There were four stands that sold miscellaneous merchandise, Chip knew at least those would have something. The farthest shop was right next to the stairwell where the otter who had called him, 'fish daddy' was loitering around. Was he loitering? He was probably at work already. Was his job to monitor the bazzaar? Chip didn't know. Strolling back into the bazaar he turned a corner and gasped as he saw the other otter. He pulled back, hiding around a corner. "He didn't see you," an angelic voice said from somewhere,"You're safe." Chip searched around and then looked up to see a female otter on a little stand. She climbed down the ladder just over his head and she took up a position next to him, hiding behind the canvas wall. "Names, Sam," she said, "You're checking out the hot boy over there too, huh?" Her voice was so sweet that he didn't realize that he was staring right at her. "No...uh yes .... uh I mean," Chip stammered, "Could we start this again?" Chip held out his hand. "Wow, one sentence, that is a new record," she said, "If you're going after him, you gotta keep your cool." She wore a junior merchants garb, so she had to be around Chips age, and she had a blue hair bow which indicated that she was being tested. "You're being evaluated to be a merchant?" he said, incredulity slipping out of his voice. "I am." Once otters came of age, they were required to do a service for the company. The only exceptions were those that chose to become druids or rangers. Most of the otters became mercenaries, but a very small but significant minority became the merchants that wrote the contracts for the Riverfolk Mercenary Company and Community Trust. Most otters did ten years of service before they retired to do other things. An otter could vie for a spot in the merchants by announcing their intention when they became eleven, and then they were tried and tested until the end of winter on their twelveth year. Chip had always assumed that he would become a mercenary, and as the harvest was ending for the season, and the contracts were changing, more and more of the mercenaries would get their leave time to be with their rafts. "So who is this hot boy, and can we meet him?" Chip said, turning to look around the corner. "I don't know his name, he just got stationed here yesterday," Sam said, "Do you know anything?" Chip blushed, "He said he would come by my cart for lunch." "Ah! You sell....?" she said. "I sell fish on a stick," he said, noticing finally that she too wore an apron. The lettering on the apron read 'Try our new sweet isekai sauce.' "You sell spices and sauces?" he said. She nodded.