NOVEL WEB Chapter 8: Chapter 8: The Black Market
Back! Anyway, right after we bought the armor, I was certain that Tony would demand something out of me.
I just hoped he would demand I cleaned after him. That seemed to make my father happy.
And my mother miserable, but I was really not in the mood to make Tony Macaroni happy any other way, if you know what I mean!
We already spent the one bag with teeth and bones for the armor. I was surprised that it was even enough.
But that's beside the point!
We now had the right to enter the Black Market. As premium customers, at least for the next 24 hours, we even had the right to free snacks!
Life was good, I had to admit.
I was like a knight, taking point. Anthony walked behind me, looking around with wide, twinkling eyes.
Why do cute things always have to be evil? Was that something like a universal truth or a rule?
And was there even a difference between a universal truth or a rule?
"Mike, look! Candy canes!" I could already tell that they were stolen.
Still, I decided that it was none of my business. Together, we went to the stand.
There were no sellers at the food carts which were lining the streets. Goblins produced no food and gave it away as soon as they stole it. No, they only needed enough for the winter.
Their customers ended up buying more, or so I was told. It was nice, I guess.
To be able to have a legal business with stolen goods. Just like Tony and me!
I saw a gnome looking at the candy canes with a wobbling lip. I had no idea what he was even doing here.
He didn't look well-off enough to be able to get some of the wares on offer. I had no idea back then, that the goblins were such big sadists that they would be willing to let the people they stole from in their Black Market.
So, they could sell them their own wares back.
"Oh, Bob!" A girl was running down the street. A gnome one! I began to look around. The goblins weren't paying her any attention.
Tony balled his fists.
"It's not worth it, Bob!"
Even as young as I was, I could see that her dress, as clean as it was, was more patches than the original fabric.
And yet, what could she do?
She was just a gnome.
"Let's just go home! We can make more candy canes! We can still get enough to pay the lord!"
Her words were beginning to paint a picture to me. A picture which her tears, big and crystal clear, were finishing up, as they ran down her cheeks.
"Bob! Don't make the goblins mad!"
"Mike," Tony's voice was winter itself. He activated his armor!
Only for the magic to sizzle out.
Of course, the goblins wouldn't give him an armor that he could use against their Black Market. That would be brain-dead.
"Go back the way we came. Cover your ears," Mike took out a dagger.
A goblin who was manning a knife stall took off a cleaver from a hook, his smile nasty.
"We'd like all these candy canes!" But I was quick to think it all through!
Now, I suck at math. That was something that my teacher told me more than once, as I would give up on trying to think about numbers as numbers and go back to the abacus.
But even I knew that an entire Black Market worth of goblins vs the two of us was not a good match.
"May we take them? We are premium customers!"
Besides, I was going to stick it to the goblins. Stick it to them so bad, that they were never going to let us back in the Black Market ever again!
Well… until we saved them from a dragon. But that's a story for later!
"You may," the cleaver goblin grumbled.
"Oh! And that bread over there!" Which was something I wanted to split 50-50 with the gnomes. Man, it smelt so nice!
"Thats nice of you," the goblin began to look at the cleaver so, as if he considered chucking it at us.
"And…" Did I dare take meat from goblins? Yes! I did dare! Because I was braver than I was smart! "That stand with the dried meat over there as well!"
Even back then, I was not brave enough to try and get something that was more expensive.
Even though the fruit on offer was to die for. And not just fruit! Sweets the likes of which I would never have gotten, had I not visited the Market!
"Why don't you take all the food," the goblin had a nasty smile on his face. "Eh, hero?"
"Yes," Tony roared, as he took a hold of my hand. He pulled me to himself, bringing my hand to his lips and kissing it. "We will take all the food! The food you stole! And so, help you if you don't fill my bottomless bag with it! I will write you such a review on the Onion, that no one is going to come to buy from you ever again!"
I began to shake my head. No, that was not something he was supposed to do! No one threatened goblins with the Onion!
"Anthony!" I had hoped that me yelling his name was going to be enough to make him stop being so bloodthirsty, but there was one thing I didn't know:
Goblins loved the brave.
They adored the bold.
But most of all, they had great respect for thieves.
Which both Tony and I were.
Besides, we had bought the dragon armor. We had the full right to take all the food.
"And one day," there was the fire of justice in his eyes. A fire like no other. I was looking at someone who knew when to pick his battles.
I just didn't know it back then.
"We will make you cook your own food!"
The goblins began to laugh, but Tony still went and began to pile up the food in his bottomless bag.
The gnome man helping him, his bottom lip between his teeth.
Fire in his eyes.