Merchant Crab

“What?!” Balthazar exclaimed. “Let me see that.”

Rob gave the letter to the crab, who quickly unfolded it and read the hastily scribbled lines within.

“Balthazar,

Please come home. We think there is something really bad going on at your pond.

Tristan”

“Well, that clarified nothing!” the merchant said, checking the back of the piece of paper too before looking up at the courier again. “Wait, you read my correspondence?!”

The mustached adventurer shrugged. “Hey, it’s not my fault your business partner didn’t use an envelope.”

“You must have seen something when he gave you the letter,” Balthazar said. “What is going on there?”

“Not sure,” Rob replied. “I didn’t go to your pond. Tristan came rushing into the guild with a piece of paper in hand, telling me I needed to deliver this message to you as quickly as possible. He seemed pretty freaked out, though. Whatever was happening seemed serious. I tried to ask what was going on, but he just told me to hurry up and that he needed to go back to the bazaar, before dashing out the door.”

“So… you want me to deliver a response?” the courier asked. “It took me a few days to travel to you, so you might wanna hurry up.”

“A few days?!” exclaimed the merchant. “Crap! I need to go back home. Tristan wouldn’t have sent such a message if it wasn’t something serious.”

“Alright, I’ll let them know,” said Rob.

The crab turned to his group.

“Well, this wasn’t exactly how I planned for us to take you back home…” he said to Madeleine.

“Don’t be a silly crab, Balthazar,” the baker said. “If something bad happened at the pond, I want to get there as soon as possible too. They’re my friends as well!”

“Right, but you guys realize we are several days away from Ardville, don’t you?” Rye chimed in. “Add to that the time it took Rob to get here, and by the time we get to the pond, a week or two may have passed. Depending on what the emergency is, we may get there too late already.”

Balthazar exhaled loudly. “I know, but what options do we have? I’m open to suggestions.”

He noticed Madeleine’s gaze had wandered to the other side of the chamber, to the dragon, who was still slumped over her hoard, looking defeated.

“Give me a moment, guys,” the girl said. “I… I should go talk to Bea.”

As the baker walked toward her former captor, the crab opened his mouth to speak, but Rye placed a hand on his shell and shook his head.

“Let her,” he muttered.

Balthazar sighed, but obliged.

“Let’s focus on how to get back to the pond,” he said. “Hey, Rob, maybe you could show us how you—Huh?!”

The merchant turned to where the courier had been moments before, but found no trace of him.

“That damn sneak! He already left!”

The archer looked around too. “Oh, wow, he’s good. Not even I noticed him leave.”

Balthazar threw his arms up. “Whatever! Let’s focus on what we can do.”

Reaching into his backpack, he retrieved his map and spread it open over one of the counters.

“Druma,” the crab said, turning to his assistant and giving him his Bag of Holding Money. “We need to hurry, so while we chart a course back home, please put my coins back in the bag. I may be in a rush, but I’m not leaving my savings for that big skink.”

With one of his vigorous nods, the goblin took the bag and ran to the piles of coins at the center of the lair.

The merchant and the adventurer leaned over the map of Mantell, discussing what route to take to get back home faster.

After a few minutes, Madeleine rejoined them with a keen smile on her face.

“Guys, guys,” she said. “I had a chat with Beatrix. She has something she wants to tell you, Balthazar.”

The red dragon approached and stretched her neck down, bringing her head close to the group.

“Madeleine and I have talked,” the creature said, her voice sounding much gentler than before. “She has told me that my defeat to you, Balthazar, has not made her lose respect for me. She is most generous.”

The crab just nodded, unsure of what to do or say in that situation. Behind him, Rye rested his hand on the tip of his bow’s limb, visibly nervous for being so close to the crimson beast.

“She has assured me that she would very much like to see me again,” Beatrix continued. “For which I am thankful.”

“Aaand…?” the baker said with a smile, looking at the giant creature above her like someone addressing a child.

The dragon sighed.

“And she tells me she would like it if we could look past our… disagreements, and become… acquaintances.”

“Friends!” exclaimed Madeleine. “I said friends!”

Beatrix rolled her huge copper eyes.

“I will concede,” the dragon said, “you have proven yourself worthy of standing shoulder to… shell with dragonkind. It is not easy for my kind to admit defeat, but Madeleine has helped me see that you are more than you look.”

“Uh, thanks… I think?” the mildly confused crab said, looking back and forth between the two of them.

“As a show of goodwill,” the Queen of Flames said, “I have decided with our baker that I shall offer you my help with returning to your home.”

Balthazar and Rye exchanged surprised glances.

“You will?!”

The red dragon straightened herself back up.

“I shall fly you to the pond where we first met. It will greatly shorten the length of the trip, as well as ensure the safety of the girl, which is mainly why I agreed to it.”

“Sure, sure,” Madeleine said with a knowing, sly smile.

“Well… I mean… I guess…” the merchant said, unsure of how to react as he looked at his other friends. “If you guys don’t have a problem with it…”

The archer shrugged, making a slightly uncomfortable face. “If Madeleine says it’s alright, I guess I won’t be opposed to it.”

“Then it’s settled, we will take your offer to take us to the pond,” Balthazar said.

“Ahem,” said the baker. “Do I need to teach you how to say thanks properly, Balthazar?”

The crab rolled his eyestalks. “Fine. Thanks for helping us… even if this whole mess started because you kidnapped Madeleine.”

Beatrix frowned. “I believe you mean it started because you took what did not belong to you.”

“Hey, no!” exclaimed the merchant. “I traded for that statuette, fair and square. I had no way of knowing it had been stolen from your hoard by that weird guy in bandages.”

“Guys, come on!” Madeleine interrupted. “Let’s not start again, please. We’re supposed to be making amends, not restarting hostilities!”

Balthazar let out a long sigh.

“You’re right,” he said, before turning to the dragon again. “And speaking of which, I’d like to give this back to you.”

The crab retrieved the golden statuette of a woman from his backpack and presented it to the red dragon.

With a smile on her face, the young girl started ushering Rye and the others away. “We will let you two talk in private now.”

“But I wanted to watch what—Hey, no need to push, Madeleine!” the young archer said as the baker playfully hurried him along.

The owner of the lair watched them leave with a cocked brow before setting her sights back on the crab.

“I appreciate the gesture,” she said, “but I’d like you to keep it now.”

Balthazar glanced at the gold sculpture in his pincers and then back at the dragon.

“You know it’s clean, right? I didn’t drool on it or anything, and I wash my claws regularly.”

“Consider it another show of goodwill,” said Beatrix. “A gift to mark the beginning of our… truce. It is customary among our kind to offer a gift of treasure when forging new alliances. I hope it brings you good luck.”

The crab looked at the beautiful piece of worked gold in his pincers and shrugged. Much may have changed about him in the past few months, but he was still not one to turn down free gold.

As he deposited the statuette back into his travel bag, Balthazar saw the dragon reach for something behind one of her piles of gold and books.

“There is something else I’d like you to have,” she said, retrieving her closed fist from the hoard. “It is customary for the winner of a debate between dragons to receive something from the loser’s hoard. My honor demands that I deliver you a prize.”

The merchant crossed his arms and nodded. “Ah, well, you can never have too much gold and—”

“There are things more precious than gold,” Beatrix said.

“There are?!”

She brought her huge claw down in front of the crab.

“We dragons are ancient beings, and our eyes can see far,” the crimson creature cryptically said. “Far beyond the here and now, even. I see greatness in you. Much of it still untapped. Most of it still uncovered, even to my eyes. Whatever potential it is you have within yourself, Balthazar, I feel confident it will lead to great things. And to hopefully aid you in achieving your destiny, I would like you to have this.”

The dragon opened her talons to reveal a scroll within.

It was a lot like all the Scrolls of Potential the crab had seen before, but this particular piece of parchment seemed to have a special aura to it, like a slight glow of gold emanating from its paper.

[Scroll of Unbound Talent]

Balthazar took the pristine roll of white parchment into his pincers, his beady eyes glistening with the shimmer of gold radiating from it.

“I know not what power this elder text contains,” Beatrix said, “but something deep within myself tells me it will be of great use in your journeys to come. I hope you use it wisely.”

“Thank you,” the crab said, feeling taken aback both by the dragon’s gesture and the radiance of the gift.

Beatrix raised her brow. “What? No witty remark or clever comeback? I hope my expectations of you were not misplaced.”

The gilded merchant rolled his eyestalks up at the barn-sized beast towering over him. “That’s rich, coming from an impoverished dragon.”

The Queen of Flames gave the crab a contemptuous glare, but Balthazar was confident he caught a glimpse of a smile as she turned away.

“We depart once you and your party are ready,” she said, moving away with uncanny grace and silence for something so large.

Still holding the Scroll of Unbound Talent, Balthazar looked around at his friends.

Druma was still hastily pouring coins back into the merchant’s purse.

Bouldy and Blue were both hunched over Pebbles by a corner of the lair, playing with her as she rolled around in circles.

And off by the kitchen area, the crab could see Madeleine and her adventurer were also busy catching up, or whatever humans usually did that involved lots of hand holding, intense staring into each other’s eyes, and awkward giggling.

Strange species, as always.

Well, good time as any!

Skittering away to a corner of his own, behind some rocks and out of sight, Balthazar adjusted his Monocle of Exposition, pulled up his system screen, and prepared to unfold the golden scroll in his pincers.

He could feel it teeming with energy within his grasp, the tantalizing tingling of power running up his arms and filling his shell with exciting electricity.

What could it contain?

Only one way to find out!

The crab undid the gold filigree ribbon around the roll of parchment and slowly began to open it.

His already gilded shell became even more radiant as a blinding beam of pure golden light blasted out of the scroll like a miniature sun.

The crustacean was certain that whatever skill, talent, or power rested within that scroll, it would be immense and like nothing he had ever seen before.

His singed setae made him sure of it.

As the blinding glow that filled his vision subsided, a set of golden letters began to appear on his system.

Yes, ultimate power. I can feel it!

Balthazar focused his teary eyes as hard as he could, trying to make out what the text said while the radiating heat coming from the Scroll of Unbound Talent continued to wash over him.

And then, true power was finally revealed to him.

[Revealing new trait…]

[Crab of Many Hats]

[Trait]

[Your versatility and knack for improvising (or mostly just making things up as you go) has granted you the ability to do what once seemed impossible. You can now equip hats.]

Balthazar stared perplexed at the parchment as its glow quickly dimmed.

“Wha… what?”

The crab blinked a few times in dazed confusion. A feat on its own as he still did not have any eyelids.

You can now equip hats.

“Are… are you kidding me?!” Balthazar finally exclaimed, tossing the golden and now blank scroll on the ground in frustration. “That’s the ‘great power’ I get after all this?!”

Crossing his arms, the merchant grumbled and fumed for a few moments as he stared angrily at the wall, cursing the system that once again seemed to mock him in its endlessly nonsensical nature.

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Infinite pie spawning.

Extra riches.

The ability to call loaves of bread from a distance.

Of all the many useful things that scroll could have granted him, why would he get something so useless? It was not as if the giant crustacean ever cared much for not being able to wear headgear. His shell was already all the equipment he ever needed.

Balthazar pulled his Backpack of Holding Stuff & Things open and rummaged angrily through it.

After pulling out a handful of swords with golden serrated blades, several flasks of Marquessian perfumes, two feather dusters, and even an old bottle of expired rum, the merchant threw his pincers up in frustration.

“I don’t even have any hats to try on here!”

Letting go of the bag, the crab sighed loudly.

“Whatever,” he said to himself in a calmer tone while picking up the scroll. “I’ll try it out once I’m back at the bazaar. Not going to let this system rubbish ruin my day. I got my baker back, and I’m going home. Happy thoughts, Balthazar. Happy thoughts! Focus on all the pie you will eat. All the extra coin you will be making!”

With scroll in hand, the merchant brought up the level-up prompts he had received after defeating the dragon.

“Three levels in one go,” he muttered. “I guess beating someone fifty levels above you really adds up.”

Feeling too done with the system’s shenanigans for one day, the crab decided—once again—not to mess with success and to simply stick to what had worked well for him so far.

“Consistency is key!”

[+30 health]

[Health: 290/290]

[+3 Charisma]

[Attributes]

[Strength: 5]

[Endurance: 5]

[Agility: 5]

[Perception: 5]

[Intellect: 20]

[Charisma: 75]

“Now that’s what a winning set of attributes looks like!” Balthazar said as he dismissed the system screen from his eyes.

“Talking to yourself?” Rye asked as he appeared around the corner.

“Oh,” the startled merchant said. “Uhm, sure. Every genius does it.”

The archer chuckled as he leaned against a stone pillar. “You know, now that I no longer have some strange mist pulled over my mind, you’re going to have to explain to me what a crab does with scrolls meant for adventurers. Or how he seems to know so much about a ‘system’ that no other local appears to be aware of.”

“Err…” Balthazar said, freezing halfway through storing the piece of parchment into his backpack.

“Don’t worry,” the smiling young man said. “In your own time. Maybe later, when we’re back in Boulder’s Point, eh?”

Breathing a sigh of relief, the crab nodded in agreement as they both walked back to the others.

It would be an awkward conversation, explaining to his friends how he came to be a talking crab that trades wares in between facing off against powerful witches and mighty dragons. But he knew that sooner or later he would have to tell them. He owed them that much, at least.

Back at the center of Beatrix’s lair, Balthazar found that Druma had already finished collecting the money, handing the filled pouch to his boss with a big salute and even bigger smile.

Peering at his Bag of Holding Money through his golden monocle, the merchant was happy to find his assistant had not missed a single coin.

[15,512 crowns]

“Good job, buddy,” he told the grinning goblin. “Everyone else ready to go?”

Both Bouldy—with Pebbles on his shoulder—and Blue stood by, ready and waiting. The only one missing seemed to be Madeleine. Again.

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” the baker yelled, running to them from her kitchen area with several little bags in her arms.

“What’s all that?” asked Balthazar.

“Dragonfruit seeds,” replied the girl, smiling and flicking her eyebrows. “I don’t intend to stop baking dragonfruit pies just because I’m leaving.”

“Oh!” the suddenly excited crustacean said.

Happy and cheerful, the group walked the long distance across Beatrix’s lair until they reached the very end, where the immense dragon waited for them by an opening on the side of the mountain.

Outside, Balthazar could see a breathtaking view.

From that high up, the land looked like a carpet of greens and browns extending all the way to the blue sea, shimmering under the orange glow of the afternoon sun.

Best of all, not a single bird in sight.

“It’s… beautiful up here,” the crab said, standing next to the lair’s owner, his eyes still fixed over the horizon.

“Indeed,” Beatrix replied, sitting quietly near the cliff’s edge. “I have lived for a very long time, and yet I never get tired of the beauty nature has to offer when seen from up here.”

The wind was bitter cold at that altitude, but Balthazar wasn’t feeling too bothered by it. It was its time. Winter was coming, and the first signs of frost could already be seen covering some of the taller peaks dotting the land below.

“We should go, before it gets too cold for those warm-blooded guys over there,” the merchant said to the dragon.

The corner of Beatrix’s mouth curved slightly into a smile.

“We should. However…” She moved her head to look down at the crab’s group. “While I am willing to offer safe transport to you and your allies, I will not be carrying that one. My generosity has its limits.”

Balthazar followed her gaze to Bouldy, who was standing behind the group, towering over his friends with a big smile as usual.

“Oh…” said the crab. “Is this because of the sucker punch he landed on your chin back at the pond? Because I swear he was just—”

“No, Balthazar,” the slightly annoyed beast interrupted. “I’m saying he’s far too big to carry on such a long trip.”

“Ah, I guess that makes sense too…”

The giant golem approached the crab and got down on one knee.

“Friend.”

Balthazar cocked an eyestalk at him. “Are you sure?”

Bouldy closed his orb-like eyes and smiled. “Friend.”

“Alright, if you say so, I’ll trust you, bud. Just… be safe, alright?”

“Friend,” the stone bodyguard said, giving the crab a soft pat on the shell.

“Hey, wait, what’s going on?” Madeleine asked, approaching them. “Is Bouldy not coming home with us?”

“He is,” said Balthazar. “But Beatrix can’t carry him, so he offered to go on foot.”

“How will he know the way there?” asked Rye. “Can golems even read maps?”

“Friend,” Bouldy confidently explained.

The crab chuckled. “The big guy assured me that no matter where he is, he will always know his way back home. And I don’t doubt him one bit.”

With a big wave and several happy chirps from the tiny pebble on his shoulder, the golem walked inside the lair, heading back to the entrance gates, to make his way back down the mountain and start his long journey.

“He’ll be fine, buddy,” Balthazar said to Druma, who was waving at his rocky friend with shimmering eyes.

“Druma knows. Druma just don’t like goodbyes,” the goblin said with a loud sniff.

With a soft growl, Blue nudged the crab’s shell with her snout to get his attention.

“Hmm? What is it, girl?”

After another minute, Balthazar approached Beatrix again, with his blue drake next to him.

“Hey, so, good news,” he started. “You’ll have one less passenger to carry.”

The dragon glanced down at them with an inquisitive look.

“Blue over here doesn’t want to travel home on your back,” the merchant explained. “I think she actually wants to put her flying skills to the test by racing you to the pond.”

The dragon’s terrible laughter echoed against the rocky walls of the mountain around them as she threw her head back in apparent amusement.

“As she well should,” Beatrix said, giving the smaller draconic creature a nod. “Good to see the pride of our kind running strong through her veins.”

After the azure drake took off to the skies, hovering above as she waited, the remainder of the group got onto the dragon’s back one by one.

“Woah!” exclaimed Madeleine as she tried to climb the creature’s thick scales and spiky spine behind Rye.

“Got you!” the archer said, quickly turning to grab the baker’s hand as she slipped.

“Yeah, yeah, very chivalrous of you, but who’s got me?!” Balthazar exclaimed, trying—and failing—to climb onto the dragon’s back.

After a brief bout of laughter that the gilded merchant very much did not approve of, his two human friends and goblin assistant helped him get in position.

“Alright, we’re ready, Beatrix,” he shouted from the middle of her dorsal spine, where he was firmly holding on to one of her spikes with both pincers. “Next stop, Balthazar’s Bazaar!”

Lunging forward, the red dragon launched herself off the cliff, and with a powerful flap of her wings, climbed into the air, ascending toward the clouds.

As the crimson creature flew off into the horizon at great speed with a small azure dot close behind, the distant cries of a distressed crab could be heard in the wind as he held on for dear life.

“Oh, for the love of all that is pastry, why do I keep doing this?!”

***

After a few hours of vertigo, nausea, and several bugs smacking against his eyestalks, Balthazar saw the familiar peak of the Semla Mountain appear between the clouds.

The same snowcapped mountain that had stood watch over the crab’s home all his life and that fed the pond with its melting snow, which cascaded from the peak into a beautiful waterfall. It looked as peaceful and majestic as ever.

He was finally home.

Having realized during the trip there that the people of Ardville might go into a panic if they were to see the same red dragon that terrorized their town months before reappearing from the clouds, Balthazar asked Beatrix to land somewhere in the plains so they could walk the rest of the way.

After saying their goodbyes—Madeleine spending an awkwardly long time hugging the dragon’s leg and asking her to not eat too many people—the Queen of Flames took back to the skies as the group hurried through the tall grass of the plains, with the quickly fading light of the sunset shining over them.

With the now gray again crab—his greatly extended gold imbuement having finally worn off during the trip—leading the way, they pushed forward in a straight line, keeping the Semla mountain in front, the distant walls of Ardville on their left, and the far away edge of the Black Forest to the right.

“Boss think Bouldy and little stone are alright out there?” Druma asked, holding his oversized hat in place as they skittered through the open fields.

“Don’t worry, Druma,” Balthazar responded. “I’m sure our rocky friend is fine. He doesn’t break easily, and I trust him to protect Pebbles as much as I trust him to protect me. We will find him back on our doorstep in a couple of days, you’ll see.”

As they continued across the plains, the merchant noticed Blue falling behind. Looking closer at her, he realized that going for a sprint after spending hours flying at top speed to keep up with a dragon several times her size had to be quite exhaustive.

“Are you alright, girl?” he asked.

The drake, who was already carrying a heavy semblance, scowled even harder at the crab’s question, and did her best to pick up the pace.

“Come on, Blue, don’t be like that,” Balthazar pleaded. “We all know you almost caught up to Beatrix there at the end. If she was just a little smaller or you a little bigger, you totally would have won that race!”

The azure drake uttered a loud and displeased “hmph!” and hurried her pace until she was a few paces ahead of the confused crustacean.

“What did I say wrong?!” he exclaimed.

Despite all the many things Balthazar had learned on his travels, it would seem his parental manners still needed a fair bit of work.

After a few more minutes of jogging through the vast plains, the five travelers emerged from the grass, arriving on the old cobblestone road the giant crab knew so well.

“My pond,” Balthazar muttered, his eyes shiny and his smile wide as he gazed upon the secluded trail leading down to his little piece of paradise.

With dusk soon to turn into night, the crab hurried across the road, passing by the wooden sign the carpenter John had made for his bazaar months before, and skittering down the beaten dirt path he still knew so well.

Arriving outside the doors to his bazaar, the merchant grinned as he saw the warm glow of the light from his fire pit and lanterns shining from within.

“Tristan! Henrietta!” he called out, pushing the doors open and stepping inside the trading post. “Your favorite traveling merchant crab is back!”

With nothing but the soft sound of wood crackling in the fire pit and a few crickets in the distance, Balthazar stood by the entrance, arms stretched open, striking a pose for an audience of nothing but crates and shelves.

“Where is everyone?” asked Madeleine as she and the rest of the group entered the bazaar behind the crab.

“Erm, good question,” Balthazar said, breaking away from his awkward pose.

While the trading post looked perfectly fine at a glance—all the previous damage from the dragon attack had clearly long since been repaired by John, the shelves were stocked, and there was no dust or dirt on the floorboards—upon closer inspection, the expert merchant realized some things did not look quite right.

Items were knocked over here and there, near a corner there was a pile of broken glass and other shattered items, and some of the furniture was slightly shifted in place, looking strangely disarranged.

“Something happened here…” the crab muttered while rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “But what exactly?”

“Balthazar?!” a familiar man’s voice called.

Turning to the back entrance, the arriving travelers saw Tristan walking in with wide eyes and a hopeful expression on his face. Hopping close behind him came Henrietta.

“Is it really him, Tris?!” the green toad asked before hopping up onto the counter for a better view.

“There you guys are!” the giant crab said, opening his arms as he walked to the counter.

“Oh, my goodness, it’s so good to see you!” Tristan blurted out before rushing in for a sudden hug that took Balthazar by surprise. “We were starting to lose hope you’d ever return!”

“Woah, hey, easy now,” the uncomfortable crustacean said, raising his claws away from his business partner. “Watch the pinchers, pal!”

“Give the crab some room to breathe, Tristan,” the accursed human in toad form said from atop the wooden counter. “He must be exhausted after his trip. They all must…” Her eyes widened as she scanned the group behind Balthazar. “Madeleine?! He found you!”

With a big hop, Henrietta jumped off the counter and made her way to the girl, who crouched down to greet her.

“Yes, they did!” the baker said, pointing to the archer behind her too. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my knights in shining chitin!”

“My goodness, it’s so good to see you safe and sound, my girl!” the older lady said, before her eyes wandered to the rest of the group again. “I do notice the big fella isn’t with you, though. I guess that means…”

“Oh, no, no! We brought Bouldy back too,” Balthazar exclaimed, breaking away from Tristan’s grapple and skittering closer to them. “He just couldn’t fly with us, so he’s still making his way here. We should see him in a couple of days, I hope.”

The former town drunk straightened his jacket and pulled his graying hair back as he approached too. “Did you just say… fly?!”

“Oh, pfft, you have no idea what we’ve been up to,” said the crab, waving a pincer and throwing his eyestalks back. “Just wait until I tell you all about the dragon. Or the fairies. Or the troll. The giant slime was quite something too. And don’t even get me started on the stolen mangoes!”

The dazed man looked more and more confused with every word, his face pulling back into his neck as his eyes grew increasingly befuddled.

“Sure, Balthazar,” Henrietta interrupted. “And we look forward to hearing all about your trip, but first there’s something more urgent that we need to discuss!”

“Right,” the traveling merchant said. “You guys mind explaining what happened here? Don’t think I didn’t notice the broken and knocked over stuff. Have you guys been hosting parties in my bazaar while I was away?!”

“No, partner, of course we haven’t!” Tristan hurriedly exclaimed.

“Then what was that letter about? What’s this really bad thing you claim is happening in my pond that required me to hurry back right away?!”

As the man and the toad both opened their mouths to answer, a distant rumble started making the floorboards vibrate under the crab’s feet.

In an instant, the rumbling grew into an intense shake, making the shelves and tables around them all wobble and the items on them tremble and fall over.

“That!” Tristan yelled with a fearful expression.

The ground continued to shake with growing intensity, forcing everyone in the room to hang on to each other in order to not fall, and violently tossing objects off the shelves and tables.

“It… started happening… last week,” Henrietta struggled to say, her voice shaking as she tried to hold on to the surface of the counter. “And every day it’s been getting more intense and frequent. We don’t know what’s causing it!”

Balthazar put all of his eight legs to work trying to remain standing as the earthquake raged on. In all of his years living in that little corner of heaven, he had never experienced such an extreme natural event.

In fact, his gut was telling him that whatever was happening, it was anything but natural.

“Hang on to me, Madeleine!” Rye said to the baker as he hugged one of the gazebo’s support columns and she in turn hugged him.

Off by the other side of the trading post, a scared Druma held on tight to Blue’s wings as the drake fought to keep her balance.

“Why isn’t it stopping?!” Balthazar exclaimed, every fiber of his soft body vibrating inside his shell.

“I don’t know!” said Tristan, grasping the counter while trying to shield the toad. “It’s never been this strong before!”

A deafening blast echoed from the outside and the earthquake finally began to subside, making everyone in the room instinctively turn their heads to the back exit.

Wasting no time, Balthazar rushed out to the area behind his bazaar.

He looked around, but all he found was his old sleeping tent on the small islet at the center of his beloved pond. Slow ripples still moved across the water’s surface in the wake of the seismic event, and the merchant noticed they came from the east—from the mountain.

The crab’s eyestalks turned inward as he noticed something gently drifting in the air in front of him.

It was a tiny white speck, nearly weightless, floating down from the sky like a feather swaying in the breeze, until it landed gracefully on the back of his pincer.

“Balthazar!” his friends called, rushing out of the gazebo after him.

As they stepped outside, they all slowly came to a halt, looking around with surprise at the many more white particles that started to rain down from above.

“It’s… snowing?” Madeleine said, extending an open hand to catch the falling dots of white.

“No. This isn’t snow,” said Balthazar, turning around to face them, his eyes still fixed on the white speck on his claw. “It’s ash.”

Another thunderous crash exploded from far away, making everyone flinch, and this time Balthazar knew exactly where to turn to find its origin.

“By the gods!” exclaimed Henrietta as the group followed Balthazar’s eyes.

“Oh no…” Tristan whispered.

“That can’t be good, right?” said Rye, staring up with a concerned gaze.

The crab was looking toward the distant peak of the Semla Mountain, far away near the clouds.

Or at least where that used to be.

The cap of the mountain, which was always white and covered in snow no matter the season, had vanished, blown open from the inside. A thick plume of smoke surrounded the peak as streams of thick red-hot liquid erupted from within, cascading slowly down the hills like molten rivers devouring everything in their way.

Something did not look quite right about that lava, however.

The dense, scorching hot substance oozing out of the mountain’s peak was red just like the magma that fed the Golemancer’s Forge, and as it traveled down and cooled under the cold winter air, it became thicker and darker. But it did not look like molten rock at all.

It reminded the merchant of something else.

Something else that surely could not be.

As the raging eruption continued to violently spew out its molten contents, a chunk of the red-hot liquid flew off with enough force to rain down closer to the bazaar.

“Balthazar, watch out!” yelled Rye.

With a quick skitter to the side, the crab watched as the piece of supposed lava splashed down on the shallow waters by the shore of the pond, missing him by a hair.

Steam gushed angrily from the molten chunk, quickly cooling against the cold water. Balthazar fanned it away with his pincer, revealing a dark, half solid, half liquid substance filled with tiny bubbles.

And to his absolute amazement, the astonished crustacean realized it smelled… sweet.

“Good lord! Have you lost your mind?!” Henrietta exclaimed from the gazebo’s stairs as she saw the crab reach for the mysterious molten substance with a pincer.

But Balthazar did not stop. He had to know. He had to be certain his senses were not playing tricks on him.

Picking a tiny piece of the molten dark liquid with the tip of his claw, he brought it to his tongue for a quick taste.

Could it really be…

Chocolate!

The crab’s jaw dropped and his wide eyes went back up to the unfolding spectacle above, when suddenly his system launched a new notification into his sight.

[The Semla Volcano has awakened!]

Another loud crash rumbled in the distance, but this time it sounded closer.

Finding he had no shock left to muster, the crab blankly gazed across the water to where the sound had come from.

Across the pond, on the side of the mountain next to the waterfall, he saw a huge chunk of the stone wall crumbling down to reveal a large entrance leading deep inside the mountain.

And then another notification appeared.

[The Semla Dungeon is now open]

[Quest started: Find The Source at the core of the dungeon]

One glance back at Rye was enough for Balthazar to know the young archer was seeing the same warning as him.

And if he could see it, then every other adventurer in the area likely could as well.

“What in the world is happening, Balthazar?” Madeleine asked, looking worried and confused. “What is all this?!”

Balthazar turned to his friends, grinning widely with melted chocolate on the corners of his mouth.

“This, my dear baker,” the merchant crab said. “This is a business opportunity!”

And so began the crab’s new adventure into a sweet and chaotic winter season.