Somewhere in Astorea, a stand is set up in a place of civilization. It could be a city, it could be a village, somewhere. The person in question running the stand was an azure haired Yladian who had absolutely no idea where she was. Lack of geographical knowledge aside, what she did, at the very least, know what she was doing: Selling stuff, of course! Capitalizing on the chaos going on, now would be a good time to push out a new product aimed at the people who would soon become more active around these areas.

On her stand, an array of breads and buns was placed in baskets to the side, but the middle basket was clearly taken up by a large amount of today's specialty bake. Raising her voice, the Yladian advertised her wares.

"Rations for the Soldiers and the Adventurers! Bread for the family!"

If anyone approached the stand, they would be able to examine the main bake display: a large number of wrapped leaf packages, large enough to hold in one hand (or two if you were an extra small Faerin). A single package was unwrapped for display purposes, showing the bun inside.

Loot

Ration Bomb Bun – A combat ration wrapped in leaves. This highly dense bun shaped calorie bomb is filled with savory mixes of seeds, nuts, meats, vegetable mass and everything needed to keep a person going. A little lard is used to help the consumption process.

Once again, the Yladian baker's voice rang out through the streets... or district. Wherever she was.

"Rations for the Soldiers and the Adventurers! Bread for the family!"

Normally, she would not like speaking in such a loud voice. However, she had to sell her wares and not actually converse. Her point was: I'm selling this, come and buy it. Thus, her sense of embarrassment did not seem to well up like it would any other time.

As soon as someone came by, she would switch to a softer voice to address the potential customer. "Hello, can I interest you in any of my baked wares today?"

 

"Rations for the Soldiers and the Adventurers! Bread for the family!"

Backfire heard someone shouting about rations from a few yards away. The blue haired girl had said rations right? Rations were free during war right? Basically, she was giving away free food... right?

Backfire had heard about some war going on about a King taken hostage and some other crap. It didn't really matter other than it was an opportunity to loot some soldiers and maybe blow some stuff up. She really couldn't have joined Terra at a better time, after all, destruction was her trade and war was good for business.

Backfire decided to shout back. Walking all the way over there would be a pain.

"HEY! THOSE RATIONS FREE?"

 

Zelrius had turned away from the procession of Knights headed away from Astorea and now back to the direction that appeared to have Stokbon as a destinatiin. Of course, only this road led back sotuh and east toward Falderen, so it could have been anywhere in that direction really, but, if Zelrius was a betting man, and he often times was, the holden haired man would have bet that Stokbon was indeed the intended end goal for that party of horses, knights and Royalty.

He was burning with excitement as they rushed off. He hadnt gotten exactly what he wanted out of that conversation with Jeanne, but he had gotten a flare of hope and purpose from her. His attention turned further to the Handkerchief she haf handed him. As he had noted earlier, upon first recieving it, the man knew it was made of fine material: probably costing more than the average peasants entire wadrobe by itself. He was enthralled by it, studying the Handkerchief once more. Tracing his fingers along thr threaded initialing on a far corner. Zelrius felt truly fiery and blessed as he did so, a new set of goals and agenda in mind.

That was well with him, given that was the whole point of logging into Terrasphere in the first place. He wanted to take his mind off the drabness that was his life. Though, to be fair, he brought most of the drabness on himself, not really knowing what to aim for back in Boston. But here things were different, he had a clear image in his head of where he wanted. These things are quite the goal for someone who is a nobody, just as Jeanne said herself. Yet despite those words, she had given him a gateaway to achieving far reaching greatness. The ball was now in his court, all he had to do now was play it right.

And with those thoughts in mibd, Zelrius intended to set out and get to the first step of it. Though with a quick look at his menu told the man that a meal was in order. He made his way into thr city, reminding himself that it would be one small step at a time, starting with this. He waded through a bustle of people trying to change a collection of ruins into a beautiful and bustling Capital, though he felt bad, remembering D'Vangelline's words of a possible invasion of Astorea. While thr players were safe, Zelrius couldnt help but feel a hint of sadness at the possibility that the NPCs here might still greatly suffer from the event.

He was now a bit down trodden, armed with both those feelings of compadsion, and burning enthisiasm, his blue eyes and listening ears found a merchant quite quickly, making his wat over to the line. He waited, slowly inching forth until he got to the front. The man opened his mouth to talk, but when he noticed the merchant woman's features, ge recoiled a bit, hesitant to speak. Aside from her hair colour, to the average person there wasnt a whole wrong with her, however, Zelrius was instantly made uncomfortable by the defining traits that singnified she was an Elf. Or rather, a Yladian to be more exact. He hadnt seen one until this one specifically, and that only added to his discomfort. Avoiding eye contact, Zelrius thrust some gold forward, asking for two of the Bombs, standing their awkwardly, recieving his goods, and then scurrying off without another word to the Yladian.

 

Since the female Yladian had her stand somewhat close to what could be called a market, it stood to reason that she could manage to get a small line by her stand. Some of them were soldiers, some were civilians who moved into Astorea after the invasion, some were probably the people who had been in Astorea the entire time. After all, who would call an empty kingdom a kingdom?

There was probably a big hole in the Yladian baker's logic somewhere in there. However, she was a baker, and thus it did not matter how knowledgeable she was in this field. What mattered was how good her baking was and how much she could sell.

Someone outside the line shouted a question - if those rations were free. She quickly picked up a small basket containing the coinage made from her sales - which was partially emptied into her inventory once in a while so she would not lose too much from someone selling it.

"Does this look free to you?" She yelled back before returning to her current customer.

Later, a male customer with blonde hair made his way to the front. He made an impression on her, mostly because he would not look her in the eye. Either way, he asked for rations and paid the money for them, so the Yladian would not deny him business. She took his coins, gave him the two leaf wrapped packages he asked for, then went to the basket to return his change.

Except, he had already fled the scene.

Shrugging, she could only memorize his height, hair and clothing before returning to her business.

 

"WHAT?!"

What the hell is she yelling about? Can't even see what she's holding up with the people in the way. Guess I'll just go over there and ask her.

Backfire walks up the shop bypassing what may or may not have been people waiting in line.

Whatever, they can wait. She called me over here.

"What were you saying? Are they free or not? These people have their money out so I'm guessing not. If it's not free then why are you calling them 'rations'? Don't you give soldiers rations for free? Hell, we're at war aren't we? I'll give you this though, those things look pretty good. I like the name too... bombs... Hah! Like do they explode your hunger away?"

Hey... that's a pretty good line.

"If you use that line for marketing be sure to give me credit and a 10% cut of the profits. No such thing as a free lunch! So why don't you give me one of these as a sample? If I like it, I'll tell everyone I meet that these are these bomb things are the best tasting thing in the kingdom. I think that's a fair deal? How bout it?"