga wagon with a powerful aroma of fermentation emanating from it. Alongside it, a strange tiger-like beast with skin like a holstein cow and sharp black horns was dozing away. This wagon and beast belonged to none other than Marianne Goodfort, who had just returned from a rather lucrative prospect.
"Hey Molly, miss me?," Marianne asked as she scratched the head of her tiger-like companion. The creature let out a pleased sound that sounded like a mix of a purr and moo. Once she had given Molly her fill of headscratchies, Marianne made her way over to the wagon and entered it.
Inside the wagon were several large pots of varying designs all covered with white cloth. Marianne grabbed one that was the closest to the entrance and removed the top, revealing to the world a thick red creamy substance. By combining the sight with the smell, one could conclude that these pots were filled with milk that was fermenting into cheese.
Marianne stared at the the fermenting substance and began to make observations based on the shape of the mold on top and the depth of the holes that had formed.
"Hmmmmmm. Two stars...one flying...one large...heading towards...an ocean? Or is that a mountain? What does that mean?"