The Reeve Amidst The Green (16) The Second Half Of Ch. 16
“The Magician and the Witch Goblins sell the boxes,” said Arnuvel. Lunch was long since complete, but he saw no point in returning to the town hall, at least not yet.
“No,” said Wanna. “Anyone can make a box. The Witch Goblins sell the strips.”
“The strips?
“Strips of wood, with the writing. Open the himikar, and look right inside the door, on the sides.”
Arnuvel rose, and opened the himikar. Sure enough, just inside the door, on top, bottom, and both sides, forming a rectangular threshold inside the box, were strips of wood marked with strange writing. The symbols were unlike anything Arnuvel had ever seen before, and ran from corner to corner, all four sides. Arnuvel also noted that the cold zone began and ended right over the strips. “This is what makes it cold? What does the writing say?”
Wanna looked surprised. “I don’t know. I can’t read the man writing. You mean, you can’t, either?”
“I can read and write, yes,” said Arnuvel, closing the door. “But I’ve never seen this writing before.”
“They’re called Maxwell glyphs,” said Wanna. “They tell the cold to stay in, and the warm to stay out. That is what I am told.”
“And how many of these boxes are there?”
“That one,” said Wanna thoughtfully, pointing at the one in the kitchen. “I know there are two at the Long House, and there are two at Adii’s Sausage Shop. Dint has one at the meat market. I am told the butcher has one at his store in Refuge, and Megga the Baker has one in her bakery. There might be others. I know there are more of them than the flush privies; they’re easier to make, I am told.”
“And they’d be wonderful for anyone wanting to keep meat fresh,” mused Arnuvel.
“Dint’s is very big,” said Wanna. “Big enough to walk into. He keeps whole carcasses in it. He says you can’t stay in there too long, but it will keep meat fresh for weeks.”
“I imagine it would,” said Arnuvel wonderingly. “Like stuffing a fresh killed deer with snow, in the winter. Tell me, Wanna… are there any other magic things I might not know about?”
Wanna thought about it a moment. “There are the hot tubs.”
“Hot tubs.”
“Big wooden tubs for bathing. The water you put in them is hot, no matter if it’s hot or cold in the room. Like if it just came out of a teakettle over a fire. There are several at the House of Orange Lights, and I know of one at the Long House. They say Jon the Lumber Man has one at his house.”
“Amazing,” said Arnuvel. “Do you know of any other magic things?”
“Not that I can think of right now,” said Wanna. “I didn’t think to tell you about the himikar. I was happy to see that there was one here. It means I don’t have to go to market every day. Same with the privies. It means I don’t have to clean cesspools every week. These are things to find in the house of an important man. I never thought that you had not seen these things. That it would upset you.”
Arnuvel sat down again in the other chair and sighed. “There is so much to learn, so quickly,” he said, smiling sadly. “I didn’t expect all this when I came here. Magical miracle things. Things we don’t have back east.”
“If you want to know more,” said Wanna, “you might speak with Mirk the Baker. He knows what’s going on in town better than I do. Or his wife, Megga.”
“Megga?” said Arnuvel, looking up suddenly. “The baker? Short, black hair?”
“That’s her.”
“And she is married to Mirk the baker? Short? Green? The well-spoken goblin?”
Wanna looked uncomfortable. “Another thing you didn’t know?”
“I did not.”
“I’m sorry,” said Wanna softly. “I thought you’d met the Magician and his wife…”
“I have,” said Arnuvel. “I assumed it was a… magician thing. I didn’t realize that the local goblins and the townspeople…”
“I’m sorry,” repeated Wanna. “It’s not a secret. Mirk and Megga even have a baby…”
Arnuvel blinked. “The third hobgoblin,” he said, realizing.
“Oh,” said Wanna, brightly. “At last, something you did know about!”
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Shuffa stared in stunned silence as Oddri and Charli pulled up before the wickiup. She drank the last of the beer in the big human mug. They had plowed her entire plot in just over half an hour. Every scrap of earth was turned, other than what the wickiup itself rested upon.
“We still have time,” said Charli, looking at the sky. “You say all you’re planting is mustard seed? We can get your seeds in the ground before dark.”
Shuffa looked up at Charli, and put down the mug and began struggling to her feet. “Let me get the seeds. Thank you for your work.”
“We aren’t done yet,” said Oddri. “Seeds aren’t planted. We can do this.”
Shuffa looked at the she-ogre’s face. She was naked, streaked with dirt, her feet black with dust and mud. Her exposed skin – all of it – glistened with sweat. “You’ve already helped me,” said Shuffa. “So much.”
“And we aren’t done yet,” said Oddri. “Plant the seeds. Then we go jump in the river. Three is faster than one.” Charli crossed his arms, and nodded agreement.
Shuffa looked at the two of them, and for a moment, she felt like crying again. Instead, she ducked into the wickiup and searched for a moment, finding the sack of seeds. She brought them out, and immediately, Oddri held out a great hand, inviting Shuffa to fill it with seed. Charli promptly picked up three of the sticks leaning against the wickiup. “Use these to poke holes in the dirt, to plant,” he said. ”No more of this bending over nonsense. Not any more than we have to.”
And with stick in one hand and seed in the other, the strange trio each took a furrow, and began to plant. “The holes need to be separated,” said Shuffa. “About this far apart.” Oddri and Charli noted a distance of about ten inches. And set to work.
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Arnuvel looked over the stove. It looked like a cast iron stove. Nothing unusual. But once he opened it, he noticed a number of design changes, some of which were surprisingly obvious. It helped that the stove was new, and not crusted with soot inside; he could see it all. It seemed to be of local make, handworked at a smith, but the insides were like nothing he’d ever seen before. Nothing magical… nothing any good smith couldn’t do … but … simple, good solid engineering changes, including a removable firebox beneath the oven that would, he realized, make the thing quite simple to clean, once the coals were cold, and some sort of baffle behind that firebox that did… something. Channel the smoke differently? Conserve heat?
What he had taken for a basin, on the counter, was in fact part of the counter. At the back was what appeared to be a miniature pump. An indoor water pump. Like the one in the back garden. I suppose it would make washing the dishes easier, Arnuvel thought. As well as refilling the washbasins in the bedrooms. Or, hells, getting a cup of water when you’re thirsty.
The lodge’s kitchen wasn’t particularly large, or unusual looking … but it used design and innovations that Arnuvel had never seen before. Anywhere. Except here. And Wanna didn’t seem to regard it as anything special. Fancy, perhaps. Convenient, certainly. Not everyone had these things. But not unimaginable.
And this was just the kitchen. In one house.
Arnuvel stood, closed the oven, and headed back to sit at the table. “How did all this come about? I’ve seen things in one day that… would … amaze the most learned of men, back at the capitol. Ideas. Magic. Engineering. Goblins, ogres, and Ilrean breakfasts!” he chuckled. “But… such … simple changes. With such great reach. Such small things, with such great… impact. How? Wanna, how did this happen here? Where did all this come from? How did it all begin?”
Wanna looked at Arnuvel. In her yellow eyes, he saw something that might be called sympathy. “I suppose,” she said, “it began… a couple of years ago… when a goblin and a human learned to love each other,” she said.
*************************
Shuffa, Charli, and Oddri walked back along the fenceline, headed for Shuffa’s wickiup, sticks in hand. There were still seeds in the bag. A few. “Thank you for helping me,” said Shuffa. “I can’t pay you, though. But you have been kind.”
“I remember when I first started my farm,” said Charli. “I lived in the shell of that barn the first month I was out here. I remember how it felt, that first year. Everything hurt, all the time, till I got used to bein’ on my feet all the time. I remember the first month. I hurt all the damn time… I wish’t’all the gods and back someone had come helped me, that first week.”
Shuffa smiled weakly.
“We should go jump in the river,” said Oddri. Shuffa suddenly remembered anticipating the cool water on her skin, back when she’d been pulling weeds. It seemed like an eternity ago.
“Damn right!” said Charli, peeling his shirt off. Shuffa’s gaze flicked to Charli as he skinned the shirt off over his head. He was well muscled, and kind of pretty. Burly, broad shouldered. Like a goblin, she thought. And then quickly averted her gaze. The last thing she wanted to do was provoke the ogre woman. Particularly after such kindness. Shuffa knew that humans often had weird ideas about sex, and who knew what an ogre might think on the subject?
As they passed the wickiup, Shuffa veered off towards her front door.
Charli paused. Oddri stopped. “You’re not comin’, too?”
Shuffa stood at the wickiup. She was hot. She wanted to be cool, and wet, and clean. But what would the human and the ogre think? Shuffa turned and looked at them.
The ogre stood, still naked, her head cocked slightly. The human stood, shirtless, waiting.
Shuffa took a deep breath, and pulled the drawstrings at her skirt. The knots came loose and the skirt fell to the ground, next to Oddri’s neatly folded clothes. A moment later, Shuffa’s tunic joined it. She stood before her wickiup in breast bindings and loincloth.
Charli grinned, and dropped his pants, and stepped out of them. He wore nothing underneath. Shuffa’s mouth dropped open in surprise, and Oddri giggled her deep bass giggle. Charli laughed and kicked his shoes off. “Y’comin’?”
Shuffa smiled and limped forward. She made it three steps before Oddri scooped her up in her great arms, and turned and together, they strode south to the river, with Shuffa carried in the big woman's embrace.
“Oddri?” asked Charli, as they walked. “Y’think we should bring her home for dinner?”
Back to the previous half of the chapter:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GoblinGirls/comments/zz9bwc/the_reeve_amidst_the_green_155_too_much_too/
Ahead to Chapter 17!
Posted Dec 31, 2022, 3:39 AM UTC · edited