Merchant Crab

Balthazar sat on a cushioned stool behind a large table with a couple of chairs on the other side. The mayor’s staff had arranged a spot for him inside the building, near the hall of the Merchant’s Guild, for the crab to meet and negotiate with all the traders, merchants, suppliers, and other important figures who wished to meet the city’s new celebrity.

And there were many of them.

When he started early in the morning, Balthazar saw a line extending over the hall’s atrium and taking several turns around corners. It was filled with local nobles, extravagant merchants, rich businessmen, and even the occasional adventurer who saw a long line and had joined in thinking there was free stuff being given at the end of it.

“Next!” the crustacean called after sealing yet another deal with a local supplier of nighttime freshwater mango-shaped fishing bobbers.

A less visionary merchant might have considered a deal to receive and sell that supplier's stock at their establishment a waste of time and resources, but not Balthazar.

Sure, he had no idea why anyone would ever buy those things, but he also knew that he could sell anything to a dumb enough adventurer if he really set his mind to it. And with those suppliers practically throwing their products at him for nearly free just to say they’re in business with the merchant crab, the mark-ups on those nighttime freshwater mango-shaped fishing bobbers were surely going to be huge.

And so he kept striking deal after deal.

“So it’s a deal, Mr. Balthazar!” a young man with a big smile said, extending his hand to the crab.

“Sure is!” the crustacean replied, along with a nod. He wondered if people would ever start realizing how silly they looked offering a handshake to a crab.