Balthazar sat by the edge of the water, leisurely swirling the tip of his cw over the pond’s surface, idly musing over his surroundings. It had been days since he had even seen a bird around his pond. Maybe they were migrating, maybe it was Blue sg them away. Whatever it was, he didn’t care, he was just happy to not see them.

  A short distance away, his three carefree panions pyed around with each other. Bouldy smiled as Blue spread her wings wide, perched up on his shoulder, releasing a screech that would no doubt make any birds who heard it tremble oiny little legs. On the golem’s other shoulder, Druma held on to his friend’s neck with one hand, while pumping the other up into the air and jumping up and down, h with satisfa.

  The crab chuckled at how easily amused they were, but for some reason, he was also finding himself amused by their joy. It was still a strange feeling to a crusta that, until just a few short months prior, would have beely a the idea of any loud ruckus disturbing his pead quiet.

  Gazing at the other shore, Balthazar spotted the pond’s inhabitant, Hea, happily sleeping on a floating lily pad, her nefting aing slightly with each breath.

  Being the one looking after the bazaar at night meant that by the time Balthazar woke up in the m to start his day, the toad was more than ready to go to sleep herself. She didn’t seem to mind the schedule, however, and business, while still fairly quiet at those hours, had started pig up. Acc to her, at least two different groups of gnomes had sheepishly e by at dusk to ask if they sold any sugar there, and two nights before, she mao sell a pair of scissors to some extremely hairy creature she could not name.

  All things sidered, his business was expanding well. It was just a matter of giving it time and also move forward with his rger pns.

  Perfectly on cue, a familiar voice sounded from behind the mert, stirring him away from his thoughts.

  “Hey there, partner!” said a very cheerful Tristan. “I didn’t wake you there, did I?”

  “No, no. Of course not,” Balthazar quickly said in a groggy voice as he stood up and turo his drunken associate. “I was just thinking. P. You know, just p on my pond.”

  As the crab gave the man a better look, something stood out to him. He was not wearing his usual ragged clothes, full of moth holes and their colors faded from years of overuse. He had on a nicer jacket, with a green handkerchief stig out of the pel pocket, and a tight-fitting undercoat vest with most of its buttons straining to keep both sides together.

  “You like it?” Tristan asked, notig Balthazar’s gaze and doing a quick spin with both arms open. “I got the jacket at a sed hand sale, good price. The vest is an old piece I had pletely fotten I even had. I haven’t worn it in years, but it still looks pretty good on me, don’t you think?”

  The golden crab eyed him up and down once more. “Yes, very… nice.”

  Being in a nice mood that m, Balthazar couldn’t find it in himself to ruin Tristan’s high spirits with a sarcastient. It felt almost odd passing up on the opportunity, but it didn’t bother him as much as he thought it would.

  “Say, buddy, is Hea around here?” the nicely dressed man inquired. Balthazar couldn’t help but notice his speech also seemed far less slurred than usual.

  “Yes, she is. Right across the pond, sleeping on that lily pad over there.”

  “ht, night shift hours. Damn, I fot about that,” Tristan said, rubbing one hand down his face.

  “Did you… shave?” Balthazar asked, notig the ck of a five o'clock shadow on his face. “What’s going on with you, Tristan?”

  “What? Just trying to look a bit niow that my life is finally turning around. I’ve been down in the slumps for too long. It’s about damn time I pulled myself back up onto my feet.”

  “Mhmm, right,” said Balthazar with a slow nod. “I’m sure this has nothing to do with impressing a certain innkeeper either, does it?”

  “What? No. Well, maybe. What if it does? I’ll have you know she was quite the looker back before… you know, the whole toad thing. And I have faith she will one day go back to be her normal self, with our help, and when she does… well, I’d like her to have a good impression of me.”

  Balthazar stared at the smiling man, looking across the water at the lily pads oher side with a twinkle in his eyes. The crab felt almost… happy for him.

  He shook his shell. What a strange day to be feeling so many strange new feelings.

  “I think it’s almost the time she usually wakes up for lunyway, so go wake her up, I bet she won’t mind,” said Balthazar. “Before you do, however, I got a couple of things I need you to do in town for me.”

  “Ah, more tasks for your associate?” Tristan said with a smile, casting his eyes away from the toad and back to the crab. “What do you need me to do?”

  “First, I need you to purchase these items from an apothecary.” The golden mert pulled a folded piece of part from between a stack of books nearby that he had been reading earlier.

  “No problem, I do that,” Tristan said, taking the list and quickly looking through it. “Hey, wait, how did you write this with those big pincers of yours?”

  “I didn’t. I had an adventurer jot those down for me in exge for a small dist,” Balthazar expined, while handing him a small purse for the purchase. “Sed, I want you to go to the town offices and find the man in charge there, Mr. Abernathy.”

  “Wow there, partner,” the other said, raising his eyebrows, “what do you want with a tax collector? Usually we merts try to see them as little as possible.”

  “Yes, I know, but don’t worry, I haven’t lost my mind and decided to suddenly start voluntarily paying taxes to Ardville. He’s also the one in charge of other town matters, is he not? So, since I assume the mayor of Ardville isn’t just about to e dowo talk to a crab, I want to present my offer to Abernathy first, so that he rey it to the mayor.”

  “I see. So this must be about your pn to turn your pce here into a trading hub of sorts, right?”

  “You got it,” Balthazar said. “So you go up there a him know Balthazar wants to make a proposal that should i him. He will remember me.”

  “Alright, you got it, partner! I’ll get it doristan said with a joking salute.

  “Oh yes, almost fot. You take care of these things and I’ll let you have a sip of that Babaurhum you love as usual.”

  “No need,” Tristan said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

  “I’m sorry, what?” Balthazar asked in disbelief.

  “We’re business partners,” Tristan expined. “You don’t o pay me for each thing like a job. Besides, to be pletely ho with you… I’m trying to let go of my bad drinking habits. I’m a new man. I need new habits. Better habits. Like I said earlier, I’ve been in the slumps for too long, most of it drunk out of my mind.” He gnced across the pond again for a moment. “I don’t want that to be how everyone sees me anymore.”

  This time, there was no avoiding it. Balthazar really felt happy for the man. What a strange day that was shaping up to be.

  “You know what, Tristan? Good for you! Now go on and pay Hea a visit. You take care of these things ter when you go back to town.”

  “Thanks, Balthazar!”

  The crab watched the not-so-drunk-anymore man b his sleek hair back with one hand, c his balding spot oop of his head as best as he could, and walking his way around the pond towards the lily pads.

  “Who would have thought, eh?” Balthazar muttered to himself with a chuckle.

  Despite all the strange ions, he felt like that erhaps going to be a very nice day after all.

  “Excuse me, mister crab?” an irritating voice sounded from ihe bazaar.

  “Well, there goes that,” Balthazar said with a roll of his eyes.

  The mert zily made his the steps towards the arriving t.

  “Yes, here I am, esteemed adventurer. What will it be?” the crab said with a distinct ck of enthusiasm.

  Oher side of the ter stood a man, in brown robes and a hat that clearly gave him away as a wizard without Balthazar even needing to look through his monocle.

  “I’ve been calling for upwards of thirty seds now,” said the adventurer. “You really should sider putting one of those little bells here on the ter for ts t when you’re not nearby.”

  “Great idea,” Balthazar said with a sarcastie. “That way, I could double the amount of annoyance from adventurers. I will certainly sider doing that.”

  The man gave the crab a scowl, but elected not to delve deeper into the matter.

  “I have a pint to make,” he said, leaning on the ter with one arm.

  With him being closer and under a brighter light, Balthazar noticed something odd was going on with his face. Other thaingy airs of a know-it-all, those the crab was certain were a natural thing.

  The wizard had a nasty red rash c most of his fad his eyes were bloodshot and tearful, as if irritated by something.

  “I was here a couple of days ago, as I’m sure you remember,” said the adventurer.

  “I do not, but go on,” the crab muttered, casually leaning on the ter with one pincer.

  “I told you I was going into the eastern parts of the Bck Forest, and asked what kind of dangers I should prepare for,” the man tinued. “You told me to beware of bears around this time of year, as they would be looking to fatten up for the winter.”

  “Oooh, yeah… I think I remember that now.”

  “Right, and do you remember what you sold me?”

  “Hmm…” Balthazar scratched his and looked up. “A bottle of bear repellent, right?”

  “Exactly! And look what it did to me!” said the mage, pointing at his own face with ire and a small dose of luna his bloodshot eyes. “Either you sold me a bad product, or you were trying to kill me!”

  “Wait, what?!” the fused crab said. “What the hell happened and how is it my fault?”

  “I went into the forest, and soon enough I spotted a bear betweerees, stuffing himself with berries from a bush. I took the bottle of bear repellent you so vingly told me was guarao keep any bear away from me and quickly sprayed myself with it before the bear would catch my st.” The adventurer’s pitch went higher, and he smmed his fists on the ter. “It was like I had fire ants all over my face! The pain was unbearable!”

  Balthazar stared at the wizard with his mouth open in awe.

  “You… you sprayed yourself with the bear repellent?” he asked in an incredulous tone.

  “Of course! What else was I supposed to do with a repellent? Drink it?!”

  “No, you idiot!” Balthazar yelled out. “You’re supposed to spray the bear with it if it es close to you! It’s meant to repel the bears. It’s not a damn anti-bear perfume!”

  “I… Well, it…” the red-faced man stammered. “How was I supposed to know that?! You old me and the bottle came with no instrus!”

  Balthazar spped the side of his own face with a pincer.

  “Oh bakers, give me patience,” he muttered. “People like you are the reason sleep potions have to e with a warning on the side of the bottle telling not to drink them before riding a horse.”

  “My magnifit face, it's ruined!” the man cried out in a tantrum. “I swear I even heard the damn bear ughing at me as I ran away! Someone has to take responsibility for that!”

  “Yes, you! You literally did that yourself!”

  “You, crab, you probably plotted this as some kind of sick joke. Likely because you were so jealous of my looks and my smarts.”

  “I promise you I could not care less about your looks, and even less so about your so-called smarts. That’s as certain as me standing right here on these eight legs.”

  “Well, actually,” the suddenly smug mage retorted, “as a crab, you have ten legs, so that’s not even true at all.”

  “Oooh, alright, mister smarty robes. You ever seen me walking on these?” Balthazar raised both his iron and silver pincers. “No? Of course not, because they’re arms, not legs! Two arms, eight legs!”

  “Doesn’t matter!” the other blurted out in frustration. “What matters is that I demand pensation for the damages I’ve suffered.”

  The wizard quickly looked around the bazaar until his eyes nded outside the back exit.

  “That!” he excimed, pointing at Bouldy who was by the shore, joyfully holding Druma up in the air as he pyed with Blue, h above them both. “I’ll take that golem and we’ll call things even. I might not even make a formal pint with the guild.”

  “I’m not giving you scrap! Certainly not Bouldy. He came with the pce. You go pin to whoever you want. I’m an indepe worker and I only ao myself.”

  “Fine, I’ll accept a dist,” the adventurer persisted. “Name your price for the big rock. I’ve decided he will make for a fitting panion. I want it now.”

  The petunt ulled a rge bag of gold s from his robe and pced it on the ter. There had to be at least several hundreds of s in it, if not thousands.

  Balthazar looked at the entig bag. Shiny gold s. His favorite thing right o pastries.

  He moved his gaze away from the ter and to his three panions happily pying outside.

  “You know,” the mert started, “a different crab, at a different time, might have bartered a deal with you here, but not me. My friends are not for sale. Now get out of my bazaar, you spoiled brat, or I’ll show you my brand new adventurer repellent.”

  The crab shoved the heavy bag of money away a his iron cw opehe ter.

  Exhaling loudly, the wizard twisted his bright red fato an expression of s and scoffed at Balthazar as he returhe bag to his brown robes.

  “You will hear from me again, crab!” he howled on his way out the front door.

  “Yes, yes, I’m sure I will,” said Balthazar in a dismissive tone. “Hopefully not any time soon.”

  H0st