[Jaki Vampyler]

Jaki had spent several candlemarks the night before ensuring that the preparations for the stew were at an acceptable standard. She had done this very carefully, following the instructions left for her with determination and a real attention to detail.

As such, the next brightening, when her teacher knocked on the door, there was a bowl of stew waiting for her. Jaki had carefully peeled and cut each vegetable the brightening before. That morning she had carefully measured water and put the cut vegetables into the stock, the meat she had cooked for a while first, as the instructions laid out for her, and she had followed it all. It had taken a lot longer than she had thought it would and she had found herself becoming more than a little frustrated at the slow pace which she was forced to maintain. Also, of course, there was the complete lack of ability to cut everything to uniform shapes, but she was aware that she needed to forego that, and to simply learn that food did not grow in uniform shapes and so could not be cut such.

So, the stew that she presented her teacher with was done meticulously, carefully prepared and every detail followed exactly. Jaki was nothing if she was not careful about things like this. Her teacher came in, smiled at Jaki and tasted the stew. Good enough! she said, smiling, and Jaki returned the smile with her usual brief uplifting of her lips. If it was acceptable, then she was happy.

Now then, fruit. We have here some of the basic fruits, and we are going to make a fruit salad. It is a simple dish, but a very pleasant one, especially if you are entertaining. So, let us start now.

Again, she pulled out fruit after fruit, and Jaki watched with something akin to amazement. She had no idea there were so many fruits available. This time, however, rather than do the preparation first, Jaki's teacher simply explained it, and then described how to prepare each fruit. Then she motioned to Jaki to do so.

Again, none of them were uniform! Jaki considered that this was probably very good practice for when she needed self discipline. Still, she worked for the next two candlemarks, cutting up the apples, peeling the pineapple (how did anybody discover that that was edible inside?), cutting up the melon and washing the grapes then peeling them slowly (knife away from her body, not towards it).Then she peeled the oranges and cherries, finally the strawberries and then, on the top, she cut two thin slices of lemon and put them on the bowl.

She turned to look at her teacher, who smiled and nodded Good enough. Enjoy that this darkening, it won't keep long. Now, tomorrow we will look at the first cooking technique, and the different ways it can be used. Well done

And so saying, she left, leaving Jaki with a rather large fruit salad and a fair bit of time to eat it in. Her teacher had taken the rest of the fruit, so she rather assumed that it would be a meal that they both partook of this darkening.