Merchant Crab

A skittering crab, a scurrying goblin, a hopping toad, a running baker, and a stumbling man all dashed in a mad sprint toward the golem standing next to the kitchen door.

All while a trilling swarm of miniature crab pests chased after them like an avalanche of wooden splinters mixed with a tar-like black substance.

"Move it, guys!" Balthazar yelled back as he bolted through the path cleared of snow between the bazaar and the kitchen.

"Wait up, partner!" said Tristan. "Some of us only have two legs!"

"Evolutionary excuses!"

A few of the miniature crabs caught up to Druma and latched onto his cloak as he ran away, making the little green guy panic.

"Ah! Let go! Let go!" the goblin yelled as he tried to swat the flapping cloak while running.

Acting on instinct, Balthazar skidded to a stop and skittered back to his assistant.

"Leave my employee alone!" the merchant exclaimed as he used the blunt side of his massive pincers to smack the figurines off the cloak. "He's not insured!"

"Thanks, boss!" Druma said, grinning and giving a double thumbs-up.

"Thank me later, buddy. Now run before—Ah, damn it."

The chittering swarm continued advancing rapidly on them, and the first mini crabs at the front were just a few paces away from getting their tiny pinchers on the bigger crab and the goblin.

"Frieeeeeend!" shouted Bouldy as he appeared over the two of them and brought his hand down toward the ground.

Balthazar and Druma moved out of the way and looked back as the golem brought his fist up, opened it, and stared confused at his empty palm. "Friend?"

Below, the tiny crabs continued scurrying forward.

"I think for once your mittens are too big for the job, Bouldy!" Balthazar yelled back as he and Druma resumed running. "We're not going to get rid of these cheap imitations through punching."

"Come on, come on, get in!" Madeleine said, waving them in from behind the kitchen's door.

Once the crab, goblin, and golem made it inside, the baker slammed the door shut behind her back.

"Oof, I didn't think we were going to make it!" she said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"But now what?" said Henrietta as she hopped on top of a nearby table.

"They're surrounding the building," Tristan said, peeking out the window with sweat running down his forehead.

"Friend," said Bouldy.

Balthazar skittered next to Tristan and stretched his legs and eyestalks up as much as he could. "Let me see."

Outside, the mob of angry crab facsimiles was quickly enveloping the kitchen by climbing it and carefully prodding its stone walls with their miniscule pincers and mandibles.

"They're trying to find weak spots to chew through," said Madeleine, looking out through a different window.

"Friend," the golem repeated.

"Do you think it will hold?" a worried Tristan asked, turning to his business partner with a strand of his unkempt and graying hair falling over the side of his face.

"Who knows," Balthazar replied. "But I wouldn't put money on it."

"That's not saying much, coming from you," the toad on the table muttered.

"Not the time, Henrietta!" the eight-legged merchant shot back with a frown. "But also… you're not wrong."

"Friend?" said the giant construct standing next to them.

"What, Bouldy?!" the crab finally said, turning to his bodyguard.

"Frieeend," the golem calmly stated with a self-satisfied smile.

"What?!" the befuddled crustacean asked.

"Friend," the grinning giant said.

"What the hell does that mean? Protected by the power of friendship? That's not a real enchantment!"

"Friend…"

Balthazar shook his shell with slight annoyance. "You just picked some boulders to cut to make these walls, that doesn't make them magical!"

"Friend," the golem said, crossing his arms and looking up at the ceiling.

"I don't know, partner," Tristan said as he peeked outside again. "Those things don't seem able to chew through this building like they were doing with the gazebo."

The giant crab smacked the side of his claw against the space between his eyestalks in frustration.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"That's because these things have mouth parts made of wood, and these walls are stone. Nothing magical about that!"

"I don't know, Balthazar," Madeleine said, looking up as she gently rubbed one of the support pillars of the room. "I think I like Bouldy's explanation better about us being safe inside because of the power of friendship."

"Fine!" the exasperated crab exclaimed, throwing both pincers up. "So long as we all agree that we're staying inside, I don't care about the why!"

"Uhm, we might have to rethink that," said Henrietta, looking at the front door with wide eyes. "The door is wood, not stone, and I think those things just realized that."

Balthazar's eyestalks snapped toward the front entrance, where small amounts of sawdust were raining from different places as the sound of tiny mouths chewing grew from the other side.

"Argh, those damn cheap pieces of knockoff merchandise!"

Madeleine rushed past the counter where several plates with freshly baked pies rested and started going through the drawers in the kitchen, searching for something.

"We have to get out of here before they make it inside," the baker said as she grabbed a second rolling pin from a drawer with a hand and drew the first one from the waist of her apron with the other.

"Nuh-uh, no way!" said the giant crab, shaking his carapace vigorously. "We just made it here, no way we're going back out there to those things."

"We have to, Balthazar!" the young woman said, walking around the counter to rejoin the others.

"Nope! You're not changing my mind on this!" the stubborn crustacean declared, crossing his arms and throwing his eyestalks back. "We stay here where it's safe until we have a better plan!"

"But they will make it inside eventually!"

"We have time."

"They will get in here and start wrecking this kitchen like they were doing with the bazaar."

"We can deal with it."

"They will attack us!"

"We can fight them."

"They will definitely chew through all those pies I left there on the counter!"

Balthazar's eyestalks suddenly jumped with a start and he uncrossed his arms.

"Everyone!" he shouted. "Get back outside!"

***

Up on the mountain, near the peak of the Semla Volcano, where the air was thin and gelid, an ancient red dragon sat near the edge of a cliff, observing a young blue drake as she hovered above, wings flapping with strained effort.

"You must focus not on the cold outside, but on the heat inside," Beatrix said with a commanding voice. "You will never overcome the weakness of your body if you cannot find the strength inside you."

Blue grumbled a pained growl above, her fangs bared as she fought the overwhelming pressure pushing down on her sore body.

She was tired, exhausted, even. Her body hurt all over from all the intense, strenuous training the older draconic creature had been putting her through all day. Staying in the air was already hard, let alone while breathing fire at the same time.

"Remember what I have told you," Beatrix said, as if answering the thoughts inside the drake's mind. "You can give up at any point, and fly back down, to your comfortable pillow and your relaxing nap."

The slits of the crab's youngest companion narrowed. She knew what the dragon was doing. She was provoking her. Poking at her pride.

Despite her body begging her not to, Blue's spirit commanded her chest to take another big breath in, and cold, bitter air flooded her, cutting like blades.

"Are you going to let a mere gust of wind subdue your flame?" roared the dragon watching from the cliff. "Burn brighter, or fade away!"

The azure drake snarled and called upon her the mana that would fuel her fire. She felt the flame that formed on the inside, warming the air from her lungs, up her throat, and out of her mouth and nose, and sending a plume of angry smoke onto the sky.

An intense blue light grew out of her insides as she opened her mouth to unleash fire.

"Good!" said Beatrix. "Now breathe it out!"

A jet of blue fire shot out of the drake's mouth as she hovered above, melting the few snowflakes that danced innocently in the air and turning the humid air into clouds of steam.

"Almost," the elder dragon said. "Now use your wings like I taught you and create a—"

With an abrupt whimper, the bright blue flame vanished and the drake dropped from the sky, spiraling down until it crashed unceremoniously on the tip of the cliff in front of Beatrix, bruised and defeated.

Raising her trembling head with difficulty, the smaller creature gazed up at the elder beast with a look of dejection in her eyes and let out a low growl of shame.

The great red giant towering over her looked down on the small, feeble blue drake with her large, piercing copper eyes, nostrils flaring as the mere vibrations of her breathing made the gravel under them shake.

And then Beatrix smiled.

"You came closer than ever, young one."

The draconic apprentice forced herself to stand back up and face her mentor with head held high. Her physical strength had failed her, but she would make sure at least her strength of spirit would not, too.

"You should feel no shame," the scarred dragon said. "You already defy all the odds. Drakes, by their very nature, are much weaker beings when compared to actual dragons, but I have not treated you as such—and despite that, you persevered. You were also born without a drake mother to teach you how to properly harness your fire, but still you forged your own flame anyway. Your body and especially your breath capacity are weak and underdeveloped for what they should be, and yet, here you are, pushing yourself to go further and higher every day."

Beatrix brought her head down to Blue's level and looked her straight in the eyes.

"We are not prideful creatures because we are arrogant. We are prideful because we earn our pride."

The elder raised her head again and stared off into the horizon, a deep expression of longing taking over her gaze.

"You are becoming stronger by the day," she said after a moment, "but it's not enough. I do not know when, but soon we will be out of time. I wish for you to be ready when that day comes. They will need you. Madeleine, your friends, your—"

The immense creature stopped herself as her gaze wandered down from the clouds surrounding the mountain and she spotted something far below, where a small pond and a couple of buildings were.

Upon seeing her mentor's brow furrowing, Blue followed her gaze down.

"Do you see that too?" asked Beatrix.

It was the drake's turn to frown, before letting out an affirmative growl.

"It seems even now your friends already could do with your aid."

The azure creature turned her golden eyes up to the dragon, a shadow of doubt over her gaze.

"I know, you feel unsure about whether you're ready or not," Beatrix said. "But there is a reason why I've had you practice up here all this time, under these much harsher and challenging conditions, instead of down there, where it would be a lot… easier."

A hint of a smirk curled the corner of the dragon's mouth, and Blue's eyes widened for a moment before narrowing as she bared her fangs into a devious grin.

Gathering up all of her strength, the drake spread her wings and plunged off the cliff, diving straight toward the pond with fire in her eyes and a storm in her heart.