“Hey!” the Treasure Bear protests, metal cheeks puffing up as its tail lashes behind it, the ring on the end thumping onto the wood of its chest as it glares at me, “I told you everything I know!”

I look at the weird little monster, based on everything it has said and done so far… its clearly not that smart, I’m not sure lying ever even crossed its tiny mind so… “I do believe that, so I guess you’re better than Hacker for that at least,” I begrudgingly admit. “And I don’t like owing favors, so…,” I force myself to take a breath and push the words out, cause I might be a bit more violent and heartless than the average person, but I’m not impolite, “Thank you for keeping Zeke safe.”

This NPC is still weird and a tiny bit freaky, but it was true that it has been here keeping guard over Zeke, and that alone is enough to put me in its debt. If the Treasure Bear hadn’t been here who knows what would have happened to my brother.

Its cheeks glow, tinting green like oxidized iron as it spins around and crosses its tiny paw-like arms with a huff, “O-Of course you are thankful for my amazing work! It is only natural to praise a being as great as me!”

‘Cocky little thing isn’t it?’ I think with vague amusement. Coming from a real human I would probably punch them in the face for it, but this thing can’t be more than a foot tall and is shaped like a weird mashup build-a-bear, little hard to be angry at a thing like that or take it seriously.

“You mentioned a shop earlier, dragon monkey?”

It sucks in a sharp breath like I just insulted its mother, “How dare you-you pink funny-looking player!” it insults, looking way prouder of himself than he should for that diss. “I am the great Chalice! The mightiest of our people! You should be thanking the gods for this lucky encounter with me!” and it turns around with a huff, “and who said you got to see my wares anyway?! A meanie player like you wouldn’t be able to appreciate the grandeur of my items anyway.”

I snort, more amused that this NPC is continuing its little superiority complex than anything, but I play along, it has kept Zeke safe all this time I can at least be semi-cordial with it or him I suppose. And I try not to think about how weird it is that this little thing is basically a person, this place gets stranger by the day.

“Very honored to meet you, Chalice,” I agree with only a hint of sarcasm, crouching down to peer better into the chest, trying not to wince as I bend my knee, “I’m Nova.”

Chalice huffs, looking up at me with its mismatched eyes squinted into a glare, “What do you want then, Nova?” and he pulls my name out in a mocking lit.

I smile despite myself, it’s nice to be talking to another… person, after everything, let's me pretend everything is a bit more normal. The panic that I had been forcing down starts to quiet in my chest. Maybe meeting this little guy was a blessing after all.

“Same as you,” I explain, “trying to find a way to save Zeke,” I gesture over to the glittering tower of crystal, “or the hero as you called him, but you knew that part already didn’t you?”

He glances between me and Zeke and seems to just realize how similar we look, “Oh,” it mutters sadly, ear brooches dropping like a kicked puppy. “You are family?”

It’s like a hand squeezes my heart at the question. I nod stiffly, trying to force down the swirling emotions in my chest. “Yeah, we’re family.” And to distract myself from my own pain I throw the question back, “you have anything like that?”

“No.” and it shakes its head, gaze shifting upwards towards the ceiling, “Treasure bears are made to protect and trade treasure, but our first treasure is sort of like our life force so… uh… if Nova is family with the hero then… we are family?” and he asks it so hopefully I almost consider saying yes, but family is a loaded word for me, one that’s been dragged through the mud by everyone expect Zeke. I understand where the little guy is coming from but….

“If Zeke lets you, then sure,” I agree, if-when-we manage to free Zeke I don’t mind it tagging along, and I’m almost 100% sure it will end up tagging along, Zeke’s bleeding heart would never us let leave the strange little guy behind. But Chalice doesn’t need to know that, so I smile and say, “My brother did always want a dog after all.”

“You-!” He squeaks, voice whistling like a tea kettle in its anger. “I would never want to be family with a meanie player with zero manners anyway!”

It’s a lie and we both know it, but I let him have it. With a sigh I get to my feet, ‘Well there goes my one good deed for the day,’ I think. Zeke would be proud of the fact I mostly kept my cool. I did taunt the little treasure bear a bit, but hey I also said it could come along as a family pet, I don’t get any more generous than that.

“Well, I’m going to go hunt down a dragon then. I’ll just close this chest for you and be on my—”

“Wait!” Chalice protests, glancing around behind me nervously, “Do you... want to browse my shop...?”

Forcing down a smile, I look back with fake surprise, “I thought I couldn’t appreciate the grandeur of your items?”

Chalice’s cheeks tint green with embarrassment as he coughs, turning away sharply, “I’ve changed my mind! You should accept my kind and courteous offer silly player.”

“I’ll look,” I agree, lowering myself so I’m fully sitting on the floor. A sigh escapes my lips as I let my protesting knees finally rest, propping my arms up on the lip of the chest, “But I’m reminding you I don’t have money.”

The Treasure Bear huffs, a sound rather close to a car exhaust, “Just a peek.”

Chalice lifts his little rounded paws and claps its hands together, causing a few sparks of multicolored sparkles to appear. With a weird mechanical, almost cogwheel-like sound, the sparks grow brighter and larger with a cheery SPRING!

And there’s a shimmering, gaudy holographic menu floating in my face.

“It’s...,” I squint at the screen trying to figure out what I’m looking at, all the lettering is down in an atrocious yellow cursive. And the background of the screen keeps shifting colors like a bad LED light. “Something,” I settle on.

Seemingly unable to tell that I find this menu hideous Chalice grins happily up at me, bouncing on its little feet, tail happily thumping on the ground behind him. “I designed it myself!”

“That… explains a lot,” I agree passively, trying to temper down my disgust. ‘Come on Nova,’ I think to myself squinting at the awful cursive to make heads or tails out of what it says, ‘play nice and don’t piss off the thing that’s keeping your brother safe.’

Chalice puffs his little chest out, preening like a peacock. “In awe of my work meainie player?” It asks, looking up at me with a smug grin, “I can explain my wonderful system if you need help.”

I’m really tempted to say no, but I don’t really have the energy to fight with the Treasure Bear right now, so I sigh and nod, shifting the window down towards the little guy.

Even though the font is horrible and near impossible to read, it does function pretty normally to how shops normally work (at least I think so, I’ve only ever seen ones in Zeke’s games). All the items for sale are sorted into three broad categories: equipment, weapons, and items. Everything also has what I think is a gold price next to it and a little icon that gives you a preview of what it looks like.

I mostly just look at what Chalice shows me and he’s happy to explain in vivid detail the items in his shop. Thankfully he only has about 10 things in his shop. All average run-of-the-mill fantasy game stuff, a leather chest plate, a helmet with horns, a short sword with no sheath, two daggers, and then a bunch of miscellaneous junk; jewels, silverware, and candlesticks, the kind of money-loot items you normally sell to vendors like this.

“Impressive, yes?” Chalice asks with pride, has he finishes taking 10 minutes to explain how he got his broken candlestick.

Honestly, I tuned him out when he first started going on about the leather chest plate at the beginning, just nodding along when it felt right and making little hmms.

“I know you are marveled by what you see!” I raise an eyebrow he can’t see because he’s having fun doing his dramatic monologue and isn’t looking at me. “Maybe if you ask very nicely…,” and he turns around with a flourish, more of those multi-colored sparks popping up around him as he smiles up at me and rubs his little paws together like a teddy bear mob boss, “I could be convinced to give you something~”

I glance up at the headache-inducing gaudy menu and barely hold back my flinch, it's worse than I remember it being before I checked out. I shake my head, “No, I’m good,” I decline as my eyes stray to my brother behind him, still frozen in place. ‘Zeke would know what to do now, would know what one would need from a shop like this,’ and as the thought crosses my mind, I remember one of the features most of Zeke’s video games contained. I turn back to give the Treasure Bear an appraising look, “Is this all of it? Nothing magical?”

Chalice flinches, smile twisting into a pout, “I’ve just started!” He huffs, quickly closing out the shop menu, and I almost thank him as my eyes are spared from the light show. “It's impressive that I’ve managed to gather this large of an inventory already!”

“I didn’t think you’ve been around very long,” and I glance back at Zeke once more, “you were born when my brother got here right?”

The Treasure Bear keeps its pout but still nods, “In a player’s sense of time, I suppose I am fairly new to this trade… But every Treasure Bear must forge their own path of gold and gander!”

Unsure what else to say I nod, mumbling a halfhearted, “Sounds like hard work.”

Chalice huffs, throwing its hands into the air dramatically, “Exactly!” he shouts looking terribly put upon. “Everyone always underestimates how much effort goes into carefully curating a shop! It takes skill, a good eye, and a love of riches stronger than your competition!”

‘So, I shouldn’t tell it that the starting zone had similar if not better goods,’ I decide, before part of what he said catches me off guard, “Wait. You have competition in here?”

“Well…,” and he shifts his gaze away, “not in here per say, but as I’ll be the greatest shopkeeper ever! Rivals are abound at every turn!”

“I’m sure you will—”

SLAMMM!

I rush to my feet, cursing myself forgetting the reason I ran in here in the first place, ‘There are monsters here!’ And I was so distracted that I forgot the most important part, ‘I broke down the door to get in here!’