Drabble #242: Muddy

[redwolf]

For this prompt, we continue with our one-word/phrase drabble roots:

Muddy

Tell us all about it. Labyfic-style, of course.

Given our entries from recent months, let's continue with the suggested limit of 500 words. Though remember that shorter pieces are most definitely welcome!

Your entry should take the following format, posted as a comment on this entry:

Word count: # of words
$your_beautiful_drabble

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Comments

Shortbread

[redwolf]

Word count: 500

Sarah and Bishop walked through the bustling streets of Goblin City as they made their way back to the castle. They stepped aside as a rowdy group of muddy goblin children splashed past. An older goblin armed with a broom yelled at the children to watch where they were going.

While they were out of the main flow of traffic, Sarah opened the package in her basket, offering it to Bishop before taking one of the sweets herself.

Back when she’d been working Above, a coworker had brought the staff homemade greek shortbread and, knowing her talent for making sugar cookies, Sarah had sent some to Irene. Flip had returned almost immediately with a request for the recipe, which had been dutifully extracted from the coworker’s grandmother. After adding a note that the quantities were based around making enormous batches for a large Greek family, as well as carefully converting the measurements from metric to imperial, Sarah sent Flip back. Irene had been working on perfecting the sweets ever since.

“Irene really has a knack for making kourabiedes,” Bishop groaned in delight. “These are even better than last year’s batch.”

“They taste incredible. I’m almost tempted to tell her they didn’t quite work out and offer myself up as a taste tester for the next batch, but Toby wore that trick out long ago.”

Sarah had been hoping for the delivery all week and had made certain to have an appropriate bribe available when Flip arrived. Fortunately, he considered the enormous jawbreaker that Sarah presented him to be a fair trade for leaving his delivery of baked goods unmolested.

“Good luck hiding these from Jareth,” Bishop waved his hand at his coat. “I’m covered in icing sugar from eating one.”

That was one of the things Sarah had discovered while converting the recipe. She’d never heard of icing sugar, but in context, realised it was powdered sugar. Sarah was liberally sprinkled with enough of the stuff to make it difficult to deny that Irene’s annual cookie delivery had arrived. Fortunately, Irene knew Jareth’s sweet tooth well enough to have sent him a separate package and Sarah would be surprised if any remained when she got home.

She offered another kourabiedes to Bishop and took one herself. “We could always eat the evidence, but as delicious as they are, I couldn’t eat them all.”

“A good thing you left the rest of the package in the studio. He won’t look for it there.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it. If he knew I was stretching it out, he’d sniff it out in a flash,” Sarah snorted. “Did I tell you that Irene won the local bake off with these?”

“Really? Don’t get me wrong, she deserves to win, but I would expect the church ladies to have gotten all snobby over strange foreign biscuits.”

“That’s why she rolls them flat, cuts them into rounds and calls them shortbread cookies for the contest,” Sarah grinned.

Bishop laughed loudly. “Irene is a cunning woman.”