It was still daylight and that meant that there was still more work to be done. Since she finished her translation job earlier than she expected, Assama figured that she had enough time to squeeze in another job, given that there were more well paying easy ones for her to take. Well, on second though, they didn't have to be well paying, but it would be nice if it was. More importantly, Assama wanted to enjoy the job. That was the beauty of short jobs. They often appealed to one's likes. Sure, translating a note wasn't up her alley, but she wanted to immerse herself in a variety of jobs to become diverse in her skills. However, she did not think that she would become skilled in translation. She would rather spend her time further developing and fine tuning her already existing skills and perhaps learning a very useful skill that she would need when doing other quests or fighting dangerous battles.

Assama approached the request board and took a look at all the available requests for her to take. There were a few interesting ones, but the one that caught her eye the most was a cooking one. Assama enjoyed cooking a lot and she considered herself to be a rather good chef. If she could make excellent meals at home from scratch, she could handle cooking at an inn. So, she took the request and went off to Batra's Inn.

From what Assama learned from being in Crocus so far, she could tell that Batra's Inn was extremely popular. She was surprised that she didn't hear about it when she was looking for places to stay while in Crocus. If she had, she probably would have stayed there. She'd heard a few good words about that place. Not anything on the food though. She guessed that they served the same food every other inn or tavern did. Chicken wings, hot dogs and the like.

Assama arrived at the inn. It was two stories tall and looked just like any ordinary inn save for its size. She opened the doors and walked in. The first floor was littered with tables and chairs, enough to accommodate a large amount of travelers and mages alike. There was a bar with some people already sitting at it having a couple drinks. Bartenders were working tirelessly with celerity. Assama walked up to one of the dark skinned bartenders and said, "I'm sorry to interrupt you, but where can I find Batra?" The man smiled as he continued to fill a glass with bourbon. After serving it to a customer he said, "That would be me, miss. What can I do for you?" "I'm here for the request you put out. The one about you needing a cook for the night?" "Ah, yes. Thank you. Come back a little later in the day. I'll give you an apron and grant you access to the kitchen."

That's exactly what Assama did. She waited for a while and returned at the proper time. She came up to Batra and told him that she was ready to start now. Just as he said subsequent to her first visit, Batra handed the Lamia an apron and allowed her to go back into the kitchen where she would wait for orders to come. But first, she would make herself familiar with the kitchen. She opened various cabinets to see what was stored inside. She found pots, pans, spices and an abundance of other things that possibly would be necessary for whatever orders would come her way. As it turned out, she would be needing quite a few different utensils because she was going to be making a nice variety of food.

The first order were two breaded chicken wings. They shouldn't be too hard. Assama knew how she liked hers prepared. She always added a special spice to them, but these wings, she supposed, would just have to be plain. So, she got out the chicken and went to work. She was about to bread them when she received another order. This time, it was french fries. Not wanting to delay her cooking, she hurriedly finished breading the chicken and began to cook it. While it was cooking, Assama seized the opportunity to get started on the fries. She grabbed a potato and cut it into rectangular strips. She dipped them into boiling oil and waited for them to crisp. Once finished, she took them out and made them ready to be served, and just in time as well. The next order was an order of three hamburgers. Just as she was getting that order, the chicken was done. She deftly readied the wings to be served and got to work on the hamburgers.

Hamburgers were fairly easy to make in Assama's opinion, especially since she didn't have to make the patties herself. These weren't nearly as good as freshly made ones though. However, this was more about speed, not about quality. True, there was a measure of good quality involved, but it wasn't like Assama had all the time in the world to prepare all these meals. She had until midnight. Though midnight was good for Assama, most people eating at the inn didn't have her luxury of time. Even if they did, she didn't expect them to have good patience, especially if they were hungry.

After the hamburgers were served, it was onto the hot dogs. There were five of them, which wasn't a lot considering how quickly hot dogs cooked. After the hot dogs Assama was able to rest for a little bit before the final order went through, which was a simple baked potato. She wrapped it in tin foil, baked it, slit it open, put butter in, and thus had it ready to be served. Just as Assama expected, there weren't any other orders after the baked potato. Who would want to eat so close to midnight anyway?

When the clock struck midnight, it was finally closing time which meant that Assama would be able to take her pay and leave. With the amount of money she had now, there was no doubt that she'd be ready to return back home to Orchidia.

Word Count: 1039/1000