The workers had been so thankful after the meal that they had put in some more work and helped him completely set up the restaurant. They had known the food he cooked before was special as each meal had given them energy along with being incredibly tasty. However, this meal had been so much more than that.

  Each of their conditions had improved and old injuries had healed.

  After they had left, Draden helped Leah wash up and then tucked her into bed.

  “Daddy,” She whispered softly, reaching for his hand. “I’m glad you’re not drinking anymore. I like it when you cook more.”

  “Me too sweetie, me too.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

  “I wish mommy was here to taste it,” She mumbled tiredly, her eyes drifting closed.

  He snorted, stroking her long hair. “Your mom was the pickiest eater I ever met. I don’t know if my cooking would be up to her standards.”

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  Please take a moment to rate the story. As the author, I am only putting this story on RoyalRoad at this time. If you are reading it anywhere else, please let me know as it was stolen.

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  “Course’ it would be,” She drawled out, nearly asleep. “Daddy’s food is delish and special…” A soft snore came from her mouth, prompting him to push her mouth closed.

  Draden watched his daughter sleep for a few minutes, thinking about what she had said. He had the memories that went along with meeting and living life with his wife Lorna. Despite that, he had done his best not to think about her too much. She had been taken, and until he got his strength back in full, there was nothing he could do to get her back.

  Until then, all thinking about her would accomplish is making him depressed.

  ***

  The next morning; found Draden working on the water pipes from the stream.

  Now that his leg was working properly again, he needed to start using it normally to strengthen it.

  His plan with the water pipes was to dig out the mud under them and replace it with rocks and sand. Then he would use various cloths and silk wraps to perform an initial filtration of the water. He was looking to keep out all the leaves and other gunk that sometimes slipped through the pipes. Inside the house and restaurant, he would build large, proper water filters and use barrels to hold it all in.

  Generally, the water was clean, but animals used the stream, and he had seen the occasional items floating by. He would rather not bathe in those, and certainly did not want to drink it. Since this would be the same water he would be giving the restaurant patrons, he had to finish the filter that day. He had already decided that he would not be drinking anymore and subsequently wouldn’t be serving any alchohol at his establishment either.

  Juice, on the other hand, was certainly something he would do. He just needed to find a decent source for it, otherwise he would be constantly squeezing and pulping it on his own.

  Draden had already gotten both large water barrels with taps on them in place. He really just needed to finish his work on the pipe and then also work on both filters. That was where he was coming up against a wall and had been banging his head in an attempt to remember things he had once seen and read.

  Years ago… he frowned; that sort of phrasing didn’t really work anymore now that he was no longer on Earth. Regardless, during his past-life, when he was younger, dreaming of a life of freedom, he had watched a lot of random YouTube videos and read hundreds of articles. Several of them had been on how to create a water filter.

  He remembered a few steps, but that was it. Even before his death, the last time he had actively watched most of those had been years earlier.

  A pair of smaller barrels with a pipe fitted to their bottoms were his chosen filters. A silk cloth was laid across the bottom opening to hold all the materials in place. On top of the cloth, he placed a layer of rock for weight. After the rock came a nice thick layer of charcoal from the fireplace that had been broken down with a hammer earlier. From what he could remember, you were supposed to use a special kind of charcoal for this step, but he didn’t have access to that and figured that he could simply make up for it by using a bunch of regular charcoal.

  Draden’s fingers drummed on the floor of his house as he tried to remember what came next. He knew there had been something about sand and more gravel… but he could have sworn there were additional steps that he still couldn’t remember.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Well, if he couldn’t remember them, then he would simply make a couple up. The idea was to filter the water, which meant he wanted fine particles. So, the layer of sand needed to be fine and an inch or two thick. On top of that, he would put a layer of ash, again retrieved from his fireplace. He would crush it as finely as possible and then wash it. If he didn’t wash it, then the filter would be useless until enough water had been run through it to achieve the same thing.

  That was between three and four layers of filtration, depending on how you counted the layers. There was also the initial filter on the pipe. Still, that wasn’t enough for his taste, though the water was generally cleaner in this world than on Earth, it still held bacteria, among other nasty items.

  With a sigh of annoyance, he gave up on trying to remember all the actual steps and decided to simply double up on what he was more or less sure about.

  After the ash layer, he carefully put another silk cloth down, followed by gravel, which would hold its edges in place. Then came another layer of fine charcoal, sifted sand, and ash. He ended it all with another layer of somewhat fine gravel and began pouring water over the top.

  Initially, it took several minutes for the water to make its way all the way to the bottom. Soaking through each layer was not a rapid process. Still, he kept going, the water that came through at the bottom slowly becoming cleaner as each layer was thoroughly washed.

  The last of the contaminants came out a while later and the water finally began to look clean. He tapped the lids onto both of them and then moved them into place. For now, he wouldn’t plum their spigots into the water barrels as he wanted to let the water flow for a couple of hours.

  After he finished with the water, it was time to move onto the bathroom. The workers had done everything needed in the restaurant restroom, but for his home bathroom, he had asked them to do a few of the specialized remodel items, and then he would do the rest.

  Draden had endured more than enough cold wipe-down baths. He was determined to put in a proper bath soaking, and a shower for when he didn’t want to. The water would come from its barrel that would be heated as well.

  He had been playing around with the heating units on his new stoves and believed he could recreate them. They wouldn’t be perfect, but they would work. How much qi or energy from a beast's core it would take to heat the water was something he would need to discover.

  There were a couple of other changes he wanted to make to the bathroom like a sink and just generally making the place brighter. It wasn’t that this world was that far behind Earth in hygiene or anything, though it was in some things. It simply had more to do with where he and his wife had decided to build their house in the first place. Without ready access to all the facilities inside the nearby city, he needed to make them himself. Something that he had never gotten around to doing until now.

  For the last month and a half, constructing the restaurant and working on all the improvements to his house had become his focus. Now that all of that was ending, he would soon need a new hobby.

  He enjoyed spending time with Leah, but she was in school for much of the early morning. Besides, he had heard that it was good to have hobbies and activities outside of what you did with your kids. Strictly speaking, he was a new father. Draden hadn’t been one on Earth, and his prior memories here weren’t a very good example of what a father or decent person should be.

  On Earth, he had a few different hobbies, but none that he had been truly passionate about. When he was younger, he had enjoyed video games, however, as he grew older, and the concerns of the world became more relevant, they had slowly become less enjoyable. Reading had always been something he enjoyed, but the stories available in this world were written in a style he didn’t particularly enjoy.

  From there, it went to his more practical hobbies, like carpentry, which he had picked up while building his home. There was also sword and weapons practice. In other words, he had a few options, it was just a matter of selecting the right one.

  He couldn’t be cooking all the time, right?

  Living only to work wasn’t really living, and he refused to do that. Draden wanted to enjoy this new life he had been given. More than that, he wanted to ensure that his cute little daughter had as worry-free of a life as he could give her.

  There were a few things that went hand in hand with that sort of desire. Namely, strength, health, power, and being able to retrieve his wife, Leah’s mother, from her captors. That little girl deserved to have her mother back in her life and he would do his best to make it happen.

  While the new cement sink in the bathroom was drying, he decided to expand the little fishpond he had going on beneath the floor of his house kitchen.

  Currently, it was rather small, barely larger than the size of a toddler’s wading pool. Inside there were three fish of differing sizes.

  The inlet was a simple one-way design, while the outlet only allowed water and tadpoles to flow out. Currently, the pool had mud walls so he couldn’t widen it too much, otherwise he would sacrifice the stability of the house. Unfortunately, if he wanted to truly make the pool larger, and not just deeper, then he would need to first drain it and then create hard walls from a mix of rock, brick, or cement.

  Which is exactly what he did.

  After capturing the fish for his and Leah’s supper, he blocked the inlet and let the pond drain on its own.

  It was a messy, muddy affair, but it wasn’t terribly hard digging out the soft ground. Transporting all the excess dirt and mud through his house without creating a mess was the hardest part. Every time he brought out a bucket of mud, he would return with it full of rocks that he would use as the pond’s new floor.

  By the time he needed to go pick up Leah from school, he had made good progress on the pond along with the rest of his projects.

  After washing up and grabbing his weapons and cane, he headed into town. A while later, with Leah in tow, they made their usual rounds at each of the merchants, ensuring that the deliveries to the restaurant were all set up and guaranteed. At least that was his goal; for Leah, it was simply an opportunity to go on a wild snack run.

  Once he ensured everything was in order, they headed home, Leah’s constant chattering filling the air. She talked about everything that she had experienced at school that day, her friends, the boys who picked on her -Draden wasn’t going to explain to her why they did that- and how Teacher Mirna had asked her if her daddy was a good cook.

  The exuberant girl spoke rapidly, and her enthusiasm made the distance between the city and their house pass quickly.

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