I was never one to slouch around, but skill increases are addicting. It feels like a life hack to watch numbers going up as I dust a house that I needed to dust regardless, like a carrot in front of a donkey,

Skill Learned: Housekeeping - Cleaning Lv 1

Skill Increase: Housekeeping - Cleaning 1 > 2

It also helped that as the skill went up the dust and grime seemed to disappear just that much easier.

Gerry didn’t tell me exactly what time he and his wife would be over but the sky was getting darker so it shouldn’t be long. I'd already hung the dusty bed sheets out to save me a job later, dusted the counters, tables and chairs, and even started a fire up (after a lot of trial and error). Now all that was left for me to do, after lighting the candles and scrounging a kettle from the back on the cupboards, was to find something to make tea.

What kind of host am I? I can’t really offer the helpful couple a cuppa that is just hot water. Let’s hope there are some herbs outside that I at least kind of recognise, anything would be better than nothing.

—

It’s not easy to distinguish herbs in the dark, especially when you couldn’t do it in the light either. It took longer than I'd care to admit but after some messing around trying to figure it out I finally got two notifications and a bit more confidence.

Skill Learned: Herbology Lv 1

Ability Learned: General - Identify Lv 1

Eh maybe I’m taking this too ‘in my stride’ but at least I could now figure out what's a herb and what's a weed. After trying to Identify everything and mostly getting a bunch of question marks I finally leveled it up to level 2.

Identify: Mint (common)

A herb

Ok, nice, not much info but people drink mint tea right? Well mint water I guess.

I mean I definitely got a bit carried away plucking the mint but the premise of leveling was too exciting so now I've ended up with a level 4 skill and a shitload of mint. I guess it didn’t help that I seemed to get more mint per pluck whenever I leveled up.

After 40 minutes of tying it with scraps of twine I found in a small shed and attempting to dry it above the fire, which took at least 10 of those minutes to light, I finally got down to making tea.

Skill Learned: Alchemy - Tea Brewing Lv 1

I probably wouldn’t call it tea as much as I would call it hot water with a mint leaf in it but judging by the hoof sounds I can hear outside it’s much too late to do anything about it but hope that the couple are as kind as they seemed.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

—

“Violet, darling, look at this place! It’s already looking so much better, you must have the magic touch. I would have kept on top of it of course but alas I couldn’t do much without ownership, your father would be so proud of you. He always kept a tidy home, didn’t he Gerry? God we miss him” Bernadette was as chatty as she was earlier and her husband shot me a fond bemused look before agreeing with her as he unpack his cart of all kinds of items that, whilst I had no other way to get them, I felt guilty accepting.

By now the old table was audibly creaking beneath the weight of more cooking than I could eat in a month and Bernadette had begun moving the dishes into a fridge like cold cupboard I hadn’t noticed before, and realistically would have freaked out if I had, as she nattered about town gossip and people I apparently should have known.

“...but when I told her about you she said she’d noticed you had nothing with you so she sent you a few basic dresses and shifts so don’t you worry. Your dad always took care of everyone and never took any coin for healing her daughter growing up, you’ll find most the town will drop by with a welcome home gift of some kind. Now anyway I brought you a blackberry pie because I remember you used to beg for one every year for your birthday and…”

By the time Gerry brought in an old looking chest Bernadette, who was now sitting beside me politely sipping the ‘tea’ she clearly wasn’t enjoying, got an excited look on her face as she bustled over to the chest proudly.

“Yer old dad left me strict instructions to give these to you when you returned, we did use them to keep on top of the garden but he’d be so ‘appy for me to return um to their rightful owner, they belong in the family they do.” Gesturing for me to look into the trunk.

Seeing some old looking clippers, trowel and some battered gloves and not seeing the big deal, I gave him a strained smile trying desperately not to look like an idiot for being as confused as I was. This wasn’t helped by Gerry repeatedly gesturing at them expectantly, giving me what was essentially jazz hands until his wife let out a big huff and waved him off, chuckling fondly at me, “Poppet, what my oaf of a husband is trying to say is that he wants you to Identify them.”

I could feel the furious embarrassed bush creeping up my neck as I realised that I'd already forgotten what was apparently a basic function and purposely avoided their eyes as I looked down into the trunk.

—

As two silhouettes sat side by side on the slow cart ride, the comfortable silence was broken by the smaller of the two.

“Gerry?”

“Yes, love?”

“She’s quite weird isn’t she?”

“Yeah, I think she is.”