Part 1

The Set-up: Zaniah and Zubene are two sisters running a travelling stall in the Athenian marketplace selling crops. Many people come to their stall to buy fruits and vegetables imported from neighbour countries. The older sister, Zaniah manages their stock and supplies, while younger sister, Zubene deals with people and sales. While their main base was in the city of Athens, the two also travelled around the Attica Region for their supplies and other sales as well.

Call to Action: One day, while the two were going about their usual business in the usual marketplace, a man came up to their store and claimed that their crops were rotten and caused him and his family to feel ill after eating them. He accused them of selling bad products and told the crowd around them to not buy from them.

Call Refusal: Zaniah was shocked, but Zubene approached the man and says that she has never seen him before and was probably accusing the wrong stall. But the man confirmed that it was them and produced a bag that was unique to their store as proof. The man then claims that he will sue the sisters and arranged a court hearing, setting up a date and time in front of the main hall so that all parties are aware of this meeting. Now both Zaniah and Zubene had no choice but to attend the meeting and prove themselves innocent.

No Return: Before the day of the court hearing, Zaniah checked through all their stocks for rotten crops. It wasn’t unusual for crops to go bad, but she was sure that she had checked every one that goes on display at the start of the day and made sure they were all decent. To be accused of selling rotten food was both devastating and ridiculous. They did not have much in their defence to prove that it wasn’t their crops that made the man and his family sick.

1st Struggle: On the day of the court hearing, the judge and several juries were there along with the two defending parties. The sisters both tried to plead their case, but evidence against them were more prominent and the jury ultimately sided with the man. For their crime of selling rotten food, the judge punished both sisters with a fine and also exiled them for a year from Athens and the Attica Region.

Commitment: Both sisters were in disbelief that they were exiled from their home in Athens. Zubene was convinced that they have been framed and wrongly accused. Zaniah was the most affected as she was no longer sure how to continue their supplies for their business. They had a network of suppliers that worked within the Attica Region, but now that they could no longer work within the region, their business was in trouble. Luckily, the sisters were well to do enough to own two large donkeys and a cart to pull all their belongings and supplies to take with them. After paying the fine, both sisters could only take everything they owned and were escorted out of the region by guards. Their future unknown.

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Part 2

2nd Struggle: Once they were escorted by the guards off the border of Attica and Boeotia, both Zaniah and Zubene were left on their own. They were no longer in familiar territory. Their lack of knowledge proved fatal to them as only a couple of hours into Boeotia they were stalked by bandits. The two sisters only managed to escape their ambush because they left their cart full of goods and the two rode off on their donkeys to get as far away as fast as possible.

Crisis: It wasn’t until the sisters found a temple and took refuge that they deemed themselves safe. But now that they have lost all their goods they were in an even worse situation for their business. Zubene suggested that they find work at a town for the time being, but Zaniah was reluctant; they didn’t work so hard on their business to only go back to being regular workers. The temple they stumbled upon worshipped Hermes, God of Merchants. That night while Zubene was asleep, Zaniah prayed to Hermes that the God could watch over them and they could get their business back up and running despite what had happened to them.

Climax: Hermes was watching and listening to Zaniah speak about her recent experience with her business and felt bad for her, so he blessed Zaniah with good luck in travel and business. The next day, both sisters set out for the next town and on the way, found a merchant and his cart of goods who lost his horses to bandits. He had been struggling to move his cart so that he could get into town, but without his horses, it was impossible. The two sisters decided to help the man by using their two donkeys to pull the cart. The three people managed to make it into town before sun down and the merchant was so grateful. Discovering that they too were merchants who ran into bad luck, the man repaid the sisters by referring them to his network of suppliers. He was nice enough to help give them the groundworks to restart their business in Boeotia.

Aftermath: Thanks to the merchant, both Zaniah and Zubene were able to slowly rebuild their crop business again. With a new network to work with, Zaniah was once again managing their stock and supplies, making sure that everything on their new stall display was fresh and of high quality. While younger sister, Zubene worked extra hard to bring customers in and making sure that everyone of them were satisfied with their purchase. The lesson they learnt from Athens has stuck with them and had made them better merchants.