Broken Earth: Unveiling the Secrets of the Worlds

Jinx

Samantha is surprised to see that the three are back after spending only a few days inside the portal. “We’re back.” Xerxes said with an awkward tone. Not knowing what face he should be making after telling his staff that they might take a month or so before collecting all the requirements for the commissions. “Welcome home?” Samantha is equally confused and bothered as they are.

              “I told you they are going to be confused.” Rupert said to Xerxes as the latter turns his face away. “What can we do? We did not really thought about it deeply. And besides, we have to get back after receiving more commissions. I swear. We need to tell those guys to take is slow next time.” Xerxes said as the other two agree.

              “We have time to rest so why don’t we rest for today. Samantha, can you please send someone to tell the commissioners that the commission is already done? We feel really beat after moving around that much.” Xerxes said as he fakes his aching muscles. “Ye-yeah! Me too! My back is aching, my age must be catching up to me.” Rupert said as he press his back and all that’s left is Ramirez, confused of their sudden complains of tiredness when he knows that most of the work are done by elves.

              “Aren’t you feeling tired sir Ramirez?” Samantha ask and Ramirez shakes his head. “I am- perfectly fine.” He said with a hint of doubt. “We’ll be going first Ramirez.” Xerxes said as he waves his hand and in that same time, the backdoor opens and the blonde woman is walking inside the shop and the male twin is following her. The moment they laid their eyes on Xerxes and Rupert on the other side of the door, the male twin jump on to the huge man’s arms and screams in shock. “KYAAA! GHOST!” the female blonde and the huge man stares at him with confusion and disgust.

              “Sorry about that boss. I was just surprised when you popped out all of the sudden.” He reasoned as he climbs down from the huge man’s arms. “Sorry about that Berto.” The huge man nods his head and greets Xerxes. “There is no need for that Berto, we are in dire need of rest so we are leaving first. Oh! And all of the items are already in those bags. I’ll trust that to you guys. Samantha, you know what to do.” Xerxes said as he pass through the door and went straight for their rooms.

              “Am I the only one that’s surprised?” Britt ask the others and they shake their heads. “Then why am I the only one that jolt in shock?” the blonde woman, Cynthia stares at him as if he is disgusted by his reaction. “I’m pretty good at hiding my expressions but to think that you are able to show them without any worry, good for you.” Britt turns to Berto but the huge man just shakes his head. Without anyone by his side, he sigh in disappointment. “Yeah! I’m miserable so what? Never mind that, what is the boss’ orders miss Samantha?” after their initial conversation. They turned to the new task that Xerxes gave them.

              “Hmmm- I would volunteer to go but I don’t really know much of this place. How ‘bout you Berto? Want to tag along with me?” Britt asks as Berto nods his head. “That settles it then, both of us are going. Now hand me the address. Berto and I will take care of it.” Samantha turns to Cynthia for suggestions but the blonde nods her head. “Be sure to be careful okay? There are crazy people out there. Who knows what might happen.” Samantha said knowing the place for a long time.

              The two then heed her warning and went off to deliver the news to the commissioners. “You sure those two will be fine?” Samantha ask and Cynthia reassures her. “They will be fine. There is no way a man that dedicated would actually fail and besides its early in the morning. If they get lost, they can just ask the people around.” Cynthia said as he cleans the lobby. “Now that I think about it, where’s Bianca?”  Samantha ask Cynthia while they both clean the lobby together.

              “She said she will take care of the food. Britt guarantees that his sister is the best cook in the world so I guess its fine but I have my doubts. Bianca’s hands doesn’t look like she had done any job in her lifetime.” Right after what Cynthia said, they heard a loud metal clanking coming from the kitchen.           

              CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!

              The two went to check how things are going but when they enter the kitchen, they are greeted by the pans, casserole and cauldrons scattering on the floor and Bianca  with a few broken eggs and a handful of flour on her hair. “What exactly Britt meant when he said the best cook in the world?” Samantha ask. “Beats me, I had doubts.” Cynthia added as they decided to help her out.

              “Sorry about that. I mistakenly drop a few droplets of oil and slipped. I was going to make some pancakes for breakfast but I ended up messing everything up.” Bianca said with a flustered expression. “No-no, everybody mess up sometimes. It’s normal.” Samantha comforts her but Cynthia is just as harsh. “It’s okay. I wasn’t really expecting that much.” She said that made Bianca a little bad about herself.

              Samantha looks at her but Cynthia brush her off. “What? I was just saying the truth.” She said with a doubtless expression as Samantha lets out a sigh. “We should just help her Cynthia since sir Xerxes have returned unexpectedly early. Based on what they look like, they must have gone through hell inside the portal.” Samantha reminded. “They don’t look that exhausted though and their clothes are as clean as my teeth.” She added as Samantha starts to doubt if it’s better to have more employees.

              A while later and the pancakes are ready but the two have yet to arrive. “I wonder what’s taking them so long.” Samantha wonders as Cynthia gives her an idea. “They must be lost.” Samantha brush her idea off. “Don’t be saying such things Cynthia. Maybe they are just taking a lot longer because of the number of people in the list.” She said to her. [Though there are only ten persons listed on the list. Maybe they really are lost.] she thinks to herself but then abandons the idea and focused on the positive side.

              “I’ll wake the three so just proceed and ready the table.” Samantha volunteers to fetch the other three as Cynthia stares at her back. [Why does she look happy when she said that she will fetch the three? Well, none of it matters to me though. She must have a crush on one of  them.] Cynthia thinks to herself as she and Bianca brings the pancakes to the dining room where everyone will eat the pancakes. “Oh! We forgot about the maple syrup, Bianca can you get it for me. I will take care of these.” Cynthia said as the other nods and went inside the kitchen to look for the maple syrup.

              After finding the maple syrup, Xerxes and the others are already waiting for her in the dining room and finished the food a few minutes later but the two have yet to come back and made Xerxes and the others worried. “What are those two doing? They are awfully taking their time.” Xerxes mutters as their pancakes gone cold. “I think I need to get out and look for them with Ramirez.” Rupert volunteers but then a man in a uniform knocks on their door and to their surprise, the man brought the other two back.

              “Thank officer for helping these two.” Xerxes said as the officer left. “Well, what happened you two?’ Xerxes ask as Britt refuse to open his mouth. With no other choice, Berto decides to tell them what happened. “You see, I gave Britt the address and all but we are unfamiliar with the place so we decided to ask the people we met and they gave us directions. So we followed what the people said and arrived at the place where they points us at but to our surprise, we saw the same people that gave us direction.” Berto said with a cute tone and everybody could not help but stare at him in awe.

              “Wow that’s kind of a cute voice you got there Berto. I was expecting your voice to be so deep but it turns out that your voice is softer than Cynthia’s- ah!” Britt said as Cynthia slaps his back. “Yeah, funny. Anyway. We meet the men and thank them for the help. We asked around if there are people with the names written on the note that we have, he walk in circles and every time we meet those men. Little did we know that those people are tourist and new to this town as well.” Berto said as Xerxes turns his head away before he gets hooked up by Berto’s voice but mainly because of how stupid their experience is.

              “Hahahaha!” the other could not help but laugh at their blunder as Bianca hands them their portion of pancakes. “Cold as ice.” Britt said as he lifts the a single piece and Bianca bashes him with a pan. “If only you returned sooner and did not spend your time circling that place like an i***t then you could have returned when the pancakes are still warm.” Bianca said with an angry tone as her brother easily munches down the pancakes on his throat.

              After that little incident, Xerxes decided to deliver the news himself after taking a fake rest. And the commissioners flood their shop as they marvel at the goods that they were longing for the longest of time.

              A few hours later

              “That was really exhausting. I did not expect for people to flood like that.” Samantha said as she sits in the bench while Cynthia and Bianca closes the shop. “I know right? We did not even get to eat out lunch as well. I was not expecting people to be that fanatic.” Britt said with a worn down face. “Cheer up, we are going to the meat shop tonight. We are going to eat to our hearts content as reward for the hard work.” Xerxes said with huge bag under his eyes. “Take it easy boss. You look like you’re about to leave this world. Though I’m not one to talk.” Britt said as he completely lie on the floor.

              “Don’t worry about me, worry about yourself. This is just the beginning. Next time there will be more commissions so ready yourselves. After the news spreads that we finish the commissions a few weeks before the deadline. People will tend to flood our shop if they need some necessary things.” Xerxes points out as he leans on the counter with a pale expression on his face. “I just wish I did not wish for this to happen.” Ramirez said as he struggles to sit properly. Everyone turns to him and ask why he said that.

              “Oh! When we first opened the shop. Ramirez said during our first or second commission that it doesn’t even make him sweat and the master said that he will be the one asking to surrender in the future because of the numerous commissions that he might not even able to handle it all.” Rupert answers their question and then feels the weigh and dread of his words. “I don’t want to think about it.” Ramirez says as he sits quietly.

              The entire group then left after the closing of the shop and spent their entire night eating everything they can and the next day, before they could even open the shop. Numerous people are already waiting for them for commissions. “I think I will die at this rate.” Britt said as he hesitates to open the door and put up the sign that says ‘Please come in! we are open’

              ‘I think the moment I put this sign up, they might trample me to death. Just the thought of it scares me.’ He says to himself as he hurriedly puts up the sign and runs back inside. And their busy day starts.