I rub my temples in frustration, as I go over our inventory and ledgers again. With a sigh I slam the leather journal shut and messily roll up the inventory list placing them in my satchel. I take out my smaller personal journal and begin writing. ‘It’s been three weeks since we made this journey into the Salkin forest and valley, and it has been a horrendous experience. The only upside is that the skinstealer.’ “no I need to remember I'm a caravan leader now, I need to use the right names for the species.” crossing out skinstealer a few times before continuing my writing making sure to underline shifter a few times to help me remember. ‘The shifters don’t charge for entry into their lands unlike the Durn and their canyon.’
‘I was beginning to believe that we had gotten the area wrong for the first few days there wasn’t anything about and it doesn’t help that our guide has been incompetent, the only reason there isn’t any punishment for him is that it’s my fault that we even hired him. I didn’t check him thoroughly enough, and nothing he said was a lie, he could speak Salkin just barely anything i think he almost got us attacked once, and he can tell the difference between shifters just not shifters and regular animals but shifters and normal people which we all can do. Despite everything he does know the most about the language.’
"We've sold barely anything, and bought barely anything, every time we visit a camp the negotiations go like a snail going over rock salt. I’m probably losing money by remaining here and probably looking like an idiot to my observer, but she hasn’t said anything about anything since setting out here once i learned there aren’t any caravans coming into these forests regularly, there are untold amount of riches that can be found here and everything will sell better since it’s from the forest or at least i hope they will.’
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"We really need to find someone who really knows what they’re doing, and saying around here. I tried to have Veln talk about maybe hiring someone to journey with us after failing to sell much with the two tribes that we’ve encountered. I don’t know what he said but it’s very clear that they didn’t appreciate what he asked. Since we had to leave very quickly after that. If they could tell Shifters from normal animals that would be great too, we’ve had to spend time yelling at animals to know if they’re shifters or not, most of the time it scares whatever it is away which is fine, good even. I don’t think our horses would do well with any fight in this forest no where for them to run. But we need someone else to do something at least more than Veln.’
I shut my journal, tying it shut before returning it next to the ledger and our inventory. I take a few more looks around our camp listening to the fire crackling as I look around, seeing all of our tents set up and the horses resting. It’s a calm night which is good since as it gets colder apparently the forest gets deadlier. That’s all I could glean from older caravan leads who’ve been here before. I bet they’re all just laughing at me now, I'll show them I'll show everyone that I'm the exact person that should be flying these colors, not anyone else.
Once Veln wakes up and swaps places with me I enter the small tent, the biggest I could afford which I would prefer to be the biggest that makes sense for the journey. Crawling inside I use my satchel as a pillow once I'm inside the bedroll, I fall asleep tossing and turning all night long.
