In front of a stall, Finn got face to face with a tanned skinned man. His stall was unlike any other stalls, as it looked more decorated, more rich, and more colourful compared to the other stalls. Fabrics of all kinds are used to separate it from the other plots. Well armoured guards seem to stand in the corners as well, ever watchful.
He watched the well dressed man that seems to be the owner of the stall weigh in the coins that Finn had given him.
"I have never seen such coins." the well dressed man said. He looked at the coin, using candle light to examine it in detail. The coin was no doubt made with gold, with depictions of cog and an otherwise foreign symbol of a city minted on it. "Where did you get this?"
"Are you taking it or not? Weigh it in, I assure you, it is gold." said Finn. "If not, then I'll take it somewhere else."
"Now wait a moment." the well dressed man smiled. "I will take it, however I have to verify the weight and the purity of the gold first."
The well dressed man used a touchstone to verify if it's truly gold or not. When he used it, it left the appropriate mark. Then, the man bit the coin, to feel the softness of the metal. He deemed it passable.
"Very well, I can take it. How much do you have?" the man asked again.
"How much can you trade?" Finn asked back.
The well dressed man raised his brow. "I have doubts that a wandering peddler like you could empty my pockets."
Finn chuckled. "Fair. Let's trade for this much for now." he dropped a small pouch of gold foreign coins, and gave it to the man. The man takes it, and weighs it.
"You will be given an equal amount in Golden Dragons," said the man. "Of course, there are some fees…"
"Right…" Finn hummed. "Can you add some lower denominations of the currency too? I doubt all the stalls here could give me the change if I give them a gold coin."
"That is possible." said the man, already counting the golden dragons, silver stags, and other coins, putting it in another pouch. "I must say, you are a strange man. You brought foreign coins that I have never seen before, traded it for the sum of gold that even landed knights can't even acquire for their whole lives, and I have never heard of that accent from anywhere."
"I get that a lot." Finn shrugged.
The man hummed, and gave the full pouch to Finn. "Pleasure doing business, now off you go."
Finn stepped away from the stall and tried to look for Ciri, who Finn let go to look around the market, examining all the things that caught her eyes. Right now, she seems to be window shopping on a stall that sells trinkets of all kinds from all over the continent. Small bells, exotic animal figurines, even heraldries of the local noble houses.
Finn came up to her, joining in on her window shopping. She saw him, but didn't say anything yet, as Finn picked up something from the lot, a wooden carving of a sigil of a house, depicting a three headed dragon.
"How much is this?" he asked the stall owner.
"5 copper pennies m'lord." answered the stall owner.
He took out the exact pennies from the pouch that he just got, and gave it to the stall owner, and pocketed the wooden carving. He turned to Ciri, and pointed at the lot.
"Do you want one?" he asked.
"Er…" She looked at the choices, and took another wooden carving of another house's sigil. This time, a carving of a falcon. "This one."
Finn hummed, then turned to the stall owner again. "Same price?"
The stall owner merely grunted. Finn paid in full, and both of them moved on.
Finn walked through the markets with Ciri following him on the side. He looked at the other stalls just barely, compared to how Ciri looked around, and instead he focused on the heraldries that are flown around this meadow.
He definitely recognized them.
"So what do you think this world is?" asked Ciri. "It feels similar to mine."
"I know of this world." Finn answered. "It's a little bit more backward than yours."
"You know of this world?" Ciri said, surprised. "You've been here before?"
"No." Finn simply said.
"Then how—" Ciri paused. "It's another world that is from a fictional story from your world, isn't it?"
Finn hummed. "Truthfully, every lived in world that I've visited so far has been a world that is from a fictional story from my world. But I thought it was because of the proximity of my world towards theirs in terms of doors. So perhaps we're still quite close towards the worlds that I've visited in, or it's just another coincidence. Anyway, I'll tell you about this world later. We need to make camp for tonight first, and buy some food. Can you make camp?"
"We don't have one…" Ciri said.
Finn stopped. "We do." he said, pulling them aside to a quiet corner, before putting his hand deep into his bag, and pulling out a stack of wax-treated canvas, and stakes and poles. In Ciri's eyes, the camp supplies are too big to fit into that bag of Finn's.
"How did you—" Ciri grabbed the camp equipment as Finn gave it to her. "—fit all of that in that bag?"
"It's a special bag. Now, can you make the camp?" Finn asked again.
"I… I'll try…" Ciri muttered. "What will you do?"
"Buy supplies." Finn said. "Make sure to find a good place and start a fire too."
"Alright… I suppose."
Finn nodded. "I'll see you in a bit."
Finn quickly left, leaving Ciri alone.
"Wait… how will he find me?" she muttered to herself.
—
Night came. Ciri sat in front of the fire that she had started as she had just finished setting up the camp. It's empty for now. Not even some leather for a place to sleep. But she had only been given that, so she could only wait for now in front of the fire.
It was a rather empty plot of land that she set up the camp in. The nearest other camp was a couple of paces away, so she needn't be worried about being disturbed. She hugged her knees as she stared at the fire in front of her.
She thought about what had just happened in the past few hours. She got a travelling companion, after traveling alone for so long. She didn't know what will happen next to them, whether they will split or otherwise, but it is definitely a breath of fresh air compared to the loneliness that she felt so far.
Still, she isn't hoping that this will be permanent. She knew otherwise to hope so.
It was then that Finn arrived with another bag in hand. It looked to be raw vegetables, salted meat, eggs, and bread. He looked around and hummed in approval.
"You picked a quiet place. Good I guess." he said.
"How'd you find me?" Ciri asked.
"The only other white haired girl with features similar to yours are the Targaryens here." Finn said, sitting down in front of the fire, beside Ciri. "It's easy to ask around."
"Targaryens?"
"The Royal family of this place." Finn simply said. He then took out something from his bag again, it was a cooking kit.
He proceeded to set it up, putting the branches and some logs on top of the fire to set up the cooking station. Ciri helped. And quickly, it was set up.
"Ugh, finally, food." Ciri muttered. "What are we eating?"
"Just bits and bobs." he pulled a knife, a cutting board, and a piece of onion. "You know how to cut an onion?"
Ciri scoffed, grabbing the knife and cutting board, putting it down. "Are you mocking me? Of course I can."
"Great. Cut the bread too. Split it in half." Finn gave her two loaves of bread. For him and for her. "I'll cook what needs to be cooked. We're making a sandwich."
Ciri grinned. "Perfect."
—
After all is said and done, the both of them had a handful of sandwiches in hand, filled with onions, eggs, and pan seared salted beef. It was not the best thing that they ate, but considering that they haven't eaten in a while, it was heaven.
"Ugh, this is so good." Ciri said with her mouth full. "So… mind telling me about this world now?"
"It's a long explanation if I tell you everything." Finn said, also eating his sandwich. "So I'll just tell you the important parts. We're in a place called the Seven Kingdoms. As the name suggests, it is a kingdom, filled with houses that love and hate each other. The royal family, right now the Targaryen dynasty, rules them all."
"All the seven kingdoms?"
"Well… it's more of seven petty kingdoms than actual kingdoms." Finn said. "These Targaryens basically are a bit superior than the rest of the people. They're these beautiful people with silver hair and purple eyes."
"I don't see that as being superior…"
"Well, no, but what makes them superior, is that they control dragons." Finn continued. "At least, until now. The dragons died out, and now they're just a shadow of their former self."
"Dragons?" Ciri raised her brow.
"It's not like your world's dragons." Finn said. "In certain angles, they're not as smart as yours. But they do grow bigger. Much much bigger. But anyway, like I said, they all died out a couple of decades ago. And now the Targaryens are just like any other kings. Fighting wars with swords and lances instead of dragons."
"Will we see these… Targaryens?" Ciri asked, biting hard on her sandwich.
"We will see them, funnily enough." Finn hummed. "We are in a place called Ashford Meadow. We are in a tourney's ground. Jousts. Melees. All those kinds of games. And of course, the Targaryens are invited to at least watch it."
"...Something tells me something's going to happen here." Ciri frowned.
Finn chuckled. "Yeah… which is why I'm going to stick around for a couple of weeks, to watch it unfold. It's not everyday you get to see a 'historical event' happening with your own eyes."
"Really? You're staying?" Ciri raised her brow.
"This is the point of world travel, Ciri, at least for me." Finn shrugged. "To watch these kinds of things. But I doubt you want to stay, on account of the Wild Hunt…"
Ciri pondered for a moment. She does want to travel again. After all, she is still chased by them. She doesn't know how much time she bought by travelling 'unconventionally' like this, but…
"If I use my gifts, then would the Wild Hunt just track it again?" Ciri said. "I think it's better to stay put for a moment, at least until they appear. I want to see how travelling with your way affects the time on how long they will catch my scent once more."
Finn chuckled. "Fair enough. Suit yourself. Truthfully, I've never had a companion in these travels. So it's interesting to say the least."
Ciri smiled. "It's been a while too since I talk to people."
Finn sighed. "Yeah… that's just how it is for people like us, I guess."
Neither of them said anything after that.
The fire crackled between them, unbothered.