[ WP ] A wandering adventurer visits your shop and tries to sell you his inventory of junk .

“ Greetings, sir, and well met! Today is a momentous occasion, ” the adventurer gave a knowing wink and a snap, “ but as I can tell from your smile you already know who I am. ” 
 
 Rand frowned deeper. He knew no such thing. Though he could guess, and probably that was good enough. 
 
 The adventurer, dirt-smeared and battle-drunk thing that he was, as were all the damned would-be hero adventurers that frequented Rand ’ s shop, sucked in another breath. 
 
 “ I bring you good fortune from the far corners of the world, nay, items of immeasurable value, nay, even greater, noble merchant I bring you— ” 
 
 “ Grocer. ” 
 
 “ Huh? ” The adventurer paused, eyes regaining their focus as his speech fumbled to a stop. 
 
 “ You said merchant. I ’ m just a grocer. ” 
 
 “ Oh, ah. I see. Well. ” The adventurer seemed to think on that a moment, mouth slipping into a slight frown. “ Not as stirring a title, I suppose but… ” he waved away the rest of the words before starting again. Rand struggled to hold in a sigh, then decided it wasn ’ t worth the effort. His shoulders slumped as the sigh escaped him, but the adventurer began again nonetheless. 
 
 “ Behold, noble grocer, I bring you treasures from beyond your wildest dreams! ” He swung open his bag with a flourish. A spattering of items clattered across the counter. Didn ’ t make much noise as they did, but Rand had heard a good number of items clatter across that counter in his day, and in these he heard only more of the same. Disappointment. For him, and for the items ’ would-be seller. 
 
 If sighing were a sport, Rand would ’ ve been its champion. Would ’ ve been a name the bards would sing about, a sportsman the likes of which the world had never seen. But sighing wasn ’ t a sport. And Rand wasn ’ t a champion. He was a grocer. Another thing to sigh at, that. 
 
 “ Ah, I see your eyes can ’ t help but wander to this little mystery, ” the adventurer said, voice lowered like he was sharing a secret. His fingers gestured at the object, shaking and dancing above it in a way Rand didn ’ t doubt was meant to be tantalizing. 
 
 “ You ’ ve good taste, noble…grocer, ” the adventurer paused only slightly at the word before continuing. “ This, you see, is a most rare and valuable item. ” He snatched it into the air, held it high above them, eyes wide as if all the secrets of existence were contained within its curved ivory surface. 
 
 “ This, believe me or not, is the famed— ” 
 
 “ Basilisk ’ s tooth. ” Rand had seen the paltry thing a hundred hundred times before. He could ’ ve listed its qualities both medicinal and arcane. He could ’ ve said where it was found, how it was obtained, the proper ways to store and transport it. Could ’ ve, and didn ’ t. Wasn ’ t worth the time. 
 
 “ Buying price three silver, ” he said, considering throwing in a sigh for good measure. 
 
 The adventurer raised one eyebrow, a light sparking in his eyes. 
 
 “ Three silver you say? ” His voice was full of hope. Funny thing, hope. Easily broken. 
 
 “ Three silver per dozen. ” 
 
 The adventurer balked. 
 
 “ Why, good sir, that ’ s preposterous! Surely there must be some mistake. This is a tooth of the mighty basilisk! The slayer of men, the widower of wives, the orphaner of children! ” 
 
 Rand nodded along, had heard it all before. 
 
 “ Right. That it is. And I ’ ve got about forty of them in the back. ” 
 
 The adventurer tucked the tooth back into his bag. 
 
 “ Well then. A stiff upper lip, my father always said. We must remain firm in the face of adversity, after all. How about this next item? ” He was smiling again, was clearly new to this whole business. 
 
 Rand tuned out the adventurer ’ s overly dramatic presentation to calculate how much he ’ d be paying the man when it was all through. They ’ d haggle first, of course. Or, more like Rand would tell the fool the price of the items, at which point he ’ d bluster and complain and ramble on for a bit. But the end result would be the same. Always had been, always was. The man was just an adventurer, after all. And Rand, just a grocer. Wasn ’ t anything else to it. Just another thing to sigh at, really.
