𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬.

3

1858 words

Just as Espresso felt himself nod off, he imminently lifted his head back up, but he wasn't on the trail anymore. So, he really had fallen asleep, huh. He looked around himself to take in the surroundings, he was on a couch but not the one at his home. At that moment, Madeline came out from the nearby hallway, "Espresso! You needed another nap, huh?"

"What do you mean, where are we?" Espresso rubbed his hand against his hair.

"I guess you really were tired. I took you to the kingdom's infirmary and got a cookie to patch up your leg. You don't recall any of that, it happened no less than an hour ago."

Espresso sighed and got up from the couch. His body had still ached but only from how much he'd worked that day, he couldn't even feel the cut. Whoever the nurse was must've done a nice job.

"Send my thanks over to the nurse. I need to get out and back to my house, I still have a lot of work to get done."

"You're going back just to do even more work? Seriously, don't push yourself so much, you look completely drained. I don't need to be responsible for helping you have a better sleep schedule too now, do I?"

It was true, Espresso wanted to lay down and take a break from all of today's madness, but he'd promised the kingdom's gardeners a new formula to help the crops grow healthier by tomorrow.

"It's nothing that has business to do with you, I'll take my leave now, Madeline."

Madeline grabbed Espresso's arm, "Uh, is there anything I can do to help make up for today?"

"You mean those hound cakes from earlier? Forget it unless you want it to be a big deal. I'll find you tomorrow to complete our work so we can finally end this."

Madeline released his grip from the cookie and watched Espresso walk out from his sight.

Returning home, Espresso went to the stand where he'd done all of his projects. Over the next hour and a half, he found himself mixing the different chemicals until he'd come out with a project he was satisfied with. And once he was done with that, he let out a relieved sigh and bottled the substance.

After all of his hard work was done, he hazily walked up the stairs to his house and opened the door to his bedroom. He looked at the clock on the bed stand nearby, 4 in the morning. Maybe he could fit in about 3 hours of sleep, that was if he didn't awake to the younger cookies playing outside as early as 6 in the morning. Espresso sunk his head into his pillow and rested his body, finally done for today, he thought.

Espresso's head shot up in confusion to the sound of loud knocking. What time had it been? He reached around for his glasses and got himself up from bed, there was somebody at the door. Instead of checking the clock, he made his way downstairs to see who was knocking at seemingly such an early time in the morning.

"Madeline, what do you want? Couldn't you have come back later?"

"What, Is something wrong? Do you know what time it is? I came by over here near 8, but I guess you're quite a heavy sleeper to not hear such sturdy knocks."

"What time is it?"

"It's half past 1, I figured if I came back any later it'd be too dark to finish what we need to do!"

1? 1 in the afternoon? Espresso never usually caught himself sleeping in so late. He really must've pushed himself too far, his body was still sore too. Oh right, he needed to get these bottles over to the kingdom's gardening center. Espresso picked up the bottles and made his way past Madeline and towards the garden.