Heavy thudding accompanied Kit as he sprinted down the road towards his restaurant. His body automatically headed towards the back door of his restaurant as he came closer to his building.
A bust of joy broke out at the sight of the familiar building, he missed his slice of heaven. He slowed down to catch his breath as he approached the door.
An unfamiliar face walked out the back door when Kit was a couple of steps away. Kit stopped in his tracks to assess the new person. It was a man that appeared to be in his late twenties, he had long brown hair tied in a messy bun on top of his head.
The man was staring at Kit with surprise, Kit couldn’t help but wave. “Hello, I’m Kit.” He quickly introduced himself so that the man didn’t misunderstand his presence at the back entrance to the restaurant. He didn’t want another embarrassing situation to happen like last time, when Blue tried to kick him out of his own restaurant.
The man blinked a couple of times before Kit’s words registered. “Oh! Welcome back Lord Kit, I am Kola.” A deep baritone voice emerged from Kola’s mouth.
A jolt of surprise ran over Kit at Kola addressing him as Lord. He had forgotten that he had gotten the title from the monster run. “Ah Kola it’s nice to meet you, from now on you can just call me Kit.”
He was still embarrassed to be called by such a formal title. “Ok Chef Kit, now that I think about it, I remember Snickers saying you didn’t like being addressed as Lord, my apologies.” Kola gave a shallow bow of his head.
“No need to apologies. What area are you working in Kola?” Kit was curious about his new employee.
“Oh, I am also a chef, I have been working in your kitchen for a week now. Chef Kit, I just wanted to say that I’m grateful that you gave me a chance to learn from you.” Kola seemed to like being courteous with him. The man once again bowed after speaking, this time it was a deep waist bending dip.
“Ah Kola, it’s me that should be thanking you for working here, I couldn’t run the restaurant properly without help. Just so you know, we are not big on formality here. Just think of this place like a big family.” Kit didn’t want Kola to continue his scraping and bowing. It made him quite uncomfortable.
When he was in his restaurant, he liked a nice, relaxed atmosphere, he didn’t want that to change. Kola seemed taken back by Kit’s words, he blinked a couple of times, then smiled. “I would be delighted to join your family!”
Now that he had met Kola, Kit began to become curious about the other new employees. “Continue on with what you were doing Kola, I need to go and find Snickers.” Kit would have plenty of time in the next couple of days to get to know the man, so he walked inside to find his restaurant manager.
Unfortunately, he didn’t get very far, as soon as he walked into the kitchen Crackers let out a squeal and ran over to him. “Kit ya finally back! I been missin’ ya.” Crackers enveloped Kit in a hug. “I missed you too Crackers. Has everything been alright in my absence?” Kit enquired.
“Ai, we be havin’ everything under control. We even be starting ya two shifts a day. We be managing to get all the new people trained up while ya been gone.” Crackers looked very pleased with herself as she relayed the news.
“That’s fantastic! Crackers we can catch up later. I’d best go and find Snickers first.” Crackers let Kit go, he wandered into the dining area to see some new faces working on the floor. He didn’t go over to them immediately, he searched the crowd for the delicate elf.
“Finally! I have been worried out of my mind! Luckily for you Bree informed me what you had been up to.” Kit swung around at the familiar voice, Snickers had managed to creep up behind him as he was looking around the room.
A big smile grew on his face at the sight of the green haired girl. “Snickers, I have missed you!” Kit was not lying. He really had missed his mischievous friend. Snickers flipped her hair. “Well of course you have, I am an angel after all.”
“That you are Snickers. I can see you have been busy while I was gone. Oh, and did you just say Bree informed you of what I was doing?” Kit wondered how Bree had done that.
“Yes, we have been exchanging letters through the restaurant interface. It is very handy.” He didn’t even know this function was available. Snickers was right though, this would be very handy. He would be able to communicate with Bree without having to travel to Fairweather town.
“Now that we have said our pleasantries, hand over the goods!” Snickers stuck out her small hand, Kit became confused at her abrupt change of conversation.
“What goods?” Kit didn’t know what she was talking about, he hadn’t brought Snickers anything from his trip.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Don’t play dumb, where is the new creation that you delayed your return for. I want to taste it. It had better be good by the way.” Kit made an oh shape with his mouth, Snickers was talking about the Cocoa fruit.
“I haven’t had time to start experimenting with the ingredient yet. But don’t worry when I succeed you won’t be disappointed Snickers!” Kit was 100% certain Snickers would love chocolate.
Snickers squinted her eyes and pursed her lips. “Ah, I wanted to taste something new. Never mind. I can wait a short while.” Snickers then grabbed his arm and started to drag him towards the kitchen. “Right, now that you are back it’s time to get to work!”
Kit was pushed into the kitchen, he hadn’t even been introduced to any of his new employees. “Wait Snickers, I wanted to meet the new staff!”
“Plenty of time for that later after the restaurant closes for the day. Now start cooking!” Snickers gave Kit one of her creepy smiles that told him if he tried to leave, he would be in trouble. Kit sighed, he had hoped to have a day of rest before he started preparing for the restaurant promotion. It looked like those plans were dashed.
Crackers, Kola and a surprising Finn were in the kitchen. “Finn why are you here?”
“I couldn’t wait to start! Do you want me to help you with anything?” Kit felt his mood rise as he pondered Finn’s words. The Cocoa fruits he had brought back needed a fair bit of preparation before he could make chocolate.
With the amount of fruits he had brought back, he would need help in getting them processed into the cocoa powder. Kit quickly pulled Finn over and started to explain the process of fermenting, drying, roasting and finally grinding the beans.
It would be a time consuming process, so Kit was glad that Finn looked excited to be helping. Kit took out a large amount of the cocoa fruits, then he and Finn got to work. As he worked, Kit started to make plans in his head, in a couple of days Kit could start to work on trying to create various chocolate recipes.
He had a feeling that the cocoa was a low level fruit so he should be able to make something that he could sell right away. This would help get him closer to being ready for the promotion. It was a pity most of his other creations were too high level for sale.
Kit also had to talk to Grandpa about going to collect some other low level ingredients. He had scrapped his plans to work on the ingredients from the Piabbits domain and the twisted tunnels for now.
The day past by too quickly and soon it was time for the restaurant to close. Kit washed his hands and headed towards the dining area. Just before he reached the door, a wave of anxiety spread through him. Although he was the restaurant owner, he still got flustered meeting so many new people at once.
This would be the first time since he opened his restaurant that he met so many new employees at once. He hoped he didn’t forget anyone’s name, Kit took a deep breath to calm his nerves then went in. Shock replaced his nervousness when he entered, the room was packed with people.
Familiar and unfamiliar faces surrounded him, all turning their focus to his arrival. Kit felt a choking feeling well up and the urge to run back into the kitchen rushed up. Being the centre of attention of so many people caused him to panic. Kit’s heart rate spiked and sweat broke out, he started to feel suffocated, he couldn’t get enough air into his lungs.
Right at that moment Mars walked up to Kit, “Finally we’ve been waiting for you so we can start dinner. Although I don’t know where we’re all going to sit now that you have so many employees. Maybe we should have dinner at the boarding house, that way we can all sit at a table.”
Mars then dropped his head next to Kit so he could whisper in his ear. “That way you can also meet some of the new employees on the walk over.” Kit felt a wave of gratitude towards Mars, it amazed Kit that the man could always tell when he was uncomfortable. This would also give him a chance to calm himself down, just having Mars support helped him settle his panicked breathing.
Kit stared at Mars with thankful eyes. His reaction to the situation had overwhelmed Kit. He had thought he was over panicking in unfamiliar situations. It had taken him by surprise because the restaurant was a place where he felt relaxed and comfortable. He guessed that was why his reaction had been so strong.
It still looked like he had some work to do when it came to situations he had no control over, he could tell it was the uncertainty of the situation that filled him with dread. He couldn’t control what his new employees would think of him.
Mars then clapped his hands to quiet down the room. “Alright everyone listen up, this place is too small, so we are going to have dinner at the boarding house.” Mars didn’t need to say anymore, everyone started filing out the front door.
Kit was once again thankful to Mars for taking all the eyes in the room off him. Mars and Kit waited for the room to clear. “You good Kit?”
“Yeah, thanks Mars. I don’t know what I would do without you.” Now that there was just him and Mars, Kit felt himself return to normal. He wiped the lingering sweat from his brow and then followed Mars out the door.
Mars grabbed a couple of new people before they could get too far ahead and started to introduce himself. “Hi, I’m Mars, Kit’s best friend.”
A middle aged man with salt and pepper hair was the first to reply, “Hello I’m Old Ford, I have joined Spartan Fire restaurant as a server.”
The next person to introduce themselves was a stern looking middle aged lady. “Hello, I’m Feta I previously worked as a cashier. I am currently learning how to work in the takeaway section.” A sweet melodic voice came from Feta, the sweet voice surprised Kit because it didn’t match her appearance.
“I’m Kiri, I came because I wanted to work with Mud.” Upon hearing those words Kit’s eyes shot over to the speaker. Kit’s eyes started to twitch, Kiri was almost identical in appearance to Mud, the only difference between the two was their hair colour. Mud had brown hair whereas Kiri’s hair was yellow.
He had a sneaking suspicion Kiri was a relative of Mud and Snickers. This was confirmed by Kiri with his next words. “I’m Mud and Snickers’ cousin!” Kit had to hold back a groan, he just hoped his personality was more like Mud’s carefree attitude than Snickers domineering presence.
Kit looked at the last unfamiliar face, when his eyes collided with the newcomer Kit eyes went round. This person’s eyes had a red eerie glow, he had been too distracted before to notice, but because it was nighttime the glow was quite noticeable.