by Xander Jade
"Hey Sasha, see anything you like?" Cass asked.
She blushed and glanced over at the selection, then smiled. "Yeah."
Val questioned in a low voice, "You think Max would like to see you in them?"
Sasha looked away, embarrassed, "W-why would you ask that?"
The girls giggled and Cass whispered, "We see you making eyes at him, and by the looks that you give."
Her shoulders slumped, "I’m sorry. I can’t help it. He… He makes me feel things that I haven’t felt in years. It is really confusing and embarrassing, I’m way too old for him. By the goddess, I am his mother’s age in human years."
Val went over and put her arms on Sasha’s shoulders and had her look up then said, "Sweetie, we are too. Who gives a shit what anybody thinks, love doesn’t care how old anyone is. Now, I’m not saying you’re in love with our sexy man, but you won’t know unless you try."
Cass nodded her agreement, Sasha responded after taking a deep breath, "I don’t want this or anything to come in between us and the other girls. We love living the way we are now and I don’t know if I would ever attempt to move on those emotions regarding Max."
Cass stated in a calm manner, "It’s totally up to you, but if it’s something you want to pursue then we don’t have a problem with it. Just let us know because he isn’t an ordinary man, his… umm… let’s just say that his life will be exciting, not plain nor simple."
Val spoke up, "We aren’t going to include you or the others until we know for sure that it’s what you want to be involved in. For now, we just keep living normally."
Sasha glanced back and forth between the two trying to figure out what that was about but couldn’t. She turned and picked out numerous styles of panties, not only because of Max but to feel sexy as well. Sasha pulled the other women over to make their selections as well, they should be able to feel better about themselves too. Cass and Val laughed, thinking Max would stay hard all the time if all the ladies wore these undergarments in front of him.
The ladies met Elwin and Pelleus at the counter, Leena asked, "Did you find anything guys?"
They both nodded and smiled, Elwin responded, "Yes Leena, it will be nice to have some new clothes."
Pelleus stated with a raised brow, "Yeah. Although, ours aren’t as short and revealing as some of yours."
Shaila snorted, "I don’t think you have the legs to pull that look off cousin." Pelleus turned red at her remark and the girls giggled.
Sasha smiled and shook her head. "Thank you again Cass and Val. We wouldn’t have been able to buy this kind of clothing in long time."
Val bowed her head at her and replied, "No problem Sasha. It’s what sisters do for each other."
Cass nodded and paid the clerk the money owed and stored the purchases in bags. The guys carried the merchandise out of the store as the ladies kept chattering with each other.
***
I was dozing off when I heard voices coming out of the door, the group came out with their purchases, saw the wagon and immediately dumped their bags onto the back of it. Elwin and Pelleus got up to secure them, then sat down in the back.
Cass and Val smiled, winked at me for some reason, then jumped up onto the step of the wagon and kissed me. Shaking my head, I advised we needed to head out of town towards the two farms for the cows and chickens. They mounted up and we started that way.
When we approached the Foster Farm, the farmhouse was quaint and reminded me of some houses around BlackCrest. The access road took us by their herd grazing out in the fields, and saw the different breeds they had as well. Stopping out front two males came out to greet us, one a teen and the other middle-aged.
I assumed the oldest was Mr. Foster. He spoke out as he glanced over our group, "Greetings. I’m Bryan Foster. Wha kin I do fir ya folks?"
The teen gawked at the females, his eyes bulging out at the attire of the elves. He looked to be around my age, maybe younger. I replied, "Well met, I'm Max. I would like to purchase some dairy cows. Sheila at the livery gave me your name."
Bryan nodded and responded, "Yes, sir. We can help you out with that. How many ya looking fir?"
"Depends. How much on average does your cows produce a day?"
He thought about it only for a moment before answering, "On average, six gallons a day. If milked twice a day."
I nodded to his answer, thinking about the same amount. "I will take two off your hands. The bridles and pails as well, please."
He nodded and replied with a smile, "One gold and five silver, sir."
"Mind if I get down?" He nodded and I stepped down off the wagon. Digging in my pouch, I handed him the coins, knowing he wasn’t trying to haggle, just making a living.
Bryan gestured for me to follow, Pelleus joined me. We walked to the barn where his cows were. He pulled the ones we agreed on out, fit the bridles on the two cows, and led them out of the barn. Pelleus grabbed the pails and followed us. The Foster teen was talking with the others and with him was another teen, a female, maybe his sister. They all were laughing and chatting with each other as we came up, I tied the bridle reins to the back of the wagon, and stepped up onto the seat. Pelleus stepped up into the back then waited for the others to finish.
A couple of minutes later the group realized we were done and said there goodbyes. I waved at Bryan and thanked him, then set out for the next farm. Chickens. I didn't know much about chickens except they lay eggs and you can eat them, but I supposed it was going to be a learning experience.
In my own world, the draft horses were going at a slow speed because of the cows, I checked on them ever so often. I was silent the whole way to the other farm, since we left Herc and Reap at the outskirts of Silvershore, someone had to watch out for trouble. The ladies didn’t worry about that, talking about topics that I didn’t care to hear. Mostly about boys and how some could be so clueless about things. Needless to say, I didn’t listen in on that conversation. We traveled down the access road to the Grandal farm and detected something wrong. I stopped the group on the side of the road and scanned the area to see little humanoids about three feet tall, claws for hands and feet, pointed ears, yellow eyes, and grey bodies. It would seem that the farm is infested with goblins and they were trying to capture runaway chickens. If it wasn’t a serious situation, I would be laughing my ass off seeing the little fuckers chasing squawking chickens around the ranch. A scream sounded within the house kicking my mind back to the danger in front of me.
I strapped on my quiver and picked up my bow, the others were doing the same, but slower. I jumped down and nocked an arrow as I was running and let loose one after the other hitting the fuckers around me. The elves were involved in the fight as well, Cass shot lightning towards a group electrocuting their asses, and Val shot forth throwing her knives and killing with her dagger. Since they were handling the leftovers, I ran to the house and pulled the door open, almost pulling it off the hinges. Another scream rang out as I came into the kitchen, a group had made it into the house trying to get into a door that was closed and probably barricaded. Must be where the Grandal’s are.
Footsteps came up behind me. Turning to see Leena with her bow, we let loose another barrage killing the goblins one by one. Turning to the female elf, I stated, "Leena, go over and let them know we’re here. I’m going back outside to check on the others." She nodded and I ran out to do what I said, but it was for naught, they had everything under control. Seeing me, Cass and Val came over.
"Status?"
Cass answered, "All clear. We went around to make sure, but all the bastards are taken care of."
I nodded and glanced around to find the others making sure no other threat was around. I heard a door open behind me and turned to see Leena walk out with a group of five others behind her. She brought them over to us and smiled, "Max, this is Bryce and Deedra Grandal, and their kids behind them."
Bowing my head to them, I said, "Nice to meet you."
Bryce stated with relief, "Thank you, Max. Leena here s
ays you’re the leader of this group. We’re in your debt. If you hadn’t come, we probably wouldn’t be alive right now."
"No problem. We’re just glad everyone is okay."
They smiled and Deedra asked, "Why are you here though?"
"Well, we came to purchase some chickens. Would that be possible?"
They looked around for a minute and Bryce replied, "How many are you wanting? A cockerel too?"
I nodded, "Yes on the latter, probably thirty on the former. We’ll need cages as well for travel."
Bryce smiled and stated, "Alright. Since you saved us, I’ll give you fifteen and charge you five silver for the others and the cages. Is that okay?"
I turned to Cass and Val, they nodded. "Deal." I went over and shook his hand, then gave him the payment. He called out to his family, they gathered up our purchases into cages while Elwin brought the wagon over and even loaded them. After securing everything, we made sure they didn’t need anything before we left.
Chapter Twenty
Heading back towards town, our group was focused now since our little skirmish. When we were a mile outside of Silvershore, our furry friends slid right into the group and we journeyed home. It took longer obviously, but when we got the animals into the barn, all of us joined together to take care of them. The wagon slid into its spot, Elwin and Pelleus stripped the gear off the Percherons and brushed them down as I put the dairy cows into their stalls and pulled the bridles off them. The women took care of the Morgans and Zeus, that fucker ate up the attention too. The beast mages, Shaila and Lashane, were all gushing over the huge bastard. He snorted and pranced into his stall, they in turn giggled and cooed. The others took Abby and Lilly, they loved all over them as well not wanting them to feel left out. I grabbed the feed and dispersed it to the barn full of four legged animals, except Herc and Reap, they stayed outside and did their own thing. Elwin and Pelleus picked up some buckets to get water for them, at that moment I got an idea to run over with the two mages. When they finished with their task, I pulled them to the side.
"Hey Elwin, I want to know if you can carve out a channel for water to run from the underground cavern to here in the barn."
Elwin smiled and stated "That’s a great idea, boss. I can, but we would have to plug it with valves to stop the flow."
"Not a problem, we’ll have to get some if I don’t have any in storage. Pelleus, I will need you to help with the piping I want installed. Elwin, I want to create a pipeline to come out of the ground and form a clay pipe that ends up right above the troughs and into the coop as well, then we’ll install a stop valve at each location. Can you help me out with that?"
Both boys nodded, or were they men? "Guys, I know it’s really none of my business, but how old are you?"
They shrugged and Elwin stated two hundred and ten cycles while Pelleus responded with two hundred and seven cycles.
"Alright, a cycle is a year in human terms, right?" They nodded and I continued, "Help me understand elven timelines. What age would that be in human years?"
They both thought about it and Elwin said, "Probably nineteen or twenty years old." Pelleus nodded his agreement.
Wow. "Okay, thanks for letting me know that. I know you guys can live over a millennia, but damn it’s still hard to take that thought in. Anyways, we need to get that job done and since we had that incident today, we will need to go farther out of our comfort zone to make sure no unwelcome guests are on these lands."
"Yes, boss. We will start on this project tomorrow and hopefully be done by the afternoon to explore the surrounding forest," Pelleus stated with a nod.
"We’ll also converse with some of the forest protectors to see if they have noticed anything," Elwin suggested.
"About that, who are the protectors you’re talking about?"
They both laughed and said, "The Leshies."
By the look I must’ve had on my face, Pelleus explained, "They are the guardians of this forest and the inhabitants within it."
I nodded and replied, "Oookay. Good to know. I hope we haven’t offended them in any way."
Elwin spoke, "No, they’ve been keeping an eye on you though. They know you’re a unique person, though it would be taken as a gesture of good will if you would leave a couple gallons of milk by the forest each night for the lumber they gave."
I didn’t know what that meant, but before I could say anything else, Sasha called out, "Guys, are we letting the chickens get situated in their home tonight?"
We turned and headed back over to help with that task. Grabbing the cages, we took them over and let the fowl walk into their new home. It took them a minute to look around, but eventually they strolled into the pen, the cockerel puffed out his chest and walked around the whole area before he entered the house. I chuckled at his attitude and shut the gate, then walked with the guys to the cabin. The ladies grabbed their lilac soap and towels to head towards the creek to bathe. I went straight to get some water and chugged a few glasses before sitting down at the table, waiting for the females to get done. A half hour later the ladies showed up with wet hair and clean bodies, Val handed me the regular soap and I sauntered my way down to the creek to wash off the dirt and grime off my body. Elwin and Pelleus came a little later, after scrubbing ourselves we continued our discussion from earlier.
"What does the milk have to do with anything?"
Elwin states in a serious tone, "Boss, it’s a gift that will be given to the forest, they will continue to let us know what is in the forest or if they can, persuade anything that doesn’t belong to leave."
Pelleus put his thoughts in as well, "Also it doesn’t have to be just milk, it can be eggs, or water. Something that lets the Leshies know that their efforts to help won’t go unappreciated."
"What do the Leshies look like?"
Elwin answered, "It varies. Humanoid in shape, tall, over seven feet tall with a green body and brown arms that looks like bark from a tree, and horns on their heads. The eyes are black, oval shaped heads with brown leaves for hair, and they have a raspy voice."
Nodding, I thought about what was said and shrugged at those little things they wanted for payment. If that can help us have an advantage over others then so be it, I’ll give them more than they asked for. Good thing I bought two cows. "Will do, we will give them 3 gallons of milk and 6-8 eggs every day once we get a good routine down. That should make them happy."
Both nodded and smiled, we got out and dried off, then went back to the cabin. Cass and Val called out that dinner was ready and to hurry our asses up. I chuckled and gave them kisses when stepping up on the porch. The meal prepared was rabbit stew, mixed berries, and bread rolls. My mind was on the fresh milk and eggs tomorrow. Mmmmm. My brain wasn’t the only one thinking of them though.
Val asked, "Why did you get two cows, Max? Isn’t that a bit too much for us?"
"No, just enough. I want to be self-sufficient when it comes to some items. My thoughts on that matter were that we could make our own butter, cream, and cheese. Otherwise we would need to go to town every few days for those items if we wanted to keep a supply here. Also, I bought gallon bottles to store the milk in the cold room."
"That’s great thinking, Max," Sasha smiled as she then answered what I was about to ask, "I know how to make those items if you need my help."
Cass nodded and responded, "Yeah, I do as well, though it’s been a few years. What other creative thoughts have you been having?"
"The guys and I talked about a water channel from the underground cavern to the troughs and coop, installing stop valves for them. That way anyone could feed and water our four legged friends at any time."
Shaila and Lashone squealed and clapped at that, wanting to make their charges comfortable as possible, the others agreed that was a good move
"This isn’t a creative thought but we need to take a group out to do a search of our lands to make sure no unwanted personnel is about. We’ve got the Leshies involved as well."
That last st
atement brought the ladies to silence and stared at me. Cass spoke in a low voice, "The Leshies came up to you in our forest and spoke?"
I nodded and Sasha demanded, "When did this happen?"
Glancing over to the elven males, Pelleus responded, "Elwin and I have spoken to them. At least the Leszachka (the wife) and their Leshonki (the offspring). The Leshy hasn’t made an appearance yet, but I’m sure he will."
The females all glanced wide-eyed to each other. I for one am confused on their reactions, not wanting to ask a stupid question yet, I let it play out.
Val spoke her concern, "The Leshies do not speak to just anyone unless they want something."
Leena broke in the conversation, "Yes, they don’t come out of hiding unless we’ve offended them or the residents of the forest, even then they do not make an appearance. The guardians send someone or something to fix the situation. Usually wolves or bears."
That made the whole table start arguing with each other, I let it go for a minute or so, everyone trying to get their knowledge involved. Finally having enough I yelled out, "HEY!", and slammed my hand on the table. That brought out silence, thank goodness.
"Okay, I know I’m not knowledgeable enough regarding these circumstances, but if we were in danger Reap and Herc would be riled up. Elwin, tell them what we discussed today."
He nodded and looked over to the others. "They are the ones that showed us where to get lumber for our projects. All they asked for was everyday items that we have on hand now. Milk, eggs, or water. Nothing big, maybe some oats as well. The main thing they discussed was the boss, they didn’t even care what we provided for them; it was like a trade-off. Most likely it was to make sure others didn’t see these protectors were doing things for free. They revealed themselves because of him, said he was special and needed awareness through their forest."
Shit. That word again, special. The entire table looked at me, I just shrugged it off and tried to steer them in a different direction, "I don’t know what they want or what that means to them. I know that if they want to have some beasts scout then by all means I’m all for it. The more we’re protected the better."