Friends aren’t so easy to make.. but enemies are!

Soooo, unfortunately, you somehow made enemies with Polytheus, Centopia’s only merchant. Until he WASN’T the only merchant..

You had moved from your hometown to closer to the kingdom, in hopes that someone would come by and buy something from your food cart.

Elves occasionally passed or bought, sometimes Pans would stare at you from the bushes, maybe even one Pan named Phuddle would talk to you for hours on end but never buy anything..

Yea. Great.

It was doing ok though, until Polytheus happened to stroll by on his turtle, Buttercup, and noticed your food stand. A food merchant? In Centopia? Polytheus’ eye couldn’t help but twitch.

Oh, HELL no.

From then on, Polytheus hated you. Like, HAAAATEED you. He hated your hair, your selling method, the way you counted coins that were RIGHTFULLY HIS!! … the way you talk-

Yea, he was going full out for this. But without knowing it himself, Polytheus was actually kinda stalking you.

Polytheus would sometimes try and sabotage you. He’d wait in the bushes next to where your food stand was, having replaced all the freshly grown food with shitty rotten ones, only to find out that you already had new ones!

Other times, Polytheus would warn people about how ‘awful’ you were, saying that you’d purposefully give customers food poisoning. Unfortunately, the one elf he told that to had already been a customer at your stores and didn’t believe him.

Damn.

Polytheus watched you more frequently, waiting for the perfect time to get your business knocked outta the place.

One day, Mia and Phuddle decided to pay Polytheus a visit, mostly coz he hadn’t come outta his cave home for a while. Onchao just roamed the place, sniffing gold piles and nudging golden items with his nose or wing.

“Hellooo? Polytheus?”

Mia called out, while Phuddle just huffed softly.

“It’s no use, Mia! Honestly, he’s been acting-“

Phuddle began to rant, but then something suddenly let out a frustrated sounding screech, making Phuddle yelp like a little girl and hide behind Mia’s legs, due to his short height.

“… weird.”

Phuddle finished his sentence in a scared tone.

“Pfft- Polytheus is always a bit weird! It can’t be that bad!”

Mia saw a doorway, and softly poked her head through before cautiously walking inside.

The room was filled with papers, pictures, and a few empty or half empty coffee mugs. There was even a small pile of gold in the corner with a pillow. Polytheus was in the middle of the room, staring at several boards with the red string and pictures, many of the pictures saying things like ‘why isn’t it working?’ Or ‘why won’t she leave?!’

Oh, it’s THAT BAD.

Polytheus’ tail rattle was vibrating aggressively, his many little snakes on his head hissing while he was hissing loudly. He looked very tired and stressed out.

Mia blinked in surprise, hesitantly speaking up.

“Ummm.. are.. you ok, Polytheus..?”

She asked softly

Polytheus’ tail rattle went even more wild, almost looking like a blur as he speaks.

“Ok? OK?! Yea!! Sure, I’m ok! I’m completely fine with some rando stealing my TITLE!!”

Polytheus snaps, frustratingly snatching some gold from the pile in the corner and rubbing two of the gold coins together to relax, but it didn’t help much.

He was going insane trying to figure out how people like you so much more than him. POLYTHEUS HAS BEEN AROUND FOR LONGER THAN YOU, HOW COME YOUR MUCH BETTER THAN HIM?!

“Honestly, the nerve! I don’t even see anything good about this ‘nEw MeRcHaNT’. Stupid dumb idiot that came into town with that sweet smile and those dumb beautiful eyes!! Absolutely idiotic and- and they have that stupid weird thing where they roll an apple back and forth across their table! Did you notice that?!”

Polytheus threw down the coins and aggressively slammed a fist onto a the desk.

Inadvertently, Polytheus was giving off stalker vibes, even if he hated you with every fiber of his being.