He enjoyed a nap with Kaarthen and Mara. Soft hands found their ways into his pants urging a release. His own hands found the women’s breasts. In a well-timed and semi-discreet maneuver, Mara was ready and caught his load as it gushed. Marcos patted his fuck pet affectionately before falling asleep against Kaarthen’s pillows.
They continued up the canal well after dark that night. The pole men hung lamps over their heads and leaning out to the rails. They reached the giant stone docks of Cardin in the early morning hours in the dead of night. Marcos and the Princess Ruegin with her Hjordis went forward to secure rooms for the group and see to the events of the next day. The rest turned back and anchored on an outlying wood pole that trade ships used when waiting in queue and slept out the night.
That morning they awoke in the center of the sprawling city of Cardin. As a large trade and agriculture hub, the waters were full of canal barges and ocean going vessels. The city had many buildings of long high roofed warehouses in rows along the canal. Behind a three-meter seawall, they towered around on all sides. The wide stone dock ran along the sides with ramps for the various moving goods. In front of them, the city had many wide arching stone bridges. They seemed ridiculously arched but even their barge barely cleared the ones they passed under to approach. The ocean going vessels had removed their sails to clear the undersides of the scratched bridges.
The group got off the boat into the busy fast moving swarm of trade schedules. A tall slender customs dock officer in blue and gray barely lifted his eyes off his manifest to point them up to a nearby bridge. They were met by Cardin’s customs liaison official in orange as they walked up the ramp from the dock. Quickly after introducing himself, he had them board a waiting open carriage.
They arrived at a warehouse after going through the wide flat streets of the warehouse district. At the front of a open warehouse, Marcos sat drinking tea in an open top carriage with a table across the center. Princess Ruegin sat pouring over documents as her Hjordis sat next to her. The carriage was unhorsed and had blocks to keep it in place.
“Why are we here? I need food! The only thing they served was tea for the morning!” the prince shouted as he spryly jumped from the stopped carriage. Kaarthen, Princess Ruegin, and Ein watched him hoping for the worst. Ein sulked and followed him out once the chance of an unfortunate accident passed.
“Certainly young prince, why I had a hearty breakfast earlier. You all certainly shouldn’t be kept hungry because you stayed behind.” Marcos looked past him to the driver and liaison officer. “Drive on to the Cardin’s royal quarters. We’ll join in the evening. Make sure they are all well fed.” Marcos said with a dismissive wave.
“What is this? Stop! Return and let me on!” The prince shouted as the carriage quickly moved off.
Princess Ruegin finally looked up at the disturbance. She had been taught that nobles don’t run, show loss of control, make displays of emotion, or proclaim their base needs. The prince was working hard to set forth a new model. But then, he wasn’t two heartbeats from the ‘Eternal Throne’. In fact, he was not likely to rule a region or major city at the very least. Unlike Princess Nossin, she had made plans. If she married him, he would be dead the night of the wedding. She had already decided on burying him as a virgin.
She sighed. “Monto, I need you to help us. I’ll have you fed if you calm down.” She said staring over her reading spectacles.
“This is unfair! I have a condition!” He said stomping over to the carriage. The carriage’s doors had been closed, locked, and the steps retracted. No one moved to open it for him.
“It is not proper as a noble to speak of your weaknesses,” Princess Ruegin stated. “You will be fed I assure you.” She said and stood. “The crop of yam is good this year. These rows of warehouses will be taking it.” She gestured. “Since orders are filled by weight, we need to know how many on average, and how much they’ll weigh in the full box. Thirty boxes will need to be filled and weighed for the averages. For historical data, we need to know the average color, shape, and size of this year’s crop. Those pieces of information are all collected together as you can imagine.” She said and cocked her head hoping he realized his part.
He stayed silent for a moment and blankly looked up at her. “So when do I eat?” He asked slowly.
She couldn’t help but shake her head. “You can eat while you work and have all the yams you want.” She said sitting.
“A yam? A yam?” He shouted and kicked the carriage. Ein pulled him back a step. “That is commoner food!” he said balling up and throwing a handkerchief at the carriage.
“Hardly Monto, you ate yam on several occasions in Mavvus. It is a good food that fuels health. That silly mindset you have will weaken you further.” Princess Ruegin noted. “Now, several other crops are coming in while were here. You got yourself here by constantly making foolish statements. You’ll likely be done before supper and if you are in good form, someone may even assist you.” She finished waving her papers. “I have two weeks of this.”
The prince remained angry and unconvinced. “I don’t care! don’t you have clerks for this?”
“A majority of the field customs that takes in material will be at the markets and gates.” They will tag and weigh so that farmer can be timely paid. Liaisons officers are working to house the people and get them out of the streets and commercial thoroughfares.” A team of four horses came around the corner led by a mounted army non-com in uniform as she spoke.
“Menthino must be hurting for people. Why don’t you turn out the rest of the army?” He remarked snidely.
“Listen, this is important work that is recorded and used in decisions all year around. Just the act of being near this stuff, is good, healthy, and should be cherished. This is a small but important piece of what needs to happen and having a noble handle it directly means you can look on it later and know that dependable, close, hands made the information and it can be trusted for judgments that effect many lives.” As she spoke, the army officer quickly dismounted and competently turned and backed the horses for the carriage.
“This is ridiculous. I am still hungry! You’re just being mean!” The prince shouted petulantly. He tried to jump up and climb into the carriage in final bid to at least be taken seriously. Ein stepped forward trying to get him down.
“Monto don’t be childish, it’s unbecoming.” Princess Ruegin said quietly from her seat. Marcos stood and disembarked from the other side as he cursed Ein and struggled against her. Below, the officer finished hooking the team and waited.
“How is this even important?” He said sulking and gave up as Ein pulled him down. She was slightly shorter then him, but he found her remarkably strong.
“If things are short or overabundant in the counts this year, it could mess up what we pay farmers for next harvest. Farmers are buying seed now in relation to the set prices for next year. The prices depend on what we need and are likely to have this time next year. The numbers cannot be off. If that happens, we will have shortages or excessive surpluses of crops because farmers will return with too much or too little for the markets.” The princess said turning to him.