Provocation

Three days had passed since they started digging up potatoes. It was nearly the end of October.

"I'm going out for a bit this afternoon."

"Oh? Is that so? Don't stay out too late."

"Yeah, I'll be back before evening."

They'd finished harvesting all the potatoes, and now a huge pile sat in the yard. They would sort them by size and pay the Village Chief sixty percent of the harvest, excluding the seed potatoes. The harvest took up quite a bit of space in the yard.

Taxes were collected several times a year, at set times, by people who came in horse-drawn wagons. The next collection wouldn't be until early December, so they had until then to sort the potatoes.

Sorting potatoes had been added to his morning chores. He was becoming more of a farmer by the day.

Gerda had also told him what needed to be done after the potatoes were sorted. They would have to remove any stalks and roots still in the fields, or they would get in the way when they planted new crops in the spring. They also had to check that the narrow irrigation channels hadn't been filled in and make sure they were of an even depth. He would be responsible for maintaining the channels bordering the fields assigned to Rodan.

(I'll work on that whenever I have a spare moment. Still, at last, I've finished preparing my cards.)

Three days had passed since Rodan woke up after being injured...