My emporium in another world

Two weeks later. . .

'I can possitively confirm that you are most certainly not pregnant.' The doctor smiled at me after finishing the check up. 'But, just to make sure, be sure to take the tea I prescribed you so you can get your "moon cycle" as soon as possible, okay?' The doctor looked at me expectantly.

I nodded understanding. 'That tea is just only until I get my "moon cycle" right?' I asked.

'Yes. If by then, you still have some, you can save it case you end up having another affair such as the one you have, or if you don't have any left, make sure to come to me so I can prescribe you more.' The doctor clarified.

'Understood.' I nodded with my head.

. . . .

Back at home. . .

'Woohoooo!!' The girls and I celebrate it.

'Not only you did not got pregnant, but also helped Dorothy get away from her husband, helped me with my family problems and helped Marianne with her mom, Amelia you are a good person!' Elizabeth exclaimed ecstatic.

I blushed embarrassed. 'Jeje, it was nothing.'

'It was nothing?! You got away with murder, Amelia! Not everyone can get away with that.' Dorothy remarked it seriously.

I shrugged it off. 'Well, I just couldn't see you guys suffer. I just. . . Couldn't.'

'But that doesn't matter right, say, Amelia, how often do you check your traps?' Marianne asked.

I thought about it. 'Well, most of the time, I tend to check them every morning as I feed the animals in the afternoon and before the sun sets, and I have been able to kill some mouses that were trying to get inside the house, the new barn and the horse barn.' I told her. 'But due to the recent "incidents" I kinda forgot about them.' I frowned worried.

One of the puppies that I have adopted came to me with a rat on its mouth.

'Aaaahhhh!!' We all screamed out of fright.

Then the other two puppies actually brought with another rat and—

'Is that a freaking RACCOON?!' I exclaimed while witnessing one of the puppies holding the neck of a raccoon.

. . . Then the three dogs, had the "bright idea" of letting the animals go.

. . . And then the animals resulted to be ANYTHING, but dead.

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After hours battling with the animals roaming in the house. . .

The two rats were caught on the traps that I had installed on my kitchen, and were instantly killed.

Unfortunately, the raccoon was harder to catch.

But, fortunately, I remembered a video in TikTok which it explained what to do when a raccoon somehow got inside you house, how to catch and how to bring it outside.

I brought out some veggies and cut them, then took out a recently baked muffin to attract the smell and put the bait inside the special medium trap that I recently got from the holt family. I left the trap in the kitchen and we all left the place so the raccoon feels secure about going there.

. . . . . . . . . *Clank!* *Chearp!!* The trap worked and the raccoon yelped out of fear when it saw that he was trap.

'We got him!!' I told them and went to check the kitchen. As soon as I saw the trap, I quickly noticed that the raccoon fitted almost perfectly, if it wasn't due to its tail. 'Ha! So that's why it yelp!' I carried the box, accomodate it vertically and move it gently until the raccoon's tail was all inside the trap. 'You can come now!' I told the girls.

The girls came trotting with a bit less fear.

'Who wants to accompany me to get skin this animal?' I asked the girls smiling.

The girls went pale.

'What?' I asked confused

'Y-You want to skin the animal alive?!' Marianne asked mortified.

I frowned and quickly corrected myself. 'What?! No!! I want the meat and get either a hat or some gloves with the fur. But I'm not going to do it myself! I want to go to town to see who can do it for me.' I clarified.

They all sighed of relief.

'I-I know someone in town who can works in tannering.' Marianne said. 'I can accompany you but the two of you must take care of the animals while I'm gone.' She turned to see the girls.

'Not a problem.' They both said.

'In that case is settled.' I smiled and went outside with Marianne and then to the horse barn with the ración and my money pouch. 'What is his name?' I asked.

'His name is Osian Granhood. He works as a tanner with his twin brother Oscar Granhood who works as a leather worker.' Marianne explained as she hopped on Jam and I gave her the trap with the raccoon inside.

'Can you tell me the difference?' I asked while I hopped on Jam and we went off to town.

'A tanner is the one who makes the leather and the leather worker is the one who creates the products based on leather.' Marianne explained.

'I see.' I nodded while looking straight ahead. 'Do you think the little guy is gonna suffer?' I asked her referring to the raccoon.

'I don't think so.' Marianne shook her head. 'Even though they prefer that the animal is brought already dead, they can make exceptions for us since we are women, and they always make sure to kill the animals painlessly as far as I am aware.' She clarified.

'I hope so then.' I nodded to her and we kept going.

.

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.

A few minutes later, in the leather shop. . .

I had to pay about 200 copper so they would have everything ready. Which is not bad, if it was just for the killing and tannering, then it would be expensive, but the price also comes with the clothing making, and since I chose to have it as a hat, then the price went a little higher.

It would have been about 125 copper if I had decided to turn the fur into gloves, but I decided a hat.

Why? Because the intrusive thought of a raccoon hat came to my mind and I found it funny.

The twins told me I could have it done by next week, we agreed and I payed the 200 copper and left back home.

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After getting home. . .

Marianne and I came home to find Oaken and Grover bringing the last four big animal traps and I payed them right there and then.

'Thank you very much.' I gave them the money.

'No problem, hopefully they are useful for you.' Oaken said putting the money on his pouch.

'Yeah, actually one of the dogs found a raccoon alive and left it on the loose inside the house.' I chuckled. 'But we were able to caught it thanks to the trap.' I pointed to the trap in Marianne's hands.

Grover and Oaken looked at each other proudly.

'Now I would like to bother you with something else if you are able to do so.' I asked them a bit nervous.

Grover and Oaken turned to see each other briefly and then turned to see me. 'What is it?' They asked.

'Well, are you able to make. . . Em. . . Bows and arrrows?' I asked.

They both raised their eyebrows in surprised but then looked down at the floor. 'Sorry Lady Baker, but we are not capable of doing such things. Things as weapons take time and some of them need a very specific type of wood and iron to work correctly.' Oaken explained a bit down.

'Oh, that's okay. Don't worry.' I calmed them down. 'Do you anyone that is able to make such weapons?' I asked.

'Well, most of those weapons are used by soldiers to hunt big animals such as bears, deers or wolfs who can be spotted at distance and too close to the JackForks' walls.' Grover answered. 'But a lot of self-promoting hunters create the soldiers' weapons and their own for hunting. In fact, there's a special Inn for the hunters at the other other side of mainstreet, you can go and ask whether they can sell you a weapon or even build you one.' He pointed at the specific direction for the Inn. 'But be careful, since hunting is makes a lot of money, hunters can be quite greedy, for you need to be careful in who you ask and evaluate how much it's gonna cost you.' He warned me.

I nodded understanding. 'I got it, thank you very much.' I told him.

'Is there anything else?' Oaken asked with curiosity.

I thought about it and then shook my head. 'Everything is fine for now.' I promised.

They both nodded understanding and waved at the girls and me goodbye to them leave back to their home.

Since we didn't want to stay in the cold, we decided to test the new four traps and went to the kitchen to get bait to put it inside the traps and leaved them around the farm.

Then we went inside and warmed ourselves making hot goat milk and eating fresh braked muffins around the living room furnance.

'I'm bored.' Little Joseph commented.

'I know baby, but we can't go outside. It's too cold.' Dorothy reminded him.

'But I'm bored.' Little Joseph complained leaning his mom's shoulder.

I was getting afraid of Joseph, if there's anything I remember about children, is that when kids become menaces to society and the house is bound to become a battlefield if the kid becomes to impatient.

'How about I tell you a story?' I suggested.

Little Joseph turned to see me. 'A story? What's that?' He asked.

Everyone turned to look at me as if I suggested something alien.

'It's, em. . . An "account" of imaginary people or characters and events told for entertainment.' I tried to explained a bit embarrassed.

Little Joseph looked confused as everyone else.

'E-Eh, guys look, I'm trying to get an idea about what could we possibly do instead of dying of boredom. Unless anyone has a better idea to pass the time, either I tell the story, or everyone can help me bake a huge cake the size of a castle.' I proposed.

'The story please.' Everyone agreed on the first opinion very quickly.

Jaja, it seems that after seeing me struggle to make dough had traumatized them for life. I smiled to myself. 'Well. . . Let's see. . .' I went into deep thought about what story should I tell them about. 'This story is called, "The grasshopper and the ant."' I declared.

They all quickly accommodated to look at me as I started the story.

'During the hot and sunny days of summer, the grasshopper would sing and dance with no worries or problems. One day, she saw an ant working hard collecting food with her friends and she said to the ant:

"How boring you are! Stop working and come to enjoy summer." The grasshopper said.

The ant, who always saw the grasshopper singing and resting, looked at the grasshopper with a serious expression.

"I'm getting and setting provisions ready for when winter comes, I highly suggest you do the same too." The ant asnwered the grasshopper.

"Well I won't worry about anything today," the Grasshopper said, "I have everything I need right now." The grasshopper went on her way singing and playing.

But when winter came, the grasshopper didn't have any food prepared nor couldn't find anything to eat. Distressed she went to the ant's door and asked for something to eat.

"What did you do during winter while I was working?" The ant asked.

"Singing and playing." The grasshopper answered.

"Well if you sang and dance during summer," the ant replied, "dance and sing during winter." The ant closed the door and leaving the grasshopper outside.

The grasshopper then learned to never make fun of others and work hard so she would never pass hungry in winter again.

Moral of the story: To enjoy life, first work hard."

I finished telling my tale and took a huge gulp from my milk and looked at everyone.

The girls and Joseph smiled heartedly to my story.

'Can hear another one?' Little Joseph asked.

'Em, I-I don't know.' I said scratching my head.

'Please!' Little Joseph begged.

I sighed in surrender. Note to myself: either make a little story book for Little Joseph or get Dorothy to buy her son some paper and pencils to draw. I made the mental note swallowing my own annoyance. 'In that case the next story is called. . . "The fly and the moth."

'During a night like any other, a fly passed over a jar of honey and started to eat it from the edge of it. Bit by bit, the fly walked from the edge of the jar to inside of the jar, until he became trapped at the bottom of the jar. Its legs and wings were sticky to the bottom of the jar and could not get out nor move.

In the nick of time, a moth flies by, saw the fly struggling to get free from the honey's sticky fluid, and decided to say something to he fly.

"Oh, dummy fly! Was it so much your appetite that you end up like this? If you weren't so gluttonous, this wouldn't have happened to you." The moth said to the fly.

The fly could not fight back to the moth's harsh words and just kept fighting to get free. At the end of a few hours, the fly was able to get free. He flies up to find the harsh moth and found it flying too close to a bonfire; the got too close to the fire that it ended up burning its wings and fell, unable to fly anymore.

"What?! Are you dummy too?!" The fly asked the moth flying on top of it. "You criticized me for eating honey; but all your wisdom did not stopped you from playing with fire!" The fly scolded the moth.

Moral of the story: Think of your own experiences and mistakes before criticizing others."

They all clapped. I could see a new light coming from their eyes.

I then turned to see outside. 'It's getting dark, how about one last story and then we all take a bath to then go to sleep?' I asked.

They all nodded.

I then thought about what other story I could tell. 'This next and last story is called: "The bat and the weasel."

'One night at dawn, a bat was flying back to his cave but accidentally collide with a tree and fell to the ground. A weasel nearby, didn't miss his opportunity and jumped on the bat and caught him.

The bat, seeing that he was about to die, he begged to be spared.

"I will not let you go! It's within my nature to hate all the birds!" The weasel declared.

"B-But I'm not a bird, I'm a mouse!" The bat "corrected" the weasel.

The weasel checked the bat out not so convinced, but then he noted that he had fur, not feathers. Therefore, the weasel let the bat go and the bat flought back safely to his cave.

The next night though, after getting a good meal, the bat decided to return a little earlier so the dawn's sun would not blind him anymore and he wouldn't collide into another tree. Unfortunately, he accidetally collide one of his wings with a branch, lost his balance and fell to the ground. Another weasel saw him and jumped on him.

The bat again begged to be spared.

Unfortunately, this other weasel had a huge hatred towards mouses. "I will not! Ever since I was little I HATED mouses!" The weasel declared.

"B-But I'm not a mouse, I'm a bird!" The bat "corrected" this weasel.

The weasel, not much convinced, checked the bat out and as soon as it saw the bat's wings, the weasel let it go.

And that is, how the bat scaped two times.

Moral of the story: It is wise to adapt accordingly to your situations."

I finished the story and my milk. Little Joseph was falling asleep on his mom's shoulder and the girls were rubbing an eye or the two of them.

I went to take Marianne back and after returning, the girls were ready to bath and to sleep.

As everyone slept, it had occurred to me something and decided to put my ideas in my diary.

"From what I was able to find out today, there are not such things as fables or fantasy tales in this world. Therefore, I might be able to come with the stories that I know to write a book and maybe get extra income by publishing it.

I have nothing ready, but if there's a chance, I'll take it."

I closed the diary and went to sleep.

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A few days later. . .

The winter became unbearable, so unbearable from then on that Marianne could no longer come on her own. I offered to bring her back and fort, but her mother suggested a few days off since Marianne has been indeed working hard for my animals.

I agreed and since then, Elizabeth and I have been the ones who have worked for the animals. Dorothy was starting to plan things for her husband's funeral, so she was staying inside with her son and the puppies.

I need to start conditioning the dogs to sleep outside and the sheep too. I noted one night. Otherwise, the dogs are just taking up space. I frowned. But, I think it's better to do it once it gets a bit less cold. I thought to myself as I saw the blizzard throwing all its might on us. I think I also forgot about snow shovels. I remembered starting to feel the weight of winter on my shoulders.

Fortunately, the blizzard was only two days. Unfortunately, the blizzard made about 10 centimeters of snow!!

It's been a hell of a winter!

But not everything was bad.

Once the blizzard was over, I was able to get my hands on a small sack of sugar of 8 copper to make glace and decided to make glaced butter cookies on the market in the GreatForks.

Dorothy was sure biding her time making baskets whenever she wasn't working for her husband's funeral, because she also started to teach her son how to make them and the boy seemed to be entertained and happy to be helping his mother (or at least trying to).

Dorothy was able to make one big basket and two small basket per day for the last 2 weeks until all basket material was gone.

She made 14 big baskets and 10.5 small baskets per week in other words.

Multiplying them by the two weeks, Dorothy become 28 big baskets and 21 baskets in total. But not only that, but she also made an even bigger basket due to only having enough material to make one big basket and a half, so she decided to make a bigger basket as a big bonus.

Since then we received the raccoon meat and the raccoon hat which turned out just as I had imagined.

So, I decided to make mini raccoon meat pies and was able to make about 2 dozens. Alone, they would be about 5 copper each.

Dorothy and I decided to arrange the baskets to sell them, either until each of them had enough to sell or until we had no more goods to sell.

Fortunately, since it's winter, the food that I reserve in the "underground fridges" I made outside have froze them up and was even able to caught a fox in one of the traps who came wandering around that area. I decided to make a fox stew for the night and put the pelt safely away until I get the chance to go and meet the twins again.

I also went on to make the Family and winter baskets with the goods that became too many in the fridges. Especially eggs and goat milk since; I haven't sold anything due to not wanting to go all the way back and fort to the Great Forks because of the unbearable cold just to end up selling half of everything to the Miscellaneous store.

While it's good to have a lot for the winter, the goods can still end up getting mold and rotten for prolonged periods of time if you don't eat it soon. It's best to get rid of the extra while we can.

Then there's the blizzard. Since I felt the need to keep myself warm and not die out of boredom, I decided to make loafs of bread, muffins, oatmeal cookies and the glazed cookies like crazy. I didn't know when to stop, but unless it was time to sleep, I didn't stop unless when I had to force myself to go out for firewood with the Holt family or when there was no more flour to bake with.

And the girls, plus Joseph, who did not wanted to be cold anymore, decided to help out every now and then since the kitchen was the warmest place in the house during the day.

''Finally! Se finished!' I gasped as I sat in the chair of the dinning tabke and grabbed my diary, len and ink to make calculations.

"Each big basket has:

- 12 eggs

- 1 jar of milk

- 3 packs of cheese

- 2 loafs of bread

- 15 oat meal cookies

- 1 dozen muffins

I've been getting up to 400 eggs to sell this past few weeks due to not going to sell the eggs alone at the GreatForks, I do find it surprising, but then again, I noticed that in this world, the livestock produce way more goods than back in my old world.

But even then, the food lasts about the same time than in my old world, which can backfire because the food can get spoiled and rotten up. Therefore, I have to get rid of the extra excess asap.

Fortunately, 280 eggs were put in the big baskets while I put 105 eggs in the small ones. I decided to have 15 eggs stay as food supply. And leave the rest for the jumbo basket.

As I wrote before, due to having a lot of things in the underground fridges, I had to use A LOT of the jars of goat milk for the baked goods, but even then, the goats still produce a lot than anticipated, so there's about 86 jars of milk. I put 56 jars in the big baskets and 21 in the small baskets. There will only be just 3 jars of milk, but it's be okay since I wanted to search for tea and the girls and I agreed that if we got hands on tea, we will leave the milk for Joseph.

Most of my bread and muffins are basically living in the cart outside with a cloth covering them from animals because there was no more space for them in the underground fridges. But, thankfully, we all live here and we practically can live off bread for three meals a day, so it's not like we dislike it.

But of course, the sooner I get rid of those, the less worried I feel about the animals trying to eat them. I feel it's only by luck that no animals has even tried to get the things, due to the fact that the cold has reached unbearable heights. But again, I don't want to keep risking more than I have to so they need to go.

We put 3 loafs of bread per big basket and 2 loafs per small basket.

Big baskets: 28 x 3 = 84 loafs of bread.

Small baskets: 21 x 3 = 63 loafs of bread.

In total = 80 + 4 + 60 + 3 = 140 + 7 = 147 loafs of bread in total.

As for the muffins, I lost count after making 500 in total, or about 42 dozens in total. I decided to get generous and put 3 dozens of muffins in big baskets (which equals to 36 muffins per basket) and 2 dozens per small basket (which equals to 24 muffins per basket).

Big baskets: 28 x 36 = 188 + 84(0) = 100 + 80 + 8 + 800 + 4(0)= 900 + 120 + 8 = 1028 muffins.

Small baskets: 28 x 24 = 84 + 42(0) = 80 + 4 + 400 + 20 = 400 + 100 + 4 =504 muffins.

In total: 1028 + 504 = 1000 + 20 +8 + 500 + 4 = 1000 + 500 + 20 + 12 = 1532 muffins in total.

As for the cookies, I also lost count, but I do not have that much problem for them, since they can also be carried around and last for longer periods of time. But even then, they're taking too much space so I decided to put 4 dozens in big baskets (48 cookies per basket) and 2 dozens in small baskets (24 cookies per basket).

Big baskets: 28 x 48 = 224 + 112(0) = 200 + 20 + 4 + 1,000 + 100 + 20 = 1,000 + 300 + 40 + 4 = 1,344 cookies.

Big baskets: 28 x 24 = 504 cookies.

In total: 1,000 + 300 + 40 + 4 + 500 + 4 = 1,000 + 800 + 40 + 8 = 1,848 cookies in total.

As for the cheese, while it is easy to make, it can only take form and room temperature so it doesn't always work, therefore I was only able to make enough for either all big baskets have one pack of cheese and half of the small baskets have one, or all big baskets have one pack of cheese, give the jumbo basket 4 packs of cheese and leave 7 packs of cheese for our foos supply.

In the end, I chose the second option: all big baskets 1 pack of cheese (1 per basket), the jumbo basket gets 4 packs of cheese and we keep 7 packs of cheese for our food supply.

As for the jumbo basket, I decided to put 5 dozen eggs (5 x 12 = 60 eggs), 6 jars of goat milk, 4 loafs of bread, 6 dozens of muffins, 5 dozen of cookies and 7 packs of cheese.

Since There are more things in the baskets than before, I would like to get the price higher. Unfortunately, I don't think that will be possible."

. . . .

There.' I finished the last basket. 'How do they look?' I asked them.

'Yummy.' Joseph answered.

The three of us giggled.

'Thanks Joseph.' I ruffled his hair. 'Now, I know we have made and even bigger basket which I have now babtized as "The Blizzard supply" with even more goods, but do you guys think we can actually sell it?' I asked them.

'Why it wouldn't be sold?' Elizabeth asked.

'Well, will people be interested and try pay for it full price or shall they just try to lower the price with the goods they almost don't have?' I asked back. 'I don't know if you have noticed but unlike me, everyone in the market seems to have very bad habits of managing their food and how much they should sell.' I recalled. 'There's a reason as to why almost no one is selling things at this point anymore.' I added.

They all nodded affirming that.

Unlike some farmers and so called marchandisers, only people like the Holt's, Mayor Jackson, Miscalleanous store, and me, everyone seems to get too excited to eat everything on the first months of winter and then barely have anything to eat mid-winter.

'I might as well low the price for pity of the people struggling.' I murmured.

The all nodded in agreement.

'So, what are the prices again?' Dorothy asked.

'Big baskets: 180. Small baskets: 100.25.' I answered staring at the goods. 'I wanted to bring it up to 180 and 100.25 and even triple the price for The jumbo basket, but it seems we can't do that right now.' I murmured.

'Oh, monster tongues!' Little Joseph "cursed" while pouting adorably.

We all laughed again.

'I say we try to sell them at full price and try to get the extra out what we can the most.' Dorothy suggested shrugging. 'Either way, since the chickens are happy and cozy, they still laid eggs like it was spring, the goats are thriving in the barns and it's so easy for you to make cheese that you've been everyone's protein distributor at this point.' She said to me.

I nodded to her and sighed. 'Well, not that easy without being able to have the room temperature, but, we might as well go to town now. Since it's sunny and it seems to be no wind, we should be able to get going more easily.' I said looking out at the kitchen window.

We all agreed and got prepared.

As soon as both Dorothy and I got started to get everything ready a thought of something. 'Say, Dorothy, if we are not able to sell the baskets, how about you recycle the material and make even more mini baskets. Like half the size of the small baskets?' I asked getting excited. 'We could sell them even cheaper and be able to sell everything easier.' I proposed.

Dorothy thought about it and nodded not so convinced. 'I don't like the idea of leaving without selling anything, but, if it does happen, we'll take the chance.' She agreed.

'Alright!' I nodded and hopped on Jam. 'We're going! Try not to destroy the house while we are gone!'

'We won't!' Joseph waved goodbye to his mother and me with his free hand while the other hand tugged Elizabeth's hand.

'Please, Come back before nightfall!' Elizabeth request at the distance.

'We will!' I exclaimed raising my hand while maintaining my eyes up front.

. . . .

We didn't make it 10 minutes from the house before someone call for me.

'Lady Baker!!' Grover called for me to be exact.

I turned to see Grover while stopping my horse. 'Why hello Grover, Oaken and Mr. Holt! How can I help you?' I asked.

The three members of he Holt family were taking a breath from running towards me.

'Y-You see, we've been wanting to go to the mid-winter feast, and—'

'Wait, the mid-winter feast is today?!' Dorothy asked horrified. 'Oh my gods, I forgot about it! I've been so busy lately and—'

'Wait wait wait Everybody! First off, what's a winter feast?' I asked.

'It's the mid-winter celebration of the JackForks Valley Fort to celebrate the inauguration of the Valley's foundation.' Mr. Holt answered. 'There's free food and the Mayor invites people from other towns so they can come and trade with us.'

'Ohhh!! That's good! We can trade our baskets there and received things and food we can't get from this town!' I started to imagine all the goods coming to us.

'Y-Yes! But Lady baker!' Mr. Holt called my attention once again. 'W-We were hoping you would get us a ride there. I mean, we can go on foot but, it's so cold and I'm not getting any younger, plus, there's a lot of stuff we want to be able to sell and trade for.' He pointed to his house.

I thought about it and it made sense. They didn't have a horse, much less a cart, therefore it would be difficult for them to get their stuff all the way to the Great Forks even if it was summer. It makes sense now why they seem to be not getting much by despite being really good at their work. I noted. 'In that case, I can help you. Go back home, prepare your things and I'll be back with my two horses and the cart so you and your stuff to be carried all the way there. But I would like something return. After all, it's winter. It doesn't have to be much, but you could call it a "fee" for transport.' I proposed this offer to them.

They all nodded agreeing to it immediately. 'Yes yes! Meet us at our house as soon as possible and we 'll have our stuff ready!' Grover promised running off back to his house with his family.

'Okay! But be careful, there's ice around!!' I cautioned them at the distance and went back to my house.

. . . .

20 minutes later. . .

I got Jam and Peanut with the cart to the Holt house and workshop, Dorothy and I helped the Holt family to both load their cargo and themselves onto the cart, Dorothy hopped on the front of the cart as well as I hopped on Peanut and we rode on the road once again.

I was already imagining all the tools and goods we could trade and get in return, and oh boy, did we see so many things!!