[Job] Planting the Seeds

Spoiler:

There was nothing more honest that good hard labour. Walking up to the farm, Arthur couldn't help but reflect on his childhood. From ever since he was a kid, the farm was familiar to him. Agriculture required dedication, patience, and willpower. Waking up every day at the ass-crack of dawn was not the easiest of things, nor was shoveling through piles of manure. Least of all, though, in Arthur's opinion, was the sheer toll it took on one's body. The work was exhausting, especially in season. The sun was public enemy number one for farmers everywhere, making ordinary jobs into excruciating endeavours. Arthur hoped, by this point, that he'd be able to work through the hot blaring sun without working up too much of a sweat.

Greeting the farmer went exactly as expected. Old man, nothing too crotchety about him. The reason the old man was probably so personable likely had a lot to do with the fact that he could Arthur was probably not the type of person to complain about the manual labor. From what he had seen, this job was quite popular amount the newer mages, and while he himself was new, he was not apprentice mage that couldn't even lift their own bag of books. From their conversation, Arthur learned that he was planting corn and that all of the tools would be supplied to him and that they were housed in the barn behind the ranch house. On a lighter note, it seemed as if he wouldn't be getting killed by a cannibal hillbilly family luring young mages out to their remote property. That, unfortunately, was an outcome he had considered before taking the flyer. Ultimately, though, Arthur needed the money.

As instructed, Arthur found the bag of seeds and necessary tools resting in the creepy little barn. It was creepy, for the first part, due to the sheer state of it. The barn was empty. No cows, no sheep, nothing. There were no sounds to indicate that the building was used to house any sort of life. There was straw, though, but no animal waste that indicated any presence at all. He wouldn't judge though, as he didn't know the farmer's financial status nor did he know if the man had simply just sold all of his livestock. Murder cannibals was never the answer, thankfully at least. Arthur lifted the bag of seeds over his shoulder with ease, carrying it out into the first row of already-tilled earth. It was weird, thinking about it, why the land had already been tilled. Why not just seed it himself if it was already done? It seemed like quite the effort to hire somebody to seed a bunch of land when the old man was already able to till most of it himself. Again, none of his business. None of this business was the business paying him, and so Arthur put his nose the grindstone and starting spacing out the seeds into their holes.

As the sun was setting, Arthur managed to fill the last hole with his seeds, Satisfied with the job done, he wiped himself off before heading back to the ranch house. The man seemed genuinely surprised that the job was done. Arthur was glad to have helped him, regardless of how peculiar his position seemed upon closer inspection.

556 words