Once they returned to town Kit couldn’t wait to head to his kitchen to start experimenting with all the new food he had collected. His stomach rumbled as he was about to say his goodbye to the party.
Kit laughed, he should feed his friends and himself first before he got consumed in the kitchen. He knew he would forget about everything else once he started experimenting.
“Come to the restaurant and I’ll feed you all before I hide away to experiment with the new variety of ingredients.” Smiles greeted Kit’s words.
“That is music to my ears my boy.” Grandpa gave Kit a pat on the back and followed him inside.
Kit entered the restaurant to find Snickers behind the front desk twirling a piece of her green hair.
“Snickers what are you doing?”
“What do you think, I’m waiting for some customers. This is my job, Kit.”
Snickers rolled her eyes at Kit as if this was obvious. Kit hadn’t realised she would be standing around inside the empty restaurant doing nothing. He would need to fix this. Snickers wouldn’t be happy if she had nothing to do all day.
Kit would have to think seriously about his problem of lack of customers. Kit felt guilty for leaving Snickers with nothing to do.
“I’m sorry Snickers I should have thought about my restaurant opening more seriously. Come take a seat with everyone else and we can discuss what to do over lunch.”
Snickers perked up at the mention of food. She went and took a seat at the table with the others. Kit headed into the kitchen and prepared lunch. When he came out of the kitchen and extra chair had been squished at the table so all five of them could eat together.
Kit handed out the meals and took a seat. The moment his bottom landed on the chair food began to disappear from the plates around him. Kits eyes crinkled in delight at the sight.
This was what he had dreamed of. People happily eating his food in a nice warm atmosphere. Conversation started to flow once the plates were almost empty.
Kit officially introduced Snickers to the others. He had been lax yesterday, with all the excitement of opening his restaurant to think about pleasantries. He once again felt a pang of guilt towards his new employee. He would need to make things up to Snickers.
“Kit what are you going to do about getting customers?” Snickers had a worried look on her face.
At this moment the only solution Kit could think of was raising Spartan Fire to a small village so they could open the respawn gate. Then he had a chance of attracting customers. He had originally wanted to have a grand opening.
This idea was when he was going to open in a larger town. He didn’t think it would make any difference if he did it now.
Kit furrowed his brows. He needed to up his game or else his restaurant might be a flop. He thought about his market stall. He didn’t even have to advertise to get customers flocking to his stall. Maybe he could visit the surrounding towns with his camping kitchen to drum up business? He floated the idea to the table.
“That’s actually not a bad idea Kit.” Snickers had a thoughtful look on her face.
“Pfft” Grandpa spat out some beer from his mouth when he heard Snickers agree.
“You want to sell food elsewhere. Can’t you just have a grand opening like everyone else?”
Grandpa sounded like Kit had wounded him with wanting to sell his wares elsewhere. Kit was perplexed at what was going on inside the old man’s head.
“Grandpa, a grand opening would only work if there are people around to hear about it. Spartan Fire is so small, I haven’t even met any of the other inhabitants yet, and I have been here for three days. If I want to draw people to the restaurant, I will have to go to them first.” Kit patiently explained.
“What, go to them! I told you they will come to you. How about this, I will send an invitation to the surrounding towns to come to your grand opening. If no one comes then you can take your food to them. What do you think.”
Kit was happy to try Grandpa’s idea first. He was loath to leave his restaurant when he had only just built it. If the grand opening was a disaster, he would start travelling around the surrounding towns to drum up business. Kit glanced around the table to see what everyone else thought.
Snickers was the only one frowning. Everyone else had smiles. It was settled, he would have a grand opening. Before he decided on a date Kit started to count how many days he had been in game. He didn’t want to organise the grand opening only to realise he would have to log out.
As Kit counted the days, he realised today was his eighth day inside the game, that would leave 7 days for before he had to log out. Then it would be another 6 days in game while he was logged out for the two days real time. Kits mind swirled with the math.
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“Ok Grandpa let’s have a grand opening. I will need time to prepare. Can we set it for 2 weeks from now?”
“No problem, that will give everyone time to make the journey. Plus, I can send invitations further with that date.”
With the date set Kit remembered that he had promised Iris that he would invite her to his restaurant opening. Kit became happy at the thought of seeing Iris once again. Then he realised he had no clue on how to get an invitation sent to her.
“Grandpa can you also sent an invitation to a friend of mine. She lives in Sweet Meadow in the Rosacea state.”
“Of course I can. Do you know her address?”
“Can you send it to her workplace, she doesn’t go home very often. Her name is Iris, and she owns an Inn called the Waddling duck.”
“I will send her an invitation. I just don’t know if she can make it in time though. It will depend how far away from a Travel gate she is and if she can afford the expense.”
Kit frowned he hadn’t thought of that. He also didn’t know if she could afford the cost of travelling to the forsaken state and back. He didn’t want to put any financial pressure upon Iris.
“Grandpa can you just send her a letter for me then. I’ll write what I want to say.”
“That I can do.”
Kit decided to write to Iris and request a well wishes letter for his opening. With this he fulfilled his promise to inform her of opening a restaurant. He then wouldn’t have to worry about her spending unnecessary money on a small trip. Kit would fill her in on his travels in the letter. He looked forward to receiving her reply.
Kit looked at Grandpa to see him smiling happily with a glint in his eyes. Kit scrutinised that familiar look, he could tell Grandpa was starting to scheme something. Kit thought it had something to do with his grand opening. Kit shook his head and left Grandpa to his evil planning. He didn’t think whatever it was would affect him negatively.
Now that the plans were set in place Kit felt a pressure lift from his shoulders. He had a long list of things to accomplish. The restaurant wasn’t his only worry. One less immediate problem was solved for now that left him free to concentrate on the other things.
A smile bloomed on Kit’s face as he thought about the next problem he wanted to rectify, his restaurant menu board.
“Now that is settled, I’m going to take my leave and enter the kitchen. I’ll see you all at dinner time.”
Four pairs of eyes twinkled at Kit’s words and a chorus of good luck sent him into the kitchen. Kit felt his hands starting to twitch. The excitement began to build as he started to pull all the new ingredients he had collected onto the counter.
He placed them in a row next to each other. When his eyes landed on the fruit and two of the flowers, he realised he had not even found out what they were and had just stuffed them into his pouch. He settled the matter in an instant with identify.
[Swamp dweller apples]
A tasty fruit that is rarely found only grows in a few locations on the Fornax continent.
Kit sucked in a breath as he read the description. The fruit was hard to find? Kit wondered if it was tough to find or if people just didn’t know its location. Either way Kit was happy he had a feeling this would be no ordinary fruit. Kit continued to identify the two other unknown flowers.
[White sticky sweet flower]
A white flower with a sweet taste and smell. Flower can be used as a substitute for sugar when cooked.
Kit has another surprise. Laughter bubbled up and he clapped his hands with glee. He was glad he had collected these flowers as well now. He hadn’t brought any sugar yet and now it didn’t matter. He ran his finger over the petals and when they came away, they had a sticky clear coating of a gelatinous substance covering his fingers.
He brought it to his nose to smell. A familiar smell entered his nose. It even smelled like sugar! He then stuck his finger in his mouth. Kit was tickled with pleasure when the sticky substance even tasted like sugar!
He quickly moved on to the last blossom.
[Twin blooming hope]
A delicate flower budding with a distinct bicolour. A subtle flora perfume permeates from the delicate petals.
Kit looked at the small flower. It had three small soft petals. Two of the petals were purple they looked like ears sticking out from the other yellow petal. Kit thought the flower was quite cute. He decided he would give some to Snickers to see if she could make a bouquet for each table.
Kit returned his gaze to the ingredients before him. He started to think about what recipes he could use to make a new dish. He turned his gaze to the equipment in his kitchen. The only thing he could use to cook was the fire pit and the fire roaster. Kit sighed it really limited his options.
Kit decided to try a roast. He could cook the meat on the roaster and bury the vegetables in the coals. As he thought about the recipe, he realised he would need something like foil to wrap the vegetables in to place in the fire. This wasn’t something he could easily come by in Spartan Fire.
Kit’s mind whirled with alternatives. This was going to be harder than he thought. With so many limits surrounding him he was starting to feel overwhelmed. Kit took a breath, he could use his camping kitchen to cook if he didn’t come up with a solution. Then he dismissed that idea. He wanted to create a meal inside his kitchen, damn it!
Kit glanced through to the dining area to see the others getting up to leave. When his eyes landed on Grandpa and Twix they started to sparkle. Grandpa and Twix could solve his vegetable problem. Kit rushed out to catch them before they left.
“Grandpa. Twix, I need your help for a moment. Can you make me a large clay pot with a lid. No make that a couple! Please.”
Grandpa chuckled at Kit’s enthusiastic appearance. “Sure, come outside for a moment and let’s see what we can do.”
Kit followed the pair out the door. Grandpa removed his staff and went over to the lake. He pointed his staff at the water. Soon mud from the bottom of the lake emerged in a large lump. Grandpa moved the mud to the bank he then began to create a large pot with a lid.
Kit looked at the unattractive plain pot. Grandpa was definitely not a master potter. Kit looked at the size of the clay pot and was happy even if it was ugly, it didn’t matter it wouldn’t make any difference to the final taste of his vegetables.
“That size ok Kit?”
“Perfect, thank you.”
After hearing Kit’s response Twix sent a bolt of lightning towards the pot. Kit beamed he now had something to cook his vegetable in. Grandpa and Twix quickly made four more of the pots. Kit thanked them then went back inside to get some oven mitts to collect his new cooking utensils.
Kit placed the newly made pots onto the counter. He then prepared the fire pit. Twix had left him a stack of wood outside to use. Once the fire was burning Kit took out the mud wallower meat and pierced them onto the Fire roaster metal rod. He placed the rod on the frame over the coals and started the Fire roast up.
Kit then headed over to the ingredients that were still on display on the counter. He decided to roast the red elephant ear root, water sweet nut corms and the muddy yellow swamp mushrooms. Looking at the vegetables, Kit really wanted to add some herbs to the vegetables to add some flavour.
His sighed out loud. Snickers entered and heard him.