The occupants of Sanctity were in a merry mood; it was the end of the year and a day of celebration for all races.

The usually red tiles of the building were covered in white snow and not an inch remained undecorated on the light gray walls of the academy.

The students had been given a day off from their usual routine, much to their joy, and were now traversing the halls of the academy. Some of them, however, were still in their dormitory rooms, albeit accompanying each other.

As such, the three beastkin, Ryoto, Regulus, and Ryla were huddled together, chatting away in Regulus’ room.

“Look, I can’t cook for the life of me, it’s gotta be one of you two who does it!” Ryoto exclaimed, protesting against his two companions.

“You have to learn sometime, why not start now?” Ryla shot back, crossing her arms.

“L-let’s not fight guys.” Regulus tried to keep the situation from escalating.

“You wanna give them burnt and inedible cookies?” Ryoto scowled, ignoring Regulus, “I can learn it later, I don’t want to ruin the plan by doing it now.”

“Come on, it won’t be that bad!” Ryla persisted, rolling her eyes.

“Yeah, it'll be worse.” 

“Calm down both of you!” Regulus raised his voice slightly, surprising both of them, “Ryla, you make the dough, Ryot-Ryan and I will bake it.” 

“But-” Regulus’ stare made Ryoto stop. He sighed, “Fine. Don’t expect it to be good.”

“I won’t,” Regulus assured as he flipped through the recipe book.

Far away from them, another group was having a similar conversation.

“Are you sure this will work?” Asked Hazel as she shaped the dough into an oval shape.

“Yeah, we just need to follow the book.” Zach nodded eagerly, beckoning her to place it in the oven.

Hazel stared uneasily at the shape of the dough, but relented and placed it in the earthen utensil.

“Now all we need is a fire.” Zach commented, “But neither of us are fire mages.”

Hazel almost rolled her eyes, “No shit.”

“Did y’all need a fire mage?” 

“WHA!” Zach yelled, jumping in fright, “Who are you?”

“Oh, I’m Deyah Villias, I’m a first year too.” He introduced himself, extending his arm.

Zach returned the handshake, “Zacharias Gotha, nice to meet you.”

“Hey Deyah.” Hazel waved, “You said you were a fire mage right?”

Deyah nodded, “Yeah, I’m a fire mage. What do you need help with?”

“We’re baking cookies,” Zach explained, “And we need a fire to bake them.”

“Oh,” Deyah said, “I can help with that real quick.” He placed his hand around the oven and ignited them with blazing orange flames.

“Now that I’ve helped with this I may as well stay and watch till the end. I will get to try some right?” Deyah asked.

“I don’t see why not,” Hazel said, “We’re making some for a few other people so we may as well make just a few more so you can have some.”

“Hey Hazel, do you know where the chocolate chips are?” Zach asked searching frantically so he could find them to put them in the dough. 

“Top cabinet.”

“And the sugar?”

“Here.” Hazel replied, pulling a jar of sugar out of her pocket.

“...”

“What. Why are you guys looking at me like that?”

“Hazel…, why do you have a jar of sugar in your pocket…” Zach questioned, looking perplexed.

“Rule #1 of being a troublemaker: Always be prepared. Also, I was hungry.” Hazel replied.

“Anyway, how much sugar are you planning on putting in these cookies?” Deyah asked the two.

“6 grams per cookie, just like the book sa-” “Double it.” Hazel says, cutting Zach off.

“Wha- Hazel, the book says any more than that will make the flavor of the sugar clash with the chocolate chips!” Zach exclaims in protest.

“Well, have you ever baked cookies before?!” Hazel remarks.

“Well, no, but still-!”

“Then you wouldn’t know that more sugar always makes it better!” 

“But do we need to have it changed that much? 6 grams per cookie should be perfectly fine for this recipe!”

“Zach, Zach, Zach, you must understand, books do not have all the information, sometimes you must deviate from them to make it better.”

“But this book was written by a master baker!”

“My point still stands! Every single thing you bake will be different from the others! The true essence of being a baker is letting the food make itself! It’s an artform, not cut and paste.” 

“Fine, we’ll change it a little bit, but not by that much.” Zach finally said, feeling defeated.

“Well then,” Hazel said, clasping her hands together,” I’m going to start mixing some of this stuff into the dough.” 

“Do you guys need anything else?” Deyah questioned them.

“I guess we may need a messenger. Do you know where Ryo- Ryan and Regulus’ dorm rooms are? We need someone to tell them to meet us here at around 6 or 7 tonight.” Hazel told Deyah while mixing some of the ingredients into the dough.

“I actually don’t. Could you tell me their dorm numbers?” Deyah asked them, standing up from his spot on the couch.

“They’re just down the hall, dorms number 234 and 247.” Zach responded.

“Thanks! I’ll be back soon.”

“See you soon Deyah!” Hazel called.

“I’ll see you guys.” Deyah replied back as he walked out of the room.

“Sooo, do you know him Hazel? Zach questioned.

“Hm? Oh yeah. He’s in one of my classes and he sits next to me.” Hazel responds.

“Alright, that makes sense. How long have you been mixing the dough?” 

“For about 4 minutes. I don’t trust the book, it doesn’t look ready to portion yet, what do you think?” Hazel asks.

“We should be good to go ahead and do it. By the way, how much sugar did you add? I wasn’t really paying attention to what all you were putting in.” Zach tells Hazel.

“Well, I decided 12 was probably too much per cookie, so I put 8 grams. Why, do you not trust me?” Hazel asks jokingly.

“To be completely honest, not really.” Zach replied in a similarly joking tone. 

“How could you! I thought we were friends!” Hazel says acting shocked.

“I’m just playing. Anyway, let's get back to work.” Zach replied.

“This is probably enough for around 20 cookies.” Hazel says, studying the dough.

“That’s a good amount.” Zach says back to her while looking at the dough.

As Deyah walks in, Hazel looks back at him as he begins to shut the door.

“They were all in Ryan’s room, but they said that they would come over.”

“Thanks Deyah!” Hazel says to him, who replied with a grin.

“No problem.”

________________________

“I suppose that’s the end of our cookie issue.” Ryoto sighed in relief, he wouldn’t have to do it.

“Nuh-uh, we’re still doing it.” Ryla persisted, folding her arms.

“Come on!”

“Let’s at least try one batch Ryoto.” Regulus pleaded, gesturing at the dough that was shaped into small circles.

“Look, all you need to do is maintain the temperature of your flames, you can do that right?” Ryla tried to persuade him.

“Think of it as training.” Regulus added.

“...” Ryoto deadpanned at them, did they really think that associating it with training would help?

He sighed once again, “Let’s just get this over with.” He decided he would humor them.

“Alright so place your hands around the oven…”

________________________