Hello this is my 2nd try at writing something for this subreddit , and I have to do it whilst I keep getting some ideas and whilst I got some time. Manflu so I am stuck home. If you have any ideas how to do it better and or what I should try to do next. You are welcome. I think it should be better than the last one since I worked at least twice the time on it. Anyway I love the HFY stories ,Fantasy without op Human magic more. But thats just personal preference. Also I would like to read more like late indutrial era stuff (not steampunk) involved(Actual Victorian Willhelmenic Era Dreadnoughts railways you know the exitment of steam power and trench warfare and the like ). Did anyone read the book series The Last Regiment by William R Forstchen it is pretty much Yankees Fuck Yeah . Sadly only the first three ones got translated in German ....Its about fighting human flesh eating bigfoot mongol aliens the only Thing missing there is aztecs riding on dinosaurs but ... TLDR just read the Story
"We would need about twentythousand ox-carts worth of coal" the man said , talking to dwarf. Their appearances were very different from each other . The man unusually tall for a human and the dwarf even for his own kind remarkably stout. The later was raising his eyebrows whilst bending over the papers the man had handed to him just earlier. Which were spread over a table where they were getting stained with ale and something that dwarfes used as tobacco. Nobody who would care about her or his lungs and or hasnt got a lot of stamina shouldnt even dare to try it especially when snorted like the dwarf preferred to do . The mans statue was somewhat on the thin side , was wearing glasses which have become more and more common over recent years . To finish of the absolute bookwormlook he only would have needed a clib-board.
Balmung Steinbrock hit his big fist on the table. The differnt items there got shaken rather violently ."Human this is a joke!" he growled. " Did one of the stupid knife ears pay you to play this stupid joke on me , because if you have I clearly deserve the gold ! Where did you put it?" Followed by some dwarfish curses with so little vowels in them that it was wonder that it was pronounceable by anyone at all . At the Inn in which they were negotiating nobody cared about the sudden noise . (A dwarf rattling a table and shouting angrily is in no way an uncommon ocurence.)
The man known as Alfred Weberschock clearly had expected that the trade wouldnt be that easy to pull since he remained calm and just sipped on his beer until the vendor he had proposed an offer to had blown of some steam. "Mr.Steinbrock I am dead serious" he paused while he watched the well dressed dwarf in his multiple layers of expensive cloth jumping up and down ." We have that kind of demand of twentythousand fuder * a month and we can pay it all no problem"
Steinbrock didnt seem to be convinced since he was gasping at the absurd amount. He needed a drink. Quickly. For that he went for the barrel of beer that the man had brought to the bar which was frequented even by attending elves and even lizzardmen and filled his stein to the brim sucked the foam of and toped it of again. He drank it like its a contest . But in the end he calmed down just a little bit. His mind was racing ... trying to imagine that bulkload... every single month. It was ridiculous. He pictured the mountain of coal with a snowcone on top which was quite a feat of spontainious imagintivity for his kind .He went through the math in his head ".... elevenhundred Grog a month meant about fourhundred Grog a day divided by the amount a dwarf could work a day...would mean about a hundred miners would have to work all day long so they would need extra shift replacements... " he gulped at the thought that about threehundred dwarfes would be occupied only ... just digging , no gold no gems no carving or fending of other subterran species was taken into account . It just was insane. Outside the boundries of normativity.
Steinbrock decided that he needed another stein of beer. " Alfred** how are your people going to pay for this if I would even be that crazy and atempt to sent almost anyone I know to work hard like orkish slaves in a bee hive ****"
" Thats why I am here! " explained Alfred exited " First of all you have taken quite a liking to our beer , I know how good it is . It is even said that our people discovered brewing right after we found out how to make fire. But it is more likely that we are doing it for about six thousand years***." Steinbrock was sure that Alfred was just boasting but the booze definitivly was worth boasting about. So he kept his mouth shut and used the chance to get another refill.
"Then we are producing cloth in growing quantity and quality , steel and other metal products as well." Alfred continued.
"Steel and other metal products?" the dwarf asked the man surprised and slightly agitated, " We are dwarfs do I have to tell you anything about our art of blacksmithing ?" He wasnt sure if the human was trying to fool orinsult him.
" Nah not really, I was more talking about the boring stuff which just takes too much time nails, screws ,rivets, nuts and bolts, ball bearings that kind of stuff . Everything an artist shouldnt be bothered with "
Steinbrock grudingly agreed that the man had a point despite that he was clueless about what ball bearings might be.
"And of course the rolled steel plates and profiles like I-beams super useful for mining operations and like " Alfred was carrying on.
Weberschock pushed his glasses back up his nose. " Ah, Then we also have canned fish , sea salt, wheat and other food items it just comes down what you need and in what amount"
As the evening at the Inn prolonged the list of items got longer and longer and left Balmung just marveling at the quality of the items which Weberschock has brought from his cart. Special attention the dwarfish trader brought to the anvil and a barrel of nails:
" This anvil it is very large not even the Forgefather would have this kind of comfort at his work but it isnt forged so it must be a fake an poor iron casting which will break immediatly! Are you trying to scam me human ?" His head was red like a glowing rod of iron .
"No" the man said." You are right it is a casting but none of iron but steel "
"Bolox!" He went all over it trying to proof that it was a cheap pretender. But as much he was sniffing at it inquisiting about it and trying to stare it into admitting it , there was no doubt about it that it was made from good ol steel.
Another moment of disbelief when Steinbrock had to get another mug of brew when he was handed a fistful of nails, one looked like another completly identical. He just was baffled about how much craftmanship must have been wasted on this qualitystandard. But he wouldnt complain. The extra hours work would still be a cheap prize to pay as long those idiot sundwellers would deliver. Nevermind at least they make good beer.
So the evening became dark night whilst Alfred and Balmung were hammering out their contracts and emptying about the third barrel of beer just between the two. At the end before ending the session the now much more friendlier ans less irratic dwarf asked the man.
"By the the beard of Leskr what are going to do with all that coal for what I am going to work my fingers to the bone for ?"
"It all goes up in Black Smoke!" The somewhat tipsy human grinned from ear to ear."Poof!" he giggled. He clearly would be hung over the next day. He proably would never win against Balmung in a drinking match but none the less he would be a worthy adverary in this kind of contest.But there was no doubt about it that he was way beyond his limit for today.
Steinbrock shook his head . He had no idea what kind of weird god would be pleased with the incence of coal but it wasnt his business to care about , and demons tend to like blood sacrifices or so,no worries there . The only thing he had to care about know was how to get the stuff.
Alfred when he went strolling upstairs to go to sleep was humming somewhat along the lines of "Waldzwergwalzwerkzwerg im Waldzwergenwalzwerk" Steinbrock didnt understand a word ,despite that he helped him not to tumble downstairs again, in the knowlegde that he proably had got a knew friend.
* about 560kg in metric
** Germanic name means Who is blessed or touched by the Albae (Elves more the Irish / Iceland variant)
*** Some scholars think that man discovered farming because of booze ...because the wanted more than just a few fermented fruit.
**** Common idiom there
Submitted October 04, 2018 at 08:39PM by Xhebalanque https://ift.tt/2P8nYYh
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