Fields of Ice

[Amaterasu]

This post takes place a good bit into the future from the previous post in this thread!

Kushi could really not complain: the dwarves had proved hospitable from the start, knowing that she was a friend of one of their honorary dwarves - Amaterasu -, but once they found that she was a talented sake brewer, their hospitality turned into borderline mass euphoria. She was given a workshop and room in the brewer's district of the city as well as a generous credit to get her help with the necessary expenses: supplies for her trade, payments to get the paperwork going for a brewery permission, food and water for herself, furniture and so on. Now, over a month after Amaterasu and the others had departed, she had established herself among the dwarves as the first sake-selling merchant of Dwarfholm.

Of course, the market was limited: most dwarves preferred mead or beer to the exotic eastern beverage, but some of the traders imported sake from the Tangled Green which had made it known. Kushi's nipponese rice-brewed sake had a different taste, thus limiting the competition while getting dwarves with exotic tastes interested. Within the month she had been able to build up a small group of semi-regulars, and was now discussing a trade arrangement with two traveling merchants who bought and sold in Camelot, the Tangled Green, the Vasty Deep and Coruscant, to provide her with the supplies that she needed at the time. A rice farm was unlikely to be successful in this climate, unfortunately.

"Y'know", a dwarf that Kushi believed was named Nolan said as he counted the coins he owed her, "fer a beanstalk yer a surprisingly good brewer, Kushi."

"What do you mean, McHaroldsson-san?" She kept to using the japanese formulae of address, even though the dwarves didn't. Most of them either understood or dismissed it as a "weird accent thing".

"Well, brewin' ain't no easy task, ye know. A dwarf tha' decides ta take up brewin' is in fer a lifetime o' learnin', an' not all o' them make it ta certification."

"I've started brewing sake when I was five years old, McHaroldsson-san", replied Kushi with a laugh. "I will never stop learning, of course. But I've beeno brewing ever since my mother put a ladle in my hand and told me to help out back then. In my country they called this the school of life."

Nolan waved his hand at her and slid over a pile of coins. "Ah didn' mean to drag down yer accomplishments. Yer sake's delicious, an' whoever says otherwise gets a fillip from me! Here's yer payment. Should be correct, but please check."

"I counted along with you, it's the right amount." She handed the melon-sized barrel to him over the counter. "Remember to dilute it in water first. This one's too strong for consumption - it's to be transported easier. If you drink it like that, it won't taste well", she added when she noticed Nolan's grin.

"Got it. Dilute with water first. Thanks, Kushi, ah'll be back in a week or so!" And with that the dwarf was out the door. Kushi somehow doubted that he would follow her advice, at least until drinking one sip of the undiluted sake. Strong as it may be, a concentrated version like this had terrible taste, with the alcohol drowning the sweetness of the rice. She made a mental note to ask him how it had tasted when he came back. This more efficient method of transport she was trying... Nolan was her "guinea pig" for it after she had experimented a bit with personal designs. If it went well she would save a lot of money on barrels and be able to sell her sake more competitively.

As a woman and a human in a male and dwarf-dominated market, the decks of capitalism were stacked against her, but she was going to succeed. That she had no doubt of.