Dungeon Item Shop - Chapter 150: The fair (Patreon)

It is the evening of the next day and a soft dusk glow covers the side of the mountain, the rays of ending daylight shimmering with a particular luminosity, as they reach between the gaps of the many wooden stalls set up on either side of them. Despite that warm-tinged glow, it is becoming colder and colder as the night approaches. Fresh pulls on the cuffs of her robe, adjusting them a little higher so that the fluff on the ends of them forms a tighter seal. She grabs her friend's hands again.

“Look! Look!” calls Fresh excitedly, dragging Basil and Shamrock behind her. Jubilee had refused to hold her hand. She drags the two of them over to a stall that is filled with dozens of colorful, apparently handmade wooden toys and trinkets.

“Yes, they’re very ni -iEH!” Basil is unable to finish her sentence as Fresh drags the two of them away after just a second, already running to the next stall. Shamrock isn’t so much being dragged like the priestess is, but he seems to be playing along, following the two of them as they move through the crowd. Fresh stops, looking at a stall filled with candy and roasted nuts covered in sweet-glazes and deeply fragrant seasonings.

“It smells so good!” says Fresh excitedly. “You guys want some?” she asks, turning around to the out of breath Basil and Shamrock, who is already nodding in eager agreement.

“Slow down, goo-brain,” says Jubilee, catching up at an extremely leisurely pace. “You’re gonna end up running off of the mountain.”

Fresh slides a few coins across the counter to the mustached man behind it. “I’d like some of these please!” she says, pointing to a row of red candied nuts. The man nods and scoops out a bag, taking the coins before handing it over to her.

“Enjoy!” he says with a smile.

“Thank you!” replies Fresh, taking the little paper cone-shaped bag and turning around towards her friends, offering them some.

Basil blinks before staring at the bag for a second. “Ah, I think those are - “ Fresh, not listening pops the first one into her mouth. Shamrock, having grabbed some, almost crushing them beneath his large fingers, does the same. “…spicy,” finishes Basil, looking at the two of them with a little worry visible on her face. Fresh and Shamrock both freeze, as if the cool mountain breeze pushing through the hustling crowds all around them had frozen both of them solid.

“Wait for it,” says Jubilee with an annoyed sigh from the side, as they stare at the two of them, together with Basil.

Fresh, a single tear forming in her eye, does her best not to start crying. She quickly shoves the bag of candied red nuts into Basil’s hands. Feeling her face become hot and red, she turns away, seeing a stall down the path that seemed to be selling drinks. Grabbing the still frozen Shamrock’s hand, she quickly runs down towards it. It’s a party-leader’s duty to take care of their party, after all.

The giant man’s armor shakes as if a single violent shudder were running through him. “Be strong! Shamrooock~!” cries Fresh, running through the perplexed gazes of the crowd around them as she drags him towards safety.

It turns out that the festival taking place is meant to celebrate the birth of a new generation of fairies. As it is apparently quite the spectacle, there is a massive assortment of foods and drinks and exotic goods in general. Traveling merchants come from far away to sell their wares here. Apparently, that also includes merchants from the east, where spicy food is a lot more common.

While this is being explained to her by Basil as she is trying to get her mind off of the pain, Fresh continues downing the bottle of juice that she had bought. Shamrock, still not having said a single word this entire time, is busy drinking his second one.

“Don’t just eat random things, you animal,” says Jubilee, shaking their head.

Fresh lowers her bottle, water still running down her face. “But it looked really good!” she argues, rubbing her eyes on her sleeve. “Are you alright, Shamrock?” she asks, worried about the man.

He looks down towards her, not saying anything for a moment, his armor still rattling a little. She supposes he doesn’t like spicy food either, having more of a sweet-tooth apparently. Perhaps seeing the worry in her face, he simply nods. “Yes.”

Fresh sighs in relief, taking another sip of her juice before looking around the fair. “So what do you guys want to do?” she asks, trying to restore the mood. She lifts her fingers, counting off. “I want to eat a lot of weird food! And I want to try some weird drinks! And I want to play some weird games!”

“I want to go to bed,” says Jubilee, bored.

“Jubileee~! Please have fun with us tonight!” cries Fresh, leaning forward.

“Do you have to cry about it?” asks Jubilee. “Fine,” they say, shaking their head a second later. 

“I’m not crying! It’s still from the spice,” replies Fresh, sniffling, but happy that Jubilee has agreed to stay.

Jubilee sighs. “There’s good stuff to buy at these places sometimes. Guess I’ll see if I can’t find something more useful than you three.”

Basil chimes in. “I’d like to see the wave spawn,” she says excitedly. “To see new life coming into this world is really a blessing,” says the priestess.

Fresh stares at her for a moment. “Huh? Is that already tonight?”

“Yeah?” says Jubilee dryly. “That’s why there’s a celebration, goo-brain. It should be right around midnight. The fair will probably last for two or three days.”

“Snacks,” says Shamrock. “Sweet snacks,” he adds, making a point of it and Fresh nods in quiet agreement.

“Do you think we can meet a fairy?” asks Fresh, looking around the fair at all of the humans, elves and dark-elves who she sees wandering around the area. She wonders if the waitress from the adventurer’s guild is here too.

“I don’t think you’ll be able to avoid it,” says Jubilee with some annoyance. “By tomorrow, this place will be full of a swarm of the energetic, little fucks.” They place their hands on their hips. “Anyways, you already met one, remember?”

Fresh scratches her cheek. “Do you think she’s around the fair too? I bet it must be weird for her.”

Jubilee stares at her for a second and then looks up towards Basil who returns the same expression back down to them, one that Fresh is unable to decipher. Jubilee loosens their posture. “Yeah, I’m sure she’s around here somewhere,” they say. “Come on, let’s get going. There’s a lot to see.”

“Mm!” Fresh jumps up excitedly, feeling a bit better now.

For the next few hours, which seem to pass unusually quick, the four of them run around the fair together. Fresh and Shamrock spend far more money, than is perhaps responsible, on an assortment of foods as they try their way through just about everything that they find on their way. Sweet candied fruits and nuts, greasy fried meats and breads in all manner of combinations are available everywhere and there seem to be more kinds than they can manage to eat, but not for lack of trying. That of course is before they fill the other half of their stomachs with the many arrangements of odd drinks and cold teas. At least Fresh does, Shamrock never quite seems to run out of space for more. Basil only ever nibbles on something now and then and mostly at Fresh’s behest.

Jubilee makes a point of stopping at a stall full of equipment and laughs, nudging her in the side. Fresh looks over at the table adorned with all manner of strange looking weapons. Mostly staves and wands, but a few daggers and an odd shield or two as well. But her eyes follow Jubilee’s, as she sees what they were trying to show her. In the back of the stall, set in the middle of a table is one of their very own enchanted lanterns from the northern city with a proud starting price of one-thousand Obols. As well as a large sign above it, saying ‘Enchanted lantern, made by the horrible (ugly) witch of the north.’

There are a few glowing potions lined up neatly in shelves as well, each bottle is five to six times the price that they had sold them for. The glowing objects apparently have drawn in a large crowd, as a bidding war starts for the lantern.

Basil has to drag her away before she can start yelling at the vendor, not so much because of the sign, but because of her growing anger as she listens in horror, as the price of the single enchanted lantern, which she had made for a few pennies, shoots up another few hundred Obols by the time she’s out of ear-shot.

“It’s so rude!” she argues.

“I know,” replies Basil, patting her on the back.

“Shame we can’t start making those again without getting beheaded,” says Jubilee quietly. “Ah, fuck em.”

Shamrock is busy shooing away a crowd that has started to gather around him. Several of the casters, now clearly drunk and openly reveling, fight over each other to make their intentions for the giant very clear. But Fresh never quite gets a word of it, as Basil rather abruptly drags her away towards the lookout point at the end of the market-place, while Jubilee stays behind, promising to ‘take care of’ the situation.

“City life sure is interesting,” laughs Basil awkwardly, heading towards the railing on the edge of the mountain. The spot overlooks the large forest below and as it grows darker and darker as the night falls, the giant moon hanging above in the night-sky illuminates the world below the mountain. The moonlight bathes everything in a soft, white shine and as the trees rustle and billow in the distant world which they themselves have risen above, the swaying beneath them looks almost like stirring water. As if the peak they were atop were a single island in the middle of an endless, churning ocean.

“Mm!” agrees Fresh, happy to have escaped the crowds for a moment. But it doesn’t last. Jubilee and Shamrock make their approach as well, now free of onlookers. The rest of the space quickly fills too however, as others make their way towards the railing. “It looks like it’s going to start soon,” says Fresh excitedly, listening to the people talk all around them.

All four of them stand on the edge of the mountain, looking down over the forest for the next while, as something deep down below them all seems to shimmer, as soft lights begin to twinkle between the trees.