Wandering the hallways of Skyrock Citadel, the four Bracers looked through hallway after hallway, looking in door after door.
“Is there really no market here? How do they buy and sell things? Door to door?” Owen asked the group.
“Its possible that they don’t have things to sell.” Nate responded.
“What about clothing?” Jo asked.
Nate thought for a moment. “Or it could be like a different citadel I went to once, they had markets on scheduled days.”
“Then what happens if you need something before the market day?” Studge asked.
“I guess you're outta luck.” Nate said. “Or you go to the person who makes what you want and ask.”
“That's so inefficient tho!” Jo wailed.
"I don't control the markets Jo." Nate said.
“Let's ask a local.” Owen suggested while approaching a young mother with two children.
“Excuse me ma’am?” Owen asked the doe.
The doe turned to face Owen grabbing the hands of her little ones.
“O-Oh H-Hi sir! Uh.. Do-Do you need something?” Owen noted the doe looked scared.
“Just a question, I'm not from around here.” Owen said.
“O-okay, um, w-what is it?”
“Do you know anywhere we can find chains for necklaces?” Owen asked.
The doe pondered for a moment. “Oh w-well, the m-markets usually have vendors selling full necklaces, n-not sure w-where one could find just the chain.” The doe seemed to calm down a bit,
” Maybe she thought I was a threat?” Owen thought. “Thank you for the assistance ma’am, but I haven’t see a market around here, do you know where that is?” Owen asked.
“Oh! Y-you really are new.” the doe said, she nodded to her left. “They usually have it in the courtyard.”
“Thank you ma’am, travel safe.” Owen did a small nod and walked back over to the other Bracers.
“Dang Owen, that doe seemed afraid of you.” Jo commented.
“Yeah! And then, the more you talked to her, she seemed to calm down!!” Sduge added.
“Maybe I just give off a friendly vibe.” Owen said. “Anyways, I figured out why we can’t find the market, we haven't looked outside, it's in a courtyard that way.
“Oh thank goodness they have a market.” Nate said. “Jo, the things I help you get away with.”
“Hey! You said it yourself! You’d get in trouble too!” Jo snapped back.
“I don’t think he would have.” Studge said. “The Prince isn’t really mean.”
“He wouldn't have gotten in trouble if he didn't join this goose chase. Now, since we helped hide it, we’ll probably get in trouble if we told the Prince.” Owen said.
“Well, thanks for not reporting me!” Jo said.
“Never again.” Nate muttered under his breath.
The Brachers set off and wandered through more hallways. They had to stop and ask the locals once or twice for more directions, but the group eventually made it to the courtyard.
Stepping outside, Jo was surprised at how large it was, sure, it was a market, but it was bigger than expected.
“Great! Now we just need to find a necklace stand.” Jo said.
“Or a jewelry stand.” Nate said.
The Bracers looked around for a bit before Jo spotted a stand. “Oh look guys! That sign says jewelry!” The rest of the group looked in the direction of where Jo was pointing.
“Great, let's go over there, Jo? You have the gem?” Nate asked.
“Yep! Jo reached into his satchel and pulled out the coin purse, he didn’t take out the gem, the market didn’t need to start thinking Jo was the heir. (Or try and steal it.)
Walking up to the stand Jo caught the attention of the vendor.
“Hello! I was wondering if you had any necklaces with gold chains?” Jo asked.
The vendor smiled. “Finally! Somebunny wants to buy one of the gold ones! We’ve been waiting all week for this!” The vendor gestured to a small group of golden necklaces with different color jewels and different kinds of pendants on them. Jo looked them over.
“How much is the cheapest one?” Jo asked.
“You want the cheapest? I know people wanna save money but shouldn't you consider the person you are getting it for?” The vendor asked.
“Oh, it's actually for me, I want a little something gold but don’t wanna spend too much money on it.”
The vendor nodded. “Understandable, well this one is just 50 coins.” The necklace that the vendor pointed to was a stunning blue jeweled necklace with a long gold chain.
“Oh, um, let me look in my bag.” Jo began rummaging through his satchel but he only had 10 coins, Jo looked at the other Bracers. “Uh, you guys got 40 coins?”
The other Bracers began looking through their pockets and bags.
“I got 5.” Owen said.
“I know I have 50, but I left it at home.” Studge said.
“Why would you leave it if you knew we would have to buy a gold chain?” Owen asked.
“It didn’t cross my mind!” Studge said.
Nate sighed at the augment. “I have 10.” Nate told Jo.
“Thats not enough!” Jo looked at the vendor. “Would you take 25?” Jo dumbly asked.
“I get being broke, but no.” The vendor said. “Maybe you should wait to buy some jewlry if you can’t even afford it yourself.
“Yeah, stupid question.” Jo responded, then said “You trade?”
“Depends on what ya got?”
“What are you looking for?”
“A good quality cloak, or some apples would be a fair trade i’d say.” The vendor said.
“I don’t have any apples, and my cloak is full of holes.” Jo responded.
“Guess your outta luck, buck.” The vendor said. Just as they said it though, 60 coins were placed down on the counter.
Jo looked over to see who it was and his face paled.
“Can we get a bag for my friend's necklace please? Smalls asked. "The rest is a tip."
The vendor looked a bit shocked for a moment. “Uh, sure? How's a little kid like you have so much money?”
“I’m an adult actually, I was just born small.” Smalls said.
“Okay then, I’ll get that packaged up for ya.” As the vendor tuned to do that, Smalls faced Jo.
“To make sure I don’t accidentally spoil the gift.” Smalls said, taking the bag from the vendor and handing it to Jo. Jo stared at the bag dumbly before grabbing Nate's hand and running off.
“SORRY GOTTA GO!” Jo said to the prince, Owen and Studge followed quickly after.
“O-kay?” Smalls said confused.
“What was that about?” Wilfred asked, walking up to Smalls with several bags.
“I don’t know.” Smalls said softly, while looking in the direction the Bracers ran off to.
“I’m sure it wasn’t anything bad.” Wilfred said. “Now let's go back to our room to pack up.”
“Yes, I really don’t wanna be here anymore, Lord Mandroth is annoying.” Smalls said before the two began walking back to the rooms.
Approaching Skyrock Citadel, Jo bounced in front of the group to be the first one at the gate for parameter security.
“Do they know we're coming?” Jo asked.
“Yes, password is Mending not found.” Wilfred responded.
“Okay?” Jo thought as he approached the gate. “Uh, Mending not found?” He said.
A black and brown rabbit guard came out from the gate looking at Jo
“Oh, the Prince.” The guard said. “Follow me.” The rabbit said.
“We are going straight to Lord Mandroth, correct?” Smalls asked.
The guard raised an eyebrow. “Who's this pipsqueak?”
“That ‘pipsqueak’ is your prince." Nate Flynn sternly said stepping between Smalls and the black/brown rabbit.
The guard's face paled, he quickly bowed to Smalls. “Apologies, your Highness! I had no clue!”
“All is forgiven, although next time don't assume things based on someone's height.” Smalls said “Now may you please take us to Lord Mandroth?”
“Of course your Highness!” The guard turned to hold the door open for Smalls, but let go when Smalls got through, and before the rest got to the door, Owen grabbed it before it could hit any of them in the face.
“Rude.” Owen murmured under his breath.
Walking through weaving hallways now, Jo and Studge looked through every doorway they could to see if one of them led to a market.
Jo looked forward as the guard stopped them at a door, the rabbit pushed it open and inside was a six bunk room.
“This will be your quarters for the day, settle in for now,” The guard began to walk down a hallway. “I will inform ty’ Lord of your arrival.”
“Thank you.” Smalls responded and then walked into the room. “It will just be me and Wilfred in the meeting, so if you want too rest or look around you can.”
“Are you two hungry as well?” Nate asked Jo and Studge.
“Starving!” Studge says.
“Yep, where do you think the mess hall is?” Jo asked.
“We can ask when they come to get us.” Wilfred said.
“And you two will be fine alone right?” Nate asked.
“Yes, we can both fight, if it becomes too much to handle, we'll find you.” Smalls said.
“But hopefully it won't come to that.” Wilfred said.
A knock was heard at the door, Owen approached and opened it.
“Lord Mandroth will see you now.” A guard, different from the first one, said.
“Thank you, and may I ask where the mess is? My escorts are awfully hungry.” Smalls asks.
The new guard turns to look at Nate. “Just follow the red marks on the walls sir.”
“Thank you, come on bucks, let's go get some lunch.”
Studge watched as the Prince and Wilfred followed the guard, the remaining group started to follow the red marks on the wall, when they were out of earshot Studge asked. “Are we actually hungry or were we using that as an excuse to get away to try and find a gold chain?”
“Wait, was that an excuse? I was actually hungry.” Jo said.
“Of course you are.” Nate said. “And no, It wasn't just an excuse, I actually want food.”
“Gotcha.” Studge responded.
“Oh hey! I found the mess hall!” Owen said before walking through the doorway.
“Great, hopefully they have good meals.” Nate said.
“All food is great.” Jo said.
“You would say that.”
“Whats that supposed to mean?”
“Whatever you want it too, coco rabbit.”
“Hey! Studge is more a coco colored rabbit!" Jo snaps back, at the mention of his name the ‘coco’ rabbit peered over in Jo and Flynn's direction.
“Hhm?” Studge hum's
“Nothing Studge.” Jo responds back.
Studge glances at Owen for a moment before shrugging and prancing off to the counter.
“What kind of delicious food do you have here sir?” Studge asked the rabbit behind the counter.
“Look around buck, it's a help-yourself buffet.” The buck behind the counter said without looking up from their work.
“OHHH!” Studge said, grabbing a few plates from a stack and turning around to hand them to the other Bracers.
“We can get whatever! It isn’t portioned!” Studge said, bouncing up and down slightly.
Nate Flynn took a plate and moved over to grab a bowl of soup.
Once all the Bracers had grabbed their meals, they moved over to a table in the corner to eat and discuss how to fix the Green Ember.
“I didn’t see any markets.” Jo says.
“There has to be one here somewhere I’m sure.” Nate responded.
“I haven’t seen any rabbits wearing necklaces in general.” Owen said.
“Maybe it's a class thing.” Studge suggested.
“That would mean we’d have less of a chance of getting a replacement chain!” Jo said.
“You know, if you were more careful with it, this wouldn't have happened.” Owen said.
“What were you doing with it to break the chain anyways?” Nate asked. “All I saw was you on the floor with the chain already broken.”
Jo looked away sheepishly. “Hehe, I may have been climbing the weapon crate and it slipped and fell and the chain got hooked on a loose screw soo…”
“So you did break the weapons crate… again…” Nate said. "I'm not even going to ask why you were climbing the crate in the first place."
“Heh.. yeh…” Jo responded.
After the Bracers ate their respective meals, Nate stood up saying. “All right bucks, now we need to find a gold chain.”
“Where should we look first?” Owen asked.
“We will look around for a market.” Nate said, grabbing his place and stacking it with other dirty ones for the dishwasher rabbits can get them easier, the rest of the Bracers followed suit.
They then left the mess, they needed to find a gold chain.
