The Bottle

She paused in her scything to mop her brow with her sleeve, for it was a warm and humid morning. One good thing about the temporary coarsening of her skin from the lye soap, she reflected, was that at least it seemed to be protecting her from blisters. On the only previous occasion she had used a scythe, she had quickly developed a painful place at the base of her thumb, but that didn't seem to be happening this time. Perhaps it might even have protected her from the itch caused by the xermes grass, though she wasn't about to put that to the test.

Looking at the large basket in which she had been putting the cut arrowleaf vines, she saw that she had almost filled it. When she had done so, she thought that she ought to have enough. In any case, she wouldn't be able to carry any more than a basketful back to Shirini's.

Resuming work, she took a swing at a large clump of vines, and felt a vibration run up her arm as the blade of the scythe struck something solid hidden within it.

Intrigued, she pulled back the vines, revealing a large stone. Someone had chiselled a rune, not one that she was familiar with, on its upper surface. This stone didn't get here by chance, she reflected. It's marking something. If you already knew about it, you could find it easily enough, but otherwise you would never know it was there.

She lifted the stone. Underneath it she found a cavity, and within the cavity was something wrapped in oilskin to protect it. When she unwrapped the oilskin, she found a small bottle filled with a pale yellow liquid. Who could have left this here, and why? she wondered. My guess is that whoever hid it did so in order that somebody else, also knowing about the hiding place, could find it.

1. She decided to take the bottle and show it to Shirini.
2. She decided that it would be wisest to return the bottle to its hiding place, but to tell Shirini about it.
3. She decided that it was none of her business. She would return it to its hiding place and would say nothing.
4. The bottle, greasy from damp, slipped from her grasp. Unluckily it hit the stone and shattered. Her bare feet, ankles and calves were spattered by the liquid it had contained.
5. From behind her there came an angry shout: "Hey, you! What the blazes do you think you are doing?"
6. Meanwhile, back at the bakery...

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