A Lovely Afternoon {Job|Solo}

It was a lovely Saturday afternoon when Tane was requested by her guildmistress to take care of her grandmother, although she was not really her grandmother. She was an old lady Raven looked up to, but called and treated her as her grandmother. Tane agreed delightfully as she enjoyed the company of wiser human beings. She loved it when they shared their experiences with her. But she was not sure what kind of old lady her guildmistress had for a grandmother. The one thing she could be worried of at the moment was if she would be good company for the aged citizen. She had met all kinds of people. There were mad people, obsessive people,  grumpy people and so on and so forth. Hopefully this old lady was not going to be one of those people. She arrived at the cute little one-storey house that looked like a little mushroom from afar. Tane was a bit too tall for the entrance and so she had to duck in after ringing the bell attached to the doorframe.

The old lady must have known she was coming as she was waiting on a rocking chair near a large window by the entrance. Tane immediately loved the living space. She was actually considering reconstructing her own to look like this. Everything was perfectly in place and was either of pastel colors or of no color at all. Little quotes hung on the walls around the fireplace. She noticed the pictures framed and placed on the shelf above the fireplace. Tane greeted the old lady as the old lady did too. She smiled gleefully, welcoming the Prestigious one into her humble abode without a single worry that she might be someone who came with ill intentions. The brunette mage took a seat where the old lady instructed her to. There were two cups of tea placed on the small table between the two of them. Interminable snakes of steam rose from the surface of the hot liquid.

“Welcome, dear. What is your name?” the old lady asked in a shaking but audible voice. Tane while shifting in her seat answered the question, asking for the aged woman’s own name. “I am Sandra, Tane. It is a pleasure to have you as my companion for the day.” It almost sounded like she had practised all of this. But, she could not have. Why would an old lady give any time to practise speech with a one who was much younger than herself and here to do no more than listen to her and ‘babysit’ her, according to her guildmistress? Tane smiled the whole time, telling Sandra that she felt blessed as well to be in her presence as she was such a sweet grandma. Sandra giggled at this, making Tane blink. She did resemble her granddaughter at times, but only at those certain times. Otherwise, she had a completely different look compared to Raven. She was elegant and graceful, that bit was true.

“Please, help yourself,” Sandra said, gesturing towards the cups of tea. Tane nodded saying ‘thank you’ and picked up her teacup gracefully, mimicking the old lady. She was so neat and had her own way with things. The Prestigious one rose the cup to her lips to take a sip from the porcelain cup. The warm liquid travelled down her esophagus, automatically soothing her nerves and calming her. It tasted really nice. It was most likely jasmine tea. The taste was unmistakable. She could, however, taste the slight difference in the taste. Sandra had done something to enhance it, but it was not such a big difference. She had to compliment the tea. When asked who had made the tea, Sandra told her that she had made it herself. Tane stringed together a beautiful sentence to describe how very wonderful the taste of her tea was, because Sandra deserved it.

Now Sandra would sip her own tea, then nod at Tane’s sophisticatedly constructed compliment. The Prestigious one placed her teacup back on the saucer. She expected the old lady to begin talking now, after sipping her cup of tea, which was exactly what the aged woman began to do. She placed her cup of tea on her saucer as well, making a satisfied sound. “I love tea, and making it as well. It is like delicate and enjoyable process. Well, for me at least,” she laughed a bit. “Have you tried it? If you have not, you really should. You will begin to love cherish it. Everything about tea is delightful. It makes my heart happy,” she stopped. Tane replied by saying that she had never tried making tea before, which made the old lady frown and giggle a bit. Of course she was slightly disappointed, but she covered it with a cute laugh.

Tane leaned in a bit closer so she could hear the old lady’s soft voice. The noises from outside the little house were getting louder and annoying, interfering with the sound of Sandra’s voice. “I suppose tea is not your thing then? What about lavender? I used to own a lavender farm before I let my daughter take care of it. Now it is her daughter’s - my granddaughter, that is - property. She takes care of it better than her mother did. My granddaughter is just like me.” She seemed to love her granddaughter a lot, because the smile on her face while talking about her was something so beautiful Tane could not attempt to describe it. She only nodded, saying that she guessed most granddaughters were like their grandmothers, a fact she literally just picked up. “But do you know who I love more than my granddaughter?” Sandra asked. Tane shook her head.

Who could she possibly love more than her granddaughter? She talked about her like she was the most precious piece of jewelry in the entire world. Who could she possibly cherish more than that? What she said next surprised Tane so much, even though it was not supposed to. “Raven,” Sandra said. She picked up her teacup again, sipping slowly from the cup then placing it back on the saucer. Tane copied her actions, sipping from her own cup then putting it back down. And Sandra would continue talking, this time about Raven and what she loved about her. She told her that for a long time Sandra was the only person who looked after her, and someone she truly took care of like a mother in return. Sandra’s own daughter did not get enough love and care like Raven did, according to what the old lady said, it was surprising.

A few minutes later, after much talking - which felt like gossiping, actually - about Raven, Sandra decided to get some cookies. Since she was old and it was probably going to take a lot of time and effort to do that, Tane offered to go and get them for her. Sandra gave her verbal directions then Tane was on her own, entering the cute little kitchen in the back of the house to grab a jar of cookies that the old lady had baked herself. Tane found it immediately, exactly on the shelf that Sandra had directed her to. Sandra was delighted to see her return so quickly. “Thank you, Tane. You are a lovely girl,” she said, reaching out for the jar that Tane handed to her before taking her seat again. The old lady then opened the jar, placing cookies on a small plate with floral patterns on it then handing it to Tane. “Here, have some. They are as much fun to make as tea,” she said with a smile.

Tane smiled and accepted the plate, nibbling on the cookies before completely eating them. She then told Sandra how lovely the cookies were. Sandra gave her a satisfied smile. “You know when you are old, you begin to do things on your own and discover how to enhance the things you like, for example, tea,” she explained, gesturing towards the cups of tea in front of her. Tane smiled wider. Although she was not telling her many things like she had expected, she was sharing her wisdom in the form of other things that were not words. She was grateful for this meeting. Sandra then asked, “So tell me, Tane, why did you leave heaven?” Tane almost chuckled. However wise humans could get, they would never figure out about Fismuth or the Prestigious. She explained that she was not an angel, and that the glow was a side effect of her magic. She did not want to talk about Fismuth, it would lead to all other things she did not feel like talking about. She was here to listen, not talk.

It was indeed a lovely afternoon. After talking a bit more for half an hour, Sanda told Tane that it was time for her nap. She called it her ‘energy replenishing session’. “It was lovely having you here, Tane. I look forward to meeting you again. If we never get the chance again, then I give you my blessing. I can feel that you are going to become an incredible young woman, and I cannot wait to see that happen. Good luck with your endeavors, angel,” she said. Tane smiled, not bothering to correct the old woman that she was not an angel and that angels were her kind’s workers. She told Sandra to have a nice nap then closed to door behind her. She was given a few more cookies in a cute little bag, which she decided to take back to her inn and keep for until later.