Odd Prompts: Committing Commerce

A snippet from the WIP. Context for the curious is the world of Cannon Publishing's Fae Wars. 

***

"When the world hands you lemons," He grunted under the effort of lifting his end of the wooden crate. It smelled faintly of petroleum products and was so roughly finished he was grateful for the protection of the leather gloves he was wearing. Once the crate was up and they had it moving, he finished. "Build a lemonade stand." 

"And then the local council shows up to demand sales taxes and shuts you down for lack of proper permits." George grinned, white teeth flashing through his full beard. 

"Well, yeah, but..." Chris had a little beard envy. He'd never been able to managed more than a few straggly hairs on his chin. He'd have settled for a Fu Manchu, but no joy. He was doomed to baby face. "Not out here, man." 

"Problem with out here," They reached the stack of crates they'd been making all morning, "is finding customers." 

"No shit?" George stretched and looked around. They were in a tiny clearing of the dense forest, and where they hadn't put down pallets, stacked two deep in staggered layers, the mud was ankle-deep. The road they'd carefully brought the big truck up in the pre-dawn darkness, backing it all the way, was deeply rutted. There had been more than one close call where Chris thought it'd be more stuck than they could dig out. Getting it back out would be easier. He hoped.  

More to George's point, there was no one else anywhere around. Just the two of them, the nearly empty truck, and the impressive stack of crates with their Cyrillic stenciling. 

"Build it and they will come?" Chris laughed. "Let's get a move on with the last crates and then we can scoot. Chances of overflight are low but not impossible." 

"Ayuh." George walked with him back to the truck, his boots squelching in the muck. "This is where the contact said to make the drop. And when life gives you a shipment of arms out of Siberia, you do what the anonymous voice on the other end of the phone says." 

At least they didn't have to worry about government spy satellites now. No, just big damn dragons... Chris shot a wary glance at the clear blue sky. 

***

My prompt this week came from 'Nother Mike with "When the world gives you lemons, open a lemonade stand!" 

I prompted Fiona Grey with "Sadness and Joy hand in hand" 

You can read all of the prompt responses over at More Odds Than Ends, and join in on the challenge yourself!