Author Note: One of the Positive feedback comments I had revived on my finished story, Fantasy Farmstead: Modern Benton Cove, was the building scenes. Apparently is was just enough detail without getting too technical. I hoped to add something similar here, but as Yari would have no experience with construction, more detail is needed.

Alex pulled some hand tools out of a nearby shed that, apart from a slightly different style, was roughly the same size as the one he lived in. He set to work with an odd one that had two shovel handles with awkwardly shaped metal parts that were joined together. He would chop at the dirt with it then, by spreading the handles apart, pull up dirt stuck between the metal bits. For a few minutes, Yari just watched, unsure of what to do.

"Sorry." Said Alex. "You don't have to help, but if you want to you can grab a shovel and start pulling up the dirt next to the corner of the house."

"How far down?"

"Until you hit the concrete."

Yari grabbed Hold of the shovel and looked down at the corner of the building. She put the blade to the dirt and pushed. Nothing happened. She tried stabbing at the ground. It was a little more effective, but nothing like in the movies. Alex's hand wrapped around the handle and stopped her.

"Put your weight into it. Like this."

Alex put a foot onto the metal edge and wiggled the handle. The blade slid itself into the ground about three times further than one of her stabs.

"Oh." Yari said. Her face flushing with the embarrassment of not knowing how to use such a simple tool. It took a few attempts, but she soon felt like she was making progress. The pain behind her horns and temples seemed to pulse with each act of physical exertion until she had to stop.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just a headache."

Yari then let out a shrill, girlish, shriek as she stumbled backwards, tripping over the shovel and causing her to fall on her ass. Her headache sent lances of pain into her brain which was prompted being ignored as her mind went through its fight or flight responses. For its part, the reddish-brown bird that had scared the shit out of her, had a similar reaction. Flapping its wings and running several yards away while making its own panicked noises.

"Are you okay?" Alex repeated in a tone that might have actually been tinged with the tiniest note of concern.

"I'm fine." Yari lied, her headache now hitting with a vengeance. "I didn't realize your bird got out."

"Sorry. I let her out."

"I'm gonna, go lie down."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Just a headache."

Yari woke to the sound of Alex messing with the woodstove. It was too damn cold to do anything other than pull the blankets over her head and try to fall back to sleep. How did Alex deal with this every day? Was it worse in the winter? Wasn't the heater on the back wall supposed to keep the place warm. She must have dozed off as the next thing she remembered was the scream of a tea kettle. It was warm inside the shed now, so much so that she was starting to sweat.

"Morning." Alex said as she pushed the blankets off and sat up.

"Hey." She replied, noting that last night's headache was down to a dull throb. Better, but still present.

"Coffee?"

"Oh please, with creamer and sugar on top."

"I don't have any sugar."

Yari moaned. "Just creamer then."

"Mmm, is creamer the same as cream?"

"I don't know."

The coffee was too damn hot. It tasted weird and bitter, though whether that was due to not having sugar or Alex's cream being liquid instead of powder, she didn't know. After a minute or so of scalding the inside of her mouth, Yari looked at Alex curled up on the floor enjoying his own cup.

"Um, Alex? I need to pee."

Alex looked at her, then at the tiny closet sized bathroom. "Right. Just give me a minute."

Alex didn't return in a reasonable time or even an unreasonable time. Yari dressed up as well as she could before leaving the shack to find Alex working on the spot he had started yesterday. The birds were out again, bobbing their heads and staring at her with their beady black eyes as if she were some type of prey animal. Alex had apparently managed to dig several holes last night and put green colored square logs in them. They were being held in place by smaller pale rectangular logs. She was going to have to ask what they were actually called and what Alex was trying to do with them. Right now he was chopping at the grass with a… pick/hoe thing. Yari tucked her hands into her armpits and watched.

"What's up?"

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"Well I don't want to be a burden on you, but… where are we going for breakfast?"

"I was just going to make some eggs. The stove is a little hot right now."

"Oh, okay."

"Would you like some bacon?"

"Sure."

"Alright." Alex set down the pick/hoe thing. "You want to grab the eggs out of the coop?"

"Ahh, what's a coop?"

"The chicken house."

Yari watched him start heading to the other shed. She looked the small wooden structure over and then eyed the reddish-brown birds, which eyed her back. "I thought chickens were white?"

"Some of them. Those are Island Reds."

The… chicken… bobbed its head. It sure didn't look like the bits of meat in last night's dinner. She supposed it was all the feathers and the fact that it was alive. Alex came out of the shed with a package of bacon.

"Why would there be eggs in the coop?"

Alex stopped and stared at her. It wasn't a very Alex stare either. For a man who almost never showed emotion, he was pulling off befuddlement admirably. "Huh?"

Now Yari felt felt dumb. She had about six years more schooling than he did, but she was missing something that he must have considered common knowledge. She sighed and repeated the question. "Why would there be eggs in the chicken coop?"

"Because it's a chicken coop." Alex replied with his usual blank expression.

Okay. Yari thought to herself. It was obvious. Birds laid eggs. Chickens were birds. Therefore chickens laid eggs. "How do I get in?"

Alex brought her around back and showed her how the lid lifted open. Three eggs sat inside a box filled with grass. They were brown and one had what she suspected was poop on it. She picked up one of the clean ones and inspected it. "So, apart from being brown, how are these different from the ones made in the factory?"

Alex didn't reply right away. He was staring again. "An egg factory," he finally started, "is where they raise chickens that lay eggs. As opposed to a chicken factory, which is where they raise chickens for meat."

"Oh, so chicken from a farm and a factory are the same?"

"Well, mostly. It's more complicated than that, but for your question, yes."

Bacon sizzled in what might have been Alex's only pan. It was just as black as the woodstove and if Yari hadn't known any better she would have said they were made of the same material. A quick internet search revealed that the stove and the pan likely were made of the same stuff, cast iron to be specific. While Alex fussed over the bacon, Yari sat on the cot feeling like a child. Turns out Alex was right. Egg factories were full of chickens that were stuffed into tiny cages. The conditions were horrible. Turns out all the "stop eating animal products'' propaganda was supplied by animal rights groups. Alex's chickens looked nothing like the factory ones on the internet. She was getting an idea on what Alex meant when he said it was more complicated. Pigs and cows didn't seem to fare much better than the chickens. It was almost enough to go vegan, except she was Tel'ani and a vegan diet would kill her.

The air was cool and crisp, a word Yari had never used before when describing air. The sun sat high in a bright blue sky making the cold world seem fairly warm. Alex returned to chopping at the grass with the pick/he thing.

"So, what are the logs for?"

"Logs?"

Yari pointed to the pieces of wood in the holes.

"Oh. Those are the pillars for the next section of the house."

"Okay. Umm, so why are those ones green and those are tan-ish?"

"Do you know anything about carpentry?"

Yari shook her head. "I've seen wood on construction sites before, but that's about it."

"Okay. So these ones here." He pointed to the vertical green square logs. "Are pressure treated four by fours. Pressure treated means they have been treated so they don’t rot when in contact with the ground. The lighter colored ones are two by fours. To make things complicated, the boards are planed to be a uniform size. This means the four by fours aren’t actually four inches by four inches. They're a little smaller. Don’t worry about that for now. So I’m just using the two by fours as bracing while the concrete dries.”

Yari nodded along with the explanation. “What’s with the pick thing?”

“This is a mattock. I’m using it to cut away the sod.”

“Sod?”

“The grass and their roots.”

“Okay. What do you want me to do?”

“Well, if you want to grab the edge and pull while I chop at the roots, that might help. Might not.”

Yari spent the next several hours outside helping Alex. The sod removal was the most difficult part. Once that was done he showed her how he marked the post so that they were level with the rest of the shed. He then marked up the post and started cutting away at each one with a thin piece of serrated metal on a stick called a pull saw. He cut each post so they all had a one inch by one inch by six inch square peg sticking up. He said it was for locking the beams in place, but it didn’t make sense until he pulled out a twelve foot long, treated four by six and started cutting. Alex used a hand drill and chisel to make holes for the square pegs to go into. The beam connected almost perfectly with the posts, some hammering required with a tool called a sledge hammer. Alex even let her cut some of the boards. Though getting the pull saw to not bend and bow was difficult. The trick was to keep straight and let the saw cut only on the pull, hence the name, pull saw.

Yari poked at her meal. She had honestly been feeling pretty good right up until the point where Alex pulled out the largest gun she had ever seen in real life and shot a defenseless bunny. The sound had made her practically jump out of her skin. He did apologize for scaring her, but as if it were nothing, he ripped the poor animal apart with his bare hands, feeding some of the bits to the chickens. That poor defenseless ball of fuzz was now laying on her plate. The bones having been pulled out, the meat chopped into small bits, all of it having taken a ride in Alex’s single black pan along with some chorizo, and topped with a white cheese sauce. Logically she knew it was edible. Her ancestors would have enten bunny rabbit often, but there was something just so… jarring… from seeing the animal go from cute little woodland creature to eviscerated to on her plate in the span of an hour or so.

She put the forkfull in her mouth. There certainly was a sense of guilt, but it would be much worse if she refused Alex’s cooking. There was some natural reaction to the food. Not so much the meat as the cheese. It was delicious. As if her taste buds had found the one thing she had been missing her entire life.

“Wow.” She said, catching Alex’s attention. “What kind of cheese is this?”

Alex shrugged. “I don’t know. Just some generic brand white cheese.”

Yari stared at him. “Well, what did you do to make it taste so good?”

Again Alex shrugged. “I added a tablespoon of butter.”

She had watched him make the stuff in the microwave. It covered up the bunny flavor, mostly. She took another bite. “Umm, I could use a bath.” Again she felt silly. Back home taking a bath ment pushing a button for her favorite temperature and stepping into the shower. Here, she had no idea.

Alex pointed at the steel bucket of water he had on the stove. “Already heating up the water. I’ll get the basin once I finish eating.”

That didn’t really explain anything.