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go_exchange2022-12-06 05:15 am
Happy Holidays, H.Savinien!
Rating: Gen
Summary:
In which Adam and the rest of the Them go on an adventure that takes them outside of Tadfield but they find that people hardly change throughout the years.
In which the author decides to finally write something for Ea-Nasir and Nanni – one of the first documented dealings with poor customer service and how some people react to it.
A Good Omens Holiday Exchange gift for H.Savinien! Happy Holidays!
It was a beautiful day in Tadfield; temperately warm for a day in March, with a bit of sun and more than ample cloud coverage so as to not blind any would-be adventurers on their journey. But that’s how all the days were in Tadfield, something Pepper’s mum had more than once praised.
Pepper didn’t see what there was to praise, that’s just how Tadfield had always been and most likely always would be. But sometimes, she would like to have a day with pouring rain, like her cousins kept complaining about in London proper. It would be fun to squelch in the mud with her toes, she just knew it. Her friends didn’t really agree, which was a shame.
“Where are we going today, Adam?” Brian – one of the four members of the exclusive membership of the Them shouted over the sound of the wind as the four travelers got ready for another adventure with their trusty bikes.
Adam had always been the Leader of their group, something none of the other kids ever wanted to dispute. At least, Pepper never wanted to dispute it and she had always been told that she was the most competitive out of their group, so if she never strived to change the order of things, then surely no one else did either. Besides, he always came up with the best games.
“I was thinking of going on an adventure in a new place, maybe someplace with a lot of stalls for a market.”
“Could we have swords when we go? I’d like to be able to carry a sword like one of those important guards on the telly.”
“What about some type of mystery to solve? That new neighbor, the Witch lady, was telling me all about her favorite mystery novellas when my mum had me bring her a welcome pie the other day,” said the final member of their quartet, Wensleydale.
“So a marketplace where we can carry swords for Pepper and potentially a mystery to solve for Wensleydale,” Adam nodded on his bike. “I know the perfect place.” Adam pedaled faster, pulling to the front of the group as the rest followed.
“I don’t think I’ve seen this part of Tadfield before,” Brian remarked as the asphalt merged into a dirt road paved with rocks on the side. Far off in the distance, if she squinted, the silhouette of a low mountain rose from the horizon. The sun felt brighter and up ahead Pepper could hear shouts of people selling their wares, calling for copper and silver pieces.
“Let’s park our bikes over here,” Adam said. “I don’t think it’ll be easy to ride them in a marketplace with loads of people.”
“Do we have any money to buy anything at the market?” Wensleydale asked, dropping his bike next to Adam’s.
Adam checked the basket on his bike – well Pepper’s old bike, but they switched because Pepper still didn’t want a girly bike – and pulled out a fistful of coins and four swords which everyone grabbed eagerly.
“Guys, look!” Brian ran ahead, dirt already sticking to his shorts from where it had been kicked up. Pepper zoomed after him only stopping when the market came into view.
“I think this is the furthest we’ve ever gone out of Tadfield, guys.” Ahead of them, numerous stalls with brightly colored fabrics stretched on the top for shade stood before them. Hundreds of people jostled around each other, trying to get to each stall before another person. Baskets made from straw balanced on several heads, laden with fruits that Pepper had never seen at the local mart that her mum frequented. The stalls that weren’t selling food had brown metal pieces decorating the blankets displaying cutlery, bowls, plates, and figurines, the likes none of the kids had seen before.
“This is so cool.” Wensleydale’s eyes were huge behind his glasses, swiveling his head around trying to take every little detail in. “Are those hieroglyphs tablets? They look so real but I’ve never seen one outside of a museum.”
“When you have gotten a chance to go to a museum, Wens?” Adam asked. “My dad says it's too far to go at my age”.
Wensleydale shrugged. “My mum and her friend took me for my birthday. I remember the hieroglyphs because they were right next to the mummies and Ma complained about the placements for hours after. It was cool”.
“Maybe our next adventure can be going to the museum by ourselves.” Pepper wondered how far it could be to bike from home to London – surely not that far? “I heard one of them has an actual dinosaur.”
“What do you think these bits are supposed to be?” Brian pointed at some metal cylinders at a merchant’s stall.
“These are story seals, child.” The merchant, with dusty brown hair hidden mostly under a head cover, tapped a scarred finger against the table next to one of the seals. His beard and mustache couldn’t hide his smile as the Them gathered around the table to peer closer. “See these carvings into the metal? They’re scenes from the tale of King Gilgamesh so anyone can carry them around with them instead of hanging the usual slates against the wall.”
“Woah…” Wide-eyed, the Them pestered the merchant with questions, who answered what he could with a few laughs.
“SCRIBE! I need a scribe!” It was only several minutes later that the Them paused their questions and followed the gazes of everyone in the market to stare at the commotion that had started by the steps only a few stalls away.
A large man adorned with many layers of fabric and covered in different beads across his shoulders stormed down the street, his screams punctuated by a loud bang of his walking staff.
“-thinks to cross me, that son of dust mites, mule dung, Ea-nasir! How dare he makes Derye cry and not return what I’m owed! Where is that scribe?”
A door opened and a figure wearing only white scurried out to the street. “Yes, yes. I am here. Who is causing such a ruckus?” With barely a nod between them – and a curious merchant – the Them joined the crowd of other intrigued shoppers and sellers who were very blatantly watching the spectacle.
The scribe didn’t look like much, his curly blonde-white hair was barely tall enough to pass by the richly dressed man’s chin. In his hands were several stone slabs which the scribe had clearly been reading before being rudely interrupted and forced to go outside.
He did not look remotely impressed or intimated.
“Finally! I should not have had to wait so long; I need an immediate tablet to be sent to that damned smelter for his disciple's behavior and gall for robbing me of my own money!”
“Ten coins that Scribe Fell whacks the fool across the face.” One of the merchants whispered to the stall owner the Them had been talking to.
“No bet. Scribe Fell would never dare harm one of his slates like that. Twelve that he sets that snake of his on him.”
The two merchants weren’t the only ones muttering with one another.
“Should we…do something?” Brian asked, looking as if he wanted to do literally anything else. Pepper just shrugged.
“It’s not our responsibility to interfere,” Adam said, his eyes never leaving the scene. “He wouldn’t have been selected for the job if he didn’t know how to handle things.”
“I don’t believe you had an appointment, good sir.” Scribe Fell’s tone sounded as if the man was anything but good.
“I don’t need an appointment.” The man pushed a ring-adorned finger into Scribe Fell’s chest. “I need you to do your Gods given job. Do you have any idea of whose time you are wasting with this delay? I’m Nanni, one of the top copper merchants in this land, now where is your office for you to write this note for me?”
“Firstly.” Scribe Fell bustled and Pepper would swear that he seemed to grow taller before her very eyes in indignation. “They had no hand in giving me my position, I chose to do this work in hopes of getting some nice reading in until bums like you show up to ruin my day.”
The man – Nanni, apparently - opened his mouth, eyes beady and cheeks dusted with red, not from the afternoon heat.
“Secondly!” Scribe Fell continued, “I don’t care who you are – you could be King Hammurabi himself and I would still require that an appointment be made, which you still have not done and so continue to waste everyone’s time.”
“Lastly, touch me again, and you will no longer have the ability to do so. If you still wish for my services, you can return in four days when the sun is at its peak.”
Nanni sputtered, hands falling back to his sides as Scribe Fell turned to walk away.
“How…how dare you!” Nanni bellowed when Scribe Fell was several paces away. “You are nothing but a lowly scribe, you cannot speak to someone of my stature like that! Tell me immediately who your overseer is and I will be having words with them!”
Scribe Fell brought his right sleeve up to his face, whispering low enough that Pepper couldn’t catch the words. After a few moments, his arm was held straight out and Pepper watched as a long, scaley head followed by an even longer black-with-red-undertones torso slithered out from Scribe Fell’s clothing and onto the ground. “I suppose you’ve received your wish, Merchant Nanni. My overseer, in a manner of speaking, as you asked.”
Faster than Pepper thought possible, the snake was at Nanni’s heels nipping at the over-decorated shoes with long and sharp-looking fangs. No one was surprised when Nanni shrieked, stumbling before finding his footing to sprint out of the market, the snake following him out.
“I will see you in four days, then! Crowley, don’t stay out too late, it’s almost time for supper!” Scribe Fell called behind the retreating copper merchant.
Laughter echoed around the market as people returned to their tasks at hand, the sound of coins clinking as they exchanged palms.
“We should probably start getting back,” Adam said, “The scribe was right, it is coming close to dinner.”
“This was a fun trip,” Pepper agreed, and the Them turned to find their bikes.
It didn’t take the Them long to start the bike ride back home, and soon enough, the dusty road changed back to the usual forest pathways that they were used to riding on every day.
Pepper looked behind her as they rode and wasn’t surprised to find zero traces of the market they left behind. It just made sense that that would happen.
The Them said their goodbyes at the usual crossroads between their homes, with the usual goodbyes and promises of meeting up the next day for another game. Maybe tomorrow they actually could try to go to the museum; Adam was interested to see what a mummy was like outside of the movies.
He should start thinking about birthday presents though – his eleventh birthday was just around the corner and perhaps his dad would agree to get him a dog this year. [1]
[1] His dad did not in fact get him a dog for his birthday, but that didn’t mean that Dog didn’t find his way home anyways.
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(Anonymous) 2022-12-06 12:03 pm (UTC)(link)