One More Step

"Kyra wake up. Chen is already here." Anna tried to wake her up but then took some water and sprayed it son Kyra's face.

Her eyes suddenly popped open and she dazedly stated at the surroundings. Her eyes fell on Anna and then at the window.

The darkness started chanting into a lighter color. She jumped out the bed quickly put the dress they made last time and run out to wash her face.

Chen was almost done with packing everything they wanted to bring and saw Kyra storming out the sleeping room with a dazed expression and quickly washing up.

This is the first time he saw her being late so he just slowed down so she can finish on time.

"I made sandwiches for breakfast. Uncle Chen here is yours." Anna was the active one this time.

She woke up this time quite early and went to feed the chickens and the pig. Tomorrow they will bring the pig to the forest so it will be easier.

They usually fed the chickens with some grass they cut evening before and some mix of cheap seeds before they don't get their own.

Kyra told Chief Jafar that when winter comes and the wheat is to be made into fluffy flour, the leftovers will be used as chicken fodder.

They packed the dried herbs as well and few glass jars with flower essence they made these days.

When they passed him Chen could smell the fresh scent that emanated from their whole body.

Strange. He got used to the smells if those that wore scent bags but this kind of scent is new.

He inhaled it deeply making girls giggle.

When they went in they stuffed a scented bag into his hands and sat down.

It was poorly made and it had no embroidery on. But the scenery was stronger than theirs.

He grunted, nodded and put it on his waist.

Somehow he felt warm in his heart.

"Uncle Chen, when the scent dissipates there is a way to refresh it. We will give you the oil to do that tonight" They could see him nodding and started chatting about girly stuff so he didn't listen.

The sun just started shining upon the city but the streets were already buzzing, filled with the crowd.

"What is your plan today?" Chen asked while he waited to enter the city in a long line of carriages.

"We plan to stroll a bit, then buy some stuff, eat nice food and see the performances. Unfortunately we would love to see the bight life but first we need to gather our wild herbs and second, we are too small to wander at night without proper protection. So we give up." They were not fools that would walk the dangerous streets at night. That is much like inviting trouble yourself.

"It is Great Dowager's birthday. So most things could be seen in the day time. You can look at the city from your place and see evening firework. After that, the crowd will anyway go home." Chen muttered and they could hear him. "There is a great summer festival upcoming. At that time I will stay with you for the whole night and you can sleep in the city. Just pay me a full day, the accommodation and the food." He just shrugged and stopped talking.

Girls got silent as well. It was the day if Great Dowager's birthday. How will she like the present?

The crowd in front of the city was amazing, luckily the guards knew Chen and let him pass before others. He let the girls in front medicine hall out and went to the restaurant to deliver the greens.

"Oh? Good morning Kyra, Anna. You came for the Great Dowager birthday?" The woman smiled at them while taking the bags from their hands swiftly.

This time they had a bunch of dried flowers and one bag with glass jars filled with flower essence.

"No. When we were close to town we realized that it is today. We actually came to bring you these as we won't be able to come for a few weeks. There are dried flowers in one bag in other is from the same flower the leaves in the second bag and the roots in the third bag."

They took a bunch of bags that were connected together.

"These are quite nice quality. You learned well how to dry appropriately. " She was happily inspecting the quality of dried plants.

"We choose to dry each part separately. In the book could be seen different kinds of ways of drying so we choose to follow the instructions." Anna wondered at first why did Kyra order so many drying racks until she realized that the different parts of the plant needed a different kind of positions under the sun and time to dry.

"Our Ling family is famous for its quality of herbs. Unfortunately, as a woman, I can only get the third rank of a healer but my father who is obviously the man has already fought the rank of a doctor. But I still like this work." She smiled happily while she toughed, smelled and sniffled on the plants.

"Good job. Well done. Most people that sell plants never consider the instructions we give them. If you dry the plants properly the quality will become better and if course you will get more money." She sighed and with a smile started weighting the ware.

The girls smiled at her while looking around the store. Most of the herbs were in large boxes on shelves so they couldn't see them.

There stood a few huge glass jars with some sort of liquid and inside huge root that looked like a human with head, hands and legs.

"Aunt Ling, what kind of plant is this?" They asked but she was in her world checking the plants and writing the numbers.

They just then silently waited until she was done. "Finished. You gave me good quality so I will pay you well."

She recounted everything and pulled out the box one if the bags filled with silver.

"All together this is 127 silver stones. I will give you one big silver coin and 27 silver stones or do you want all in stones?"

Girls shook their heads. "It's fine like that."

They didn't expect to be paid to do handsomely so they looked at the money curiously.

"Aunt Ling, why is it so much this time?"

She smiled. "Not many people bring herbs so we need to travel and search on mountains for herbs. That takes time and in days like now where we have so may costumers, traveling around and searching for these plants is very bothersome."

So instead of them wasting time and resources, they prefer to buy it with good price and just continue.

"Aunt Ling we have something else to sell but don't know who would buy this, do you have an idea, maybe?"

Now she realized what in the other bags is. Glass jars filled with some kind of oil. She turned her head towards the girls before realizing that the jars emitted an amazing smell.

"We found different kinds of flowers that give off a strong smell and we made scented essences from these. It can be used in bathing water or dripped on dried flowers in pouches."

"Oh. That's why your girls smell so nice. Did you put in bathing water?" She could smell the scent on them but didn't see the pouches on their waist.

"Yes. We took a bath last night and it made our skin a bit softer. Even our hair smells nice."

Healer Ling sniffed and could detect the nice smell from their hairs as well.

She then started tapping her chin as she thought about that deeply. "Do you want me to offer this to the ladies of nobles? I know a few noblewomen that will come today here yo pick their medicine. I could recommend this for a good price."

The girls readily agreed. "Then you set up the price and take half of the money for your troubles."

"Do I look like someone who wants to rip you girls off? I will take a third of the money and will provide as well different kinds of containers for this. These glass jars will be sent back to you." With a strict voice, she just stated the fact and took the glass jars.

"This is a wild rose scent, this is... they explained every scent until the last one that contained sandalwood scent. " This one is good for males. Not for females. If you mix this one and a bit of flower scent it will change. The combinations smell amazing as well."

Healer Ling understood their words and nodded. "I will make a mix of oil fragrances for different people so they font wear the same thing. But can you bring more?"

The girls shook their heads. "This is not easy to make. please use it sparsely. You can use one drop of oil and put on skin directly to smell nicely well. Or put in some cream so the scent can be rubbed into the skin."

"So actually we can sell it as rare then. Good. Let's do it that way." She smiled brightly while carefully transported the glass jars to the counter. "When its sold I will let you know."

The girls nodded and left the store and were almost swept off their feet by the things that happened outside...