Merchant Crab-Chapter 279: Dragon Seeds

“Madeleine!” the crab said, throwing his pincers up in a greeting as he approached the young woman sitting on a rock by the pond’s shore.

She looked up with a start. “Oh, hello, Balthazar!”

In her hands she had a pair of thick, long needles with threads of wool wrapped around them, and draped beneath them and over her lap was a long, rectangular piece knitted with the green fabric.

“What are you doing there?” the inquisitive crustacean asked, settling next to the girl. Despite not having a campfire nearby, he noticed a distinct warmth around her that felt inviting and comfortable.

“Ah, you caught me taking advantage of your beautiful pond for myself for a little bit,” Madeleine said with a smile.

“Heh, that’s alright,” said Balthazar. “You are allowed to enjoy my pond for free.”

“I’ve taken on the habit of coming down here by this corner at the end of the day to do some knitting. I’m making a scarf for Rye, to give to him when he comes back. I just hope to see him again before the cold season is over…”

“What’s a scarf??” the confused crab asked with a frown.

The baker looked down at the half-finished strip of green wool on her lap, seemingly puzzled by the merchant’s lack of knowledge.

“It’s… this,” she said, gesturing down at the garment.

Balthazar squinted at it. “Can it be eaten?”

“What? No!” Madeleine exclaimed in confused bafflement. “I mean… at least I wouldn’t recommend it.”

The crab brought his eyestalks closer to the scarf.

“Hmm, it reminds me a bit of the hat you made for me, now that I think about it,” he said, giving the blue winter hat wrapped around the top of his carapace a slight tug with his pincer.

“That’s because they’re both made of wool and serve a similar purpose—warmth,” explained the girl.

“Ahhh, that makes sense!” responded Balthazar as he nodded affirmatively. “But the shape is different. How do you use it?”

Madeleine looked at the crab with an incredulous expression of utter confusion.

“Seriously, Balthazar, how do you not know what a scarf is? It’s a piece of knitted wool that keeps you warm, you just wrap it around your…”

The baker’s words trailed off as her gaze slowly moved from the accessory in her hands and awkwardly looked at the crab from the top of his shell to the tip of his legs.

“Wrap it around what, Madeleine?” Balthazar asked with a cocked eyestalk.

Madeleine chuckled with slight discomfort as she set the neck garment aside.

“Erm… I’ll just tell you later, once I finish it, alright?”

The crab narrowed his eyes at the baker but did not protest, instead choosing to focus his attention on something else he saw a few paces behind her.

“Phew, it sure is warm here,” he said as he stood up. “What’s that back there, by the way?”

Madeleine followed his gaze to a cleared area behind the kitchen building, where a crude fence made with canes surrounded a small group of mounds spaced evenly in about half a dozen rows.

“Oh, that?” she said, looking enthusiastic again. “I finally planted those dragonfruit seeds Beatrix gave me!”

“Ooooh!” howled the excited crab, remembering the delicious dragonfruit pies he had tried back at the dragon’s lair. “Excellent! Think you’ll be able to make any pies with them soon?”

The baker looked at the grinning crustacean and chuckled.

“You silly crab. Those fruits will take a few months to grow and be ripe enough to use.”

“Awww…” the merchant said, letting his shell deflate closer to the ground. “I don’t like waiting.”

Skittering up the shore and closer to the dark backyard behind the kitchen, Balthazar peeked over the crudely crafted fence to look at the small mounds where the seeds rested.

“Come on, grow faster!”

Once again, Madeleine giggled at the crustacean’s silliness as she joined him leaning over the barrier of canes.

“Druma helped me set this little garden up. He offered to dig the holes to plant the seeds, and then made this fence without me even asking him! Such a sweetie. I hope you don’t mind, by the way? Both that I used your assistant’s time, and that I planted these fruits in your territory.”

“Bah,” the crab said, waving a dismissive claw at her. “My pond is your pond, Madeleine. Besides, if it means you’ll make more of those dragonfruit pies, I say you should have done it sooner!”

The young woman shrugged.

“I just didn’t get around to it, with so much to do. And then I also decided to ask Beatrix for the best ways to plant and grow dragonfruits.”

Balthazar moved a few paces away from the fence and leaned with one pincer against a nearby rock, which was also oddly warm for how cold the night should have been.

“Geez, we’re so far away from the bazaar’s fire pit, how is it so hot out here?” he said, fanning himself with the other claw. “Anyway, how is that old overgrown lizard anyway? She spends her days up there on the mountain, only Blue gets to see her, and it’s not like she’s going to tell me much.”

“Uhh, why don’t you just ask her, Balthazar?” the baker said with a shake of her head.

“Oh, sure,” the crab exclaimed, throwing his claws up in mocking exasperation. “I’ll just make the climb up that big mountain to say hello to an old grumpy dragon. Or better yet, just grow wings and fly up there to have crumpets with her!”

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“No, I mean, why don’t you ask her right now?” the smiling girl said, glancing up above the crab.

Balthazar frowned as he followed her gaze up. “What do you me—AH!”

“Hello, grumpy crab.”

Beatrix LaFlamme rested on the ground between the pond and Madeleine’s kitchen, her massive red body enveloped in the darkness of night, only her gleaming copper eyes piercing through the shadows, looking directly at Balthazar.

“For crying out loud, not again!” exclaimed the annoyed crustacean. “Giant red dragons have no business having such high stealth!”

The baker let out a loud, earnest laugh, one hand placed over her stomach.

“Oh, Balthazar! She was right there the whole time, we were chatting before you joined. How did you not see her?”

“I ask myself the same exact thing!” the crab groused, scowling up at the red giant.

“It’s good to see you haven’t changed much, you old overgrown crustacean,” Beatrix said in a low, rumbling voice, a glimmer of sharp wit flashing from her gaze.

“Ah,” Balthazar said, waving a pincer as if dismissing his own grumpiness. “What are you doing down here anyway? I thought you liked living up there, away from everyone, meditating, or… whatever you ancient dragons like to do when you’re not burning down villages and kidnapping young girls.”

“Your words wound me like daggers, Balthazar,” the enormous dragon said with undisguised sarcasm. “Tiny, human daggers. The kind rogues carry wrapped to their ankles. And to answer your question, I often come down to converse with my dear Madeleine, at night, away from prying eyes. Mainly adventurer ones—and I suppose yours, too, it seems.”

“What does a baker have to chat about with a dragon anyway?!” the definitely-not-envious crustacean asked with arms spread open.

“Lots of things!” the amused baker replied. “We talk about my day, girl things, the best way to grow big and healthy dragonfruits.”

“Volcanic ash mixed in the dirt is the secret,” Beatrix added with a sage nod.

“Oh, and we were talking about my plans this year for Festus just before you arrived!” Madeleine enthusiastically added.

Balthazar frowned again, the same old annoyance coming back to pester him.

“Alright, that’s it, I’ve had it with hearing that word thrown around without anyone ever explaining it to me—what in the hell is this Festus you guys keep talking about?!”

Madeleine frowned too, but in mild confusion and disbelief.

“Wait, you really don’t know what Festus is?!”

“No!” the exasperated crab exclaimed!

“Oh. My. Gods!” the girl said, smacking both palms against her cheeks. “How do you not know about the best part of the whole year?!”

“What?!”

“Festus is the celebration of the end of the cold season and the beginning of a new year cycle on Heartha! It’s the time of the year when family and friends get together, celebrate, eat lots of sweets…”

“Hey, I like the sound of that!” the crab interjected.

“…and give each other presents,” Madeleine concluded.

“Alright, never mind, suddenly you lost me there.”

“It’s such a big part of Mantell’s culture,” the baker continued. “I can’t believe you’ve never heard of it!”

Balthazar scowled.

“Why would I know about every single silly human tradition? I bet Beatrix over here didn’t know what it was either!”

He looked up at the dragon, who merely raised her brow and looked up at the sky casually.

“I actually did know about this human festival.”

The merchant stared up at her, speechless, with his mouth ajar and an expression that mixed bafflement and a touch of unexplainable betrayal.

“What?” the red giant said, glancing down at the tiny crustacean beneath her. “I am ancient and well-educated in all sorts of topics. Festus is a pretty big deal to humans. Or so I’ve heard.”

“Unbelievable…” Balthazar said, shifting his gaze back to Madeleine while shaking his shell. “I was kind of convinced Festus was just the name of some high-level monstrosity that lived in the tundra, or something like that.”

The girl stared back at him like the crab had just grown an eleventh limb.

“What?! No! Festus is a happy event! A time of joy and merry celebration! It’s when everyone comes together, laughs, sings, dances, works together, and gives freely in the spirit of generosity.”

“Alright, you can stop, you already convinced me not to want to know any more about your Festus thingy!” the grouchy crab muttered.

“What do you mean?!” asked the baker. “You’re going to be a part of it, mister! At least of my Festus celebration you are! You may have been a nameless crab living alone on a pond last year, but this season you’ve got me! Us! All the friends you’ve made. And we will celebrate the best Festus ever!”

Balthazar scoffed and looked away with his arms crossed.

“Sappy feelings, people being loud, and nonsensical giving away of stuff? Count me out!”

“There’s also copious amounts of overeating of sweets.”

The crab peeked back at the baker with one eyestalk.

“Copious, you say?”

“Make the girl happy, crab,” Beatrix said in her rumbling voice, despite sounding calm and not threatening. “Join the festivities. Enjoy life before it passes you by.”

Balthazar twisted the other eyestalk up to look at the dragon.

“I suppose that means you will join them too, huh?”

Beatrix let out a long sigh, the scarred scales of her neck shimmering a different shade under the moonlight.

“No, I will not. Simply because my presence would not sit well with some of the other… races. And I do not wish to ruin our Madeleine’s night.”

The young woman gazed up at the ancient being with a sad expression but said nothing, her silence speaking of a conversation already shared between them.

Balthazar, in turn, scowled at them.

“So what, you’re just gonna sit up there in your lair all day and night staring at the clouds? What is it that Blue spends her days doing with you up there anyway?”

“Your progeny trains under my tutelage, to prepare for the troubles to come,” the red dragon stated plainly.

“Uhh, first, don’t call Blue my ‘progeny’ because that sounds weird. And second, what do you mean by troubles to come?!”

Beatrix’s vivid copper eyes narrowed down on the crab and she spoke in a deeper, somber tone.

“Do you think your troubles with the unseen forces of this world to be over, crab? Do you really think you will just be left alone to be the destabilizing anomaly that you are? And if nothing else, do you think this strange new dungeon under your feet will just remain quiet and give you no problems?”

Balthazar turned to face her properly, his own expression turning serious, as well as curious.

“What do you mean? Do you know something I should know too?!”

The red giant sighed.

“No. But when a dragon grows to be as ancient as I am, we begin to perceive time, fate, and events differently. I know that dire times are coming, and that you will be at the very center of it all. What, why, or when exactly, I do not know. Just that time is running out…” She paused and gazed at the pale moon in the sky before closing her eyes. “For all of us.”

The crab stood quiet for a moment, contemplating the elder creature’s words before breaking the silence while throwing his pincers up.

“Well, that was ominous as hell, but are you going to actually tell me something useful or—”

A rumble that did not come from the dragon shook the ground beneath their feet violently, and a booming blast came from the nearby pond, causing the three of them to turn to look at its source.

A column of white, bubbling foam shot up from the surface of the pond, taller than the dragon herself, and sending water splashing everywhere like a sudden spring rain.

The quake shaking the ground nearly toppled the crab and the baker, but as they held on to each other for balance, their eyes could not move away from the simultaneously beautiful and terrifying geyser that had just erupted from the pond’s depths.

“What in the name of a thousand éclairs is that?!”