Sassy was out and on her own for a lot of her early stories but this one is quite different than those early stories.

Her crew's here although the story has more emphasis on just Sassy than recent stories as the Sassy quartet is shopping in Seaside Town! Voter Ichiro also mentioned this piece is a good example of the character's growth since her earliest stories.

 
I am standing in the middle of Seaside Town and my three friends are next to me. I am looking around. Slowly taking in the town. I shake my head and turn to the others. "I have never really liked this town. A bit too crowded for me and a few bad memories go along with it." I sigh as I look toward the market stalls. "Still, wouldn't mind doing some shopping and I could use a break. We never did take time to relax after our birdwatching."

Icy says, "A bit of shopping sounds nice. Maybe some food and a few drinks. What do you guys say?"

They nod their heads and slowly walk with us to the marketplace. I stop at a stall selling herbs and look the stock over very carefully. A lot of the vendors will give you deals but there are some who are pretty sharp and you have to watch out for them.

"Best pryces in town, my lady," says the smiling salesman who picks up a cakeroot to show me. "You can truss me that they is picked fresh and kep fresh so's you can git the bess deals here."

I look at the cakeroot he offers me. I shake my head slowly. "Um, no thank you sir. Just looking and not wanting to buy."

"Oh, come on fair lady. Not buy? Why, I has the bess bergins in town. This here is the most primed prime flanroot you will ever see."

"Well," I answer, smiling back at him, "first of all it is a cakeroot not a flanroot. And secondly, it isn't fresh."

He tut-tuts at me. "Welll now, I thought I was dealing with someone who knew herbs, but if you says that this here root isn't fresh then I guess you don't know as much as I thought." He shakes his head and makes signs as if to say he thinks I am crazy. "Does anyone else want a nice fresh flanroot!" he hollers at us.

I reach across and gently touch the root and then with my left hand draw a small paring knife and before his startled eyes I slice a piece off of the root. It does look fresh from the outside, but the inside shows that it is clearly not.

"Hey! You are going to have to pay for that root!" he yells at me.

I sheathe my knife. "So how much are you going to overcharge me for an overripe cakeroot?"

"It's flanroot and they ain't cheap. I thinks a fair price would be a hundred meat." He smiles at me and holds out his hand expectantly.

"You have gotta be kidding me. It's not worth fifty. Might consider giving you ten for the loss; but no more than that."

"Ten! Ten?" he looks quite frustrated now. "You are trying to cheat me!"

"Well, you are trying to cheat me!" My fingers idly reach down and rest on the hilt of my sword. "You and I both know that this cakeroot isn't even worth the ten meat, but I was being generous." With the other hand, I place ten meat on the counter and start to take the root.

"Wait a minute!" he roars at me. "That ten will pay for the slice you cut from the root, but you don't get the whole root for that! You want the root it will cost you thirty."

I slowly pick up the slice, cut off the root and turn my back on him, but then I turn again taking another knife from my belt. I go over to the counter and carve an X in the wood.

"Hey! What you doing?"

I bat my eyelashes at him. "You are just too smart for me. I made that sign to remind me not to deal with you from now on."

"The pleasure is all mine." He turns back to his counter and tries to interest others in his roots as I walk past.

We walk a little way down the market and Bristle turns to me.

"You always did have a hard time trying to stay out of trouble, didn't you Sassy?"

"Well," I say, "vendors like him just set me off. Nice as pie at first and then they turn on you and charge you outlandish prices for goods not worth half the value. Hmmm, these berries look good, don't they?"

I walk over to the stand and I look the berries over.

"May I help you, dear?" the older woman selling the berries asks me.

"Yes," I say, "How much for these berries?"

"Oh, I don't know. Make me an offer." I smile at her and say, "No, I asked you first."

The woman laughs, "So you did. Well, how does five meat a basket sound to you."

"It sounds like I could manage to buy several baskets at that price. Make it three." I purchase the baskets and carry them as we walk. We continue to walk and eat the berries.

"Ummm, Sassy right. These good berries," says Linger. "How you knows they is good and not bad?"

"Well," I say, "The color is one way. Another way is their smell."

Icy laughs as Linger take a big berry and bites into it and the juice runs all over his face. She smiles and produces a cloth and wipes his mouth.

"Pfff'nks," gulps Linger, "Mean thanks." He swallows his mouthful of berry and smiles at her.

Icy grins at me. "Well, you sure are a good bargain shopper. So, you don't have to cause trouble with people to get good deals then?"

"Not when the people are good, know their produce and charge fair prices."

"Hey, speaking of trouble," says Bristle. "Are we going on that quest for the bats and rats?"

"Linger not like bats. Dem lives in caves. No like caves neither."

I reach out and take his hand. "I know you don't Linger. I have been thinking about that a bit lately. It is true that the council has offered me a silver flute for a reward from the last quest, but I am not sure of what I have to do to get it. If it means doing these nasty little jobs for the Council and the Penguins, it might or might not be worth the price I would have to pay to get it."

Icy says, "Beating up rats and bats doesn't really sound like much fun. Sounds more dangerous to me. We don't even know what we get in return for this service?"

"Maybe," says Bristle, "we will get the chance to be the slaves of the wishes of the Council and the penguins. Sassy, you freed Icy and me from slavers, but I am wondering if we are all becoming slaves of the Council. If so, what can we do about it?"

"Well," I say, "we four are unique here. Bristle and I come from another realm and so we have no alliances or allegiances to anyone here. We do have friends here, but that's different. Linger is a troll and they are kind of know for doing their own thing, and Icy..." I look at Icy for a bit.

"Icy doesn't want to be a slave to anyone any more than anyone else," Icy says.

"By not going on this quest, will we send a message to the Council that we don't intend to do all that they demand that we do?" I wonder aloud, but I realize it is an interesting question. "Could we do this quest? Probably so; is it a quest we actually want to do?"

"Hmmm," ponders Bristle. "Tell you what. Let's take a break and get something to eat and drink and we can talk about it a bit more. What do you say?" His proposal is greeted with enthusiasm by everyone and so we head off to a nearby inn. I pop another berry into my mouth and the others take one as well and we think of the quest and whether we should join it or not.

Sassy definitely held her own with the corrupt salesman. She was quite sassy about it too.

The twist of she and the others not sure about going on the mission is a fairly unique take and their concerns about the Council make sense, too. Before we get to Sassy in two pieces, up next is a co-write with a handful of player characters!