Kit stood next to the closest cane and ran his hands over the rough surface. He took a deep breath in and could smell the sweetness emitting from the plant. As he stared at the plant, he thought about the best way to harvest the canes.
He knew that there was only a short amount of time between cutting the stalks and harvesting the sugar to get the best results. Should he take whole plants back or cut them here? His pouch would keep the plants fresh so maybe it would be better to leave the mess that would come from stripping the canes here.
Kit turned to Grandpa. It would be faster for the earth elementalist to harvest the sugar canes.
“Grandpa can you harvest the sugar canes so that only the stalks can be stored?”
“Of course I can my boy. Leave it to me. How many canes do you want?”
If he was going to be extracting the sugar from the canes he would rather, do it in bulk. He planned to make rum and raw sugar at the same time.
“Can you cut about 1,000 canes please Grandpa. That will give me a nice supply, that way I won’t have to return for a while. By the way Snickers where are we anyway?”
Kit was curious where the stone had sent them. He wondered if they were still in the forsaken state.
“We are not too far from Wild Kokka village. It is about a week’s journey from Spartan Fire. These types of rocks don’t have a wide travel range. This is probably the longest distance they can manage.”
Even if the distance was not as far reaching as a travel gate this was still amazing to Kit. This meant he could easily broaden his range in getting ingredients for his restaurant. He could skip a week’s travel time by using this rock.
“Can the rock take us to any other places?”
“No, these types of transport devices only come in pairs. You can only go between this one and the one we came from and you have to know the activation phrase. I set this one up so you could make me some rum.”
“You made the teleportation rocks?” Kit was shocked at the news he heard.
“Yes well, it’s not hard. As long as I have the right materials it’s easy to make.”
“Can you make any more?” Kit felt a thrill run through his body. If he could set up more of these, he could get to the areas to collect ingredients faster. Then he wouldn’t have to waste time travelling or place a quest to collect ingredients.
“I can make two more before I run out of the materials. But I won’t give them to you.” Snickers smirked at Kit.
“Why? I can purchase them if you like.”
“No, I want to keep them. I will use them if I find more ingredients for alcohol.” Snickers blinked innocently at him.
Kit burst out laughing. Well at least he would still get the benefits of the last two teleport rocks. He would just have to wait for Snickers to inform him when she found something that could be used to make alcohol.
“Hey Kit come over here I think you might want to look at this.” Twix waved at Kit to hurry up.
Twix was standing in front of a tree at the edge of the sugar cane field. Kit walked over to see what Twix was looking at. As he got closer Kit started to hear a buzzing noise. Kit’s eyes sort out the noise. Up in the branches of the tree was a beehive.
Kit felt a smile spread across his face. HONEY! He could make honey! “Twix this is a great find.”
“I thought you would like it. You should make some beehives on your farm that way it would be easier to keep a supply of the stuff.”
Kit had completely forgotten all about the farm. He had still not been for a visit, he didn’t even know where it was in Spartan Fire.
“That’s a great idea. I still haven’t thought about what to do with the farm. To be honest I have no clue about farming and right now I don’t have the time to learn.”
“Well, that can be easily fixed. Just hire someone to run the farm for you. You are making enough money now to employ someone.”
Kit blinked his eyes at Twix solution. He was right he didn’t have to manage the farm himself, he could just hire someone! Kit made a plan to visit the farm soon. The faster he could get it up and running the faster he could learn what he could do with it.
That would also give him an idea of how much land he would need for the future. He wanted to grow ingredients, so he didn’t have to travel so far every time he needed to restock his restaurant. If he needed more land, he wanted to purchase it now before the prices went up in Spartan Fire.
“Thanks for the advice, Twix. I’ll try to get to my farm in the next couple of days.”
“Do you want this honey now?”
“Yes definitely. I’m sure I’ll find a good use for it in one of my creations.”
“Ok I’ll collect it for you. There are a couple more beehives around these trees, I’ll get them too.”
“Thanks Twix.”
Kit wanted to make a spiced rum so he needed to look around the area to see if there was anything else he could use to add to the liquid. He walked over to the two idle people and roped them in to helping him look around the area.
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“Let’s split up that way we can get the searching done faster. I know you don’t want to be away from your restaurant to long today. I’ll head in that direction.” Mars pointed to the opposite side of the sugar canes.
“No, we don’t need to split up. I know where to go for the rest of the ingredients you will need. Follow me.” Snickers turned and started to walk away without waiting for them to reply.
Mars and Kit could only follow along. Snowball noticed that he was leaving and ran over to follow. Little Moo ran to follow Snowball. Kit grinned at how smitten the big wolf was with his little fluff ball. He had a feeling Snickers would now have a headache with the large wolf wanting to play with Snowball all the time now.
This thought made Kit’s smile grow wider. Kit followed Snickers through a clearing he could see a line of trees in the distance.
“Is that our destination Snickers?”
“Yes, I will clear the area first before you can look inside. The monsters in there are a bit too high for you two to manage at your current level.” As she was speaking to Kit, she was conjuring a dark grey fog. Kit looked at the fog with some trepidation.
Last time he had witnessed her summoning a creature without knowing what it was, it hadn’t ended well. Kit sucked in a breath and waited to see what would step out of the grey fog. A snarl emerged from the fog, then large streaks of black flew out of the fog.
Kit watched one of the streaks stop. A black panther with red eyes sat on the ground not far from Snickers. Black mist swirled around its feet and slowly started to disappear. Kit watched as four more of the streaks turned into black panthers.
Five pairs of red eyes searched the surroundings looking for a threat. The eyes of the creatures settled on Mars, Snowball and Kit. Kit felt like cold water had been poured all over him. He couldn’t help but shiver at the gazes settled on him.
Loud snarls filled the air and the panthers took a defensive stance. Kit watched in horror as Snowball oblivious to the threat ran over happily to the closest black panther. Snowball let out a soft whine, then sat cutely staring at the large cat.
The panther lunged towards Snowball. Kit couldn’t react fast enough to protect Snowball, his chest tightened, and a scream left his throat.
Little Moo barrelled into the panther and started to attack the creature before it got close to Snowball. Vicious snarls and sounds of ripping flesh filled the air. Kit rushed towards Snowball in panicked strides. As he was running past Snickers, she tripped him. Kit went sprawling on the ground.
“Leave them, it will be fine.”
Kit shot Snickers a hate filled glare then scrambled to his feet. He frantically looked around for Snowball. He had lost sight of him when he fell. Kit felt like his heart was going to be squeezed in to dust from his fear.
Kit finally found Snowball happily being groomed by two of the large panthers. Kit felt tears of relief drop from his lashes. How the hell had Snowball turned things around so quickly. He had only taken his eyes off him for a moment and the danger was past for the little guy.
Kit stopped his steps and looked at the remaining cats. Two were heading towards Snowball with playful steps and the last one was still battling with Little Moo.
Kit turned to Snickers to see her watching the fight with glee. He felt his anger burn at her careless concern for her companions.
“SNICKERS! Stop them now.” Kit felt his whole body tremble in anger.
“Ok Kit don’t get your knickers in a knot. Little Moo, Meow Meow, enough now.”
Kit watched as the animals separated. Blood was dripping from the wounds they inflicted on each other. Kit felt his heart soften towards the animals at this bloody sight. Kit watched as Snickers called them over then fed them some kind of fruit.
Immediately their wounds started to heal. “What the hell was that Snickers? You scared me to death. Snowball can’t defend himself like these creatures. HE COULD HAVE DIED!”
Kit’s chest heaved from his anger. Snickers finally looked at Kit properly. “Kit I’m sorry. Please calm down, I promise there was never any danger to Snowball. I would never do that to him or you.”
“Snickers your cat tried to eat Snowball. How is that not dangerous!” Kit felt his eyes burn with hatred. How did Snickers expect him to forgive her when Snowball almost got eaten!
Snickers took a step back at his gaze. “Kit wait please. I really wouldn’t do anything that could put any of you in danger. Kit just look at Snowball.”
Kit could not help but seek out Snowball at Snickers words. All five of the large black cats were trying to wiggle into a space around his companion. Kit could even hear loud purring from where he was standing.
“See no danger I promise. Meow Meow could smell Little Moos scent on Snowball and became upset. That was all it was, he wasn’t trying to harm Snowball, he was jealous. He was aiming his attack at Little Moo who was running behind Snowball.”
Kit had not paid any attention to where Little Moo was at the time, he had only been focused on Snowball. Now that he thought back, he did remember seeing Little Moo behind Snowball. But still it was careless of Snickers to release her animals without giving them proper warning of the dangers.
“Snickers, Snowball is my family. I can’t have anything happen to him. I don’t know how I could recover from the devastating blow.” Kit was not exaggerating. Snowball had a place in his heart that couldn’t be taken by anyone else.
He knew this was just a game, but it felt real to him. He had invested real feelings in Snowball.
“Kit the midnight guardians would never do anything to hurt Snowball in fact they would lay down their lives first before anything could happen to him. I’m surprised you don’t know anything about them considering you have a Hoarder of precious things.”
“What do you mean?” Kit was confused by Snickers answer.
“They are the natural guardians of Hoarder of precious things. The two go hand in hand. If there is a Hoarder of precious things around then a pack of midnight guardians will be protecting it. Honestly, I thought you already knew this. Did you not steal Snowball from a pack of them?”
Kit blinked his eyes. “No Snowball was all on his own when I found him.”
Now it was Snickers turn to be shocked. “What, how can that be?” Snickers frowned, then looked at the happy Snowball. Little Moo was left out by the happy group. He was whining at the side unable to squeeze his way inside.
Kit felt his anger fizzle out at the sight. Then he turned to Snickers. “Sorry Snickers my emotions ran high when I thought Snowball was in danger.” Kit felt bad for the way he had just treated Snickers. He knew that it was a misunderstanding between them and each of them expected the other to understand what was going on.
Unfortunately, they were on two different wave lengths at the time. Mars came over and clapped him on the shoulder. “Kit, I think you just adopted a pack of cats.”
Kit stared at the pile of black cats doting on Snowball and sighed. “I hope not. Where would I put them. My room is too small to fit them all.”
“Umm Kit, Mars might not actually be wrong about that.” Snickers had the grace to look embarrassed. “The contract I signed with the midnight guardians was only valid until they found their own Hoarder of precious things.”
Kit spun towards Snickers with a look of horror. “Damn it Snickers, are you telling me those cats are going to follow me home?”
“Well yes. Kit, I think you need to get a book about Hoarder of precious things. Inanimate objects are not the only treasures they collect.”
“What does that even mean?”
Mars cleared his throat. “Well, I think it means Snowball might bring home other animals to live with you.” Mars had a huge grin on his face. “You might end up with a Zoo.” Mars started laughing at Kit’s look of terror.
Kit turned to Snickers to get clarification. Snickers just shrugged. “Well Mars is not wrong.”
“Fuck!” Why did he not think of this. He hoped the five large cats were all Snowball ever brought home. He would have to have a talk with Snowball about this. Kit was starting to feel like Snowball was his naughty son that needed education about bringing stray animals home.