There are different kinds of cheese. The cheese one can make with a recipe is made in this world by filtering the milk, such as cream cheese. The cheese one uses on pizza or sandwiches or omelets is not made as simply; what is filtered from the milk needs to sit for a long time. The simplest cheeses need hours. Many cheeses take days or weeks or months.

In Eorzea Husband had sometimes wondered why there were not recipes for certain things; he had guessed it was because the process for making things like wine was lengthy or complex. Apparently the same is true for cheese. Perhaps a recipe can be devised for cheeses. I will leave it to him to theorize about these things. I simply want something to do with the cow milk.

A beef pie is a beef stew in a pie crust. I looked at beef stew recipes online and picked a few to try. If Mr. Hartman is willing, we can test them with the dinner customers. I do not think the evening children seek beef pies. Husband seemed pleased with a recipe I tried today for dinner, though as he often does he suggested I use more onion.

When we arrived at the Pit for my bouncer shift, Sam had a question for me. "Hey, Miz Tsu'na...you say you like hunting?"

"I sometimes do, yes..." I glanced at Husband. "...depending on the target."

He grinned and told Sam, "Lot of the stuff around here is kind of on the tame side."

Sam nodded and asked me, "Ever hunt pigs?"

"We hunted pigs sometimes on deployment, yes. Wild hogs and wild boars."

"Great. Cuz there's a guy named Joel Davidson got a farm west o' here that's lookin' to get some pigs cleared outta his property."

"He farms pigs?"

"He farms corn. He's got pigs eatin' his corn."

I looked to Husband, who nodded. "I'd heard about that...wild pigs are invasive over a lot of Oklahoma."

"An' Joel wants 'em gone."

I asked, "How big are these pigs?"

Sam paused and looked to Husband, who looked it up on his phone. "Looks like two to three feet tall and 150 to 300 pounds."

"A bit smaller than boars we have hunted, then."

"But bigger than a tuco-tuco."

"And this farmer will pay us for hunting these pigs?"

"If y'all can do the job," said Sam. "He'll wanna see proof o' that first. Maybe start with three?"

"What proof will he want to see?"

"Maybe bring him the ears?"

Husband watched me as I talked with Sam. Then I realized, no, he was not. I recognized this pattern.

He was observing me.

This was one of his experiments, one for which he wanted me ignorant.

But I could not be too ignorant. "Where is this farm?"

"West on 51, then north a bit," said Sam. "Joel wrote directions..."

Husband said, "Maybe he should show you on your map...?"

I got out my journal, set it on the bar, and turned to the page with the map of the local area. Sam leaned in to peer at it. "It's a bit west o' this. You got another page?"

I dragged the map to the right to show the area to the west. Sam stared at it. "How'd you do that?"

Husband answered, "Smart paper."

"...Yeah...right...okay, uh...think it's here..." Sam touched the map with his finger, and a red circle appeared. He kept staring at the page. "...Really smart paper..."

Husband smiled. "Blah blah classified blah."

"...Sure."

I asked, "And he will pay me when I show him the ears?"

"Nah, he'll give me a check an' I'll pay you. You folks like cash, right?"

"Yes. Thank you. I will see to this tomorrow."

I closed my journal and put it away. It seemed I had another job, which at least was different from the others.

Then I realized, no, I did not. I recognized this pattern too.

I had a quest.

Or perhaps it was a leve, one of the odd-job quests we did in Eorzea. That would make Sam the levemete, the person who handed leves out to adventurers. But many Eorzean levemetes had an initial quest to demonstrate one could do leves...a qualifying leve.

I opened my journal again and turned to the quest list. For the first time since coming to this world, there was a new entry: "Collect three pig ears from pigs at the Davidson farm." It was one of the only two entries, the other being the fishing quest I never completed.

I looked up at Husband, who was observing the journal. "I have a quest," I said.

"Looks like, yeah. Along with...what's that one?"

"'Feast of Famine'."

"Oh yeah, I never finished that one."

"Will you be coming with me on my quest, Husband?"

"I can, sure. Want a tank or a healer?"

"Perhaps I simply want your company. Do you not want to observe your test subject?"

"Always. Maybe I'll go Bard and play you some background music."

"That will probably scare the pigs. Did you set this up with Sam?"

"Kind of. He'd heard about the pig problem and mentioned it to me. I wondered if it could be made into a quest."

"And what does Sam get from being our levemete?"

"A piece of whatever the customer pays."

"And will other adventurers be coming here now?"

Husband hesitated. This was yet another pattern I recognized.

"You are not aware of there being other adventurers in this world."

"Until tonight I wasn't aware there could be quests. This was an experiment."

"I gathered, yes. Will you experiment to see if there are other adventurers?"

He blinked at me, then turned away, lost in thought. Another familiar pattern. I let him ponder his thoughts while I watched the bar.