Angel the pixie zipped around town with a simple message. “Pete the pizzaman made pizza. Come try it.” She told the triplets; she told the mayor; she told Nick the guard; she told Lilly… Then she told every pixie in town. Then the mayor, Lilly, the triplets, and the rest of the pixies made their way to the bakery to try the new food.
* * *
Back in the store, Pete and Mod ate. They left a window cracked open for when Angel returned, but Angel wasn’t the first pixie to arrive. Instead, a pixie—she was shorter than Angel by at least an inch or two—fluttered inside. She hesitated, looking left and right. Then she locked her eyes on Mod, and her teal wings carried her toward him.
Waist-length hair flowed behind her as she flew. She wore black tights. Two sets of neon lines crisscrossed up and down each leg. Her shirt was bright yellow. On its center, a mustached face smiled and winked.
Following close behind her, two more pixies entered through the window. In the back, their hair was short, cut at the nape. In front, bangs hung down to their eyes. On the sides, messy hair covered their ears. One pixie had blue wings and wore a white t-shirt. Black lines formed a face in the center of the shirt. It reminded Pete of a laughing emojie.
The third pixie had red wings. The wings zig zagged on the edges, tapering toward the center like a tornado. He wore a red shirt with a tornado on it.
When the trio approached, Pete realized they must be the triplets. They had the same chestnut hair, the same green eyes. Their olive-shaped faces, pink lips, and button noses made it hard to tell them apart.
When they reached Mod, they landed on the counter next to him. The one with long hair touched the tip of her pointer fingers together and spoke. “Hi, Mod. We heard you have Pete’s za. Angel said we should come try it. What is za?”
“It’s called pizza, P-I-Z-Z-A.” Mod grinned, spelling it out. “And it is delicious. Pete is the name of the person who invented it. Let me introduce you.” Mod nodded at Pete. “This is Pete the pizzaman.”
Pete waved at the triplets.
“Hi, Pete.” The green-winged pixie with long hair waved back. “My name is Hope. These two are my brothers. This is Skye.” She looked at the one with the white emoji shirt, and he waved. Then she looked at her other brother. “This is Tornado.”
“Tornado,” Tornado said, jumping in the air and spinning in a few circles before landing back on the counter.
“Nice to meet you,” Pete said. “Are you ready to try pizza?”
“Before I answer that,” She examined the slice on Pete’s plate and then looked back to the slice in Mod’s hand. “I had a question about pizza.”
“What is your question?” Pete wondered.
“Does it have bacon in it?” Her question seemed hopeful.
“It can have bacon,” Pete replied. “Unfortunately, this pizza does not.”
“That’s too bad,” the pixie hung her head.
Pete smiled, observing. “I bet you are friends with Nick the guard, aren’t you?”
“How’d you know?” She looked up at him.
“Lucky guess,” Pete grinned, standing up. Then he used his pizza cutter to prepare and plate three smaller slices for the trio.
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When he set it down in front of them, Tornado began eating without hesitation. Hope took a cautious first bite. Then she smiled and continued to eat.
Skye was more cautious, poking and prodding the strange new cuisine. “Are you sure it’s food?” He went from wrinkling his forehead, to widening his eyes, to wrinkling his nose, to raising an eyebrow, to wrinkling a forehead again.
Pete nodded that he was sure it was food.
“But are you sure?” This time Skye looked him straight in the eye. “You wouldn’t lie to a pixie…would you?”
“Try it.” Pete encouraged.
Skye stared Pete straight in the eyes for a few more seconds before saying. “Okay, I’ll try it.” With caution, he lifted the small piece of pizza to his mouth. Then he bit off a piece and chewed with a slow caution. As he swallowed, he smiled ear to ear, and with the pizza still in hand, he dabbed with his left arm out and his right arm in. Then he dabbed to the other side. Then he kept eating.
At that moment, the mayor pushed open the front door. She seemed to speed walk, but after a few steps into the bakery, she froze in place, lifting her head and sniffing the air. Her eyes widened in anticipation. “What is that smell? It is wonderful. Is that smell pizza?”
“Sure is,” Pete prepared the mayor a slice and handed it to her on a plate. “We have lots of pizza and not enough people to eat it, so have as much as you want.”
After she ate her first bite, she declared. “This is good. This is real good. This is wonderful. Are you sure I can have as much as I want? You promise? No backsies!”
“I promise.” Pete nodded, smiling. One of his favorite things was watching people try something for the first time. He especially liked watching movies with people that hadn't seen the movie. He enjoyed seeing how they reacted to each scene. He wondered if Round had movies and television? If not, he’d have to invent them later. That day, he’d already invented pizza, and that was enough.
Nick the guard was the next to arrive. As he entered the door, he held up a cloth bag that seemed wet with grease. “I brought bacon.” Pete noticed Hope’s eyes light up. “I hope this is as good as you say.”
Pete handed him a plate with a slice. “Try for yourself.”
Nick pulled a small piece of cooked bacon from his bag and began to break it into bits over his pizza slice. When Hope asked for some, he shared with her, breaking bits of bacon over her slice, too. After Nick began to eat, he said. “That isn’t bad, son. I can’t wait to try the one with all the meats. Good work.”
A few minutes later, Angel returned, “The others should be here soon.” Then her eyes took in the room. She saw everyone sitting, the triplets on the counter, the mayor, Pete, Nick, and Mod on stools. Each person had a smile on their face.
Pete looked at her and handed her a small piece of pizza. “Try some.”
After she took her first bit, her eyes widened. “Epic!” When she said the word, she accented and extended the ‘i’ sound to make it last a few seconds.
Pete couldn’t understand why she spoke with slang from the 2020s, but he appreciated it. It reminded him of his childhood when all the cool kids talked like that.
Minutes later, more pixies showed up. There were too many to count, and Pete struggled to keep up with all their names. Even so, he realized he’d have time to learn their names. The important thing was that each of them got enough pizza. To ensure they did, he remained attentive. When they finished a slice. They received a new one; they always had a slice on their tiny, pixie sized plates. As he served the last slice of pizza that he and Mod had made, Pete came to a realization. Pixies love pizza.
As the day came to a close, and people and pixies returned to their homes, Pete realized something. He didn’t have a home. His concern must have shown because Mod asked him, “is something wrong?”
“Thinking,” Pete explained. “I’m not sure where I’m going to stay the night. Is there an inn nearby?”
“Why do you need an inn?” Mod asked.
Pete didn’t understand the implication of Mod’s question because he was too busy checking his inventory sheet to see his len. “How much does a night in an inn cost? Under 205 len?”
“Why do you need an inn?” Mod repeated. “I stay here. I have an extra room. I used to rent it out…haven’t had a tenant in years. You can have it.”
At that point, Pete understood. “You want to rent it to me?”
“Or you can work for me,” Mod explained. “With your pizza, I’ll more than recoup the cost of letting you stay here for free. Consider this a job offer.”
Pete continued to review his inventory sheet. He had seven tomatoes and two blocks of cheese. “That would be great, but I only have two blocks of cheese left. I used almost half my tomatoes. We will need more ingredients.”
“Well, I can use the cheese and dough I have here. Also, I know of three other nightshade spawn points. They are deeper into the forest, but not too deep. You can farm tomatoes from them.
“You are on to something with this pizza stuff. If you work for me, we can make this bakery world famous. What do you say? Why don’t you go farm some more tomatoes tomorrow, come back here, and we can begin this venture together?” A mission prompt appeared:
You have been offered the quest, “Job Offer.” Completion reward: 300 len, 350 experience points. Do you accept the quest?
Pete blinked away the prompt. “Mod, I’ll take you up on that. Thank you for the opportunity.”
You have accepted the quest, “Job Offer.” Farm tomatoes at all three nightshade terror spawn points and establish the first pizzeria in Round.