The first thing Kit did was to hang a batch of the newly collected Trembling desolate flower of survival upside down in his storage facility to dry out. He wanted to experiment with the flower on his return from Fairweather town.
He then looked around the storage facility at the new ingredients. The eggs caught his attention once again, he still had the list of recipes to work through with them. He pulled out his scrap of paper, but instead of the sweets jumping out at him, the creamy chicken gnocchi took his full attention.
Kit decided to go with the chicken gnocchi, if he failed at it, he would have time to mull over what to do on the trip. Kit got to work on collecting the ingredients he would need for the recipe then went back into the kitchen.
Crackers and Bree couldn’t stop themselves from walking over to him as he was setting out the ingredients. “What ya be doing Kit?” Crackers peered over his shoulder as she spoke.
Kit thought it was obvious what he was doing, but still answered his friend. “Trying out a new recipe Crackers.”
Bree sucked in a breath at his other shoulder. “I really want to watch, but I need to keep up with the orders!” Kit could hear the pout in her voice.
Kit was about to respond that there would be plenty of time for her to watch him experiment in the future, when he remembered that Bree would be heading to Fairweather town to run the market stall.
Kits movements stopped with this thought.
Tomorrow it wouldn’t just be Mars and himself going to Fairweather town! He quickly started to pack up the ingredients that he had just taken out. “Bree, I’m giving you the rest of the day off. You will need to come with me tomorrow back to Fairweather town!”
Bree smiled at him. “I was wondering what your plans were going to be. I thought you might have changed your mind about me running the market stall, I’m glad you haven’t.” The older woman crushed him in a hug.
“I’ll leave Blue here for the rest of the day to learn. I’ll go and make the preparations with Camembert.” Confusion filled Kit, who was Camembert? Kit couldn’t hold in his curiosity and asked Bree.
“Oh, he’s my son. He will be jealous that his sister got in some experience in the restaurant, but he will get over it.” Kit wondered why she was telling him this when Bree kept talking. “Kit can you just ignore the two of them on the trip, they are very competitive with each other, and Blue will bring up the fact she got to work inside the restaurant to taunt her brother.”
A smile tugged at his lips. He had a feeling this pair of siblings would be very entertaining to travel with. “No problem Bree, I will ignore their banter. I can give Camembert some lessons with the camping kitchen when we set camp each night.”
Kit was crushed once again in a tight hug. “Thank you, Kit. I’ll go and tell Camembert now!” Bree rushed out the door without another word. Kit just shook his head then went to help Crackers with keeping the time freeze storage shelves full.
The day went by in a blur, Kit had no time to think about the trip tomorrow. Just keeping up with the orders had kept him and Crackers on their toes. When the restaurant finally closed for the day Kit felt like falling in a heap.
It had been so long since he had done a full day making orders in his kitchen, he had forgotten how frantic it got inside his small kitchen. Exhaustion pulled at him as he made his way into the dining area to have dinner with the rest of his employees.
Snickers waved him over to sit next to her, Kit guessed she had something she wanted to discuss with him. “Kit, we seem to be getting busier these days. Did you notice the difference in the kitchen?”
Kit had thought he had been so busy because he hadn’t done the job of being the chef for so long, not because they had gotten more customers. A smile pulled at his lips thinking that his restaurant’s reputation must be improving to pull in more customers.
Then a thought struck him, were his employees this exhausted after each shift lately? He looked around the table to see that most of them had bags under their eyes. A feeling of guilt quickly consumed him.
This wouldn’t be able to go on or he might not have any employees when he returned from Fairweather town. “Snickers can you do some interviews for new staff while I’m away. I think it is time we implemented the two shift system.”
Kit swept his hand at everyone at the table. “They are all exhausted from being overworked.” The table had been quiet when he spoke, so all eyes turned towards him.
Bundt lifted tired eyes to Kit. His normal astute gaze was muted. “What is a two shift system Kit?”
“Ah, it’s pretty simple Bundt, I will split the day into two shifts basically. We would have a group of employees come in for a morning shift and another group of employees come in for an afternoon shift. That would stop everyone from becoming overworked.”
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Bundt pursed his lips in thought. “Kit where would the new employees sleep?”
Kit was surprised at Bundt’s reply, had he not appointed Cupcake the boarding house manager so that it could be upgraded? When that happened there would be plenty of room for the new employees to find a bed.
He relayed his thoughts to Bundt. “I thought you weren’t going to upgrade the boarding house. Cupcake said there was no money in the boarding house funds.” Bundt replied.
“Damn it, I completely forgot to transfer the money from the Piabbits into the boarding house kitty.” Kit glanced around the table until his eyes landed on Cupcake. He then pulled out the rubies he had gotten from the midnight guardians and asked Snickers to pass them along down to Cupcake.
The glisten rocks caught everyone’s eyes as they went down the line of people. When they reached Cupcake’s hands the large man turned a quizzical gaze to Kit. “You can sell those, they are part of the boarding house funds as well.”
Cupcake tucked the rubies away with a solemn expression. Kit was happy to see the large man taking his role so seriously. He decided to relinquish some more power over the boarding house to the man. “Cupcake I will leave you in charge of the boarding house upgrade while I’m away.”
Stunned eyes snapped to Kit, Cupcake then thumped his chest. “Cupcake!” Kit smiled, initially he wanted to leave the job to Mars, but his friend was coming with him to Fairweather town. Cupcake lived in the boarding house so Kit was sure the man would put in his best efforts at the promotion.
With the extra rooms for the new staff settled he turned back to Snickers. A twinkle was present in her eyes as she looked at him. “I think we are getting better at running the restaurant now Kit. We are planning instead of playing catch up all the time. I’ll send out the recruitment notice tonight. Hopefully I will have your two shift system implemented by the time you return.”
Everyone finished dinner in a happy mood. Once he was done Kit headed straight back to the boarding house, he would need to get a good night’s rest before tomorrow. As he was settling down on the bed for sleep Kit remembered to transfer the funds from the Piabbits to the boarding house, then he closed his eyes and was out like a light.
A loud bang woke him with a start, his eyes shot to his open door. Mars was standing inside the door frame with a goofy grin on his face. “Sorry Kit, I didn’t mean to slam it open.” Kit swung his legs off the bed and grumbled at Mars for his rude awakening this morning. With the way Mars was grinning Kit was sure the man meant to scare him awake.
Kit rubbed the last vestiges of sleep from his tired eyes, then blinked at his friend. Ah that’s right they were off to Fairweather town today! Kit quickly got dressed and put his boots on. “Let’s go!” Kit followed a happy Mars into the dining area.
Last night in his tired state he forgot to check on the restoration of the boarding house. The kitchen and dining area where now reinstated to the pre Piabbit fight state.
Bree and her two children were sitting at the new dining table eating breakfast. Kit looked outside the window and groaned. It was no wonder he had needed to shake his sleepiness off this morning, it wasn’t even light outside! How early had Mars gotten him up? He shook his head at the ridiculous hour and joined the others to eat some breakfast.
“Mars, I hired a mount for us like you asked.” The unfamiliar voice that spoke made Kit realise he had been rude and had not even introduced himself to the newcomer. He looked at the young man that had just spoken, he assumed he was Camembert.
Bright blue eyes smiled at Kit as he stared at the young man. Camembert had the same brown hair as his mother minus the grey. His eyes were warm and friendly just like Bree’s. “Hi I’m Kit.” He finally got around to introducing himself.
“Hello, Camembert.” The young man was pointing to himself in introduction.
Mars sat down next to Kit and started scoffing breakfast. “Don’t dally Kit, eat up. We need to get moving. Snickers asked me to make this a short trip, so we will need to make good time today.” Kit nodded in understanding and rushed to finish his breakfast.
As soon as he was done eating Mars ushered them outside to their waiting mounts. Pint brayed at Kit in greeting as soon as he walked out the door. “Morning Pint, take good care of me today please.” The large horse nuzzled its head into Kit’s chest. Kit gave him a gentle pat then fed him some alcohol, he felt that starting with bribery was a great way to stay on Pint’s good side.
Kit then mounted the large horse and waited for Mars. He watched as the others scrambled to sit on top of their own horses. Mars did a once over of everyone’s horse then swung up behind Kit. “Alright, let’s get this show on the road!”
Mars then slapped Pint’s rump and the horse took off with a jolt. Kit felt his stomach lurch, it was going to be a long trip!
Mars kept to his words and the trip to Fairweather town was a fast one. Each night Kit had shown Camembert his recipes over the camping kitchen with shaking legs.
Kit had been surprised that the young man could take in each recipe with ease even though they had both been complaining about their sore legs. Blue hadn’t missed out either she would grill Kit about his restaurant while they cooked.
By the time they reached the gates of Fairweather town, Kit was reassured that Camembert and Blue would be a big help to their mother running his market stall. Kit slid off Pint and wanted to hug the earth when they finally joined the line to enter the town. He still was not a fan of riding the horse, he wondered if he ever would be.
“Mars this trip was no fun at all!” Kit complained to his friend.
Mars grinned at the slumped Kit. “If you can get the market stall up and running in three days then we can take our time on the way back.” Kit’s eyes shone at the thought of a leisurely trip back to Spartan Fire.
“I will make it happen!” Kit had found out on the ride that Snickers had taken Mars aside before they left to give him some instructions. He wasn’t entirely sure what their conversation entailed but he found out that Snickers had given Mars a timeline to try to keep him too.
He had gotten one week at Fairweather town to get his market stall up and running. As much as Kit wanted to get it all done in three days, he thought it might be a push. His market stall was going to be permanent so it would require some construction.
A preliminary plan had formed on the trip that Kit would get the construction of the market stall underway, then he would head over to the culinary guild to get his chef promotion. If things went smoothly one week should be enough for him to achieve his goals.
Then only hiccup Kit could think of would be Chef Nutmeg. That man could impede his market stall if Kit didn’t think of a way to deal with him. An involuntary sigh left his lips, Mars caught the sound and studied Kit for a moment.
“I know what you’re worried about, but you don’t need to. I already told you I will take care of that man.” Firm resolve and a spark of insanity weighed heavy in Mars gaze. It made Kit begin to panic about how Mars was going to ‘take care of it’.