Chapter 5: Determination, Part 1: Judgement

A vibrantly red wolf walked down the streets, her fur neatly cleaned. She wore a small suit, as if prepared for an interview. Dark blue, vest-like, with golden trimmings. Walking down the barely trodden dirt street, she went to the main attraction.

The door dinged, and Vanos looked up. His tail wagged, and he jumped over. The red wolf ran up to him as well, and both embraced.

"It's been a while," Vanos said as he embraced her. He let go and said, "I haven't been home in a bit."

"I'll say, Vanos." She grinned and shook out her mane-like fur. "I expect you've been taking care of our little sister?"

"Ahmond?" Vanos asked.

"No, why would I care about that little brat?" she said, and giggled. "Of course I meant Ahmond, who else could I have meant?"

"It's good to see you too, Mynt, barely," Vanos said. They got red from the wolf part of their family, but their father had been a sleek yellow which always attracted somebody to him. Vanos thought it was his own best inherited trait sometimes besides everything else about him.

Mynt said, "Anyway, I'd like to see Ahmond." She scanned the area, and only saw two occupied tables. "Not that many customers."

Vanos said, "We're not usually packed. Unless it's Summer."

Mynt shook her head. "I guess that we can't all be as successful." Vanos brushed the comment off. Only a little sibling rivalry, which was good.

Vanos said, "Anyway, she's not here right now, we're keeping her at the house to take a break today."

Mynt said, "Then how is she learning what to do? I thought she was getting a basic apprenticeship in the business."

"Well, she is," Vanos said, as he idled behind the counter. "You don't have to work every day to be learning." The judgement of Mynt's eyes burned into his skull, and he tried ducking underneath the counter.

Mynt clicked her tongue, as she sat at a table, and began conversing with someone customers. Vanos took the time to compose himself.

It wasn't like he wasn't expecting a visit, eventually. But at what point had Mynt been this aggressive about Ahmond's learnings?

If Ahmond followed the legacy of their family, it should have been taught by Mynt anyway. Who had her own shop, with a couple of their cousins... And which was more successful. By a long shot, and always had customers.

Breaking Vanos' line of thoughts, Mynt said, "May I know where Mosor and Kyofi are, and why they aren't working?"

"I kinda gave everybody the day off. I figured they should be a little more focused on something else with the crazy week we've had." He bit his tongue on that last part.

"What did you do this week?" Mynt asked.

Not teach Ahmond, apparently, but got her new friends. "We couldn't do anything on a rainy day. No one would come to the shop. We made a new addition to the menu, which I invented by the way."

"I would like to try it," Mynt said, as she fished for a pocket in the vest. She brought out a wallet full of money.

"It's on the house for you," Vanos said.

"I think you need it way more than I do," Mynt said, walking over. She forcefully shoved the cash over into the tip jar.

With a blank-eyed stare, he went back to work. It was uncalled for, and made him feel humiliated as he presented the dish.

She ate into it, and told Vanos, "Simple, and there's too much marshmallow in the marshmallow to fudge ratio."

"Who are you trying to impress?" Vanos asked. At first he felt like taking it back, but he didn't take it back. "I don't know what kind of idea you have about our rivalry, but I thought we were joking. What's wrong with you?"

She said, "Simple, I'm judging you. Because I'm determining whether Ahmond will be coming back home, continue her apprenticeship here, or even stay here permanently."

***

Ahmond and Mosor played upstairs, as Mosor played Tower with her. "Okay, now I'm going on the offence on you." She noticed Vanos walking up, with Mynt, and said, "Looks like your sister's here, Ahmond."

Mynt greeting Ahmond and Mosor, and Kyofi walked in. "Mynt, I haven't seen you in a bit! Not that I felt like it."

Vanos said, "You shouldn't, because she's trying to either rip Ahmond away, or trying to force her on us forever."

The house felt stunned, and Mynt said, "No tact at all. But yes, that's essentially what's going to happen."

Ahmond blinked and asked, "What are you talking about? I thought I was supposed to stay the entire week, but it's only been a few days?"

Mynt said, "The problem is that I am here to check and make sure you're getting the education you're supposed to. Let me ask you a few questions. What have you done all week?"

"I learned a lot," Ahmond said as she stood tall.

Mynt asked her, "How do you make the Celestial Delight?" Vanos realized he never taught her any dishes.

"I don't know how to do that," Ahmond said. "But I did judge a food fight, and I was the one who choose to put it on the menu."

Mynt said, "Wait, you three fight over what gets on the menu?" Kyofi and Mosor laughed nervously.

Ahmond said, "Okay, but also I made new friends while I was here, and I learned maybe this isn't my plan for the future, that maybe I won't follow family legacy."

"She's not following family legacy?"

Ahmond said, "Okay, but-" Kyofi put a paw over her mouth as if kidnapping her. Which might be necessary.

Mynt snorted. "Okay, I think I've heard enough. Ahmond is going to be coming home with me, and it's happening now."

"The deal was a few days," Vanos said. "You can't rip her away, she has to say goodbye to her friends, and-"

"Can't I speak for myself?" Ahmond asked. "Maybe I don't feel like being taught by you? Maybe I like Vanos more than you."

"What's wrong with having fun anyway?" Kyofi asked. "You got the money, but you ain't got no heart."

Mynt clacked her claws on the floor, and examined the family of four. Sweat poured down Vanos' face, as he felt Mynt challenging him.

"Ahmond, you can stay for the rest of the month. Provided that you can make everything on the menu by, say, tomorrow afternoon? But it has to be the traditional menu, not what these fools made up."

Kyofi and Mosor growled at her. Vanos stood protectively in front of Ahmond, but Ahmond brushed by him.

"Not a problem." Ahmond stared down Mynt, but Mynt only grinned back at her. Ahmond growled.

***

It was a huge problem.

Ahmond's family arranged the recipes out on the tables. Nightfall came and the restaurant had been closed with the locks. She concentrated, a vein almost bulging from her head.

"I can't remember half of these recipes, guys."

"Then maybe you'll be better at making some of them," Vanos said. "Or else Mynt's walking out a winner."

"You do care I might leave, right?" Ahmond asked.

"Dude, I thought we only had you for a few days. You leaving is not a new development." He quickly added, "But I will miss you."

Mosor sat down next to Ahmond. "No matter what, we'll visit you. Mynt can't stop us from visiting."

Kyofi said, "We don't need her to master all the recipes, only to understand the basic ideas behind all of them." Kyofi took her behind the counter, and into the backroom with a fryer. She pointed to bags of fries.

Kyofi showed her how to work the fryer, and basic safety precautions. "You do the same with anything else you cook."

Vanos tried making the marshmallow fudge in a different way. He added less marshmallows to the mix.

"Okay, making fudge is easy," he told Ahmond, "but it takes a while, and you've got to know how to work it."

"Stop!" Ahmond said. The family rested. "This is way too much work. How are we supposed to get past this? It's hopeless, I'm going back."

Vanos felt himself feel a little down, but he said, "I don't think this is hopeless. I think, we've got to at least try."

"What if we fail?"

"We probably will," Vanos said. "But this isn't like some dumb book." He thought about how he gave up on The Firefly Diary easily. But now he had new hope that he could unlock it. Maybe it was inspirational?

"Many times, we stand at the precipice of defeat, and more than ninety percent of the time, we'll fall over and into the void. It's not going to kill us each time, and we only get stronger when we climb back up the cliff, and stand bravely over it. I think I feel like staying down sometimes, I admit it. Still, I climb back up."

Ahmond stared at him, and nodded with a grin. She got back to work, and listened to the instructions of the other three.

"Where did that come from?" Mosor asked Vanos, and Vanos only laughed, not sure about it himself.

Vanos went back to teaching, and Ahmond resumed learning, learning more in that one night than she did any other night, even from Mynt, even from herself.

*

The Firefly Diary rested on the sofa, on top of a curled up Vanos. Mosor and Kyofi slept in their rooms, and Vanos apparently wrote the pages.

Mynt stood over him, and took The Firefly Diary. She scanned the book cover, shrugged, and walked out.

But Ahmond had stayed up late, her blanket over her like a tent. The moonlight provided ample brightness for her to read the recipes. She heard Mynt walking around, didn't think much of it.

It wasn't until she heard the door open, she got concerned. Maybe a small midnight walk? The window in her room stared out the back of the house, not the front.

Ahmond paced out her room door, leaned over the bannister. The door hadn't been shut, which is plain rude, even when sneaking.

Ahmond walked down, and out the door. She saw Mynt down the street, talking to the Light Elemental.

"This is the book," Lantorn said as she stared at the front cover. "They've only unlocked one trait, but we aren't far ahead."

"How many more qualities need to be unlocked?" Mynt asked, before she looked back. "Ahmond, don't think I don't know where you are by the way."

Ahmond froze as Lantorn and Mynt advanced. Ahmond could only stay in place as her own sister went after her.