It took a few minutes. A few things bumped around up there and at least one thing fell over, startling or annoying a cat. Eventually the man came down carrying a large rolled-up map.
The man was fat about the middle and walked with a waddle. His arms and legs that seemed just a little bit too skinny for the rest of him. His face was round and ruddy and he smile jovially.
"Well, then, young man," Nicholaus said, "you'll want to follow me, then." Nicholaus moved through another door into a room of books. Matner followed.
There was a table with four chairs in the room. The walls were all lined with bookshelves. The room was small. Four people sitting around the table would leave little room for walking along the shelves. Nicholaus moved to a chair to one side of the door and spread the map across the table. The map itself was made of several hides. New hides had been sewn onto an original one as the map expanded.
"So, then, you don't know where you want to go, eh?" Nicholaus asked.
"Not really," Matner replied. "I have a wagon, and have been doing a little bit of trading, but I also want to explore. I'm looking for places with some civilization, meaning some people to trade with. But I'm also looking for something maybe a little more removed from New Callest. Somewhere pretty?"
