A Place to Belong - Chapter 10
#11 of Malakye's Story - Part 1 (A Place to Belong)
Chapter 10 of 'A Place to Belong'. We've finally hit chapter 10, double figures! Malakye begins learning his new trade.
As you may have noticed I'm posting pics with a chapter of the story below, each of the pictures are a commission I've gotten from various artists of characters from the story and I'm still requesting more.
If anyone fancies doing a picture or piece of fan-art from the story using any of the characters or places then they are welcome to do so, let me post the pics with the story and I'll give a link to your user-page when I use it.
All the pictures I've used so far and more are available to be viewed in my gallery with info on the relevant artists that drew them for me.
I'd like to give a big shout out to 'Roderick the Rhodesian Ridgeback' (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/zizixmp3/) for proof reading my story. He's a great fur with a big heart and I can't thank him enough for doing all he's done to help with the story,
You may notice a few words have been highlighted and an explaination of what it is is given, these are words that only exist in this story and are there to help you understand whats happening, these descriptions only appear the first time they are used and won't appear in future chapters but soon I will be posting an encylopedia of sorts contain all of these word and more allowing you to discover many things about the world that may not even appear in the story. If you feel like I've missed a word then please let me know and I'll make sure to add it to the chapter and/or the encyclopedia for future reference.
Chapter 10
We all gathered more stock to take back and after another two trips we had all but emptied the three carts that belonged to Eric, and had the stock stored safely in the hut in the market area. Once that was done Eric went about explaining how to properly set up the stalls in a way to catch the attention of possible customers, and how to correctly position the expensive products in the best locations. I tried to remember all that he said, but there was a lot more to it than I had initially thought. It was a skill, that's for sure, one that I'd need to learn... I was going to try hard to make my new family proud.
Next came how to sell the goods. There were a number of techniques too complicated and difficult to explain, but to sum it up; a lot of it came down to body language and tone of voice. Bartering was one tactic . If a customer, uneducated in the art of haggling, buys our product at the full price we set, then all the more for us... but more often the customer is not quite willing to pay the price then you set and you lower it to make it seem as though they are getting a good deal. Now, I could of go on and on about how to make sales, in fact, Eric did... all day.
He was a fountain of knowledge and I eagerly listened to him, even making a few sales under his mentoring. Eric assured me that I would eventually find my own techniques to sell; but that to keep in mind, a true master would always adapt their technique to the customers they were dealing with.
By the time the sun began to go down the market began to settle, and only a few stragglers remained. Eric informed me that most of these stragglers were often people looking to get last minute bargains at the end of the day from traders who would be leaving the next morning. We quickly packed up and gathered in front of the hut. Eric walked up to me and handed me a small brown pouch that fit in the palm of my hand, the pouch was filled with coins.
"That is your earnings for the day Malakye." Eric explained. "Everyone gets a share of the profits we make..." I go to interject, but he silences me with a wave. "That is the way I do things. I believe it's fair and entices you to do better at your job... the more money we make, the more money you get." He smiled. "Normally I give out everyone their earnings on the last day but since you don't have any money I thought it only fair that you have some tonight since you're going to be entertaining a certain dragoness." I felt myself blush. How did Eric know? Looking at Cody I saw him give me a sheepish smile.
"What's this Malakye?" Jason asked with a raised eye brow, giving me a playful nudge. "You're planning on spending the evening with Rose again?"
"Hehe, yeah he is!" Cody added. "Apparently, Rose asked him back to her place after she finishes work tonight. No Charge."
"Cody!" I snapped, blushing all the more.
"Well aren't you the stud!" Jason cheered, giving me a hard slap on the back
"Guess he's just a natural born lover! Wonder what he's like in the sack?" Michael pondered.
"I dunno, but now I really wanna bed him and see just what he's packing." Jason teased.
"Guys!" I groaned but their teasing never stopped. Not until we reached the tavern ten minutes later, and even then they would steal glances at me and then mutter amongst themselves before smiling at one another. Cody helped them tease me as well but it was all in good fun.
Despite my embarrassment I couldn't help but smile at their antics, and feel just that little bit more welcomed into the group. We ate and drank into the night and I would occasionally see Rose who would smile at me and I would smile back in return before she turned to resume her work. I had a good while to wait before the tavern closed and she would be finished her work but I was willing to wait if it meant I got to have feeling of fulfilment holding her in my arms once again.
I had a great time with my new family, laughing, drinking and just enjoying the feeling of friendship that we shared, one was growing every passing minute. This was one of the things I had wanted growing up; a feeling of acceptance.
Cody was constantly by my side the whole night, and when he was simply sitting next to me I could swear he was leaning towards me, as if he needed to be as close as possible to me. It was probably my imagination but even if it wasn't I wasn't going to make a big deal about it over nothing. Cody also seemed much happier than the previous night, in fact he had had a bounce in his step and a mischievous glint in his eye ever since our little talk this morning. I knew that Cody was gay, I had no problem with that at all, but the thought had crossed my mind a few times that night as to whether Cody might have feelings for me beyond friendship. When my mind drifted to these thoughts however Rose would enter my field of view and I couldn't help but remember our night together and anticipate what was to come tonight. It was starting to get late but the tavern was still in full swing and Eric stood up catching every ones attention.