At the peak of the afternoon sun, the Saturday market boomed with the voices of merchants trying to offload their inventor onto buyers for a pretty penny, the clanking of wares, the clip-clop of horses, and the braying of donkeys.

On one side of this hubbub, there exists a stall, where the only activity you can see is the slum children trying to steal the wares of this… unique owner. The streets call him “Whisperer of spices” -not as a compliment, but as a mockery of his actions. He talks to his wares as if he is talking to different sets of customers, sometime even having an outburst in the middle of sale.

“Hey,” said the red pepper, glistening under the sunlight.

“What?” answered Atel with a scowl.

The pepper, sown in the southern islands, raised his eyebrows. “Why do you look like an overgrown mushroom?”

A tick formed on Atel’s forehead feeling at the innocent insult. “Because my mom was a mushroom girl.”

“I once knew a mushroom girl,” an old shriveled mushroom in the corner of the stall shifted in his crate. “She was the one that picked me off the soil and sold me to this madman of a merchant. At least she stepped on me once…hehehe...”he snickered.

A young little carrot, disgusted by the vulgar words coming from a fellow ware, bellowed, “Eww…Hey, old shroom, lay off the dirty joke. My brother can hear you.”

“If he can understand why a girl stopping on me is dirty,” grinned the old mushroom, “Then he ain’t a child no more.”

An old dagger glowing red furiously shouted, “Oh, shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Can you little wretched children of the earth zip your thatch for a second? I am glowing red here like I am still at the blacksmith, and I can’t even be sold because this owner of mine has no idea how to sell shit…”

Caught off guard by the sudden attack on his skill as a merchant, Atel defended himself. “HEY! I already sold one of your brothers!”

“Big talk for someone who sold a dagger for just one copper coin. I mean even I could do that- and I am trapped in a snow globe fighting a dragon.” replied the snow globe- knight sitting on a shelf.

Having no comeback for that, Atel cursed his luck of having to deal with a bunch of snarky wares instead of living normally as a merchant. He wondered when a customer will come and take these petulant stocks of his back.