2.36 – Delivery

⚠️SPOILERS: Only click if you need a content warning that SPOILS things⚠️

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The day began with buying a wagon. They quickly found a place, with a good sized lot of wagons in neat rows like a car dealership. Behind the main building were ones in a various states of being built or repaired. They seemed solid enough according to Maple's amateur judge of things, but one thing immediately unsettled her.

The name of the place.

'This Little Piggy Built A Wagon', as denoted not only by the big sign in the yard, but also by an engraving that existed somewhere on each wagon.

It was a different spot each time and rather small, but once Maple noticed it, she couldn't stop herself from trying to find it on each one they passed. That wasn't quite a deal breaker, so they stayed until somebody came over to help.

Most of the employees looked to be some kind of pig beastkin. Pigmen, Maple later learned, was the acceptable term. They had snouts and hooves and thicker skin than their human relatives.

One came over to greet them and Emma immediately held up her chalkboard.

Hi, I'm Emma, a soap slime. Our dairy needs your best wagon!

The pigman [Wagoner]'s eyes lit up and he led them to one.

"Why, this beaut could haul a dragon's hoard if you needed it to. But it also costs around that much. What are ya looking for, exactly?"

The wagon he led them to was quite beautiful, for what it was worth, but it needed horses and a budget far beyond theirs. Maple rubbed her face, somewhat abashed.

"Um, actually, we just needed something simple we could move by hand for a few small deliveries right now. Maybe if the dairy grows in the future..."

She felt bad having to correct her overeager girlfriend on what the dairy actually needed, but the pigman only deflated a bit as he led them to a section with simple carts that could be pushed or pulled by hand.

"I reckon any of these would be a good investment? You've got a keen business sense, starting a dairy now with them succus gone. It's hardly been a week, but my uncle's already been complaining about the cost of milk every day since."

She picked one that could be pushed, figuring it'd be easier to rest by leaning on it. She paid, logged the expense, and they continued on their way.

It was only a short walk to the inn where their first batch of milk still was, and Maple's prana was in good supply. Using some now to enhance her stamina was tempting, but she was saving it for when she actually felt tired.

Collecting more was pretty easy, but spending it was far easier.

"This shouldn't be too bad. I just hope we're able to find enough customers---Oh. I guess Anemone's awake."

A mental ping alerted Maple that the task she'd given her to wake up had been completed. She could admit that'd be useful in a world without cellphones. Anemone would have gotten a similar alert. Maple would have to make sure that hadn't been too intrusive to use without permission later.

Emma responded with an enthusiastic thumbs-up before plopping down onto the handcart to be pushed. Maple smiled and kept pushing. The extra weight wasn't bad at all.

Then Emma stretched out and propped her feet up on the handlebar next to Maple's hands. Maple laughed.

"Alright then, passenger princess. Comfy?"

Her laughing face said it all.

The apparent human pushing a soap slime around on a cart was an odd enough sight even in Syber to draw a few looks, but it was worth it for the goofy fun they were having. Emma began waving to anyone who stared, and then made silly faces at everyone she could get to look their way.

Maple, slightly mortified but laughing, picked up the pace until they reached the inn. She was out of breath by time they got there, and decided to burn some prana to enhance her body. Her heart rate leveled out faster than it would have before. It was really too tempting to not use it.

Sasha greeted them as they passed, but otherwise they were left alone to load up the cart with the clay jugs of milk from their room. She sniffed one to make sure it hadn't gone bad sitting at room temperature for a day, but didn't quite have the heart to taste it. She passed it to Emma.

"It's still good, right?"

Emma took a big gulp and rubbed her tummy approvingly. Maple took it back, along with a second one and went back down stairs and outside. She paused after setting them on the cart.

"Those are so going to fall off..."

Emma brought the rest of the jugs and was already stacking them neatly next to each other on the cart. It had a flat area with anchor points around the edges for strapping things down, but there were no walls to keep anything inside.

"Let's go bug Sasha for help."

Emma threw her arms up in a yeah! gesture and raced back inside ahead of Maple. When Maple reached her, she was already showing Sasha a message on her chalkboard. Sasha smirked at her.

"All you had to do was ask, Mape. Come here and I'll help all you want."

She made a lewd gesture and Maple looked accusingly at Emma.

"What'd you tell her?"

Emma held the chalkboard up for Maple, evidently still in a silly mood.

Maple needs help holding her jugs!

"Mhm, typical."

Maple laughed and shook her head.

"I need a way to keep the milk pots on the cart. It's just flat, so like...if you had any spare boxes, or something?"

Sasha crossed her arms like a stern older sister, tail swishing through the air behind her.

"I don't, unfortunately. We get a lot of food in crates that would probably work, but we pay a deposit on those. I assume you're going to do similar for the empty pots?"

The pots weren't that cheap, so she couldn't let the customer just keep them, and adding them to the cost of the milk would make it too expensive. So she had considered a deposit system, and even Leon had mentioned it being wise at one point during their consultation.

Maple tsked.

"Dang. Yeah, we're going to do a deposit. But hmm, maybe I could just..."

She trailed off and took Emma with her to the cart. She moved her mana outside of her and focused on forming walls around the edge of the cart, then anchored them to the flat portion with a spell. The only spell she'd managed to study at the Sybrarium might actually be paying off.

Her magic felt crude, and probably leaked far more mana than necessary, but Maple jiggled a jug against the side to test it.

"She'll hold. Uh, we'll get crates or something later. Now we just need customers. I guess we'll start asking any inn or restaurant type place we pass."

Going door to door trying to sell milk of all things felt incredibly awkward, but at least Emma was there with her. Still, she wasn't prepared for the reaction they got from the first place they went.

The Sloshed Sloth, a tavern owned by some kind of sloth beastkin.

"Hmmm. It's blue."

"It is, but---"

The slothman held up a finger, interrupting Maple and indicating he wasn't done. The pauses between his sentences were long enough to be mildly annoying. Just getting to the point of showing him the product had taken several minutes.

"Why is it blue?"

"Well you see, we had to---"

Another raised finger. His face slowly formed a smile.

"Ahh. Did it come from her?"

Maple waited for more, but it seemed he was done once his finger moved to point at Emma. Emma shook her head, but had her arms crossed. He'd taken so long to read her notes before this that she'd given up on communicating. Maple took a slow breath.

"No, but it was stored inside of her. She's a soap slime, and uh, sterile. So it actually enhanced it. If you taste it, you'll see."

"Hmmm. A virtue, at times."

He nodded slowly, and stared at it. Maple waited for anything else, but nothing came.

"Do you want to try a sample? For free."

She added that in just in case. Trying to preempt his responses was the only strategy she could think of. He slowly scratched his chin before replying.

"Let me get a cup."

He turned around and walked ever so slowly to the back somewhere. Maple could see why there weren't many customers. Well, maybe that had more to do with it still being early morning. While he was gone, Maple whispered to Emma.

"This sucks! He's so slow."

Emma smirked and nodded in that slow way the slothman did. Maple rolled her eyes and Emma slowly held up a finger, getting a gentle shove and chuckle from Maple.

"Hopefully he at least buys some. I swear, if the milk being blue is where they draw the line. You milk drinkers are loco."

Emma cocked her head to the side in question, and it took a second for Maple to realize what she was asking.

"Oh, loco? It's a different language. It means crazy. Coo-coo. Oh, this works too."

Maple twirled her index finger around her ear, all much to Emma's amusement. She copied it, then did an ILY sign. Maple smiled, then spotted the tavern owner slowly making his way back.

"I love you too, you crazy cutie. Ah, he's almost back. Almost..."

They waited.

Maple moved to pour some milk once he made it to the other side of the bar they were waiting at, but he stopped her with another raise of his finger.

"This mug used to be my ex-wife's. Now, I thank the heavens that she couldn't have kids either."

"Um..."

Maple rewound the entire interaction in her head to figure out where that had come from, but it'd gone on for so long that she gave up and settled on politeness.

"Right, that's good. Should I pour, or?"

He waved a slow hand in a 'go-ahead' motion. As Maple did so, the urge to ask him to pour her a drink arose. A hard one. But then she'd need two more by the time he finished pouring the first one.

Perhaps that was his sneaky business model.

A whole conspiracy formed in her head before he finally raised the mug to his mouth and took a sip. He smacked his lips afterward for what felt like a whole minute before finally giving his thoughts.

"It tastes okay. I never did like milk very much, if I'm being honest. My sister would be able to tell, though. I'll go get her."

"Okay."

He turned to leave, and Maple gave Emma a pained look. She returned it, then wrote on her chalkboard.

I think Boss Lady might need me today...

"You're leaving me for Marielle? How could you?"

Maple feigned a look of betrayal. Emma made a sad face and looked uncertain, so she quickly followed up.

"That's okay, silly. I've got this. When are you going?"

Emma shrugged and gestured soon-ish.

In the end, the slothman bought exactly one jug of milk. The sun was fully out by then, and more people were on the street going about their days. Maple couldn't help but look for a brand marker on each wagon that passed, and actually spotted one made by the same folks who made her cart.

Another sneaky conspiracy, getting people to look for that little message, which would inevitably lead them to thinking about buying another wagon or cart.

She was recording the sale in her notes just outside the tavern, unwilling to risk another delay by doing it in there, when a thought occurred to her. She nudged Emma.

"Ohh. I think he thought you were sterile, like couldn't have kids. That's kinda funny."

Emma mouthed oh, and wrote on her chalkboard with a cheeky smile.

Let's go back in and correct him.

Maple sighed and shook her head. She could only hope the rest of her sales went faster than that had.

Especially because for the past 30 minutes or so she'd been feeling a weird phantom touch against one of her feathers. The feeling wasn't an itch, though she'd scratched all over through her shirt trying to find it. It was like it simply wasn't there.

She felt it though. A sensual feeling that was really starting to build up her prana.