Amber almost forgot about Nova's existence because she was so quiet. It was fairly common for children to be beaten and neglected in this village, so no one gave her a second glance. Although she was on the more extreme end, most people who saw her assumed that she was a disobedient slave.
Amber was busy looking at the pixies and making some calculations in her head. She was pulled out of her thoughts when she felt a frantic tugging on her cloak. She sighed in annoyance and looked over. There she saw a short, fat, balding guy with a large nose and squinting eyes. The disgusting man breathed heavily and salivated while he put his nasty grubby hands all over Nova and groped her. There were dirty mud prints from where his sweaty palms had mixed in with her caked on dirt. Nova gripped Amber's cloak and opened her mouth repeatedly, like a fish. Her face was bright red and her eyes were glistening.
Amber's eyes squinted, she quickly pulled out her knife, and held it to his throat. "Remove your hands or lose your head," she said
She knew that the knife was far too dull to actually cut flesh. She was hoping to find a good rock in the forest to sharpen it, so that she could cut some herbs. Amber hoped that this was a decent enough bluff.
The man lifted his hands off Nova and slowly took a couple of steps back.
"My name's Paul and I'm a business man."
He was a man who resembled a beach ball. He was quite pompous with a proud look on his face and his thumbs resting in his pockets. He kept on rocking on his heels. He wore a white button up shirt and a velvet olive green vest that looked like the golden buttons were threatening to pop off. He wore matching green trousers and a golden bow tie. What little hair he had left, was greased back in an obvious, but hopeless attempt to cover up his ever enlarging bald spot. He incessantly pulled out a yellowed handkerchief and dabbed it over his forehead. His sweat trickled down his face and yellowed his collar. He had a golden pocket watch in one of his vest pockets and he occasionally pulled it out, to glance at the time while frowning. He shoved the pocket watch back into his pocket and leered at Nova.
"I'll take her. Is she a mute? I'll pay extra." As he offered to buy Nova, he never took his lust filled eyes away from her.
Nova hid behind Amber's back and peeked out from behind her. Amber could feel her shaking. "She's not for sale," Amber said.
"Don't give me that. It's obvious that you're here with her for the night market. Are you hoping to get a higher price? She already looks like she's at death's door and I'm willing to pay double the going rate for her age range. I could use a good mute in my line of work."
Amber glared at him, but he didn't notice. "And what is your line of work?"
"I'm the manager of a brothel. I come out to these different night markets to acquire merchandise for my employer. I really don't feel like waiting around all night for the real business to begin, so I'm willing to buy her early. I'm willing to give you twenty silver for her. That's more than generous considering the rough shape she's in."
Amber calculated based on her memories. That was roughly two thousand dollars, although money goes further in this world than the one she came from. He was actually offering a large amount, because in this world, there was such a thing as half a penny, which was called a Bit. A lot of basic things could be bought for a bit. Two bits equaled one copper. One-hundred coppers equaled one silver. One hundred silvers equaled one gold. One hundred gold equaled one platinum. One hundred platinum equaled one comaa.
Comaa were clear coins made from concentrated mana, stamped with a snowflake pattern, and infused with a mana signature. All of the coins were stamped with a snowflake print and infused with mana signatures, to make them impossible to fake.
Amber glanced back at Nova. "Are you willing to go with this man?"
Nova looked up at Amber with obvious panic in her eyes and shook her head back and forth vigorously. "
"You'll have to work extra diligently to make up for this lost income."
Nova shook her head yes and clung onto Amber more tightly.
"Very well then," she said and looked back at the distasteful man.
A pleased grin appeared on the man's face before she continued to speak.
"There is nothing for sale here, go along on your way."
Sweat formed on the man's brow and greed gleamed in his eyes as he looked at Nova. He licked his dry lips. "Forty silver, that's my final offer."
Nova's face paled and her shaking intensified. That's more money than she'd ever seen. Her dad and step mom would have gladly sold her by now. She held tightly onto Amber and bit her bottom lip.
Amber felt the change in Nova and patted her head reassuringly. "That's your final offer? Good. Then we'll be on our way." Amber grabbed a hold of Nova's hand and walked away from the nasty man. Nova's legs were a bit shaky, but she kept up as relief washed over her.
Amber stopped walking and looked down at Nova. "You're my person now. As long as you remain loyal to me, you'll remain my person. Rest assured and don't give that distasteful man a second thought." Amber tried to smile, but it seemed like her face was threatening to crack and she was is pain. Perhaps she was having some sort of involuntary facial twitches.
"There, there," she said while patting Nova's head too forcefully.
Nova took Amber's cloak with both of her hands and smiled at her. They continued to walk toward the forest together. Nova kept on glancing around them and had her little fingers tangled into Amber's cloak snugly. She very much acted like someone clinging to a life preserver.
The two of them didn't notice how Paul was glaring at them or how he motioned for another man to come over to him. The man who walked over, was a tall and scrawny man with short carrot orange hair, brown eyes, and pointy ears. He was wearing basic brown pants, a loose green shirt, and sturdy brown boots. He wore a quiver of arrows and a shiny silver bow on his back.
After they were done talking, the orange haired man walked after the two girls. Amber didn't notice him coming up behind them, until he bumped into them. Her eyes followed him and she sighed.
"You see that Nova? This is my first time seeing an elf. What a disappointment. I was hoping for heavenly good looks worthy of drooling over."
Nova blushed as she realized that her new master was someone who collected flower boys. Nevertheless, she wanted to please Amber, so she pointed past the pots of fire, and to a large group of elves ahead of them.