Completed Inventories and Tonics

[Ari'Ellin]

2nd Spring 521AV

Ari hadn’t slept well the night before, but still something seemed to be giving her a renewed sense of energy as she woke up at sunrise, a level of energy flowing through her that she hadn’t expected as she pulled her boots on.

The small black cat that she called her friend moved closer to her, nuzzling against her leg slightly and Ari couldn’t help but grin slightly, reaching out a hand to gently stroke over the cat's fur.

“I won’t be gone too long. Go curl up and rest little Pebble.” she hummed softly gently nudging the cat towards her bed, waiting for a few moments to watch as the cat made its way to her bed and lay down on it, seemingly having managed to understand her nudging’s meaning.

Happy to see Pebble relaxing, Ari nodded and left her home, heading through the streets of Lhavit to the Healing Hands. She’d grown to quite enjoy her place of work, despite still not feeling as though she understood enough common to build any real relationship with customers, or even the two people she worked with. She was certain they were lovely and friendly people, but it was hard for her to form anything more than an amiable working relationship with anyone.

Still, she was determined to make the best of what she had and as she entered the Healing Hands she smiled and nodded to Kita, waving a greeting.

“Anything need make?” she offered, gesturing to the shelves as she waited and watched Kita for a few moments as the older woman thought, before shaking her head.

“I’m not entirely sure dear. How about you take inventory for me? Count how much we have of each thing so that way we can see what might be needed.” the woman suggested and Ari’Ellin nodded.

Quickly the older woman rummaged through a couple of drawers and then handing over a slip of paper and an ink stick.

“The names should be on the bottles and tins, just count how many of each you can find, and then we’ll see what we need more of.” Kita said and Ari’Ellin smiled and nodded, beginning to make her way along the shelves, picking up a bottle and reading the label, before carefully taking the time to copy the name down onto her paper.

The first tin was labelled “Burn Salve”, and carefully Ari wrote the name down on her piece of paper, before counting the tins and nodding to herself and writing the number “8” next to it. The next was a bottle with the label “Chamayo Tonic” and again Ari carefully copied the name down, grimacing as she noticed that she’d messed up one of the letters before shaking her head.

“Be careful…” she mumbled under her breath in Kontinese before she counted the bottles and wrote “14” next to the tonics name.

She continued on through the shelves, taking note of all the tonics before she finally got to the herbs. Nodding to herself, she read over her notes before returning to Kita.

Burn Salve 8
Chomayo Tonic 14
Eyewash 13
Filon esence 15
Kralar poultice 7
Lilian rot tea 10
Mandroke tonic 8
Marin bitters 3
Narnvayt oil 5
Poppy tinc 18
Rosemary oint 4
Rugberry tea 12

Word Count511 not including quote

[Ari'Ellin]

“Count herbs or just this?” she asked, handing over her notes and watching as Kita read it over, grimacing slightly as she was certain she’d made a number of different mistakes.

“Just this. It looks like we’re definitely in need of some Hangover Tonic…” the woman said and Ari nodded with a smile.

“I make tonic? Okay? What need?” she asked, grinning as she did so, watching Kita as the woman smiled, walking through into the back room with her, instructing Remus to watch the front of the shop until she was finished.

Eagerly, Ari’Ellin followed the woman, watching her closely as she moved around the room looking for something before grabbing a glass jar of what looked like small wilting leaves.

“Perfect! Here, what do you think it is?” the woman said, handing the jar to her and Ari nodded, looking at the herbs to see that she wasn’t entirely sure as to what it was. Carefully, she opened the jar, the scent of mint immediately rising through the air causing her to blink slightly.

“Mint?” she questioned, watching as Kita nodded.

“There’s lots of types of mint, though most look similar. Do you know much about mint?” Kita asked and Ari shrugged.

“I did but not seen recent. It refresh. Tastes good, clean. Nice in water, it add flavour.” Ari said calmly, looking over the jar and trying to commit the herbs appearance to memory. “Lots of Konti use, but I not remember for.” she smiled weakly, a slight awkwardness in her facial expression and movements.

“Well it’s good for a lot of things. It does taste refreshing, and it’s good to help with digestion. A lot of people make a mint tea when they are having trouble eating or having pain after eating.” Kita started and Ari listened intently. “It is also good when you are starting to feel ill. When your nose gets stuff, you know, mint can help you to breathe easier and make your illness pass quicker. If you make a cream or ointment it can help with pain and inflammation.”

“Sorry, what inflammation?” Ari asked, uncertain of the word before watching Kita again.

“Oh sorry, I forgot. So inflammation is when something is red and swollen, and it will usually be hot to the touch. Like when someone sprains their ankle.” she explained and Ari nodded.

“Ah, I know. We call it ‘inflammation’.” she said calmly, switching back to her native Kontinese briefly and watching as Kita smiled and nodded. “Is anything else mint good?”

“I think that’s almost everything… When combined with some things it can help with spasms, and it’s also good to relieve stress and tension, although that’s more therapeutic than anything.” Kita explained and Ari grinned before a shout came from the front. “Ari, can you start a tonic made from this for me? A decoction will work best and quickest I think. Don’t use too much water, make sure it’s strong.”

Ari nodded and then watched as Kita returned to the front of the shop, leaving her to work on her attempt at the hangover tonic.

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[Ari'Ellin]

Ari hummed to herself softly as she glanced around the back room. She remembered Kita’s words about making a strong decoction, and for a moment she thought to herself, trying to translate the word in her head.

“Decoction…” she murmured to herself before nodding happily. “Decoction is boiling.” she smiled before glancing around, placing the jar onto a workbench and gathering the rest of the supplies. She grabbed a saucepan to boil the leaves in, a wooden spoon to stir the mix with, and a pitcher of water.

Carefully she added around two cups of water to the saucepan, and for a moment she hesitated trying to decide how much mint to add before a mans voice came.

“A decoction? Usually you’d use somewhere between a teaspoon and a tablespoon of herbs for each cup of water.” Remus said as he moved around the room, grabbing a sweeping brush before disappearing before Ari could thank him.

“Kita want strong… So a tablespoon? Two tablespoons for two cups.” she mused to herself as she spoke, finding a tablespoon and digging it into the jar of wilting mint leaves, scooping out a generous tablespoon and adding it to the saucepan of water, then doing it again to add the two tablespoons of mint that seemed to be needed.

Smiling to herself, she grabbed a cloth and draped it over her arm before she carefully carried the saucepan to the hearth, placing it into the fire and watching the water closely as she waited for it to start boiling.

The mint leaves seemed to be not as tough as many other herbs, and so she didn’t want to boil them too aggressively, and so she decided that a gentle boil would be best.

Sighing to herself, she watched the water closely and as soon as she could notice some bubbles forming on the bottom of the saucepan, she wrapped the cloth around her hand to make a barrier against the heat and then used her covered hand to grab the handle of the saucepan and pull it out of the heat, gently stirring the mixture with the wooden spoon as the scent of mint started to grow stronger and fill the room.

At first it was pleasant, but after a while, Ari found that the scent was permeating to the back of her throat and her nostrils, making every breath she took feel cooler than normal, a slightly off putting sensation that, when combined with the scent that was growing stronger and stronger, began to make the once pleasant, gentle scent grow irritating and unpleasant to her.

Frowning slightly, Ari’Ellin shook her hand and pulled the wooden spoon out of the pot, carefully placing it back into the fire and letting it heat a little more, waiting for more bubbles to form.

It was about half a chime before the mixture began to gently boil and carefully she pulled the saucepan out of the fire, stirred it, and then placed it back in the fire.

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[Ari'Ellin]

She repeated that process roughly five times before using the wooden spoon to scoop out some of the water, seeing that it had taken on the colour from the mint, turning into a gentle greenish yellow hue. Nodding happily, she left the saucepan away from the fire and went to grab a jar, and a clean cheesecloth, tying the cloth around the top of the jar, leaving a little slack so that she’d be able to strain out the leaves.

Then, once the cloth was secured, she covered her hand again and picked up the saucepan, carefully and slowly trickling the liquid over the cloth, allowing the tonic to pass through the cloth while the mint leaves were filtered out, leaving just the mint decoction in the jar.

Smiling to herself, Ari poured the last of the liquid and mint leaves over the cloth before leaving the saucepan next to the hearth. Carefully she picked up the jar, carefully not to tip any of the mint leaves off the cloth, and carried it to the workbench, leaving it there to allow the last of the liquid to drain from the leaves whilst she rinsed out the saucepan and cleaned it with a wet cloth, hurriedly drying it and placing it back where she’d found it, before returning to the mint decoction.

There was no more liquid dripping through the cloth, and carefully she untied the cloth, wrapping it over the leaves and squeezing the leaves to force more liquid out from the leaves.

She kept squeezing the liquid out, squeezing until no more liquid came out from it. She nodded happily, setting the remnants of the mint and the cloth to the side before looking at the jar and frowning.

It looked as though she hadn’t made anywhere near enough of the hangover tonic to be able to make up for not having any in the shop, so hurriedly, she grabbed the saucepan again, this time adding roughly four cups of water before lifting the pan, nodding as she found it not too difficult to lift, before adding another two cups of water.

“One tablespoon per cup…” She grabbed the tablespoon again and murmured under her breath, this time counting out six generous tablespoons of wilted mint leaves and adding them to the saucepan of water. Glancing around she found the straining cloth she had used and added the remnants of mint from the previous batch, hoping to get the most from the mint leaves she’d already used.

She repeated her process of placing the saucepan in the hearth's fire, waiting for bubbles to form and then pulling it out of the fire to stir it before placing it back into the stove to continue the process again.

Every two or three repeats, she would scoop out some of the liquid and check the colour, until it showed the yellowish green colour of the previous batch, and a grin spread across her face.

She found a second, slightly larger jar and tied the cloth around it again, making sure that it wasn’t too tight.

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[Ari'Ellin]

Carefully she picked up the saucepan, finding it much heavier this time and having to use both of her hands just to try to keep it stable as she poured it over the cloth until the liquid reached close to the top.

There was still a little more liquid into the saucepan, and after furrowing her brow a little more, she put the saucepan onto the heart and used the wooden spoon to gently scoop the mint leaves onto the straining cloth, trying to get as much of the mint remains onto the cloth. Then she carefully carried the jar to the same workbench and rummaged through a few jars to find another straining cloth to tie onto the first, half filled jar.

After tying it into place, she grabbed the saucepan and tipped the rest of it’s contents onto the straining cloth.

Again, she took the time to clean the saucepan and her wooden spoon while the liquid from the leaves dripped into the jars.

Soon she returned to the decoctions and checked to see if they were still dripping, and a smile spread across her face as she untied the cloth from one of the jars and squeezed any remaining liquid into the jar, before closing the jar and repeating the process on the other.

Just after she finished, she hummed to herself, looking over the still warm jars of hangover tonic that were ready to portion into the smaller jars ready for sale. A moment of curiosity took over her and she took a few moments to just breathe, closing her eyes and trying to focus on the djed that was flowing through her. While breathing deeply she started to try to focus harder, trying to force the djed up to her eyes before she opened them, looking over the liquid and watching as colourful aura’s began to bloom around it.

She looked over it, taking in the swirling blue-tinged green colour that surrounded it, and the much smaller, purple, blue, and white flecks that seemed to appear in the swirls. More curious, she turned her attention to the jar of mint, seeing that this one wasn’t as brightly coloured. The colours were still there but they were still gently swirling around.

“Finished?” came the voice and Ari’Ellin turned her attention to the source of the voice, her eyes spotting a small aura and focusing on that briefly, seeing that it’s colours were slightly different. The colours were weak, but it was a mostly warm orangey yellow colour with frequent flecks of red that swirled around whatever it’s source was, but more interesting to her were the purple and white flecks that were oddly similar to the mint.

The aura disappeared as an ache in her eyes made itself known and she blinked and winced slightly, aware that only a matter of ticks had passed whilst looking at the auras. Sighing she looked at Kita and saw the mug of a warm, steaming liquid.

“What that?” she asked.

“Oh this? Ginger, honey, and lemon tea.” Kita said with a smile and Ari’Ellin nodded.

“It do similar, yes?” she asked, gesturing to the hangover tonic and watching Kita furrow her brows.

“It can. The ginger is good to help with spasms and inflammation, like mint, and it’s good for digestion.” Kita stated and Ari smiled as a thought came to mind.

“Could mix mint and ginger one day? Stronger? Or not work that way?” she asked and Kita smiled.

“Just a decoction or infusion or maceration wouldn’t be any stronger, although a philterer would be able to combine the two to make something stronger.” Kita explained and Ari’Ellin nodded.

“Philterer…” she repeated.

Word Count614
Total: 2659

[Cleon]

Grade Award!

Ari'Ellin:
Skills: Auristics + 1, Herbalism + 4, Logic + 1, Observation + 5, Organization + 1, Planning + 1, Socialization + 3, Writing + 1

Lore:

Organization: Making a list of stock
Botany: What mint smells like
Herbalism: The medicinal uses of mint
Herbalism: The therapeutic uses of mint
Herbalism: How to make a decoction
Herbalism: Recipe for Hangover tonic
Auristics: Mint leaves aura
Auristics: Hangover tea aura
Aurisitcs: Ginger honey tea aura
Herbalism: Ginger helps with spasms and inflammation
Herbalism: Ginger is good for digestion

Feel free to pm me with questions or concerns about your grade, and don’t forget to edit your grade request!