Harvest Moon: Kestrel Village

Chapter Six

When the golden sun was already hanging high in the sky, Omelette the chicken snapped its beak towards a fleeing worm as her breakfast dived back into its hole for safety. While she and her feathered companion Scrambled Eggs had adjusted to their new life on this farm, it was unfortunately repetitive. Day in and day out, they were confined to the same wooden pen with the same rope used as a noose to keep the chickens fenced in. It was dull to have the same scenery before you each and every day. She sighed and nudged the gate with some effort as she did daily in hope the noose would slip and it would give way to her freedom.

And it did.

~~~

Roxy adjusted her glasses and gave out a long, restrained exhale through her nostrils. Despicable. Just despicable. She gripped the handle of the feather duster and prodded the lump on the bed none too softly in the rib.

“Nick.” When there was no answer, Roxy poked harder. “Nick. Wake up.”

“Hnrghwha?” The young man rolled over onto his protruding stomach and blearily opened his beady eyes. With one arm, he groped to his right on the nightstand until his hand grasped the glasses he needed to see properly. Slipping them on took more effort. “What’s goin’ on?” He asked in a single slurred drawl.

“I need to clean. Get out.” The young lady jabbed a thumb over to the open door. “It’s one in the afternoon already. How long are you going to sleep?”

Nick smacked his lips together before letting out a drawn-out yawn that made Roxy grimace and back away from him defensively. “Call of Booty marathon last night. Was awesome…”

She snorted and rolled her eyes at him, putting her hands on her hips as she did so. “As expected from a loser like you, Nick,” Roxy remarked. “Staying up watching your stupid cartoon porn.”

“Actually, you are referring to ‘hentai’, but that was not what I was watching,” Nick pointed out. Using a bit of momentum, he managed to roll his body right off the bed and land clumsily onto his bare feet. “It is about five beautiful women who are looking to find the right man to fall in love with. They just happen to have big boobs.” He looked down upon himself to see that he had fallen asleep in his wrinkled t-shirt and jeans. “But why’re you here? I thought you’d be in the woods by now with Mitch.”

“I’m not because he wants to visit Miz Sophie today alone.” She made a face that made Nick shrug nonchalantly. “He wanted to talk to her about coming around more often or something.”

Roxy was going to continue, but Nick held up a hand to silence her. Sniffing the air, his tone was curious with a hint of alarm attached to it. “Do you smell something burning?”

“Nooooo!” A heart-wrenching screech made the duo jump a few inches in the air. Roxy darted past the door with Nick at her heels, but she stopped almost immediately, causing Nick to stumble into her.

Ed limped out of his room, thin curls of black smoke flowing towards the ceiling like an upside-down river. He staggered a couple of feet before falling dramatically to his knees with a hard thud and clutching his fists in frustration.

“Failure,” he bellowed to the heavens. “Complete, utter failure!” He shook his right fist towards the ceiling and rolled his eyes back. “Why is life so cruel to those bestowed with ingenious minds?!”

He was answered with a feather duster to the face.

“ED!” Roxy roared. “You made a mess again, didn’t you?” He cowered at Roxy’s oncoming wrath, each stomp of her foot signaling that she was getting closer to suffocating him nice and slow.