As they started to head back to the boarding house Kit became upset on behalf of the new store owners. Should he do something to help them drum up some business? It would be bad if they left Spartan Fire due to not getting enough traffic for their stores.

Kit continued to take in the changes in the village as he walked back to the boarding house. He counted over 70 houses! These were the ones he could see, he was sure there would be more, further out of the centre of the village. Not everyone wanted to be in the main part of town.

The houses were a mix of mud huts and what Kit assumed was the new house upgrade. The new houses were made from wood they looked like log cabins. The houses were built near dirt roads with small paths leading up to each front door.

The village was looking more organised instead of just houses plonked in the middle of an open space. He could even see most of the houses had gardens inside their boundaries. Even though he hadn’t contributed to the new improvements, he felt a swelling of pride.

Spartan Fire really was taking off, he hoped it could continue to grow. He felt the monster run couldn’t come soon enough. He didn’t want to see everyone’s hard work go to waste.

Kit was still marvelling over the changes as they reached the boarding house. Once he entered the boarding house, he became distracted from his thoughts. The entrance had been decorated with colourful ribbons streaming down the wall. It looked like a waterfall of bright colours.

When he entered the kitchen, the first thing he noticed was that everyone was wearing silly paper pirate hats. Kit started to laugh. “The hats look good. Do I get one?”

Mud hurried over and Kit bent down so he could place it on his head. Twix wasn’t left out of the festivities, he also received one of the silly hats.

“Oi why were you so late I thought you would get back before me?” Mars came over in large strides.

“We went past the new shop to see what it looked like. We can meet the owners later, Grandpa invited them to the welcoming party.” Twix supplied the answer for him.

Kit now realised why their shops had been closed. He felt a bit silly for jumping to the worst conclusion when he first saw the deserted buildings. He hadn’t met any of the new tenants of the shops yet. He felt as a founding member this was a bad habit to form. He should have been one of the first people to welcome them to the village.

At least he could rectify one of his mistakes and meet all the new shop owners when they arrived.

Mud tugged his arm and brought him over to the dining table. “Let’s do gifts exchange now, I can’t wait!”

Excited chatter filled the air and everyone raced to find a seat. A pile of neatly wrapped gifts sat in front of everyone. The gifts were handed out with laughter and smiles. Soon everyone had a different pile in front of them. Kit heard paper being torn as he watched them excitedly tear into their gifts.

He had gotten them all something small. He knew they didn’t have much money so he didn’t want them to feel embarrassed if he got them something expensive. Kit had gotten the girls bright ribbons and ornaments for their hair that had a small stats bonus to intelligence.

For the male employees he had brought a belt each that also had a small stats boost to speed. Snickers was the only one he had gotten something expensive for. No one except Snickers would notice that her gift was different. The stats that were attached to her ribbon were significantly higher than the others.

It was a beautiful white silk ribbon that gave a significant rise in intelligence. He wanted to giver her something that would thank her for all the help and support she gave him since he opened the restaurant. He didn’t think his restaurant would be so successful without the delicate elf.

Kit himself received some candys, a hat, a beautiful painting, socks, a mug with his name on it, three books and a bandana. Kit looked at the painting and smiled, it was of Spartan Fire before it grew. It had four mud huts, his restaurant, the Spartan Fire quest board and the town hall surrounded by the beautiful scenery of Spartan Fire.

Kit guessed this gift was from Twix or Mars. He looked at the two of them to see Twix grinning at him. “I thought you would like a memento of when you moved to Spartan Fire. I have been waiting for a good opportunity to give it to you.”

“Thank you Twix, I love it.” Kit felt guilty at the gift he had given Twix, it paled in comparison to what he had received. He could tell Twix had put a lot of effort into this work of art. He was also surprised at how talented Twix was. He made a note to make up for his poor gift to Twix the next time there was an occasion to give one out.

Kit thanked everyone else for the gifts he received. As his gazed over the books he had gotten, his eyes locked onto one in particular. It was made from brown leather that had worn away at the edges. The title of the book was what caught his eyes the most ‘The book of plant information.’

He gently opened the book onto a random page. A blank piece of paper greeted him. He flipped to a new page and the same thing happened. Kit furrowed his brow, was it for him to fill in himself?

“Do you like it, Kit?” Snickers was looking at him with anticipation.

“Umm, yes?” He didn’t know how to respond. It looked like Snickers was expecting him to be overjoyed at the blank book. Snickers chuckled at his poor response to the gift.

“I’ll show you how it works later.” Kit nodded and then put the book away inside his pouch.

The atmosphere inside the boarding house was festive. After receiving the gifts everyone was motivated to finish decorating the only open area in the house. Food was being cooked while laughter rang. Kit felt like today couldn’t get any better.

Soon there was nothing left to do but wait for the guests to arrive. “Kit what time are the guests coming?” Bundt inquired.

Stolen novel; please report.

Kit looked at the clock on the wall of the kitchen, it was already 12.30. “They should be here already. I’m sure I said lunch time for the party to start.”

Kit heard the door opening after he spoke. Voices drifted down the hall, the residents of the boarding house all turned towards the new sounds. Soon Grandpa came into view leading a large group of people.

“Wow it looks very bright. I like all the coloured streamers.” Grandpa glanced around the room then his eyes settled on Kit. “There you are my boy. Come over here so I can introduce you to everyone.” Grandpa motioned Kit to come over to him.

Kit walked over and smiled at all the new faces. “Hello I’m Kit, nice to meet you all. Come on in so we can start lunch. We can all get to know each other over the food.” Kit motioned behind him to the table full of finger food.

Smiles broke out from the new arrivals, and they all headed over to the table. Soon everyone was eating and mingling. Grandpa started to individually introduce him to the people he didn’t know. The first people he met were a husband and wife.

“Kit, I’m David, and this my wife Willow.” The man and woman were quite young. Kit guessed that they were not much older than himself. The man was average height with a stocky build, he had a friendly smile. The woman was only slightly shorter that her husband and had thick long brown hair.

“Nice to meet you both.” Kit had briefly met Willow when he went to the town hall yesterday. She was the new clerk they had hired, this meant the David must be the warehouse manager. Mars had told him that a married couple had taken the two positions.

Grandpa didn’t let him linger long, and soon moved him on to the next person. “Kit this is Farrell he will build a smithy once we get some more funds for the town. He was at the town meeting, but I don’t think you two have officially met.” Kit recognised the burly man.

“Hi Farrell.” Kit remembered this man was quite level headed during the town meeting, he also seemed to be well respected by the others. He would make a great addition to Spartan Fire. Kit happily talked to Farrell for a while then was interrupted by old man about the same age as Grandpa.

“So this is young Kit. I’m Campbell I own the apothecary.” Kit looked at the hunched shoulders of the old man. He took it back, he looked much older than Grandpa. Campbell’s short grey hair was thin on top almost to the point of starting to go bald.

“Let me squeeze into this conversation as well.” A middle aged woman stepped into the small group next to Campbell. She was another face Kit recognised from the town hall meeting. He didn’t remember her name, all he could remember was that she was wearing armour during the meeting.

Campbell smiled at the middle aged woman when she arrived. “Kit this young lady is my granddaughter, Mavis. She was the one who got me to come to Spartan Fire. She opened the general store and then couldn’t stop complementing the village, so I had to come and see what all the fuss was about.”

“Well, I’m glad you both decided to move here. I can understand why you moved here, it is a beautiful area. That’s one of the reasons I settled down here as well.” Kit smiled at the pair of family members.

“I heard one of the other reasons you moved here is because you want to go up the mountain. What is it you’re looking for up there?” Mavis had a curious expression on her face.

Kit froze at her words. A jolt of fear ran down his spine. Had his secrets treasure map been exposed somehow. Kit started to rack his brain how it had been leaked out. Mars and he hadn’t even spoken about the map recently, so he didn’t think it was due to being overheard.

Had Mars or Twix betrayed him? Kit felt a stabbing in his heart. Tears started to well in his eyes. He couldn’t control his runaway emotions. He finally felt like he belonged somewhere and had good friends, had he been deluding himself?

While Kit’s mind was in a tailspin, Campbell cleared his throat. “Mavis that is rude, you’re old enough to know better. Besides anyone can guess what a chef is after if he wants to go somewhere so badly. It must be a special ingredient for a recipe.” Campbell winked at Kit.

A rush of relief flooded his system at the old man’s words. Kit quickly blinked away the accumulating moisture in his eyes. He quickly tried to stabilise his mind.

He had thought he had been getting over his inclination to think of the worst outcomes first. It looked like he still had a tendency to think negatively when he wasn’t prepared for a question. He knew he couldn’t get rid of his old way of thinking overnight.

He would still have moments of doubt and fear. At least they were getting much less now. Kit comforted himself with that thought. He then thought about what Campbell had said to him. That excuse might be a great idea to distract everyone about the real reason he wanted to go up the mountain.

Plus, he was sure he would find some rare ingredients once he finally could ascend the mountain. “Yes, it’s not a secret that I’m looking for an ingredient I heard about up the mountain.” Kit made out that it was not a big deal that he wanted to go up the mountain.

Kit remembered he had talked to Grandpa about going up the mountain. He hadn’t told the old man why he wanted to go, he also didn’t ask him to keep it a secret. This was his own fault he was put on the spot like this.

Kit sighed he should’ve known people would be curious about why he wanted to go up the mountain. He was stupid for not thinking of an excuse earlier. Honestly it was a surprise this hadn’t been brought up earlier.

“Can you tell us what you’re looking for? We might be able to help you find it.” Mavis motioned to herself and Campbell. “We go up the mountain quite a lot to get grandfather things for his potions.”

Campbell nodded at Mavis words. “That’s right I know a lot of good plants that could be used for cooking as well.”

Kit felt panic at his spontaneous lie. He didn’t think he would be questioned or offered help to find a plant. This was what he got for lying! Kit felt a brush against his shoulder as Mars squeezed into the group. “Ah about that, we can’t tell you even if we wanted to. We signed a contract when we were told about the plant. “

Mars to the rescue again! Kit was very thankful for his friends fast thinking. Mars had timing and the ability to come up with great ideas on the spot. He was glad Mars was always around to save him from being embarrassed.

Mars pulled Kit away from the group with the excuse someone else wanted to meet him. Mars maneuverer him over to another bunch of people. Kit was busy entertaining all the guests for the rest of the afternoon.

He met the owners of the other shops and even spoke to a man Grandpa was trying to convince to move to the village. As soon as he met the man and found out what his profession was Kit understood why he was invited to the party.

The man was named Oreo, he was the son of an innkeeper and was looking to open his own Inn somewhere. Kit made an appointment to speak to the man once he returned from his log out time. He wanted to enjoy the welcoming party not speaking business.

The party soon ended. Kit flopped on the lounge with a sigh. Mars was sprawled out next to him. “That was fun but exhausting.” Kit looked around at the mess and cringed. He really didn’t want to clean up.

“Yes it was fun. The best bit now is that we don’t have to worry about cleaning up. We can just relax and let the clean sprites do all the work.”

Kit perked up. That’s right he had made a contract not to clean his own house! Kit looked around to see if he could spot one of the clean sprites. He hadn’t seen them work their magic yet. He wanted to see what they did.

Mars started to chuckle as Kits eyes were darting all around the room. “They are cleaning the town at the moment. They won’t come and clean this mess up until later.”

“How did you know what I was looking for?”

“Kit I am well aware about your obsession with magic. No one else would find delight in watching the clean sprites except you.” Mars grinned as Kit pouted.

“I’m not that bad.”

“Sure.”

Snowball found Kit as he and Mars were talking. “Hey Snowball, time for bed?” Snowball released a soft yip. “Me to buddy, let’s get some sleep.” Kit got up from the couch and bid everyone a good night.

He would have to log out first thing tomorrow morning, he informed the midnight guardians to look after Snowball while he was gone.