We began class by learning how to filter water.
"An individual can go without food for up to three weeks, but can only go without water for three days. You need to learn to get water, and you need to learn how to make it drinkable."
She shows us a way to get clean water by boiling water and collecting the water vapor. It seems like a time consuming method, but I suppose there will not always be someone in a party to use the spell purify water.
We were next taught how to filter water with charcoal, which was interesting. At the end of class I collapsed on the ground and stared up at the sky for a moment.
"Ami? Are you okay?" Kay asks, leaning over me.
"I learned a lot and used muscles that I did not know I possessed. I am feeling rather worn out in a very pleasant way."
"I'm glad it is a pleasant way as we still have work tonight and four more days of this before the weekend."
"Ah yes. Do you tend to do anything on Lunarsday or Sunsday?" I ask him, referring to the last two days in a week.
"Read, duh. You?"
"Since I just arrived, I profess to not having plans, intentions, or really any idea what to do with the off days.” I reply.
"Worry not, you shall have no days of leisure. You will be having your tutoring sessions with Alice and Crestin. You will not be having days off for a while. But there is a two week break after the first six months. We will make sure to have a lot of fun then, if you have earned it.” Cat says, while walking over to join us.
"It is working quite well in my favor then that I do so enjoy being busy." I told them both.
"Wow I mean there is liking being busy and there is liking being this busy. Not that there is anything wrong with staying busy sun up to sun down with not a single day off for the next 6 months. But I get the feeling it is verging on masochistic." Kay says.
"If you don't want the special attention then we don't have to give it to you. Or, actually, I'm lying. Accept the attention and become what you should be. Which is an amazing member of the best guild, my guild. Now then." Cat says, "Come along. Let's go back to the Paws and Claws the day has only begun."
I follow Cat's directions until we get back to the Inn.
"Well hello you three! Did you have a purrrfectly wonderful day? I so hope that you did!" Vita says, meeting us at the door.
Had she been waiting for us? I wonder. If she was that actually feels rather nice. I had been very worried when I left home for this town but it seems that perhaps I was worried about nothing.
"It really was a great day wasn't it Ami? We did some physical activities which wow I mean as a bookworm I don't think of myself as particularly in shape, but I didn't think of myself as this out of shape either. That was kind of amusing to find out though. I wonder if other people feel the same way? So, there was that part of the day. Then there were the lecture classes. Ami and I sat right up at the front didn't we Ami. And the teachers called on us and we knew the answers which makes us look super smart. AND I got to use magic.
“There were these really large colored boulders in the field that I had my magic lessons in. They would make a low thrumming sound if you are good at the element that they represent. If they thrum when you get near them, you had to use magic of that type until you couldn't anymore. I never seemed to run out which I thought would make people not like me, but it seemed the opposite and that it made people like me. Either that or they fear me, bwahahahahaha. At least that class I didn't have to do running or swimming, unlike Ami's classes where they are teaching her to run on walls! I bet that is a good leg work out don't you think. Oh! And Cat is..."
I admire at Vita’s ability to find the smallest moments were Kay takes a breath to interrupt him. I am so fond of my new friend, but that was a skill I needed to learn.
"Well, I am glad to see that you still have a lot of energy as you both work tonight. Actually, Ami I am going to have you start work in an hour so go get cleaned up. We will serve tea once you do. I told the regulars of our tea services that we have a pretty new girl that will be doing the ceremonies and they were rather excited about the idea. It almost hurts my feelings." Vita says and touches her hand to her breast.
Somehow, I feel as though she didn't really care very much at all.
"What about me Vita? When do I start?" Kay asks energetically.
"That's a good question. I want you working during the dinner rush as you can memorize a lot of orders all at once, which helps keep us from having to make so many trips around to each of the tables. As long as you work during that time you can go review your notes or..." Vita says, drawing out the word.
"Or? OR!"
"Or, you can shadow Ami and learn how to do a tea ceremony and service. Unfortunately, you will have to wear your male uniform today as I am still working on your dress."
"That's okay. I bet I will look dashing in it, don't you think?"
"I am sure that you will look good in it, but I think that you will look as lovely as one of my beautiful flowers once your dress is finished." Hillie says, joining the conversation.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
During the time that Kay had been talking we moved into the chairs in front of the fireplace.
"Now then Vita, you should go get the uniforms that you have completed and give our two newbies a moment to breathe, don't you think?" Hillie says, hooking Vita's arm and leading her away.
"I'll be back soon with your uniforms! Oh! And we need to talk about what color to dye your hair Kay!" Vita says as she is being dragged away by Hillie.
“I swear between you and Kay no one is allowed to talk” Hillie lightly chides Vita as they leave.
I sink deep into the plush chair and let myself be warmed by the soft glowing fire. I wasn't cold but after all of the business of the past few hours it was nice to simply sit and watch the fire.
As I watch the fire I think about home and curling up in front of our fireplace with a book and reading outload to Nila. Not that she wasn't able to read but she liked to listen to stories more than she enjoyed reading them. That was only one of the activities that we enjoyed together. We were inseparable. I miss her.
I am going to make a lot of money as an adventurer, and I am going to pay off her debt. She might not like it, but I will convince her that it was okay and then, if she wants to come along, I will bring her here with me and she can work here as well. Our days will be full of fun and laughter.
"I feel that I should write Nila a letter." I hear myself saying outload.
"Oh, that sounds like a great idea! I am sure she will appreciate the gesture, not to mention have a fun time reading about your antics. But, umm Ami? Who is Nila?"
"She was my closest friend back home. We really didn't have any other friends our own age. We were practically sisters."
"Do you want to tell me about her? If you don't want to that is totally okay, and I understand but it sounds like you might maybe kind of like talking about her?" Kay says.
He is very sweet even if his attempts to pry into my past are far too obvious.
"She is the most beautiful person I have ever seen. She is half cat-kin and half Afrite. I feel she took the best qualities of both. Afrite are said to have a bad temper, but Nila doesn't. She is sweeter than cake, and funny too. She has this long naturally purple hair and large eyes whose color matched her hair. She is a little older than me but never talked down to me. She is clever and imaginative. Oh!" I say, cutting my own self off. "She made me this." I say and show Kay and Cat my bracelet. "It has healing properties. If I ever get hurt, it slowly helps heal me."
"Oh she does sound really nice. Do you think that she would be friends with me? I mean she is your friend, and I am your friend. Do you think we can all be friends?"
"Absolutely. Though I somehow think that out of everyone I have met since moving here, she would get along with Cat the best."
"Oh?" Cat says. I wasn't quite sure whether Cat was listening to us, or just asleep. He had moved from my shoulder to my lap. "Why is that, are you attempting to play matchmaker?"
"I can't rightly say but I feel as though I am right about this." I say confidently. "Thank you for listening to me." I say as I see Vita coming over to us, uniforms in hand.
"Alright you two! Here are your uniforms!" she says and hands them over to us. "You should go take a bath Ami, but don't take too long. Kay, Cat, you both can come with me. We are going to decide what color to dye Kay's hair!"
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Kay sees Ami go off to her room and follows behind Vita, Cat comes along. He couldn't help but wonder why Cat was following him. Had he gotten Cat's personality all wrong? Did he actually like Kay as much as he seemed to like Ami? Could that be?
Oh, right. Probably not. He probably was following after us because he couldn't follow after Ami, as it would be most improper. And she seemed to really care about that kind of thing. Kay appreciated that about her, but he was also a little bit worried. They would have to change and bathe in front of one another, wouldn't they? In the dungeon?
You had to try to stay a little clean. If you had too strong a smell it would draw the monsters to you. You can only get off so many fireballs before you were monster chow. Nom nom nom gone down into a monster's belly. Just like his parents.
"Alrighty Kay! Let's color your hair so that everyone will know that you are one of us! And don't worry, the boys that work here do not get harassed nearly as much as we women do. It's a good thing that we are all so strong. If any man tries to touch us or look at us funny then pop bang onto the ground he goes. Hahaha!"
"Does. Does that happen that often? I hope not. Amaya isn't trained up enough to be able to throw down with a full-grown man. And look at me? I would be worse than a wet noodle! At least you can confuse an attacker by slapping him in the face with a wet noodle. It would be the ultimate confusion tactic. Smack! Who expects to get smacked with a wet noodle, who expects an adventurer to be wielding a wet noodle? No one, that is who!"
"You are so funny Kay. It's going to be so much fun working with you. I feel that your talkativeness and lively fun energy is going to really be good for this place!" Vita flashes Kay a brilliantly bright smile. "And once you get older we will have to teach you how to flirt. A cute face like yours and a good sense of humor? You will bring in a lot of people and keep them coming back. Sorry, sorry I distracted myself. We were talking about what color to make your hair. Hmm... I know! How do you feel about having your hair color similar to Ami's? You are both starting here at the same time after all."
"You are right my dear, they are starting at the same time. But they still need to have colors different enough to stand out on their own." Emmie says, smoothly inserting herself into the conversation.
"Any opinions my lovely Emmie?" Vita asks.
"Well." she says and puts a slender finger next to her mouth. "He is so light and bubby next to Amaya's innocent yet cool personality. Amaya has rich deep blues and purples. So, I feel we should choose one of those colors but use a light version of it."
"Oh!" they both said at the same time and laughed.
"Oh no, did I miss a joke? I missed a joke didn't I. People seem to just keep laughing around me and I have no idea why!" Kay lamented.
"No. I think we both thought of the same color at the same time."
"Mint blue." they say at the same time.
Such an obscure color. How in the world did they both think to say it like it was so obvious.
"I like the color blue." Kay says, happy to be included. He would dye his hair bright yellow with orange spots if it helped him fit in. He was happy that they chose a color that he happened to like.
"Alright. Let's go color your hair!
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It felt heavenly to slide into the bathtub full of hot soapy water. I close my eyes and then realize that I should definitely keep my eyes open. It simply wouldn't do if I were to fall asleep in the bath. Also, I don't have the time to enjoy being in this warm water. I had things that I needed to do.
After a thorough scrubbing I climb out of the bath and dry off. I wish I knew the warm wind spell. That had most certainly been useful earlier after showering off. Hmm. No, it would not be a good idea to try to figure it out on my own.
I don't quite know why but I comply and say the words that he gives me. The area around me gets hit with a blast of hot air. I stand there until I am totally dry, thick hair and tail included.
'How do I make it stop?’
‘Zayne!’
I feel that he is poking fun at me but I say it anyways and it stops. Goodness. Something within me feels a bit depleted after I end the spell. I suppose this is what it is like to use magic? It was interesting but I do not think that it suits me. Or perhaps it did? I was recommended the enchantress class. But no. No. A dual fan and dagger wielder seemed right. What had Alice said? A dagger in one hand and a fan in the other? Would such a fighting style work well? Something to think upon more once I had fans. Until then it was not worth dwelling upon.
I look over at my uniform. It was very cute. The bodice was white while the rest of it was a ty-dye of blue, red and purple. Strange. I thought that the other girls uniforms were plaid. Oh well. I really like the way this looks. I just finish getting dressed when I hear a knock at my door.