The sun woke me up the next morning as it poured through my window. Here at Four Seasons, the sun was better than caffeine. I quickly pushed myself off the bed, feeling chilled but refreshed. The sensation was odd, almost alarming. Still, I didn't have time to reminisce; I had a lot to do. First, I checked my pad, and after realizing that I'd let the battery die, I plugged it in. Lily had sent me a message that she and her children would be arriving around ten, along with a selkie helper named Jude.
It was a little surprising that, apparently, only four children would be joining them. Perhaps even the orphanage was low on species. The people who prepped me on moving here had been talking like this holy space had almost been forgotten by everyone in the outside world. It sent the people here it wanted to forget. Charge and its pollution of this space was probably the only reason the government had remembered it existed again at all.
Cora had also sent me another email. In this one, she wrote she'd be by later that day to fix my electricity. From The Commerce of the People, I'd received 751 gold for the trees, 50 gold for the seeds, and 7 gold for the grass. Not nearly enough to even think about the roof repairs. I had been trying to figure out if I should buy the repair to the roof before I bought more seeds.
Better to make a plan. Right now, I need to get my garden ready for inspection and to look halfway presentable to the children. My day was probably a complete bust, but it was better to at least try. Quickly, I went and watered the radish and checked on their growth. They were still on point to be harvested on Tuesday.
Then I hurried back and got all my tools and put them on my porch in a way that I hoped looked interesting and eye-catching. Mostly, it just seemed to show off how shabby they were, but I hardly had the time to think about it, let alone try to make them presentable. I then quickly changed into my other set of clothing, which actually looked worse than the first set, but it didn't matter, because, at that moment, I heard the laughter and chatter of children.
When I came out of my shack, I quickly looked them over as they walked toward me. The selkie accompanying the orphanage director looked sour, his brows drawn together in a deep frown of irritation as he held a small pixie-looking baby who was no older than two. I knew that pixies could run small, but the shape of the face made me think it was a baby instead of a toddler. Then there was a child Orc, who was probably the oldest of the lot, with broad shoulders and green skin. She looked around the forest with wide eyes, acting as if she'd never seen trees before, and a sneer around her tusks as she gripped the hand of the child next to her.
I wondered if she was a new acquisition. A centaur held Lily's hand, and while she was obviously a colt, I couldn't begin to guess what her actual age was. Centaurs were almost as bad as elves when it came to guessing worldly ages just by looking at them. The last was an elf, a young male by the style of his clothes, who held the orc's hand and looked up at the trees, then the orc, only to quickly stare back down at his feet.
"Hello, neighbor!" cried Lily as she met my eyes, not letting go of the centaur's hand as she waved at me. I remembered that we'd never officially introduced ourselves and wondered if she even knew my name.
"Hello," I said after a pause that probably lasted a few moments too long, as I stood in front of all of them. "I'm Ni, the new owner, or well farmer, of this land."
"I'm Lucy," said the orc, stepping forward and giving a stiff bow. She then practically threw the elf in front of her and pushed him when he turned to look at her as if betrayed.
He then mumbled something that I couldn't hear.
"They're Mica. They don't have any confidence 'cause their mom abused them for being…"
"Lucy," snapped the selkie, and the orc's mouth snapped shut. She glared at him, then turned big eyes to Lily.
"What's the rule?" asked the satyr.
"Don't go talkin' about other people's business," grumbled the orc. "I was only explainin'."
The elf looked mortified, and I could guess a little what Lucy might have said. At the very least, Mica was unwanted and probably the product of a relationship with another species. Maybe a chaos one where, instead of picking one species to take after, the magic instead warred in their body. It was an awful fate and one that I was told often ended in early death. It was rough that they had to grow up with abuse on top of everything else.
"I'm Ria!" said the centaur, letting go of Lily's hand and trotting over quickly to me with open arms. Thankfully, she stopped, perhaps noticing that I instinctively stepped away from her. "Sorry. Right, people here need their personal space. Anyway, I have a daddy, but I go to school in the orphanage with everyone else, like Isla."
"The baby?" I asked, working on a guess since that was the only child not named.
"It's easier that way on the parents, and we're happy to have more people around the orphanage. Livens things up, especially with only two children currently in our care," said Lily fondly.
"Jude still lives at the orphanage. He never moved out," said Lucy, looking more confused than teasing. Still, the selkie blushed and folded his arms across his chest as if offended.
"I did move out. I just came back to help out," he said sharply, and there was a story there, but at the moment it was time to move on.
"Anyway, I'm not sure what you want to see, honestly. I've just settled in, but I'll try to answer any questions you have," I said, trying to sound natural, but from their looks, I wondered if I'd done something wrong. I repeated what they said in my head, but nothing I said was ridiculous.
"The garden!" shouted Ria cheerfully. The sudden scream made us jump a little in surprise.
"How you do it," said the orc with a grumble.
"Oh, well, um," I said, trying to think on my feet. "We could go to my garden with my tools, and I could show you how I planted from her pocket the seeds, though I don't have any currently to plant."
"We do," said the Orc, taking out a packet and holding it out toward me. When I didn't take it, she glared. "You said you'd show us. Were ya lying?"
"Uh, no, I just didn't plan… I don't want to take your seeds if you need them for your project," I said.
"We brought more. Plus, Lucy brought radishes with her once she heard that's what you were growing. Always good to have a few extra," said Lily with a smile. Right, more things I was going to owe Lily for. Maybe that was just the satyrs' way most of the time. After all, she did look after orphans, and probably more than just these ones. She was probably used to getting people into positions where they'd owe her, so they'd help her with the orphans when she needed an extra hand or two.
"Um, well then, follow me," I said. I led them through the forest, and then quickly slowed down when I realized that I was apparently going too fast and that especially the children were having trouble keeping up. I should have taken some time to make an actual path; part of the problem was that they were getting trapped by brush and thorns.
When we finally made it to the garden, that was when everything went completely wrong. I'd forgotten all my tools back at the shack, so I had to apologize and quickly run back to get them. It wouldn't take that long after, minutes at most, it hadn't even really taken that long to lead the group to my garden, but anxiety still dogged my steps the whole way there and back.
Would Lily lose control of Ria and the centaur foal crush my radishes in her eagerness to see a "proper" garden? Would the orc decide that I was abandoning them and destroy my garden in retaliation? I felt like I was going to trip head over heels as I rushed back. With a sigh, I slowed my pace, forced myself to get under control, and then I felt bad for what I'd assumed. There were only four children, and Lily seemed to be a good caregiver. My garden wouldn't be destroyed in just a few minutes.
Which was proved when I came back, and they were all waiting patiently around my sad little radish garden. Well, Ria appeared to be dancing on the shores of the river, but my radishes were still completely intact. I showed the children my tools, realizing a little late that some of them were a little dangerous for them to actually touch, and hoping that they wouldn't try to use them while I used my magic.
I then explained how I had made the garden, and even sowed the new seeds the orc handed to me. I even closed my eyes and tried to talk through how I supported the seeds so they would not only grow but thrive. The children then asked many questions. Most of them were surprisingly well thought out, and Lucy had a bad habit of asking questions that I had to admit I didn't know the exact answer to. I still tried to answer, but let her know I was mostly answering through instinct, not knowledge.
Actually, the weirdest question that Lucy asked me was after Mica whispered in her ear.
"How do rainbows fertilize the soil?" asked the orc, her voice deadpan. From her tone, it was clear that she was challenging me to say anything that might hurt the elf's feelings. I opened my mouth, closed it, looked toward the sky, and then looked at Mica, who hid completely behind Lucy.
"I've never heard about how they helped, honestly," I said slowly. "But I'm not only a new farmer, but new to living in a holy space. There's a chance that rainbows do play an important role in growing and fertilizing plants, but I will have to learn that as I spend more time here."
"Thank you, Ni," said Lily. She turned to her charges. "Alright, I think it's about time to go and plant our own wonderful crops. I believe Wyatt should have dropped off the pots and soil we ordered."