One More Step

The next morning Kyra woke up quite early. She prepared everything for Chen's arrival and turned on fire at the same time.

The food from the night before was cold so she cooked some rice in chicken broth she made from the day before. She added the carrots as well and before it was done she added some fried chicken and onion for better taste.

When she heard his carriage arriving she opened the door and greeted him. "Good morning uncle Chen. Come in, I made breakfast."

He nodded, jumped off and ate the delicious porridge in nu. He scooped than the baskets with greens and the bags Kyra prepared with fern sprouts and the bundle of cattail greens and went to the city.

On the other side, Kyra left Anna to sleep as much she wanted. They were in no rush. She wanted, after all, something else as well. She took the leftover old bread and took the old fishing trap she saw hanging on the side of the house.

She slowly went upstream and found a deeper spot. She threw some of the crumbs inside it and soon some fishes ate it and quickly escaped.

Kyra smiled. "This is the perfect spot. Maybe tomorrow I can make some fish soup and fried fish. "

She put some of the bread inside the trap and put slowly the trap inside the water. There was no rush to go home. Breakfast is ready. Anna will sleep longer and she can just enjoy morning silence.

The forest started waking up. She saw the fishes cautiously swimming around the trap. It seems that bread was quite delicious for them so she just sat there, unmoving.

One by one te fishes entered. But Kyra didn't move a bit. She just sat there quietly and stared at glass-clear water and the fishes.

Indeed. Without that trap, these fishes would be too fast to catch. She was actually happy. She saw some freshwater shrimps as well and couple crabs.

These fishes she can dry and use later as adding taste to the meals. Or she can sell them? For now, she needs to hunt for a home. They are only left a few silver stones in their bags. She needs to earn money but at the same time add more food to the pantry.

Her eyes suddenly constricted as she saw big fish slowly approaching the trap. It swam around and then left. She gave up. There were only a few small fishes inside so she just left teh trap as it is and started walking back home.

As soon she went out of the forest she saw the brothers already working hard to clear the land of the grass.

''Good morning.'' The greeting startled them as she came out of the forest.

''How comes you are in the forest this early, are you not afraid?'' They wondered.

Kyra shook her head. ''Chief Jafar told me that there are no dangerous animals inside so I just went to check the traps.''

Osman sighed deeply. ''Don't go alone in the forest. Maybe there are no dangerous animals, but there are a lot twigs and stones. If you fall no one would know if you hurt yourself.''

She smiled gratefully. ''Thank you for your consideration uncle Osman. I will heed your words.''

''What are your plans for today?'' They stopped working as they saw her coming to them.

She looked at half of the land that was already cleaned and then remembered the rabbits. ''Actually, can one of you make rabbit house. I can't let them live in those cages for good.''

Osman nodded. ''As we will indeed stay even longer than planned, one of us can go and make what you want. If you have no material to build then we can cut couple trees and make planks for rabbit house.''

Kyra clapped her hands happily. ''Yes, please. I would be grateful if you do that.''

The men stopped digging the grass and took saws and axes to hack one tree. it will be enough for the rabbit house. Later they will cut some for a chicken coop but now is not an emergency.

Kyra went again into her yard and slowly opened the door. But seeing Anna's sleeping face she closed it again and just took one basket.

This time she wants some of the greens for themselves and for rabbits. She saw the clover field not far away so she will go there and get some of it.

She went up the stream and gathered the greens deeper on shadows where the greens were lusher.

When she came back she could hear tock tock noises of hacking the tree. She bright some greens to the rabbits then took the basket again and went to gather some clover leaves.

Five young men in the prime if strength were of course fast in handling the tree.

She sat in front of the house and looked around the yard. When she makes yard bigger she knows how to make it prettier.

Behind her, the door slowly opened and a small head could be seen filled with unrestrained hair.

Kyra turned her head and saw Anna dazedly standing on the door trying to wake up. Her cheeks were still blushed from her sleep and her eyes bit clouded as she was still sleepy.

"Anna, go sleep bit more. I already fed the rabbits. We can relax now for a few days before our garden is ready. Just enjoy your sleep, hm?" It was still early in the morning and the sun just came out.

Small grumble could be heard from Anna's tummy and she held it while her cheeks became even redder.

"Come to the kitchen. I made a nice porridge. Eat some and then go back to bed. There is really not much to do today." Kyra took Anna's hand dragged her to the kitchen and sat her on the still while she runs if to put in bowls the porridge for both of them.

Anna dazedly at porridge and then was pushed back to bed. As she got covered her eyes started already closing up and not before long she was in deep sleep.

Kyra slowly walked out and smiled. "Anna just sleep as much you can. I can do many things before you wake up again."

To go up to mountains where the flowers were she was not willing to go alone. So she looked around and found a spot where she would place drying racks. She cleared that spot and had an idea.

When Chen comes he could help her build the drying racks for herbs and vegetables and couple more for fish and meat.

The fish they could not eat she planned to dry good and then to grind with seasonings into powder as a food enhancer.

She could do that same with chicken and rabbit. She bought quite a lot of salt so she will try to pickle those greens to see how would they taste pickled.

With sugar, she could make candied wildflower and wild berry sweets. She cleaned the whole yard and packed unneeded stuff away. Now the garden looked bigger, but in her eyes, it was not enough. She needs more space. She will make drying racks and later she will look at what are spots with the least wind and put there some wood pots.

She planned to plant some greens for wintertime, like salad and cabbage, seasonings, and similar. The people were right. Eating processed food whole winter will hurt their health.

As she walked around her garden and contemplated about her ideas, someone knocked on her gate.

When she opened the door she saw Osman smiling at her. "Come, tell us how you want it done. The planks are ready."

Happy smile appeared on her face and she followed him out. On the other side of the wall stood the brothers and waited on her while chatting.

"I plan to break this wall and make my yard bigger and walls higher. So make the rabbit house in this corner then you will have enough space to brake walls and make new around the chicken pen you need to put there and this corner..." She explained to them her idea so they had to admit that her idea was not bad.

The way she made plans for a rabbit house was new. And it will be a big one. With separate small rooms where rabbits could produce babies. On one side it will be airy as she planned to put some metal mesh there.

Luckily they had some wires at home, so making mesh wouldn't take to much time.

She even made them make covers for the openings just in case of a big snowstorm.

"What else do you plan to do?" Kareem was interested in this girl's ideas.

"I need a stone slab for the next idea. I want to make stone paths as it is truly annoying when its rainy that the shoes and clothes get dirty just by going out.

She knew that the moment the rains start falling, the yard would tour into a mud hole. So the stone trail was her first idea.

The men had to admit. They bought the house that was already stone plastered so they knew how convenient is yo have a stone path around the house.

" I need to go to the capital city tomorrow anyway. I can ask for you." Kareem and Osman planned to get some stuff for the house in the early morning and ho back at lunch with Chen.

"Than you for your offer, but no need. I have an idea. I'll tell you later on about it." Kyra was not crazy. To buy stones and so many were lying free in the forest?

"Actually, we can do it the other way. There are stones in the forest as well. When we clear the trees to make your gated bigger we will hit some stones anyway. When we are done here you can just pay us for our time."

Of course, she agreed. That was her first thought as well. Under her instructions, the rabbit house was finished in no time and one of them already brought the wires from home to make mesh on doors.

"Do you plan to put chicken coop here? We can make a chicken house and finish it in one go." Like that they can concentrate on clearing the land again.

"Then thank you for your hard work." She knew they would do a good job so all she could do is get out their way.

She went to the garden and took the small rabbit cages and brought one by one to the rabbit house. She let them in and they happily started running around.

The moment she came back she saw Anna fully awake waiting for her. She looked around the house and held her hand.

"Didn't you say there is not much to do? How can you just run around and do all this by yourself? This can't do. From tomorrow I will not stay in bed when you are awake."

Kyra saw the determination on her small face and laughed. "I just cleaned this so I can have a better perception of space in our yard. Now we can make plans. Osman and his brothers will, later on, dig some stones and plaster our yard as we wish. You have any ideas or wishes?"

Anna sighed. ''I know you have some ideas. I would like to have some shade in summer. Maybe we could extend our roof and make the porch or make pavilion in the middle part with some flowers so we can sit there in summer.''

Kyra smiled. ''Why not both?''

''Both?'' Anna wondered.

''I told you before that I want to make our yard bigger. Much bigger. The mid of the yard would look so empty so putting pretty pavilion with flowers would be a nice place to sit in summer. We could plant some bamboo as well.'' Kyra pointed around and looked at Anna that had dreamy eyes...

''Anna. We can put a table and some cushions there and just enjoy our drinks. You can start painting and I can just enjoy some rest. Let us sometimes just be lazy.''

Laugh escaped Anna's lips. ''You, can you even be lazy? You woke up before dawn, did all those things and then still have the nerve to talk about being lazy.''

''Hey that is there is the reason. If we finish everything before the sun goes up and the heat starts burning our brains then we can just sit the rest of the day and enjoy it. Look like this morning. I went took care of rabbits and greens we need and then came back made breakfast and now I sit still and enjoy the day. What's wrong with that?'' Kyra pouted cutely while staring at Anna.

She just had to laugh. Kyra acting cutely is not in her nature but it was nice to see. She pinched her face and chuckled. ''Youuu. Next time just wake me up as well. I can sleep then trough mid of the day. It's not like it is hard for me to go back to sleep.''

''That is true, but you seemed to be really sleepy. I just had no heart to wake you up completely.''

''I understand. But from now on we have to work together. Soon more work will come upon us. We need to work hard to survive.'' Anna took Kyra's hand and held it in hers.

''Fine. As you are awake, what about we prepare something for lunch and dinner? We can after that take baskets and bags and go gather the flowers. I will show you even something I found the other day. You will be surprised.''

Anna jumped happily. ''Good. I will bring some water and you light fire. Together we will be faster.''

They stood up and started preparing everything. Kyra lit the fire, Anna went for water, they cut teh vegetable together and soon stir-fried dish with rice was ready. It can be eaten even cold so it was just good enough.

They washed everything and packed tets of dumplings from the day before for their way up as they heard knocking on teh gate.

When tehy opened they saw Chen looking at them with a strange expression...