Party Preparations?

I arrived at Apium before the evening, then headed straight to Tara's place. "Huh? Why are you here, Anna?", she asked, surprised. "I have something to talk with you about. It's about my work", I replied. Tara was confused, but invited me inside anyway. "So, what did you want to talk about so badly?", she asked. "You travel to Sedon and the Land of Sands from time to time, right? You know my mother, she is very reluctant to let me go anywhere. Therefore I came up with an idea. Since you travel to those places a few times in a year, would you help me sell my items?", I explained.

"You want me to take a few of your Formations with me, and spread the word? Sell them basically?", she asked to make sure. "Yes… I can pay you something, if they sell", I replied. "Sure, I don't mind. I will be going there anyway. Besides, you live close by. I can swing by to pick the stuff up rather easily", she said. "That's great to hear! There is one more thing I wanted to ask you. You've been to other places many times, you should know what is popular and what sells. I will need to get or make items that sell, especially with Formations on them. The question is, what sort of items should I get or make?", I asked.

Tara thought about it for a while before replying, "I'm not too sure. I can have a look next time I'm there. Which means, you'd have to wait for a while to find this out. Moreover, due to the distance between you and anywhere else really, you can't take orders like shops do. You'd have to live inside a city to make that work… Or, there might be a different way". "What do you have in mind?", I asked curiously. "Where are you right now?", she asked. I got a bit confused by such a question, but answered anyway. "We are in Apium? I'm inside your house?". She nodded, "Exactly. Apium has its unique products. Take your uncle's medicine for example, or the fruits that only grow here. I'm not sure how your Formations could affect the fruits or medicine, but what about crafted items? Making things tougher, more resilient and so on. That should be possible, right?", Tara explained.

'That's true. Apium is just next to us, and I could use their products', I thought. "Of course, the best method would be selling weapons with Formations placed on them. Unfortunately, Apium doesn't have a smithy or any smiths… Jewellery is big anywhere you go as well, especially with Formations. This requires smithing knowledge though, and we don't have such knowledge", she added. Smithing was a great idea, but we had no access to that. The best solution was to use whatever we could, and place useful Formations on those items. "Let's discuss the details a bit more", I said.

We decided on a simple plan. Tara would take whatever I made with her, then try to sell it in Sedon or the Land of Sands. Moreover, she was much better with money, as well as selling the items. I had to focus on making those Formations, and nothing else. We also agreed to split fifty-fifty. Although I was the one making those Formations, she had to travel everywhere and sell them. Tara also agreed to lend me some money, in order to buy the necessary items. I didn't want to ask my mother, even though she'd probably just give me the money. I wanted to prove my independence and ability to make money, not borrow from her. "Alright. With that, we have most of the things worked out. My birthday is just around the corner, so we can focus on our little business after that", I said while standing up to leave. "Where are you going? Sleep here", Tara said.

"I wanted to at least say hello to uncle… Alright, I will do that in the morning", I replied and stayed over at Tara's place. The next morning, I said farewell to Tara then visited my uncle. He already knew I was in Apium, which came as no surprise really. Although he asked me to stay, I promised my mother to return the next day. We ate breakfast though, while uncle gave me some Poach Fruits for later. Since my trip to Apium was a success, I travelled back home in high spirits. "Welcome back. How did your business trip go, sweetie?", mother asked as soon as I entered the house. "Really well. Tara gave me some more ideas, and we agreed on some other things too. We decided to use Apium for the supply of items. Since other cities are far away, this will be the best way to start. We will begin after my birthday… I'm so excited", I replied full of enthusiasm.

"That's great to hear, sweetie…" she said while giving me a hug. "My daughter is growing up so fast. I still remember when you were little and carefree", she added. "Come on, mom…", I replied embarrassed. "Let's go make some food, you must be hungry, right", she said. Ever since I asked her to teach me about cooking, she would call me over whenever she cooked. Besides that, we returned to our daily training. I almost forgot how difficult the training with that mask was. Mother didn't take it lightly either. "Because you slacked off for a few months, we will pick up the pace", was her reasoning.

My struggle began once again. Day in and day out, mother pushed me further and further. Until my birthday was only two days away. Mother stopped my training out of nowhere. "Anna, can you go to Apium and grab your uncle and Tara?", she asked. 'Why would she ask me to do such a… wait a minute', I recalled something. 'She's probably getting rid of me, to prepare that surprise party', my thoughts continued. "Haaah… They can make it here by themselves, but sure, I will go fetch them", I agreed while feigning reluctance. "Let's go Turry, we need to make another trip", I said before mounting him. On my way, I wondered about the party mother wanted to prepare. 'Since she told me to leave, I'm sure it will be great!', I thought.

Apium appeared in front of my eyes during the afternoon. I quickly found uncle Ulon, but he told me we shouldn't travel at night. Of course my guess was that uncle wanted to buy time for my mother. "I don't want to be late for my birthday, but you are right. We will leave tomorrow in the morning", I replied. With my uncle taken care of, I met up with Tara next. "How do you feel about your birthday? Excited yet?", she asked. "Of course! So Tara, what did you get for me?", I asked. She laughed drily, then told me it was a secret. 'I don't really care if she got anything. Her being at my party is already great', I thought.

The topic quickly shifted towards the surprise party, and what mother would prepare for me. Tara didn't know anything else, because she would already blabber about it. When the subject of the surprise party became exhausted, we discussed our business and whatnot. After a peaceful night, uncle slowly prepared breakfast. He was in no rush at all, but to keep up the pretence, I tried to rush him. "Don't worry, Anna. We will make it back on time. You'll need energy for the journey, the breakfast will be ready soon", uncle reassured me.

After breakfast, uncle found another reason to delay us. "I need to make sure everyone knows what to do while I'm gone. This shouldn't take long, you can meet up with Tara in the meantime", he said. There was no other choice but to agree. Tara was next to her house, already preparing her Taurus. "Ready?", she asked. "We need to wait a bit longer. Thanks to you, I know that mother is planning something. Uncle is obviously stalling us for time… I wouldn't suspect anything, if you said nothing", I said, blaming her a bit. "Hey, hey! I said nothing, got it? Nothing!", she replied promptly. I just rolled my eyes, and moved the conversation toward our business.

"I will be going to the Land of Sands in a few weeks time. That means, you will have something like two, maybe three weeks to prepare everything. I mean, there's no rush. Place as many Formations as you can during that time, then let me worry about the rest", she said. We also decided to buy, and place Formations on wooden sculptures. Tara's parents were craftsmen by profession. Although Tara didn't excel at crafting that much, she knew a lot of techniques and their professional language. Because of her parents, she had a few connections with sculptors. We figured that the sculptors would make sculptures for us, while we would add Formations to make them more valuable. The sculptors didn't agree to our plan yet, because Tara didn't have a chance to speak with them. I also had to think about which Formations to place on those sculptures.

"Tara, can you talk with those sculptors after my birthday? Try to sell them the idea of working together. You know, more popularity and with my Formations on top of that", I reminded her. "I will talk with them for sure, don't worry. My guess is that at least two or three should agree. I suppose we should go with smaller sculptures too. Transporting them will be less painful, but also selling smaller pieces should be easier. If this works out, we can sell bigger pieces", she replied. That was fine by me, we wanted to be cheap in the beginning anyway. 'Attract the customers first, before rolling out more expensive items', I thought. A while later, uncle finally finished his chores, and we could be on our way. "You took your time, uncle. We will arrive in the evening because of that. There's no time to waste anymore. Let's go", I said before urging Turry to run back home.