Crassus was led to the chief of the Leprechaun’s village, and he looked at the old green Leprechaun with more than a little annoyance. The green clad humanoids have sung the whole way.

Which wouldn’t have been a problem. Crassus enjoyed a good song. But what they sang about was gold and tricking humans with it. Crassus was thankful Theanore had never gotten a selection with the greedy beings. For he didn’t know if he would have suffered one of them at the grotto.

“Human, you will be set to work in the mines.” Said the chief. Crassus raised his head in defiance.

“I will do no such thing. You will tell me where my crew of Ogres is, and you will supply us with a boat.” Said Crassus. He was not a fighter, but those beings were tiny. Surely, even he would be able to defeat them. He only needed to get out of the net.

“The Ogres were with you? They have barricaded themselves in our palace and are eating their way through our food stores. Human, you are to convince them to work in the mines!” Said the chief.

“I have a name, Leprechaun. It is Crassus.” Said Crassus, annoyed at not being referred to by his name.

“Crassus, then. Will you submit to my, chief Twinkie’s, will?” Said chief Twinkie. Crassus sneakered at the name.

“Something funny, human?” Asked chief Twinkie as the Leprechauns near Crassus began pocking him with their spears. Which tickled slightly.

“For someone this small, you really have a big mouth.” Said Crassus. A Leprechaun is no bigger than a hand of your average human. Crassus raised his leg and nudged a Leprechaun with it.

The being stumbled and looked at him insulted.

“You humans have the strength to mine rocks! We do not. If you don’t help us, how are we to produce gold?” Asked the fallen Leprechaun.

“What do you do with it anyway?” Asked Crassus. It was probably something silly like looking at it, he was sure.

“We eat it. It is the only thing we can eat!” Said the Leprechaun.

That made Crassus feel for the tiny Leprechauns. Still, they could have found another way to get the stone they needed. In fact, Crassus knew just the thing.

“My daughter has builder ants in her employee. They are about four times your size and can carry heavy loads. They can also mine stone.” Said Crassus, and he watched as the Leprechauns began to cluster around their chief to discuss it.

“If we receive a thousand of these ants, then we will release you.” Said chief Twinkie.

“And you have to refill the food stores. Your Ogres are eating us out of house and home.” Said an angry Leprechaun, spear raised high.

“I am sure Thea will be happy to help, but you will have to pay her. With real gold.” Said Crassus sternly. He was not going to sit by and watch as his daughter gets cheated out of her livestock.

“We don’t have real gold on the island, or we would have eaten that.” Said chief Twinkie. “But we have something else. Nipsy, carry some useless rocks.”

Nipsy, a Leprechaun with a long braid as tall as him, went to a simple wooden box and opened it. Out of it, he took a handful of opals and showed them to Crassus.

“Those come out of the rocks sometimes.” Said Nipsy. “We can’t eat them, but they are pretty to look at. We have barrels worth of the stuff.”

Crassus stared at the opals in wonder. They were a mix of stormy and fiery opals, and they were beautiful, each one of them. He could already see them as enchanted necklaces.

“We will take every opal you have and will buy the opals you get in the future.” Said Crassus. “Now, release me, so I can write my daughter for the ants.”

“How do we know you won’t run away?” Asked chief Twinkie.

“And miss out on so many opals? I am a merchant and when the deal is good, I always see it through.” Said Crassus, and he reached out his hands as far as the net would let him.

“Chief, we can trust him. For a human, he is not so bad. At least he is not an Ogre. They threatened to eat us if we don’t leave them alone.” Said Nipsy. Crassus made a mental note to chastise his Ogres for scaring the small beings.

“Ok, remove the net.” Said chief Twinkie.

Soon, Crassus was free. He took out his dimensional bag and from it, he took a rolled-up parchment, an ink pot and a quill. Then he wrote Theanore a quick note about the deal and asked her to be hasty about it.

With a single mana crystal, he sent it and waited. The ants arrived half an hour later, and one of them had a letter tied to its back. Another had a basket with food.

Crassus took the letter first and read it.

Dear father,

Are you well? Do you need anything else? I had to talk the ants into coming, and it was hard. It appears that Leprechauns are big push overs, and so the ants thought it was shameful to serve them. But they agreed after I told them it would be a challenge to keep them save.

It is unfortunate that the Leprechauns can’t eat anything but gold. But if that is the truth, then what are the Ogres eating? Can fool’s gold be eaten by others too?

I am going to send Mari on a diplomatic mission to an underwater grove, and I am writing back and fort with the gremlin Afriga. She really likes candy. I send her some baked pumpkin.

Everyone here is fine. Mommy wants me to tell you she misses you and wants you to come back safe. Darion wants you to ask if the Leprechauns have other resources they could trade.

Lots of love,

Theanore the nymph.

PS: I cooked the food myself, eat up!

Crassus chuckled at that and took the basket full of food. Inside was a grilled chicken, warm bread, baked carrots and some quick shot raspberries.