Balthazar sat on his fortable purple cushion in front of his tent as the sun disappeared over the horizon, humming to himself as he took a s around his d polished the shine on his new golden statue uhe light of a nearby ntern.

  The item was a thing of beauty, depig a woman with a veil draped over her figure, c the important bits that would keep the artifact a family friendly piece of art. The weight of it was far greater than its size would make one expect, and the red, green, and blue jewels decorating its base all around were of an incredibly crystalline purity, refleg the crab’s eye perfectly whenever he stared into one of their facets.

  Enthralled by his reasure, the happy mert did not even notice the approag toad, hopping her way to him over the wooden bridge until she stht o the ntern and croaked.

  “Hey, Balthazar.”

  “Oh!” he responded, with a slight jump in pce. “Didn’t see you there, Hea. Was so busy admiring my atuette. You like it?”

  She looked the figurine up and down with a raised brow.

  “Impressive. Looks expeoo. Where did you get something like that?”

  “Hah! Some strange adveraded it to me for some basic supplies. Typical sucker. Also, this is the best part. He made up some story about it belonging to a dragon hoard to make it seem even more entig!”

  Hea’s brow went even higher. “Dragons haven’t been sighted in ages.”

  “I know! He probably thought he was having me for a fool with his made up dragon story, but I’m the one ughing now, because this piece of solid gold is worth way more than what he got.”

  “That sounds almost too good,” the toad said. “Are you sure there’s no catch to this statue?”

  “Don’t worry, it’s not another cursed item, I checked,” Balthazar reassured her. “It’s a legitimate item, and I acquired it in a fair deal. Even if it was stolen at some point, that’s not my fault. I couldn’t have known. Anyone who wants to pin talk to the cw, for all I care. This beaut is mine now.”

  “Alright then, if you’re sure...” Hea said with a hint of uainty in her voice. “Why are you still up, anyway? You know I got things from here. You go get your beauty sleep.”

  “I know,” the crab said, putting the statuette down, “but the lizard envoy is meant to e back tonight, and I really want to see what he brings us.”

  “Speaking of which,” said the night mert, nodding to the bazaar across the pond, where an armored lizard had just arrived.

  “Excellent! Let’s go greet him.”

  The crab stood up and started heading to the footpath before taking a sudden stop.

  “Almost fot!”

  Taking a few steps back, Balthazar picked up the muse’s statue and carried it across the bridge.

  “Really?” said Hea, rolling her eyes at him.

  “A little funting never hurt nobody,” the smug crab said.

  As they ehe bazaar, the lizardfolk envoy turo face them, taking his attention away from the pair of crocodile skin boots he was disapprovingly staring at on a shelf.

  “J’ath!” Balthazar greeted, raising one cw while the other cradled his treasured statuette. “Good to see you again. How goes it?”

  “Balthazar, Ms. Hea,” the lizard responded, with a gentle bow. “I am well, thank you. I hope the same be said of you, friends.”

  “Sure, sure, of course,” the crab said as he pced the statue on the ter with a loud thud and climbed up to his stool. “Say, what happeo your watcher? She didn’t e with you this time?”

  J’ath’s wide mouth formed a knowing smile. “Jazk came along too. She is just keeping her distaaying guard outside, in the shadows. She has taken the events from our previous visit very personally and wishes to ensure no such thing ever happens again. Worry not. I doubt anything or anyone will be sneaking up on us this time.”

  “I bet,” Balthazar idly ented, his eyes more focused on his golden figurihan the envoy.

  “I see you have a very nice piece there,” J’ath said, as if he somehow could not have noticed the shiny artifact refleg the light from every ntern around them from the moment Balthazar pced it on the ter. “An admirer of art, are you?”

  “If it’s golden and valuable, sure,” the mert said with a cocky smile.

  “He’s got himself a oy and is fasated by it, that’s all,” Hea said with a chuckle.

  “Don’t listen to her,” said Balthazar. “Probably just envious that I sealed the deal for it and not her. What do you think of it?”

  The lizard ran his hand down his long jaw as he ied the statuette.

  “I am no sculptor myself,” he started, “but it seems like very fine work. There is something peculiar about its st, however.”

  “What do you mean?”

  J’ath took a couple of sniffs closer to the golden item.

  “I couldn’t tell you. It’s as if there was something both stra also somewhat… familiar to its smell.”

  “Is it something bad?” asked the toad. “Should we be worried about it?”

  “I am uain,” the puzzled lizard said. “It’s probably nothing actually dangerous. Maybe I’m just fused. Pay it no mind.”

  “Ah well,” Balthazar excimed. “You heard the lizard. We’re in the clear!”

  Pushing the statuette slightly to the side, the mert brought a rge box up from uhe ter and pced it between them.

  “Your alchemy paraphernalia, as agreed,” the golden mert announced.

  “Ah, most exg!” J’ath said, his pupils widening as he gazed at the box.

  “Mortars, pestles, plenty of clear gss vials of many sizes, scales, other measuring tools,” Balthazar listed. “Basically, everything for the aspiring alchemist and then some. This should get your fellow brewers bae a good head start into the human teiques of potion-making. I even included a copy of ‘Alchemy Basics for Novices’ in there, in case you all need some instrus on how to use something.”

  The envoy looked through the tents of the box with a wide smile, marveling at the fine craft of some of the silver tools included.

  “This will bring great progress to our produ, I have no doubt,” he enthusiastically said. “The iy of gss making will never cease to amaze me. These vials, for example, are truly fasating!”

  “Aha, gd you like them,” the grinning crab said. “You have them for the low price of 50 gold per box of a dozen!”

  “Iing,” J’ath said, pig the small box of vials up and reading the tag attached to it. “This here says 25 gold, for some reason.”

  “Oh, heh, a tiny ht,” Balthazar quickly said with a nervous chuckle. “That’s the old price. Just fot to repce that.” The crab quickly pulled the tag from the box. “You know how it is, inftion, costs of transport, taxes. Everything is going up these days. You barely have time to update the price of something, and there’s already something else making it go up again. Nothing I do about it either, unfortunately. My pincers are tied. I’m a sve to the ebb and flow of the market!”

  The crab gave Hea a quice from the er of his eye. The toad was shooting daggers at him with her scowl, but thankfully, it seemed the lizard had not noticed or was raising any suspi over the subject.

  Damristan had likely fotten to pull the old prices oems from the alchemy shop when delivering them earlier. How’s a crafty crab meant to turn a fat profit with such distracted assistants?

  “I have e bearing gifts as well,” J’ath decred, finally lifting his gaze from his oys.

  “Oooh?” excimed the now very curious crab.

  The visitor pulled his pack down from his bad pced it on the ter. Opening it and pulling the edges down, he revealed a tall regur wooden box within.

  “Using the few tools you had already provided st time,” he expined, “I had our most talented brewers coe of our best potions using their new instruments. Today I bring you the first results.”

  The lizard uhe box, and it opeself to the sides, revealing multiple bottles of many colored liquids, each safely attached to the padded walls of the transport tainer.

  “Fasating,” Balthazar murmured as he looked at the dispy of cos he had never seen before.

  “I was hoping you’d sider a trade deal,” said J’ath. “A partnership of sorts. You provide us with these valuable items, and with them roduce our special potions in quality and quantities never before possible for our kind. It would be an honor if you’d accept selling some of them in exclusivity here at ynifit bazaar. We’d make some extra profit from our produ without having to deal directly with humans and their not-so-friendly nature towards us, and you would, of course, keep your own cut of the profits.”

  “Hmm, iing offer,” the crab said, stroking his in thought as if he wasn’t already eager to take the entig opportunity to make another profit.

  “Allow me to present you with some of what we have to offer. It will hopefully sway you into this business opportunity,” the smooth-talking lizard said.

  Carefully plug a round bottle of a dense dark green liquid from the box as if it were a delicate fruit from a tree, J’ath offered it to the crab before expining what it was.

  “This is our Hardening Scales Potioough to get the exact mixture right without years of practice. When taken, it will harden the scales of its user to make one much more resistant to cuts and sshes. Very useful when about to face a foe with either bde or cw.”

  “Hmm, that might not be very popur with all the skin-having humans I get around here,” Balthazar said.

  J’ath chuckled. “It is just a name, friend. I assure you, it will harden the skin of humans just as well as it does the scales of a lizardfolk like myself.”

  “Ah, in that case, I see those selling like hot cakes, the way these guys like to get into a scrap out there,” the nodding crab said.

  “There is also this,” the envoy pulled a different bottle from his box, this time taining a thick milky white substance. “A few sips of this will greatly increase one’s ability to carry heavy loads, their weight feeling much lighter than normal. We call them Feather Potions.”

  “Hah, clever,” said Balthazar. “Feather Potions, because they make things light like a feather. I get it.”

  “What?” J’ath asked with a fused blink.

  “The he crab said. “You hem Feather Potions because feathers are light, right?”

  “No, not really. We just call them that because we use a feather of a rare bird as the main ingredient for them.”

  “Oh,” Balthazar said. “That, uh… that makes seoo, I guess. My idea was more clever but whatever, not important right now! Point is, I think this could be the beginning of a very profitable deal for the both of us.”

  J’ath smiled from ear tain.

  “I take it that means you are open to discuss my offer, then?”

  “You bet! Let’s just settle the details and by m I’ll be selling the first of those beauties to every single advehat es by!”

  ***

  Ba his fortable tent, Balthazar tucked in for the night with an air of satisfa painted all over his face. He had his golden statuette o his pillow, uhe light of his ntern, so that he could admire it before falling asleep, he had a pte of delicious pie for his te-night snack, and he now had the exg prospect of another juicy profit from his new deal with the lizards for selling their uions.

  The simple fact that he would be the only one selling such rare brews would put him at an eveer advantage pared to any other mert around, and if there was something Balthazar loved was taking advantage of things.

  “Suck it, Antoine,” he murmured to himself as he munched on his pie and admired the golden shine of his muse.

  As his eyes grew heavier, the happy crab slowly drifted away to sleep, his mind filled with all the thrilling opportunities ing his way.

  The few days were no doubt going to be very exg for him.

  H0st