Pink Rose [1]

"Making Vendors Cry"

Quest Objective: Score a good discount (and don't fall in love with your traveling companion).

~Valley of the Four Winds~

I glared him down. "No dice."

"Fifty."

"Twenty."

"Forty-five."

"Twenty-one."

"Forty- six!"

"Thirty."

"Thirty-five—WAIT!"

"I'll take it." I smiled at the pandaren merchant innocently. It was hard to hear his not-so attractive mutterings over the buzz of Halfhill Market. Instead of swords, pots clanged against hot skillets. Instead of battle cries, other shoppers quipped at vendors for affordable prices. Even in the air of busyness, everything was just...calm. Ordinary, almost.

Anduin was at my side, impressed as the merchant regretfully relinquished over the bag of turnips. As we walked past, other merchants started to give me weary glances.

"That was amazing," Andy replied, jutting his chin out at the turnips. "I've never seen anyone negotiate like that."

I shrugged. "Negotiation isn't always fancy etiquette."

After an hour shopping with Anduin, one thing had been established: he was skilled at playing good cop, and I was skilled at making vendors cry.

I scanned the small settlement of civilization. It was like a brown ship among a sea of green. Jaded slopes dotted with yellow wildflowers. Farmers carrying barrels of crops down the earthen roads. The only threat for miles were the huge, angry bunnies that choose underground burrows in the most inconvenient of places.

"Where did you learn it?" Andy asked.

I looked back to him. We didn't blend in so easily here: I practically looked like a walking turnip, pink skin and all, meanwhile Anduin with his blond hair and lean frame could pass for a ray of walking sunlight.

"Goblins. I visited some of their camps in the Netherstorm when I was growing up—my mother had a fit when they taught me how to gamble." I made a face at the memory.

Anduin's jaw dropped. He stopped walking in the middle of the busy road. "The Netherstorm?"

"Uhuh."

"As in...as in Outland?"

I nodded, pulling him out of the way as a pandaren woman passed with three barrels of beer beneath each arm. "Yes, I was born there. Wait, I never told you?"

"You didn't mention that, no." Andy seemed awed by the reveal. Outland wasn't that exotic. Many people came and went from the other planet through portals, the most common being the Dark Portal that stood twenty feet high, guarded by stone watchers. It had been that way for years now.

"It's not that extraordinary," I said as the road we were on started to dip downwards. The market carried on down the small hill, exploding with the scent of herbs and warm cinnamon and simmering vegetables.

"It is," Anduin argued. "You're from another world."

Unbelievable. My eyes glow in the dark and he doesn't mind. But suddenly I'm from another planet and I become the freak of nature—orcs don't originate from Azeroth! Neither do draenei! I'm not special—I'm very happy to be rid of that hellhole...too many memories...

I bit down on my lip. "Does that bother you?"

I was surprised when Andy shook his head. "No, not at all. It's just...well..."