Micro May Day 9: Lower Intakes
Story by Xialdeim on SoFurry
This story's prompt was: Shrunk out of power at the market. A goat shows why he always seals the deal.
"For the last time, I'm not selling!" I say sternly to the man in front of me. He was a portly goat that had a friendly and warm persona, but the people that worked these markets knew him as The Baron. He was trying to buy out everyone and seemed to always get his way in the end.
"Now, now. You must be reasonable. I've offered enough cash for you to live comfortably for the rest of your life. Surely that is more than a generous offer for your storefront." He speaks warmly. I still didn't want to give up my family business.
"Look, I already told you: I'm not interested in selling. It isn't about the money for me; It's about keeping the family business going. You can't put a price on that." I stared him down, hoping he could get the hint.
"Very well. It's time for some more hard bargaining." He pulls out some kind of gun, and before I can react, he shoots me with a beam of light.
I end up closing my eyes. When I open them again, I see a massive white mountain in front of me. I stepped back to see it was one of his toes.
"Now I do believe we are in a better mindset for this negotiation, don't you agree?" He chuckles as he looks down.
"Wait, hold on! What is this?" I squeak out.
"I always get my way no matter what." He lifts up a foot and pins me down with it. "I've got the foothold in this market, and you're about to be trampled under my bottom line. You can make this easier on yourself if you just sell already."
"No!" I cling on to my foolish pride, even with him holding all the cards.
"Fine, we can do a little more market research as you will." He starts to put more pressure on me as the paw encloses more around me.
"I'm the sole proprietor now. You just need a little more time to accept that."
I don't last very long under him and finally give up. "Okay, you win! Just ease up!" I yell out.
"Good." He pulls out some papers, setting them on the ground and tapping them with his foot. "Sign it, and we can be done here."
Having no other choice, I took out a pen I had and signed the paper. I'm not sure how good it would be, but it seemed to be more preformative anyway.
"Excellent, I will get everything ready for my new shop tomorrow."
"What about me? Aren't you going to change me back?"
He leans in, smirking, "That wasn't part of the deal. I'm afraid your new role in all of this is to be an outdated footnote. I'm sure someone as crafty as you will figure something out." He just walks away, laughing to himself.
I quickly ran to find a safe place to stay.