Kit woke early the next morning and headed straight to the Spartan Fire quest board. As he walked through the village he noticed more mud huts had popped up. The changes to the village were fast. It had only been four days since his return and already the village was unrecognisable from his very first glimpse of Spartan Fire.

A swelling of pride rose in his heart at the sights around him. As he got closer to the quest board, he could see that there were already some people gathered around the wooden structure. Kit walked over and greeted the group of people.

“Good morning.”

“Hello. Are you also here to receive a quest. We were just discussing doing them together. Do you want to join us?”

Kit looked at the four people standing in front of him. They all had a friendly smile directed towards him. Kit returned their smiles and shook his head.

“Thank you for the invitation, but I’m actually here to post a quest.”

“Oh nice. What are wanting done? Maybe we can complete your task as well.” The young man that had offered him to join the group asked.

Kit looked at the young man. He had a bright sunny appearance, Kit guessed he shouldn’t be much older than he was. He then ran his eyes over his friends standing behind him. They all had the same bright expressions at meeting someone new.

Kit returned his gaze back to the young man that had spoken to him. The young man looked eager to see what Kit wanted.

“I just need some ingredients collected.”

“Oh, well I guess we could do that.”

The young man looked disappointed that it was a simple task.

“I’m Lindor by the way and this is Bear, Bunny, and Star. We are from Wild Kokka. You don’t look like a Forsaken state resident where are you visiting from?”

Kit smiled, he guessed he really didn’t look like a resident. But did he really stick out like a sore thumb?

“I actually moved to Spartan Fire recently. So, I guess I’m now a resident of the Forsaken state.”

“Oh, you live here. Then have you met the restaurant owner yet? We are all so curious about him. No one has been officially introduced to him yet. That old man has kept him hidden.”

Kit assumed the old man referred to Grandpa. Kit had to laugh at the thought that he was being hidden.

“I don’t think he is being concealed on purpose. I think he has just been too busy inside his restaurant.”

“Ahh then you don’t know that old man. My dad said he is hiding him so that no one can try to steal him.”

Kit burst out laughing. The rumours about him were ridiculous.

“Hey, don’t laugh I’m not joking.”

The young boy looked offended at Kit outburst. Kit calmed himself down. This group of people had been very welcoming to him, he didn’t want to offend them. He quickly explained his outburst.

“I’m sorry, please forgive me. Let me introduce myself properly. I am Kit the owner of Spartan Fire restaurant, it is a pleasure to meet you all.”

Kit smiled at the group and bowed.

“Wow really?” Bear the young man Lindor had introduced gasped in surprise.

“Yes, I really am.”

Kit wanted to laugh again at the looks on their faces. Right now, he felt like a celebrity. All four pairs of eyes stared at him in awe. This was a new experience for Kit. It made him feel happy, yet uncomfortable at the same time.

“Kit don’t worry about your quest, we will get it done right away.” Lindor puffed out his chest.

Kit could only smile at his enthusiasm. “Ok let me post it first. Then I will leave it in your capable hands.”

Kit walked over to the board. He tapped on the screen to bring up the menu options. It was his first time posting a quest, so he was unsure of what to do. He glanced at the screen to see that there was a section for posting personnel quests.

He clicked on the section and typed in what he required. He placed in the lucky sticky candy apples as the reward and to his delight it automatically calculated how many a person would receive for the amount of ingredients handed in.

Kit happily posted the quest and watched as it appeared in the quest section. Lindor came over and excepted the quest.

“Wow, are you really giving these as the reward?”

“Yes, I think it is a good exchange.”

“Kit, you should limit the amount of ingredients you want or else everyone will accept the quest and you will be inundated with ingredients.” Lindor warned Kit.

Kit hadn’t thought of that. He quickly cancelled the quest and reposted it with the number he would need to have a week’s stock. He would have to remember to come here once a week to post his requirements.

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“Thank you for the advice Lindor, that could have been a disaster.”

Kit took out a bottle of the apple cider and hand it to Lindor as thanks. Lindor’s eyes went wide as he looked at the bottle.

“What is this for? It’s too expensive, I can’t take it.”

“It is a thank you for helping me realise my mistake. You could have taken advantage of the situation, but you didn’t.”

“I would never do that.” Lindor tried to return the bottle.

“Take it. You are going to accept my quest so think of it as a bonus for being the first one to bring me ingredients.”

Kit smiled at the group. Lindor must have realised he wouldn’t take the gift back because he tucked it into his pouch with a complicated expression on his face.

“Then do you need us to do anything else for you?”

“Can you keep an eye out for edible plants or monsters in the areas you are going to? If you can find some new ingredients I don’t have, that would be great.”

Lindor agreed to Kit’s request. Kit then parted from the group to head over to the town hall. He still had a meeting to attend before he went to his restaurant.

Kit walked into the town hall to see a sea of people. Kit was surprised at how many were there. He thought it was just going to be a small meeting. Kit looked around for the others and noticed them at the front of the crowd.

Kit walked over to the group. He noticed he was the last to arrive.

“Kit, you made it. We were waiting for you to start.” Grandpa gave Kit a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Kit could tell the old man was worried about how the meeting would go.

“Grandpa don’t worry, I’m sure we will find a solution.” Kit tried to reassure the old man.

Grandpa nodded at Kit, then sucked in a breath. The old man then walked to the wooden desk in the middle of the room, took out his staff and tapped it on the table. The sound gained the attention of everyone in the room.

Silence soon settled around Kit.

“Welcome everyone to the town meeting. I have called you all here today to discuss some important news that has come to light. As I have stepped down from my founding member position, I will hand the meeting over to my grandson, Twix.”

Kit was shocked that Twix would be chairing the meeting. Kit guessed he was not the only one. Murmurs started to spread around the room.

Twix walked to the front with confident strides. Kit blinked at the poised aura that surrounded his friend. Was this the same Twix he knew?

“Hello everyone, I am Twix. Most of you know who I am. I have taken over the founding member position from my grandfather with two other people. Let me introduce the other members. Kit, Mars can you please join me up front.”

Kit wasn’t prepared to go up in front of so many people. He felt a moment of paralysed fear. Mars walked over to him and whispered in his ear.

“Sorry Kit, I thought it would be better if you didn’t know about it before hand. I didn’t want you to work yourself up.”

Kit shot daggers at Mars. Then he remembered he was in a room full of people that were staring at him. He turned his glare into a forced smile, and then whispered back to Mars.

“We will talk about this after the meeting.”

Kit sucked in a breath. He didn’t have time to fall apart right now. This meeting was too important. Kit put all his efforts into focusing on being positive, then walked to stand next to Twix.

Mars strode over with a swagger then turned to the crowd.

“Hello I’m Mars.”

Kit glanced at Mars with envy. The man didn’t look fazed at all by his public speaking. Then again, he didn’t say much.

Kit felt all eyes in the room swing over to him when they realised Mars wasn’t going to add anything else to his short speech. Kit felt goosebumps break out all over his body. ‘I’m going to kill these two right after this meeting.’

Kit felt his smile stretch thin. He hoped he didn’t stutter.

“Hello, I’m Kit, I‘m also the owner of the Spartan Fire restaurant.”

‘At least I got in some free advertisement for my efforts.’ Kit held onto that thought as he felt his scalp start to tingle. He darted his eyes towards Twix in a plea for him to take over.

“Now that you are familiar with the other founding members, I will dive right into the purpose of the meeting. Spartan fire has grown at a rate visible to the eye over the last couple of days. Unfortunately, our coffers cannot keep up with the growth.”

“We don’t want Spartan Fire to stagnate because of this issue. So, we want to come up with ideas on how to counter this problem.”

Noise erupted around the room.

“What the hell, I just moved here, and now you are saying the village can’t grow. I moved here because I had reassurances from the old man that this wouldn’t happen.”

Loud angry shouts in agreement rang out from other residents.

“I knew that his words were too good to be true.”

“I want compensation for the money I spent on the move.”

Kit’s eyes widened at the angry outburst from the crowd.

“Bang.”

A large burly man slammed the base of a giant axe into the ground. All eyes turned to the man.

“What is the meaning of all this squabble. This is nothing new to our Forsaken state. It’s why we haven’t been able to make our villages grow. We need to come together, not tear each other apart. Are you all members of this village or not. If not, then leave.”

No one dared to raise their voice after the man spoke. Twix cleared his throat.

“Thank you, Ferrell.” Twix nodded his head towards the large man then kept talking.

“The reason we called you all here is because you are all Spartan Fire residents. We want to work together to build the village into a great city. The three of us can’t do it alone though. So please if anyone has any ideas, we will welcome them.”

Kit looked around the room, blank expressions appeared on all the faces. Kit felt his heart sink. Was there nothing that could solve the problem to raise money for the town. Kit looked over to Grandpa to see his heart broken eyes.

Kit didn’t want to see that look in the old man’s eyes. His mind started to tick over.

“We just need money, right?”

All eyes in the room moved to Kit. What did schools do when they were short on money, they held a fund raiser!

“So, could we organise a fund raiser of some sort?”

Kit looked around the room to see light return to the eyes of the residents. When Kit was about to return his eyes to Twix, his gaze stopped on a handsome looking gentleman with a gleam in his eyes. The man stared back at him with heterochromia eyes.

Kit was taken back for a moment at the dazzling blue and green colour. He hadn’t seen a Forsaken resident with this look before. Not only did he have two different eyes he had striking long silver hair pulled into a ponytail. Kit wondered if this man was a player.

As he continued to scrutinise the man. A smile burst forth on the handsome man’s face.

“We could hold a fair.” Voiced a young lady.

“Velma we already have a market. That won’t do.”

Kit kept his eyes on the man with a gleam in his eyes to see what he would do.

As more ideas were put forth then shot down, the man’s smile continued to grow.

Kit was sure this man had a good idea. Why was he not voicing it? Kit decided to go and ask the young man.

The closer Kit got to the silver haired man the larger his smiled grew. When Kit arrived at the man’s side his smile was so big it showed a row of neat pearly white teeth.

Kit waited to see if the man would talk to him. All he got in return was a dazzling smile. Kit didn’t get the impression this man was shy. Why did he not speak then? Was he scared to talk in public? Kit could understand that.

Kit bent close to the man’s ear and whispered. “Hello, I’m Kit, do you have an idea on how to solve the problem?”

The man responded in a soft voice. It was so low Kit couldn’t catch the man’s words.

“Sorry I missed that, could you speak a bit louder?

The man smiled even wider then turned to whisper back to Kit.

“Monster run.”