“Jase, are you ready to harvest some honeycombs?” Trillium asked.

“Hi elder!” Lily happily greeted the older pixie.

“Hi elder. I do want to harvest them, but I need to harvest this ginseng and ginkgo so I can make a tincture for Simon, the merchant,” I answered the pixie elder. “Tomorrow would be better for me.”

Trillium raised her eyebrows in question. I vaguely explained what Simon had said before Lily could go into detail.

“You could have let me explain,” Lily pouted.

“Jase explained well enough. I knew that was what he wanted the herbs for once he mentioned the ginkgo,” Trillium said. “With the ancients’ equipment, it shouldn’t take you long to make a couple of tinctures.”

“True. We had found some candyleaf last night by accident,” I said.

“And you want to experiment with it,” Trillium concluded. I nodded in agreement.

“Oh! I need to tell you how Jase found it,” Lily said with a huge grin on her face. “It’s so funny.”

“It wasn’t that funny,” I muttered as I bent back to the ginseng I had been digging up.

“I thought it was,” Lily replied.

“Then tell me the tale,” Trillium said. Lily did so and I tried to ignore their laughter when she was done. “Jase?”

“Yes elder?”

“I know you are excited to experiment with the stevia, but what about the rest of the fencing?” Trillium asked. I must have looked down for she continued, “But I suppose a day off or two won’t hurt.”

“Yay!” Lily cheered. Trillium and I smiled.

“What are you planning to do with the stevia?”

“I was thinking of using it to make…something good,” I replied. “A sweetener for some of my teas would be nice.”

“Honey is good for that,” Lily countered.

“Ah, but honey’s taste doesn’t work well with every tea,” I retort.

“If you just want a sweetener, you could extract the sugar from honey with your lab equipment,” Trillium said.

“Uh. I hadn’t considered that,” I replied. “Still, I’m not telling you two what I want the candyleaf for. You’ll have to wait and see.”

“Is this payback for the latest prank I pulled on you?” Lily asked.

“No.”

“What prank?” Trillium asked. She was intrigued.

“I did the old bucket of water over the kitchen door prank yesterday morning,” Lily answered.

“Ah. That one is a classic,” the elder said. “We should do it to some of the villagers tomorrow.”

“Elder! Even you want to pull a prank?” I said smiling at the pixies.

“Indeed. I am a pixie despite my age,” Trillium replied. “Lily, let me know when Jase starts working on the stevia. I will join you then.”

“Yes elder.”

“You suspect what I have in mind for it, don’t you?” I asked the elder while giving her a questioning look.

“I have a good idea for I know what stevia was used for once upon a time.”

“I can look it up!” Lily excitedly said.

“Don’t,” Trillium warned. “Let your Jase have his surprise.”

“Aww,” Lily replied.

“It’ll be worth it, I think,” I tell my familiar.

“Ok.”

“Alright. I’m off children,” Trillium said. “Lily, don’t forget to let me know.”

“I won’t!” my pixie promised the elder.

*

“All these recipes say the ginseng root and ginkgo leaves need to be dried out,” I complained. “I don’t have days or months to dry them.”

“Use the lab oven to do dry them,” Lily suggested. “We’ll just have to pay attention to them.”

“I don’t know if that will really work.”

“You just need them dry. It should work,” Lily replied. “And using it is really the only way to get Simon’s tinctures in the day or two that you promised him.”

“That’s true,” I agreed. “Set the temp on the oven while I wash the herbs, please.”

“Sure thing!”

*

“Using vinegar again?” Lily asked as I poured vinegar into a jar.

“Yeah. I don’t have any alcohol,” I replied.

“You could always buy some or make your own.”

“I don’t think I want to get into the alcohol brewing business,” I replied. “There is already a couple of villagers making alcohol. I don’t want to compete with them.”

“Plus, you’re an herbalist or medicine man, not a brewer!”

“Too true,” I agreed as I poured the crushed dried ginkgo leaves into the jar. “Will you label this for me with what it is and the date please?”

“Why?”

“Because your handwriting is much neater than mine,” I answered smiling at my familiar.

“Just wanted to hear you admit it,” Lily cheekily replied as I started working on the ginseng root. “Practice would do you good though.”

“That’s what you’re here for though,” I said winking at Lily.

“Ooh!”

“That’s payback for yesterday’s prank,” I said grinning.

“Hmph. I’ll get you back.”

“Nah. You like helping me.”

“Yeah, I do,” Lily admitted. “I’m still going to keep pranking you though.”

“I know,” I replied. I placed the two jars of tinctures on a shelf in a darker part of the basement. “We’ll let that sit overnight.”

“Ok.”

“Let’s make a candyleaf extract and experiment in the kitchen with it and the lemons and oranges.”

“In the kitchen with the fruit?” Lily asked.

“Yeah.”

Her eyes lit up. “It’s candy time!”

“Yep. Don’t forget to call Trillium.”

“I won’t!” Lily promised as she flew upstairs. “I’ll peel the oranges and lemons!”

“She got too excited and forgot I still have to make an extract,” I muttered to myself.

*

“What about the apples?” Lily asked as I put the lemon candies onto a tray to cool.

“I was planning on just eating them. I’m not sure how Simon got some this time of year,” I answer as I move to the blender to clean it so I can start making the orange drops.

“You could use them to make candy apples,” Trillium said. “I’ll be glad to show you the recipe.”

“I’ll think about that. I’d rather have more apples if I’m going to make them into candy. I know how pixies are when it comes to sweets,” I replied.

“That is fair,” Trillium agreed.

“Where are the others?” I asked as I finished wiping the blender down. “I’m surprised they aren’t here too.”

“I made sure they would stay out until you are done,” Trillium answered.

“If not, there would be no candy for you to try,” Lily added as she rolled up one of the lemon drops into a ball.

“Already cool?”

“Yep,” Lily replied as Trillium joined her, but at the other end of the pan, and rolled up a ball.

“Go ahead. I know you both can’t wait,” I said. Lily’s end of the tray had the less sweet drops. I used more candyleaf extract on Trillium’s end, so those candies should be sweeter.

“After you elder,” Lily said to Trillium. She smiles and Trillium smiles back.

“Hmmm. Very sweet and lemony flavored,” Trillium said after eating her drop.

“Eww! That’s sour!” Lily exclaims after biting into her drop. She drops it and starts trying to wipe her tongue. I laugh at my familiar’s antics.

Trillium flies to Lily and takes the drop. She bites it. “Hmmm. That’s good too.”

“You like sour things?” Lily asked.

“Indeed, I do,” the pixie elder answered. “Are you going to try them, Jase?”

“After I finish mixing and cooking the orange drops,” I answered.

“Can we use the sour lemon drops to prank the others?” Lily asked as she rolled up a drop from the other end of the tray. She bites it. “Hmmm. That is sweet and lemony.”

“Not all of them,” I replied. “I might end up liking them and Trillium does like them.”

“Jase, will you make more of these?” Trillium asked.

“Yes. If Simon still has lemons when I go back tomorrow, I’ll buy them so we can make more,” I answered. The orange mixture smell hits me as I stir the pan and I like it. “Oranges too.”