Help

Autumn is coming on strong, and early, for the year. I will not say that I am completely prepared for the upcoming winter, but I should be able to eke out my situation, but it should not be the most comfortable of existence. Grand plans, that I have made, are beginning to show that I do not have the capabilities that I presumed that I have.

Maybe it is my hubris, but I thought that with my power and my previous life, that I would be able to produce better results than those of others. I am constantly being shown that I am a normal person, for all intent and purpose. I will not say that I am not progressing, at least in building my house, but it is a heck of a lot more complicated than I had assumed that it would be.

I have built most of a basement, that I will be living in this winter. The ceiling of the basement was annoying to say the least. Sawing out planks that are long enough to cover each room, and to be able to be strong enough to be walked upon has been a grueling endeavor. Those boards are heavy to move. And with trying to have a tight fit between the boards, without power tools or precise measurements, have displayed the limitations that I am having a tough grip coming to terms with.

I want the luxuries of what I would consider a modern home, from my previous life. However, I do not have the knowledge, the skills, or the patience to be able to produce that level of result. I guess that there is a reason why these jobs are often considered trade skills. The skills of the trade are grown from nothing to becoming a blossoming ability. It is hard to get that good at all the skills that I am needing to live my life solo, in the way that I want to.

My food stores have grown to a mostly safe amount. Sustenance should not be a massive problem this winter, other than being boring. With how unprepared I was, coming in to this task, I was not able to grow a wide variety of food for myself. Sigh, I miss being able to go to a grocery store, and get foods that are out of season, at any time of the day or year.

As for actual pottery, I have not been producing anything to sell, as of yet. I have just made myself some utilitarian utensils. Simple wood ash glazed plates and bowls, that have developed a pleasing an almost silver color, a pot and a flat plate to cook on, and some cups are all the I have made for my own daily use. I will say that producing these, essentially, practice pieces, have allowed me to test out a few different glazes that I can make from what is around my area. And it has given me some well needed practice to show me what I need to work on, which unfortunately is a lot of things.

* * *

Girts contacted me that he needs me to start fulfilling my end of the deal. He has given me some time to settle myself up prior to requesting me to work. I need to thank him greatly for that time.

In the one set of clothes, that were of better quality, I met up with Girts. I was able to trade some of my hunted pelts to one of the local residents for the outfit. It gave me something that I could be presentable in, for cases like this. Unprocessed leather is not that profitable though, or I got ripped off.

"What can I do for you, today?" (Rehor)

"I have a trade delegation coming in today. I just need you to sit in on the discussion, and possibly help out. Is there anything you can do that can make this business go smoother?" (Girts)

"I'm honestly not completely sure what I can do. What are you trading for, and against? Knowing what the deal is about, might help me give a better handle on the situation." (Rehor)

"I'm trying to trade some of our excess food for some different variety of seeds for the community. This land has a limited selection of food that we grow, and I am hoping to help the villagers expand the variety of food that they have access to." (Girts)

What can I do to help him out? That is a tougher question to answer than I can answer. I know a limited amount about seeds. I mean, I can use my power to make sure the seeds, themselves, are healthy, but I do not know a whole lot about the different varieties of food in this world, and how they grow. And as how to use the foods in more creative manner, I have never been the best cook.

"The most I can do, is make sure the traders are not trying to undercut the value of the food stores that you are selling. Or vice versa, overstating the value of their proposal. As for anything else, on any type of large scale, I am not able to." (Rehor)

"Just helping to assure me that you are able to make sure that the deal is fair, is large enough. The more that I can profit from this deal, the more that I can help this village become more prosperous." (Girts)

"I know that I am not able to help that much, but thank you for lying to me about my capabilities." (Rehor)

"I'm not lying. I've been helping to trade for long enough that I can get a fairly good deal, but even a slight bit more, is always a bonus. Growth of this village comes slow, but if I can expand a little bit more early, the quicker I can help expand later." (Girts)

I do see his point. Girts, I assume, is thinking of this village as capital. A small percentage of growth now, can mean larger growth later on. It may not be a large amount now, but it can slowly expand and reward more dividends later on.