The crab hid among the rocks by the roadside, blending in almost perfectly, save for the fact that none of them were blindingly shiny and golden as his carapace.

  Gazing up towards the town gates, Balthazar awaited for any signs of the toad. He khat had to be the dire she would e from. He just wao firm it with his own eyes.

  Unfortunately for him, the edge of his boundaries around the pond still very much filled him with a sense of paralyzing dread when approached, and Balthazar had no i in experieng that feeling again. Standing a good dozen paces away from it was as close as he was going to get.

  “If only I could go up there and catch you leaving town,” he muttered to himself, “then you’d have no way to deny it.”

  Under him was a small handkerchief, unfolded to reveal a handful of crumpets that the crab quietly munched on as he watched the road. His determination—and obsession—towards his rival was s, he was willing to have his breakfast between some rocks on the side of a road, like some wild animal.

  Just as the st bite of a delicious crumpet went down his gullet, Balthazar spotted movement ing down the grass from the dire of the city gates.

  With a hop, Hea emerged, the green Bag of Holding tied around her.

  Just as soon as she made it far enough down the road to cross the invisible area Balthazar knew he couldn’t pass, the crab jumped out from behind his hiding spot and onto the middle of the road, o the passing toad.

  “Goodness gracious!” she croaked, giving a startled hop back. “What are you doing?! Nearly made my heart e out of my mouth!”

  “Well, well, well. If it isn’t our new mert,” the smug crab said. “ing down from your marsh? Wait, no, that ’t be. There’s no s that way, only Ardville. Now that’s odd. Why would you be ing down from there, huh?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Hea said, restarting her hopping down the road.

  “Oh e, we both know that you do,” Balthazar insisted, following her. “They don’t allow random talking animals to just walk into town like that, so that begs the question of what were you doing up there? Got someoo visit there?”

  “I have no idea what you’re trying to insinuate, but I don’t have to ao you. I’d suggest you leave me aloo my business now,” said the toad, hopping her to her stand’s ter and taking off her bag.

  “And I’d suggest you buzz off my road and go somewhere else, but you won’t, will you?” the crab retorted. “So, I’m also free to do whatever I want around here. And that includes asking where are you going and ing from every day, with fresh o y. Seems to me like you’ve got a supplier, maybe even a patron, behind your business. Is that nht, hmm?”

  The toad begaing. Or perhaps that was just her natural skin moisture. It was difficult to tell. Just like it was hard to tell if her eyes were looking around nervously, or simply ag like regur toad eyes. Balthazar chose to believe she was growing unfortable about his questions.

  “What? Got nothing to say, frog?” the fident crab said to the toad.

  “Balthazar, buddy, there you are!” a r and slurred voice shouted from up the road.

  Turning around, the golden mert saw Tristan stumbling his way towards them with a rolled-up piece of part firmly grasped in his hand.

  “I couldn’t wait t you the good news!” the drunk excimed, holding the paper tube high above his head. “I got the deed right here!”

  “Alright, Tristan, great, but you maybe not shout it so loudly? We—”

  “The old dy was tough as nails,” the man tinued, ign everything else around him, “but in the end, I closed the deal. And for the 2,500 gold, too. Hah! This old mert still got it!”

  “Fine, fine, but you tell me all about it once we’re ihe crab said, gesturing for the other to shush. “I’m in the middle of an intimidatiht now. I almost had it, and you are kind of throwing me off now.”

  “Oh… oooh! I’m sorry!” Tristan said in a hushed voice. “I didn’t realize you were doing that. But who are y to intimidate?”

  The fused drunkard squinted his misty eyes as he looked around before finally nding his gaze ooad sitting iall behind the crab.

  “Tristan?” the green mert said with hesitation and a hint of surprise.

  The man’s eyes squinted even harder at her. “Hea?”

  “You know her?!” Balthazar asked, looking bad forth between them.

  “I do,” said Tristan, still staring at the toad. “She was the innkeeper across the street from our emporium ba the day. She was quite attractive, too, but… there’s something different about her now. I ’t quite put my finger on what, though.”

  “Eww, she’s a frog!” Balthazar excimed, looking disgusted.

  “I’m a toad, not a frog,” Hea said, rolling her eyes.

  “That’s it!” the drunk yelled, smag his fist against his open palm. “I knew something looked different! She used to be a human!”

  “Eww, she’s a human?” the crab asked, looking even more disgusted.

  “Yes, or at least I think so. Memory’s a bit hazy sometimes,” Tristan said. “What happeo you, Hea?”

  The toad’s eyes gazed down at the road, her expression looking sad and ashamed. “Oh, Tristan. So much. It’s been a long time.”

  “Does someone mind expining to me what the hell is going on?!” Balthazar blurted out. “How do you know her? And more importantly, how did she end up down here being a thorn in my side?”

  “I told you,” Tristan said, “I knew her from the inn across from our emporium back when Antoine and I were getting started as business partners. You know, way back before he... ruined my reputation. Hea owned a nice, cozy little inn with a tavern. I used to go there every night for some mead. Then, after Antoiabbed me in the bad took everything from me, I… I just stopped showing my face around that part of town for a while. Some time ter I found out the inn had closed, never really heard anything about her again, figured she might have left town, or something.”

  Hea tiariily at the wooden surface she stood on, with a look of mencholy as she listeo Tristan’s words.

  “What happened?” he asked the toad. “How did you end up like… that?”

  She sighed, still avoiding eye tact. “I… I ’t really talk about it.”

  “But why not?” said Tristan.

  “This versation was already enough of a mistake. I wish you wouldn’t have reized me. Please, just fet you saw me.” She g the crab. “I might have already ruihings too much at this point. Best I say nothing else.”

  “e on now, Hea, you know me,” the man said, his baggy eyes and cheeks sagging as he frowned. “Maybe a little less drunk, aer looking, but surely you still know you trust me. Tell me what happened.”

  She opened her mouth, but hesitated to speak, as her gaze went to Balthazar once again.

  “And you trust him too,” Tristan said.

  “She ?!” the crab excimed, looking surprised at the drunk.

  “He’s all crabby and rough around the edges,” the man tinued, ign the question, “but he’s good, I promise. If this has anything to do with Antoirust me, we’re all on the same side.”

  “Are you sure?” the toad asked. “He’s been nothing but unpleasant to me since I got here.”

  “Well, you were sent here by my nemesis to screw with my business. What did you expect? Tea and crumpets?!” the ed crusta said.

  “Don’t mind him, he’s just a little hot-blooded sometimes,” said Tristan.

  “No, I’m not! Do they teach you nothing about crustas in your schools?!”

  “Go ahead, tell us everything,” the other tinued, paying no mind to the crab’s ranting.

  “Alright, if you promise, Tristan… I’ll trust you,” Hea said with a sigh. “You know, back when the whole thing with you and the mayor happened, I knew something didn’t sound right about it. I never liked that partner of yours. He always felt skeevy and untrustworthy to me. When all that unpleasant business at the mayor’s house came out and everyone was talking horrible things about you, I didn’t believe it. I khat had Antoine’s finger on it, that he must have finally pulled one on you.”

  Tristan nodded gently as he made a sad smile. “Thank you. I should have known at least you would believe in me, Hea.”

  She returned his smile before tinuing. “Of course, soon after he took over yuys’ emporium, he began making moves to expand and take over whatever he saw fit. He started putting pressure on the neighb shops to sell so he could expand the building, even mao throw that old carpenter out from his workshop up the street, if you believe that. And then, of course, one day he walked into my inn, suggesting I sell it to him, stay in my own pce as a tenant, w for him, paying most of my profits to him, just to fall in lih his expansion.”

  “His greed just doesn’t know any limits,” Tristan said, shaking his head.

  “Well, you know me, I ain’t oo take stuff like that home,” she tinued. “I said a good few things and basically told him to go graze with the goats. Of course, fancy boy didn’t like that. He started putting the squeeze on me and my business. First with thugs trying to intimidate me, then causing trouble iavern. This went on for months, but you know what kind of woman I am, Tristan. I wasn’t going to break to mister fancy-silk-pants.”

  “Damn right, Hea!” the former mert excimed, waving a fist in front of himself.

  “Except when it started going around that some lowly innkeeper was embarrassing the brand new guildmaster, it became personal, and he made it a mission to get what he wao make a point for everyone else. For a while, I thought he might really have someone, you know…” She rolled her eyes bad twisted her o the side with a croak. “But no, he’s petty and malicious. He didn’t just want me gone, he wao punish me for standing up to him. So, I ter found he hired an adventurer passing through town, some bck-haired witch.”

  “Uh-oh,” Balthazar said. “Let me guess: the witch’s name was Velvet.”

  “Yes. How did you know?” the surprised toad asked.

  “Let’s just say I’ve had the displeasure.”

  “Well, anyhow,” Hea tinued, “he paid the witch to do some bck magic stuff that witches do, not like I uand any of it, and then had his thugs grab me behind the inn one night. They put a bag over my head and took me to a basement, and… and well, you guess the rest. The witch’s curse left me like this.”

  The toad sighed as she looked down. Tristan briefly gestured towards her, as if wanting to fort her, but unsure of how. As failing him, he finally found the words to speak.

  “Damn him. Damn him to hell!” the ragged man said, sounding much more assertive and clear than his usual drunk self. “Just when I thought I couldn’t resent him more, he finds a new low. All this time, people just assumed you had sold the inn to him aown with a big payout without saying anything to anyone.” He shook his head, his expressiid and bitter. “Surely there’s a way to reverse that curse, or whatever it is he had the witch do to you?”

  “Oh, hun,” Hea said, “I’ve spent so long in a cage in Antoine’s basement, bei as a pet for him to toy with whenever his day goes wrong. He made sure to remien how only he could have the curse reversed. That without his say, I’d be stuck like this forever. To break my will and keep me in line.” She closed her eyes as if she couldn’t bear to face the other two. “And it worked. Over time, I stopped trying to escape, to defy him. When one day he walked into that basement, looked at me through the bars of that cage, and told me he had a task for me, that he would let me go back to being my old self if I did everythiold me, I… didn’t hesitate. That’s why I’m here, doing his biding. He doesn’t even need a leash, because he knows I ’t get away from him, if I ever hope to return to normal. Look what he did to me! In the end, he always gets what he wants.”

  She turned around, attempting to hide the tear that had just rolled down her rough green skin.

  Tristan looked distraught, as if part of him wae, while another wao sob with her.

  Meanwhile, Balthazar stood on the side, watg them both with a sore lump in his throat. He was so ied in hating Hea and exposiies to Antoine, but now that he had learhe truth, the crab felt foolish and embarrassed. pared to her woes, his grudge with the guildmaster felt small and insignifit.

  “He won’t get away with it forever, Hea,” Tristan said, finally breaking the silehat had set between them. “I’ve spent long enough feeling sorry for myself. It’s about time I do something about that two-faced traitor. If not for me, then maybe for you.” He turo Balthazar. “And believe it or not, this crab here is our best ally against him. Join us, help us get back at him.”

  “But… the curse,” the toad said, trying to tain her sobbing.

  “Oh, my dear, I thought I had it bad, spending the st few years in a stant stupor, from tavern to tavern, hating myself. Iy, you were the one who really had it worse. He really did your head in while he held you prisoner. You know, you must know, that whatever Antoine promised you is a lie. He will never willingly reverse the curse.”

  “He might not, but perhaps the witch will,” Balthazar said, finally finding the will to break the lump in his throat. “I’ve entered her before, and I’m sure I will again. If there is a way to undo what’s been doo you, we will get it out of her.”

  “You… you want to help me?” the dy toad said, looking at the crab in disbelief. “After everythiween us the st few days?”

  “Yes, well, that was… before,” the other mert said, darting his eye stalks around to avoid looking at the toad. “Let’s just not make a big deal out of that and move on, alright?”

  “See? I told you,” Tristan said to the former innkeeper. “We help. Don’t go back to Antoihere will be nothing other than a cage waiting for you there.”

  Hea took a deep, shaky breath. “You’re right. I don’t know how I’ve been fooling myself for so long, but no more. I thought I was all alone, but now that I’ve found you, Tristan, I… I think I do this. Whatever it is you fels are cooking up, I’m in.”

  “Great!” the human rejoiced. “You will nret it, you’ll see. But, speaking of which, Balthazar… what exactly is it we are cooking?”

  “Not cooking, Tristan. We are baking,” Balthazar said, a smile ing onto his face. “I want you to go back to town and tact a few people. I think it’s time we get together and start getting anized.”

  H0st