Kit face started to pale the longer the clean sprite spoke to Mud. He hoped he could meet the conditions they were after. As Kit was waiting for the reply, two more clean sprites flew over. One was a male and the other another female.

They both had beautiful, coloured wings like the one doing the talking. He watched as the two new clean sprites joined in the chatter with Mud. Kit felt like he was standing on hot coals as he waited. He couldn’t help moving his feet around in an anxious shuffle. Finally, Mud turned towards him.

“What do they want?” Kit blew out the words in a nervous breath.

“Ahh well, they want to do all the cleaning. No one else would be able to clean at all. They also want the garden to be classed as their room. So, no one could come into the garden without their permission.”

“What, that’s all?” Kit blinked. This wasn’t what he was expecting at all. This was more than satisfactory terms to him. Why were they so cheap?

His only concern was the restaurant. What if they couldn’t keep it clean all the time? He had lots of customers coming and going. They also made quite a mess in the kitchen sometimes. Kit relayed his thoughts to Mud.

The clean sprites got even more animated on hearing Kit’s concerns. Mud started laughing when he heard what Kit was worried about. “Kit, you don’t have to worry about that. They really will keep your restaurant clean all the time. Do you want to negotiate new terms with them if you are really concerned?”

Mud seemed convinced at the clean sprites ability. Kit thought it should be alright to accept the terms, especially if he didn’t have to pay them. Kit looked around the beautiful garden. It would be a shame that they couldn’t sit outside and enjoy the greenery on nice days. At least they could still enjoy the view from inside.

“No, I agree to the terms. I’ll look forwards to working with you all and welcome to the house.” Kit smiled happily at his new employees. He received a chattering reply he couldn’t understand in return.

With the contract settled Kit decided it was time to leave. Before he could even take a step, he noticed three golden threads emerge from his wrist. The threads shot towards the clean sprites and wrapped around them.

He watched as the threads pulsed then faded. “Looks like it is official now.” His smile grew even wider. “Come on Mud we should leave. This is officially the clean sprites area now.”

The pair left the garden. He thanked Mud for his translation help as they walked through the glass arch. Mars and Peaches came over to them as they exited the garden.

Mars opened his mouth as soon as he arrived next to them. “Come on, spit it out. Do we have to clean the village or are they going to do the job?” Mars looked like he would cry if he said they had to clean the village.

“No, it’s ok they are going to do it for us.”

“Good job! I wasn’t looking forwards to cleaning for the next couple of days.” Mars gave Kit a thumbs up.

With the matter of the village cleaning settled Kit went back into the kitchen with Mars and Peaches in tow so he could plan what he would do today.

Snickers was still in the kitchen when he returned. She was talking to Cupcake and eating a piece of egg toast. When she saw them enter, she frowned.

“Why are you here? You should be starting to clean the village. Kit, you can’t leave the village in a mess. We’ll lose business.” Snickers admonished him like he was a small child needing some education.

“It’s ok Snickers, I have already sorted the cleaning of the village. The Clean sprites will take care of it. The one I spoke to seemed quite excited by the prospect of cleaning up the town.”

Snickers practically jumped off the chair at his response. “Kit, there are clean sprites in Spartan Fire? Quick take me to them I want to see if I can convince them to come to the restaurant.”

Kit had been right Snickers would be very happy about having the clean sprites in the restaurant. “You don’t have to go find them. They are already new employees of the restaurant. I did good, right?”

Snickers did jump off the chair this time and flew over to give him a hug. “Yes, Kit you did well! I don’t have to clean anymore. As a reward I will start working on some aprons for you to use in the kitchen.” The smile on Snickers face was almost blinding.

Kit sucked in a breath. If the aprons were as good as the work uniform, he could increase his efficiency in the kitchen even more! He would have to suck up to Snickers more often if he got these rewards in return.

“With your day returned to you. What will you do today? Are you coming to the restaurant?” Snickers inquired.

Kit thought about what he should do today. Before he came up with an answer Mars came up with one for him.

“Kit, you’ve still not visited your farm yet. If you want to get it up and running, you’ll need to go and take a look.”

Snickers started nodding her head at Mars’ idea. “That’s actually not a bad idea Kit. At the moment getting ingredients is easy, but it won’t always be that way. The ingredients you need won’t always be from the surrounding areas. You should have the farm set up now ready to use in the future.”

Kit had forgotten all about his farm again! Luckily, he was reminded. “Then I’ll do just that.”

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“Then I will give you these.” Snickers waved her hands and pink fog appeared on the ground. As the fog started to disappear Kit could see two large stones sitting on the kitchen floor.

“Snickers are those teleportation stones?” Kit’s eyes shone with delight at the sight of the large stones.

“Yes. You will need an easy way to get the ingredients from your farm to the restaurant.” Kit was really glad he had put Snickers in a good mood this morning.

“Thank you Snickers. What is the activation phrase for them?”

“I haven’t set it yet. Wait a moment.” Snickers walked over to the stones and started muttering. Soon golden writing started to appear on the stone. Kit watched as the writing started to eat away at the rock. When the writing was finished. Kit looked at the golden carved writing in awe.

“That’s amazing Snickers.” Kit couldn’t wipe the smile off his face while staring at the magical stones.

“Thank you, Kit. Now all you will have to say to return to the restaurant later is ‘Snickers is the best restaurant manager in all of CAL’.”

“…”

Why was he not surprised at the phrase.

“I’ll take this rock with me back to the restaurant and you take that one to the farm. Have a good day Kitty.” A snicker slipped out of her mouth. Kit guessed she was thinking about him saying the phrase to return.

Kit turned to Mars and Peaches. “Do you guys want to come with me?”

“Thank you Kit, but I will decline. I have other things to do today. I have to see Grandpa about some plans for the monster run.” Peaches refused with a smile.

After hearing the words ‘monster run’ Kit wanted to go with Peaches. He knew it would be a wasted morning for him though. There would be nothing he could contribute to the conversation.

“Then we can take Pint. He has become very lazy recently.” Mars looked happy at the prospect of taking the large horse to the farm.

Kit hadn’t seen the large horse for a long time. He wondered if he bribed Pint with some rum if the horse would let them ride him. Kit agreed with Mars then the three of them left. Peaches headed in the direction of Grandpa’s house and Kit and Mars went to find Pint.

They found the large horse grazing under a tree in the field not far from Mars’ mud hut. Mars called out to Pint and the large horse lifted it’s head at the sound of Mars voice. Pint trotted over and started to nuzzle against Mars.

Kit was shocked at the change in the horse. When they had first met Pint, he would only behave if he was given beer. Now it seemed Pint and Mars had a very good relationship. Kit even started to wonder if he needed to bribe the horse with alcohol to take them to the farm.

Kit walked over to the horse to see what Pint’s reaction to him would be. He was curious to see if he was friendly to everyone now or just Mars. “Hello Pint, long time no see.”

The large horse snorted then pushed Kit with his head. Kit stumbled back a few steps from the force.

“Pint don’t be like that. Kit has been busy lately and hasn’t had time to come and visit.” Mars softly admonished the horse.

“No, it’s ok Mars, Pint is right. It is my fault for not coming to visit him lately.” Kit actually felt a little bad. He had forgotten all about Pint since they had arrived at Spartan Fire. Kit considered Pint part of their team so this display of aggression from the horse was his fault.

“Pint, although I haven’t come to see you for a while, I did bring you a present today.” Kit thought a bit of bribery was in order to get the horse to forgive him.

Kit pulled out one of the bottles of Spartan Fire rum and showed it to Pint. “This is a new type of alcohol Pint. Do you want to try it?” Kit laughed as the horse quickly changed it’s tune and started to nuzzle him affectionately.

“I thought you would be happy with this.” Kit took out a bowl and was about to fill it when Mars stopped him with his hand.

“You don’t need to feed him with a bowl now Kit. Give me the bottle and watch this.” Kit handed over the bottle to Mars. He lifted the bottle to Pint’s mouth and Kit watched as the horse downed the bottle contents without spilling a drop.

“Much cleaner this way.” Mars looked very pleased with the horse’s sculling ability. “Pint’s a good boy isn’t he.” Mars cooed at the horse.

Kit thought Mars was right. He remembered getting covered in alcohol when the horse sloshed the liquid inside the bowl trying to drink the beer as fast as possible.

“Pint we are going to my farm today, do you want to come?” Pint softly nudged his shoulder. “I’ll take that as a yes. Then would it be alright if Mars and I rode you there. It would save us a lot of time.”

Pint snorted and stamped his hoof. Kit pulled out a bottle of the Lucky sticky apple cider pulled the cork and brought it under Pint’s nose. “Of course, I would give you a nice reward for taking us there. Do you like the smell of this cider?”

Kit watched as Pint started to prance around him in delight. “I take it you agree.” Kit laughed as the large horse acted like a happy kitten about to get some milk. Kit handed the bottle to Mars and he fed it to the excited horse.

Once the bottle was finished, Pint shivered. Kit saw a rippling of black pass over the horse’s coat then disappear.

“Mars what was that?”

“Ohh that happens every now and then. I think it has something to do with the alcohol. Iris did say that he was a special horse. Don’t worry it doesn’t effect him negatively, he seems to quite like it when it happens.”

Kit thought about when Snowball devoured stones and his flecks of white pulse with light after he consumed them. Was Pint the same as Snowball but with alcohol instead of precious stones. He had a feeling he was right. Pint had healed his injuries in the past with alcohol that had no healing stats attached.

“Mars from now on I’ll give you more alcohol to give to Pint each day. I think he levels up when that rippling of black passes over his coat.” Pint started to lick Kit’s face after he spoke. “Pint stop that, it is gross.”

Pint obediently stopped. Kit was very happy with how well behaved the horse was. “Mars do we need a saddle to ride Pint or do we just hop on his back.” Kit had never ridden a horse before, so he had no clue.

“Pint doesn’t like to have a saddle on, so I usually just ride him bare backed.” Kit was shocked at Mars words. He remembered that Mars was very fearful of Pint when they first acquired him. This was a tremendous change.

Mars deftly leap up on Pint’s back then motioned for Kit to take his hand. After he clasped Mars hand he was hoisted up on to Pint’s back behind Mars. Kit felt a moment of panic at being so high up from the ground. It would do some damage if he fell off while the horse was galloping.

“This is safe right?” Kit could hear the panic in his own voice.

Mars started laughing at Kit. “Don’t worry it will be perfectly safe. Pint wouldn’t put his alcohol sponsor in jeopardy. Where are we heading by the way?”

Kit felt a bit of relief at Mars words. With how much Pint loved alcohol, he thought Mars should be right in his assumption of Pint.

He quickly pulled up the map of Spartan Fire and set their destination on the map, then shared it with Mars.

“It’s further away than I thought it would be. Not to worry Pint is quite fast so it shouldn’t take us that long to get there.”

Kit started to feel nervous again. How fast was Pint?

“Ok Pint, let’s go.” Kit felt a jolt and almost fell backwards off the horse. He quickly latched on to Mars’ waist. How was this safe?

The wind whipped Kit’s face even though he was buffeted by Mars’ back. Damn it, how fast was Pint? The large horse flew in the direction of his farm, Kit felt his body bump up and down with the horse’s strides.

He made the mistake of looking down at the ground and felt his stomach roll. This wasn’t what he pictured riding a horse to be like. The ground was whizzing past at a frightening speed. Kit was regretting taking Pint to the farm. He should have walked!