Merchant Crab

Balthazar stepped out of the baking boutique and looked up. The sun was now a fleeting memory on the horizon, barely an orange streak left under the starless night sky.

Used to living by a pond most of his life, the crab always saw dusk as the time to retreat into the safety of your home, away from the dangers of the dark, until morning came back.

“It’s late,” he said to Suze. “Shouldn’t you be going back home now?”

The little girl placed her hands on her hips and looked at him with sassy disapproval.

“Hellooo? I live in the streets, remember?” She threw her arms out. “This is my home!”

“Uh, right, yes, but I mean…” the merchant said. “A kid shouldn’t be out at night, right? It’s… dangerous?”

Balthazar realized he didn’t actually know much of anything about children, but he was certain he was on the right track about how they shouldn’t go out at night. He just wasn’t sure if it was because they should be asleep, or because they’d spontaneously turn into a pumpkin if left out. It was one of those two, that much he knew.

“Pfft,” Suze mocked. “Please… We’re in the city, not out in the woods. There’s no more danger at night than there is during the day. Now come on, let’s go see what dangers we can get ourselves into!”

The street urchin grabbed the crab by the wrist and pulled him behind her up the sidewalk as he protested, not used to being crabhandled so unceremoniously.

But as the bickering duo made their way up Marquessa's streets, Balthazar began noticing the differences between nighttime in the wilderness and in a city.

The sky was dark and moonless that evening. Yet, it wasn’t like the roads around the pond, or the forests he had slept in the past weeks, where once the sun had set, one could not see a thing without a lantern or torch.

All around the streets there were burning braziers by every corner, and iron lanterns mounted up on the sides of buildings. Some were still in the process of being lit by a town workman carrying a long stick with a flame on its tip.

There was no sun in the sky, but the roads were still bright and visible, no darkness or shadows left for the imagination to wonder what dangers might lie hidden in them.

“Where are you even taking me?” Balthazar asked the little girl, as she stomped up the street with the determination of someone who knew exactly where she was going.

“We’re gonna visit the guy who stole that lady’s mangoes,” Suze said with casual confidence.

“Wait, what?” the puzzled crab said. “You already know who did it?”

“Yep! It was Onion Jake.”

“Who the hell is that?”

“The leader of a small bandit gang down in the port district.”

Balthazar’s frown grew deeper and more confused. “How do you know he has anything to do with it?”

The street rascal stopped, turned to the crab, and tilted her head while pursing her lips.

“Hmm,” she said, while mockingly stroking her chin. “Let’s see… Why do you think they call him Onion Jake?”

The merchant shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe because he smells like onions?”

Suze snapped her fingers.

“You got there on the first try!” she said with a grin.

“Oh…” Balthazar said. “And because Margo said the place where the mangoes were before being stolen smelled like onions, you think that means that guy was involved? Isn’t that a bit far-fetched?”

“Pfft, no! The scene of the crime smelled like onions, I know a bandit that always smells like onions, that’s as obvious of a clue as there is.”

The crab scratched the side of his face with the tip of his pincer. “I don’t know, kid. I’m pretty sure I read in a book once that correlation doesn’t mean causation.”

“You can read?!” Suze said.

“You can’t?” Balthazar asked back.

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“No, ‘cause I’m co-related to the streets, dummy. Now let’s go, their hideout is down a few more streets.”

Skittering as fast as his legs allowed him, the crustacean followed the skipping child as she headed down the nearly empty streets of Marquessa, now devoid of all the busy crowds flowing through them earlier.

“How do you even know where a bandit’s hideout is?” he asked her, beginning to question the company he had picked.

“I see lots of things around these streets,” she replied, while they continued walking. “You have time to learn lots of stuff when you don’t have to go to school every day!”

“Like what?”

“Like how Onion Jake’s crew are some of the worst bandits in town, who can’t even keep their hideout hidden from a curious kid.”

Balthazar cocked an eyestalk at her. “If they’re so bad, how would they manage to pull off all these thefts when the mayor herself is trying to catch them?”

“Dunno,” the little girl said with a shrug. “That’s not my job to figure out. Maybe you should ask Jake that yourself.”

“So, what, we’re just going to stroll into the hideout of a bunch of criminals like it’s nothing?”

Suze rolled her eyes. “Of course not. We’re going to sneak into their hideout.”

The crab’s eyestalks curved forward. “We are?”

“We’re here!” the street urchin excitedly declared, pointing down an alley.

The narrow street was much darker, with no lamp or brazier to illuminate it, except for the faint glow from a small window at the other end.

Balthazar hesitated at the sight of the unknown alleyway, but before he could share his concerns, Suze grabbed hold of his claw again. “This way!”

“Hey, what are you doing?!” he said, while being pulled into the shadowy passage.

“Shhh!” the little guttersnipe said. “We gotta be quiet.”

As they arrived near the lit up window, Suze let go of the crab and nimbly hopped on top of a wooden crate next to a tall fence.

With one foot precariously tiptoeing on the box, and another held in the air as she maintained balance, the small girl peeked over the fence.

“They’ve got a guard,” she whispered.

“What’s he doing?” the merchant whispered back, trying to stand as high as he could on his legs, but still unable to look over the fence too.

“He’s guarding, duh!”

Scrunching up his face in annoyance, Balthazar looked around. He spotted a small hole between the planks making up the fence, and placing one of his eyestalks in front of the slit, peeked through to the other side.

A ruffian was leaning against a wall on the other side, next to a closed door. He was humming to himself while idly cleaning under his nails with the tip of his pocket knife.

“I guess we’re not going in through that door,” Suze said, struggling to keep her balance with only one foot on the crate.

The crab turned one eyestalk up to look at her while keeping the other on the lookout. “Maybe we should go around to the other side and—Ow!”

Without warning, the little rascal unceremoniously planted her hanging foot on Balthazar’s shell for support.

“You know that in crab culture that’s pretty rude?!” the crustacean protested, while still keeping his voice down. “The last human that did that to me ended up sleeping with the rocks!”

Suze scoffed. “Yeah, sure, mister tough-shell. Now hold still. If I fall and that guy hears it, we’re both gonna be in trouble.”

“Just get down from there!” Balthazar said. “We have to look for another way in.”

With a quiet hop, the little girl jumped down from the crate and the crab’s shell. “There’s no other way in, that’s the only door. I know this place, remember?”

The annoyed merchant rubbed the top of his shell while exhaling sharply. “Fine, then maybe we come back in the morning when it’s not so dark and find a way inside.”

“That’s dumb,” the kid bluntly declared. “We gotta sneak in, and that’s better done while it’s dark!”

Balthazar groaned in frustration. “And how do you suggest we do that?”

“Easy,” Suze said, pointing her nose up. “Climb up the side window and sneak in that way. That’s how I do it, all the time.”

The traveler shook his shell while pinching the space between his eyestalks.

“First of all, a little concerned with how you just said you climb through people’s windows all the time,” he said. “And second, look at me! In what way do you think I’m built for climbing, let alone stealth?!”

“Hmm,” said the girl. “Can’t you just, like… walk on the tips of your… legs?”

“Seriously?!” Balthazar replied. “Kid, have you ever heard the expression ‘a giant crab in a porcelain shop’?”

“No?”

“Well, that’s because it was invented earlier, when I went into one and the owner nearly fainted when he saw me walk between his shelves!”

“Whatever,” the kid said, crossing her arms. “I can get inside, if you can’t, that’s a you problem.”

“I’m not made for sneaking,” the crab said. “I have my own ways to get inside. I just—”

He suddenly stopped talking as they both heard a noise coming from the other end of the alley and turned to it.

It was dark and hard to see, but the crustacean was certain he heard someone moving.

“I think there’s someone there,” Suze whispered next to him.

“Yeah, I noticed that!” he replied with an exasperated murmur.

“If it’s a guard, I’m telling him you dragged me here by the hand.”

The crab turned to her with a frown. “Seriously?! You’re the one who dragged me!”

As they bickered, the source of the sound approached, a shadow emerging from the dark recesses of the alleyway, coming closer to the faint light cast from the nearby window.

Startled, Balthazar’s gaze jumped from Suze to the figure, squinting as he tried to make out who or what was coming towards them, until his eyestalks jumped in surprise.

“What are you doing here?!”

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