As Campa skipped towards Eowyn her long blond braid swished behind her, dancing to an imaginary tune. Her dark eyes glinted with delight as she began to pick up speed and dropped to her knees, sliding through the mud. She unfortunately went right through a puddle and splashed Eowyn right in the face.
“Whoops, sorry!” But she laughed and started to throw more dirt at Eowyn.
“Hey! Alright you asked for it!” Eowyn said and began throwing dirt back. Before they knew it, both were covered in mud before they even started to work.
“Alright! I surrender. I am much too weak to defeat the queen of dirt,” Eowyn laughed, “we need to start gathering all this fruit and I bet I can gather the most in the least amount of time!” Campa scoffed,
“Is that right? Do I need to bring up the tree planting challenge we had last week? You never fully recovered from such a defeat.”
“I need to redeem myself. I’ll show you!” Eowyn shook a mock fist in the air and grinned.
“You're on!” Both got into a starting position and began.
“Ready….Steady…” Before Campa could finish Eowyn started to gather.
“Hey! You cheated!” Campa laughed and began to pick beside her. After much practice over the years, Eowyn had learned that the trick to pick yellow jacket berries without them exploding was to twist the fruit clockwise and give it a good yank. She yanked on a berry and it splattered yellow goo all over her and she felt tiny slivers stick to her skin. At least she thought she did. After a couple hours of silence, both concentrating on their work, Eowyn managed to finish her half of the patch first.
“Ha! I knew I would win. You should have given up when you had the chance!” Campa still had another row to finish and Eowyn walked up to help finish the rest.
“Alright, I admit defeat. But next time I will win for sure!” Campa smiled and they both got to work.
“So, how has it been going? Has anything happened between you and Avery?” Eowyn fluttered her eyelashes and Campa blushed.
“Actually yeah. He finally came back from his two week hunting trip with the hunting party and we saw each other yesterday. We walked around for a little bit and talked about the weather and such.”
“Boooring,” Eowyn said and pretended to yawn.
“Hey! We had a very interesting conversation about rain,” Campa laughed, “he then brought up his trip and how it didn’t go very well. Some of the animals they were able to take down went missing. They stored the meat and then…poof! Some of it just vanished. Some of their rations disappeared as well. Avery was definitely annoyed and blamed it on the new guy for being so forgetful and not storing the meat properly. He thinks some animals must have gotten into it. Even some of the medical supplies they brought went missing. It’s a little strange if you ask me but I bet it’s nothing.” Eowyn thought about it. That is a little strange. Everyone in the hunting party is well trained for this. The new guy must be really bad at his job for this to happen.
“Yeah you're right, everyone is just worrying for no reason.” She said, showing no concern. Before they knew it they finished picking all the berries and began stretching out cramped muscles. They then continued to go down rows and rows of plants, tending them. Soon Eowyn looked through the glass roof, trying to see what the position of the sun was. The sun was sinking and the sky was turning from blue to a light pink.
“It looks like our work is done, if we hurry we can make it to the market before it closes and see if anything good to eat.”
“I think that is a great idea, we can see if Avery has anything good in stock.”
“Hmmmmm, I believe there is more than food on your mind.” Eowyn began fluttering her eyelashes again. Campa blushed and began laughing.
“Alright maybe there is more reason but you can’t act that way or you will wake up with bugs in your bed.”
“Fiiinee, I promise to not be embarrassing…for now.” Eowyn laughed as she dodged a swipe. They walked through the greenhouse to an area that was full of baskets with fresh produce and they placed their baskets next to them. They were officially done with today’s work and Eowyn was relieved. She needed to eat and bathe and then she could finally lay in her bed to sleep. When they opened the door of the greenhouse, a chill went through Eowyn. She had gotten used to the heat and humidity and the cold was a little bit of a shock. As they walked down the path Eowyn spotted two figures. Oh no. It was Saber and his little sister, Flower. She was about to jump out of sight and drag Campa with her but it was too late. Saber had caught sight of her and made a beeline towards her.