The Doll

            The bazaar had always been as busy as ever with its many merchants and customers, they who were always eager to get whatever thing they could with what little knickknacks and such they had in their pockets. Be it spices, beads, cooking utensils, food, herbs, whatever they could get their hands on, they did not care. The same, however, could not be said for Derrick.            

            He gazed at the humans, sticking only his head out of the murky waters he considered his home. Ignorant creatures they are, he thought as he swung his scale-covered tail side to side to keep himself up, honoring their trade rules. Why were they okay with what they could get? Why did they only take what they could afford? Why did they never ask for more? It wasn’t that he cared for the humans, he just never understood the fact most of them lacked greed, or at least most of the ones in the village did. They always appreciated what they had. It made him want to vomit. He had always believed in getting more. It was always more in his mind, and no matter how many of an object he may have had, he always wanted more. Nothing but lust seemed to float about in his head.

            He watched as a little girl walked over to a merchant, pointing at a wooden figure and holding out some beads to him. Derrick grunted in disgust at the object she pointed at. A doll? And it’s not even a good one either, it’s a tiny one. However, the merchant shook his head and proceeded to talk to the girl. Although Derrick couldn’t understand much of the conversation, he heard one or two words at the least, being “sorry” and “not good enough.” They were glass beads! How could he deny glass beads?! Derrick was heavily confused. The humans made such a big deal of him stealing their glass beads whenever he did, but a little girl couldn't get a doll, expecially the cheap kind, with those same beads?  The half-gharrial half-human beast watched as the girl began to yell at the man, and what he presumed to be the child's parent took her away. What a dick. Derrick supposed he had enough of this event.
            
            With that, he proceeded to submerge under the dirt filled waters, swimming to the side of the village where the merchant's shop was, near the river. As he made his way there, he peeked his eyes up one last time to find the man leaving his shop unnattended and headed towards another merchant who sold meat. Good, the dick has left. He continued onwards and found himself a yard or so behind the shop, grabbed hold onto the moist dirt and hauled himself up onto the land. A breeze hit him like an arrow on a target, causing him to tense up. As an ectothermic, he hated moving and especially being out of water, but he wasn't going to let that slow him down right now. He had buisness to butt into. He steadily got up and walked over to the backside of the tiny shack. The gharrial-humanoid creature peeked his head around the side of the chantey, seeing that the man was wrapping up things with the butcher. He had to work quickly and carefully.

            He turned his focus to the hut once more, punching through the weak wooden back wall. It was only two layers of wood anyway, it didn't really provide much of a challenge. With his hand in, he pulled it out and began to claw at the rest of the wall, not even minding the rather large amount of splinters he was getting from this. Steadily, the tiny hole his hand had made became a rather large hole, about the side of a basketball or two. Once it was this size, Derrick stuck his hand and head through the gaping opening. He gazed at the merchandise and all the lovely knicknacks and all the pointless objects. I'm only doing this because that guy was a dick, he thought to himself, I'm no softie. His eyes examined the mass of items until finally he found what he was looking for: The wooden mannequin the girl had pointed at. Unfortunately, it was on the desk of the hut, and it was a risk to reach for it. What if he got stuck? He didn't want to become a fishman fillet today. But he couldn't back down from something like this, it was complete injustice.

            Taking in a mouthful of air and releasing it, he leaned forward into the opening, flicking his claws at the figurine, causing it to fall down from the desk but not without making quite a mass of noise. As he peeked above the desk he noticed the man returning to the stall. Cod dammit! As fast as he could, he ducked down and he snatched the figurine up before pulling himself out of the hole and sneaking around to the other side of the hut while the man had now entered it once more, in confusion of what in the world caused such a giant gap. Derrick peeped out from the side of the stall and looked around for the little girl, only to find that she was at another stall with her parent, at what appeared to be a spice seller.
            
            Hestitating at first, he sighed before sneaking towards her, hiding behind the other huts and being on the look out for anyone who had noticed him, which appeared to be another child who pointed at him, but their sibling dragged them off. He was slightly terrified at first but remembered it was but a child, the adults won't listen to him. After passing by a few more chanteys, he was now at the spice one, but when he peeped over the side of it he was only to realize that the adult with the child was still there. How in the world was he to give the child the toy? Especially with it holding the man's hand.

            Immediately an idea struck him, and he stealthy snuck up to the side of the chantey and placed down the doll, scurrying off as the girl noticed only his tail before he had vanished behind the structure. The child was a bit nervous at first, looking up to its parent before letting go of it's hand and walking to the doll, picking it up and admiring it for a few minutes. Suddenly, the adult called out to it, and it quickly hid it and ran after the grown human.

            Derrick peeped over the side once more to notice his plan has worked and he smirked happily at the girl who was walking off. As he turned to face the waterfront, he noticed an orca fin and grumbled in disgust as he approached it.

            "You saw nothing." He growled as he sat down on the muddy dirt and slid himself into the much-warmer-than-the-air waters.

            "Pfft, are you kidding? I saw everything, what a gentleman." The orca-woman responded, giggling at him.

            The gharial lifted his head out of the water and grunted at her.

            "They weren't giving her a fair trade, okay?!" 

            "OH NO, THEY DIDN'T? WELL LOOK AT THAT, HERE COMES PRINCE CHARMING, DERRICK, TO SAVE THE DAY!" She smirked at his embarassment.

            "OK FINE I ADMITT I HELPED A LITTLE GIRL SO WHAT JUST SHUT UP" He hissed at her.

            "Oh man, if only you were this nice to everyone you knew."  She sighed.

             Derrick grunted a blunt reply. "Whatever."