Travels of Libourc

[Libourc]

Aye greetings and salutations to whomever may read my tale of my travel.
My occupation is an animal trader in Rome, I travel to various places to aquire horses of quality to bring back and offer for sale in my stable in Rome.

I had heard of a horse breeder of high repute who was offering some excellent Akhkal Teke horses, so I made ready my caravan and bid my brother farewell. He minds the stable while I travel to trade for horses. It was a bright and well fortuned day when I set out on the trail. However, my enjoyment was short lived!
As we traveled we had the misfortune of being attacked by thieves! Luck was with our party as we routed the thieves after a short battle, its apparent that they are not used to being met with resistance. We did manage to scrounge some treasure, a bit of lapis and a rhino horn from their abandoned wagon.

It was a slow trek. The elephants, while reliable and very strong, are quite slow.

In Rome, we had put on a load of Wine that my brother had sold to a vendor in Venicia. Upon our arrival in Venicia we delivered the wine and I had the luck of finding a merchant who was looking for transport of a load of Ornamental Weapons to Thessalonica. As that was on my route and would bring a profit I agreed to take the load.

Perhaps if I had remembered the difficulty of the trail between Salona and Thessalonica, I would have declined! We made poor time through the passes and the trail was quite rugged, but it was a lovely sight to decend the trail into Thessalonica and see the city bustling with merchants and trades people. Our load was delivered to a waiting caravan that was bound for Sparta.

In Thessalonica, an old friend of the family, a marble merchant, asked us to carry a load of Marble to one of their friends in Trapezus to aid in the construction of a house that was being built there. Apparently they had finally managed to marry off their last daughter.

We left Thessalonica with a large load of Marble and their extreme gratitude. We also carried correspondence from a city official, it was only going to Constantinople, but I guess they needed to get it there as soon as possible and ours was the only caravan leaving that day.
The trail was pleasant and uneventful. We took a ferry over the river that blocks the trail leading into Constantinople.

It took only about an hour to deliver the message and we were handsomely rewarded for our time. My wish was to continue our journey and be shed of the Marble as it was quite heavy.

We left the city after a short rest and made our way on to Trapezus. The trail was very picturesque, as it followed the coastline. The elephants had good footing, but were often wanting to stop to partake of choice looking grasses and shrubs and they had to be encouraged to keep moving.

In Trapezus our first priority was to locate the new owner of the Marble and we were pleasantly surprised at his generous payment ! Although after setting eyes on the daughter, we could easily understand his relief at finally getting her married off.

Just outside of Trapezus in the grassy hills we made camp and enjoyed a quiet evening at the tents of the esteemed Ahkal Teke breeder. He showed us some truely exquisite horses and after much haggling we came away with 2 pairs of outstanding horses.

As I write this missive, we are making ready to rest for the night in anticipation of our trip home.
I do hope its a swift and safe journey.

If any who read of this has had the good luck to have encountered Gaius Venator, a truely remarkable free merchant, please give greetings. It has been far too long since I have had word from Gaius and do hope that nothing is amiss in his journeys.

I bid everyone good speed and good luck!
---Libourc in Trapezus soon to be heading for Rome