One Moo'r Plow - Book 2: Chapter 10: Landship.

Perhaps the best sleep I had ever enjoyed ended with a rap on my door. I woke, eyes bleary and mood surly as a pleasant dream I could not remember was cut short. Whoever woke me better have had a good reason to do so.

Zheli was the culprit, I found.

“Mornin.” She bustled in with a smile. “Need food from the cellar.”

I groaned, remembered this was what I had hired her for and opened the door wide. Lidya was getting an order to build a proper food storage bumped to the top of her list. Aside from the dark-haired cook, there was little activity about the farmyard. Tash had declined a bunk in the storage house with Artyom and instead opted to sleep in the haystack near the pasture.

Gol may have factored into that. Ishila had given instructions to treat him with caution, but the cantankerous beast followed Artyom closely. Anyone that got too close to the felinid received a warning of bared fangs. Most did not press closer. Gol might have accepted myself and Ishila, but he was still very much a wild monster, I had to remind myself.

And I did not have a solution to that as of now. With that in mind, I approached Artyom. While he looked excited, I could smell the nervousness on him. Indecision, a touch of fear. He was nervous around so many people. Not entirely unwarranted.

“Mornin’” I greeted him with a smile. Or my best imitation of one. “I need you and Gol for some work.”

“Yes-yes?” He perked up, tone hopeful. I explained that I needed seed delivered to the Langills’ section that had been cleared yesterday. There remained a few bags inside the storage shed. Ishila had assured me they had not gone bad, and I wanted them there for seeding to start as soon as those oxen were brought.

“I’ll need you to stay there and watch them until the plow gets there,” I could almost feel the palpable relief that entered Artyom’s body as I spoke that sentence. It all but flooded his scent as he excitedly promised me it was no trouble at all. The felinid really didn’t like being around other people. I left the duo to sort that out and went to wake my resident drow.

Tash stirred awake as I kicked the pile of hay, one hand lazily raised to bid me good morning.

“Such early?” He yawned and blinked at the sky. “You are a cruel master. I approve.”

I was not sure how I felt about the smugness in that last sentence, but chose to ignore it. I needed to be done with some chores before Ishila came, and he was the one to do them.

“They are intimidating, yes.” He gestured at the taur-cows over a cup of brew I offered. “Hard-headed and temperamental. But I will yoke them, eventually. Such things need time.”

“Time is well and good, but I need milk.”

Healing milk would be my standout, my secret, I had decided. It was something I realized no one else could replicate. Something that could make me invaluable, should I become -and stay- the lone supplier around. And for that, I needed cooperative cows, if only so I did not have to keep wasting my Skills freezing them in place to drain them. As it stood, Tash was my best solution to this.

There was also the very slight complication that the next harvest was days away. The immense fortune that had landed squarely in my lap had rocketed the growth of my crops to unprecedented levels. The monster-plants in particular were overgrown now as no one had approached them save for ishila feeding various specimens.

I wanted those plants separated and transplanted into a contained space for growth, but that was a future project. For now, the order to steer clear from any and all monster-plants was firmly implanted in every worker here. The fool who had lost his hand yesterday stayed the exception, not the rule.

Ishila found me soon after as I hunched over the vegetable patch, pots to one side and spade in hand.

“How does being trusted with responsibilities taste?” I inquired as she helped me edge out dirt around one of the cleric-shine blooms.

“Awesome. Can’t wait for more.” She grunted and slowly listed the mass of dirt and roots from the ground.

She wasn’t lying, even as she hid it under a grumpy tone. I should have done this sooner, but here we were, moving my precious source of healing prowess inside. How it had survived the past month was perhaps a miracle, but I was taking no chances with its safety. A pot of loamy soil and transplanted bloom in each hand, I hastily hurried them inside. Ishila understood who, even as I had forgotten their names, and promised to be back with the oxen by noon.

She hurried off, first to change the shift of toughs I had left in the fields. It had been her who suggested alternating shifts last night, and I had left its implementation to her. Still, the presence of so many guards had prevented another nighttime raid.

With sufficient sleep under my belt, I was a much happier man. With that in mind, I left the farm and headed up the mountain to survey some property I had acquired. The land had been a package deal from buying out another farmer, but I had not yet seen it myself. Map in hand and somewhat solid idea of where my destination lay, I set off toward the rising sun.

Was going to be a scorcher, I knew. This early in the morning, and heat already roasted down, coupled with thick humidity. I had a waterskin at one side and weapon at the other. I expected danger from this area, and while I often hoped to be wrong, I never relied on such.

The first property was not far from my farm. I followed a split in the trail and came to hilly area. Overgrown, abandoned and long-neglected. Trees grew in had once been a large pasture, a massive trunk and ancient tree off to one side.

It would take significant effort to convert this into a field, I thought with a frown. Brush would have to be stripped away, trees hewn down, the small lake filled in. The massive trunk would take an obnoxiously long time to get rid of.

Or perhaps I did not have to. A sudden moment or clarity struck me. I had wanted an actual pasture and ranching section for the taur-cows. Why not move them here? This way, I could dedicated Tash and some farmhands to a full-time operation. Perhaps introduce a few bulls to grow the herd. It would need work, of course.

Fences around the entire perimeter, to separate the field and forest. A camp for the farmhands assigned to this job to stay in. I gauged the distance between this place and the farm, and found it unsatisfactory. I would need to move supplies here if my intent was to have all the milk produced and stored here.

This could be arranged. I nodded, liking the idea the more I pondered it. It was good, yes. With that in mind, I set back towards the main road and further up the mountain. It was sometime later that i discovered a visitor behind me.

The crow followed me from a distance, content to trail me at its leisure. I glared at the mocking, laughing thing and decided it would get no attention from me. Whatever its purpose was, it seemed to be close at hand whenever I was frustrated. Or perhaps its presence induced that frustration.

I considered, briefly, using Cloven Crash to knock it from the sky and getting rid of it.

My hand was stayed after I caught myself and realized that annoyance was no cause for bloodshed. I was better than that.

The next few properties were in various stages of overgrowth. Obviously abandoned, but fixable through back-breaking labor and dedication only coin could inspire. I now possessed the ability to make both happen. Sweat running down my neck and waterskin almost empty, I set off back home.

A patrol greeted me on the road, but aside from a few nods and wary looks, they rode on. I coughed at the dust they left behind but strode on, the last of my water emptied to wet my throat.

The farm practically bustled when I returned. Crews of workers hammered down fences, Sean directing them as per my instructions. Preparations were underway to begin harvest, storage spaces being prepared. The vegetable patches had been fenced off, I found.

But first, I stopped a youth that struggled towards the field’s edge, stone in hand.

“S-sean told us to clear the rockpiles from the field, Mister Garek.” I managed to get an explanation from him after a bit of nervous stammering. Directions to move it elsewhere given, I headed off to track down my over-eager foreman.

“Seemed like the logical thing to do.” The human frowned at me after I brought up the subject. I sighed, pinched the bridge of my nose between two flat fingers, and waited before I spoke.

“There are certain things about my farm that may not make sense. But I require you to trust my decisions, and clear anything with me first. Am I understood?” I bit blunt, but I would rather he be cautious than overeager. While, yes, clearing rockpiles from fields seemed like the logical thing to do, it was not, in this case. The sentinels had been disturbed by the rock’s movements and would take some time to reform.

“That aside, everything seems to be in order.” i commented after a moment of awkward silence.

“Yah. There’s a crew breaking up land at the Nielsin property,and your orc girl took the oxen down to Langills’ to start plowing. I have another crew working at Mush Creek to rip out the dam there and get something flowing.” he frowned. “The crop land there’s still fresh, old couple there just didn’t have the gumption to remove the dam and get water to their crops.”

“Explains why they sold it for so cheap.” I remarked, already knowing full well but just repeating the information.

“Aye.”

With that, I left him with further instructions and set off to check in on the loggers.

Lidya’s crew was nothing if not efficient. I recognized none of them, as she had promised to supply her own workers. But their work spoke for itself. Multiple saw pits were already dug, thick logs placed over them and notched so trees could be lain into the groves lengthwise and split with a pitsaw. One man worked inside the pit, another up top as the saw frame they rowed back and forth cleanly split logs down the middle.

As I watched, a log was finished, and with a yell, its halves kicked off to either side. The man inside the pit heaved himself out, covered in wood dust, sweat, and dirt. Another log was loaded into the notched cradle, and back into the pit the first man went.

Two more lads grabbed the split halves and hauled them towards a construction site where the foundations of a dormitory had very much taken shape. A tree crashed out of the woods, predated only heartbeats by a bellow of “Timber!” This too was dragged to the saw pits and heaved onto a pile to await being split.

It was back-breaking work. Hard, fast-paced, and demanding of all the endurance a man had.

I was all too happy that it did not require me. Coin could buy a man many things, and this was one of them. And I would be a fool not to partake.

“Good wood.” Lidya remarked as she strolled over, dusting off her hands. I could only vaguely make out what she said over the pounding of hammers and the constant rasping drones of saws being worked.

“Good work.” I nodded.

A laughing caw sheered through the air, and my insides dropped. Something was about to happen, and nothing that I would be fond of.

Something turned out to be a carriage being pulled up the road by a team of exhausted horses that struggled to tow a massive steel box behind them.

“Gods Above, what now?” I groaned as a rider galloped towards me. Whatever this was, I had little desire for it.