Inari’s Gift

The next morning, Cera awakened once again with the fur of her tail going up her nose, though this time she hadn’t drooled on it overnight, at least.  After getting up, she remembered about learning to clean her clothes today, so she checked the clothing in the dresser out.  Surprisingly, they fit as well, so she silently thanked Inari again for the foresight and additional help.  Having finished dressing in new clothes, she put her ear to the door and, after a few moments of hearing nothing, opened it.

As she thought, Falron was still in bed, so she headed into the kitchen to get a quick bite to eat, such as the apple she found, before returning to her room and closing the door again.  She didn’t want to risk being seen by the villagers Falron mentioned would be coming, so she had decided to simply keep her door closed until he said it was okay.

Instead, she lay down atop the bed, pulled her tail up to pet, and went back to trying to work on her soul.  An hour or two later, she’d finally managed to influence the damaged landscape she viewed it as, and was beginning to, incredibly slowly, make progress on mending it.

In the end, it appeared her decision was the correct one, as her ears suddenly perked up at the sound of knocks on the front door.  A moment later, she could hear grumbling and another door being opened, which had to be Falron getting out of bed.  A bit afterward, he went to the front door, and she heard him greeting whoever was there.

A bit of talking went on that she didn’t pay much attention to, but it sounded like two men and a woman had shown up.  Afterward, all of them came inside, and she listened to them wander into the kitchen even as she marveled at just how sensitive her new ears were.

Some time passed, with various banging and thuds, before she heard everyone return to the living room and begin talking again.  Once again, she tuned out what they were saying, confident that Falron wouldn’t mention her if he was going to such effort to help her already, and instead went back to working on her soul.

Eventually, the talking in the other room ended, and she heard the people within leave, Falron seeing them off at the door.  Cera was tempted to go open the door and let him know she was fine, but kept with her earlier decision, as she had already eaten.  Around an hour later, Falron knocked on the door, and she hopped off the bed to go greet him.

“Good morning, Falron, I take it no one else is coming today?” she asked as she opened the door, tail swishing calmly behind her.

Falron nodded in reply before inquiring, “Did you manage to keep your focus while brushing your tail this time?”

Cera laughed before remarking, “No, I actually held off on brushing it today so far.  I got a bit to eat while you were still asleep, then resumed work on my soul instead.”

“I see, have you made any progress?  And I’ve made food, come on,” he responded as he turned back to the living room.

“More food sounds good; I didn’t make myself a full meal, after all.  But I have made the tiniest bit of progress.  It looks like it will take a very long time to fix, though,” Cera answered as she joined him beside the fireplace.

After their meal, Cera took their dishes to the kitchen and cleaned them before joining Falron back in the living room.  By that time, he had managed to gather a large tub filled with clothing, as well as some kind of board.

“I’ve got everything needed for washing now, so let’s head outside and I’ll show you how it is done,” Falron remarked as he picked up the tub and made his way to the door.

Cera quickly raced ahead of him to get the door, and he nodded his thanks to her as he passed, then began to walk away from their home.  A while later, they arrived at a small stream, and Falron set his burden down beside a bucket that was weighed down by a number of other tools.

After removing the tools from the bucket, he pulled soap out of the pile of clothes in the tub and began using the bucket to fill it up.  Once finished, he held his hands to the sides of the tub for a few moments before steam began to rise from the water.

With the water heated, he began to pull the clothes out of the water, scrub them with soap, and then scrub them against the board.  After a while, he would set the piece of clothing aside before grabbing the next and repeating the process.

Once all of the clothing had been soaped and scrubbed, he heated up the water again and began to rinse the clothing off, changing and reheating the water several times in the process.  He finally finished, then began to wring out as much water as he could before putting them back in the now-empty tub.

Since this didn’t require the tools, Cera joined in to help him finish quicker.  It was hard work manually wringing out everything, but eventually they finished and began to head back home.  Upon arrival, Falron went to the back of the cottage to a chest she hadn’t seen on her way out of the woods.  He then pulled out a cord that he tied between two trees and began clipping the clothes to it with pins from within the chest.

As this, once again, didn’t require a single set of tools, Cera joined in the task as well, helping Falron swiftly set all the clothing to dry.  Once they finished their task, Falron put the tub beside the chest, and the two of them returned inside.

While they walked, Cera remarked, “Damn…  This is an awful lot more work than I ever had to do.  And worst of all, it looks like magic doesn’t make it that much easier, other than heating the water…”

Falron nodded before responding, “Indeed, just waiting and getting them back clean sounds crazy from my perspective.  There are places in the cities where it is easier, however.  They’ve got spinning tubs connected to a gear system that beat the clothes for you so you don’t have to scrub them manually.  But there are often accidents with those as well.”

“Let me guess, people get their hands or arms caught because they don’t stop the spinning tub?” Cera asked.

“Exactly that, I heard that there is a… clutch or something that pulls it away from the gears and lets it stop, but people have always been terribly impatient,” Falron explained.

Cera let out a short laugh before continuing, “And since they are impatient, they hurt themselves and can’t do anything for a much longer time than if they’d just been patient to begin with.”

“Exactly so,” Falron agreed.

“If you don’t mind, I think I’d like to get back to working on fixing myself,” Cera stated, getting a nod from Falron as he settled back in his chair and grabbed a book.

Since he didn’t mind, Cera focused inside herself once again and began working ever-so-slowly on smoothing out the jagged edges where her enhancements had been torn free.  Several hours later, Falron set down his book and headed to the kitchen to begin making food.

Not long after, Cera stopped her work to eat, followed by taking care of the dishes for Falron.  Another bout of work on herself later, she finally headed off to her room, preparing for sleep by hugging her tail, a habit she wasn’t sure she’d ever want to change.

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