Smolder

Chapter 6

"So, this was your grand plan? " Arron was saying to a Russell squatting on the ground, "to look so Pitiful that people start giving you alms?"

If Russell could produce fire from his eyes, Arron would've been turned to ashes where he stood.

Russell crumbled the bits of paper he held in both hands. They had numbers from one to thirty written on them, every number twice.

The plan was to arrange a lottery, selling every ticket(the bits of papers) for One Stone Tile. That means thirty Stones for one rabbit skin; a steal.

In the capital this would've been a really good plan. Because there are a lot of people in the capital who could do nothing particularly productive, or had lots of free time and money. Russell saw many of the older boys make a good fortune out of it. Like, minister level good fortune.

Only one problem.

This was a trade town.

People here were mostly traveling merchants and carriages carrying good to and from the capital. They did not have time to chat in bars, much less participate in lotteries.

Arron took a page from Russell's notebook, scribbled something on it with the piece of charcoal, and stood in front of the crowd with it in his hand. People passing by seemed to read it with interest. Two of them threw coins at them. Russell didn't want to read what was on the paper.

"Oi, how's it go..." Vivi's words stopped flowing. She was to their left. The princess was a few steps behind her. She looked to their direction and made a sound that sounded suspiciously like stifled laughter.

Vivi was frowning, like she was reading something. It slowly morphed into a smile, wide enough to reach her ears.
She looked at Arron and said, "Well, now you officially have my respect."

If somebody gained Vivi's respect, it was concerning news. Russell stood up and snatched the paper from Arron's hands. It read,

"My cousin is mentally Retarded. We are lost and hungry. Help us by sparing Some change."

Russell's expression must've been something 'cause Vivi pretty much rolled on the ground laughing. Russell wanted to shove that piece of paper into Arron's mouth.

"At least we got some money," Russell grumbled, "All you got is.."

"Sixteen stones," the princess interrupted.

"What?"

"All we got is sixteen stones." The princess was holding up a cloth pouch.

Russell blubbered, "How did you..."

"I had the maids teach me, back at the palace," Elli jingled the pouch, "Turns out, these merchants are quite superstitious. If you dangle a necklace in front of them and say it's a good luck charm, they'll take it for two stones."

Then a tiny, red fire slithered around her fingers, "And the fireworks helped."

"Wow, a three stones coin! Someone was feeling generous today!" Vivi had picked up one of the two coins that were lying on the ground near their feet. She picked up another. "One and three makes four. Congratulations, you managed to trade your dignity for a quarter of what we made." She said, clearly to add salt to his wound.

"That makes a total of twenty.", Elli was counting, "and each bread is five stones. So that means four of us would get one bread each."