Medussa lifted the puppy carefully in the palm of her hand, inspecting the latest member of Fairweather Farm (to be approved) as the blind bundle of fur rubbed its muzzle against her hand looking for food.
“Long night?” Xeno asked, as he placed her breakfast on the fence post, its red and white cloth failing to hide the scent of fresh bread that wafted from within.
“Yer, and I don’t think she’s done yet.” Medussa replied. “How cute is that?” she said rhetorically as she put the healthy pup back with mum.
“I take it you’re staying here, and you want me and the lads to the South Fields to keep ploughing?”
“Yer” Medussa replied, not bothering to look again at the sky. Weather changed fast here, between the mountains proper to their East, and the Brudvir forests down the valley to their West, but if her bones didn’t ache it wasn’t going to be a bad change. “I don’ want to lose a bunch like last time, if they crawl away from mum they’ll die of cold to be certain.” She picked up a spotty puppy that was making an unwise escape and deposited it safely down her top to keep it warm while she watched for the next escapee.
“Remember to eat” Xeno said amiably as he put his stick and day bundle over his shoulder, “because that’s such yum bread I’d be happy to eat your share too!”
With a laugh Medussa shooed him away and set about breakfast with one hand while herding puppies with the other.
---/---
A pleasant melody heralded Poppet's arrival, as she hopped off her prize war goat and set out lunch on another cloth, folding the breakfast one away in her satchel. Sliced dried apples, a chunk of goat cheese, and a pitcher of watered down mead from the beehives might be considered peasant food, but as the suns made the temperature soar it was indeed no bad thing to be a peasant. Tomorrow she would have to go do mayor things, or at least have one of her Horthi tell her what she needed to sign and what contracts she should feed to the pigs to make the point that her time was not to be wasted. Far better to spend it in the fields, with her crops than behind a musty table.
Besides, their aim was a simple one – to be the breadbasket for the North, with steady supplies of grain for Caester. While the Hrothi were famed for their charity especially though the long night, being good with stone and mushrooms did not do much for winter wheat to make the bread. Her Neran were just better with the soil, but it was in combination that the town really shined. Good luck being a rat trying to get into a Hrothi granary, and the irrigation for the rice by the river was always in perfect working order, no matter what storms might try to inflict. Brudvir also lived with them, with the rather important job of convincing the wolves in the mountains to not bother the stock lest there be more mystery meat stews and very grumpy Brudvir for a week again.
“What’s that?” Poppet said suddenly, tilting her head to listen.
“Sounds like trouble” Medussa replied “run tell the Watch.”
The colour had drained from Poppet's face. “Xyfian reapers?”
Medussa calmly picked up a bundle propped against the shed wall, and unwrapped her heavy war crossbow, and began winding it on, the clicks making the puppies cry softly.
“Maybe, they know the rules. They stay on their side of the river, unless they wash and leave their weapons on the other side then they can join us for food.” She slung her quiver of bolts over her shoulder, being careful the strap did not catch the sleeping puppy. “Run along now, we’ll remind them if they forget then mend their hurt if needed. But we’ll walk the path of Virtue, and welcome them to walk with us if they lay aside their malice, even if only for a time.”
“Yes Mamma” Poppet mounted quickly and rode for town, baying like an unhappy wolf to raise the alarm as she went, the call quickly taken up though the valley more effectively than any bell.
It has been long ago that her family had fled North, to this cold hard valley in the mountains, far from the lush farmlands they once called home. But they would never flee again.
