Rhaiven ran the foxtail brush along the face of the wall, knocking away the last of the excess mortar. He stood back and examined his work, giving it a last inspection to make sure everything was proper. Satisfied, he started gathering his tools and cleaning up.

“Thanks, Rai,” Thea said, seeing him finishing up and stepping outside. “He’s too weak to patch the wall himself, we really appreciate it.” She stepped up to him and gave him a light kiss on the cheek to prove it.

Rai set his tools down and grabbed her in both arms, unwilling to let her get away with such a small token of affection.

“Well if he’s going to be my father-in-law soon, I guess I better start building up some good will,” he replied, kissing her and letting his hands wander down to her backside, then pulling her against him.

“If it’s good will you want, then you better hope he doesn’t see what you’re doing to his daughter!” she laughed, then reciprocated the affection with her mouth and her hands.

Way too quickly for Rhaiven’s taste, she pulled away. “Come on, you. We’re supposed to be working. If you’re done with the wall, Mrs. Greenway found another one of those holes behind her house.”

“What’s with all the sinkholes?” Rai said. “We must have a plague of giant moles.”

“Maybe it’s the Sidhe, digging up from the underworld to steal our babies,” Thea laughed.

“I thought it was the Kobali who dug up from below the ground and stole babies to use their blood for their sorcery. Isn’t that what everyone’s saying? The Sidhe steal souls. And sheep. They apparently love their sheep,” Rai said with a smirk.

“No no, the dragon under the mountain steals the souls of those get too close. The Sidhe take the strongest, smartest babies and turn them into more Sidhe in secret rituals,” Thea countered.

“Wait, don’t the Sidhe command the dragon? Or does the dragon command the Sidhe? And which one keeps the Kobalds as pets?” Rai asked, trying to stay one step more farfetched than his fiancée.

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Thea just smacked him playfully. “Ok, funny. Get moving, so you’re done before dinner. You promised to spend the evening with us.”

Rai smiled again, then stole one more kiss before he picked his tools back up. Thea returned it with enthusiasm. He set the tools near the newly repaired wall and grabbed a shovel for the next chore. He smiled at Thea as he headed out, then smiled wider as she sent him off with a playful slap to the backside.

Mrs. Greenway’s place was just down the street. The sinkholes were appearing with greater frequency now. They were more a nuisance than anything else but needed to be taken care of lest a small child or old man stumble in and turn an ankle or a knee or get stuck. Most were easy enough to block up, but some of them seemed bottomless. No amount of dirt would fill them. Those they simply covered with planks and marked with posts to warn those walking nearby.

Mrs. Greenway was waiting outside her door.

“Oh, thank you so much for coming, Ray,” she said. “You and your brother are always such a big help.”

“No trouble at all, Mrs. Greenway,” Rai replied. “Where’s the hole?”

“Over around the side here.” She walked to the side of the house. “It’s a big one.”

Rai whistled. “Sure is. Biggest one I’ve seen.” The hole was a full three feet across. The shade of the house kept the sunlight from falling much past the mouth, so Rai could not see the bottom. He kicked at the edge, dislodging a small cascade of dirt, but the sound didn’t give him any more clue how deep it went.

“Too big to fill in, do you think?”

“It might be. We’d have to dig a big pit somewhere just to get the dirt for it. Let me go find a few boards and I’ll cover it up for now.”

He stood studying the hole for a few moments, then waved to the woman.

“I’ll be back soon,” he said, and walked off down the street.

There were still plenty of piles of broken buildings laying around. Rai didn’t have far to walk to find a few suitable planks. Laid crossways across the mouth of the hole, anchored by bricks salvaged from the same broken houses, the boards would at least prevent a major accident until the hole could be filled.

He carried the wood back to the elderly woman’s house and back to the hole.

“Mrs. Greenway? I’m back,” he called as he set the board down. When she didn’t answer, he went to work placing the boards over the hole. Once those were in place, he took another short trip to gather a couple broken bricks heavy enough to hold the wood in place against accidental jostling.

As he returned, he noticed the front door standing ajar.

“Hello?” he called through the open door. There was still no answer. A quick, discreet peek inside to just make sure she was alright revealed a room neat, clean, and unoccupied. Mrs. Greenway had apparently walked off to handle some business of her own. With a shrug, Rai closed the door for her and finished weighting down the wooden blockade.