At 3 p.m. . .
I presented myself in front of the crowd, putting myself between them and the contestants. 'Thank you all for coming!! I appreciate that you all have come to this festival witness of Spice Delights' First pie eating contest!' I raised my voice softly so it was clear and loud for everyone to hear. 'As you all know, this pie eating contest will determine who is the best pie eater in town, AND, to make the game more exciting . . .' I pointed behind the contestants to where the baskets were. 'The first three places will be given these baskets with a silk ribbon of different color, filled out with baked goods and jars, as well as with especial "discount cards" for either the restaurant, the bakery, or both!!'
The whole crowd murmured in excitement.
'What is a "discount card"? Well, like the "client seal," is a card that can be used for the restaurant or bakery, but, with the difference is that, depending on each card, you'll have a different deal for either the restaurant, bakery, or both!' I started to explained the discount cards like before. 'For example: the third place basket with the yellow ribbon, contains two "discount cards" that will grant the third place ten percent a whole meal with one card, and another card that gives a free dessert after a buying whole meal.' I gave an example.
The whole crowd was murmuring excited.
'As for the second place basket with the orange ribbon, contains FIVE discount cards that will let the winner have: "buy two and get the third one free" in the first card, "20 coppers off a whole purchase from the bakery" with the second card, a FREE sandwhich with the third card, a deal of a whole meal HALF the price with the fourth card, and, last but least, a family meal deal HALF the price!!' I went on to explain the contents of the second basket.
'Wooooahhhhhhh! Now THAT is a real deal!! THE FAMILY DEAL BASKET IS MINE!!' The contestants now were getting excited.
'Now I wish I had participanted. . . Yeah, with those cards, I would eat without spending much for a week, or two. . . YOU BETTER WIN AT LEAST THAT ONE HONEY!! . . . Hahaha!! . . . KARGA YOU CAN DO IT!!' The crowd now was cheering on. . . For the most part.
I raised a hand that shushed everyone softly. 'Now, as for the last and BIGGEST basket, with the red ribbon, contains a specific card, that, I will humbily tell you that, it will allow the winner AND only the winner. . . To eat for FREE in my restaurant for thirty days.' I told them.
The whole crowd went wild along with the contestants. The human contestants went ballistic for the deal, the orcs were bumping their chests with excitement, the dwarves were laughing euphorically along with Lee.
'Bring the pies my chefs!!' I ordered.
The pies were of regular size but the filling seem to be about to pop from the crust. The chefs delivered a single pie to each contestant and then left.
'Okay guys, you should have already read and memorized the rules of the eating contest and I am SURE that you do not need a reminded, but I will repeat them cause I WANT to!' I told them. 'For this contest you shall have FIFTEEN minutes to eat as many pies as possible! Cheating whether with help or magic, as well as fainting or vomiting will make you disqualified! And, the contest ends when either there's just one competitor left, when there's no more pies to eat, or when the time is up! Whichever comes first, so good luck!!' I smiled at them and then turned to see the crowd. 'Is everyone ready?!'
The crowd cheered on.
'Haha, this will be easy!!' I heard Karga exclaimed.
'This pies will be nothing agaisnt me!' I heard another orc say.
'This pie filling is looking at me. . .' A human contestant muttered nervously.
'The highest prize will be mine!!' The two dwarves exclaimed at the same time.
'My son is competing. . . I should have stopped him. . . Yet here we are.' I heard a woman talked to another woman while looking dismayed as she started at the size of the pies.
'You can do it sister!' Azruk told his sister. 'For family honor!' He reminded her.
'May the deities above forgive us and them for the atrocities that might happen right now and today.' Orson said to himself crossing himself and started to pray, with the other chefs nodding alongside him.
'Mr. Mayor!' I called out to the mayor. 'If you please!' I asked him.
The mayor nodded and took out his own pocket watch. 'Everyone ready?!' He called out to the contestants.
'Yeaahhhhh!! WOOOOO!!! HAHAHA!! BRING IT ON!!' The contestants answered.
'GET SET! READY?!' The mayor pulled a very old version of a gun (for me, who comes from the modern world), and then made a shot in the air. 'GOOOOO!!!'
The contestants quickly took their pies and started munching on them. The crowd was cheering for their favorites, like Azruk cheering Karga and the humans cheering for their family members who are participating at the contest.
After a few minutes, I decided to narrate to the public as to not bore them.
'Ladies and gentleman, and dear public around us! As we can see, around seven humans are going forward and keeping up the pace with the non-humans! The other three on the other hand. . . One is red faced, another was looking up in the sky like he was reconsidering his life choices and the other. . .' I stared at the poor guy. 'He's at the same pace as the guy before, or worse. . .' I chuckled more for myself than at the sight before me. 'A-As for the orcs, three of them are already going for the SECOND pie, the fourth orc is savouring the pie— I am glad you like them by the way!' I told the fourth orc. 'And the fifth is eating SO fast is making the whole table tremble! Be careful orc number five, tables are NOT cheap and they are definetely NOT mine!' I warned the fifth orc.
The crowd laughed in general, with some people, here and there commeting on how the table will definetely break.
'Fine fine!' The fifth orc agreed to turn down the pace. . . For two seconds before picking up the pace once again.
This also made the crowd laugh.
'Haha! Well, what do we have here now?! The dwarves are asking for their seconds pies!' I pointed at the dwarves who were raising their hands while holding their empty plates at the same time. 'Some more pies please!'
Two chefs ran to meet the dwarves and gave them their pies, and quickly left.
'Keep up the good work you both! As for the satyr over there, is also asking for his second pie!' I pointed out to the satyr who was also raising his hand, and a chef was already going to him with another pie. 'As for the dragonborn. . .' I raised both eyebrows and my mouth went wide open.
Rhazaroth. . . . Opened his mouth to an abnormal size and width. . . And ate HALF of his first pie in a single bite. . . Then he did it again to eat the other half of the pie.
The whole crowd was shocked. 'W-What the fu—; HAHAHA!; Is that humanly possible?!;THAT'S CHEATING!!; I knew betting for him was the right choice!!' The crowd was bewildered, surprised and fascinated by Rhazaroth abilities to intake pies as well as his inusual anatomy.
'Well, at least we know that he's hungry.' I shrugged trying not to think about it too much. If there's a next year and he decides to compete again, I will bet for him as well. . . Not gonna admit it outloud though. I thought to myself.
'Dragonborn, leave something for the rest of us, will you!?' Green Lee exclaimed laughing scandalously.
Time went on. . . The contestants went losing. The first was a dwarf who choked when he laughed at Rhazaroth's way of eating. . . The dwarf patted his friend, bumped fists with him and then, left with his arms up in the sky announcing his retirement.
I nodded and acompanied him to the back of the stage. 'The doctor will give you some non-human friendly medicine just in case.' I let him know patting his shoulder.
'Thank you, open arms.' The dwarf patted my hand and then left the stage entirely.
I quickly went to Sipfra and Orson, and asked them to give either a beer or alcoholic discount card for consolation to the dwarf.
The three humans that were behind on eating (the one with the red face, the one with the "I'm re-thinking my life choices" face, and the third one who looked like he just saw a dragon dance tango) and quitted through their own terms, or when I called the doctor for them.
Once they were out of the stage, I asked Orson and Sipfra to give them one consolation discount card to each one of them.
The orc who was savouring his pies, ended up savouring the pie too much so the mayor disquialified them for taking too much their time. Then, another orc was disqualified for getting too exited for the second pie and eating too quickly, making himself almost choke with a big piece of crust for not munching it before (Guess the orc tried to imitate Rhazaroth that he forgot he was not a dragonborn), and the doctor officially disqualified him. Just in case.
I told Orson and Sipfra to give the orc who favores food a consolation discount card about pies, while giving to the other orc a discount card for a beer or something.
Then, we all saw Green Lee leaving raising his hands. 'I, kinda forgot I am a grass eater, not a baked-goods-eater!!!' He smiled, although his frowned let me know he was suffering from an upset stomach.
I nodded understanding, and aplauded for his honesty and let him leave, but not before letting him know he would receive some stomach medicine from the doctor on his way out. Lee nodded and left. Then I told Orson to give Lee a consolation discount card that about pies, for his evening's comedy show's sake (in other words, I wanted Lee to receive the "random" discount card that was about pies like it was a joke from the fates or something).
The ones left were three orcs (one of them being Karga), seven humans, Rhazaroth and the other dwarf.
The crowd was cheering. And it's been only about five minutes so far! I whistled as I checked my pocket watch.
'Keep it up everybody there's still more pies!!' I encouraged them as the chefs went on to give more pies.
'Dear locals of Berrywood and outside of Berrywood! In the first place, we have the dragonborn who us going through his third pie as quickly as the second and first!' I pointed to Rhazaroth who nodded taking his time with the pie. 'On the second place, we have the third orc, who is keeping up the pace with the dragonborn, and shockingly enough, the third place goes to human number three!' I pointed to the competitors who were Karga and the other human, who briefly raised their hands before eating again.
The human crowd cheered on for the human number three, who was smiling while trying to chew.
'Haha! Hear that Rhaz!? I'm coming for you!!' Karga exclaimed to Rhazaroth as she ate with more speed.
Rhazaroth growled and decided to "speed up" a bit. Just "a bit."
Once everyone saw the speed between Karga and Rhazaroth, some humans started to back down. Two humans raised their hands in surrender, red in the face, and clearly frowning because of their stomach working against them.
The doctor and me escorted them to the back stage where they would receive medicine, and their consolation discount cards.
One we hit about nine minutes, a human looked like he was about to vomit, so the doctor and me brought him out of the competition with lighting speed as the crowd laughed. The human was brought to the back stage, and as he threw up the pies (and probably even his dinner from yesterday).
We hit minute number eleven, a human became green like broccoli. . . 'I, I lost the bet. . .' He replied softly standing up.
The doctor escorted him out in a quick pace.
As soon as other human contestant saw the green human leave, the other human raise his hands in surrender. 'Yeah. . . Nope! My pride won't handle another pie, hehe.' He chuckled in the end.
The crowd laugh with him as I scorted him out. Three humans left. I determined as I returned to the stage. 'FOUR MINUTES LEFT!! We still have TWO more humans with one of them being in third place! One dwarf catching up to be third place! Three orcs with one of them being second place and the Dragonborn who is still first place!!' I let the people know. 'If any contestant wants to back down know, you may—-'
*PUM!!!* The whole stage trembled.
We all standed still and checked what happened. . . Two orcs had collapsed. . . One was red and gasping for air, and the other, well. . . He blacked out slamming his face on the pie.
The whole crowd gasped in shock. Myself as well. I was expecting this from the humans, not from the orcs!
Rhazaroth barely looked at the pair of orcs and rolles his eyes as if to say "amateurs." Karga raised an eyebrow at the orcs quickly shaking her head as she went on to keep eating.
'Did you both not learned anything from the previous orc who tried to imminate the dragonborn?!' The doctor scolded both orcs as he and three orcs carried them off stage.
I nodded to Orson and Sipfra so they could give the discount cards to the blacked out orcs.
The dwarf, seeing two orcs already fainting, stood up shook his hands in defeat. 'Yeah, I've had enough! Good luck to the rest!' He declared leaving the competition with his head high.
A group of three dwarves clapped and cheered for him. They clearly knew that it was better for him to leave know than to lose face later.
'TWO MINUTES CONTESTANTS!!' The mayor exclaimed showing his pocket watch.
'I give up!' The second last human raised his hands. 'T-Too much pressure for me! S-Sorry dear!' He called out.
'You did well honey!' His girlfriend cheered from the crowd.
The doctor escorted the human out quickly.
'I-I'm done!!' The last human standed and quickly regretted his decision as he groaned and gasped he hugged himself. 'I-I am content taking third place!!' He declared.
'Congratulations!' I congratulated him aplauding him as I went to him and patted on th back. 'You win the third place basket with it's content and it's yellow ribbon!!!' I let him and the public know. 'But BEFORE giving you the basket, please see the doctor and after the last minute passes, we will give your prize!'
The human was gasping for air but smiled gratefully. 'Thank you.' He waved the public goodbye as he left to the back stage.
The crowd gave him a huge applause as he left.
*POW!!* A gunshot made everyone freeze. 'TIME'S UP!' The mayor declared. 'Contestants, leave the pies left alone!!'
Rhazaroth was just about to eight his tenth pie, while Karga just finished eating her ninth pie.
'It's a tie!' I exclaimed in surprise.
Everyone was surprised and expectant to see how would this turn out. Karga and Rhazaroth for their part, they were staring with rivarly at each other, with respect, but clearly saw themselves as THE winner.
The mayor frowned at this and quickly went to me to talk to me. 'What do you think?' He asked.
'Well, while Rhaz was almost able to take a bite of his tenth pie, Karga just finished her ninth pie. . . It is still a tie.' I told him.
'Yet again, Rhazaroth was just about to eat thee tenth pie. . .' The mayor said pointing with his eye to the pair of non-humans waiting for the decision.
I thought about it and decided that, it was for the best. 'Yeah you are right.' I nodded in agreement and we went to the public. 'Dear public! As we know, the two last contestant right here, are technically in a tie!' I pointed to Karga and Rhazaroth.
'But! Because the dragonborn was the one who was closer to eating THEE tenth pie!' The mayor pointed out. 'Therefore, we believe that it is only right we proclaim him as THE winner of the eating pie contest!!' He proclames pointing with a hand to Rhazaroth. 'Applause for the winner of you please!!'
The crowd cheered for Rhazaroth. 'Dragonborn! Dragonborn! Dragonborn!'
Both Rhazaroth and Karga raised their eyebrows in surprise at first, but then Rhazaroth smiled with satisfaction and briefly wagging his tail on the stage floor, while Karga grunted with a smile.
I then took over. 'Contestants of the three main places, please come with me to receive your prizes!!' I asked them.
Karga and Rhazaroth stood up from the table and walked with me, as the human who won third place came back on stage looking much better than before. The medicine the doctor gave must have worked wonders. I smiled to that.
I started first with the third place basket. The basket had the yellow ribbon attached and was full of the stuff as I gave it to the human who won this. 'Dear one, this basket contains one giant loaf of bread, six oatmeal cookies, four butter cookies, one jar of berry compota, one small vanilla cake, one small jar of gnomed-made sweeten pollen, one white raven feather and the two discount cards as promised.' I gave the basket to the human and turned to the public. 'Applause for him dear crowd!!'
The crowd cheered for him, while Karga and Rhazaroth nodded to him with respect.
I then continued one with the second place basket. The basket was bigger than the third basket but stil smaller than the biggest basket no had the orange ribbon attached and had a lot more stuff inside.
'Dear orc, this basket contains two giant loafs of bread, a dozen oatmeal cookies, six butter cookies, four chocolate chip cookies, one pouch of solid candy, one small honey cake with dried fruit, two small jars of gnomed-made sweeten pollen, one regular lemon pound cake, two white raven feathers and last but not least, the FIVE coupons as promised.' I gave the basket to Karga. 'Applause for the second place!!'
The crowd cheered higher for Karga, with Azruk, Karga's younger brother, and other orcs cheering the hardest for her. 'WOOOHOOOOO!! ORC! ORC! ORC! GOOD JOB KARGAAAAAAAA!!'
I smiled and then went on to give the last basket, which was the biggest of the three, with the red ribbon attached to the basket and even fuller that the previous baskets. 'Dear Dragonborn, this basket contains four giant loaves of bread, a dozen butter vanilla cookies, six double cocholate chip cookies, a small pouch of honey suckle and honey lemon candies, four breakfast muffins, three giant hunter sandwhiches, two regular honey ceakes with dried fruit, four white raven feathers, one jar of fermented honey, and the FREE FOOD card that will be valid for thirty whole days!!' I gave the (heavy) basket to Rhazaroth. 'Applause for the winner of the contest!!!'
The crowd went wild, especially at the mention of chocolate, the giant loaves, the fermented honey, and white raven feathers, and the free food card.
'Thank you all for coming! For who entered the bets, we will see you at the betting stand so you can collect your consolation discounts or your prizes!' I let them on as the third main winners made a small bow as their good yes and left with me to the back stage.
. . .
In the evening. . . .
Green Lee was making a comedy show and telling jokes about how the pie eating competition was, while Orson, Sipfra and I were in my office checking how much money and things we were able to win and get.
As far as we could see, most of the non-humans bet on Rhazaroth and some of the other non-humans, while humans bet on the other humans barely a few bet on the non-humans. . . In short, most of the human coppers were given to us. That, and with some of the families that were low income, had given us from roots to a few animals.
Things and animals that humans gave us:
— Candles (LOTS of them)
— Random metal tools (lost count of them)
— Twenty jars (in various sizes)
— Thirty reusable boxes (in various sizes)
— Twenty-seven bottles of cheap wine, beer and other alcoholic stuff
— Thirty-two eggs
— fifteen jars of milk (not as many as the jars and boxes, and were pretty small, but it was still a good amount)
— A rusty handmade brooch
— Five old-yet-very-clean scarfs
— A small portion of rope
— A bunch of tea pouches
— Two chickens
As for the things some of the non-humans gave us:
— Five more small jars of sweeten pollen.
— Two wolf skins
— Three orc knives
— Two bottles of satyr licour.
— A four leaf clover (which was HUGE surprise there)
— Two dwarf-carved gems (sapphire and rubi)
— Four tiny jars of honey
— A group of feathers with mixed colors (some examples were: blue and grey, yellow and orange, violet and red, green and brown, pink and green, red and black, gold and crimson).
— A small jar with an iluminescent crystal.
As for the humans who went to bet with money. . . Well, not many of them won. Barely Two humans did. . . And a bunch of non-humans also did. . .
Back at the betting stand hours earlier. . .
'Since the copper went up to five thousand coppers, instead of thirty percent, we'll keep fifty percent of the total, and nobody else needs to know.' I told the crew who nodded accompliced. 'I am going to keep two thousand and five hundred coppers.' I let Orson and Sipfra know as we divided the money and putting the restaurant's part immediately on my pouch. 'As for the two human winners that won the bets~~. . .' I turned to see both humans who were looking expectantly. 'They will both receive one thousand, two hundred and fifty coppers each one!!' I exclaimed.
There was silence for the next two seconds and the humble humans went wild in amazement!! 'A thousand, two hundred and fifty each one?! That's a fortune!!! They'll be rich!!!'
The winners were in shock. They look at each other completely incredulous. One had his hands at his head sides, the other was chuckling nervously.
As they both clocked out of their shock, I put the money in a pouch for each one of them and presented the money. 'Here you boys! Congratulations!' I congratulated them.
The first winner shook my hand in with excitement, 'Thank you so much!!' He took the money and ran with it back to where he came from as if his life was in danger.
'T-Thank you as well.' The other winner gave me a briefly handshake as he teared up and took his money. 'I-I'll be able to maintain my family through winter. . .' He whispered more to himself than to me and ran to his family showing the money to them. His family of a wife, and five children cheered for him and hugged him.
I cleaned a tear from my eye and composed myself. 'Ehem. . .' I then turned to see the non-human winners. 'As for the non-humans. . . Guess who especial discount cards~~?' I raised some red-edge color discount cards.
'Me first! Me first! Yes, yes YES!! YEAH!!!' The excited non-humans got forward.
'Okay okay! First make a line so we can return your betting goods and then give you espacial discount cards to each one of you' I asked them.
They quickly made a line.
Thank goodness Ivy's old friend made more non-human specific discount cards. I thanked on the inside as I saw two gnomes making it to first in line. 'Hello you two!! Can I see your tickets?' I asked.
They presented their tickets.
I took them and saw the symbols and what they bet with. 'A gnome hammer and a gnome-crochetted scarf!!' I called for the things.
Orson brought the small hammer and the beautiful crochetted scarf of blue and red colors. 'Here ya go!' He put them as softly as he could on the betting stand table.
'And here you go.' I gave them a discount card each. 'Thank you for betting!'
The gnomes took their hammer and scarf, along with the discount cards taking a look at the cards. . .
'Oooooohhhh!! I've got a "Get half the price of any hot drink accompanied with a sweetened baked good" card!' The first exclaimed to his companion.
'And I got a "Buy a six cookies, get other two free!" My family is going to love this!' The gnome jumped out of happiness.
'Okay you two, please get on your way I still have a bunch of people to attend.' I asked them.
'Oh right! Sorry! Have a good day! We appreciate it!' The gnomes nodded and disposed to run back to the forest with their "treasure" cards.
'Hahaha! Okay, good next?' I turned to see the next one, and it was a group of a five nymphs. 'Can I see your tickets?' I asked.
They gave me their tickets and I checked them. 'Bring the pearl, the emerald, the stone shaped like a pie—hehe— and the pouch with nymph tea!' I called for it.
Sipfra and Orson brought the stuff to the table and the nymphs grabbed their stuff individually.
'And here you go, we appreciate you betting!' I gave them their discount cards.
'Ohhh! A "twenty percent discount of honey products"? Amazing!' The dryad jumped in hapiness.
'I've got a "five percent discount of drink products for the week."' The water nymph showed the others.
'I received a "fifty percent discount for every heavy meal for a week."' The rock nymph smiled.
'I've got a "fifty percent discount on light products!"' The aire nymph flyed on in happiness.
The nymphs left with their treasures.
'Okay, who's next?!' I asked turning to look at the next one. . . .
Back to the present. . .
Taking out the bunch of non-human winners, it was a good business.I smiled for myself as I prepared a pouch with the money I promised the mayor. I said I would give him from the five to ten percent depending on how much money I've got. . . I want to be a greedy woman, but the mayor already saw how much money I was able to give the two human winners . . . I exhaled as I prepared a letter to the mayor. For such, I cannot afford to cheat. I sighed deeply once again.
I decided to go for the ten percent plus a bonus of two percent, making it a twelve percent payment to the mayor. . . Should I give him some things from both human bets and non-human treasures? I wondered as I looked at the list of the things we've got. Hmm. . .
'You might want to give him some things from the loot to the mayor, Amelia.' Sipfra suggested. 'You've seen how the conservative tried to do you dirty. Getting into the mayor's good graces might give you the benefit of the doubt in future trouble.'
Orson nodded to what Sipfra was saying. 'I personally suggest some of the wine and milk, and maybe a small thing from the non-human loot. Just to be safe.' He suggested.
I nodded and then checked the list again.
After a few minutes, I decided to give a some stuff from the human lot and only a bit of the non-human loot.
From the human loot, I made a small list of about two percent the candles (there were A LOT so it was a non-issue), a third of the metal tools, seven bottles of the alcoholic stuff, three jars of milk and a small pouch of tea leaves. From the non-human loot, I decided to just give him two feathers of random mixed colors.
'Does this look good?' I asked them.
Orson and Sipfra looked at the list (with drawings since Sipfra can't read that well), and they both nodded. 'That looks way better than what we were thinking of.' Orson admitted. 'Now, just to be safe, tomorrow send Wyatt with the money and the stuff to the mayor's house so he can deliver them to the mayor.' Orson proposed. 'Since he's a flyer distributor, I'm sure he would like the extra cash.'
I nodded to that and started to gather the stuff.
Thankfully, the festival went well and things might go back to normal.