How do you know that Mud?

Kit woke the next morning with a groan. He remembered that he would have to deal with the reconstruction of the damaged boarding house this morning. Snowball hadn't disappeared last night, the little dog was waiting patiently for him at the end of his bed.

"Come on let's see what the damage looks like in the light of the day." Kit swung his legs off the end of the bed and glanced at Snowball, the little dog's ears drooped and he whimpered. "Ah, buddy don't give me that look. I'm sure it won't look that bad this morning." When they passed by the front entrance Kit realised how wrong he was.

Now that he could see the damage more clearly his anger flared up once again. He glanced down at the quiet Snowball and pushed the raging tide back down. "See buddy it's not that bad." Kit lied with a straight face. Snowball raised watery eyes to Kit, he guessed even Snowball could tell that was a straight out lie.

As Kit was about to comfort Snowball once again, five black panthers waltzed in through one of the large holes in the wall. Each of them was holding something in their jaws. Before Kit could open his mouth and tell them to leave, they dropped the items at Kit's feet.

Five large deep red glittering rocks sat at his feet. Kit's brows shot straight to his hairline. "What's are these?" Meow Meow bent down and nudged the rock closer to Kit. "This is for me?" The large cat nodded its head. Kit bent down and picked up the stone, he quickly used identify on the rock.

[Devouring range glistening ruby, flawless]

Precious gemstone.

Can be used by various specialty sub classes as crafting material.

Kit felt his hand start to tremble as the information penetrated his mind. Hot red peppers! How much would just one of these be worth, he looked at the four glistening red stones still at his feet. A light went on in his brain as to why the cats were giving him something so precious.

He remembered that he had told the animals last night that he was holding Snowball hostage until they came up with the finances for the repair of the boarding house.

It looked like the midnight guardians had taken him seriously. He scooped up the rest of the stones and stared at the large panthers. "I accept your share of the payment, you can play with Snowball once again." The cats started to let out a loud purr, Kit held up a hand to stall them running off with his companion.

"You can't take him anywhere yet. We still need to have a discussion about what happened last night. Can one of you go and get Bai yue please?" One of the midnight guardians ran off after hearing Kit's conditions, the others happily nuzzled Snowball. Kit shook his head, then continued his walk to the kitchen.

Mars and Twix were sitting on the only two chairs to make it out of the fiasco as he entered the kitchen area. "Good morning, Kit." Twix spoke around a piece of bread he was eating. Mars just nodded his head in greeting.

"Morning." Kit sat on the floor and pulled a meal from his pouch, two pairs of eyes clung to the food. Kit laughed then took out two more meals.

When they were just about finished breakfast Mars broke the silence that had descended while they were eating. "Twix and I discussed the repair issue this morning. We should be able to have it completed by lunch time. You will just need to hand over the control of the boarding house to me like you did when I built it."

Kit was pleasantly surprised that he wouldn't have to coordinate the repairs. Warmth filled his heart that his friends were so thoughtful, he hadn't wanted to waste time he could spend on creating meals fixing the house. "Ok, it's all yours."

Twix cleared his throat, then fixed his eyes on Kit. "So Kit, the others wanted me to raise something with you. Snickers was talking about your restaurant being promoted soon and well that would mean you would need some new staff, right?"

Kit didn't know where this discussion was going, he could only nod his head in agreement. "Then your new staff would need somewhere to stay right? The boarding house is currently bursting at the seems with it's occupants, so we were all wondering if you could upgrade the boarding house as well."

Twix looked a bit anxious as he stared at Kit waiting for his answer. Instead of being upset that he would have something else to add to his plate, he was thankful Twix had brought this up. He hadn't thought that far ahead, it would have been a mad scramble if he had left the boarding house upgrade to the last minute.

"Honestly, I hadn't even thought about upgrading the boarding house. Thanks for reminding me Twix!" Although he was happy a loud sigh left his mouth, he still needed to recruit a boarding house manager before he could proceed with the upgrade.

As he was thinking about posting an advertisement the rest of his employees started to filter into the empty dining area. "It looks worse than I thought it would." Mud had a grimace on his face as he spoke.

"KITCHEN!" Cupcake roared as his eyes landed on the empty room, then came over to sweep Kit up in a bear hug.

Kit quickly patted the large man's back encouraging him to release him. "Thanks for the comfort, Cupcake. I was upset about the beautiful kitchen being destroyed too."

Cupcake sniffled and put Kit down. "Kitchen." Kit almost missed the whispered words, he had a feeling Cupcake was more upset about the kitchen being destroyed than he was. The large man's sorrowful eyes kept staring at the missing appliances.

Bundt came and steered Cupcake over to the corner and started offering him comforting words. Charlotte and Chamomile were staring at the midnight guardians with fear. "Kit, I told you they would cause chaos. Having wild animals live with us is not a good idea." Chamomile had reverted to her original assessment of the large panthers when they first arrived.

Kit started to shake his head in disagreement. He had a feeling that the fight was not the Midnight guardians fault but the Piabbits. Over the time the black cats had spent with Kit and Snowball they had done very well integrating themselves into the family he had here in game.

Before he could voice his thoughts Charlotte broke into the conversation. "Cam, how can you say that! The Midnight guardians are part of our family. They give you cuddles when you need them and help keep us safe in a fight. Did you forget about the monster run?"

Chamomile blushed a deep red at the reprimand from Charlotte. "I'm sorry you're right, I was just upset about feeling scared last night."

"Cam, even if you want to dispel the lingering fear, you can't say hurtful words." Chamomile nodded her head and walked over to the midnight guardians surrounding Snowball. Kit could hear her apologise from where he was standing.

He hoped Bai yue would turn up soon so that they could sort this fiasco out properly. As he waited for Bai yue, Twix brought up the boarding house once again. "Kit I was thinking about that manager position for the boarding house. I think we should get someone who is already living here to fill it. We really don't have any more room for one more person right now."

"Are you volunteering Twix?" Kit chuckled as his friend started to frantically shake his head.

"No, no, I have my hands full with the running of the village!" Before Kit could start to tease Twix, a loud boom echoed in dining area.

"CUPCAKE!" Fierce eyes bored into Kit's surprised ones. Kit looked around the room to see what had upset the large man. When he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary he returned a puzzled gaze to Cupcake.

"Cupcake manager!" Kit mouth dropped open, out of all the people in the room Cupcake was the last person he thought would want to run the boarding house. When he had first met Cupcake, he had thought the large man was a bit slow in his thinking, but as he worked with the man he realised this wasn't the case.

Cupcake was actually very intelligent, it was just that he had trouble expressing himself with words. Kit had no issue with Cupcake being the manager. A smile bloomed on his face as one of his problems was going to be resolved.

"Job's all yours my friend!" Kit beamed at the tall man. "Everyone welcome Cupcake as the new boarding house manager!" Congratulations started echoing around the room, Cupcake had a dusting of red on his cheeks in response.

"Thanks!" Cupcake's massive grin made Kit smile widen as well. It was good to see the large man so happy.

"Friend Kit, how can I be of service." Kit jumped in surprise hearing Bai yue's voice, he hadn't even seen the small sphinx come in. All the happiness spreading around the room moments ago dissipated with Bai yue's arrival. The whole room quietened down and stared at the white cat.

All five of the midnight guardians left Snowballs side and came to sit in front of Kit alongside Bai yue. The white cat turned a curious gaze to the panthers.

"I need your interpreting skills once again Bai yue, of course I will give you something in return." Kit handed over a bottle of what he deemed cat bribery. A loud purr erupted from the white cat as the bottle of spiritual moon juice magic disappeared.

"I have an understanding of what you need friend Kit. Meows filled me in on what happened on the way over." The white cat turned its head towards one of the midnight guardians. Kit held back a laugh when he heard the black panther's name. Then he wondered if they all were named after a variation of meow.

Kit had to pinch his leg to stop himself from laughing after that thought. He returned his focus back to Bai yue so he wouldn't get distracted. "Friend Kit, it would seem the fight broke out because the Piabbits found out that Snowball resided here and not at the restaurant. The Piabbits decided that they would take over the boarding house and wanted to remove all the other residents except yourself and Snowball."

Kit had known the fight would have something to do with Snowball, but he didn't think that the Piabbits were conceited enough to think that they could do whatever they wanted. Anger filled Kit at the thought of those tiny pigs wanting to kick all of his friends out of the boarding house.

He then turned his gaze to the midnight guardians. "Thankyou from all of us for stopping the Piabbits, it means a lot to me that you put yourselves in harms way to stop them. Is there anything that you would like as a reward?"

Instant chatter erupted from all of the panthers. Bai yue started to chuckle in delight as their chattering increased in volume. Kit had a feeling he was going to regret giving them an open invitation for their reward.

Once the noise calmed down Bai yue spoke. "The midnight guardians have requested that if the Piabbits are going to stay then they need to sign a contract with them so that they have authority over them when it comes to Snowball and the others in your family."

Kit couldn't help choking at the request. Mars came over and patted his back. "That's probably not a bad idea Kit, the Piabbits need someone to keep them under control or I think this will just be the start of their antics."

Kit couldn't agree more, it was just he didn't want to be the one to negotiate with the unpredictable creatures. They scared the living day lights out of him when they became aggressive. He still remembered fleeing for his life at the twisted tunnels thanks to those tiny pigs.

He looked at the black panthers patiently waiting for his reply and sighed. He was going to have to put his big boy pants on and suck up his discomfort. "Yeah, ok I agree to your request. Bai yue, I will need your help once again."

The rest of his employees were avoiding his eyes as he spoke to Bai yue. "What's wrong with everyone?"

Bundt was the first to speak. "Kit, do you have to let them stay?"

It was a valid question, did he really have to let those tiny pastel pigs stay? He looked at Snowball to see what his reaction was, the little guy had tears in his big eyes. Kit pinched his brow, then made a decision. "If they can't agree to the terms then I will make them leave."

He would comfort Snowball somehow and deal with the fact that he would lose access to all the new ingredients that came with having the Piabbits on his land if they refused to accept the midnight guardian's authority over them.

"Kit if you don't mind me asking, why do you want them to stay in the first place?" Bree raised a quizzical brow at him.

"There are a few reasons, one they are spiritual beasts and are quite strong. I wanted them to be part of protecting the restaurant and you all in the future. I think once they get to know everyone, they will be part of the family like the midnight guardians."

This wasn't a lie, he really felt that they could integrate into the family. They would just need more direction than the midnight guardians had on how to achieve that. If he was honest with himself the main reason that he wanted them to stay was that he really couldn't cope with Snowball's teary face.

He decided to be honest with his friends, he avoided their gaze and spoke in a low voice. "Also it would upset Snowball and I would lose new ingredients." He had a feeling that Snowball wouldn't have let them stay if they really were going to be a threat to his family.

"They not be that bad really, to me they be like naughty children." Crackers spoke up for the Piabbits. This surprised Kit, then again, she was the one who'd had most contact with the creatures since they arrived. "If ya think about it, they just wantin to be part of Snowball's family. I think it be ok to give them a chance."

Mud raised his hand like a school Kid. "Yes Mud?" Kit waited to hear what the small man wanted.

"I know everyone is afraid to let the Piabbits stay right now, but Crackers is actually right about them being like children. They are actually not that old, if I'm correct in my guess I think they are in adolescence."

Kit was shocked at Muds words. "How do you know that Mud?"

Mud happily explained that he had studied Piabbits previously, when he was younger, he had wanted one as a pet. "You can tell they are not fully grown because their skin is not fully developed into having a crystal coating."

"Where are their parents then if they are still so young?" Charlotte inquired.

"I would say they are orphans or else they would still be under the protection of their parents." Mud replied in a grim tone.

Charlotte clutched her chest and bit her lip. "Oh, the poor babies! Kit, we can definitely give them a chance." Nods of agreement flew around the room. Kit also felt a softening in his heart hearing that they were so young. It was no wonder that they acted irrational with no authoritative figure to guide them.