Sable Nightwhisker's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Sable stood at her workbench the next morning, studying a stack of blank paper. If she wanted traders to trust her store, she needed to track every transaction. She dipped her pen in ink and drew columns across the first page. By afternoon, she'd filled three ledger sheets with practice entries. Numbers lined up in neat rows. But something nagged at her—she'd never actually watched a real merchant close a deal. Sable locked her store and walked down the forest path until she spotted a trading post with wide windows. She pressed her nose against the glass and watched two traders inside. One slid a pouch of coins across the counter. The other examined each coin before nodding. They shook hands. The whole exchange took less than a minute, but Sable saw everything: the careful counting, the steady eye contact, the firm handshake that sealed the agreement. Back at her store, Sable stepped outside to the empty dirt yard. Merchants wouldn't wait around while she fumbled with crates and barrels. She needed a proper place to handle deliveries. She gathered stones from the forest edge and stacked them into a wide platform. Then she drove wooden posts into the ground at each corner. The loading dock stood solid when she tested it with her weight. Wagons could pull right up and unload without blocking her front door. As the sun dropped below the trees, Sable realized one final problem. Traders traveling at night wouldn't see her store from the road. She found a tall post and wrapped it with strips of metal she'd saved from old tools. Glass cases hung from hooks along the post, each one filled with glowing moss she'd collected from the forest floor. She added oil lamps between them. When she lit the wicks, warm light spread across the yard. The lantern post blazed like a beacon. Any merchant passing through would know exactly where to find her.