Ferdinand

Ferdinand is a man of Rithmere and a cheating peddler that Lief, Jasmine, and Barda met at Rithmere.

The Shifting Sands
Ferdinand beckoned to Jasmine when she, Lief, and Barda entered Rithmere. He offered to buy Kree from her, needing a bird for his game, "Beat the Bird".

He was shown to be extremely greedy and cunning, even feigning disability by keeping a pair of crutches nearby. He appears only in the fourth book, where he operated a game called "Beat the Bird." It is a wheel-of-fortune type of game, with a bird (often a pigeon, which Ferdinand claims to have several of) will use its beak to spin the wheel. The wheel is divided into sections of either a number from one to ten or five pictures of a bird. If the wheel stops on a number, that is the number of coins the player wins (potentially allowing the player to earn a ten-coin profit). Landing on a bird results in winning a "worthless" wooden bird.

Ferdinand spotted Jasmine in a crowd at Rithmere and offered to buy Kree, with the reason being that his own bird just died. He reluctantly settled for having Kree spin his wheel thirty times for one silver coin. Ferdinand then displayed his act. By shouting in sorrow and disbelief whenever someone won his game, he tricked the crowd into continuing to play, while he lost very little. However, when Jasmine tried to take Kree back, Ferdinand leapt toward him, knocking his table over and exposing a pedal that could stop the wheel at Ferdinand's discresion. Ferdinand grabbed his wheel and bolted, leaving his crutches behind as the crowd took their money back.

Jasmine claimed one of Ferdinand's discarded wooden birds for herself, which proved very useful in reclaiming the Lapis Lazuli.

Anime
In the anime, Ferdinand did not offer to buy Kree, as he still had his own bird, and instead simply called Jasmine over and offered her a chance to play his game. Filli, not Kree, proved to be Ferdinand's undoing; he went under Ferdinand's table to eat food scraps, and snagged the cloth when he returned to Jasmine, overturning the table. Ferdinand did not have crutches in the anime.

Physical appearance
Ferdinand was a fat man with long, greasy hair and a hoarse voice. His eyes were small and he wore a large coin purse on his belt.

In the anime, Ferdinand was relatively small and thin, with brown eyes, a black and purple coat, and a dark hat. His hair was still long, dark, and greasy, but he also sported a thick mustache.

Personality
Ferdinand was a greedy and a skilled con-man. He had no moral qualms with cheating, lying, or pretending to be crippled to gain sympathy. When his bird died, Ferdinand's only worry was that he could not make money any more, and he even swung the pigeon's body by its feet and kicked it away. Ferdinand was somewhat cowardly, immediately fleeing when his scheme was uncovered. He mocked Jasmine for claiming to talk to birds and was prone to fits of over-the-top wailing and whining to try and gain sympathy.

Abilities
Ferdinand was a darkly clever man, skilled at misdirection and manipulating others to make the best profit. He knew how to play to a crowd, shrieking and making noise whenever he allowed a contestant to win his game, but keeping quiet when competitors lost, letting the crowd forget about them. His act was so convincing that even Lief was caught up in his spectacle and considered playing. Ferdinand's wheel was a surprisingly complicated piece of machinery, capable of being operated with a pedal attached to wires. The wheel was Ferdinand's primary source of income, and it was the only item that he made sure to take with him when he fled from the crowd in Rithmere.

Ferdinand was familiar with Rithmere and knew that he would quickly lose his spot if he moved away from his table. He owned at least two pigeons for use in his game, not including the pigeon that died in his care, and had lodgings somewhere in the city. Ferdinand was reasonably wealthy, owning a coin purse that bulged with silver pieces. He was able to run surprisingly quickly, despite his physique.

Trivia

 * Curiously, Ferdinand is one of the only few characters in the series shown to use contractions in their speech. During his brief appearance in The Shifting Sands, he uses nine in total. Barda used a contraction as well in The Forests in Silence, during the part where he and Lief are attacked by the Wenn. He says "Look ahead! Didn't I tell you-".
 * He has some similarities to Laughing Jack, being a greedy con artist. However, while he apparently abuses animals as well, he does not commit murder.