Sarah struck a classic superhero pose with her hands on her waist. “Of course.”
“Wonderful,” squealed Jennifer, who hugged Sarah. “I need to make tea!”
The movers arrived at the café within minutes of Jennifer getting back. The blue skeleton took charge and did a good job directing the movers to where everything should go. His help allowed Jennifer to focus on her job as the two other skeletons brought in buckets of fresh clean water. She did not know where the buckets were coming from and was too busy to ask as she emptied the water into filling stations on the alchemist set.
She used her powers, traits, herbs, and knowledge at her alchemy station crafting teas. Some teas came out green, others yellow, and one rare purple. Even with using all the same ingredients, the system added randomness to something that should not have been randomized.
She continued to work until her stamina fell below the halfway mark. Taking a look outside the kitchen, she saw Kevin and his goblin greeting each of the guests. The wolf would sniff them, wagging his tail, and the guest would smile, giving him head scratches. A few people tried to pet the goblin, but she moved away from the outreached hand and clung to Kevin’s furry rump.
Woozle, on the other hand, jumped from tabletop to tabletop. How he managed to do this and not knock anything over was a mystery. Considering his now pony size, this was even more impressive. He head butted or rubbed his face on any willing guest and purred so loudly that Jennifer could hear him from the kitchen door. The rockets periodically revving only added more rumbling to the purring.
One patron got a little too close to the engines and singed their beard. The thought of something or someone getting sucked into Woozle’s intake valves had Jennifer wondering how many warning signs she would have to put up. But would anyone read them?
The chicken had roosted in a corner. People kept feeding her grains that they pulled out of their inventory.
“I’ve started a pet café. How did I start a pet café?” Jennifer took a quick glance at her menus, wondering where Rover was.
Rover Status: Gathering
Jennifer focused her mind and intentions.
“Rover, please return.”
A trap door appeared on Jennifer’s right shoulder, and out popped her pet spider. Unsure how Rover would react, she turned on to Speak With Spider. “So, I started a pet café. Do you want to go out there and get pets?”
The spider did not move for several heartbeats, and Jennifer feared she had somehow offended him. Suddenly, his neon legs lit up with green stripes that continued up his body. With a jumping loop, the spider leapt to the floor soundlessly and scurried into the dining area.
Rover climbed the nearest table and started dancing. Jennifer stared in astonishment. The only thing she had seen Rover do so far was gather berries and web something in combat. With his moves, he would easily win every dance competition in the area.
Jennifer tried some of her green tea. Not only did it taste wonderful but by the time the cup was empty, her stamina was full. She went back to work, until the light in the sky went dark.
When she closed, she was tired but happy. Blue set the ordinary skeletons to cleaning while he made sure everything was in order for the next day, freeing Jennifer to crawl into bed.
She slept deeply, but woke up to a rooster’s call coming from outside. The white chicken pecked at the bedroom door to be let out. Still groggy but wanting to keep her white chicken safe, she followed it, yawning the entire way. Even sleepy eyed, Jennifer could tell the racket came from atop the roof, and the chicken wanted out of the house. Stepping outside, Jennifer looked up at a black rooster on the roof. But it was not an ordinary rooster with his white domino mask and red satin lined black cape. He had a red rose in his beak.
With the quick flick of a wing, three roses shot towards Jennifer. On instinct, she cast a force field, which deflected two of the roses and brought the third to a standstill in front of Jennifer. “I never knew throwing roses could be deadly.”
The white hen’s feathers puffed up as she strutted and clucked loudly at the rooster. Unfortunately for the rooster, when the caped chicken landed with grace in front of the white chicken, she received him with a wing to the side of the head.
Even Jennifer winced at the hit and heated scolding.
Jennifer picked up the white chicken and headed inside. With the now dejected caped rooster following.
Woozle and Kevin left for a morning hunt, planning to bring back rabbits, while Jennifer prepared for the day. On the teashop’s second day, she gave out fetch quests for ingredients and a deep fryer.
On the third day, Jennifer sold fry bread with rabbit in the center.
Everyone fell into a routine for the next few days. The morning consisted of gathering and fetch quests while the afternoon was for making tea and frying bread for her guests.
The number of chickens grew to four, including a large golden chicken with an axe tied to its back, and a chicken with red on top and black on the bottom. The red and black chicken wore a pirate hat and wielded a cutlass.
Each night, Jennifer would put them in a chicken coup she had made just for them, but they would disappear by morning. Since they would always reappear by the time the restaurant opened, Jennifer did not worry too much about what they got up to.
Jennifer did not know where they went or why, but they always came home safe. They even grew used to Kevin coming up to them and sniffing them when the café opened.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
When Jennifer pulled herself away from her alchemy station to inspect the café, she gazed at the shelves filled with rows of sealed jugs. Each of the containers held 4 healing potions. They were all labeled Jennifer’s Healing Tea. Cups and saucers were set up, ready to receive either hot tea or cool tea with ice cubes.
The guest space was filled, and a line of guests queued up outside waiting for their chance to come in. Her blue skeleton wore a matching blue suit and escorted guests to their table. Each guest would receive a filled cup of their choice of hot or cold. As well as an unopened package of cookies.
Jennifer had made a deal with Sarah, and by extension her company, to buy the snacks. She bought the snacks at a discount, but after resale, they would cost the same as if the customer bought them anywhere else. The café would make a profit, the corporation would receive a profit, and the guest would pay the same. If a guest did not eat the cookies, they were not charged for them. The downside of using skeletons as wait staff was that they could not communicate with the guests. So, most guests did not know that they had the option to not eat and not be charged for the cookies. But then, who could resist cookies?
One of her other skeletons cleaned the tables, set the napkins, and washed the dishes. No one seemed to mind skeletons that walked around with all of their bones showing, and Jennifer wanted to show off her upgrade power.
Jennifer gave the busboy skeleton a coating of white metal that helped as it increased the durability, nearly doubling its hit points. But the true purpose was to make it easier to paint. Jennifer was no artist, but over the past few weeks she had found paint and enjoyed splashing paint on the bones. There were not enough bones for her to have a proper canvas. The solution? An upgrade to starting metal armor. The skeleton became a walking piece of street art with additional glow in the dark paint. Her knight skeleton did not have metal gauntlets, but rather rubber yellow gloves for washing dishes. On his shoulder sat a yellow duck. She had no idea where the duck came from, but made it a point to start upgrading that pile of bones to look more like a pirate.
Jennifer placed a glowing skull on the chest piece of the glowing blue skeleton, along with rings of glued-on gems that a guest had used to pay for the higher-grade teas to take with them.
The familiar café had come a long way since she had opened it. Days became weeks, but every day she woke up wondering if this was going to be the day she would receive the letter of acceptance. On bad nights, she would fear a letter of rejection. Things were going well, other than the looming war. The influx of functionaries seeking refuge never waned, the chickens disappeared each night, but the café showed a profit.
Jennifer was lost in thought, gazing around the crowded café, when Blue poked her in the arm. Not hard, just enough to get her attention. “Speak With Undead.” She did not need to say the power, she just liked to. “What’s up, Blue?”
“Master, I have a guest who wishes to speak with you.” The ghost of the skeleton spoke in a funny accent that should have stayed in old monster stories.
Jennifer waved her hand for him to lead the way. “Why do you insist on sounding like Bela Lugosi? No one else can hear you.”
The skeleton straightened as it walked and lost the accent. “Bela Lugosi is still undead. Well, I like it. It adds to the charm of this place.”
“I’d like it better if you did the Son of Dracula or one of those circus vampires if you really want to play the part.”
“I’ll think about it. Anyway, the customer in question keeps pointing at the healing potions and a chest at his feet. I believe he wants to make a trade.”
This was happening more and more. An adventurer would come in, offering a trade, anything from gems to money to supplies, and a few familiars. Jennifer was back up to having four of her own healing potions in her inventory, but no matter how much she tried, the healing teas were never as good as the ones her powers made. She would offer the teas she made, most would accept the lesser quality. She was being offered so many trades she was no longer accepting money.
Mechanical words left the shirtless, oiled up, loin cloth wearing man. “Trade for healing potion.”
Focusing on the man, Jennifer was able to see the parallel’s name, Barbarian the Barbarian of Barbarian 5. She shook her head. “Trade declined.” She was used to this.
Normally, customers gave up after the first no, but this man would not take no for an answer. “Counteroffer, pet plus five sapphires high quality.” He spoke with the same flat voice and speech pattern as the ninja on her team. Around a dozen of her regular customers talked the same way.
Looking over the barbarian and the treasure chest, Jennifer did not see the creature that the barbarian could have been referring to. She wondered if it was stuck inside the chest. “What pet?”
The chest looked like the typical trunk with a half barrel top, metal binding, and a big lock. Battle marks scared the chest as if someone had tried to smash it open rather than pick the lock. The middle of the lid of the chest went from rigid to sagging. The line along the bottom of the lid made a sad face. “Me.”
Jennifer’s eyes widened in confusion followed by anger. “You want to trade your familiar for a potion?”
“Yes, mimic good for trap. Enemies attack him rather than me?”
This barbarian was the same as her teammate Large Soup Bowl, both were what the mayor called ‘console people’. The way they spoke was so wooden. She could never see their reactions.
Jennifer refused to let the familiar leave with someone who would let him be attacked. She raised one finger and pointed at the barbarian, but before she could say her piece, a horn blew in the distance. Everyone in the café stopped what they were doing, some mid-sip, and turned to look out the window. This was the signal that the siege would start.
The entire town knew what the horns meant. It was the same sound used when the warlords showed up the last time. One upside to having a café in the middle of a town of adventurers was safety. Whoever attacked would have to get through a wall, the parallels that defended Hogsback from monsters, and make it to the center of town to threaten the familiar café.
Every person in the café pulled out weapons, including the chickens. Where Jennifer expected grim expressions, she saw smiles. Some people were grinning like maniacs. The muscles on her face turned into a nervous smile.
Jennifer turned to the barbarian. “Accepted. When the potion is used, the vial will return.” She slapped the potion into his hand and told the mimic, “Find a safe place to rest. Sorry I can’t show you around right now. But when this is dealt with, I will.” Woozle rubbed his head and face on the mimic. “Don’t worry buddy, you're in a safe place now.”
The mimic’s attempt to hold back its emotions. The barbarian left followed by anyone who carried a weapon.
Jennifer was the last to leave. She stopped to give the chest a hug, reassuring the new addition to her home. Her teammates waited for her outside. Even the chickens were tapping their feet with impatience.
“Woozle, are you ready for this?” Jennifer clutched her mop so tightly her knuckles were white.
“I believe so.”
“Are we ready for this?”
Woozle turned his head to look at Jennifer. “As long as you let me, I will always be by your side.”
His words caused Jennifer to ease her grip on her cleaning tool. She took a deep breath.
The mayor had spoken about how the dinosaur warlord would attack from a random point on the wall, so she was surprised to hear the rallying call coming from the gate to the bridge. The bridge was wide enough to have wagons pass each other. Jennifer could not see the end of the bridge while standing at the entrance, and she could not see the bottom of the gap it crossed. Clouds and fog obscured the bottom. If there was a bottom.