NORTHERN MARKETS
Episode 68

Gza-Nyima, Sagittarii 29
(Sunday, January 13)
9:50 SEA Time/ 12:30pm Victoria Time
Kashkun City, SEA Lands

The tail-gate of the giant old Sino Army truck was opened and as soon as it popped down, OwlSpirit175 jumped out
and landed with a thump as her boots hit the gravel street. She was covered from head to toe in her giant rope-woven poncho. The hood completely covered her head and she had to push it back to see in front of her.
People. lots and lots of people walking around. That bastard dumped them into the market area. Last time it was a 30 minute walk from outside town. The Sunlight was blocked by the towering buildings. Huge sheets of plained or plywood among plastic sheets, woven tarps and such covered all of the balconies on every building as well as all the market stalls in the street. Owl didn’t take much notice, other than her assumption that people here just hated the Sun more than they feared it.
“Kasta aus! Kasta aus!” some guy shouted from in the truck. More people climbed down the ladder rather than jump.
The human village women climbed down slowly and gently touched their feet on the ground.
“Azure!” Owl called. She waited as another figure clad in the same poncho she was wearing climbed down the mounted ladder. The girl’s hood fell back revealing her dark blue hair as she hit the ground.
“Aye?” she grunted in confusion-
!Thump! The giant Yeti landed right behind Azure. He wasn’t wearing much beyond the giant satchel and shoulder basket he was wearing. But that’s okay because Yetis have thick coats of long fur. Sinorean Yetis had fur in colors of brown, orange, black, gray, white and everything in between. The huge beast-man grunted as he stretched.
Azure cringed as she heard the Yeti’s bones popped. He looked down at the two human magicians.
“Come…we…gather foods and supplies…Yamaa…desires…Saskwa dream catchers…you…obtain..truck leave…in two..Sun times…liao.” he said with his deep voice in slow Singlish.
“Aye,” Owl said, putting her arm around Azure’s shoulders and gently pushed the little magician along as she walked.
Left behind, the Yeti slowly walked to the food market stalls.

“Az, keep your hood on!” Owl said, pulling Azure’s hood over her head.
“N-ah!” the blue haired girl grunted as she threw it back behind her.
“You want Sun burn?” Owl shot back.
Azure stopped. It’s cold out! she would have thought. How can you get Sun burn?!
“You are going to get fried, now keep it on!” Owl snapped, pulling it over her head again. Azure said nothing as she walked ahead. The shoulder basket on her back bouned sideways as she walked.
Owl pulled out the sack hanging from her belt. She had about 200,000 mesos left; her secret stash she only remembered after she first arrived at BK. She hid it so the Yetis wouldn’t steal it. Some coins and bills* made up the tidy sum. Owl was not intent on blowing it on some dream-catcher. She needed a staff. Owl’s MD Bow got destroyed back when she was in the fight with that dexless sin. Light, that guy was psychotic!” Owl thought. She incured that guy’s wrath and paid a heavy price for it. Both she and Azure did.
He threw ilbi stars and ripped off half of Owl’s right arm- everyting up to the elbow was gone. Azure was killed by the other guy- and then some how Azure, the hacker, maxed up her hack energy, revived herself from a shredded corpse and resurrected Owl, making her a hacker too. Then later was the big fight- The sin nearly killed her again, and he smashed her MD bow. Azure saved the day; she summoned enough energy to kill even a level 50 wizard, ripped the Justice Arrow’s goons to bits, and she attacked the sin, slamming his solar plexis up into his heart and smashed all of his ribs, and then Owl blew his head clean off.
So they escaped into the SEA Lands, Owl with half of her good arm gone and uncontrollable hack energy surging inside her, and Azure with brain damage. Ever since the hacker magician rezzed herself and Owl, she lost all ability to speak.
She can only respond with moans, groans, and grunts. Amazingly, Azure’s IQ must have dropped 30%, but she can still pilot a Roikan flying board. That’s how she got herself and Owl to the refugee camp by the canyon before the JA attacked.
At the BK settlement, they both picked up serious lag sickness that upon arrival, the Yetis rushed them to the sick hut, and they were down for two weeks straight. The bones protruding from Owl’s shredded arm were chopped off, o.m.f.g what pain that was!
So they stayed up at BK as the Yetis refused to let them leave. They were adopted by separate families and lived and worked with them. Two months later, this was the first time Owl was allowed outside the settlement. Azure too.
Owl didn’t know about her young friend, but she had regained alot of the strength and power she lost during their trip through Corazon. Today, they were in town to be gathering food and supplies to take back home. Owl remembered her Adventure Librarian mission; to take Azure to the SEA Lands, contact the big time Permanoobs up here and have them accept the noobs, magicians, and hackers who were trying to leave Kerning City at the time. But when she and Az were in the city, the JA blew up the pipelines and set the Panquilia permanoob town ablaze killing thousands. Thousands more fled the city and hid out in the Corazon waiting to be let through Cold Death Pass. The JA came back and killed everybody. The Permanoob empire down in Kerning was dead now, and Owl’s main objective was epic failure.

Owl’s other mission that was assigned to her with this one- infiltrate the infamous ‘Northern Markets’ as they are called in Ellinia, do some damage, or bring back something to the mages in Ellinia- something they can use to go to Orbis and kick the government in the ass and make them sic the GMs and Maple Peace Corps on the sick twisted busniness empire that’s grown from selling magicians and noobs as slaves and food. She’s gonna have to leave Azure behind somewhere but not here. She thought about taking her to a Permanoob town, but now she wanted to leave her somewhere there’s magicians who can train her.

“Staves! Staves! Good and cheap! Stava! Stava Good and cheap! Come and get them!”
Owl grabbed Azure with her good hand as she walked through the crowd to the market stall.
Thick carpets blocked out the sunlight as people walked in and out from the row of stalls.
“Hey, hey hey! I got these good and cheap, lah!” the guy called.
Stacked up on a rack were the staves. Lamma staff, Maple staff, Nocturnal staff, BlueMarines, blade staffs! You can stab people with these things, and the ultimate: Dragon staff!”

Owl looked at them. “Meso?” she asked, pointing at the llama staff.
“20K!”
Owl lifted the staff out of the rack and looked it over.
“It’s been used, but that thing packs alot of power! I had it hooked up to the Solar panels so it’s sucked up alot of juice!”
Owl then suddenly realized the uber cheapness of the staff. She unscrewed the top part, took it off and pulled out the battery. The battery already blew along time ago- Toxic acidic goop oozed out.
“Yuck!”
“Uhhh….10K that’s my final offer! That battery still got some-“
“This is garbage! Even a civilian magician won’t take this!” Owl shot back as she screwed the top back on and tossed it into the rack.
“Hey! It all looks like crap but you need to not judge a book by it’s cover!” the guy shouted after Owl as she walked out.
“Go get shot, asshole!” she spat back. “F##king knockoffs!”
She and Azure bolted accross the street just before a New Sasko hover vehicle passed through. It looked like a huge storage truck, and was as big as a tank, but instead of wheels there were giant crystals spinning. Huge fans in the bottom roared loudly as the vehicle passed blasting cold air from the bottom to keep it afloat. The vehicle stopped and people climbed aboard. They were market workers. The crew onboard shouted in Saskwa at eachother as they opened the many compartments so the market workers could get at the goods inside.
One fat guy cussed in Kashkunian as he hauled a sack of tholins to the edge. A guy waited on the street below with a wheelbarrow. The guy grunted as he tried to lower the sack to the- he slipped on some of the black stuff that seeped out!
The fat ass fell off the truck and the sack went flying! It hit and gashed on the antenna, spewing slick oily tholins everywhere!
People screamed and hollered-
“Danaba!” An old woman snapped as she tapped Owl’s shoulder.
“Aye?” she replied.
The old gray haired woman was holding a Pyogo mushroom, gesturing to Owl with it.
Pyogo mushrooms grow until they are five feet tall and stiffen until they are harder than rebar. The cap of the mushroom sucks up nutrients from the ground and produces alot of magic energy or magic fuel. When the plant dies, it explodes in a spectacular blast releasing the magic energy it accimulated in the 20 months it lived.
If picked, the plant never dies, and makes for a good staff to any magician.
Owl went bug eyed over the marvel. She restrained her excitement and took out her money bag. She handed the woman 50K. Before Owl was about to pull out more money, the woman literally shoved the staff into her hand.
“Wusai!” the lady said with a smile and walked off.

Owl couldn’t believe her luck! The mushroom was rich in magic and she could feel it.
Just then her excitement was cut off-
A convoy of wheeled trucks drove passed, turning down the allwy to avoid the Sasko hovercraft and the mess of black-red tholin crap that covered the street.
Owl cautiously peered at one of the trucks- Average guys were driving them, but in the passenger seat of a Hino cargo truck, Owl saw a ranger! He was wearing the cap, shirt and everything, and she could see the bow stashed behind the mens’ seats!
Owl did not suspect- she knew:
The Justice Arrow is here!
“Come, Az, we gotta go!” she said, grabbing Azure and they ran.