Once we reached the outside, it was a lot easier to move the cauldron without fear of it dropping and cracking the marble floor.

The boys set down the cauldron right next to the campfire that we would later use in a few hours.

I took out my notebook, where I had roughly estimated the amount of ingredients we would need to gather.

"Let's get the fruits first," I decided. "We'll have to wash them first, then we can get the spices."

"Why should we get them now?" Rex asked. "There's still hours until dinner, won't the fruits spoil if we leave them out?"

"They'll be fine, don't worry. It's best to get the most tedious job out of the way now, since picking all those fruits will take a while."

We all meandered over to the garden, each holding a basket.

"Let's get two baskets each of sour and sweet apples, then two baskets of oranges," I instructed them.

They ran off to the trees, pulling down the fruits and placing them in the baskets. I tried helping them, but I wasn't as tall or good at climbing trees, so I stayed on the ground, holding up the baskets for them to drop the apples into.

Once one basket was filled, I took it inside the kitchen, rinsing each apple and wiping off the dust stuck to them. Thoroughly washed, the basket of fruit was taken outside and I carried it over to the cauldron, placing it on the ground next to the fireplace.

I did the same with the next few baskets of fruits, until Rex, Lionel, and Isaac had finished gathering all the oranges and were helping me rinse the last few fruits.

When all the apples and oranges were washed, I grabbed a cup to use as a container and tossed in all of the spices that I would use for the cider. My brothers and I brought everything over to the campfire, setting it down to use later.

"Alright! All the ingredients are here, except the water," I said, "Should we get some buckets?"

"Let's try using magic first, before dragging over a bunch of buckets of water," Rex decided. "Lionel, let's check out your book."

"Are there spells for filling cauldrons with water?" I wondered.

"Not in this book, probably," Lionel said, as he handed it over to Rex. "You aren't going to be filling a lot of cauldrons in the middle of battle."