Completed Practice makes perfect

[Elin]

51st Spring, 517
"Common" | "Kontinese" | "Tukant"

It was hot, and Elin hated it. Ilia was complaining at this point, Rion hadn't been sleeping much at all during the night, so Elin had managed to find a friendly neighbour who's kids had grown up that had been more than willing to take Rion for the previous night.
Elin and Ilia had already spent the full morning staying inside their room on travellers row trying to avoid the sun.
Neither had done anything for days and both were beginning to stagnate and Elin knew that the neighbour wouldn't be returning Rion for a few more bells.

”Ilia, shall we go to the market? Get you something to draw with and I’ll try to cook something nice to eat?” Elin asked and the little girl stood up.
“But it’s hot mummy, and it’s boring!” she complained, making Elin smile slightly.
”That’s why we’ll only be out for a little bit! Come on now, hold my hand.” she said standing up and grabbing her backpack, making sure it was empty, before extending her hand towards the little girl, glad that the little girl took hold of it.

It wasn’t long before the pair were at the Great Bazaar, walking through the stalls and glancing over everything.

“Mummy, look!” Elin felt Ilia pulling her hand, dragging her to a nearby stall that was selling various artistic supplies, from brushes and paints, to charcoal and quills, to canvases and blank books. “I want some!” Ilia declared, looking up at Elin as Elin looked over everything.
Two sets drew her attention. One somewhat expensive toolkit filled with brushes, paints, pencils, pots and a few canvases, while one was a more travel sized kit with one brush, two charcoal sticks of varying sizes, two small bowls, and a few sheets of low quality paper rather canvases.

”How much are these?” she asked the stall keeper as she pointed to the two toolkits.
“The full one is twentyfive gold, the traveler's kit is twelve gold and five silver.” the stall keeper answered and Elin looked down at Ilia.
”Would you possibly take twelve gold and three silver for the travel kit?” Elin asked, wanting to try and get the kit for cheaper, but she was worried about offending the man, so she opted to go for a small difference with the price she offered.
“Twelve gold and five silver or nothing.” the man responded and Elin nodded, taking out twelve gold rimmed mizas and five silver rimmed mizas and handing them to the man, who accepted the money and handed her the travelers art kit before Elin and Ilia headed on to the next stall, Ilia bouncing with joy as she walked, obviously elated that she’d got what she wanted!

Soon they found themselves at a stall that sold various cooking equipment, and she glanced over the wares and a toolkit caught her interest. It had a knife and a large spoon, along with a small pouch of salt and a few seasonings. Along with he kit she noticed a few cooking pots and a few different sized and shaped pans.
”How much are these?” she asked, pointing to the kit, one of the cooking pots that she guessed would hold about a gallon, a deep pan, and a much shallower pan.
“Altogether? Well the kit is ten gold, the cooking pot is three silver, and the pans? They're four copper and three copper!” the woman running the stall said and Elin checked the rest of the stall.
”If I buy all of those is their a chance of a discount at all?” Elin asked, growing in confidence. ”Or maybe even a knife or fork?”
The woman running the stall simply stared at her with no words and Elin took the hint.
”So for all of them together it would be…” she took a few moments to count up in her head before speak. ”Ten gold, six silver, and seven - no six - copper?” she said as she counted her money out and handed it to the stall keeper, watching her count the money before nodding.
Elin smiled before picking up her purchases and putting them into her backpack and moving to the next stall.

This time she was looking to buy food.

LedgerTravelling Artist Toolkit - 12GM 5SM
Cook/Chef Toolkit - 10GM
2x Cooking Pot, Gallon - 6SM
Pan, 8oz - 3CM
Pan, 16oz - 4CM

Total - 23GM 1SM 7CM
Word Count707 Word
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[Elin]

As they arrived at a stall that sold a variety of things that could be cooked with.
Smiling, she looked over the various ingredients and vegetables, before looking for a few specific ingredients.
They had flour and grape seed oil, although they didn't have yeast which was unfortunate. Then she looked at the various spices and seasonings, glad to see a few that she knew she wanted, like garlic, chilli and onion, and even a few she didn't recognise, specifically one that was labelled ‘paprika’. It was a red powder that she felt could be useful.
Smiling, she look at the stall holder and opened her mouth to speak.
”How much is everything?” she asked happily, pointing to what she was interested in and carefully listening to the answer before deciding to buy a few.
She handed over thirteen gold rimmed Miza, seven silver rimmed miza and eight copper rimmed Miza, placing her purchases into her backpack with a grin on her face.

The two finished up in the bazaar, buying a picnic set that had cutlery and crockery for four, as well as a large basket and blanket, and then a few pieces of fresh fish that had been sold, apparently being caught in the docks earlier in the day.

Elin, still holding tightly onto Ilia’s hand, made her way out of the bazaar into the sweltering heat.
Her backpack was heavy, and some of the things she'd bought were tucked under her arms.

They'd made their way halfway home, when Ilia stopped walking suddenly, catching Elin off guard.
“Mummy I'm tired.” the little girl said, and Elin smiled slightly, stopping and moving to crouch in front of the girl.
”I know sweetie, but we're almost home. Once we’re there, you can sleep, or you can draw, or you can play your Flute?” Elin said calmly, standing up to continue walking.
“But I don't wanna walk anymore…” Ilia said again, and Elin kissed the little girls forehead.
”It's not a long walk Ilia.” Elin said before gently beginning to pull the little girl along.
“Why won't you carry me mummy?” the little girl said, and Elin could hear her sniffing and beginning to cry.
”Ilia, I don't have enough arms.”
“I want you to carry me.” Ilia shouted and Elin rolled her eyes, trying to pull the girl along and had they would get home before she got too tired.

By now it was noon and the heat was beginning to get too much on the back of Elin’s head.
She wanted to get inside, into the shade, and she knew that Ilia would benefit from the shade too.

“But I don't wanna walk anymore!” Ilia wailed loudly and Elin gritted her teeth as the little girl began to cry loudly.
”Fine, I'll carry you, but I won't be able to carry you for long.” Elin said and she heard Ilia’s crying quickly stop.
Elin crouched down and pulled Ilia close to her. The little girl threading her hands around Elins neck, and Elin wrapped her arm around the girl and pulled her onto her side so she was sitting on Elin’s hip.

Elin had forgotten how awkward it was to carry a child in that position, as how heavy Ilia had become. She was struggling, but she knew that if she put the child down she'd start crying again.
She walked in the direction of Travelers Row, gritting her teeth and clinging on to the little girl with one arm, and her purchases with the other.

She got closer and closer to Travelers Row until she could see it, and she felt her grip on Ilia beginning to fail.

”Ilia, mummy’s arm is getting tired. Can you walk now?” she asked, turning her head to look at Ilia and seeing that the child was sleeping. ”Shyke…” she mumbled, struggling onwards towards her temporary home.
A few times she had to crouch down and readjust her grip, but eventually she managed to get to Travelers Row and unlocked her room.

She was glad to be back, and immediately placed Ilia down on the bed as gently as she could, although she knew it could have been a lot gentler if she hadn't been carrying so much.

Finally, she put down the things from under her other arm and took off her backpack to unpack the other purchases before checking what she'd got.

LedgerWheat Flour, 2lb - 6GM
Chilies, 0.25lb - 3GM
Garlic, 2oz - 8CM
Dried Onion, 1oz - 5SM
Paprika, 0.2oz, 3GM
Grapeseed Oil, pint - 1SM, 3CM
- In a yellow glass bottle, pint - 5SM
Picnic Basket Set - 5GM

Fresh Fish, 1lb, 2GM

Total - 20GM, 2SM, 1CM
Word Count729
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[Elin]

Elin’s eyes glanced over all of the ingredients she'd bought and a grin spread over her face.
She turned to look at Ilia to see the little girl still sleeping, and then turned back to her ingredients and picked up the gallon cooking pot to place it just in front of her, slightly to the left.
Next, she took a fork from the picnic basket she had bought and picked up a few of the pieces of fish, about half of what she had bought, and began flaking it into the bowl. She stuck her fork onto the edge of the fish and gently pulled it until a small piece fell off, and fortunately it didn't take her too long until the fish was done.
Next she took a pinch of the garlic she'd got and added it to the bowl too. To her it looked like there wasn't enough there, and she added more and more pinches until all the fish was dusted in the garlic. In the end she'd probably added about a teaspoon of the garlic.
Next she moved onto the dried onion and added almost the same amount she had garlic.
The chilies she was unsure of, so she took a plate from the picnic basket and a knife, and began to cut small and messy pieces of chilli, using the plate as a makeshift chopping board.
Tentatively, she added a tiny amount of the chili to the pot, then put away the rest of the chilies.
She was most interested in the paprika, having briefly heard of it once before. She took the red powder and sniffed it, smiling slightly at the scent, before adding a few pinches, equivalent to about a quarter of a teaspoon to the mix.
Using the spoon from the cooks toolkit, she mixed the ingredients together, accidentally spilling some onto her lap and she swore under her breath. She was glad that her dress was a dark colour, but she didn't doubt that the spices would stain.
Frowning, she picked up the few chunks of fish from her legs and placed them back into the bowl, hoping that it would still be okay.

Setting the spiced fish mix to the side, she grabbed the other cooking pot and pondered for a moment.
She'd heard that a dough could be made from flour, oil and water, and that it would rise and become bread if yeast was added.
”Did I get yeast…” she mumbled as she flicked through the ingredients, silently swearing again when she realised she hadn't. ”Looks like it's going to be a bread without yeast…” she mumbled again, before grabbing the wheat flour and pouring about a quarter of it into the clean cooking pot. Then she reached over to pick up the pint bottle of grapeseed oil. As she pulled it towards herself, she must have somehow loosened the top and it tipped, spilling some of it into the cooking pot.
”Shyke!” she cursed again, checking how much had actually spilt into the pot and then just sitting for a few moments.

Before she had a chance to do anything about the oil, she heard a knock at the door and cursed again, before jumping up from the floor and walked to answer the door.
Stood outside was the friendly neighbour and Rion, and Elin couldn't help but smile slightly.
”Thank you so much for taking him for the night! He didn't disturb you too much, did he?” Elin asked, and the elderly woman shook her head. The spoke a bit before the woman left back to hers, and Elin carried Rion back inside and briefly set him in the crib.

She took the blanket from the picnic basket and kept it mostly folded, with enough space for Rion to sit, play and shuffle if he wanted to, before she picked Rion out of the crib and set him down, watching him for a few minutes as he cooed and played with his feet, before she turned back to the mix she'd made.

She looked long and hard at the amount of oil she’d added into the flower, guessing it must have been about four tablespoons, which was more than she had needed but not as bad as it could have been.
Silently she cursed as she added a little bit of extra flour to try and compensate for the amount of oil that had added in, but she was still annoyed at everything that had happened.

Now she was fairly certain she’d need water to make the dough, and to add a little to the spiced fish mixed to make sure it cooked properly and didn’t burn.
Grabbing one of the cups that had come in the picnic set, she quickly hurried to grab some water, certain that Rion would be okay in the short period of time that she was gone.
Word Count816
Thread So Far = 2252
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[Elin]

Finally, with her cup full of water, she returned to her room and shut her door behind her to hear the sounds of Rion struggling.
Immediately she looked at him to see him trying to shuffle along the floor to the hearth. Inhaling sharply she strided over to him, putting the cup of water to the side of him and picking him up and holding him close.

”You can’t play with the fire baby, you’ll hurt yourself!” she said, kissing the side of the boy's face as he struggled and grunted to try and get free.
Finally she placed him down on the picnic blanket, giving him a spoon from the picnic set to play with and chew on as he wished, and soon he started gurgling happily and Elin couldn't help but smile as she sat in front of her cooking pots.
As long as her children were safe happy, she knew she'd have everything she needed to be happy herself.

She turned her attention back to her attempts at a dough, desperately trying to remember what her mother had always said and hoping that the lack of yeast wouldn’t affect it too much and that it would just leave her with a disappointing version of some sort of bread.

Frowning, she decided to just add the water, and poured about half of the cup of water into the dough mix, then a bit more so there was just a small amount left in the cup.
Then she tipped that into the cooking pot that had the fish and the spices.

Sighing, she rolled her sleeves up and started mixing the dough with her left hand, carefully squeezing it and pushing it together to try and combine all the ingredients. It felt unusual and overly sticky, with far too much oil in it, leaving her hand feeling slippy whilst also managing to have several chunks of the mixture stuck to her hand.

Frowning again, she carefully began picking the dough off her hand, and flicking the sticky mess back into the bowl, and soon enough her hand was mostly clean. Now she just had to decide what to do with the mix.

”If it’s sticky, it’s probably too wet?” she thought out loud before grabbing the flour and adding a little bit more to the mix, and then used a spoon to mix it together and test the stickiness of the mix rather than putting her hands straight in this time. She didn’t want to have to spend even more time picking dough off her hands than she already had done.

Carefully pulling the spoon out of the dough, she smiled when she noticed that the dough wasn’t sticking to the spoon as much as it had been earlier and cautiously she poked the dough with her left hand, before kneading it.
It was still sticking to her, but not as much as it had been earlier, and she was glad of that!

Finally, the dough was almost complete.

As she was about to continue, she heard a few sniffs, and then the sound of a child starting to cry and instantly Elin turned to Rion to see the baby lying on his front crying loudly as he tried to pull himself along the floor.

Word Count546
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[Elin]

Elin guessed that he must have been frustrated and gently moved over to the little boy, picking him up and sitting him on her lap, holding him closely in her arms.
”Are you as frustrated as I am?” she asked kissing his forehead, but the little boy simply continued to cry.

“Mummy…” came a voice from the bed and she saw Ilia waking up, likely due to Rion’s crying, and Elin sighed.

”Sorry sweetness. Did we wake you?” Elin asked and Ilia nodded, walking over to Elin and Rion before sitting in front of them and beginning to make faces at Rion.
It wasn’t long before the little boy stopped crying and Elin smiled at Ilia, pulling the little girl into a hug, before she looked over at what she had been attempting to cook.

She didn’t have much faith in the dough, and opted that seeing if she could buy some bread off her neighbours would be a better way to go about the meal, or maybe even just having the spiced fish on it’s own.

”Ilia, would you play with Rion while I sort out some food?” Elin asked and Ilia nodded happily.

Gently Elin moved Rion off her knee and sat him on the blanket, taking the time to kiss both his and Ilia’s foreheads, before turning back to her cooking.
She pushed the pot with the dough out of the way, intending on throwing it away later, and then checked her spiced fish.
Smiling she sniffed it and found that she’d added more than enough spices, but she didn’t see any trouble with it, so she used a spoon from the picnic set to stir through the mixture, before placing the cooking pot into the hearth, hoping that it would cook her concoction, before turning to watch Ilia and Rion as Ilia played some unusual made up game with Rion.
It was a game that Elin hadn’t seen before, and it seemed to have no rules, or if it did, Ilia was changing them constantly.
Either way, Rion seemed to be enjoying the game, gurgling and laughing at Ilia’s every move.

Elin enjoyed watching them playing together. She enjoyed seeing them having fun and their laughter was almost music to Elin’s ears. Ilia and Rion were her everything, despite how troublesome they could be, and Elin knew that she wanted to be somewhere that they’d have the best chance in life.
She doubted that Syliras was that, unless they wanted to be knights. Sure it was safe, but their wasn’t much opportunity for them.
It was then that she decided she’d leave Syliras and make her way back to her home city, so her children could see what it was like, and so they could attend the academy there.

Lost in her thoughts, she realised it had been over fifteen chimes since she’d started cooking the fish mixture and silently swore in her mind.
Hurriedly she turned to her cooking and pulled the pot out of the hearth, feeling the hot clay burning her hand as she did so.
It wasn’t until she’d already pulled the pot out of the fire that she flinched and dropped it, shaking her burnt hand and letting loose a string of curse words, before realising that she was in front of Ilia.

Tears welling up in her eyes from the pain of the burn, she turned to Ilia and pointed at her.
”You did not hear those words, and you will never repeat them to anyone! Understand?” she said and Ilia nodded before going back to playing with Rion

Swearing silently, Elin looked at her hand. It wasn’t blistering yet, but she’d likely have to get it checked soon.

Then, she continued on, checking that her fish was cooked all the way through, and finding it to be more overcooked and even burnt in places.

Sighing, she grabbed two bowls from the picnic set and added some of the mix to it, before handing one to Ilia with a fork, and keeping one for herself.
Rion was too young to eat a full meal, but once she’d tested the food, she’d offer a few pieces to Rion.

She bit into the food and almost instantly the pungent taste of garlic filled her mouth and overflowed her sense of taste.
She chewed the overly tough fish and swallowed, before seeing that Ilia look quite disgusted by the food, and Elin smiled at her.

”Tell you what, how about we go to the tavern to eat? I'll just clean this all up first!” Elin said gathering her things to start the cleaning process as she saw Ilia nod vigorously before returning to play with Rion.

Word Count783

Thread Total: 3581
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[Samuel Longwell]

Grading Complete Please edit your grade request thread so that it's obvious that it's been graded. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions/problems with your grade. Name: Elin XP Award: Childcare 4 Negotiation 1 Observation 3 Endurance 1 Cooking 3 Lore: Cooking: Bread recipe Rion: Needs to be watched Cooking: The doughy disaster Cooking: Overcooking fish is a bad idea Notes: Well done for keeping track of the amount of the spices you have left. You have made a small mistake with your ledger I think. The first purchase requires another 5sm? Making it 23gm, 1sm and 7cm. Other than that, a nice training thread.