“No no no, this can’t be right!” Bee’s voice rang out through the kitchen of her home, a growing grumble in her tone as frustration starts to bleed into the room, only herself and Maisy in the kitchen.

“Gods, anyone help me. I need to make this before Erin gets home, it’s her birthday and- Agh! Nothing’s coming together and the recipe is shit!” The blonde kadin grumbled, flipping one page between her index paw pad and her thumb, careful enough to not rip the delicate pages of the pastry baking book that Erin’s had lying around for years at this point. The book rested upright on a bookstand on the counter, other ingredients littering the surface as well such as eggs and a sack of barely used flour.

“What do you think Maisy? Should I stick with the cake?.. Just a semi-simple carrot cake for her for her birthday coming up?” Bee would smile, looking at her dwarf qirnin friend. “Yeah, I know I should.. But it’s just… Not making any sense. I mean it says here I have to heat the oven at 350, but the next page says 430? Isn’t that strange?” The ryno chef would sigh, bringing her hand over her snout as she pinched the bridge of her muzzle in defeat at this cursed pastry. The big, blonde kadin leaned back on her haunches, bringing a paw to her chin as Maisy hopped up onto the counter with her front hooves.

“Maybe I can salvage this before she gets home.” Bee thought, voicing her options allowed for the world to hear, which may or may not just be Maisy.

“Okay, okay… Two eggs, a cup of flour, milk, butter, yada yada… ‘heat oven at 350 for an hour’... ‘heat at 430 for 45 minutes’” Bee whispered, reciting the book out to Maisy as Maisy’s eyes rested elsewhere, a simple bahing coming from her every so often.

“Whatcha lookin at, girlie?” the big ryno asked, finally looking over to investigate what her pet had found. Maisy pointed further with her nose, a curious expression fixed on her face. Her eyes tracing the counter tops before spotting the issue. The flour bag had a rip in the side for who knows how long.

“Fuuuuck, that’s not good. So… We might have mice and now I can’t even use the flour, that’s just wonderful.” Bee scoffed, exasperated as she pulls an oven mitt off another counter, slipping it over her paw and pulling what was going to be a cake out of the oven, only partly cooked as it bubbled in a creamy cake batter type of way. “Erin is going to hate hearing that we might have mice again. Makes sense though with all the plains around here…”

“I’ll just take her out to dinner with the rest of us. She’ll understand.” Bee laughed, placing her disappointment cake on the counter as she sighs, walking out of the room in defeat, her tub of half cooked cake goo resting until it cools off to actually be dealt with.

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Words: 511

Finally finished this up! Only took me oh idk, since the carnival event to finish, despite having it planned for who knows how long!