Farming for Courage - Chapter 3 - A'mara Books

3

(Terraday, cont)
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Torsten’s mind had started racing the moment he learned about the livestock. He couldn’t put them too close to the others, to begin with, for the safety of all. So, the run-down shed in the bottom pasture would have to do. He directed Zilan to move the livestock carriage down the hill to the designated shed, hardly noticing the boy who tagged along enthusiastically.

Despite his worries about children on the farm, the boy seemed to know exactly where he needed to be most of the time.

“Will this be enough?” Zilan asked as he climbed back down.

“It will have to be. There are top-quality caballus in the middle pastures, nuwa in the top pasture. I can’t risk any Atruan diseases,” Torsten said.

“They are not diseased!” Ervin protested.

“Shit, I’m not saying they are!” Torsten snapped back.

“You did!” Ervin insisted. “And you shouldn’t say words like that!”

“Listen, lad!” Torsten replied tersely. “Firstly, I can speak the way I like! Secondly, just because your pets are in perfect health right now doesn’t mean they aren’t carrying something that wouldn’t make them sick, but could endanger Kasagan animals. Would you risk an animal that’s worth as much as your entire pet collection by putting all the animals together immediately?!”

“N...no,” the boy said more humbly.

“Good! Now that we have that shit straight!” Torsten turned back to Zilan. “We have several pastures here though – goats and ovind in the small one, I guess. Jelip in the big one. Anything smaller will go in the stalls in the shed. Can you pull the carriage closer?”

“Of course,” Zilan replied. “Yavin! Back them up to those pastures!”

The blondish man jumped into the driver’s seat and clucked to the caballus who backed obediently, getting the carriage as close to the fence as was prudent. As if on cue, Gulyan came running down the hill barking obsessively at the carriage and foreign animals.

“Fuck! I told her to get the dogs inside!” Torsten growled, rolling his eyes. “Gulyan!”

The crazed dog reluctantly came away, but kept a wary eye on the newcomers.

“I can help!” Ervin announced, then ran to the dog, talking to him in calm tones. Torsten watched, surprised, as the boy managed to befriend the dog, just like that. Gulyan wasn’t the easiest dog to handle and he calmed for Ervin like magic. Torsten shook his head, then approached the carriage to help unload livestock.

“Goats first, I guess,” Zilan said. “Elíaz!”

The brown haired man joined them as everyone worked together, Ervin holding the gate open, Gulyan right beside him, making Torsten shake his head again.

Torsten noticed a pair of attractive young women standing nearby, as he wrangled a large tan buck down the ramp. One was clearly watching Yavin. Even Torsten could see she had bonded with the young man, the spark of life evident in the leya around her abdomen. But the one who appeared to be her twin kept watching him. She was hesitant though – as if she was slightly afraid of the livestock. City girl, he realized with a hidden laugh. His attention returned to unloading the animals. There was no time to babysit a city girl, no matter how pretty.

♥

Latássi grumbled in frustration as they asked yet another citizen whether they’d seen three caballus-drawn carriages come through, and the answer was in the negative. It seemed that no one had noticed anything! She was beginning to wonder whether these Ke’oyans noticed anything at all! They had tried all the main streets that went through town from the docks and nothing! They couldn’t have simply vanished, not animals of that size!

“Maybe we’re missing the obvious,” Tasp said, at her side.

“Like what?!”

“If no one noticed them in town, maybe they didn’t go through town!”

“Then what?” she asked.

“We try all the roads around… and consider the possibility that they stopped before town!”

She hated Tasp when he was right – at her expense! But she had to admit that he might be right this time.

Before she could move further, he enveloped her mouth with his, in that insistent way of his, that she found slightly arousing. The hand that slid into her top woke her quickly again. “No!” she told him. “We’re not that familiar!”

“Yet!” Tasp hinted. “You owe me, you know...”

“After we’ve made some real progress!” she postponed.

“You can’t put it off forever!”

Again, she knew he was right, but she also knew that once she gave in, they’d lose the rest of the day that they needed to spend finding the fugitives!

♥

Even Celna wasn’t quite comfortable with all the animals, Seri Dellan could feel, but she wondered where she could go without running into trouble with one or more of the animals. She wondered how long they were going to be here on this farm. Life hadn’t been quite what she expected ever since she left the casino in Hailu to catch up with her double cousin halfway to Atrua.

It had been exciting, for certain, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to live her life on the road, especially now that Tilo was dead, having tried to attack Celna on the road. (She had defended herself and killed her assailant.) Thanks to their stop in Shayanda to deal with the officials, no one was looking for Seri and Celna now, she didn’t think, despite Zilan’s constant warnings that her being with them could have given her a Death Edict of her own.

“Fuck!” The oath split the air as sharply as any bolt of lightning. Seri looked, noting a large, woolly animal that had just broken through a barn gate and was now running towards her along with half a dozen of his closest buddies.

Her first instinct was to run away, but the herdsman shouted at her before she got the chance.

“Scare it this way!” he shouted.

She wasn’t sure how she was meant to achieve that! She timidly stood in the way of the fleeing animal, half ready to panic. It had seemed all small and innocent when it was in its stall, but now it seemed huge! She stood, frozen in place, unsure what to do next.

“Block it!” he shouted. “Make yourself big!” He demonstrated by spreading out his arms and legs.

She copied what he was doing, feeling the terror engulfing her.

Seri looked at the animals again, saw that one of the ewes had turned back towards the barn, but a large ram was bolting towards her, perhaps understanding that freedom was just a charge away. She tried to make herself larger, but a moment later, she was on the ground, covering her head to avoid being trampled by all the hooves.

She could just hear the men laughing as she lay there.

“It’s safe now!” he shouted, resuming laughing.

Her cheeks burned as she got up out of the mud. The angry tears stung her eyes. She didn’t show them though. She turned her back on the mocking laughter and walked painfully towards the farmhouse up the hill. She was no farm girl, that’s for sure!