Mira's home was just a few houses down. They were neighbors, but her house was much more nicer and cared for than her grandfather's home. Inside was well lived in, but still everything had its place. It reminded her of her home.

"Pardon the mess, Atraeya. My good-for-nothing son must have ran out the house the minute I left and didn't bother to clean up," Mira said. She looked exasperated at it all. This sort of situation must have been common.

"I don't mind. It looked familiar to my own home." She smiled, and Mira smiled back at her.

"I have a daughter as well, y'know. A little older than you. She just recently grew out of her clothes and I hadn't gotten the chance to get rid of them." Mira ventured further into the house and came back out with a chest. "Go on and give it a look. See if anything fits. I don't mind giving you any of it. You really shouldn't be outside without your stays, dearie."

Atraeya dug in to find plenty of clothes, well worn and parts patched in areas too well worn. She didn't mind though . At this point she would take any of it.

In the end, she ended up taking two skirts, a shirt, a slightly larger stays than she currently had, an old shift, and a petticoat that lacked some of its luster. Overall, it was quite the haul. "Thank you so much, Mrs. Mira. This would be a great help!"

"It's quite alright. I imagine Elmer wasn't ready for you to come visit."

"Yeah. That's why I want to do as much as I can to help out!"

That's when Mira laughed. Not a giggle, or a chuckle, like she had been doing before. A full blown laugh that nearly startled Atraeya out of her skin. "If that's the attitude you have, then you'll have nothing to fear! Elmer likes folks who pull their own weight."

With that, she bundled her "new" clothes under her arms, and went back home. Her grandfather, who she now knew as Elmer, still wasn't home. Atraeya quickly took the chance to get dressed properly. First the shift, then the under petticoat, then her old stays. A quick sniff test told her she didn't need to wash them just yet. After her stays were firmly laced in, she tied her pocket around her waist. An important piece of garment for her upcoming projects. After that, was her white shirt and petticoat, and lastly the skirt she was given -- a deep blue, with white flowers embroidered along the bottom.

There. She felt better now that she was fully dressed. There was only one problem. Her shoes. They should have gone on first, but they were still outside and covered in mud. And she couldn't exactly run around barefoot either. At least, that's what her mother always said. But that was in the city. Here, the roads were made of of dirt, so it didn't matter. And she kicked her out too, so her opinion doubly didn't count.

Deciding that her mother's opinions and warnings were useless and out-of-date, Atraeya went back outside to began to pick up the front of the house.

Glass bottles, broken branches, rags, and even various rusted tools. All hidden in the tall grass that likely hadn't been cut or tended to for months. She sure had a difficult time trying to clear it out. It was backbreaking work and she had to be extra careful where she stepped. Just when she thought she had found it all, there was more to pick up. She even found a few mushrooms growing around. Now, whether it was poisonous or not was another question. She'll have to ask her grandfather when he got back. She set them aside on the table before going to see if she could find a sickle to cut the grass with.

That's when the door opened. "What's that pile of junk doing outside my house?" her grandfather asked. He held a cloth bag filled with food. He must have went grocery shopping. Two people eat more than one, after all.

"Welcome back, grandfather. I thought I'd get started at helping out around the house, and saw that the yard could use a bit of work. Do you know where the sickle is? So I can cut it."

He eyed her a bit, probably just now noticing her change of clothes. But he acquiesced to her request. "You won't get anything done with a sickle. The scythe is in that closet there." He went to put away the new food when he noticed the mushrooms. "Oh, you found some more of these did you? Good for a fever." He nodded to himself and put them away with the rest of the new food.

Once Atraeya found the scythe, back outside she went. Now she could get started for real. She chose one corner of the lot, and began to slowly make her way across. More backbreaking work with only the occasional wind to cool her down. Atraeya had never done this before so her body ached badly. She just knew it was going to hurt all over tomorrow morning. She subconsciously began to go faster and faster as the sun sunk into the horizon.

In a rush to get it done, and still in bare feet, it was inevitable that she stepped in some broken glass she had failed to gather beforehand. She cried out in pain and lifted her foot.

A small trickle of red trailed down her food. It was only a small piece of glass, thankfully. It was easy to miss, really, it was. If she had shoes on... So maybe her mother was right about shoes. But surely she can't be right about everything.

Atraeya hopped over to the side wall of the house to lean on, and carefully plucked out the tiny clear shard. It'll stop bleeding soon enough. She made sure to pick up as much glass as possible, and then avoided stepping in that area entirely. She'll clean her shoes tomorrow.

By the time she was done, she had uncovered bits of more trash. But also had, at one point, ended up in the unused farm field. There were still bits of weeds and grass, maybe some stray crops mixed in, and it definitely needed to be tilled. This was way more work than she bargained for, and the sun had already set. But now they could farm, and contribute to the town. Maybe even spend less on groceries. She didn't know how much her grandfather could do with his poor leg.

Her stomach growled, loudly, interrupting her thoughts. She had never worked so hard before, so it was no surprise that her stomach had put up a protest. It was time to go back inside, where she could rest and cool off. Maybe scrounge up a meal.

She didn't have to though. The moment Atraeya walked through the door, the smell of dinner hit her nose. Some sort of stew? A bowl was placed on the table, still steaming. grandfather must have timed it perfectly, so it could be ready by the time she was done. Her stomach rumbled again, her tongue salivating.

Atraeya dug in as fast as she could. She wasn't sure if it was merely the hunger that made it taste better than it was, or if grandfather really was that good of a cook. The tender meat soaked in broth was delicious enough but even the soft vegetables were good too. And she didn't like vegetables much either. Most of the time they were too bitter or sour, but here it was pleasant. She was halfway through the meal when bread was placed in front of her. Only a loaf, so she broke it in half and dunked her half in the broth to soften it up first.

"You did a lot of work out there. Good job," Grandfather said. She beamed a smile at him. She worked real hard out there, and even felt proud of it. Even Grandfather recognized her hard work! There was no way he would kick her out now.

"Thanks! Tomorrow I plan on tilling the soil, then we can finally plant some seeds in it." Grandfather furrowed his brows but still nodded along. Did she say something wrong? She had never farmed before so she wasn't completely sure how it worked. "Is that not how it's done?"

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Grandfather blinked a few times before he shook his head. "No, no. That's fine."

Atraeya finished her meal, licked her fingers, and got to work cleaning the dishes from the bucket of water in the kitchen. The water had gotten dirty rather quickly. If only she knew how to make a cleaning potion. So much could be done faster if she just knew that one potion. Maybe she could experiment later, but she would have to be careful about it. Do it some secluded area. She had noticed early on a forest to the east, passed the river. She could experiment there.

Once the dishes were cleaned and dried, Atraeya finally saw that a designated sleeping area had been fixed up for her. A corner by the broken fireplace, with a thin mattress stuffed with a mix of straw and old rag, and a folded blanket on top. The clothes she had haphazardly thrown about were nowhere to be found. He must have put them away for her.

She turned to her grandfather and smiled. "You made a bed for me? Thank you, grandfather."

He humphed. "There's no need to be so formal. Grandpa is fine."

"Oh? In that case I like gramps better."

He humphed. "That's fine too."

Atraeya had been exhausted from the day's work, so she set out the mattress and blankets. Out of the corner of her eyes, gramps had pulled out a few tools and chunks of wood. She never saw what he intended to do with it, as she was knocked out as soon as her head hit the pillow.

The next day came all too soon, with the birds chirping and sunlight seeping through the broken window shutters directly into her eyes. What would be her next project for sure. With a sigh, she wiped her eyes open. That's when the smell his her. She sat up, and noticed a bowl on the table. No gramps in sight.

She got dressed as quick as she could. The same as yesterday. The bowl was filled with more grain porridge. Atraeya didn't hear gramps wake up or cook breakfast. Had she really been so deep asleep? Back home she had been a light sleeper. Work out in a farm sure was tiring.

Today she really did need her boots, so once she downed her breakfast and cleaned her dishes, she grabbed her socks and went outside. Oh yeah. Her clothes were likely dry as well. Shoes first, though. They laid by the door, dry mud cracked at the curves. it would be simple to clean them out now.

First she banged them together -- away from herself -- to get all the bigger chunks out. Then she grabbed one of the reeds by the river to scrub off the rest. Simple work. Only took a few minutes. While she was there she used another reed to wipe her dirty feet down. The bleeding had stopped but it was so dirty she had no clue where the cut was. And she didn't want dirty socks again.

It felt nice to be able to put on socks and shoes again. Now her feet were safe from anything poking out of the ground again.

As Atraeya took down her laundry, footsteps shuffled behind her until they came to a full stop. "Ummm..." someone started. "Do you know the old man who lives here? Did something happened to him?"

She turned around to see a rather timid-looking young woman. She held a basket of baked goods, and was worriedly looking at her hanging laundry and the yard she had cleaned up. "No, nothing's happened to him. He went out today. I'm his granddaughter."

Relief washed over the woman's face. "Oh thank goodness. He's rather old, you see, so I had feared the worst. My apologies." The woman held out her basket. "I'm Trina. My mother said to give this to him as thanks for fixing our fence. But I suppose you can give them to him for me."

Atraeya gladly took the food. Something other than porridge, at last. The more food the better. Under the cloth covering contained muffins and more vegetables. "Thanks. I'll be sure to let him know you stopped by."

"Thank you. See you later." The woman waved goodbye and left.

Atraeya placed the basket of goodies on the table and continued on with the laundry. Once that was done, she got to work on the farming area. It was a small plot. Only big enough for a personal harvest. It shouldn't take her more than a day to be done with, thankfully. But she was a bit upset she had another full day of backbreaking endeavors ahead of her. Various people stopped by to introduce themselves. It seemed that gramps was pretty popular and handy. He seemed to be earning his keep by fixing things around the village since he couldn't farm like everyone else did.

The sun touched the horizon by the time she went inside. Gramps was also there, somehow. She had no idea when he had arrived. He seemed to be plating the food just as she entered. There was a bag next to the basket. "A lady named Trina came by this morning with that basket as thanks for fixing their fence." Gramps merely nodded, so she added, "What's in the bag?"

"Seeds. For planting. Got them from our Lord. He was ecstatic that I would be able to pay taxes this year, but was worried we were planting too late." Gramps placed her bowl of food in front of her. It was a valid concern. It was already mid-summer. That wouldn't leave much room for crops to grow.

Unless...

No. She didn't know any potion recipes. If there was one that made crop grow faster, it was out of reach. Not to mention she still needed to make her wand, first. They would have to pray and hope for the best.

"Yeah. I'm sure the crops will grow good enough to please our Lord," she said. She had no idea what would please the lord but it sounded like something she should say.

Gramps eyed her strangely as he sat down to eat. "Are you gonna use one of your potions to make 'em grow fast?"

Atraeya nearly choked on her stew. "Um. I... Don't have any potions. I never learned any recipes before I got kicked out..." She hoped he was asking for reassurance that she wouldn't do anything weird to the crops, hoping that would make him happy. But all that did was make him slouch a bit.

"Oh. Well then. Just work the farm as best as you can," he said.

She couldn't help but tilt her head in confusion. Was he expecting her to use the potions? Did he want her to make potions that would help out? But magic was what got her kicked out. Would he not do the same if she used it to help pay taxes, whatever that was?

That was great to know, but she still didn't know anything. She had only gotten halfway to making her wand before her mother found it and snapped it. Even if she had all the ingredients to make a potion right now, she couldn't. Well then. Suppose the first thing she needs to do is find a nice stick to turn into a wand.

Atraeya nodded in determination, and finished her dinner and the dishes. Once everything was cleaned up, she made her way to the door for the second time today. "I wouldn't go out there at night if I were you," gramps said.

She stopped, her hand already on the doorknob. "Why not?"

"It's dangerous out there at night. Lots of predators come out a night. Like wolves and coyotes."

Atraeya shuddered. The last thing she needed was to be hunted by something like that. With a resigned sigh, she got ready for the night instead. The wand will have to wait. Gramps pulled out various wood parts and tools to work with, just like yesterday night. But just like yesterday, she was too tired to keep her eyes open for a second longer once she laid in bed.