Field Work

"Alice. We're off now" Joel shouted to his daughter. Alice got off the ground and ran over towards her father as they made their way out of the house. A number of the other farmers were already up and about walking towards their fields in a disorganised mob. Joel talked with a couple of them about the change in the weather and exchanged advice on growing each other's crops.

As the last of the farmer's passed Joel, Miles and Alice they made their way to an empty field. The earth was firm and unfurrowed, Joel started on tilling the soil and breaking the sods that clogged up its soft loamy soil. Miles had 'borrowed' a second hoe he had noticed lying around Joel's house. Alice sat on the ground, preoccupied with digging some small holes with a little shovel she had with. Joel watched as Miles worked with his hands and was setting furrowed dirt paths along with him.

If Joel hadn't thought he had imagined he could've sworn that Miles was using little effort while swinging away for the amount of work they had done. Joel had worked up a huge sweat by then, wiping it way away from his forehead as the sun got closer to its zenith in the sky. Stopping for a moment he realised they had already tilled over half the field leaving him puzzled at the rate of their progress. Joel signalled to Miles to cease work worrying the heat would cause them all to faint. Alice joined them as the men took a break and headed over to a nearby water trough, a couple of farmers had the same idea taking their breaks or leaving to go back to their homes. Joel held his hands in a cupped fashion having washed his face and drinking up the cool water as the hot sun was evaporating the last of the sweat on their body.

"We'll rest for a moment, time to come inside for a bit" Joel said and led the group back home for a short lunch and rest. By the time they had reached the house, Narissa had already prepared food for them as they breached the entrance. Joel and Miles left their tools at the front of the house as they ate from Narissa's insistence. Sitting down on the table, Narissa brought the two of them water to drink, despite their earlier enthusiasm the two idly held their cups, Joel however was eager to dig when it came to Miles.

"I would've sworn you've done this before" Joel said off handidly, eyeing the guest's actions.

"When you get around as much as I do, you pick up a few things" Miles said shrugging, not taking the question with any serious intentions. The both of them ate quietly while Alice told Narissa what she had been up to while the men were at work.

"Sorry Miles, I need to take a rest. The heat is definitely getting to me these days" Joel said apologetically. Although Miles looked much older, the labour work must be getting to much these days he thought comparing himself to the still energetic Miles. Walking away from the kitchen he went to his bed and collapsed to sleep. Narissa packed up the last of the plates while Alice watched Miles again with intrigue. Standing up, Miles went back to the front of the house grabbing the hoe. Alice followed him out, leaning down Miles spoke softly to Alice.

"Hey dear, we're going to help your daddy out with his work so can you keep this a secret from him?" Miles asked, a grin forming from behind the finger he had put on his pursed lips. Alice nodded, curiousity got the better of her, as the two of them walked back towards the fields. Narissa eyes the pair and kept watch from the house, despite the distance she could still easily see Miles sauntering back into the field. Washing up the last of the plates and cutlery she could hear her husband softly snoring in their bedroom which causes her to break out smiling at her man's attempts to keep the visitor busy. Narissa went about cleaning and sweeping up the place as usual.

Joel woke with a start, the sun was definitely set lower in the sky from his view of the window, and stretching out his tired and aching muscles. Walking into the kitchen and noticed that Alice and Miles were missing from the house. His wife came back inside the house, carrying in some food for dinner that night.

"Narissa, have you seen Alice and Miles?" Joel asked worriedly. That bastard better not have touched my daughter as Joel clenched his fist. His first thought was grabbing the hoe from the front of the house. Although it looked like he did so he could start work again, an evil light was behind his eyes as he gave some soft practice swings.

"They're back at the fields" Narissa responded nonchalantly, the actions of her husband had made her put on a questioning look. Joel nodded and hurrued over to his field, barely able to see Miles and Alice sitting on the fence watching the fields. Seeing the two were just talking Joel slowed his pace down as he made his way over, they had probably been waiting quite a while while he had slept so it would be best if he got there before this man could potential corrupt his daughter. Joel had already put Miles on his danger list alongside a number of the boys in the village despite the age gap. As Joel got to the fence of the fields, what was there had caused his jaw to drop. Miles turned at the new arrival while Alice kept watching the fields in fascination, her eyes glued to the scene.

"Hey Joel, we got a bit done while you were gone." Miles said with a smile. Joel frowned but seeing the work that was done it was hard to be angry at a smiling face.

A bit was an understatement, the entire field was already tilled and was starting to see some fresh sprouts of green. Joel hopped over the fence and knelt down to look at the new growths, they had barely even started the field and yet there were spouts that shouldn't have appeared for days. Joel looked over at Miles suspiciously, the casual attitude was easy for Joel to see Miles definitely was the culprit but it was already beyond believable.

"Miles, did you use magic?" Joel asked as he rose back up, it would certainly be a good explanation but the surrounding farmers would obviously noticing something so blatant..

"Nope, something just as good" Miles said with a smile, waving Joel over to him. Walking back Joel noticed that Alice and Miles had something in their hands, standing in front of the two of them Joel waited for an explanation.

"Look, look. There's are a rarity nowadays but you had plenty nearby. These little guys are amazing farmers in their own right" Miles said tickling the thing that was squirming in his hand. If Joel could describe it, it would be something similar to a miniature badger, but instead with it has no eyes and scales covered it body instead of fur. The individual points on the creature flaired every so often under the attention as it ate some seeds in consolation from Miles' rough treatment.

Alice had another in her hand and giggled as a long tongue probed and ingested the small bunch of seeds in the palm of her hand. Miles let the small creature on to the ground where it then rapidly began to dig into the dirt, suddenly as a small mound it ran through the field in a straight line. Disappearing from sight, the left over dug dirt slowly started to spout some small green shoots. Joel's jaw dropped even further at the sight.

"Amazing creatures, these guys are pretty good diggers. Back west, people used these all the time to go through the fields. I was just shocked that some of them were here as well. Must be some good soil" Miles said as he watched the field grow slowly. Alice let her one down and it disappeared into the ground and ran off. Alice clapped her hands at the creatures and ran over to Joel.

"Papa, did you see that?" Alice asked beaming at Joel. Seeing how happy her daughter, Joel retracted his own look of surpruse as he took Alice's hand while they watched the field worked on and growing. Miles sat there satisfied with his work and couldn't but grin, he had no interest in stealing this daughter of Joel's away but seeing the man lose a chance to drive him away after being riled up soothed a black part inside of Miles. Some of the farmers noticed the strange way as the field grew and watched on in awe as Joel's field grew soon became littered with sprouts.

A crowd formed around them, as the villagers stares and pointes at the odd miracle before them. A number of them started to question Joel about this, the large number of them had already started to enclose Joel causing Alice to be frightened from the crowd. Miles seeing he had enough fun with Joel, stepped in and started talking to the farmers about the creatures he found and explained with a demonstration holding up the creature for all to see. Joel watched on as Miles led the crowd away and demonstrated on a number of other farmer's fields, putting any worries that their fields or themselves might come to harm as they were often seeing magical creatures as pests or worse after them. As they watched after the showing a number of time the farmers raced off to the nearby forest to see if they could catch some for their own fields to do the same. Miles came back, a little sweat running down his brow from his efforts.

"That was tiring" Miles said with a laugh. Joel just shook his head at how easily this man worked around the villages. If he charged them for this it would be easy for this man to be a snake oil salesman.

"I need a drink" Joel said with a sigh, shaking his head as the crowd of farmers had long abandoned their fields for now. With the suggestion of drinking, the two men eyed Alice, causing her to look back in confusion. Joel and Miles nodded between the two of them and headed back home and drop Alice off. The tavern would be their destination as although they chatted politely on the way, the looks both men were giving would certainly be causing sparks to flare.

The noise inside was deafening as everyone was celebrating a day's work done, a few of the farmers had noticed and caught a few more of the creatures while others felt dejected their hard work didn't pay off and were drinking away their sorrows. The barmaids were running around serving ale tankards in large batches due to the large influx of customers.

The inn keeper definitely hadn't expected this many midday drinkers as they were often regulars or tried to stay away from home to let their wives keep up some appearances of a hard working husband. Leaving their hoes along with the large bundle at the front like the others Joel and Miles entered inside. The villagers turned and either cheered or jeered at the two. Joel was used to being such a heavy focus of attention but a few of the patrons caught sight of the two, giving seats to them and chatted nonstop among them.

¨Good work today" one of the villagers said with a grin, giving a hearty slap on the Miles' back. It was easy to see he was in the victors camp from his wide cheshire grin.

The two rested their long weary bodies, as a barmaid dropped mugs of beer in front of them. Joel took a good swig and let out a sigh as he deposited some copper bits into the waiting and open palm of the woman. With a satisfied jingle the barmaid had already sauntered off to hand out a few more tankards while some of the men gave a wolf whistle at the girl.

¨A beer at the end of a hard day's work can't be beat, aye Miles? ¨ Joel said as they clinked jugs together. Despite his reservations it was hard to argue with the result.

¨Aye, cheers to that¨ said Miles as gave an innocent smile to Joel and greedily gulped down the tankard of beer. The other farmers started gathering around Miles as they probed the newcomer for questions.

¨Are you a magician?¨"some of them asked.

¨I´m not, there's just a lot of things out there if you simply pay attention for them¨ Miles said with a gleam in his eye and a tap on the nose with his finger. Joel noticed as soon as the twinkle in his eye started to show he shuddered as he already been toyed with Miles for the last day.

Miles was ready to become an entertainer in a way Joel didn't wish to know. As the night went on, Miles started showing off some of his parlour tricks that he had picked up on his travels. A coin hidden behind the ear of an unwary assistant, disappearing dice and Miles' never ending drinking trick. Miles always explained to on looking crowd it was never magic that he used but as the people looked on in awe at his tricks they were still a little grumpy having lost a few coins over some of those tricks.

Joel had a worry at the back of his mind it wasn't entirely sleight of hand as he remembered the flowers from that morning. Not even noticing, Joel had already finished a number of drinks as the celebrations continued and the bar was already closing for the evening as night had settled in. Joel was sprawled on the wooden table feebly trying to finish his last tankard. Miles came over and have a slap on the back causing Joel's drink to spill the last drops. Joel gave a frown at Miles but he went back to resting quickly, he was drunk for sure.

¨Miles" Joel said between hiccups "You're a really nice guy. I'm glad you're getting along so well with the others" Miles had trouble internally holding his laughter at the man that was quite venomous to him earlier.

¨You´re not so bad yourself Joel" Miles said sitting down beside Joel as he watched the crowd celebrate, a few had already taken the initiative to start chanting some bar songs all huddled together. "You have a good life here. A beautiful wife and daughter and much to keep you busy¨ There was a slight tone in his words but Joel barely noticed as Miles had already resumed his customary face of mischief. Howevr Miles found Hai worries were at ease as Joel had already fallen asleep and softly snooring.

Going over to Joel, Miles heaved Joel up and placed the farmer on his back as he carries him out of the tavern. A few of the other farmers caught the two leaving and with a raucous laughter they all waved and said a brief farewell. Miles not wanting to disappoint gave off his charming smile and left out into the road. The house wasn't far away but Miles took the trip slow. The threat of Joel spewing on his back had already made him weary and was more careful than he usually would be to avoid this fate.

Narissa stood in the doorway keeping a lookout for the pair with the candlelight dimly lit behind her. Seeing how Joel was on top of Miles she helped her husband off Miles' back and dutifully carried him to bed inside. Quickly making a medicine to avoid a hangover for the next day, she gave it to her husband and although he coughed at the smell he went to rest soundly. Pulling the covers up over him, Narissa went back to the kitchen. Narissa saw Miles was already sitting at the table, enjoying the heat of the flames from the fireplace and hummed to himself one of the songs the drunk farmers were shouting back at the tavern.

¨Sometimes my husband is a bit of a handful" Narissa apologised, "Thank you for taking care of him¨ As she sat opposite the man. Despite her appearance of being friendly she had her guard quite firmly up against the man, his looks always had her stand on end. Miles noticed and could only try to relieve her tense attitude.

¨No worries. Your husband is a good man. I'm more than happy to help him out, though I'm afraid I won't be able to stay for long.¨ Miles said as he turned to Narissa. His posture however showed he wanted to avoid some questioning despite his calm.

¨Where are you off to in such a rush? ¨ Narissa asked her smile showed that Miles felt he got himself involved with something far beyond dangers he faced before, sitting back in his seat that he was trying to leave from earlier.

¨I was originally travelling to the capital. However I got waylaid on the way here by a couple of ruffians. It always puts me behind schedule when something like this happens along the roads¨ Miles said to himself with a chuckle, his forehead however sweated skittle under the intense gaze across from him.

¨I'm surprised that they hadn't taken your necklace when they did¨ Narissa said hinting at the shining pendant, gleaming a shimmering rainbow in the firelight.

¨I'm surprised you can see it young miss." Miles said as he held the pendant up proudly so Narissa could see it better, "Most people are unable to have an eye for these rarities. I´m guessing you also have other talents as well¨ As he buried the pendant under his tunic away from the woman's prying eyes.

¨Well I used to leave in one of the towns closer to the capital before Joel married me. I used to work as a herbalist¨ Narissa admitted.

¨Ah that wouldn't be enough I'm afraid. You have more talent than you're letting on, not many can see the pendant and fewer can see through my little magic tricks as well¨ Miles said with a grin seeing he had won a little in their conversation.

¨It was a little suspicious that you had freshly picked flowers considering they don't grow at this time of year¨ Narissa said smiling as she stroked the said flowers that were sitting on the sill a moment ago still in perfect condition

¨Just one of my little specialties¨ Miles said tapping a knowing finger on his nose while ignoring their threatening undertones.

"You're definitely a fascinating man Miles. But the question is considering what I've heard, it would be nearly impossible to be taken by surprise for someone such as yourself" Narissa pointed out. Having gotten to the heart of the matter Miles grinned in a relaxed manner.

"Hey, I'm getting on in my years. It's hard to keep up with the young. If not I'm sure they would keep at it" Miles admitted. They both sat in silence as Miles was trying to not be too obvious with his message. Narissa after eyeing the man sighed heavily.

"I'm afraid it's getting late now, I hope you sleep well Miles¨ Narissa blew out the candles around the house with a snap of her fingers leaving the two of them in darkness. As Narissa left the kitchen to join her husband in bed, Miles looked out the window sound of faint drums in the distance perked up his ears laughing at the small show of force.

¨Guess it´s almost time for the festival¨ Miles muttered to himself and walked out to the front of the house closing the door behind him softly to not disturb the inhabitants.