A Queen and Her Kings

Chestnuts and the Arrogance of a Lion

Deuce looked up at the tall chestnut trees in front of him, internally groaning at the work that was ahead of him; Ace, on the other hand, didn't bother to hide his annoyance.

"Why do we have to pick the stupid chestnuts fresh?! We have a literal magic food bag that can give us whatever we need! What's the point?!", he asked an irritated looking Cassandra, who sighed and rubbed her temples.

"Because chestnuts taste better fresh, and before you ask why I don't just fish a tart out of the bag, it's because I refuse to half-ass my baking.", the tribrid explained, her expression letting everyone know this wasn't the first time she had been forced to explain this. Grim, who was sitting on Ace's shoulder, opened his muzzle to speak, only to be interrupted by his master.

"And before you ask why I got the ingredients for the strawberry tart out of the bag Grim, it's because I was in a rush and pissed off at Riddle. Now that I have time, we're doing this the old fashioned way. Understand?", Cassandra elaborated. Ace and Grim both groaned loudly.

"Yeah, we get it. Doesn't mean we have to like it, though.", the indirect cause of this situation said. Cassandra shot him a 'do not test me' look, which caused him to jump, before the tribrid rolled her eyes and turned to face everyone.

"We need about two buckets full, which shouldn't take too long with all of us working together. After that we can- GRIM!", Cassandra explained, but cut herself off when she saw Grim fly up into one of the chestnut trees and try to pick one of the nuts. Cassandra began to panic.

"Don't touch those! They're-", she began to call out urgently, but was cut off when Grim did the exact opposite of what she told him to do and grabbed the chestnut, yelling out a loud 'OW!' when he did, quickly retracting his paw and placing it in his mouth. Cassandra winced.

"-Prickly...", Cassandra finished, and she panicked when Grim flew down and began to sniffle. Rapidly taking him into her arms, she hugged him tight and kissed his paw gently. Grim looked at his master with watery eyes as she smiled.

"Better?", she asked. Grim blinked away the last of his tears and nodded. With that out of the way, Cassandra realized something.

"We'll need some gloves if we want to pick these things. I'll go check and see if there's any in the botanical garden; Griffin, would you mind watching Grim while I'm gone?", the redheaded girl asked. The ex-soldier shook his head with a smile and let his boss place her familiar gently on his shoulder. Cassandra patted the fire-cat's head gently and started on her way to the gardens.

"I'll be back soon! You guys wait here!", she called back, just as she was about to open the glass door to the gardens. Entering quietly, Cassandra was mesmerized by the natural beauty of the gardens. She had never been in here before, opting to stick to outdoor trees when she had committed fruit larceny during yesterday's lunch so as to avoid security cameras.

The hanging vines, viberant flowers, and exotic looking fruits that filled the glass building were unlike anything Cassandra had ever seen before. There were even a few small stone bridges that went over flowing, crystal blue streams. Cassandra took a deep inhale of floral, earthy scented air, and exhaled with a blissful sigh.

The gardens reminded her of the compound gardens Yue and Griffin kept back home. She would have to come back here at some point.

Walking down the stone path, the redhead placed her hands in her jacket pockets and scanned the area for supplies. Once she was around the heart of the garden, she grinned when she caught sight of several stacked green plastic buckets with several sets of thick work gloves in them.

"Found ya!", she said, happy with her discovery. She began to quickly walk over to the equipment, and she was so focused on getting to the objects, she didn't notice the dark, furry lion's tail laying in the walkway. Just as Cassandra was about to reach the buckets, she stopped when she stepped on something unusual.