>>5806826“So, for my price—” you began.
The goblins shouted a flurry of Goblin-tongue and Common invective your way, before Yok-Brot was pushed forwards by the others and addressed you more directly and (almost) civilly.
“Show us the merch first,” he said. “Then, we talk about your… Price.”
You warily produced three of the pouches of shirin—retaining one, shoved to the corner of your bag, for your own future use. You presented them to Yok-Brot, you squeezed the envelope open and shook it slightly, peering inside. The two older goblins flocked to him to peer inside sniffing cautiously at the packages while the female drew a sword too large for her and glowered at you hatefully. You remembered that, before Muffins had tackled him and knocked her unconscious in your last battle, she had promised to gut you. You took a step back, but found your father and Pearce stepping froward to either side of you. You found comfort in their size and martial dash—certainly more than any goblin could muster.
“How do we know this is good?” one of the older males asked.
“Or that it’s not poison?” the other added.
“You seemed familiar with the product,” you said, a touch haughtily. “If you can’t tell if something is shirin, how do you expect to trade in it.”
“…It’s not usually green,” Yok-Brot noted, eyes flickering to yorus.
You hesitated. You… Didn’t actually know that.
“Well,” you said, “I’ve tried it. It’s the, uh… it’s good. It makes you feel invigorated and… See visions.”
Pearce regarded you with raised eyebrows. You smiled embarrassedly, and shrugged. You supposed he knew what you’d been doing lying on your back in his field last summer, now.
“Well,” one of the older goblins said with a canniness in his voice. “We’ll just have to try some, then, huh?”
You narrowed your eyes. Sampling the merchandise before paying their fair share? You weren’t sure you liked the sound of that.
“One,” you said, holding up a finger. “One of you can try SOME of one of the packages. If you try to make off with them, we’ll see whether you have enough crossbows to hold off my entire party of skilled adventurers.”
“Adventurers!” the female goblin spat the word like a curse, and the other three spat…
But they didn’t disagree. Rather, they each held out a hand in a little circle, stepping away from you, and made a display of slapping at one another’s hands in some rapid-fire game of skill, as if drawing lots. You couldn’t really follow the action but, eventually, one of the older males lost… OR won? Regardless, it was he they looked to expectantly as he held the tiny envelope of shirin to his nose, plugged one nostril, and took a sharp inhale.
