[NPC Shifts Narrative, Befriend, Plan]

  “Ok Sleepy head, time to get up.”

  “Lily, it's still dark out.”

  “It won’t be by the time you’re dressed and you have a cup of tea, hey it was your idea to learn how to gather magical ingredients not mine. If you’d rather sleep, go right ahead.”

  “No, No, I am getting up right now, sorry I do want to learn.”

  “Good, with your old home under attack and our friends from earth. I'm running low on Wandering Thyme which is the main ingredient in Portal Muffins. So that will be our main objective today.”

  “I’m ready.”

  “Come on into the kitchen, have a cup of tea, it’s chilly out this morning, a nice cuppa will keep you warm. How did you sleep?”

  “Like a baby.”

  “No nightmares last night?”

  “Nope not one, talking to you and Rose about it have really helped. Rose said that it’s better to talk these things out opposed to letting them fester. Lily, when have you ever been content enough to let something fester?”

  “I suppose you’re both right. Ok grab a box of donuts and we’ll go.”

  Then we were out the door and headed for the gate, the street was surprisingly busy for the earliness of the hour. Merchants hurrying to get everything set for another day of business.

  “Morning Bob, Hiya Mike.”

  “Morning Lily, who’s your friend?”

  “This gentleman is my wonderful apprentice and best friend Salome.”

  “Salome please gift the dutiful guards with the donuts for guarding us through the night. Did you slay many monsters whilst we slept?”

  “Oh aye, I chased a raccoon and her family from yonder trash can.”

  “Bravely done.”

  “And I threw a stone at a fox.”

  “Did it run?”

  “No, I missed it by a mile.”

  “Perhaps tonight your luck will change.”

  They both chorused “It was nice to meet you Salome.”

  Then we’re through the gate and into the first field that Lily checks for magical ingredients. In just a few moments Lily pointed to a tiny plant that looked like a stick figure wearing a purple Gainsborough hat. It was trying to sneak away, but those little inch-long legs couldn’t carry them very far or very fast. Once Lily had plucked it from the ground she held it out for me so I could see exactly what it looked like.

  “We can only take four or five of them from each field, we don’t want to create a shortage. After we reach our limit we’ll move to the next field.”

  “Ok, do you want me to go down this row?”

  “Yes that’ll be good.”

  I saw another just a second later, plucked it off the ground and brought it for Lily to examine and we had number two. Lily grabbed another and we had three, just one more in this field. I spotted one and it didn’t even try to get away, I grabbed it but it wasn’t wandering thyme. It was just plain thyme. The hat was a dark blue in color, not the purple of the wandering thyme we were looking for. Lily quickly captured the fourth and we decided to move to the next field. Enroute, Lily found another magical ingredient, Hollow Acorn Shell used to make Eyeball Candies, eat one of these, anything that was hidden becomes visible and works for 6 hours. A few hours and five fields later Lily’s gathering sack was full it was time to head back to the bakery.

  Bob and Mike had a line at the gate but waived us to go right in, I heard a few grumbles from those in line.

  Mike shouted. “I’ll be extra careful inspecting the goods of those harassing my neighbors. Got it folks?”

  Bob smiled and said. “See you ladies tomorrow.”

  “So Salome do you want to make the magic happen?”

  “But I don’t have any magical powers.”

  “Neither do I, you’re the first apprentice I’ve brought out there that could actually gather magical ingredients. Not one apprentice gathered so much as one magical ingredient. I think you and I have the same knack for it. When I was just a girl Madd Maggie would take me out gathering, she taught me what to look for and was amazed when I brought back the ingredients, she’d had the same problem with her apprentices. The gathering is the hard part, the portal muffins are dead simple to make. You just follow the recipe card for the amounts you put in the bowl. Then the magical kitchen takes over from there.”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  When I’d done my part mixing the ingredients, the kitchen finished the bake. After they cooled we had four dozen muffins.

  “Ok Salome, you baked them so you test them. Pack up three dozen for Rose and portal over to Enigmatic Parchments.”

  I called the portal demon, gave him the destination and a request the portal be held open for fifteen minutes and stepped through.

  Rose was at the counter studying some magical tome that Sparky had given her to read, concentrating so hard she never even noticed I’d arrived. She gave out a little shriek, and jumped back from the counter.

  “Oh, Sorry Salome, you completely startled me, I was so deep into that book, it’s good to see you, what are you carrying.”

  “I made my first batch of portal muffins, and I think Lily was afraid to portal and sent me instead. Here are three dozen muffins to give Juliet, Paula and Solene if she wants them. I’ll give a few to Paula, if Solene wants to come she can just portal with Paula. I’m more worried about Juliet since they were attacked so I’ll give most of them to her. Congratulations on your first magical bake. Was it hard to do?”

  “No, quite the contrary, it's super easy. The gathering is the tough part. But it’s fun to be out in the fields early in the morning. The muffin's magical ingredient is like a little stick man with a Gainsborough hat, and they try to run away but they’re little stick legs are too slow. Well I better get back, the portal will close soon. Sorry I startled you.”

  “Oh, it’s fine Honey, thanks for the muffins, I’ll tell Juliet and Paula you baked them.”

  After five days of gathering together Lily decided it was time to test me and I went out on my own. I had the donuts for Mike and Bob and they were roasting Lily for being a stay in bed, sending her apprentice to do all the work.

  “I’m sure she’ll be back tomorrow, she just wants to test me to see if I learned anything this week.”

  They laughed. “We’ll still tease her next time we see her, because she never takes a day off.”

  It took way longer to gather, not only was the workforce cut in half, doubling the work. Lily was faster and more accurate than me. She had only one instruction before I left. Don’t worry about filling the bag, just go slow but be accurate. When I had the bag about half full I went back to the bakery, and we went through the contents together. When she was near the bottom of the sack I spotted my mistake in the fields. I'd thought that plant was a Silent Lavender, but now in the better light in the kitchen I told Lily it’s just plain Lavender.

  “Salome you get 100%, you brought back 99% magical ingredients but more importantly you identified the one item that wasn’t magical. Now we both worked our tails off this week, what do you say we take a day off and take a little trip. Do you like winter?”

  “I love winter, why?”

  “Well it’s enough to know that you enjoy it, go on up and pack a few warm things. I’ll be back in about twenty minutes and we’ll go. I’m just going to tell Rose or Sparky where we’re going and when we’ll be back so they don’t worry.”

  Lily held out the muffin and said Schneehotel and I stepped through the portal into a Hotel carved from ice. A tiny gnome about ten or twelve inches tall stepped from behind an appropriately sized desk bowed solemnly and said Welcome to Schneehotel. I was inside a building carved entirely from ice. On one side of the lobby an entire forest of trees were carved that ran from the floor to maybe thirty feet to the ceiling. On the other side of the lobby a pair of wolves with dangerous looking mouths open wide, canines on display posed like they were leaping through the wall. The gnome guiding us to our rooms seemed to be doing double time but at best we sauntered behind him. He informed us dinner was served starting at seven until then the bar, sauna and hot springs were available along with ski touring and dog sledding.

  “What would you like to do, Salome?”

  “I have no idea Lily, half of those things he mentioned I don’t know what they are.”

  “Ok did you bring a bathing suit?”

  “Lily it’s a little too cold for swimming don't you think.”

  “Did you bring a bathing suit.”

  “No, I don’t have one.”

  “Well you do now, just come over to my room and I’ll give it to you.”

  “This is brand new, not a hand me down. I hope I got the size right. After you put the suit on, put on the big fluffy robe and slippers and we’ll head to the sauna. Oh, bring a couple towels too. The slippers, robe and towels are in the bathroom. The only thing in my room not made of ice was the toilet and for that I was very grateful. I met Lily and she brought me outside to the sauna. It was very cold out and fluffy snow was piled on either side of the packed snow walkway. The sauna had two rooms, a large outer room, a place to leave robes and slippers and the sauna itself. I’d never been in such a hot room before in my life. I went from a little chilly from the walk over to instantly sweating. After about fifteen minutes Lily said are you ready to cool down a little?

  “Yes oh gods yes.”

  Lily exited the sauna and headed for the main door. I yelled. “Don’t we need our stuff?”

  “Not yet, come on out.”

  We walked out in bare feet on the packed snow path and I wasn’t cold at all then Lily dove into one of the powder snow banks and started rolling like a dog trying to scratch her back. She yelled for me to join her and she looked like she was enjoying it so I didn’t hesitate I rolled and rolled until finally I was no longer hot but just right.

  We went back inside, got our stuff and headed to the hot spring. I knew what that was because both Lu and Rose had said how much they enjoyed their trip into the Japanese light novel. It was every bit as good as they said. The air temperature and the surface of the water formed a layer of steam, I got in and only kept my nose and the rest of my head above water, The rest of me half sank and half floated in the fantastic outdoor bath. As we were enjoying the bath two snow sprites about two inches tall flew in from somewhere. They were having an argument about something.

  “Listen you fecking amadán no way I’m talking to that hussy tinkerbell, living alone with all those boys.”

  Then they flew off again yelling fecking this and fecking that. Lily and I couldn’t stop laughing. It was starting to get late so we went back to our room to get dressed for dinner. Supper was a traditional gnomish favorite Kapusta a stew made with sausages, potatoes and cabbage it was delicious and I was full so I was going to skip dessert but the Szarlotka looked so good I couldn’t pass it up. I told Lily I was ready for bed, we’d packed so much into our day off.

  But Lily said,” you can’t go to sleep yet, you have to come with me but close you eyes, and take my hand. Promise you won’t open your eyes until I say when, Ok Salome.”

  “Ok Lily, I promise.”

  We walked for maybe ten minutes down a snow packed path, we stopped and Lily turned me around.

  “Ok open your eyes.”

  “Woah, that may be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

  “It’s called Na Fir-chlis, I think the humans call them the northern lights.”

  The Na Fir-chlis danced above a frozen lake, not all the magic in this land is in a bookstore or bakery.