A pink sparkly fog started to emerge beside Snickers. Kit took a step back from the fog. The fog always looked like it should bring out something cute and fluffy with the colour it was. He had seen what came out of that deceptive fog numerous times and it had never been cute. Fluffy yes but not something he wanted to hug like Snowball.
Eyes from all around stared at the fog. It wasn’t just Kit’s group that eyed the fog with wary glances. Soon a green slimy mouth poked out of the fog. A long purple tongue flicked out of the mouth and flicked an unsuspecting person that had their back to the creature.
“Oi who did that!” A man in a deep red armour swung around to confront the perpetrator of the hit. When his eyes landed on the fog and the slimy green mouth, he froze.
“Ahh sorry about that, Slimy has no manners.” Snickers aimed a cute innocent smile at the man.
“Oh, Snickers hello. No problem little lady, it just took me by surprise.” The man gave Snickers a polite bow and turned back to his friends. Kit was amazed at how easily that was settled. Then again, they were all on the same team today and had bigger fish to fry.
The body of Slimy finally emerged from the fog with a hop. A slimy green frog with golden spots entered the clearing. “Ribit.” Slimy’s tongue flashed out once again, thankfully this time it didn’t hit anyone.
“This is Slimy, isn’t he a little cutie. He will be able to stop the side effects from your apple pie Kit. All everyone needs to do is give him a lick on the back.” An evil smile broke out on Snickers face at her words, and tinkling laughter followed.
A shiver of revulsion went down Kit’s spine. He was sure he wasn’t the only one who was shivering in disgust right now. “You’re kidding, right Snickers?” Chamomile whispered.
“Well kind of, you will have to ingest some of his slime to nullify the effects of the apple pies. You don’t have to lick his back though. Just swipe a finger on him to collect the goo, and put it in your mouth. Eazy peazy, right?” Kit could tell Snickers was enjoying herself at everyone else discomfort.
Faces scrunched in disgust at Snickers words. Kit sighed, he knew if he didn’t go first no one would. I mean who wants to eat slime off a frog’s back! Kit straightened his shoulders in preparation for the task, then walked towards Slimy.
He swiped a finger over the amphibians back and a large pile of goo stuck to his fingertip. He then closed his eyes and stuck the offending stuff into his mouth. Kit’s eyes widened in shock when the substance hit his taste buds. It tasted like strawberry jelly.
Kit swallowed the small lump of goo. He felt a warmth start to spread over his body after a few seconds. When his whole body was covered in warmth, he took out a slice of pie from his pouch and stuffed it in his mouth. The eye of the group were on him through all of his actions. When they saw that he was alright they tentatively stepped towards the frog.
Soon his whole party had eaten a piece of apple pie. Kit then handed out a bottle of Lucky sticky apple cider to each of them. He then informed them of the side effects and told them not to drink it yet.
Snickers shook her bottle. “Kit does your stats stack on top of each other?”
Kit blinked at Snickers in confusion. “What?”
Snickers tsk at him in reply and stared at him like was an idiot. Kit knew he was about to get some education from Snickers by her actions. “Oh, little kitty what will I do with you. Not all stats items stack on top of each other. Have you tried this combination before to see if it works. If it doesn’t then you will be wasting food or drinks.”
Kit’s mouth formed an oh. “Then no, I haven’t tried this combination before.” Kit pursed his lips in thought. He had combined his creations before and it worked. It was just this one was a little tricky for him to try now. With the side effects of the cider being that he wouldn’t be able to talk for 30 minutes.
Kit squinted his eyes at his employees. His eyes stuck to Cupcake, the man was silent most of the day usually. Could he ask the big man to be the guineapig? Kit decided that yes, yes he could ask the big man and he did just that.
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The bottle in Cupcakes hand moved to his mouth. Kit held his breath nervously waiting for the man to finish taking a swig. He crossed his fingers behind his back that this would work. Cupcake took the bottle from his lips with a pop.
The man’s eyes then glazed over. Cupcake blinked a couple of times then raised his thumb up to Kit. “Hot purple peppers! It worked.” Kit was starting to feel like they would be unstoppable with so much luck running around their system. The smile couldn’t be wiped off his face.
As Kit was dreaming about the day going well, Grandpa, Twix, and Mars came over to his side. “Kit it will be time for the last preparations before we go. Twix told me you made something special for everyone to have before we left.” Grandpa beamed at him.
“That’s right, though I have to talk to you about the side effects before we agree to use them. The apple pies I made give 100 luck for 5 hours, the side effect is poisoning. That frog over there can nullify the poisoning. Everyone would have to ingest a bit of it’s slime.” Kit hurried on before Grandpa got too excited.
“The cider I want to give everyone will give 50 luck for 1 hour. Both of these item’s stack on top of each other so it would mean each person would have an extra 150 luck. I will give each person a whole bottle so it would last them the day. Now here is the tricky part, the cider will make everyone unable to talk for 30 minutes.”
Kit watched Grandpa’s face to see what he thought about his contribution to the monster run. Grandpa didn’t react at first, all he did was rub his chin in thought. “It’s not impossible to use the cider as well and I think most people would like any extra advantage they could get. Let me have a quick word with the head of each group. Then I will let you know if the cider is a go ahead. I will say a definite yes to the apple pies.”
Kit beamed. He was happy he would be contributing something, besides firing some arrows, to the monster run. He quickly pulled out his camping kitchen and instructed his staff to start preparing some more pies and cut the premade pies into slices.
As Kit and his team worked, the crowd around him broke out in animated chatter. Soon the crowd was focused on his camping kitchen instead of the red flag that was supposed to be the central point of the gathering.
Kit could hear Snickers instructing the crowd to lick the frogs back. He wondered if anyone would fall for her tricks. To Kit’s delight he watched three people lick the frogs back, laughter broke out all around.
“Haha you really did it! Oh my, that’s fantastic.” Snickers unique voice carried over the crowd. Kit smiled and shook his head. It looked like Snickers was having a great time. Kit quickly turned back to his task at hand. If he wanted to churn out enough pies he couldn’t be distracted.
He was glad he had already made a stockpile of the pies last night. He just needed to make around 10 more and there would be enough for everyone to have a slice. Grandpa returned to his side as he was pulling the last pie from the oven.
“The pies smell wonderful.” Grandpa took a big inhale then started to smack his lips. “After discussions with the other group heads we decided to use the cider. The leaders of each group will forgo the cider so they can instruct their team. Everyone else will consume the alcohol.”
“That’s great!” Kit felt a wave of satisfaction roll over him at Grandpa’s words. With the extra luck added to each participant, Kit felt there was more of a chance people would be able to keep their lives. This was his main concern about the monster run. Because he had been the one to bring it up at the town meeting, he felt responsible for everyone’s safety.
He didn’t know how he would feel if even one of the residents died during the monster run. Kit blew out a relived breath.
Grandpa cleared his throat then focused on the pie in front of Kit. “How are you going to distribute the pies and cider? We will need to leave in about 20 minutes.”
Kit smiled at Grandpa’s words. “That I’ll leave to Snickers. Could you go and get her for me?” Grandpa nodded. He quickly returned with the delicate elf.
“What’s up Kitty?” Snickers had an amused look. Kit guessed she was still chuffed about the frog.
“Snickers I need you to organise the distribution of the pies and cider.”
Snickers laughed. “Ok.” Before Kit was prepared Snickers let out a below. “Ok you lot get yourselves into five lines.” Snickers eyed the crowd that hadn’t moved. “NOW” Kit jumped and went to join the lines that were forming.
Before he could take two steps Snickers pulled his arm. “Where are you going? You need to sort the employees to distribute the items.”
Kit blinked, he was baffled why he felt the need to join the lines forming. It took him a moment to register that this was probably part of Snickers ability. He remembered that she had a skill that was called calming the masses.
Having people follow your words without any objections sure came in handy. He was once again amazed that he had secured a person like Snickers to join his staff. Kit thanked Snickers then went and arranged his employees to hand out the stats items.
Soon every participant had received their share of the items. It went so smoothly it was over within 10 minutes. Happy smiles could be seen all around Kit, it was a far cry from the sombre atmosphere he woke up to in the camp not that long ago.
As Kit was relishing in the happiness surrounding him, a loud voice broke through his thoughts. “Attention Spartan Fire people. It is time to move out. Please go to your team leaders for further directions.”
Kit felt his heart begin to thump in panic. Who was his team leader? Dove and Cadbury were with him the whole time, so they wouldn’t know the details of the plans Grandpa had made. Kit swung his head frantically searching for Grandpa.
To Kit’s horror, Grandpa was nowhere insight.