“Hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long?”

  It was a warm and clear afternoon, given the season, and the old carpenter came pushing a wheelbarrow down the road from town, to an eagerly awaiting crab.

  “John! Gd you could make it,” Balthazar cheerfully greeted.

  After the day he met with Ardville’s mayor, the roadside mert had been in much higher spirits, eborating on his pns for the future, and making all sorts of preparations.

  “I take it you have it there?” the crab asked, pointing to the wheelbarrow with a tarp over it.

  “Sure do,” replied John, grinning with his smoking pipe iween his teeth as he set the cart down.

  “Thanks fetting it done on such short notice,” Balthazar said. “I’m sure you were busy with other work.”

  “Ah, don’t mention it. I work old wagon wheels every day, so I’ll gdly take the opportunity to make something fancier when I .”

  Pulling the tarp off with a single move, the handyman revealed a rge, regur wooden sign sitting on the wheelbarrow.

  “Where do you want her?”

  “Right over there, please,” the excited crab said, pointing to a clear patch of dirt on the side of the road where his bazaar sign stood.

  “Hmm, I gotcha,” said John, pig up the sign with surprising ease, given its size.

  The seasoned wave the area a quice before putting the sign down, drawing a club hammer from his tool belt, and stig it to the ground with a handful of firm hits.

  “What do you think?” the man asked, stepping back to the side of the crab and looking at his finished work.

  The new and much rger sign stood above the older one, pointing the way to Balthazar’s Bazaar. It was made of sturdy, beautifully crafted wood and had a nice finish of varnish all around to protect it from the elements. On its front, the pond’s name had been carefully carved by the carpenter: Boulders Point.

  “It’s perfect,” Balthazar answered, staring at the sign with a smile.

  “Pretty fitting name, if you ask me,” John ented, looking around the pond’s area, and the many boulders surrounding it. “But something tells me it wasn’t just the envirohat made you choose it.”

  The crab’s smile did not fade, but it took on a slightly more bittersweet expression.

  “You must miss him a lot, don’t you?” the old carpenter said, pg his rough and calloused hand on Balthazar’s shell with a friendly pat.

  “I do,” said the crab with a sigh, before perking up again. “But I also haven’t given up on him, or Madeleine. Speaking of which, let’s go ihere are a few things I want to discuss that involve you, too.”

  “Oh? That so?” said John in an amused tone as he readjusted his pipe and followed the mert down into the bazaar.

  Iristan and Hea were already chatting while waiting for them.

  “I’m back with John,” Balthazar annouo them. “Let’s gather ‘round.”

  Quickly pulling up a chair for himself and a stool for the toad, Tristan joihe others at the table. Even Druma and Blue were nearby, watg by the ter.

  “So, are you going to tell us what’s this about now?” asked the green mert as she hopped up to her seat.

  “Yes, Hea and I have been throwing guesses over here while we waited, but I thiher of us is even close so far,” Tristan said. “She was vinced yoing to announce you’re eo a dy crab from a neighb pond.”

  “I was not!” the toad quickly excimed with an involuntary croak.

  “Alright, cut it out you two a me speak,” Balthazar said, as the two men chuckled and the amphibian sched up her mouth while trying to hide her blushing. “I’ve been p things, making pns and arras, and have finally decided: I’m going to leave this pond.”

  “What?!” Tristan and Hea excimed in unison.

  John tinued reing on his chair, puffing away at his pipe, his only rea a slight smirk.

  “Calm down,” said the crab. “I don’t mean leaving it food. I meant I will be leaving for a little while, to travel to some pces.”

  “Still,” said the toad, “I hought I’d see the day you’d willingly bring up the idea of leaving your home.”

  “Yes,” the human mert said, “if I was less sober I’d think I was hearing things. What could possibly lead you to make the decision of going…” Tristaured wildly with his arms at the entryway. “Out there? You always seemed to hate ahat wasn’t your pond.”

  “I have my reasons. Multiple reasons, in fact. But I’d expect you two to know the main ones. I io find the dragon’s ir a Madeleine back, as well as find a way t Bouldy back too.”

  The carpenter smirked even more openly and nodded approvingly.

  “You, Balthazar, io go into a dragon’s ir arieve a prisoner from it?” the incredulous toad asked. “Have you lost your mind?”

  “Hea, I don’t think we should judge him so harshly,” Tristan interjected. “I know if it was you the dragon took, I’d be marg on into that ir myself, too.”

  “Have you lost your mind too?!” she croaked.

  “Alright, enough,” the annoyed crab excimed. “This isn’t me asking for your permission or approval. I know what I am and what my limitations are. Still, I will get her back my own way. Just like I will find someone who help me restore Bouldy. There aren’t many people who know much about golemancy, but I know at least ohat has to know something useful, assuming I make him remember what his own name is first.”

  “That’s all fine and dandy,” said John, taking his pipe off his lip and leaning forward oable, “really happy for you, but as usual when I’m io sit around this table, I’m still w what this got to do with me.”

  “I was trying to get to that. I might be pnning to be gone for a while, but I still io e back, and I still want this bazaar to grow and thrive. For that, it will need some repairing. Maybe even more than just repairing. Now that we are going to be trade partners with Ardville, and with the whole night business with the non-humans slowly increasing as well, this pce could probably do with some upgrading and expanding. I want Boulders Point to bee a thriving trade hub.”

  “Hmm, I see,” the old carpenter mused as he sucked on his pipe and rings of white smoke floated out of it. “And you wao work this pce again, I take it?”

  “Yes,” firmed Balthazar. “You were the one who built it in the first pce, and I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do as good of a job again. I know it looks a bit rough right now, but believe me when I say, givehing it went through, the fact that even just a part of it is still standing shows how solid your work was.”

  The woodworker crossed one arm into the other and leaned back, looking around what remained of the gazebo, a rge portion of it exposed to the sky, only a small er pilr with a piece of ceiling still left standing. One of the heavy gates was still lying on the floor by the entrance, in one piece, but its hinges were pletely blown off. Over to one side of the room were some broken shelves stacked together, along with multiple chairs missing some legs. His eyes sed the floor, from the charred spot where lightning had struck, over to where the ter he had gifted to the crab was, somehow pletely unscathed, an intrigued drake and an attentive goblin sitting by it, watg the discussion.

  “Ah, alright, o ftter me,” John said. “It’s a lot of work, but I’d be lying if I said I don’t enjoy the challenge. I just o know what work you need me to do.”

  “Excellent!” the excited crab said. “I’ve drawn some pns already, but I’ll leave them and the rest of the decisions to those who will be in charge of the bazaar while I’m gone.” He turo the other two at the table. “Which leads me to the other part. Tristan, Hea, I’d like you two to look after my business until I e back.”

  The human and the toad looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

  “Now that’s something I’d never expect,” said Hea.

  “I’m… I’m honored you’d trust me so much, Balthazar,” Tristan said with several blinks of surprise.

  “Are you sure you’re feeling alright?” asked the toad. “You are not sounding like the crab we know at all. Any fever? Dizziness? You still haven’t told us how you lost your shiny chitin. Is this some siess getting to you?”

  Balthazar groaned.

  “I’m not sick! I told you, the gold shell was just a temporary imbuing. I’ll get around to getting it again when I have time. Now stop asking about it!” The crab cleared his throat and tried tain his posure. “There’s nothing wrong with me. I’ve just been doing a lot of… refleg and learning from things. I’m trying to do better and to be better. To be less… crabby.” He rolled his eye stalks. “ you just appreciate the effort without making it more difficult than it already is for me?”

  Hea let out a soft chuckle, followed by a smile. Not in mockery, but simply in approving aowledgment.

  “You’re right. I’m gd for you, Balthazar. Still strao see, but not in a bad way.”

  “Thank you…” said the crab. “Anyway, so, if you two agree to it, I’d like Tristan to handle all the es between us and Ardville, while you, Hea, look after the bazaar down here. I realize this might be a big task for you, and while I tried to vince him to stay, Druma insists on going with me, so you might o get extra help. I’ll trust your choice, but please, just promise me, no adventurers w at my bazaar. I don’t want to e back to find a big crater in its pce.”

  The toad let out a croaked ugh and nodded in agreement.

  Tristan stood up, walked up to the crab, and firmly gripped his pincer with both hands.

  “Thank you. Thank you so much fiving me a ce, even when I was at my lowest. I promise you I won’t let you down. I will do everything to turn this pto the most successful trading hub this world has ever seen.”

  Balthazar smiled awkwardly as the man shook his cw up and down.

  “Please, just keep things running smoothly until I e bad that will be plenty good with me. Now please stop, you’re making this way too awkward for me.”

  “Well,” said John as he stood up from his chair, “real happy for you and your fellows, and I wish you safe travels, crab, but if that will be all, you just dropped a lot of work on my hands so I…”

  The old carpenter’s words trailed off as he slowly turned his head to the way outside.

  The sounds of steps approag came from the road, more and more as they got closer, until the group in the bazaar heard the rumbling of dozens of boots marg dowh to the frorand stopping.

  Balthazar looked around at everyone else with a fused frown, before they all hurried to the gate to find out what was happening.

  A rge crowd stood outside, several dozen adventurers packed together on the narrow dirt road leading down to the bazaar, from the heavily armored warriors to the fa robed wizards.

  “You didn’t think we’d just let you leave like that, did you?”