Chapter 8: 8-Meeting the Animals

Lift.

Swing.

Drag.

Repeat.

That was what Rowan focused on as he plowed through the field.

It had been easy enough at the start, but after nearly an hour, his arms began to feel the strain. 

Rowan glanced at the boy Aaron Helmstrum who was plowing the lane next to him. The boy was sweating just like Rowan and was in worse shape.

If Rowan was beginning to feel tired from just an hour of working, then he couldn’t imagine how much worse it was for the young noble who hadn’t gone through any physical training like him. 

It didn’t stop the young noble from giving him the stink eye when he caught Rowan looking at him.

While he was able to trick Aaron into farming, Aaron’s pride didn’t stop him from provoking Rowan into a plowing contest.

For Rowan, he saw that swinging the plow was similar to swinging a practice sword. He just needed to concentrate on swinging the tool with all his might. The reach and weight was different from what he was accustomed to, but Rowan was able to get used to it.

It was a close match between the two boys. Sometimes Rowan’s lane had the lead, and sometimes Aaron was in the lead. 

It was not until another half hour passed, that Aaron completed plowing his lane before Rowan.

“Ha! Take that! See who is better now. ” Aaron shouted and then collapsed on the dirt floor like a puppet who lost his strings.

It wasn’t the first time Rowan wondered if the young noble had a problem with his brain.

For someone who complained about noble blood, they finished their job rather quickly and was now trying to show off.

Whatever happened to the noble blood they kept boasting about?

Rowan also just finished his lane, and sat down to take a break. At this point Grandpa Rodan wandered over seeing that the boys were finished plowing.

“Not bad! You were able to plow without too many issues!”

“Of course there would be no problem. It was done by me, someone of noble blood.” Aaron boasted

“I wouldn’t say there is no problem. These lanes you boys made aren’t the straightest.”

Rowan looked over their handiwork and then understood what Grandpa Rodan was saying. It wasn’t visible before, but both the boys had been so caught up in their little contest that they hadn’t realized that the lanes they plowed weren’t straight.

He could feel his face heat up a bit in shame. He was taught to do every task given to him with one hundred percent of his focus. However due to the meaningless contest between Aaron and him, Rowan had botched up his task.

“ No worries! It's your first time working on the field. No one expects you boys to be perfect. Practice makes perfect.” Grandpa Rodan gestured towards the rest of the field. 

Rowan did some quick math estimation. He wasn’t the smartest, but from the looks of it, both boys would have to plow about 10 lanes each to complete the field.

“If that’s not enough, there are still other fields to work on!” Grandpa Rodan said cheerfully with a laugh and then walked off to work on his end of the field.

Deep down, Rowan wanted to collapse on the ground just like Aaron had. However he soldiered on and looked for a good spot to start plowing.

Aaron on the other hand did not have the perseverance Rowan had. Hearing Grandpa Rodan’s words caused his mind and body to collapse from exhaustion at the prospect of more work.

 

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It was not until the sun reached the peak that Grandpa Rodan called the boys to stop.

At this point, Rowan's whole body felt like lead.  He had lost track of time and mindlessly just plowed the earth. If someone poked him, he would have toppled over. He would have kept on going if Grandpa Rodan hadn’t stopped him.

Aaron Helmstrum had fallen over in one of the lanes he had dug an hour ago. At first, Aaron kept grumbling how this work was not fit for a noble, but eventually stopped as his body gave out.

“Alrighty, let’s feed the animals first and then we can eat lunch. It’s also the perfect time to introduce you to them.” Grandpa Rodan looked at the collapsed form of Aaron Helmstrum. “Hmm, lets wake up the spoiled brat first .”

Rowan thought truer words have never been spoken, but he did not expect what happened next.

PA!PA!

Two slaps to the cheeks were delivered by Grandpa Rodan.  A weak groan came out of Aaron’s mouth and his body twitched, then remained still.

“Eh, good enough,” Grandpa Rodan said and heaved the boy onto his shoulder like a bag of flour. “As long as he is conscious enough to hear what i’m saying.” Rowan couldn’t tell how awake Aaron was, but his Grandpa must have his own means if he said those words. 

Grandpa Rodan led them to the barn that was next to the house. 

“You guys will be responsible for feeding these guys. Their meal time is the same as yours, so feed them before each of your meals. Here’s Bessie. She’s a sweet heart. There’s hay to the side along with the rest of the feed.. Just grab a bunch and feed her a handful. “

Bessie was a black and white spotted cow. She was taller than Rowan, but just a tiny bit shorter than Grandpa Rodan. She stared at the boys as they entered with large eyes, her tail swishing back and forth at the sight of company.

“She’s a smart girl and produces the best milk around here and I milk her every other day. I’ll teach you how to milk some time soon.”

Rowan could have swore he saw Aaron face grimace at those words.  How he had processed those words in a fainted state, Rowan would never be able to understand. 

Maybe Grandpa Rodan words were entering his head through a dream? If so it must be some nightmare for Aaron then.

He was led to the back of the barn’s back entrance where he saw two fenced off areas. One was full of dirt and had three pigs in them. One of the pigs was noticeably larger than the other two and had small tusks protruding out of its mouth.

The other one contained chickens and had a small shack in the back. A chorus of noise echoed out when the animals saw Grandpa Rodan.

“Over here we have the pigs of my farm. I usually feed them a lot of the scrap or leftovers from my meals. A lot of the vegetables I grow go into feeding the pigs. See the large one there? That's the leader of the pen, Sir Bacon. Be a bit careful as those tusk of his, they can be very dangerous. Try not tot get too close to him. The other two are Ms. Ham and Ms. Porkchop. I originally planned to eat Sir bacon for food, but changed my mind after a while. In the end i got him two wives instead. Isn't he  a lucky pig?”

 Sir Rodan walked over to the other fenced off area. Rowan counted 9 chickens and one rooster. The rooster stood out with it golden brown plumage and sharp look. If Rowan wasn’t mistaken, the rooster just looked mean. 

“This here is the chicken pen. You guys can collects eggs from the coop in the back. There’s feed where the hay is, so just grab it after feeding Bessie. There's only one animal you need to pay attention to and that is Buckbeak over there.'' Grandpa Rodan pointed at the rooster. “ He thinks he's the boss, and all the chickens are his wives. He’s the one you can thank for waking you up early in the morning. They say roosters call at the crack of dawn to announce a new day, but this one does it to call us out for food. If you don’t feed it, i promise you Buckbeak will come over and wake you up.”

Rowan remember the annoying screech in the morning. He did not  want to hear that noise up close when he woke up. It might just scare him to death if that was the first thing he heard in the morning.

“There’s one more animal, but shes missing right now. I’ll introduce you when she gets back. There's a river about 20 minutes from here where you can draw water from to feed the animals.  I’ll show you it later. You boys are responsible for feeding the animals now. Any questions?”

Rowan shook his head.  Maybe he’ll have questions later, but right now?

 He was hungry and stomach seemed to agree.

GROWWLL!

Rowans face reddened in embarrassment.

Grandpa Rodan merely laughed it off and said “ Its about time for lunch anyways. Let's get you boys fed.  You guys are still in the growing stage. Wouldn't want you boys missing a meal to delay that right?”

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