45 Summer, 515, evening
Dove stepped into her cottage and sighed with relief at the coolness. It was far too hot to have a fire going, especially after having been working in the sun all day. Besides, her arms ached from the day's labour and she'd rather not add to that by chopping wood. Dove opened the door and the window shutters wide to let some air in. She kicked off her boots, padded barefoot across the cool stone floor of her cottage, and opened her storage chest to check her supplies. The scent of herbs wafted up her nose in the slight breeze from the open window and she turned her head away to sneeze. The herbs did smell good, she thought, but most of them were better for cooking. Finally, she took out a half loaf of bread, some hard cheese, and a couple of mint leaves, lowered the chest lid back into place and took her food over to her table.
She crumbled the dried mint into her cup, then fetched her waterskin from the shadiest corner of the cottage. It kept slightly cooler in the shade, on the stone floor, but it still wasn't cold. Still, she filled her cup, and restored the waterskin to the shady corner. The bread was a couple of days old now and slightly stale around the edges, but it was still perfectly edible, and it had been cheaper thatway. She hacked two slices of bread off the loaf with her eating knife, and cut thin pieces of cheese to cover them. She checked her cup and saw that the water had turned a very pale gold as the mint began to flavour it.
With a smile, she took her food and her cup and settled on the floor to eat. The stone floor and walls leached some of the heat from her body and she winced to discover a patch of sunburn on the back of her neck. She must have gotten it while she was carrying stones to help rebuild one of the walls between the fields. She washed down the last of her bread and cheese with the water, savouring the fresh taste of the mint, leaned her head back against the wall, and began to run through the list of things she needed to get done tonight.