Lunar

Chapter 1: Grand Opening

It was early in the morning and rain heavily poured. The dirt roads turned to mud and everything was gray. A family of Elves that consisted of a husband, wife, and a son and daughter hurriedly pushing a cart filled with everything they owned. They had been pushing this cart since before the sun broke over the horizon.

The four had come from a small farming village. Their life centered around farming wheat with little complications. That easy-going life ended in the middle of the night when bandits appeared. These bandits pillaged their village, stealing everything they could and then burning their fields to ashes. The family was lucky to escape with their lives and the few possessions they could gather.

The muddy roads made their movement exhaustive and excruciatingly painful. The wheels constantly sunk into the road. After moving their cart for hours, the family was dirty and tired.

"Dad..." the daughter weekly moaned. "I'm hungry and my feet hurt."

"It's okay, Delila," her father said. "We're reaching the city now. We'll just sell a few things and we'll have enough for a meal."

The city they entered was known as Tian. It wasn't the largest city in the continent, but its position at the center of the land made it a popular trading hub.

"Walt, what will we do from here?" Vessa, his wife, whispered to him.

"We'll find work."

"People in the city aren't likely to hire some refugee farmers."

"We'll make do, I promise."

"Hey, you four!" a voice called to them.

They looked in the direction of the voice and saw it came from a Catkin woman who wore a frilly black dress with a small white apron. The Catkin woman had pale white skin which contrast perfectly with her pure black hair and fur on her slender tail. She stood in the doorway of a large building with large black panels of glass on the roof. Just behind the building was a tall slender structure with a turbine at the top. The structure reminded the family of a windmill, but the structure was too thin to possibly be used to grind wheat.

"You all look tired and hungry," she said. "It's our grand opening, why not come in for a bite?"

"Can we, Mom and Dad?" their son asked.

Walt approached the woman standing in the doorway of the restaurant. He saw the restaurant sign above. Lunar. The Catkin woman kept up her smile as Walt approached.

"I, uh, appreciate the offer, Miss, but I'm afraid we don't currently have any money," he said in a private conversation with her. "Our village was attacked by bandits so we were lucky to get away with what we could."

"Oh, it's quite alright," The Catkin woman assured him. "We're unlikely to have anyone come in today with all this rain. My husband and I would hate to see today's food go to waste. So it might as well be used to make someone's day a little better. Meals here today for you all will be on the house."

"On the house?" Walt repeated.

"Oh! Sorry. An expression from where my husband comes from. It means your meals are free."

"Really?" Walt gasped.

"Really. Store your cart behind the restaurant and come on in. I'll get towels for you all so you can clean up."

"Thank you so much!" Walt had tears come to his eyes.

Walt turned to his family and said, "We have somewhere to eat today!"

"Yah!" the two kids cheered.

Vessa looked like she was about to collapse to her knees, knowing that they could finally rest. Walt turned back towards the doorway to ask the woman's name, but she had returned into the building.

"Come on, we just need to move this cart behind the restaurant and we can go in."

The family hurriedly move the cart into the narrow alleyway behind the restaurant where it was covered and dry. The area was completely out of sight of the city streets so Walt and Vessa were not worried about it being stolen while they were inside the restaurant. They cautiously went back to the entrance of the restaurant and entered inside.

The restaurant was unlike any they have ever seen before. More restaurants were very basic in their layout with about ten tables and zero focus on decorations. This restaurant was massive with at least twenty tables spread out across the center of the area. The ceiling had multiple balls of lights in it that granted illumination to the interior of this building. Walt and Vessa assumed they were magical devices of some sort.

The walls were lined with table booths where couch-like seats sat on both sides of a rectangle-shaped table. The walls were painted in a medium bluish-green colour with paintings on the walls. The paintings truly fascinated Walt and Vessa. They were so well done, they looked like windows to another land. Each painting was of an unknown landscape neither of them have seen nor heard of before.

"Welcome to Lunar," the Catkin woman greeted.

The Elves jumped in place as the Catkin woman seemingly sneaked up on them. The woman held two large trays, one in each hand. One tray had four dry towels. They other tray also had towels, but these towels were steaming. The Catkin woman offered the dry towels first. Each of the family members grabbed a towel and started to dry themselves.

"We never got your name," Walt said.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" the Catkin woman apologized. "I am Tesia McDonald. I'll be your server today. My husband, Matthew McDonald, is the chef. We both run this restaurant."

"I'm Walt Nula, and this is my wife, Vessa. My son, Ritch, and my daughter, Delila."

"Pleased to meet you all," Tesia said.

As soon as Tesia noticed the family finished drying themselves, she offered the steaming towels.

"Something to help you feel refreshed."

Each of the family members grabbed the towels. They were steamed, but not to the point where they were damp. The Elves wiped their faces with the cloths and immediately felt their stress melt away. They reveled this feeling until they begrudgingly placed the towels back onto one of the trays.

"Just take a seat anywhere and I'll return with your menus."

The family took the seats at the closest table to them and sat patiently. The seats they were given were cushioned on both the seat and the back making it one of the most comfortable seats they've ever felt.

"What an unusual restaurant," Walt muttered.

"Maybe, but not unwelcome," Vessa added. "And listen. There's music playing."

It was nearly drowned out by the sound of the rainfall, but Walt could hear the faint sound of music.

"You're right."

"I don't see any musicians," Ritch said as he comically turned his head in multiple directions.

"Very strange," Walt said. He looked down at the table and saw the cutlery. "Look at this cutlery! It's so well made. What kind of restaurant is this?"

Tesia returned with four booklets and a tray with a small basket of sliced bread, a small bowl with a ball of butter, and several small jars filled with different pastes. Each jar had a small knife sticking out of it.

"Here are your breakfast menus," Tesia said as she placed each of the booklets in front of them. "And here's your complementary basket of toast."

Tesia placed the basket in the center of the table with the butter and jars around it.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Toast?" Vessa repeated.

"Taking slices of bread, you toast both sides of it. Try applying some butter or the jams and peanut butter to it. Very delicious." Tesia pointed to each jar. "This is your hetaberry jam, glassberry jam, lunaberry jam, and peanut butter. I personally like putting on a thin layer of peanut butter and then any of the jams."

"What is jam?" Vessa asked. "Or peanut butter?"

"They are my husband's invention! Mixing mashed fruit and sugar and then boil it. When cooled down, it creates jam. It's sweet and delicious. Peanut butter is taking peanuts and crushing them into a paste. It's flavour is quite different. It's a type of sweet, but with a bit of heartiness to it. So until you're ready to order your food, would you like anything to drink?"

Walt looked to his wife and then back to Tesia. "If it's not too much, do you have any tea?"

"Oh, yes! We have several different teas. If I may, I could recommend you a tea for a morning like this."

"Oh, please then."

"I'll bring two cups and a kettle of English Breakfast Tea. It will go well with whatever you may order from the menu. For your children, I can recommend our juices. Orange juice in particular."

"We'll take that then."

"I'll be back with your drinks." Tesia then left the table again with a hop in her step.

Delila reached for a piece of toast and used her knife to plaster it with peanut butter and then some lunaberry jam. She took one bite from the bread and her eyes lit up.

"It's so good!" she nearly yelled.

The family rushed to get their own piece of toast with its own condiment. The server was right about the flavour. The jam had the sweetness of the berries and sugar. By itself it was delicious, but the peanut butter complimented it perfectly.

By the time Tesia got back to the table, she noticed the basket of toast was empty.

"I see you enjoyed the toast," she chuckled.

"Would it be much trouble to get more?" Vessa asked.

"Oh, not at all. The toast is complimentary for every breakfast meal, even outside of your free day." Tesia placed the two cups of orange juice in front of the two children, and the kettle of tea in the center of the table. She provided two tea cups along with sugar cubes, a filled cup labelled milk, and a cup labelled cream.

"Here's some sugar, milk and cream that you can use in your tea. If you want some honey, please feel free to ask."

"This is sugar?" Walt said as he picked up one of the cubes. "To use it this freely. This sugar would be worth a fortune. Why would-?"

"The sugar is free with the tea," Tesia said. "Matt is really good at... acquiring our ingredients. So you don't need to worry about anything. Have you had a chance to look at your menu, yet?"

The family forgot to look at their menu when they indulged in the offering of toast. They quickly opened their menu and found a large selection of breakfast meals. Tesia saw their eyes widen from the surprise of the menu variety.

Most restaurants, due to not wanting supplies to rot, would keep an extremely limited selection on their menus. Usually restaurants would carry no more than ten items on their menu. This would be enough to cover a couple breakfast items, several lunch items, and focus the rest on dinner.

"I've never seen a menu like this before," Vessa said. "You have pictures and pricing next to each selection. Even then, this doesn't seem expensive."

"My husband and I are more concern over making sure people have an enjoyable time eating their meal than actually making money at this restaurant," Tesia admitted.

"You two must really enjoy cooking."

"Well, actually Matt is the true cook. Before we met, I mostly cooked rabbit on a stick. He introduced me to his true love and dream. Eventually it became my love and dream. So together we created this restaurant."

"Why the name Lunar?" Vessa asked.

"Originally I wanted to name the restaurant after our last name, but for some reason he was extremely against it. He suggested Lunar after the month of our anniversary."

"How romantic," Vessa muttered. She poked her husband in his side. He gasped in surprise and smiled at his wife.

"So this Full Breakfast..." Walt muttered. "Sausage links, bacon, baked beans, cooked mushrooms and tomatoes, hash browns, and two eggs any style. What are hash browns and what does it mean eggs any style?"

"Hash browns are potatoes that have been shredded and then fried together," Tesia explained. "As for eggs any style... We offer many methods for your eggs to be cooked when it comes to your breakfast side. We can offer soft or hard scrambled eggs. With this method, the egg white and yolk are scrambled together and then cooked. Soft means that the egg is cooked but still moist. Hard means that the egg is thoroughly cooked with less moisture. We have a variety of fried egg styles. Sunny-Side Up is where we just cook the underside of the egg. Over-easy has the egg cooked on both sides, but the yolk remains in liquid form. Over-medium has the yolk thicker and over-hard has the yolk completely solidified."

"I didn't realize there were so many ways to cook an egg."

"And each style brings it's own flavour."

"Alright then. I'll take the Full Breakfast with eggs over-easy."

"Excellent choice!" Tesia took out a small notepad and wrote down the order. She then turned to Vessa. "And you, Ma'am?"

"Hmm." Vessa stared down the menu. Her eyes came across one item in particular. "What does it mean by Build-Your-Own Omelette."

"You select from the list of ingredients we have there and we cook it inside scrambled egg. We can provide ketchup as well if you so desire."

"Ketchup?"

"A sweet sauce made from tomatoes. It can go well with sausage too."

"Okay, I've decided," Vessa said. "I'll take the Omelette with sausage bits, chopped tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and spinach."

Tesia nodded as she wrote down the recipe. "And what would the young lady and gentleman like?"

"French Toast!" Ritch yelled.

"No need to yell, Ritch," Vessa scolded him.

"Sorry..."

"French Toast," Tesia repeated while writing it down.

"Now what is French Toast?" Vessa asked.

"Bread soaked in an egg-based mixture and then cooked. Served with maple syrup. Maple Syrup is a thick liquid made from the sap of a maple tree."

"And you little miss?"

"Lunaberry Pancakes."

"Cake for breakfast?" Walt said in disbelief.

"I thought it was odd too at first," Tesia admitted. "But according to my husband, it was a very common breakfast dish back where he's from. After getting myself some of them, I have a hard time imagining them for any other time than breakfast."

"Where is your husband from?" Vessa asked.

"Somewhere very far away," she vaguely replied. "So I got your order. I'll put the it in and bring you all another round of toast."

Tesia grabbed the empty basket and walked across the room and through a doorway to a room with white walls and shiny metal tables.

Walt poured a cup of tea for himself and his wife. They put in two cubes of sugar. Walt poured some milk while his wife used the cream. They both took meager sips of their tea. The flavour exploded in their mouth and they felt their stress vanish.

"What lovely tea," Vessa said.

"Indeed," Walt sighed. "How is your orange juice, kids?"

"Sweet and delicious," Delila said.

"Mhmm," Ritch mumbled.

During their wait, Tesia brought another order of toast and returned to the kitchen. The family quickly downed the second round of toast. Walt and Vessa finished their tea and their children finished their juice.

"We should order more drinks when she comes back," Vessa said.

"I would like another cup of orange juice," Ritch said.

"So sweet!" Delila cheered.

The two kids reached for more toast and applied their spreads. When they sat down, they found their cups of orange juices refilled.

"H-How?" Ritch muttered.

Walt, surprised by their sudden refill, reached for the kettle of tea and found it filled again.

"Did she come around, while we weren't paying attention?" Vessa thought out loud. "Talk about service."

The four didn't wait long before Tesia came out of the kitchen with two large trays with their dishes on top of them. Two metal bars, in the shape of an 'n', hung from her right arm. When she reached their table, she placed the right tray on top of her head as she folded out the metal bars into a stand. She placed the left tray on top of the stand and then took the tray on her head and lowered it. Tesia placed each of the family's dishes on their table.

"There's your meals," Tesia said. She placed two sauce boats on the table. One was filled with a red substance and the other was filled with a brown liquid. "Here is your ketchup and maple syrup. The syrup can be used one your French Toast and Pancakes. Please enjoy."

Tesia carried her trays and stand away to leave the family in peace.

Other than the moment for the kids to pour maple syrup on their French Toast and Pancakes, the family immediately dug into their meals. They found themselves overwhelmed by the flavours they tasted.

The sausage that Walt bit into were juicy. The veggies were flavourful and the hashbrown was a delicious twist on potatoes. He cut one of his eggs in half and spread some of the yolk over the white and took a bite. Despite eating eggs in this style before, he could tell that the chef cooked these in a different manner. He could taste pepper and salt which enhanced their taste.

The omelette that Vessa ate contained the many flavours of the ingredients inside it. After several bites, she added some ketchup and found the sweetness went well with the omelette. She found herself taking larger bites as she ate.

The children did not savour their food like their parents did. Their food was sweet and the maple syrup added to it. Their family never had the ability to afford delicious food. Salt was the most fancy flavour enhancer they could afford. Now they were eating a food item that was sweet and filling. They quickly scarfed down their food after they took their first bite.

It did not take them long before all of their plates were cleaned of any trace of food. They sat back in their chairs while they digested their meals.

"Did you all enjoy your meals?" a man asked.

The family quickly sat up in their chairs in surprise. They looked in the direction of the voice and saw Tesia standing next to a Human man dressed in a white shirt and black pants.

"I'm Matthew McDonald. The chef and co-owner of this restaurant."

"Your food was incredible," Walt said.

"The omelette contained so many flavours in a single dish," Vessa said.

"The Pancakes were the best!" Delila said.

"I'm so full!" Ritch roared.

"I'm glad my food could have such an effect," Matt said.

"You underestimate yourself, Honey," Tesia said. "Your food is the best in the world."

"So... Tess told me about your... situation."

"Yes, bandits razed our town and we were forced to flew with everything we could carry," Walt said with a look of sorrow on his face.

"Do you know what you're going to do from here?" Matt asked.

"Well... We were going to sell our things for some money and try to look for work in this city."

Matt looked towards his wife who gave him puppy eyes.

"You know, despite opening, we are still getting things completely up and running. We are actually looking to hire help here. I could use some help in the kitchen and we could use more servers. I would offer an decent wage for both of you."

Both Walt and Vessa jumped out of their chairs.

"Are you serious?" Walt gasped.

"Very," Matt replied. "Interested?"

"We are!" Vessa said. "Walt can help you in the kitchen and I can help Tesia in the dining room."

"Excellent!" Matt slapped his hands together. "Since we aren't expecting many customers today, it's a perfect time to start training you all."

Walt and Vessa rushed over to the two and grabbed their hands to shake them.

"Thank you so much." Walt was nearly in tears.

"We'll work hard," Vessa said.

"Let's get started then?" Tesia said.