Teeluan-Ku Trading
"Beeble-wop pretty in hair give please beeble-wop." - A Teeluan-Ku
As a sage studying the Teeluan-Ku, I have become fascinated by their trading behavior. The extremely valuable items they will trade for mere baubles as well as the serious way they go about it makes this conduct particularly worth studying. I can't help but feel if we could unravel its mysteries we would be able to unravel many of their inextricable customs.
History
Over a thousand years of Sidhe records mention the Teeluan-Ku's desire to trade valuable items for trinkets. Like so many things that don't interest them, they dismissed the behavior as meaningless trivia. The earliest Human sailors mention this behavior as a note in a captain's log. In both cases, Teeluan-Ku trading was a rare event.
It was not until humans started whaling intensively that the Teeluan-Ku would approach ships as frequently as we see them today. This also corresponds to when sailors started coming across strange monuments made of sky whale bones floating in the Sky Sea. Today, it is rare for a month to pass when a ship is not approached for one of the passengers' belongings.
Execution
This ritual starts when one or sometimes as many as three Teeluan-Ku fly onto a ship. Usually, they will land within a few feet of the person they wish to trade with. They will start squawking and pointing at an object: a piece of jewelry, a scarf, maybe a hand tool. While these items seem to range from worthless to quite valuable, the bird people treat them all as if they are desperately important. If the person gives the Teeluan-Ku the item they indicate, they will take it with great rejoicing and leave rapidly.
However, I suggest instead refusing them their prize. The bird person will likely ask again, pitifully begging like an ill-bred lap dog. Be firm. The Teeluan-Ku will fly off whining. As long as the ship doesn't make any strange course changes, they will return in less than a day. They will bring with them an item of real value. Some reliable reports have them bringing a carved piece of mana worth more than a pound of gold, an alexandrite crystal as long as a man's hand, and a fist-sized rose carved out of pure fire diamond. They will again ask in their babbling way for the item they wish to trade for. At the same time, they will thrust the item they brought at the owner of the item they want. If you accept the deal, they will fly off just as happy as if they paid nothing for the trinket.
Do take what the Teeluan-Ku bring for trade. If you refuse to trade when they come a second time, they will leave after again begging but will not return with grander treasures. It is clear they understand the concept of trade but their lack of understanding of the relative value of items makes it seem unlikely they are capable of negotiation. Also, I recommend against theft. Beyond the moral issues, the one report I have of someone stealing the Teeluan-Ku's treasure, the ship woke up with the hull caked in noxious sky whale feces.
I have tried to find out what the TeeLuan-Ku do with the traded objects. Some have been seen on their strange whalebone monuments. They are never seen wearing the items. Interestingly no one reports having been traded anything but natural and Teeluan-Ku-made items. It is something I hope to study further.
Components and tools
I wish I could tell you what items will strike their fancy since the rewards of trading with the Teeluan-ku are so great. They do seem to have a preference for shiny things. Even so, they will sometimes ignore a highly polished silver broach for a battered steel knife. They never seem to go for anything that can't be carried by a single hand though that might have more to do with them flying off with it than with any true size preference.
Observance
I have been trying to make sense of when these trading sessions happen and as of yet, I have not been able to. There are months when I hear of a dozen or more happening. Conversely, there was a whole year when I couldn't find a single trade. I have plotted these trades against the number of whales harvested but the correlation is weak at best. Like all things related to these strange bird people, there is a great deal of complexity that we don't recognize.
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