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Give me a sign. Such a common phrase, yet one that could have a variety meanings depending on circumstance. How many people begged for such a thing on a daily basis?

Ask and ye shall receive, another common phrase. Keirasti very much hoped that her sign would be well received. Simple and straight forward, those were her goals. Hand written and inked in red, the sign had hung in the corner of the tea house, the End of the Road. The End of the Road, so named for being the last shop on the street called Ivory Way, was a small tea shop. It was off the beaten path in one of the quieter areas of the Shopping District, and that suited the owner just fine. Trends were not for sale here. Good tea and a relaxing atmosphere were.

The sign had not generated much interest. But Keirasti was patient. She'd waited this long, she could wait a little longer. After all, ingredients were key.

"Seeking Plant/Earth-based wizard with knowledge of horticulture for semi-permanent position maintaining garden. Time and pay negotiable. Inquire within."

"Coming, coming," called a harried voice from inside. The door creaked as it opened, revealing a youngish woman who blinked in the sudden light. "Yes..?" she inquired, before giving a joyous cry- she'd spotted the sign.

"Ah, excellent, excellent!" She threw the door open wide, and gestured inside. "Please, please, come in and be welcome. I'm sorry I'm not more presentable, there was a rather, ah, heated debate that left a table in cinders, and well, I had to close down for some emergency renovations." She rolled her eyes and waved a hand dismissively. Such were the risks one took when catering to wizards and their magical companions.

"Anyways," she continued, stepping back to allow the girl in, "I'm Keirasti, you'd be working directly for me and-" The mage switched tracks abruptly, a sudden, if moderated panic rising in her voice. "You are here for the job, aren't you? Please, oh please, be here for the job." Keirasti hadn't meant to sound desperate, but had her excitement caused her to assume too much? She hoped not.

"Ah," Keirasti heaved a sigh of relief. "Plant magic is exactly what I was hoping for, though earth magic would've sufficed." As if that wasn't obvious from the sign. She was rambling again, back to business.

Accepting the sign gracefully, she tucked it under an arm and led her only applicant towards the back of the store. "As you can see, I run a tea house. Tea is the first order of business, food the second. I have a small selection of reading material, mostly the dailies, occasionally pamphlets. You wouldn't be working inside- unless you wanted too. Something could be arranged, if you were so inclined," she explained, giving a little background as she threaded a path through the tables and chairs, discaring the sign on one of them as she passed.

Upon reaching the back, she led the girl past a doorway blocked only by a curtain, to a sidedoor, and once again outside.

"This is where you'd be working." The door opened up to reveal a small yard behind the store, encased by a simple wood fence. A shed stood to the right, with the rest of the yard divided roughly in half. Keirasti turned to her companion, her yellow eyes bright. "My goal is to grow tea, not a lot, but just enough to experiment with a few blends of my own. A sort of homegrown specialty. I know all about drying tea leaves and the types of plants, but next to nothing about growing them." She gestured to the half of the yard that was nothing but rows and rows of dirt.

Her excitement was palpable and she grinned at Mariabella. "Are you at all interested, um..." Distracted again. The white haired woman sighed. "I'm sorry, my enthusiasm has carried my away and left me bereft of my manners. I'm Keirasti, if I haven't said so before. It's a pleasure to meet you." She offered a hand.

Keirasti grinned even broader, returning the handshake. As they were not in the kitchen, she couldn't have cared less about the state of the girl's hands.

"Interested in being, for lack of a better term, my gardener. I suppose, if we had to, we could come up with some title like "Horticulture Adviser" or some such, but essentially, I want you to maintain a private garden. Mostly tea bushes at first, perhaps some herbs for blended tea, with other varieties as time goes on.

"Basically, your job would be that of a glorified gardener. Water, feed, and prune as necessary to see that the plants thrive. Advice on crossbreeding plants or general suggestions as to what types of plants should be grown would be welcome as well. And if at all possible, I'd be very interested in making the plants mature faster. The problem with wanting to make my own blends of tea from my own plants is waiting on the cycle of seasons." She paused, to give Mariabella time to think.

"Any questions, comments?" Keirasti hoped she had explained herself well enough. Things that sounded perfectly clear in her own head, often didn't come through clear enough when spoken. Ethusiasm often caried her away and this was an idea she'd been working on for sometime.

Good, good. This was proceeding well. Keirasti was thrilled to find such a young wizard as this. Speeding up growth was not an uncommon talent, but to desire to create new varieties of plants, ah, such a bonus. But soon they came to the heart of the matter. The mage couldn't help but smile understandingly. She'd been there, she knew what it was like, to be fresh out of school and needing work.

"Hours are adjustable. As long as the plants are growing and healthy, you can pick and choose when to show up; a key will be provided to you for the fence door and the shed, should you need to store any tools." She guestured to each place in turn. "I'd still like to see you at least weekly, just for progress reports."

"Any day you work in the garden, one meal courtesy of the house, however our menu is not yet a cornucopia of selections." She hesitated, apprehensive of how to word the next part. This could possibly make or break the deal. "Pay would be bi-weekly and I'm afraid I can only offer you minimum wage at this time. BUT," she held up a finger to forestall any potential disagreement, "the other incentive is this." She swept out a hand to encompass the other half of the garden, the side still covered by sparse grass.

"That half of the garden would be yours, for as long as you accept the job, to use as you see fit." The white-hair maged smiled again. "Though if you wanted to put in a public bath or some such, I'm afraid I'm not zoned for it."

That smiled widened as she noticed Mariabella's dragenet making his was to the ground. Where was Cricket, anyways? Inside, most likely. Not that it was much of a concern. The steam aspected dragon wasn't territorial and unlikely to make a fuss over another dragon poking around in the garden.

"Excellent, yes, excellent!" That was why her primary target for this position had been a plant mage. In the city, arable land larger than a flower box was scarce. Sealing the deal with a handshake, Keirasti continued to beam, filled with good humor.

"I have a colleague who'll be able to send me the plants, once I give him notice. I figured it was best to wait until I had someone to care for the plants before receiving them. Regardless, you can officially start tomorrow. It'll take me at least that long to produce an extra set of keys, anyways. All the necessary forms and paperwork can wait until then as well." She drummed her fingers across her chin as she thought.

"Have to introduce you to the other employees, and Cricket... keys of course too... Harum..." She started suddenly, reminded of something. "Oh, yes. I forgot to mention. My personal rooms are on the second story of the building, so I would appreciate it if your experiments, should they be distruptive in nature, cease during the evening hours and that any major construction be okayed by me before hand. Other than that, come and go as you please." The wizard was fairly certain that covered all the bases.

"Any questions or thoughts? I could show you around the store itself, if you'd like."

"Good to hear," Keirasti nodded, as she headed back inside. "Right, the grand tour." There was a pause as the wizard thought about how best to organize her thoughts. "Right, well, you're an employee now, so you've free run of the first floor, though the Captain will probably threaten you should you be underfoot in the kitchen, which is over there. Don't be fooled, despite his claims of piracy in his younger years, he's all bark and no bite. He's in charge of food prep, his two daughters swap out between serving and running the front counter, over there." She pointed at each appropriate point, then headed towards the front entrance.

Roused by the sudden noise, a white and green dragon, yawned and stretched, then nimbly began to climb the back of the chair he'd been using as a pillow. Perched with a much better view, he peered about curiously. People were in the store, this deserved a look.


((Just a quick ms paint layout of the first floor, stuff still needs to be fixed on it.))

Keirasti continued in this vein, prattling on about hours of operation, the types of tea served and the like, as she led her new employee on the tour of the tea house. It was obvious she was proud of her little shop, and glad of the opportunity to show it off a bit.

Cricket chittered and fidgeted from his wooden perch. However, he made no other movements. It hadn't been his intent to frighten the other dragon, so he just stayed where he was for the moment, trying his best to look harmless. The steam dragon cooed softly in an attempt to convince Petiole to come say hi. Or at the least, not be intimidated.