🍪🏠Cookie Run: Week in the Slums🏠🍪

Chapter 5: The discussion over breakfast

The next morning, the guests were greeted with a huge breakfast spread. Hot scrambled eggs, a loaf of toast, sausages, bowls of fruit, tea, coffee, juice, and jams and jellies.

"How did everyone sleep?" One of Madeleine's aunties chirped as she spread sweet jelly bean jam across her toast, with the morning paper in hand.

Crunchy Chip groaned loudly, "I had this horrible nightmare that I was a cream wolf, and I met this beautiful she-wolf and we went on a date together. But it turned out it was Affogato the entire time and he stole my wallet, credit card, bank card, passport, driver's license, social security number, and a 25% off coupon for the Rainbow Shell Gallery. Then he called my comrade "tubby"." Crunchy Chip snarled as he tore apart his sausage, "NOBODY CALLS MY CREAM WOLF TUBBY! HE IS IN SHAPE! LOOK AT HIM!" He held up the Cream wolf's head, "YOU THINK HE IS FAT? HE IS NOT! THIS IS ALL FLUFF! HE'S NOT FAT! HE'S FLUFFY!"

"We never said he was fat." Wildberry said, piling his plate up with scrambled eggs and a muffin.

"Boy did I have a weird dream last night..." Gingerbrave shook his head, "Last night I dreamt that I was captured by the witch and taken back to her house, she wanted to punish me for running away by crushing me up into crumbs and turning me into a pie crust. Then right when she was going to crush me up, the BTS Cookies crashed through the window riding Cream Unicorn Cookie dressed in a yellow sequin jumpsuit, and took me home." Gingerbrave shook his head again, taking a long sip of milk.

"By the divines, what were you eating before bed?" Madeleine came downstairs in a fluffy bathrobe, with rollers in his hair, and cold cream on his face. He kissed his mother and aunties on the cheek, "Good morning Mother! Good morning Aunties!" He scanned the breakfast table, "Have any of you seen Espresso this morning?"

"I believe I heard him go into his room at dawn this morning." Wildberry said.

Crunchy Chip tossed a sausage to cream wolf, "I didn't see him this morning when I took Cream wolf for his morning run."

Before Madeleine could continue, a very disheveled Espresso came stumbling into the dining room half asleep, his pupils were dilated and round.

"There you are Espresso, we were wondering where you were!" Gingerbrave greeted him cheerfully.

"Hrggh..." Espresso grunted in a rather irritated tone. His head dropped back down sleepily.

"What were you doing at four this morning?" Wildberry asked, "I heard you reciting spells outside."

"Don't. Talk. To me." Espresso muttered, he slept-walked to his seat. When he went to sit down, he missed the chair completely resulting in him tumbling onto the floor. The two aunts stared at him, wincing, then turned to Madeleine.

"Don't worry about him," Madeleine said casually as he spread marmalade across his toast, "he's like that when he hasn't had his morning coffee."

One of the aunts slid a cup of coffee over to Espresso. Espresso, while still on the floor, groggily took the cup while trying not to slosh it onto the white table cloth, and chugged it. Immediately he snapped out of his stupor and was back in his seat, with his pupils constricted.

Madeleine cleared his throat and tapped his silver spoon against the crystal drinking glass, "May I have your attention please? I have something very important to say. Last night me and Espresso were talking, and it has been brought to my attention of how exactly privileged I am. During my travels I have experienced many cultures of Cookie kind, I had the opportunity to live their lifestyle. Except one that is very close to home. For years I have heard of what life is like in the lower city, but never really got to experience it for myself. So last night, Espresso and I made a bet, if I can live a week in the slums of the Lower city, without any help from the upper city living the way the cookies do down there, then Espresso will have to write an essay on the benefits of light magic."