Chương 81: Book 2 Chapter 33 - Visiting The Village

Kiara took a day to go see her family. She left early in the morning, as it was harvesting season, and she wanted to arrive in time to help with some of the work. She intended to jog like she normally did, but as she was leaving Easton she spotted one of her old neighbors growing up. Old lady Edith and her granddaughter Ella were both leaving Easton as well, heading back home on foot. She wondered what they had come to Easton so early in the morning for.

Edith was looking a bit worse for wear, leaning heavily on her cane with one hand, and leaning on her granddaughter with the other. Their pace was absolutely glacial. Edith had always been kind to Kiara's family, and Kiara knew that a carriage ride back home would do them good. She headed back into town and rented one, but realized a few things once she did. First, the carriage driver wouldn't know who to pick up, so Kiara would need to ride in the carriage until they collected Edith and Ella.

Second, Kiara would probably need to ride with them all the way back to the village. Otherwise, Edith would consider it too much of a debt, and she wouldn't want to feel indebted, especially to a stranger. Kiara had been looking forward to the run, but resigned herself to her new fate as the carriage began rolling toward the city gates. She could always dismiss the carriage once they arrived in the village, and run on her way back to Easton after visiting with her family. That thought made her smile.

When they caught up to Edith and Ella, they were both resting on the side of the road. Well, Edith was resting, sitting on a large rock, while Ella drew in the dirt with a stick. Kiara smiled. Ella was clearly bored, but she was a good kid for helping her grandma make the trip out. Kiara had the driver stop the carriage as they pulled up alongside the two ladies. Edith was politely avoiding looking at the carriage, minding her own business.

Ella, on the other hand, made immediate eye contact as Kiara stepped out of the carriage.

"Grandma, look!" she nudged Edith on the arm. Edith, unable to avoid the interaction any longer, glanced toward Kiara.

"'Morning, ma'am."

"Good morning," Kiara replied with a smile. She had a brief sense of surprise that Edith didn't recognize her, before remembering that Edith was seeing Shian Yountal, not Kiara Dunsun.

"Looks like we're headed the same direction," Kiara offered.

"Would you both like a ride?" Ella's eyes lit up, but Edith did the polite thing and refused out of principle.

"Oh, thank you dear, but we're alright walking."

"Nonsense," Kiara replied.

"It's just me in the carriage, and we're all headed to the same place. Hop in!" Kiara chuckled at Ella's swing of emotions from excited to downcast then back to hopeful as she looked at her grandma.

"Well," Edith hesitated, glancing at the carriage.

"We wouldn't want to be a bother…"

"It's no bother at all, I would love some company."

"Oh, grandma, can we?!" Ella was practically bursting at the seams with excitement now.

"I've always wanted to ride in a carriage!" Edith rolled her eyes.

"Oh, alright, sweetie. Help me up." Ella hurried to her grandmother's side, and Kiara stepped forward as well to lend her a hand. Once they were in the carriage and moving again, Kiara asked them about their time in Easton.

"I was surprised to see you both leaving the city so early in the morning. What brought you to Easton?"

"Well," Edith explained, "I had some business in the city, and I don't move as well as I used to, so we made our way here yesterday and stayed the night. We left early today so we could make it back in time for dinner."

"Ah, I see," Kiara replied.

"Did you get your business taken care of in Easton?" Edith's expression fell at the question.

"No, I wasn't able to get any kind of resolution." Kiara's face took on a worried expression.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Is it something I could maybe help with?" Edith patted her gently on the arm.

"Don't you worry, young miss, I'm sure the baron will take care of it eventually. It's nothing for you to get involved in, just some bandits that have been harassing the village lately." Kiara's expression darkened. What were bandits doing all the way out here? In all her years growing up, she had never seen bandits this far outside a large city. On the main thoroughfares it made more sense, since there were merchant caravans passing through, but out here there was nothing to steal.

She and Ava had made the trip by foot to Easton on more than one occasion, and never had to worry about anything of the sort. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. After visiting with her family, she would try to look into it a bit before heading back to Easton.

"Are the bandits harassing people on the road to Easton, or inside the village?"

"Mostly in the village," Edith replied.

"We don't get too many travellers to or from Easton out here. The bandits come around every week or so, stealing peoples' crops and livestock. At first we thought they might just be passing through, but it's started getting worse.

"Last week they broke into old Tuck's house, stole every coin they could find, and emptied his cupboards. A few days ago they roughed up Farmer Stone when he tried to stand up to them, and he's been stuck in his bed ever since. We had an emergency village meeting, and decided that someone needed to get help from the baron in Easton. Everyone's so busy with harvesting season that I volunteered, and sweet Ella here came along to help me make the trip."

Kiara nodded thoughtfully at the explanation, then looked out the carriage window while she contemplated the situation. They spent the rest of the carriage ride with small talk and comfortable silence. She dropped the two ladies off at their home, surprising Edtih that she already knew where they lived. Then she dismissed the carriage driver, warning him to be safe on the way back, since bandits had been spotted in the area. She made her way to her parents' farm, and found them in the field harvesting corn.

They picked through one section at a time, pulling the picked stalks to the ground as they went to keep track of where they had been. All three of them were working hard, each with their own basket for the ears they picked. Gabe was playing with some toys on the back porch. Kiara knew they had a fourth basket in the small lean-to shed nearby where they kept their farming tools. Her family hadn't noticed her arrival yet, so she made her way to the shed and grabbed the extra basket.

She wordlessly made her way into the field, avoiding drawing any attention to herself. She began working on her own section of the field, falling into the familiar rhythm she had known for so many years. With the basket on the ground, she would pick an ear, drop it in the basket, then pull the stalk up and toss it to the ground, moving the basket with her foot as needed. This body didn't know the movements, but her mind did, and they weren't difficult to pick up.

She slowly increased her speed, being sure to still handle the food gently. Once her basket was full, she carried it to the back porch, emptying it into the small handcart there. Once the cart was full, they would pull it to the village center later in the day, where all of the farmers exchanged goods. Next week they would do it again, and so on until the harvest season was over. Any leftovers that couldn't be stored would be hauled to Easton to sell in the market district there.

Gabe was playing in his own little world, and didn't notice as Kiara paused momentarily to watch him with a smile. After a brief rest she returned to the field and picked another basket of corn. When her family had filled their own baskets and hauled them to the handcart, there was an exclamation of surprise at the sudden increase in corn in the handcart. Kiara had already made multiple trips in the time it took the others to finish filling the baskets they were working on when she arrived.

Before long, Kiara was finished with her latest basket full, and made her way back to the handcart. Her parents and Ava had paused their own harvesting to watch her work. The surprise on their faces indicated they hadn't realized who it was helping them until she made her way over.

"Lady Yountal?" Gentry asked with a shocked expression.

"By the two moons, what a surprise! When did you arrive?" Kiara had honestly lost track of time as she fell into the rhythm, but it couldn't have been all that long since she got here. She smiled in response.

"Hello, everyone! I haven't been here long. I saw you all working in the field and figured I'd lend a hand." Ava was giving her an unfiltered suspicious glare.

"How did you know where that basket was?" she asked, pointing to the one Kiara was holding. Right. From their perspective, she had showed up unannounced and gone rifling through their things… Ron placed a restraining hand on Ava's shoulder.

"That's no way to treat our guest, Ava, dear." He smiled at Kiara apologetically. Ava harumphed, maintaining her glare towards Kiara. Kiara noticed, though, that the glare didn't seem to have as much contempt or derision behind it as it had a month or two ago. Almost like she was maintaining it out of principle, now that the immediacy of whatever perceived wrongs she had endured were fading with time. Gentry glanced at the handcart, which Kiara's latest basket had finished filling.

"Well, although we certainly appreciate your help, Lady Yountal, you really didn't need to." Kiara shrugged.

"It felt good, honestly. It's something I've done plenty of times in the past. The familiarity of the actions were comforting." Ron gave her a peculiar stare.

"You help harvest the crops at your estate in Easton? I don't remember seeing any fields or gardens there." Kiara laughed.

"Ha! No, um… my uh… growing up, I helped with the harvest every year." She gestured over her shoulder with her thumb towards the fields.

"Corn, in fact." Her parents' eyebrows both raised at that.

"Honestly, I never would have guessed," Gentry said, almost to herself. Ava's face was noticeably less glare-ey than before, transforming instead into something approaching curiosity.

"Well." Ron said, looking around.

"We took care of the animals this morning, we pretty much just had this planned until lunch. Would you care to stay for some food? It's a bit early, but hard work does generate a healthy appetite." He patted his belly for emphasis. Kiara, with how frequently she stopped by, had felt bad with how often her family offered to feed her when she came over. She was trying to drop by at least monthly, sometimes every other week.

With how tight finances had been growing up, she was sure that one less mouth to feed was nice, although there was also one less person helping out with things. Perhaps it balanced out. Either way, today she had come prepared. She had brought along a small pack, which she had originally planned to carry on her back while jogging, but had instead been able to rest it on the carriage seat.

Inside were ham and cheese sandwiches, which she'd made fresh that morning, then wrapped tightly to avoid them being jostled around. She'd kept them cold with some ice. She had also brought some dried fruits that she knew would last awhile, and some small candies for Ava and Gabe.