104: Essentials

Entering the dining hall, my eyes locked onto Milo. I would need him before he ran off, so after I placed all the food on the dining table, I quickly made my way over to him.

“Excuse me, Milo, before you go back downstairs, any chance you could make some stone barrels and fill them with water?”

He just nodded, his mouth full of the roll he’d just bitten into. He was certainly looking much better as well; I guess Hari was successful in making him sleep.

Heading back into the kitchen once that was sorted, I had a lot to do, but I started by cleaning an area of the room for Milo to get water for me.

“What ya’ doing?” Liane said from her corner.

I had completely forgotten she was still in here and jumped at the question.

“I’m clearing a space for Milo to create a couple of barrels of water,” I said, gesturing.

“Why not use the rune?” Liane looked at me, confused.

Immediately, I felt embarrassed and looked around. What rune was she talking about?

“There is a rune here?” I asked, dreading the answer I was going to get.

“Of course there is. You think a kitchen this size on the third floor would have people running outside to grab water?” Liane chuckled as she hopped down from the corner and made her way over to the counter along the wall.

“Yep, there it is.” She was pointing at one of three tiny coin-sized circles on the wall that I had not even noticed.

As I approached and took a closer look, I still couldn’t tell they were runes.

“Are you sure?” I asked, looking at her.

She leant forward, pressing her finger on the circle she was pointing at, and the middle one spurted water out, splashing me.

“Pretty sure,” she said with a grin.

I had access to water the whole time!

“So… do I want to know where you got the water for the crabs? Did you go into the city to find a well?” She laughed.

When I didn’t respond and just averted my gaze, that humour turned to shock.

“You didn’t…”

“No comment!” I quickly said, pulling out a pot and using the rune on the wall to fill it with water.

Once that was half full, I carried it to the bench and pulled out the second Skywolf for the day.

Liane was chuckling again, and when I looked around to see what I had done, I saw it.

“Traitor!” I muttered, as I saw a bathtub made from ash at the entrance to the oven.

“It’s not that bad, honestly. I would have made more fun of you if you’d gone running around town to find a pump or something,” Liane said, taking her spot back in the corner.

I started to skin the wolf, this time trying to concentrate—see if I could at least do it perfectly once today.

***

Several hours passed, and I had cleaned three wolves. I was unsuccessful in keeping the hide on all of them, but I was getting much better.

“Are you going to sit there and watch me all day?” I asked Liane. For a short period, she had a knife and a piece of wood out, trying to whittle something, but appeared to get frustrated before storing them.

“Was thinking about it. But no, I need to go to the smithy today to get some repairs done. I just didn’t want to deal with people yet,” she said, finally getting down from the corner.

“I’m about to head to the market if you want to head out with me?” I offered, heading to the oven to collect Crisplet.

“It’s okay. I’m just going to be hidden. I’ll see you soon for snacks!” She grinned before vanishing a moment later.

I made my way outside, happy I hadn’t bumped into anyone or had any trouble as I moved through the main hall. Once I was outside, I made my way straight to the market. The fruit and vegetables I would buy were mostly just to resupply, so I wasn’t overly excited about grabbing it all.

I would still get a couple of barrels if I could. I would need to be on the lookout for where to buy them. The other thing I was hoping to find was a way to mash the sugar reeds in the barrel, and something that had crossed my mind several times was a mould to make the candies in.

Approaching the market again, I was hit by the smell of roasted meats, smoke, and spices in the air well before I saw it. When I rounded the corner and saw it, I realised it must have been the peak of lunchtime for everyone, because the market was bustling; there were crowds around all the food stalls.

Making my way to the first fruit stall, I saw they had more citrus fruits and far fewer berries than I was used to.

“Sorry, did you sell out of berries earlier in the day?” I asked the store owner, just curious when they’d get them back again.

“No, lad, we’re heading into winter. You’ll struggle to find berries,” the older man said to me from behind the counter.

I had never paid any attention to what fruits and vegetables were available in which season, so I guess I’d have to figure it out as I went. I purchased a decent number of apples and oranges.

“What are those?” I asked, pointing to what looked like mini cherries—green, and solid when I felt one.

“Good eye. We just got them in this morning from further north. They are frost cherries. You’ll see them a lot more in winter, but I’ll warn you, lad, they are not like cherries in taste. They have a sour tartness to them, but with some sugar and some spices to add warmth, great in a pie,” he explained.

I was nodding, wondering what else I could make with them. Perhaps some jams? Or maybe a candy themselves? I could see a sour candy being very tasty.

“Okay, I’ll buy them all,” I said, the man’s eyes going wide, but he boxed them all up for me and handed them over, telling me to come back in a week and he’d have more.

Walking past the same seafood vendor as I had seen yesterday, I noticed he didn’t currently have any crabs for sale.

“Excuse me, those barrels you have—where did you buy them?” I asked curiously.

“Oh, these? I’ve had them forever, but the local carpenter should be able to make you some, if they don’t have some already. How’d those crabs go—did you eat them already?” he asked jovially.

“I cooked them last night! They were amazing. If you get more, I would happily buy them all. I just don’t know how long I’ll be in town for,” I said.

“Give me a few days and I’ll have a resupply.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Nodding, I carried on—so I would look for a carpenter too. The next shop I stopped at was for vegetables, and I just resupplied on all the basics. I also found some foeni as well; I had not seen that since Geo used it in the fish pies, what seemed like forever ago.

I didn’t bother looking at any of the meat or animals for butchering. It would be very unlikely to find something uncommon out in the open anyway, so I made my way to the edge of the market and looked through the shops that ran along the edge.

My eye was caught by a bookshop, and I really wanted to rush inside, but I had to resist—at least for today.

It took me twenty minutes to find the smithy, and I still had not found the carpenter yet, but upon entering the shop, a little metal bell rang, and a moment later a deep voice yelled out,

“Coming—hold on a second.”

A short moment later, a small man who I felt was twice as wide as he was tall out from the back door, barely able to look over-the-counter top, and when he stepped up and I saw him, his beard was impressively long—especially for a smith, who I had thought were usually clean-shaven since it burnt off all the time.

“How can I help ya?” the man said.

“Hello! I’m looking for something possibly a little different. I wanted to make candy and wanted to get a mould made so I could pour the sugar in and let it set with a preset shape.”

“A mould, eh? Yeah, I’ve done a few of them in the past. Do you have a particular shape in mind?” he asked, stroking his beard.

“Well, it might be a long shot, but I wanted to do the base circle of a specific rune in each,” I said.