Solo [ED] Harvest

[Wa'Djinnabi]

Timestamp Day 50 of Autumn 519

Autumn was in full swing, and winter would be on its way... hopefully. Perhaps this would be the year that the strange weather plaguing these temperate lands would finally end. Either way, Wa'Djinnabi re Ahnatep had a job to do. It was Dawson that made the call to harvest, if the matter was up to Djinn, he probably would have harvested too early. But the experienced farmer was there to guide him and the other workers.

"It is more of a window, harvesting. Each crop has a different signs to know when to harvest. But for the most part, you have time once the first of each crops starts getting ripe. Just make sure not to wait too long." Dawson said when he asked, the two taking a tour of the various crops the Merkai were in the buisness of growing. "Which is why we need to start within the next few days. So, what we'll do is grab as many free hands as we can to assist us, Lynneah is going to help organize the actual produce and put it into storage." At Djinn's blank look, Dawson rolled his eyes, "You need to talk to your neighbors more. We are all in this together. Lynneah is also going to turn our grapes into wine, though they wont be a part of this harvest day. Oh, there she is now." Dawson waved to Lynneah as she and a small coterie hauled baskets and barrels from one of the storage pavilions and from crates covered in tarps.

"So, corn is probably the easiest to work with so you can start there, we will work our way through the potatoes and tomatoes. Perhaps the tomatoes have been growing for a bit too long, but no winter means no early frosts and that means they can keep later into the season then normal." Dawson shrugged. "I'll put you into a team with a few of the others and we will start on one side of the corn field and work our way through." As he said this a few other members of the fledgling mage guild made their way to meet the two farmers and Dawson got to work organizing.

Djinn smiled at his fellow workers and introduced himself. The other two were a very strong looking fellow named Briggs and a woman with an intricate braid named Sona. The other team of three he didn't catch the names but they all seemed a capable sort. He was surprised that he didn't see Mercy, the fellow Bala marked, but the alchemist turned farmer supposed that she had a little one to tend to.

So the six of them started work, each carrying baskets as Dawson went to coordinate with Lynneah. Wandering among the corn was an eerie experience. The plants seemed to... dampen sound. The world seemed to drop away and only the clear sky and fertile earth. Tearing free the ripe heads of corn took some practice, but it seemed that the best was simply tearing it against the "grain" so to speak. The process was brisk and they had to make many trips to grab empty baskets. Together, the two teams managed the task before the sun reached its zenith.



WC: 539
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[Wa'Djinnabi]

There was something about being among the rows of tall corn stalks, the scent of growing plants and soil perhaps, that called to Wa'Djinnabi. And it did not take long for him to get lost in his work. It took nearly an entire row of harvesting for his basket to fill up and for him to need to go and hand it off to those who were organizing whatever came next. Djinn expected that he would likely help store it away when they eventually brought in the bounty. He sent a prayer to the mysterious being who marked him, thanking her for the harvest and continued on.

Next Dawson had them armed with anything that they could cut with to fell the grains and hay. This was an extremely grueling task due to the general lack of tools. Ideally they would all be armed with scythes or something similar. Instead, Djinn was armed with one of the Meraki's two axes. The tool was simply not designed for the task he ended up performing. It was a minor oversight, no one had thought to consider how they would end up harvesting the grains they planted earlier that summer. But Djinn set to the task with a will. He ended up simply moving through the field in small row and hacking at the stalks of wheat and barley near the base and letting the grain fall to the ground. Since his axe was sharp and the grains were no where near the consistency of wood, Djinn managed to get a fairly quick rhythm to it. Behind him and the other workers yet more workers gathered up the fallen stalks and bundled it into either bales of hay, or into bundles that Dawson called sheaves. Dawson explained to the group that the freshly harvested grains and hay were still wet and lively and would need to dry and the best method to do that was to simple bundle them up and leave them out in the fields.

And so Djinn worked the fields. It was not pleasant, it was not easy, and it was certainly not like harvesting the corn. Which, they left the plants as they were, for some reason. Dawson of course had his reasons and at that point, Djinn didn't really care. And so the repetitive motion of grabbing a handful of wheat and then barley and then hay, hacking at the stalks near the base, dropping it and moving on worked its way into his muscles. The work coated him in a thick layer of sweetly scented sweat that dripped into his eyes and salted his lips. Bits of the grass stuck to him, flavoring him in its grassy textures. By the time they were done, the sun had set and they were not even finished with the rest of the things they had to harvest. Still, it was very satisfying to see the swaths of destruction they had wrought upon the fields of grasses they were just wading in. Now, instead of waving miniature seas of grass, series of pyramidal structures Dawson called stooks and stacks and bales of hay littered the worked fields like great beasts resting in the twilight.

None of which Djinn could truly appreciate. He was bone tired, sticky and likely smelled something fierce. Not to mention hungry. Out of those he worked with, he lasted the longest, but only by virtue of cycling the repetitive work among his six arms. All of which were throbbing, naturally. He would definitely be earning a few more calluses on his hands. He more or less shuffled along to common area and settled into a seat without really taking in his surroundings. If his stomach hadn't been complaining to him, he would have simply gone to bed, and even then, he was considering just going to bed. He was so tired, that he didn't even bother to clean up before his meal, as was his routine. He ended up staring at the table in front of him, wondering muzzily why there was no food in front of him and despairing that he would ever get to eat. A hand bearing the most beautiful sight in the world to him entered his field of vision and set a plate of meat, mashed potatoes, some sort of sauce and some cooked green things. Djinn slowly followed the hand to it's arm and up the arm to a smiling face. "Wa'Djinnabi, isn't it? I've seen you around, I'm Keesha." Keesha said but then paused, "You know, Lynneah's daughter?" Which Djinn cleverly looked at her mutely, not quite able to process this beautiful celestial spirit and her gift of food.

Keesha smiled knowingly and patted his strangely jointed shoulder, "I know that look. Eat up, we can talk later." She turned to leave but paused, "Hey, come find me some time, we all should get to know each other better." She gave another smile, this time a bit more subdued but still positive, leaving Djinn to wonder mutely what just happened. Either way, he now had food and his stomach had lodged a more vigorous complaint at the scent of a warm and hearty meal. What could he do but oblige?

Not long after Djinn was dozing in his chair, when someone kindly grabbed him by an elbow and ushered him to a cot to sleep. After all, they still had much to do when dawn rolled around and the harvest continued.


Word count: 911
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[Wa'Djinnabi]

The next day started early and much as the day before. Dawson organized the lot of them, Lynneah headed the group of laborers that handled packing the produce away for later preserving. When Wa'Djinnabi met with Dawson and the others Dawson was muttering to himself about winter not properly coming and the uncertainty that several years of a lack of winter would entail. In theory they could keep growing crops, but the time after the towers changed color and the season changed was... unnatural, the sun and rain didn't feel right and the growing things seemed stunted when germinated during that time. Not to mention the droughts that inevitably followed winter from a lack of snowpack on the lower mountains. Djinn wasn't sure what the problem was, having lived somewhere without a true winter, or at least did not feel the effects of one, he merely shrugged and let the older farmer rant while they waited for everyone to arrive.

That day they would be harvesting the many varieties of vegetables and the grapes. Normally, or so Dawson mentioned, grapes took time to mature into a fruiting plant, it could take years. However, they had purchased cuttings, living plants that were already old enough to grow the fruits. Between that and the tender care that Mercy and the other gardeners, they were able to coax a small harvest from the still expanding plants. In a few years, the grapes would cover the entire field, but for now the crops would only reach a portion of the land allotted to them. Still, it would be enough to make a barrel or so of wine if not more, hopefully. So they started with the grapes, hoping to get the smaller task done and for the others to get the process of vinting the grapes.

Interestingly they had a few kinds of grapes, a sort that was green and tended to hide among the leaves and a kind that was a deep purple and was easy to spot. Unluckily for Djinn, Dawson assigned him the part of the vineyard that had the green kind. It took him much longer then the others to go through his lanes. Armed with his basket and a sharp dagger, he went along and snipped the grapes from the vine as he spotted them, lifting up leaves and peering over the vines. He was sure that he missed some, but his basket filled up quickly. When he was sure that no one was looking, he popped a grape into his mouth and bit down. He winced and his lips puckered at the sour flavor, he spat the seeds out and grimaced. He eyed the rest of the grapes suspiciously and tried just one more. It was far less sour, tangy yes, but it also had a sweetness to it that he hadn't had in awhile. He sighed in contentment and continued on. Perhaps he was just unlucky and not all the grapes were perfectly ripe. Whatever it was, he couldn't eat all the produce, not when most of it was going to be either jammed, wined or rendered down for sugar. Better to be prudent and save for later then to live for the day and be wanting. It was tempting though. He really wanted to simply stuff handfuls of the sweet fruit down his gob.

A thought occurred to him and he pulled the sweeter grape's seed from his mouth and eyed it. Could he make the grapes sweeter? Ripen faster? Make them bigger? A seed was a lot of potential and he had multiple varieties. Did the Aladjunn work on plants as well as people? The more he thought on the matter, the more he was convinced that it had to apply. Otherwise, there would be no difference between the green colored grapes and the red ones without being different kinds of plants. But they were in fact the same, grapes, grapes with different colors and flavors. Just like how Eypharians could have six or four arms, or how humans could have blue eyes or green eyes depending on their parents. He pocketed the seeds and would consider the matter later.

It did not take the group of harvesters long to finish their task and ferry all the grapes to Lynneah. She looked excited for the haul, inspecting many of the grape bunches critically before telling someone she had roped into being her assistant to mark down some notes on a wooden board with a piece of parchment attached to it. Perhaps she would let Djinn help with the vinting process, he had some experience helping with brewing ale and he wondered what would be involved in the process of making wine.

WC: 786

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[Wa'Djinnabi]

They were not standing around long before Dawson had them working on their next task: Vegetables. Potatoes, onions, carrots, tomatoes, gourds and pumpkins, among others. And for the most part, it wasn't so bad. The work was indeed time consuming, and between the 12 of those that Dawson had recruited, they covered a lot of ground, but they somehow managed to get it all done before the day was out. It was the root vegetables that Djinn had the most trouble with. Ideally, one would merely have to yank on the stalk of the plant to pull it out. In practice, he managed to break off more then a few stalks and leave the vegetables still snugly in the ground. He was given a trowel and made to spend whole minutes digging the recalcitrant root from the ground. Each time he did this, he fell behind the others and ended up needing one of his fellow laborer's help to finish up his row in a timely matter. But in the end they manged to get the task done.

They were once again, dirty, grimy and sweaty by the end of that day. The entire time they were working, his mind kept turning back to the Aladjunn, if he was right and it applied to plants, then it likely applied to other things as well. Why not animals? Why not fish? Why not fungus? He would need to perform tests, grow some plants quickly with his Bala mark and breed them. He would need his own registry to keep track of strains and mutations. He nodded to himself as he helped pack away the last of the vegetables into baskets and those baskets into crates. They would soon need to preserve the harvest, but a portion would be used in a feast. Looking at the amount of produce they had managed to harvest, he sent up another prayer to the celestial seats of the gods, thanking Bala for a bountiful harvest despite the hardships that working the wilderness entailed. Whether this mysterious entity had a hand in this harvest outside of invoking her mark, Djinn could not say. But he was thankful nonetheless. That much, he could place some faith in.

WC: 370


Total: 2606
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[Ennisa]

Grades Awarded

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Wa'Djinnabi

Skills

Socialisation: +1
Farming: +4
Endurance: +1
Observation: +2
Planning: +1

Lores

Farming: Harvest when the first of the crop is just ripe
Farming: Harvesting corn
Dawson: Experienced farmer for the Merakai
Planning: Hindsight about farming and the tools required to harvest crops
Farming: Best tool to harvest grains is a scythe
Farming: Fresh-cut wheat is damp and needs drying in bundles
Endurance: Brute strength of a farm-hand
Keesha: Lynneah’s daughter
The Wildlands: The effect on the land by the lack of winter
Farming: Harvesting grapes using a sharp knife
Aladjunn: In theory, could work on plants as well as people
Lynneah: Lady turning grapes to wine; a vinter
Aladjunn: Registry-keeping to track strains and mutations

Penalties/Awards

Ledger:
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Health:

Notes

Mmm... I could almost smell the wheat fields. Nice and evocative! I also enjoyed Djinn's mental forays into biology. Perhaps he'll become Mizahar's Mendel?

Keep up the good work. If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to drop me a PM.