Archive of Our Own

“All finished!”

You exclaimed, while putting the last touch on the strawberry shortcake you had been preparing till that moment. The cake you had been just finished decorating with a fruity piece of strawberry, was intended to be a little gift to bring to your friend that was, currently, recovering from a cold. You had thought that it could be a tender idea, after your shift was done, to bring her one of the sweets she liked the most from the ones you offered to the costumers of your little bakery.

In all Naples, there was no person with a sweet tooth that didn’t consider your little shop to be Heaven on Earth, because you were one of the most excellent bakers that offered the most exquisite delicacies to the people of this beautiful Italian city. Since you could remember you had always loved bringing joy to others with your cuisine: when somebody tasted one of your pastries, their eyes seemed to light up, sporting a soft gleam that always put in you in such a bright mood. It was an incommensurable little moment of happiness and satisfaction you registered, because people really seemed to enjoy what you prepared. The people that had tasted your sweets told you that you were truly gifted and that you should have kept pursuing what was a sign of clear talent. Gifting a temporary moment of bliss with the products of your  culinary talent and creativity was something you deeply enjoyed and when the time had come for you to choose the career you wanted to pursue, the answer had been clear: opening  a bakery. Hence why, from the first moment your little shop had been opened, so many costumers had found in your bakery a little safe Heaven where sampling the products of your talent and creativity.

Your shop was quite a peaceful and quiet place where to stop by: it wasn’t the biggest place but you hadn’t wanted something too big to begin with. The look you had been wanting to achieve with the overall outline of the shop was something domestic and cozy, that could make your customers feel as if they were at home and enjoying a little sweet meal in pure comfort. You had opted to choose a big store window where you showcased all the pastries and cakes you prepared for your clients to choose from. Not only you offered specialties characteristic of the Neapolitan culinary tradition like the famous “babbà”, the pastries called “sfogliatelle” or the Caprese cake but you had a huge selection of other sweets, pastries and cookies for your customers to choose from. One of the most appreciated delicacies you baked for your guests was the strawberry shortcake. In fact, if you took a survey among the people that frequented your shop, concerning the sweet that they liked the most, most of them would answer with:

“The strawberry shortcake (Y/N) makes is the best in all Naples!”

Somebody would even said “of all the entire world” because they truly enjoyed this particular cake and generous reviews like these only certified your real prowess in the delicate art of baking sweets. Maybe it was the top quality strawberries slices you put in the cake, maybe it was the mouth-filling velvet smoothness of the filling or maybe, even, the sweet embrace of the cream coating that wrapped itself around the heart of the people who tasted the cake and made them feel as if inside a fluffy cloud, yet, your strawberry cake seemed to be one of the most successful dished you prepared for your kind customers. Your bakery was quite a well-known and every day you had to run around between preparing the oven, the doughs, the mixtures, the sponge-cakes, the creams, the cookies and so on since the first lights of the morning. Thankfully you had some employees that helped you gathering all the ingredients and preparing the pastries and cakes to present to the public given that, no matter how petite the bakery was, it would be always packed full of people that patiently waited in line to buy what their papillae longed to taste, as their nostrils were invested with such sweet aromas coming from all the cakes and pastries you displayed on the counter for them to choose from. Yet, for how tiring it was, you wouldn’t change a thing of your job. It wasn’t about money, it was about the smile that your customers gifted you which was the biggest recompense you could achieve from this little business.

Recently, your friend had experienced a rough cold and for this reason you had thought that it would be a kind gesture to offer some comfort to her with one of the dishes she enjoyed the most. She would always say that you were the magician of the strawberry shortcake, because between all the shortcakes she had tasted, the one you baked was unrivaled. It didn’t help, either, that she was a big sweet tooth, hence why you thought that this gift would be quite well received. You could already picture her puffy red nose, a uneventful gift of her cold, along with a bright smile you knew she was bound to paint of her visage at the sight of the sweet cake. You couldn’t wait to stop by her apartment after work to bring her this little gift. How happy she would be! It would, indeed, be a sweetener to her recovery from the cold.

For this reason, even if it was past the bakery’s closing time, you had chosen to remain a little bit more inside the warm atmosphere of your shop. Your employees had already left and bid you goodbye, while you had waved to them, wishing them a good night. You would always close up the shop in the range of time that goes between 7.30 pm and 8.00 pm, but since you had been preparing this specific cake, you were a little late.

Thankfully, the cake was ready and as you had put the last strawberries pieces on the silky coat of cream, you couldn’t help but whip your head around when you heard a loud “crash” coming from the front of the store. What could have happened to cause such an alarming rumor to disturb you from your cake? You  grew preoccupied by the sudden rumor, which had startled you and made you jump a little in registering it. Could it be that Fragola, your cat, had broken another one of your little pink geraniums vases that sat outside in the threshold of the bakery?

In fact, Fragola was the name of a little stray cat you had adopted a year ago. Her name meant “Strawberry” in Italian and you had chosen that specific name because she had such a pink reddish nose that, almost, resembled the color of the strawberry you used to décor your famous shortcakes. She had been sitting outside your bakery, exactly in the front of your store, as her big eyes scanned the indoors with a wistful glance. When you had spotted her, looking at you so mirthlessly, while sitting unmoving on her spot outside the bakery, you heart shattered in registering such sight. Her eyes were like big moons and you had felt as if she was calling for you.

One day you were bringing her some tuna, the next she had became a regular presence outside your bakery. Every afternoon, after your first meeting, she trotted in her spot outside the bakery, to the point that your customers had noticed her, too, and she had became a little mascot in your shop. From the day you had fed her that delightful tuna, Fragola had became something akin to a shadow. She had followed you home the same day you had offered her the food, pawing at your door to let her in and, even if she was a stray, you welcomed her and from that moment, she had been your little companion. Yet, she seemed to be quite perceptive of the fact she couldn’t enter in your workplace, so she sat outside, greeting your customers directly at the threshold every day. While she waited for you to exit the shop and return home when your shift was over, she  studied the movements of the bystanders that strolled on the streets or mewed in greeting to the customers that opened the door of your store.

Another thing she liked to do, since she was quite playful and curious, was pawing at the geraniums vases that sat outside the entry of your shop. Most of the time she would try to move them and they would fall and no matter how many times you readjusted them in order to have a decorated welcoming entrance, she always liked to play around with them, making them topple over in the process. You wouldn’t be angry with her, though, since you understood that cats can be highly curious and inquisitive animals, yet you had to put the vases back together every time she made them fall. The noise you had heard matched with the noise a vase would make when falling, hence why you already imagined she could be the culprit of such start. Sighing, you decided to let the strawberry shortcake alone for a moment, near a closed window from which you could see the shadow of the trees in the horizon.

The most peculiar thing was about your bakery was that it sat adjacent to a little wooded area, hence why you could see said trees shadows. In the mornings, you would witness the Sun poking its face from the green scenery and you couldn’t deny it, it was such an endearing scene as the light would timidly stream through the kitchens’ windows where you would be already up and working. To be able to be graced by the golden kiss of the Sun was such a warm way to begin the day and in a way, even if waking up early wasn’t the most pleasant thing, seeing such spectacle could reinvigorate the spirit.

However, you decided to exit momentarily the kitchen as you strolled through the main room where your guests would order and sit around to enjoy their pastries. As you opened the door with the familiar jingle of the bell that sat at the top of it, you were quick to witness what Fragola had been up to. She was, currently, pawing at the surface of a vase of geraniums, which had toppled over but fortunately, it wasn’t broken. The cat stopped and looked at you, her big eyes staring at you proudly, as if she had just defeated the vilest of the enemies. You couldn’t do anything else if not chuckle a little and sighing, as you crouched up and readjusted the vase to its previous place, followed by a small questioning glance thrown at you by Fragola as if to ask:

“But mom, why are you negating my accomplishment? I defeated that monster of a vase!”

It was actually what you interpreted in that glance, which raised an amused little chuckle from you.

“No Fragola, vases are our friends, not evil monsters”

You said to her, almost as if to respond to the questioning glance in her eyes. Given how perceptive she was, she seemed to understand what you were implying, yet she couldn’t help but gaze at you again. She just followed your movements as you stood up again, while dusting your hands off. You knew she was waiting for you to pronounce a phrase you always said when your shift was over, which was:

“We can go home now, work is finished for today”

It was a ritual phrase you always said when you closed the shop and Fragola had committed that phrase to memory: it was the queue that communicated to her that it was time to return home and enjoy some gourmet tuna. Yet, you missed your bad and you didn’t seem ready to close the shop, hence why she just stared at you, waiting for you to announce that the moment to go home had arrived. Yet, as you were in the midst of returning back to the kitchens and retrieve the cake and a basket of sandwiches you had prepared, Fragola seemed to grow alert, as she emitted an urgent vocal meow in your direction. You shifted your attention to her again as you grew concerned by that meowing that had came out of blue and given that she sounded, almost, as if she was fighting with another cat. Yet, you hadn’t the time to question furthermore the reason of that cry, as you saw Fragola break in a sprint and turning a corner, running towards the back of the shop.

You knew Fragola was quite a smart cat, always vigilant and mindful of everybody and everything that surrounded her. She had grow up in the streets and in a sense, it was quite automatic for her growing with such an alert sense of attention. Yet, you had never seen her running away in the way she had done. She had behaved almost like a guard dog that had sensed an intruder and given the fact that she had run towards the back of your shop, you couldn’t help but grow concerned as you followed behind her.

“Hey Fragola, come back!”

You said to her, as you scurried over the corner, not knowing what exactly had triggered such reaction in a peaceful yet attentive cat like her. Maybe she had sensed another cat and had reacted to defend her territory? It could be plausible, since it could happen for cats to roam in the shadowy alleys looking for some food or to hear some of them break in some fights. But Fragola wasn’t a particularly territorial cat hence why you felt as if this sudden outburst on her part was quite an irregular action. You truly grew worried about the cause that had propelled your cat to act in that way. You only hoped that it had been a stray cat to elicit this sudden reaction from her.

Yet, as you caught up with her, your eyes couldn’t believe the show that was presented in front of your eyes. Because there, in correspondence of the window of the kitchen, laid some broken glasses and discarded rock. The glass of the windows had been broken from outside with that rock, you speculated, as your widened and scared eyes focused on the big hole that had been inflicted upon your poor window, from which you could see the indoor of the kitchens. Fragola was near the glass shards as she sniffed them urgently, growling as if somebody had stepped over her territory. But this wasn’t a simple cat fight, somebody had just broken your window!

“Oh my God”

You couldn’t help but think breathlessly, as you inspected the damage that had been caused to your window. Was it a thief? Was it a derogatory action? Was it a threat? What if inside your shop was an intruder?! You didn’t know what to think anymore as you grew paler by the second.

You truly didn’t know what to do and gulped hard as you reminisced about the fact that your had left your phone inside the shop and if you were to enter it, the jingle of the bell would have alerted the thief. Damn it! You truly needed to call the police but without having a phone and with the possibility of being discovered if you entered inside the shop, you truly didn’t know what to do if not feel anxious about the prospect of coming face to face with a dangerous intruder. But then, as you tried to remain concentrated and with a more lucid mindset in order to decide the next rote of action you noticed that the hole seemed to be too little to let a person pass. Not only that, but since you had arrived, you couldn’t hear any other noise if not the growling of Fragola and the incessant pulsing of your heart, as adrenaline and tension surged and flowed in your bloodstream.

Yes,  the hole that had been caused didn’t seem to be big enough to let a person enter, hence why the hypothesis of a currently present inside the shop seemed to subside. And not only that, as you reasoned with yourself, you doubted that a thief would have acted with you still present in the shop but it was much more logic for them to wait your exit and then enter to rob you. Then, it was a threatening act addressed to you or your business? Yet, as you inspected the rock up-close, there wasn’t any type of message attached to it, which was something you knew that was bound to be present if somebody wanted to intimidate you and made you feel threatened. It could be, still, a variable so you didn’t dismiss just yet.  But there was a detail that caught your attention, then: in the broken remaining glasses of the window and in the hole that had been cut in the curtain that was in front of said window, there seemed to be… cream? Almost as if somebody had taken one of your cakes and made them get thought the broken window, yet scratching the border of the hole with the cake and leaving some of the frosting there, as a proof of the fact that a cake had been stolen. And then it dawned on you, as you shifted your eyes to the place you had left the strawberry shortcake before exiting the shop: the cake was gone! Disappeared! Volatilized into thin air, with only that creamy frosting as the accomplice of the robbery.

In a quick glance, you were fast to put the pieces of the puzzle back together: somebody had just broken the window in order to steal the shortcake you had just finished decorating and they had stole it in such a messy way, too. You could see that the burglar had acted in such a hastily way yet they had acted, exactly, at the most propitious moment. This detail meant that the thief had been observing you, waiting for the moment to strike and rob you of the shortcake. Your window was locked and covered with a curtain, yet the thief had assessed your whereabouts anyway, which made you truly unsettled to think about. Your window was adjacent to the forest, there where nobody else if not some nocturnal animals could see you. At that late hour no person roamed the little forest and you knew this because, sometimes, you actually left the window open with the mosquito net on, listening to the beautiful sound the nocturnal wildlife provided to the Moon and you, if you stayed later at the bakery as you had done that day. The place, too, was quite secure and safe, to the point some people even left their door open at night, while they chatted outside in their gardens. You lived in the tranquil outskirts of the busy city and you were used to a type of equilibrium that eluded being perturbed by this type of happenings.

The thief had been, surely, studying the working silhouette of your form that was perceptible through the curtain and the most perturbing thing was the fact that whoever they were, they had came from the forest. In fact, as you crouched down, you found some signs of trashing, almost as if who had stolen the shortcake had dragged something with them. The trail that they had left and that you could see under the light of the Moon, run from your actual position outside the window towards the border of the forest, almost as if whoever had stolen the cake, had dragged something with them the whole time and had been claimed by the darkness of the forest.

Another thing you noticed along the excavated trail that had been left, were some crumbs of cake which seemed to communicate to you that whoever had stolen the cake, had been quick in sample it, too! And not only that, but they had left a trail of said crumbs along the strange trampled trail they had left behind, as if they had continued eating the cake in their path to return to the forest. They hadn’t broken the glass with excessive violence, too, which explained the fact that you hadn’t heard the glass shattering. Yet, the question still remained: who would want to steal a cake?! Yikes! You couldn’t help but shake a little as you thought about who could have acted in such way. You truly were worried but you couldn’t shake up the feeling that whoever it was, was somebody that had acted out of pure hunger. It was confirmed by the crumbs and the strange trail, though, that the thief had returned to the forest and for how creepy and mysterious this experience was, nobody was inside the shop. In fact, over your staying at the back of the shop,  you hadn’t heard any noises, if not the continuous cry of a solitary howl and the vibrant accompaniment of some crickets. For the rest, the little forest didn’t offer any other noise, nor did the inside of your shop, that seemed to be quiet as you had left it.

Fragola seemed to grow still as she waited your action next. She seemed to regain some peace, as the danger seemed to have subsided to something a little less grave. She had been very quick in perceive what had happened, even when you hadn’t heard the glass shattering. They had been precise in claiming what they wanted and retreat to the forest but it was still a very reckless action on the part of a thief to act in this way, with a such high chance to be discovered. Why would a thief risk so much only for  a cake?

It was actually very strange but it was something that only somebody who was very hungry would do. Whoever it was, they weren’t a very skilled thief, but you could recognize a well displayed pattern of logical thought behind it, since they had waited for the exact moment where you would be apart from the cake. You realized that the target of the mysterious thief had always been the cake and never you, because if they wanted to hurt you, reckless and unafraid of take action as they had been, they would have already hurt you if that was their intent. It was, actually, a somehow clumsy act that you could perceive as being dictated only by hunger,  not necessarily an ill intent towards you.

As you tentatively retraced your steps and entered with such a shaky step with Fragola in tow, you were quick to verify that the money you had in the cashier was safe. Nothing else was missing aside the strawberry cake: your bag was untouched and your wallet, too. The sandwiches you had packed to bring to your friend were intact just as any other belonging that was inside the shop. The situation was quite unnerving since you had a broken glass, but, aside that, the outcome of it all wasn’t grim as a threat or as something much more worse as an intruder  being present there with you.

You couldn’t deny that this was quite a bizarre predicament, starting with that strange trail that you had seen. The person who had stole the cake, had been dragging something with them and it was something big and heavy if it left such a furrow. Yet, you couldn’t help but being intrigued by the discovery. At this point you weren’t frightful as you had been, because the actions of said mysterious thief didn’t seem to be persecuted with a malevolent vibe. This was, by far, the most weird and most reckless thief you had ever heard of, reckless and passionate in  persecuting his actions yet stealing something that no regular thief would steal. Habitually, you heard of thieves stealing money or other valuable belongings, but just  a cake? It was very strange, bizarre even. Somehow, the “innocence” of that robbery seemed to bring yourself to question about said thief. They weren’t a regular thief, that was for sure.

In that action, you almost recognized a sense of desperation, or you doubted somebody would push themselves to the point of being so directly close to being discovered yet hell-bent on wanting to gain something. Whoever it was, it wasn’t after your money because they could have shattered the glass completely and made a beeline for the cashier, since you were outside the shop when everything had happened, and even threaten you, if you were to spot them. But they hadn’t. They had shattered the glass and made a hole on the curtain without emphasis, it was just the right sleeve for them to push the cake through the hole in the curtain and the window, since the sweet laid in front of it. Yes, whoever it was, had wanted only that cake and had been quite messy yet methodical in getting it, but you couldn’t deny a thing: you were curious about this thief, more than angered about the fact that they had stolen from you. In fact, you had never been prone in feeling negative feelings towards people since you were used to give to others, without asking for nothing back. The pastries you baked had always had the job to bring happiness to the people that tasted them and even with Fragola, you had displayed the same caring temperament which explained why you didn’t feel angry about the shattered glass and the ruined curtain.

Yes, they were expenses you had to pay for and deduct from your salary in order to restore the shop but somehow, you weren’t peeved by that act. It tasted, almost, as a desperate act committed by somebody who was hungry enough to act without a true care for their well-being and for this reason, you didn’t report the act to the police, classifying it as a desperate act dictated by blind hunger. Sometimes, the most urgent necessities of our souls and beings makes us act in the most paradoxical fashion, to the point not even ourselves can understand, exactly, why we would act in such a way to begin with. Sometimes, a urgent need or a urgent expression of our being lead us to act without pondering about the ifs and the buts, not weighting the pros and cons, only action. Pure and simple instinct merged with necessity to see a desire quenched and an action actualized in solid reality: this was the pattern of thought and action you could see in the actions of this strange individual. Another thing that intrigued you was, exactly, what had they been dragging: it was so heavy to leave a clear stamp on the ground, then, how it would be explainable for said thief to disappear in such a fast way? You were sure you hadn’t spent too much time outside the shop, yet in the arch of time you had exited the door, picked out the vase and said that little phrase to Fragola, the thief had been able to surge to action and disappear in the dead of the night. If anything, the fastness of their movements was something quite remarkable.

…and very interesting, too.

For how intrigued you were, you knew that researching an answer to the question represented by said mysterious presence was something that was very risky to investigate and for this reason, you knew venturing in the forest would be too dangerous and well, it wasn’t as if the thief would have let you discover them, if they were still present. If they came from the forest and returned inside it, then, you were in disadvantage because they knew their surroundings but you could get lost inside the twisted blend of scrawny tress and breeches.  Although apprehensive, you were slightly curious but concerned, too, since that mysterious figure had been observing you from the outside... it was very creepy and after all, for how strange this thief was, it was still a thief. You were a good person but you valued your safety, too, and alas, you resorted to call your employees and narrate to them what just had happened. The day after that strange event, you optioned to have the windows always sealed shut with a double lock to preserve other accidents like this one to ever occur. Yet, the thought of a mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of the forest with such a odd way to behave and move that liked your strawberry shortcake didn’t seem to quiet down in your mind. Part of you wondered if that mysterious figure was still there and, even, if they had been eating regularly.

You didn’t know why you would ever bother to think about this particular scenario about somebody that had stole a cake from you, but given how ravenous their hunger had been, you couldn’t help but wonder about the fact that, maybe, that mysterious person had nothing else to eat and for this reason they had pushed themselves to commit such an act. You couldn’t know well, but, even if you had been robbed, you couldn’t help but gravitate about the fact that there was more than met the eye in deciphering the actions of that strange figure that had come from and returned to the little forest. Usually, people wouldn’t bother to think about this, more than ever if they had been the ones to be defrauded, yet you couldn’t help yourself but thinking that that strange someone, maybe, didn’t know what else to do if not resort to steal if not to survive. You were very torn, because part of you knew that you shouldn’t have cared about something potentially dangerous as this, but the other part of your heart, branded with the sacred fire of rightfulness, told you to not let the sole eye betray you and do what your gut feeling was suggesting. You wanted to help whoever was so desperate to push themselves to commit such an act, even if you had been the one at loss. But as you continued to wonder and wonder about the fact that, maybe, you could truly help the mysterious figure, you thought of a way in which you could both help them, providing something to eat and have a direct proof of the fact that they were just desperate to have something to eat, without any intention of robbing you of any valuable.

Maybe you were being too foolish, too naïve or maybe too positive in letting your flame of hope burn so bright, but, the night after incident, you left a little basket outside the shop, in the back where you had found the broken window. You knew it was an irrational thing you were doing in that moment, yet the eloquent flair in which you instinct communicated to you to not give up and go beyond appearances had persuaded you from dropping your determination in discovering who the mysterious thief was. Maybe you wouldn’t have discovered anything in leaving that little meal, maybe yes, but you could always begin with this little test, that served as a form of help also.

 In the little basket you had put three slices of shortcake, two sandwiches, some fruits, a bottle of water and twenty euro. It was a little test to see if the strange person would have returned, which would prove the fact that they used to lurk on the forest as a habit and it served, also, to test what their will was. You didn’t know how to interpret the fact they hadn’t taken the money from the cashier as an act they hadn’t the right time to perform or as a clear sign of the fact they wanted only the cake. In this way you would see if the strange person had tried to rob you with the clear intent of stealing your money, too, or if they would just pursued the shortcake, for how strange it may sound. After closing the shop you left the basket in the back, optioning to leave it there with quite a nonchalant fashion, almost as if you had forgotten the basket there not voluntarily.

Surprisingly enough, when you returned the next  morning and checked the back of the shop to see if the thief had returned, you were quite surprised to see the lid of the basket had been removed and laid on the ground in quite an unceremonious way, which suggested to you that whoever had opened it, had acted with such strong eloquence of action. As you peered inside the contents of the basket, you saw that everything aside the bottle of water and the money had been eaten. Another thing you noticed was the fact that the same strange trail was present, almost as if something had been crawling and leaving a trail in the terrain they touched.

The story you were currently living in was becoming quite curious. So, anybody who had came to pillage the basket had left the money and the bottle but everything else had been eaten, given the fact that they had left some crumbs in their wake, too. This was the proof that you needed: whoever it was, they hadn’t wanted to rob you of your money. They only wanted your  strawberry shortcake, the very delish everybody in Naples loved to taste inside the walls of your little bakery!

You repeated the experiment two other times, pretending to pass by the back of your shop and leaving a small basket. The first time you had opted to put fifty euro, two pieces of Red Velvet, some cookies and some sandwich with ham, salami and cheese. Result? The money was left untouched but the food had been consumed and the strange trail was there, too. The second time you opted to raise the stake and put a hundred euro on the basket and other food such as flat breads, little pizzas and a big slice of cherry pie and for this time, too, the money had been left discarded but the food had been consumed, as the crumbs you found testified as such. In total you had left three baskets and every one of them had been returning to you with the money still inside. A thief would have seen the occasion to take your money every time you had pretended to lose it inside the basket, but not once your money had been under the risk of being taken. Your food, on the other hand, was what was truly appreciated. This made you think that, maybe, the thief was somebody that only thought about their essential needs and from what you had seen, they seemed to live inside the forest, since they came and returned from the deep vortex of tangled branches.

When you prepared the fourth basket, you left a note, too, since it was clear that whoever it was, it was somebody that for a certain reason looked only to satisfy their primal needs and not somebody that versed in a condition of poverty. You had thought that maybe it was somebody that was too poor to feed themselves and for this reason they had resorted to rob you of the shortcake, yet this wouldn’t explain their reticence in taking the money. They had had the chance to take the money thrice but they had never, which was very strange. You didn’t know if they did this as a last resort of pride or if they truly didn’t feel the necessity of having it. You thought that if it was somebody that, truly, couldn’t buy their own food on their own, then they would have used the money you had left. You would have been happy to help them in this way but whoever it was, they were only after the food and the mouthwatering selection of foods you painstakingly put together for them was, certainly, something they seemed to accept gleefully.

You had written, in the note, that you were aware of their mysterious presence and that, if they wanted any type of help, you would be happy to provide it to them, since it was clear as the day that whoever it was, it wasn’t somebody that looked for a financial gratification. Yet, you longed to help them in a more effective way if you could rather than continuing bringing food to them in such a secretive way. You would have liked to make the acquaintance of this person that was manifesting the need of a helping hand you would gladly lend, if you could. You didn’t want to keep feeding them in secret, you would have liked for them to take a seat in one of the tables of your bakery, exchanging even some words if the person felt like it. You could, even, offer them a job inside the bakery if it this person was looking for an occupation. You expressed all your concerns about their wellbeing in the little note and you offered to help them if they wanted. You assured them about the fact that you would keep bringing the food.

The fear of the initial robbery had long morphed in something more pacific that you could interpret as your will to help somebody that, maybe for fear, shame, desperation, pride or all the above had been pushed by hunger to steal from you and continued to hide in the shadows. You didn’t hold them accountable for the robbery since you understood that they had been desperate given the hunger and for this reason, you had chosen to write that little letter, as a sign of good will in the regards of the person that kept themselves hidden in the little forest. You had thought to venture alone and maybe search for them, but you knew it wasn’t, exactly, the best route to take because, maybe, you could have made the person feel intimidated by your presence. But this system of the basket full of food was something discreet that had served you well for the time being, even if you longed to help the person of the mystery in a much more consistent way. For this specific reason, you had asked for them to kindly answer if they ever felt the need to tell you about a request or need they had, but after leaving that note, you hadn’t received any type of response.

Yet, you religiously kept putting the little basket under the window at the back of the shop and even if your note hadn’t received a response, you respected their time, hoping for any sign or for any plausible response or revelation of their presence.

Two weeks had passed of you bringing  those stuffed basket full of succulent pastries and sandwiches to the mysterious person and at the dawn of your fifteenth day, as you rummaged the insides of the basket to see if you had received any written response, you were quite surprised to find a flower nestled inside the little basket. As the lithe breeze of the wind graced your skin and the timid rays of the newborn Sun illuminated the details of the follower you were holding, your orbs were quick to be fulfilled with a soft gleam as you recognized that flower to be a pink dahlia. In the polished language of flowers, dahlias mean gratitude and in that little flowery token, you could recognize what was a clear sign of thankfulness for the food you had been bringing to the mysterious person. It was a tender and thoughtful way to express the fact the whoever was behind the gift, appreciated the help you had been providing for them, even if your beginning had been tumultuous. Another thing you noticed was the soft colors of the petals, pink as the strawberry you used for the shortcake, which seemed to be a link between you and this person. The dahlia has such a beautiful fragrance and as the light of the Sun made the flower glimmer with such a ethereal glow, you couldn’t help but think that your gut feeling had been right in suggesting you to go further what your eyes had suggested for you to believe.

This person of the mystery didn’t respond to your written words, true, but this was a sign of their thanks, a thanks you accepted gladly, feeling quite rejuvenated by the fact that, maybe, the person would come out from the forest, sooner or later. Yet, the surprises weren’t still finished for you. As you gazed towards the ground and recognized the already familiar pattern left by the person, you grew quite curious by what you found. Because this time, along the trail, there was something that captured your interest: it was a piece of translucent molt. If the fact that the skin of a snake to be present there was already a start, you couldn’t help but notice how expanded it was. It was quite a good chunk but it wasn’t anything you had seen before. It looked like it belonged to a gigantic python for how wide it was, yet it was something even bigger than a python. It wasn’t a complete molt, you realized, it was only a section f it yet from what you could see, it looked almost as if a cylinder had been cut in half, while displaying the width of the tail it had been covering before. And well, if you didn’t know what a gigantic python could have done in the outskirts of Naples, then you truly were clueless about why such a huge piece of dead skin would be laid there.

What was…this? A gigantic serpent?! You were quite speechless by  this discovery. It wasn’t something you had ever seen before, not even in the some documentary in National Geographic. You were eyes menaced to burst out of your skull as you took everything in: it was, indeed, the dead skin of a true reptile but then, why was it so big and expanded and not tiny and narrow as the one of you had seen in the documentaries? You were growing worried by the minute. Yet you couldn’t help but notice how that strange trail could be, quite fitting to be belonging to the profile of a tail. A gigantic tail, gliding through the ground and leaving such a path.

A tail.

A gigantic tail.

In the Neapolitan countryside.

With you as the sole witness of the endless nonsense you were experiencing in that moment.

You weren’t dreaming, right?

It sounded incredible but it was, indeed, what your eyes were making you see: a big piece of molt of who knows what type of strange serpent  laid there at your feet, almost reminding you of the fact that you weren’t submerged in a daydream, but solid reality. You didn’t know if this snake came from a specie dated back to the Jurassic era that had been left free to roam in the forest or if it was a gigantic python, yet the discovery made you quite preoccupied by the whereabouts of said reptile. Exactly, where it was in this moment? The fact that it was so near to your little bakery made you stay on edge because you didn’t know how dangerous said creature could be. Maybe you were overreacting, maybe it was only a prank one of your employees were conducting in order to make fun of you, but whatever the possibility was, you hoped that this snake wasn’t a danger for the mysterious person that lived in the forest. And not only that: the trail was most likely to belong to this gigantic snake! Given that every time the mysterious presence had made itself known, you have even began to think that, maybe, that alleged gigantic snake would come near the basket in order to find some food, only to find it already consumed by the mysterious thief, probably. It could happen for some animals to escape from circuses and lose themselves in the secluded areas outside the city or, maybe, even being abandoned by a previous owner that had wanted a pet, only to leave them behind. No matter how various the reasons for that big snake to be near the forest might have been, their presence could  endanger you, your guests and even the mysterious thief, nonetheless.

The discovery had left you preoccupied and bewildered for all the duration of your shift at the shop, to the point  you wanted to call the Forest Service and denounce the presence of said serpent in the area. Not only could it be dangerous for you and for whoever roamed the forest area, but it could dangerous for the snake, too, since snakes this big belong to other pluvial and wild habitat and not the countryside. As you pondered about signaling the presence of said alleged snake, you were currently finishing to prepare the basket to consign to the mysterious person, while Fragola waited for you outside the shop. You had left a little note of gratitude, too, in regards to the flower that they had gifted to you. It was still delicate and prim as if it had been just picked, since you had been fast in putting it in a vase, near the cashier.  Lastly, you thought that first thing the next morning, you would call the rangers and signal the presence of that snake, since it was the most rightful thing to do.

This time, as you walked towards the back of the bakery, you had opted to put some chocolate muffins, some cold cuts, cheese and a pair of focaccia (flatbread) for them to enjoy. Another thing you added, were, exactly, four slices of strawberry shortcake since you knew the mysterious person liked  this dish in quite a particular way. Yet, as you positioned the basket in the back, instead of closing off the door of the job with the shutter and the lock, you remembered that you had left the a little packet of the same muffins you had put in the basket. In fact, they all came from a batch you had, lastly, baked for the day, and while most of the muffins you had put in the basket, the ones who had been exited the oven resulting smaller than the others, you had chosen to have for yourself, while the majority of the others, which were bigger, were currently laying on the inside of the basket.

As you exited the door the familiar jingle of the bell lastly greeted you, as you put the shutter down and locked it.

“Ready to go home, Fragola?”

You inquired gently to your cat, as she responded in quite a similar fashion, choosing to stay in front of you a little. You couldn’t help but chuckle as she trotted off towards the direction your shared home was at, her tail raised high and twitching gleefully at the thought of her cherished tuna. Yet, as you took the first steps, a shriek shattered the little moment of peace that nestled itself after you locking the door.

“EEEEEEKKK! What the hell is this?! Qualcuno mi aiuti! (Somebody help me!)”

Somebody shrieked in a strong Italian accent, making you freeze on your tracks as your mind focalized on this specific question: who could be there at that hour? Ad what was happening?! That voice, presenting such an aggravated undertone to its vibrant proclamation of distress and fright had come from the back of your shop, which had your mind instantly locked on the possibility that somebody could be in danger! What if it was the mysterious thief that needed your help? What if that mysterious snake had bitten him? Your heart was beating erratically as the sole thought of somebody being hurt just some steps away from you. It was quite risky for you to run there, but the urgency laced to those words had erased any previous thought of returning home and taste a little bit of comfort after such a tiring day of work.

 No, there, on the back of the shop, there was somebody who needed help and called for it, a call that your heart made you accept and answer to on instinct as you run towards the corned and towards the distressed voice. When faced with a call of help, you wouldn’t wait for your mind to decide if it was to perilous or it was safe, it was a decision you took confiding fully on your instincts and in your spirit of helpfulness. Of course you would dash to help anybody who needed a helping hand, even if you hadn’t stuck around to weigh the pros and cons of that action. Something, inside your very being, told you to spring to action and help and thus, you did.

“Here I am! I’m coming to help you!”

You screamed towards the person that had called for help, trying to signalize your presence and begin to instill a somehow sense in relief on them because you were coming to their aid. Yet, as you finally rounded the corner with such a huffed breath and with a concerned Fragola in tow, you literally froze, again, in front of what your mind was making you see in that moment. Any word you had been ready to pronounce dried instantly in your throat as you saw something you couldn’t believe was truly there with you. There, on the spot where you believed somebody was being attacked or laid injured in the cold ground, was a…man? Could you even say he was a human? He wasn’t fully a man, or, at least, the half part of his body didn’t seem to belong to anything terrestrial or remotely realistic. He was… half man, half snake.

…A naga.

Yes. You have read that right. It was unreal and you couldn’t help but remaining completely frozen by the sight of him, as your eyes seemed to have lost themselves in the stark contrast of the black striped pattern against the translucent skin of his… tail? Was it, even, the real deal or maybe only a costume…? You were positively flabbergasted and at loss of words in front of such an amazing and unexpected vision.

Now, you could totally affirm that whatever Fate had organized for you in the chess board of your existence, it certainly was something full of oddities. You tried with all your might to rationalize about what your eyes were making you see, yet as more probable answer you formed to help you cope with the thousands of inputs your mind was providing you with, more questions came to you. Were you dreaming? Was this naga real and not a friction of your imagination? And if he was real, who he was? From where he came from? Creatures like him were meant to belong only in the books of folklore, myths and legends… right?

 Every second you grew paler as you tried to pinch yourself several times, yet the presence of the strange being didn’t waver and remained still in front of your eyes, as the naga seemed to have registered your presence and was in the midst of widening his eyes in registering that somebody, you, of all humans, had came to his aid when he manifested the will to receive help for a reason you still didn’t know about. Your sudden arrival didn’t seem to add more distress to his situation nor it seemed to make him grow alert of you, if anything, he looked quite relieved that somebody had reached out to him in order to respond to his cries. But damn it, you truly couldn’t believe what you were witnessing in the moment. Your mind was, completely, in the midst of shutting down and the shock you were feeling kept fueling the spiraling ruckus that had found its source on the apparition of this naga.

The man that kept looking at you as if you had just descended from the Heavens with such a grateful look in his visage, kept shouting somebody to you, while urgently pointing towards the little basket that you had put on the ground for the mysterious thief to seize. He was pointing towards the little container where you had wrapped the four slices of shortcake that he had just unwrapped, throwing a tantrum about something you couldn’t really clasp in that moment because even if he was talking loudly, the concept of his existence couldn’t pass the rational barriers of your mind. His full lips moved hastily, yet none of the words he addressed towards you was left in the air to float away, since you weren’t able to focus properly in that moment, so shocked and surprised you were.

You stared at him in a confused haze, still questioning yourself about what on Earth was happening. You didn’t even know where to start to explain how even the notion of such a mystical creature venting and fidgeting in front of you could be plausible. Maybe this was only a prank orchestrated by your employees to share some laughs to your detriment? Or, maybe, you had arrived to the point of hallucinating the whole ordeal given how tired and strained you were after so many hours of work? And yet, as you focused your glance in taking all his physique and studying him, the section of his lower body looked every passing second more real. His tail kept twitching and twisting, conveying all the distress and he was feeling but it was moving and giving some very effective signals of life that a simple costume couldn’t give. Yes, you weren’t dreaming, at all! He was real, too much real to be something he was feigning.

His tail was the feature that had caught your attention from the first second you had laid your bewildered eyes on him, because it was quite a huge and powerful one. It kept moving with his distressed gestures  almost as if it was a tactile representation of his emphasized emotions  and you were fast in noticing that the tip of the tail twisted right, left, up and down following the accord of his gestures. From this little detail, you could already say that this specific naga was quite vehement in expressing himself.  For how expressive it was, what remained clear as the fact that it oozed pure energy and might only at a single glance and it appeared to be quite long, too. You couldn’t see all of it since it seemed warped around him,  obtaining something akin to a scaly cocoon of a tail, yet in your mind there wasn’t any more other doubt about that fact that the piece of molt you had found belonged to this enormous tail. Another detail that latched your interested mind to his appearance was the fantasy of the pattern that the tail showcased: it was black striped over a warm vibrant orange mantle, his lukewarm scales glimmering under the faint light provided by the Moon. Red and black are such a strong and warm combo of color to pair up, but, in a sense, you saw them fitting for him, since you thought they could represent his strong character in a quite effective way.

“Oi, little baker! Are you lisssstening?”

You were brought back to reality as you saw his curious face getting closer to you, a still lingering feeling of urgency engraved in his looks. Now that you focused more on his human half, you couldn’t believe just how charming he was, but you were sure that if a person ignored his tail, then, he could totally pass up as a human! You had seen some representation of some nagas in some mythology books and of every naga you had seen a illustration of, you had noticed their snake-like eyes. In the books you remember browsing the stereotypical concept of a naga depicted them to have reptilian slits instead of normal eyes, but in this particular case, the eyes of this naga didn’t hold any resemblance to the ones of a reptile. If anything, they looked very much human. His eyes were warm like the Sun, holding a somehow lively and bubbly gleam in his big orbs which were black pools of melted licorice. Yes, his eyes were big and full of something so full of wonder, a open window framed in coal to his soul. His curly dark hair were the cherry on top, as they cascaded on his eyes a little and reached his strong torso grazing delicately his strong shoulders. If you could use a word to describe his overall physique, it could be only this: magnificence.

Considering a overall view of his character, his frame was imposing yet every trait of his overall physique held so much beauty and perfection embedded in them. He appeared to be powerful yet lean, strong  and vigorous yet his looks made you distinguish a somehow sense of delicateness in them. He was truly a beautiful creature, as he towered on you and kept watching you as if you held an answer he so desperately sought to have. It was undeniable, though, that his looks exploded in a full bloom of rustic beauty and energetic vitality.

Thankfully to his vehement call to reality with his last statement, your sense had came back to you and somehow, your mind had lowered the rational barrier that forbade the concept of him even existing, you remembered what you were supposed to do in the first place: you had broken in a full sprint in order to answer somebody who had manifested the need for assistance and now that you had discovered who was the one at the back of the shop, it was clear that he was him who needed help. Another thing that you were quick to realize as your mind had connected the dots of this bizarre situation, concerned his gargantuan twitching tail, which was resting upon the same trail that you had witnessed being carved on the ground every time you retrieved the little basket , that had been drained of its contents. That type of trail could be provoked only by something heavy grinding against the terrain and the size and general looks of his lower half matched perfectly with the possibility of his tail being the one to engrain such stamp on the ground and with the finding of the piece of molt serving as an ulterior proof, there was no doubt in your mind: the naga, for how incredible it was, was the mysterious thief. And now, he needed your assistance, too!

You had hoped to discover who the mysterious thief and, maybe, get in contact with them and ask them if they needed something else aside the food you gifted to them regularly, but never in a million years you would have thought that a mystical creature like him could be the one to be behind the first theft and the one who ate the food you prepared. Somehow, the initial hesitation and shock you had felt in registering his presence wasn’t weighting on your mind anymore. In fact, you weren’t scared of him because as you had recognized him to be the thief, you knew he wasn’t bound to bring you harm since, if he wanted that, he would have acted the first evening where he had plundered the shortcake. And, also, his beautiful orbs. full as the Moon that shined on your forms, displayed such a sympathetic vibe in them that you couldn’t help but feel a little ease about him being present with you. The sole notion of somebody like him even existing had been hard to swallow, but, thankfully, he didn’t seem to be menacing.

One thing that aided you in taking a much needed breath of relief around him was the fact that you had interacted with him for two weeks, even if not directly. He had put the pink dahlia on the little basket you brought to him, which meant he didn’t hold any malice or ill intent  on your regards, right? You didn’t know how much unpredictable or volatile his next course of action could be but you felt, in your heart, that he wasn’t a menace for your wellbeing in the slightest. The same instinct that had guided you in keeping up with this little investigation in order to discover who was the thief was the same that was telling you, in that moment, that the naga wouldn’t harm you. Of course, his apparition had put in you in a frenzy of fear and turmoil because you had never seen somebody like him nor did you believe one of his kind could ever exist. You had been frightened at first, true, but you also gained a renewed conviction that converged on the fact that this particular naga whom was the mysterious thief, too, wasn’t a menace to you. And as you saw Fragola on the corner of your eyes, you could see her relaxed form as she studied the situation and if even your attentive cat wasn’t on high alert, it could only mean one thing: he wasn’t somebody who you had to fear.

Still, he had been the one to call for help and you had run to him to comply with the sudden cry he had assigned to the wind to bring to your hears. He looked very distraught, but at the same time you could recognize the fact that he didn’t fear humans, which was a positive sign since whatever dire situation he might have needed assistance with, could be carried out and resolved without the contingency of him fearing your human kind. With a more secure hold on reality and having metabolized the fact that what you had in front of your eyes wasn’t an apparition or an illusion derived from your excessive work load, you focused on the task to answer him and try to understand how you could help him.

You were truly curious, at this point, about what could have triggered him to call out for help since he had always preferred to stay hidden in the forest till that crucial moment from what you could tell. He kept expressing urgency in his frown, still pointing towards the direction of the four slices of shortcake, while looking at you as if he expected you to understand the underlying meaning of his ongoing perturbation. As you locked eyes with the direction his hand, decorated with tapered talon, was pointing at you couldn’t help but send him a puzzled glance. You still wanted to know, exactly, who this naga was and why he hadn’t came out of his hiding spot before, but for the moment being, you had chosen to push those matters aside and leave the presentations for later. But, wait, you had been staring at him all this time and you hadn’t, even, say a word to him! It was time to make amends.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I spaced out for a moment!”

You were quick to clarify before shaking your head and throwing him a bitter expression as if expressing an apology for the fact you weren’t able to connect with his request.

“I’m here to lend you my assistance since you sounded quite distraught before. But I’m so sorry to say that I don’t understand what the problem is with the slices of the shortcake. How can I help you, signor...umh…” you paused a slight second, before tentatively trying to address him again“… signor naga?”

He hadn’t still given you a name since he looked to be still worked up about whatever menace he deemed the sliced of shortcake to hold, but you could call him in that way for now, because, after all, he was a naga. You could try calling him “Mr. naga” for the time being, hoping he wouldn’t het offended by you voicing your questions about what he needed help with. It wasn’t as if you had the time to properly introduce yourself, given how fast the latest occurrences had hit you. You were, even, surprised by yourself because you had accepted the fact of his existence quite positively. However, you knew that manifesting your stupor wouldn’t work in your favor because he looked to be already perturbed by something, something you still weren’t able to pinpoint exactly, nevertheless you knew adding gasoline to the fire with your own shock wasn’t the right course of action to take. You had to maintain the same bright mindset you had when so many customers entered your shop waiting to be served which meant you had to utterly focus on anything if not your job. It was the same fashion to occur in this paradoxical event, too, and you knew you had to keep a lucid mind to help the naga, that looked still distraught and now a little incredulous over the fact you didn’t see the problem with the serving of the shortcake.

How could you not see where the problem was? It baffled him that you didn’t know that serving four slices could bring such bad luck, yikes!

“Eh…? You really cannot see it…?”

He sported such an incredulous expression and unbridled bewilderment over the fact you didn’t know what he was talking about. And yet, it was so clear to him, because the presence of four slices was truly a tragedy for him.

“Ci sono quattro pezzi di torta! Quattro!” (There are four pieces of cake! Four!)

He responded back with insistence, shifting his surprise to urgency once more, pointing again towards the shortcake slices that laid unwrapped on the lid of the basket. His tone seemed to suggest that you were expected to know what he was implying but hell, you didn’t. You were completely oblivious about what could have gone wrong with the serving of the slices. Maybe four weren’t enough for him? Maybe he wanted less? Or maybe he wanted something else and had grown tired of you bringing him your strawberry shortcake? You thought he loved it since he had literally broke your window to have the one you had been preparing for your friend. Then, what he was getting at? You truly were taken aback by his claim and no matter how much you tried, his point wasn’t getting across. There wasn’t a problem you could see with the current display of shortcake, something you were quick to manifest to him since you still hadn’t comprehended what he was talking about:

“…yes, I can see as much…” you trailed off, still pointing a preoccupied gaze towards his persistent one, reiterating the visible confusion that perpetrated itself  in your mind as you, still, weren’t able to fully perceive what he was referring to “but, I don’t understand, where is the problem with four slices of shortcake…? Would you have liked for me to bring something else, maybe…?”

You politely expressed your doubts to him at this point. Voicing the concerns that your questioning mind had brought to light before seemed the perfect chance to try to understand, directly, which path you had to take in order to finally understand  what he needed assistance with. And the naga stared puzzled at you, yet again. So of all the plausible things you could have asserted in that moment, your main concern was tied to  thinking he wouldn’t like your sweet strawberry shortcake, of all things…? You were worried over him not liking the cakes you always gifted to him and in your eyes he could read you were in trepidation to receive the answer he owed to you.

Wow. He wasn’t expecting this, at all! Of all the things he had foresee you saying, you worrying over the fact he wouldn’t like what you had so kindly brought to him for over two weeks, even when he wasn’t supposed to complain at all since he was feeding over your compassionate offer. Nonetheless, you felt compelled to express the veiled implication that you would, even, change and correct yourself if he didn’t want the cake, which was a paradox in the naga’s mind since he was being a bottom feeder with the meals you gifted to him hence why he thought he had no right to even think about complaining. Yet you looked so eager to correct the point where you allegedly believed you had made a mistake, yet you looked so eager to accommodate him in the most fitting way possible, yet you looked positively preoccupied over him, which was something he wasn’t used in seeing in humans. It was a sign of extreme humbleness, which he found very endearing to admire in you.

Another thing that surprised him was the fact you didn’t know about the impending doom of unlucky that menaced to smite you both, unfortunately. You hadn’t caught up with him but he felt as if the world was close to meet its end, the sky was just a second way before falling down and the seas were close to raise and bring the eve of the Apocalypse because there laid FOUR slices of cake. When he had unwrapped them, already salivating at the prospect of getting such a sweet threat, he had paled when he had seen that there, on the silver wrapper, laid four slices. And him, Guido Mista, the naga of the mystery, was allergic to that wretched number.

But him hating your sweets? Never! It wasn’t the case, because he loved the strawberry shortcake you baked and gently conceded to him with all his vibrant spirit but it was undeniable that you had concentrated his attention on you when you had intended that you wanted to lend your unconditional help to him, which was something that really struck a chord in him as he marveled in front of how surprising you were. For this reason, his lips almost moved on his own with the need to let you know that he adored the pastries and cakes slices you gifted to him every day. He reveled in your kindness and deemed your sweets to be truly a fruit of great talent and experience, given that he had never tasted something so delicate, flavorful and delicate at the same time. Before he could stop himself from blurting his thoughts loudly, he was already talking, looking quite energetic, as he remarked:

“Nope, that’s not the problem! if anything, I love your shortcake, it’s the best I’ve ever tasssssted!”

So, from what he had just declared loudly the problem wasn’t the shortcake which was a good sign…

But, wait, what did the naga say about you shortcake…? That is was the best he had ever tasted, right? You couldn’t help but grow a little bashful over his flattering given how straightforward he had been, without an ounce of doubt or hesitation. Your eyes widened and you just stared at him, totally bewildered by such bold assertion. Now, you had received many compliments over your sweets but this specific statement, without you fully knowing why, had left a mark on you since you had totally caught off guard by how blatantly he had stated his loved for your pastries. While other times you smiled to the compliments that had been addressed to you, this time, still not knowing why you were reacting in this way in front of him, you gulped while your cheeks tinted themselves with a little blush, since you had never expected for him to surprise you in this way. He had spoken without mincing words and this really struck you.

But, again… why were you reacting in this way? It wasn’t the first time that somebody complimented your skills, after all.  Maybe it depended by  the fact that he was shirtless and his absolute divine physique had such a beautiful glow under the moonlight? Or maybe were his beautiful eyes full of life? You weren’t quite certain. The only thing you knew was that you hadn’t expected him to blurt out that phrase and now, he had realized that you had been surprised by it, too. And to say that he was quite surprised by his own actions, too, was quite the statement. In fact, he had spoken without putting a restraint on his own talkative tongue and now, he couldn’t help but grimace over the fact he had, probably, freaked you out with how sudden his phrase had been.

“Dannazione, non avrei dovuto dirlo a voce alta…!” (Damn it, I shouldn’t have said it out loud)

Mista thought, since he couldn’t take back the words he had just uttered. He hadn’t registered any word coming from you, hence why he dreaded to have freaked you out, which was not something he was looking to obtain since he still needed your assistance with the matter of the four slices of cake. He couldn’t proceed in eating his meal with those four cakes there, they would bring misfortune to him! In his turmoil and panicked state he had voiced out his distress and fortunately, you had been the one to respond to his call. Even if a little more sedated, the problem still remained: he had to ensure himself the four slice would dissolve in thin air in order for him to proceed with his meal, given that he was dying of hunger. Yet, he wouldn’t touch that one of the slices just yet, because it would mean chose the fourth of them. He was so deep in his own phobia that any rational idea had been thrown out of the window and he had expressed his distress in this way. He shouldn’t have screamed but he couldn’t choose from a tray of four, neither. He needed your help to take away the four slice and restore his cycle of luck or else, he would be damned by eternal mysery. And after all… he truly wanted that shortcake you had brought to him therefore he hoped you would not be freaked out more than you already were by him.

Hell, he had been already lucky enough to have you running towards him and offering your help without screaming in panic given the fact that he was not human to begin with. You had looked out of it, in the beginning, probably trying to process everything that you were in the midst of experiencing, but in the end, you had remained quite calm which was something Mista was quite grateful for. He couldn’t let this chance go to waste, hence why he was quick in asserting:

“Emh… as I was saying, the problem is not the cake as a whole but the number of slicesss! Four is a number that brings an incredible missssfortune!”

Good save. You looked at him tilting your head a little, tying to process what he was getting at. One thing you noticed, though, was how adorable his pronunciation of the word “s” was as he seemed to slip up in some words and pronounce it more vehemently that the others letters. If you dared to say, it was actually kind of…cute?  But anyhow, the source of the problem had been finally found: the number of the slices was the problem that had perturbed the mind of this naga. It was actually funny if you thought about it, how a sturdy and imposing creature as him being prey of utter fear in front of four slices of cake but you weren’t going to judge him: phobias are irrational and something so elusive of the control given by the mind to our behavior is bound to make us act instantly following our need to elope from said fear. It was something so simple yet so quirky to put his mind in a frenzy but, hopefully, it  wasn’t anything you couldn’t help him with. He seemed to be, probably, very superstitious yet the sole solution for that problem was only one: you had to take the fourth slice of cake in order for him to regain his peace of mind, which sounded almost as if you were the protagonist of a work of fiction written by an author that wrote, definitely, too much.

But this wasn’t the case, after all. If somebody had told you that you would have met a naga and, consequently, you would have put up with his fear of the number “four”, you would have looked at them as if they had grown three heads but in was undeniable, that was the exact situation you had to face.

“Oh, if that’s the only matter you’d like for me to help you with, I think the solution can be easily found”

You said to him as you approached the basket and selected one of the slices, taking it in your hands and putting inside the bag where you had put the leftovers of the chocolate muffins. You hadn’t seen the look Mista was throwing at you, but if you had paused to see him, you would have witnessed how focused he appeared to be as he glared towards the slice of shortcake you had chosen and that you were holding. The hard and suspicious stare lasted to the point where you put the warped slice inside your bag but after that, his frown relaxed and his face erupted in such a gleeful expression as he zipped past you in quite the exuberant fashion, slithering hastily towards the basket and in the frenzy dictated from his hunger, scooping up a slice of delicious shortcake.

Now that the peril of the fourth slice had been eliminated from the moment you had put it inside the bad, he appeared to have acquired his carefree personality, a trait that you realized he could display in serenity now since what had troubled him had been resolved. As you and Fragola stared at him bewildered by how quick he had been in charging and claim the shortcake for himself, he kept stuffing his mouth with the slices of cake in such an enthusiastic endeavor. He must have been really hungry if he ate in such a ravenous way, you thought, yet it was incredible how his fear had withheld him from eating. It spoke volumes on how deep the roots of his fear for the number four was, since the fourth slice had been the only obstacle between him and his meal. He just kept eating happily, humming and busing himself with relishing in the delicate taste of the fluffy cream and fresh strawberries of the shortcake, as you saw the tip of his tail twitching happily in delight with every  mouthful he took. He really loved the shortcake and you couldn’t help but smile a little in seeing him so glad to eat his cake.

Then, as he finished chewing the last big bite of his second slice of cake, he seemed to regain his sense of reality that had been robbed from him by the taste of the sweet he was devouring. He shifted his eyes to you, mouth full of cake while his hand stayed frozen in midair with the third slice clasped shut inside it and he blushed a little when he realized that you had been staring at him while he had eaten in such an unrestricted way. He could feel he had some cream smeared all over his lips and he grew conscious of the fact he had listened only to his hunger in that moment, not quite considering he had been behaving in that way in front of you. He thought that, probably, you would have thought he was a savage, yet he didn’t find an ounce of critical judgment in your face. If anything, you wore a little smile and such a sympathetic expression towards him, as if to communicate to him, wordlessly, that you were glad of the fact he enjoyed your cuisine. Which was true, because you couldn’t help but think he looked so adorable with those orbs full of life, cheeks rosy and full of cake and some uncertainness in his movements as he realized you were there with him, too. He had done a little mess out of the shortcakes you had gifted to him but, hell, he looked so cute, to the point you couldn’t do anything else if not smile in front of such an enthusiastic display of appetite.

“Sssssowwy…”

He muttered then, his words coming a little distorted thanks to the cake still present within his mouth. He resumed chewing and swallowed, before looking away from you.  You smiled some more in seeing how coy he was behaving in that moment because he looked, almost, as if you had caught him red-handed while  doing something he shouldn’t have done. You were quick to wave your hands in front of yourself and tell to him that he didn't need to worry nor to be ashamed to have lacked restraint and mannerism in front of you. Guido was positively taken aback by how supportive you were in stating that he didn’t have to worry, even when he had behaved in such a way in front of you.  You were truly a peculiar human, he had to give you that. Hence why, after those encouraging words had left your lips, he stared at you again, lowering a little the slice of cake he was holding and passing an hand on his lips to remove the cream of his previous bites.

Then, as the confirmation of your good heart totally settled inside his mind, he seemed to realize something: he still needed to thank you for the help you had leant to him with the whole solution of the previous ruckus he had caused. He stalled a little before saying:

“Comunque, pasticciera (By the way, baker)…” He started, trailing off a little 

“Te lo devo riconoscere, senza il tuo intervento sarei ancora alle prese con quel…”

 ( “I got to hand it to you, without your intervention I would be still struggling with that…”)

He grimaced a little in reminding the scenery he had been served with when he had opened the package and he had found four slices… yikes, he had risked to meet such an unfortunate cycle of bad luck but thankfully, you had came to his aid and for this fact, he wanted to show his gratitude.

“…quel maledetto numero! Perciò… grazie mille per l’aiuto! Ho apprezzato tanto il tuo gessssto”

(“…that wretched number! Therefore… thank you so much for the help! I appreciated so much your gesssssture”)

He had talked in Italian, without covering the rich accent he displayed while communicating with you. He sounded a little hesitant to address you at first given that you had just witnessed him behaving in such a peculiar way for all the duration of your meeting and now, that he was back to a somehow pacific attitude, he had felt a little self conscious about proceeding the whole meeting because his interactions with humans had never been what he could call a friendly encounter. Mista had always been quite friendly a bubbly, eager to know more about the human world and the hidden treasure their culture and their world held. He had always been a fairly simple naga: he didn’t hold any high expectation for his life in the little secluded wooded area he inhabited and he had always longed to live his life simply, enjoying the beauty of the Nature and of the food. He didn’t need anything that the forest couldn’t provide to him and he felt content with just being able to relish in the simplicity of his existence and in the prospect of a quiet life.

The subject of humans had never truly sucked his interest in but he held  sympathy for them and he didn’t judge them  to be a rotten bunch like some of his peers had speculated. In fact, deep in the forest, while you and the inhabitants of Naples lived unaware of their existence, under a thick entangle of breeches and trees, stayed a little secluded zone that no human had never visited before. It was a secret, a secret transmitted from generation to generation by the little naga colony that lived there, concealed by the dark canopy of leafy trees. It was from there that Mista came from and it was there that he returned, every night, after consuming the food you gently shared with him. In recent times, hunters had started to roam the little forest more frequently, tracking and preying on the same preys that sustained the little group of nagas. But with the arrival of more humans, it meant less meat for them and after this unlucky event, nagas had pushed themselves to prey on the most extreme boundary they could slither to, which was the entrance of the forest. Every day they would grow more desperate but the chance to hunt at night had diminished since humans had hunted the same catch they preyed upon. Guido’s own hunger was a direct testimony of this fact, to the point he had to push himself to the border in order to find some food.

He had always had a sweet tooth and he loved human food. Sometimes, he even found some leftover from the humans that went near the border of the forest to have a pick-nick.

It was on one of those fateful occasions that he had tasted your shortcake. It had happened some months prior your first encounter but for Guido, it almost felt like yesterday. In fact, he had chosen to riskily push himself to the border of the forest that time to see if he could find something to eat, maybe a rabbit or some little prey he could hunt down without making too much ruckus since he had to hunt in the most preserved and discrete way possible. The luck of the nagas pack was that nobody but the hunters ventured on the deep entangle of trees and for this reason their existence had not still be found out yet. But the border of the forest was, quite contrarily, a little more frequented, specifically in the mornings and for this reason, he had to stay highly vigil to slither without causing any excessive noise. It was the crack of dawn and he had been spying upon a human couple that had just finished sharing their meals near the border of the forest. Unknown to them was the fact they had left a little piece of strawberry shortcake on a little plate, forgetting about the fact they had still to finish that sweet. But the humans had been so taken by sharing their romancing moment that had forgotten about the sweet threat, with which Guido was fast to lock his attention on. That little slice of cake had became his main focus and so, he had been waiting for the right moment to strike. When  the couple had finally left, he had been quick in descending from a tree and clasp the little prize in his rough hands. The little shortcake came with an envelope that cited these words:

“Pasticceria Vento d’oro” (Bakery Golden Wind)

He read. It was the name of your bakery. In fact, pastries envelops have the name of the bakery and the information concerning the whereabouts of said bakery printed on them such as the owner of said bakery and the address. Guido had read the name out loud and thanks to his attentive nature, he seemed to be quick in understand that this place was the one where the couple had bought this specific shortcake. Then, he prosecuted with scanning the envelope and caught a glimpse of the remnant data about the bakery:

di (Y/N) (L/N), Via delle Dalie, n.12

Which the address of your little bakery, followed suit by the telephone number of the business.

“(Y/n)…”

He repeated your name, guessing you were the baker who owned the entire business. Now that he thought about it, “Via delle Dalie” which could be translated as “road of the dahlias” was quite near the forest. Given how friendly like his views on humans were, he knew some details about the human world that confined so closely with his naga one and he knew that humans had streets to roam while nagas, like him, slithered from tree to tree. He knew, too, that humans gave names to their streets to identify them and he remember, clearly, that the row of streets of the outskirts were all dedicated to flowers. Via delle Dalie happened to be the street closest to the little forest and his mind was quick to put the pieces together: that couple had bought that little shortcake the night before in your shop and, then, had opted to have a romantic pick-nick at the first lights of dawn. While part of him felt content their forgetting meant his fortune since he could taste this slice of shortcake, he couldn’t help but wonder how it would taste. He loved sweets, after all!

And after taking the first bite, his mind was projected towards the seventh heaven because never, in his life of collecting random food forgotten by the humans, had he ever tasted something  so delicate yet intense in the delicious tingle it left on his tongue. As his row of sharp teeth sank in the sultry flavor of the cake, he realized that whoever had made that shortcake had been sent from up above because he had never had something so delicious in his life. The cream accompanied by the sweetness of the strawberries melted in his mouth and before he could ever realize it, he had devoured the whole shortcake. Yet, in his mind one thing was clear: he really hoped more people would forget sweets bought in your shop, because tasting such delicacies had been a providential blessing sent to him.

Since that moment, Guido had ventured more and more to the border, feeling a tinge of curiosity about the alleged owner of the shop and their masterfully crafter pastries. He should have never risked so much and yet his curiosity prevailed on him, as he had started, time to time, to approach the whereabouts of your shop a little more, since now, he had even located it in the agglomeration of the buildings that stayed adjacent to the entrance of the forest.

In the nights when you stayed later than your employees, he spent some time  just looking at you from afar, seeing the silhouette of who he believed (Y/N) would be. In fact, he could see you thought the cloth of the curtain that stayed in front of the window from which you could see the outline of the forest. From there, without you knowing, you had a reptilian like fan that admired you from afar, questioning himself about what you were preparing till that late hour. Maybe some other shortcakes? He couldn’t help but feel so much glee in the memory of how tasteful that cake was and how talented you, the little baker as he had began calling you in his mind, truly were. He had felt all the love and passion you had put in baking that exquisite piece of cake and there wasn’t a detail of it that he didn’t consider to be divine. He thought your hands were like the hands of a sculptor that masterfully carves his artworks an from stolid marble, gives life to something completely new and beautiful. In the same way, you gave life to everything you created and gifted a little moment of peace to whoever had the chance to taste your pastries. You were truly an artist of the Italian cuisine and him, being the sweet toothed naga he was, couldn’t help but admire your creations and couldn’t wait for other humans to show up and bring some of the food you prepared for them.

He did think that he would have liked to, even, compliment you for the talent you were gifted with, but he couldn’t. Not only because you were human and he a naga and as such, he should have never expected the boundary between your kinds to change and evolve, but because once or twice he had dared to break the rules in the past and  approach a human with the friendliest of the intents, yet they had screamed at him and ran away as fast as they could. Thankfully nobody had believed them when they had narrated they had met a half man and half snake being on the forest that had waved at them and wanted to be friends because , after all, his kind was believed to be only a fruit of fantasy. The little hopefulness he had felt had been cemented with that last second try-out and from that moment, Guido had understood that it wasn’t possible for his kind and yours to meet in the middle and hopefully build a somehow respectful relationship. He, probably, looked very scary to the humans even if he didn’t deem himself to be too appalling…

Right? He wasn’t, was he…?

Such grim outcome paired with a sprinkle of defeat in seeing his hope annihilated in such a way had lead the naga to give up on the prospect of befriending a human and he had chosen to settle down and enjoy the quietude of his life in the deep forest, even if he had to admit that, sometimes, having a friend would be nice, too. He already knew every face in the little pack he lived with and even if he was friend with another naga named Giorno, Giorno was the alpha and he was always busy with other matters that were central for the life and wellbeing of the pack. His friend could be busy for most of the day given that he had so many tasks to tend to given that he was the alpha and this left Guido feeling alone, sometimes. Hence why, when he had stumbled upon your little bakery and the figure of a human so talented as you, he had felt his heart swell up with interest since watching you from afar and asking himself what other beautiful and flavorful pastries you were preparing.

The humans that had the chance to go to your little shop were truly fortunate, he thought, because he would have liked to enter in the little shop making the little bell of the door jingle, greet you and order, maybe, another piece of your shortcake. He would have loved to do something so human, yet… he couldn’t. He wasn’t human to begin with and he could never approach nor you nor your bakery, because he was a naga and nagas and humans had to live separate in their respective realities. So he accepted the reality once more: with something akin to an heavy heart, he settled down, opting to indulge in this little ongoing interest he had in just study you from afar, dreaming to have the chance to taste another morsel of your sweet treats. This he would have done, since he was a naga and he would be forever constricted to the border of the forest.

However, said prediction hadn’t gone as he had thought because, now, he had you, the little baker he had been so curious to know more about of, directly under his gaze and holding such a sympathetic and kind expression, too. His tetraphobia had guided him to lose any type of self control in front of those unexpected four slices of shortcake and since he had been positively horrified  by said discover, his rational sense had unhinged itself from his mind and he had screamed into the night for somebody to come to help him. Everything had happened so fast and he had realized he had expressed his distress caused by his phobia in such a overzealous way only when he had found himself face to face with your coincidentally distressed visage, too. He had been fast in recognizing you since the frame he watched usually coming from the curtain in front of the window fitted together perfectly with your frame. It was you, the little baker, without  a doubt!

He had been wanting to meet you but not in this bizarre way, for sure. And given how quick he had been in devouring the shortcakes thanks to your help, he couldn’t help but reprimand himself for having behaved in such a way in front of you. Yet, you looked tranquil and peaceful around him and he couldn’t help but notice how stark the contrast was with the other humans he had tried to befriend. With you, he didn’t feel as if he had to worry to be frightening for you because you seemed to have already accepted what he was, scales and fangs included.

You didn’t hold any type of fear or negative emotion in his regards which was a trait that got along with the general image he had of you, after the two weeks of food exchanging you and him had installed. It was a situation he wanted to address, too, since you didn’t know everything that had happened the night the first robbery of the shortcake had went down. Yet, it was something that passed his mind as he remembered you had the fourth slice of cake with you, now. In his eyes you were a savior because you had gave him the chance to escape from the misfortune but with him stepping aside, you were, now, the alleged subject of bad luck since you had the fourth slice with you. He didn’t want for you to be oppressed by bad luck hence why he was quick in stating:

“Also, about that fourth slice, you should get rid of it, ya know? Don’t wanna anything bad happening to you! Emh, it’s not like it’s my businesssss, it’s just that you are a good human, so yeah… lo dico per il tuo bene, non mangiare quell pezzo di torta” (I’m telling you for your sake, don’t eat that slice of cake…”

He returned to his bashful tone and he couldn’t help but reprimand himself for sounding so shy in front of you. He couldn’t even look at you in the eye as he affirmed his honest thoughts about you. He really felt glad he had had the chance to meet and interact with you, even in this strange occurrence dictated by the unexpected tangle of causalities that you could meet in your life, courtesy of Fate. How wicked Fate was, he thought, in making him encounter a kind hearted human like you yet made him feel disarmed in front of you.  Interacting with females had never been a problem for him, he could be quite charming and flirty if he wanted. Then, why, the prospect of interacting you made him feel almost… nervous?  Hell, why was he behaving like this?

“Oi Mista, what is your deal?! Get a grip of yourself, damn it! Talking to the ladies has never been a problem so why the hell I am behaving in this way?!”

This was what he thought, without finding an explanation for how stiff he had became under your gaze. Yet, he found your polite remark to welcome him once more.

“Alright… if you think it can be dangerous for me, I will do as you say” you started, before looking at Fragola that seemed to look at you and galvanize you to ask the question with you had been dying to ask to him with her attentive eyes “ And umh… there are some questions I’d like to ask you.. who are you? And  am I right in assuming you are the mysterious person to which I bring the basket every day?”

You asked, uncertain about his response. You had phrased well and attentive to his sensibility, hence why you had resorted to phrase your question in that way. Calling him “thief” would be very hazardous you thought, given that you didn’t know, exactly, how at heart he could take your words. What if you offended him in calling him in this way? You had forgiven him, after all, and even if he did stole the shortcake, you had stopped taking him accountable for that little crime, since you now had the most direct proof of how heightened his hunger truly was. Now, you had a clear evidence of how strong his hunger could be and, if anything, you had an ulterior reason to think you had been right all along in not giving up on the quest for an answer. In the end, not only had you found somebody who needed your help, but you had met such a fantastic creature, too! It is not every day that you meet a mystical creature as him, that was for sure. Anyhow, you needed to keep a calm atmosphere with him present since you still didn’t know not even his name yet. You opted to phrase your request in a way that wouldn’t be unsettling for him, even if you doubted he would become offended since he looked to be so friendly and displayed such an enthusiastic behavior.

For Guido the time of presentations had come. This time, he wouldn’t falter and would explain the whole situation since you still didn’t know what had happened the night of the theft. You probably thought he was a thief and it was true, he had, indeed, be the one to claim the shortcake for himself because his hunger had made him act in such a fast and ravenous way that before being able to stop himself from robbing you, he had a slice of shortcake stuffed inside his mouth. When he had came to terms and realized how despicable he had been in stealing from you, he had felt like the lowest being to slither on Earth. He had never meant to steal something from you because he respected you, your effortless talent, the delicate taste of you cakes and all the care you put in your job.

Yet, something primal and carnal had snapped inside his mind, robbing him of every rational sense just as he had done when he had witnessed the four slice of shortcake inside the basket. He had snapped and behaved listening only to his instincts… but if he could have, he would have taken back his actions without an ounce of remorse. He had hated having behaved in such a way and he hated having wronged you in such a deplorable way. Yet, he had, because food was hard to find inside his wooded home and his hunger could be quite an hassle to keep at bay. Yet, you deserved to know the whole truth about that night given the fact that even with him committing such a terrible action, you had forgave him and you kept bringing him baskets full of bountiful food.

Any other human would have been angered by the prospect of being robbed but, as he had read in that  little note you had wrote and put inside the basket, you had forgiven his action and were willing to help him. When he had read those sentences full of kindness and support, something inside his heart had blossomed again. It was the hope to befriend a human, a hope he had buried deep in the lowest section of his heart given that it was a hope that hadn’t any means to be morphed in reality. You were willing to forgive him even when he had committed such a wrongful action in your actions and truly, he had been blown away by said revelation. Yet, with you offering your help so selflessly, he couldn’t do anything else if not feeling his respect for you growing even more. And with that realization, came the fact that you deserved an answer. However he knew only how to read, with quite some difficulty too, the human language but he didn’t possess enough knowledge to respond to you in a written form. He didn’t know where he could even find pen and paper to begin with.

But Mista was determinate in answering your polite display of care and thus, he thought that, maybe, with the language of flowers he could convey what his lack of knowledge didn’t let him communicate in the written form. Consequentially he chose the most beautiful dahlia he could find on the meadow in the secluded area he inhabited and after savoring the generous meal you had left for him, he had put the pink dahlia inside the basket, hoping with all his heart you would understand what he was trying to transmit with that gesture: gratitude. Because yes, he felt indebted to you for the all generosity you had displayed to him, not wavering for a second, not even when he had stolen from you. You truly had a kind heart.

However, you deserved to know the whole truth about that night and so he was going to be utterly honest with you this time that he had the chance to speak to you face to face.

“Yeah, it is me the one to eat the delicioussss food you leave. I wanted to thank you in person but well, nagas like me supposedly shouldn’t interact with your kind. And even with me deciding to push aside the rules of my pack, I thought you would be scared of me given that I am…”

He gestured towards his tail, while looking down and articulating his eyes back to you as he finished his statement.

“… not exactly human in the first place. Humanssss tend to be scared of what is different from them so… yeah, I thought you would react in the same way”

He finished, but you could still feel there was something lingering on his lips, as if he wanted to say something else to you. You nodded to him as if to say that he had your undivided attention and that you wished to know more of what seemed to perturb his mind. Mista inhaled and exhaled, before concentrating on your eyes that communicated to persecute with the story he wanted to disclose with you. You had already forgiven him for his terrible action but in the narration he was going to paint in your mind with his words, he had to address the theft, too. He felt ashamed of what he had done but in order for you to know the truth, he had to sacrifice his pride and talk to you with his open heart. And so, he did.

“You probably think I am the thief and hell, I’m not going to negate the fact I ssstole from you…  fuck, I did! I was so hungry and I acted following only my instincts, damn it.  I regret it with my whole heart and there is no day I go by without cursing myself for having done that since ya have been so kind to me bringing all thissss food and all…”

He sounded really hurt by his own doings and he seemed to engrain so much meaning in every word as if every word he was proffering was puncturing his pride the more he talked. His speech seemed to be the fruit of hard self analysis and of deep guilt but there was no doubts in your mind about the fact that he intended every word he was saying to you. He truly regretted his behavior and felt sorry for what he had done, which was something that truly surprised you since he seemed very repented over the fact he had stole the shortcake. He was being truthful and every word you heard, you believed without questioning because his speech carried nothing else if not truth and honest intention.

“But you have to know that that day I wasn’t the one to break your window! There was a strange person lurking outside, in the back of the shop...”

And thus, he proceed to narrate you about what truly had happened that night where you had found the window broken and the shortcake vanished. Guido had been studying your working silhouette from the border of the forest as he always did when he spotted the warm light of the kitchens being lighted up. He knew that when there was a light shining through the curtain then it meant that the little baker would be preparing something, therefore he had wondered what you could have been in the midst of preparing. Red Velvet cake? Sachertorte? Black Forest Cake? Croquembouche? Profiterole? Or maybe another delightful strawberry shortcake? He couldn’t help but wonder if he would have ever the chance to taste said cake again. He truly loved the savory tingle that the mix of the cream and sweet strawberry had left in his lips that one time he had tasted it. Unfortunately the couple who had forgotten that slice hadn’t returned still and thus, he had found himself longing to taste again a slice of shortcake.

In spite of getting lost in speculations, Guido had been quite receptive when he had seen a strange person, clad in dark clothes and with a balaclava lowered on his head, approaching the window and staring at you. He had been quick to grow suspicious and concerned over your safety given the approaching of said person. Then, from the high position he was at in the breeches of a tree, he had seen another person, without a mask, but probably an accomplice of the said masked individual, toppling over one of your vases in order to distract you and make you focus on the noise. From what Guido was telling you with such a serious tone, you understood that that “crash” you had heard was not produced by the actions of Fragola,  but it had been an action willingly perpetrated by somebody who had planned to distract you and, then, rob you.  Then, probably, Fragola had started to play with the terrain contained inside the vase, which would explain why you had found her playing near the vase. Your eyes couldn’t widen more in front of what you were discovering.

The naga kept going on in the reminiscing of that night, telling you of how he had seen you leaving your position to check out the toppled out vase, while the accomplice of the thief had ran away in order for you to not see them. It was when he had seen the thief, because a thief it was, brandishing a rock and breaking the glass of your window that something had snapped inside his mind, making him grow enraged in seeing somebody posing a threat to you. Now, nagas like him, as he himself had said, weren’t supposed to intervene or merge their business with the ones of the humans because humans and other mystical creatures lived in the eternal border provided by the difference of their lives, natures, worlds and of everything they were. His pack had lived inside the little forest for centuries without never breaking the rule of interacting with the humans and the humans had never ventured in their home, because entering in that deep eddy of breeches and high trees could be quite difficult. For centuries such different worlds had coexisted without finding a common meeting point where they could interface themselves, pandering the current state of reality, that dictated that humans and other creatures were never to encounter in the middle. But him, Guido, even being a naga, had but felt enraged by what those humans were doing to damage you and your little bakery. He shouldn’t have cared at all about the fact that that thief was going to rob you of your hard earned money, he shouldn’t have cared about the fact that they could harm you. Because you were a human and he was a naga and never your worlds had to meet.

And yet, this hadn't prevented his blood from stop boiling, his talons from breaking the skin of his closed fists and his frown to emerge in witnessing the palpable danger. You worked so hard every day to keep your little bakery alive, you put all your time, effort, patience and love in every little cookie or pastry you baked for your customers, you were a good person. You didn’t deserve to lose the fruits of your hard labor. You didn’t deserve it. And yes, you were a human and he was a naga and he shouldn’t have cared, maybe he could have spent his time expressing his solidarity in his thoughts, but nothing else a naga like him should have done. And yet… you didn’t deserve to be punished in this way by Fate, you didn’t deserve to see the kindness and happiness you gifted to the world, washed away in this cruel way. No, you didn’t deserve it and he, even being a naga, wouldn’t have allowed it.

And so, his instinct had guided him again, as he found himself hovering in front of the thief, his talons pushing against the throat of said individual against the wall at the back of your shop. He didn't know how it had happened nor did he realize how fast he had moved in order to find himself from the tree to the current position he had been occupying, with that despicable human locked under his strong iron hold, as he had seen their  terrified eyes growing the size of saucers in seeing what he was. But this time he hadn’t the time to think about the fact that he could have frightened a human because that human was a threat to you. And so, with the most unforgiving gaze he could muster, he had locked his scorching glare in the frightful gleam embedded in the eyes of the thief, as he had seethed to them to not even dare to think about doing this again and that if they did dare to try again and come steal from you, then he would not have hesitated in giving them a lesson. Maybe he had said something even more crueler but in a way or another, the meaning of his words had been discerned beautifully as he had seen the thief clambering on shaky legs and running away as fast as lighting from the dark they had arrived.

He had spared another merciless glare towards the point where they had hurried off before looking at the damage they had inflicted upon your poor window. It had saddened him that he hadn’t been fast enough to prevent this to happen but… in that moment, his eyes had caught a glimpse of a freshly baked strawberry shortcake resting near the windowsill. It had looked almost as if it was calling his name… and damn, it had had such a beautiful and poignant fragrance that he could literally feel the sweet embrace of the cream enrapturing his famished mind. Ah, how much he had wanted that cake…

But no, he couldn’t have stolen it, it wasn’t right! He had just stopped a thief from robbing you of your money, he wasn’t going to be… and yet, he couldn't have stopped his instinct to listen to his inner hunger, couldn’t have stopped his hands from practicing a hole in the courtain and claiming the cake hastily inside his awaiting hands as he had taken the first bite in such an urgent way and then another and another. Then, when he had realized that he had let his instincts take over in such a way, it had been too late to even try to understand why he had let those urges get the best of him. As he hsd listened to you coming back, he had cursed himself as he had slithered back hastily to the forest with half cake in his wake. He couldn’t help but feel immense shame in front of what he had done but his hunger had prevailed on him and for this, he felt even more conscious as he told you about the shortage of food in the forest. He told you of how dire was for him finding something to eat inside the comfort and peace of the forest and how he had been forced to move and push himself to the ultimate boundary in order for him to not starve anymore. He had thought he could bear the incessant hunger he felt scraping its talons inside the walls of his food devoided stomach but, at the end of the day, when he had seen the shortcake there, he had felt the unstoppable covetousness of eating it. It was an urge engrained in his being and so many days he had starved, that when he had found the cake you had baked for your friend, his instincts had kicked in and he had devoured said cake. He felt regretful of what he had done yet hoped you would understand his dire situation, given how kind you seemed to be. And, surprisingly enough, you had been extremely kind with him even when you didn’t know about the fact that he had come to protect you that night. The fact he had frightened the thief didn’t mean he hadn’t stolen from you, he thought, but the fact you were so willing to help him, even when you didn’t know of him lending his assistance to you first, suggested to him that you were a human with a good heart. He had already received the hint by the utmost care you put in cooking your little delicacies but the fact you brought rich meals every day and tried to connect with him really corroborated a positive imagine of you in his mind.

And when he finished to speak, your mouth was totally agape in front of what he had just disclosed to you. All this time you had believed he had been a desperate person resorting to stealing as an act of desperation and well, your gut feeling had been right all along. You didn’t regret committing yourself in the quest to discover who the mysterious person because now, you realized your instinct that had told you to go over the appearances, had brought you to uncover the truth about that night. There stood somebody who had fiercely defended you and had avoided a real robbery to occur inside the bakery. All this time you had believed he was a person turned thief for necessity, but now you knew that this being, this naga, had been your savior all along. He had defended your shop and had defended you from the ill will of humans like you. Yes, he was a naga and you a human, but he had chosen to slither over the non written boundary that bound you two to different worlds and help you, even when you had not been aware of him doing so. He felt regret for stealing that cake but you couldn’t help but overlook over this fact even more because from what he had told you, he had not eaten in days and now you understood his guilt and actions even more.

Another thing you didn’t expect was the presence of  burglars in this side of the city. The area you lived in had always been safe for its inhabitants but turns out that, maybe, even in the most secure of places there could be the risk of Evil lurking in the dark.

“You defended me and saved my bakery from the robbery…” you said, trailing off, still shaken by everything that had been narrated to you by the naga. Then, you seemed to regain the same determined tone you had used to reassure him you would have helped him.

“I would have never imagined it… thank you, thank you so much!”

Your words were quick to fall from your lips in such a secure way that Guido couldn’t help but look puzzled in front of such reaction. He thought you were going to chastise him, now that his shame had been uncovered and tangled in his previous narration of the facts. You had the right to be angry at him now that you knew all the truth about the events that had occurred two weeks ago, yet there was not even a note of angriness or pettiness in your eyes. If anything, he grew quite baffled to read a somehow sense of… gratitude in them? Of course you would be glad he had helped you but the fact he had intervened, didn’t smacked clean the fact he had behaved in the same fashion a thief would have done. Yet you didn’t seem to care not did you display any will to berate him.

“Wait a minute! You really aren’t angry about the shortcake?”

He already knew the response to that but he asked the question just the same, maybe because he needed to hear you stating it clearly and directly in front of his eyes for him to completely believe you would. He just felt so surprised by the way you reacted because he had dreaded to even think about the distant chance of him confronting you on the matter yet it had been so easy that he couldn’t help but feel foolish for not having revealed himself to you before.

“Oh no, anything but that! You defended me and my bakery from an event that could have transformed in something very dangerous for me… hence why you have my absolute gratitude. I admire your brave heart and I want to thank you for how earnest you have been. I can tell you feel deeply sorry over the fact you took the shortcake but I am here to tell you to not worry about it. What you have done for me is worth much more than a simple shortcake. If anything, you deserve much more!”

You said mirroring his previous enthusiastic fashion and smiling to him, to make him understand that it was fine. You did feel sorry for the real thief, too, since they would have been quite scared, too, but, at the end of the day, they wanted to rob you and if this naga hadn’t came to your rescue, you would have lost all your earning of that day and maybe, you could have been injured, too. You felt sorry when people had to resort to violence to obtain something just as you felt sorry the naga had to resort to steal in order for him to survive, but, for how much understanding you could be, that thief could have harmed you just the same. The prospect of it happening again had made your skin crawl since you had felt so invaded in such a safe and comfortable place when you had seen the broken window, almost as if they had stolen something from the inner center of your soul. Still, as you looked the bewildered eyes of the naga, an idea was quick to blossom in your mind, an idea that could cure both his hunger and your need of safety, given that, now, even the safe place you worked in could be at stake. In fact, what if… what if you two formed a partnership? You could provide and bring him some food while he could keep watch at night, since he had alluded to the fact he stayed awake for all the night. It could be the perfect compromise and you two could work together and gain something from the mutual help. Yes, it wasn’t a bad idea at all, so you didn’t hesitate, not even a second, in advancing the proposition to him.

“What you told made me think…” you started, noticing how concentrated he was now that you had shifted the focus of the dialogue “What do you say if we made a deal?”

And so you proposed to him the whole idea you had just had: your food for his watchful eyes set on your bakery for all the night. It could be quite a good compromise and Guido seemed to be surprised by said proposition yet he couldn’t help but being fascinated by the whole prospect. It was actually a fair exchange that would bring something to both parts of the deals. And not only would he have some food for himself and to share with the pack, but he would have earned it without burdening you and living all your offers. It was actually a good idea, he realized.

“Ci sssssto” (I am in)

He uttered, sounding quite determinate as if his resolve had been reinvigorated by how understanding you had been with him. This time, he had been very luck in finding a human like you. He seemed to smile a little, too, and in that little smile you found the same warmth of the Sun, since it seemed to bring new light and new life to his whole face. His eyes lightened up, too, now free from the guilt of having stolen from you and being finally forgiven by you for his wrong doings. Facing our mistakes, sometimes, can be quite difficult but Guido had had the courage to face them and advocate his guiltiness, in order to come to you with all his honesty and integrity. He had stolen, he had committed something he deeply regretted and for it he had been forgiven. Now, in you, he found a somehow sense of cordiality and friendship and for this reason, he seemed to sport his usual bright demeanor.

“Perfect, then it’s settled! It’s a pleasure working with you, signor…?”

Ah right, he still hadn't introduced himself to you. Gosh, what a goof he was!

“Guido Mista, but call me Mista if ya want, little baker”

 “Mista…”

In the same way he had done when he had read your name on the wrapper of the shortcake left by the human couple that day, you repeated  his lastname after him as you heard his name rolling of your tongue as you tasted it in your lips. Mista, short but sweet. You positively liked it and you could, finally, put a name to this bright and cheery naga that you had met in the path of your life. But wait, did he just call you little baker? Now that you thought about it, your introduction was missing, too! It was time to make amends for that fact, too.

“Oh, how clumsy of me! I am (Y/N), (Y/N) (L/N)”

You told him with glee.

“And she’s my cat, Fragola”

You finished the introductions as he looked at your loyal companion that had been standing by your side all along, while studying him. He waved a little towards her as a sign of mutual recognition and Fragola seemed to understand the gesture, as she closed and then opened her eyes in a slow fashion, a gesture that could be translated as her expressing a sense of security and agreement with the words uttered by the naga.

With the introductions finally settled, only one thing was left to do: you thrust your hand forwards in front of him, waiting for him to take it and shake it as a sign of renewed partnership and hopefully, a future friendship. Mista looked at your hand studying it for a solid second before remembering that it was a gesture human did when they greeted each others, a sign of common acknowledgement that would seal your little seal your verbal deal, establishing a tie between you two. He wouldn’t be the naga that spied you from the obscurity of his forest, he would become something akin to a nocturnal guardian. And you, you wouldn’t be a distant figure that captured his interest from time to time when he looked towards the light of the kitchens where you worked being light up. No, you would become somebody he would greet and maybe exchange some words with. If it felt this good to break the rules between the naga and the human world, then he wasn’t regretting his decision to follow his instinct, which was the same instinct that had brought you to him.

So, with such a dazzling little smile, he clasped your hand and shook it, quite attentive to not hurt you with his talons. It was undeniable, how happy he felt to have found you, the human friend he had always looked for and never had the chance to find. As the dahlia he had gifted to you clearly stated, he was grateful to you for everything you had done for him and for how kind you had been. Not only you had accepted his nature but you treated him as if he was an human and for this, he felt grateful. You liked him just the way he was and he liked you just the way you were, without “ifs” nor “buts”.

It was the beginning of something new, something positive that not even the number four could tarnish anymore. He finally had found a human friend to bring some light and hope to his days, gifting him some the company he couldn’t relish in the natal area of the forest he lived in. He was glad he had been born with a sweet tooth for your tasty and delicate strawberry shortcake because, he realized, he didn’t have only a sweet tooth for your cakes or pastries…

But he had a sweet tooth for you, too.