KINGDOM OF THE STONE -- a Wattpad featured novel

Chapter Twenty Seven

The farmer's name turned out to be Sporo and he was not happy to be included in the trip to Widow Caera's farm.  But as the elders of Har-Tor implied that he would have to help them if he wanted their help he reluctantly agreed.

The widow Caera was out behind her house feeding her chickens when they arrived.  She was an older, grandmotherly type of person with a shapeless farm dress and a shapeless face from which a small round nose and a small round chin protruded.  When she realized they had come to speak to her, her thin lips stretched into a wide smile and she invited them inside and offered them drinks and some snacks of sweet-bread of which she took three for herself.  They spoke of the weather and of conditions back at Har-Tor.  They spoke of the neighbors and the success of Karux's carved wooden poles before Jomel was able to turn the conversation over to the subject of the bwcca.

"Well, they're very shy creatures," she replied to his questioning.  "If they see or hear you, they won't come out, especially if they don't know you.  But that doesn't mean they're not there.  If you have any water on your property, you probably have some.  If you have a stand of trees with an odd number of trees—especially if one is a shepherd tree—I can almost guarantee you have them."

"But how do you get them to help you in the fields if you can never see them?" Sporo asked.

"First you have to call them."  The widow Caera demonstrated by singing a short repetitious tune whose unintelligible words could have been another language or could have just been sounds.  "That'll get their attention.  They're curious creatures and imitative by nature.

"Once you've called them, just go about your work while they watch from their hiding places.  Leave the tools they need out at night and they'll do what they saw you doing during the day.  Leave a large bowl of milk and a few slices of bread and they'll keep coming back.  Put a drop of honey in the milk and you won't be able to get rid of them.

Sporo shook his head in disbelief.  "You make them sound like children imitating their adras."

Caera nodded.  "Much like, yes."

Jomel stroked his beard thoughtfully.  "I wonder if they could be trained to do other tasks."

"You'd have to find a way to get close to them first," Karux said.

Jomel looked to Karux.  "Will you need to see them to determine if they are n'phesh, or have some connection to the elementals?"

"I will have to know where they are.  It would be best if I could see them with my own eyes," Karux said.

"Is there any way we could see the bwcca?" Jomel asked Caera.

"I have sometimes seen the brownies at dusk when they come out of hiding," Caera said.  "If we are quiet, we might be able to see them tonight."

"I think we'd like to do that," Jomel said.

"So much for a quick little trip," Sporo muttered.

"Well," Caera stood with a sigh.  "There's still plenty of light left.  Best if we go spend some time working in the field so the bwcca can get used to your presence."

Sporo muttered something under his breath about learning how the widow Caera managed the farm without help as they followed her out into the field.  She worked them hard all afternoon then took them back to the house and fed them.  Afterwards, she put several bowls of milk and some sliced loaves of bread outside her back door, then led them out the front, downwind to the neighbor's property, and then back along a line of brush bordering the two fields where they hid.

"Lie absolutely still," she whispered.  "If we are lucky, they'll choose to ignore us."

Karux lay on his stomach amid the bushes watching the empty fields fade in the growing dusk.  The longer he waited, the more uncomfortable he grew as every rock and twig on the ground pressed themselves into his body.  He had nearly surrendered to the screaming urge to slap at the mosquitoes biting his face and neck, when he saw the first sign of furtive movement in the shadows at the edge of the field.