FSE

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The path through town to the farm was like a walk of shame for both Will and Erik. Erik, for being the human, the most reviled creature around, and Will, for having to babysit him. Erik tried to avert his eyes from most of the denizens glaring at him, but he tried to study the town as best he could. It was ramshackle, to say the least. Some homes were heavily damaged from neglect, and patched up with junk and scraps. Other homes, simply made of junk and scraps. A brick house with a tarp roof. A house with plastic siding that had turned green, then brown, a hole in the side of it patched with sheet metal and nails. Will tried to talk with Erik as they walked to the farm, just to pass the odd atmosphere away.

“So, pup... all that story of yours, is that true?"

“Of course."

“They really froze you? Why?"

He shrugged. “At the time, my government was trying to force people into cities to make the Wildlands happen. I was out in a small town, seems they didn't want it around. I guess they decided I would be useful for the future and kept me. I don't know why they were thinking that, any motivation has been lost over the fifty-five years."

Will wheezed. “Fifty-five years, and you find yourself in my neck of the woods. What a weird story. How old are you?"

“Twenty eight, sir. “

“Not eighty-three?"

Erik chuckled. He was sharp enough to do the math on the fly. “No, but these days, I feel that old. Took a couple of injuries getting away from the city." He sighed heavily as they continued to walk along. “Mr. Decker, I have to admit, I'm a bit overwhelmed right now."

“How so?"

Erik tried to phrase his thoughts right. “I'm a stranger in a strange land, for lack of a better phrase. Only a couple of days ago, I was sure only humans existed. Now they're kind of the enemy, all of my friends and family are dead, any history I knew gone and buried, most of my skills and interests useless. And now, I'm in a village with..."

“In with...What?" Will stopped, and grabbed Erik's shoulder, turning his new helper to face him, his snout of mottled fur close to Erik's face. “Monsters?" He tried to seem threatening, but he really just sounded grumpy.

“I-I wasn't going to say monsters." He protested. Will just glared down his snout at him. “I've just never seen an... animal person before."

“Anthro." Will replied. “It took a bit, but people generally accepted being called anthros. Some old human term, I think."

“Anthros, right." The situation seemed a bit defused, and they continued walking again. “They didn't exist in my time. But there were ancient legends, mythology, of anthros."

“Hmm... like what?"

Erik tried to recall some good ones. “The ancient Egyptians notably had several figures who were part man and part animal, like Anubis, Bastet and Horus, dog, cat and falcon anthros respectively. The Japanese, as well, had numerous legends, kemono they called them..." He rambled on like the geek he was until interrupted.

Will furrowed his brow as they kept on their walk, starting to leave the town proper, and into the farmlands. “What's an Egyptian, or a Japanese?"

“It is – was - a country, very far away. Unless it's not. I don't know what exists anymore. Lots of people used to live there. Lots of history." Erik stammered in his explanation. He was rambling. “I guess it doesn't matter anymore, huh?" No response. “Say, Mr. Decker, I have a question."

Will frowned. “Please, no questions right now. I have enough of a headache."

“...Oh."

Will changed the subject as they continued. “Alright, we're coming up on the farmlands, so we're going to have to cover some ground rules. First off, follow my orders. I've got all kinds of stuff here, and these crops have to come up right, and if they don't, it's my head on the block. Second, stay out of the house, I'll have a spot for you." He pointed to Erik. “Third, stay away from my wife and pups. If they talk to you, fine, but they're your superiors. Don't cross the line."

“Alright..."

The farm was a somewhat nice looking place, Will obviously took great pride in keeping it maintained as best he could. Over top of the pathway in was a large, curved sign that read 'Decker Farm', nicely chiseled into a plank.

On both sides of the pathway were rows and rows of plants, every now and then they changed to others, but he had a serious operation going here. Vines wrapped across lattices, sprouts and stalks and bushes of all sorts. It would take him a long time to learn what all of these were.

Following the path all the way up the property, they finally came to a large clearing. Near the crops, a grass field, fenced in, and guarded by a barn. Next to that, a chicken run, and then a shed. On the other side of the clearing was the farmhouse, a rather large ranch-style house, up on a bit of a hill. The house was in rough condition, but it still held up well enough.

“Quite the place you've got here, sir."

Will proudly put his hands on his hips. “I'd like to think so, it takes a lot to keep it alive, but it's worth it."

Erik looked around, and did a double-take to the chicken run, and it reminded him of something he didn't get to ask before. “Is that a chicken coop?"

“Yes."

“For... chickens?"

Will squinted at him. “No, for fish. What are you getting at?"

“I mean, like, chickens, not... anthro chickens."

Will grunted at the ignorance of the world around him. “Of course chickens. Most animals are not like us, and most of us are not like animals. Did you even look at the world around you?"

Erik thought about it. He didn't even notice, because it's so normal to see and hear, but there were in fact real birds flying around between the trees, buzzing insects making the air live with sound.

“You're right... I guess I didn't really think about it."

As he wound down his explanation, three women looked down on the scene from the front porch of the house, curious, but keeping their distance. Will waved them down, and they came to the clearing, slowly, eyeing Erik cautiously. They lined up next to Will and studied the situation before them.

“Well, this is him. The Duke has decided the best thing for the human is for him to serve on my farm, and maybe he'll actually earn his keep. It also keeps him away from the town, where... well, he's not too popular." Will sighed, explaining the situation. “So, this is Erik, and he'll be taking orders. Maybe he can put those arms to use around here, who knows."

Will waved his arm towards the family. “This is my wife, Shirley, and daughters Kerry and Kelsey."

Shirley was a tall and elegant looking fox, with tall, fuzzy ears, wearing a simple but well-loved set of clothes; a white blouse and a beige skirt that went down almost to the ground. A well-groomed, bushy orange tail bloomed out from behind her, presumably from a hole in the back of the skirt, matching with her clean orange hair.

Kerry had most of her mother's traits, wiry and nimble looking, but with some elements of the Aussie shepherd in the mix; a slight merle to her paws and snout, and her snout was a bit broader. She wore a dirty brown pair of pants and matching shirt, evidence of her working in the dirt of the farm. The pants only went down to what would be the ankle part of her leg, evidence of the pants being salvaged human ones, and not made for her alone. Her tail was less groomed than her mother's, but still prominent enough.

Kelsey took on most of her father's traits, and had a heavy blue merle to her coat. Her ears, like the mother, rose much more prominently, but flopped slightly at the tips like her father. And like her mother, she had the same big, bushy tail, unusual for the shepherd breed, but still subject to the same merle as the rest of her coat. Her hair was less groomed than the others, just casually pushed out of the way of her eyes, but otherwise there. Kelsey, unlike the others, wore much sturdier clothes, an old set of woodland camo fatigues, the pants of which were big enough for her to fit her legs in properly. The back was also likely modified, as her tail also came out from them. All of them, he noted, were a bit taller than him, at about six feet, give or take.

“You'll refer to them as being Ladies. Kelsey's not usually around for work, and Shirley is usually inside working, so most of your farming life will be done under my eyes, or maybe Kerry's."

Erik nodded to them. “I understand. I don't know what I'm doing, but I'll try to make myself useful."

“Well, I hope he'll be useful..." Shirley pursed her lips what way she could to express her slight distrust of the human.

“Me too, he's weird. He smells funny, like a piglet or something. He's bald. His face is flat." Kerry commented, a younger sort of lilt to her voice. Kelsey just crossed her arms and laughed at the comment.

“I-it's not flat." Erik argued, not sure whether to be slightly offended or just shocked.

“Of course it is, where's your snout? Your nose should be on your snout, like ours." She pointed to her own nose, small and black, like a dot of rubber on a fuzzy bump. “Your face is flat."

Her mother had to protest. “Kerry! Mind your manners."

“It's okay, really. I'll have you know, Lady Kerry, that I have a strong German nose."

The girls laughed. Kelsey finally spoke up, her voice sounded more mature, a bit less sheltered. “Okay, you're full of it. I've seen a German snout, and it's bigger than ours."

“No, that's a German shepherd. Not a-" He recalled his earlier conversation with Will about Egypt and Japan. They had no idea what geography was beyond this region. He sighed. “Nevermind." His knowledge of geography was another wasted talent.

Will changed the subject and clapped his paws together. “Alright, girls, back to work. Erik, let me show you where you'll be staying. When it's time for sleep, you'll want to know."

He brought Erik over to the shed, next to the chicken coop. Grabbing the door handle, he reefed on it, sliding it open with a creak. On the ground was a pile of hay, and leaning up in the corner, some tools and baskets. They were probably hastily moved out of the way for the haystack.

“The tool shed." Erik looked at it, incredulous.

“Look, I don't have enough room for a human to live, or however you people live. This is going to have to do for now."

Erik sighed. Out of the cage with the haystack, into the shed with the haystack. It was going to be haystacks for a long time, it seemed. “Fine."

“Good. You can come back here just before dark, the bugs can sometimes get a little... heavy." Will explained, knowing the bugs would irritate his fleshy skin. “Alright. I suppose the first thing that needs doing is picking the peas. Come with me. Oh, and bring those baskets over there." He pointed to a corner of the shed where some baskets were stored.

Erik followed Will like a dog himself, into the farm again.

“Peas?"

“Yes, peas. It's July, these ones are early bloomers, so they have to come off. Some already have." Will explained. Near a fence on the edge of the farm rose a great wall of vines, five feet tall and fifty feet long, each one hanging with fat, green pea pods. “Lotta these are good, pick the fat ones off, leave the thin ones to grow more, and put the fatties in a basket. Once it's full, fill another. When you're done, put them on the steps to the house."

“Hmm, okay."

“Good luck." With that, Will turned and left.

A minimum security prison. He was left, unsupervised, at the edge of the farm he was to serve on, and expected to just harvest pea pods without causing a ruckus or fleeing. Reaching out with his hands, gripping the pods and pulling them off the vine, he decided that's exactly what he was going to do. He would earn their trust, and a place in their society. Maybe he'd upgrade to a cot or something, instead of just hay. It could be worse, he figured. He, of course, was not actually unsupervised. Kerry saw him through the other plants she worked on elsewhere. Shirley and Will both watched from the house, up on a hill, and villagers who passed by scowled at Erik. He felt like he was in a fishbowl all the time. He knew they hated humans, not entirely sure of how or why, but all of these things would probably be cleared up in time. He just knew, first off, he had to earn his way into at least neutral graces.

Pick the pod, drop the pod. Pick the pod, drop the pod. Fingers gripped on the extension of the vine, and under the exhausted flower, and off came the pod. Another pod. Over and over, until his fingers began to blister. The hot summer sun beat down on his shaven head, the flies drawn to his sweat, and he wheezed lightly as he continued to pick the pods. Basket filled, time for another one. He took the filled one to the steps, then returned for another round.

Shirley went to fetch the basket, and reentered the house with them. “Well, he looks like he's doing it."

Will shrugged as he sat down on a hand-carved chair and tried to read a small sheaf of papers. “I'm surprised, I heard humans are aggressive. But this guy is different, I guess. Must be tired."

She nodded as she began to clean up the pods, picking off the odd fiber or bug that remained on it. “So it seems. Maybe he'll be a good worker after all?" She inspected a pod. “These are juicy this year. I think the people will be happy to get them."

“Good, can't believe all the whining we got last year about 'wrinkly peas'. They're only going to eat them anyway. Who cares if they're wrinkly?" He grumbled, flipping a page.

Shirley smiled sweetly and stroked Will's furry head. “Dear, relax. You're so grumpy today."

Will groaned, flapping his paper down in front of him. “I can't help it, love. This whole situation has... I don't know, got my dander up. I didn't want this kind of responsibility, things are weird enough."

“I think he'll be fine. He's working really hard already." She looked out the rickety window to see how he was doing. He was working, but slowly. “Well, a little slow, but still working. What has he eaten today?"

Will shrugged again. “I don't know, I think I saw an apple in the cage. Lisa probably left it there for him."

She scoffed. “Will, if he's anything like the rest of us, he can't just eat an apple. The boy needs food. I'm going to make him something."

“What? Don't make him feel too much at home, maybe if he doesn't like it here we can pawn him off on Gibbs or something."

“It's always Gibbs with you." Shirley scoffed again, preparing a small snack tray. A slice of cheese, a small hunk of bread, a small piece of dried fish, half an apple, a wooden cup of water, and she shelled a couple of peas and added them to the platter. “Fine. I'll feed him then."

“You're too nice, dammit. He's gonna get soft."

As Erik continued to slave away in the hot sun, Shirley approached him, her paws making not a sound in the dirt. “Yoohoo." She beckoned.

“Oh, Lady Decker, I didn't hear you. I'm still working, I prom-" He finally looked and saw she was holding the tray for him.

The smell of him immediately hit her. The sweat, the pheromones that humans had but almost never detected. It was an odd odor, a smell that gave a forlorn emotion like a lost child, the sort of scent that would trigger a mother's instincts. She chuckled quietly, knowing the tray would help. “You're doing fine for a man who's had no food. Here, take a few minutes and eat something. You look exhausted."

“Are you sure? I am starving, but I have a lot of work here."

“Shh, 'Lady Decker' told you to eat." She smirked. “I don't really know what humans eat, so I included some of everything, if you're anything like us. Also a few peas, so you know just what you're working towards."

After all that's happened, Erik was pretty surprised at the generosity. He gladly took the tray. “Thank you, really."

She nodded with a smile. “Good luck. You can leave the tray on the steps when you're done."

As soon as she turned away, Erik began eating. He was starving, devouring everything he could, ravenously. The water and fresh food felt great during the hot day. The cheese was salty, the fish was savory, the apple was sweet, the bread was filling, the water was the lifegiving liquid in the blazing sun, and the peas had a satisfying little snap as he bit them. “Mm. Good peas." He mumbled to himself with a full mouth. He immediately got back to work, feeling nearly refreshed right away, but still quite hungry. He hadn't had a proper meal since before he was frozen, it had only been subsistence since then.

When Shirley climbed the stairs to the house, she looked back to see what he was up to. “He's finished already? Right back to work?" She was amazed. “Will, did they tell you this one is a workaholic?" She asked through the window screen.

“No, they told me he's an iceman who's lost in our world."

“Well, he sure smells like it, poor bugger. He's hungry, too, he ate what I gave him before I even got back here, and is already back to gathering peas."

A brief pause, and Will came to the window to look out. “Well, I'll be. I figured he'd be tired from his ordeal. Or at least lazy."

It had been a couple of hours by this point, but the pea picking had finally finished. Erik dropped off the final basket, and the food tray he used, on the steps to the house and stopped for a breather, as Kerry followed behind, with a basket of her own gatherings; some apples. She tried not to smell the air near him at all.

“You've been working hard, Erik." Will commented, rather impressed, as he strode down the stairs.

He responded breathlessly. “Thanks... I'm still really tired, and my arm hurts a lot."

“Well, they did some work to heal it, right? Looks like Lisa's handiwork."

“Yes, but... I don't think I was supposed to use it this much right away."

Will shrugged. Erik was, after all, an indentured servant. “You'll be fine, I'm sure. Alright, anyway. It's time to hill the potatoes, I feel, they're looking a bit tall."

“Hill potatoes?" He echoed, unsure what that meant.

Will sighed. “Kerry, dear, can you show him how to do it?"

“Yes, father." She nodded with a light groan, her ears flattening a bit. “Come on."

Returning to the tool shed that was his single-bed apartment, Kerry leaned in and grabbed the hoe, her bushy tail hitting him lightly as he stood in wait. “Alright, you'll need the hoe for this. It's pretty simple." She explained as they walked along the farm's paths. “The potatoes grow pretty fast, but the tubers only grow underground where it's dark and cool. And that's all that we can eat from them, so we want as many tubers as possible." They stopped outside of a large row of sprouting, rounded-leafed plants. “Potatoes are dummies. They can sort of be tricked to grow more if they think they're still underground. So when they get this big, we hill them." She took the hoe and stuck it in the dirt a little ways from the plant, and pulled dirt onto the stem, and then did the same from the other side, burying most of it, and leaving a valley on both sides of the potato lines. “Just like that." She handed him the hoe.

“That's it?"

“That's it. Just do it a hundred more times. And don't hit the other plants."

Erik nodded. “Alright, will do." Kerry, not really wanting to spend time around Erik more than she had to, left him to his business.

And so he did. Hoe in the ground, pull dirt onto the plant, and repeat. Do it again. And again. And again. It was menial, it was dull, but Erik felt like he was actually making a difference. Not packing bugs into boxes, but actually helping something to grow. Maybe this wasn't so bad a fate. He couldn't get over that statement, though, 'potatoes are dummies'. Was it a fundamentally dumb statement, or was she right? An ironically dumb conundrum to pass the time.

It was getting to late evening, the sun would be setting soon, and he had finally finished the hilling duty. What would he do now, he wondered, but that thought was cut short by the air beginning to hum. The mosquitoes had begun to come out, and he was not coated in fur. There was no swatting and flailing that would help him. It was time to retire for the night.

Back at the farmhouse, the door opened and closed quickly, as Kelsey slipped in, her clothes still as dirty as ever. The rest of the family sat in the living room and spoke around a small candle fire, sitting on a table top, with a little bowl of fruit resting on it. “Whew! Bugs are thick like stew tonight! Anyway, not a great haul tonight, sorry." She huffed quickly, putting a ratty old backpack to the ground with a light thump.

Kerry looked to her. “What did you find?"

“Couple screwdrivers, a saw, a wall hook, and whatever this is." She took out a light pink conch shell and put it on the table in front of them.

“Whoa, what is that?!" Kerry's eyes lit up. “It's pretty!"

“Some kind of shell, I think. Never seen anything like it." Will inspected it closely. “Might sell well."

“Maybe." She shrugged, sliding her bag out of the way of the door finally. “So, how's Skinny been?"

“Skinny?"

They all turned to the window, looking down to the farmlands below, as Erik made a mad sprint for his shed, trying desperately to get away from the bugs. “Heheh... I guess he's discovered the bugs."

“Looks like it..." Will smirked. “You know, he's been working pretty hard, for a pup so beaten up and out of his element."

“Oh yeah?" Kelsey asked, sitting down on a small loveseat, taking an apple from a bowl on the table.

“Yep, started learning the ropes right away, never complained, picked the peas, hilled the taters. Brought back all of the things he used. Pretty good for a first day."

Kelsey raised an eyebrow as she crunched on the apple. “And now he's living in the tool shed?" They all nodded to her. She chuckled. “Dang. That thing is small." She stopped and smelled the air, sniffing Kerry. “You've been hanging out with him?"

“Ugh, I had to. He doesn't know how to deal with potatoes."

“Nah, your tail smells like him."

“He got too close and bumped into it, what an oaf. I guess he doesn't know any better, not like he can smell anything with that 'German' nose of his."

She shrugged. “Well, guess humans are weird after all. I'm tired, been a busy day. I'm off to enjoy my big room, not a shed, gonna do another run tomorrow." She stood up quickly, and headed for the hallway towards where her room was.

Meanwhile, Erik lay on his haystack in the dark shed, the air warm and stagnant, trying to get the few bugs that followed him in to leave him be. The constantly high-pitched buzzing of the mosquitoes might never let him get some rest. It felt like it was going to be a long and annoying night. It had been a couple of hours, past the active time for the mosquitoes, and he felt like he had finally squashed or satisfied what remained in the shed.

As he finally started to doze off, there was a light scrabbling of something on the door, and it opened quietly. A tray came in from down low, and was placed on the ground between him and the door, and then the door shut again. On it was an off-white bedsheet, and a small, lit candle, the light between him and whoever dropped it off so he couldn't see who did it. The confused look on his face turned into a slight smile. For all the dislike for his kind, they were showing him a great deal of hospitality. Or, at least, someone was. Who could have left it? He made sure to keep the candle somewhere that wouldn't accidentally start a fire, laying down a shovel and putting it in the middle of the scoop, then covered over himself with the sheet, keeping those pesky few mosquitoes at bay.