CH26

The morning passed by slowly, there were plenty of people who came around to browse but they didn’t get many buyers, it was clear their little shop was probably doing the worst, but they still got a few sales and were able to attract some kids with pocket money once they say them playing with the toys they made.

It annoyed Ben that his statues weren’t selling too well considering the price was pretty low but not many of the adults were giving his area a look, with parents occasionally coming to pull the children away. He had talked Thera into a small game of frisbee, although given that the table was about six feet long they didn’t have much real throwing distance to work with. Still it managed to pass the time and distract him from the conversation they had in the morning.

He hadn’t planned to share his story but it had felt good to get his feelings off his chest. Taking time to talk about your problems certainly helped but now he had a new one. Thera had seemed uncomfortable since the conversation. He wasn’t sure what to do about it and he didn’t mean to create a bad atmosphere so he was at a loss.

“I think I should go,” She suddenly spoke up after passing the frisbee back to him.

“Oh sure, sorry if my tale made you feel uncomfortable,” He said, a little down that she was leaving already.

“Wait it isn’t that!” She yelled in a hurry to explain herself. “I think a lot of people aren’t shopping here because I’m around. You’ll probably have better luck if I go home.”

“Oh is that all? Then don’t worry about it. Plenty of kids are buying the tops and yoyos, it may be disappointing that not many people are buying the statues but I wasn’t originally planning on selling them anyway so it’s not a big deal.”

“But…”

“Well if you want to leave I won’t stop you, but you shouldn’t let others not liking you keep you from living your life, you know? For what it’s worth I’m enjoying your company.”

It was an embarrassing thing to say, she didn’t know how he could manage it with a straight face, but she felt herself smile under her hood. “Alright I’ll stick around. So what will you do with all the leftovers when the day is over?”

“Probably store them in the shop. As long as people ask where our buyers got their toys from they will hopefully direct them to me, it would be a nice way to get a little side money. Falk knows some merchants too so maybe some of them would buy up my stock.”

“That’s a good idea, uncle has some good connections.”

They continued to talk like that for a while, just passing the hours with idle chit chat and the occasional sale, when they were eventually interrupted by an unruly customer.

“Oh not now,” Thera muttered under her breath and it didn’t take long to see why.

“So you’re still working together? This must be some sort of record for you Thera,” Skoe said as he walked up to their table. “But you should still leave the guy alone before anything bad happens.”

“Skoe we’re just trying to enjoy the market, if you’re not going to buy something then buzz off,” She told him with an exasperated sigh.

He was alone for now at least, the two women he was with when they first ran into him a month ago were nowhere to be seen, but Ben wasn’t in the mood to deal with this. Still, he would be civil as long as he was a customer.

“Pardon me sir, but are you interested in anything we’re selling? If so I would be happy to help you out,” He said with his best customer service smile.

“Look guy, I asked around, your name’s Ben, right? Why not come with me for a bit. Let’s have a talk.”

“Thanks but I have to mind my table and all, is there anything I can do for you?”

He saw a vein start to bulge on the four-armed man’s forehead as he tried to politely brush him off.

“Look man, I’m just trying to help you here. Thera’s got her claws in you and if you don’t get out soon you’re going to end up like Roan.”

“I warned that asshole off multiple times, whatever happened to him is his own problem,” Thera almost shouted, full of indignation.

“He may not have been a good guy but you sent him off his fucking rocker. The same thing’s going to happen to this one if you stick around.”

Ben placed his hands on the tabletop And took a deep breath. It looked like things weren’t going to end as peacefully as he would have liked, so he may as well get a rise out of him. “Listen man you’re either a customer or a nuisance, if you’re a customer buy something and if you’re a nuisance then get lost, you’re blocking potential buyers,” He tried to sound as rude and dismissive as he could to really get the point home and he got exactly what he was looking for.

“Listen you-” He started to say as he threw all four of his hands onto their table, before everything came tumbling down. The front legs of it broke and all of the toys and statues he had made fell to the ground, most of them breaking in the process.

Thera was outraged to see all of Ben’s work be damaged and destroyed like that while Skoe stood there stunned. She was about to start tearing into him but Ben yelled out first.

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“Hey, are there any Guards around? We’re having a bit of an issue!”

Ben yelled knowing full well there was at least one stationed nearby just in case any problems like this occurred, but it seemed there were also a few off duty who broke off from their families to see what the commotion was.

The one on duty looked at the mess of broken stone scattered around before turning to Ben. “Alright what exactly happened here?”

Ben pointed an accusatory finger towards the man and told his tale. “This guy came up and started harassing me and my coworker before breaking my table. Look at this mess, how am I supposed to sell any of this now?” He tried to put on the saddest look he could while he stared down at the destruction of all his hard work. It wasn’t hard, he was genuinely a bit angry at the moment. What matters is if it would pay off.

The guard for his part was professional about the matter and listened to Skoe’s side as well. “And do you have anything to say about what happened?”

“I didn’t mean to break his crap, I just wanted to get him to stop working with the girl.”

“And why did that lead you to breaking the table?”

“Guh, I didn’t mean to. I must have put in a bit more strength than I thought.”

“Huuh, alright you both separate but wait nearby, I’m going to talk with the other tables in the area and then we’ll sort this mess out.”