Chapter 1 - Hey Stranger!

 

Early the next morning Rose got out of bed, had some quick breakfast before she went on with the buisness of the day. Her first stop she mused needed to be the bookshop to buy some literature so she could read up on all the new stuff she needed to learn: Gardening, Biology, Tinkering, and hopefully even something about nectarmaking. From the map that was included in her welcoming-pack she had seen that it was on the other side of town. She sighed internally. Although the Insitute had given her some money to survive on, it did not allow her the luxury of taxirides. Fortunately the last tenants of the house had left their bike in front of thte house. So bike it was!

 

She was just about to go into the bookshop when she heard someone call out:

-Hey, Stranger!

She stopped in midstep and turned around. A guy in her own age was standing on the sidewalk smiling at her. She arched an eyebrow towards him to confirm he was really talking to her.

-Yes you! I was actually talking to you. You new around here are you not?

-Yeah, Rose laughed. Is it that obvious?

-Well, someone who walks around with a map pressed to their face and reading every streetsign down this road is kind of a giveaway. That, and that I am good reader of character. Hi! I am Stein Svard. Welcome to Aurora!

-Hi! I am Rose Abbott. Very nice to meet you! Are you an Aquarius by any chanse?

 

 

They had stayed outside the bookshop and talked for ages. Way longer than she had planned really. But it was nice to meet a freindly face. Afterwords she snuck into the bookshop and bought half of the books on her list. They did not have any books on nectarmaking ("But try down the road at the consignmentshop", the shopkeeper said) and the books about Gardening was way to expensive for her budget so she decided that she had to learn that the hard way by getting her hands dirty.

 

Stein had told her a lot of useful stuff about the town. One of the most useful things was that about the community garden. Apperntly the inhabitants of this community was pretty free-thinking when it came to sharing. For a small fee that you payed each year you could use all the towns facilities all year around. Including the huge community garden. Lucky for Rose, her benefactors had made sure all expenses were covered. She found both ripe tomatoes and some lettuce. And most important of all: Some grapes! Rose doubted that these would be ever used for the perfect nectar that she was aiming for eventually. But it made her feel that she was on the right track.

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And the days passed. Apparently she was not as bad as she had thought on gardening. And she realized that she even liked to watch things grow. Some of the harvest from the Community garden she planted, but sold most of it.

 

Since she had read somewhere that bees were good for organic gardening and pollination she had bought a hive on the local farmers market. It took some days to get aquainted to each other. But after some time  of cleaning and feeding they were on a more or less freindly basis. If she did not turn her back that was....