Elemental Soul (Book 1 of 'A Fantasy in Time')

Chapter 4: Smell is Everything and Tedious as All Hell

Chapter 4: Smell is Everything and Tedious as All Hell

Today was the day that things got infinitely harder.  And I had thought, trying to discern a different scent from each bottle had been difficult.  Waking up from my cot I got up and saw plant after plant strewn throughout my loft.  In front of each plant was a corked bottle with a piece of cheap leather wrapped around the outside hiding the fluid that was inside from view.  After looking at the various plants, wondering what Victoria’s game plan for today was, I decided to mentally recall all the names and properties of each plant in my room.  Leaving my room and entering the front part of the apothecary shop I saw the rest of the 100+ plants spread amongst the various shelves of the store.  Once again I went over all of the plant names and uses in my head as I gazed at each one.

After completing my self-appointed task, I started to head into Victoria’s house only to be stopped by her as she came through the doorway I was about to go through.  “Good morning Jade.”  She welcomed me.

“Good morning Victoria.”  I replied back.  “I went over all of the plants that you lay out for me this morning.”  

“That’s very good, but that is not what I was planning on having you do.”  She said.  “This morning, before breakfast, I want you to go through every part of these two rooms smelling first the plant till you can determine its unique scent before then smelling the jar of its extract right in front of it.  Then you are to move on to the next plant.”  I gazed despairingly about me at all the smelling I’d have to do before I even got breakfast.  

“Once that is completed, you can come back to the kitchen to enjoy your meal.”  With that she walked away, firmly closing the door behind her.  “Sigh . . .” Starting with the plant nearest me, I began the arduous task of smelling it till I could determine its scent, then I’d smell the accompanying liquid in the jar in front of it.  Several times throughout the ordeal, I thought of skimping on my efforts by just taking a quick sniff to verify that it was the same.   It was only with great fear of her wrath and disappointment that I put all my effort into this task, refusing to move on till I felt that I would have a better chance identifying each plant by scent alone if required.

Finally, with the task done I headed to the back to enjoy my well-earned breakfast.  As soon as I sat down in front of my plate, Victoria left through the door that I just entered.  After finishing my meal without her returning, I figured she might want me to do something else as soon as I finished up.

Sure enough, as soon as I met her in the front room, there in front of her on the main counter were all the bottles, but now with numbers written on the leather.  In her hand, was a piece of paper that I correctly guessed held the name of the plant that went with the accompanying number.  “Here’s to hoping that you were diligent with familiarizing yourself with the scents.”  She said.  “I have left the plants in their previous area so that you have a point of reference for the first time, but after this we are moving around the plants each time you finish finding them.”

‘And let the tedious work begin.’  I thought to myself.  It took me the remainder of that morning to match up all of the plants with their accompanying scents.  After quickly going through the first 30 or so that had a very distinctive smell to them, my pace began to slow down drastically.  As the smells became harder and harder to discern I made more and more mistakes.  The first few times that I was very uncertain about my choice, I would look to Victoria for any sort of sign, but sadly for me, she has the absolute best poker face I have ever seen.  Only after I had placed down the jar of extract in front of a plant and released it would she make a strangled sound to let me know I had misidentified the scent.

By the end, my feet had gotten sore from the repetitive crissing and crossing of the floor so much so that I was certain I had walked a couple of miles indoors just from running from plant to plant.  After a short break for lunch, of which she instructed me in the preparation for before leaving me to watch it simmer, she returned to the shop itself.  I had a feeling of dread as I was certain I knew what she was doing.  Sure enough, after lunch, I stepped back into the shop and she had rearranged all of the plants and changed some of the numbered jars around so that I couldn’t be certain of it being the same.  She was a devil in disguise this woman.