Karansto Lakamov was not a bad guy. In fact, he liked to think himself quite nice, thank you very much. But as he stood there, staring at this little imp with her glittering rock and her gurgling - which could only be Goblinese, that utterly savage and inferior language - he could not help but feel his patience and good-nature slip ever so slightly. Was it not enough that he had just now given that little orphan boy a pear? True, he might have asked the boy to lick his boots clean, but that wasn't much when you came to think about it. He put on his best smile and bent down ever so slightly, looking the girl straight in the eye.

"Yes," he said slowly, as if speaking to an extremely dim child, "they are very nice stones," he nodded very slowly and took them from her hand and inspected them. He had never seen a more plain set of stones in his life. If these were what she took for valuable, then she had a lot of learning to be doing.
"Now, if I remember correctly," he said with a big smile on his face, "the school is th-"
"Who're you talkin' to Lack-a-move?" rolling his eyes, the fruit merchant turned around to the short, plump man who had popped up from behind the wagon. Why he had ever hired him he would never know.
"That's none of your business. And how many times do I have to tell you, it's Lakamov!" but the short man was no longer listening.
"Ooh! What's this?" the plump man had run around and was staring intently at the girl.
"Kristoff, get back to work," the fruit merchant gave the girl a patronsing smile as he made a grab for the short plump man, but missed him completely and fell over. Unfazed, Kristoff continued starting intently at the girl, then, very slowly, he reached for her nose and grabbed it, squeezing it a few times in fascination.

"My goodness, what a strange one this is, eh Lack-a-move?" he looked around himself, still squeezing the girls nose, "Lack-a-move?"