Chapter 170

"I don't know Lilith... I was thinking about starting with something a little more... basic."

Bella and I were staring at the wall of different colored paints. Most of the warmer colors were available but shades of purple and blue weren't available on this wall here. If they had them at all they would probably be locked up behind the counter or something, I remember blues and purples being expensive to make in Earth's past. I would think magic would be able to deal with that limitation but maybe it isn't a high priority.

"Yeah... painting is a bit of a jump, isn't it? Still, maybe some of the cheaper colors might be fun to play with a little," I replied.

"Maybe we can start with chalk? I don't want to waste something as expensive as paper or canvas for learning," Bella said nervously.

I tapped my chin. "That's not a bad idea. Let's see if they have colored chalk."

"Colored chalk? Yes, we have some of that! Do you need a good chalkboard as well?" the overly enthusiastic human man asked. The store was small and not very busy. Unlike most of the stores in the area, they weren't running out of supplies, they were running out of customers. There was a hunger in his eyes to get any sale they could and it made me a little uncomfortable but I suppose I couldn't blame the poor guy.

He came back with a set of multicolored chalks and the set even came with a stick of light blue chalk, which seemed pretty uncommon among most of the common pigments.

"This one's blue," I said pointing it out.

The shopkeeper nodded. "Yes, I'm told it's made from a toxic rock found during copper mining. It's heavily thinned when it's used to make chalk but I wouldn't stick it in your mouth," he said with a nervous chuckle. "Handling the rock is somewhat dangerous so it hasn't been used widely in paints yet, though one of my suppliers is experimenting with it."

I nodded, sounded like cobalt then. There were plenty of oil and watercolor paints that used cobalt from my old world. "How much for the set?" I asked.

"Well, these chalk sets aren't carried by anyone else in town but with things being as they are... How about eighty silver for the set?"

I scratched the base of my horn. "How about sixty silver each for two sets, one-twenty total?"

Bella turned toward me looking nervous. "We don't need two, we could just share, I don't mind..."

"Deal!" Spurred on by Bella trying to talk me out of it he jumped on the sale. "One-twenty silver! I'll have two sets ready for you in a moment!" He placed the set he was showing us on the counter and ran into the back to bring out another.

"I feel as though you're too loose with money sometimes..." Bella said.

I laughed as I dug my coin purse out of my backpack. "I know, but we'll get use out of these. I don't feel bad spending money on stuff like this from time to time. I'm just kind of happy to find someone who shares this common interest with me. I really haven't had time to enjoy drawing lately, spending some time teaching you to draw sounds like a lot of fun for me."

Bella leaned into me and rested her head on my shoulder. "I suppose that's fair. It's not like we're exactly hurting for money. Oceane has even put us up for free all of this time."

"Exactly!" I said with a grin. "And who do we have to thank for that hm?"

Bella looked away and smiled bashfully. "I was just glad I could help."

The man came back with another wooden box filled with the chalk sticks and set it on the counter. "Two sets of colored chalk! You- you can pay today correct?"

"Yes, no problem. Can I buy a small chalkboard as well?"

"Absolutely! I have one here." He pulled a roughly twelve by six inch chalkboard out from under the table and set it down next to the chalk. "With the chalk that would be one-fifty silver total. Is that fine?"

I set one gold and fifty silver coins on the tray for him. "As promised."

The man looked relieved as he quickly counted the coins. You could count them by eye but this was also to look for counterfeit coins I assumed as he weighed most of them in his hand before sorting them into a second pile. When he finished he turned to me with a large grin. "One gold and fifty silver, I've confirmed the amount. Thanks for doing business with me! Please come to me again if you have any more art related needs!"

I took the items and carefully slipped them into my bag. "So, how about we look for a fishing store and then we can try out our new chalk?"

Bella giggled. "I'm sure we can find a tackle shop somewhere."

I turned to the shopkeeper. "Do you know of a tackle shop in the city?"

"Hmm, I believe there's one on the western side of town. But I'm not certain if it's open, I apologize."

"That's a good enough start. Thanks for the directions."

I took Bella's hand and led her out of the store at a relaxed pace. She squeezed my hand lovingly as she followed along. She rested her head against my shoulder again and sighed. "I do like the others but spending time like this alone is nice."

I squeezed her hand. "I'll make sure we get some time to ourselves more often from now on. It is kind of nice, it reminds me of when it was just the two of us."

She giggled. "It wasn't even that long. We met Morrigan and Torien only a few days after the two of us met."

"True," I conceded. "But it was an important time for me. You really helped me after what happened at the inn..."

Bella shushed me. "Let's not discuss that right now. Oh! That looks like it might be the place!"

The store in question was a small building with a glass window covered in metal bars. Lined up next to the window were fishing poles of different lengths. I pushed the door open and held it for Bella before following her in.

I had to stifle a giggle when I saw the way Bella's ears perked up and her tail fluttered as she looked around the different fishing gear.

"Do you think the others would want to fish too? I haven't had a chance to fish in a long time, more than a year. Now that I'm here I'm a bit excited to do it again!"

This shop was much busier than the art supply store we had just come from. There was quite a large crowd looking at the different equipment and more than half of their stock was gone judging by the empty shelves that held the different fishing poles upright. The food shortage was probably pushing people who didn't even ordinarily fish into the sport, though I could tell just by looking that this shop was more for recreation than a supplier for any kind of fishing industry. The river wouldn't be able to support any kind of large fishing operation but the people here were desperate.

Bella was looking over the fishing poles, looking for one that suited her tastes. They looked similar to the modern equivalents but had simpler reels. They looked a bit like yo-yos attached to the poles and would spin freely unless locked with a clamp lever. Bella got quite a few stares as she zipped around looking at different poles. She looked like she knew what she was looking for too, unlike me. She would grab one of the poles and tilt it this way and that to get a feel for the weight and would examine each of the reels carefully, I wasn't sure what she was looking for but she seemed to know what she wanted.

"Oh! I think this one would be great for you! The weight of it would suit your larger strength without being too cumbersome. We shouldn't need a rod with high power for river fishing so this one would be perfect." She handed the rod to me before picking up a different one. "This one would be better for me, it's lighter than that one but the two together would give us a better range of fish we could go for. You don't want a rod with too much power for some fish."

"Er, right," I answered. I could tell I was out of my depth but I would trust her, she really did look like she knew what she was talking about. Even some of the nearby people looked surprised by the cute girl in an adventurer's dress being so knowledgeable about fishing. Though it would make sense for traveling adventurers to know about this kind of thing I guess.

She also picked out a tacklebox and some hooks and lures and explained that we would need to get live bait closer to when we actually decided to fish. They had some jars of paste stuff we could use in place of bait though so we grabbed some of those too. It would be less effective than actual bait but it wouldn't go bad for a long time and we could take it on our trip.

When we reached the counter of the tackle shop the canine beastfolk woman raised an eyebrow. "This is a lot of stuff, you have the gold for all of this right? Our prices are higher than normal right now."

For the first time since we entered the store Bella's excitement waned. She got so caught up in picking things out that she didn't realize just how much stuff we actually grabbed. She gave me a worried look.

"How much are we talking?" I asked.

The shopkeeper let out a sigh and started looking over everything we set out. "Hmm, if you buy all of this now I can give it to you for five gold."

Bella's eyes widened. "F-five gold?"

The shopkeeper shrugged. "Look around, we're having trouble keeping enough poles in stock, let alone bait and tackle. People are doing anything they can to eat right now, I know the prices are high but we're running out of stuff too fast. If you're just a hobbyist starting from scratch you should come back once things are settled down again. Maybe we can work something out if you need to put some of it back."

I felt the pang of insult Bella felt when she was called a hobbyist but she quickly let it go. She turned to me. "I-I dunno about—"

I turned to the shopkeeper. "We'll take everything. Give me a second to dig out five gold."

The shopkeeper's eyebrows raised and Bella gaped. "Lilith, I... don't exactly want to talk you out of this but that's a lot of money for this stuff..."

I shrugged and smiled. "After seeing how excited you've been since we've come in here I wouldn't dare hold out on you now. Besides, I think this is the first time you've ever shown this much interest in anything. You were more excited in here than I was in the art store." I set five gold on the shopkeeper's tray before she could argue any further.

The shopkeeper smoothly switched to a smile as she examined each of the gold pieces. "Five gold, I've confirmed the amount. Thanks for your patronage. Let me help you pack your new tacklebox."

Bella and the shopkeeper spent some time packing the supplies into the tackbox while I held onto the two poles. I got a weird feeling and noticed a few of the scruffier-looking people watching us. I pretended to look away and noticed one of them signal another.

Crap, looks like my show of wealth backfired a little.

Once the two of them finished and everything other than the poles were loaded neatly into Bella's new tacklebox, she took back her pole. She was beaming now and couldn't help staring over at her new fishing pole. The look on her face made a little bit of overspending totally worth it and I'm sure the others will be happy if she did manage to supplement our food with fish along the way.

As we were walking toward the exit I placed my hand on the guy's shoulder and looked him in the eye.

"Don't try it," I rumbled out.

The guy's face went white and I had to stop him from falling back all over one of the shelves.

Bella did a half-turn when she noticed I had stopped. "Hm? Something the matter Lilith?"

"Just bumped into this guy on accident. Sorry man," I patted his shoulder but he didn't reply, still frozen stiff.

I held the door open for her as I looked at the person it looked like he signaled. He didn't seem to be interested in following anymore either but it was better to be safe.

Once we left the tackle shop I took her hand and pulled her along quickly. She didn't seem to realize anything was up, she just laughed and giggled at me being silly, pulling her through town. I smiled and laughed with her, treating it like a game.

I looked over the notification I got.

[Intimidation lv. 1 unlocked - Successfully intimidate someone into doing what you want.]