I woke up early today for no apparent reason, but I saw myself getting up before the sun. Though the sky was not drowned in darkness no more, rather a more blueish dark. I opened my planks window and leaned out on it. The table was facing the window directly, so to get this close I had to slightly push the table away opposite from the bed the first day I got here and rented this room. I made 15Qo from Hewi's session from yesterday when he read my diary... 10 taxes and 3 for bread, now I have 2 left I have to pay Botol for room fee.

I could increase my service fee, but that would not be in character of me, to say the least.

The early morning... Wind blowing through my bare skin, I looked to see some lights are already on as people prepare for their morning, especially necessary stalls and stores... I crave something to distract my mind from thoughts as I stare into the emptiness in front. I feel like shredding some tears again, for no apparent reason, I am not sad, I am more than happy to be where I am right now, I am happy to have the wind blew against my eyes, but I'm overwhelmed by happiness that I am on the verge of sadness. I should search for distractions, I do not wish to pass my time slowly for I am not immortal... Rather, I believe the lifespan of a human in this era would be terrible.

But as a strange gust blow through and send the freezing arctic down under my skin, I closed the window and moved back to my bed, snuggling mysef under the arms of Hewi Cocksworth who was still in deep sleep after last night... That sounded more more romantic that I would had hoped, but I was just describing the truth as Hewi was sleeping on his side, one hand under the head and one hand resting in front of his chest for me to lift up and crawl under.

I had enough fun and pride of getting up early in the morning, so I went right back to my unconscious self and get some more rest, feeling cozy and weary as before.

Allowing the hands of darkness to capture me once again, I quietly wish that I would only wake up after years of peaceful rotting. Yet I was not fully in sleep when I heard roosters crying in a far distance, and Hewi opening his eyes so suddenly and started to stretch himself awake.

"Morning." I whispered.

"Ah? Morning, Tanya... No Lastname I mean, you're up early." He answered.

Hewi rolled over to rest his leg on me, slightly rubbing his forehead against mine for some random reason.

"How about another round before I have to go?" Hewi asked.

I then realized what was poking onto my belly; the demerit of being a homosapien with XY chromosome, a raging boner upon waking up. Or 'morning wood' they called.

"I do not feel like it." I answered

"...That's the very first time I got rejected by a worker, wow."

"Haha... You asked a question and got an answer, maybe it would work if you had made a demand, my wishes and my responsibilities differs."

"I should've thought of that, well I don't feel like it now, can I get a good morning kiss before going, Tanya No Lastname?"

"Sure, but do not get attach to me now, Hewi Cocksworth. I might be gone the next time you visit Deshla."

"I promise I won't."

I rolled over to be on top of Hewi and placed my lips onto his forehead... I was thinking lips or cheek, but one was too seductive and the other romantic, this should be fine for a good morning kiss between... Friends? I do not necessarily think I deserve that title, rather between client and provider.

"Have a good day." I sat still on bed while he get clothed, putting on his tank top and pants before the same set of torrid iron armor.

"You too." Hewi finished, but didn't leave yet, rather coming over to kiss me on my cheek once more before anything.

I sat there and watched as Hewi finally leave, and it was emptiness, no thoughts going on my head... Nothing, I don't have to do anything after I'm done with my work, I could just go back to sleep or walk around town, I could just walk straight out of this lovely town and never come back and no one would bat an eye.

I desperately need something to do besides writing diaries and having sexual intercourses.

So I get dressed in my leather fit and headed to the town square, seeing the mayor house at the corner of my eyes gave me some uneased feeling from the other day when I was arrested. Why should I be unease if I'm innocent? I sincerely have no clues about my bursts of random emotions that I can not explain.

The job listing today is lacking, probably because it was like 4 or 5 in the morning. The only two were simple enough.

[Help me in the kitchen from dawn to opening in noon] by Tanya Redhood from the local tavern, paying by meal

[Need someone to deliver planks to the next town by next morning, two trips, back and forth, will provide cart] by Richard Hoffman the lumberjack, paying 18Qo

Delivering wood does sounds fun, and I would get a chance to visit more places, especially another town aside from Deshla which I've been thinking about doing, too. But I do not see myself walking from town to town in long trips for a day straight while pushing a cart. I have noticed that I am for unknown reasons, weak, far weaker than any man or woman in this world, judging by how I see everyone went about their days and me easily getting tired to falling alseep. So I took the other note and headed towards Tanya Redhood's tavern which I am familiar with.

Arriving, I see there was a sign on the front dor, writing in this world's English, basically saying: "Opening from Noon to Midnight."

I didn't see any locks, at least from the outside, which I thought meant I should just walk in with the poster and look around for Miss Redhood... Which meant if she was not there, I could be eligeble for breaking and entering private property.

"Little Tanya? I'm not open yet. You gotta wait 'til noon."

A voice behind me, it was the owner I am looking for, carrying a basket full of groceries, filled with different vegetables, diary products and meat. They are not stored separately  but rather stacked on each other which could mean cross contamination, but I am not about to comment on medieval hygiene concerns again, and of course, she called me Little Tanya, still joking about us practically siblings, which was very lovely in my opinion.

"Good morning, sister. I am here for the job." I said, showing her the work note.

"Oh that's bloody fantastic, someone actually took it... Easier and quicker than I woulda thought, hold this for me will you?"

Tanya handed me the basket that looked like it cost a fortune of a peasant, that she uses for one evening? Should I aim to start a business in the future I wondered.

Tanya pushed the door slightly inwards, revealing a gap but it didn't open fully, because there was a chain strapping the door on the inside which she had to squeeze her arm in in order to remove the chain and have the door open fully.

"The kitchen's this way." She said, chaining the door back as we entered the empty building.

"Do you usually post for help, Tanya?" I asked her, tad bit curious.

"Nah," She answered, "I usually got my niece helpin' me with prep in the morning, have you met her? She's like 14 or 16 with dry hair and... Anyways, she felt ill today so I oughta get outside help, the cooking and serving I'm fine, come in."

I nodded and didn't try to question more. The tavern was rather spacious, I already got that from the first time I was here, the kitchen was no different either, with a big quartz (I think?) table in the middle where she told me to put all the ingredients she brought home on each different trays; vegetable, eggs, meat, fruit, grains... Then Tanya walked through a door and basically she was outside her backyard? It was a backyard based on the flooring was smooth stone going outside instead of wood like the inside floor, but there was a wall and a roof, barely one actually, 3 walls for no reason and a roof for no reason, I said three because in front was a big empty space square that oversees her backyard, this was her cooking area, a giant mindfuck this design is... I know because I can see multiple cooking utilities like pots, pans, firewood, water reserve and what not. She prepared for her actual prepping work by setting up all different cooking stations, the best I could describe it.

I noticed Tanya Redhood kneeling down next to a bundle of sticks, and it is soon lit on fire with no external help? Her back was turned against me so I could not see what she did, but I was overly intrigued, and I asked.

"How did you light that?"

"Beg your pardon?" She turned to listen.

"The fire... You lit it without effort."

"Oh... I learned to cast magic when I was like 12, thought it looked kinda cool, now I can make fire on my fingers, it seems stronger today for some reason? Oh and here's the trophies."

Tanya casually lifted up her tunic half-way to reveal a huge burnt-like scar on her stomach, and another on her lower back. I just noticed that she really liked sharing stories it seems.

"The fire magic burned you quite bad, I see."

I commented, thinking the scars was caused by her fingers fire getting out of control, but I was met with utter confusion shown in the tavern owner's eyes as she seems dumbfounded looking at me.

"No...? These are explisions marks, like everyon-... Anyhows, time to get to work if we wanna make it by high noon and open, could ye pick out and wash the greens, then separate the meat into portions for both cutlets and ground meat or joint, then..."

It was chaotic, she went through and through like an absolute miracle at work, I felt like I was watching Hell's Kitchen on the inter-web again, minus the watching, but participating, minus an angry British, but a nice ginger who were patient with a clumsy person that rarely touches the kitchen.  It was a confusion set up with a lot of work, but also a lotta fun I might say. For instance, I was tasked with cutting vegetables into salads (aka bite size) out on one tray but Tanya said that tray was for fruits, not the sliced fruit either, but the whole unsliced fruit, which meant I got the whole fruit on the wrong tray in the first place, and to be honest the trays were the exact same when I compared them eyebally.

Tanya did something quite smart, she boiled every meat she had except ground meat and kept them warm via indirect heat away from sunlight throughout the day and would bring them out to sear plus sauce them for color and taste when a customer orders them. Not the best tasting without any seasoning and with it being boiled, but definitely passable by standards if her tavern's always packed full as far as I've seen.

We started at around late 4 or 5 in the morning as mentioned, and the sun was on full bright by the time we finished with me thinking I barely helped compared to the owner's massive speed and ability to multitask. It was not yet high noon but definitely 10 or 11 and we did take a one hour break in the middle. Finally, I sat down flat on the floor of the kitchen with my eyes almost popping out and sweats running down my spines as Tanya announces we're finished, she on the other hand did not seem to have such problems.

"Thank you kindly for the help, Little Tanya, I couldn't expect more from a first timer, ye were better than my niece when it was her first time imma be real. Well, as the job description stated, I would provide you with a meal of you choosing from our menu, feel free to pick something, and I'll accomodate a drink as a tip, cus of that time I dragged you into singing at Gredak."

Oh yeah, she did do that I suppose.

"What would you recommend, sister Tanya Redhood?"

"Definitely... The steak, our best seller."

The steak she mentioned was one of the most expensive thing on the menu, boiled meat that gets on high heat in the last second? I believe I would pass, but my beliefs were inconsequential when my stomach talked, saying "grrrkooofg" basically signaling hunger. So I had the steak, drowned in a glazed that Tanya made herself, claiming the process was so precise and secret that not even her niece can replicate or know the recipe to. I sat on a table near the counter where she poured me a fresh cup of foamy beer to go along with the glazed steak dish.

"I... Never had beer before." I said, not recollecting enough memories to say if it was true or not, the furthest memory of my life was blurry.

"Wow, sounds boring, innit?" Tanya said with her hands on her hips.

Hearing the woman's comment, I thought for a bit... Not peer pressure, per se, but I did hesitate on one thing or another, and I looked outside to the ground shined bright by the yellow sun and shrugged.

"You are right, it is boring."

I answered, holding the cup with both hands and chug in down without even breathing.

"Kaaaahhhh..." I gasped with my eyes almost popping out of my skulls, the fermented wheat smell slapping my nose from side to side and I felt as if throwing up everything back out, I had to slam the table a few times before finally able to hold it in.

"Grats, little Tanya." Tanya clapped for me. "Got myself a new familiar now aren't I?"

"I'd stick to water and juices, thank you."

"Ight, no judge, but y'know, maybe you'll develop a taste for it, beer are gettin' cheaper these days."

"I hope so, too." I said, looking at the cup, "Say, are you not opening soon?"

"Oh, I'd wait 'til the bell rang."

"...The bell?" I asked.

"Uh huh... The Gaylord bell?"

I looked at her, emotionless, definitely no clue that the Gaylord even has a bell, best I'd know is they got a big plot of land where they either rent or hire people to work on and a barn where Trek slept at night and homosexuality in their genes. Tanya must have noticed my look and explained further.

"The bell that signal lunchbreak for their workers, like I told ya, they employ lots of men in town for yard and field work and they usually come to me for lunch just before high noon, hence the cheapest option on the menu as you can see... It ain't profitting me much but it works well as far as attractin' regulars goes."

Hell of a genius she was, I thought. No one would drink in the morning anyways so she does not need to bother with that, just prepare the kitchen for exactly when needed. Could be that I was just short sighted and she was just doing the obvious.

I enjoyed my meal, which was as expected, dry. Tanya was trying to make small talk afterwards but I was very busy chewing overcooked steak, people enjoy this? Are their jaws just that good? The taste and smell of the meat itself was actually pleasant, maybe because I am not getting industrialized beef in these times, but beef with actual rights... Funny sentence.

I finished my meal and offered to wash the dish and the cup it, but Tanya declined, hushing me away even, demanding that I leave and do not clean anything else, such passive aggressive hostility was funny in a way, and I don't know how to push further, so I elected to just try and repay her later. As she unchained the tavern for me to leave, I hear a bell rung in the distance... It was not loud enough for the inn I was staying at to hear, but just enough for the people around it to hear them, like Tanya's tavern here.

"Tanya?"

Not to sound cocky, but as if the protagonist of a slice of life story; I got a lot to do whenever not expected it the most... Not a single day that I can't fill my diary with words, because when I thought that was it for my day, a voice called out for me, with still sweats running down his tattered top, the orphan with a dream; Trek, called out for me.

"Yes?" I answered, turning around with the sun shining down behind me. We were both in the middle of the hot street and Trek was squinting.

"I... Got paid today, and I was wondering if... It's still 15Qo."

I had hope it was just simple as that.