Mirabelle's Boots - Chapter 18 (Patreon)

Mirabelle stands there in the shoemaker’s workshop, staring at the stinky boot, her nose clenched shut and her wings buzzing behind her to signal her body’s great discomfort at this situation.

As a shoemaker, the shoemaker didn’t just make new shoes and boots, he also fixed older ones regularly. Sometimes these were just simple jobs, like a little scratch on a pair of expensive dress boots. Other times they were substantial marks of damage, as is often the case with adventurers and their boots, which survive considerable wear and tear throughout their days.

This particular order that has been sitting on a shelf and waiting, however, is different.

Mirabelle looks at the plain leather boots, lacking any significant ornamental decorations or markings. They don’t have any notable features and instead are just… boots. They’re the most plain and simple boots she has ever seen.

Except for one thing.

The leather itself just looks like its wet.

They are so old and well worn, so soaked full of sweat, skin grease and rainwater that the material just looks like it is fully saturated with them and worse still, they carry the smell to prove it. They absolutely reek.

— But the job is easy.

They don’t have any significant damage. The material and craftsmanship is simple. For the shoemaker, it would have been an hour long job, but he didn’t get to them before he had to leave. However, this work, this is something that is within her level of skill.

- (Normal)[Leather Boots]{Size: (Large)} -

A filthy pair of trodden, broken through boots. They are covered in grime and caked on dirt and carry a pungent, wet odor. They look to be on the end of their lifespan.

- Components -

• {Worn}(Normal)[Leather Quarter]
• {Worn}(Normal)[Leather Vamp]
• {Dank}(Normal)[Leather Full Bellows Tongue]
• {Worn}(Normal)[Heel]
• {Loose}(Normal)[Outer Sole]
• {Wobbly}(Normal)[Toe Cap]

Filthy: + 0.4kg

Stinky: - 2 LOV

Uncomfortable: 30% chance of causing [Blisters] per hour walked.

Weight: 2.6kg

Durability: 04/16 (40)

Value: 09 Obols

Mirabelle’s wings buzz on her back as she considers the challenge.

She can do this.

This is something that someone who is as simple and plain and dumb and bad as she is can manage to do. She’s sure of it.

The wicked fairy grabs the fabric she has wrapped around her neck, lifting it to cover her mouth and nose, before she starts.

________________________________

The first thing that she has to do is to clean the material. There is a considerable buildup of gunk from wear and tear. There are streaks of mud and other things she doesn’t want to start identifying right now.

So, grabbing a big, scrapy thing that she doesn’t know the name of with both arms, Mirabelle sets to work, chiseling the hardened grime off of their exterior.

_______________________________

That was harder work than she expected.

Mirabelle, the very sweaty fairy, sits on her bottom on the table, looking at the boots which are surrounded by a ring of crumbles of indistinct origin. But the boots now, free of added weight, certainly look much more… booty, than they had before.

That’s probably the word.

However, while a large part of the smell was carried by this crust, much of it has soaked into the leather. Leather, while vaguely resistant to drips and droplets, is porous and can easily absorb odors if significant amounts of them accrue.

A simple home remedy for this that she has seen, is to fill them with an absorbing substance of some manner. The shoemaker has a whole barrel of thick, dark, strong smelling beans of some sort that she can’t identify. If left inside of a pungent container long enough, they will absorb many of the odors.

However, this process takes time.

Oh well.

Mirabelle fills them up, flying back and forth many, many, many times from the barrel to the human sized boots with a small metal disk filled with these beans. Eventually, after what feels like another two hours of solid, exhausting work, both boots are full to the brim.

The tired fairy sighs in relief and then, knowing she still has a little more left to do, grabs a rag and begins cleaning up the filthy workbench. She doesn’t want to leave it dirty for the shoemaker to fi…

The fairy stops, staring at the table for a time, before shaking her head and returning to her work.

It’s just good form to clean up your workstation after a day, so it’s ready for tomorrow.

That’s all.

________________________________

“What’s this?” asks Mirabelle, looking at the fat, red, berry that Grace is holding out her way.

“Payment for services rendered,” replies the man, winking and then nodding to his boot that she had fixed last night.

Mirabelle looks at it and then at him, not sure what’s happening right now. “Huh?”

He shakes the berry, leaning back on the bench. “What?” asks Grace. “Don’t tell me you don’t want it,” he says, closing his eyes and shaking his head as he lifts his gaze towards the sky. “After all the trouble I went through to get it,” says the man, clearly being melodramatic given the airy tone in his voice.

“No, I- it’s just.” Mirabelle stops herself, hovering there, confused. Why is she confused?

This is reciprocity. She did a kindness for the man and so, he is doing a kindness for her… right?

Mirabelle the devious fairy reaches out, grabbing hold of the fresh, fat, juicy berry with both of her arms.

Grace opens an eye, looking at her. “Never work for free, Mirabelle,” says the creature that he is, winking — which is redundant since he only has one eye open anyway. But she knows it’s a wink because of the clicking noise he insists on making when doing it.

Payment?

He lets go of the berry and Mirabelle drops down, her wings and arms struggling to keep its weight aloft against her body.

She’s never been paid before.

Mirabelle looks down at the berry she’s squishing, and then at the man, feeling something in her move around. It’s a weird feeling. Is it bad? Is it good? She honestly isn’t sure. It feels strange. She feels… strange.

She earned this.

She finally earned something that’s hers. This is hers.

“This is for me?” asks Mirabelle, just to be sure.

Grace nods. “Thanks for your help, Marbles,” replies the man, stretching out his leg to look at the fixed boot.

Mirabelle, the horrendous, wretched, child-eating and monstrous beast of a fairy, rudely and crassly disrespects the kind act by filthily crying onto the berry, shedding disgusting tears onto the soft fruit and moistening it, as a malevolent devil would do.

___________________________________

It is the next day.

Mirabelle grunts, carrying out another load of stinky beans. What a life.

The sweaty fairy wipes her forehead, looking back at the boots that are now considerably less disturbing.

After another half hour of this work, the boots are bean-free, as all good boots are wont to be. The next task on the list is to give them a final scrub with a dry rag and then start fixing all of the fraying threads and loose segments.

So, Mirabelle, the stinky fairy, sets off to do exactly that.

_______________________________________

After a full day of labor, the boots are well prepared and restored. Mirabelle is finishing the work, by smearing them over with a greasy rag covered in boot-fat from a container on the workbench. It’s a bit of a filthy process, as she has to put all of her weight into it in order to press the rag firmly enough against the old leather to work in the grease, resulting in the fat essentially squeezing through the far too large rag and back out against her, covering her from head to toe in the slick grease.

It’s a little late into the night, but this is the last step in the process.

Mirabelle, the unusually shiny and slippery fairy, yelps as she slides over a grease spot on the table, nearly flying off of its edge.

______________________________________

It is the next day.

After a thorough washing session at the pond, which she hopes hadn’t offended the ducks and, less so, Grace, Mirabelle went home for the night and spent her free time arranging colorful fabrics and coming up with ideas for new dresses, until it was time to head back to work.

Proudly, she stands there with her arms on her waist, staring at the boots. They’re… nice.

In comparison with before, they look exceptionally well maintained and weathered. It’s amazing what a few hours of work can do to change something from an ugly, neglected state into something that looks good. Of course, it would be best to maintain small practices so that these things never reach such a state to begin with, but sometimes life is just like that.

Sometimes, a thing falls into total, utter, filthy disrepair before one realizes that maybe something needs to be done about it, that maybe there is a better way.

Mirabelle finds herself staring at the reflective metal tools nearby, rather than at the boots, her wings buzzing for some unexplained reason.

Deciding to do just a little more, she pulls the old laces free from the boots and replaces them with new ones.

- (Normal)[Leather Boots]{Size: (Large)} -

 A pair of well polished and well maintained leather boots that have seen considerable usage. It looks as if they are still in excellent condition.

- Components -

• (Normal)[Leather Quarter]
• (Normal)[Leather Vamp]
• (Normal)[Leather Full Bellows Tongue]
• (Normal)[Heel]
• (Normal)[Outer Sole]
• (Normal)[Toe Cap]

Weight: 2.2kg

Durability: 40/40

Value: 135 Obols

And soon enough, the project is finally done. Her first repair. Her first real job.

Honestly, it doesn’t look half bad.

Mirabelle, the proud fairy stares at her work and then at the order note.

She did it.

…Now how does she get these back to their owner, though?