Merchant Crab

Jack stood proudly with his fists on his waist in front of the crowd of adventurers, wearing nothing but his loincloth and horned helmet, heavy sword still strapped to his back, smirking at the befuddled merchant.

“What are you guys doing here?!”

“We heard our favorite crab was going away on a trip, and we agreed we couldn’t just let him leave without giving a proper send-off with a party!”

“A… party?” Balthazar repeated. “You all came down here to throw me a party? Why?”

“What do you mean, why?” Leah said, stepping forward from the crowd and standing next to her lightly dressed friend. “You’ve more than earned our gratitude, Balthazar. Believe it or not, despite your cranky attitude, we all kind of like your crabby ways, and after the dragon disaster, there are many of us who may very well not have been here anymore if it wasn’t for you stepping up to help amid the chaos.”

The crab stared at them with an expression of someone who couldn’t understand what he was being told.

“I might have been one of those!” Jack added, tapping on his iron helmet with his knuckles. “This helmet and the fire resistance potions you provided saved my skin that day. Locals might look at adventurers like heroes, but to us, right now, we see you as the hero, crab.”

The crowd of adventurers behind them hollered and nodded in agreement. Some even clapped at the naked swordsman’s words.

Balthazar experienced, once again, the uncomfortable feeling of embarrassment that he could not understand. He should be pleased with the adventurers recognizing his invaluable qualities for once, yet, now that they did, he just wanted to change the subject.

Were this any other crab, one might claim he was feeling humbled, but Balthazar was not one for such silly emotions.

“Hey, wait a moment,” the embarrassed crustacean suddenly said. “How did you guys know I was leaving? I told no one until…”

The crab’s eye stalks frowned, and he made a scrunched-up face as he turned to look at Druma, who was peeking from behind the bazaar’s door frame.

“You little…” Balthazar muttered, as the goblin’s ears twitched from the crab’s glare and he disappeared inside with the sound of slapping feet hurriedly running away into the distance.

“So,” a tall and muscular warrior said as he stepped forward and placed a large keg on the ground with a loud thud, “we can go in and start drinking, or will we let the ale go sour waiting out here?”

Balthazar exhaled sharply, in a way that tried to convey far more annoyance than what he was really feeling.

“They came all this way for you,” said Henrietta from behind him. “You can’t just send them back, Balthazar. That would be rude.”

“Yes, partner,” Tristan added. “If you’re leaving, at least let’s enjoy one last celebration together before you go. Come on, I haven’t had a good party in ages!”

“Fine!” Balthazar exclaimed, throwing his pincers up in pretend defeat. “There’s not much roof left, but you guys are welcome inside. Just don’t expect any free appetizers!”

The adventurers cheered loudly and all at once began moving down into the remnants of the gazebo, some carrying kegs under their arms, others rolling barrels as they went, and many even bringing their own tankards.

***

Night had barely started, and the adventurers had already made themselves at home in the short time since they had arrived.

A handful of them had brought instruments and were playing for everyone else. A girl passionately played her lute as she sang, while two boys sat side by side behind her, each playing their own drums in what seemed like a friendly competition, their rhythm growing faster with each song, sweat rolling down their foreheads as they glanced at one another, but still smiling like they were having the time of their lives.

The fire pit roared with crackling flames, fueled by the huge amount of lumber a pair of axe wielding warriors brought back once Leah asked if anyone would volunteer to go to the edge of the Dark Forest and collect some firewood.

Adventurers filled the bazaar all around the fire, singing along, dancing, or simply chatting with each other, tankards in hand, enjoying the ales being poured out of the many kegs and barrels they had brought along.

Behind his counter, Balthazar observed the scene, a pondering gaze in his eyes, lost in thought.

So many adventurers filling his home, being loud, drinking and likely making a mess that they would surely not help clean up later. They weren’t even there to buy or sell anything, either.

The crab should be beyond annoyed at such an outrage.

And yet, instead, Balthazar had a faint smile on his face.

The joy and happiness filling the room, the good spirits and cheering, the singing and dancing, all of it felt worth it all to him at that moment.

He could have never expected the day where he would feel like that about a large crowd of loud adventurers, but then again, there had been so many new things he had not expected lately that it was hardly fazing him anymore.

He just wanted to absorb the moment while it lasted, before embarking on his own adventure.

Who would have imagined there were more things worth appreciating in life beyond gold and pastries.

“Heeey, partner!” Tristan cheerfully called, as he joined the crab and wrapped an arm over his shell. “Enjoying the celebration?”

“Sure, but not as much as you, it seems,” Balthazar said, before glancing at the brown cup the other merchant was holding.

“Ah, don’t worry,” said Tristan, following the crab’s gaze and tipping the cup slightly to show its contents. “It’s just lemonade. I swear I’m still sticking to my promise. I can’t let you or Henrietta down!”

“Heh, good,” Balthazar said with a light chuckle. “Just go easy on the lemonade. I don’t own any potted flowers around here, but I still don’t want any accidents.”

The man let out a slightly nervous laugh before rejoining the crowd again.

Meanwhile, the crab decided to take a walk around his place and see the sights.

Off to one corner, he saw John sitting at a table with an old chubby wizard and one of the large warriors who had brought wood for the fire. They were all in a good mood, talking away and laughing at each other’s stories as they drank and the carpenter smoked his pipe.

By the fire, Balthazar spotted Druma, a huge grin on his face as he hopped from side to side, dancing with a rose-cheeked female adventurer who seemed to be quite amused by the goblin’s dance moves as she danced along, swaying her tankard wildly back and forth and spilling ale everywhere as everyone around laughed and clapped to the music.

Wondering what she would be up to, the crab looked around for Blue. Finally he spotted her on her favorite cushion, near the edge of the fire pit, surrounded by five adventurer girls, all fascinated by the blue-scaled creature, sitting by her side, petting her and swooning over her intense golden eyes.

Balthazar would have expected the drake to hate the whole thing and growl or even snap at them, but surprisingly, she had a lazy smug expression and seemed to love the attention and pampering.

“Hah, look at you, you little diva,” the crab muttered to himself with a chuckle.

“Hey, there he is, the crab of the moment!” a jolly Jack exclaimed, approaching Balthazar with a large mug in hand and Leah by his side.

“Don’t mind him, he’s not very good at holding his drink,” the female fighter remarked. “That’s only his second ale of the night.”

“Hey, why you gotta embarrass me, Leah? You’re not my mom!”

“So, we heard you were going on a trip, but not where,” she continued, ignoring her tipsy companion. “What are you planning? Going to become a traveling merchant crab now?”

“Hah! Not a bad idea, but not exactly my aim,” Balthazar responded. “I’m actually planning on finding a certain dragon’s lair.”

“Really?” Jack said, spinning around to face the crab and nearly tripping on his own feet. “You? Going out there looking for a dragon? Never took you for the type.”

“Ah, I think I get it,” said Leah, once again ignoring Jack’s inebriated snickering. “You’re going after your baker friend, aren’t you?”

Balthazar gave her a brief nod.

“You’re in luck, pal!” the young swordsman interjected. “We are going to look for it too, so you got nothing to fear, so long as we find it first.”

The adventurer clumsily reached for his sword over his shoulder, failing to grasp at anything but air twice.

“Jack, please, can we not do the theatrics tonight?” his companion said with a tired sigh. “Look, my tankard is empty, and so is yours. I think you should find us a refill, no?”

Tipping his tankard upside down, Jack frowned at the apparently surprising revelation that it was indeed empty.

The young adventurer stumbled off to some nearby shelves, searching for something. “Say, you wouldn’t happen to have some more of those feathery potions around here, would you?”

“Nobody really seems to know where the dragon came from yet,” Leah continued, turning her attention back to Balthazar, “but with half the adventurers in the continent searching for that big bastard, it will just be a matter of time until someone finds it, and once they do, it will be like a gold rush to see who gets to slay it first. I reckon that wherever you go, if you keep your ears near any adventurers, news will spread pretty fast on the dragon’s whereabouts.”

“Good point. Thanks,” the crab said with a nod of agreement.

They both turned as Jack loudly stumbled over a pile of wood and held on to a shelf.

“Well, hello there,” he said, struggling to stand back straight as he pulled a dusty bottle from the back of the shelf. “What have we got here?”

He wiped the side of the glass and squinted at the label.

“Ba… bar…” he mouthed. “Baba… rum… Babaurhum?”

With a mix of confusion and curiosity on his face, the young man pulled on the top of the bottle to uncork it.

“Blargh!” he retched after taking a quick sniff at the liquid inside. “It smells foul!”

“You really carry all the smarts between the two of you, don’t you?” Balthazar jokingly said to the girl while Jack hurriedly put the cork back on and returned the bottle to where he had found it.

“Oh, goodness, don’t even get me started,” she responded with a tired chuckle. “I swear he would have died crushed under his own sword long ago if I didn’t keep an eye on him all the time.”

Balthazar laughed too. “I believe it. And what’s with that old helmet I let him have during the dragon attack? That thing is complete junk. Why hasn’t he thrown it away yet? Did he get overly attached to it too, like with the sword?”

“Not exactly,” Leah said with a roll of her eyes. “At least not by choice. Remember how he bumped his head on some rocks when the dragon shot that fireball? Well, later when we tried to pull the helmet off to check his head, it wouldn’t come off! It’s dented on the front and stuck, and he now decided it’s some kind of sign that it’s going to be his legendary helmet, but really, I know he’s just being a big baby and doesn’t want to pull it out because it hurts when he tries.”

“Seriously?!” The crab stifled his laughter for a moment, before bursting out laughing at the revelation.

“Hey, Leah!” Jack called from the center of the room. “Thunk’s here too!”

Behind the loincloth-wearing swordsman was a much larger figure of a woman in barbarian garments, a large keg in each of her hands, raised high as she let out a loud grunt of celebration and ale rained down on the smiling farmer boy standing under her.

Leah sighed and shook her head gently. “I should get back before he does something stupid.”

Balthazar nodded and let her take her leave as he stayed behind, watching the merry adventurers from the side.

As the flames of the fire pit danced under the night sky, so did the visitors, their singing and cheering carried away by the chilly breeze along with the flying embers.

While his heart still ached for those that were missing from that night, a part of him also felt a comforting joy he was not yet used to.

Things were not right yet, but they were going to be. He just knew it.

The crab enjoyed the celebrations as the night went on, partaking in the lemonade drinking and story sharing here and there, but staying away from the dancing. There were some lines he would still not cross.

Long as the night went, it felt like a fleeting moment to the crab that tried to drink in as much of it as he could.

There was no telling when he would be back, and as strange as it was to him, he realized now that he would miss it.