Kit woke the next morning to the sight of Snowball sprawled out on his bed. Kit patted the little fluff ball. The dog struggled to open its eyes. He stared at Kit through squinted eyes.

“Snowball, you must be exhausted from yesterday. Following Snickers around must have been tiring. You’re normally out the door before me. You stay home today.”

Snowball closed his eyes and went back to sleep. Kit gave Snowball a few more pats before he left. Sunlight greeted Kit as he walked outside. He glanced around to see if there were any more changes he could see in the village. Yesterday he had been too preoccupied to care.

Kit noticed a few more mud huts were being built. Kit stood still to watch the new homes rise from the ground. He smiled with satisfaction at the new dwellings. He counted a total of 23 mud huts.

“Our Spartan Fire is growing nicely.”

Kit twisted around at the familiar voice. Mars was coming to stand next to him.

“Yes, it is. We’ll have to make some time to talk about the growth of the village. Mud huts seem to be popping up faster than I imagined possible.”

“It’s a good thing though. You should hear the old man boasting about the growth of the village. It will hit a stumbling block soon though and stagnate.” Kit raised his eyebrows at Mars thoughts.

“Why is that Mars?”

“Spartan Fire doesn’t have enough funds to purchase blueprints. If people want to move their business here it will be impossible until we can unlock the structure they need. Hence, we will stop growing at some point unless we can get a cash injection into the village funds.”

“I didn’t even think about that. We should have a meeting to come up with some ideas to counter the problem. The sooner the better, if word gets out that we can’t afford blueprints the residents that already moved here might move away.”

With that realisation Mars and Kit’s mood became sombre. Spartan Fire was finally growing to achieve his dream Kit needed it to continue to prosper. If the village stopped its growth, then his restaurant would also stagnate.

If that happened, he would be unable to upgrade his restaurant even if he met all the other requirements. Kit felt his mood sink even further. Finding a way to get funds for the village would now be a top priority.

“Mars lets head over to the restaurant and explain this to the others. I don’t think they have realised this issue yet. If we let them know now, it will give everyone time to think about ideas to counter the problem.”

Mars agreed then they headed towards the restaurant. As they approached Kit noticed that the line in front of his restaurant seemed to be larger than yesterday.

Kit didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He was excited about the amount he would earn. But that also meant he would have to work harder than he did yesterday. Kit sighed, it looked like he wouldn’t get to enjoy seeing happy faces eating his food again today.

He couldn’t wait to get some new employees. At least he was getting a good boost to his chef level with all the food he was making. Yesterday he had gotten his chef level to 28 from his day’s efforts. He felt that it would climb to over level 30 today.

Kit regained some of his earlier good mood after thinking about the rise in his chef level and entered the restaurant with a smile. Snickers, Twix, and Grandpa were already waiting for them once they entered.

“’Morning, my little shining star.” Kit blinked at Grandpas new nickname for him.

“’Morning Grandpa, ‘morning everyone.”

“Kit, I did a breakdown of all the food sold yesterday so you can see what dishes were sold the most. Hopeful this will help you prioritise where to focus your cooking. I also rearranged the kitchen again and added another time freeze storage shelf.”

Kit blinked, he had been too preoccupied and hadn’t noticed the changes Snickers had made to his kitchen.

“Thankyou Snickers. Before I take a look at the meals sold yesterday, Mars and I have something to discuss with you all.”

Mars filled them in on the problems that he had found with Spartan Fires growth this morning. Kit watched as happy faces changed to serious ones. Kit felt the mood shift in the room.

“This … I didn’t even think of this problem.” Grandpa had the most devastated look in the room.

Kit knew that the old man’s dream was to make Spartan Fire into a grand city. Kit felt like he had burst the old man’s vision. Kit went over and gave him a hug.

“Grandpa, we’ll think of something. How about we have a meeting tomorrow at the town hall then we can all brainstorm together. You can let Clive and Leonard know about the situation too. That will give us all a bit of time to come up with ideas.”

Grandpa nodded, his head in a daze. Kit could tell the old man was in shock right now. He would be too, if he saw his dream starting to come to life then had cold water splashed in his face.

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Unlike Grandpa Kit was a bit more positive. Even though there was a stumbling block he was sure that if they all put their heads together they would find an answer.

After registering his train of thoughts, Kit was surprised. He would usually be the first to swirl into a depressed state, focusing on the negatives. A soft smile graced his face at the realisation that he was starting to think with a more optimistic attitude.

He really felt like he was starting to return to his old self before his father’s accident. Kit was sure his father would be proud of him right now. Not only for his change in attitude but his current success with his dream.

Kit finally felt like he might be turning into a capable adult. Kit glanced around at the sombre room and decided to change the topic.

“Snickers can you show me the items sold yesterday, now?”

Snickers handed over a piece of white paper. Neat handwriting covered the page detailing yesterday’s sales.

75 x Red blooming Purple tail turtle soup – 25 bronze crowns.

63 x Black spotted velvet frogs legs – 35 bronze crowns.

52 x Apelop salad – 15 bronze crowns.

123 x Wallowing blue poison – 40 bronze crowns.

257 x Red velvet lake pasta – 50 bronze crowns.

400 x Sweet Meadow beer – 5 bronze crowns.

1257 x Lucky sticky candy apples – 1 silver crown.

Total Sales: 1 gold, 261 silver and 63 bronze crowns.

Total restaurant funds: 76 gold 835 silver 599 bronze crowns

Seeing the numbers in front of him gave Kit a shock. He didn’t realise how much he had sold yesterday. All he knew yesterday was that he had been flat out in the kitchen. It was no wonder he had been so exhausted last night.

Kit felt a slight headache build at the thought of the line he had seen before entering the restaurant. Kit was glad Snickers had added an extra time freeze storage shelf.

“Snickers before we open, I’m going to stock the extra storage shelf with candy apples. Give me 30 minutes before opening the doors.”

Kit dragged Mars into the kitchen to help with making the hard candy mixture. Soon he had to full time freeze storage shelves filled with the shiny red coated apples. Kit smiled then got to work on making some more red velvet lake pasta.

When he went outside to collect the crustations from the tanks. He looked at his supply. Kit pursed his lips at the sight inside the tanks. He would run out of ingredients in another day or two. How was he going to get more ingredients without shutting his restaurant.

Kit thought he would need to bring this up with the others later tonight. He was sure these would not be the only thing he would need to restock. Kit sighed, the list of things he needed to deal with was getting longer.

Kit shoved the thoughts to the back of his head he didn’t have time to deal with them now. He gathered the ingredients and went back to the kitchen. He was soon lost in keeping the time freeze storage shelves stocked.

Kit was broken from his prepping haze by a loud shouting coming from the dining area. He walked out of the kitchen to see what the commotion was about. Snickers had her hands on her hips facing a group of customers.

Kit countered five angry faces staring at the short girl. Kit watched as Snickers pocked a finger into the closest man’s chest. The man wasn’t small, he was large and muscular with shiny armour coating his body.

Kit had a feeling that the five customers were players. None of them were wearing the animal skins that Kit associated with the native inhabitants of the Forsaken state.

“Little girl, I don’t care what the owner says! I want all of the lucky sticky candy apples that are in this restaurant. Go and get them now before my friends and I turn this backwards little shack into dust!”

The restaurant became eerily silent at the man’s words. The man hadn’t been quiet when demanding the apples. Kit watched as numerous eyes turned to the man. Then Kit heard tinkling laughter. A shiver went down his spine.

“Who is going to turn this restaurant into dust? You?” Snickers started to laugh even harder.

‘Ahh crap! This is not good. Is Snickers not supposed to be able to calm the masses? How is that calming the masses? I think it should be changed to inciting the masses.’

Kit went to take a step towards the group so he could try defusing the situation. Then his gaze locked on Snickers eyes.

Snickers had a familiar gleam in her eyes. Kit felt his heart lurch. He had seen that crazy look too many times in Mars eyes. Kit had a feeling things were about to get messy.

‘Damn it. Why do all the people I know have a maniacal streak!’

Kit rushed over to the player that was making trouble to see if he could stop chaos breaking out. When he was about to reach the man’s side he was pushed away by one of his friends standing by his side.

Kit crashed into the service desk.

- 300 health.

‘God dam it. That hurt.’

Kit felt a chill spread around the room. He heard multiple breaths being sucked in. Kit shot his gaze towards Snickers.

Kit saw a creepy smile spread across her face. Then a voice dripping in sweetness came out of her mouth.

“That was a bad idea. Little Moo it’s time to come out and play.”

Kit watched as Snickers clicked her fingers. A blue fog started to appear next to her body. Slowly a shape started to appear in the transparent blue haze. A large paw stepped out of the blue fog followed by a snout that had its lips pulled back showing a row of sharp white teeth.

A loud snarl emerged from the mouth. Before Kit got a proper look at the animal it leapt straight for the man’s head. A loud crack rang out accompanied by a ripping sound, then the man’s body fell to the ground minus its head. Blood pooled on the floor from the severed neck.

Kit watched in horror as the animal descended on the rest of the players. The players didn’t sit still they drew their swords and attacked the beast. Kit watched as his dining room became a splintered mess.

Kit looked at his customers shocked faces, he decided it would be better to get his customers to safety before he entered the fight. As Kit was getting himself up off the ground. He heard the scrapping of chairs grate his ears.

Then he watched in shock as his customers joined the fight with the players. In the time it took Kit to blink a couple of times, all five of the troublemakers were dead. Kit watched as their body’s started to fade.

‘Damn i,t they really were players.’

At least he wouldn’t have to clean up the dead bodies. Kit glanced around at the destruction the fight had caused. He would need to close his restaurant to fix the damage. Kit nervously looked around the room. He was scared that the fight would affect his future business.

A middle-aged man wearing animal skins approached him and clapped him on the back.

“Ahh, lad, that was some great entertainment to go with lunch. Nothing like a good fight to whet the appetite.”

Kit heard a chorus of agreement. Kit felt a blood vessel burst in his eye.

A good fight? Are all the people in the forsaken state blood thirsty? How can they be happy about a fight breaking out in the middle of lunch?

Kit felt his mind whirl with the craziness of the afternoon. Then he looked again at the destruction of his restaurant. He felt his eyes start to twitch. He wanted to throw them all out!