Mana Wells 13: Sara
After the meeting with the Goblin Shaman, Kurt started to feel a bit of anxiety start to creep up, what exactly was he doing here? At first it seemed like everything was just working out, but with the coming of the goblins everything just felt more real. At least Layla seemed to understand and have a good head on her shoulders, but Kurt was wading into something deeper than he intended. Sir Kurt? What was he going to start his own clan? That seemed unrealistic from any perspective Kurt could imagine. He didn't have the resources on either side of the gate to do something like that. Luckily he wasn't in this alone there was Sara.
Sara was older than Kurt and they had been neighbors, in many respects Kurt thought of her as his older sister, though there was no actual relation. She had always been there. Kurt was used to following the direction of others, he never had the confidence to really lead. Sara on the other hand, seemed to always have an idea, or plan, or plot, it had gotten them in trouble a few times, but most of the time Sara was on top of it.
Sara was a cute girl, and just a bit taller than Kurt, she had auburn hair that went down to mid back, if it wasn't up in some pony tail or bun, it was usually in somewhat a messy one. Today it was down though. She never really dressed up though, preferring a more wholesome looks, simply shirts and and pants. Sara did have a figure, not tiny, but certainly not fat. She had all the curves you'd really want. If she wasn't someone one you saw as your sister.
It wasn't surprising that Sara had known a lot of merchants, she was known to find deals here and there. Always the next thing. He had found her outside the pillar, doing something he wasn't quite sure what.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to figure out how this spring magic works. I decided to have some from the fountain a little while back, I can feel it. But you know these things don't come with instructions. I've never drank from one before now."
"Yeah, I had to ask Layla about mine." But then Sara's face went from tense to relaxed, some ethereal wires started to emerge from her body.
"Ohh it's like little tentacles," one of the tentacles made a whipping motion, and a snap was heard. Another one she picked up a stone with but it slipped out. "It's not as easy as it looks, is it?"
"Once you have the base form it starts to make more sense," forming a water fist, "but it feels like it can always improve."
"I can see that now," the tentacle had finally held the stone firmly after several failed attempts. "So what's up? What was all that commotion earlier?"
Kurt gave a brief explanation of the Shaman's audience. "It is starting to feel a lot more real now. It seemed like a great thing when it was happening."
"I know what you mean, I was going to talk to you about something feeling too real as well."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I'm a little worried about continuing to sell this stuff, the people aren't exactly…the type of people you want to get on the bad side of."
"You're not getting a loan or anything."
"Yeah, but, what if they try to figure out my source? They have been asking a lot of questions the last few times. I normally can wave it off, but it will get harder and harder." She put up quote signs, "for my protection, of course."
"Things are progressing a little faster than I expected."
"What part of any of this was expected again? That's why I wanted to get this thing working, at least some real way to defend myself."
"I think you should be thinking about running more than defending," said Kurt.
"Maybe you're right," several of the tentacles went to the ground and since they were attached to Sara, she was able to use them to lift herself. "Hopefully this will help with that as well, if I can lift from the ground, I should be able to grab a ledge and pull myself up as well, with time."
"So what do you think we should do?"
"That is the question, we are not in the worst place, we can't just keep coasting though this like we have."
"I would think we would be able to join a clan if we do it right, maybe even Jacob can set it up for us," said Kurt.
"That's an option, but I don't want to just give up control so quickly, we don't need to make much noise," said Sara.
"What are you thinking?"
"We originally were going to find a new place to separate ourselves from the clan's influence, and properly set up the gate, but what if we don't do that?"
"And do what instead?"
"Buy a mobile vehicle, I think we shouldn't establish anywhere on Earth, we don't need a home there really, just access to here. That way we don't make too much of a fuss anywhere in particular."
"You want to be nomads."
"Traveling Merchants, on one side. It seems like the smartest decision until we have enough money, you think Layla will be okay with it. I don't know how easy or hard it is to move a gate, I've actually never heard of one moving before, but why would they at the same time. But think about it, we could travel the world really, what's stopping us. It shouldn't be hard to sell some of these materials anywhere the further from established gates the easier, and if the goblins help mining, we don't even need to be picky on prices. We could get carriages and horses!"
"You don't know how to take care of a horse or drive a carriage."
"I can learn, how hard can it be."
"You seem willing to drop your life really easily."
"Come on now, you know neither of us are going to find a better way to make money, it's a literal goldmine, we struck oil. What's to miss, Jacob's house? Not really a huge loss. And you don't even have your job now, if there was any time to do it, it is now right?"
"Well, I did say I was going to pick out a room, Layla insisted."
"There you go already ahead of me," Sara was still testing out the strands or tentacles of ethereal mass. "I want to go with you the next time you go out."
"Really?"
"Well, until now I've really been stopping by in another world, don't I get to see it too? You've been hogging all the fun. I wanna see that forest you talked about."
"A little sight seeing?"
"You get it, I knew there was a reason I liked you."