First Breaths of Eternity - part 10

First Breaths of Eternity - part 10. Liwen spends the day with Edward learning about different jobs in the village.

(Reminder, this is a WIP, there will be spelling and writing errors. | Join me for live writing streams on Twitch. | If you like what you see, consider supporting me on Ko-fi and/or Twitch so that I can continue making more content for you to enjoy. https://linktr.ee/GoldThornGuild)

(Note: I'm testing out different pronouns for Liwen, so you may see a mix of pronouns throughout this WIP.)

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"It's not that incredible, just a little bit of creativity and thinking outside the box."

Liwen spent the next half an hour quietly watching Edward slowly and carefully work through the tangled mess of hair while chatting casually with Vivian.

"You are a life-saver as always," Vivian said when Edward finally finished.

"You know, you wouldn't need saving if you just took care of your hair a bit," Edward teased.

"You act like you don't like your job. Isn't that a poor example for Liwen? Plus it is a lie. Everyone in the village knows you love fixing people's hair."

"That is true. Though your hair would still be in better condition if you took a little better care of it. Anyways, we need to get going. And this makes us even now for the brush set you paid me with last time, doesn't it?"

"Yes. Our tab is now back at zero."

"Great. See you later, Vivian."

"She paid you with brushes?" Liwen asked as they left the house.

"I suppose I should explain how commerce works here," Edward responded, "For the most part, we don't use money here but simply trade goods and services. Basically the only people who have money are those who regularly leave the village for work. Specifically Aston, Aleks, Remi, Vivian, and Jade. Well, technically Vivian doesn't actually leave the village much but she is the one who interacts with traveling merchants that come to the village or nearby, so she still uses money to buy and sell goods. Jade is the village merchant who takes goods from the village to sell elsewhere. He and Vivian jointly run the store, so I think you have met him before?"

"I think I remember who he is."

"He spends most of his time here in the village tending the shop and managing supplies and trades but he takes trips to buy and sell goods at lease once a season. And here we are at the first well. My job here is basically the same as with the farm silo only on a smaller scale. I need to make sure the water is clean and not stagnating and then fill as needed. There are six wells like this around the village and I given them a formal inspection whenever I check the silo. The rest of the time, they are informally monitored by everyone who uses them. If someone notices a problem, they let me know and I come and take care of it. So today's inspection should go pretty quickly because some of the wells got tended to not long ago."

~~~

"Hey Lee, want a hand with that?" Edward asked as he and Liwen approached the last well.

The person pulling up a bucket of water looked up and smiled.

"What fortunate timing for me," Lee said, "I was just about to start the tedious process of refilling my quenching tank when a water mage walks by."

"Let me refill your tank for you. Technically it will save me time having to refill the well anyways, so this service will be free of charge."

"You sure?"

"Yes. If you take the water from the well, I would have to refill the well eventually, so I might as well just refill the water directly into your tank instead."

"I guess that makes sense. Follow me."

The three of them walked into the blacksmith shop and Edward filled the large tank with water.

"Doing some deep cleaning today?" Edward asked, "I don't think I have ever seen your tank completely empty."

"Yes. It needs to be cleaned out occasionally to get rid of all the dirt and debris that collects at the bottom. It is normally and all day process between the emptying, cleaning, and refilling, but you just saved me a ton of time, so thank you for that."

"No problem. Let me know next time it needs to be cleaned and I can help with the emptying too."

"You sure you wouldn't mind?"

"As long as I don't have any other commitments already, I would love to help."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind for next time."

"You know where to find me."

"By the way," Lee said as they turned to Liwen, "I don't think we have formally met yet. I am Lee, the village blacksmith. Though I'm guessing you already figured that out."

"It is a pleasure to me you," Liwen answered.

"If you ever need any smithing work done, Lee is the person to turn to," Edward said, "They are also the top fire mage in the village."

"I'm not that skilled," Lee said, "I'm mostly just good at regulating the temperature of the furnace and sometimes using localized flames for detail work. I don't have many skills for use outside of the forge."

"Don't be silly. Your fire skills have to be at least on par with my water skills."

"I don't know about that."

"Everyone here is so humble about their skills," Liwen said without thinking.

"I guess that is true," Edward laughed, "Most people at least. Some more so than others."

"So Liwen, are you thinking about becoming a water mage or are you just seeing what options there are?" Lee asked.

"I'm just seeing the options. I still have no idea what path I want to take."

"Makes sense, you are still newly awaken. If you ever want to see what life as a blacksmith is like, you are welcome by any time."

"Thank you very much."

"I don't know about anyone else," Edward said, "But I'm getting hungry. Want to head over to the pub for lunch?"

"Sounds good to me," Liwen said.

"I would but I still have work I need to do here," Lee said.

"Alright, just don't forget to eat at some point," Edward said as he turned to leave.

"I won't. See you later."

~~~

"The last task for today," Edward said as he and Liwen left the pub after lunch, "Is to check some of the natural water sources around the village. Today we are only checking the ones closest, so the pond and two creeks in the forest. I check on the other, more distance sources, usually once or twice a year, and the closer ones once or twice a season."

"That means we're going into the forest?" Liwen asked excitedly.

"Yes. There is one stream by the main road, so we will check that first and then follow a smaller stream through the forest to the life tree and slightly beyond it. After that we will loop back and check the pond on the way back to the house. How's that sounds?"

"Sounds wonderful!"

They walked along the main road that connected the village square with the forest and eventually other villages and roads. After stopping a couple times to chat for a moment with other people who were out, they eventually reached the stream where it met up with the road.

"The stream runs that way to eventually empty into a lake," Edward explained as he pointed towards where the stream disappeared into the trees, "In the other direction, it flows along the road for a while. More specifically, the road follows it. Eventually the stream connects with a life tree spring, but that is so far away that a water mage from another village keeps an eye on it. I simply keep an eye on the part of the stream that runs along the road from here to the crossing deeper in the forest. Today we will just check things along this short stretch of road. Usually, if there is an issue farther up stream we will be able to tell from here, so I only do an inspection of the full stream once a year."

"Do problems happen often? If the stream comes directly from a life tree, shouldn't the water be pure?"

"Problems don't often happen, which is why it only needs to be checked once a year usually. Occasionally blockages or contaminants can enter the stream, so I need to keep an eye out for that but for the most part the streams flow just fine by themselves."