SOMD Ch32: Old Fashioned Yard Sale (Patreon)

Note: Expect more chapters of this story!

Alice quickly learned that in order to truly communicate with one of her sub-aspects, like Fixie, it was best to go through one of the main dragons. She could, of course, bark out basic instructions to Spark – but anything more complicated needed to be filtered through Iggy.

Now she was running into the same problem with Fixie.

The little dragon was a repairing menace and would spend every moment she was awake at the work to the point where she had collapsed out of sheer exhaustion. Firstly, this wasn’t good for her. Second, if she fell asleep during the day, she would inevitably be awake and itching to repair things for the remainder of the night, which kept the rest of them awake.

Alice tried to explain this to Fixie alone and with Numi as backup. Her admonishments would last about an hour, tops. The little dragon had a fever, and the only solution was to fix.

Furthermore, while Fixie was a wonder and had repaired or repurposed many of the items in the store… she was still one little dragon and could not possibly do everything alone.

“She’s too small and weak to repair the furniture,” Numi told Alice with a distinct gleam in her eye. “I think in order to bring everything up to an acceptable standard, we’re going to need more like her.”

The other dragons groaned and even Alice felt her stomach drop at the thought of even more Fixie’s running around.

She shot a guilty glance the dragon’s way only to find her busily sewing up a cushion that looked like it had been ripped up by a long knife. She was manically sewing with one pair of clawed feet on the upper part of the cushion, while her hind feet worked on a different, sturdier, stitch along the cushion’s edge.

It was rather impressive.

Despite all her hard work, Fixie still had a daunting task ahead of her. It wasn’t fair to place all this on her tiny, newly hatched shoulders. This morning, Alice had tried to help Fixie with the cushions and had dutifully collected up all the stuffing she found scattered through the store.

The moment Fixie saw her, she made an angry, chittering sound and snatched up the stuffing out of Alice’s hands. She couldn’t communicate using words, but the message was clear: This was her duty and Alice had better leave her to it.

Alice repressed a shudder at the thought of more than one Fixie running around.

“Or maybe if she got some magical skills, she could be more efficient?” Numi added, looking at Alice hopefully.

At this, Alice could only shake her head. “I’ll do that the moment I know how to influence the System to give you all magical skills.”

“Oh please,” Iggy said from where he was draped over a recently repaired chair. Fixie had done such a good job that the patchwork in the leather looked artful. “If anyone should get more sub-aspects, it is I.”

Nearby, Spark gave him a dirty look while a bit of lightning zipped off his nose.

Iggy hastily amended, “Not that Spark is not very brave, and endlessly helpful. But your safety, of course, is a priority.”

Prim opened her mouth, and before she spoke, Alice knew where this was going to go. She would put in her own bid for a sub-aspect, and soon all three of her main dragons would be trying to speak over each other.

Though Alice made a point not to get involved in these conversations, she secretly sided with Prim. Her first dragon had made several reasoned arguments as to why she would soon need an assistant… if only to keep an eye on everyone else.

After seeing the havoc Fixie could cause when she didn’t let anyone else sleep at night, Alice was inclined to believe her.

Alice quickly slashed her hand as if to cut the brewing argument before it could start. “I have no aspect tokens left, which means no more assistants for anyone,” she said firmly. “If you want more dragons to boss around in the future, then you will need to gain more levels.”

“Spark and I have almost run all the rats out of the store,” Iggy said, puffing up proudly. “And most of the mice, too.”

Alice had spent a good deal of her adult life in the General Laborer barracks, so she was not worried about a little rodent activity. Still... “Please focus on the mice. At the very least, we don’t need any of them chewing through our supplies and undoing all of Fixie’s good work.”

Fixie, who had just snapped a piece of thread with her teeth to tie off a knot, looked up and hissed in agreement.

“It is not fair,” Prim said. “All of Fixie’s experience goes through Numi. Then she gets even more experience by reappraising what Fixie has just made for her.”

Alice considered that to be more smart than unfair – leave it to Numi to find the loophole in any situation. “And you get residual experience for helping to lead all of the dragons, don’t you?”

“Well, of course,” Prim said without any self-awareness or hypocrisy.

They had figured out that last bit when Prim had recently received another level out of nowhere. It was useful to know and fit in nicely with Prim’s Mother of All skill.

Once again, Alice wished there was a scroll or guidebook to her class. That way she didn’t have to guess so many things or figure them out on her own. What if, one day, she was wrong?

She was spared from this new anxiety when a knock came at the shop door.

Immediately, nearly all the dragons fled to the darker corners of the room. One of the first things Alice had done after purchasing the building was to set up a few hidey holes for them – tucked in places which used existing gouges in the walls, or piles of broken supplies that Fixie had not yet whittled down.

Within a moment, all but Prim was out of sight – even Fixie, though Numi had to grab and drag her (along with the nearly repaired cushion), to their nearest hiding spot.

The only exception was Prim, who fluttered to Alice’s shoulder. Though instantly, her dragon became all but impossible to spot with her illusion skills.

The illusion settled over Alice too, feeling like a fine net. To help it along, Alice straightened to what she hoped was a more noble bearing. Prim helped her along with that in several dozen tiny ways, including making her a little taller, a little regal and more mature. Someone that people could trust.

Striding to the door, Alice flipped the several locks she had put into place and opened it. She was unsurprised when she saw a dowdy looking villager woman standing on the other side.

The moment the door was open, the woman grained her head to peer past Alice and into the store beyond. Alice shifted to block her view.

“How may I help you?”

“Oh, so it is true about someone new coming into town to open a trading post!” the woman gave her what she clearly hoped was a winning smile. “I was wondering when I could soonest put in an order.”

Alice opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, the woman barreled on. “I’ve been hoping for a new bolt of cloth, you see. All I have are greens, and my husband does like blue. It brings out his eyes…”

She prattled on for another few moments while Alice listened with a fake look of attention.

There had been knocks at the door – and requests like this – every hour of daylight. Sometimes, several times an hour. From what she now understood, whatever supplies people could not make or barter for in town, they had to order from the incoming and outgoing ships.

Not only did that take sometimes upward of months for specific requests to be filled, but it was also prohibitively expensive.

With the amount of traffic Alice had received over the last couple of days, it was a wonder that Sim had abandoned the trading post at all.

Then again… with the state of it, Alice wasn’t sure that had been voluntary.

The woman was finally winding down her speech. Alice took the breath of space to say, “We will be open for limited sales tomorrow, one hour after sunrise. Please come by then.”

“Oh, but I was hoping to get in the first order…”

Alice smiled in apology. “unfortunately, I can’t let anyone jump in line. That would be bad business. I hope you understand, don’t you?”

The woman did not and wheedled for a few minutes before she got the message that Alice would remain firm.

Finally, she turned away and Alice was able to shut the door. She fully expected another knock within a few minutes.

“You did very well,” Prim whispered in her ear.

Alice let out a long breath, leaning her back against the door. Telling a mid-classer ‘no’ was stressful, and she was amazed at her own courage. The woman had a ‘trader’ tag, and only a few weeks ago, Alice wouldn’t have been fit to look her in the eye, much less hold a conversation with her.

She had come so far in such a short period of time. If Alice wasn’t careful, she may allow herself to get a big head over this.

Snorting to herself, she collected her wits and looked around the store with new eyes. Fixie had been an absolute wonder, but she had been focusing mostly on linens such as shirts, curtains, and sturdy work-clothing that was so popular with the folk here.

She did occasionally veer into the wooden objects. The issue there, as Numi had told her was, “Some of those things need tools to be fixed.”

“We have tools,” Alice told her.

“Human sized tools. Not Fixie-sized.”

The little dragon was now the length of Alice’s arm. She could barely lift a hammer meant for an adult man.

As usual, Prim picked up on Alice’s anxiety and leaned over to rub her cheek against Alice’s own. “What do you need?”

“Nothing you can do,” Alice said with a sigh.

Prim cocked her head, confused. Alice knew that her dragon’s opinion was she could do anything.

“I need more help,” Alice clarified. “Human help, not dragon help.”

“I cannot hatch out a human,” Prim said regretfully.

Smiling, Alice reached up to pat her dragon. “I don’t expect you to. But I need to find some tradesman to help clean up and repair what Fixie can’t do.”

Her gaze landed on one of the many gouges in the wall. A few were large enough to provide emergency hiding places for her dragon. It seemed that whoever had ransacked this place had been looking for hidden spaces – presumably the strong box that Alice had eventually found. Also, they had broken every spare piece of furniture on the lower level along the way.

Most of it was only good for kindling, though with Fixie’s help, they had been able to replace a leg on a long table to get it standing again. That was now the only space able to hold the finished goods.

Alice shook her head. “If this is to be a proper store, I will need some general help eventually. But…”

“You’re afraid someone will find out about us,” Prim said.

Alice nodded. Her gaze again fell to the table. Walking over, she lifted one end with a quick jerk. She was able to do it – barely. It would be easier to lift without supplies piled up on it.

And it would be terribly awkward to take the long table outside all by herself as she would have to walk it out by inches and be careful of the repaired leg. But it was possible.

“I have an idea,” she said.

****

The next morning, Alice was up before dawn, which was a good thing because no one was on the streets to see her struggle with placing that long table right outside her store.

If she had still been a General Laborer, strength would have been one of her skills. Now she had only her dragons.

They wanted to help her, of course, but she told them to stay back. The last thing she wanted was for someone to see them.

Once the table was outside, she set out a nice cloth to cover the scratched top. Then she went back inside and put on a coat that Fixie had made just for her. It had a particularly high, fuzzy collar that was a little ridiculous and overdone for a small village such as this. But the curl of the collar gave space for Numi to tuck in and remain hidden.

With all the experience she was receiving from Fixie, Numi had grown progressively longer. However, the shape of her body remained quite lizard-like, meant for sneaking and scuttling. She was able to flatten herself out well.

Fixie had sewn in a little hole in the top of the collar so Numi could arch her neck with only her nose peeking out – still hidden in the fuzz – and whisper in Alice’s ear.

That was good because she would need Numi close today.

And of course Prim would be on her shoulder at all times, hidden in camouflage and giving Alice the extra illusion she needed.

This was a risk as it had been proven that her dragons could be seen by a high-level mage. But Alice hadn’t seen any instance of someone like that in this village. There were only tradespeople in the low to mid-levels. Most of the higher leveled had the funds to make it in the bigger city.

And being people who worked for a living, they were also up soon after sunrise. Seeing Alice putting out supplies on the table garnered quite a bit of attention.

Alice put on her most winning smile and answered questions the best she could.

“No, I’m afraid the store isn’t quite ready to open yet. But I thought I would offer a bit of a… fire sale to clean out the place.”

At this, she noticed a few guilty looks. It seemed that knowledge that the place had been completely ransacked was no big secret. Perhaps some of these villagers had helped.

That didn’t stop them from seeing what Alice had for sale.

Along with the linen products, Fixie had managed to repair a few finer goods that didn’t need specialized tools – pretty baubles to go on shelves and decorate a home.

These garnered some attention, but the moment people saw the price – accurate as far as Numi could assess – they winced. Coin was not easily found in a place like this. Something which Alice was sympathetic to.

“I do take trades,” Alice offered. “I’m particularly in need of tools. In fact, I have a client who is trying to get his child prepped for a crafting class, so any small tools would be best.”

This was a winning offer. She received small wooden mallets, fine nails, scissors meant to clip threads, and other smaller tools that were meant for either a fine-boned lady or a child who was getting used to a trade.

Numi regretfully whispered in hear ear that the trade wasn’t entirely in Alice’s favor, but as the tools were just the right size for Fixie, and she had no use for the baubles, she was satisfied.

The heavier clothing was popular, too. Alice received several bolts of whole cloth in return for finished workwear, shirts, and pants. That was a much better trade as it was possible to make more clothing from the bolts, she received than what she sold.

And to her surprise, people automatically treated her with a bit of respect. On the few occasions anyone got snooty over prices, she was happy to imply they could take their business elsewhere.

As there was no other elsewhere, that easily shut people up.

At times like this, Alice thought she could have easily been a real Apprentice Merchant.

Back in the shop, even Iggy and Spark were doing their duty, too. She had set them to guard duty to make sure no one took advantage of Alice’s distraction outside to break into the building and snoop around.

Things were going very well, and she was doing brisk business.

Which was, of course, the moment when the village’s alarms started to sound.