What the Little Girl Wants to Help

Hoed and plowed the dirt first in preparation for planting tomorrow's survival resources; food - if it wasn't the most basic need besides water which already was accessible in abundant quantity situated near these squares of dirt and dust, thus soil it was... becoming farms of quite small in numbers yet sufficient in breadth based on how many persons' life must depend on them. Virtually viable, therefore it was built as a medium to grow the seeds and to thrive the crops, for it contained all the elements such plants needed and for they couldn't seem able to grow and thrive themselves; even to bury themselves beneath the soil, they were unable - impossibly high standards, resembled that of a dream of an easy life... no... but one must work hard to feed his own mouth.

Nothing's easy in life. Everything's hard. Even the dirt below too, as couples of strikes from many hoes were needed to make it soft; thus sweat was produced on that hard-working expression. Not only one in reality, but half and a dozen in fact... many expressions which gleefully exhibited the same one; because of the recent occurrence that made them that way - those happy peasants - hence became no wonderment anymore. The recent, an unfortunate occurrence which made them gladly bathed under the bright light of orange sun between this cultivating-sounded hoe when they could've enjoyed the setting sun in the distant horizon of golden mountains, instead they relished the subtle stream of sweat on their cheeks full of dust. But didn't mean they did not avail themselves of the current blessing - to appreciate both of those when there was left a slight countdown for the moon to rise, and stars to be observed.

There, in the midst of busy activities... busily carrying a wooden bucket of water the little lady was, with two of her tiny hands trying her best to lift such an object whose size was half of her body; supposedly heavy considering the size yet in fact it wasn't that really, since only half of the water which filled the empty space within it. Notwithstanding the easier struggling, for the likes of her whose gentle, seemingly feeble grip to carry quite a sizeable wooden bucket after fetching it from the nearby source... because of this kind of helping was regardless still quite thoughtful, and was more than capable of presenting a smile to whoever witnessing that pair of short legs of hers, struggling her best with such tiny steps to deliver the water across the orange plain for the sweaty farmers. And one of them whom the little lady approached, a middle aged woman who stood on the edge of field; to make it a stop point for the little lady, and with a slight motion of the grey head, the middle aged woman saw her.

A little lady with her water bucket waiting for further attempt to help,

"Ah, thank you, Maya." stopping all of her busy activity of cultivating the soil, the middle aged woman happily greeted along with a warm grin showing rows of her white teeth for that little lady to see, Maya as she called her, "It's already the tenth, right?"

"Yes." a slight nod but with the similar smile that the little lady displayed, replying what the middle aged woman had just been shown - a simple genuine smile.

"Then you can leave it just here. It's heavy, right? Besides, you were already carrying them all by yourself. I'll pour the last with the others down the cistern later. You must be tired. You may go and get some rest now."

Another and seemed to be the last instruction for today had just been delivered and accepted by the little lady who without hesitation placing the wooden bucket of water beside her and letting out a bit of puffing, signing the minor exhaustion,

"N-no... I'm fine, Aunt Aloe. I... I am still capable of lending a hand. My father and Chief Jovier are now still helping the others elders with the matter of the steel-armored army, and so are my mother and sister; they are still preparing dinner for us, and they said there's nothing I could help there. But I can't really just sit around doing nothing to help when our village is recovering,"

Having quite a reasonable ground for her eagerness of lending her pair of tiny hands. Unfortunately however, it was only implied strongly in her stubbornness, resembling that of a childish habit despite the intention was wise yet less thoughtful for oneself in reality, because how insentient she was, disregarding her own physical capability as she had no control over her puffing breath out of exhaustion, thus seemingly to be an utter lie that her utterance was, regardless the ardent desire to help and body that was still capable of keeping up with such an ambition...

"After all, it's only ten water bucket while I can carry at least twice the amounts at that time."

An ambition of a naive child whose pair of brown eyes proving otherwise; there was simply no hesitation within her timid stare... to help and to be more useful for this humble community at the very least.

"Ah, at that time," Aunt Aloe - the middle aged woman - grasped and eventually grabbed the comprehension and chortling she was, when she realized the innocent meaning of that little lady's ambition, "Ahahaha~ well, Maya, at that time... it surely was a hard time for anyone. But this time, we all made it through that hard time; thanks to your father and mother's faith in a better future, the chief and his daughter's sacrifice, and his son's courage... and you, Maya. Sure, work hard is still important, but look after oneself is not less important. After all, you have helped us more than enough with the ten water bucket you fetched from the river, and for bringing the savior to our village."

Listening thoroughly to the middle aged woman, Maya tried to find a comfort in it... knowing the content feeling from that sense of deprivation because she thought she was lacking... when in reality, she had yet to try to be herself and was too hard on herself.

Until then, when another voice made an appearance to intertwine with the current, light-hearted interaction,

"Oh, Maya," it was a male voice that was heard coming from behind the middle aged woman. It was quite a raspy voice, as Maya listened to, that appeared belonging to Aunt Aloe's husband. He approached the two of them with a joyful face he brought, as he wiped off the grateful sweat on his dusty brown, slightly wrinkled cheek using a piece of towel curling around his neck, "I saw that you came to eagerly help us again, eh. Now, there's a good girl, hahaha."

"Ah, hi... Uncle Esthas. You came early. Is that mean you have finished cultivating the field?"

Greeted the little lady, obviously presenting her warmest smile upon doing it while at the same time delivering the first, very obvious inquiry right after marking one particular object using her brown gaze to corroborate the finding which made her assured that the routine activity for today had made its conclusion, thus calling it a day. The object being said was that one favorite tool which had been helping the middle aged man with every possible task on field - either hoeing or plowing the land - and therefore had always been proven useful when it came to preserve the air, nutrients and water penetrating deep into the soil for the plants' roots to access.

It was that simple hoe which became his favorite. Seeing such a handy tool being carried in his hand, simply assured the little lady that the cultivation had been concluded for today, and to her surprise... it was earlier than she thought it would be.

"Yes, that's right. We all have finished cultivating and plowing the field for today," a friendly face of Uncle Esthas - as Maya called him - gladly gave an answer for her minor curiosity, "The soil were no longer barren and hard solid like rock, as it magically turned into a fertile land, and resembles that of loam which is very good for growing crops like before... maybe even better now. And It's all thanks to Miss Erynew."

"Ah, I see. It is because of her shining worms she created."

Looking down on where her feet stepped, Maya understood very well what that middle aged man said, as she distinguished the definite difference prior and after such creatures starting to roam the underground right below the village. It was no longer barren with cracks on every visible brown surface - sometimes even downright black in hue - due to lack of water therefore dry and devoid of nutrient despite having quite a heavy rainfall every now and then... that solid, rock-like soil still remained and was nearly impossible to plow let alone to cultivate and to sow the seeds at that time.

However this time; it was this soft touching her leather footwear, seemingly a perfect combination of sand, silt and clay in such proportions that stickiness and non-adhesiveness were in balance - hence the soils were moldable but not sticky, and sure was easy to plow and cultivate without any help of outer source water but the groundwater itself, explaining why this task of dusk was early completed.

"Oh... so that's what the creature is called; the Shining Worm. What an unusual name. But, ahaha... who am I to judge."

A curious gaze was plainly visible over the look of the middle aged man upon knowing the proposed name for the said creature that wrought the prosperity for such a remote, seemingly situated nowhere this small village was,

That proposed name for the said creature however, was nothing more than a name merely coming from the first impression the little lady gave to herself upon observing its creation; hence the timid expression she gave later, realizing that her odd naming was taken too seriously and by any mean she must explain this minor misunderstanding,

"Uh n-no... it's not really the precise name though, Uncle Esthas. I call it shining worm due to the fact that its body is appeared glowing and it seems to have some kind of sentient instinct; li-like an earthworm increases soil porosity. E-Erynew must have something else to call her own creation, ahaha."

Then, all of a sudden...

"Hey look. This isn't look good."

"How they are capable of making such a big hole in the ground?"

"After all of that hard work..."

"Stop whining around, if we're not right away fix it, we can't grow crops before winter."

"B-but, if we're not getting rid of those pests, fixing the hole won't solve the problem. They will definitely create another. But getting rid of them only consumes more time."

"Then, tell me! What should we do?!"

In a sudden manner, another voice was abruptly intertwined once again amid the brief silence; not one but many coming from behind them three. Holding quite a number of its owners to carry so much sentiment of many statements uttering their worries concerning something that seemingly became the main subject matter of theirs which was difficult not to attract anyone's curiosity in proximity... mainly those who were happened to be nearby, thus becoming the ones who were early to heed such a sight to see when every others peasants seemingly swarming in the middle of the field, even though that middle aged man had said that it had finished being plowed.

Therefore he rushed to approach the fuss swarming in the middle of the field, along with his wife slowly followed him from behind.

"What is it? Is there something wrong?" the middle aged man quickly proposed a question to the swarming crowd before him.

And that swarming crowd; consisted of a handful young peasants, and then one of whom quickly provided an answer, "Ah, Esthas... uh, it's actually just the ordinary problem, but--- haaa... I think you'd better see it yourself."

Exactly as the young peasant said, the answer lied before him; an answer that was easier to show than tell,

"My gods... it seems like their numbers has increased, eh. It's worse than I thought."

Widened his eyes out of shocking, even though the current problem was less severe compared to what he had experienced and seen so far yet the unexpected was still pretty much capable of giving him quite a surprise, so was his wife standing beside him to witness the same shocking thing. Of a large hole in their fields that somehow appeared or perhaps created by someone; or in this case, by something. It resembled a sinkhole; a depression in the ground that was large enough for ten adult person to fit in it at most, thus collapsing the ground around its proximity, escalating the calculated diameter of the outer layer that was supposed to be a ground for growing crops.

While a sinkhole in general cases, were caused by the stream of groundwater dissolving the minerals in the lowest layer, hence the deep hole. It was not the case however... because this hole, before them, was not that deep, only large in size; and surely still impossible to grown any plant on such a ground. Therefore they came up with other suspects causing this problem,

"They're coming again this season apparently. Those tunnelers. Moreover with higher number it seems." the middle aged woman, Aunt Aloe calmly voiced her suspicion judging from the visible tunnel-like paths inside the hole... most likely causing the ground above to collapse, "There were nothing like this before right?"

"Yeah. Since almost this entire season our land was solid like rock, none of them were coming. But until now, apparently," her husband added the further explanation, "It seems they're coming after the ground moisture was high and so was the softness of soil texture. They're starting to dwell in it to warm themselves, eating our crops and damaging the soil like usual. But I still don't know what causes such high numbers."

"Who cares about that!" snapped one of the young peasant, seemingly his patience had hit his limit, "We must first take care of this creature. If we let them be, there will definitely more the exact same holes all over the field. And if we don't do it fast, there will be no food for winter."

"We know that!" snapped back the other peasant, trying to keep the situation remaining calm in the midst of this exhaustion overwhelming the nuance.

When the composure eventually began to overwhelm the situation instead... gazing to the ground beneath while thinking for the solution; one of the young peasant began to expect something, "I'm just wondering, can Miss Erynew's magic deal with this kind of problem?"

"Miss Erynew's magic?"

"Yeah... well, you know, that glowing rope..."

A hope that vanished at the very last moment later, expecting something supernatural to solve this kind of problem, since those young peasants thought that magic could do anything. However in reality... it wasn't that simple; how the system works.

And seemingly only one individual who could comprehend such a concept within the commotion. Too young for her age in fact, that she was, all of a sudden, voicing her opinion concerning what should be done,

"I-I think it's not possible. U-uh, maybe because the tunnelers are not considered a threat for the village. Th-therefore the shining worm will still remain in passive mode."

It was Maya, the little lady who happened to overhear the problematic situation from behind. Taking a role of working behind the screen because of her shy nature, yet when it was coming that one particular moment... she ventured herself to speak up her thoughts, thinking that she could help at least a little. Even though it came in a timid way of speaking, shyly conveying her thoughts when everyone's eyes staring at her right now,

"I-I heard that the tunnelers are usually raiding the farm to warm themselves underground and to survive the cold season. Th-then... why not we try to give them more... tha-that warmth?"