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The fountain pen raced across the page and the cover slammed all in one swift motion, the next motion consisting of placing the book back into the hands of the cookie it belonged to.
It was routine by now, somewhat monotonous. Though maybe the monotony was comfortable.
Linzer Cookie had been writing since she was young and she always had a taste for the unknown. Though, it was odd. She preferred mystery when she wasn't the one experiencing it. She didn't quite enjoy being pushed out of her comfort zone.
She knew what she liked, what she was good at and what she absolutely hated. She had her limits and she was very familiar with them.
Fan after fan, the line slowly got shorter and Linzer little by little began to zone out. Her hand cramped from her complicated signature—which she regrets now that she’s made it big—so she figured daydreaming would solve this issue temporarily.
She thought up some new ideas for the next book in her second most popular series, which despite being second place happened to be first place to her. She didn’t quite understand why the public loved it slightly less.
It didn’t exactly make sense, she poured so much love into it that it was practically overflowing with passion. Maybe, if she just made this next book the best one yet, they’d all begin to favor this series over the other and—what was that?
A scream rang out from somewhere near the back of the line and Linzer Cookie’s routine task was broken, her fountain pen dropped to the table without a second thought.
“Just give me the coins,” a somewhat raspy voice attempted to whisper yell, failing kind of miserably.
“This cookie’s trying to mug me!” shouted another cookie, obviously very alarmed. Immediately, Linzer called for the nearest guards.
Chili Pepper Cookie sat on a bench in the holding room, sighed and slouched into it. All of this mess over some coins that someone was going to spend on a book, something so insignificant and trivial.
None of this would even be an issue if it weren’t for her getting bumped on that extremely crowded sidewalk. The cookie would've never noticed, nor would it matter. It was a book and to Chili Pepper that was one of the least important things you could spend your money on.
The door to the holding room slowly creaked open and inside walked two guards and behind them, the author of the book in question.
Instead of berating Chili Pepper Cookie, yelling, or some other sort of insult that was probably sort of called for, she nodded towards the guards. The closer guard took out a key and hesitantly unlocked the barred cell door.
Chili Pepper stood and the author strolled in. She paused, studied her, making awkward eye contact and breaking it every few seconds to review her outfit.
“Perfect,” she spoke after an uncomfortably long period of silence, “you’ll do perfect.”
“Excuse me?” Chili Pepper questioned, head tilting slightly to the right as she took the smallest step back to study the author now in return.
Her clothes were in perfect shape. It also looked like she was the type to fold them, due to the fact there was hardly even a wrinkle in her skirt. She appeared so put together, that it almost made Chili Pepper kind of nervous.
“I’ve discussed it with these kind guards here and we’ve come to an agreement,” she said, kindly and gently, as if paying special attention to every word that came out of her mouth, “to earn the Kingdom’s trust back, you must prove trustworthy. To do so you will work for me temporarily as I rehabilitate you,”
“What,” it was less of a question and more so just an expression of how confused Chili Pepper Cookie was. She could feel the puzzled look on her face and she could feel it contorting even further as seconds passed.
“Well you’re perfect for the job anyways,” she took Chili Peppers hand, shook it gently despite no movement being reciprocated, “When you mugged that cookie at my signing you gave me the perfect idea for my book series,”
“I did?”
“Yes!”
“Now how did I manage to do that?”
“Well I was lost in thought and pondering how exactly I should twist the story to make it more interesting, turns out you’re exactly what it needs! A thief!” The author let go of Chili Pepper Cookie’s hand now and it fell to her side limply.
“Uh huh,” she spoke slowly, with uncertainty lingering in her voice.
Before either of them know it, Chili Pepper begins teaching Linzer all about thievery. Chili Pepper didn’t exactly have a choice but to do what Linzer cookie asked, seeing as she was in charge of her freedom.
Linzer would laugh and giggle during every conversation. Chili Pepper would laugh too, her face growing hot as they talked. Maybe it was nerves, maybe it was embarrassment. All she knew is that she started to feel like she finally had some standards for herself, maybe from the help of Linzer.
Day by day, a life without stealing for fun seemed more and more realistic. Maybe books weren’t useless. Maybe if they were important to Linzer, they were important to her.
After all, Linzer admitted she was stepping far out of her comfort zone every day just by becoming more involved in the stuff she wrote, just so she could get a better idea for her stories. Chili Pepper admired that.
Maybe Chili Pepper could step out of her comfort zone, too.