Months passed.
Many months.
A year? Close.
I adjusted my scarf as I twisted the key to the cafe. The petals of the tiny branches Dream had planted months back, bloomed and spurted tiny fairy lights. The once dim space lightened up.
Low hanging vines draped from the ceiling, each vine housing a glow berry. I tied my hair up, dropped my things in the back and began to dust the furniture. Cute little chompers huffed and puffed as they bounced their way out of the little home I had built for them.
The cafe's door dinged, an aqua elf stepped in. His palely dyed pink hair glowing under the fairy lights.
"Morning Boss"
"Don't call me that"
I snapped playfully and tossed the Duster at him. He caught it and headed into the back to change into his work uniform.
Over the months, we progressed with the Cafe's building and employed a few elves to help out.
Turk(fire elf/male/cashier)
Hestia(woodland elf/female/waitress)
Finn(aqua elf/male/waiter)
Miwa(high elf/male/chef/baker)
Cirdan(fire elf/male/baker)
Nyx(woodland elf/female/chef)
Gale&Vale(dark elf/male/ delivery men)
It was tough at first but our Cafe quickly grew in popularity for it's diverse snacks, pastries and last but not the least its coffee.
As one of my customers said and I quote,
"This place is nice, it's like all the Cafes combined into one! Now I don't have to visit three different cafes just to get my favourite treats!"
"Yo!"
The door dinged again and my best friend walked in. His filtered eyes gleaming with bottle joy
"What's got you so worked up this morning?"
I nudged him, he nudged me back
"Well..."
He reached into his pocket and clicked on each app, the text to speech function filling the atmosphere. When it finally reached Elvstagram, he gasped and clicked it. He shoved it into my hand.
"It's hard navigating the app but check my recent post! Aunt Dara told me it got lots of likes!"
I opened his profile and it was true! He had started taking up his painting and also posted updates on his decors for the cafe.
People were awed at how much talent was burning in a young blind elf like him.
"You're doing so great! I'm so proud of you"
He squealed and hugged me, a little ball of crochet yarn fell out of his pocket, oh and he picked up crocheting. He's still learning the basics.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, he let go of me and maneuvered his way to the back yelling for Finn.
My phone Lanyard jingled as the fluffy mini shark plushie swayed around.
A certain someone is a fan of sharks ;-).
Iun: I'm being harassed at work, I wanna quit:-(
Me: what? You're the boss.
Iun: :'(
I rolled my eyes and sent him a picture of the cafe being opened, he replied with more sad emojis, gifs and stickers.
Me: oh please, go bully a worker or something
More sad emojis
Me: fineee, dinner at my place, if you're late you're going home on a empty stomach
Iun: seeing you is enough to sate my hunger
Me: shoo!
I pocketed my phone and began to set the seats.
Turk, Hestia and Nyx rolled into the cafe in their uniforms, they must I've entered when I was texting Iun.
The once cool cafe was soon filled with cozy warmth, Miwa and Cirdan were already wiping up on-the-go breakfast for our early bird worker customers. Nyx hovered around them as she handled cooking light meals for the school kids.
Soon enough a pair of middle schoolers poured into the cafe, their loud and excited chatters filling the atmosphere.
"Hi kids!" Dream waved from the counter, and as if to welcome them, tiny glowing butterflies fluttered to their table and fused to form their menu. The kids squealed and reached for it
"Easy, or you'll topple over your chairs!"
I pulled my coat on, dished out a few instructions to my employees
"I'll be right back, I need to get done groceries, house stock is running low"
"We can always get it when we are going home in the evening" Dream yelled as he helped Finn tuck his funky pink hair into his hairnet
"Yeah, we said the same thing for a week now, I do wonder how we are still alive"
Finn snorted, earning a whack to the back of his head
"Ow, What was that for?"
"Anyways, I might not come back to the cafe so the fort is in your arms! Bye guys!"
"Byeee"
I hailed a taxi heading for the whale train station.
I bought the necessities we would need for the week and started heading home to prepare and preserve the perishable items.
The door groaned as I forced my way into the house,hands filled with plastic bags. I carefully dropped them on the floor and began to open the windows and curtains.
I sighed and settled on the couch, exhausted from all the walking and the bags I had to carry.
My phone buzzed in my coat. I had tossed the piece of clothing unto the floor
"Home yet?"
It was from Dream, we had cultivated this habit of letting each other know of the other's whereabouts. You know... because of that incident.
Me: yeah, just got in. I'm super exhausted, turns out we needed a lot of restocking to do (TT)
Dream: oof, sucks to be you:-P
Me: ರ_ರ
Dream: (＾3＾♪
Me: shoo!
Dream: yeah I'm gonna get back to work now(Finn)
Dream had trouble texting so he would often send voice notes or get Finn to help him send texts if he had his hands full.
I sighed and got up, dragging the bags with me and splaying their items unto the counter.
I was in the midst of cutting up ocean breathers when someone knocked at our door.
I stealthily grabbed my phone and peeked through the door's peephole. Only the curve of a face cap came to view.
My heart began to thump wildly in my chest.
Was it Faelan?
Had he come back to torment me?
Or was he after Dream again?
"Hello, is anyone home?"
I paused, that wasn't Faelan. I had heard that voice before but I couldn't put my finger on where I had heard it.
"Elora? Ma?"
I reached for the knob and slowly unlatched the lock, whispering a small protection spell alongside the door's code. The door slowly creaked open.
My ears rang like as if someone had hit a tuning fork next to them.
Father's eyes stared at me, his eyes that I hated so much lit up as they looked into mine.
"Elora"
Although this wasn't father, I held unto the door for support as I processed the slight scare I just experienced. I looked up at my dad's near replica, Taw.
"Taw?"
"Yeah, I figured you would mistake him for me"
I froze, "K-Keith?"
"Hi lil sis"
He had a huge grin plastered on his face. While I just stood there, stumbling over my own words as millions of questions poured into my head.
"Can I come in? I want to see Ma, I miss her"