A Quest Of A Lifetime

A Late Start

When Jane woke , the sun was well past rising. Jane sighed inwardly, knowing Pa would have started on her chores without her. He wouldn't shout or beat her, he would just tease her about her habit of being perpetually late.
Jane dressed as quickly as she was able, rinsed her face with cold water from the bowl on her small bedside table, and pulled her hair up as well as she could.
Turning, she looked at her reflection in the clouded glass window in her room. Her skirt and shirt were plain and brown, which she supposed matched her brown hair and eyes, and her plain face. She had managed to fasten most of her hair into a bun, but there were strands and wisps that had worked their way lose already. Jane sighed aloud this time, shrugged her shoulders, and left her room, contemplating the uselessness of trying to look any better then she had already managed.
"Hey Jane, tell me, was he at least handsome?" Came the call from her father when she rushed into the common room of the inn that they lived above. "Who?" replied Jane, confused and barely awake. "That handsome prince you spent all night dancing with" Jane looked at her father. The last line was said with the kind of laugh in his voice that mean he was about to make a joke at her expense, and his dark eyes twinkled with amusement. "There was no prince, father" said Jane with a resigned air. "You mean to tell me that no handsome prince whisked you away to a fairy kingdom to dance away the night in merriment?" "No, father" "I assumed that must have been what was going on, as you're very late awake this morning, and it's not like you at all" this last line was delivered by her father with a wry smile. There were a few chuckles from the assorted old men who were already gathering in the common room. "Sorry, Pa" Jane said with a shrug. "Want me to take over making the porridge?" "Well, if it's not too much trouble for you" Jane traded places with her father, and he gave her a pat on the back. "I have to go feed the animals, you get this lot fed" he said, and then went out the back.
Jane stirred the porridge, and thought about the ways that she would improve it, had she access to unlimited time and ingredients. She had bartered cardamom off a passing trader once, and even though it was gone now, she thought that it would go nicely with some molasses, maybe ginger root, and fresh milk to pour on top..."Hey Jane, are we going to break fast before noon?" Jane looked up and realized that there were a few more folks in the common room, including Victor, who had interrupted her thoughts with his question. "Ah, sorry Vic, I was daydreaming again" Jane started dishing the thick, hot porridge into wooden bowls. Victor started serving people before she could protest. She took the tea kettle off the embers, and served everyone a round of sweet, hot tea. Victor came around the counter with a couple bowls of porridge, and handed one to her. "Come on Jane, don't forget to feed yourself." He said it with a smile that she couldn't argue with. "Sit with me and tell me about the  miraculous concoction that was brewing in your mind." Victor had always been willing to test her experiments, and loved most of them, and when Jane didn't have anything exotic to invent new recipes out of, he would ask her to describe them to him while they ate the plain food that made up most of their meals. Victor always said that just hearing her ideas made the meals more delicious. Victor was like that, always making the best of everything, turning the mundane into the extraordinary, and encouraging without even thinking about it. Jane looked at Victor, the town's favorite son, and wondered why she wasn't in love with him. She did love him, as a great friend, as her oldest friend, but she looked at his striking blue eyes, his honey-blonde hair, his strong shoulders, and she only saw her friend, not her suitor or sweetheart or husband. They had tried once. Victor had tracked down vanilla beans, a rarity, but everyone in town was always willing to lend Victor a hand, and presented them to Jane at the midwinter feast. Jane had kissed him, not thinking of anything except how much she loved him...and it all quickly turned awkward. They had broken apart quickly. Victor laughed, shrugged, hugged her, and told her they would always be good friends. Her Pa had heard about the kiss, as in a small town, it's impossible to be entirely unnoticed for anyone. Pa had made jokes about wedding bells for weeks afterwards, and finally Jane had to explain, embarrassed, to him, that nothing was going to come of it. To her Pa's credit, he had dropped the jokes immediately, and offered to bar Victor from the inn entirely, if she wanted. Jane smiled, remembering how quickly her father had gone from jokester to protector, when he thought her feelings may have been hurt. "Jane, are you with me?" "Huh?" Victor smiled "you were off in your great brain again, no doubt plotting your next culinary triumph"
Jane blushed "yep, that was it, sorry, what were you saying?" Victor laughed, "I said a wizard is on his way to our town!" "What?" "Jane, you would daydream through your own wedding" Victor patted her on the shoulder, "I should be off, I need to help Pa organize the greeting party" Victor waved a cheery goodbye to the stragglers left in the common room and headed out into the sunshine. Jane looked at all of the bowls and mugs left on the tables, sighed, and began cleaning them up.