Ranger Rising

Part 2: Visitor from Afar

I was up before daybreak the next morning. Not an unusual thing, most farmers were. I'd been doing it my entire life. That didn't mean that I wasn't immune to the exhaustion that permeated my body from my late night escapade. My arms felt heavy and I struggled to keep my eyes open as I moved around the soil, pulling weeds away from the thin shoots of barley that were beginning to pop out of the ground.

Despite how much I wished to be back in bed, however, I was glad to be up because it meant I could watch the sunrise. As much as I choked on the boredom of farming, I always looked forward to the mornings because of the sunrise.

Once or twice, when I'd still been in school, a few of my classmates had turned their noses up at the very idea getting up before there was even a small bit of light on the horizon. They'd looked at me like it was some great task to be up that early in the morning. The sentiment almost always came before the emphatic declaration that they could never do something of the like themselves.

A shame in all honesty. They'd never seen the way dawn threaded its way across the land. They'd never watched the hues of soft pink, orange, and light purple rose from the back of the forest as the sun came up behind the trees. For all their talk of following the gods' plans and all that, none of them had thought to put for the effort to experience one of the most beautiful things they'd created. Sealdír, our patron god of the sun and civilization, probably wept at the reality.

I rocked back on my heels, pushing my braid back over my shoulder with the heel of my hand. Father was weeding some far portion of the farm, far from the best view of the sunrise. When I'd been a little girl, we'd worked together to weed the same patch by the road just to watch the sunrise together. The place we'd agreed was the best vantage point. That had been a very long time ago though. Father and I hadn't watched the sunrise together for a long time. A very long time.

So long in fact that I couldn't remember.

Not long from now, the sun would beat down and the heat would be completely draining. I looked over the expanse of farmland I was supposed to be finished weeding by midday. Several more meters still stood before me and any sort of break. By the time lunch hit, I had this sinking feeling that I was going to be drop dead tired. Afterward, there would be just as big of a plot waiting for me to weed.

Part of me debated on whether or not I should just dig a hole and bury myself in it. Father probably wouldn't notice until after he'd finished eating, by then I would've become one with the dirt and soil. He might even be proud and see it as me taking farming seriously as I was providing nutrients for the barley. And at least I'd be cool and protected from the sun. That was for sure. I dug my fingers into the soil, making mounds underneath my already caked nails, and sighed before smoothing the earth back out.

Maybe it won't take me so long to finish weeding... I thought wistfully as I went back to plucking wayward clover and thistles from the shoots of barley.

It was never incredibly quiet in the morning this early when the sun was barely above the treeline of the forest. Especially in this spot by the road. It cut through the Edirk Forest and bisected our family land. It ran as straight as a forest road could to the Great Bridawth river about twenty or so kilometers away. Usually, hunters traveled it to take a quicker approach into the forest where they'd be hunting for the day. I hadn't seen any hunters coming or going the last few days, however, which was slightly strange now that I actually thought about it. While I didn't necessarily miss the passerbys, it made my work feel very solitary. At least the birds were singing in the trees today. And my work steadily brought me closer to the outskirts of it. That was something to be appreciated.

Snap!

The silence broke as a twig snapped in half underfoot. I jerked to attention, hands still planted in the soil from the sudden surprise. My breath caught in my throat.