Get Rich Quick with Invisible Fish!

A warm drizzle moistened the air as the Swords of Sunndi set forth once more from the halfling village of Nayford. Wrye looked downcast, riding sullenly on his pony, and his brother Avery led the pack mule beside him.

"Hey, Wrye." Avery cheerfully called up to his younger brother. "Don't worry. Rika will come around once we get that invisible fish idea working."

Wrye snorted.

"C'mon," his brother cajoled. "I bet you could get your friends to fund it!"

A smile tugged at Wrye's lips, and he chuckled. "Maybe Mike would even fall for it."

"I bet he would."

"Oh, yeah?" Wrye cocked an eyebrow at Avery as a challenge.

"Two coppers says he's that gullible," Avery winked. Since they were speaking in the halfling tongue, they knew that the fighter couldn't overhear them as he rode ahead. Kespin gave them a conspiratorial grin, and Westwind, the only other halfling in the group, was obliviously humming something that nobody could identify as a tune.

"You're on. Two coppers." Wrye knew it was about as much as his older brother could afford. "Even I don't think he's that gullible," the ranger added, "but I'd pay that and more to see it."

"But you have to ask." Avery stipulated. "He trusts you."

Wrye snorted again. "Sure he does." But he chuckled softly and kicked Smiler into a slow trot to catch up with Mike's overloaded palfrey. The poor mare was sturdy, and she had to be to carry the tall fighter in all his armor. Now and then he took pity on her and walked, but he had little skill or knowledge of horses and more often than not, she bore him and all his gear without complaint.

"Hey, Mike, give that poor beast a rest, will you?" Wrye greeted him, bouncing as he slowed Smiler back to a walk. "She's groaning with every step." She wasn't, actually, but she looked like she wanted to.

"She is?" The man halted his mare, and she sighed to a stop. "Okay." He shrugged, then swung down easily from the saddle. "Just as good to walk anyway." He tugged her away from the grass at the roadside and they strolled beside Wrye's pony. "How's your brother holding up?"

"Eh, fine." Wrye grinned. "He might have a blister or two, but it'll do him good. Actually," he segued disarmingly into his proposal, "we had an idea for a new business you might be interested in."

"Me?"

"Sure. You're the owner of an inn, you know. You're a businessman."

"Yeah. So are you." Mike grinned across at him, eye to eye only because Wrye was on his pony. "A business-halfling, anyway. So what's your business?"

"A fishery on the Pawluck River."

"A fishery?"

"A fishery. You know, where you breed fish specifically so you can catch them and eat them."

"Oh."

"You don't have fisheries in the Glorioles?"

Mike shrugged.

"Right." Wrye struggled to keep a straight face. "A fishery. But this is even better, because we'll be breeding invisible fish to stock the whole river. Good eating, and you lose weight, too!"

"Invisible fish? Did Avery put you up to that?" The man glanced back to spot Wrye's brother looking extremely innocent. "Or is it that old head wound again?"

"What head wound?"

"The one I'm about to give you!" Mike took a mock swipe at him, but Wrye deftly ducked it and kicked Smiler back to the rear of the party.