The Hidden Queen - Goshalion, The Eternal Realm

Chapter Seven - Moments She Never Noticed

Asukai

Two days into their stay at Kinga Farm, Asu was still thinking about Muruthi and his reaction to her question about her mother. The panic in Muruthi's eyes filled her thoughts often. Shaking her head, Asu turned the page on the old diary she was reading and frowned when she found a drawing of a massive fig tree. The kind with roots that grew around them as large as a man. The spaces between them could hide a child. She had seen this tree in the middle of her grandmother's farm.

Touching the drawing, she read the passage at the bottom of the page.

'...The patriarch of the farm does not allow outsiders to approach the old fig tree in the middle of the farm. Outsiders are anyone not associated with the main family. They call it taboo to harm the tree, to touch it, to break a branch, and only eat the fruit from this tree when it is truly ripe and falling off the branches...'

Come to think of it, Asu frowned. She had once tried to grab a fig from the lower branches of the old fig tree in the middle of her grandmother's farm and earned a slap on her hand for her efforts.

What had her cousin Prisca said as she moved away from the branches?

"We don't eat from that one unless it provides."

Prisca then moved her to a younger fig tree closer to the river.

"Curious," Asu murmured under her breath. She traced the massive fig tree for another moment then looked up when she heard a laugh. Closing the book, she placed it in the basket she had brought with her to the orange grove and got up to join the three women trimming the oranges.

"Where can I help?" Asu asked, moving to pick a pair of sheers from the toolbox near Prisca.

"There's no need," Prisca was fast to say. She moved to close the toolbox and pointed to the branches on the ground. "If you want, you can pick up the small branches on the ground and place them in the wheelbarrow. Tommy will be by to drive the wheelbarrow to the firewood shed."

"I can take it when it's ready," Asu said, already picking up the branches around the cleaned-out orange trees. She placed them in the wheelbarrow and glanced at Prisca and Sibila who only smiled at her.

"Leave it, Asu," Sibila said. "You read your book. You can get us water from the house. Tommy won't be happy if you take his job."

Asu sighed and concentrated on dropping the dry branches on the ground into the wheelbarrow. Strange. At home, Miria made her do all the housework. At her grandmother's farm her cousins, Prisca and Sibila made sure she did the least work. A feat to be praised especially on a farm that was filled with chores. The most she ever did here was pick up sticks and place them in a wheelbarrow. She brought tea to the workers from the main house, but this was also rare. Prisca and Sibila preferred to feed everyone in one place. In the staff kitchen behind the main house.

Asu dropped the bundle of sticks she had picked up into the wheelbarrow and stared at Prisca and Sibila who were busy trimming the closest orange trees.

"Guys," Asu said, hoping to test her theory. "Can you teach me how to trim the oranges?"

"Why?" Prisca asked. "We're almost done with the work and you won't be here long enough to help."

Asu's frown deepened.

"What do you mean? What if I decide to come back and live here?" Asu asked.

Sibila laughed and shook her head.

"What would you be doing here, city girl?"

"Sibila," Prisca chastised.

"What?" Sibila grinned at Asu. "It's either a city girl or girl-from-a-different-planet."