The Harvest

Chapter One - Tayna Oyoe

Photos- Txema Yeste Studio

Tayna ran as fast as her legs would carry her from the animal pens at the inner circle to the large round family compound set in the center of Etwie farm.

The farm was setup in a spiral. With rounded walls and single gates. Any traveler entering or leaving could be spotted almost a mile away. Today was no different as an expectant greeting from invisible guards drifted down to Tayna from atop the high walls.

"Hallo young missi!"

She held tight to the hem of her long brightly colored wrapped skirts, lifting them up above her knees to give her long strides more room for running.  Why did her tutor, and more importantly, her father, insist on her wearing this impractical dress?  She didn't live in the Port Land Cities.  Farmers had no use for fanciful skirts. Bows and frills made no sense in the south.  It just made running across Etwie's muddy fields that much harder.

But Father insisted she have a tutor to teach her to read and write in the high language, Akio.  She must dress and act like a proper city woman. She would never go off to one of the great universities in the portlands like her older brother, Rosh.  But she would certainly find a suitable husband who had established his mark among the Portland scholars, if her father had anything to do with it. Tayna would never find her hypothetical husband if she only knew the local dialect and the backwards ways of the scrublands.

Now thirteen harvest cycles old, Tayna spent most of her days hiding from her tutor in the animal houses or falling asleep at her desk.  But she would soon be fourteen and she would start her lady blood.  After that she would be expected to marry a man from a city university who could bring knowledge and skills and perhaps more land to Etwie. Marry and bare his many children. That was her purpose. Her only purpose. But Tayna did not want to marry some arrogant hot breathed young man educated in the portlands. So better not to learn Akio. 

She liked being in the animal houses helping the livestock tenders. That's where she felt the most comfortable and herself. Learning useful skills for the family farm.  She was smart and a quick learner.  She should have been a boy or an elder daughter.  Besides Tatillah, her tutor, would never dare come out into the muck and stench of animal fertilizer to search for her.   So that was the best place to hide.

She finally made it to the gate of the compound and waved at the guard whose head appeared from the wall above as she passed by freely with just a cheerful greeting. 

Spotting Tatillah coming from the servants house looking flustered and frustrated, Tayna darted behind a pillar and then crept and tiptoed through the shadows of the courtyard to make it to the steps of the main house before she was caught.

"Father?!?" Tayna called running into the house. 

"Your father is upstairs in a meeting with your uncle, granma and the land healer."  Loo the housekeeper appeared, hushing Tayna.  "Aren't you supposed to be with Tatillah in the class room?"

"The first calf of the season is about to be bore!!" Tayna shouted dropping her skirts and dripping dirt onto the newly cleaned floor.  

"Girl!! If you don't get them dirty feet off my nice clean floor!!" Loo swatted at her. 

"Sorry! Loo!" Tayna undid her skirts and let them drop before picking them up in a bunch to stuff in the wash.  "I'll clean up when I get done telling pop about the calf!"

"Yea." Loo put her hands on her hips and rolled her dark eyes.  She understood the importance of the calf's birth.  Even more important than her clean floors she figured.  "You better go quick and tell him then!"