I hummed a merry little tune whilst opening my shop along the street of the market. It was the Midieval Times and I ran a little stall along the side of Main Street, like many others. I’m no ordinary man—I am from lands far off. I came from the lands hidden from plain sight, or so I tell my customers. Many take me for a wacky man speaking blasphemy, with my strange slicked-back hair that has no white though I am past forty and my strange clothes, but I know powers far more dangerous than anyone else in this growing crowd. This crowd of my hapless, unkowing customers.

Most of my wares are dangerous. My statues come to life in the middle of the night to kill people. My china poisons those who drink from them. My books leave the person weeping tragically forever, or dangerously mad for a time, or unable to put them down. Like…for real. My jewelry drives people mad.



I could plead guilty, to convince you that I feel sorry for the people, that a man must eat sometimes. But…that would be lying. 



The truth is, I _like _when they buy the things and walk away pleased. I like looking in my crystal ball in the black of night to watch them scream in agony. I like to experience their pain. 



A customer! They walk up to my stall—a young boy around thirteen. “Hello, do you have any crystals for sale? It’s a gift for my sister. She’s obsessed with diamonds and stuff. It’s not her birthday or anything, but she’s going to go on her first rock hunt tomorrow and I wanted to get her something. Not too expensive—like, twelve gold coins?” He glances awkwardly at his pocket, where there are quite surely twelve coins exactly in his pocket—remnants from his twenty gold in allowance, no doubt. 



“Ah, yes!” _Dang it, _I think. When one recieves my items as a _gift, _it offsets the malice. The gem even begins to respect them because they got it through an act of kindness! Unless…



I turned and scrabbled through the drawers filled with shiny stones. Some are fake, some are gliterring pebbles I found on the road, some are real with evil spells. And one of them is powerful enough to get past any friendly gift idea offsetting spells. 



I placed the heavy, large and genuine pearl on the counter. It captivated our eyes for a moment. the pure milky white swirling in with many other colours, swishing in and out of the light, cloudy hand-sized ball. 



At last, the boy speaks. “It’s beautiful,” he murmured. “Where did you find it?”



“That, my lad, is a very interesting story,” I begin. “When I was a young man, not much older than you, I set out on a journey, on a complete and sudden foolish whim to kill a dragon. I wanted to prove myself to the village, I suppose. To prove, perhaps, that I was more than some fishermen. 



“I stalked into the lair of the beast. It was a dark and foul cave,” I hissed in a low voice. The boy leaned in. “It smelled of sulfer. A more duisgusting, stinky stench you never smelled. But there, piled into chests was piles upon piles of gold. Gold, my boy! Jewels and precious necklaces of coral dotted the pure yellow circles that were piled into chests, casually overflowing and cascading in a still waterfall onto the stony, cold floor. Then…I heard it.” The boy’s eyes widened. “The claws of the beast! I turned as it scraped into the cave on his scaly feet. His scales, they were blood red, and his belly was the same yellow as his eyes. The eyes were cat eyes, child, but fiery and malicious. I stumbled back. The dragon’s long, shiny snout, with his nostrils wreathed in smoke, paced ever closer, dangerously. It saw me as a threat to it’s treasure. I pulled out my sword, hiding it behind me back. It lunged, and I stabbed it down the throat!” I yanked my pocket knife out of my belt and stabbed it on the wood table. The boy jumped back.



“But that wasn’t the end of it. I yanked out my sword and watched, triumphant, and the lizard screeched with a sound undescribable to ears who have not heard it. It waddled this way and that, wobbling on its feet. It’s head tossed side to side, and then it collapsed, its legs failing. And then,” I continued proudly, “I grabbed my blade and carved the heart out of the very beast!” The boy gasped. “As I heaved the big, pulsing red object into my arms, I noticed it was quite cool to the touch, and hard. It was then that I realized the dragon had never known emotion, because their heart was made of cold, stony ruby.” The boy let out another surprised cry. I went on. “Then I noticed a pulsing white light in the center of the ruby. I slammed my sword onto the heart and it cracked in two, revealing this very pearl… the true heart of the dragon.”



The boy took in a breath. “Wow, sir. You’ve really been places.”



“Aye,” I said. “Anyway, this stone is worth thirteen gold, due to the gross symbolism and the fact that dragons are quite common these days, but because I am slightly superstitious and a kind old man, I’ll lower the price to eleven gold.”



“Sold,” gasped the boy breathlessly. He practically threw the coins on the table to snatch up his prize. “Thank you so much! She’ll love it. And the story was great! In fact, here.” He tossed me his last gold coin. “I was saving it for a piece of candy, but the tale you wove was brilliant! I bet the village children would love it if you volunteered for the Storytime Hour every day. I’ll try to replicate the story to my sis, but I doubt I can master it as well as you!” He smiled and waved farewell as he set off through the busy market streets.



I smiled and leaned back in my chair. It was so relieving to get rid of that thing. Ever since I’d defeated the dragon it had given me strange nightmares and visions. I was excited to watch the pair fall victim to the stone in my ball because unlike the others, the wizard I’d brought it to was unable to decipher what it did. He could only tell me that it was evil enough to overcome any good, meek spell, like the gift counterspell. 



So yes. I could not wait to see what it would do to that boy and his sister. Whatever it was, I was hoping it would change them forever.