Our Week Off Together!

Fifth Day, Part 1

"Wonder awaits you..." King halfheartedly announces to the passing citizens. He is wearing two billboards strapped over his shoulder with one in the front and the other on the back. Both of them are drawn by Luz and Amity in colored pencils of Eda's stand with labels stating, 'Bazaar of Human Relics.' "Stop by our shop and peruse the many unique artifacts of a race from another world. Trinkets and baubles and-"

A passerby bumps against King and spills a bit of soda onto the little guy. "Hey!" he shouts, wiping it away. "Watch it buddy-!" Another passerby bumps into him. A teenage girl runs through and sneaks a quick pet on his fur. A large bipedal monster citizen stomps by, causing King to bounce off the ground from the vibrations and fall on his back. For a small child to hop onto his chest and hops off with a giggle.

A high-pitched sound that can only be described as a tea kettle brewing emits from the King as he struggles to lift himself back up, but the overbearing boards are weighing him down. "Eda!" he shouts over to her, "Can I take this stupid thing off me yet!? I feel like an idiot!"

"That's how you know the punishment is working!" Eda shouts back behind the counter, "You're lucky after what you done, that I didn't tie you to a pole and place a bucket of rotten tomatoes nearby!" She nonchalantly reaches out and stops Luz by grabbing the collar of her shirt and says, "Don't help him, it builds character."

"Ohh..." Luz groans, "But he's like a widdle baby turtle."

"I'm not paying you to help turtles, Luz."

"But you never paid me."

"I'm not letting you live in my house to help turtles, Luz. Here," Eda bends down and picks up a box of various human objects and drops it onto the girl. "Sort these out with Amity. Inventory's going out faster than I can manage."

"Never seen the place this packed before," Luz noted. She been to the usual plaza where Eda sets up her shop and seen other various stalls too, but the entire area is densely packed with not just people but other shops too. Every square inch is just bustling with people, humanoids, and not-so-humanoids.

"With the restrictions lifted after we dumped that burglar to the guards, everyone and their mothers are out here now to indulge themselves. They even reopened the fair since that piranha-bowl game attendant made a full recovery."

"Man, you wouldn't think this town was just attacked yesterday."

"Eh, we all seen worse. This place could be in a middle of a typhoon and you'll still have suckers lining up for killer deals."

Luz chuckles and readjusts her grip on the box, "Reminds me of Black Friday."

"Sounds ominous, tell me about it later." Eda ducks down to scrounge for her products, "Now, when you're facing this many people looking for a good deal to buy, you got to take every step you can to take advantage of these suckers. Take this weird statue with a tail for example."

Eda pulls out what's clearly a lamp and slaps a price label on it stating 60 snails, but the number is crossed out for the discounted price of 30 snails instead.

"Wait, I thought you were selling it for that much," Luz wondered.

"That's the beauty of it, kid." Eda places the lamp down only to have a customer grab it and drop a sack of snails in its place. She collects her earnings with a snide grin and chuckles, "If we keep this up, I could achieve my dream of swimming in a bathtub of gold. They always make it seem so wallowingly in the cartoons... Now go on then, get back to your little girlfriend before she burns a hole in our stand with that glare of hers."

Luz blushes in embarrassment from hearing Eda refer to Amity that way. Not to mention how she dropped the title down on her like that. It was easy for Luz to tease Amity with but having someone like Eda say it feels so exposing. Like the first time her mom found her notebook drawings of Azura when she got into the series.