A full cycle of the moon passed since the settlers of Elediah’s Trail arrived, and no one had truly taken a day of rest since. Small and shabby huts were being put up as quickly as possible, and fields were tilled for the first crops to be planted. Everyone had a task to perform and a place to perform it.

Beneath the shade of an awning, made of a reclaimed wagon cover, the womenfolk sat and hand-wove various things from the scrub grass they’d gathered in the surrounding wasteland. Some of them made baskets, some of them made rain shawls, and some of them were sorting the dried grass into piles for roof thatching. Some of the women, meanwhile, were working to stitch thorns and brambles into the rain shawls, hiding jagged surprises for any creatures that might try to grab a farmer by the shoulders.

The younger men were tasked with shoveling the top layers of dry, tainted soil into carts and hauling them out to a growing mound beyond the southern edge of the settlement, while the older men tended to their newly cleared fields. Cabbage, radish, carrot, and beetroot seeds were being sowed, while they made plans for winter wheat to be laid down in the coming months.

Arvel’s work training the militia had exceeded everyone’s expectations, including his own. He had expected many of the volunteers to beg off and refocus on more mundane tasks, but instead, the men were dedicated to their training even after working full days in the field. The face he least expected to see every day was Frederik’s, and yet, each day, the foppish young man showed up with fresh bruises and scuffs, and mended tears in his dirt-stained puffy sleeves, ready for more training.

As Arvel neared the farm, walking home in the evening from a late training session, he noticed Fidget and Rain inside through the kitchen window. Fidget was standing on the counter to use all of her body weight to operate the pump handle of the faucet over the sink, while Rain was holding her hands under the chilly water. Arvel slowed to watch them, and quietly stepped up onto the porch, but didn’t yet open the door.

“Working ‘til you hurt is stupid!” said Fidget, “Stupid, stupid!”

“I’m not stupid,” Rain grumbled.

“Acting stupid,” Fidget replied firmly.

Rain sighed heavily and said, “I wasn’t doing anything reckless compared to the other women...”

“Soft hands,” said Fidget, pumping more water, “Not good at hard work. Little bits of hard work, and when you can do more, do it.”

“We don’t have time for me to do little bits of hard work,” Rain said, “The demons could attack any day. They could already have attacked by now, and there would’ve been nothing we could’ve done to stop them. For all I know, Melodia is walking in and out of camp without a care in the world and no one even knows there’s a threat sitting next to them.”

“That’s life,” Fidget said with a shrug, “Any day, big hawk swoops down and WOOSH, off goes Fidget, never to be seen again.”

“How can you be so nonchalant?” Rain asked, brow furrowed.

Fidget stared at her.

“How can you be so... nhh... How can you not take this more seriously?” asked Rain, struggling to find more simple words.

“Does acting serious change it?” Fidget asked, “Fidget could hide under rocks all day, get skinny and helpless and pathetic and cowardly, eating grubs to stay hidden from big hawks. Or Fidget could go out and get the biggest stick on the mountain and swing it really hard to get strong enough to fight a hawk, ‘til arms fall off. But neither of those help and neither of those are really living. So Fidget keeps an eye out, and learns to swing a smaller stick, and keeps on living.”

Rain looked down at her hands, marred with scrapes and blisters, and asked, “Did your village consider you especially wise?”

“Didn’t talk to Fidget much,” she replied quietly, “But Fidget hid nearby and listened a lot, and lots of thinking alone.”

Rain smiled at her a little bit and said, “I keep forgetting that for your simple vocabulary, you’re remarkably astute.”

Fidget’s brow furrowed, and she looked confused for a moment. She cycled through her emotions as though she wasn’t sure how to respond to Rain’s statement, before finally giving her a big, toothy grin.

Arvel quietly crept around the porch, before opening the front door, and saying, “I’m home!”

“Welcome home!” Fidget shouted as she leapt off of the counter, running full speed toward him to latch onto his leg with a tight hug.

“I didn’t hear you approaching,” said Rain, as she picked up a nearby kitchen towel and began to gently pat her hands dry.

“Hope I wasn’t interrupting nothin,” Arvel said, reaching down to pick up Fidget, hugging her against his still slightly sweaty body. Right away, Fidget snuggled in, nuzzling against the side of his neck and breathing in the scent of his skin, even going so far as to let out a little pleased coo.

“Fidget was just finishing helping me wash my hands,” Rain said quietly, “I got a bit... overzealous, today.”

“Went and hurt yourself?” Arvel asked.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Rain nodded slowly, eyes downcast and already wincing, predicting the scolding she was in for.

“Try to be careful,” he said, “Your people need you to not fall apart on ‘em. Let them pick up some of the slack until you’re healed up.”

Rain lifted her head, looking at him with surprise.

“I’m gonna go get Lunette,” he said, “Got dinner in the works?”

“Ah, y-yes!” Rain replied, “I, ah... I made butter from goat’s milk today.”

“Explains the hands,” Arvel said with a smirk, setting Fidget down.

“Pot pie!” Fidget exclaimed, running to the hearth, pointing at the cast iron dutch oven hanging within, “Pot pie, pot pie!”

“Well damn, glad you’re excited,” Arvel said with a laugh, “I’m sure that butter’ll make it nice ‘n flakey. I’ll be back when Lunette’s bandages are changed.”

“A-Alright!” Rain stammered, smiling, barely able to contain her excitement. Her cheeks blushed deeply, and she looked down at her sore hands. What she saw earlier as marks of failure, were now steps along the way to her latest achievement.

That night, once their bellies were full with pot pie, Arvel, Rain, Fidget, and Lunette settled into their pile of bedding on his bedroom floor. Fidget had returned to stripping completely naked to sleep, while Rain wore a white cotton chemise, and Lunette had taken to wearing one of Arvel’s button-up shirts. Arvel himself wore a pair of baggy trousers, and shucked his shirt off in the corner where Fidget had abandoned her dress.

“Y’know,” Arvel said as he laid back on the piled bedding, beside Lunette, “I’m startin’ to think that maybe I ought to build onto the house some.”

“Why?” Rain asked, looking at him in surprise as she sat down beside him, placing him between herself and Lunette. Though they originally took on this sleeping arrangement to keep Lunette warm at night, she’d begun complaining about being too stuffy, and Rain was tired of getting elbowed.

“Well, it used to just be me and pa,” he said, “But now there’s four people livin’ under one roof. I’m afraid it’s gonna start getting crowded.”

“To be fair, it was not my intent to live here,” Lunette said, “I hope not to remain debilitated forever.”

“And I suppose I should move back to the camp eventually, when Ser Lunette gets stronger,” Rain said quietly, “It wouldn’t do for me to ask my people to sleep in tents and huts while I live in comparative luxury.”

Fidget stood at the ‘foot’ of the bedding, completely naked, staring at them. Her hands balled up tightly into fists and she shouted, “No!”

“No?” Lunette asked, “What are you saying ‘no’ to?”

“Don’t go!” Fidget said, climbing up on top of Arvel to flop across his chest like he were a piece of furniture. She stretched out and draped one arm across Lunette’s shoulders, and one across Rain’s lap, doing her best to hug them both as she said, “Stay.”

“T-That’s not... a reasonable request,” Rain said quietly.

“Fidget, don’t you want to have... ‘privacy’ with Arvel, again?” Lunette asked.

Rain’s face turned deep red, and Arvel’s cheeks warmed a bit too as he grinned. Fidget, however, looked troubled, furrowing her brow and looking at Lunette for a moment, before saying, “Kind of. But we still have sex when you two aren’t looking—”

“Fidge!” Arvel interrupted, slapping his hand to his forehead.

“What?!” asked Fidget, “It’s true! We can keep doing it in the tool shed if it means Rain and Lunette stay.”

“You don’t announce stuff like that,” Arvel said, “Rain’s a ‘proper lady’, and hearin’ talk like that gets her all bent out of shape.”

Rain stammered, her face practically glowing from her blush, and asked, “In the tool shed?! You too?!”

“You ‘too’?” Lunette asked, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s not... we didn’t... well not that...” Rain muttered, squirming.

“If not that, then what?” pressed Lunette, a teasing smirk on her lips.

Fidget sat up, straddling Arvel’s abdomen, looking down at him. She huffed and asked, “Is the tool shed you and Rain’s special place? You should’ve said so!”

“It ain’t!” Arvel replied, “It’s a freaking tool shed, is all! That only happened once anyway...”

“So it is ‘that’, then,” Lunette said.

“It wasn’t!” Rain shouted, waving one hand dismissively, the other covering her flushing features.

“Oh!” Fidget said, looking at Lunette, “They didn’t have sex! But they did—”

Suddenly, Rain tackled Fidget off of Arvel, shoving her down on the bedding with a pillow over her head. Fidget flailed beneath the feather-stuffed gag, kicking at Rain and grabbing the pillow to try to shove it off.

“Silence!” Rain commanded.

“NO!” Fidget shouted, muffled into the pillow, before she turned her head to the side to take a deep breath.

“That’s not your business to talk about!” said Rain, “OWW!”

Rain yelped in pain and let go of the pillow, looking down at a fresh row of teeth-marks on her forearm.

“You bit me!” whined Rain.

“Not hard!” Fidget replied as she sat up, grabbing the pillow and holding it defensively like a shield.

“You kinda asked for it,” Arvel said.

“If Fidget wanted to hurt you, you wouldn’t have an arm anymore,” Lunette said, “Their jaws lock, you know.”

“Common myth!” corrected Arvel, “They don’t ‘lock’ or nothin, but they do bite a whole lot harder than most humans. Plus there’s the sharp teeth...”

Lunette nodded, saying, “Oh, I see.”

Rain flopped back on the bedding beside Arvel with a huff. Though she was annoyed that neither of them seemed at all concerned for her wellbeing, she was at least happy that they had changed the subject. Though, she grew annoyed again when Fidget sprawled out on Arvel’s chest once more, and furtively stuck her tongue out at Rain.

All was quiet for a few minutes as they settled in to sleep, before Lunette said quietly, “I believe that I will miss this.”

“You will?” Rain asked, surprised.

Lunette nodded a bit, looking up at the ceiling above them, and saying, “I’ve never been this close to other people before. Felt so... cared for. Even as a child I often was made to feel like a burden by my mere presence. To go to sleep feeling the warmth of people who argue and laugh in equal measure, and wake up next to people who care enough to ask how I slept... It is a unique feeling. I imagine I will miss it a great deal.”

Arvel slid his arm under Lunette’s shoulders, and pulled her close against his side. He wrapped his other arm around Rain, and likewise pulled her close.

“Leave if you got to,” he said quietly, “But you’ll always know where I’ll be.”