"Kenki!"

Kenki is startled by the voice of his father. The muscles in his legs tighten uncomfortably as he prepares to bolt. His eyes scan the room for any indication of the man.

'Phew, I thought that I was sussed out. He's not supposed to know that I can read.'

"Kenki, where are you?"

"I'm coming, Papa!" Kenki calls out as he quietly leaves his parents' room. Barefoot, he runs down the wooden flooring of the house to the front door.

He finds his father staring directly at him as the door creaks open.

"Kenki, do you know where your older brother is?" His father inquires, hurry evident in his voice.

"Daiki? He left an hour ago to herd the sheep."

"Herd the sheep?! Its high noon, in the middle of summer, does he want them to die from heatstroke!"

"That's what he said." Kenki clarifies as he raises his arms in a 'hands off' gesture. Backing away from his agitated father.

'What about your mother?"

"She went to the market along with little brother to sell off the plums we gathered earlier."

Kenki's father curses under his breath as he hears that, he begins pacing around in front of his son.

'Did something serious happen? Why is he so hurried?' Kenki carefully observes his father as the man enters the garden shed.

He comes out carrying two cloaks made of a mildly reflective, white straw, a basket made of the same type of straw and some tools. He throws the smaller cloak to Kenki.

'This is…' Kenki excitedly raises his head to look at his father, stars appearing in his eyes.

"Wipe that look out of your face, boy. This is a dangerous thing that we're about to do and if you can't take it seriously I won't be bringing you along."

Kenki immediately shifts his expression and pose to a more neutral, less excited one.

"That will have to do" The man sighs as he reassuringly grabs the boy's shoulder with his meaty palm. "Listen up, Kenki. Do not tell your mother about this, ever. If you do that I won't ever bring you to that wheat field again, understand?" His eyes locked to his son, he gazes at him with heavy intent, as if trying to pierce through him.

Kenki slowly nods in response.

"Good." he's given a pat on the head. "Now get undressed and put that cloak on, it'll be the only thing that you'll be wearing." Moving past his son, the man goes to his room to change.

Ken watches and waits for the moment until his father is out of sight, the moment the man rounds the corner he pumps his fist into the air in celebration.

'I can't believe this, such luck today! Both mother and brother forgot that they'll have to help him reap Sun-blessed wheat today! Either that or they assumed the other will be present. This will be my first time helping dad out.'

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With a pep in his step, Kenki quickly hops over to one of the smaller rooms in the house, the one where he and his two brothers sleep.

Undressing, he throws his rough wool clothing on one of the unoccupied beds. As much as they could be called beds anyways, consisting of just straw covered by cloth.

He takes the cloak made of the pristinely white straw and dons it over himself, slipping his arms into the sleeves. The cloak is incredibly itchy and uncomfortable, several sizes above what he can comfortably wear as it was made with his mother and big brother in mind. It impedes his vision as it covers his entire body - head, arms, legs and all.

'Comfort isn't its purpose, I'll be wearing it for half an hour tops.' He grabs the front part of the cloak and lifts up in order to avoid tripping over himself as he walks, the rest of it drags on the floor behind him

His father gives him a lookover as he leaves the house. The man also dressed in a cloak, looking like a big conical straw tent.

"Good enough, come on." the man grabs what appears to be a small spear with a crescent shaped blade at the end of it, a basket made of the same white straw and a thick green leathery scroll.

They follow a rough stone road away from the house and away from the regular wheat field. It takes only a minute or two for the duo to reach the edge of their property. Their goal is easily noticeable, a field of sparkling white wheat. It is surrounded by a black, charred earth in every direction.

'It's been about two years since I first saw this place and I still can't believe that it exists, an actual cultivation nonsense plant. And we're supposed to give all of it to the sects as taxes, every farmer is. Not like we can use them but it still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.'

Kenki examines the wheat. Unlike with regular wheat, where one can plant hundreds of seeds in a single square meter of farmland, the seeds of the sun blessed wheat must be planted with at least a meter of distance between one another in order to ensure optimal growth. Despite that fact, the kernels of the two wheat types are the exact same size.

By extension meaning that you have a yield hundreds of times smaller than that of regular wheat, despite the two having the same amount of space to grow.

"Alright" Kens father speaks up as they approach. "You've seen me and your brother gather the wheat so it shouldn't be a problem for you, walk me through the steps of how this is supposed to work."

"Well." Ken begins as he ceases his walk "We're supposed to wear these fire resistant cloaks, made from the stalks of the very same type of wheat. It protects us from the fire that is sometimes shot out."

A tongue of fire escapes the head of the wheat just as Kenki finishes his sentence, as if it had been listening to him for the most opportune time to display its capabilities. It fizzles out into the air just as quickly as it appeared.

His father doesn't say anything, doing nothing to indicate that he agrees or disagrees with the words spoken by Ken. He stands completely still, waiting for him to continue.

"Now… you'll go ahead and do something with the scroll you're carrying, it's going to prevent the wheat from exploding when it's cut. Once you do that, I'll approach and use the sickle spear to cut the stem."

Ken hears a grunt of affirmation.

"You remember well." The basket and spear are placed on a flat piece of rock.

"Grab the spear and wait here" the man unfurls the odd green scroll, revealing the complex set of lines and symbols hidden within. "Don't come any closer until I call for you."

"I understand papa."

As Ken goes to grab the spear with his tiny hands, though, the word 'spear' is overselling it. It's a meter long stick with a blade at the end. The shaft is just thin enough for Ken to comfortably grab it. By the time he looks back to his father, the man is within touching arms reach of the wheat.

Kneeling down, he places the bulky scroll on the ground. Revealing the palms of his hands from the sleeves of his cloak, he lays them down unto the object and goes completely still.

Several seconds pass by in complete silence. Outwardly there is no change, both the man, the wheat and the scroll do not move. There are no flashing inscriptions, no epic indicator that the deed is done. The only thing of interest that happens is a burst of flame escaping from the stalk and hitting the man's shoulder. It is easily shrugged away.

"Come." He shouts.

'For the inscription to work he needs to keep his hands on the scroll until the stalk is cut, that's why this work requires two people'

Grabbing the front of his cloak with one hand and holding the spear with the other, Ken carefully approaches.

"This should be an easy thing to do for you."

"Why is that?"

"Well, I'm just saying. It would be greatly disappointing if you messed it up after going through all that self imposed training."

Kenki nearly trips.

"Daaaaad! You've been spying on me!" He faces his father in horror

"Ohahahahaha!" The man bellows a laugh without moving his hands from the scroll. "You think that I wouldn't notice the conveniently shaped wooden stick you brought home?" He shakes his head.

"Nevermind, be serious now. Take your pose and thrust with the spear."

"Yeah."

Kenki walks within reach of the wheat. He lets go of the cloak, letting the front part drop to the ground. Properly gripping a the spear, he falls into the pose his bigger brother taught him.

'This is really nerve wracking. I can barely see through my cloaks strands of straw. What if I mess up?'

He takes a moment to calm himself.

'If I miss I can always just take aim and try again, the spear is forged to make misses non-problematic. The issue is when you cut into the stem but don't cut it off completely.'

Kenki, after a moment of silence, takes aim and thrusts.