After breakfast, while Fidget and Lunette were cleaning up, Arvel and Rain went out to the tool shed in search of shovels. Arvel had been quite rough on his shovels over the last while, having destroyed several of them in combat with demons, but since he began carrying his father’s sword, he hadn’t had a use for more than the one that hung by the front door.

Rain had volunteered to help him look for more tools, but as they approached the shed, a deep blush began to rise to her cheeks. She remembered a day shortly after she arrived at Arvel’s farm where they wound up in the tool shed. She’d gotten worked up over something, shouting at Tim, and Arvel took her there to calm her down. The way he wound up ‘soothing her nerves’ was an experience that she would never forget.

But then another memory rose to the surface of her mind. One of Fidget, bargaining for Rain and Lunette to keep living with them, shouting, ‘We can keep doing it in the tool shed if it means Rain and Lunette stay.’

“It’s not a shed of tools,” Rain muttered under her breath, “It’s a shed of sin.”

“What’s that?” Arvel asked.

“N-Nothing!” she stammered, waving a hand dismissively.

Arvel grinned at her as he grabbed one of the door handles and said, “Yer blushin’. I bet I know what you’re thinkin’ about. I didn’t think gals were usually the ones who got frisky early in the mornin’.”

“I-It’s not like that!” she replied, flustered, “Besides, it’s hardly exciting to know that you’ve taken other girls here too.”

“I ain’t taken ‘other girls’ here,” Arvel said, “Just Fidget, I ain’t brought Lunette out here for that.”

“Then you’ve taken Lunette elsewhere for that?” Rain asked suspiciously.

Arvel opened his mouth to reply, but then promptly shut it, and opened the door as he said, “We ought to find some shovels!”

The morning light poured into the shed, and streaked across a form curled up on top of a hay bale. Bereft of her glamor, Melodia was nearly naked, her modest farmgirl dress replaced with a bodice of black lace that wrapped tightly around her lavender-blue skinned form.

Rain gasped, then immediately smacked Arvel on the shoulder.

“What?!” Arvel shouted, “I’m as surprised as you are! You saw me throw her out!”

“Then what is she doing here?!” Rain asked.

“Hells if I know!” he replied.

Melodia slowly sat up, rubbing one of her eyes, and asked, “Why are you shouting so early in the morning?”

“I told you to get out!” Arvel said, pointing accusingly at her.

“Out of the house,” said Melodia, “Clearly, I’m in the tool shed.”

“Git off my property!” he shouted.

“And go where?!” she asked, “If you hadn’t noticed, there’s a demon slayer in Elediah’s Trail. Their tents are right outside of my house!”

“That doesn’t sound like it’s our problem,” replied Rain, folding her arms.

“Hmph... and I’m certain you would be the one to call me evil,” Melodia replied, eyes narrowed as she stood up, dusting stray pieces of straw off of her hip.

“Alright, there ain’t no good reason to start a fight,” Arvel said, rubbing his temples with his thumb and middle finger, hand stretched across his brow, “We need to stay on task. It ain’t like Melodia’s hurtin’ nobody by hidin’ out here and it’d probably cause a lot more problems if she went back to town ‘n got caught. She ain’t even got her enchantments to help throw folk off the trail anymore.”

“That’s right,” said Melodia with a firm nod.

“But you,” Arvel said, taking his hand from his head to point at her, “You need to keep a low profile. Like a real low profile. I ain’t gonna stop Fidge from swattin’ you with a broom if it comes to it again.”

“Why?” Melodia asked with a smile, “Afraid she might turn on you?”

Arvel glanced down at the fading teeth marks on his forearm, before he quickly rolled his sleeve down to cover them, and said, “Because quite frankly I think you deserve to get smacked upside the head with a broom. Might straighten y’out.”

“Straighten me out?” Melodia asked, laughing as her glamor overcame her again, her form blurring before it solidified again as a lovely young human woman. She smiled as she strode right up to the two of them, and said, “That doesn’t sound very fun at all. Speaking of my boredom... What are we up to now?”

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When Fidget and Lunette emerged from the house, both of their faces turned sour at the sight of Melodia waiting alongside Arvel and Rain by the gate. Three shovels of various styles were leaned against the fence beside them, and a stack of four metal buckets.

“What’s that look for?” Melodia asked.

“Ain’t worth explainin’,” Arvel said, “Just less trouble, ‘n easier to keep an eye on her this way.”

Fidget audibly growled, but quieted as Lunette petted her hair.

“I trust you, Arvel,” Lunette said, looking him in the eye. She then shifted her gaze to Melodia and said, “I do not trust you at all, and I will be keeping my eye on you.”

As Lunette started out the gate, Melodia fell into step at the back of the group, rolling her eyes and wiggling her fingers in the air as she replied, “Ooh I’m just terrified...”

The five of them walked across the green hills near the farm to the large oak tree that grew in the distance. The grass would usually be much taller this time of year, but Arvel gave the settlers the go-ahead to harvest it for making hay, and it made their climb up the hill much easier.

As they walked, Rain reached out, and gently took Arvel’s hand. It took him a moment before he curled his fingers around hers and gave her hand a firm squeeze. A little over three months ago, Arvel took Rain here to introduce her to the Immortal Knight.

“...You’d rather farm turnips...” Rain said softly.

“Eh?” he grunted.

“On the list of things you’d rather do than ‘fight for a lost cause’,” she said, “But look at you now.”

“Things’s different now,” he muttered, “Ain’t a lost cause no more.”

Rain smiled and said, “Because of you.”

“Don’t get on that,” Arvel said, “Ain’t just because of me. You ain’t gonna stand there diminish all Lunette’s done, and what Fidge’s done, and all the settlers at Elediah’s Trail. You ain’t gonna diminish your efforts neither. We also ain’t talkin’ about tryin’ t’save the whole province from a demon invasion. I’m just helpin’ out the folk what live just down the road from me. It’s what a good neighbor does.”

Rain smiled a little more, before walking closer at Arvel’s side, lacing her fingers with his and leaning against his arm.

They arrived beneath the shade of the tree, and stood before the mossy headstone nestled between the exposed roots of the oak. Wildflowers still flourished here, but they had changed since Rain’s arrival; gone were the soft pinks, blues, and whites of the past season, replaced with fiery oranges, yellows, and reds of late summer.

“We dig here?” Fidget asked, holding up a shovel, before Lunette grabbed the back end of it to make sure Fidget didn’t impatiently start on an improper location.

“Not here,” Arvel said, “This is where pa’s at. But ma’s somewhere else out here around the tree. We just gotta look.”

“I’ll take the eastern side of the tree,” Lunette said, “Fidget, you take the west. Arvel, if you want to start on the far side, we can all spread out.”

“What about us?” Melodia asked.

“Y’all can help move extra dirt off with the buckets,” Arvel said, “But keep one clean for runnin’ back t’the house to get water. It’s gonna get real hot ‘n real tirin’ out here, real quick.”

And it did. After less than an hour of digging, Arvel had shucked his shirt off onto a shrub beneath the tree’s shade, and his overalls hung loose around his waist, to let his sweat-drenched upper body move more freely. He’d dug several holes, two or three feet deep each, before filling them back in and moving a few feet over to try another spot. The closer he worked to the base of the tree, the more exhausting the work became, digging around thick lateral roots.

“Don’t exhaust yourself,” Rain said, setting a bucket down beside Arvel, on the edge of the two-foot hole he was standing in, before wiping sweat from her own brow.

“Slow ‘n steady only does so much,” said Arvel, wedging his shovel in between a couple of roots and leaning on the hilt, “The more breaks I take, the more likely I gotta get out here ‘n back at it in the mornin’.”

Rain dipped a tin cup into the water before holding it out for Arvel, tilting it to let him take a sip without him having to get his dirt-caked hands wet. He drank somewhat awkwardly from the cup, tilting it a little more with his chin, before water poured down his neck and chest in a heavy splash.

“Ah, s-sorry!” Rain said, turning the cup upright.

“S’fine,” he replied with a smirk, “Feels good.”

Rain’s cheeks reddened as she stared down at the rivulets of water and sweat dripping down Arvel’s chest.

“You doin’ alright?” he asked, “Keepin’ cool?”

“Warm,” she muttered quietly under her breath.

Arvel asked “Eh?”

Rain blinked from her stupor and looked up at him, eyes wide like a startled doe.

“Hey!” came a shout from the other side of the tree, “We found something!”

Arvel threw down his shovel and scrambled out of the hole to run to the western side of the tree, following the sound of Melodia’s voice. What he found on the other side was Fidget holding up a shovel threateningly, and Melodia prepared to defend herself with a bucket.

“You didn’t find anything!” Fidget shouted, “Fidget was digging!”

“You didn’t even see it!” Melodia replied.

Lunette arrived from around the other side of the tree at the same moment as Arvel and both slid to their knees beside the hole that Fidget had been working on. Ignoring the two squabbling girls, Arvel and Lunette reached down into the hole and began digging with their bare hands, beginning to clear dirt away from a solid mass there.

“It’s a trunk,” Lunette said, “I can see the braces.”

“I think there’s a handle on the side,” said Arvel.

Rain knelt down beside the hole, and soon, Fidget and Melodia joined her, their attention firmly fixed on the buried treasure.

“On three!” Lunette said as she wrapped her hand around a handle.

“One, two...” Arvel replied.

“Three!” they groaned in unison as they yanked up on the handles. The chest trunk didn’t come up easily. They rocked it back and forth, unsettling the dirt and tearing at small roots that had worked their way into the grain of the wood. Just as they were lifting it out of the side of the hole, the handle snapped on Arvel’s side, and he dove down to grab it by the corners, manhandling it up onto solid ground. As soon as it was on the edge, a round of cheers erupted from the onlooking girls.

“Is this it?!” Fidget asked excitedly, bouncing on her knees and grabbing Rain’s arm.

“Yeah,” Arvel said, panting heavily, “Yeah it’d... pretty much have to be...”

Lunette flopped onto her backside, catching her breath, before saying, “The honor of opening it... is all yours, Arvel.”

Arvel stared at the dirt-caked trunk for a minute, before starting to brush away the excess from the outside, and from around the unlocked latch on the front. Once he brushed away as much as he could, he wiped his hands on the legs of his trousers, before slowly opening the latch.