M had e, and the sun was well on its to the highest point in the sky, but Balthazar was he wiser to that, as he was still fast asleep on his purple cushion, both of his pincers hanging off the sides, a stain of drool staining the fabric.

  He occasionally twitched and mumbled, his mind dwelling in dreams filled with sugary treats and piles of shiny gold s.

  In the background of all those, his beloved pond, beautiful and enting as ever, but also not quite the same. The vegetation was different and more vibrant, seasons had e and gohe weather was no lohe same summer tone he had growo. The acacia tree that marked the very ter of his domain also looked more alive and verdant than it ever had, despite its old age.

  Staring off into the distance, Balthazar admired the snoed mountain that stood behind his nd and from which the waters that filled his pond flowed.

  Closer than all that, however, was the trading post, which was no longer just aform, but a full building with walls and windows. The crab found it strange. He had never been inside a building, only read about them, and seen drawings in books, yet it still felt fortable and safe. Like a home.

  The background sound of a crowd talking, ughing, and moving around grew higher and broke his attention away from the back of his trading post.

  Turning around, the mert saw the inside of the building crowded with many figures, each doing their own thing without directly paying him any mind.

  His trading post now looked like a proper shop, like those he had heard existed in towns. Proper, beautifully crafted shelves covered the walls, all manner of goods filling them. Dispy stands dotted the area, with armors and clothing of all types and qualities. Everywhere he looked, something new and iing grabbed his attention, from new books to items he had never seen before, begging to be examined.

  Balthazar strolled through the room, watg familiar faces everywhere he looked.

  Off by a er, Madeleine utting down a rge tray of cookies on a table, with a radiant smile on her face. Sitting at the table were a handful of adventurers, Rye among them, eagerly reag for the tray as they all cheered her.

  Close to the ter of the room, lying on a pile of pillows, Blue rejoiced as three young girls that looked to be adventurers were joyfully petting and pampering her with a giddy excitement.

  Looking towards another er, the crab spotted Druma showing off his staff stao an amused Tweedus, who stood by with his hands behind his back, chug at the goblin.

  Hearing a loud cm from nearby, Balthazar pushed through a small crowd of random adventurers, and much to his surprise, what he saw was the orc chieftain, Khargol, sitting at a table, a small group of other orcs behind him, cheering loudly, as he arm wrestled a muscur human adventurer sitting opposite of him, an exhirated crowd of his own surrounding his side. Everyone was ughing and ting for their favorite to win, as they both struggled t the other’s arm down, with defiant smirks on their faces.

  Spinning around, the surprises tinued, with Tom, the skeleton, standing by the front door chatting with John, the carpeheir versation was imperceptible under all the other loud chatter, but whatever it was, they seemed to be having a great time, going by the stant ughter and chug.

  The gilded crab did not fully uand the sario he found himself in, but he felt tent, ae the oddness of it all, things just felt right.

  Just as an open smile began f on his fad he started sidering who he wao join first, something startled Balthazar.

  The wooden floorboards under him began vibrating lightly, a rumbling quickly f from it. He couldn’t tell what was causing it, but a feeling of panic rapidly grew within him. He knew something bad was ing, he just did not know what.

  As he turned around, the whole room was suddey, everyone who had filled it just a moment befohout a trace.

  The tremrew even closer. It was ing from the outside, and with his heart pounding in his shell, the crab skittered to the door.

  The daylight flooding in through the open door frame blinded him as he ran towards it. Balthazar brought an arm up to shield his eyes, but it was as if the blinding light only grew more intense, until he could see nothing else.

  ***

  Balthazar jolted up from his pillow, his groggy eyes struggling to adapt to the brightness of the daylight flooding into his tent, his mouth opening and closing, trying to recover from its dryness.

  “Gah, how te is it?!” he said to himself. “Damn it, I must have overslept. Was I dreaming? Ah, who cares. If I ’t remember it, then it must not have been important.”

  Stepping out of the tent, the crab looked up at the sky.

  “Oh crap, that’s more than half the m lost!” he excimed. “Why the hell did no one wake me up?”

  He looked around, looking for ao bme nearby, but not even the drake was on her cushion, which was ued from the creature who spent most of the day napping.

  Looking further off into the distance, Balthazar realized there was a big ge in his territory.

  The roof over his trading post was no longer just ay frame, but a fully firucture.

  Excited to look closer, the crab rushed across the bridge to the other side.

  The ptform was now more like a very rge gazebo, its thick six support beams holding a snted hexagonal roof covered with dozens of wooden shingles and ending on a small pointy cupo at the very top.

  Emerging from the opposite side of the roof, Blue climbed to the top, her cws gripping the iron tip of the tral hub as she let out a screech that seemed to decre approval for her new perg spot.

  Turning the er came Druma, running from the worksite area towards Balthazar.

  “Boss, boss! We finish roof for boss!” the goblin proudly announced, jumping up and down.

  “I see that,” the crab said. “How e you all let me sleep this te, though? I must have lost tons of busihis m.”

  “Boss stay up te because of skeleton,” said the assistant. “Druma no want ky boss all day, so Druma let boss sleep. And we want to surprise boss with finished roof when boss wake up. We tell humans we close for renovation, e baorrow.”

  “Uh… thanks… I guess? Not sure how I feel about the whole thing, but I guess your iions were in the right pce, so I’m just going to leave it alone. Where is John?”

  “Right here,” the old woodworker announced, rounding the same er Druma had e from, with Bouldy passing close behind, carrying a rge wooden beam on his shoulder.

  “There you are,” Balthazar said to the carpenter. “I see you’ve fihe roof while I was sleeping. Once again, I saw none of it being built. That sure is a big ce, don’t you think?”

  “Again, I don’t get what you’re pining about,” the other responded. “The work is good and was fast. Isn’t that good enough for you? Let’s go on in. I want to show you a few things.”

  “Yes, I guess this isn’t the right time to be pining. This looks pretty good from the outside. Ied in seeing the inside.”

  The crab and the carpeepped onto the deck, the shade provided by the new roof making the whole trading post much darker than Balthazar was used to.

  “As you see if you look up there,” John started, pointing up at each cardinal point of the roof, “we hung some iron nterns from the ceiling with s that each run doilr over there, allowing them to be lowered to light ainguish as needed.”

  “Oh, pretty . I like it,” Balthazar said, looking up at the whole system and nodding.

  “I’ve also repced the feng around the whole pce with something sturdier,” the carpenter tinued, “and made a taller and stronger feh a gate for this entrance area here leading down from the road, so you lock things down and keep nosy people from strolling in whenever you’re closed.”

  “Great! I like it!”

  “Also, I took the liberty of doing something a little extra,” the old man said, walking to the far end of the trading post. “Your little green friend may not be the most skilled builder, but I still wouldn’t feel right killing his spirit by repg the furniture he made with better ones. Instead, I decided to make something brand new with his help that I thought you could use.”

  Balthazar walked around a stack of crates and saw the man stop o a long wooden ter and give its surface a gentle sp.

  “A proper shop should have a ter for its mert to stand behind while receiving his ts,” John said with a smile between his thick beard.

  “Oh, wow, this is just like the ones in all those fancy shops I’ve read about,” the impressed mert said, admiring the fine craft and finish of the ter. It was without a doubt a substantial step up from the crudely crafted pieces made by the goblin alone. “And you say Druma helped you make it?”

  “He sure did. Well, mostly it was me, but he still helped. His major tributio into something else. Check behind the ter.”

  Balthazar walked around the new piece of furniture and found a stool. Not just a regur stool like the others he already had, but a wider one, with a snt on the back for access and at the right height to aodate a crab rather than a human.

  “Now we’re talking!” the excited crab said, hopping oool and pg his pincers on the ter’s surface. “I actually reach it this way. Very nice.”

  “Thank your assistant,” John said. “I mainly just gave him the instrus. The work was mostly his.”

  “I will,” said Balthazar. “But speaking of work, you fihe whole job and I’m just now remembering you’ve mao dodge talking about the payment this whole time. Is this the part where things go sour and you try to charge me a ridiculous price for something I ’t return? Because I must warn you, I’m not an easy crab to haggle with.”

  The grizzly old man chuckled.

  “Don’t you worry, crab. There’s a good reason why I didn’t want to talk about a payment before. It’s because I never inteo charge you anything at all.”

  “You what?!” the incredulous crab yelled out. “You're crazy? I like free as much as the mert, but I also know there’s no such thing as free work. What’s the catch? If you ask me for one of my legs, I swear I’ll break this stool in two on your head.”

  “No catch, you have my word. I have my own reasons why I don’t want to charge you.”

  “And what would those be?” the suspiert questioned.

  “I hear what goes around in town. Everybody’s been catg wind of your feud with our esteemed mert master and how much of a thorn in his side you’ve bee.”

  “Alright, maybe so, but what’s it to you?”

  “You think you and your drunken friend are the only ones who’ve been wronged by Antoine before?” the man said. “That sniveling coward stepped over a lot of people on his way to where he is today.”

  John leaned over the ter aed a shoulder on it while staring off into the distant waterfall.

  “I used to have a nice carpentry workshht in the middle of the ercial district up in town years ago. But unfortunately for me, it happeo be o his damn emporium, and soon after he became its full proprietor, he decided the pce wasn’t big enough and he wao expand it. My workshop was in the way of his pns, so he bribed, bckmailed, and maniputed his way into getting me kicked out of the shop so he could tear it down. I worked in that pce every day for over two decades, aook that away from me simply because of his greed and need frandeur.”

  “Oh. I’m... sorry. I didn’t know,” Balthazar said, feeling awkward. “If Antoine had his way, he’d ru of my beloved pond too, so I guess I… uand how you feel.”

  “Exactly,” the old man said, turning back to fag the crab, a sorrowful smile on his weathered face. “When that Tristan feller came looking for me for a job at the talking crab’s pce, I decided I wao e see what kind of character you really were. Judge for myself if you were as good or as bad as people ent.”

  “Oh,” Balthazar said. “And?”

  “You might not be a bundle of joy,” John said, “but my gut told me very early on you got a good heart somewhere down there. And I tend to trust my gut.”

  “Yes, I tend to do the same,” the crab said. “Especially when it tells me to eat more pie.”

  The carpenter chuckled.

  “Well, there you have it. Once I decided what my opinion of you was, I khere was no way I’d charge you anything for the job. It might not have anything to do with Antoine directly, but anything that helps you setting up your pce better is sure to annoy and frustrate that arrogant bag of wind, and that brings me great joy.”

  “Well then,” Balthazar started, “I’m not totally sure what to say to that, but I appreciate the se.”

  “Bah,” the old man said, pushing himself off the ter, “just say you’ll keep giving him a hard time and we’ll call that my payment for the job. How does that sound for a budget?”

  “As rare as it is for me to say this,” said the mert, “that is one price I’m happy to pay. You got yourself a deal.”

  “Good to hear. Give him hell, crab,” the man said. “But for now, I think my work here is done and I o go bae and give these old bones a rest.”

  “Right,” the crab said, getting down from the stool and walking around the ter to apany the carpenter. “I guess the least I do is say thanks. The roof really came out great, even though I still have no idea how you did any of it.”

  “Oh, I almost fot,” said John, stopping by a crate and pulling something from behind it. “I had a of wood left while w the other day and it looked perfect for a nice sign to hang outside your entrance, so I figured I’d turn it into one and give to you, in case you have any use for it.”

  The old man hahe ft piece of wood to Balthazar, who took it into his two pincers.

  “You know, John, this is actually perfect,” he said to the man. “I wao finally give this pce a name, and this will be perfect for that.”

  “Well, there you go, gd I could be of help on that, too. Just please tell me you will not put ‘emporium’ on the he grizzly old man joked.

  “Oh no, don’t worry, I won’t. I had something else in mind,” the mert said, gazing at the wooden pque’s empty surface with a smile. “What do you think of… Balthazar’s Bazaar?”

  H0st