"Champion Karl, I am Sub-Chief Snakebite of the Bhakh Clan. Welcome to our village. We follow the old ways, so there might not be much that we can trade between you and us. But it is a pleasure to meet you." The huge Ore greeted them.
"I am certain that there is something, even if it's not what you expect. We have bone and wood runic items to help with crafting, mana storage, cleaning, creating water, and even improving luck with the opposite sex. Plus, the lovely ladies of the church are always willing to help your people keep their pantries stocked with their signature rice and beans. Karl offered.
The Chief smiled back at Karl.
"Now, that is something that we can all agree on. However, as we do not trade much, we also do not have much coin."
From Thor's back, Nachtia laughed.
"You know, we have a Red Dragon High Priestess here, and I am reasonably certain that her Goddess would be offended if we charged you for food when there is war at your doorstep." The black dragon insisted.
Tessa nodded in agreement. Provisioning the civilian villages before an invasion was an important part of any war, and the Red Dragon God took a dim view of war profiteering.
Or, at least she did when it came to non-combatants. The Red Dragon didn't mind at all if you got filthy rich making weapons for both sides of a righteous conflict.
The ladies climbed down from Thor's back, and he transformed back into a humanoid to better protect them and explore the town.
Karl had noticed that he was becoming more and more protective of Tessa now that she had a fully scaled transformation, but she didn't seem to mind, so he wasn't going to say anything about it.
"Would you like us to fill a cellar for you? Or do you perhaps have a storage silo?" Tessa asked.
"You can make that much?" The Chief replied, startled at her request.
"I am a Monarch Ranked High Priestess. I can make enough to feed an entire army with every casting. It's not uncommon for all of a dragon army's vegetable-based foods to be magically created. Only meat needs to be hunted." Tessa explained.
Chieftain Snakebite patted her on the shoulder, then gestured to a tall, round building off to his left.
"That granary is empty. We can clean it out to prepare it for your dry food, and then the people of the village will have real cause to celebrate. With all these attacks across the border, there is a high chance of blight destroying the crops, and we've already lost much of our livestock.
The attacks last week passed by us, and a group of Revenants broke off to attack the cattle in the night," he explained.
Nachtia frowned. Revenants were a nasty sort of creature, and the Black Dragons killed them on sight. They weren't technically undead, but living creatures whose souls had been ripped out, trapping them halfway between life and death, driven insane by the missing piece of themselves, and ravenously hungry, trying to fill the void where their soul should be.
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