The morning buzzed with activity; a crowd of regulars and newcomers lined up for breakfast. Rick was in an annoyingly cheerful mood, humming as he worked, his snout curled in a permanent grin. Rose and Batty nursed hangovers, the aftermath of drinking too much at the post-bar fight celebration.

“Vanilla latte for Sherly!” Bob's voice rang out, slightly louder than usual.

Both baristas groaned, plagued by the morning's hangover. Rick, bustling from kitchen to table with plates of food, ensured the baristas' water glasses were full, often refilling them. His attentiveness soon extended to refilling customers' glasses as well.

Richard felt a mix of annoyance and admiration for the imp, his keen ears picking up various comments.

“That imp is such a hard worker. I’ve never had someone refill my cup before. This is amazing.”

“The breakfast is amazing, and the service is spectacular!”

“I wish we had something like this back home.”

“I wonder if we could buy one of those imps.” Richard watched this group warily. He had grown fond of his little cousins and didn’t like the idea of them being abducted.

Mick, not as smiley as his brother, was equally swift and capable. His impeccable memory for orders compensated for his poor sense of direction, making him one of Richard's most valued employees. The Chief had to work out the word “employee” but soon felt that was the best word to use.

Chief Richard also kept a vigilant watch on the protestors. The Human Relations group appeared but kept their distance from the tent, especially after Greg's arrival. Richard had learned from Doug that Greg was infamous for tossing humans, a fact some members of the Human Relations knew all too well.

“How’s business?” Mayor Hamilton asked, bringing Richard’s attention back to his duties. Battleax stood behind the Mayor.

“Doing very well,” Richard responded, accepting payment from the Mayor.

“Uh, excellent, excellent. Honestly, I wish you were closer—I'd be here every day. But I must admit, you picked a perfect spot to set up. I’m impressed with how well thought out your placement is,” the Mayor complimented.

“Actually, it was Bob who chose this spot,” Richard mentioned, glancing at Bob for support.

“He did a marvelous job. Three major roads merge about a mile up. Any other roads leading to town would have had little traffic.” The Mayor remarked. “Did you watch each road to see where it was best to place your restaurant?”

Richard glanced at Bob, who simply shrugged, “This was where we robbed the most humans.” Richard promptly smacked Bob on the back of his head.

The Mayor chuckled, “From robbers to entrepreneurs.” Leaning closer, he lowered his voice, “How many did you rob?”

Richard glanced at Bob. Bob looked down at his hands and then back up at the Mayor. With the confidence of someone who had counted to a hundred without restarting, he said, “Two.”

“Two?” the Mayor inquired.

“Two!” Richard shouted. He was impressed with the strategic planning of the venture, but now he began to worry. “You mean we got lucky?” Bob nodded. “We have bet the entire future of our village on luck!” Richard shouted.

“Never turn your back on good luck,” Battleax advised.

“Uh, true, true. The Goddess of Good Fortune must have smiled on you.” The major remarked.

“Not really,” a voice chimed in from the back of the line, “I get way too much credit for random crap working.”

Bob, Richard, Hamilton, and Battleax turned to look back at the woman who spoke. Like all the gods and goddesses, she appeared to be a larger version of an average human and glowed. She waved a friendly wave to them. They waved back.

“Ah, well, then, ah, yes, um, I’ll have a BLT and a Vanilla Latte, please,” Mayor Hamilton said.

“Me too,” Battleax said.

The morning flew by in a blur. The twins, Rose and Batty, managed to keep pace with the orders. Richard sensed the crowd growing with each passing day. Despite ordering more supplies, each day's customer turnout exceeded expectations. Fortunately, morning was giving way to afternoon.

Bob called out, “Hey, Mick! What's that you're eating?”

Mick rushed over to Bob, “Great Orc Bob, I was hungry, so the twins gave me a sausage.”

“Yeah, but why’s it wrapped in bread?” Bob asked.

“The sausage was too hot for me, so I wrapped bread around it so I could hold it,” Mick explained, taking another bite.

“That actually looks good,” Bob said.

“It sure does. I’ll have one. What is it?” The customer standing in front of Bob said.

“Uh,” Bob pondered, “Hot sausage wrapped in bread.”

“Quite a name,” the man said. “I’ll take one. How much?”

Bob looked at Richard, who shrugged. Finally, Bob said, “Two for a gold coin.”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Hot dog!” exclaimed the man, tossing a gold coin at Bob.

“What?” Bob looked confused.

“Oh, sorry. It’s something my people say when we are happy.” The man said.

“Hey, I’ll take two hot dogs too!” The woman behind the man said.

“That’s not the name!” Bob shouted.

More customers shouted, “I’ll take two hot dogs!”

“No!” Bob shouted as more customers shouted out. “Fine!” Bob lowered his voice, “Stupid name, stupid humans.”

Ben walked out to the table, “Hey, Chief?” Richard looked over at her. “Hey, we're almost out of bacon and eggs. We got plenty of sausages.”

“That works. We're shifting to hot dogs,” Richard stated. Bob huffed but continued taking orders.

“What? We don’t serve dogs, do we?” Ben asked, horrified.

“No, Mick wrapped a sausage in a piece of bread,” Richard said, chuckling. “The humans named it a hot dog.”

Ben shook her head and went back to the kitchen to inform Betty of the change in the menu. Also, to reassure him that they were not, in fact, serving dog meat.

Richard stood up and shouted over the crowd, “Lunchtime! We have two hot dogs for one gold.” The line cheered as Bob grumbled.

The line kept moving and didn’t seem to slow. Hot dogs become a hit immediately. Richard kept his ears sharp for any complaints.

“Wow, this is good. I can eat here for every meal. Do you think they will serve dinner?”

“Glad it’s not dog meat. I was worried, ya know, Orcs.” Richard gave this patron a sharp glare. The man noticed and looked down. Richard rolled his eyes. Humans could be stupid. This one even had tattoos of hand prints on both sides of his face. Humans!

“It’s good, but it needs something.” Richard kept a close ear on this one. “Maybe a sauce and a side. I love the two hot dogs, but I could use something else to go with it.”

“Hey Chief?” Rose walked up to Richard and Bob. “Why aren’t we stopping?”

“We are serving lunch now,” Richard said.

“Oh, these hot dog things?” Rose asked.

“Yeah, get your boyfriend to bring you and Batty one,” Richard said. Rose gave Richard a glare and then walked away.

“Easy on the boyfriend, Chief.” Bob said, “That may be a sensitive subject.”

Chief Richard gave Bob a huff as he took a gold coin from a customer. “It'll not be a subject once the village gets here. She needs to figure it out soon. Rick has proven himself, but the elder Orcs won’t like it. I should have killed him last week, and we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

Bob looked at Richard, shocked, “Chief, you wouldn’t hurt them. You have a bigger soft spot for them than I do.”

Richard sighed, “Yeah, yeah, I do. Let’s hope we can convince the others.”

Later that day, everyone sat around the now-empty tent. It was the longest day they had had in a long time.

“I feel like I've fought in an epic battle,” Bob remarked.

“Oh, please. You just sat and took money. Batty and I had to hustle to keep up with the drinks,” Rose retorted, laughing.

Richard commented, “You all did very well today, but I would like to say Mick and Rick worked the hardest.” Everyone cheered in agreement. “Mick, the hot dog is a hit, thank you.” More cheers.

Mick looked down embarrassed, “Great Orc Chief Richard, they aren’t made out of dogs, are they?” Everyone laughed.

“No, little cousin.” Richard said, “They are sausages. Just another stupid name by stupid humans.”

“Hey!” Batty said, smiling. Everyone looked at her, “Ok, fine, humans use stupid names for things.”

Betty and Ben brought out two hot dogs for everyone. “Last of them, Chief,” Ben said.

“This is pretty good, but it seems like something is missing,” Rose said.

“Needs a sauce,” Batty said.

Greg hummed as he ate, “Needs mustard and something spicy.”

“Mustard!” Batty exclaimed as everyone looked at the barbarians.

“What’s mustard?” Rose asked.

“It’s a yellow sauce we make from mustard seeds,” Batty said.

“Now that is a good name, to the point,” Bob said.

“Doug and I’ll bring some sauces back tomorrow. I think Dad needs to try this. He would love it.” Greg said.

“Doug?” Richard said.

“Chief Richard,” Doug stood up and saluted, “I want to go into town tonight with Greg. Sir.”

Richard stared at Doug. They were soldiers, warriors ready to be commanded. “Relax, Doug. You can go. I recommend the hot wings and hear the elf sing.”

Doug relaxed awkwardly and said, “Thank you, sir.” He sat down to a laughing Greg.

“Hey, chief, we have one more thing for you to try.” Ben brought a basket. “Betty and I couldn’t figure out what to do with the potatoes Kent brought.”

“We cut it up and dropped it in our used bacon grease,” Betty said, eating a long golden brown thing from the basket. “It’s pretty good. We dashed some salt on it.”

“Salt? Like to cure meat?” Bob asked, taking one from the basket and eating it. His eyes widened as he reached for more.

Richard knocked Bob’s hand away and grabbed a few. He slowly tasted the new food and was excited about what he tasted. He grabbed a handful.

“Hey, I want to try,” Rose exclaimed as everyone eagerly reached for the new delicacy.

“We have more!” Shouted Ben as she brought out more baskets.

Everyone began to eat this new food. It was a hit with everyone.

“This will be good with the hot dogs,” Bob said.

“I hate the name,” Rose said.

“What do we call this? There aren’t any humans around to spoil the name.” Bob said as Batty smacked his shoulder. “Uh, I mean.” He started embarrassed, “Ya know, normal humans.” He laughed.

Greg laughed as Batty nodded, “Ok, that’s true.”

“Potatoes submerged in old bacon grease,” Ben suggested.

“That’s worse than hot dogs,” Rose remarked.

“Potatoes fried in bacon grease,” Bob said.

“Still sounds bad.” Richard said, “How about fried potato strips.”

“To the point, I like it,” Bob said. Everyone nodded as they ate fried potato strips.

“Tomorrow, we will serve one hot dog and fried potato strips, one gold, for lunch,” Richard announced. Everyone moaned. “What?”

“We're tired, Chief,” Rose said, “Two meals is too much.” Betty and Ben nodded.

Richard pondered for a moment, “The village will be here soon. We'll get more help. Tomorrow, we can switch places. Rotate shifts so that everyone can sit, take money, and get a little rest.”

“Not a bad idea.” Bob said, “That would keep us going until the village arrives.”

“Then we can talk about serving dinner.” Richard smiled. Everyone moaned.