“Do you have anything for sore feet?” asks the man.

Fresh blinks, looking at Jubilee for a moment, who just shrugs. “No, sorry,” she says. “Do you walk a lot?”

He shakes his head. “I stand a lot.”

“Buy a chair?” suggests Jubilee.

Fresh clears her throat, nudging Jubilee with her leg. “We’ll have something ready for you, if you can come back tomorrow,” she offers.

The man thinks for a moment and then nods, hobbling away and out of the door.

Fresh sighs, scribbling down the next item on the list she has laid out before herself. It isn’t just a cold going around, there are all sorts of weird things that happen to people’s bodies. But this is outside of her field of expertise. Foot aches? Maybe the man just needs a bath and a foot-rub?

“Jubilee?” she asks. “Do you want a foot-rub?”

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t just hear you ask that,” says Jubilee, sliding some coins around in the till. “We will never speak of this again.”

Fresh shrugs, looking back to the list. She has to ask Basil about all of this stuff.

The next customer comes up to the counter.

“Excuse me,” says the dark-elf. “I’m looking for something to help with an ear-ache?” she asks, rubbing her long ears.

Fresh blinks, writing down another thing on the list.

“Try scissors?” asks Jubilee.

“Jubilee!” she gasps, nudging Jubilee again.

This isn’t going to be a very productive day. She can feel it.

Fresh sits on a chair at the side of the bed, her head resting on Basil’s legs as she waits for the priestess to wake up from her daily sixth nap.

She is here on her lunch break. It’s hard to run the store without Basil, given that such a large focus of their inventory is on medicine and that she’s the only one who’s really knowledgeable enough in any fashion to deal with that sort of stuff.

Fresh sighs to herself, it doesn’t look like Basil is going to wake up soon though. So, after another five minutes of laying there, she leaves her notepad by the bed with a question mark scribbled onto it and then goes outside to make lunch for the others.

“Pakew?” asks the spriggan.

The healer spriggan nods. “Pakew.”

“Hey!” asks an excited voice. Fresh looks over the counter, seeing a familiar elf. She’s one of their first ‘wand customers’. “How did you get your spriggan to grow?!” she asks excitedly, pointing at the healer spriggan.

Fresh blinks, staring down at the spriggan the elf has summoned with her wand. It’s… dressed in a cute little wizard’s hat and cape. It even has its own tiny rucksack.

She’s going to cry. She can feel it. Fresh gasps, clutching her face as she sees it. She feels like a proud mother. The spriggan holds its stubby arms out and bobs around on its feet. “Pakew!”

Jubilee pulls her to the side to get her out of the way, looking at the elf. “We have our ways. Thr- four hundred Obols and we can do it for this guy too,” they say, pointing at the little adventurer.

The elf blinks, looking back towards her party who are standing there, all four of them shaking their heads in unison. The healer of the group seems to be shaking his head a little faster, actually.

She turns back to the counter. “Deal!” she says, slapping down a few large, silver Obols onto the wood.

Jubilee nods, elbowing her. “Take care of it.”

“Okay!” says Fresh, looking down at the spriggan. “You don’t mind, right?”

“Pakew!”

She nods. That’s good enough for her.

Heading down to the basement, she grabs a bottle of mineral-water and then heads back upstairs.

“Close your eyes, little guy,” she says and then drops a few drops of the mineral-water onto it.

The spriggan changes and shifts, growing into a larger, thinner second stage of development. Its sprouts begin to grow many more leaves and petals, pushing the hat off of its head.

“Wow!” says the elf, clearly excited about this. “Can you do it again?” she asks.

Fresh blinks. “Huh?”

“Can you do it again?” asks the elf. “There are way bigger spriggans down in the dungeon!”

Fresh lifts her eyes, looking at the party in the back who are furiously shaking their heads.

“Sure as fuck we can!” says Jubilee. “Eight hundred Obols for a stage three spriggan.”

The elf frowns. “That’s a lot.”

Jubilee points at the spriggan. “You’re paying a one-time investment for a permanent, unpaid party member. It’s a good deal.”

The elf seems to be thinking. “That’s a good point.”

Jubilee nods. “Right?”

“I’ll come back next week then,” says the elf, sighing as she walks off. “We’re broke now.” She slouches out of the door. The adventuring spriggan waves goodbye and then wobbles after the elf, her party in pursuit, each of them sparing herself and Jubilee a cold look.

Fresh laughs an uneasy laugh, waving goodbye to them. “Thank you, come again!” she calls.

Muldrich peeks inside, looking around the store, staring at the spriggans.

“Everything’s fine, Muldrich,” says Fresh. “Do you want lunch?”

“No, thank you,” replies the guard, leaning back out.

Wares Sold Sold for Total Equipment Weapons Rare-wood wands 5 199 995 Bauble staves 1 799 799 Armor and clothes Spriggans’ bark gloves 6 99 594 Spriggans’ bark scarves 1 49 49 Spriggans’ bark underwear (long) 16 49 784 Spriggans’ bark robes 0 199 0 Medicine Kobold’s wart broth ball 9 29 261 Major antidote 7 29 203 Steamable inpertus blend 4 29 116 Anti-sniffle syrum 8 19 152 Bees’ wax disinfecting bandage 16 9 144 Vitamins 10 89 890 Cosmetics Root-bark balm 5 19 95 Murder manuals Spriggan – stage 1 14 99 1386 Spriggan – stage 2 1 99 99 Spriggan – stage 3 8 99 792 Giant bee 4 99 396 Stone-golem 10 99 990 Harpy 1 99 99 Spriggan Upgrades Stage 1 to Stage 2 1 400 400 Purchases Bought Bought for Total spent Mushroom-cap - Spiky 24 -6 -144 Harpy feathers 9 -7 -63 Spriggans’ bark 37 -5 -185 Other Iron-ore 21 -20 -420 Copper-ore 2 -30 -60 Sum (Gross) Taxes Upkeep Savings Total Deductions Sum (Net) 7972 29% 3% 5% 2950 5022 2312 239 399

Earned Today Fresh 1256 Obols Jubilee 1256 Obols Basil 1256 Obols Shamrock 1256 Obols

Jubilee whistles, setting the sheet to the side. “Those spriggan upgrades are free money,” they say. “We need to get more of those wands out there,” suggests Jubilee. “The more wands we sell, the more upgrades we can sell.” They lean back, nodding in contentment. “It’s a good business model.”

Fresh walks back out of the bedroom. Basil is still asleep, but the notepad is covered in scribbles and instructions for all sorts of different things. From a salve for sore feet to a tincture for an ear-infection. Basil had apparently written down all of the things that she needs to do in between one of her naps.

It looks like it’s going to be a long, busy night with little sleep tonight.

“I gotta skip dinner today,” says Fresh, holding the notepad out to them. “Gotta get started with this medicine if we want it done by tomorrow,” she sighs.

Jubilee nods, getting up. “Shamrock,” they say. “You’re in charge of dinner. Get something good,” instructs Jubilee, sliding a pile of coins towards him. “No fucking candy.”

The man nods, getting up. “I serve.”

“Damn right you do,” says Jubilee, pointing at her. “You go to the basement and get started with the ingredients.”

“Jubilee?” asks Fresh.

“We’re helping.”

Fresh blinks. “Are we qualified to make medicine, Jubilee?”

“Fuck no,” says Jubilee, kicking their chair in. “But we’re gonna do it anyways. If someone dies, it’s not our problem. They paid in advance.”

Fresh rubs her arm, laughing. “I don’t think that’s a good business model, Jubilee.”

“Fuck ‘em,” says Jubilee. “They came to us, they’ll get what we make and they’ll like it.”

They wave for her to follow them. Fresh looks at Shamrock who shrugs at the same time as her. Jubilee sure has been a real go-getter lately.

Oh well, it could be worse.

Smiling, she heads after them to the basement, happy to have some company. It’s going to be a long, exhausting night. There’s always so much work to do.