North Sea Dungeon

[Takiko]

"You piece of shit!" The door to a butcher shop in town swung open cracking against and bouncing off the adjacent stone wall - the hinges squealing in agony as it slowly closed again. Before it could, Takiko stormed through the entryway and turned to look inside, "The only goddamn place to get meat in this town and its -" They choked up on their own anger cutting their sentence short.

An exasperated noise escaped from their closed lips before they kicked the door back closed and whipped around to face the street. Takiko took a breath realizing the absurdity of their anger, but it kept bubbling up inside them.

They had lost their recently bought bag of cured meats in the stupid dungeon diving event and now their main source of food to bring into the dungeon was completely out of stock. The next shipment wouldn't be there for a few weeks and the bastard store owner had the nerve to say it was Takiko's fault. "Look, you bought most of my store out last time," "If this is how you're going act after burning through my whole supply I am not going to take you as a patron anymore," the words resonated in their mind. Takiko sighed, crouching down to rest their arms and head on their knees. "Bastard-" their voice was quiet and pathetic; their hair and raggedy hakama shifted with the gust of a calm coastal breeze. Takiko sat still for a moment grumbling under their breath about how they would probably have to survive off nuts and seeds in the dungeon now.

[Nathaniel]

Nathaniel walked calmly along the street towards the local non-monster meat butcher, he liked to come by every week or so to compare prices and make sure he wasn't underselling his own products. He looked down at a small piece of paper on his hand where he had written the numbers and hummed. Would it be a good idea to add slime to his assortment of monster products?

He was violently shaken from his thoughts by a loud slam, making him jolt upright and instinctively reach down to where his sword would be. His heart still raced as he observed someone stomp out of the shop and plop down some feet away from the door. He slowly approached the window of the shop and peered inside. Out of stock? Already? But he saw the cargo ships leave just a couple days ago.

"Change of plans then" he muttered, raising a hand to his chin in thought. He heard the weird looking person– an ogre? –mumble quietly and turned to better look at them. This gave him an idea.

"Did you come here to buy meat?" His voice was slightly raspy as he spoke, like this was the first conversation he had today even if it was well past noon already.

[Takiko]

Takiko let out a short, quiet sound of curiosity and -without looking up from the ground - shifted their head towards the source of the voice speaking to them. They finally let their rear plop to the ground and propped their head up on their hands - elbows resting on their raised knees. Takiko was too busy being mopey to be interested in this person right now. They closed their eyes and shifted their arm to wave their hand dismissively. "Don't even bother. This lousy shop's outta everything," their anger and disappointment now manifested as this blase attitude when they spoke to the stranger. "Had the nerve to blame it all on me too. It's not like I take that much from 'em." They grumbled this last part under their breath bringing the hand they used to wave back to holding up their head.

[Nathaniel]

So no meat today, and probably no meat for the next couple weeks or so, if the previous shipping rates told him anything. This felt like too good an opportunity not to take it, he had never sold anything to an ogre (didn't even know there were any in the island to begin with), but a sale is a sale, and his latest dungeon dive had offered quite a bit of excess product.

Nathaniel stood there for a moment, considering, before leaning down with his hips at an almost 90 degree angle to be closer to the ogre. His expression was oddly blank, but there was a spark of something akin to curiosity in his eyes.

"I have meat, if you want it, it's cheaper too" He said matter-of-factly, louder this time so they would hear him, not really thinking about how weird it sounded coming from a stranger in the middle of the street.

[Takiko]

Takiko's head cocked a little to the side upon hearing this. "Really?" asked in a more accusatory tone than hopeful; this seemed too good to be true. There has only been one butcher shop on this island the whole time they've lived here and the promise of 'cheaper' always spelt trouble in Takiko's eyes. In their experience that just meant an item of poorer quality still being oversold. This was their only option however, unless they wanted to go without meat for a while. Takiko scrunched their face and hummed thinking hard about this important decision. They could sense the stranger's presence looming above them as they closed their eyes deep in thought. Finally, a choice was made in their head and they relaxed a bit, opening their eyes. Takiko looked up at the stranger - a tall man with a prominent scar across his face - "What you got?" Takiko indulged the offer with a faint smile.

[Nathaniel]

A crooked smile spread across Nathaniel's face, he straightened his upper body way too fast for it to have been comfortable and lifted his hand in a beckoning gesture.

"I don't have it on me, but it should be done marinating by now, I can take you to my usual selling spot and you'll get the first pick of the batch" He offered, one hand fidgeting with the edge of his shirt as he spoke. He suddenly seemed to remember something and perked up "But I have dried pieces from the last one too, and eggs".

[Takiko]

The tall-man's behavior was off putting; the red stains on his hands and clothes as well as the nervous fidgeting were enough to make Takiko second guess their decision. The prospects of new food was starting to drive their judgement on the situation. The blood made Takiko think that maybe this product would be way fresher than what was in the butcher shop which had to be shipped over. Maybe tall men here use different seasonings for meats than the dwarf hes been buying from too. Saliva began to build up in their mouth.

"First pick sounds great!" Takiko hopped up ready to try to get going before the man did anything else to make them think this was a bad idea. They put on a wide grin and opened up their arms gesturing, "Lead the way."

[Nathaniel]

Nathaniel nodded and turned with a smile, he began walking down the street he had come from initially. It shouldn't take long to arrive, considering the island wasn't exactly big, but the prospect of gaining a new customer excited him enough to have him walking a bit faster than necessary on the cobblestone paths.

"What kind of meats do you usually buy? So I know what I'm working with" The man turned his head as he walked to look at the stranger with a strange and excited glint in his eyes "I know the regular imports don't really allow for much variety, but still"