A House from Better Days [Job Request]

After spending a few days in Hargeon doing a few requests and some light shopping, Taiga began making his way back home to the Sabertooth Guild in the Ace of Spades. Unfortunately for him, he went in a totally different direction and made it all the way to Magnolia Town by accident. "Dammit!" He said to himself as he sat on a stone bench by the entrance to the train station. He was now waiting for the next available train to take him to the Ace of Spades and from what he understood of the timetable, he would have to wait there for at least another three hours due to track work. "So what do I do while I wait?" He asked himself, leaning forward in his seat and resting his chin in the palm of his hand and propping that arm on his knee.

As if it was some kind of moment of 'destiny' a piece of paper suddenly fell to the ground at the young mage's feet. "Huh?" Taiga bent down and picked up the piece of paper to see that it was actually a request. At first he was just going to throw it away but then he thought about his current situation and figured it would be a good way to kill some time. Holding the piece of paper still in his hand, Taiga climbed to his feet and began to read the details. It seemed that an elderly couple's home was damaged in one of the more recent storms and that they needed help doing some repairs. He wasn't the most geographically enclined person but he had been in Magnolia Town a few times and had a rough idea of where he had to go. He placed the request in his pocket and began heading in the direction of where he needed to go.

When the young mage arrived at the Weatherstein's house, just at first glance Taiga could already tell what was wrong with the place and what needed to be repaired. He scanned the area for a moment, taking a not of some timber lying on the ground nearby and various tools sprawled beside them. What he had hoped would be something he could use to fill in time before catching his next train turned out to be something that was going to take at least a day or maybe two. "Hello?" Taiga called out as he approached the front porch, taking a mental note of all the supplies he could see and of the supplies that would obviously have to be ordered. "Oh hello deary." An elderly woman stepped out from behind the screen door after hearing a call and stood there holding the door to allow her husband to step out too. The two of them would have to be in at least their 80s, they looked relatively fragile and it was evident that the two of them wouldn't be able to do this kind of manual labor on their own. "Hi there sir, ma'am. My name is Taiga and I am here about this request." Taiga held up the flyer he had found earlier for them to see and the elderly man smiled. "Have you come to help?" There was hope in his voice, clinging on desperation for some aid in this hard time. "Yes."

Taiga made his way over to the pile of timber, picking up the tool belt and tying it around his waist. "This isn't going to be enough timber." His tone had changed, he was more resolved and focused now and was determined to get this done. "I will get started immediately." The elderly couple were a little taken back by Taiga's sudden resolve to start getting into work. "W-well I can go into town and order some more timber then." The elderly man said, stepping back inside and reaching for his 'old man's' hat off of the coat rack. "And I will go get the guest bedroom set up." The elderly woman responded. "Are you allergic to anything deary? I am cooking meat loaf for dinner tonight." Taiga took off the white shirt he was wearing and placed it over the railing of the front porch, partly because he didn't want it getting dirty, party because he knew he was going to get hot and sweaty and also partly because he looks good without a shirt on. "No ma'am. No allergies." To which the woman responded, smiling. "Perfect, I will also go make some lemonade."

The elderly man left up the main path and the elderly woman headed back inside to go about their business while Taiga began to set the repairs into motion. Making sure the tool belt was secured around his waist and that the necessary tools were there. Taiga made his way over to the nearby ladder and began climbing, deciding to start on the roof first.

Once Taiga was on the roof, he immediately secured his footing and began looking over the gutter. The piece of metal was a little rusted but was otherwise in good condition, it had simply been pulled off from the roof and left dangling there due to the storm. He reached out and pulled the gutter back towards the roof's edge and took out the hammer and some nails. After hammering some nails into position, he took hold of the gutter again and shook it to determine whether or not it was secured before turning back to the roof and taking a look at the shingles. Some of the shingles were cracked and damaged but only a few, a majority of them were still in perfect condition. He jumped down from the roof and walked over to a pile of shingles, grabbing the required amount and climbed back up the ladder, immediately replacing them.

The young mage jumped back down off of the roof and stepped back up onto the front porch, pulling out some gardening gloves from his belt and putting his hands into them, he took hold of the large tree branch that had damaged the porch and yanked it out of position, throwing it off onto the ground in the distance. He investigated the porch railings and identified two broken ones while two others just needed securing. He stepped off the porch and went back to the pile of timber, picking up the nearby saw and began cutting the pieces down to the designated sizes need. He also made a mental note to not use too much of the wood as he still had to replace the floor boards as well.

Taiga spent the next hour using up the pile of wood to repair the porch railings and floorboards. The railings didn't take very long to complete but there still wasn't quite enough timber for the flooring. By this time, the elderly woman had finished preparing dinner and the elderly man had returned from ordering the timber, which should arrive first thing the next morning. Taiga made sure to clean himself up before entering their home and the three of them sat down for dinner. They conversed for quite some time after dinner and they exchanged pleasantries until it was time for them to head off to bed. Taiga would normally stay up quite late but after the extra work he had to do that day, he was already exhausted. As soon as he laid down on that bed, he was asleep within minutes.

The very next morning, Taiga woke up to the sound of timber being dropped off and immediately got to work. He did his best to be as quite as possible so that he didn't wake the elderly couple up. He wanted to try and have everything completed by the time they woke up too. Unfortunately for Taiga's sake, the elderly couple was already up long before he was. It was still relatively early in the morning but the elderly normally wake up quite early, its and aged thing. "Good morning dear!" The elderly woman smiled, a pot of coffee on the table and a coffee mug ready to go. "Good morning." He returned to her. "Where is your husband?" He asked as he poured himself a cup of black goo. "Oh he has already started working out front. He felt bad for leaving you to do everything yesterday so he wanted to get a head start. Would you like something to eat before you start?" She asked as she walked over to the sink to start washing a few dishes. "No thank you, I have a train to catch so I would like to get this done as soon as possible." With that said, Taiga walked out the front door with the coffee in hand and stepped out to begin working.

The remainder of work that needed to be done only took an hour, especially thanks to the help the elderly man provided. Once they were done, the elderly man handed him a bag of jewels and the woman handed him a boxed lunch. "Please, take these as thanks. We truly appreciate your help and please stop by the next time you are in town." Taiga nodded, smiled and took the packages, making sure to bow to them before he left and made his way to the train station.