The Last Man

by YoloSwagginz


Chapter 5: The Merchant

The Last Man

Chapter 5: The Merchant

By: YoloSwagginz

There, upon the river, floated that strange vessel. It was red as a fire and had the physique of a galley. It made a curious sight to anypony or anybody really. Jan stood upon the river bank and watched the ship slowly move down the river. It was very dark out and the rain was pushing most visible things out of sight. The thunder was most present, for it did not let up very often. Perhaps every 10 seconds it conducted itself in a tremulous manner.

I watched the length of the ship looking closely for any name to which I could identify it to. As it slowly moved I found myself walking with it down the coast. The visible light emitting from it was warm as well as comforting. I then decided a hallo was necessary.

I brought my hands to my mouth and shouted to the ship. "Hallo?" The ship simply kept plodding along. "Hallo!" again I shouted. To this effect one of the windows of the ship had a shift in light. I was given a response which was not compliant to my native tongue, but sounded like a greeting of sorts. Whatever had responded now pulled the window shut and made its way onto the small deck. It looked strange from here, even in the poor lighting.

The small ship now careened over to my side of the river and made for a small peninsula covered in foliage. I walked myself in accordance to the ships landing position and awaited the landing. As I looked onto the ship my heart fluttered for a second, for the creature that was aboard was bipedal! Ah, but my hopes were dashed as I saw it had a tail, and it's body was different from many. No creature I had ever seen.

The thing grabbed a rope and tossed one end to me. I caught it and started to tie the rope to a pine tree standing nearby. I turned around to see a wooden board thrown on land and a solitary invitation by the creature. It waved to me and to this I gestured back.

I walked steadily up the board until I was on the deck, I was then meet with the strangest creature I had ever seen. It bowed to me and pointed to the door with it's claw. I simply kept my mouth shut and followed the creature into the doorway of the cabin. As I followed the friendly thing I noticed that it had a long body, almost that of a serpent, but it had a set of arms and long legs to match. As I walked in I was hit with a wave of foreign smells and it reminded me the old trader in KuhlValans. I was a little nervous but I knew I could talk to one like this.

The lizard looking thing in front of me walked behind a wooden counter and turned. I gave him my courtesy and bowed low. When the strange creature reappeared in my view I was shocked. What I saw standing before me was not any Pegasus, nor a Unicorn, It wasn't a horse creature at all. It almost looked like a dragon!

The creature smiled at me with rows of razor sharp teeth, turning it's head and giving a look into my soul. The cat like eyes which belonged to this creature looked as if they were made of gold. He then scanned me cautiously, gaining nothing from my winged helm. I slowly took of my helmet and put it underneath my arm. I gave him a nod and a nervous smile. I was a about to speak when I was interrupted by the thing.

"I'm not going to lie... You are the strangest thing I have ever seen!" His voice was thick with accent. I nearly laughed at his statement and replied in disbelief.

"Strange? I think that in all my life I've never met a talking lizard!"

To this the lizard smiled and rasped. "Ah, In all my life I've never seen a, whatever you are? Who has black hairs growing from the top of their head, and on their face?"

"Well who has bloody feathers sprouting down their neck?" I replied smartly

"I do!" he said laughing

Behind this lizards eyes I could see intelligence, and along with that I could see laughter. He was very odd but was likeable. He was a brown lizard with two whiskers like that of a cat fish at the end of his snout. Both tipped with gold rings. He had feathers of green and brown running from the top of his head down the back of his neck. His body was long and he had two muscular arms. His lower limbs consisted of two strange long legs that were bent backwards at the knee. He gave me another look and laughed to himself.

"Hmm, yes well... I am known as Yulis from Kooark! I am a trader, a gambler and I am liking one of the best captains you'll ever meet!

"Well met... Yulis, I am Jan Sjoland of KuhlValans, I am a knight, an adventurer, and I'm the last human in the universe..." To this last comment I couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness. I could only smile at my feet with a wave of anxiety washing over my entire being.

Yulis looked visibly confused and tapped his gold ringed claw on the counter top with a look of wonder.

"Ah, I was wondering what you might be, a human you say? I don't quite know what that is..."

After a long and awkward pause Yulis looked back at the conflicted knight and said "Well you are welcome to stay in my shop while the rain is visiting. You can also buy things, this is a shop after all."

I felt as if the excitement of the dream was bleeding out of my system. Perhaps that was just merely a dream and no more. I shook my head and looked back at my new acquaintance, I did not feel like putting a damper on the mood so I figured that buying something would do.

"Ah, your statement is one of kindness, but I don't know if are paths head in the same direction. Regardless what have you for sale?"

Yulis took his claw and tapped his long chin In thought. He then stroked his whisker.

"I think one such as you a "knight", would appreciate a blade. I do not have many but you can look at what I have, I also have spells about... You don't look like a unicorn I admit so never mind that. If you have anything interesting I would buy it from you..."

I thought for a second and reached into my hard pack, I grasped the first thing I could and pulled it out and onto the counter. I opened my hand to what amounted as a fist full of cyan feathers and a bunched up old dog's ear. I laid the items flat on the table and looked at Yulis for a reaction...

His claw pushed the feathers around and he gave a look at the dog's ear. His judgement of the items did not take long.

"So, a werewolf's ear and some Pegasus feathers... I would give you 2 bits for the ear and 5 for all... 20 feathers." I was slightly perturbed, but I also knew that I was ignorant of this prices of this era.

"Well the feathers were from a friend, I don't know if I could part with them for 5 uh... bits."

Yulis looked strangely at the feathers and said "Hmm, your friend was a Pegasus, why do you have their feathers?"

"Well its actually a long story, I had met this pony in the Everfree, and it was quite interesting to say the least. It had a rainbow coloured mane, and was quite funny... you see she was taken and I had decided verily to rescue the-..." Yulis broke in and said,

"Wait... This creature, was she called Rainbow Dash?"

I looked at the lizard and felt slightly worried. "Uh yes... You know this creature?"

"Of course, most know of the elements of harmony?" In my land we know they had saved all of existence on a couple of occasions! If what you say is no lie, you met her, and these feathers are worth quite some currency..."

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Rainbow Dash on this hot afternoon was doing the usual. Sleeping... She sat in her chair with the classic shades and slept by a small pond, where the Crusaders were splashing about. Her nap was going swimmingly and she was dreaming... Of that strange creature... A couple nights before Twilight had mentioned that she had a book about humans, and when they went to ask the local expert on weird creatures, Lyra was not home. She had apparently been of to Canterlot for some business purpose. So Twi put it off after asking a few of questions. Some were concerned some were curious she mostly just wanted to know if Dash was bluffing. But she wasn't. In fact she was wondering if Jan was ok. He said he was going to visit Ponyville, but it has been a couple of days...

Scootaloo whispered to Sweetie, "Hey I wonder if I can get my cutey mark for splashing rainbow coloured Pegasi?

With a large splash Dash was up in a second, covered in water and looking shocked. She glanced over at the bemused Scootaloo and said,

"You won't last a second squirt!"

Rainbow Dash started shaking her fur dry and then she lifted off with Scoots fluttering at full speed. It wasn't very hard for Dash to catch the little orange pony but she liked to play along, after all, Scootaloo had just learned to fly. The chicken gave a decent attempt at escape but Rainbow just hovered over her the whole time playing dumb. After about 30 seconds of this Rainbow grabbed Scootaloo out of the air like a hawk and started dragging her up towards the clouds. She was encountered with the long "Awww man". Scootaloo was now defeated and waved her good byes as Sweetie waved back. Rainbow Dash chimed in while still holding the Scoots,

"It's getting late Scootaloo we're going home" Rainbow Dash spoke sternly

Scootaloo bent her head down in defeat, "But Dash, I just got back from Appleblooms, I wanted to hang out with Sweetie some more!"

Rainbow bent down and looked at the chicken half sympathetically, "Sorry squirt, but it's bed time for both of us." To this Scootaloo struggled lightly and said "Alright, let me fly"

Rainbow Dash let go of her chicken and followed her up to their home. She was doing better, and one day she would be more cool then Dash she thought. Dash yawned mid flight and flew lazily behind the struggling Scoot. When they landed at the house Scootaloo puffed obviously tired of flight, and pushed the door open, Rainbow Dash followed her in and grabbed her with a wing hugging tightly.

"Good night squirt, don't let the geese bite!"

Rainbow Dash put Scoots to bed and went into her own bedroom, she almost instantly fell asleep and noticed that another storm was coming.

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Miles away from the happy little cloud house was a very large storm. Underneath that same storm was a little river boat with two drunken passengers. Both having a fun match of story telling.

[Jan's drunken slurs] "I had always said... that he had a big nose! Hah hah! My sister had said that it made him a better archer, cause he could focus, like a blinded horse!!! hahaha!"

There from inside the warm boat laughed two great friends. The pair had felt like they had met their long lost equals. Both laughing over silly stories and feeling quite happy, even though outside, boomed an angry storm threatening the pair with every thunderous smack. The loud patter of rain did not deter Yulis or Jan. They were like two grapes on the same vine.

[Yulis' drunken rambling] "She had told me to pull the rug out, for a second time.... Why, I pulled so hard she fell flat on her snout!! *Uproar of laughter*

Jan looked around the boat in a drunken stupor and roared... "Ponyville ere we comeen!...Yeh!"

Yulis simply sat there with a stupid look across his scaly face and threw back another glass of Sand Wine. He then promptly stood up and fell to the floor, his tail slowly moving back and forth across the wooden planks. Jan was... well he was actually asleep now slumped over on the table with his steel boot lying across his arm...

Outside the storm was violent, and attempting to shake the drunkenness from the friends. To no avail...