Arel woke up to the sound of someone singing a song he did not know. He walked out of his house and saw Nolan watching the fields grow with a watering can on his hand. Nolan looked behind and nodded. “Morning,” said Nolan. Arel walked to Nolan and stood next to him. He inhaled the air and watched the wind blew from the east.

“Had a good night of sleep?”

“I had, not this long that I had one actually,” Nolan confessed. “I do think that this farm of yours is a pretty, lovely view of the ocean as well.”

The ocean was displayed before them in full view. Not far from the island was a gigantic walking beast made of rocks with a tree growing on top of it. It was quite a sight as always.

“That is a Golem, isn’t it?”

Arel nodded. “That’s Von, he’s the protector of the island.”

“Giant creatures are living under the sea. How do you live with them?”

“They are part of the world,” Arel said. “They live their lives and we live ours. As long as they don’t get near the island or come near the ships heading to the mainland then it is fine.”

“Monsters, shouldn’t they be exterminated? What if they ran amok?”

Arel looked at Nolan with a tiny frown. “They are living creatures, sentient beings that had been here before the islanders. I don’t think that removing them would be good. They are peaceful unless you cause enough hurt for them to react.”

The wind blew and made the trees sound. Nolan fiddled with the watering can. Arel found it uneasy how he was giving off that bloodlust awhile ago. Monsters are not wholly evil, but they are territorial and invading their grounds means that they can be rather aggressive.

“I understand then,” Nolan said. “Well, you have Lady Dalia here so I doubt these monsters would try.”

“I see that you’ve met the lady on the island. She’s quite something, right?”

“A dragon,” said Nolan. “I was fairly surprised that the guardian protector is something like that. She was pretty powerful, and I believe that is the reason why no giant creature has come.”

“And because Von is here,” Arel pointed. “He’s been here the longest, and I think that he is sentient as well. Well, enough about that, can you help me move the cows?”

“No sheep?” asked Nolan.

“No, sheep are raised on the other side so there’s no need for them, though the cows here are rather docile. All they do is stare at the sun and wait to be milked. Ah, can you help me milk them?”

“I can hold them for you,” said Nolan, putting the watering can down. “I’ve no idea how to do farm work. I can water your crops and till your land, but not much really. How do you even do it? You’re way younger. Did you live your life on a farm?”

“I was taught. You could say that I have a love and talent for this.”

“So am I going to move the cows now? Where?”

“Up the pasture, they are trained so they’ll move when you rang the bell.”

“Okay, I’ll take them to the pasture. They won’t fall, right?”

“Oh they won’t,” said Arel.

He watched Nolan ran from the house. He looked around and saw that the crops were watered. From the patches of wet dirt near the water source, Arel assumed that he had been doing it since morning. He felt bad knowing that he had water wand ready to cast magic that could water the plants.

Nolan rang the bell. The cows lined up behind him and followed him the pasture. Arel heard footsteps from behind. Damn her happy-go-lucky smile as she saunters around his farm.

“Good Morning, looks like it’d be sunny today.”

“Morning, he up and working already? Whoa, what a slave driver!”

“He’s diligent. Shouldn’t you be working?”

“This early? No, I just want to know if you guys are doing fine. I heard all our lovely protectors have screened him. Kuhn seems to be dazed. I wonder what happened?”

Arel thought for a while. “I have no idea. But I can say that he’s going to live here, at least for a moment.”

“Is that so? Well, he seems nice, but he looks like our kind.”

“Yeah,” Arel agreed.

“Oh, they said that he should come and visit the Inn. They wanted to meet the new neighbor so better not keep the sisters waiting.”

“I’ll remind him. We still had a lot of work to do. But we should have a good rest after work.”

Ania grinned. She skipped to the general direction of the mansion. Arel turned his attention to work and started by carrying a pitchfork to the barn. He cleaned up the barn first and made sure that the brushes and milkers were okay. He also cleaned the buckets near the well, watched for any rotting, and would look back to Arel watching the cows.

He was watching the cows with a half-dazed look on his face. Once in a while, he would stare at the giants walking on the seas, and then back to the cows. He was twitchy, uncertain, and certainly, he was always on-guard, as if some malevolent force would come and attack him.

Ambling to Nolan, Arel stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him. Nolan was staring blankly. He was aware of his surroundings and then he would blank out. His eyes were like a light flickering alternately. By the time he noticed Arel, minutes had passed.

“Still adjusting?”

“Ah, yes,” Nolan said. “I am new to this. I just expect some monster would come suddenly. See, the last time I had peace like this, I was in this village with a river, and although it was peaceful. Monsters were appearing in the outskirts so I was still restless.”

“Oh, no wonder.”

Arel thought that maybe he lived before the Hominy Contract. He still knew people who wanted nothing to do with monsters. It was understandable.

“After this, we should visit the Inn.”

“Okay,” Nolan said, watching the cows with his flickering eyes.