Chapter 12
Twelve
Much like on that first day, Mira arrived in Emberglen late under a cloudy sky.
And like that first day, she knew her ice box would be nearly empty.
She’d been gone for four days, and all that she’d left in there were a handful of apples and some hard cheese because she’d run out of bread before she’d finished it all.
So when she found every store understandably closed on a Sunday evening, she grabbed her bag and headed over to the Peckish Pelican in the hopes of getting a good dinner that would keep her going until Harper opened the store the next morning.
“…ah. Should’ve thought of that.”
The weekends were the busiest time for Emilia and Matteo, and consequently the inn was full to bursting, with even extra chairs shoved against tables, making the passages behind so tight that Emilia and the teenager helping out tonight had to squeeze past sideways.
And from the looks of it, nobody was about to vacate a table. Crap.
“Mira!”
“Woof!”
At a small table near the door, shoved underneath a window and flanked by two wooden benches, Kayden sat, and opposite him, Yoni. From between the table legs poked a yellow head with two sets of ears. Man and dog were looking at her, though only Kayden spoke.
“Sorry, you just looked a little lost.” He glanced around the crowded room. “Are you meeting someone?”
“No.” Mira felt her cheeks redden. “I just got back from Willow Harbour, and my ice box looks pretty sad. I thought I could get dinner here, but…”
“Mhm. Weekends are like this.” He shared a glance with Yoni. “You can sit with us, right?”
Yoni did not look impressed, but neither did she look particularly annoyed. She simply gave a curt nod, and Kayden patted the bench beside him.
“There you go. Mind the menace.”
Said menace gave another quite woof and shuffled a little sideways when Mira put her travel bag under the table, and then immediately rested her feet on her shoes. Tired to the bone, Mira sank back in her seat.
“Thank you. I’m absolutely starving, I might have just keeled over halfway back home and died in a ditch.”
He dramatically put his hand on his chest. “We can’t have that!”
“Don’t worry, Marigold would’ve dragged you into my kitchen,” Yoni muttered. “She likes to share.”
Her tone gave Mira pause. Unsure if it was indeed a joke, she suppressed a laugh. “I might be a little too large for her.”
“She’s ambitious.”
“Ambitious, but smarter than my creature here.” Kayden reached under the table to give Poppy a pat on the head. “As far as I know, she’s never picked a fight with something magical.”
“Might be because she can’t find any,” Yoni replied. “I wouldn’t put it past her.”
“I’m sure she’ll get her chance,” Kayden said confidently. Yoni’s reply was a narrow-eyed glare.
“Maybe she could stick to chasing off the birds,” Mira suggested lightly. “The magpies are the worst. They keep trying to eat my seeds, and the net I put up is mildly inconveniencing them at best. I can pay her in treats.”
Yoni’s eyes wandered over to Mira. “Pests and treats? She’ll be round and even more useless in no time.”
“Yoni!” Kayden’s eyes went wide in mock surprise. “She’d be devastated to hear that!”
“Good thing she doesn’t understand human, then.”
“Woof!”
All three of them glanced down. Yoni cleared her throat.
“You never did find out if she understands human, did you?”
Kayden chuckled. “If she did, I’m fairly sure I would know. She’s chatty as it is.”
Mira glanced between the two of them. “That’s not something sprite dust can do, is it?”
Yoni gave her an odd look. “It’s never been proven that it can’t,” she said ominously. Kayden rolled his eyes and patted Mira’s shoulder.
“Come on, she doesn’t know that this is how you joke.”
Was it? So far, Mira hadn’t taken her for someone who knew how to joke at all. Yoni gave a little huff.
“Well, she does now, doesn’t she.” She glanced at Mira. “You do know that I’m joking, right?”
Mira managed a shaky smile. “Of course. Jestiest jester to ever jest.”
For a moment, her stomach dropped when Yoni didn’t reply. Too far, too soon.
Eventually, Yoni shook her head, but there it was – the tiniest smile. “If that’s what you like, I recommend watching Cassia on talent night. If you’re still here at the three-minute mark, she’ll be the best entertainment you’ll get between here and Willow Harbour.”
“She keeps telling me that, too,” Mira replied, relieved that she hadn’t stepped in it after all. “I think I only just missed it again?”
“Friday night, yeah.” Kayden nudged her. “She actually asked where you were.”
Mira squeezed her eyes shut. “Visiting family, I swear I didn’t do it on purpose.”
“She’ll be so happy to hear that, and of course that you’ll be sure to attend next time.”
“You don’t have to actually do anything,” Yoni said. “You can just sit here and have a drink and applaud every now and again.”
“Oh, that’s honestly great to know.” Mira frowned. “Cassia just keeps telling me I should recite some poetry. Doesn’t seem to matter that I’m not a poet.”
Kayden raised an eyebrow. “That’s an oddly specific request.”
“Ah.” Mira stared at the table, tracing an elaborate scratch in the wood. “I may have let it slip to her that I write. Things.”
“’Things’.”
“Stories,” Mira muttered. “Raunchy ones that are absolutely not appropriate for a reading, even if I wanted to. She thinks that means I can just write anything.”
“Ohh, I do think Penelope would quite enjoy that,” Kayden drawled. “Harper would be mortified, of course, and she would enjoy that even more.”
Mira was saved from having to respond to that by Emilia, who came up to their table, looking a little haggard, to take their order.
Mira found herself peer-pressured into finally trying the grill platter, and subsequently in the middle of an argument over the one and only correct way to combine the different meats and sauces that came with it.
Naturally, there seemed to be a one and only correct way for every single person.
With slow, deliberate movements, Mira chose a third, entirely different way, which prompted an exasperated huff from Yoni and a laughing fit from Kayden.
Poppy’s contribution, from where she was nibbling on a plain sausage under the table, was low, deep, woof as she slobbered delicately over Mira’s right shoe.
For once, Mira didn’t worry about her budget, or the tasks that were waiting for her the next day. Right now, she was just glad that she had come.
That next day, and its tasks, came regardless.
The following Wednesday, she found herself with a batch of vegetable fertiliser to test, and nothing to test it on.
She did have her radishes and the humble beginnings of a bean patch, but she was loathe to risk what would hopefully soon be implementing her grocery budget to see if she had gotten the formula right.
So off she went to the Baker farm to buy another round of test subjects.
Her primroses at least were magnificent now, bright, colourful patches in her front garden, which looked a little bedraggled after she had finally cleaned it up in preparation for the shop’s more or less grand opening.
In a rather unusual turn of events, when she got to the orchard, there was no-one to be found, despite the ‘open’ sign on the greenhouse door.
Neither Cassia nor Eren answered her call.
She did, however, spot Kayden’s donkey cart around the side of the house.
When she ventured near it, she heard voices, and soon found both Kayden and Eren standing next to a stone basin with a water pump attached.
“…idea what’s wrong.” Kayden was scratching his head. “The pump seems fine.”
“There’s so little water coming out though.” Eren looked deflated. “It’s been raining the usual amount, I don’t understand.”
“Me neither.” Kayden pumped a few times, and a thin stream of water trickled out. “I can take it apart and check the pipes. Might take me a bit, but if there’s a blockage, it needs clearing.”
“Then do that.” Eren sighed. “I really need the water for the greenhouse and the garden, the barrels aren’t near enough come summer.” He glanced up and wiped his hands on his apron. “Hey Mira. Sorry, I had to show Kayden what’s wrong with the pump. Do you need me or Cassia?”
“You,” Mira replied. “I need more unfortunate souls to subject to my foul alchemy.”
That made him laugh, and Kayden glanced up with a grin before he went back to tinkering with the pump.
“Really. What happened to the flowers I sold you?”
“They’re busy taking over the front of my house. I need vegetables this time. More fertiliser testing.” She joined him on the way to the greenhouse. “Still working my way up to the one for fruit trees.”
“I can’t wait,” Eren said. “They’re really not the same without it.”
They spent a little time inside the greenhouse, with Eren patiently explaining the fruit cycles of what he had on offer and Mira taking notes.
If she was going to buy something, she might as well choose something she could eat herself, provided her brew didn’t kill all the plants dead within minutes.
She was fairly certain that it wouldn’t, though, so eventually, she left with a basket full of potential additions to her vegetable patch – pending a successful test of her product – just in time to run into Kayden, who was carrying his toolbox and had Poppy at his heels.
“That was fast,” Eren said. His face fell when Kayden shrugged.
“Couldn’t find anything in the pipes, but the pump is still trickling.” He blew out a breath. “I have one more idea, but I’ll need to fix up a part in my workshop. I’ll be back later.”
“Fantastic.” Eren pinched the bridge of his nose. “Thanks for the effort. This pump has been the bane of my existence, and don’t even ask Cassia what she would like to do to the thing. If we end up needing a new pump anyway, I might just let her.”
“Let’s hope I can prevent her from hurting herself in the process,” Kayden said dryly. He turned to Mira. “Do you want a ride back into town?”
Mira was just too eager to accept the offer.
She’d largely gotten used to all the walking, but being busy in the shop all day sure didn’t help make her feet ache any less at night.
Squeezed onto the narrow bench next to Kayden, she clutched her basket as they rumbled along the dirt road back up to Emberglen.
“What’s wrong with the pump?” Mira eventually asked. “He didn’t sound too happy.”
“It’s been putting out less water for weeks,” Kayden said.
“Second farm with this issue, actually. The Atas have a similar problem, though I managed to fix it for them, for a while at least. I thought maybe the pumps are faulty, they’re from the same workshop up in Heartfield, but now I don’t know anymore. ”
“You said you needed a new part?”
“Maybe,” Kayden muttered. “More likely that it’s the water itself. Don’t worry, I’m not charging Eren for something I can’t repair. I’d just rather try everything before telling him that I can’t do anything about it. They run an orchard, they rather need that water.”
“Are all the pumps in town drawing from the same source? Mine seems to be working fine.”
“Should be, and that’s good. I haven’t gotten too many complaints, so maybe it really is the pump.” He sighed. “That workshop used to deliver quality work, I’d hate for it to start cutting corners like all the others.”
“If they’re smart, they’ll make that their whole thing,” Mira mused. “Traditional quality work and all. There’s a couple shops back home that did that, they stayed in business even when the emporium opened.”
“Speaking of traditional shops.” Kayden thrust his chin at the basket full of tiny plants. “Some last test runs before you open yours?”
Mira took a deep breath. “Hopefully. I can’t take too much more time, but it’s…” She gulped in a breath. “Plants dying, I can handle, but there are some recipes for people in the book, and…”
He chuckled. “I get it. You can’t replant a whole person. And opening your own shop? I was nervous as anything when I took over the business from my grandfather, and I had clients already.”
“Apparently, so do I,” Mira said, clutching her basket a little tighter to keep her hands still.
She usually tried to think about those next steps as little as possible the closer she got to the day of the opening.
Whenever she did, she had to fight the urge to scream in terror and run all the way back to Willow Harbour.
“At least, they say they’ll come. I suppose I’ll see when I actually open. ”