Amber held a sharp shard of rock in her hand and sliced it along her other arm. Bright red blood instantly started beading along the surface of her arm.
The grouchy man's face turned red in anger. "What kind of game are you playing? What's this outrageous nonsense! Someone get this crazy person away from me! Throw her out!" He yelled.
As a few men stopped unloading items from the old man's wagon and started converging on Amber, she was calm. She acted as if she didn't have a care in the world. She twisted the top off of one of her little pots of goop and rubbed a pinky nail amount of the medicinal paste along the cut. It quickly absorbed into her skin and the cut disappeared.
The man's eyes widened and it was clear to see that his mind was racing. His breathing sped up and his face became flushed in excitement. Just as Amber's elbow was about to be grabbed, he yelled out. "Stop! Don't touch this esteemed lady, she is an honored guest. We have things to discuss, leave us!"
They walked over to some chairs next to the platform and sat. He held out a slightly shaking hand. "May I?"
Amber smiled and handed over a jar. He twisted off the cap and smelled it. Then he pulled a monocle out of his pocket and stuck it over an eye.
"What's in this?"
Amber lifted an eyebrow as if he'd lost his mind, but he couldn't see under her hood. "I hope you don't actually expect me to answer that question," she said.
He cackled in a way that scraped along her ear drums. She flinched ever so delicately so that it wasn't noticed by the old man.
"It was worth a shot, you can't blame this old man for trying. So what are your plans for old Bud? May I know the name of this great personage?"
"You may call me Lady Jinks. I don't necessarily have any plans for you specifically. I'm looking for a long term business associate to deal with sales and distribution. I want to focus on production for the time being. In the future, there will be far superior products available," said Amber.
"So you're aware, I find most people to be dull and unimaginative. I will not work with anyone who's disloyal or tries to rob me. I also dislike people in general, so I need someone who can take hold of situations and get things done on my behalf," said Amber.
"If you're interested, I will give you five pots of this healing paste. Sell it in the fashion that you think is best and meet me here in two weeks time with the profits. You may take up to twenty percent of the profit for your troubles," said Amber.
"I will be giving five pots of this to a few other people and see who gives me the best results. I will give the person who shows the best results more of the same product to sell, as well as new products at that time," said Amber
"I won't count the percentage that you take as part of the results. However, you should be aware that whichever percentage you choose this time, will be our permanent arrangement. You don't have to choose the percentage of your profits until after you sell the products," she said.
"You may also buy one pot of healing paste off of me directly for five gold. Are you interested?" said Amber.
The old man's eyes glowed in excitement, finally something interesting to him showed up.
"I'm interested, of course Old Bud is interested. No one will be able to out do Old Bud!"
Amber smiled while giving Bud two contracts written out to her specifications. They signed both and kept a copy. She held out the pots of healing paste to him and his eyes glowed as he took them.
"Ronnie!" Bud said.
A sun tanned, toned, young man with light brown, chin length, floppy hair and dark green eyes came barreling forward. He was wearing baggy gray pants and a tight black shirt. "Yes, Boss?"
"Bring five gold coins for Lady Jinks and put them in one of those new royal blue coin pouches. Also, bring the lady one of the black velvet and royal-blue, silk lined, hooded robes as a present," he said as he put the pots of paste in the pockets of his robe.
"I would like one of the gold coins to be in silver change," Amber said.
Ronnie frowned in confusion. "Would you like me to take those little pots with the rest of the items for auction?"
"No! I have special plans for these items. Also, don't mention this business to anyone. Understand?"
"Pardon my rudeness. I will follow your orders." Ronnie gave a short bow before running off to bring the gold and silver coins. As well as the robe and coin purse.
When he returned with the items in hand, he bowed his head and held them out to Amber.
She accepted them gracefully and walked off to the next auction platform. She had similar results in all of the platforms, except for one woman she approached who said that she only dealt in fine clothing.
Amber purchased a few nice dresses, two pairs of lace up boots, hair accessories, and a small dark blue hooded robe.
By now she'd sold three pots of healing paste for five gold each and made contracted deals with three people. She kept a couple of the pots on hand for emergencies.
She went to some other stalls to grab some food and struggled up the pathway with her things. She decided that she would need to figure out a better way of transport in the future.
Carrying everything into her room, she forgot that she'd barricaded the door. However when she pushed it, it opened easily.
When she took a step into the room, she slipped and landed on the floor into a little puddle. Her bags were thrown around the room. The smell clung to her and filled her nose with a burning copper scent. Her stomach twisted while she struggled to sit up.